Go For Greens

The Age

Tuesday October 14, 2008

Jill Dupleix

Here are 10 ways to celebrate spring with beautiful crisp, green vegetables.

1 Eat your greens: asparagus, broad beans, green beans, spring onions, leeks, green peas and their little budding pea-flavoured shoots, juicy cucumbers, soft lettuce leaves, young silverbeet, enchanted emerald-green "forests" of broccoli, iron-rich spinach, watercress, you name it. After the brown stews and chocolate puddings of winter, everything is spring green.

2 Be nice to babies: incorporate baby carrots, shallots, radishes and beetroot as side orders or in salads.

3 It is also springtime for Asian greens, such as bok choi and gai lan, and they are just as enjoyable treated in a Western style as tossed in a wok.

4 Buy avocado pears and give them a couple of days to reach full ripeness (you should feel a gentle give when pressing with your thumb and the stalk at the end can be jiggled free), then pounce. Toss them into lemony salads, pair with seafood, or squish onto grilled sourdough toast.

5 Do a spring clean of the freezer, the fridge and the cupboards. Have a "Use it or lose it" weekend when you use up all those frozen mystery parcels, half-empty jars, and assorted packs of pasta, beans and rice.

6 Restock the cupboards with a good extra virgin olive oil, a fresh new vinegar, sea salt flakes and fresh peppercorns.

7 Add something new to your shopping list to keep things interesting: umeboshi paste, seaweed, linseed, dried cherries, tahini, agar agar, hijiki, kecap manis, quinoa.

8 Look for quick, simple ways of using spring lamb - souvlaki, burgers, steaks or satay. Naturally, lamb teams beautifully with any green vegetable (see No. 1).

9 Pack a picnic and eat lunch outside, on the balcony, in the park, or by the water.

10 Make a simple vegetable stock for soups and sauces: peel and roughly chop 3 onions and 3 carrots. Toss into a large pot with 3 chopped celery stalks, cover with 1.5 litres of cold water, bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour, then strain and use, or cool and freeze.

Pork chop with lettuce, bacon and peas

I've had it with cooking pork chops with their rind on: who needs boot leather for dinner? Trim it off, and they are easy to cook gently and keep tender. (If you leave the rind on, then hold the chops rind-side down in the pan to cook it as well as cooking on each side.)

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, finely chopped

3 slices bacon, diced

4 x 250g pork chops

sea salt and pepper

200g peas

1 tsp Dijon mustard

150ml cream or vegetable stock

1 smallish cos lettuce

METHOD

Heat the butter and oil in a fry pan and cook the leeks and bacon gently for 10 minutes.

Trim the rind off the chops and discard. Brush the pork with a little extra olive oil and season well. Pan-fry in a separate pan over medium-heat for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.

Add the peas, mustard, cream or stock, sea salt and pepper to the leeks and bacon, and simmer for 5 minutes. Finely slice the lettuce crosswise, discarding the pale stalks. Add to the peas, tossing well until just wilted.

Cut the chops in half on the diagonal and serve with the peas.

Serves 4

Asparagus with prosciutto, egg and parmesan

Simplicity itself, but the combination of tastes and textures complement the flavour of new season asparagus, without overwhelming it.

INGREDIENTS

12 medium spears of asparagus per person

extra virgin oil or melted butter

4 free-range eggs

8 thin slices prosciutto or ham

sea salt and pepper

coarsely grated parmesan

METHOD

Bring a wide frying pan of salted water to the boil. Lay the asparagus in it and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Drain while still bright, and toss in your choice of extra virgin olive oil or melted butter with sea salt and pepper.

Pile onto warm dinner plates.

Heat a little butter and olive oil in a second pan, and swirl to coat the base. Gently break the eggs into the pan, and cover with a lid. Cook over gentle heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk is still runny.

Top the asparagus with folds of prosciutto, egg, parmesan and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and serve.

Serves 4

Soupe au pistou

The desired result is more like a soft vegetable stew than a soup. Mash a few of the beans into the liquid to thicken.

INGREDIENTS

3 tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, finely sliced

200g carrots, roughly diced

2 celery stalks, finely sliced

200g potatoes, roughly diced

2 zucchini, sliced and halved

750ml vegetable stock or boiling water

100g fine green beans, sliced

100g podded broad beans

400 g canned white beans, drained

sea salt and pepper

2 tomatoes, seeded and diced

100g peas

4 dsp pesto

extra virgin olive oil for serving

basil leaves for serving

parmesan for grating

METHOD

Heat the olive oil in a fry pan and sweat the leeks, carrots and celery over gentle heat until the leeks soften. Add the potato and zucchini and sweat for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable stock or water, and bring to a simmer. Add the green beans, broad beans and white beans and simmer for 15 minutes.

Season well, add the tomatoes and peas and simmer for 5 minutes or until all is tender. Place a tablespoon of pesto in each shallow soup bowl and spoon on the pistou, stirring gently to distribute. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, scatter with basil leaves and parmesan and serve hot.

Serves 4

© 2008 The Age

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