September 9, 2010
My friends at Food52 are having a competition this week for the best recipe for radishes, so I bought a flaming red bunch for experimentation. As as we imagine the summer heat waning and hope that Fall is upon us, these tasty little root vegetables could only invoke summer days for me. Sitting on my parents' back porch, quite possibly after having shucked some corn, I can remember eating cold radishes, plucked from a little Pyrex dish of ice water. Nothing fancy, no rosettes, just radishes with their tops and bottoms lopped off. With a dash of salt to tame the hot, spicy flavor. Sometimes a real time waster was the effort spent peeling the radish, so it wasn't quite such a flame thrower in my mouth, but then I would eat the peeled skin, and Bob's your uncle - hot mouth again. Another reason for a handy, sweaty glass of lemonade.
I combed through a couple of cookbooks, but in the end decided that raw, naked radishes are best not spoiled with anything fancier than salt. Oh, you can go all Nigella if you like, and use Maldon or sea salt, but I am sticking with Diamond Crystal. And there is my recipe, and my product endorsement for the day.
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