Celebrating Spring (finally!)
With a crab, tarragon and saffron custard, with asparagus, a lamb meatball, chard and potato braise, and an anecdote about my local farmers market.
First of all a little story. I often mention my local farmers market in these newsletters - I have been a Saturday morning regular ever since I moved to the area, around 16 years ago. It is a rare week when we don’t visit, rain or shine. My mantra is if the stallholders can be setting up and standing out in all weathers, I shouldn’t balk at being out in weather for an hour or so. It is not the only farmers market I visit but Ealing is my favourite and the only one within walking distance. Like all farmers markets it has changed and evolved, expanding and contracting and expanding again over the years, but its core values remain the same - there is a focus on really good ingredients and take home foods - it feels more produce led than some of the markets which have become more about street food than home cooking. It is feels honest and usually good value (especially with seasonal stuff - you won’t be paying £12.50 for a bunch of asparagus here!) and some of the stallholders feel like friends - I’ve chatted to some of them almost every week for years.
So a couple of weeks ago, I got a message from one of the stallholders, asking if I knew of anyone who could take over the manning of their stall, as they were expanding into other markets. I wondered whether my son could do it. He’s a confident, capable boy, so I thought he’d manage a relatively low key stall (ie, not queues round the block) well. The stallholder was amenable to trying him out, and after a morning spent together he got the job. It was his first market on his own last Saturday and it was something of a baptism of fire. A broken card reader, so cash only, without a float. And missing bags.
So sales were much lower than they would normally be. It was a very slow market anyway, which is often the case on a bank holiday weekend - much less footfall. But most of the customers didn’t have cash - and as many of them had come out with just their phones, not even their bank cards, they couldn’t go to the cash point to get cash either. It was so disheartening - so many slightly disgruntled customers unable to make their regular purchases, others not having the right change.
However, what could have been a horribly stressful first market was turned into something much more positive, slow sales notwithstanding. I turned up to do my usual shopping to find that the market manager and some of the stallholders had rallied - several of them had spent ages trying to get the card reader to work, a couple of them donated bags, change was exchanged, others came over simply to introduce themselves and say hello. They didn’t leave him to flounder, they helped as much as they could and he didn’t feel as though he was on his own.
It made all the difference to Adam. He came away thinking that he will be able to cope with anything the market now throws at him. And I came away on Saturday feeling utterly justified in my fondness for this lovely market.
Coincidentally, just the week before I had walked around it with Cheryl Cohen - she used to run the market and was very involved in setting up and running London farmers markets for a couple of decades. As you can imagine, she is very knowledgeable about the food businesses and producers who sell at the markets, as well as about food in general so she is well worth subscribing to. You can listen to our conversation on her Substack here.
Onto the recipes. The price of asparagus has come down at long last, new potatoes are in, I am buying large bunches of chard and cavolo nero on a weekly basis (both excellent bridging vegetables, they really thrive in late winter/early spring). PSB is coming to the end of the season (mine comes from Perry Court Farm Shop from the market), but the tips are still good and the woodier stems soften when pressure cooked and well worth adding to soups. Dressed crab from the fish stall is a special treat these days and the eggs come from Duck Lane Farm - free to roam and no soy in the feed and cheaper than any others I can get even close to the same quality. I regularly buy a whole tray.
Steamed Egg Custards with Crab and Asparagus
This recipe relies on ratios, which is why I give a range of weights for the eggs and stock. You need 1 part egg to 3 parts milk or stock for the smoothest and silkiest of custards. It is very, very important not to whisk the eggs as it can spoil the texture. Smoothness is key.
You can add all kinds of things to these. Leftover cooked meat, tiny mushrooms, some wilted greens (wild garlic if you have any!), but here I’ve gone for crab and steamed some asparagus alongside. It’s a classic combination.
The leaves I use come from a salad mix Wild Country Organics do, usually with a handful of micro greens from Westlands - their mixes of micro leaves really pack a punch.
For the custard:
3 eggs (around 125-150g, shelled weight)
350-425g milk or a combination of milk and stock
25g brown crab meat
A large pinch saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp warm water
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp tarragon, finely chopped
For the crab salad:
16 stems of asparagus, trimmed
2 tbsp olive oil
Zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tsp white wine or tarragon vinegar
1 tbsp tarragon leaves, finely chopped
4 handfuls salad leaves
100g white crab meat
A few wild garlic flowers (optional)
Lightly oil 4 medium sized ramekins. Cut 4 rounds of greaseproof paper to the same size as the ramekins and lightly oil or butter. Put 2cm water in your pressure cooker and add a trivet and steamer basket. Place the ramekins in the steamer basket.
Weigh the eggs to work out how much milk and/or stock you need. Lightly beat the eggs to break them up, but don’t whisk – you don’t want them to foam. Measure the stock to give you 3 times the weight of the eggs. Stir the stock into the eggs along with the brown crab meat, saffron water and mustard. Strain into a jug and season with salt and pepper.
Pour the egg custard into the ramekins and sprinkle each one with the tarragon. Top with the rounds of parchment. Place the asparagus in a double thickness piece of foil and season. Fold into a parcel and place on top of the ramekins.
Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Adjust the heat so it is just high enough to maintain the pressure. Cook for 5 minutes for a lovely wobbly soft set and fast release.
Whisk the olive oil and lime zest and juice together with the vinegar and chopped tarragon. Season with salt and pepper and add the crab meat and the salad leaves. Divide between four plates. Slice the asparagus and add to the salad, then garnish with the wild garlic flowers if you have any.
Serve with the custards.
Lamb Meatballs with Chard, New Potatoes and Asparagus
Once you have the meatballs made and seared, which is quite fast as they are just an assembly job, this is a very fast supper dish which as usual is very adaptable. I use whatever greens I have available. All the kales work well in place of chard, I sometimes replace some of the potato with chunks of celeriac and sprouting broccoli or tiny new season courgettes which are overlapping at the moment in terms of the seasons are both good alternatives to asparagus. You can see how good the PSB is right now….
We have a habit of adding cheese to braises like this. I like cubes of feta added to the second cook as it goes so beautifully creamy, but will also add spoonfuls of goat’s curd to my bowl and yesterday we just I grated over a sheep’s cheese - kefalotyri - picked up in Lidl as part of their current Greek season (they are also having a Scandinavian season, I bought palm oil free Moomin biscuits yesterday and saved all the Moominmammas).
A note on the asparagus - I use quite thick stems for braises like this, so it will cook in a similar time to the leeks. Thinner stalks need no more than zero minutes, fast release. Remember to save your stems - they are good for stock and you can also make the soup found here.