Do you ever have those moments when the sun is shining, the evenings are warm and light and an impromptu weekday BBQ seems to be the order of the day? Well this is what happened to me yesterday. However my fridge on a Thursday tends to look undernourished and doesn’t start groaning with the abundance of all the food groups until the supplies are delivered on a Friday.
So what delights were left in the sparse fridge in order for me to conjure up a family BBQ? Some cod fillets and a piece of steak from the freezer, that will do nicely. Now for the sides. Some beautiful field mushrooms, a pack of feta cheese, a rather lonely looking kohl rabi, that seems to always be left in the bottom drawer, some lettuce and the ever faithful potatoes. With the usual suspects I always have in stock, garlic, ginger, lemons and limes, chilli’s and soy sauce, I set about concocting a feast fit for, well, fit for the family at any rate.
Feta, garlic and chilli stuffed mushrooms, a green salad with toasted almonds and a dijon dressing, potato salad with whole grain mustard and yogurt and a kohl rabi and onion coleslaw. Not much colour going on there, so it was out to the garden to see which of the home grown vegetables were ready willing and able to be plucked from there muddy damp home. The carrots won’t be ready for sometime yet, but the blushingly bulbous radishes were singing to me “pick me, pick me” like teenagers in a talent show.
A couple of weeks ago, prior to the aforementioned being ready for consumption, I purchased some radishes from the supermarket. This is not something I make a habit of and will not be doing so again. I remember radishes as a child being an acquired taste, almost fiery with a peppery kick, providing a tingling sensation on the tongue akin to pepper sherbet – if it ever existed, if it doesn’t, it should do! Not these little pink roots. They tasted what can only be described as……water! No kick, no tingles on the tongue, nothing. What a disappointment.
So the expectation for my homegrown variety had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately they failed, not totally, but a fail all the same in my book. Although containing more flavour and actually tasting of a radish, they still lacked the zing I was reminiscing about. Or at least I thought that was how I remembered them to be. I’m beginning to wonder if my memory is fast diminishing now I’m passed the big 40, or maybe my taste buds were more sensitive in my youth (I pick the latter!).
Needless to say though, the look of my radishes outshone the shop mass produced variety hands down, although they certainly wouldn’t pass EU regulation!
So I finely sliced the not so perfect yet radiant radishes into the kohl rabi coleslaw type dish (no mayonnaise until Friday!) and as far as I’m concerned they complimented the soft pale apple green of the kohl rabi beautifully. Add to that some lime juice, grated ginger, wet garlic, white wine vinegar coriander and plenty of seasoning – extra pepper to compensate – and there you have a version of coleslaw, in the loosest sense of the word.
It actually went down well with the famished family and complimented the soy marinade I used on the fish and steak perfectly.
A great sigh of relief took place when the food order was delivered and my ever faithful organic vegetable box turned up today. The fridge is yet again struggling to keep it’s door shut and hide the plethora of goodies inside. No more do my husband and daughter open the fridge, peer inside, shut the door in disgust and utter those slanderous words – “there’s nothing to eat in here”. I for one beg to differ.
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