So went to visit Kathie in Idaho last weekend and I bought some groceries foolishly thinking that I might do some cooking. PLeeZe! Between all the pumpkin beer, chips, and chocolate (oh yes, and the candy corn- musn't forget that) who had time or stomach for real food?
Anywho, one of the things I left in Kathie's frig was a mess of radishes and she wanted to know what to do with 'em. Well, you can clean and stem them then submit them to the ranch dressing treatment, but that is so boring and for some people raw radishes are too peppery. Me, I like to cook them in some butter with a clove or two of diced garlic and some salt and pepper. Cooking them mellows the flavor considerably and the garlic, well, makes them garlicy.
I don't have exact measurements because this is really one of those from the hip kinda dishes. Just make sure your radishes are about the same size, if you have to cut some of the larger ones in half go for it. How much butter? As much as you want it's your heart, though I find 2-3 tablespoons sufficient. Cook the radishes with the garlic until the radishes are pink and tender-crisp. Don't cook on too high a heat or you'll burn the garlic, but a little carmalization on the radishes is a tastey thing. Salt and pepper to taste.
I like this dish because 1) you can always find radishes 2) they are always cheap and 3) no one ever thinks to cook 'em which makes them fun to serve to guests. Grill up some chicken (rubbed with olive oil, salt, white pepper, maybe a little cumin for Holly), make some rice (like that rice dish you make in the wee birdie casserole), warm up a loaf of good bakery bread (or if you're feeling all Martha-y bake some), put some heavy cream and a bit of salt in a mason jar and have a guest shake it into butter (cheap party trick that you can eat- always the best kind of trick- the kind you can smear on your warm from the oven bread) while you cook up the radishes (they don't take but a few minutes) and look, you have a party!
4 comments:
Oh, how sweet this recipe would have been to share with best friends who came to visit me last weekend...
But guess what happened INSTEAD? A giant WAD of radish tops, (interestingly enough, attached to the gianormo bunches of radishes we purchased), went completely south by Tuesday. It took me a bit to realize that no, there was not a corpse in my fridge, there were just really slimy radish tops! Dear Heaven, I had no idea something that small could smell that putrid.
I put them in the trash, which thusly had to go out on my porch at 10 PM because it certainly could not stay in the house with me until morning. And the next morning I thought about waiting until after work to come home and take the trash from the porch to the dumpster, but I took it before I left because I was afraid the little kids downstairs would come out to play and wonder what had died above their little heads.
No more radishes in the house for a while, and no more peach cobbler. If you want to know about the cobbler problem, you can ask. Blech.
Ooo, sorry. Yeah, if you don't want to deal with the slime you gotta deal with 'em in a few days time (I failed you). But if it ever happens again, you can wash the slimey tops off- the radishes theselves should be ok. They're roots and can hang in the frig for quite some time.
Bad cobbler- is there such a thing? And I bought the peaches too. *Sigh* I have given you the produce blues. What a stinky friend I am. Sorry little one. When you come to visit I will make you tastey radishes and a not sucky cobbler. Promise.
The radishes themselves did indeed look fine and I wanted to rescue them, but it meant opening the bag. I couldn't make myself do it :(
The good news is, the cobbler was my horrid mistake from two weeks before. I let the tail end of one I made go bad, and when I went to throw it out before you and Holly came, I discovered that rotten cobbler smells like vomit. And looks squishily similar as well.
But I still want an Elizabeth not-sucky cobbler!!!
Love you :)
Kathie,
I'm right there with you sister! I'll throw out salvagable food before I'll contend with putrid odors or furry growths.
Beth helped me reorganize my kitchen (and life) at the end of March before my fam was to visit the first weekend of April. She diligently washed out my fridge and threw away old stuff... and then she made a mistake. She put cheeses and lunchmeats and fruit IN THE DRAWERS. I never do that, being that I'm a very "out of site out of mind" kinda gal. Well, in late September or early October I was cleaning my fridge and opened those acursed drawers. I won't go into too much detail except to say that, well, it was a lot like a dark, furry, science experiment. Not pretty. And not kind to my gag reflex either. Lesson learned... I hope. :o)
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