Daikon and Carrot Pickle / Salad

This crispy sweet-sour Japanese accompaniment is halfway between a pickle and a salad. You can use daikon, in which case I suggest using a mandolin, so that both the carrot and daikon come out in long thin strips; European radishes work fine as well, but in that case I suggest slicing both the carrots and radishes into thin disc-shaped cross-sections, so that the salad is made up of many little circles instead of long strips. The vegetables become softer and more pickled the longer you leave them in the marinade, and it keeps well up to at least 10 days in the fridge (I have always finished it faster than that :)). The finer you slice the vegetables, the faster they will pickle. This works great with rich foods like tempura or in banh mi, as the astringency cuts through the fat.

With cauliflower tempura.

Ingredients

• 250g carrot (about 2 carrots)
• 250g daikon (about 20cm)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 4.5 tsbp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

Method

Top, tail and peel the carrot and daikon, then mandolin or julienne. Place the daikon and carrot in a mixing bowl and combine well with the salt, preferably using your hands to get all the pieces covered. Leave for 30-60 minutes. Drain the vegetables into a sieve and gently squeeze out the excess liquid. Wipe out the mixing bowl and return the vegetables.

Mix the sugar and vinegar together in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved (warming gently in the microwave can make this easier). Pour the sweet vinegar over the daikon and carrot, refrigerate, and leave for as long as you can: after a couple of hours the vegetables will be marinaded but still crispy, and as you leave them longer they will soften and the flavours will deepen. Stir every day to ensure the vegetables get an even pickling.

Cold Radish Leaf Gazpacho

The radishes we bought at the market came with a fantastic head of spicy bristly leaves, crying out to be used in something refreshing and exciting. They were too prickly to be used raw; even as I washed them, my hands began to burn from their tiny spines. So I followed a method for making chilled watercress soup, adapting it to what I had to hand. I popped the yoghurt-less base in the fridge, and it really came in handy later in the week.

Ingredients:

• the leaves of a large bunch of radishes
• 3 tbsp butter
• 5 spring onions, cleaned and tailed
• one medium white potato
• half a glass of white wine
• half a chicken stock cube
• three bay leaves
• salt
• black pepper
• strong Greek natural yoghurt

Thoroughly wash the radish leaves and blanch in boiling water for thirty seconds. Remove and leave to drain in a colander - don't worry about running any cold water over them. Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan and roughly chop the spring onions, and cube the potato. Fry the vegetables in the butter for a few minutes, until the onions have softened and begun to caramelise. Add the white wine, half a stock cube, the bay leaves, and enough hot water to cover - about 500ml. Simmer for ten minutes, until the potato is tender. Return the radish leaves to the pan and puree with a hand blender. Taste and season. Chill thoroughly, for at least 6 hours, preferably for 24-48 hours. Add more water if necessary, then stir through the yoghurt and serve.

Bulghur Wheat and Mango Salad

The weather has gone a bit crazy, with highs of 33 C here in Cambridge, which is pretty unusual. As a result it's impossible to contemplate cooking for any length of time, or eating anything at all hot. Tonight we use a delicate and fragrant Alphonso mango from the market in a salad adapted from one of Nigel Slater's recipes in the Observer Food Monthly. Lovely and refreshing, with a cob of hot buttered corn to munch as contrast.

Ingredients:

• 200g bulghur wheat
• 2-3 spring onions
• 1 large very ripe mango
• 8 bushy sprigs mint 
• small bunch parsley
•  ½ a small  cucumber
• 8-10 radishes
• juice of 1 lemon
• olive oil

Simmer the bulghur wheat for 15 minutes until tender, or cook according to the packet instructions, then drain and leave to cool. Finely slice the spring onions, dice the mango, and roughly chop the herbs. Peel and deseed the cucumber, then cube. Finely slice the radishes. Toss all the ingredients together with the lemon juice and olive oil; chill for half an hour if desired.

Grated Asian-style Salad

This is a quick, fresh salad that works at any time of year, but is particularly useful in the slow winter and early spring months before the new wave of shoots and leaves are available. The fresh herbs are really important; don't be tempted to substitute dried herbs! Our local Asian store is brilliant for last-minute purchases.

I like to use kohlrabi but I've only found it in my local market, so it might be hard to find in supermarkets. If you have trouble locating one, you could use finely shredded white cabbage or grated cucumber instead. I've scaled this to use one medium-sized kohlrabi, since they don't keep well so I tend to grate one all at once. This should serve two people generously, if you serve with some braised mushrooms or even just some dry-roasted peanuts. Plain white rice is also great as you can mop up some of the nice salad dressing.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium kohlrabi, peeled
• 2 carrots, scrubbed or peeled
• 1 small bunch of radishes, with leaves if possible
• 1 small bunch of fresh mint
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander
• half of a red chilli (or more if you like it hot!)
• 4 tbsp extra-virgin rapeseed or refined sunflower oil
• 1 tsp toasted sesame soil
• juice of 1-2 limes
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp soy sauce

Using a tower grater, grate the kohlrabi and carrots, holding them at an angle so that long strips are produced. Rinse the herbs if they are gritty, remove the leaves from the mint, and roughly chop. Rinse the radishes and their leaves, which tend to be very gritty. Remove the radish roots and the connection between the root and the stems. Slice the radishes into thin circles and roughly chop the leaves.

To make the dressing, finely chop the chilli, and shake with the rest of the ingredients in a jar. Taste and adjust the lime juice if needed; it should be a pleasantly sharp dressing, with a smoky umami from the fish sauce. Toss the salad ingredients thoroughly together. If you wish to keep some aside for later, do so now: it will keep undressed in an airtight container in the fridge for a day or two. When ready to serve, dress and toss thoroughly.