The Glancy Family Cookbook

Relish Tray

Glancy Family Cookbook Volume II, chapter 2

Category: Appetizers

An idea whose time has come -- again. Growing up, we often had a relish tray on holidays: carrot and celery sticks served in a glass with a little water, or arranged on a glass tray reserved for that purpose. In retrospect, Mom's canned olives were also part of the relish tray concept (although kept apart from the vegetables, presumably to avoid contamination.)

As a child, I puzzled over the term 'relish tray', as there was no green spread in sight. A relish tray is still a welcome addition to a holiday table, a crunchy offset to the richness of gravy and cream sauces. To update your offering, consider multi-hued carrot sticks or slices of watermelon radish. A relish tray would be a suitable destination for jars of pickled things purchased at farmers' markets or given by earnest home-pickling friends and relatives.

Ingredients

carrots
celery
olives (traditionally canned, but use your judgment)
radishes
Japanese turnips
other crunchy raw vegetables
pickled things (for example, garlic scapes, turnips, or green beans)
cornichons, or other small pickles
sea salt (optional)

Steps

Use a vegetable peeler to pare strings from outside of celery.
Peel carrots (and other vegetables that would benefit from peeling).
Cut vegetables.
Arrange on a divided glass tray, or stand carrot and celery sticks in glass with a half inch of water to keep them crisp.
You may feel as though you should serve a dip with the vegetables, but then you would no longer have a relish tray. You would have a crudité platter.

Consider sprinkling sea salt on the raw vegetables.