Just returned home from an Up North retreat with girlfriends: camaraderie, cross-country skiing and wine tasting on Old Mission Peninsula were some of the highlights. Most of us are passionate cooks — some having made it our livelihoods — so we eschewed the great restaurants in the area, preferring to scratch-cook our dinners and enjoy them by the fire.
We divvied up meals to prepare, and the dinner I’d planned was a favorite, yet relatively simple, Chicken and Radish recipe. My plans were thwarted when the other enthusiastic cooks brought enough incredibly delicious food to feed an army. I ended up using the chicken for poached chicken sandwiches, carting home the tarragon and radishes.
Craving grains, I decided to make a dish with barley. The result (recipe below) scratched my itch; the butter adding to its lusciousness, but you may substitute with olive oil, if desired, to cut saturated fat. I love the slight cauliflower flavor of radishes when roasted, and the licorice hint of tarragon adds to its depth of flavor.
I made extra tarragon butter, and froze it for last minute seasonings on quickie fish and chicken dishes.
A trivia question: Which decade embraced glam rock fashionistas skimpily clad in crushed velour hot pants and sequined halter tops, best observed shimmering and gyrating to acid rock in the purple haze of a lava lamp? If your guess was the seventies, that outfit may well have been your fashion statement. You may also recall … Full recipe post »
Some folks at Irish Hills’ Sand Lake don’t take kindly to having their potato salad usurped by another at a family reunion. Ellen Dawson found out the hard way, and recounted her story to me over a bowl of (you guessed it) potato salad at her family’s last Fourth of July picnic. While slathering on sunblock and … Full recipe post »
4 Responses to Barley with Roasted Radishes and Tarragon Butter
Loved your recipe for sauteed chicken with radishes in mustard tarragon sauce. In it, the radishes were sauteed in butter and olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Their cooking time amounted to about 11 minutes and they were delicious! Could that cooking technique be used for this recipe?
One of the local stores is having a sale on daikon radishes. Could these be used instead of the “regular” radishes?
I tried the daikon radishes. Chose two pieces each about the size of a carrot. Sliced them into rounds approx 3/4-in thick. Sauteed them in a single layer in butter/olive oil mixture (with s/p) at medium-high heat. It didn’t take long for them to brown up nicely — 4 minutes for the first side, 3 for the second. But….. The flavor of the daikons was disappointing! Very bland. They really needed some “spicing up.” Still I’m anxious to try this cooking technique on some of those super-sized radishes we get in the summer.
thanks for the update – never used the daikon radishes – used the standard fare red, round ones, which provided a mellow kick. the summer radishes will be awesome!
I welcome your comments!(This site was recently transferred but, unfortunately, I did not have privileges to include past comments. I would love to see a conversation started!)Cancel reply
Hi there! I'm Peggy Lampman -
Food writer by trade, curious cook by design.
The past 30 years have witnessed a raucous race from my professional to
home kitchen - persnickety customers, petulant children and piles of dirty dishes
lie in my wake. And the dinnerFeeds - well - they
are my story. More about Peggy and this site...
Taste buds prickle; wanderlust triggered. An Argentine barbecue (asado)
enticed me to Patagonia. A friend gave me a vial of ground sumac berries--4 months later I was
waking at dawn to the "Call To Prayer" in Turkey. Porcini to Tuscany, and so on. Read more about my chronicles of
trips and favorite associated recipes. Browse my travel recipes...
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Craving grains, I decided to make a dish with barley. The result (recipe below) scratched my itch; the butter adding to its lusciousness, but you may substitute with olive oil, if desired, to cut saturated fat. I love the slight cauliflower flavor of radishes when roasted, and the licorice hint of tarragon adds to its depth of flavor.
Loved your recipe for sauteed chicken with radishes in mustard tarragon sauce. In it, the radishes were sauteed in butter and olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Their cooking time amounted to about 11 minutes and they were delicious! Could that cooking technique be used for this recipe?
One of the local stores is having a sale on daikon radishes. Could these be used instead of the “regular” radishes?
I don’t see why it couldn’t? Let me know if that time works for you, Poobah!
I tried the daikon radishes. Chose two pieces each about the size of a carrot. Sliced them into rounds approx 3/4-in thick. Sauteed them in a single layer in butter/olive oil mixture (with s/p) at medium-high heat. It didn’t take long for them to brown up nicely — 4 minutes for the first side, 3 for the second. But….. The flavor of the daikons was disappointing! Very bland. They really needed some “spicing up.” Still I’m anxious to try this cooking technique on some of those super-sized radishes we get in the summer.
thanks for the update – never used the daikon radishes – used the standard fare red, round ones, which provided a mellow kick. the summer radishes will be awesome!