We have the following goodies to work with this week:
- Italian sausage, ground
- Italian sausage, links
- asparagus
- english cucumbers
- cilantro
- parsley
- buttercrisp lettuce
- garlic that looks like leek (when it’s small, it looks like scallions) – very long
- rhubarb
- tiny red onions
- shallots
- basil
Because the Caustic one has too much time on their hands these days, the weekly farmers’ market trip makes for, easily, two days of cooking and prep. Case in point – the mounds of carrots over the winter that were frozen, dried, pureed, pickled… etc. We are bit done with the carrots for the time being.
Now that Spring has sprung, the Market has moved back outdoors. The overwhelming offerings are… asparagus. These asparagus came from Meyer Produce in Camargo, IL. The CO likes to spread out their purchases among various vendors, so Meyer’s asparagus, available in both green and purple, were an easy sell. The purple vanishes when the asparagus is heated (steamed, fried, etc).
A few farmers had zucchini. The Caustic One does not do zucchini. That’s a whole ‘nother post for possibly a whole ‘nother blog, but after eating them dozens of different ways, nothing changes the fact that they are, indeed, zucchini. When the CO was small, their mother made apple sheet pie with zucchini. We were all tricked, it was delicious. Until the extra pans were frozen; upon thawing the truth came out – and the taste.
Koss Kountry Fresh farms is an aquaculture farm. Their tilapia is amazing and fresh, and their lettuces are great. The CO loves them because they are not bitter – after living in Deutschland, where the bitter lettuces are popular, all lettuce is suspect. Koss’ is wonderful. These make great lunches – and helps the CO get enough water in their diet. Most weeks there is also purple basil available, but this week only green basil was to be had. A small bouquet of parsley was added to the mix.
Not too far from the Living Compound is a Lutheran Church. They have quite a bit of property, and use it to farm under the auspices of Sola Gratia Farm. At least 10% of their produce goes to food kitchens and programs to help people eat. They were the ones that provided the very large garlic stalks and the cilantro. They also have marvelous purple potatoes, which we’ve decided make great fries, roasted disks, and mash, but not baked.
The shallots and tiny red onions came from Green G farm; their prices are really great but does involve some work. The CO suspects the onions are meant for sets, and picked out the ones with lovely shoots to plant (somewhere).
The Moore Family farm provided the pork sausage. For a brief time, the CO worked with a Puerto Rican Vet who confided in the CO that this farm really treated their animals well and did “farming right”. The Moore Family farm claims to have converted their operations to a permaculture-based system. They are very nice people to talk to as well.
On that note, it should be made clear that going to the farmers’ market is really more about talking to the vendors than anything else. As mentioned earlier, the CO has too much time on their hands, and conversations involving other adults are pretty sparse.
Avery Farms provided the rhubarb. Rhubarb was the driving force behind this trip to the Market, actually. When in Iceland, the CO was taught by a friend how to make rhubarb soup. Yum. The farmer was also really interesting to talk to – thankfully the trip was made quite early so as not to interrupt the lines. The CO thinks that the mini Long Island Cheese Pumpkin came from Avery last year, but can’t be sure.
And finally, Cary’s Garden of Eatin provided the English cucumbers.
So! What to do with all of this stuff?
Firstly, the Very Long Garlic Leek thingies were cut down to a foot from the roots. The tops were washed, snipped of brown edges at the very top, and cut into three – four inch pieces. These were put into a 3 quart stock pot and filled with water, brought to a boil, and simmered until the water was halved. The greens were removed. Dried celery and ginger slices were added to the garlic stock, and simmered until the ginger was reconstituted and the flavor was in the stock. These were removed, and steel cut oatmeal was added to the pot, simmered until done, and salt added. This is the Caustic One’s ‘breakfast gruel’ for the week.
A few shallots were peeled and sliced thinly, along with a couple of tiny red onions. The basil was washed, stems removed, and minced along with the red onions, shallots, a few red baby tomatoes, a tablespoon of capers, some vinegar and olive oil. Everything was cut together using a rocking knive and placed in a jar in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to meld. This bruschetta is great on Knekkebrød, or over poached tilapia. Or out of the jar, with a spoon.
The asparagus was steamed lightly, and tossed with a mixture of minced scallions, vinegar, salt, and olive oil. This was also chilled.
The tiny red onions – wow. After picking out the ones that seemed to be best for the patio garden, about a cup’s worth of them were peeled. These were sliced the long way and added to hot vinegar, salt, minced Mexican oregano, and chilled for use in tacos or Gỏi cuốn/Nem cuốn. The peelings were put into a pot and covered with about 1500 ml / quart and a half of water. After simmering and cooling, vinegar and salt were mixed in. This dye is great for coloring hard boiled egg shells.
About a quarter of the cilantro was minced with Mexican oregano (about a quarter cup leaves); more shallots were minced. These became part of the seasoning for shredded pork (purchased at last week’s FM from That Little Farm in the Country and cooked in a pressure cooker). In a hot cast iron pan, olive oil was added, heated, and a chile arbol was allowed to cook, adding flavor to the oil. Cumin was added to this as well. After the chile turned black, it was removed from the pan, and the seasoning and a little pork stock was added to the pan along with the shredded pork.
The pork sausage links are browned in a pot, and then removed. Some of the garlic sticks were minced and added to the pot with some oil until soft and aromatic; the sausages were returned to the pot along with pork stock to become soft and tender. This becomes Sunday Dinner – along with pan roasted potatoes and veggies.
The parsley and the remainder of the garlic sticks were minced and sauteed in a stock pot. Pork stock (leftover from the sausage links) was added along with any extra to bring the volume up to a decent quantity, and brought to a simmer. The pork sausage was rolled into tiny meatballs and dropped into the simmering stock; once they had cooked for a while, orzo was added to the soup and cooked. This was then stored in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to ‘marry’ overnight – a la Italian Wedding Soup, or, as the Alpha Slacker calls it, “meatball soup”.
The cucumbers will be sliced on top of salads, as well as making a pickled cucumber salad, Japanese style – scallions or garlic leek things sliced quite thinly, salt, some cold water, rice wine vinegar, and the juice of a lime.
Rhubarb soup! is on the agenda. Some will also be dried for later use in teas or as garnishes.
A cold soup will be prepared with the rest of the cilantro and garlic, at the moment, the CO is thinking – cream soup. Like a thin smoothie, full of savory flavors. Not sure what that will look like, but it’s possible that the end product will end up posted here.
Now that it has gotten Too Warm for the CO (that means, over 75 F or over 27 C), having these little salads and pieces in the fridge for tapas-style meals, soups/gruels just needed to reheat and serve – or have cold.
Yum!