Butter Dipped Radishes

Saw this trick a while back on Bon Appetit and thought that I would try it since we get a decent amount of radishes with our farmshare. It's basically a spin on radishes with butter and salt. The radishes are dipped into tempered, salted butter and then left to harden - almost as if they were chocolate dipped.

I've actually tempered butter before, unwittingly, while trying to melt it in the microwave. But I figured I should follow the suggestion to temper the butter in a double boiler... and I overshot the temper by a longshot.

Not to be deterred, I stuck the butter back into the fridge to harden again and then tempered it using the microwave. Just nuked it bit by bit until it was almost fully melted and then whisked it to melt it completely. It was liquid, but not separated into fat and solids yet, and looked just like melted chocolate. (Sooo much easier when you're just working with a small amount of butter like I was).

I deviated from the recipe again by salting the radishes directly, figuring that the pretzel-like, salty crunch would be good. This was too salty! Definitely follow the directions here to just season the butter with a bit of salt!

But how did it taste? Love the look and the idea of this crudite, but was not terribly impressed with the taste. The butter seemed quite disparate from the radish and the radish itself lost some delicateness and juiciness that you get when you slice it thinly and apply salt. Kind of like the difference between eating a hunk of cucumber dipped into cream cheese and nibbling on wafer thin slices in a cucumber finger sandwich.

The final verdict? Pass for next time.