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R is for radish

 R is for radish, and its secret life.  Did you know a radish can sprout from seed to a small plant in just 3 days?  With names such as Bunny Tail, Cherry Belle, Champion, Red King, Sicily Giant, Snow Belle, White Icicle, French Breakfast, Plum Purple, April Cross, Black Spanish and the Rat Tailed Radish these salad vegetables offer really good nutritional value, containing vitamin B6, riboflavin, magnesium, copper and calcium, and their exotic names make them appealling to the consumer.  They are also rich in folic acid, ascorbic acid and potassium.  The tops can be eaten as a leaf vegetable, although more commonly used is the bulb.  The seeds of some species can be used to create seed oil , used as a biofuel.  This oilseed radish grow well in cooler climates.  In Mexico they have a festival in December to celebrate the radish.  So you see the humble radish really does have a secret life.



R is also for roast dinner, a must on Sundays, rump steak, which is actually the tastiest cut you can get, although sirloin comes a close second place, and R is for rosti potatoes.

  To make your own delicious rosti potatoes follow the steps.

  1. peel the potato and place it into a pan of boiling water without cutting it into pieces. 
  2. Boil for about 8 minutes so it remains firm.
  3.   Place the pan under the cold water tap and cool the potato down quickly.
  4.   Get a greased baking sheet and grate the potato so it falls in a small pile on the buttered sheet. 
  5. Melt some butter in a pan and drizzle a little of it over the top of the grated potato. 
  6. Bake in the oven until the top of the potato is brown and crispy. 
  7. This potato goes very well with steamed fish and vegetables.

Words starting with R that you don’t instantly connect with food and eating include:

  • rat, a rodent that is not known in the UK for being edible, however it was widely eaten during the seige of Paris in 1870, and is a dietary staple in some parts of Asia.  Eating rat meat was also the main theme in the book King Rat, a 1962 novel by James Clavell,

  • reindeer, classified as venison but not really eaten in the UK or Ireland, however other countries such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Alaska do eat reindeer meat, and

  • Rob Roy’s pleasure, a Scottish dish consisting of venison braised with herbs and vegetables and a dash of claret!

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