The tips of deciduous trees are showing the barest tinge of green, and flowering fruit trees are in full bloom. A neighbor’s forsythia has come to life, bulbs are busily doing their thing. Spring has arrived.
At farmers’ markets on the West Coast, where I reside, peas and fava beans are showing up, and just last week, a few stalls were selling asparagus. Be still, my heart.
It’s a palpable thrill for an asparagus fanatic like me. The long wait is over. Let the feasting begin. Though it may be another month before the East Coast catches up, sweet spears from California are ready now.
For a first course, consider a salad to show them off. They make a pretty picture, paired with wedges of golden beets and tender butter lettuce. I love beets, but red seems wintry, somehow. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to find bunched golden beets at most supermarkets, and they’re simple to cook (but do so a day — or several hours — in advance if you want to assemble this salad quickly).
Choose medium-thick asparagus spears, if you can, but any size is fine as long as they are shiny and smooth, with tightly closed buds.
To cook them, you need only some salted boiling water; three or four minutes should suffice. Though many recipes advise shocking asparagus spears in ice water to stop the cooking, I prefer to let them rest on a clean kitchen towel or napkin. The asparagus can easily cool to room temperature that way. Then, you just need to make a simple vinaigrette for a beautiful beginning to a meal.
For a main course, chicken-noodle anything is always an attractive option.
I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs to make a simple stew enhanced with button mushrooms and a sauce of chicken broth, white wine and a little crème fraîche. To make it sparkle, I finished it with a generous handful of herbs and lots — lots! — of lemon zest. Egg noodles, or fresh pasta, such as pappardelle, are a good choice, or serve the stew with rice if you prefer.
You can also prepare it in advance — always a good idea, to keep from being harried in the kitchen — adding the herbs and lemon zest just before serving. This chicken-noodle affair makes a satisfying, substantial main but feels light and fresh for spring.
Since we’re at the height of citrus season, a fresh fruit dessert like ambrosia seemed a good choice.
It is, however, not an “ambrosia salad,” with marshmallows, pineapple, canned mandarins and whipped topping, which has many fans. Rather, this is a simplified version of dessert-style ambrosia, the kind I grew up with.
It’s probably closer to the original 19th-century rendition, which contained only oranges and coconut, back when oranges were considered a somewhat fancy seasonal fruit. I used a few different kinds of citrus — ruby grapefruit, navel orange and blood orange. Other options would be Cara Cara oranges or Oro Blanco grapefruit.
The main thing is to let the citrus fruit sit in its juices for a while. Much like spring, it, too, is worth the wait.
