Radishes, butter and sea salt

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I was dreaming about radishes, and decided that this year I wanted to have a readily available supply of them for the apéritif hour. Sometimes the ones I buy at the farmers market are too big, or the foliage looks ragged after a couple of days in the fridge.

You can find French breakfast radish seeds at nurseries and from a number of mail-order sources. I happened to be looking at the John Scheepers catalog and ordered three types from it: Flamboyant French Breakfast, Lady Slipper and White Icicle. I started off with three short rows, one of each type. It’s laughably easy. Space the seeds a half-inch apart at a depth of a quarter-inch, and in only a few days, they’re coming up.

I’ve been adding to the rows every week in order to have a constant supply of small, tender radishes. One day I spilled some of the seed and couldn’t find it all. I just noticed that some have cropped up in a 2-inch gap between the brick patio and a planter. Easy.

Come the apéritif hour, I pull some radishes, trim back the larger leaves, wash well and present with a crock of soft, unsalted butter (even better if it’s one of the really tasty ones from Vermont or Ireland) and a small dish of fleur de sel or sea salt (not too fine). Serve with a rosé, maybe SoloRosa from Napa Valley or a Domaine Tempier Bandol rosé. Put some butter on a radish, sprinkle with salt and eat between sips of chilled rosé. The flavors are curiously satisfying and together spell summer apéritif.

-- S. Irene Virbila