shitake

Ingredients:

1 bn baby celery, roots removed with stems left in tact

0.5 lb baby shitake mushrooms, cleaned and halved (or left whole depending on size)

2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice

6 T very good olive oil

0 salt

0 parmigiano-reggiano

0 lemon wedges & a few minced mild flavored herbs as garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Divide the baby celery into 4 equal portions and lay them across individual salad plates. 2. Add the lemon juice and olive oil with a pinch of salt into a small bow. It is important to use the very best olive oil as every ingredient is key and cannot hide in this simple salad. Whisk the dressing together until well combined. 3. Toss a few mushrooms onto each plate and drizzle everything with the lemon dressing. 4. Serve with plenty of shaved or grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, lemon wedges and a very light sprinkling of mild herbs (optional)

Notes:

There is something so exuberant and hopeful about spring vegetables. Especially when they are harvested newly formed and still immature. You know, baby vegetables!

After all what is a more hopeful symbol than the confidence of an early harvest?

Baby vegetables have a remarkable taste as well. They are often an intensely flavored version of their mature selves. Pared down to its simplest essence. There is nothing so carroty as a baby carrot. The same is true, maybe more so, with baby celery.

There is something about baby celery that just screams spring to me. So I have chosen it for this week's Market Matters at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

Baby celery is basically the seedling of the same variety of celery you and I buy at the grocery store. It is typically hydroponically grown. The seedlings are tightly packed and sprouted in water, giving them the impression of a bunch of parsley.