French breakfast radishes

I bought some of these at Green City on Wednesday because I'm a sap for a good name (that's why I wound up with butterscotch melons, bubblegum plums, etc.)

What the hell do you do with a radish? I honestly have no idea how to consume these. I guess I've seen slices in salads, that's it. Do you munch them like carrots? Stew them like turnips?

My two favorite ways to eat radishes of any type:

--Open face sandwich: Good rye bread, covered with good butter, thinly sliced radishes, sea salt.

--Roasted radishes: Cut into halves or quarters (depending on size), toss with olive oil and salt. Roast at 400 and give it a shake every 10-12 minutes until they look nicely roasted (shouldn't take much more than 20 minutes). Makes a great side vegetable to roast chicken.

Best,
Michael

I'll second the sandwich idea, did that for the Derby Day party and they're excellent (wish I'd sprung for better rye bread)

I keep hearing about radishes and butter, and just don't get it. Unless they're very thinly sliced, the bite is all I get from them - at least with the European styles.

Hmmm...I'd never heard of roasted radishes, but I'm a sucker for most roast veggies, so I'll have to give that a shot.

You could also make some carne en su jugo. Or maybe toss them in some other soups.

i prefer my radish, butter and salt sandwiches sans radishes.

French breakfast radishes are much milder than the more common red radishes. I prefer to just eat them plain. One of my favorite summer lunches is a plate of radishes, feta cheese and a baguette.

They're also really good sliced up on a salad with a yogurt-based dressing.

I'll also second the recommendation for thinly sliced radishes with butter on bread, although I prefer a crusty bread to rye.

teatpuller wrote:i prefer my radish, butter and salt sandwiches sans radishes.

The other day, a guy in front of me in line at my building cafeteria ordered a BLT, hold the lettuce and tomato, extra mayo, on white bread.

For those keeping score, that's a bacon and mayo sandwich on white bread. (Unrelated to a BLT, as far as I'm concerned.)

Braised radishes (on the stove top in butter) are wonderful with chicken etc (I think they are traditional with duck when turnips are out of season).

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/reci ... -radishes/

Nigel Slater has a radish, mint & feta salad which I like a lot - add a baguette & some butter & its a nice light lunch.

I love radish sandwiches sliced thin on nice white sandwich bread with a good mayonaise. More like a tea sandwich but delicious.

Anyone cook radish greens? They seem edible, but are kind of hairy.

Gastro Gnomebrought braised radishes (scroll down for photo) to the 1,000 recipe potluck - they were very good.

Radishes in my family were/are often eated as a crudite appetizer.

Make a little pile of sea salt. Dip the radish or the subsequent parts with a bite(s) out in the salt. Eat with a small chunk of baguette with a dollop of unsweetened butter. For harsher, older, more bitter radishes-more salt and butter, smaller bites. Bigger radishes always went last.

teatpuller wrote:Anyone cook radish greens? They seem edible, but are kind of hairy.

Radish greens are edible in the not poisonous sense. I've cooked them a few times, but as you said, they're rather hairy and that's accentuated when they're cooked. I had hoped it would be minimized. I like to use all parts of a plant as much as possible, but I've pretty much given up on radish greens.

eli wrote:

teatpuller wrote:Anyone cook radish greens? They seem edible, but are kind of hairy.

Radish greens are edible in the not poisonous sense. I've cooked them a few times, but as you said, they're rather hairy and that's accentuated when they're cooked. I had hoped it would be minimized. I like to use all parts of a plant as much as possible, but I've pretty much given up on radish greens.

It was Fergus Henderson, in his book at least, who convinced me to eat radish greens in a salad. They have a similar bite to arugula, although are a bit more leathery. They also tend to be gritty--not the least, I suppose because the farmer does not think you would eat. Just wash well.

Also, to state the obvious, but what the hey, make sure you seperate bottom from top as soon as you get home, both will thrive better that way.

Radishes are good in soups, both chilled and hot.

Mhays, the radish and butter thing makes more sense when they are mixed together. You can do something similar with cream cheese, which I prefer. Minced radishes and chives mixed with cream cheese are a good bagel schmear. Some people also like to mix chopped radishes and other veggies with cottage cheese.

This is a nice recipe: Pea salad with radishes and feta.

Radish greens are OK when very finely chopped, but just OK.

Radishes can also be pickled. Here's an 18th-century recipe adapted from "Pleasures of Colonial Cooking."

Pickled radishes

2 dozen radishes, greens removed
1 cup sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 teaspoons dillweed

Cut the radishes into roses. Pack into a clean jar.

Combine the sugar, vinegar and seasonings in a saucepan over medium heat and simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour over the radishes.

Keep refrigerated. Give them a day or two absorb the flavors. (You can also can these in a boiling-water bath for 20 minutes, but with long-term storage the radishes soften and wrinkle.)

French breakfast radishes aren't shaped right for cutting into roses, but that step is optional.

Mike - this is funny, I had to double-check the date of your post. French breakfast radishes in France are a spring vegetable - and not eaten at breakfast really but with your aperitif. Typically you just swipe your raw, trimmed radish in good soft butter, sprinkle with a bit of sea salt, and eat. And they look like fraises des bois - more tear-drop shaped, pink and white - than the elongated red veg found in the US. You wouldn't think of cooking them.

For more sturdy, pungent radishes, I love to roast them whole under chicken thighs.

Mhays, we've finally come to a point of contention (I always agree with you, pretty much mostly! ) Radishes and butter: thinly sliced, *good* salt, and a nice *European* butter. Learned to do this in Paris, of course, the year I starved there on my first sabbatical. Awfully cheap treat, radi beurre. (Probably it helped that this was Spring, and the radishes were French, and young.)

Another big radish treat I found in Munich: black radishes, thinly sliced, salt and, of all things, BEER! [Beer? In Munich? I'm shocked... ] An interesting description of these radishes is to be found here , with another recipe here , middle of the page.

Geo

We don't exactly disagree: thinly sliced seems to be the key. I can do that even without the rye bread.

Unless it's a daikon, though, I don't seem to enjoy the butter-salt-radish thing straight up in big bites.

Geo wrote:Another big radish treat I found in Munich: black radishes, thinly sliced, salt and, of all things, BEER! [Beer? In Munich? I'm shocked...

I love beer radishes. I haven't been there in a while but they were serving these at Glunz Bavarian Haus.

Glunz Bavarian Haus
773/472-HAUS
http://www.glunzbavarianhaus.com
4128 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago

LAZ wrote:

Geo wrote:Another big radish treat I found in Munich: black radishes, thinly sliced, salt and, of all things, BEER! [Beer? In Munich? I'm shocked...

I love beer radishes. I haven't been there in a while but they were serving these at Glunz Bavarian Haus.

I had radishes as a bar snack while in Seattle last winter. Heirloom radishes, sliced in half, with a little ramekin of good butter *and* a sprinkling of truffle salt. I loved them, and I've never been a fan of radishes. I'm pretty sure I'd eat styrofoam packing peanuts, though, if they had good butter and truffle salt on them.

grace

The french will eat anything for breakfast

Hi,

My Dad eats his radishes straight up with salt (on the table). He especially likes black radishes (size of medium beets) sliced thin with salt.

In Russia, I picked up grating radishes, then adding sour cream (some will do mayo or mayo-sour cream), dill, salt and pepper.

Butter braised radishes were brought to the 1000-recipe potluck in June. I haven't made them at home yet, because I sure the 'healthy food police' will complain I am ruining a perfectly good vegetable.

Of course a few minutes ago, I saw a news article claiming people who eat too many vegetables suffer from shrunken brains.

Regards,

Pls note Gary's use of radishes with a famous pork product here!

Geo