Prolific produce
Fresh ideas crop up from an abundance of fresh vegetables
By Susan M. SELASKY
Detroit Free Press
You can buy just about any vegetables year-round. But something happens to cooks come spring: They crave the fresh and green produce of spring that usher out the hearty winter veggies.
At area farmers markets and some stores, crisp green stalks of asparagus will be popping up soon, if they haven’t already. And mushroom lovers will be foraging for those prized morels.
The next four to five weeks — when springtime favorites such as ramps, morels and fiddlehead ferns make their way to markets — is executive chef Frank Turner’s favorite time of the year.
Turner, food and nutrition director at Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield, Mich., does a lot with spring greens and asparagus and is a huge supporter of the local food movement.
“When you can have something at the peak of its nature, such as spring greens, a m ¢che or fris e and baby spring spinach, you get to enjoy the season,” he said.
Turner likes the tender and young spring Swiss chards, anything in the green family or leafy greens and kales. “They are always less bitter when they are young,” he said.
Asparagus is one of the most popular spring vegetables. But Turner says a lot of folks don’t know that asparagus is hand-harvested and “that means you can eat the whole stalks.”
Turner says less is more when it comes to preparing spring vegetables.
“If you can stand on the quality of your ingredients — and spring vegetables have great quality — you are doing a great thing,” Turner said.
With asparagus, Turner grills it for just a few minutes and then finishes it off with some sort of lemon component, such as lemon-infused olive oil or lemon zest and fresh cracked pepper just as it’s coming off the grill.
“On a hot grill, it takes just 2 minutes,” Turner said. “And it really picks up the nutty nuance of the asparagus.”
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