French Breakfast Radishes and Anchovy Butter on Sliced Baguette

I think I can officially get on board with radishes. Why? Because I recently learned that it is perfectly acceptable to eat sandwiches that are composed entirely of butter and thinly sliced radishes.  It's a very French thing to do, in fact. The French are awesome.

What's more awesome than butter? Anchovy butter. Yes, you read that right. Mince up a few anchovy fillets, especially the kind packaged in oil, and stir them into a stick of softened butter. Add some minced chives, a little salt and pepper, and you have just made the best.thing.ever!

We literally could not stop eating this - the creamy, salty flavor is deliciously addicting. Definitely not the best thing to pair with a heavy steak dinner, but it can be balanced perfectly with a light soup or salad (and a good sweaty calorie-blasting cardio workout earlier in the day wouldn't hurt either!).

French Breakfast radishes are milder than regular radishes, but regular radishes would work here as well. I accidentally bought a 3-seed baguette at the store, but the seeds were fennel, sesame, and poppy, which actually were a nice compliment to the other flavors, so it turned out great in the end.

CSA Week 7:

In the box: 1 head lettuce, 1 bunch French Breakfast radishes, 1 cucumber, 1 pint Sungold Cherry tomatoes, 1 pound vine ripe tomatoes, 2 pounds Honeypod fava beans, 1 pound Romano beans, 1 pint strawberries, 1/2 pint red raspberries

We ate all the radishes with the anchovy butter.

We made Ellie Krieger's Garlic Basil Shrimp with the cherry tomatoes. We made a few changes, such as adding fava beans and serving alongside roasted potatoes instead of the orzo because I had potatoes leftover from last week and didn't have time to go to the store for the pasta.

A highlight of the week was Mahi Mahi with coconut rice and steamed Romano beans. I based this off of a blog post over at Liv Life and the original recipe from Sunset magazine. I used wild rice instead of white rice, which I think was an excellent choice because it has a nuttier flavor that compliments that chopped almonds that go into it. I did the same thing as Liv Life though - she mentioned in her blog post that she totally forgot to add the coconut flakes to the rice, and I spaced it too! What is up with that? Too funny!  I steamed our whole pile of Romano beans, plus a couple handfuls of snow peas from our garden. I placed the veggies on a sheet of foil, drizzled with water and a splash of white wine, then folded it up into a packet and placed it on the cooler side of the grill while the fish cooked. They came out perfectly tender.

The vine tomatoes, most of the cucumber, and the lettuce became salads for lunch/dinner throughout the week.

We ate the fruit as we usually do. We got an email from the farm to say that they had an overabundance of raspberries that week so they were offering a deal - a flat of berries for only $18. Score! We froze all of them right away. They were in little baskets inside the cardboard flat, and we just placed the whole flat in our chest freezer overnight just like that (ok, honestly, it was two days before I got around it them). Then I took each basket and shook the berries out into quart-sized ziplock freezer bags. Each berry still froze individually! I can't wait to start baking with them.

French Breakfast Radishes with Anchovy Butter on Sliced Baguette
adapted from Bon Appetit
Makes about 16

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2-3 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 1/2-inch thick diagonal slices baguette
1 bunch French Breakfast Radishes (or regular radishes), trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal

Mix the butter, two of the minced anchovy fillets, and two tablespoons of the chives in a small bowl. Add the third minced anchovy fillet to taste, if desired. Season with salt and pepper.

Spread the anchovy butter over one side of each slice of baguette. Top with sliced radishes, overlapping slightly, garnish with additional chopped chives, and serve.

The anchovy butter will keep in the fridge for several days, if for some reason you don't finish it all right away.