All right, here we go. It's only taken me about a week to post this (Liver Qi stagnation + Blood deficiency= NO FUN! I'll explain later) but I made a wonderful celebration of Spring in food form that I have been very excited about. It marries the last of the winter root crops with the first green veggies and I had so much fun cooking it! The story goes: one day I woke up and was warm. It was sunny out (gasp!); the wisteria was a fountain of violet and lavender, exuding the most delicious, intoxicating fragrance and the garden beds were barren and sad looking. So Mr. Seasonality and I decided it was high time to turn the beds. Step one: clear beds. Step two: point husband at beds and watch his muscles ripple as he turns them. Step three: use the gleanings to make a fabulous meal. At the end of the day, I had some lovely purple dragon carrots, a couple baby carrots, some baby parsnips, and a huge turnip. I love roasting veggies of all persuesions, but root veg in particular benefits from roasting. It brings out a lovely sweet nutty flavor and mellows any bitterness in older roots. To address the lighter side of spring, I made an angel hair pasta dish with sauteed shrimp, crimini mushrooms, asparagus and peas, and a meyer lemon pseudo beurre blanc. Ok, so the peas were frozen, but only because the snails have eaten every single pea sprout in the garden. grr. If you are lucky enough to have shelling peas coming up in your garden, I would highly encourage the use of them in this dish. And notice how I snuck the meyer lemon in there? Yep, I'm sneaky.
Roasted Root Veggies
You can use any combination you like, but here's what I pulled from the garden:
2 or 3 Dragon Carrots
4 baby Chanteney carrots
4-5 baby parsnips
1 turnip (mine was ginormous and tough, I would rather 3-4 baby turnips)
Pre-heat the oven at 450ish (sorry, my oven doesn't really do exact temps). Chop into chunks roughly the same size and leave baby veggies whole.
Toss with a mixture of:
Small glug of olive oil
1 tsp maple syrup
salt and pepper to taste
Spread evenly on a parchment lined baking dish, making sure that the veggies are in one layer, not crowded. Roast until tender, around 40 minutes, flipping the veggies once or twice during the cooking process.
Spring Celebration Pasta
1/2 lb angel hair pasta
1/2 bunch asparagus
1 cup sliced crimini mushrooms
1/2 cup peas, fresh or frozen
8 shrimp, thawed if frozen
1 clove garlic, minced finely
1tblsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 tblsp butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 Meyer lemon, juiced and zest reserved
1-2 tblsp mint, chopped finely
salt and pepper to taste
Bring water to boil in a pot large enough for pasta to cook and salt water. In a large, non-stick skillet, warm olive oil on medium heat and add garlic, sauteeing until fragrant. Add mushrooms and cook until tender. Add shrimp first, then asparagus and peas. Cook until shrimp are pink and the veg are still bright green and crisp, it should only be a few minutes. While these a
re cooking, cook the angel hair pasta, drain and set aside briefly (it shouldn't sit for too long).
To make the sauce, in a small sauce pan, sautee the shallots in butter until transluscent. Add the white wine and lemon juice and simmer until the liquid has reduced by 1/2 to 3/4. Remove from heat.
Toss together in a bowl the pasta, sauteed veg, sauce and the lemon zest and mint. Season to taste and serve with a shave of parmesan if you wish.
This would be really nice followed by a dessert of sliced fresh organic strawberries sprinkled with brown sugar.
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