Cooking
Do you think radishes only belong in salad? Growing up that's the only way we ate them. Not that there's anything wrong with that but the French give the radish a little more respect, they eat them with butter and salt. Actually what they do is serve radishes with slices of bread spread with unsalted butter and they dip the whole radishes in salt and eat them with the bread. This is important. If you you do this you are guaranteed to feel very French. Especially if you wash it all down with a crisp white wine.
While red radishes are ubiquitous, radishes actually come in lots of colors and sizes. White ones, purple ones, daikon radishes and black ones. Radish comes from the Latin work radix meaning root; they are part of the mustard family. Makes sense, doesn't it? They can be mild or have a mustardy bite to them. They are really an ancient vegetable, in fact there are records of the Egyptians and Romans eating them. Historians suspect they originally may have come from Asia.
I discovered black radishes when they came in my organic produce box, a while back. At the time I had no idea what to do with them so I followed a recipe for Radish Pasta. I sliced them thinly, cooked them and their greens and some chopped onions and tossed them with penne pasta and parmesan cheese and olive oil. This was first time I ever cooked radishes and I was hooked. It turns out you can cook any kind of radish. You can roast them like any other root vegetable, you can saute them or even simmer them in a little water and glaze them with butter and brown sugar. I know this might sound weird but radishes are amazingly versatile.
If you want to experiment with black or Spanish black radishes as they are sometimes called, don't peel them, just scrub them well and use a bit of salt if they are too strongly flavored. I think they are great cooked, but you can also grate them into vegetable salads to add a little bite. If you're stuck in a green salad rut, sliced or grated black radishes also taste great combined with carrots, apples, endive, cabbage or arugula...
- Mango Cucumber Salad Recipes
Ok here's a crazy idea, one basic salad that can be either sweet or savory. I was trying to think of what to do with some mangoes coming my way from the National Mango Board this week and then I saw a tweet from @SimpleGourmetLA with the idea for...
- Quickie Pickled Radishes: Recipe
I'm sure you've read that women crave sweets while men crave salty foods. But I'm not sure I agree. Given the choice between a potato chip and a candy bar, I would definitely choose the chip, er, better make that chips. Whichever side of...
- Watermelon Radish
I confess I bought these mostly for the photo op. I'm not especially fond of the peppery bite of radishes when eaten raw, but I've never tried them cooked, and don't mind them sliced very thinly in a salad. These were so pretty, I couldn't...
- Chicken Braised In Pumpkin Seed Mole Verde
This recipe was really nice; it didn't have a particularly strong flavor, but it was a very...warm, comforting dish. A hint of citrus from the tomatillos. It worked equally well with tortillas, which is how I ate my leftover's the next two days. ...
- If It's Tuesday...
Admit it. You don't really know what to do with radishes. It's okay, I didn't either. But I got lots of new ideas as I wrote this week's post for SFist, all about radishes. Enjoy! ...
Cooking
All About Radishes
While red radishes are ubiquitous, radishes actually come in lots of colors and sizes. White ones, purple ones, daikon radishes and black ones. Radish comes from the Latin work radix meaning root; they are part of the mustard family. Makes sense, doesn't it? They can be mild or have a mustardy bite to them. They are really an ancient vegetable, in fact there are records of the Egyptians and Romans eating them. Historians suspect they originally may have come from Asia.
I discovered black radishes when they came in my organic produce box, a while back. At the time I had no idea what to do with them so I followed a recipe for Radish Pasta. I sliced them thinly, cooked them and their greens and some chopped onions and tossed them with penne pasta and parmesan cheese and olive oil. This was first time I ever cooked radishes and I was hooked. It turns out you can cook any kind of radish. You can roast them like any other root vegetable, you can saute them or even simmer them in a little water and glaze them with butter and brown sugar. I know this might sound weird but radishes are amazingly versatile.
If you want to experiment with black or Spanish black radishes as they are sometimes called, don't peel them, just scrub them well and use a bit of salt if they are too strongly flavored. I think they are great cooked, but you can also grate them into vegetable salads to add a little bite. If you're stuck in a green salad rut, sliced or grated black radishes also taste great combined with carrots, apples, endive, cabbage or arugula...
- Mango Cucumber Salad Recipes
Ok here's a crazy idea, one basic salad that can be either sweet or savory. I was trying to think of what to do with some mangoes coming my way from the National Mango Board this week and then I saw a tweet from @SimpleGourmetLA with the idea for...
- Quickie Pickled Radishes: Recipe
I'm sure you've read that women crave sweets while men crave salty foods. But I'm not sure I agree. Given the choice between a potato chip and a candy bar, I would definitely choose the chip, er, better make that chips. Whichever side of...
- Watermelon Radish
I confess I bought these mostly for the photo op. I'm not especially fond of the peppery bite of radishes when eaten raw, but I've never tried them cooked, and don't mind them sliced very thinly in a salad. These were so pretty, I couldn't...
- Chicken Braised In Pumpkin Seed Mole Verde
This recipe was really nice; it didn't have a particularly strong flavor, but it was a very...warm, comforting dish. A hint of citrus from the tomatillos. It worked equally well with tortillas, which is how I ate my leftover's the next two days. ...
- If It's Tuesday...
Admit it. You don't really know what to do with radishes. It's okay, I didn't either. But I got lots of new ideas as I wrote this week's post for SFist, all about radishes. Enjoy! ...