February in Southern California is a fickle and fabulous thing (Think of it as a sneak peek of what the rest of the Northern Hemisphere will be experiencing in a few months). If the winter is warm, strawberries of some quality could be showing up at the farmer’s markets. No such luck these days. They’re a bit woody and tasteless. But, lo and behold, pea tendrils, that fleeting spring thing, alighted at a stall at our market and we cooked them up this weekend thusly: we trimmed the thick ends of the stalks. We chopped the rest into 1/2 inch pieces. We rinsed them in a colander. We heated a few tablespoons of olive oil until smoking. We threw in a couple of cloves of garlic. We sauteed the tendrils. We salted them. We (and this is a big, meaningful we, encompassing even the hyper-picky 2 year old Desmond) at them heartily at a Sunday family meal (along with a sizable ribeye, some toasted rustic white, Kali Hart Pinot Noir for the grownups, some chilled LA municipal tap for the kids). It might be a bit premature to be yearning for Spring itself, but, I’ve got to admit, this amazing Spring-ish produce has me ready.
—Hugh
I don’t even want to hear about the fiddlehead ferns or zucchini blossoms that probably pop up in Californina in March, while the rest of us on the East Coast bleakly scrape the leeks and butternut squash off of our children’s plates–again.
You’re in SoCal too? Gastrokid has just become my new favorite site! Stay tuned on whether my very picky nits will eat some of these ideas….or whether I can manage to make it in the first place.