One of the rights of spring for chefs is the seasons start of porcini and morel mushrooms, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like a good year for morels. According to the fine folks at Far West Fungi, the dry winter didn’t produce enough rain for the morels to flourish. But the good news is… it should be a great year for porcini. The season is just beginning now and the prices should start coming down soon.

I splurged and bought a few morels to make one of my favorite springtime dishes; Halibut with Fava Beans, Morel Mushrooms, and Tarragon Aioli.

With the shortage of morels this season, it’s time to start thinking about porcini. Porcini is a very hardy mushroom and holds up well to many cooking methods. They can be sautéed or grilled or roasted in the oven to bring out their earthy, meaty flavor. One of the best ways to cook a porcini is in the pizza oven if you have access to one.

They are best cooked whole or cut in half depending on there size. Serve them on top of a risotto or steak, or in a pasta, or just on the plate with a fork and knife sprinkled with a little fleur de sel.

If you’ve been reading my blog you know how much I love the versatility of fresh garbanzo beans. You can use them as you would a dry garbanzo bean in dishes like hummus or as a spread for a crostini that will add more of a fresh and vegetal flavor to your dish. You can also use them as a fresh bean in a ragout for a fish dish or you can add them to a spring salad for a fresh new dimension.

Tonight I created a dish that has been in my head for a while: Pan Fried Coconut Prawns with Fresh Garbanzo Beans in a Coconut- Curry Sauce. Delicious!

Another great use for this seasonal vegetable.

This is my second visit to Boot and Shoe Service in Oakland and with both trips I was rewarded with great meals. On my latest visit I had:

Fried Georgia white shrimp with pickled beets, Calabrian peppers and aioli

Gemelli pasta with duck ragu

Margherita di bufala pizza

The food, service and atmosphere were all great and my only complaint was with the pizza that was a little soggy on top and a little too charred on the bottom. The restaurant was buzzing with people on a Tuesday night and the bar that is hidden in the rear, new since I last visited, was packed with people.

I always get excited when the spring ingredients start sprouting up. As we leave the long winter, we start seeing the most exciting ingredients (at least for me) of the year.

This dish is composed of: baked halibut with spring onions, spring garlic, fava beans, fiddlehead ferns, ramps, meyer lemon- tarragon aioli, and a bulls blood salad.

Not bad for a Monday night dinner.

More fun with fresh garbanzo beans. Here’s a great salad that represents the start of spring: Fresh Garbanzo Beans, Fava Beans, English Peas, Spring Onions, and Green Garlic tossed with a little Meyer lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt.

This is my first time making hummus with fresh garbanzo beans and, I have to say, the results are delicious. I made it the same way you would if you were using dried or canned garbanzo beans using garlic, sesame tahini, sesame oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and the fresh garbanzo beans.

It’s a little more time consuming to shell and blanch the garbanzo beans but well worth the trouble. The flavor is a little more vegetal then the hummus we all know and would make a great dip, or spread for crostini, or a drizzle for a lamb dish.

I normally never try out a new restuarant on opening night, but I was in downtown Walnut Creek at the same time the new restaurant from the Rosenthal and Doug Washington team of Town Hall, Salt House and Anchor & Hope fame was debuting, so I thought I’d check out the new Corners Tavern.

The decor in the dining room seems forced and cold and is industrial- western- cow punk- chic, if that is possible, and looks like a new line of trendy furniture that might come from Restoration Hardware. The food and service I won’t critique until they’ve been open for a while.

I tried the Pork Belly, Arbol, Chilies, Pineapple, Cabbage/ Radish Salad; House Made Lamb Sausages, Soffrito, Fava Beans; Shellfish Stew, Clams, Shrimp, Tomato-Tarragon Broth. Everything we had was good and the menu played it safe and will probably cater well to the Walnut Creek crowd.

I’m rooting for this restaurant to succeed because Walnut Creek could use a good, trendy, SF equivalent spot.

Today I’m at the 6th annual Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma. This is my third trip to the festival (I was at the 1st & 5th annual festivals) that highlights local artisan food producers and mostly western cheese makers.

I was happy to taste some of my usual favorites like Capricious from Achadinha Cheese Company and selections from Cow Girl Creamery as well as some new favorites like Junipero Salinas Valley Swiss from Schoch Family Farmstead in Monterey County and Strawberry Peak from Snowy Mountain Creamery in Utah.

Overall it was a good event that has unfortunately grown out of its cramped space. Hopefully they’ll have a larger space next year with more local venders.

Selection of 3 Bruschette:

1. Cured sardine, radish, fennel, salsa verde,

2. Crushed cannellini beans, radicchio,

3. Duck liver paté, balsamic onion marmellata

Salad of celery root, apple, celery, gorgonzola, toasted walnuts

Selection of house made salumi

Everything at Barbacco was superb and I can’t wait to go back for more and also try Parbacco, the upscale sister restaurant next door.  Ordering wine is done via iPad and allows you to take your time reading all the info about the producers, perfect for the wine geek.

We were the first ones in the door at 5pm and the service was very friendly and attentive although they did forget to put in the order for the local squid stuffed with ‘nduja, spicy pan grattato, and rucola.  Oh well, I’ll have to go back and try that next time if it’s still on the menu.