Food Friday: Rooting for Radishes

I have always associated radishes with sitting on the back porch on summer evenings when I was little, watching my father transform pink hamburger patties into charbroiled hockey pucks on the hibachi. We would snack on the raw, red-skinned radishes that my mother served to us in little clear glass Pyrex bowls, filled with bone-chilling ice water. How could anything so cold have such a spicy kick? Such were the summery mysteries I contemplated back then, waiting for the dusk to fall, and the fireflies to rise from back garden.

Luke the Wonder Dog and I saw some fireflies the other night, so I imagine that summer is almost upon us. Can we resist the lure of fresh radishes? This summer I am going to be a little more adventurous and try radishes in new and different ways. I have started to branch out, by using radish slices as a garnish when we make tacos. You can never have enough crunch, and radishes provide it reliably.

For the data driven – radishes are high in fiber, riboflavin, and potassium. They are low in calories, and have lots of Vitamin C. They are a natural diuretic, and have detoxing abilities.
https://foodfacts.mercola.com/radish.html

I prefer to dwell on the spicy flavor and the crunch.

Have you tried sliced radishes on buttered bread? They will jazz up your next tea party the way cucumber sandwiches never have. Although, if you were French, you would have been eating radishes on buttered slices of brown bread for breakfast for years. Mais oui! https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125066665

And if you’d rather not be picking up disks of radishes escaping from your sandwiches, try this easy peasy radish butter. Yumsters! https://mykitchenwindowsill.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/radish-butter/

Martha suggests adding radishes to corn salad – what a great idea, Martha! The bright red color of the radishes will make a heaping bowl of cooked corn quite appealing. And the subtle addition of jalapeño gives an extra spicy kick. This is a perfect summertime backyard cookout menu item.
https://www.marthastewart.com/319260/corn-and-radish-salad

Consider the summer cocktail, and how easy it is to add some sliced radishes to your favorite Bloody Mary recipe. I’m not sure that I would go to all the trouble that this recipe stirs up – I would have to make a separate trip out to buy sherry, after all. https://www.sofeminine.co.uk/drinks/summer-cocktails-d40795c601836.html

For your next book club meeting, here is a cocktail with literary aspirations: https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/recipes/radish-gin-cocktail-recipe-spring-vegetables-the-red-cat-nyc I haven’t been able to find the Cocchi Americano at our liquor store, though. So I have left it out, and no one seems the wiser. Nor has it been noted by my well-read blue stockings that I also used Bombay instead of the requisite Dorothy Parker gin. (For the crowd that is used to extremely cheap white wine, this is an eye-opener, just like Uncle Willy’s in Philadelphia Story. It packs a punch.)

Here’s one for Mr. Friday to perfect: grilled steak with grilled radishes. https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/grilled-steak-and-radishes-with-black-pepper-butter
It makes me sad, though, to cook a radish. There are some vegetables that are meant to be eaten gloriously simple and raw – like fresh peas, carrots, green beans and celery.

I think I will just mosey out to the kitchen now and cut the tops off some fresh, rosy red radishes. Then I’ll slice off the root ends, pretend that I can carve the little globes into beauteous rosettes, and plop them into a small bowl of ice water. Then I will sprinkle some crunchy Maldon salt flakes over the clumsy rose petal shapes I have created, and eat one of my favorite root vegetables. Ah, summer. It is good.

“Plant a radish.
Get a radish.
Never any doubt.
That’s why I love vegetables;
You know what you’re about!”
Tom Jones – The Fantasticks

Kiss the next 5 minutes of your life away! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jf9HQl8qv0