Spring lamb roasts must have really been something special in the olden days. You didn’t run out of potatoes and beets and starve during the winter. You didn’t have to kill your breeding livestock to survive. Your flock has started to lamb and for the first time in a few months you’re actually looking at the prospect of having plenty of food to eat. Putting that first lamb on the table must have felt like a combination of Thanksgiving, getting a raise at work, and when the character you hate the most gets kicked off a reality show. [Read more…]
frisee salad with roasted mushrooms
It’s been an odd, nearly balmy, winter in the city. Here in February, I spotted a few flakes of snow, but also buds, blossoms, flowers, and even a mosquito. And a few weeks ago, the wild chives started pushing up (about a month early). Wayward chives aside, the growing season is still a long way out. But cultivated mushrooms, which can be grown year-round, are widely available at the local markets, and they’re a meaty delicacy in a season of want. [Read more…]
potlikker soup with ham hock and egg noodles
One of my lesser New Year’s resolutions was to eat more cooked greens. For whatever reason (somewhere between an aversion to extra dishes and a hatred of soggy greens), I’ve never really cooked my greens. Until now. So far, I’ve blanched and sauteed, and without a soggy green in sight, I’m loving the results.
Besides, if you never cook your greens, you’ll never get potlikker. [Read more…]
Whole Wheat Pot Pie with Vegetables and Chicken
These pot pies were inspired by a vivid array of seasonal offerings spotted on a recent trip to the butcher. Besides meats, our neighborhood butcher has a nice selection of local foods and on this day I fell in love with a host of colorful winter vegetables. Purple carrots, golden beets, and pale rutabagas seemed dazzling there in the open cooler. So, we picked up some chicken thighs and headed home with our hearts set on pot pie. [Read more…]
braised country-style ribs with cippolini
At the butcher, I felt a little embarrassed that I’d never heard of country-style ribs, given that I come from what is arguably “the country.” And even if you’re not willing to concede my particular home-census-tract is rural enough, it is, at a minimum, part of a country. Also, I really like ribs. So how had I not heard of country-style ribs? [Read more…]