a great haul for $35…

$35 for that haul

I love going to the farmer’s market. You never know what treasures you may find. And it’s great to know that you’re supporting local farmers and that you’re actually buying that what’s in season. Plus, you can’t beat the price. I got all that for $35. Yup, you read that right. That would be: a bunch of beets, one fennel bulb, one Kohlrabi bulb, 3 Cara Cara oranges, 2 red onions, 4 avocados, 2 baskets of strawberries, a bunch of asparagus, 5 Asian lemons, 2lbs of fava beans, fresh peas, a bunch of Cilantro, a bunch of purple basil and red walnuts. Just awesome!

I used to hate Kohlrabi as a kid, but I decided to give it another shot and try it in a salad. The inspiration was this winter salad I found via Epicurious, and since I like adventurous salads I thought I should see if I will change my opinion. The beets will be pickled, the fava beans might just become a fava bean spread, peas for a fresh pea risotto, fennel for salad, the strawberries are so good that they’re not going to make it through the weekend, same with the Cara Cara oranges, and the rest I’ll figure out as inspiration hits.

I know I’ll be going to this farmer’s market again!

Would you like some whine with your cheese?

Recent conversation:

“Why are you buying this pomegranate? What are you going to do with it?”
Me: “I’m planning to make this salad with it. You’ll see, it’s really good, I’ve made it before. You’ll like it.”

Next day:

“Why is this pomegranate still there? You need to use it up asap.”
Me: “Patience young grasshopper. (Okay I didn’t say that. Wish I’d thought of that at the time though). Don’t worry, I have a plan, we’re just eating something else today. I’ll make that salad soon.”

Next day:

“You need to use up this pomegranate.”
Me: “I eat to enjoy, not to finish up. You sound like __ uncle. Plus, I need prosciutto. Don’t worry!”
“Why don’t you use the ham we have?”
Me: “Because it’s cooked! It won’t work. At least not in this recipe.”
“You need to make a plan of what you plan to cook every day and buy the groceries accordingly.”
Me: “I don’t function that way, I like to improvise – but feel free to plan accordingly and take over the cooking of the meals for the next few days.”

That was the end of that conversation – at least for the next day. But conversation(s) aside, this was what I had in mind: this lovely fennel, prosciutto and pomegranate salad. OMG it’s so good. If you’re even remotely intrigued by this salad, run, don’t walk to your grocery store and get your ingredients. Btw, really good, really thinly sliced prosciutto makes a world of a difference – I know, because my prosciutto this time around was just so much better. Oh, and I omitted the spring onions because I didn’t have them, but I definitely wouldn’t stint on the mint (oooh, a rhyme!). It helps bring all the flavors together. I love it, and will be making it again asap. I just need to by a pomegranate first.

Risotto di asparago, carciofi e funghi

When guests don’t show up for dinner (last minute changes), well then you simply get a larger portion. If they knew what we had for dinner, I’m sure they’ll regret not coming over. Cause they missed out on this awesome asparagus, artichoke and mushroom risotto. I wouldn’t have thought to put this combination together. Actually, scratch that. I did put roasted artichokes into a pasta dish where it mingled nicely, so I probably would have imagined roasted artichokes as a great addition to a asparagus and mushroom risotto. I bet fresh artichokes would be even better. It’s just that I haven’t trimmed artichokes before, I’ve always been too intimidated. But I’m sure you could come up with all kinds of artichoke risotto combinations.  Jamie Oliver has a recipe for a very basic artichoke risotto (boy, that photograph is terrible), this recipe makes a fresh artichoke and pesto risotto, or how about this recipe from Gourmet for artichoke, prosciutto and bell pepper risotto? Yum. The asparagus, artichoke and mushroom combination was so delicious, this will surely be a new staple in the family (yes, another smitten kitchen recipe). Risotto is one of those things – it has to be stirred constantly, a good broth makes a world of a difference, it really should be served al dente and then eaten right away. My parents never really got the point of making risotto since their restaurant risotto experiences weren’t that great. But now, now they are converts. A good risotto is a great thing, especially when it’s not too heavy. It’s a great accompaniment, but also great on its own. My aunt makes these risotto balls, which are another great way of eating risotto. This risotto was quick and easy, especially since I used those marinated artichokes. Dad is allergic to mushrooms so I just separated out some risotto at the end, after adding the asparagus and the artichokes. The mushrooms were then added to the remaining batch. That’s an easy way to modify a risotto, but also all kinds of recipes if you have someone with allergies, but you really want to also eat the original version.

Why isn’t little bunny foo foo eating carrots?

Little bunny Foo Foo
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head
Down came the Good Fairy, and she said
“Little bunny Foo Foo
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head.”
[...]

I have fond memories singing this song with a bunch of friends, crammed into a one of our friends’ two door car. I can’t remember what kind of car it was except that it was maroon, and that it was pretty tight with all of us jammed into the backseat. Being the rather silly kind, we found it pretty hilarious that we crossed a river named Pee Dee. Specifically little Pee Dee river. Imagine a bunch of silly college kids, a river that starts with pee, and it’s gonna set them off, right? Right. We spent a good part of the next hour making up little bunny foo foo versions. We’d already had a great time at South of the Border – I’d never been to it before, and we had a blast. We took many many silly photographs, and I ended up with a neon orange colored shot glass that unfortunately didn’t survive a trip through the dishwasher a few years later. Man, I was sad about that. It was a piece of memory, you know? But I should have known better than stick it into the dishwasher, really. Sigh. But that was a great May. Good times.

Back to that foo foo bunny. First of all, what bunny is named foo foo? What’s wrong with Thumper? It was good enough for Bambi. That was really a genius name. Secondly, why is the song about field mice? Why would a bunny bop field mice? What about carrots? I mean, any self-respecting bunny should be waaaaay more interested in carrots, right? Just ask Bugs Bunny. He wouldn’t bop field mice on the head. He’s too busy making fun of Daffy, thwarting Elmer Fudd and coming up with other forms of mischief. And say “What’s up Doc?”

So a little Google Fu shows that rabbits do indeed like carrots, and that they’re good for their teeth but that they it shouldn’t be their only food – too many calories. Huh. You learn something new every day. But they do still like them (the link is to a ridiculously mini lop rabbit eating a carrot. I think I want a bunny now).

I think little bunny foo foo should try these awesome carrot cake pancakes. I think it would then be too busy to bop any field mice. It might have to watch out for those calories though if bunnies need to watch their waistlines. I ate these with yoghurt instead of the cream cheese topping. They were just as great, and I saved a few calories. I’m making these again. Vegetables for breakfast, yay!

As you can guess, this was a post full of a lot of silliness. Yes, there is a river named little Pee Dee – it’s a tributary river to the Pee Dee river which is named after the Pee Dee Native American tribe (and it’s a pretty big river). I really do have fond times of Myrtle Beach. We really were a bunch of silly kids, not just at Myrtle Beach. For example, we’d do our own version of MSTK3000 on any random movies we’d find on TV. We dressed up one of our friends as Recycle Man for Halloween, which consisted of an outfit made out of newspaper and staples, newspaper shoes, and a Recycle Man scepter – it was awesome. (I have a picture of that somewhere). We camped out for Star Wars and decided on impromptu Padme Amidala make up. Yeah, we had lots of fun during and after college. And I do love Bugs Bunny, especially What’s Opera, Doc and Rabbit of Seville. It’s classic awesome Warner Brothers animation.

Cookout!

Do you want to get into the cookout mood? Just start singing “Rollout” by Ludacris and substitute “Cookout” for Rollout. There, now you’re ready to hang out outside.

We finally have less rain. No more April showers which is good since it is almost June. We have more sunshine, it’s warmer which means cookout season has started! It’s warm enough. Yaaaaaay! The kids can play outside, hang out on the swing, play Easter by hiding and finding things (yes, they really do play that). And if all else fails you can always have ‘sprinting competitions.’ The perfect way to grab a few quiet moments.

Shaved Fennel and Zucchini Salad

Now, while cookout season is great, there are also health risks surrounding the eating of grilled meats – the whole carcinogenic thing is something to pay attention to. If you want to know more, just google ‘grilling health risks‘ or something like that and you’ll find reports on the findings about cancer. (Don’t run an image search – the Google images on cancer are pretty horrific).

There have been and currently are enough cancer cases among friends and family that it doesn’t hurt to prepare plenty of non-grilling options at a cookout. (Yeah, it’s been a rough time all around). For us, a cookout is a collaborative effort where every one brings something, and then it’s not such a workload on the hosts. My favorite contributions are salads that don’t need refrigeration – careful on the mayonnaise, side dishes that can be prepared ahead of time, and dessert options that are non-melting. Pretty much common sense.

I’ve come to be known as the salad queen in the family, so my standard contribution is some kind of crunchy-ish salad. One of my friends always contributes a basic lettuce salad with vinaigrette. So that’s taken care of, and I can play around with different takes on salad recipes.

This one is my current summer favorite: 101 cookbook’s Shaved Fennel salad. Yes, it’s a non-smitten kitchen recipe! It’s so good, I can’t believe that it didn’t make it into the cookbook. It’s really easy to make, you can assemble parts of it ahead of time, and it’s light and fresh. I used to be a bit iffy about using fennel in my cooking – I’m not a fan of liquorice so I only liked my fennel roasted, and the spice had to be toasted enough that it wouldn’t remind me of some kind of digestive tea. You know that little condiment that you get at the end of a meal in an Indian restaurant? That little bowl of fennel with little candied sugar pearls? Yeah, that taste. Btw, fennel ice cream post-dinner instead of that fennel mix? That sounds like a win-win situation.

But – I’ve found that I totally love fennel in my salad. If it’s sliced really thing, then you aren’t chewing on the fibers in the fennel. Plus the fennel gains a surprising delicacy. If you have mandolin, have fun slicing (it’s just way faster), but you can just as easily get lovely thin slices with a heavy Chef’s knife. Same with the zucchini – it has more moisture, so I don’t know who it’ll hold up on a mandolin, but I suspect just fine. I haven’t tried a box grater, but the fennel should work just fine, but the zucchini – I doubt it.

The recipe suggest letting the fennel-zucchini-lemon juice-olive oil-mixture marinate for 20 mins to an hour. Yes, I left the dill out on purpose – I just don’t like it very much. I let it marinate somewhere around 3-4 hours before assembling the salad, and I think the marinade could easily marinate longer. There was no more fridge space left, so the mixture marinated outside, but since there was no mayonaise it it I figured it would be ok. And it was. The arugula was already in the salad bowl, dried, and sitting in the shade. All I had to do was mix the arugula with the remainder of the mix, add the feta and the pine nuts. And voila, you have the perfect cookout contribution. The salad disappeared so quickly, some people didn’t manage to score seconds. Oh, and one friend ate the remaining dressing with a bit of focaccia – she pronounce it delicious. I really recommend you try this salad on your own – you’ll love it.

Featured post image from Stackmatic.

Rat(atouille)

Pixar movies are some of my favorite movies. I’ve loved almost all of them – the Cars movies didn’t do it for me, but all of the others are among my all-time favorites movies. They’re fun for kids and interesting for adults – there’s just something so sweet about them. Since I love food (who doesn’t?), it’s no wonder that I loved the movie Ratatouille. I mean, how can you not like a movie about a rat that aspires to become a cook? So gosh-darned cute! (Btw, I think that working at Pixar has to be awesome. I saw a documentary once, where offices look like a cross between a playroom, comic store, jungle gym, all kinds of comfortable sitting, and bikes in the hallway. Plus a fun and creative workplace. I want a job like that).

When Ego, the critic comes to the restaurant to critique the restaurant, Remy (the rat) decides to cook ratatouille. (On a side note, the part with the rats helping out with the cooking always makes me grin, especially where they are steam cleaned). Remy also cooks ratatouille again for Ego once they open up their own restaurant.

Ratatouille is one of those dishes that has never thrilled me. It’a late summer dish, combining eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, onion and garlic – at least that’s the traditional version from the Provence, although people seem to customize it to taste. But somehow I’d rather not eat a vegetable stew in late summer. I’d rather eat something like that in the fall or winter, when it’s cold and blustery – which defeats the purpose of making it with fresh, ripe vegetables. Of course, there’s also the version where the ingredients is layered and served as a casserole. But I’m not a casserole fan either, so it seems like ratatouille will be one of those things that I won’t make.

Smitten Kitchen's Ratatouille Tart

Or not? How about a ratatouille tart? Puffed pastry with a thin layer of tomato sauce, thinly sliced vegetables arranged prettily, topped with feta and fresh herbs. It’s almost like a ratatouille pizza/egg-free quiche. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I bet a ratatouille pizza would be yummy too. And I’m sure it’s also delicious cold. I might not be best friends with traditional ratatouille, but I can easily imagine enjoying Ratatouille ‘derivatives.’

Orange vanilla bean dressing

Sixoneseven put up a blog post a few weeks ago about this orange vanilla bean dressing. It sounded delicious and I was waiting on just the right occasion to try out the dressing. The other day we had tons of oranges left – you can make only so much fresh pressed orange juice – so I decided to make a napa cabbage, cucumber and orange salad with walnuts, and this dressing. The idea of using vanilla beans in a dressing sounded very interesting.

The salad was great, but the dressing didn’t quite meet my expectations. I’d use less oil next time, and a bit more honey, depending on how sour the oranges are. I also used a bit of my pickled spring onions, and that helped give the dressing a bit more body. I think the idea of the dressing is great, but it still needs more work. But with the basic idea is interesting.