I have a bone to pick with Mark Bittman.
I read his Minimalist column in the NY Times every week and usually love it. His recipes are smart and easy. Everyone here at the office loves him: his No Knead Bread will live on forever, and have you tried his Braised Turkey? Faith did and loved it.
But...Yesterday I was perplexed to find Bittman had done a piece about making prosciutto-wrapped asparagus for a holiday appetizer.
Asparagus? In December?
In the last few years the Times, as well as most respected and popular cookbooks and cooking blogs, have really turned their attention toward seasonality, to the point where it's no longer the topic, but rather an underlying assumption. I'm not at their editorial meetings, but the impression I've had reading the Times is that you just don't write about a food that is totally out of season without at least mentioning that fact.
Take peas, for example. I'm happy to talk about using peas year-round, but I will specify that outside of early spring when peas are at their best, frozen peas are better. I may even specify that frozen peas, from a quality packer, are often more sweet than fresh peas because they are frozen straight from the field before the sugars turn to starch.
Other foods are great out of season when pickled (cucumbers, obviously, and also string beans, beets, tomatoes) or canned. But asparagus is one of the few foods that really is best in those few beautiful weeks of spring when it's pushing up out of the cold earth and reaching for the sun. Last June we ran a recipe for Asparagus Spread and Prosciutto on Buttered Toast. It's great, try it next time your farmer is carrying asparagus.
As for a prosciutto-wrapped roll for the December holidays, what about some julienned roasted beets (easy to pop in the oven and roast while you do something else) and the same baby arugula Bittman pairs with the asparagus, which is available from greenhouse-growers year-round. I'd even try pumpkin and other squash prepared the same way. Maybe not quite as quick as blanching the asparagus but these preparations are a bit easier on the conscience.
Here are a few of our favorite easy appetizers for holiday entertaining:
• Sweet Butternut Squash and Coconut Jam would be great with some fresh bread and a schmear of goat cheese.
• Easy Appetizer Template: Jam + Pork + Cheese
• Baked Goat Milk Brie with Cranberry Sauce
Yesterday, Joanna rounded up a big helping Vegan Appetizers, many of which are super-easy to prepare and most of which will keep you in season.
Do you have ideas for easy holiday appetizers? Leave them below in the comments.
Related: So Guests Don’t Have to Juggle plus the video of Mark Bittman making his Asparagus & Prosciutto Roll-Up Appetizer plus a recipes for a less-seasonally offensive appetizer: Smoked Salmon Rolls with Ricotta and Chives
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I am suddenly feeling very lame for picking up asparagus at the store last night. I thought it was a spring vegetable, but they looked good....
I bought asparagus when I did my shopping this weekend. Sure, it's not SPRING asparagus, but it was a good price and I love to have it every once in a while.
It's probably not the most affordable option in december, and if your guests are totally food conscious about seasonal produce, then it wouldn't be a good idea. But if you like it and you can find it, I say why not enjoy it?
Living in Canada, our local produce season is short. It's plentiful, but very short. We have no choice but to eat imported produce from mexico or California... especially when the thought of canned vegetables make you gag a little.
yuck.
I flat out refuse to buy asparagus when it's out of season. It is no where near as delicious as in-season, fresh picked. I'm drooling now.
It is in season, just not here, its spring/early summer in the southern hemisphere so if you're looking for seasonal tasty produce this is it but if you insist on eating local you're out of luck. Me, I can't wait for those Chilean tree-ripened nectarines to come in they are way better than the stuff you get here in the summer.
I bought some lettuce last week for the first time in about 6 months...and it felt really weird. Eating seasonally really does become a part of your life, so much that you feel pangs of guilt when you stray.
Whatever. I love asparagus and I'm going to eat it any time I want.
MMmmm MMM!
That's very odd - I stopped by Safeway this week and there was a huge display of asparagus for sale. Something struck me as odd as I walked past it - it wasn't until much later that I realized it wasn't the right season.
This seasonal thing is gettting out of hand. It is important and interesting and the root of a lot of good cooking but it isn't a mandate. It is most of all a trend. I hope that it will do what most cooking trends do: inform us, teach us a new bag of tricks, influence the way we cook but not become a dogma.... and also, come on---- it's HOLIDAY FOOD!!!!! the Holidays are when we treat ourselves. Remember all those stories of turn of the centruy families eating oranges at Chistmas in New England?
Oranges are at their peak at Christmas time.
But I agree with kristian's larger point, that it's ok to treat oneself if you're so inclined, especially if you are having a tough or long winter. I think Nigella wrote a whole book on this idea (Forever Summer).
And for me and anyone else who is not able to shop wholly at farmer's market, there's not much difference between imported asparagus in March vs. imported asparagus in December. It must be in season somewhere, because even Whole Foods has it on special these days.
Um, it's asparagus. Have you ever had asparagus? It's awesome! Yes, it's more tasty in the spring and I don't have to buy it at Trader Joe's... but damn, it's asparagus! You should never EVER deprived yourself of asparagus (unless of course you don't like it, to which I say "I'm sorry you live your life asparagus-less.")!
90% of the produce we eat on a day to day basis is what I picked up at my farmers market that week and hence, is in season. However, in the depths of winter when I tire of broccoli, chard, sweet potatoes, and the like, there is nothing nicer than being able to pick up some asparagus from Chile or sweet peppers from Argentina at the grocery store. The quickest way to veer of the track of a healthy diet is boredom and luckily, my neighborhood grocer offers me those alternatives. We are lucky to have choices.
Sure, asparagus isn't in season there. But it's in season somewhere else, so why not take advantage of it? Not only are we able to supplement our beloved, locally grown, seasonal produce with equally loved-but-not-locally-grown stuff, but we also are contributing to the livelihood of people who, in many instances, live far below what we consider an acceptable standard of living.
Alternately, it's possible he knows someone who is doing some sort of special growing to have it off-season. One of the vendors at my local farmer's market grows cucumber and tomato all winter long. They have some sort of hydroponic system or something so we can have off-season fruits/vegetables fresh from the farm. It's really lovely, because if you only are buying produce that's locally grown, you can still have off-season treats without feeling like you're breaking your commitment to eat local.
Citrus is a winter crop, here in California. Don't force our growers out of business, please.
And season eating in a global economy is sort of silly. If the US doesn't buy what other countries grow, doesn't the balance of trade get out of whack? Should those countries rely only on what they can sell to their own citizens? Could be a problem.
The self-righteousness about food needs to stop.
There are so many worse things you could do in your lifetime than buy a nutritious vegetable out of season.
i was going to say was the smoked salmon also featured in the article born, killed, and smoked in NYC? and the ricotta? was it made also nearby?
i like the seasonal thing - it makes my grocery bill cheaper and i live near Mexico so my produce isn't traveling too far when i choose to buy tomatoes at trader joe's instead of at the farmers market. however ... one can carry a thing too far. just last night on jon stewart, arianna huffington was complaining that 9 out of 10 "Italian" cheeses are actually made in the US - Wisconsin! isn't one of the truly delightful pleasures of the table a true St. Andre triple creme brie from France?
French, Italian, California, and Aussie wines, premium waters from San Pellegrino or Evian, Ikea shelving, Beluga caviar, wild caught salmon from Alaska, etc., is all made elsewhere and brought to you. That's modern life. Maybe the economy will tank to the point where it will not be worth people's or companies' efforts to grow or build things in other places to bring them here for us to buy them. The truly wonderful thing about the modern and wealthy lives we have now is that we have a choice. We won't starve if there is a plague of locusts! But we can on occasion buy a treat or vegetable from Mexico. We won't burn in hell, I promise!
If you live in certain parts of the country you can easily be a locavore or follow the 100 mile diet but ummmmm if you don't live in a prime location like san francisco that isn't going to happen. I live in Oklahoma and we have milk from a dairy in town and peaches that is it!! I can't survive on milk and peaches, peaches are only in season for a month anyway. I say try to eat unprocessed and as local as you can. Mexico is local right? :) people have got to relax about food it has become a little to high and mighty lately!!!!
I don't think people need to stop being "self-righteous" about food. Nor do I think we should calm down. For SO LONG people - particularly in this country - have been extremely ignorant about where their food is coming from, what is in their food, how it's made, etc. Food is SO IMPORTANT. It's our medicine, it's what's keeping us alive - I want to know what every single thing I put in my body is - I want to know as much about it as possible, and I want it to be of the best possible quality.
I think when people who brush off eating with the seasons as a trend are showing their ignorance. Of course I buy things out of season at times, and am not a perfect locavore. But even if you don't live in California it's quite possible to eat mostly local. People all over the country do it - there's proof all over the internet, all over food blogs.
I think Bittman could have come up with something else, considering there are a million holiday appetizers that can be made with produce that is in season. He knows what's up.
right on, Risa.