SAVVYHOST
First Tastes of Spring
Fresh greens and crisp veggies are back,
and as beautiful as ever
The green market is a chef's weather vane. Tomatoes signal summer, apples mean fall, and root vegetables are a sure sign of winter. When chef Jean Joho of downtown's Everest restaurant gets his first asparagus from a farm in Michigan, "I know it is spring," he says.
Seasonal cooking—championing what’s growing regionally and intrinsically matching the climate—merits a turnover in flavors at least once a quarter, if not, like a lot of farm-focused restaurants, daily. But no transition is as stark as the switch from winter to spring.
“Springtime is my favorite time of year,” declares Giuseppe Scurato, executive chef of the gourmet Fox & Obel Market in downtown’s Streeterville district. “I get excited about cooking again. In winter you’re sleeping and hibernating. In spring the gardens turn green again and you feel like you’ve woken up and want to start cooking.”
Rushing to provision their long-depleted larders, cooks find local markets flush with green: asparagus, fava beans, English pea shoots, fiddlehead ferns, ramps, and, of course, spring greens. Local foragers contribute their cache of earthy morel mushrooms, and, combining it all with early radishes, rhubarb, and garlic, the blossoming spectrum of spring colors is enough to cheer anyone who’s been searching for new ways to cook squash.
More good news for cooks at home: Spring is easy. Gone are the long afternoons of braising, the slow cooker recipes, the inevitable potato side dish. Spring veggies stand on their own in terms of flavor, and they don’t take much processing to serve.
“I like springtime because you don’t need the extra long cooking time and manipulations,” says Scurato. “The preparations become easier because the essential flavor of product is already present and it’s less difficult to pull it out.” With fiddleheads, for example, just blanch them and add a little butter and seasoning, Scurato suggests.
With the emphasis on fresh, crisp spring vegetables, the spring palate is more delicate than what came before. “It’s light and fresh and you don’t need butter and cream,” says executive chef at Boka in Lincoln Park, Giuseppe Tentori, who will also open the aptly named Perennial bistro across the street from Chicago’s Green City Market this spring.
When shopping for spring veggies, trust your senses. Look for bright green color. Asparagus should be straight and firm to the snap; anything limp is old (don’t forget to peel the ends to reduce bitterness). Favas should be small, as the large ones become overly starchy. Brown is out, unless you’re working with morels, which require a bit of slaving to clean but reward with their rich, woody flavor. Peas require shelling and favas peeling, creating opportunities to engage your guests with a seasonal task in the kitchen.
To design a dinner party that celebrates spring, load up on the produce from décor to drink. Martial Noguier, executive chef at one sixtyblue in the West Loop, recommends picking one vegetable to honor. Then work it into a signature drink (this isn’t so strange if you consider the Bloody Mary is veggie-based too; or thread a trimmed, blanched, pencil-thin asparagus through a pitted olive as a martini garnish). Shop for enough produce to make a centerpiece. And, of course, build your menu around that vegetable or group of veggies.
But the evening, like spring itself, should be easy—less time in the kitchen, more time with the guests. “The beauty of the season is going to market and picking up ingredients, buying some fish, putting them together, and it’s really simple,” says Fox & Obel’s Scurato. “Then you can take advantage of having an early dinner and sit outdoors with a cold bottle of white wine. That’s spring—when we start breathing again.” MH
