The versatile veggies of spring

Passionate cooks who look forward to the first tender, spring crops like fava beans and English peas each year are a little like impatient kids waiting for Christmas morning.

Sonoma County chefs are working closely with local gardens and farms to create delicate dishes that showcase the fresh - and fleeting - crop of spring vegetables, from green garlic to baby carrots and snap peas.

Andrew Wilson of the Dry Creek Kitchen, Anne Cornell of Relish Culinary Adventures and Olivia Rathbone of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center are all closely attuned to what’s growing in the garden right now, whether it’s showing up at their back door or popping up at farmers markets.

“There’s an excitement about what’s coming,” said Wilson, executive chef of The Dry Creek Kitchen since January. “This is the teaser time, because we’re starting to get all the e-mails from the different farms ... and we’re starting to get a little trickle in.”

Sturdy asparagus is one of the first veggies to pop up each year, followed by everything from artichokes to rhubarb.

As a first course at the Dry Creek Kitchen, Wilson is serving chilled asparagus topped with a Buttermilk Lemon Dressing and some Spanish Boquerones (white, marinated anchovies). The tangy dressing, which reflects Wilson’s 10-year stint cooking in Charleston, S.C., kicks the dish up a notch.

“There’s a fair amount of brightness, with the lemon, and a little bit of rich tang,” he said. “And you’ve got the anchovy, which is not fishy but gives you a lemony, white-wine flavor.”

While the North Coast commercial salmon season readies to open on May 1, Wilson has been serving King Salmon alongside a springy mixture of morel mushrooms and early snap peas, split down the middle so that you can peak at the peas inside. The wild salmon swims in a vinaigrette made with olive oil, Champagne vinegar, lemon and “the luscious green garlic.”

Green garlic, an immature version of the garlic bulb, is also one of the first spring vegetables to appear on the scene. Unlike its older iteration, it won’t bite.

“It definitely has a smell, but the flavor doesn’t attack you,” Wilson said. “It’s much sweeter.”

Cornell, the resident chef at Relish, has been praying for an ample supply of English peas and baby carrots for the Spring Lamb Dinner class she is planning on May 1 at the Healdsburg cooking school.

For the May 1 class, Cornell will saute some baby carrots with dried morels in butter and shallots, then add a splash of orange juice.

For a class earlier this month, Cornell sautéed some English peas and breakfast radishes in butter, softening both the texture and the flavor of the peppery radishes and peas.

“I highly recommend getting the shelled peas,” she said. “It’s so important that they are in season, because they can be so small early and really late, they can get very starchy. Talk to your farmer.”

At the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, Kitchen Manager Olivia Rathbone has helped write and coordinate the newly released, “The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center Cookbook,” featuring 200 veggie recipes inspired by the center’s Mother Garden.

“We are eagerly awaiting the fava beans. They’re just about to pop, but a little too tiny in their pods,” she said of the winter cover crop whose main function is to fix nitrogen in the soil.

This spring, she has been cooking the fava leaves up with a little garlic and serving them as greens. She has also been harvesting the green garlic, and using it to season all kinds of dishes.

“In a couple of weeks, they will start to get more fibrous,” she said of the immature garlic. “In the next phase, you can harvest the scapes - the flowering tops. They have a wonderful texture, crisp like asparagus .”

The scapes can be diced and used raw like green garlic, or roasted like a vegetable. Harvesting the scapes is imperative if you want the garlic plant to send energy down to its roots and produce a bulb.

“They have this curlicue stalk, but it’s a closed flower,” she said. “Once the flower opens, the train has left the station.”

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The following recipes are from Andrew Wilson of The Dry Creek Kitchen. You can find boquerones at most high-end grocery stores.

Spring Asparagus Salad with Buttermilk Dressing & Boquerones

Serves 4

1 bunch local asparagus, blanched and sliced into 1-inch lengths

6 ounces Buttermilk Dressing (recipe below)

1 lemon for zesting

1 tablespoons cracked pink peppercorns

2 tablespoon chopped chives

- Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

- Local extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

8 Spanish marinated white anchovies

Toss the sliced asparagus in the buttermilk dressing, season to taste with sea salt & black pepper.

Mound the dressed asparagus equally in the center of four plates.

Criss-cross two anchovies on top of the asparagus. Using a micro-plane, grate some lemon zest over each salad.

Sprinkle a few chives and cracked pink peppercorns over each salad, and finish with a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

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Buttermilk Dressing

¾ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup buttermilk

1 lemon, juiced

3 garlic cloves, grated on a microplane

1 small shallot, grated on a microplane

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

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King Salmon with Morel Mushrooms, Snap Peas, Fava Leaves and Green Garlic Vinaigrette

Serves 4

4 wild King salmon filets (6 ounces each)

½ pound snap peas, blanched

1 pound morels, roasted

4 ounces chicken or vegetable stock

1 tablespoons butter

¼ pound fava leaves

- Olive oil

- Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon, cut in half

8 ounces green garlic vinaigrette (recipe below)

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, oven-safe sauté pan. Season the salmon filets with sea salt & pepper. Sear the salmon filets in the pan for two minutes, then place into a 350 degree oven (without flipping) to finish for four minutes while you prepare the garnish.

Heat the snap peas & mushrooms in a pan in the stock & butter. Season to taste with sea salt & pepper. Toss the fava leaves in a bowl in some of the green garlic vinaigrette.

Remove the salmon from the oven, flip in the pan, and squeeze the lemon over the fish.

Place a mound of the fava leaves in the center of four plates. Place a salmon filet on each mound of fava leaves. Arrange the snap peas & mushrooms around the fish. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette around the plate.

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Green Garlic Vinaigrette

2/3 cup local extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green garlic

Combine mustard, lemon juice, and salt thoroughly. Whisk in the olive oil. Add the green garlic & black pepper. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

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The following two recipes are from Anne Cornell of Relish Culinary Adventures in Healdsburg.

Morel Brown Butter Baby Carrots

Serves 4

4 tablespoons butter

1 shallot, minced

1 pound baby carrots cut in half lengthwise.

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup fresh orange juice

2 teaspoons light brown sugar

½ cup dried morels, pulsed into coarse pieces

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

- Minced chive for garnish.

In a 10-inch nonstick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter on medium-high heat. When the butter just starts to foam, add the shallots and morels and toast until shallots are softened (2-3 minutes.)

Add the rest of the butter and let brown. Add carrots and saute in the pan for 5 minutes and let brown. At the end of 5 minutes, give them a stir and add the orange juice, brown sugar black pepper and the salt. Cover, reduce heat to low, and steam for 10 minutes. At the end, keep the heat on low, uncover, and let simmer for a minute or two or until the glaze starts to thicken just a bit. Move to a plate to serve and garnish with minced chive.

English Peas and Radishes Sauteed in Butter

Serves 4-6

2 pounds of English or shelling peas

1 bunch of small radishes (such as breakfast)

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

2 tablespoons butter

- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon mint, cut into chiffonade (small ribbons)

- Crumbled feta cheese for garnish (optional)

Shell the peas from their pods; you should have about 2 cups of peas. Trim off the tops of the radishes and thinly slice them (I like to use a mandoline to get very thin slices.) Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and when it begins to sizzle, add the peas.

Lower the heat and cover, cooking until the peas are just beginning to turn bright green and soften, about 3-5 minutes, depending on the size of your peas.

Add the radishes, salt and pepper and continue cooking for another 3–5 minutes.

When the peas are tender and the radishes have softened slightly, turn off the heat and add the mint. Serve with a sprinkle of crumbled feta cheese.

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The following recipe is from “The Occidental Ars & Ecology Center Cookbook,” by The OAEC Collection with Oliva Rathbone.

Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Serves 4-6

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

½ cup olive oil

1 cup fresh strawberries

½ teaspoon finely chopped tarragon (optional)

In a glass jar with a lid, combine the balsamic and oil. Close the lid and shake vigorously until emulsified.

Wash and lightly crush the berries into chunky bits with a fork. Mix in the berries and tarragon.

Staff writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.