White Rabbit's Garden Crudité

Description

Source: ALICE in WONDERLAND THE OFFICIAL COOKBOOK - ELENA CRAIG & S. T. BENDE

The White Rabbit has the lushest vegetable garden, and he is quite proud of it. His little patch of paradise is sprinkled with carrots, turnips, and delightfully fresh cucumbers. If your own garden offers up such a bounty, a vegetable crudité makes for a sensible—and salubrious!—use of excess resources. And isn’t it nice when something makes sense for a change?

Ingredients

• 1 to 2 bunches thin asparagus
• 2 English cucumbers
• 2 bunches small radishes
• 2 bunches baby carrots, with greens intact
• 20 to 30 sugar snap peas
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 ounces crème fraîche
• 1 teaspoon finely minced fresh chives
• ½ teaspoon finely minced fresh thyme
• ¼ teaspoon finely minced fresh rosemary

Directions

1. To prepare the vegetables, start by blanching the asparagus.
2. Snap off the tough ends of each stalk of asparagus.
3. Fill a large pot with water, and bring to a boil over high heat.
4. While the water is coming to a boil, fill a large bowl with cold water and ice, and have it standing by.
5. When the water is boiling, put all the asparagus in at once, and boil for 1 minute.
6. Remove the asparagus stalks with tongs, and immediately plunge them into the ice bath.
7. Use the tongs to gently remove the stalks from the ice bath, and let them drain in a colander.
8. Set aside.
9. Slice the cucumbers into ¼-inch slices.
10. Slice the radishes into ¼-inch slices, leaving a few very small ones whole for garnish.
11. Trim the carrot greens so that you have just a short bunch of stems, with few to no leaves.
12. Gently peel.
13. In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix together the cream cheese and crème fraîche.
14. Add minced chives, thyme, and rosemary, and stir until evenly distributed.
15. Set aside.
16. Arrange the asparagus, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and peas in neat garden rows on one or more serving platters; pat them dry, if necessary.
17. Load the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag fitted with a coupler, and have several tips standing by (such as a large petal, an open star, and a closed star).
18. Pipe the mixture onto the vegetables, switching up the tips to add variety.
19. If you do not have a piping bag and tips, you can spread the cream cheese mixture onto the veggies or pipe it using a sealable plastic bag with a corner snipped off.
20. Either serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
21. Serve as an appetizer.

Yield: 15 to 20 servings