This recipe comes from my brother Rory O'Connell. During the 5-6 weeks when wild garlic is in season, it is woven in and out of the menu at the School every day. There are two types of wild garlic: the wider-leafed Allium ursinum, which grows in shady places along the banks of streams and in undisturbed mossy woodland; and Allium triquetrum, with long thin leaves, which grows alongside roadsides and country lanes. The latter is also known as the three-cornered leek or snowbell because it resembles white bluebells.
In this simple and unusual first course or side dish, spears of asparagus and like-shaped scallions are grilled until caramel brown and then dressed in a mustard vinagrette.
Ingredients
Heat the oven to 450ºF.
If you cook no other potato recipe in your lifetime, you must try this one. A small amount of turmeric brings out the earthiness and somehow the sweetness of potatoes. This is kind of an upside-down potato casserole with the caramely onions on the bottom rather than the top. A final handful of crisp almonds takes these potatoes over the top.
The yams are best at room temperature and improve with several days in the refrigerator.
A beauty queen of the first order, this dish flies in the face of the old saying, "two peas in a pod." The truth is no two peas are ever the same.
Cuban black bean soup ranks with France's steak frites and Italy's spaghetti with red sauce as a national obsession. It is a touchstone dish of the Caribbean. Usually made from dried beans (and definitely worth the extra time when you have it), the dish can nonetheless be adapted to a streamlined model with canned beans.
Jean-Pierre Moullé and I were roasting chickens to go with brussels sprouts when he told me I should try opening the brussels and flash-sautéing them, because they're delicious that way. That's how I've cooked them ever since. The bacon-and-cream combo -- along with bourbon -- is a classic Southern thing; I put a Spanish twist on it with the sherry.