Elevating Spring Vegetables

The Memphis Farmers Market is in its third season and has added a dinner tour once a month during its market season of May through October. Its first dinner was held at the Brushmark Restaurant located in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Chef Andrew Adams of the Brushmark is organizing the 2008 MFM Dinner Tour and led with five courses that featured Spring vegetables. Let me just say that my dining companions and I were impressed with the expert preparation of fresh, seasonal, local vegetables. The produce for this dinner came from various farmers from the Memphis Farmers Market. They include Nora Farm, Gracious Gardener, Whitton Farm, Bonnie Blue Farm, Dodson's Farm, Downing Hollow Farm, Jones Orchard, and West Wind Farm.

Our first course focused on Broccoli Rabe with gnocchi, braised baby spinach, and spring garlic. The NY Times magazine had an article on spring garlic the Sunday following this dinner. This course was paired with a 2006 The Wolftrap Rosé from Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The dish was very refreshing and the spring garlic gave it a nice zip.

The second course focused on Spinach which was topped with a block of tofu that had been braised in a butter stock, seared, then topped with a quail egg, and sprinkled with sugar snap peas. This course was paired with a 2006 Pinot Gris-Pinot Blanc from Santa Barbara. I loved the sweetness of the sugar snap peas, and wondered why the tofu tasted so good...butter baby!

The third course focused on baby Spring Root Vegetables. One component of the dish was breakfast radish and baby turnips braised in white wine stock mixture. The baby carrots and sweet potatoes were pureed and topped with fried basil. This was paired with a 2006 Morgan 12 Clones Pinor Noir from Santa Lucia Highlands. My favorite element of this course was the fried basil.

The fourth course focused on Cheese. We have Tomme, Parker, and Chevre in puff pastry with a lemon syrup reduction. This was paired with a 2005 Ferrari-Carano Sienna from Sonoma County.

The last course focused on Strawberry. The dish came with freshly made strawberry ice cream, and a strawberry shortcake make of almond cake and strawberry crème-fraîche, and a side of stewed Rhubarb. The emphasis in the ice cream is CREAM!

The servings were of French dining portions so the men at our table were plotting the fast food places to stop at on their way home. That was not needed as Chef Adams brought out more ice cream for all of us to consume. I was very impressed with the skilled preparation of simple vegetables. Each element of each course was cooked to perfection and with proper respect. I'm going to give frying herbs a try and see if I get the same results as Chef Adams.