Farmer's Market Supplement, 1/21/10

Although there's not much in the way of fresh veggies left, a few of the city greenmarkets remain open year-round. And even though we rely heavily on our winter CSAs at this time of year, we still supplement with items from the Morningside market. (It's usually not worth it to make the long trip down to Union Square.) You can get local eggs, milk and other dairy products, bread, dry goods, and apples - plus the occasional vegetable dug out of a root cellar.

VEGGIES:
kabocha squash

FRUIT:
apples

OTHER:
spelt bread from Meredith's Bakery
whole wheat sourdough bread from Buon Pane
half white flour from Cayuga Pure Organics
buckwheat honey

The half white flour from Cayuga Pure Organics is a mix of their white and whole wheat flour. It's a medium protein bread flour which is apparently known as "brown flour" in Europe.

Wednesday: Broccoli Breakthrough

Broccoli and feta "pesto" on whole wheat spaghetti.

Some vegetables are easy to incorporate into a main dish; broccoli, on the other hand, is one of those vegetables that doesn't play nicely with others. We usually serve it a side dish, which by definition means that we must also have a main dish. But here broccoli plays the starring role, blended with feta cheese and lemon juice to create a tangy but substantial "pesto" sauce for whole wheat spaghetti.

Tuesday: Blast from the Past

Quesadilla filled with black beans, Monterrey Jack cheese, bell peppers, and summer squash.

Over five years ago, when your humble bloggers were just learning how to cook, we considered a cheese quesadilla to be an impressive feat. Today we went back to our roots and made these quesadillas with veggies from our frozen CSA, plus black beans. Simple, but satisfying.

Monday: Cod Stew

Cod stew with olives and capers, and Pecorino cheese melted on baguette.

Although we cook fish a few times a month, we don't typically incorporate it into more complicated dishes. Usually we just bake or broil a fillet and then put it on a plate with two neatly separated piles of starch and vegetable matter. But it was high time to branch out, so we decided to make this tomato-based cod stew. We both love dried salt cold, known as bacalao (or baccalà, bacalhau, etc), which is also wonderful in stews, but here we used fresh fish.

This stew combines cod, tomato, olive, and capers with lightly floured and fried zucchini/yellow summer squash. (We used the summer squash from our CSA!) The recipe comes from The Silver Spoon, a classic Italian cookbook.

Sunday dinner: Pilaf party palace

Green bean and black-eyed pea pilaf.

A pilaf (or pullao, depending on where you're coming from geographically) is any dish in which vegetables are cooked slowly in rice. This can be done on the stovetop over very low heat, or in a sealed pot in the oven. We improvised this dish, in which frozen green beans from our CSA were mixed with sauteed onion, canned black-eyed peas, coriander powder, fenugreek seed, garam masala, and a little cayenne. Here we used two cups rice to three cups water, about the correct ratio if you want to replicate this in any quantity.

Sunday lunch: Roasted Root Vegetables

A winter favorite: roasted root vegetables.

This easily varied, super-simple recipe is something we make every winter when we find ourselves with odds and ends left in the fridge. It's a way to use up any hard root vegetables you might have on hand - that can include carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, beets, sweet potatoes...etc. Don't mix in softer, summer vegetables because they will burn during the time the others need to cook through.

Here's the basic formula, from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (D4SA required reading):

Roasted Root Vegetables

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, butter, or a mixture
1 1/2 - 2 lbs mixed root vegetables, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch chunks
several springs fresh thyme, or about 1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 head garlic, broken into unpeeled cloves (optional)
onion cut into quarters (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.

2. In a large bowl, toss the chopped root vegetables in the oil and herbs with salt and pepper. Dump onto a baking sheet so that the vegetables are approximately in a single layer.

3. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring or shaking about every ten minutes.

4. If you are using garlic, DON'T include it from the start - instead, add it at the 30 minute mark. (If you add it earlier, it will burn.)

5. After 30 minutes, continue to check every ten minutes or so until the vegetables are done. It should take about 45 minutes to an hour total, depending on the size of the vegetables and your oven.

Saturday special: Muffins

It's hard to find a good muffin. They're often either way too dense, or sticky and sickly sweet. We whipped up some basic muffins with frozen cranberries left over from the holiday as a part of our Saturday brunch this weekend.