Radishes are in season, now what?

[Hmm]

Radishes are in season where I live but the problem is I have no idea what to do with them.

I typically eat them pickled or shredded on sandwhiches/wraps or sliced as a salad topper (how boring).

I figure radishes must have more varied preperations (where radish is the star, not the sideshow) then this. Any suggestions?

Cheers

[Esculenta]

I know this is an old thread, but I didn't see anyone mention roasting them. Half a bunch, a little past prime roasted whole with carrots [honey]. Chopped the radish tops and folded into rice and beans and chicken drippings. Roast chicken, onion gravy. That was a beautiful meal, and a good way to use end-of-life produce.

[c oliver]

So glad I (re)found this thread. We're in Rio and radishes are huge and good. Thanks for a bunch (haha) of great ideas.

[doughreme]

One more way to cook them. I used them as the white on a "flag" (for the 4th) flatbread. Slice thin and overlap in rows for the white in your flag. (beets do the red rows). They got a bit stained from the beets, but it was a fun way to put them to use.

[crt]

Somethings are best left simple to their crunchy best! Radishes for instance. Clean. Cut ends. Chill well in a bowl of water in the frig. When well chilled remove from frig take some out of bowl and sprinkle on some Via Nueva Pico De Gallo. Pop in mouth. Enjoy. Enough said.

[yumyum]

Just found this thread and add me to the list of braised radish fans. Bittman has a recipe that calls for butter, a splash of chix stock, s&p. I throw in a few sprigs of thyme. Cover, bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 mins. Remove cover and let juice reduce down until syrupy. Really delicious if not especially pretty on the plate.

[silverhawk]

i recall being served fresh raw radishes at the hoffbrau house in munich. the server came by with a basket of radishes to eat with our beer. radishes and beer--pretty simple.

[ChefJune]

Classic prep is to braise them in a little broth. Delicious!

[geminigirl]

how long and what temp...im new to braising, just did a cabbage dish a couple of times which was wonderful! thanks

[Kaypel]

I make radish salsa - great with quesadillas or tortilla chips. Just slice the radishes and mix with diced onion, tomato and jalapeno peppers and some chopped cilantro. Add lime juice and s/p.

[xavi1979]

i'm trying to remember this fabulous recipe of soy-glazed radishes that had radish-haters going for seconds. i quartered the radishes, then tossed them in some sesame oil on a baking sheet. cook at 375 until tender, shaking the pan a few times while cooking. toss with tamari while warm & serve! makes a great side dish for fish.

[qianning]

As an Asian side dish--sliced very thin, mixed with equal amounts sesame oil, rice vinegar, dash each of salt, pepper, sugar.

[sea97horse]

Saute them briefly with blanched green beans in butter, with a bit of honey, S&P. This works as a hot side dish and also at room temp as a salad --

[doughreme]

Another Adam mentioned mustard and vinegar, both of which I use for radishes. My favorite way to serve the gorgeous greenmarket beauties is raw, with a little bit of the stem attached (as a handle, of sorts) with two little side bowls; one with good crunchy salt and the other with spicy mustard. Great pre-dinner nibbles. The cooked way is roasted with olive oil and a touch of white vinegar until they get a few bubbly brown spots, then cut into hunks and stirred into rice.

[cookie44]

I love radishes! Everyone has already praised radishes with butter, salt bread (my favorite) and braising them.

One of my other favorite preparations is great because you can use the greens too and it is cooked instead of raw. It's a recent recipe discovery for me but you might want to try: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo... - Subsitute the radish greens for the watercress. Delicious side to nearly anything.

[thew]

braised in chicken stock
mm mm mmmmm

[enbell]

This is currently my favorite thread! Thanks to all for the great ideas :)

[dimsumgirl]

How do you pickle them? I have more than I can use and that sounds like a solution.

[another_adam]

A quick and easy way is to simply salt quarters/wedges/slices, let stand for around half an hour, press out some water from time to time, and then quickly rinse and drain when they are as soft and pickled as you like. I then toss these into various flavorings: umeboshi paste, or orange marmelade+ a splash of rice vinegar, or spicy mustard+honey, miso+mirin, etc. (a sweet + salty combination complements the spiciness of the radish well). I think at this time of year, there's some form of radish in the lunchbox nearly every day!

[soypower]

I do this at home too. I like to use brown rice vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil to flavor mine.

[amyzan]

I do what Adam describes, salting them, rinsing, then I place them in a sweetened brine, about a quarter as much sugar as you'd use for bread and butter pickles, without the herbs and spices. I can look up the proportions if you'd like. I want to say I found them in either Washoku or maybe Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. They store in the fridge for months this way, though they peak after a couple weeks.

[Foodielicious]

Start with a slab of crusty whole grain bread (grilled or toasted, if you like), smear it with a fresh cheese like Boursin or an herbed chevre, then pile it high with sliced radishes: serve that with some dark beer or a fruity red wine and your soul will rejoice.

[amyzan]

You mentioned them on sandwiches, but you can also slice radishes and layer them thickly on ham or pate sandwiches. Great complementary flavor. If I have a lot, I will often quarter and pickle them. Then I use them in place of pickled ginger in summertime chukasoba dishes like hiyashi chuka. They're also good with cold sesame noodles.

[cimui]

I've had some excellent radish soups at restaurants. This one, which I found Googling, uses both the radish greens and the root:

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0598/radish.html

This one uses only the root:

http://www.cookthink.com/recipe/8862/...

Finally (though this is not much of a recipe), I enjoy radishes just diced (about a 1/4" dice) and fried in a pan with butter until brown, sort of like how you'd make homefries. You can crumble chevre over it before serving, if you like.

[LNG212]

That fried-with-chevre idea sounds wonderful. The greenmarket has had big gorgeous bunches of radishes with greens lately. I never buy because I didn't know what to do with them. Now you've all inspired me to give it a try next Friday when I hit the greenmarket again. Thanks.

[cimui]

And thank *you* for the Greenmarket tip. =)

[LNG212]

Bialas Farms at the W97th St. market has had lovely bunches of them. I usually check their blog on Thursday night to get an idea of what they'll have the next day ( http://bialasfarmsblog.com/ ).

Do you know if thinly sliced radishes would work on pizza? Or maybe your idea of carmelized already and then added w/chevre to pizza would work. Hmmm. Now I'm thinking! :)

[cimui]

Ah perfect. I always love an excuse not to haul my lazy posterior by subway, all the way to Union^2.

Radish pizza is such a cool idea -- or maybe it would even work in the form of the pizza's near cousin, the tart. I'm envisioning maybe something similar to the tarte flambee with creme fraiche, onions and bacon at the Modern Bar Room, with radish in place of (or alongside) carmelized onions and something smoky tasting... Maybe smoked gouda if you're not eating meat?

(Random pic of the tarte flambee: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgur...

[LNG212]

It worked!! I tried making radish pizza and the result was pretty darn tasty. I used my regular pizza dough, creme fraiche, and carmelized radishes like you described above. On half the pizza I used your idea of smoked gouda and on the other half I used smoked mozzarella. Both halves were good. Though I would use less of the gouda next time -- either I used too much or it is just sooooo rich and slightly overpowered the radishes. The mozz half was a little lighter, the flavor of the radishes more pronounced. All in all, a very good first effort I think.

[cimui]

*drool*

Thanks for pioneering the way, brave LNG. I've been attempting to bake gluten free breads as of late and some of them have turned out to be more like pizza dough than anything. Sounds like maybe I need to give the radish pizza a try, too. :)

[LNG212]

You know, sometimes all the encouragement from this board gets me to try something new. And especially when it coincides with new stuff at the greenmarket, I think it's great.

So go ahead and give radish pizza a try. You can even do it with the pancetta you mentioned above. What kind of flour does one use to make gluten free breads? And can you use the bread machine? (I would be lost without my bread maker, even just for pizza dough.)

[Harters]

A standard part of a middle eastern mezze at Chateau Harters. Just raw, providing some crunch and pepperiness (assuming you've got a tasty one). Occasionally, dipped in oil then dukkah.

Or make a quick starter. Salad of thickly sliced radish and some watercress. Top with chicken livers.

I'll be interested to see if people come up with any ideas for cooking radish (other than adding to a stirfry). My memory may be playing tricks but I'm sure I've eaten them cooked in cream.

[oakjoan]

Harters, see mention of Flexitarian Table braised rad. recipe above.

[scubadoo97]

I do braised radishes. They come out really nice. The red ones turn pink and the braising makes them nice mild and delicious.

You might also take some and add salt and sugar to kind of pickle them. Then use them in your next Pad Thai.

[lschow]

i just braised some french breakfast radishes in butter last week. the flavor was pretty good - it still had a tinge of spicy kick - but several of the radishes (they were small enough so i braised them whole) were stringy, and i felt like i was constantly spitting out a pile of thread.

has anyone else experienced this, or maybe french breakfast radishes aren't meant for braising? did i ruin a perfectly good bunch of radishes?

[scubadoo97]

We were getting a lot of those finger shapped breakfast radishes via our CSA. I thought they were fine braised. We got some large black radishes which were really strong and hot. I ended up slicing those into thin rounds and coating with EVOO S & P and roasted until brown and golden. They turned out really nice. Took the heat and harshness out yet they still maintained some radish flavor. They shrunk down a lot to form little radish cups. Made a nice snack

[goodhealthgourmet]

there's a cream preparation in Larousse Gastronomique - i found a paraphrase of it (along with a couple of other simple recipes) on a blog:

http://ckenb.blogspot.com/2009/05/radis-roses-la-creme.html

some other random web finds (i definitely have to try roasting them):
http://www.recipezaar.com/Roasted-Radishes-287888
http://milkywaydiner.blogspot.com/2005/10/roasted-radish-and-goat-cheese-pie.html
http://www.recipezaar.com/Creamed-Radishes-100853
http://www.metro.ca/recette/5053.en.html
http://www.recipezaar.com/Radishes-in...

[cimui]

The first two recipes at your first link look fantastic and simple, GHG.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Sliced thinly on fresh sourdough bread with good butter.

[MMRuth]

I like to serve them as an hors d'oeuvre - just the radishes, with a bowl of excellent room temp. butter and sea salt. Dip radish into butter, then salt.

[oakjoan]

I totally agree with MMR's suggestion. Radishes with butter and salt are fabulous, but then radishes (good ones) are fabulous alone, too.

Also Harter's suggestion of dipped in olive oil and dukkah. Mmmm, gotta try that one.

Flexitarian Table (former COTM) has several great recipes. I especially loved the radishes and their greens braised in butter. I'd never had cooked radishes before but they're really good, espec. with the bitterish greens.

He also has a shaved radish and apple salad which I really liked, as well as a salad with pea shoots, radishes, tofu and trout..

If anybody is interested, I'll be glad to post recipes for those who don't own the book.

[enbell]

I'll gladly take you up on your offer!

[Rubee]

Thanks for the reminder OakJoan! I made Berley's butter-braised radishes from Flexitarian this weekend. GREAT recipe. Easy, flavorful, and a great showcase for radishes and their greens. I used radishes and white Hakurei/Japanese salad turnips.

Pic:
http://www.chow.com/photos/350035

[another_adam]

Or a minor variant of this: wedges tossed in a bit of melted salted butter and thrown under the broiler for a couple minutes, then sprinkled with coarse salt and pepper. (Discovered this while trying to make a bumper crop of radishes more palatable to a partner who doesn't care for them cold and raw...)

[chef chicklet]

Yes butter, and then sea salt, perfect. Cook the tops too~

[lynnlato]

Similiar to MMRuth's suggestion... slice baguettes, slather w/ butter, sprinkle of salt and layer w/ slices of radishes. A great hors d'oeuvre for a hot summer. Don't forget the wine. :)