June Cookbook Preview

Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables

• By Joshua McFadden

Schedule

• Week 1: Grilled Artichokes with Artichoke- Parmigiano Dip
• Week 2: Leeks with Anchovy and Soft-Boiled Eggs
• Week 3: Crispy Sugar Snap Peas with Tonnato and Lemon
• Week 4: Chilled Seafood Salad with Fennel, Radish, Basil, and Creme Fraiche
• Week 5: Fennel two ways with mussels and Couscous

​June is the month for us to check out Six Seasons. Farmer’s markets have just started springing up again with local and fresh produce to lend itself well to the construction of this cookbook. The book reads in order of growing season, broken down into ‘six seasons’ for the growth of certain vegetables. Almost all of the recipes I picked out come from Early Spring with a few exceptions because that’s exactly where we land!

I have to tell you, from the minute I started reading this, I knew it’d be an exciting book to cook from. The author worked at Jon Barber’s Blue Hill restaurant in NYC. Blue Hill is particularly famous for their sister restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns partially due to their unique farm to table dining experience and partially due to its appearance during season one of Chef’s Table on Netflix.

Chef turned farmer has a lot to teach us about the growing seasons of vegetables and how to prepare them for their place in the season. As I read the book to prepare for another month of new recipes, I found myself gaining more knowledge about food than I had from previous cookbooks so far. It is not just technique he talks about. He spends a lot of time discussing how the season affects the taste of the vegetable, when is the best time to get it, and how to cook it for it’s place in the year. It really is a new way with vegetables.

I haven’t even began to cook from the book yet, and I feel myself looking at the produce in my fridge differently. My whole life I have done nothing but put ranch on my salad but today I made my own balsamic vinaigrette. It's a new respect for the vegetable.

Join me each week to explore a new recipe centered around in season vegetables from as local a source as I can manage. June’s cookbook of the month promises to be a special experience.

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