Delicate green spring vegetables – the asparagus, the peas, the fava beans – are plentiful, but our San Francisco spring is not keeping pace. Lots of gray and rain and chilly wind and not as much sunshine and clear days as we’re used to this time of year. It’s hard to get excited about simply steamed asparagus with aïoli when I’m chilled to the bone.

A big warm bowl of creamy risotto, though? That I can tuck into with glee.

Spring risotto

Go ahead and play around with the proportions of veggies here – nothing’s set in stone. Add some chopped fennel in with the green garlic, use spring onions instead of green garlic, add mint or dill or chervil at the end.You will find plenty of risotto recipes than demand that you stir the rice constantly. This is not one of them.

1 to 2 pounds fava beans

1/2 pound sweet peas/garden peas/English peas

1/2 bunch asparagus

2 green garlics

5 cups broth (I use homemade chicken stock – if you used commercial broth dilute 4 cups of it with 1 cup of water)

2 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

1 cup aborio rice

About 3/4 cup freshly shredded not-super-aged Pecorino cheese

First things first – and experience spring cooks know what this is going to be – you need to double shell the fava beans (I even have this step-by-step guide on how to do it!). I’m sorry. It really is a complete pain if you’re not in the mood to slowly but surely work your way through those beans. Grab the phone, put on the radio, have a chat, or just take a moment and have a little day dream while your hands and eyes are busy.

Set the shelled, blanched, and shelled favas aside.

Shell the peas – doesn’t that seem like a breeze after the favas? – and set them aside with the favas.

Snap the asparagus spears where they break naturally and discard the ends. Cut the asparagus into relatively thin, angled slices, leaving the 1-inch to 2-inch tips intact. Set aside.

Cut off the root ends off the green garlics. Cut the white and light green part of the stalks in half lengthwise – the darker green top will hold the whole things together. Chop the white and light green parts. Reserve the dark green tops for making stock, if you’re so inclined.

Put the broth in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Keep it at a very low simmer.

Meanwhile, heat another medium-ish saucepan over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and the olive oil. When the butter is melted and stops foaming, add the chopped green garlic and the salt. Cook, stirring, until the green garlic is wilted, about 2 minutes.

Add the rice and stir to completely coat it with the butter and oil. Cook, stirring until the opaque rice grains turn a bit translucent around the edges.

Add about a cup of the warm broth to the rice and cook, stirring as you like. Adjust teh heat so that when you’re not stirring the mixture simmers a bit but doesn’t boil or get too excited. When most of the broth is absorbed – when you can see the bottom of the pot for a few seconds when you stir because the mixture is thicker than the broth – add another 1/2 cup broth. Continue cooking, with some stirring, and adding 1/2 cup of broth at a time until the rice is almost tender to the bite but still has a kernel of uncooked-ness in the center – it took mine a bit over 15 minutes to get there.

Add the asparagus and more broth and continue cooking and stirring and adding broth as needed until the asparagus is almost done and the rice is al dente – tender but with structure to each grain. Add the peas and fava beans.

Continue cooking, adding a bit more broth and stirring, until the peas and beans are warm, just a minute or two. Stir in the cheese and remaining tablespoon of butter and taste – add more salt if you want. We found more cheese on top and some freshly ground black pepper was tasty indeed. As mentioned above, a bit of chopped spring herbs would be lovely too.

We had ours with a boiled egg on the side – we have all these picture-perfect pastured eggs in the house and they are difficult to resist. I meant to soft boil them – start in cold water, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat, let sit exactly three minutes, remove from hot water, and peel. But the risotto timing with the rice and vegetables and whatnot had the bulk of my attention and the eggs sat around on the counter after I took them from their hot water bath and kept cooking and they weren’t soft-boiled at all. They were, however, delicious and super-spring-y with the risotto.

This is for all the lovelies out there just trying to get a tasty dinner on the table – you know who you are. It isn’t fancy, but the bright ginger, fresh asparagus, rich pork, and hearty brown rice make for a deeply satisfying dinner after a long, hard day. You start cooking the pork and asparagus while the rice and egg cook, so while there is sort of a lot going on at once, much of it is hands-off.

Rice bowl

This – and by “this” I mean a bowl of rice with stuff on it – is a favorite around our house. I’m partial to the ground pork and asparagus combo, but greens, butternut squash, and minced chicken has its fans, as does the tofu, peas, and spinach combo I’ve broken out on occasion.

2  cups  short-grain brown rice

1/2  teaspoon  salt

4  eggs (optional)

1  pound  ground pork

1/2  cup  sake or white wine (optional)

2  tablespoons tamari or soy sauce, plus more to taste and/or for serving

2  bunches asparagus or similar amount (lots) of your favorite vegetable

1  piece ginger, about 4 in. long

3  cloves garlic

8  green onions

2  tablespoons  vegetable oil, divided

Cilantro for garnishing

Bring 4 cups water, the rice, and the salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, cover, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until tender to the bite, about 35 minutes. Or, do as I do and set it all up in a rice cooker and forget all about it.

While the rice is cooking, cook everything else. First things first: Hard boil the eggs. I use Julia Child’s method and it turns out a perfect egg every single goddamn time: put eggs in a medium sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling – not just tiny bubbles along the edges of the pan, but big bubbles coming up all over – cover the pan, turn off the heat, and let sit 14 minutes. Drain and peel the eggs under cool running water. Slice and set aside.

While the eggs are cooking, put the pork in a medium bowl and pour the sake or white wine and the tamari or soy sauce over it. Mix gently and let sit until you’re done with the eggs.

If you still have some time waiting for the eggs, snap off the woody ends of the asparagus and cut the spears into bite-size pieces (or peel/chop/prep whatever vegetable you’re using).

Now grate the ginger, mince the garlic, and chop the green onions.

Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of the oil and the pork and cook, stirring once in a while, until the pork is about half-way cooked – some is cooked through and some isn’t and none if it is starting to brown yet. Add 3/4 of the grated ginger. Stir in the ginger and cook until the pork is cooked through and starting to get brown in some spots.

Transfer the pork to a bowl or plate and cover to keep warm. Return the pan to the stove and add the remaining tablespoon of oil, the remaining ginger, garlic, and green onions. Cook, stirring, until the fragrances blend, about a minute. Add the asparagus, stir to combine, add 1/4 cup of water, cover, and cook until the asparagus is tender, about 4 minutes (other vegetables may take longer).

While the asparagus cooks, chop or mince the cilantro.

The rice should be done now. Divide the rice between four deep cereal or chili bowls. Top with asparagus, pork, and a sliced hard boiled egg. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with tamari or soy sauce on the side for people to add to taste. We put various hot sauces and hoisin on the table at our house, too.

We had a head of cabbage burning a hole in our fridge. My dashing husband is a huge fan of this butter-braised cabbage I make, but I wanted something with just the tiniest bit something more going on. So I popped a few mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds in a bit of grapeseed oil before pouring 1/2 cup of water to cool down the pan, melting the butter in that, and then braising the cabbage. Everyone was happy. Even Ernest, who ate a pile of shredded raw cabbage before I got a chance to get it all in the pot.

With the cabbage I cooked up a family favorite – brown butter dal – and some black “forbidden” rice that had been burning a hole in our cupboard, thus continuing Project Eat That Rice.

The sky is crying. It’s that kind of rain: It actually feels sad. It’s cold and still and wet, wet, wet. Boy am I glad I made wild rice congee last night and got to heat up the leftovers for lunch. Regular readers will well guess that this dinner fit very nicely into Project Eat That Rice – it used three kinds! Feel free to experiment with different types of rice, although the wild rice retains more of its texture under the long cooking and gives the porridge a slightly less porridge-y consistency.

This dish is always a big hit with the family since everyone can customize their bowl with the garnishes of their choice. Green onions or chives or some sort of allium are sort of key, from my point of view, and most uncharacteristically we didn’t have any in the fridge. So last night found me pulling long green leaves in the backyard in the dark, smelling each handful to identify the garlic chives that were deeply integrated with rogue grass in our un-weeded garden. Our fridge did contain some lemongrass, though, so I peeled off the tough outer layers and chopped up the tender inner core, which was a lovely addition to the congee, adding a little bright kick to this warm and cozy dish.

Last night Ernest took particular interest in the garnishing process, asking, when he was done, “Does that look beautiful?” Yes, we told him. Yes it does.

But it has a happy ending: I made stuffed grape leaves and they were delicious, if I do say so myself. And I have a back-up source, my toughest critic. My dashing husband declared them remarkably flavorful and served himself three (3!) helpings. Eat them as you like, but we liked them with a squirt of lemon juice and a bit of fresh goat cheese alongside.

Brown rice stuffed grape leaves

2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 onions, finely chopped
1 tsp. salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 green onions, finely chopped
2 cups short grain brown rice
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (it seems like a lot, but it works)
1/4 cup minced fresh mint (same as for pepper )
5 dozen grape leaves
Extra delicioso olive oil for drizzling
Lemon wedges
Fresh goat cheese or soft feta (optional)

Heat a saute pan or medium pot over medium-high heat. Add oil, onion, and salt. Cook, stirring a fair amount, until onions are tender, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook until tender, about 1 minute. Add green onion and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 1 minute. Add rice, stir to coat thoroughly, and add 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit 15 minutes. Uncover, fluff, and stir in pine nuts and sunflower seeds. Let sit until just warm and stir in pepper and mint. Taste and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Lay a grape leaf in front of you. Add a spoonful of filling to the center by the stem. Fold up the bits of leaf below the stem and tuck under – as you can – to form a little bundle. Fold sides of leaves over the filling bundle and roll entire bundle to wrap completely in the remaining grape leaf.

Place stuffed and rolled grape leaves on a lightly oiled baking tray. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for about half and hour. Uncover and drizzle grape leaves with high quality, really tasty olive oil. Let sit until warm or cool and serve with lemon wedges for spritzing and goat cheese, if that’s your style.

Last night I gave what is now my annual etiquette lecture to the willing seniors of my alma mater. The idea behind the event is that they are going out into the world and need some information besides Habermas’s theory of the public sphere in order to function in the adult world, that, perhaps, they will be brought to lunch or dinner as part of a job interview and they just might want to know where their bread plate is. They always seem very appreciative of the information and, I hope, the spirit in which I give it.

I think they all would have gotten a big kick if they had seen me about an hour later, at the bar at Yakuza Lounge, sharing a plate of duck fried rice (with duck confit, shitake mushrooms, and duck cracklings – hey, it seemed like a good idea atthe time) with a friend: When a chunk of the rich rice fell on the bar in front of me instead of into my mouth and I picked it up with my fingers and shoved it in my pie hole. It was wrong, but post-etiquette lecture it was pretty funny, and I’ll always go for the cheap laugh. Is a churning gut my punishment?

We got a beautiful head of Treviso radicchio in our CSA box this last week. I could have grilled it, sauteed it, broiled it, roasted it, thrown it in a salad. But instead I made an old family favorite – something I created maybe 10 years ago and which my dashing husband loves. I warn you: it’s weird, it’s intense, it’s probably a bit much for most people. Radicchio and blue cheese risotto. It’s a bit blue-ish purple, which I find rather fabulous. 

And yes, Ernie ate it. I did, however, pull out his portion before I added the blue cheese. 

And the best part? The risotto cakes I just made myself for lunch. There’s a whole tray of them in the fridge waiting to be fried up for dinner. 

Risotto Cakes

Leftover risotto

1 egg per 1 1/2 cup leftover risotto

1 cup white rice ground into powder in a coffee or spice mill (this will be enough for plenty of cakes and make it super easy to coat them and keep your hands somewhat dry)

Vegetable oil

Stir risotto to loosen it a bit if it’s started to get clumpy. Beat egg(s) and stir into risotto. Put ground rice powder in a shallow bowl.

Scoop risotto mixture in 1/3-cup balls and put them in the rice powder. With a dry hand, pick up rice powder from around the risotto and spread it over the risotto ball, slightly flattening it into more of a patty or cake. When cake is thoroughly coated, transfer to platter to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining risotto.

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Swirl in enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom. Place risotto cakes (as many as will fit without touching) in pan and cook, undisturbed, until browned. Carefully flip each cake over and brown on other side. Serve and eat pretty much immediately. They are extra delicious with a salad of hearty or bitter greens with a pungent sherry-vinegar or balsamic-vinegar dressing.

Can I recommend a glass of cheap Spanish rosé cava to go with your de-frosted Black Pepper Beef With Turnips, rice pilaf*, sautéed baby bok choy, and final presidential debate? Worked for me!

*One Kind of Rice Pilaf

Brown a finely chopped onion a about a tablespoon of oil (I used grapeseed) and a teaspoon of salt in a medium sized, heavy bottomed pot. Add 1/4 teaspoon each of cumin and fennel seeds, a couple cardamom pods, a few whole cloves and allspice, a bay leaf and half a cinnamon stick. Stir that until it smells super duper yummy. Add a cup of rice and cook, stirring a lot, until the rice is opaque and smells just a bit cooked (like when you microwave one of those rice-filled heating pads) but isn’t browned at all. Add 2 cups water, bring the whole thing to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook without even thinking about looking at it or otherwise distrubing it in any way for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit–again, leave it completely alone–for 5 minutes. Uncover, fluff, and serve.

In our farm box last week it was clear that summer and fall are in a passionate embrace and we are the voyeuristic onlookers. Tomatoes, melons, and zucchini were all still there, but a butternut squash showed up too. And what says the cold and rains are a-comin’ like a winter squash? So last night I let Ernie choose the entry in Project Eat That Rice (a little short grain brown number from the Central Valley), made his favorite zucchini and tofu stir-fry, and cooked the lovely little butternut with garlic, ginger, and mustard seeds. The whole thing was sort of painfully good for us–so healthful and frugal and all–but we loved it just the same.

Zucchini & Tofu Stir-Fry

1 Tbsp. (or so) of vegetable or grapeseed oil

An amount of garlic you like (I like about 5 o 6 cloves for this), minced

Same with fresh ginger (for me it’s a nice 3-inch piece), peeled and finely grated or shredded or whatever you want to call it

Red Chile Flakes (to taste and optional, a chopped fresh chile works great if you have one)

4 green onions, chopped (optional)

1 Tbsp. fermented/salted/Chinese black beans

2 Tbsp. sherry or rice wine vinegar or white wine if the pantry is in that bad of shape

3 medium zucchini, chopped into large but manageable pieces

1/2 cup broth or water

8- to 12-oz. silken firm tofu (the shelf-stable kind), cut into small but still bite-size pieces

Soy sauce to taste

Heat the oil is a large and deep frying, saute, or braising pan. Add garlic, ginger, red chile flakes, and green onions. Cook, stirring, until all pasty-looking and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add black beans and sherry. Stir to combine. Add zucchini, stir; add broth or water and stir and cook until zucchini is tender and liquid is mostly gone. Depending on how fresh and tender (or not) the zucchini is, I’ve been known to cover it to cook for a few minutes. Add tofu, combine and cook until hot. Season with soy sauce to taste.