With all of these radishes, the one thing I REALLY wanted was to be able to make some radish chips. I love those crispy vegetables and I figured, why not radishes too? After failing to find anything interesting to me online - I found one that actually told you to slice them, sprinkle them with salt and pepper then enjoy (how is that a chip?) - I decided to figure some things out on my own.
Try #1 ...
Online, I did find one that said to steam them in the microwave for 5 minutes before baking them. Ok. Let's try that. I mean, this person posted it online with rave reviews, so obviously she's tried it and loved it, right? Hmm ... Radishes have a lot of water in them. When you steam them, this adds water to them. But hey - I figured, let's give this a try. After I steamed them, I put them in a bowl with some McCormick Garlic Herb seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, cracked pepper and sea salt; then stirred. I baked them at 350F for 10 minutes, flipped them over and then put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
It was not crispy like I expected it to be. In fact, it was not crunchy at all. I cooked it for another 10 minutes. Still very soggy. I decided to lay them out on a paper towel, spread out so that they weren't touching each other, to cool - maybe they'll crisp out a little bit sitting there. Nope. They just became more soggy, limp ... chewy. Not what I'm looking for. Into the trash they went.
Try #2 ...
Mom's suggestion - fry them. To be honest, I didn't want to go there. The point of this experiment was to find a way to make the chips - without frying them - so that I had a healthy snack - and so that I could try the same thing on other vegetables that I like.
I sliced them up ... and this time decided to let them sit between two pieces of paper towel for a few minutes to soak up any excess water. I read a recipe for "watermelon radish chips" online that said that radishes needed longer to fry than potatoes, so i decided to try them for about the same time they required in their recipe, which was 8-10 minutes. I fried some until they were really brown (almost burnt) and some until they were a medium brown. The results: Still not crispy. Another batch in the trash, another bunch of beautiful radishes wasted.
Try #3 ...
What about baking them without steaming them first? I sprayed the pan with cooking spray (the olive oil kind), placed the radish slices individually on the pan, lightly sprayed those with the cooking spray, then sprinkled the slices with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper (i like a mixture of peppercorn colors). I baked them for 10 minutes, flipped them, then baked them for 5 minutes more, making sure to keep an eye on them so that they didn't burn. At 5 minute intervals, I baked them a couple of more times, waiting for them to grow crispy. I finally had to take them out for fear of burning them, but they were still not crispy. I laid them out individually on a paper towel - and still no crispiness. A good flavor though. And, if you're ok with a little bit of limpness, they still have that good flavor when they're cold ... but still they are not what I wanted.
Am I destined to never have a crisp radish chip? Is my mom correct that they are too full of water for this to work?
The only thing I can think of is to put them between the two pieces of paper towel and bake them with no spray at all. Can this work? Hmmm ...
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