Ever since reading about them in The New York Times, Tom and I have been wanting to make roasted radishes. I had tried them at the Westside Market a few weeks ago, but personally thought they were undercooked -- they were still crisp, and I was hoping for more caramelization. I tend to prefer my vegetables "overcooked" to most people's minds, but more like "meltingly tender" to my own.So over the past weekend, Tom (who adores radishes!) and I took some and pan-roasted them rather than turning on the oven. We'd been planning to do this, talking about doing this ... it was about time to get it done!
And the process was ridiculously simple: I cut the radishes in halves or in quarters, depending upon their size, so that the pieces were about the size of large olives. I placed them into a bowl and tossed them with about 1 tablespoon of light olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper.
Then I placed them in a frying pan over medium heat and just let them cook, stirring and flipping them over every so often to keep them from getting burned.
The radishes cooked for oh, maybe 20 minutes until they were tender when pierced with a knife and they were a deep golden brown. An adjustment of seasoning (a.k.a.: adding a pinch more salt), and there they were!I let Tom taste them first, and he said: "It mellows out the radish, takes the bite away. Not what you'd expect ...." He loved them!
And they are different than you'd expect. I'm not a huge fan of radishes, unless they're in salads and have some dressing on them; I find them either bland or bitter, rarely anything in between. But once they'd been cooked and caramelized, all of that was gone; they were almost kinda starchy. I would absolutely make these tender tidbits again.
So don't just think of radishes as a garnish or a fresh, crisp vegetable to color a salad bowl. They made a fabulous warm dish that I would never have considered on my own. Try 'em -- you'll like 'em!
