Not a lot to report. No influx yet of my beloved squashes, but plenty of veggies to go around. If one were so inclined, one might stop by Dancing Ewe and pick up ricotta cheese, and then pick up fresh basil, fat tomatoes, and plump heirloom eggplants for some kind of divine summer lasagna or pizza. If one were inclined.
~baconbit
My dear readers,
I owe you an apology. I have not been fully to market this week. Monday I was out sick from work, and this morning as well, I discovered that my illness was not quite over. I’m at work this afternoon, but won’t be making a full market sweep today.
I did want to say quickly though that the wine guy has his NY State Dandelion Wine. I’m a big science fiction fan and I always love to have a bottle or two for the purposes of reminding me of summer in winter, and for sipping and reading SF with. It is a light dessert wine, and as such is sweet, though I find it to be a crisp sort of sweetness, rather than clinging. Give it, and his other wines, a try!
Hopefully by Friday I’ll be able to give you a nicer, and fuller, report.
~baconbit
Not a lot to report today – my own shopping is delayed until next week as I am off to the Bronx Botanical Gardens this afternoon, followed by weekend of much socializing and very little cooking. However, I did see the first grapes I’ve seen at Cheerful Cherry Farms.
Have a fantastic weekend, all!
~baconbit
Just a quick post today – I swept through the market this morning, grabbing this and that. I won’t be home for dinner tonight so I grabbed what could be stashed in the work mini-fridge without too much trouble. That meant no great big frothy bags of greens, or voluminous beans in their pods. Instead I stocked up on meat & eggs for the coming weekend when we have guests. Because I love mushrooms, I headed to Honey Hollow where I got a beautiful 1/2 pint of truffle-like black trumpet mushrooms. They had a basket of Ovolos again and I chatted up another customer encouraging him to try them. Just like I encourage you to!
There’s the maple breakfast sausage this week at Tamarack Hollow – and maple kielbasa! Go get yer sausage on!
I’m hoping we have another week or two of peaches. Peach season has been incredible this year. I’d like to can a few for the cold winter months ahead!
~baconbit
For weeks now, there have been summer squash everywhere. It is ubiquitous, and we never even mention it on the blog. While I like summer squash quite a bit, I sort of regard it as a vegetable filler. A lot of fiber and fullness for very little in terms of calories – and oftimes taste. I’ve grown to love Yunno’s “Avocado Squash” which has an excellent texture and is not overly watery like a lot of zucchinis – but still, I don’t mention it that often.
The squash I can never get enough of is autumn squashes – difficult to peel, their sweet flesh is music to my mouth, and I’m waiting for my favorites to reappear like a schoolgirl waiting to catch a glimpse of her crush on the basketball team.
I saw a tiny glimpse today! DJ’s had two types of hard shelled squash out on their table today, labeled “Chinese” Squash. To me though, it looked like one was a ghost pumpkin type, and the second was butternut.
I didn’t buy them, but soon. My favorite squash is Hubbard, and I’m hoping to see a few this year at the market. Last year I dragged more than one home on the subway. When you consider that they look rather like Yoda, in coloring, size, shape, and impassivity, this is revealed as no mean feat.
Today though, I skipped it. Instead of that, I bought a bunch of red skinned carrots from John Maduras because I have been dying to try this recipe for Carottes Râpées. I love all things French (I am a bit of a francophile) and have thought ever since I first read this recipe, that it would be simply gorgeous with red carrots, the colors being yellow at the core, and red at the outer edge. Besides, David Lebovitz never steers me wrong.
So, tonight I shall break out the manoline, and grate some carrots. I’m going to serve it alongside duck fat flavored beans & rice. Or a stirfry of pork & bok choy. Hey, I may be a francophile, but I’m a New Yorker first and foremost. The melting pot is where I feel most comfortable!
~baconbit
Hello. Dairy Queen here. I apologize for my extremely long absence without a post. I’ll blame my Brooklyn CSA farm share, who has been supplying me with delicious fruits and veggies for the summer from Garden of Eve Farm on Long Island. Needless to say my Greenmarket shopping has dwindled, and I didn’t want to bore you with my same old purchases of eggs and bacon. Today I ventured out in search of, yes, eggs- thanks Tello’s!, but also flour. I’ve been making a lot of tarts lately. I remembered that Wild Hive Farm used to be at the market on Fridays, but alas I did not find them today. Apparently they are only coming on Saturdays. Sigh. Too bad for me. Luckily the friendly Greenmarket staff informed me that Oak Grove Farms would have some flour. It was true, they carry two kinds of flour- whole wheat and buckwheat. They also have popcorn, and I’ve found their bacon to be delicious. Their stand appears to sell only veggies, fruits, pepper plants and some flowers. You need to ask for the flour and popcorn, and they will happily get it for your from the truck. The bacon and other meat is in a big white cooler. Happy shopping.
Honey Hollow Farms has more Ovolo mushrooms today. Last week, I tried them.
Ovolo, or Olvolio mushroom is a member of the infamous Amanita genus, the genus that gives us the ghost white Death Angel that causes liver & kidney failure, as well as the hallucinogenic Fly Agaric of Siberian shamen and Super Mario Brothers fame.
The Ovolo however is related, but different. It’s botanical name is Amanita caesarea. If you are familiar with latin, you might have guessed that it’s a favorite of Italians, especially Romans. Unlike it’s more infamous bretheren, the Ovolo is very edible, and highly prized.
I prepared them the way I was told to by our intrepid mushroom hunter: sliced thin, and dressed simply with excellent olive oil and fresh garlic. They were lovely. Earthy, almost creamy, a little meaty. I was nervous at first bite, don’t get me wrong. But I placed my trust in Honey Hollow, and was amply rewarded.
If you are a mushroom lover, I recommend picking some up today, for consumption in the next couple of days.
~baconbit
Danielle, over at Gothamist, posted my recipe for Pickled Garlic Seeds that I developed last year. You can make these with regular garlic too.
These would be a very good complement to your chopped liver. I also love to put them in egg salad. They are deliciously mild.
~baconbit
Today is nightshade day at the market – everywhere I saw a multitude of peppers of all sorts, table after table of heirloom tomatoes, and piles of eggplant. Now is the time to stock up, roast slowly, and freeze for winter’s delight.
Last week I was dithering between a Tamarack Hollow duck and chicken. I finally decided on the chicken and paid and took my prize home.
As I prepped it for roasting, I thought, “These legs seem smaller than usual. And the heart and liver! So big! I’ve never seen a chicken with a neck this long and meaty.”
Oblivious, I roasted away, and when I pulled out the pan, I thought, “So much fat melted off this! I really ought to keep it in the ‘fridge….” The liver was so huge I roasted that too and turned it into chopped liver.
It wasn’t until the next day, as I sat snacking on my chopped liver, and thinking about how much it tasted like paté, that I realized I must have bought a duck and not a chicken.
I should have realized it earlier – I wish I had. My duck would have been more tender with a different roasting techinique – however, I’m so glad I saved that liver! Chopped liver never tasted so good! Plus, I still have about 1/2-3/4 of a cup of duck fat in the ‘fridge, plus duck bones in the freezer. Stock! But what to do with all that delicious duckfat?!
Accidentally High-End Chopped Liver
1 big duck liver from your duck from Tamarack Hollow
1 hard boiled egg, peeled
5 leaves fresh sage
3 tablespoons reserved duckfat
1 clove of garlic, diced
fresh pepper & salt
1) As you prep your duck, either sauté your duck liver, or roast it alongside in a little tinfoil pan, in the oven.
2) Fry up your garlic & sage in the duckfat.
3) Combine ingredients in a food-processor. I use the food-processer attachment on my stick blender!
4) Puree into a paste.
5) Spread on crackers or bread, either immediately or keep in fridge to snack on over a few days. Good enough for guests, homey enough for lunch. Better than your bubbehs, but don’t tell her I said that!
Enjoy!
~baconbit
Before I get to the “meat” of this post, i wanted to say that Honey Hollow Farms has an incredible mushroom selection today: Ovolo mushrooms (a European delicacy), porcinis, lobster mushrooms, chantarelles, and mixed 1/2 pint mushrooms. AWESOME.
OK.
Monday, a reader wrote in to say that he didn’t know what to do with lima beans. I wrote a quick response with a quick succotash recipe.
Today, at the market, I saw all the ingredients for succotash – along with a few new ones – among the produce, so I’m going to rewrite that recipe along with the shopping list you’ll need to make it.
For some reason, succotash – a Native American dish of corn and beans – gets a bad rap. It shouldn’t. Made with fresh produce, there are few dishes more sublime. And talk about LOCAL! Corn and beans grow in every state of our great nation. Furthermore, this dish and all it’s variations, goes back thousands of years on this very soil. You can’t get more local and native than this. OK, so I embellish a bit with pig meat and the like, but this is the truth of it’s heart. Everything else is emblematic of the history of our nation, of natives, and immigrants (forced and free) alike.
1.5 lbs – 2 lbs lima beans (CHerry Hill Farms) in shell
4 ears corn (Cherry HIll, or many other vendors)
pancetta or bacon (Tamarack Hollow Farms)
Garlic (Keith’s)
Leeks (Keith’s) or onions (many farmers)
carrots (many farmers)
cream & butter (Ronnybrook Dairy)
fresh sage (Keith’s)
1. Shell the beans. Put in a bowl.
2. Shuck corn, and then cut corn from the cob using a knife and a big bowl. I like to stand the corn on end and kind of “shave” the corn off. Use a SHARP knife!
3. Slice up a carrot, leeks, some garlic, and either 1 or 2 slices of bacon, or dice a hunk of pancetta.
4. Put pancetta/bacon in a sauté pan, and begin frying. Melt out the fat. When the fat is in the pan, add the alliums (leeks & garlic) and sauté until transluscent. Add carrots and keep sauteeing.
5. Add corn and limas beans, and a little bit (maybe a 1/2 cup) of NYC tap water. Remember folks, our tap water comes from the Adirondaks. It is actually spring water! Amazing! How lucky are we? Very. Add chopped sage – about 5 leaves.
6. Cover and cook until the limas are bright green. Maybe 5-10 minutes.
7. Add a knob of butter, and some heavy cream, to taste. Also, even though it’s not local, add some black pepper and salt. No one will be mad at you. In fact, they will thank you. You won’t need much with the pancetta in there!
8. Eat. Rejoyce!
NOTE: This makes a LOT of succotash! Dinner for 2 adults, followed by 3 lunches with sandwiches on the side. It reheats beautifully. I promise you – this is not that awful cafeteria succotash that you grew up with. This? This is heaven! Let us know what you think!
~baconbit
