Welcome spring! Yesterday was its official debut (at 10:53 local French time, according to radio France Inter) even though I always thought it was the 21st.
The date doesn’t matter because the sun knows what’s up, and so does the market. Everyone is running around in shirtsleeves (manches courtes) with their cool French sunglasses, while radishes are on every menu, at every market stand, on every épicerie shelf.
And they’re all grown in France. I know that because vendors are required by law to mark where fruits and vegetables are grown. For example, if you were to see a sign marked Radis ESP, it means it would mean that the radishes you’re dying to buy are from Spain (Espagne).
I digress because I really wanted to talk about grilling. It is time to pull out FRENCH GRILL dust off your barbecue, scrape the grill, measure how much charcoal you have. If you’re a gas grill person, some of the same goes.
FRENCH GRILL WILL DELIGHT YOU ALL YEAR ROUND, BEGINNING RIGHT NOW!
I grill year-round and always have. When we lived in Maine (where Joe was born one eon ago), I was working on the definitive article about lobster for GOURMET magazine, which entailed a lot of lobster grilling in the dead of winter. The grill was on the porch, the temperature was many degrees below zero and I’d go out to supervise the lobster. I always have a tea towel strung through my apron tie, and often it gets very wet. When I’d return to the house after grilling in sub-zero temperatures, the tea towel would be frozen solid. I couldn’t remove it because it would have broken in bits. I had to wait for it to thaw.
We aren’t concerned with that problem here in France, and the French don’t grill year-round; they’re starting now. I’m joining them to announce the official opening of the French grill season, and the recipe I want to celebrate with is Impressionist Vegetables. It’s an idea I borrowed from Bruno Verjus at Table restaurant in Paris, with his permission, and it’s brilliant. It takes vegetables you might think are un-grillable and turns them into little golden, crisp bites of wonder. Depending on what’s best at the market, I use radishes, new onions, glorious asparagus, the occasional baby carrot, sometimes new cabbage quarters, freshly harvested ramps from the woods in Louviers, or baby spinach leaves from Baptiste. Whatever the combination, Impressionist Vegetables is a celebration of spring.
GRILLING TECHNIQUES ARE PART OF EACH CLASS IN LOUVIERS…DON’T MISS OUT
The important thing when grilling any vegetables is to coat each one with a light film of oil. The best way to do this is to pour oil on a flat plate or platter. Mix in some salt, then roll the vegetables around in the blend before putting them on the grill.
Once you’ve oiled your vegetables and your fire is hot, place them on the grill and watch them like a hawk, turning and turning until they’re tender and slightly charred on the outside. It doesn’t take long – follow the recipe and it will guide you.
And if you’re grilling during the day and the sun is out, put on your cool French sunglasses, pour yourself a glass of wine, and enjoy this beginning of spring and the glorious debut of the French Grill season!
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