Hi Everyone,
I am so super sprung on spring that I can hardly stand it! I hope you are soaking up the pre-too-hot weather and having some fun outside.
So, I taught a class last week and made these little bites of really beautiful deliciousness and thought it would be good to share: radish and butter sandwiches. Gross, right? NO! It sounds a little gross but, it is one of those classic combinations that sticks around for a reason. Food need not be complicated to impress. I promise this will delight and it seriously couldn’t be any easier. You will slice bread, put butter on it, slice radishes and arrange them all pretty on the bread, then sprinkle with salt and you are done! I recommend a good crusty french loaf for the bread, a high quality butter and a variety of radishes. Boggy Creek has Easter radishes galore right now and I even got my hands on the supermodel of the radish world, the watermelon variety, at the SFC market at the Triangle. Any time I see these beauties I load up. They bring a show-off glamor to anything they touch. But, I couldn’t stop with radishes. At the cooking class my friend’s dad told us how people sometimes sub strawberries for radishes in the South. What tha? Well, my friend bravely served these with a leaf of basil and it ruled in the most unsuspecting way. Mine features Pure Luck chevre and cracked black pepper and I want more of it right now. The third keeps going in the pink/red pretty direction. I put a little Pure Luck Sainte Maure on bread and topped it with a thinly sliced beet and a drizzle of balsamic. So good!!!
Here is what I propose: if you are having people over for dinner or are invited to a potluck or just want a really fun and pretty treat make one or all of these. They are quick, you don’t have to turn the oven on, they are knock-outs and delicious. So there. Do it!
Recipe (assembly)
1 baguette
mixed radishes sliced thin
butter
good salt, I like Maldon for this
Slice the bread, spread it with butter, arrange radishes, sprinkle with salt. DONE!
strawberries, sliced thin
chevre
basil
salt and pepper
On slices of baguette spread chevre (butter is great here too), top with basil then strawberries and sprinkle with salt and cracked black pepper.
roasted beet sliced thin
Sainte Maure or blue cheese
balsamic vinegar, an aged one would be out of this world here
Top bread with cheese, arrange beet slices up on there then drizzle with balsamic sprinkle with salt and pepper. Does anyone else out there want to spell balsamic b-a-l-s-a-L-m-i-c? Cause I do and have been this whole post.
Challenge Update
Oh man, yall. The 6 month mark sent me and Jo into a tailspin. There is something about having just as long to go that made it particularly hard. Its like Wednesday, but worse. During this time my cooking got really boring, I’m pretty sure that for two weeks we subsisted on cheese, eggs and tortillas alone. We very seriously considered calling off the last 6 months of the challenge, but dug deep and are now on the downhill swing of it. We are feeling much better. During the really tough time my friend Stephanie wrote this on her fantastic blog and gave us the fuel to stay strong and get through it. We have less than 5 months left now and cooking is fun again. I’m frying catfish my Dad caught tonight, how bad can it be? It was touch and go there for a couple of weeks, but we are doing this thing and it is good and it really is fun!
In other personal news, I have spent the better part of this year putting together a grain burger company. The last couple of weeks have been the busiest and the HOT DANG, an all good all grain burger will be in stores and a few very special restaurants VERY soon! Apologies for the space between this post and the last. Much love for the support of friends, family and readers!
Thank you, thank you for reading,
Not That Martha
NotThatMartha's Blog 