the rite of spring potatoes
and a Russian jazz enthusiast.
After a dozen serious winters you realize spring carries a heavy philosophical load. The season we turn towards the sun and set our sights on movement.
We unwrap winter’s blanket of comfort foods, braving amusement park crowds for farmers market treasures. Home cooks make room for fresh herbs in window sills and reconvene at community gardens.
For performing artists other than chefs or home cooks, spring may also mark the culmination of months spent perfecting a set of movements, sounds or dialog.
All this anticipated movement following a long year of winter-like dormancy is bound to make spring feel chaotic. Add hopeful predictions that we’ll come out of this pandemic like we did the decade after the Spanish flu and I can’t help but think this spring is fit for Stravinsky and potatoes.
Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer best known for his works with The Ballet Russes during the 1910s. He drew inspiration from field songs that carried Russian villages through seasons of planting and harvesting while studying Ragtime sheet music before the first recorded jazz records.
The unpredictable rhythms and driving percussion in The Rite of Spring were revolutionary enough to incite a riot during the 1913 debut. Stravinsky is said to have noted to a fellow conductor, “[it represents] the mystery and the great surge of creative power of spring.”
Several generations later jazz musicians are still enamored with it. The New York City Ballet continues to stage works from Stravinsky’s first wave of creativity. The next installment is in May 2022. I’ll meet you there.
Adoration of the Earth aside, experiencing fresh foods for the first time can be equally revelatory. My first time eating fresh peas was in 2010 at Café Chez Panisse in a clam linguini next to an open fire and one of my favorite roommates. It was unforgettable.
However, the quiet celebration that simmered around spring potatoes during my time in Ukraine is unmatched. Through March you’re eating potatoes that were harvested the September before. You may be depleting a stash from your own basement or those of a babushka at your closest bazaar. By February, the appeal, texture and flavor of locally grown root vegetables has dulled. Use cases are diminished to mostly mashed varieties.
So when spring potatoes roll in, it’s news. Firm, perfectly cubed potatoes are cause for discussion. At work and home, the vibrant taste of spring soil permeates conversation. How a spring potato perfectly matches the garlicy bite of sorrel in green borscht. New takes on picnic potato dishes like stuffed potato pancakes (kartoplaniky) and olivye. A surge of creative potato power.
Since we’re spending one more spring in isolation, here’s an injection of ideas for what to do with spring potatoes.
Have ‘em hot
Scalloped potato gratin - I’m hardly alone in saying I spent a good part of the mid-aughts learning to cook from the Food Network. At some point I started throwing “freaster” parties (you know, like friendsgiving, but easter) and this was one of my first dishes. The recipe holds up. Use an 8” x 8” baking dish and swap the fresh thyme for za’atar for some delicious Old Testament vibes.
Speaking of the Old Testament, I made this crispy skillet latke with kale in February and I can’t stop thinking about it. Let it fill the gap in the overpriced breakfast spot you’ve missed over the last year.
This lemon potato chowder makes the best of citrus and soup season if you’ve still got a few months left indoors.
Bring ‘em cold
My first memory of homemade potato salad is a mayo-free mustard and dill version that my dad’s Québecoise girlfriend made for us. Handfuls of fresh dill and high quality cornichons/gerkins scream spring.
At the first sighting of fresh green beans, opt for this crunchier recipe that edges towards salad.
Me? I’ve been digging into Maryland recipes lately and unearthed a new layer of potato salad creativity. The top of my spring potato list includes this potato salad with Old Bay and potato chips and a chaotic narrative recipe from The Baltimore Sun with controversial opinions on mustard, pickles and onion juice.
WATCH: The Rite of Spring: Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Acts as imagined by The Joffrey Ballet in 1987 or the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 2013.