Cooked radishes?

I started doing some reading in the Larousse Gastronomique yesterday, and I ended up looking at the article on radishes. Wonder why? It might be because we have more radishes than we know what to do with right now, and that situation is likely to continue for the next three or four weeks. The garden is overflowing with them.

And guess what — there are three recipes for cooked radishes in the Larousse. You serve them hot as a side dish with meat or poultry. I just happen to have a couple of chicken breasts in the freezer, so today's lunch is planned.

Here's the first recipe:

Radis roses à la crème

Trim and clean the radishes. Blanch them in salted water. Drain them. Cook them slowly in butter, covered. When they are done, pour in some cream — for one pound of radishes, use about 1½ cups of cream). Simmer the cream until it reduces by about one-third. Serve.

And a second:

Radis roses glacés

Trim and clean the radishes. Blanch them for 5 minutes in salted water. Drain them and then run cold water over them to cool them.

Cook them on high temperature in butter. Sprinkle them with a little sugar. When they are starting to brown, pour just enough stock or water over them just to cover. Cook them with a lid on the pan until the liquid has completely boiled away. At this point, the radishes should be completely cooked and nicely glazed.

If they aren't completely cooked, add more liquid and repeat the process until they are.

Radishes cooked this way are a good side dish with grilled meats or poultry.

And a third:

Radis roses au jus

Cook the trimmed and cleaned radishes in salted water. When they are done, drain them and pour several tablespoons of reduced, thickened meat stock (jus brun lié) over them. Simmer them on low heat.

I am going to try all of these. I'll let you know how they turn out. I hope Walt doesn't end up regretting having grown a big crop of radishes this spring.