i remember this recipe. i saw it in either food and wine or saveur last year and it's been hanging in the back of my mind. the next time you're in chinatown, i think, you've gotta get some tiny anchovies. but you know me, i'm easily distractable and if i don't write it down it's never gonna happen. cv but i went to a birthday party this weekend in chinatown (dim sum, be still my beating heart) and on the way passed by supermarkets with bags of tiny anchovies, eels still swimming in tanks, ripe and rank durian fruit, and women hanging lychees up to weigh them. it reminded me so intensely of hawaii that i stopped on my way home and slipped into a deceptively large store. i was too excited and forgot to grab a basket at first and wound up wandering around the place, my arms stuffed with black vinegar and togarashi, cuttlefish and these tiny, tiny anchovies.
radishes with butter is already a perfect dish. how would you improve on it? even gabrielle hamilton doesn't - at prune she serves the radishes halved with a large slice of european butter. you can't improve on it - but you can give another impression of it. equally valid, equally delicious.
3-4 radishes, halved and trimmed. keep some of the stem on for presentation.
2 tbsp european salted butter (yellower, higher in butterfat content)
1/4 cup tiny anchovies (commonly found in asian supermarkets)
1/4 tsp togarashi
1 oz canola oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
dash of sriracha
heat canola in a small saute pan over high heat. reduce to medium and add anchovies. cook for a minute or so, until starting to brown and crisp. add soy, mirin, sriracha, and togarashi. cook another minute or two longer. remove from heat.
plate radishes and butter. i've seen this a couple of ways. prune takes a straightforward approach and puts them both separately on a plate the way you would at home. french louie, a french (i know, i know) joint in boerum hill, plates the butter and then the radishes on top. sprinkle the fried anchovies on top.
