After my recent jelly bean binge, well, praise everything for this month's issue of Bon Appetit: an entire month of appealing recipes featuring asparagus, and peas, and everything fresh and green. If you haven't looked at Bon Appetit, recently, I'd highly recommend taking at least a glance. Under Adam Rapoport's direction, the magazine has gotten a much needed facelift: recipes are more sophisticated without being complicated; there's a great mix of menus for daily meals, special occasions, brunch, and casual entertaining that might make a person feel, well, hell yeah, let's have some people over for dinner; the drinks recipes are fabulous; most of the recipes fall in the category of "pretty-darn-easy-to-prepare," and yet each month there's always a "project,"guaranteed to inspire and challenge your skills; and, overall, the magazine makes cooking look like fun for everyone.
And did I mention easy?
This recipe is an example: a bed of tender pea shoots, gently tossed with thin slices of spring onions and a little vinegar and oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, topped with thick pieces of smoked trout, and served with a dollop of fresh horseradish and sour cream... every single item fresh from the local markets. Hardly seems like a recipe as much an assemblage of ingredients that work well together, and in fact, as we've discovered around here this week, the combination of horseradish, sour cream and smoked trout makes a terrific filling for omelets and an excellent topping for hashed brown potatos and an egg; and if we'd had any leftover pea shoots, they would have made a delicious garnish. Next time, I'll remember: more pea shoots.
