A Girl and Her Greens. April Bloomfield
good for you. I like to think that’s all that matters. Add a spoonful of smoked trout roe for a special treat.
The soup will go from garden green to drab olive if you don’t serve it straightaway. If you’d like to make the soup the night before but retain its bright green colour, make an ice-water bath in a bowl large enough to hold another bowl and set the second large bowl in the bath. Once the soup is done, pour it in the bowl and stir until it’s cold. Transfer it to an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for up to a day.
serves 4 to 6
2 spring garlic heads, with stalks attached if possible (see ‘Spring Garlic’, opposite)
110g plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large Spanish onion (about 450g), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2½ tablespoons plus a pinch Maldon or another flaky sea salt
450g russet (baking) potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-cm pieces, rinsed and drained well
450ml whole milk
450g mature watercress (not baby), bottom 2.5cm of stems trimmed, thick stems thinly sliced, the rest left whole
A small handful of delicate chervil sprigs, optional
110ml plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
120g crème fraîche
½ teaspoon black peppercorns, toasted in a small pan until aromatic, then coarsely crushed
Trim away the roots and cut off and discard the dark green tops of the spring garlic. Peel off the outermost layer from the stalks and bulbs. If your knife slides easily through the stalk about 10cm up from the bulb, thinly slice it and set aside. If not, save it to use as an aromatic in stock or sauce. Halve the bulbs lengthwise and if necessary remove any tough layers. Thinly slice the bulb, discarding anything you come across with which your knife struggles.
Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium-low heat, then add the garlic, onion, and 1 tablespoon of the salt and have a stir. Cover the pot and cook, stirring occasionally and reducing the heat if the onion threatens to colour, until the onion is very soft, creamy and sweet, about 30 minutes.
Add the potatoes, milk, the remaining 1½ tablespoons of salt, and 450ml of water. Cover the pot, increase the heat to medium, and bring the liquid to a vigorous simmer. Uncover, lower the heat if necessary to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook until the potatoes are fully tender, about 15 minutes.
Add the watercress and chervil (if you’re using it), let it wilt slightly, and gently stir to submerge the greens in the liquid. Bring the mixture back to a simmer, pour in 110ml of the oil, then remove the pot from the heat.
Pour the soup into a large mixing bowl. Working in batches, blend the soup (be careful when blending hot liquids) until very smooth, adding each batch back to the pot. (Whenever I make this at one of my restaurants, I use a high-power blender, such as a Vita-Prep, to get the soup especially smooth and fully bright green rather than green-flecked.)
Keep the soup warm in the pot and season to taste with salt. Combine the crème fraîche and crushed peppercorns in a small bowl with the remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt and stir well.
Divide the soup among bowls, top with the crème fraîche mixture and serve straightaway.
SPRING GARLIC
At farmers’ markets, you see spring garlic in different sizes. For this recipe, try to find bulbous heads that are close in size to a head of standard garlic. Sometimes, especially in early spring, the spring garlic on offer might have slim heads, about the size of spring onion bottoms. These are just fine, though you’ll want to use 6 or so, including the tender parts of the stalks. Even on the larger bulbs of spring garlic, there’s a chance that the bottom 10cm or so of stalk will also be tender enough to use in this recipe.
ASPARAGUS QUICHES WITH MINT
I’m afraid that quiche has gone out of fashion, hasn’t it? I think I know why. When I was growing up, I ate some truly horrible ones, both home-cooked and shop-bought, packed with what seemed like a refrigerator’s worth of odds and ends suspended in overcooked egg. The only fun I’d have eating them was squidging the filling through my teeth. But as with most foods we think we don’t like, a truly excellent specimen can change our minds in a bite. My hope is that this quiche does just that with a delicate, flaky crust and an eggy filling that’s fluffy enough to banish those bad memories for ever.
You could eat quiche piping hot from the oven, of course, but I prefer it once it’s cooled a bit or at room temperature. Fresh from the oven, quiche tastes mostly of crust. Only when it cools does it all balance out, the crust stepping back a few paces and the egginess and filling marching forward to say hello.
Quiche makes a great vehicle for whatever vegetables are in season and a fun way to impress when you have a crowd over for lunch. Little quiches are really cute, but feel free to make one larger quiche, if you fancy. A 28-cm tart tin will do it, though you will wind up with some extra dough.
makes twelve 8cm quiches
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Twelve 8-cm wide, 2.5-cm deep ring moulds or tartlet tins
FOR THE DOUGH
375g plain flour
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
110g unsalted butter, well chilled and cut into 1-cm pieces
60g crème fraîche
55ml very cold water
FOR THE FILLING
Sea salt
450g asparagus (spears as thick as an index finger), woody bottoms snapped off, stalks cut into 0.5-cm pieces, tips left whole
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into several chunks
115g finely diced Spanish onion (about 1 small)
1 small bulb spring garlic, tough outer layer removed, bulb thinly sliced and then roughly chopped, or 1 tablespoon thinly sliced regular garlic
¼ teaspoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
180g double cream
165ml whole milk
8 mint leaves, thinly sliced at the last minute
make the dough
Combine the flour, sugar, sea salt and baking powder in a food processor and pulse several times to mix them well. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture has the texture of fine breadcrumbs. A few pebble-size pieces of butter here and there is just fine.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl, pour in the crème fraîche and water, and use your fingertips to toss and gently smoosh the mixture just until it comes together as a dry, slightly crumbly dough. Don’t overwork it and don’t let it warm up too much. Cover the bowl and keep it in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes.
Line your work surface and a baking sheet with baking parchment. Turn the dough onto the work surface and roll it out to an even 0.5cm thickness, dusting the dough with flour if the rolling pin sticks to it. Trace an inverted bowl with the tip of your knife to cut out twelve 11-cm rounds. Work swiftly to line each ring mould with a dough round, pressing the sides and bottoms gently. Put them on the baking sheet, cover them with clingfilm, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.