Recipe inspiration comes from many sources. A dish enjoyed at at restaurant. A glistening bowl of spicy roasted vegetables glimpsed in a magazine. A revamp of a vintage recipe from my trove of family cookbooks.
Two very important words : local, and asparagus. Placed together, an item that is at the top of your farmer’s market shopping list. You must enjoy local asparagus during its short run at the markets, because the taste, and the color, and the texture is superior to any asparagus purchased at your grocer’s. Unless, of course, your neighborhood grocer carries local.
It’s not always easy to eat “clean” in chain restaurants. Even relatively upscale chains may offer foods that are pre-breaded or bathed in a flavor enhanced sauce, or chopped in a distant city and transported in brine to your town. In short, chains are often loaded with processed foods.
When there is a chilly bite in the air, it’s time for winter citrus. I enjoy lemon in my summertime tea, and lime juice in warm weather salsas and salads, but winter is when the perfume of pink grapefruits, tangerines, Meyer lemons and blood oranges is at peak and best enjoyed.
Sadly, we are nearing the end of fresh corn season here in Richmond. People have favorites : white vs. yellow, the elusive Silver Queen vs. Supersweet, but even mediocre ears of corn are satisfying with a slather of good butter and a sprinkle of sea salt.
We’ve come a long way from salad defined by iceberg lettuce, waxy rounds of cucumber, flabby wedges of pale unripe tomato and bottled thousand island dressing languishing in a faux-wood bowl. These days salad offerings are some of the most intriguing items on restaurant menus, chock full of seasonal vegetables and fruits, local greens and house made vinaigrettes crafted to enhance, not overpower.
One of the first edible harbingers of spring is rhubarb. And what a show! This perennial, a vegetable given the royal fruit treatment, rocks a shrub-like explosion of frilly lime green leaves and shiny stalks in various shades of red and green.
Southerners know how to ring in the New Year with culinary good luck talismans : hoppin’ john ( a dish of stewed black eyed peas), greens and cornbread. The black eyed peas are said to symbolize coins, the greens represent paper money and the cornbread makes a good stand-in for gold. Lest you think we only care for financial stability while ringing in the new, congratulate us also on our good taste, as these dishes are delicious, filling and perfect for company and good cheer.
Visitors bearing homemade treats are always welcome at my home during the holidays. A gift of handcrafted limoncello made by friends a few years back was sipped with extra pleasure, illustrating that gifts handmade with care are treasured all the more by the lucky recipients.
The heady perfume of Virginia apples at my local roadside stand draws me in, and I load up my box with way more than I can use in a week. What’s a cook to do? Well, cook ’em up, of course.