First Fig

The Joy of Raw Asparagus, Laurie Colwin and Financiers

I read First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

She writes that she is the first fig to be picked, the first to be consumed, to die. Such is the price for a vibrant, intense life; her season is a short one. But her particular light, her flavour, is lovely.

Spring and summer yield some of the loveliest, most flavourful produce, even with a short season. I will be burning my candle at both ends, cooking, preserving, baking with it all!

The first fig: asparagus.

I have an asparagus obsession. I wax on about asparagus in this issue of doggy bag. If I see asparagus’ slender stalks gracing a menu, it’s impossible for me to leave them behind.

Asparagus from seasons past! From the top left to right: at Bernhardt's, Joe Beef and Salle Climatisée. From the bottom left to right: at L'Express, Lovage and Archive.

Raw asparagus, or a mix of raw and just cooked is a delightful salad base. At work, our recent special was an asparagus salad with Le Brebiou cheese, shallot sherry vinaigrette, fried shallots and pine nuts.

Asparagus on the pass.

I made an asparagus, pea and radish salad for my friends a couple weeks ago. Spring bounty salad!

First Asparagus Salad

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• 1 shallot, minced

• juice of half a lemon

• 1.5 teaspoons dijon

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 3/4 cup basil leaves, chopped

• 1/2 cup olive oil

Salad:

• 1 bunch asparagus, thinly sliced or shaved

• 1.5 cups thinly sliced radishes

• 1/2 cup snap peas, sliced in half

• 1/2 cup mint leaves, torn

• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Method:

1. For the dressing: add shallot, lemon juice, dijon, vinegar, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until combined (or into a large bowl and use an immersion blender). Add basil leaves and process until smooth. Slowly pour in olive oil with processor running. Taste and season.

2. Place asparagus, radishes, peas and mint into a bowl. Mix with dressing. Top with pine nuts.

3. Buon Appetito!

The salad, served for a spring meal with pasta alla norma.

Popcorn

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin is my new hosting manifesto. Colwin is a writer, home cook, avid eater and hostess. Her style of cooking is simple: mostly classic American dishes that are easy to prepare, economical and for a crowd. And still, all her recipes sound rich and sumptuous, Sunday lunch kind of food. She advocates for having a small and finessed entertaining repertoire. Her go-to menus are as follows:

Chili, potato salad, shortbread and ice cream

Baked mustard chicken, potato salad, creamed spinach with jalapeño peppers, shortbread and ice cream

Perhaps one wants to be more experimental in the kitchen. Colwin certainly has her life changing cooking successes and funny failures. But she also has enduring love affairs with certain dishes or ingredients - potato salad, pot roast, eggplants, gingerbread. Appearing over and over in her pages, she eats and cooks and perfects her recipes for these foods.

“When the chips are down, the spirit is exhausted and the body hungry, the same old thing is a great consolation.”

Signature dishes are fabulous.

“What you want is an enormous return on a small investment. Almost the only situation in which this is possible is cooking.”

I occasionally host dessert night, because “to some, dessert is the fun part, both in the cooking and the eating.” I am one of these people. I love having my friends after their evenings and enjoying something sweet together; one cake feeds a crowd and still creates a treat of a night.

“If you have your heart set on baking a cake, invite friends in for dessert only and forget dinner.”

Dessert night!

Sexy Little Snack

I have eaten two extraordinary financiers in the last few months.

I made brown butter almond financiers for the same asparagus salad dinner party and served them with slices of colomba and torrone. A piatto di dolci! Nibbling cakes, cookies and confections at the end of a meal, from the shop or homemade, a sugary selection of bits and bobs is divine. Dessert cart but make it doable.

Top left to right: brown butter hazelnut, cardamom coffee financier from Robinson Bread, and a buckwheat, almond caramel financier from Blackbird Baking. Bottom left to right: my brown butter almond financier and a piece of colomba!

Ciao! XOXO!