Spring is here - been here a while, it seems - but I always enjoy making a special spring dinner. Once a year, it's a chance to use the early, fresh, oddball stuff that tells me we're out of winter. The basic ingredients don't vary all that much, though it all depends on what's growing best in the yard. Popular contenders include: dandelion greens; hop shoots; wild onions; violet greens and flowers; maybe asparagus or rhubarb if they're extra-early. (Or I'm extra-late.)
Tortelloni stuffed with dandelion greens and overwintered scallions. With fresh ricotta, chicken broth, parmesan, chives, and a violet. They're pretty, plentiful, and growing beside everything else I'm harvesting. Even if they're flavorless, they're a nice touch.
Hop shoots and scallions, sauteed with dried red pepper flakes and meyer lemon zest. Topped with an egg cooked at 63°C. Soft white and a yolk that's barely beginning to set. Tap it with a fork and it's an instant sauce.
Sausages and roast potatoes, with a mustard dressing. (Which I added after the picture.) Not remotely spring-like, but 'tis the season to finish emptying the freezer. This one's a chicken marsala sausage, seasoned with plenty of roasted garlic, mushrooms, onions, and marsala wine. The purple plate, just out of frame, is a pork sausage, seasoned much like a weisswurst.
Both sausages did their time in the circulator - 66°C for the chicken, 60°C for the pork - with a post-cooking sear. Perfectly juicy, with good texture. It's especially nice for poultry sausages, which I make with less fat1 than the pork ones. Keeping them moist but thoroughly cooked makes for a narrow, hard-to-hit window with more traditional methods.
The potatoes are a winter-long favorite around here. Plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook, cut side down, in a cast iron skillet for five minutes. Finish in a 450°F oven for 20 minutes or so, until tender. Get it right, and they're crunchy-crisp on the outside, and creamy inside. Plus, they're pretty low on the attention and effort scales, so making everything else becomes less of a hassle.
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1If I've got a good, fatty chicken, I may not add any fat at all. Otherwise, I'll use pork fat. If I use enough to match the level in pork shoulder, there's a distinctly porcine flavor, and Sharon's not a fan.
