How do you celebrate spring?

Last night after a chilly soccer game (fortunately I was on the field and able to run), I sat down to my simple meal - a grilled sausage, a quartered tomato, bit of bread, bit of mustard, and a couple of scallions.

It was a pretty plate, if I do say so myself. And I was particularly pleased with the scallions and tomato. I know they were not locally grown, but they were from the US, and of good enough quality to be pretty to look at, and enjoyed on their own. The simple look of them warmed me and made me think of the excellent produce to come - the bounty of the summer, and the pleasures of farmer's markets. And, of course, asparagus and rhubarb are the first harbingers.

How are you celebrating this shy, reluctant, but promising spring season on your plate?

For me, it's bitter lettuces like escarole and endive, asparagus and eggs. I like to steam asparagus and serve it with a tangy viniagrette with finely chopped hard-boiled eggs on top.

aschie30 wrote:For me, it's bitter lettuces like escarole and endive, asparagus and eggs. I like to steam asparagus and serve it with a tangy viniagrette with finely chopped hard-boiled eggs on top.

Mmmmmm.

As a rhubarb fanatic, the first warm weeks of the year always mean a rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream.

The most recent episode of "The Splendid Table" featured a rhubarb "confit" recipe that can be used for a lot of different applications. I plan on trying this out, possibly for rhubarb ice cream.

Best,
Michael

Lamb. And more Lamb.

I braised a couple of lamb shanks with fennel and sun dried tomatoes this weekend. A typically hardy, cold weather meal, which was perfect for the chilly but sunny hints of spring we're getting.

As soon as we get a real spring I'll start in on the lamb chop, fiddle head and morel dishes.

I completely forgot about a great way to celebrate Spring in Chicago, and I was reminded of it today while in line for lunch at Manny's:

Spring means smelt, and I had a big plate of fried little fishies today for lunch. Terrific.

Best,
Michael

March 25th was a warm day with the thermometer in the 70's, though a cool 60 degrees by the lake. By winter standards either temperature was suitable for a picnic with Mom2 at Illinois State Beach:



Freshly prepared food by Captain Porky's:



Closed early June, 2010:
Captain Porky's Inc
39210 N Sheridan Rd
Zion, IL
Phone: (847) 872-4460

Open June, 2010:
Captain Porky's - established 1984
US 41 & Wadsworth Road
38995 Route 41
Wadworth, IL
Phone: 847/360-7460
Fax: 847/360-7461
http://www.CaptainPorky.com

It was fun while it lasted.

Regards,

I planted shallots in the pots on my balcony and started thinking about getting the smoker out there, too.

This evening was the Park District of Highland Park's annual smelt fest. This is a community event with very little promotion very likely because the Park Avenue beach location can be easily over crowded with limited parking.

There were demonstrations of smelt fishing:



Smelt were fried over an open pit:



Given the unreliability of smelt runs, especially for a public event, the fish were imported from Canada:



One of the quirky ironies of this event, the smelt, goldfish crackers and chips are free as well as hot chocolate. You pay for bratwurst, hot dogs, corn on the cob and soda pop.



While waiting for the next batch of smelt, I had an opportunity for side-by-side tastings of Heinz and Kraft tartare sauces. For those who find this of value, Kraft's was a bit sweet though Heinz had the same sourish taste I like in McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sauce.

People picnicked on the beach:



We were serenaded by Lee Murdock who specializes in seafaring songs of the Great Lakes:



I also bought my first Christmas present for this year: a small book of lyrics to the accompanying CD "Christmas Goes to Sea."

I bumped into Louisa Chu, her sister Annie and their beloved dog. Great to spend the evening with such great company.

Happy Spring - Chicago style!

Regards,

A baker's dozen of paletas from Paleteria La Monarca.

I celebrated today's nice weather with a pretty good bike ride and on the homestretch I found myself coming up N. Clark Street and realized that I'd never stopped in the paleteria. So I did.

I started with una paleta de agua de sandia (watermelon). Very refreshing after the ride, although hard as a rock. It had a few seeds so as to leave no doubt as to its authenticity (although PLM packages their paletas for individual resale, so the ingredients were available for review and indicated some artificial flavors towards the end of the list.) It was actually so cold that it was kind of hard to taste much of anything by the time I got halfway through, but still, it really felt like summer coming on...

I decided to take a "combined dozen" (6 agua, 6 leche, $6.50) home so that I could sample some more flavors. When I got home, I decided to dive right in and sample another! I was very excited about the pepino which is made from cucumber, but with spices and salt so as to be a very different experience than the watermelon. It was really quite good, although it is probably not what some people think of as a correct flavor profile for a frozen treat.

Business was pretty good at PLM, unsurprisingly. They actually have a few tables, so next time you're in the neighborhood stroll on by and grab a paleta. (They also have ice cream by the cup and the cone, as well as "razzle", which I now realize I forgot that I wanted to ask what that was.)


Paleteria La Monarca
6955 N Clark St
Chicago, IL
(773) 274-6394

Well, spring has finally really come to the Stockholm region.

Yesterday, in a fit of compost grooming, I found myself busily digging/mixing/churning around an old group of rhubarb that was the orignial resident of the area we've now designated as our compost heap. Initially concerned with smothering the poor things, I've seen that they seem to be the real winners of the redesignation of their plot - all of the nutrients suddenly available to their roots has made for some happy, lush plants.

However, on this particular spring afternoon, one lucky turn of the pitchfork revealed these:





Nearly a pound of sunlight-starved, chlorophyll-free rhubarb that had busily been burrowing it's way through the compost in search of May's sunshine. I felt a little like a half-lost spelunker stumbling on some undiscovered breed of eyeless newt when I lifted the cover from these freakish shoots.

I ran in to the kitchen with my find, rinsed it off and immediately whipped together an egg-heavy marsipan sponge cake, sliced the rhubarb (it needed no peeling whatsoever) and plunged it into the batter. I topped with a heavy handful of "pearl sugar" and a few tablespoons of thinly sliced butter. After about an hour at 350 degrees and I had:









The watery rhubarb kept the cake a little gooey in the center yet I was having a hard time complaining about that. The interplay of the pooled butter on the surface of the baking cake, the pearl sugar and the marsipan in the batter created an incredible, crunchy yet chewy surface.

A little lemon zest or even some crushed cardamon in the batter would be welcome additions later in the year when the rhubarb gets a little harsher. However, I'm pretty glad I took the light-handed approach with this spring's most tender bunch of rhubarb.

germuska wrote:A baker's dozen of paletas from Paleteria La Monarca.

We are lucky enough (at least, when I have only 1 kid and an equal or greater number of dollars) to have a cart come by daily after school. Crabapples in blossom, ding, ding of the cart...confused but pleased face of vendor when a soccer mom requests jamaica.

Spring.

Mhays wrote:ding, ding of the cart...confused but pleased face of vendor when a soccer mom requests jamaica.

What flavor is that? I know, jamaica flavor.... but what does it taste like?

leek wrote:What flavor is that? I know, jamaica flavor.... but what does it taste like?

Hibiscus, a standard agua fresca flavor at Maxwell Street and points beyond.

Truthfully, I've forgotten what the paleta is like, but the agua fresca I just had - it's brewed with some cinnamon, and the hibiscus has some tannin qualities like regular black tea, but tastes fruity on the sour side, like blackberries or currants.

...you know, I hate those kind of wine descriptions, but sometimes, it really does taste like blackberries or currants. Oh, well...

Corn elote from the friendly mexican guy with the cart. Extra chili.

It's hard to find him in the winter!