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My husband's most recent batch of duck legs confit are gently cooking away in the kitchen - we're experimenting and letting them go low and slow in the crockpot this time. It smells heavenly. :)

Tomorrow we'll garden and grill - chicken sausages on crusty rolls for lunch; steak for dinner - and on Sunday I'm doing lamb chops marinated in lemon, garlic and herbs, some toasted Israeli couscous mixed with goat cheese, and a mix of asparagus and fava beans, just lightly cooked and tossed with some olive oil, salt and lemon zest. I've got a bottle of Château Peyros Magenta Madiran 2002 to go with the lamb.

What should I do with enoki mushrooms? I was taken with their sculptural qualities and bought a package to take some arty photographs (b+w, of course). But now what?

I have been salivating about Goat Cheese and Lardo since I read the recipe here. But I cannot find Lardo in NYC for the life of me. I tried the usual suspects: Wholefood, Agatha & Cristina, Artisanal, Murray cheese... Any other suggestions???

Tomorrow we are going to my brothers house for a Passover meal, my sil is Jewish and had her days mixed up for passover, so we are doing that on Sat. I think she said a brisket, yummy. Then on Sunday we will have a very traditional Easter dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes. I am not yet sure what else to fix with dinner, but I think we will end up doing whatever fresh veg looks good in the store. Unless of course anyone has any suggestions as I am open for something different.

Jenblossom - I'm completely jealous of everything you will be eating this weekend. It all sounds fantastic. I've always wanted to try duck confit.

As for me, I'll be making sweet pea soup with mint pesto, and braised lamb shanks, which I've never made before. I just picked up six of them last night at Whole Foods. Does anyone have any pointers? In pictures, I've seen a sort of frenched bone sticking out the top, but mine don't really look like that. Also, there's a layer of fat encasing all of the meat. I should cut that off, right? Or should I let it render and then maybe skim off the fat after it's cooked. I plan on making it a day ahead and then reheating it on Easter. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I love Easter/Passover - there's always a lot of lamb going on sale on Monday! It's a great time to pick up a few pounds to freeze and use later for stew or curry.

Grant - I generally trim the fat off first, depending on how much there is. If it's all around the meat I would definitely take it off. If you're browning it first then you want the flavor coming from browned meat, not fat. Braised lamb sounds wonderful...

We're doing an Easter brunch on Sunday, and I am trying to juggle several different traditions, for fun - Polish sausage with horseradish, beet salad, hot cross buns, Eccles cakes, egg salad in pastry cups, and mini bacon and parmesan quiches. Plus mimosas, of course, and an egg hunt for the kids.

I'm thinking of making a fresh cream of asparagus soup, lamb of some sort, roasted new potatoes, salad with cheese (fresh ewe's cheese of some sort?) and probably nuts, and rhubarb crisp. I'm thinking of using mint and parsley as the main herbs, but now that faith mentions horseradish, I'm drooling over that. I just want it to taste like spring!

I'm going to the farmer's market early tomorrow to browse and find inspriation and a friend just gave me some great tiny baby greens from her Brooklyn farm... so those will go in the salad.

jenblossom....yum, yum, yum! sounds like a series of wonderful and delicious meals that you have planned.

for me it's a traditional ukrainian easter brunch with my family. (my entire kitchen is currently filled with smells of horseradish and kielbasa!) we'll have pierogis with sour cream and onions, eggs, ham, and my aunt makes beautiful babkas that we'll have with cream cheese and sweet butter. and, of course, mimosas! easter is one of my favorite holidays. : )

happy holidays everyone! may your weekend be filled with good company and great food!

Michelle of Montreal:

I've only had fresh enoki mushrooms two ways: 1.) in miso soup and 2.) sauteed in butter.

Came across a website with a ton of interesting and traditional uses of enoki:

http://www.forestmushrooms.com/enoki.html

Share what you discover!

Chucky,

I can't find it in NYC either, but you can order it through Niman Ranch... maybe try somewhere up in the Bronx on Arthur Avenue - are you familiar with that area? Here's the link to Niman Ranch:

http://www.nimanranch.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/NimanRanch-NimanRanchStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=LKGgY0NzE58000Q9qRVluyGo0000gkIMjGMX?ProductUUID=hi7AqArtgusAAAEI9B08enGd&CatalogCategoryID=emjAqApCP4gAAAEAeKVPxHmy

Grant, I love lamb shanks and make them several time a year. Trim the "silver" off the shanks. Dust the shanks with salt and pepper and a very little bit of Wondra flour. Brown them in oil on all sides in a heavy dutch oven (see SK's article), remove from pan and pour out all but a little bit of fat. Saute a lot of onions (if the shanks weigh 4 lbs., use 2 lbs. onions) to soften them, add salt, pepper, minced garlic, and crushed rosemary. Put lamb shanks back in pot, put some of the onions over them. Pour enough hearty red wine or broth and some crushed tomatoes around the shanks so the liquid covers roughly 3/4 of the shanks. Braise in a preheated 325-350 oven until the lamb can fall off the bone. Remove shanks, strain liquid (or don't). Chill them separately over night. Remove the fat from the liquid. Reheat all together at 325. Can't go wrong.

Thank you Sara Kate. I will give it a try and let you know how it came out.

And congrats to the addition to the family. I envy this baby who will have the coolest abode and the best food!!!

Did anyone else make the flourless lemon-almond cake?

I made two recipes of the cake, filled the layers with lemon curd and frosted it all with Italian meringue. I with was really pleased with the results and received a lot of positive feedback about it.

(Although I did take photos, I unfortunately have not been able to upload them...computer problems.)

MofM
enoki mushrooms are fab in anything, but i espeically like them in a pan-asia chicken noodle soup
another yummy way i've eaten them is to buy a bunch of mushrooms, chop them finely, sautee with garlic/onions/herbs and then stuff wonton wrappers with the mixture to make ravioli or dumplings (depending on which culture you'd like to eat from)
enjoy! mushrooms rule!

oh, and i don't really have any easter plans-- my nephew has rota (i think thats how you spell it) virus, and has passed it on to my sister and her hubby, so, basically, easter's cancelled

market market 123...

spicy mustard greens, broccoli rabe, leeks, asparagus, spicy pork sausage, whole chickens, and herb goat cheese OH MY!

whatever shall I do with all this food?

I fried top sirloin and made buttermilk mashed potatoes and buttermilk biscuits. For dessert I made blueberry cobbler.

cobbler sounds so yummy. Give me a cobbler and a am instantly happy. You could proably cobble anything together and I would be happy.

Round here we have blue berry pick'n farms- it is so much fun to pick your own and then have fresh blue berries and blue fingers!

i'm back in town, and our seder went off swimmingly. you can see pix of all the food if you click on my name.

well, somehow, my little nephew pulled through and easter dinner was saved!
and to top it off, my mom made pickled red beet eggs!!!!!
click on my name for piccies, they're bee-YOT-eful!

Ann, you're right! Those do look so beautiful! I have never had pickled eggs - I am not big on hardboiled eggs (except in egg salad). But I might have to try these sometime.

We had a big Easter brunch on Sunday. I cooked for two days! I made: Polish sausage braised in red wine, spicy Italian sausage braised in white wine, horseradish, egg salad with shallots and celery in little phyllo dough cups, mini quiches with bacon and beet greens, spicy salad of beets and goat cheese, almond croissants, Eccles cakes, hot cross buns, and srikund (an Indian yogurt dessert).

Plus Cadbury mini eggs, jelly beans, and mimosas, of course.

Are there ramps in the greenmarket yet?
Anywhere else to get them?
Any good ideas for what to do with them?

maggie
i'm so glad to be able to tell you, according to "Lucy's Greenmarket Report" (which is possibly my FAVORITE nyc foodie resource), YES!!!
http://www.echonyc.com/~lwollin/greenmarket.html

my enoki mushroom report:

The arty photo shoot was cut short when I realized that the enokis just looked like little penises. All of a sudden, they seemed less interesting.

Thanks for the recipe suggestions. Ann, I was very tempted to make dumplings (to match my Asian-ness), but time ran short. Guided by a vague memory of enokis in a thick sauce, I ended up doing a braised chicken dish with mushrooms in the sauce. Quite tasty, though definitely not a "showcase" dish for the mushrooms.

I'll have to make enoki-filled dumplings some other time. Click my name for the braised chicken recipe.

I saw ramps at Union Sq this Saturday

but

ann

what a cool link for greenmarket recon!

Here is a real polish easter soup recipe:
-1qt buttermilk
-1/2 pint sour cream
-All the fresh ground horseradish root you can stand.
Mix all together, shake up once a day for 5 days.
Then chop the following into 1/2 inch cubes:
Hardboiled eggs
Kielbasa
Ham (Easter leftovers work great)
Add equal amounts of each to a soup bowl.
Pour over a helping of the horseradish buttermilk, add a little salt/pepper.
Get ready to cry! But you won't be able to stop eating it!

WHOOPS, for got to add that the buttermilk mixture needs to stay refrigerated, and that the meats/egg should be chilled or at room temp. It is a cold soup...

Horseradish Sauce Recipe:
Ingredients: sour cream, grated onion, prepared horseradish, salt... view the recipe