at the risk of
incurring the wrath of all 3 people who are reading this, and who probably look
forward with great anticipation to the long-awaited end of the drudgery of
winter, spring is probably my least favourite season. i’m not saying i DISlike it, just that, let’s
be honest, it’s up against some pretty stiff competition. summer is hard to top, with its long,
light-filled evenings that beg for sunny decks filled with lazy music,
good conversation, and the clinking of cocktail glasses. summer gives us the smell of sunscreen on
warm skin, of freezing dips in sparkling lakes, and cooking breakfast, lunch
AND dinner outside on the grill, just because you can.
closely following in summer’s sandy
footprints, for me, would be autumn. the
colours of the leaves changing, the snapping of bonfires, the joyous
rediscovery of hot apple cider with a little rum in it. (not to mention thanksgiving, a relatively new addition to the celebration docket for a foreigner such as myself, but how could i not fall in love
with an entire day dedicated to cooking, eating and drinking?) if summer is my one true love, then autumn is the boy next door i grew up thinking i’d marry.
winter, though cold and grey and drizzly for the most part, winter gives us snuggling under blankets in front of open fires, gives us scarves and woolly jumpers, and... well... winter gives us those most wondrous december
holidays, and for that it shall always be close to my heart.
winter is the first boy i kissed, behind the bike sheds by the big trees at school, when the teacher wasn't looking.
and then we have
spring. frances hodgson burnett once described it as “the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine.” spring is awfully pretty, it brings the odd welcome burst of hope as the days start to get longer and warmer again... i have nothing against spring, really. it’s just that i’d rather we stay in the
friend zone. we don’t have that spark between us,
spring. (honestly, it’s not you, it’s
me.)
saying that, this weekend in seattle was about as perfect of
a spring weekend as you could hope for. it
featured blue skies, picnic blankets, and shorts showcasing legs of almost
obscene ghostly whiteness.
the weather was so perfect, in fact, it was ALMOST enough to
make me consider jumping into bed with spring, just to see if there was
anything there. however, i decided instead to
cook up a meal showcasing the best of what spring in the northwest had
to offer. i recently got my hands on a copy of the book “ethan stowell’s new italian kitchen.” now,
though most of these recipes are high in the faff factor, sporting ingredients
that surely would be near-impossible to find at your local trader joe’s (or
maybe they were just out of duck eggs, goat legs & sea urchin roe last time
i was there), some of them thankfully trended to the more pedestrian cook such
as myself. big whew. his “ode to the northwest” seemed simple
enough, and the description tantalisingly began with the line “it’s spring in
seattle.” why, yes it is, ethan. so i holla’d at my pink-haired sous chef, and
nicki minaj and i headed to our local whole foods for supplies.
the recipe is a pan-seared halibut dish and called for
morel mushrooms, podded english peas, and cincinnati radishes. whole foods, rather disappointingly, had none
of these. “fo shizzle, bada-bizzle! whole fizzle…” lamented nicki. truly, i thought to myself, how deeply
perspicacious she is. nicki then said
something about justin beiber’s wiener, which i took to mean “let’s think
outside the box,” so we grabbed some oyster mushrooms, a bag of frozen green
peas, and some multi-coloured radishes instead.
(i’m sure ethan would forgive us and applaud us for thinking on our
sneaker- and bedazzled-high-heel-clad feet.)
home we hightailed, faster than a hooptie hoop hoop, and nicki and i set
about creating an ode to spring.
ode to (spring in) the northwest (adapted from "ethan stowell's new italian kitchen" and aided by whole foods' lack of supplies)
2 tbsps unsalted butter
4 ounces morels (i substituted 4 large oyster mushrooms), cleaned and chopped into large pieces
1 cup shucked, blanched english peas (i substituted 1 cup thawed frozen peas)
kosher salt & freshly ground pepper
2 tbsps minced chives (whole foods had these! huzzah)
4 (4-ounce) halibut fillets
2 tbsps olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 cincinnati radishes, thinly sliced (i used easter egg radishes instead)
preheat oven to 400F.
heat butter in a sauté pan over medium heat and sauté mushrooms until soft, 2-3 minutes. add peas and warm through. season with salt and pepper, add chives, and keep warm on low heat.
pat fish dry and season with salt and pepper. in an ovenproof sauté pan, heat olive oil over high heat until it begins to smoke. add fish and sear on one side for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. flip the fillets, then transfer pan to oven for 3-4 minutes more, until just cooked through.
plate fish on top, under, or adjacent to mushroom mixture, and top with radishes.
i served mine with some roasted fingerling potatoes and baby artichokes (to which i almost lost a couple of digits whilst trimming), to complete the springfest.
so though spring might not be my first love, sometimes that little burst of almost-summer can be enough to hint at the promise of warmer days to come, of sun-kissed shoulders, of long nights on sunny decks with cool drinks and good friends. and for that, spring, i guess after all is said and done, i love you too.
