My excitement about cooking (an activity that I love, my stress reliever) has been waning in the first couple of months of the new year. Surely I can’t be the only one?
At the grocery it’s been all root vegetables - beets, turnips, parsnips - and as much as I love a simply roasted tray of veggies, I think I was missing the excitement of color, of possibility on the plate.
A trip to Seattle and NYC last week gave me a boost, and reignited my own appreciation for ingredients in my own backyard.
I was in Seattle on Jack Rudy business, visiting one of our long time distributors. We stayed near Pike Place Market and strolled through the market each morning. We skipped the crafty local vendors - I was there to wade through the foodstuffs and I wasn’t let me down.
One of the produce stands was stacked high with beautiful plums, juicy prunes from Brooks, Oregon, cherries, sweet and mighty muscat grapes, and crisp, assertive piles of chicories - radicchio, castelfranco, endive. I grabbed prunes, plums, and grapes before making my way to the storied seafood vendors.
I wasn’t brave enough to tote a package of iced Dungeness crab through TSA, but I did grab a couple large chunks of beautiful Salmon, hot smoked over alderwood. They would keep for my flight back East, and I knew they’d be a hit at the dinner table. (Our son’s favorite food, in fact!)
I was home only for an evening (and I dropped off the salmon!) before flying out again to NYC for dinner at a friend’s house. He was hosting Corrado Assenza, the Sicilian chef who rocketed to acclaim following his appearance on Chef’s Table. Reader, let me tell you: this did not suck.
The kitchen counter was full of bowls of greenmarket finds, cleaned and soaking in cold water to stay crisp and fresh. I arrived early so I could watch the prep, and working alongside Corrado (I mostly washed dishes) was a very cool experience. He was quite the sage.
Before flying back home the next afternoon, I stopped by Mel the Bakery, in the Lower East Side (and near my hotel), where I grabbed a loaf of their dense, seedy Rugbrod to stuff in my bag. After being gone for a week, I knew it was in good form to return home with plenty of goodies to accompany my tales of adventure.
And finally, emerging from my slumber on Friday evening, I awoke to a beautiful Saturday back in Charleston that begged for an early visit with my family to the Sea Island Farmer’s Market. A quick stop at local favorite Fire Ant Farm brought the week of travel and inspiration to a pleasing denouement - the depth of stunning, vibrant herbs, lettuces and vegetables reminded me that spring has sprung (in Charleston, at least) and it was time to start cooking with vigor again.
I left with two satchels full of baby beets, broccoli shoots, kale, pea shoots, dandelion greens, dill, and celery. I felt alive in the kitchen again. The possibility!
For Saturday lunch we pillaged my bounty from afar, slicing thick pieces of rugbrod, shellacked with dijon and honey, dotted with chunks of smoked salmon and a scatter of red onion and celery.
On Sunday, we were gifted a rainy day and opted for the therapeutic benefits of staying in our pajamas until well into the late afternoon.
Rainy days are an ideal canvas for a long pasta lunch, and I wanted to share my version with you. It is a light pasta dish, elegant in its restraint, relying only on a little backbone of olive oil and garlic as the foundation to some fresh pea shoots and a bit of lemon zest. The recipe is below:
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