Spoils of Summer - Daikon-Beet Salad with Mashed Plantain

This heat is killing my produce. I had a plantain, two beets, a shallot, some garlic, and a daikon radish (the size of my forearm). They were all on their way out - even the garlic, which is saying something because my garlic standards are pretty low. I made something that actually resembles potato salad - in taste only, though.

I did a teensy bit of interwebs research before embarking on this experiment. I couldn't find anything that exactly resembled what I wanted to do, but this recipe helped me verify that beets and daikons could go together; this one gave me a recipe for a salad using regular potatoes and daikons (and about a million other tasty things I didn't have on hand), and this one told me how to get the plantain out of its skin. Thanks, epicurious!

I peeled the daikon and chopped them into matchsticks. Same with the beets, after cooking and peeling them (I simmered the beets with a splash of apple cider vinegar for about 20 minutes. About 5 minutes in, I threw in the plantain, with its ends trimmed off and cut crosswise into three pieces).

I minced the shallot, mixed it with some honey, (light) sesame oil, white wine vinegar, yellow mustard, slivered garlic, salt, and pepper, and then stirred in the beet and daikon matchsticks. This part then went into the fridge to chill and wait for the mashed plantain.

Once the plantain pieces looked soft enough for me to get the peel off, I drained the water and pulled the peel off with the help of a knife and fork. I mashed the plantain with a little salt and sesame oil (just enough to get it to more or less stick together - not creamy like regular mashed potatoes) and stuck it in the fridge to cool. I cooled it separately from the beet-daikon mixture because I didn't want the heat to un-crisp the daikon, but in retrospect I probably should have mixed the plantain in when it was still a little warm, so that it would have been creamier. I also would have used one or two more plantains if I'd had them. But hey - for a using-things-up dish, this really did come out pretty well! Mike even ate all of his and said something about "liking" it. Success! And pink, pink leftovers!