July 27, 2005

Sassy Radish Cucumber Salad

When I was quite young, I was never quite interested in eating. I liked to help out in the kitchen, but when the time came to sit down and eat, I was never hungry. Eating, for the most part, was a chore.

What I always liked to eat, however, were salads. Salads with tons of fresh vegetables – the more, the merrier – and herbs lightly salted and dressed with a bit of sour cream.

Sour cream, you say? Who on earth would do such a thing?

Well, growing up in Russia, we didn’t have salad dressing and used either sour cream or sunflower oil for that purpose. The sour cream made the salad delicate and refreshing, particularly in the summer months when it was hot. (Yes, it gets hot in Russia.)

My favorite salad consisted of cucumbers, dill, scallions, and radishes. It was the radishes that made it so irresistible, so crispy, so delicious. The bite in the radish, not too bitter, not too spicy, made the salad come alive. I was acutely aware of the taste even as a child and crave the flavor combination to this day.

Incidentally, the flavors remind my Indian friends of raita, where the dressing is plain yogurt, not sour cream, but the general result is quite similar.

And so, without further ado, the salad that brings me back to my childhood, summer months, scraped knees, my grandmother’s cooking and all:

The Sassy Radish Cucumber Salad