Mixed spring vegetable ragout
With recipes this simple, success lies in selecting the freshest, best-quality ingredients and carefully monitoring the cooking time. Use good unsalted butter for sauteing and have a good quality stock on hand for finishing. Just grasp this exceedingly easy technique, and you can present any combination of new-season vegetables that speak to you at the market or emerge from your garden. Fava beans, baby carrots in orange, yellow and red, baby turnips, baby fennel, baby beets and spring onions, as well as sweet young peas, pencil-thin asparagus and slim young parsnips all take well to the technique.
From the story: Pamper those delicate babies
Remove the fava beans from the pods. Blanch the beans in lightly salted boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain, reserving the water. Plunge the beans into cold water, then remove outer skins and set the beans aside.
Blanch the peas for 30 seconds in the same water. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain, again reserving the water. Plunge into cold water, drain and set aside.
Blanch the asparagus tips in the same water for 30 seconds; plunge into cold water, drain and set aside, reserving the cooking water.
Trim the tops and stems from the carrots, leaving about one-fourth inch of stem. Scrub the carrots with a brush. Cut them in half lengthwise and set aside. Trim the tops from the turnips. Quarter the turnips and set aside. Trim the tops from the fennel and set aside. Chop a portion of the frond to get 1 tablespoon chopped fennel for garnish. Reserve.
Blanch the carrot halves in the same pot of boiling salted water just until tender, about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Blanch the turnips in the same water just until tender, about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Blanch the fennel in the same water 3 minutes, or until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the blanched vegetables except for the asparagus tips. Season with salt and pepper and cook 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the veal stock, cover and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the aspargus tips during the last 2 to 3 minutes cooking time. Stir in the reserved chopped fennel and serve.
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