Recipe: Rat Tail Radish and Bell Pepper Stir-Fry
Rat tail radishes: What the heck are they and why do they have such an unappealing name?
It seems the thin, green-bean-like vegetable was so-named because it resembles, yes, a rat’s tail. If you let your radishes continue growing beyond the edible root they will develop flowers and then long green shoots, actually edible seed pods. Radishes gone wild. Rat tail radishes are a variety that’s cultivated specifically to produce these slender edible radish pods.
Spring’s radish season is way behind us, so to sample radish pods, you could buy a packet of seeds or purchase the vegetable, which I found at the Chatham Real Food Market Coop. Rat tail radishes might also be in your CSA basket, especially if you’re subscribed with Rigor Hill Farm in Ghent, Columbia County.
Danny Morales is farm manager for Rigor Hill Farm. They’d just broken ground on the land in September. The plan was to grow no-spray, chef-centric vegetables for One White Street, a yet-to-be opened restaurant in Manhattan. With crops planted, the pandemic hit and Morales had a lot of high-end produce to peddle. So he pivoted to a CSA. He also sells at the Wednesday Upstreet Hudson farmers market.
Rat tail radishes are just one of the “culinary oddities” grown at the farm. Morales learned about them while working at Four Seasons Farm, in Maine, owned by vegetable gurus Barbara Damrosch and Elliot Coleman. He also apprenticed at Blue Hill Farm.
While Morales admitted that rat tail radishes are “a pain to pick,” he likes their spicy, radish-like bite and thinks they’re pretty. “And they’re growing like crazy right now. The more you pick them, the more they want to grow,” he said.
Morales likes to quick-pickle the crisp, pungent radish pods in cider vinegar with onion, cilantro, spicy pepper and a little sugar, to taste. He offered some trimming tips: “The whole long green thing is the pod; the thinner stem is the tough, woody part.” That’s what has to be cut off. Rat tail radishes can also be eaten raw or tossed in a salad, but I liked them in this stir-fry, which tenderizes them and mellows their peppery bite.
There’s still time to sign up for Rigor Hill Farm’s mid-season CSA. Email Danny@rigorhill.farm for more information.
Rat Tail Radish and Bell Pepper Stir-fry
Makes 4 servings.
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, slivered
2 large red bell peppers, cut into thin strips, strips cut in half
Kosher salt
4 ounces rat tail radishes, faded bits and thin stems trimmed, cut into pieces about the same length as the bell pepper
2 to 3 teaspoons soy sauce
Chili crisp in chili oil, to taste (optional but delicious)
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Add the bell peppers and a pinch of salt and stir-fry until just starting become tender, about 3 minutes. Add the rat tail radishes, reduce the heat to medium and stir-fry until crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes, adding a tablespoon of two of water if the pan gets dry.
3. Remove from the heat and drizzle with soy sauce to taste and chili crisp, if using. Serve hot.
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