Celebrating the End of Winter

By Billa

This year, winter felt particularly gloomy, gray, and overlong. And after being cooped up inside for many days these past couple of months, it was so pleasant to go outside and experience the warmth and beauty of spring. It made me want to celebrate the end of winter. So, I invited some friends over for dinner.

Here’s the menu:

CELEBRATING WINTER’S END

First Course

Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Timbales

Served Atop a Spring Salad

Entree

Chicken Supremes with Tapenade and Mushroom Sauce

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Dressing

Israeli Couscous

Dessert

Apple Tart

Ice Cream

The First Course: Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Timbales Atop a Spring Salad

For the first course, I wanted a dish that would announce that spring was here. It had to be colorful and light, evoking spring. I decided to use a spring mix of lettuce. Atop were two mini towers of alternating peppers and goat cheese layers, baked until slightly melting to convey the warmth of the spring sun. Here’s the recipe:

Spring Salad with Goat Cheese and Red and Yellow Pepper Timbales

Serves 5

Ingredients

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 and 1/2 tablespoons minced shallot

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 large red bell peppers

2 large yellow bell peppers

8 ounces soft, mild goat cheese, sliced into 20 1” circles

5 ounces spring mix lettuce

1 mini cucumber, peeled and chopped

10 grape tomatoes, halved

Preparation

1. Make salad dressing. Combine vinegar and shallot in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. Make timbales. Char peppers under broiler until blackened on all sides. Place in a paper bag for ten minutes. Then peel and seed them. Using a 1 to 1 and 1/2” glass, cut 20 circles out of the red peppers and 10 circles out of the yellow peppers. Lightly oil a small baking sheet. Place a red circle on the prepared baking sheet. Top that with a circle of goat cheese, then a yellow pepper circle, then another goat cheese circle, and topped by a second red pepper circle. Make nine more of these little towers. Drizzle them with a little olive oil. (These can now be refrigerated overnight.)

3. Preheat oven to 400F. Combine lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes in a bowl. Divide among 5 salad plates. Bake the timbales for 10 minutes. Place two timbales on each salad plate and serve.

The Entree: Chicken Supremes with Tapenade and Mushroom Sauce, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Dressing, and Israeli Couscous

I’ve been wanting to try Jacques Pepin’s recipe for chicken breasts stuffed with olive and anchovy tapenade for a while. Alas, the chicken breasts I used were too large and I was afraid of undercooking them. So, instead, I ended up cooking them longer than was called for in the recipe. Consequently, they were a little dry, but the stuffing was delicious; salty from the Kalamata olives and full of umami from the anchovies.

Here’s a link to the chicken recipe:

https://food.yadachef.com/2019/08/jacques-pepins-chicken-supremes-with.html

One of my favorite ways to cook Brussels sprouts is by roasting them and applying a dressing made of sherry vinegar and grainy mustard when they’re out of the oven. I love the tangy, zippy taste of it.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

1 lb. Brussels sprouts, halved

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Black pepper

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/2 tablespoon grainy mustard

1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450F.

2. In a bowl, toss together the Brussels sprouts, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoons salt, and a pinch of black pepper. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring halfway.

3. While sprouts are roasting, whisk together vinegar, mustard, 1/2 tablespoon parsley, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons oil in a steady stream, whisking until emulsified.

4. Add sprouts to dressing and toss to coat. Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tablespoon parsley.

Israeli couscous is a pasta I adore. I recently bought a jar of turmeric Israeli couscous that I knew I wanted to incorporate in this dinner. I added raisins thinking that their sweetness would complement the saltiness of the tapenade in the chicken and the sharpness of the Dijon mustard in the Brussels sprouts.

Turmeric Israeli Couscous with Raisins

Ingredients

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped, green and white parts separated

4 scallions, thinly sliced

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Pinch of ground cinnamon

1 and 3/4 cups Israeli (pearl) couscous

1/3 cup raisins, soaked in warm water and drained

3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

A handful of toasted pine nuts for garnish

Preparation

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, scallion whites, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender and slightly browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons oil, garlic, and cinnamon. Continue cooking 1 more minute. Add in the couscous and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and stir constantly to toast the couscous for 2-3 minutes.

2. In a small saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the boiling water to the skillet with the couscous. Stir, cover, and cook over low heat until the couscous absorbs the water, about 10 minutes.

3. Add the raisins and parsley and mix to combine. Sprinkle with scallion greens and pine nuts and serve.

Dessert: Apple Tart

My criteria for dessert was simple: I wanted to bake a tart and it had to be made the day before the dinner. In Alison Roman’s book, Nothing Fancy, there was a recipe for a casual apple tart made with buttermilk that could be baked a day ahead. As a bonus, it called for honeycrisp apples, which are my current favorites.

The tart turned out to be tasty; the pastry was nice and flaky and the filling was sweet-tart and delicious. I served it with vanilla ice cream because, to me, ice cream is another signifier that winter has ended.