I have a few. One of the wonders of spring is the elusive morel mushroom, which is in season in Missouri for the next few weeks. Foraging for morels can be tricky, but there’s a confidence-building Facebook group. You may have better luck at the local farmers’ market. However you source them, a handful of sautéed morels atop fresh pasta is as satisfying as their pricier cousin, the black truffle.
Then there are strawberries. If you’ve never tasted (or better yet, picked) an impossibly red and delicate local strawberry, then you’re missing one of the season’s most fleeting, unforgettable bursts of intense flavor. At Eckert’s Belleville Farm, pick-your-own season typically begins in early May and lasts only a few short weeks.
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SLM‘s dining team shared some great recommendations as well.
Cheryl Baehr: “It’s not a spring dish, per se, but the thing I look forward to most this time of year is the breakfast sandwich from Farm Spirit at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market. You can get their burgers and other goodies any time of year at their space inside Bluewood Brewing, but Farm Spirit’s breakfast sandwich is a market-only item. It’s one of my favorite things to eat in all of St. Louis, mostly because of the house-made pork sausage patty, which is the best breakfast sausage I’ve ever had in my life. I ask for it with their allium aioli, called “yucky sauce,” which puts it over the top. Not having this in my life from October through March is just sad, so eating it at the first couple markets of the season is like being reunited with a lost love.”
Collin Preciado: “My wife is part Polish, so every Easter we make pierogi. We also get some kielbasa sausages and a hand-sculpted butter lamb—literally a hunk of butter shaped to look like a lamb—from Piekutowski’s. I don’t know if these are actually traditional Polish Easter dishes or not, but it’s what her family has always made for the holiday, and we’ve kept up the tradition with our kids. Pierogi is essentially a giant dumpling, and you can stuff it with whatever you want, but we generally stick to the customary potato, cheese, and/or sauerkraut fillings. Attempts have been made at some more unconventional flavors (I believe we tried buffalo chicken once or twice), but so far my annual request to make a St. Louis-style ‘toasted’ pierogi has been met with firm refusals.”
Lynn Venhaus: “Spring always puts a spring in my step, and I’m ready to explore. Warm weather means farmers’ markets and fresh vegetables. I enjoy perusing their bounty, especially something I haven’t tried before. When asparagus and golden beets are available, I usually roast them—nothing fancy. Belleville is famous for white asparagus, but that really doesn’t show up until late April and May—it has brief availability and is quite labor-intensive—and can be found at Eckert’s. It’s delicious, tender, and should be treated delicately. But honestly, green has more flavor.”
Bill Burge: “Spring means asparagus. Not because it’s fancy. Because it’s fleeting and fresh. You get a short window where it’s perfect, then it’s gone. Miss it, and you’re eating disappointment. So when it shows up, don’t mess around. Hot grill, hard char, oil, salt. Maybe lemon. It doesn’t need fuss. Eat it while it matters. Eat it while it’s best. Spring.”
Mabel Suen: “I love packing some sandwiches and eating them in Forest Park, ideally with a refreshing, fruity drink from Cube Tea Studio. There are so many great spots to people watch while everything is starting to bloom again (and something about eating a sandwich I made at home outside just makes it taste better). My go-to in the past has been prosciutto with fig jam, goat cheese, arugula, and cucumbers on sourdough grilled in some olive oil with a splash of balsamic.”
Dave Lowry: “Two words, my friend: chocolate bunny. Spring means those lovely brown lapins are showing up on store shelves, and there’s no bag limit. And I’m not talking about those cheap, dollar-store knockoffs that are as hollow as a used car salesman’s promise. I mean those thick, weighty, ponderous bad boys that feel like you’re hoisting gold when you pick ‘em up, the kind where you can trust your incisors to snap off the ears and maybe a bit of the head but that require a meat cleaver to chop the body into edible chunks. We’re talking Kakao or Crown Candy rabbits or any of those high-end candy joints where the chocolate is approximately the same price per ounce as Beluga caviar. And extra points to the models that have the little sugar carrot clutched in their paws.”
Amy De La Hunt: “Edible flowers from my yard are my favorite spring ingredient. I bake red buds blossoms in muffins and wild violet petals as decorations on top of sugar cookies. I candy wild violet and pansy blossoms by dipping them into frothy egg whites and then superfine sugar. I sprinkle fresh blossoms and petals onto whipped cream as topping for pancakes and waffles. I put all kinds of blossoms and petals into salads. Last year, I discovered that red bud blossoms freeze really well, too.”
Pat Eby: “I love the sprightly green lettuces, bright green peas, garlic scapes, and spicy radishes that light up plates in dishes at restaurants and at home each spring, but there’s one dish I must make each spring that uses a weightier root vegetable more often associated with fall and winter dishes: the lowly beet. Beets come into markets in late May and early June, but they weren’t a spring favorite until I ate beets stuffed with goat cheese mousse and house-made lemon curd served on fresh greens, topped with pickled shallots and fresh herbs at Squatter’s Café, Rob Connolly’s erstwhile restaurant in Grand Center. The inspiration for this beet salad came from his heart. His husband, Tyler, loved beets, but they weren’t one of Rob’s favorite foods. He developed the spring beet salad specifically to find that sweet spot where beets could please them both. I continue to appreciate the elegant solution.”
Denise Mueller-Peterson: “We pick up some fresh, grillable fish, along with squash and zucchini, and go to town on the gas grill, all paired with a crisp white wine. Sure, we can use the grill all winter, but there’s something about eating a lean and healthy tuna steak outside on the first 70-degree evening that truly kicks off our season.”
Heather Riske: “A sure sign of spring for me is rhubarb. I get so excited when I see the first bright pink and red stalks start to show up at the market. Strawberry rhubarb pie is a classic, but I like to let the tart flavor of rhubarb shine on its own in a shrub or desserts like Smitten Kitchen’s almond-rhubarb picnic bars or Melissa Clark’s rhubarb upside-down cake, which I just made last weekend. Now, it’s officially spring!”
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