Spring has arrived, and that should gladden the hearts of good cooks as well as gardeners. If you are a gardener, or have access to a garden, then you should already be enjoying the fruits of the season. Spring greens, including lettuces and spinach, should be ready to harvest now. Add some spring onions and serve with a bacon vinaigrette, add some good bread, and you've got a wonderful meal. If you planted some cole crops last fall (kale or collards, for example), you can harvest them now as well. Radishes love cool weather, and add a nice zestiness to any salad. Have you ever had a radish sliced very thin and spread with some good butter? What a delicious and easy appetizer. The butter smooths out the spiciness of the radish, and if you are lucky enough to find excellent butter, it adds it's own sweet creaminess. You might even find some great fresh butter at Witschey's or at Home Comforts, in Sardis.

 

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the counter

5 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and chilled

2/3 cup half-and-half

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

 

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Pulse together the flour, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the baking powder, and salt in a food processor until combinede. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and process until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about 15 pulses. Transfer to a bowl.

 

Blend the half-and-half with the beaten egg and pour into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula until large clumps form. Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured counter and knead lightly until the dough comes together.

 

Use your fingertips to pat the dough into a 9x6 inch rectangle about 1 inch thick. Cut out 6 dough rounds using a floured 2 3/4 inch biscuit cutter. Reform the remaining dough and cut 2 more rounds. (Actually, I would deviate from the recipe here, and just divide the dough into 8 pieces and lightly flatten each biscuit. Please treat this dough very lightly to avoid it becoming tough!) Place the rounds 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush the tops with the beaten egg white, and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

 

Bake the shortcakes until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Let the shortcakes cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.

 

To assemble: Split each biscuit in half, laying the biscuit bottoms on individual plates. Spoon a portion of the fruit over each bottom, then top with a dollop of the whipped cream. Cap with the biscuit tops. (WhenI make this, I put more berries and cream on the biscuit tops.) Some cookbooks, including this one, instruct you to add sugar to the berries before making the shortcakes (6 Tbsp. for 2 quarts of berries), but when the berries are fresh and sweet, I like them just as they are! You can use this same recipe for the other berries as they come in - raspberries are next, followed by blueberries and blackberries.

 

 

A couple of other things that are at their best right now are asparagus and morels, and here is a recipe that uses both: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Asparagus-with-Morels-and-Tarragon-238445 . Morels are a wild mushroom, although there are places where they are available as commercially grown produce (Not around here!) You will have to go out to the woods around here to get them. Normally I shy away from wild mushrooms or anyone that says they know how to distinguish the good ones. I'd have to see the other person eat them and survive before I'd touch them. I have been given morels by friends that know them, and enjoyed them. Just to be safe, you should go with an experienced morel hunter the first time.

For comments or questions, contact mayevuta@suddenlink.net