In Seasoning: Radishes
"French Breakfast. Cherry Belle. Scarlet Globe. Purple Plum. They’re the kind of names you might find on a nail polish bottle or wall paint chart, or..."
French Breakfast. Cherry Belle. Scarlet Globe. Purple Plum. They’re the kind of names you might find on a nail polish bottle or wall paint chart, or – even more happily – on the radishes accompanying a nice glass of something cold on a balmy spring evening. These small, peppy little buttons of heat that come in a range of gemstone colourways first burst into our kitchens in spring, and last right through the summer. That’s at least four, maybe five, months of radish heaven. Given they are primarily enjoyed raw (although not solely – more on that to come), you’d think radish boredom might set in at some point. Yet, somehow, absolutely not.
Some of my happiest radish times have been with nothing more than a drink alongside. Depending on the time of day and the general mood: A cool glass of sharp lemonade. A dry martini. Cold beer. Very crisp white wine. Or (if even just the word doesn’t give you a headache, as it does for me) a good rosé.
From: Seasoning - How To Cook and Celebrate the Seasons / Spring / Radishes
My god, I love radishes. Just heaven. I love them cold from the fridge on a hot day. I love them warm from the oven on a cooler day. I love them on their own, I love them with any of the many Flavour Partners this section mentions. I love them raw. I love them cooked. (You’ll find heaps of ideas for all ways in Seasoning.) And I really love them smacked.
The idea - as with smacking cucumbers - is to smack radishes with a rolling pin so they open up, then douse with salt and let them drain for an hour. This is, unusually, about drying radishes out before giving them moisture back by way of a dressing – perhaps chilli oil amped up into a sauce with sesame oil, light soy sauce and a little caster sugar; or the gorgeous dressing in this recipe below from Seasoning.
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