Cooking and preserving radishes

Last week the kids and I were off school/work (I work at a school) for half term, and we did some harvesting at the allotment.  The tomatoes are still going, though slowing, and we also brought home some beets and a few more achocha (just when I thought they'd finished);  but the main event was a big bag of cooking radishes. 

I know, I know, no photos;  I'm a pathetic blogger.  If I was trying to make money off this blog I might try harder!  But that's not me;  I'm not in it for the clicks.  You'll have to believe me when I say we brought home about 8# of radishes (and 2# of toms and another 3# of beets--the son heroically carried home those heavy bags)!

Most were black Spanish radishes, the smallest of which were only slightly smaller than a tennis ball (bigger than a golf ball) and the biggest about softball size (huge!);  I couldn't believe the size of them actually, considering I only put the seed down in August.  I pulled just two of the so-called "mini" daikon radishes as my bag was full by this point, but both were like extra-large white carrots.  Normal daikon radishes can be several feet long so the mini description is accurate in comparison, but they came in at about 1# each including the tops--hardly mini in my book.

All but the three smallest black roots (these will be for cooking in stew) went into a new batch of dongchimi, a type of water kimchi.  I peeled the black ones--white on the inside--but didn't bother with the daikons and then sliced them all thinly with my mandolin;  together they filled my spare 1.8 L jar and are fermenting happily on my kitchen counter.  I still have about a quarter left of my kohlrabi dongchimi from August;  I love it so much I've been making it last but now I have a new batch I can go to town on it. 

The lush and full radish tops I cooked and seasoned similarly to my beet tops and we ate them with dinner for several days running;  these were about half of the total radish weight.  While tasty, they were a bit more fibrous than the beet tops;  in the future I will remember to cook a bit longer to ensure tenderness.

The radish bed is still pretty full and is next to a bed of turnips destined for the same treatment.  It's shaping up to be a kimchi-filled winter.