1/ RADISHES

My favorite recipes are based on cheap, fresh, healthy, local, even homely ingredients—foods we can all appreciate and add to meals. Simple foods that, at the same time, taste wonderful.

We came home with a bunch of French breakfast radishes from the Farmer’s market last week, just as our summer hot weather was starting, and I remembered this recipe: Salatit Fijl (Lebanese Radish Salad), adapted from Food of the Sun. It’s delicious.

Radishes go best of all with, well, radishes. Throughout history they have been eaten in glorious isolation—usually with nothing more than a little sea salt—and they make a deliciously peppery nibble to enjoy with an aperitif. The French eat them with unsalted butter, salt, and baguette, a splendid combination. They are equally good with thin toasted slices of sourdough bread. Radishes really do not combine with any of the usual leaves or vegetables of the European salad tradition, being altogether too forceful and dominant. In Morocco, however, they are successfully paired with oranges: the radishes cut in thin slices and the oranges in small segments, which are then tossed together with lemon juice and a little salt. The Lebanese salatit fijl is properly made from the giant white winter radish and raw diced onion, but is nicer—we think—with an English radish, like White Icicle, mixed with spring onions.

—Alastair Little and Richard Whittington, Food of the Sun: From the Mediterranean to Morocco and the Middle East

The Food of the Sun authors recommend this salad as “a palate cleanser” between courses or as one among an array of little dishes. I like it for the simple ingredients and for the light, refreshing, spring taste. See what you think. It's great next to potato salad.

SALATIT FIJL
Lebanese Radish Salad

1 bunch of radishes
2-3 scallions
1-2 T. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
3 T. olive oil
salt
1 garlic clove
a handful of cilantro

Wash, top, and tail the radishes (I have tried fresh, local red and French breakfast radishes so far) and cut them across into thin slices. Wash the scallions and cut across at an angle into ½-inch lengths.

Stir together the olive oil, salt, and lemon juice with a fork in a salad bowl. Smash and chop the garlic (or put through a press) and add to the dressing, then add the radish slices and scallions, and toss to coat.

To serve: scatter over a handful of cilantro and serve immediately.

—Jane


P.S. Today, June 9, with the high temperature in Ithaca reaching 95°, I made the Moroccan version for lunch. It’s a completely different taste from the Lebanese salad—very crisp, light, and refreshing. Here’s the recipe:

MOROCCAN RADISH SALAD

1 bunch radishes (I used French breakfast)
2 oranges (I used Valencias)
juice of ½ lemon
salt to taste

That’s it. Top and tail the radishes, wash, cut into slices. Peel, section, and slice the oranges. Add the lemon juice and salt, mix, and serve.

At dinnertime—the temp had dropped to 93° on the porch—we tried another great hot-weather recipe: mango lassi, adapted from Quick and Easy Indian Cooking, by Madhur Jaffrey:

AAM KI LASSI
Mango Smoothie

1 ripe mango
about 1 c. plain yogurt
1 T. sugar, or to taste
12 ice cubes

Cut the mango off the core in angled slices, then remove the skin. Combine the mango slices and other ingredients in a blender and blend until fairly smooth. Some ice pieces may remain. Pour into 2 or 3 glasses and serve.