Spring. It gives you a feeling of hopefulness, no? Me, I’m hopeful for asparagus. And peas. And oh yeah, rhubarb! (And tulips, peonies, hydrangeas…)
This post is a super simple one: a few of my favorite spring recipes. If you make these once, they will be in the rotation. Promise.
If you love cooking and you love easy recipes with fresh ingredients, Ina Garten has got to be on your bookshelf. Meet her at Cross Keys on Thursday.
Whatever you choose to call it – canning, preserving, putting up – I’m into it. I used to be pretty intimidated by the idea of preserving food, it just seemed so, well…domesticated. So, I started out with one of the easiest things you can make: applesauce. It made me feel like, okay, wow. I did it. I didn’t realize how easy it was going to be, clearly! Then, later I moved onto jams, jellies, tomatoes and pickles. For the last few years, I’ve made some pretty darn good fig jam. I sold a boatload of it last year and didn’t save any for myself. That’s not gonna happen this year. I’ve already hoarded some…
We be jammin’, to paraphrase the old Bob Marley song.
Indeed, I made Drunken Fig Jam from Epicurious. I knew I had a farewell dinner for my English cousins who’ve been visiting for the past few weeks, and thought the fig jam would be a perfect hors d’oeuvre for the dinner.
I started the jam at night, mainly because the first step was to macerate the figs in sugar for an hour at room temperature. This brings out the juices, since aside from the juice, the only other liquid is the brandy bourbon.
Ah…springtime at the farmers market. I’m so, so happy to see favorites like rhubarb, ramps, peas, fiddlehead ferns and more. I almost cried when I saw Mr. McCarthy, “the pea man” – he’s wonderful, almost zen-like. Before you know it, he’ll have those awesome beans, too. His asparagus and strawberries are so good right now, too! (Fact: He sells them for a dollar or two less than nearby stalls!
Here is one of my favorite recipes using springtime vegetables. To me, the fiddleheads give it great taste, texture and uniqueness…and the peas lend nice sweetness. If you can’t make it to the market to get fiddleheads, just use peas and asparagus! I’m a big fan of use what you’ve got, hon. Feel free to use any greens you have on hand, too. I sometimes use dandelion greens, arugula, etc.
