Mooli Raita (Radish with Yogurt)

" Yogurt is my favorite , give me yogurt and I can stay in any corner of the world. Me and DH go on long road trips every year and we first stop to buy yogurt. If my relatives know that I am visiting them, they make sure that there is enough yogurt. 

Indians make their yogurt at home. It tastes so drastically different in taste and texture from the store bought yogurt you find here in the US. When I landed here for the first time, I asked my hubby if he knows someone who prepares yogurt at home. Fortunately, he had some Gujarati friends who gave me my first starter for homemade yogurt.Yogurt is called Dahi ,curds in India. 

I can't stand the taste or smell of milk, but at the same time can't live without yogurt. Whenever I visit our farm back in India or my granny's house where there are lot of cows, I am super thrilled about having farm fresh curds, buttermilk the whole day.Reminds me, how much I miss those wonderful times. 

I come from a part of Karnataka(my state in India), where we make different types of yogurt dishes - called majjige huli, hasi, tambli etc.If you know Kannada you would understand it. We even make raita of hibiscus flower. 

Daikon can be smelly vegetable, and I hardly can tolerate the smell.But if you find baby bunch radishes
ever in your farmers market, grab on to them.They smell much better than the big ones. Since this is easy to prepare, I make this just and hour before serving. Once you mix in the yogurt,you can hardly tell the smell when you are eating. This can be eaten with rice, parathas or as a side."


Here is a link on how to make yogurt at home from fellow blogger Kulsum @ Journey Kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups grated radish (white radish)
• 3/4 cup chopped red onions 
• 1 green chilli 
• 1/4 cup chopped coriander 
• 1.5 cups yogurt 
• Salt to taste

For the tempering: 

• 1 tspn oil 
• 1/2 tspn mustard seeds
• 4-5 curry leaves 

Method: 

• Put the grated radish , chopped onions , chopped green chillies and coriander in a bowl. 
• Mix in the yogurt. If you are using store brought yogurt, beat it for a few seconds and a little bit of water and mix it in. The store brought yogurt is very thick and hence you need to thin it a little bit. 
• Heat the oil in a small pan. When it hot, add the mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add the curry leaves. Put this tadka into the yogurt mixture.
• Add salt to taste.