Spring has sprung: Juli Montgomery and Mike Noreen of Burning River Farm in Frederic, Wis. made their 2008 debut at the Mill City Farmers Market this past Saturday.

I took it as an encouraging omen when I saw farmer Mike Noreen of Burning River Farm at the Mill City Farmers Market this Saturday, his first appearance of the season. He and Juli Montgomery were selling a small but enticing array of early-season lovelies. In anticipation of my first CSA drop in less than I week, I picked up a few bags of their salad greens and immediately started thinking about vinaigrettes.

I imagine that my Burning River Farm share will keep me buried in salad greens all summer long, so I’ve made it a goal to add a bunch of new vinaigrettes to my repertoire. The top of my current hit parade comes a favorite cookbook, “Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland” by Minneapolis author Beth Dooley and Lucia’s Restaurant chef/owner Lucia Watson.

The book, required reading for any Minnesota cook, was originally published in 1994, and it’s not hard to find copies of it in second-hand bookstores, which is where I often rooted them out, usually to give them as gifts. Because I always feel a little schlocky giving someone a used book as a present, I was thrilled when the University of Minnesota Press decided to revive the book (along with a few others by Minnesota authors, including “The Cafe Brenda Cookbook” by Brenda Langton and many of the exceptional titles by the brilliant and prolific Beatrice Ojakangas of Duluth. The new version, a paperback replica of the original, is just $15.56 on Amazon.com.

There are a number of recipes from “Savoring” that I can reproduce from memory - or close to it, that’s how often I’ve returned to them - including a chicken-apple salad that uses this maple-mustard vinaigrette, the fail-proof buttermilk pancakes, the turkey pot pies, the colorful spring borscht, the “Minnesota Fudge Cake” with chocolate buttercream frosting and a cinnamon-clove cake with cardamom-coffee icing. But the page that’s most splattered and ragged in my copy of the book is the one that features this excellent vinaigrette.

I always make it with the best maple syrup I can find. Usually that means Wild Country Maple, produced at an extraordinary sugarbush near Lutsen, Minn. and available at most Twin Cities natural foods co-ops; it’s one of the state’s greatest artisanal products. This time I around I made it using a mild-flavored syrup that I purchased at Gullywash Gardens stand at the Prior Lake Farmers Market. The results were delicious.

MAPLE-MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE
Makes 2 cups.
Note: From “Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland” by Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson (University of Minnesota Press, $19.95). Along with tossing it over bitter greens with chopped apples, the authors suggest using it as a dressing over grilled chicken, turkey or duck with wild rice or brushing it over roasting pork, chicken, turkey or duck, applying it during the last 10 minutes of roasting to glaze the meat and add flavor. “The recipe makes two cups and may be cut in half,” they wrote. “It keeps well in the refrigerator, and is nice to have on hand.”

1/3 c. cider vinegar
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 shallots, peeled and sliced
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp. smooth Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. coarse mustard
2/3 c. maple syrup
1 c. vegetable oil

Directions
In a blender, combine cider vinegar, garlic, shallots, pepper, Dijon mustard, mustard and maple syrup and blend on high until smooth. Slowly add vegetable oil, pouring in a steady stream, and blend until vinaigrette is thick. Refrigerate in a tightly sealed jar.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Farmers and foragers, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.