The spring equinox occurred yesterday at 12:57 p.m. It begs for a little astronomy lesson about equinoxes and solstices, the days that mark the change of seasons.

What’s An Equinox?

During an equinox, the sun is closest to the Equator, the imaginary line around the Earth that is equidistant from the North and South Poles. On those days, night and day are approximately equally long. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus, equal and nox, night.

An equinox marks the beginning of spring and fall. To acknowledge the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are opposite, the vernal and autumnal equinoxes are now being called the March and September equinoxes.

Solstices, on the other hand, occur when which the sun is furthest from the Equator and the difference in length between night and day is greatest. This creates the shortest day of the year, in December, and the longest day, in June. Solstices mark the beginning of winter and summer.

Solstice means “sun-standing” from the Latin solstitium, literally, the apparent standing still of the sun (sol is sun, sistere is to stand still).

O.K., you’ve studied hard. You deserve a spring cocktail. This one is courtesy of Courvoisier, one of our favorite Cognacs.

 
RECIPE: COURVOISIBERRY COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

1. Combine all ingredients, stir and serve in a wine glass over ice.

2. Garnish with berries.

3. Toast to spring!

You can go to the website FoodAndWinePairing.org and get guidance such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Malbec with lamb.

But conventional wisdom, which also includes drinking the wines from the same region as the foods, is not the same as the latest wisdom.

The new wisdom of wine says don’t be regimented, don’t box yourself in. Try different pairings to see what works best for you.

The new wisdom (which has been around for a while) was proved at a lunch last week hosted by Louis Jadot, the venerable Burgundian winemaker and négociant*.

In a private room at Lafayette Grand Café in the Nolita neighborhood of downtown Manhattan, ten wine writers joined Frederic Barnier, Jadot’s winemaker, for an eye-opening (and delicious) lunch.

We tried eight different dishes with four Jadot wines, two whites and two reds:

If you think you prefer Cabernet Sauvignon with filet mignon, think again. Photo courtesy Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

Also tasted prior to the lunch were the new Louis Jadot Steel Chardonnay, made for the American market where many people prefer the flavors of steel fermentation to oak barrel fermentation; and the 2012 Pouilly-Fuisse.

We were encouraged to mix and match the wines with the foods. Served family style on large platters, we dined on:

 
SURPRISES

As you might imagine, there’s a lot of conventional wisdom on which wines to pair with these foods. But we tried every possible pairing, and the results were surprising—or maybe not so surprising:

Everyone liked something different, and many of the preferences were not the conventional ones.

Even more surprising to us—a lover of red and white Burgundy but not necessarily of Beaujolais†—is how much we liked that Beaujolais with just about everything. It was our favorite wine of the tasting, and the nice Jadot people sent us home with a bottle.

Follow today’s tip by planning a dinner with four different wines.

You can assign dishes to participants, so you’ll have an assortment of vegetables, grains, poultry, meat and fish/seafood. Prepare the dishes with strong flavors—like the hazelnuts, horseradish, truffle oil, spices and herbs served by Lafayette—because any wine will seemingly go with bland food.

Of course, the exercise is a relative one. The flavors of wines made from the same grape from the same region in the same year can vary widely. So it’s best to select four wines from the same producer, like Jadot, which will provide consistency in house style and approach to winemaking.

Bon appétit!

 
*A négociant is the French term for a wine merchant who buys wines from smaller winemakers and sells them under his own name. Négociants buy everything from grapes to grape must to wines in various states of completion, and often blend the wines from different small winemakers.

†Beaujolais is the one appellation in Burgundy that produces red wine made from the Gamay grape instead of Pinot Noir.

Plus, we need to get our last licks: “Cheesecake season” concludes at the end of spring. The dense cream cheese cheesecake we favor is too heavy for summer. So this may be our last recipe until fall.

The recipe is from Lauryn Cohen, a.k.a. Bella Baker. Says Lauryn:

“This is easily the best cheesecake I’ve ever made: a chocolate wafer cookie crust, a rich and creamy cheesecake layer, crushed Oreo cookies mixed into the silky batter and topped with a drizzle of chocolate ganache, chocolate whipped cream and more Oreo cookies.”

We made it for National Oreo Day, March 6th, using Oreo cookies.

 
 
RECIPE: COOKIES & CREAM CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

For The Crust

[1] Cookies & Cream cheesecake: a fusion of two favorites (both photos © Bella Baker [now closed]).

For The Filling

For The Chocolate Ganache

 
For The Chocolate Whipped Cream

1. PREHEAT the oven to 325°F. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

2. MIX the melted butter with Oreo crumbs and sugar and press into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes and set aside.

3. BEAT the cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high until fluffy, making sure that there are no clumps. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating cream cheese until mixed well. Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat until blended. Add the vanilla, salt, and milk; beat until smooth and creamy. Add the flour and beat until the batter is satiny smooth. Stir in the coarsely chopped Oreo cookies with a spoon.

4. POUR the cream cheese mixture into the pan and bake for one hour and 15 minutes. After that time, turn the oven off and keep the oven door slightly open. Let the cheesecake stay in the oven for one hour. Remove from the oven and let cool enough to place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

5. MAKE the ganache: Place heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Place chopped chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. Once heavy cream has reached boiling pour half the heavy cream over the chopped chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds, then gently stir chocolate and cream together with a rubber spatula in a figure-eight motion. Pour remaining heavy cream over chocolate and continue to gently stir. Add butter, one piece at a time, until ingredients are fully incorporated and the ganache is smooth and glossy.

6. MAKE the chocolate whipped cream: Beat heavy cream at high speed for about 2-3 minutes. Once the mixture has started to thicken, add cocoa powder and sugar and continue beating until whipped cream mixture has formed.

7. GARNISH the chilled cake. Drizzle the chocolate ganache over the top of the cake, in the grid pattern shown in the photo or in your own artistic interpretation. Pipe the chocolate whipped cream in mounds around the rim of the cake and in the center. Place one mini Oreo in each mound of whipped cream, and a chocolate wafer cookie in the center.

While this recipe may seem over the top to some, you’ll note that it’s a relatively flat cake—torte-like, not like the often-found three-inch-high/four-inch-high New York cheesecake.

So a slice is an indulgence, but not a jumbo indulgence.
  

Plus, we need to get our last licks: “Cheesecake season” concludes at the end of spring. The dense cream cheese cheesecake we favor is too heavy for summer. So this may be our last recipe until fall.

The recipe is from Lauryn Cohen, a.k.a. Bella Baker. Says Lauryn:

“This is easily the best cheesecake I’ve ever made: a chocolate wafer cookie crust, a rich and creamy cheesecake layer, crushed Oreo cookies mixed into the silky batter and topped with a drizzle of chocolate ganache, chocolate whipped cream, and more Oreo cookies.”

We made it for National Oreo Day, March 6th. National Cheesecake Day is July 30th.

> The history of cheesecake.

> The history of Oreos.
 
 
RECIPE: COOKIES & CREAM CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

For The Crust

[1] Cookies & Cream cheesecake: a fusion of two favorites (photo © Bella Baker).

For The Filling

For The Chocolate Ganache

 
For The Chocolate Whipped Cream

1. PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

2. MIX melted butter with Oreo crumbs and sugar and press into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes and set aside.

3. BEAT cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high until fluffy, making sure that there are no clumps. Slowly add sugar and continue beating cream cheese until mixed well. Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat until blended. Add the vanilla, salt, and milk; beat until smooth and creamy. Add the flour and beat until the batter is satiny smooth. Stir in the coarsely chopped Oreo cookies with a spoon.

4. POUR cream cheese mixture into the pan and bake for one hour and 15 minutes. After that time, turn the oven off and keep the oven door slightly open. Let the cheesecake stay in the oven for one hour. Remove from the oven and let cool enough to place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

5. MAKE the ganache: Place heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Place chopped chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. Once the heavy cream has reached boiling pour half the heavy cream over the chopped chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds, then gently stir chocolate and cream together with a rubber spatula in a figure-eight motion. Pour the remaining heavy cream over the chocolate and continue to gently stir. Add butter, one piece at a time, until ingredients are fully incorporated and the ganache is smooth and glossy.

6. MAKE the chocolate whipped cream: Beat heavy cream on high speed for about 2-3 minutes. Once the mixture has started to thicken, add cocoa powder and sugar and continue beating until the whipped cream mixture has formed.

7. GARNISH the chilled cake. Drizzle chocolate ganache over the top of the cake, in the grid pattern shown in the photo or in your own artistic interpretation. Pipe the chocolate whipped cream in mounds around the rim of the cake and in the center. Place one mini Oreo in each mound of whipped cream, and a chocolate wafer cookie in the center.

While this recipe may seem over the top to some, you’ll note that it’s a relatively flat cake—torte-like, not like the often-found three-inch-high/four-inch-high New York cheesecake.

So a slice is an indulgence, but not a jumbo indulgence.
  
 
 

Today, animal breeders know how to enable birth year-round, so lovers of lamb need never be without it.

Use the ingredients of spring to (below) create your own spring lamb dish.

There are cuts from chops to roasts and less expensive cuts for lamb stew.

One of our favorite dishes is braised lamb shanks, ready to cook in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot.

Ever wonder why leg of lamb with green peas is such a popular pairing? It’s because both are spring foods. In the days when everyone had to eat “locavore,” people could only eat what was in season.

So today’s tip is: Celebrate this first day of spring by planning a lamb dinner with spring vegetables (a list follows).

Also, see more lamb recipes below.

How about some fava beans with a nice Chianti?

> May 7th is National Spring Lamb Day.

> The different cuts of lamb. How many have you had?
 
 
SPRING VEGETABLES

Because of imports from the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, Americans have year-round access to traditional spring foods like artichokes, Belgian endive, spinach, radicchio, radishes, and watercress.

But spring brings specialties with short seasons, so eat them while you can!

 
One of the most celestial restaurant dishes we recall, from several springs ago, was a simple sauté of asparagus, fiddleheads, morels, and ramps, seasoned with a little garlic.

It’s a lesson on how the season’s bounty needs little preparation to impress.
 

LAMB RECIPES

[1] A lamb lover’s delight. Who needs steak (photo © Blu Restaurant | NYC [permanently closed]).

[2] Roast lamb loin with lamb sausage, seasoned ricotta and beluga lentils and accents of fresh apricot (photo © Fruition Restaurant | Denver).

[3] Stuffed leg of lamb (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[4] Rack of lamb (photo © DeLallo).

[5] Lamburger (photo © Australian Lamb | Meat & Livestock Australia).