Cooking recipes

Sausage Radish Apple Stew

This is an odd little dish in some ways, but Ive been growing all these damn winter radishes and now I need to do something with them. You could use regular radishes too, if you can still find them. You can often get Ontario radishes in the bags much later than you expect.

One thing I have decided is that radishes is radishes. The quick spring kind or the big winter ones for storage: they all taste pretty much alike, some are just prettier than others or grow better. They sweeten and mellow when they are cooked, although a fairly slow cooking like this will leave them with a little bite still. I put in 4 different kinds of radish here, but apart from providing a little colour they all tasted the same. In spite of the rather unusual combination of ingredients here, we enjoyed this.

The sausage should be a raw, garlicky one, or you should be prepared to add some more garlic at the appropriate time (just before the apple cider and veggies go in).

2 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time


250 grams (1/2 poound) garlic pork sausage
1 large onion
1 stalk celery
450 grams (1 pound) winter radishes such as daikon or lo bak
2 medium carrots
1 large apple
3 cups apple cider
1/4 teaspoon each salt & pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seed

Cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces, and put it in a large skillet with abut 1/4 cup water to get it started cooking, or a little oil if it is very lean. Get it started browning and letting off a little fat. Meanwhile, peel the onion and cut it into large chunks. Add them to the sausage and let them cook and brown as well. Chop up the celery and add it. Stir regularly.

As soon as the onions and celery go in, start peeling the carrots. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. If the skins of the radishes are thin and tender you can leave them on, otherwise they should come off. Cut the radishes into bite-sized pieces.

Add the carrots and radishes to the pan, along with the cider. Season with the salt and pepper, and the fennel seed, which should be ground. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the radishes are tender. Stir regularly.

While the stew is cooking, wash the apple, and cut it in quarters. Remove the core, and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the stew 5 or 10 minutes before it is done. The cider should be reduced to a rich sauce, and the radishes should be tender.




Last year at this time I made Jap Chae.