LET IT BE SPRING

It’s the sun before more rain later this week, and so this afternoon I met friends up at Sickles Market in Little Silver. Sickles, except for a few spring peak-plant days, is typically closed on Sundays. But last weekend, it began to open its doors –“now and forever,” they’re saying – on Sundays.

The market was a veritable party. Everyone who’s been hibernating all winter was out and buying produce, cheeses, little jars of this and that luxury item, and tons of Chef Kevin’s prepared foods. My pal Pam, a “greens-and-beans” fiend, stocked up her cart with a garden of kale, chard and spinach. We bought a bounty of bouncy frisee and a boatload of mesclun. Somehow I came away with a battalion of Meyer lemons. Yeah, right – there’s no “somehow” about it; I packed up a few pounds of the kind, gentle things quite purposefully. And shallots – 3 pounds of shallots. Did I mention the marinated artichokes? Two quart containers of those guys, from the Sickles olives-et-al bar. My friend Laura Osborne, who’s now working at Sickles, gallantly double-wrapped them for me.

I’m going to be making one of my all-time favorites, a stew of cut-up, bone-in chicken in a lemon-white wine sauce with artichokes, shallots and capers. It’s lemon-lemon-lemon. (I’ll sneak in a few preserved lemons, I’m sure.) Then, I’ll serve it over egg noodles and be very happy. It’s such a sunny dish. I can’t imagine anything more perfect for the onset of real-deal spring.

What do you cook to herald spring?

Cheers,
Andy
4.22.07