Simple festival food

By Sarah Fritschner
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal

Luscious, brightly flavored and creamy textured coconut strawberry cake is a dramatic but not too difficult home version of those cakes you see in the produce section, ready to be filled with fresh strawberries. Gannett News Service

The question remains: What do you serve with it?

The answer, first, last and always, is: Food that requires the least amount of last-minute preparation.

You can prepare ahead for spring brunch or dinner and still have a menu that's appropriate for the season — light and fresh and pastel.

Firm-cooked vegetables make excellent choices for side dishes. You can serve them cold or at room temperature — as you would a green salad — but you don't have to worry about wilting leaves.

For example, dress roasted asparagus in a typical mustard vinaigrette. Blanch green beans or carrots in boiling water to tenderize them, and use the same mustard vinaigrette (or another that you like) and you'll have an excellent salad that can sit on a picnic or buffet table for hours. Other options: Roasted beets, blackened and peeled peppers, grilled baby bok choy or radicchio — the list goes on and on.

A visit to a farmer's market or other source of very fresh, very seasonal vegetables can be your inspiration.

From the Passover tradition comes a classic fix-it-and-forget-it dish, charoset, that is eaten as part of the ceremonial meal, but also served in many families as a spread with matzo crackers or an accompaniment for roasted meat. And macaroons, traditional at this time of year when leavening is not used in Jewish cooking, are a wonderful light sweet for ending the meal.

For another dessert option, you could bridge the season by pairing citrus with strawberry (fill meringue shells with lemon curd and top with strawberries) or use only one flavor, as we do in the layer cake that follows.

Fresh strawberry sauce fills the middle of the cake, which gets better over time as the sauce soaks in and moistens it. This is an elegant and homey version of those dish-shaped sponge cakes you find in the supermarket near the strawberries.

Roasted Asparagus with Mustard Vinaigrette

• 2 pounds fresh asparagus
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Trim asparagus as necessary. (If the ends are tough, cut them off; if the stems are very thick, you may want to peel them.) Drizzle half the olive oil in the bottom of a wide, shallow baking dish. Add the asparagus and flatten it out so it's more or less in a single layer. Drizzle with remaining oil. Roll the asparagus over and over so that it all gets a fairly even coating of oil.

Bake for 10 minutes, turning once or twice, until the asparagus is soft and slightly shriveling. Remove from oven and allow the mixture to cool. Refrigerate until needed. Serve with dressing cold, hot or at room temperature.

Serves eight.

To make the dressing: Combine the red wine vinegar, sugar and lemon juice with one-third cup water in a small jar. Add the salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce, dry mustard and minced garlic, then close the jar and shake until salt is dissolved. Add the vegetable oil. Shake again to blend. Shake well just before serving.

Makes about one and two-thirds cups of dressing, more than you'll need for this asparagus — but it's very good on salads or as a marinade for grilled or baked chicken.

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This is a classic Ashkenazi charoset, but Sephardic Jews tend to use dried fruit, such as figs, raisins or dates, as well as apples and nuts. Some versions call for oranges.

Wine and Honey Charoset

• 1 apple
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• Dash of powdered ginger*
• Honey
• Red wine

Chop the apple and the nuts. Toss together with the spices. Bind with honey and enough red wine to moisten.

* You can peel and grate a hunk of fresh ginger and squeeze the juice onto the charoset instead.

Coconut Cake with Strawberry Filling

For the cake:

• 3 cups sifted cake or White Lily flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup butter, softened but fairly firm
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

For the filling:

• 1 pint strawberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
• 1/4 cup water

For the icing:

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups shredded or flaked coconut (to sprinkle on finished cake)

To make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two (nine-inch) cake pans. Line the bottoms only with waxed paper or parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt.

In a bowl, combine buttermilk and vanilla.

In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy and no lumps remain, one minute or so. Beat on high speed as you gradually add one and one-half cups sugar. Beat three-and-a -half to five minutes, until the mixture is very light.

Separate the eggs, putting the yolks in a small custard cup and the whites in a bowl big enough to hold them for beating. Add the yolks one at a time to the butter mixture and beat until the color is uniform, scraping the sides of the bowl often.

Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk in two parts, stirring with a wooden spoon or with mixer beaters set on low.

With clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add remaining one-half cup sugar and cream of tartar gradually as you beat until peaks are stiff but not dry.

Stir about one-fourth of the whites into the batter, then fold the rest in gently.

Spoon into prepared cake pans and bake 30 minutes, or until the layers are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn onto cake racks, remove paper and cool completely.

To make the filling: Remove the hulls from the strawberries. Chop berries coarsely and set aside. Combine sugar, orange rind and one-fourth cup water in a small saucepan.

Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil one minute, then add strawberries and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer five minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool.

To make icing: In a large bowl, beat the whipping cream, sour cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form when beaters are raised.

To assemble: Put a cooled cake layer on a serving platter or plate. Top with strawberry filling and spread to an even layer. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread icing on the sides and top of cake, sprinkling the top and sides with coconut.

The cake will be easier to slice if you let it stand two or more hours. (Refrigerate if you're holding it more than two hours, but let it come to room temperature before you serve it.)

Macaroons

• 2 large egg whites
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• Grated rind of one-half lemon
• 1 1/2 cups finely grated unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheets with wax paper.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; beat in sugar. Continue beating until very stiff. Gradually beat in lemon juice. Add lemon rind and fold in coconut in three portions.

With two spoons, form mounds of mixture and place 1 inch apart on baking sheet.

Bake 18 minutes; turn off oven and bake 20 more minutes with door open. Allow cookies to cool slightly, then carefully remove to a rack.