Miso Brussels sprouts

For ➋ 

500 g Brussels sprouts 

150 g black rice 

3 tbs white miso 

2 tbs maple syrup 

1 tbs mirin 

2 ts sesame oil 

3 ts black sesame seeds 

6 radishes 

5 cl rice vinegar 

2 ts coconut blossom sugar 

pinch fleur de sel 

Clean 500 g Brussels sprouts. Cut them in half lengthwise. 

Boil 150 g of black rice according to the directions on the package. 

In a small bowl, beat 3 tbs white miso, 2 tbs maple syrup, 1 tbs mirin and 2 ts sesame oil until smooth. 

Add 3 ts black sesame seeds and mix well. Mix this marinade with the Brussels sprouts. 

Divide them over a baking tray covered with parchment paper. 

Bake 20 m in a preheated oven at 220 °C. 

Meanwhile make the sweet and sour radish. 

Cut 6 radishes into very thin slices, preferably with a mandolin. Beat 5 cl ml rice vinegar, 2 tsp coconut blossom sugar and a pinch of fleur de sel together until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the radishes and mix well. Let this marinate for 10-15 m. 

Serve the rice on a plate, top with the Brussels sprouts and radishes and drizzle lightly with the sweet and sour marinade.

Tamagoyaki (Japanese layered omelet)

For ➍
6 radishes
1 scallion
8 eggs
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs dashi
1 ts mirin
salt
oil for baking

Clean the radishes. Cut them into thin slices first and then into thin strips. Clean the spring onion and chop it finely. Place the radish and spring onion in cold water. Beat the eggs with soy sauce, dashi and mirin. Stir the mixture smooth and add a little salt if desired.
Brush a large non-stick frying pan or a roasting pan with an oil-dipped brush*. Heat the oil - don't let it get too hot! - and pour so much of the beaten eggs into the pan that the bottom is covered with a thin layer. Let the egg set and roll it up using two spatulas.
Slide the roller up against the edge of the pan. Brush the pan again with a brush dipped in oil, pour some of the egg mixture back in and let it set. Roll out the first roll to the bottom edge of the pan and roll it up again with the new layer.
Continue like this until the egg mixture has run out and a thick roll has formed. Slice the still warm roll or wait for it to cool.
Drain the radish and spring onion, sprinkle with salt and place on the roll.

*Japanese cooks use a rectangular iron pan.

Lebanese fattoush salad

For ➍
2 loaves pita bread
extra virgin olive oil
½ ts sumac, more for later
salt & pepper
1 heart of Romaine lettuce, chopped
1 (seedless)cucumber, chopped
5 Roma tomatoes, chopped
5 green onions (both white and green parts), chopped
5 radishes, stems removed, thinly sliced
2 cups chopped fresh parsley leaves, stems removed
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (optional)
lime vinaigrette:
1½ lime, juice of
7 cl extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
1 ts ground sumac
¼ ts ground cinnamon
scant ¼ ts ground allspice

Toast the pita bread in your toaster oven until it is crisp but not browned.
Heat 3 tbs of olive oil in a large pan. Break the pita bread into pieces, and place in the heated oil. Fry briefly until browned, tossing frequently. Add salt, pepper and ½ ts of sumac. Remove the pita chips from the heat and place on paper towels to drain.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, green onions with the sliced radish and parsley.
To make the lime vinaigrette, whisk together the lime juice, olive oil and spices in a small bowl.
Dress the salad with the vinaigrette and toss lightly.
Add the pita chips (and another generous pinch of sumac, if you like) and toss one more time.

Bacon chawan mushi with avocado & shrimps

For ➍
75 cl chicken stock (or dashi)
8 slices bacon
4 large eggs
1 tbs + 1 ts shoyu (white soya sauce)
2 ts sugar
12 large shrimps, cooked, sliced lengthwise into 0.3 cm pieces (or shaved country ham)
2 avocados, halved, cut crosswise into 0.5 cm pieces
8 scallions, thinly sliced
4 radishes, thinly sliced

In a sauce pan, heat the chicken stock (or dashi). Add the bacon. Simmer for 10 m. Whisk in the shoyu and sugar. Let it cool. Remove the bacon. (Use it for something else, like eggs for breakfast).
Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Whisk in the bacon broth. Pur the mixture through a fine sieve into 4 soup bowls.
Add the avocado slices.
Cover the bowls with plastic wrap. Put them in a steamer over gently boiling water. Steam for 13 m or until the custard is set.
Remove the wrap. Let cool the custard slightly.
Arrange shrimps, scallions and radishes on top and serve.
To serve cold, steam the custard, wrap and refrigerate for 1 day. Add shrimps, radish and scallions just before serving.

This is a modern fusion recipe, inspired on the traditional Japanese chawan mushi.

Soy salmon & lime tacos

For ➍
4 salmon fillets
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sunflower oil
2 tbs sesame seeds
juice ½ lime
salt & pepper
pinch of garlic salt
easy guacamole:
2 avocados
½ lime
½ lemon
salt & pepper
fresh chilli (optional)
mango & watermelon salsa:
1 mango
¼ small watermelon
¼ red onion
few sprigs of parsley leaves
1 ts honey
garnish:
3 tbs pomegranate seeds
5 tbs sour cream & chives dip
2 radishes
3 tbs dried crispy onions

Place the salmon on a baking tray lined with foil or baking paper and pour over a few glugs of sunflower oil, 2 tbs of soy sauce, a handful of sesame seeds, garlic salt, pepper and a squeeze of half a lime. Making sure both sides are coated with the sauce, bake skin-side down for 20 m until the flakes come away with a fork easily.
Whilst the salmon cooks in the oven, prepare your accompanying ingredients.
-(Guacamole) Halve and stone 2 avocados and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Mash with a pinch of salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon and lime and some chilli, if desired.
-(Salsa) Finely dice parsley, mango, watermelon and red onion for the salsa. Squeeze some lime and a tiny drizzle of honey and mix well.
Place small soft flour tortillas on a dry hot pan for 30 s to warm through.
Assemble salmon taco with guacamole and pomegranate seeds: spread guacamole over the base of the taco spoon over some of the salsa and add some salmon flakes on top. To garnish sprinkle some pomegranate seeds and some chopped parsley.
Assemble salmon taco with sour cream and chives: start with sour cream and chives spread over the taco base, spoon over the salsa and layer salmon flakes. Add thinly sliced radishes and garnish with some chopped parsley.
Serve with corn on the cob cut up into pieces, and quartered fresh limes.

Vegetables terrine

For ➋
1 big black or white radish or daikon
600 g vegetables (leek, carrot, radish, okra, cauliflower, yellow pepper, green asparagus)
salt
15 g agaragar flakes

Cut large slices of the radish with a peeler. Cut the rest of the vegetables into thick strips.
Bring 2 liters of salted water to the boil. Blanch the vegetables type by species briefly in the boiling water. Let them cool on a piece of kitchen paper. Keep approximately 24 cl of the cooking water apart.
Line a terrine (or several smaller shapes) with the slices of radish ash and keep a few slices on the side. Arrange the vegetables in the terrine.
Heat the stored water to the boiling point and stir in agar agar flakes until they are completely dissolved. Simmer for 10 m. Allow to cool slightly and pour the water into the vegetables. Close the terrine with the remaining slices of radish and press everything. Allow the whole to set for at least 6 h in the refrigerator.
Remove the terrine from the mold and cut into thick slices, if the smaller molds are just in two bite-sized pieces.

Chilled pea soup with tarragon & radishes

For ➍
1 tbs unsalted butter
1 large shallot, finely chopped
30 cl (chicken) stock
salt & freshly ground black pepper
600 g shelled peas [unfrozen]
5 cl crème fraiche
1 ts finely grated lemon zest
fresh tarragon
sliced radishes

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté until translucent without browning, 3-4 m. Add the broth, ½ ts salt and ½ ts black pepper and simmer 2 m. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
While the stock is cooling, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the peas and cook until peas are tender, 2 to 3 m. Drain and rinse under cold water or shock in ice water to prevent further cooking.
Combine the half of the cooled stock and peas in the bowl of a food processor. Process until very smooth. Add additional stock a little at a time and process to achieve desired consistency. (The soup should be a little thick and not too runny).
Transfer to a bowl, and taste for salt and pepper. Whisk the crème fraiche and lemon zest together in a small bowl. Gently stir into the peas, leaving light traces of the cream visible. 
Carefully divide among 4 serving bowls. Garnish with snipped or whole tarragon leaves and sliced radishes.

Aardappelsalade met gerookte haring (Flemish potato salad with smoked herring)

For ➍
600 g new potatoes
½ lemon, juice & zest
1 tbs good wine vinegar
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs capers
1 ts horseradish relish or 1.5 cm fresh* horseradish
15 cl full cream
1 bunch dill
1 bunch radishes
300 g smoked fish fillets, smoked herring or trout or mackerel
some watercress or purslane (optional).

Scrub the potatoes under running water.
Boil them unpeeled in salted water.
When the potatoes are done, drain and cut into 2 (or 4 if big). Mix them, when they are still hot, with the vinegar, olive oil, capers and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Cut the radishes into thin slices, chop the dill and pull the smoked fish into pieces. Mix with the potatoes and season with pepper and some salt.
Whip the cream. When the cream is stiff, add pepper, salt, grated zest of ½ lemon and horseradish (add 1 ts horseradish from a jar, grate about 1.5 cm fresh horseradish).
Serve the salad with some watercress or purslane and a generous scoop of cream.

This is a re-creation of a classic recipe from an inexpensive workers' restaurant in Ghent. The original recipe might have been inspired by the classic French hors d'oeuvre harengs pommes à l'huile.

♥︎Moroccan fennel & orange salad

for ➋
1 large fennel bulb, sliced​​, stem too
2 oranges, sliced
bunch radishes, sliced​​
a few mint leaves
seeds of 1 pomegranate
dressing:
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs orange juice
1 tbs orange blossom water
1 ts powdered sugar
1 ts ground cinnamon
some chopped mint leaves

Lay sliced ​​fennel in a circle at the edge of a large scale, put the slices of orange like roof tiles on fennel. Put the slices of radish and the mint leaves to the middle. Finally sprinkle the pomegranate seeds in the middle and along the outer edge.
Mix all other ingredients for the dressing. Sprinkle over the salad.
Put in the refrigerator for 30 m before serving.

Hemingway's favourite Paris sandwich

For ➊
a slice of crusty bread or baguette
5 radishes
butter
salt & pepper

Slice the radishes thinly.

Butter the bread thickly.

Sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Serve with a cold lager beer.

American writer Ernest Hemingway ate these simple sandwiches often at the Montparnasse Closerie des Lilas in 1920's Paris. The Closerie, now a fancy restaurant and brasserie, started humbly as a diligence coach inn in 1798. Around 1900, the owner of the bal Bullier, a dance hall, planted 1,000 lilacs plants around the the place.
It became a popular meeting place for generations of writers and artists s.a. Baudelaire, Verlaine, Gide, Jarry, Alain-Fournier, Verhaeren, Maeterlinck, Modigliani, Appolinaire, Oscar Wilde, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Fitzgerald, Henry Miller...