Spring Salad: Wild Cress, Butter Lettuce, Wild Violets, Hazelnuts, Avocado, Red Spring Onion, Champagne Vinaigrette
Yield: two large or four small servings

Ingredients:
1 head butter lettuce, torn into pieces
1 bunch wild foraged cress
1 handful wild violets
1 handful hazelnuts
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1 red spring onion, sliced into rings
1 T. champagne (or other) vinegar
2 T. olive oil
1 t. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Place all of the salad ingredients except for the violets in a serving bowl.

• Place the vinegar, oil, mustard, salt and pepper in a small jar and shake vigorously until well combined.

• Pour the dressing over the salad and toss it well. Garnish with the violets.  Serve immediately.

Cheese and Apple Salad
Yield: about 10 servings

Ingredients:
1 tart apple (such as Granny Smith)
1 sweet, mild apple (such as Pink Lady)
½ pound Gruyere cheese (or substitute Emmenthaler)
1 lemon
¼ c. mayonnaise
salt and pepper

Method:

• Peel and core the apples, cut them into matchsticks, and place them in your serving bowl.

• Squeeze the juice of the lemon through your cupped hand and over the apples, catching any pips in the palm of your hand.

• Cut the cheese into matchsticks and toss it with the apples.

• Season the salad with salt and pepper, just a little of each.

• Toss it with the mayonnaise.

• Refrigerate the salad until serving time.

This salad may be made well ahead of serving time.  It will keep in the refrigerator without browning or wilting for a couple of days.

Tuxedo Salad Tips
Black beluga lentils are available here if you can’t find them in your market.

If you can’t find fresh black trumpet mushrooms, which seem to be rarer, I would use fresh enoki mushrooms, which are lily white in keeping with the tuxedo idea, and are more readily available.  If your market does not carry them and you live in or near a city, try an Asian market.

Shepherd’s Hope Cheese is made in Nerstrand, Minnesota by the Read family.  If you can’t find it, substitute any creamy sheep milk cheese you like, or a creamy goat cheese.  Read my piece about Shepherd’s Way Farms here.

This salad seems rather plain, perhaps, but the butter from the mushrooms flavors the lentils along with the mushrooms and the creamy cheese. Yum.

Tuxedo Salad: Black Beluga Lentils, Black Trumpet Mushrooms, & Creamy White Shepherds’ Way Farms’ Shepherd’s Hope Cheese
Yield: two luncheon-sized servings, or four small servings as a side, or enough for about two dozen timbales or spoonfuls as an hors d’oeuvre

Ingredients:
1 c. black beluga lentils
8 ounces fresh black trumpet mushrooms
2 T. butter
salt and pepper
2 ounces Shepherd’s Hope cheese, or other artisan sheep milk cheese

Method:

• Place the lentils and 2 ½ c. water into a small saucepan, cover it, and bring it to a boil over high heat.

• Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the lentils are just tender, about 15 minutes.

• Drain the lentils and season them with salt and pepper.

• Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.

• When it is sizzling, add the mushrooms and season them with salt and pepper.

• Sauté them until they are a little crisp, about ten minutes.

• Toss the mushrooms and butter into the lentils.

• Break off little wedges of the cheese and toss them into the salad.

• Taste the salad and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Winter Supper:  Swedish Meatballs, Rot Kraut, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Fennel and Green Apple Salad with Juniper Berries, & Swedish Rice Pudding with Spiced Sour Cherry Compote

Dinner Tips
The Swedish meatballs and gravy freeze well.  Make them up to a month ahead, thaw them in the refrigerator, and warm them gently on the lowest heat possible, stirring frequently.

When you make the gravy, add the liquids very gradually and stir vigorously to avoid lumps.  If you do get lumps, strain the gravy before you add the meatballs.

You may cook the potatoes and hold them in the hot water until you are nearly ready to serve dinner.  Then drain them and mash them.

The salad is simple and very quick to assemble.  You may make it at the last minute just before you are ready to serve dinner.  A benriner is an inexpensive Japanese mandoline.  Coincidentally, “Benri ne?” means “Isn’t it convenient?” in Japanese.  If you don’t have a benriner or a mandoline, you may slice the fennel and apples with a knife.  Just plan more time to do so.

The Rot Kraut may be made up to a week ahead and kept in the refrigerator.  In fact, its flavor improves a bit over a couple of days.

The Swedish rice pudding and compote may also be made a few days ahead and kept in the refrigerator.

Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground pork
2 pounds ground beef (80% lean)
12 slices white bread
6 eggs
salt and pepper
1 scant c. whole milk
pinch or two of allspice
pinch or two of ground ginger
pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch or two of freshly ground cardamom
butter for frying the meatballs

Method:

• In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients until they are just blended.

• Roll the meat into balls the size of a pingpong ball.

• Heat a very large skillet over medium heat.  When it is hot, melt a good knob of butter and fry the meatballs until they are golden brown on all sides.  Alternatively, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake the meatballs in a glass or ceramic dish for 45 minutes.  Frying produces better flavor, but is more labor intensive.

• While the meatballs cook, make the gravy.

• Place the cooked meatballs into the gravy and simmer for 30 minutes.

Gravy for the Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter
8 T. all purpose flour
1 heaping T. grainy mustard
8 c. beef stock (preferably homemade)
4 c. whole milk, divided
½ c. flour

Method:

• In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter.

• Stir in the 8 T. of flour and cook for a minute or two.

• Stir in the mustard.

• Very gradually add the broth, stirring constantly.

• Shake one cup of the milk with ½ c. flour until you have a smooth paste.  Stir it into the gravy.

• Add the remaining 3 c. milk and stir.

• Simmer until thickened, stirring contantly.

• Add the meatballs and simmer for 30 minutes.

Rot Kraut

Ingredients:
1 head red cabbage, sliced on a benriner or mandoline into paper thin slices
3 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, sliced thinly
½ c. natural apple juice
½ c. red wine vinegar
3 T. brown sugar
½ c. red wine (not cooking wine)

Method:

• In a very large pan, sauté the bacon until it is crisp.

• Add the onions and sauté them until they are soft.

• Add the cabbage and all of the other ingredients and stir it all together.

• Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Lower the heat to lowest possible, cover the pan, and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often, until the cabbage is soft and fragrant.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
5 pounds Yukon gold or waxy potatoes
6 T. unsalted butter
2 c. heavy cream (I love Cedar Summit Farms.)
salt and pepper

Method:

• Peel the potatoes and place them in water to cover in a large pan.

• Bring the water to a boil over high heat and reduce it to a simmer.

• Simmer the potatoes for 20 minutes, or until they are very tender when pierced with a fork.

• Drain the potatoes in a colander.

• Place the butter and cream in the pan and warm them.

• Add the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher until they are very smooth and creamy.

• Season them with salt and pepper to taste.

Fennel and Green Apple Salad with Juniper Berries

Ingredients:
2 bulbs fresh fennel
2 tart green apples
a small handful of juniper berries, crushed with a sharp knife
a drizzle of olive oil
2 T. white vinegar
salt and pepper

Method:

• Using a benriner or mandoline, slice the fennel and apples into paper thin slices.

• Scatter the juniper berries over the top.

• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

• Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and toss.

Swedish Rice Pudding and Spiced Sour Cherry Compote

Recipes here.

Recipes In Concert

1. Make the rice pudding and refrigerate it.

2. Make the Rot Kraut.

3. Add the whipped cream to the rice pudding and refrigerate it.

4. Make the meatballs.

5. Make the gravy while the meatballs fry or bake.

6. Make the compote.

7. Boil the potatoes.

8. Set the table.

9. Make the salad.

10. Mash the potatoes.

11. Serve the meal.