With Amelia O'Reilly & Nico Monday
This shaved fennel and radish salad is a perfect salad for hot summer days. You can serve it topped with fresh micro herbs. Another idea is to top it off with some smoked fish, such as the Kitchen Smoked Haddock that Nico Monday made in another video.This salad can also be made using the same dressing and technique with many of the fresh vegetables that you will find at the Farmer’s Market. Amelia and Nico had fennel and radishes this day and so made the salad with those.
To make the salad, first you want to macerate a few shallots in a little vinegar, mustard, and olive oil. Add a little coarse salt and pepper to taste, stir and set aside. (Macerating simply means that you soak it and it softens and is infused with some of the flavor of the soaking liquid.) The mustard not only adds a little flavor but also helps the vinaigrette stick to the vegetables.
When slicing the vegetables, Amelia recommends a Japanese style mandolin, which is smaller than a typical European type. It is less expensive and easier to handle. Using a mandolin allows you to slice more thinly and evenly than you can with a knife, enhancing the flavor and the appearance of the salad.
This particular version of the recipe also uses French Breakfast radishes, which are grown locally. They are less bitter and more colorful than the typical radishes that most of us use.
Finish the salad with any assortment of cresses or young herbs that you have available. On this day they used basil, pepper cress (or also known as curly cress) and very young broccoli rabe sprouts. When young, the broccoli rabe shoots have a very delicate flavor that is somewhat similar to the older variety.
