Smashing Radishes

I went to the supermarket and there were bags of vegetables, at the end of their shelf lives in huge quantities for tiny prices.

I bought a bag of three huge bunches of radishes, perfect because the recent hot weather has driven all the home grown crops to seed, a huge bag of peas in the pod, ideal because I was so late planting this year my peas are still flowers and a bag containing about 5kg of ripe bananas, a crop that the Normandy weather usually precludes. And all for less than 5€.

Most of the bananas are still fit to eat out of hand, unless you are one of those who prefers their fruit green. With the rest I have frozen some for ices and made banana oat bread, recipe to follow another day.



With the peas, I made Penne con Piselli and just like before it was a little bit ugly where the yoghurt separated but the flavour was fantastic. And with the rest of the peas, yes, there were that many, I made fresh pea soup with fake ham I found in the BioCoop in Coutances. An ideal meal for the second hottest day of the year, if I say so myself.

But it was the radishes that really challenged me.

When I arrived home from the shops it was still before breakfast so we had the first handful chilled in cold water with golden crispy fresh baguettes, salt and vegan marg. But, whisper who dares, vegan marg. is no substitute for real butter in this situation. I'm sorry, I know we all pretend that the ersatz are good enough but not for butter and radishes. Not for this girl. And butter is off, obviously.

So with the, not inconsiderable, remainder I resorted to an idea that I'd read about years ago. It was either Claudia Roden or Madhur Jaffrey that gave me the idea of a smashed marinated radish dish, ideal as a snack or appetiser.



Clean and trim your radishes and then smack them smartly on the head with your rolling pin. You're not aiming to make pulp, just crack them a little to increase the surface area and allow the flavourings to penetrate the root. The picture gives you the clue.

Then marinate your radishes briefly in a flavouring of your choice. This is easiest if you put the smashed radishes into a clean jar with a lid. Pour in a little marinade, close the lid and shake well. Leave in the fridge for about an hour, shaking occasionally and your radishes are ready to serve. They will keep for a day but lose their crunch and begin to be sad if you wait longer than this. The radishes exude their juices so you end up with far more liquid than you start with.

I tried a sprinkle of salt with the juice of a lemon which gives a clean flavour. Add green herbs for variety, or omit the herbs and add some cracked coriander and black peppercorns.

However our favourite was a much more oriental mixture of equal parts wine (or rice) vinegar, soy sauce (about a tablespoon of each) and a teaspoon of sesame oil with a finely sliced clove of garlic and about the same volume of grated ginger root.

And I don't seem to have a picture of the finished product. Wonder why that was?