Spring awakening
All we needed was a little bit of sunshine
May is just around the corner and I could not be happier to finally say it feels like spring outside! I love the changeover of seasons—the feeling of everyone and everything defrosting around you, flowers blossoming on the trees, and people wandering the park throughout the day. You can just feel the shift in energy, it’s truly palpable. I even had my first-of-the-season Sheep’s Meadow picnic on Sunday in the gorgeous 75 degree weather. If there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I live for a picnic. I crave picnics in the winter like an itch you can’t scratch. So, when the weather reaches above 70 degrees and sunny, I grab my picnic blanket and a friend and head out to the park to share a home cooked meal. While I do love a dinner party of any kind, picnics truly take the cake. I hate to say I’m biased that way. Okay okay, more on picnics the next time we meet! I need to compose a masterful list of perfect picnic dishes first!
With this warmer weather brings a reinvigoration of cooking. There is so much joy in being able to use new produce that has just come into season and is only staying for a limited period of time, especially in the spring. It’s out with the hearty stews and root veggies and in with crisp, fresh, and bright produce and all the greens that one could eat. Some of my favorites are rhubarb, ramps (cliché, I know), baby artichokes, and snap peas. I’ve been incorporating them into any and all of my menus these past couple of weeks and I’m not slowing down anytime soon. Below are some of my favorite dishes starring spring produce that I recently made for clients.
Rhubarb chicken
A recipe from NYT Cooking that is seriously spring on a sheet pan. It’s so quick and easy and highlights everything I want to be eating right now. I used boneless chicken thighs instead of bone-in and just roasted everything at the same time to make it even easier. The chicken is lightly dusted with coriander and roasted in a hot oven with red onion, thyme, and honey-glazed rhubarb until the rhubarb is jammy. I broiled the chicken at the end to get a really crisp outside!
Wild garlic chicken burgers
When I saw Julius Roberts post this recipe on his Instagram, I was immediately hooked. I find that people (including myself at times) struggle to find unique ways to use ramps while they’re in season. Ramps are wild garlic that can only be foraged, not farmed. Their season is short—it’s just a few weeks long and comes and goes in the blink of an eye. There’s also a lot of talk about over-harvesting and potentially harming the ramp population due to their limited supply in the wild. Since they have a long life cycle, it takes several years to mature and reproduce. This makes them slow to replenish after being harvested. Therefore, we need to make the most of limited bunches of ramps we buy at the market. Emphasis on limited. I’m not by any means encouraging the purchasing of multiple bunches of ramps. Buy a couple, make these burgers and maybe some butter and focus on the other wonderful produce that spring has to offer.
There are the obvious ways to use ramps (i.e. ramp butter and ramp pesto) and I always tell people you can replace the scallion, leeks, onions, and/or garlic in recipes with ramps most of the time. But I think these chicken burgers are a perfect way to simply utilize ramps while maximizing its garlicky flavor that we often lose sight of because they’re such a “hot topic” ingredient.
Spicy salmon burgers with pickled red onion
While this recipe doesn’t highlight any specific spring produce, it still screams spring to me. It’s bright, fresh, and zippy. Finely chop the salmon, then mix with finely chopped cilantro, parsley, and jalapeño, thinly sliced scallions, beaten egg, and panko until combined. Use 1/4 cup to scoop the mixture and form into small patties (or 1/2 cup scoop for regular-sized burgers). Pan fry over medium-high heat until browned and opaque, 3 to 5 minutes per side. You can chop the salmon in a food processor or by hand. I like to finely chop half of it and roughly chop the other half so there is some texture. I paired these burgers with pickled red onion, which I think is the perfect finishing touch for an extra zing. Plus, spring is allium (that’s the onion and garlic family!) season.
Thanks for these recipes Maya!