My city, my sauna

As a counterpoint to last Saturday's zombie-hazed, sleepless market trip, this morning I woke up at 6:30 after a sensible bedtime, and got up to run four miles in refreshing 80% humidity before heading out to USG. My extra-long run had me visiting both Monsignors McGolrick and McCarren, as well as the scenic pass near our neighborhood terrifying chicken slaughterhouse, before rounding my sweaty way back to my woefully not-yet-air-conditioned apartment.

After all that and fighting through the busy market crowds? The cherries tasted AMAZING.

Early to bed, early to rise:
1 lb. sugar snap peas
1 qt. strawberries
1 lb. cherries
1/2 lb. wild asparagus
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch Siberian kale
1 head Romaine lettuce
1 head Red Oak lettuce
Total spent: $35.50

I blanched last week's sugar snaps and took them with me to a beach picnic; they were wonderful, but I'm looking forward to hoarding these so I can eat them with lunch every day. Lunch-wise, last week's standout meal was goat barbacoa made by my friendly local (cute) butchers at The Meat Hook, thrown in a bowl with lots of sautéed kale and shallots, on top of red quinoa (tastier than beige quinoa!).

Mostly, lately, I've only wanted to eat the above-pictured Enormo-Salad dressed with shalloty Dijon vinaigrette and topped with hardboiled eggs and olives, sometimes with a buttered piece of the awesome spelt-rye sourdough from Hawthorne Valley Farm on the side. Coming soon: a recipe for said salad dressing.

My only real disappointment this season has been my own overwhelming lack of interest in all things rhubarb. Maybe when I get my A/C installed I'll be able to care. I have been dreaming about this rhubarb bread, but haven't been able to stomach the idea of heating up the oven to bake it. Ditto rhubarb chutney and the great rhubarb bars I made last season. We'll see.

As is standard Saturday practice, I've already eaten half the cherries and one-third of the strawberries. Some things don't change.

Early bird gets the zzzzzzzzzzzz…

Since I’ve been writing Produce Stories for four years now, there aren’t really many firsts left to be had: even when vendors come and go, the seasons tend to bring the same fruits and vegetables to the market, season in, season out.

But this morning marked the first (and, let’s hope, last) time I went straight to the market in the morning without sleeping. Being that this is a family blog, I won’t go into the circumstances, but I will say that I was sure spaced out and lackadaisical about my shopping. One vendor asked me how I was doing and, after ringing up my greens, told me to “be careful out there.”

You snooze, you lose:
1 bunch broccoli rabe
1 bunch Siberian kale
½ lb. wild asparagus
2/3 lb. sugar snap peas
4 shallots
2 heads red oak lettuce
1 pint strawberries
1 pint cherries (!!!!!!!!)
Total spent: $35

The upside was that, since I left my house at 7:30, I got to the market just as it was opening, so it wasn’t crowded and nobody had sold out of anything yet – and by “anything” I mean CHERRIES!! My buddies at Locust Grove had ‘em, and I snagged a pint.

If I weren’t so drowsy I think I’d be beside myself with glee about the reappearance of sugar snaps. Shell peas were available too, but I held back, since I didn’t have any immediate ideas for them. I’ll have to plan a dinner party soon so I can make fresh pea soup with cream and tarragon.

No big plans for anything else, beyond the giant shalloty salads and proteins served atop piles of greens that have been my standard fare lately. I’m happy that regular heads of lettuce are back in season, so I don’t have to buy super-pricey (albeit delicious) baby greens anymore – and Keith’s Farm has the best lettuce, though sadly their garlic is still all green.

My lord, I’m tired.

Photo from Flickr: fromky's photostream

What a crock!

The cute pickling crock I bought at The Brooklyn Kitchen a month ago is going to get its first workout, courtesy of the Kirby cucumbers I bought today!

A gorgeous, if humid, trip to USG today. Isolated thunderstorms have been predicted through the afternoon, but luckily the skies were clear this morning (last night, not so much). Couldn't buy nearly the amount of berries I wanted and stay within my budget, but I did manage to stuff my refrigerator to the gills.

Too much for the produce drawer:
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch basil
1 bunch Italian parsley
2 bunches carrots
3/4 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. shell peas
2 lbs. yellow onions
2 1/4 lb. zucchini
1 bunch French crisp lettuce
2 1/4 lb. Kirby cucumbers
1 3/4 lbs. mixed green beans & wax beans
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch collards
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 pint Sungold tomatoes
1 lb. cherries
1 pint raspberries
Total spent: $56.50

Other progress has been made on the preserving front. Witness: seven jars of jeweltoned strawberry jam recently added to my pantry. The jam tastes wonderful but it's doing that weird solid/liquid separating thing that always seems to happen when I use pectin. I've got to figure that one out.

I also made a jar of the sugar snap pea pickles from Joy Of Pickling, which turned out really strong, even for me, after the recommended two weeks' curing in the fridge. The tarragon gives them a great flavor, though, and I think they'll carry us through the season tossed in salads (and possibly even added to cheese sandwiches).

Other than the pickles, no big plans. I'll probably make a salad of roasted zucchini, Sungold tomatoes, and chopped basil tonight for dinner. We'll inhale the berries in a couple of days - I've already got a head start on the heavenly raspberries from Terhune Orchards. And I'm about to make my favorite Wednesday lunch of sautéed greens (lacinato kale, in this case), fried eggs, and freshly sliced greenmarket bread. Yum!

Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the missing strawberries

I bought two pints of delicious little Tristar strawberries at the market this morning, but now I only have one pint. The investigation is still in its initial stages, but the evidence suggests it was an inside* job.

The threat of rain was an idle one, thank goodness:
1 bunch mint
1 bunch dill
1 bunch chervil
1 head French crisp lettuce
1 bunch beets with greens
1 bunch collards
1 3/4 lb. sugar snap peas
1 1/2 lb. zucchini
1 1/4 lb. shell peas
2 bunches carrots
1 bag onions
1 bag shallots
2 pints Tristar strawberries
Total spent: $44

Today was a bountiful one at the market, to say the least. Zucchini made its first appearance, and I picked up some of the gorgeous sweet baby beets I've been seeing to make a batch of springtime borscht along with carrots, onions, and plenty of fresh dill. I'll use the chervil in a light pureed soup with the peas, as I did last week with the tarragon (which, by the way, was one of the most delicious things I've ever made).

The mint was so fragrant and lovely that I impulse-bought it - perhaps it's time to make that blended mint lemonade I've been thinking about since having a sip of a friend's at Westville...or maybe when I'm making my first batch of homemade ginger ale, I'll throw in some fresh mint and honey. Full report to come.

Not much else by way of big plans: I do want to make some sugar snap pea pickles using the Joy Of Pickling recipe (I was even more inspired to make them when I saw this Smitten Kitchen post), and the rest will be blanched and eaten as snacks. And of course I'm thrilled that carrots are back at the market! If I can avoid eating them all (good luck), I may make a light carrot soup. We'll see.


*Inside my stomach that is! Ha ha ha ha ha!

New acquisitions

Late to the market, waiting for Fedex. But worth it!!

Springtime arrivals:
1 MacBook Pro
2 lbs. asparagus
1 lb. shell peas
2 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. rhubarb
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch collard greens
1 head broccoli
1/4 lb. mesclun greens
1 bunch tarragon
1 qt. strawberries
Total spent: $2041

Of course the presence of broccoli means my photo assistant is out of town. And since he's away, I'm going to have a hot night tonight...literally hot, because I am going to be pickling. I'm definitely going to make rhubarb chutney (using the recipe in Joy Of Pickling but with agave + molasses instead of white sugar, and with dried cherries instead of golden raisins), and I will do some fridge pickled sugar snap peas as well, with another Joy Of Pickling recipe, which is why I bought the tarragon.

As far as the shell peas go, I'm going to make them into a spring pea soup tonight. I considered buying some cream, but decided I will try to come up with a recipe that doesn't require it (as much as I do support the use of heavy cream). Luckily I have plenty of butter on hand!

Thrilled with spring despite piles of setbacks thus far (the burglary being only the first); thrilled with all the fresh produce and beautiful weather; have a lot of big and small plans, will be developing recipes like a madlady this season if all goes according to plan!

Hilarity ensues

"Boy," I thought, munching on one of the blanched sugar snap peas I had brought in my lunch, "these are tough. Maybe they are going out of season or something? I did buy them from an unfamiliar vendor..." After struggling with the too-fibrous pods of a couple more, I gave up and decided to shell them, making a decent-sized mess to get to the tender interior peas.

"Gee," I thought, struggling to shell an especially intractable petit pois pod for dinner, "these are tough to shell." I reached for another equally-difficult pod, and had struggled through about five of them when it finally dawned on me what had happened. Of course, in my morning rush, I'd blanched the petit pois and put them in lunches, and I was now trying to shell sugar snap peas.

It's this kind of subtle hilarity that makes live worth living, really.

Oh snap!

Almost as if in answer to my response in this Serious Eats thread about the Saturday USG, this morning's excursion was especially hot and crowded - and I got very cranky. But the rewards were myriad.

Maybe I am a poser, but my shoulders hurt for reals:

1 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. asparagus
1/2 lb. pea shoots
1 lb. shelling peas
1 bunch curly kale
1 bag spinach
1 bunch lamb's quarters
4 shallots
3 onions
1 quart strawberries
Total spent: $52

Last night was the celebratory barbecue for my friends Sam and Nat, who are getting married on Sunday. From the Friday greenmarket, I brought blanched sugar snap peas for finger food, blanched asparagus for the grill, and lots of baby lettuces. We had way too much food, but the sugar snaps (they're so sweet this year!) were gone in an instant, and the grilled asparagus went over well too. The salad was so lovely - the baby heads of lettuce so fresh - that I once again mourned the flavorless salads that most folks end up eating. They can be good, with the right dressing, when you've got bland greens, but when you have a mix of the type of lettuce that is tasty enough to eat alone, it's a totally different experience.

Tonight, I'm excited to sautee the pea shoots with garlic, then serve them with spaghetti so they can be wound around the fork at the same time. I'll have that with buttered peas on the side and some of the Field Roast sausage we have leftover from the barbecue.

The lamb's quarters I bought on a whim; they were described as similar to spinach, but without any oxalic acid. I'll try sauteeing them with garlic. A few minutes after picking them up, I was utterly seduced by the gorgeous spinach from Windfall Farms - it's bright green, with big, flat, un-crinkled leaves - and so crisp and fresh. So now I've got spinach and a spinach stand-in. Luckily, I love greens, so we'll make short work of the lot.

But of course, the most exciting purchase I made today was that quart of strawberries. They're not quite ready, I'm afraid - flavorful, but still a little lacking - but I will take strawberries over no strawberries any day. Lots of vendors had them, so I'll probably head to work early on Wednesday morning to try some more. I don't have any illusions that this box will last past the weekend.

In general news, I'm still getting used to my school schedule, which is not easy to do. Having free time is something I'd grown fond of, you see.

Going overboard...

...was my greenmarket m.o. today. Though strawberries are already gone, the amazing July selection at the USG today more than made up for it.

I love summer:
1 quart cherry tomatoes
1 lb. sugar snap peas
2 cousa squashes
1 bunch red Russian kale
1 bunch rainbow chard
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch Italian parsley
1 bunch basil
1.5 lbs. cherries
5 apricots
Total spent: $34

The plural of "squash" is giving me a headache. Does "squashes" mean only "multiple varieties of squash," or can I use it to mean "two fruits of the squash plant"? I think my point comes across regardless.

I'm very glad sugar snap peas are still here - they're our summer staple vegetable so far. I've been blanching them for 75 seconds, shocking them in ice water, then packing them in lunches with a few grinds of sea salt...and then, more often than not, we have them again (prepared the same way) with dinner.

I'm excited to have bought my first tomatoes of summer! One of my plans is to have them in a pesto pasta salad with cousa squash, goat cheese, and Italian parsley - with fresh basil to garnish. I bought some pesto at the greenmarket because I don't have a food processor to make my own. The basil will also go into some homemade tomato sauce.

Most of the other veggies are self-explanatory - greens for adding to burritos, pasta, and anywhere else I can fit them in, and the carrots for having raw or steamed with lunch. The cherries are from Terhune Orchards, which is also where I get my apples in fall - they have the best cherries at the greenmarket (they also had the best asparagus when it was around). I'm very happy that apricots are starting to show up; a few places even had peaches. Though these are two of the fruits I most want to can this summer, so that clock is ticking quickly. We'll see if I can fit in a class and get the gear in time to put up some fruit this summer.

Thank you, strawberries

This morning I had one of those wonderful post-coffee sleep-deprived few hours where everything was right in the world. Last night I was at a show until after two, which was a wonderful experience full of people I know and love and people I know now who are amazing...so we went home with much elation, fell asleep, and I woke up to a cat's head-butting at 9 a.m., too hot to doze - so in spite of myself, I had an early greenmarket day. I was still bleary-eyed when I dropped off my compost scraps, but after an iced-coffee at Joe's, nearly did a double-take when I saw little green cartons filled with small round red...cherry tomatoes? No! Early season strawberries had arrived. And eight dollars later, a quart of them were mine.

How can one person deserve so much joy? I'm just lucky, I guess.

Thank you, greenmarket:
1 quart strawberries (half of them are gone at 5 p.m.)
1 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. asparagus
2 bags spinach
1 bunch red kale
3 zucchini
8 Winesap apples
Total spent: $37

No photo today. It was a whirlwind morning. Plus, you people know what strawberries look like.

Beyond berries (raspberries were also an option, though I passed them up), the other exciting new development today is sugar snap peas, which are also the season's first. I am excited to stir-fry these...and serve them just blanched in lunches as an alternative to carrot sticks, which have been keeping me going all winter, I'll admit, but it's time for a change.

I'm not sure what I want to do with the asparagus (other than eat it as soon as I can), but I'd like to try a new recipe. But I like it so much just sauteed that it's hard to commit to recipes when it comes time to make dinner. I'll keep you posted.

In non-greenmarket vegetable news, avocadoes: still delicious!

CORN UPDATE

The TJ's corn was really, really sweet and delicious. And the sugar snap peas were really great, too. I boiled them for about a minute in some salted water, then drained them and immediately tossed in a pat of butter. There's something grainy/chalky about the raw ones that the quick boil eliminated, leaving only the sweetness.

Union Square Greenmarket 6/30: Heartbreak & Triumph

Heartbreak: no strawberries. Triumph: cherries!


My whole haul:
1 cousa squash
1 avocado squash
1 bag asst. baby lettuces
1 bunch carrots
3 tomatoes
1 lb. cherries
1/2 lb. sugar snap peas
3 heads baby bok choy
1 container cat grass
total spent: $25


(photos, top to bottom, Sears Portrait Studio-style: baby lettuces (adorable!), baby bok choy, cherries, avocado squash (L) & cousa squash)

Depressingly picked-over by 2:30 p.m. I guess lots of folks had today off? I'd say "tourists," but what tourist visiting NYC buys produce?

Plans include stir-fry (carrots, avocado squash - I'm hooked!, and bok choy); salads (lettuce, obvs), probably saute the cousa squash, and maybe I'll braise the sugar snap peas...I'm not sure - they were an impulse buy, and I'm not overly fond of them raw. They're apparently quite abundant in NY-area farms, since pretty much every stand had some. The rest of the carrots will be made into carrot sticks for lunches - while I liked the roasted ones, it's too dismally hot here lately to heat up the oven.

Despite the cat-grass people's testimonials, my cats have shown zero interest in the cat grass.

Basil plant update: not looking good. We haven't had any sunshine all week, so it's looking pretty bedraggled. Hopefully that will improve once I re-pot.