Salad with Chicken, Cashews, Daikon Salad and Pomegranate

After a few days of hearty beef stew, Drew is craving greens. "The stew is amazing but a nice light salad would be a treat. And it wouldn't hurt to eat some more vegetables."

"I was thinking the same thing," says Raul. "How be I add cubes of chicken breast for protein?"

"Sounds great," agrees Drew. "And some of the Daikon radish concoction for flavour?"

"Ideal," enthuses Raul. "And we have a pomegranate for crunch and colour. Dressing?"

"Caesar?" suggests Drew. "There's some in the fridge already."

Raul wrinkles his nose. "That will just not go with the radish. Something light and Asian-influenced and don't worry about it, I'll figure out something."

Drew loves pomegranate but usually doesn't bother because of the mess. Fortunately Raul has discovered a way to extract the seeds with ease. He slices the whole pomegranate in half and submerges the halves in a bowl of cold water. With his fingers he scoops out the heart of the pomegranate. The seeds sink to the bottom and all the surrounding fleshy mesocarp floats to the surface. He scoops off the excess and strains the seeds. Voila.

Raul broils two chicken breasts, cubes them and lets them cool. He shreds lettuce and scoops on a good helping of the Daikon radish salad. The cubed chicken goes next and then halved grape tomatoes, handfuls of cashews and the pomegranate seeds. There is so much flavour in the Daikon radish salad that nothing else is needed but Raul splashes on a few drops of Nuku Cham Vietnamese Salad Sauce.

"Each bite is different," raves Drew. "And those radishes have a great kick."

"Proper kimchi - we didn't add any cabbage - marinates for three days before eating," notes Raul. "This batch is just hitting its prime."

Pumpkin Ale Chicken with Daikon Salad, Broccoli and Rice

Raul sets butterflied chicken breasts to marinate overnight in Drew's autumnal favourite, Great Lakes Brewery's Pumpkin Ale. He bought the first bottle because the label made him laugh but discovered he loved the taste - a smooth ale infused with real pumpkin and spices. Raul adds a few more spices to the beer to accentuate the flavours: white pepper and Botanica's Fine Herb mixture. Drew happily polishes off the remaining ale.

A simple process follows: toss on the bbq and enjoy.

Raul serves the moist and flavourful chicken with blander rice and simply steamed broccoli. Of course the addition of the carrot and Daikon radish salad adds a real bite and Drew is grateful for the extra bottle of pumpkin ale to wash it down with. A bit of heat soothed with a slug of pumpkin brew.

Bbq and Halloween are blended into a perfect taste treat.

"Now if we only had Halloween chocolates for dessert," says Drew. "Oh wait. I just happened to drop by Rexall for some Russell Stover samplers in their little pseudo-coffins decorated with ghosts and black cats and leering Frankensteins and . . ." And pumpkins.

Raul rolls his eyes but doesn't comment. Sometimes Drew's easily distracted eye does find a true treat.

Rice Noodles with Shrimp, Daikon Salad, Vegetables and Cashews

Raul's browsing at the Gerrard and Broadview markets pays off with a hefty huge (and surprisingly inexpensive) Daikon radish. Radish not only provides lots of healthy benefits but is a tasty vegetable. Raul plans to make a form of kimchi but decides to settles for a simple salad.

He grates the Daikon using a mandolin and grates a bunch of carrots while he is at it. He covers the gratings with vinegar, water, salt, and chili pepper flakes and lets it sit.

He boils broad rice noodles while he stirfries some chopped vegetables. He adds the noodles and a Pad Thai sauce and, at the last minute, a handful of shrimp. As soon as the shrimp change colour he transfers it to bowls, layers on the Daikon salad, chopped green onions and a heaping of cashews.

Every bite is a slightly different flavour and there is a huge textural contrast between the chewy noodles and crunchy salad. Drew rises to get some pepper but stops dead in his tracks when a bit of radish explodes in his mouth. "Wow," he exclaims, "that is a tasty heat that lingers! And healthy. Bravissimo!"

Burgers with Bean Salad and Radish Salad

At the same time that Raul created the very successful and delicious radish greens salad he also, the original intention, worked on a radish salad. The one he chose is from food.com and claims to have a Scandinavian twist to it. Hopefully the caraway seed is not the Scandinavian flair because there was, surprisingly, not any caraway seed in the spice cupboard and Raul just leaves it out.

Radish Salad

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons canola oil or 2 teaspoons corn oil
1 teaspoon caraway seed
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pinch sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
15 -20 medium radishes (or shaved) or 15 -20 large radishes, trimmed and sliced thin (or shaved)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine vinegar, oil, caraway, oregano, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper.
2. In a large bowl, toss radishes with vinegar-oil mixture.
3. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Raul leaves the salad to marinate overnight and the result is very subtle with an earthy taste. "Maybe the dressing takes out all the peppery taste," muses Raul. However paired with burgers and bean salad there are more than enough flavours on the plate to satisfy all. But the next time radishes are purchased - and they will be, Drew still craves just a simple bowl of radishes fried in butter - the greens will be the most crucial part of the purchase. "Usually you would have a burger and fries but this is much tastier," says Raul. "And healthier." Drew agrees and the dog pouts.

Grillled Vegetable Paninis with a Radish Greens Salad

Raul returns from Food Basics with a giant bag of ruby red radishes. Drew loves radishes just sliced and sauteed in butter but Raul wants to make a summer salad. While chopping the radishes he has an inspiration, "Surely there must be something we can do with the greens?" A-googling he goes. Sure enough radish greens are, according to tasteofbeirut.com, "loaded with Vitamin C, calcium, protein and cancer-protective nutrients." There is a note that the greens require a lot of cleaning and trimming. Raul discovers it to be true - there is a lot of grit and the stalks have to be removed (there is an Indian stirfry that calls for radish green stalks that will have to be tried eventually - but worth the effort of being up to his elbows in cold water for 20 minutes.  Tasteofbeirut.com also offers the recipe, reproduced here, that Raul decides is the most interesting to try. 

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 bunches of radishes, cut off the greens and use for a salad. Keep the radishes for the next day and either saute in butter or stuff in sandwiches or eat as a snack.
• 1 cup (or more) of garbanzo beans, fully cooked.
• 1 large shallot, cut in rings (or any other type of onion)
• a handful of dried cranberries (Raul substitutes chopped dates)

Dressing:

• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed
• the juice of one lemon
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• dash of salt, pepper

After washing the radish greens and drying them, place them in a bowl along with the other ingredients; prepare the dressing, whisk well and pour one tablespoon at a time over the salad and toss. Use the leftover dressing for another salad.

Raul also adds cashews to the salad and though Drew finds the dressing a little lemony - so he adds some black pepper - the texture (slightly hairy as well as crunchy) and flavour of the radish greens is delicious, different and R&D curse all the times they wasted radish greens.  

To go with the salad Raul creates grilled vegetable paninis. He salts sliced eggplant and leaves for an hour before placing it, along with sliced red pepper and zucchini, on the bbq to grill until they are dried out, caramelized and have grill marks. He then bathes them lightly in balsamic vinegar, mixes in whole basil leaves, covers with plastic wrap and leaves them to steam until they cool. A hearty 12-grain bread and mozzarella cheese are a perfect complement and though Drew adds some Miracle Whip and a schmear of wasabi, the vegetables are full of flavour all on their own. 

"Without the cheese this would be a perfect vegan meal," notes Raul. Drew agrees but the dog shudders in horror at the concept of a meatless kitchen. "And tomorrow the radish salad!" promises Raul.