Author Notes
Among the most emblematic memories of my first fine dining experiences as a child was the arrival of the relish tray. Carrots, radishes and big fat unpitted green olives which hadn’t been plucked from a can. Planted on that leather banquette waiting for the steak or shrimp cocktail to arrive I would delight in that. Of course I was probably still high from the smell of the airplane glue we used to assemble our model planes and ships in the garage. Still, it pleases me today when I sit down in an old school steakhouse and a relish tray comes out. This is less a recipe than a schematic. Recently I was lucky to discover some excellent French breakfast radishes as well as cerignola olives. I matched this up with crusty French bread, creamery butter and homemade harissa. We didn’t have harissa when I was a kid but it’s a good fit. When I entertain guests at home I always make sure that there is a relish tray. It keeps your guests out of the kitchen while you are doing the heavy lifting behind the yellow “caution” tape. —pierino
Ingredients
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Fresh carrots peeled and cut into sticks
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Big fat unpitted olives, such as cerignola or castelvetrano
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Radishes, ideally the French breakfast variety, allongated with white at the base
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Celery sticks which still have their leafy tops
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1 warm baguette
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Best butter
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Harissa, such as our Kwazy Wabbit house variety http://www.food52.com/recipes...kwazywabbitcarrotharissa
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Crushed ice
Directions
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Warm the oven
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Peel the carrots and trim the radishes and the celery.
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Use two trays, one slightly larger than the other. Put the crushed ice in the bottom of the larger one. Then in the smaller one arrange your relish vegetables and place over the ice to chill.
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Heat the bread while you plate up the butter and harissa.
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Wrap the bread in a clean kitchen towel or napkin.
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Note to cook: an optional condiment is to pass some airplane glue around to keep your guests sedated and in their seats. Not a USDA approved product.
Standup commis flâneur, and food historian. Pierino's background is in Italian and Spanish cooking but of late he's focused on frozen desserts. He is now finishing his cookbook, MALAVIDA! Can it get worse? Yes, it can. Visit the Malavida Brass Knuckle cooking page at Facebook and your posts are welcome there.
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