Bowl of buckwheat porridge with roasted black radishes and grated hard cheese

This archaic dish can be upgraded by anyone: instead of buckwheat, quinoa can be used, and the hard cheese should be mature and full-flavored, preferably locally sourced, whether it's goat or cow's cheese.

INGREDIENTS

• 150 g buckwheat groats
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 medium-sized, firm black radish
• 1 firm red onion
• 30 g butter
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, optional
• 50 g hard local cheese
• Salt and pepper

PREPARATION METHOD

Rinse the groats in a sieve. In a pot where you'll cook them, dry-roast the groats first until fragrant. Add marjoram and pour three times the amount of water. Season with salt and cook over moderate heat for 25 minutes until the groats absorb the water, becoming fluffy and cooked but not mushy.

Meanwhile, peel the black radish in stripes halfway through so that when sliced, you get a striped pattern on the edges. Slice the radish into 0.5 cm thick slices. Peel the onion and slice it into 1 cm thick wedges. Melt the butter in a pan and pan-fry the slices of black radish on both sides until they soften slightly, about 3-4 minutes per side. If you want to mellow their sharp taste, salt them before frying; otherwise, salt and pepper them at the end. In the same pan, fry the onion slices until they remain intact and turn brown. Optionally, drizzle them with balsamic vinegar and simmer.

To serve, layer the cooked groats with the pan-fried radish slices, add the onion, and sprinkle with grated cheese.