Radish Sandwiches with Bread and Butter Prickles

I've loved radishes since I was a small kid. The only way I had them back then, though, was cut into "roses" and soaked in cold water. Spicy, crispy, wonderful. Nowadays, I'm more likely to sauté radishes in butter until they're yielding, melty, and sweet.

The Pooh Cook Book goes for a more traditional radish prep: tea sandwich style.

Radish Sandwiches with Bread and Butter Prickles

1 small bunch young red radishes, washed and dried
6-8 bread and butter pickles
Mayonnaise
Sandwich bread or crackers

Grate the radishes and moisten them with mayonnaise to a firm spreading consistency.

Spread the mixture on thin slices of sandwich bread or crackers.

Sprinkle with bread and butter pickles cut into prickle shapes.

Prickle shapes: [[blog note: line drawing here]]

Without the prickles these taste and look a little like lobster salad.

"What's the matter?" asked Pooh.
"Hot!" mumbled Tigger.
"Your friend," said Eeyore, "appears to have bitten on a bee."
Pooh's friend stopped shaking his head to get the prickles out...
-- The House At Pooh Corner

Two things I never had as a child: radish sandwiches, and lobster salad.

I like how a (presumably) spicy sandwich is tied with this quote, and the artistic direction to cut "prickles" from the pickles. There's a little line drawing in the recipe, with four randomish triangles. Long and skinny, short and squat, I think the idea is just to cut small, irregular shapes. A bit thorn-like, if you want.

This would be a quick addition to an afternoon tea, as sandwiches, or, heck, as an unusual dip if you added a bit more mayo to steer away from "firm spreading consistency."