Sorrel soup
Steamed asparagus with fried egg
Baguette

Domaine du Tariquet Chenin/Chardonnay, Gascony, France, 2006

A few days ago, Chuck observed that if you cook a lot you repeat yourself. True, and the other thing you do is imitate.

Last night's menu, which was inspired by the contents of our vegetable bin, took a cue from the vegetable plate that I enjoyed the other night at Five and Ten. This involved a comforting risotto with porcini mushrooms, a beet-and-carrot roast, and a nice helping of steamed asparagus topped with a fried egg. The egg was a perfect addition, giving the meal some heft, and functioning as a sort of stripped-down hollandaise.

Thanks to the season, the bottom third of our refrigerator is currently full of fresh, local spring vegetables -- greens, carrots, radishes, zucchini, cucumbers, and the most local of all, green beans from our garden. From that bounty, I chose to work with the two vegetables that had been in there the longest -- a bunch of sorrel purchased last week from the Athens Farmers Market (Lazy Willow Farm, if you're keeping score) and some asparagus left over from Chuck's crostini last week (from Sundance Farm).

To my mind, sorrel is the ultimate greens-lover's green. Some might find the flavor to be a little bitter, but I experience it as rich and lemony.

For the soup, I used Bittman (How to Cook Everything), and it is as easy as it gets. Chop the greens and throw them into a saucepan in which you have melted some butter. Stir them until they've wilted nicely, which won't take much time at all. Add some good-quality stock (I used chicken, about a cup for each two cups of chopped greens), let it come just to a simmer, and then cook for a couple of minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree. At this point the soup can hang out if need be. When you are about fifteen minutes out, return the puree to the pan, add some half-and-half (again, about a cup per two cups of uncooked greens) and heat very gently. Don't let it boil, of course. Season with salt and pepper; it won't need anything else. (It's worth noting that this recipe works equally well with other tender greens, such as spinach or watercress.)

I put the asparagus in a skillet, covered it with salted water, put the lid on the skillet, and steamed it for a few minutes until it was bright green. Then I drained it, dunked it into an ice bath, then drained it again. This is another Bittman trick, and it allows you to let the cooked vegetable hang out while other things are happening.

At the start of this process, I had pulled a couple of baguette halves from the freezer. Chuck's baguettes freeze extremely well, and they defrost fairly quickly at room temperature. If I ever need immediate defrosting, I use the microwave, but only at the lowest power.

When everything was ready (table set, wine opened, soup back in the pot), I put Chuck on egg-frying duty. He has the true short-order cook's knack with this task, and one of my goals is to learn how to fry an egg as fearlessly as he does. He claims that all you need is about five dozen eggs, a couple of hours, and plenty of doggedness.

And speaking of eggs, I will never go back to factory-farmed eggs (well, except perhaps on the day I actually do try to learn how to fry an egg a la Chuck). The eggs we get through Athens Locally Grown (last night's came from Nature's Harmony Farm) are about as different from the ones you get in the grocery store as Wonder Bread is from Chuck's baguettes.

Anyway, while Chuck was frying the eggs, I reheated the asparagus in the skillet with a little butter and then seasoned with salt and pepper. The plate looked nice at the outset, but the true glory of the meal came when the eggs yolks broke over the asparagus. As my plate emptied, I was especially glad for the bread as a means to mop the last of the yolk -- and the dregs of the soup.

A final note about the wine: this was the wine of the week at Gosford Wine last week, and it was a bargain at the per-case price (under $11 a bottle). It has a nice, bright taste up front, but it leaves you with a little to think about as it goes down. If you like good wine and you like bargains, you should sign up for Gosford's weekly emails.