What to do with radishes, Part II

I'm embarrassed to admit that we didn't use the radishes we got last week - not for lack of interest, but they just got soft before I had a chance to use them. Happily, though, the little cucumbers from last week lasted longer, and were still fit to use last night.

My plan: a sweet radish and cucumber salad. On Epicurious, I came across a few uses for radishes and cucumbers that brined the vegetables. For dinner, I made a quick brine using cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper, and let it soak for 10 minutes. The recipe is found here. I think this use of radishes is the best yet - and it was excellent a day later for lunch. I plan to experiment a bit with the flavors of the brine, and possibly the vegetables the radishes are paired with. The salad would probably be just as delicious without any other vegetable at all!

On the side with the radish and cucumber salad: some pan-grilled steak, corn on the cob, and leftover potato salad from last week.

What to do with radishes?

P and I realized as we sat down to dinner tonight that neither of us had ever eaten radishes any other way than raw in a salad. It would be fair to say that neither of us were fond of radishes this way, so when I saw them on the list of vegetables that were coming in the first week's box, I was nonplussed.

I had originally intended to use a recipe from The Silver Spoon, a so-called "bible of authentic Italian cooking", where the radishes would be glazed in a simple butter-sugar sauce. Instead, as last week I bought a new cookbook - Anna and Michael Olson Cook at Home: Recipes for Everyday and Every Occasion - I opted to try an even simpler recipe from them: Warm Buttered Radishes. The recipe (if you can even call it that in its simplicity) is below.

The radishes made a great side dish to our green onion and chipotle hamburgers (made by P and frozen for quick dinners like tonight), and more green salad from our CSA share. The lettuce is still going strong, which is good, since we still have almost a whole head left and more coming tomorrow! I didn't realize that the radish skin would start to lose its color as they cooked - you can see from the photo above that they're looking lighter pink than one might envision a radish to be.

Warm Buttered Radishes
from Anna and Michael Olson Cook at Home: Recipes for Everyday and Every Occasion

1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 bunch fresh radishes, trimmed, washed, and quartered
kosher salt and ground black pepper

Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat and add radish quarters. Toss radishes in pan to warm, just for 3 minutes. Season lightly and serve.