A Tale of Two Pastas

Over the winter, I've collected two recipes that I've been itching to try:  Pappardelle With Spring Vegetables, and Spring Vegetable Ragout With Fresh Pasta.  Now that we're starting to see the fruits (okay, veggies, actually) of spring, I finally get to make this!

Photo via Fine Cooking

The latter recipe is exceedingly simple.  It calls for blanching whatever baby spring vegetables you have, reducing that water to a vegetable broth, and tossing vegetables, fresh pasta, fresh herbs, and butter with the broth.  The former one is a bit more complex.  It calls for a quick sauté of the vegetables, and tossing with a sauce of shallot, seasonings (cayenne and celery seed), mascarpone, and reduced chicken stock.

When I look at the pictures of the two recipes, in both I see the ultimate taste of spring.  It should be crisp, incredibly light, and fresh tasting.  Because of that, I like the herbs from the latter, and I think the heaviness of mascarpone cheese called for in the former would be way too heavy.  On the other hand, I believe the sauté pan would give the vegetables a crispness that blanching wouldn't (think stir fry), and the dash of cayenne would definitely liven the dish.  While either vegetable broth & butter or chicken stock would make a wonderful sauce, I'm leaning towards stock.  The collagens it has (you're using homemade, right?) will give the sauce a silkiness that simple broth won't.

Photo via Fine Cooking

In either case, the great thing about these recipes is that they'll work for whatever young veggies you've got on hand at the moment.  I was at Nalls today, and picked up some asparagus and some beautiful young rainbow carrots that'll work fantastically.  So, whichever you pick, open a bottle of crisp white wine and enjoy the fruits -- er, veggies -- of spring!

First Taste of Spring

One of the earliest of spring veggies is asparagus.  Soon after the snow melts, tender little spears pierce the cold ground and seek the sun.  And they're good for you as well as delicious.  As they appear on our table, they proudly announce the long, cold winter is over and life is renewing itself.

My preferred preparations start with steaming them briefly (they should still snap a bit when you bite into them), or tossing them in olive oil and roasting them in a hot (425-450) oven just until they start to caramelize.  A healthy dose of salt & pepper is all they really need.

Photo via Epicurious

There are some ways to dress them up, of course.  Make a bacon vinaigrette and add roasted asparagus to your favorite spinach salad.  When you roast them, wrap little bundles in bacon or pancetta.  Or, dress up roasted or steamed spears with a drizzle of sauce (a vinaigrette, or a citrus sauce).

Another signature of spring would be pasta or risotto with tender, young veggies such as asparagus.  There are great examples here and here.

Photo via Fine Cooking

Welcome to spring!

The Spears of Spring

Asparagus, related to lilies, is one of the early crops of spring.  Ancient Egyptians were known to cultivate asparagus as early as 3000 BC.  It's a great source of fiber, folate, vitamins A, C, E, and K, and chromium.  Chromium is a trace mineral in the human diet that helps insulin work.

Asparagus will stay fresh in your crisper drawer for several days, often a week or more.  If you stand the spears up in a coffee cup with an inch of water, they can stay fresh even longer.  If the spears become limp or rubbery, they can be refreshed by rolling them up in a damp paper towel and leaving them sit for half an hour or so.

The thinner the spear, the more tender it will be.  The bottoms of asparagus spears tend to be more woody than the tips, and tougher to eat.  When preparing asparagus, hold it up by the cut end.  You'll see it bend at a point an inch or so up the spear.  Cut off the part that didn't bend and compost it; you'll be left with the yummy tender parts.

I love the combination of asparagus with citrus.  Generally, the spears are either steamed or roasted.  After steaming, a little salt and pepper and a squeeze of citrus, and you have a very fast and tasty side.  To roast, toss lightly in oil, salt and pepper the spears, and roast at about 425 for 10-12 minutes.

From that base, add complimentary flavors.  Thyme always pairs well with lemon, ginger with lime, or clove with orange.  For the non-vegetarians out there, bacon makes lots of things better, even asparagus at breakfast.  Pancetta does too.  Asparagus is also a classic addition to spring pasta dishes, like this one.

Happy spearing!

In A Pickle

This afternoon, my daily Tasting Table e-mail arrived and it brought with it 3 great recipes for brining/pickling some Spring veggies.  One is for rainbow carrots, but the carrots we received this week would work just as perfect.  Especially if you're hosting or attending Easter or Passover festivities, you could pickle up some of this weeks carrots, and have a quirky homemade treat in just two days.  Or pack a peck of pickled peppers and brine up some of the green bell peppers we received.  I'm a massive fan of homemade pickles (see The Great Pickle Experiment Part 1 and Part 2), but why wait for cucumber season, when the pickling can begin now?

See Tasting Table's article on the basics and then check our their recipes for Pickled Asparagus, Pickled Carrots, and Pickled Fennel...

Brine Of The Times via Tasting Table

Spring's Bounty Soup

I came across this recipe for "Spring Celebration Soup" in one of my cookbooks, and while I figured it would be fitting to give this one a try since Spring is officially here, I looked at the ingredients and thought, "This is going to taste like the color green."  So I decided to make it!  Because if you don't have a kitchen fail every once in awhile your husband might forget the gloriousness of take-away!  I switched up some of the veg to cater to what was in our Crop Shares this week, and then I decided to really go off the rails and use the carrot greens in place of the parsley required for this soup.  I really thought about calling this the Waste Not Want Not Soup since there are very few kitchen scraps that come out of this one, and hey if you have the carrot greens, why not use them!  As an aside, Crop Share member Deanna Freedlander has a fantastic recipe for Carrot Top Pesto that she puts over spaghetti squash.  Since squash season is on it's way out, just use regular pasta or even turn your yellow squash into "squoodles" (if you have a sprial cutter or a juillene tool that will cut thin noodle-like strips, just saute those in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes and ta-da veggie pasta!).

Once I'd finished the soup, I took one look at it and thought, "what have I done?!"  But once I tasted it, is was surprisingly good!  It didn't taste like the color green, it was refreshing and even filling.  So...I had another bowl.  Thus if you're looking for something bright and fresh, that is so chock full of veggie goodness it would make a vegan blush, then this is the soup for you.  And if your spinach is starting to look a bit sad by today, this is a great way to use it up since it's getting pureed in and looking wilty won't matter.

Spring's Bounty Soup

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bundle green onions, chopped (and hang onto the stem ends and start to re-sprout them as we did with the romaine here!)
4 carrots from bundle, skinned and diced
Carrot greens, minced
1 bundle asparagus, chopped
5 cups low sodium vegetable or chicken stock
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 bundle of spinach, stem ends trimmed at root (see our trick for perfectly clean and grit-free spinach)
1 cup milk (I used unsweetened rice milk for dairy-free)
Salt & pepper to taste


In a stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat and add in garlic to saute until just fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add in green onions and carrots and saute for 5 minutes, then add carrot greens and asparagus and cook for an additional 3 minutes.  Pour in stock and lemon juice, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat slightly and simmer, uncovered, for about 5-7 minutes.  Add in spinach and simmer for 2-3 minutes more, just long enough to wilt down the spinach.

If you've got an immersion blender, this is where it becomes your best friend.  Break that baby out and start to puree the dickens out of this soup -- just make sure to pull it off the heat, unless you're really a fan of hot soup burns.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you'll want to use a measuring cup to puree up about 2 cups of the soup at a time, and you'll need a holding pot or bowl for the already pureed portions, as you'll be returning everything to the main pot.

Once pureed, return to heat and bring back to a simmer.  Stir in your cup of milk, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes, and then remove from heat and let stand for the same amount of time, to let the flavors set up.  Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Serve with crusty bread (the baguettes at Nalls on Fridays would be PERFECT).  Or if your immune system hates gluten like mine does, make sad puppy eyes at the baguettes and then pick up some gluten-free bagel chips or crackers.  Glutino makes some killer rosemary crackers.


Adapted from Simply In Season by Mary Beth Lind & Cathleen Hockman-Wert

**Speaking of all things Spring, don't forget next weekend (4/25-4/26) is the LAST weekend of the Early Spring Crop Share round.  But don't despair, the Spring Round will kick off on May 9th, so be sure to grab a registration form when you're picking up this weekend.  They've got more details on the Crop Share portion of the website...**

Sugared Asparagus

This one is a hold over from last week, but definitely worth the wait!  So while your asparagus is long gone by now, this will definitely become a quick go-to for an easy weeknight side-dish.  In fact, with Easter upon us this will make a perfect accompaniment to ham, or if you're celebrating Passover, just be sure to use a non-dairy margarine (Earth Balance works wonders and is Kosher for Passover).  The beauty of this dish is that other than the asparagus, at any given time you likely have all the other ingredients in your pantry!

Sugared Asparagus

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 bundle asparagus, stem ends trimmed and cut into 2" pieces
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth

Melt butter and brown sugar in a large saute pan over medium high heat.  Once bubbly add in your asparagus pieces and saute for about 2 minutes, getting just a hint of golden on the outsides.

Then stir in your broth, bring up to a boil, reduce heat to allow to just simmer, cover and continue to simmer for about 6 minutes.  Remove asparagus with a slotted spoon and bring liquid back up to a boil, and simmer uncovered until the sauce is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.  Add asparagus back to the pan, tossing to coat in the sauce and cook for only 1 additional minute more.  Remove from heat and plate asparagus and sauce to serve.


Adapted from Simply In Season by Mary Beth Lind & Cathleen Hockman-Wert

Oh Yes! Asparagus!

Did you see?  Did you?  Did you?  We're getting ASPARAGUS in the Crop Share this week!!!  I'm trying and clearly failing to contain my excitement because I remember this time last year, when I was on the other side of the Crop Share counter (for you newbies, this post will bring you up to speed!) and we had asparagus coming in for that weekend's share.  The order arrived, we checked the case on top, it was gorgeous, and then a few hours later we set to packing boxes.  But where did all the cases go?  We'd ordered 11, but we only could find 1.  Well crud.  Thanks to a mixup we only received 1 case, so no asparagus that week.  Then another cold snap hit and the crops that should have come in were delayed.  Still no asparagus.  So hopefully this year our luck will be better!  Come on asparagus, come home to mama!!  Plus, there's Brussels sprouts, AND mushrooms, AND eggplant, AND pears (follow the links to see our whole back log of recipes for each veg)!!  Dear Valerie Nalls, you are the wind beneath my veggie wings, this week is packed with all of my favourites!

So, since I'm more excited than a baby panda spending an entire day in a tree (panda cam stalker, right here)...

I love this tree!

And since I also have to figure out a way to run a food processor that sounds like a jet engine, in a small apartment, and somehow not wake up the Mister who's on night shift, here are two of our favourite asparagus recipes.  For those of you who also geek out over avocado, this first recipe is for you!

Asparagus, Fennel & Avocado Salad

Baked Asparagus Fries via Spoon Fork Bacon

Baked Spicy Brown Sugar Salmon with Roasted Vegetables

Salmon is a go-to protein around here, as the Mister isn't a huge poultry fan and I don't eat very much red meat or pork.  So I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting preparations for this tasty piece of fish, and one of my current favorites is this baked salmon with a spicy brown sugar rub.  We made it for some friends for Easter dinner this year, and it had everyone ooo'ing and ahh'ing.  And there's really nothing better to serve with this dish than a simple medley of roasted vegetables.  We all know yellow squash is divine when roasted up, but certainly don't miss out on roasting this week's yellow squash along with the tomatoes, as the flavor just explodes.  For those of us without access to a proper grill, it's the closest we can get to some lovely charred tomatoes.

Baked Spicy Brown Sugar Salmon with Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets
olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 crushed red pepper flakes
3 yellow squash, halved and sliced into half-rounds
2 tomatoes, halved and sliced into wedges
1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed
2 broccoli crowns, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
salt, pepper & garlic powder, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.  Drizzle salmon fillets with olive oil and then evenly distribute brown sugar rub onto fillets, gently massaging the rub onto all sides of salmon.  Place in a baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.  If you want a bit of a crispy crust, reduce cook time by a few minutes and place under the broiler on high and allow sugar to begin to bubble and caramelize.

Spread veggies out on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with lemon juice and season to taste with salt, pepper & garlic powder.  Or for an added zing, reserve some of the salmon rub to sprinkle over veggies.  Bake also at 425 for 20-25 minutes, turning half-way through, until veggies begin to brown.

But wait, there's more!

Apparently, I'm in a food bloggy mood this week, but I just continue to find more and more inspiration from this Spring's Crop Share. So while an entire, sliced eggplant continues to marinate in my fridge for later slapping onto a griddle pan, here's two delightful recipes that ended up in my e-mail inbox today for further inspiration to use those poblano peppers and then to bring you back to thoughts of that beautiful, local asparagus from two weeks ago (p.s. it's still in store!)...

Open-Face Four Cheese Quesadillas

Click through to view recipe on Food & Wine...

Asparagus with Grapefruit "Snow"

Click through to view recipe on Tasting Table...

Asparagus, Fennel and Avocado Salad

Guess what?  Local asparagus has FINALLY arrived!  It toyed with our hearts in the Early Spring round, but it is officially here and ready to be packed away into your Crop Share boxes tomorrow morning.  And if you're like us, then your excitement over the first taste of this season's Virginia-grown asparagus has now reached ecstatic elephant seal level...

Yes, we are that excited.  Happy dances did actually occur when it all arrived this morning.

So with a devout love for asparagus, I've never met a preparation I didn't love.  Whether it was the Baked Asparagus Fries from a few weeks ago, grilling them up in the summer, or roasting them up with some olive oil, garlic, cherry tomatoes and pine nuts, there's really no wrong way in my mind.  So it's a bit surprising that last year I came across an asparagus recipe I would have never imagined, was even skeptical about, and ended up falling head over heels for it.  Last spring I helped test out some recipes for a cookbook that Ogunquit, Maine's Chamber of Commerce was putting out.  The Mister and I honeymooned in Ogunquit the year prior, so it seemed like a perfect way to celebrate our one year anniversary, with a little taste of Ogunquit.  And one of the recipes I was sent to try was a Asparagus, Fennel and Avocado Salad.  Like I said, I was pretty skeptical but oh my word, it was fantastic.  This works fantastic as a side dish for summer picnics, but it would even be wonderful with some chicken added to it to make for a fresh and filling dinner.

Asparagus, Fennel and Avocado Salad

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus

1 large, ripe avocado

Olive oil

1 fennel bulb

2 Tbsp granulated garlic

For Vinaigrette:

2 Tbsp green onion, finely chopped

1/4 Cups cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 Cup olive or flax oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To prep asparagus, wash, cut off ends, cut into about 1" pieces, drizzle with oil and place them on a baking sheet.

To prep fennel, cut off base and remove outer leaves.  Wash and thinly slice.  Toss with olive oil and place on baking sheet with asparagus.  Sprinkle both with garlic and roast for about 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow them to cool completely.  Once cooled, place veggies into a bowl.

Cut open avocado, remove the out and scoop out the flesh.  Cut into small, diced pieces and add to bowl with the cooled asparagus and fennel.

Whisk together your ingredients for the vinaigrette and pour over the veggies, tossing to evenly coat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Baked Asparagus Fries

Raise your hand if you think the best part of Spring is fresh asparagus.  Or if your my one friend...ASPARAGUS!!!!  I may hide my zeal more than she does, but I'm right there with her.  In fact, we were texting tonight about our excitement over fresh, local asparagus coming our way in tomorrow's Crop Share.  Yes, it's fresh, it's local and it's...ASPARAGUS!

One of my favorite preparations for asparagus is to just drizzle them with olive oil, toss with some minced garlic, season with salt & pepper and bake it at 400 for 25 minutes, or until the asparagus is tender yet still a bit crisp.

That's the healthy sensible version.  And then there's the fun version from Spoon Fork Bacon!  My asparagus-obsessed friend and I made these Baked Asparagus Fries this past year and we were beyond hooked.  It got our men to eat their veggies, so that means it's bound to work for kids, especially since this is a veggie recipe that's meant to be dipped in something delicious.

Follow the link below to see the recipe on Spoon Fork Bacon...

Baked Asparagus Fries

Asparagus & Potato Salad

I am not a huge fan of potato salads. Usually it's because there is too much mayonnaise in them. This recipe ditches the mayo completely and incorporates delicious spring vegetables and herbs. It is also vegan and gluten free!

Ingredients:
Roasted Potatoes:
2 lbs potatoes, washed & chopped into 1” pieces
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced

Dressing:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 tsp lemon zest
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
1.5 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
1 bunch spring onion, finely chopped

Sautéed Asparagus
1 bunch asparagus, ends broken off and chopped into 1” pieces
extra virgin olive oil + 1/4 tsp salt, for sautéing

To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/05/24/asparagus-and-potato-salad/