Food Blog: Spring Greenmarket Haul

Monday, May 17, 2021

Spring Greenmarket Haul

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Monday, May 17, 2021

Good morning!

TV dinners make a (fancy) comeback. [Eater]
White pepper as The Invisible Spice [Taste]
I spied one of these on the counter in a home kitchen while watching Stanley Tucci's (wonderful) Searching for Italy last week and wondered, not for the first time, why they haven't really caught on outside Europe. Do you have one? I'm genuinely curious!

I understand that many of you live in places where things grow, like, all year round -- tomatoes at Christmas, peas in February -- but while I'm extremely produce-envious, it means you never get to experience the joy that is mid-May in New York, when you finally have a market full of vegetables plucked recently from the ground after waiting what feels like forever for them. Should you want to make a beeline for a Greenmarket this week but need a cooking plan, here are a few recipes I love that use the new (or middle-aged, I'll never tell) potatoes, spring onions, asparagus, and rhubarb that abounds right now. How could I forget ramps? Well, I have but a single ramp recipe (because I know how hard they can be to get), but it's still my favorite way to use them: ramp pizza. I hope you have a most delicious, springy week.

Cheers,
Deb

new potatoes

potatoes anna

Deeply bronzed and crisp edges and a baked-just-so center, infused with salty cheese and a warming kick of pepper, and a very familiar name.

spring salad with new potatoes

Must potato salad always be a mayo assault? Does it always have to be a cookout thing? Can it be a weekday thing, a balanced salad with other vegetables that you can eat for lunch? Many pressing questions; one delicious solution.

fork-crushed purple potatoes

When I first made this dish, purple potatoes were an anomaly I had to hunt down during a limited season at a specific market stand on a single day of the week. Now I see them almost everywhere. I think that means we all win.

Spring Onions

creamed chard and spring onions

A lovely way to cook spring onions but also how to "accidentally" make it "too" creamy and then turn it into a pasta dish.

spring vegetable potstickers

Please do not underestimate the fun of putting out a giant bowl of dumpling filling and a couple packages of wrappers and having everyone assemble their own dinner, especially when they celebrate bright spring vegetables. Extras freeze fantastically; future you thanks you for remembering this.

potato scallion and kale cakes

Leftover mashed potatoes, raised to their highest (and crispiest/most flavorful) calling are a weeknight or breakfast-at-any-time savior.

Asparagus

asparagus and egg salad with walnuts and mint

This is my favorite asparagus salad: fresh, green, crunchy, and bright. I add chopped medium-cooked eggs and eat it on toast or... right out of the bowl. Repeat again tomorrow, or for as long as good asparagus lasts.

shaved asparagus pizza

Here's a dinner plan: 1 pizza dough, homemade storebought; some mozzarella, parmesan, and thinly sliced green onions, and then the fun part: fresh asparagus peeled into a ribbony tangly nest for the easiest, simplest, and most-worthy-of-repeat-spring pizza there is.

spring asparagus pancetta hash

This potato hash has bits of pancetta and crisp-tender segments of asparagus, yielding a ton of flavor from only four (!) ingredients. Add an egg or two, then repeat again tomorrow.

Rhubarb

rhubarb cordial

The rhubarb is here! Here's an old-fashioned but wonderfully refreshing use for it from David Lebovitz so you can be all ready for a summer of rhubarb gin-and-tonics (with a squeeze of lemon, please).

almond rhubarb picnic bars

A buttery shortbread base + almond cream filling + and a tile of sweet-tart rhubarb on top = this is one of my favorite spring dessert bars, portable enough to go wherever you do.

rhubarb upside-down spice cake

Is it warm but not warm enough where you are? I have just the cake: lemony, pink and usually more spring-like than the weather on top, spiced and cozy underneath. Trust me, we want our kitchens to smell like this.