Signs of Spring

Since I've been complaining about winter, I want to tell you that spring is coming, well at least in my hallway. You can see my fig tree has leaves and several figs, it is responding to the longer days.

White Asparagus Part 2

As I said in White Asparagus Part 1, I'd always just boiled my white asparagus. Well this asparagus season we went to Spring restaurant in Paris. My favourite taste in the meal was the grapefruit jelly for many reasons, but the white asparagus were delicious too and a revelation. Obviously  chef Daniel Rose shares my opinion that white asparagus should be big and fat, look at these beauties in the photo. You can read about Daniel and his restaurant in an article written by my friend Lesley Chesterman.

White Asparagus Part 1

I'm an asparagus snob. For me asparagus are white and fat. You have to peel white asparagus, so you want something left when you finish and I'd rather eat three fat ones than half a dozen skinny ones.  When I first came to France eons ago, green asparagus, the only ones I was familiar with at the time, were no where to be found. You could find skinny wild green asparagus, but everything else is white. Today green are everywhere. To my taste white asparagus are superior to green. They are the same plant except the white ones are buried under a mound of sandy soil. This protects them from the light and stops the formation of chlorophyl resulting in a pure asparagus taste, free of the grassiness of the green ones.

Paris in the spring

The spring has started wet and cool here. Although the weather isn't spring-like, the produce in the markets screams spring. The main reason we come to Paris at this time of the year is to eat white asparagus. These beauties were displayed with a bulb of new garlic.

Pork, Pork and more Pork

As I like to complain about the weather I must tell you all how wonderful the weather has been for the last week - warm and sunny. It was warm enough to have our family Easter lunch on the deck, now that's a first for Toronto.  It was wonderful to sit outside and the suckling pig was delicious.

Summer time and summer dreams

Yes I know it's not officially spring yet, but we have switched to summer time and the weather here is glorious. It's warm, 15 C and everyone has emerged onto the streets. Neighbours are cleaning up their gardens and we've even hauled our plants outside to give them some fresh air. The fig tree has woken up to the longer hours of sunlight and is sprouting leaves. It is still cool at night but if it stays above freezing we'll leave it, the bay trees, the olive and the lemon out on the deck. The forecast for the rest of the week is good, so all of us who are stuck in Toronto are not complaining. We're happy we didn't spend the money to fly to south for spring break.

Trying to Believe in Spring

Saturday was beautiful, warm, well 12C, and sunny. I spent a lot of the day outside, repotting plants and cleaning up the garden. I moved all my plants out onto the deck yet one more time. There was even pale pink hothouse rhubarb in the market - spring was here.
I made two desserts, a pavlova with poached rhubarb and a recipe that Mary, a writer from Ireland, sent me - an upside down cake made with a scone dough, both were simple and delicious.

Today winter is back, no sun and a bitter wind. Worse still it is going below zero tonight so I'll be hauling all those plants back inside. I know it is only March but this winter has been so long I really want spring to arrive.
I am slowly catching up after 5 days in New York, more about that trip soon. First I have to finish my taxes - now that is a harbinger of spring.

Spring? Not yet.

Well for two days this week I believed in spring. The sun shone, it was warm 10C (stop laughing in Australia): I opened the windows, put my fig and olive trees on the deck, and even changed coats. I've been wearing the same black, fake fur lined coat all winter. There was no need to light a fire at night and my Mediterranean natives even spent the evening outside. I know it wasn't spring, but I was just beginning to think it would be arriving soon. Then today, to coincide with springs' official arrival, the temperature dropped back below zero, my fig and olive trees came back inside and the windows were slammed shut.
The warmth inspired me to make a lamb navarin. Now navarin is just a French term for stew. While it can be a winter dish with mutton or lamb and vegetables, I always think of it as a spring dish navarin printanier lamb with baby carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes and peas. The term navarin probably comes from the French for turnip navet, whatever its origin it sounds better than stew.
If is best made with a cut of lamb that can cook slowly and has some fat, as this will result in more flavour. I had some lamb cheeks, left over from the lamb heads I'd purchased - it was the only way to get lambs' brains here it seems, so I decided to use them. Cooked long and gently with a mirepoix, a mixture of finely chopped carrot, celery and onion, rosemary and lamb stock they were meltingly tender. The vegetables, preferably small spring vegetables, are cooked separately and added at the end. I found small turnips, pickling onions and new potatoes but I had to cut my big carrots into smaller pieces. The cooked meat is removed from the cooking liquid, which is then strained and reduced. Everything is added back to the reduced sauce, with the exception of the onions, and heated through. While the vegetables are taking on the flavour of the sauce, you caramelize the onions in sugar and butter and they go in right at the end with the peas. As my lamb stock was homemade the sauce had a wonderful syrup consistency.
Well that was Wednesday; tonight winter is back so it's blood sausage, apples, Tuscan kale and potatoes in duck fat.
Perhaps there'll be some rhubarb in the market tomorrow so I can defy winter with a spring dessert.