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Radishes
To be eaten in perfection, radishes should be freshly pulled and tender. When preparing them for table, wash them thoroughly, and leave about an inch and a half of the stalk. Cut the fibres from the bulbs, and lay them in cold water for an hour. Serve them in a circle on a plate with the stalk end outwards, and a salt-cellar in the centre. Radishes are very commonly added to salads.
This is a serving preparation rather than a cooked dish, and the one step that does the work is the hour in cold water. Everything else is trimming and arrangement.
- The cold soakAn hour in cold water rehydrates radishes that have gone slightly limp in storage and makes them audibly crisp. Ice water works faster; 20-30 minutes is enough for radishes bought firm. Drain and dry them before they go on the plate or the salt will not cling.
- Leaving the stalkAn inch and a half of stem is a handle, not decoration. Modern bunched radishes usually arrive with long tops; cut them back and reserve the leaves, which are peppery and good wilted into soup or blitzed into a pesto.
- "Cut the fibres from the bulbs"This means trimming off the thin taproot and any hairy side roots. Do not peel; much of the mustard-oil heat sits in and just under the red skin.
- Salt-cellar in the centreThe dish is radishes dipped in dry salt, so use flaky or coarse salt rather than fine table salt, which sticks unevenly. A small dish of softened butter alongside is the French version of the same idea.
- Which radishesThe recipe names no variety, but small round scarlet or long French breakfast types suit it best. Winter radishes such as black Spanish or daikon are far hotter or blander respectively and want slicing rather than serving whole.
- QuantityTwo bunches, roughly 20-24 radishes, fills a dinner plate and serves six as an appetiser. They will hold their crispness in the refrigerator, trimmed and submerged in water, for two or three days.