Radishes and Kitchen Scales

This is a timely subject; the small seeds I planted last week have begun to sprout. I'll check on their progress again tonight.

The French eat them for breakfast (according to the title of the variety I planted last week, "French Breakfast"). I've always kind of liked them, but I've always thought of them as either part of a relish tray or sliced up in salads. And I only really had the round red kind, though I've also had daikon (which counts, barely).

I have discovered a better way to eat radishes; they are good in salads, etc., but they're not exactly amazing. Try this: butter and salt. Oh yes. Take a thin slice of good bread, butter, cover with thinly sliced radishes, salt, eat. It's much more delicious than it sounds. I'll have to find a real good German beer and have my own Oktoberfest once my own radishes are ready to eat...make that a Apfrilfest...

I've also learned that they can be braised just like any other root vegetable. I haven't tried this yet. But it seems intriguing. Again, to be tried when the radishes come up. I'm sure I'll have more than I know what to do with.

In other news, my lovely and generous roommate just bought me a digital kitchen scale for my belated birthday/Christmas present (in actuality, it was a 'happy tax return!' gift...). I'm thrilled. I've been wanting to bake serious bread for quite some time, but serious bakers use scales - flour is difficult to measure accurately by volume. There have been a lot of good recipes that I've just had to skip. Now, though, I am equipped; I can also make recipes from British and other European cookbooks! I plan to start a batch of ciabatta or something equally interesting this weekend.