Saturday, September 12, 2009

An epiphany

The radish. For me, the first thing that comes to mind is spicy! Now, our children eat nearly everything, save one food each they've elected to forego. But the prospect of having them munch through a bag of radishes had us a little concerned. I turned to a trusty resource, the Victory Garden Cookbook. If you were a fan of public television in the 1970s and 80s you may remember this show along with the Frugal Gourmet, Julia Child, and others. It was a favorite in our family.


Well, Marian Morash offers several ways of taming this simple root. But one entry caught my eye: radish sandwiches. This struck me as the perfect way to (re)introduce radishes to us. My thinking was - if we really don't enjoy them in this straightforward preparation - we could find ways to use them in combination with other things. Plus Marian insists this is her favorite way to eat them. It was worth a try.


The Method


  1. Slather good bread with unsalted butter.
  2. Layer with radishes - tops attached.
  3. Sprinkle with salt.
  4. (Commit yourself to having only this for lunch to ensure everyone tries it.)
This was an epiphany. Our kids were even upset that there were no radishes left to make sandwiches the next day, and openly hoped next week's share would contain more. We used homemade butter (a great energy release for the kids and their friends that day) and made french bread (ala Julia Child).

The Result




The sandwich was sublime. Not distractingly spicy, but a wonderful balance between sharp and subtle flavors. The salt was important - giving a fourth thing for your taste buds to enjoy. It is important, I'm sure, to use good bread and butter, too. 


This was the perfect way to begin our CSA-inspired eating. (Sadly, the pictures we took were deleted.) In fact, we'd hoped to use "Radish Sandwich" as the blog title, but found that some folks in VA were inspired before us.

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Kudya Bwino Bwino (Eating Well) © 2009