Hi and happy almost May! Thank you so much for being here! This is my end-of-the-month newsletter, where I discuss my monthly ‘chef’s kiss moments’ (aka all the lovely and wonderful things I’ve been up to, mostly food/cooking related, but not exclusively) and share one recipe that I’ve been loving.
This month’s recipe is not as easy as usual, but it is a very delicious and springy salad featuring all the fresh produce (and herbs) I could grab at the farmers market: potatoes, asparagus, peas, spring garlic, spring onions, radishes, lemons, and lettuces. I have also included some ideas for dishes to make with spring alliums, a lot of delicious things to eat in NYC, and reflections on running a half marathon. Talk next month <3
Spring alliums
You can call me garlic girlie, shallot sweetie, leek lady, onion… ogre? I am an allium lover! So, when April rolls around I am ecstatic that some of the first things to arrive at the farmers market are those sweeter, less pungent, baby alliums: ramps, spring garlic, and spring onions.
Ramps were the first to spring up. As usual, I picked some at my secret spot by my parent’s place. It was just as lush as ever which made me super happy, and we gathered about 30 ramps and a handful of leaves (for information on how to responsibly and sustainably forage for ramps, check out this link).
I savored them in a few dishes. First up was this recipe for Irish soda bread scones. I reduced the amount of sugar, formed them into little logs, and added a ramp to each one. Then, while that was in the oven, I made an open-face omelet topped with buttered ramps and very thin slices of melted cheddar. I served the ramp scones with butter for a perfect Sunday breakfast.
The following week, I made a ramp pasta dough (think spinach pasta dough, I used some ramp leaves to flavor and dye the dough). I then made the easiest pasta shape I can think of - scialatielli (a great option if you don’t have a pasta rolling attachment.) I plated it with some mushrooms from the freezer stash: chanterelles in cream. The mild flavor of the ramp dough beautifully supported those chanterelles and cream.
There was also a wonderful ramp sourdough pain torsadé (really delicious, not the look i was going for but know how to re-do it for next year) with a ramp and asparagus omelet. I served that with some ramp butter, obviously.
As for the other alliums, the list is slightly shorter (I just got my hands on most of them). Spring onions are the sweeter and more mellow versions of their adult counterpart, sitting somewhere between a scallion and an onion. Seeing them this season, my mind immediately went to scallion cream cheese. So, I topped a wonderful Apollo bagel with spring onion cream cheese and a fried egg on one half + as usual, I added some chives on top of the eggs, for even more allium-ness.
I also picked up some spring garlic for garlic bread. I made sourdough focaccia and laminated spring garlic into the dough between stretches and folds. Then, while it was baking, I diced some spring garlic and briefly melted it with butter (just to take a tiny bit of the bite off). I then blended that up with more room-temperature butter. I spread the butter on the focaccia and ate it alongside one of our favorite dinners chicken cutlets with a radicchio salad and a garlic-y carb. this version’s cutlet was seasoned with a ton of fennel seed, topped simply with lemon and lots of black pepper, and served alongside a pesto and lemon juice-dressed radicchio salad topped with parm.
And then, there’s this month’s recipe…
Every spring vegetable salad
This is the perfect excuse to go wild at the farmers market. Or a way to use up any leftover cooked spring veg.
This salad was inspired by my farmers market haul. I was both hungry and overcome by emotion seeing all the spring veg after a long winter and tardy start to spring. So I got a bit of everything with the hopes of savoring it and eating each item with a different meal throughout the week (a lot of my meals tend to make one or two vegetables the star – see my allium subjects above). However, when I got home and looked at my calendar I realized I was going to be out a lot during the week and didn’t have as much time to eat all the veg as I thought. So, I indulged: putting all of this produce in one salad. I ended up loving it so much I have made it multiple times since.
This salad has it all. It gets its brightness from the lemon and all the torn herbs, punchiness from the capers, mustard, and anchovy, and a crispy crunch from the gem lettuces, radishes, blanched peas, and asparagus. It is also satiating – with a jammy egg and pecorino or parm for protein, and potatoes for carbs.
I hesitated to put out this recipe because it takes a lot of time for a salad (and 2+ bowls, a pot, a cutting board, and a knife) and it requires a bunch of ingredients. But I am including it because it's hearty, nutritious, and delicious, and it makes me happy in the way only a bowl of fresh veg after a long winter can.
Like most salad recipes, you can totally omit a veg or herb or two quite easily if you have no use for them outside of this recipe (or ifyou simply want to cut down on the time it takes to prep). The best course of action is to save some boiled potatoes next time you make them for another dish. This will cut the prep time down significantly.
P.S. This recipe is made to be customizable, so match it to your preferences!
Serves 2 hungry people as a lunch main or 4 as a side (I would adore this with a spring-y quiche or a roast chicken or fish).
Ingredients
Please note that you can find more ingredient information and tips for conversions in my conversion document. If you have any questions, please refer to the document or feel free to leave a comment!
The dressing:
3 tbsp - ¼ cup of olive oil (divided into 2 tbsp & 1-2 tbsp)
1-1 ½ tbsp of capers (either salt-packed or in brine)
100-150g lemon (approximately 1 large lemon) exact quantity depends on how much you like lemon!
1 anchovy
1 stem of spring garlic
2 tsp dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
The salad:
*All of these vegetable/herb ingredients should be washed/cleaned
350g tiny fingerling potatoes or new potatoes (if you can get them) all of a similar size or cut to similar sizes
250-300g asparagus
175-250g sugar snap peas (I believe shelled peas would also be delicious – if you use shelled peas just cut the asparagus smaller and cook for 60 seconds)
75-100g breakfast radishes (approximately 5 large ones) greens off
2 spring onions (about ~85g pre-chopping) or sub for a few scallions or chives (obviously the weight will go down if you use chives!)
150-200g crunchy lettuces (eg. romaine hearts or little gems)
45g herbs with the stems on (I would recommend using at least two of the following: tarragon, basil, parsley, mint – I split the quantity pretty evenly between all herbs except for tarragon since i was out, but i imagine tarragon would be nice here)
2-4 eggs (1 egg per diner) room temperature
15-25g parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano
Start by making the dressing:
Pour 2 tablespoons of your olive oil into a medium-large pot (one that has a lid). If your capers are in liquid, drain them and let them dry quickly on a towel. If they are packed in salt, remember that you will probably only need to salt your dressing a tiny bit. If the capers are super large, give them a dice (if they’re the normal tiny ones do not worry about it). Place the pan over medium-low heat, add the capers, and place on the lid. Fry the capers in the oil, shaking the pan every once in a while, until lightly browned and crispy. About 3 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the capers from the oil, and let them dry on a towel. Leave the oil in the pan.
While the capers fry, zest the lemon into a small bowl and set aside (we will add it to the salad later). Then cut the lemon in half and dice up the anchovy.
Once the capers are out of the oil, add the anchovy and sliced lemon halves flesh side down to the pot with the oil. Put the lid on, and let that cook until the lemon is charred and the anchovy dissolved. Another 3-5 minutes.
While the lemon cooks, thinly slice your spring garlic from the white bottom just up to the dark green top. Place this in a large bowl.
Once the lemon is charred and the anchovy is dissolved, remove the charred lemon and put it on your cutting board. Pour the remaining oil over the spring garlic to lightly cook it. Add in your final 1-2 tablespoons of oil, and the mustard. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze in your charred lemons and mix everything together. Give it a taste and add salt and pepper, as needed – it should be punchy!
Potatoes:
Give the pot a quick rinse (no need to clean it). Add the potatoes to the pot and just enough cold/room temperature water to cover them by 1”. Add some salt (not too much as we are only using a bit of water to cook the potatoes). Cover and place the pot over medium/high heat and cook for 20 minutes before checking for doneness with a fork (it should pierce and feel tender). Depending on the type of potato used, this could take longer than 20 minutes. While they cook, move on to vegetable prep below.
Once the potatoes are done cooking, drain off the water and give the potatoes a good shake to break them up. Pour the hot potatoes into the dressing and toss to coat with a slotted spoon. If you had difficulty breaking them up in the pot, smash them with a spoon a bit to get more surfaces to absorb that dressing.
Give the pot a quick rinse and fill it halfway with water, salt the water, and return the pot to the stove over high heat. This will be used to cook the veg and eggs.
Vegetable prep:
While the potatoes cook, do the vegetable prep.
Take the asparagus and cut ¼-½” off the bottoms. If the rest of the stem is woody, peel off the bottom with a vegetable peeler (this is usually only needed for thicker asparagus). Then slice the asparagus into pieces, about ¾” for thick asparagus and up to 1 ½-2” for thin asparagus. Cut on the diagonal (so the pieces aren’t too small), and leave the tip about 1-1 ½” long (though if your asparagus is thick you may want to slice the tips in half).
For the sugar snap peas you can/should remove the string membrane by ripping off the tip and then pulling down. Then you need to break them in half (for a quicker prep) or cut them in half vertically (for a prettier final product) – your choice.
Keep the asparagus and peas together, either in another bowl or at the edge of your cutting board.
Thinly slice the breakfast radishes with a knife (or, if that feels too tedious I'm sure cutting smaller ones into 1/8ths would also work well) and thinly slice your spring onions on a diagonal. If you’re using romaine hearts or gem lettuces cut them into 1/6ths or 1/8ths (depending on how big of chunks you like). Take your herbs and remove them from the stem. Rip the big ones into smaller pieces. Feel free to also give them a chop if you don’t like big herb pieces.
Place the radishes, spring onions, lettuces, and herbs on the other end of the cutting board or in a separate bowl.
Finish the salad:
At this point, the water should be boiling. Add in the peas and asparagus and cook for 60-90 seconds (your preference). While that boils, set up a bowl of cold water and some ice cubes. After 60-90 seconds, use a slotted spoon to remove the peas and asparagus from the pot and add them to the bowl with ice-cold water.
Put the eggs in the pot of boiling water and set a timer for 7 minutes.
Remove the blanched veg from the ice (they don’t need to be in there long, we just want to stop the cooking) Keep the bowl of ice water for the eggs. Use a slotted spoon to shake the excess water off the veg and add them to the potatoes. Toss to coat thoroughly in the dressing.
Then add the rest of the vegetables (radishes, spring onions, and crunchy lettuces – if your salad wedges are too long or big for the bowl, no need to toss these in the bowl, just put them directly on the plate/platter) into the bowl along with the herbs you prepped. Give it a toss. Add in the lemon zest we grated at the beginning and toss the salad again.
Plate up the salad on one big platter or individual plates. Sprinkle those fried capers on top, and grate your cheese over it all to finish it off.
Once the eggs are done cooking, transfer them to that bowl of ice water to stop the cooking (this makes it easier to remove the shell). Let them cool down for a few minutes and then peel the eggs. Slice the eggs in half or quarters and place them on top of the salad.
After all that hard work, it’s time to dig in and enjoy the fruits (or rather vegetables) of your labor.
Croissant quest (NYC edition pt. 1)
When I'm spending time in Paris and visiting Théo’s family, I always run around to a few different bakeries to get a morning croissant. I have, however, been sorely lacking in trying the croissants in NYC… I worked on remedying that this month.
First up was L'Appartement 4F, which I adore. The croissants are not too sweet or too savory, the feuilletage (layering of the butter and dough) is phenomenal, and the flavors are buttery and crumbly. Théo took a bite and declared they are “just as good as the best in Paris.” Truly a fantastic croissant.
Then I went to Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery for a very very buttery croissant with nice feuilletage and a bit of a sour tang that i enjoyed. My friend who I went with had the turkey and gruyere version (fyi they heat up croissants here!) and called it “insane.”
Slices of joy!
Dining out:
I had some absolutely fantastic food in NYC this month.
Théo and I went to Hungry Thirsty and it was absolutely fantastic. Everything was bright and herbaceous and had so much depth and flavor. We got the pad krapow kob, the kua kling (our favorite dish of the night – a must if you can handle heat), and the pla tod nam pla (it was perfectly fried, crispy on the outside with tender meat on the inside). We can’t wait to go back.
We ordered from Al-Aqsa Bakery & Restaurant this month. We went for the first time this past summer on our way home from Coney Island one evening (I had a car for a blissful two months) and not a week has gone by where I have not thought about their absolutely sublime hummus and baba ganoush, delicious falafel, and chicken shawarma with lots of pickles. So I ordered delivery when I was recently in Park Slope. I got two hummuses to eat throughout the week, baba ganoush, taboon bread, an order of falafel, and a sandwich each for Théo and I. Note that the portions are generous (an order of falafel was advertised as six pieces, but it was actually seven, and the hummus and baba ganoush containers are huge for the price). I was reminded that this is really the best hummus I have had in NYC.
On a beautiful (and hungry) spring afternoon, Théo and I had two lunches. Firstly, we went to Cheong Fun Cart. The steamed rice rolls are fantastic. Served piping hot, they are so stretchy and delicately chewy, and they quickly melt on the tongue. For the price, it’s an unbeatable lunch in the city. Then, to Wah Fung No.1. We got a large portion of the roasted duck and pork. Both were so delicious, the texture of the meats and flavors made me swoon. The rice was soaked in their delicious sauce and topped with cabbage. Another fantastic lunch option.
This past weekend I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon for the fifth time. While it was my worst time yet (by 26 seconds), it was my *best* race, and I burst into tears after crossing the finish line. In the last quarter, I felt myself fading and noticed my pace was slowing pretty significantly. I was frustrated at first and was tempted to push myself harder (as I would have in the past), but I chose to listen to what my body and mind were telling me instead. I looked on the bright side: I was slower on this run because the night before–instead of carb-loading alone and getting to bed early–I chose to go out to a lovely dinner and to see Sarah Snook's phenomenal performance in The Portrait of Dorian Gray. I chose to make memories and build connections. That’s what hit me in the final mile, I realized that, maybe, for the first time in a long time, I am finally living my life with some sort of balance. And forgiving myself for it! Queue the tears.
The first song I put on after ending the race was “Ferry Lady” by Panda Bear. I have been a longtime fan of his since High School. After years of replaying old albums, my ears have finally been graced with this new song! It has been on repeat this month, and any time I'm taking a walk outside amongst the spring blooms, the flowers and music together make me high with joy.
so lovely! I felt so happy when u talked abt choosing connection and finding balance 💕💐 thank u for sharing
Making the open face omelette and the salad looks gorgeous