Wednesday 6 May 2015

Pasta Tossed In A Radish Sprouts & Light Sour Cream Sauce



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This is a meal with an interesting mix of taste and textures. It is quite unique and those that I have served this to are quite surprise at how much they end up enjoying it.
Radish sprouts provide a peppery, spicy zing to what would otherwise be just another pasta sauce. I added smoked salmon for that smoky saltiness and topped it with soy sauce flavoured salmon roe for that savoury umami taste. 

The sweetish, round balls of briny Japanese salmon roe (Ikura Shoyu), also provides a wonderful textural element to the dish. With each bite of an Ikura Shoyu ball, you get a slight crunch and a burst of flavours as they gently pop. I like eating them.

Radish sprouts can taste shockingly pungent. It is not a vegetable that I would eat on its own. I can't imagine anyone wanting to eat it on its own. It is just like chillies, it acts as a complement to something else. 

Have you had the experience of putting a dab too much of the Japanese mustard, wasabi, on your sashimi or sushi and then eating it? 

Do you recall how your mind becomes momentarily stunned as the pungency travels up through you nasal cavity and then in between your eyes to culminate in what feels like a mini explosion right in between your eyebrows? Radish sprouts can have a similar effect. You cannot have too much of it.

That is why light sour cream works well with radish sprouts. It softens the pungent heat from the sprouts not only with its light creaminess but also with that slight 'sourishness'.

If you do not eat Ikura Shoyu, to substitute, drizzle a little soy sauce over cucumber that has been diced into slightly smaller dice than a salmon roe.
PASTA TOSSED IN A RADISH SPROUTS & LIGHT SOUR CREAM SAUCE 

Prep:
5 minutes
Cook:
15 minutes
Inactive:
-
Level:
Easy
Serves:
2
Oven Temperature:
-
Can recipe be doubled?
Yes
Make ahead?
Sauce can be made a day ahead. Warm through before serving. 
Just the ingredients
Enough cooked pasta for 2 persons
1 cup of pasta water (water you used to cook pasta in)
3/4 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup radish sprouts
1/4 cup parmesan grated
1 small garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
200g smoked salmon slices
100g ikura shoyu
OR
100g salmon caviar
with a little soy sauce & caster sugar
OR
slightly less than 1/4 cup of diced seedless cucumber
+ 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
Ingredients

Enough cooked pasta for 2 persons

1 cup of pasta water
Water where you had boiled your pasta.

3/4 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup (or more) radish sprouts + a few more sprouts to top the pasta

1/4 cup parmesan grated

1 small garlic clove

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

200g smoked salmon slices

100g Ikura Shoyu
Salmon roe that has been marinated/preserved in soy sauce and sake and/or mirin (Japanese cooking rice wine that is sweetened). It taste slightly sweet, is not as salty and the addition of soy sauce and sake and/or mirin makes it taste more interesting than regular salmon caviar.
OR

100g salmon caviar + a few drops of soy sauce and 1/4 teaspoon caster sugar
To get it to taste closer to ikura shoyu, drizzle a few drops of soy sauce and sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar over it. Stir to mix. You need the sweetness from the sugar and the umami flavour of the soy sauce to complete this pasta dish. 
OR

slightly less than 1/4 cup of diced seedless cucumber + 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
Prepare just before needed or it will weep and lose its crunchy texture

Method

Blend ingredients for sauce: light sour cream, parmesan, radish sprouts, garlic, 1/2 cup pasta water, pepper and salt, in a food processor until smooth. Do not be tempted to add too much parmesan.

Taste and adjust flavours. It should taste a little more concentrated than what you would want your final sauce to taste like as after you toss the pasta into the sauce, the taste will mellow.

Transfer sauce to a nonstick pot and bring sauce to a simmer over medium high heat. Stir to avoid sticking. Do not step away from the pot. At medium high heat, it will boil up sooner than you think and you want a simmer and not a boil. 

Once it starts simmering, continue stirring for another 2 minutes. 

Transfer cooked pasta into pot of sauce and toss to coat. 

If you think the sauce is too thick, loosen it up with the remaining 1/2 cup of pasta water. You should have a smooth and liquid sauce. It should not be thick and there would be just enough sauce to coat the pasta. 

Once the pasta is warmed through and well coated (in about 1 minute or 2), divide pasta onto 2 plates. 

Top with slices of smoked salmon, a few more radish sprouts and the ikura shoyu/salmon caviar/cucumber.

Serve immediately.

Tips

Here is an easy way to use up that punnet of radish sprouts:
My recipe for 'Pasta Tossed In A Radish Sprouts & Light Sour Cream Sauce', came about because I had 1/2 a punnet of radish sprouts and almost a full tub of light sour cream left after making these delightful sandwiches. It was featured as a side recipe in my Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches blog post.


Now, it has its own post for your ease of reference.
The Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches recipe, was one in a series of recipes I had posted on an English Afternoon Tea spread.  I have attached the links for your easy reference.
English Afternoon Tea. Tea anyone?


Bottom plate second layer: Roast Beef with BeetrootSalmon
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
Roasted Beetroot With 20-minute Sweet Pickled Onions And Blue Cheese. 

I know quite a number of people who find beetroots rather bland. There is nothing bland about this beetroot salad. Sweet onion pickles, vinegary capers and the shock of the blue cheese perks up those earthy beetroots.  Wonderful with some crusty bread.

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