Radish Butter with Baguettes

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 10 minutes

The French figured out a long time ago that the best way to cut the heat of a raw radish is to dip it into softened butter and sprinkle it with salt. They also take it one step further and put it on a baguette, turning it into a light lunch or a snack. The trick is not to skimp on the radishes or the butter. Think of the radish as the meat and the butter as the mayo. Usually they are served as sandwiches, but they can easily be turned into delicious hors d’oeuvres by serving them on individual baguette slices.



Ingredients:
2 bunches radishes, trimmed
1 baguette
Unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. flaky sea salt
1 small handful arugula
1 tsp. finely minced fresh garden herbs (chives or tarragon) (optional)

Preparation:
Soak cleaned radishes in a bowl of ice water and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Drain radishes and slice thinly.

When ready to serve, slice the baguette lengthwise and then crosswise, creating “subs”.  Spread butter generously on half of the pieces. Top with layered radishes. Sprinkle with salt. Lay the arugula on top of them and sprinkle with additional herbs if desired. Put tops and bottoms together and press down firmly.

Optional serving suggestion: Cut the baguette diagonally into several thick slices. Assemble “open-faced” and serve individual slices as hors d’oeuvres.

My Chez Gourmet B-day Party

My mom only throws "friend" birthday parties every other year.  On opposite years, it's just extended family parties.  This was the year for a friend party.   I decided on a cooking night with a French cuisine inspired menu. 

This is the invite my mom created.

As the guests arrived, they received a new apron to wear and a recipe book of all the food we would be eating that night.  We all worked together and made a yummy dinner, then ate it. It was a lot of fun. We got to try lots of new foods including radish sandwiches and ratatouille.

Radish Sandwiches

My mom made French Onion Soup and many of the girls who had either never tried it or didn't usually like that kind of soup, LOVED it.  They said it was the best!  It's now one of my favorites, too.  My mom also made a yummy sauce to go over the chicken cordon bleu that the girls and I helped to prepare just before.   We had extra so my mom served it to dip our bread into it like a cheese fondue.  It was soooo good.  My mom forgot to make the couscous.  Oops!  It was supposed to be served with the ratatouille.  We at all of our food on my mom's fancy china!!  We felt like we were in an upscale restaurant for a special occasion.

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Ratatouille and grapes

One of my favorite parts of the party was watching a cooking demonstration (lead by my aunt Holly) of our dessert...Peach Blueberry Galettes.  The crust started out as crumbs and if you push it together it would goes into dough. I thought that was really cool. After she showed us how to make the crust, we all helped to put the galettes together.  We rolled out the crust, layered the fruit on top, and rolled the edges of the crust over the outside edge of the fruit layer, creating an open faced pie.  We brushed the crust with an egg wash and sprinkled cinnamon/sugar all over the top of the galette.  Into the oven they went so that they could bake while we ate our dinner.

The Banquet Table

Finished Galettes...YUM!!

It was a very fun night full of good food!  I can't wait to eat food from this menu again and some of the girls said they were excited to go home and make the recipes with their families.  (All the girls got to take home their aprons and recipe booklets.)

Happy Birthday to me!!

Make a wish!