May 2011 Archives

Serves 6–8.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1⁄4 lb green onions, sliced thin (I used Vidalia spring onions)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1⁄2 cup dry white wine
• 1⁄2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1 and 1⁄2 lbs. asparagus, cut on the diagonal into 3⁄4” pieces
• 2 cups shelled fresh peas or frozen peas, thawed
• 1 pound small shell pasta (I used Cavanna’s Porcini Ravioli)
• 1 head of butter or Boston lettuce, torn into 3⁄4” pieces
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto

Melt butter with two tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium heat, add onions and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until tender. Add wine, increase heat and simmer until wine is reduced to a glaze, add broth and bring to a simmer; set aside.

Cook asparagus in boiling salted water for two minutes; add peas and cook two minutes more or until crisp tender and rinse both in cold running water to stop the cooking. Cook pasta according to directions; drain, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid.

Meanwhile reheat onion mixture; add lettuce and stir just until wilted, about one minute. Add veggies and heat until warm. Add pasta, parmesan and parsley and toss with added cooking liquid if dry. Season again with salt and pepper if necessary. Drizzle with more extra-virgin olive oil and more Parmesan cheese.

Dear Shopper,

This week, Smart Markets began what we hope will be a long and fruitful partnership with the Fairfax County government employees’ Live Well program. The Live Well program is a major in-house effort to improve the health and fitness of county employees through a variety of means, including shopping at farmers’ markets and cooking more at home. We look forward to helping as many county employees as possible to reach personal and program goals through information, education and lots of great vendors. We hope to encourage them to try new foods and new recipes and inform them about how to mix-and-match the naturally raised, locally produced products found in our markets into meals that extend their minds while reducing their tummies — but, most importantly, while promoting good health for them and their families.

The best part of all of this for those of you who do not work for Fairfax County is that you too will benefit from our enhanced programming and the materials and teaching tools we develop for this partnership.

One more message for the masses: Some of you have read other statements I have made about the superior quality of market produce. I was recently reminded of another benefit of buying local when I read this article by Kate Sheppard about “leftovers,” which in this country amount to 14 percent of the food we buy in the USA. In addition, $60 billion in food from restaurants, stores, processors and farms is wasted every year. She is primarily concerned about the unnecessary energy this consumes, but she also mentions that we could also benefit from more knowledge about the storage of food for future use — or reuse for that matter. She recommends StillTasty.com for help in deciding “what to eat and what to toss.”

I have another perspective to add: Fruits and vegetables that have been picked within 24 hours purchase (or even a few days before), as opposed to weeks in some cases for store-bought produce, are going to be edible for many more days and have much less waste to pull or cut away when you are ready to eat them. This means less waste for the world to absorb but also more nutrients for you to absorb. Not only can you reduce your global footprint by buying local, you can create more energy for your own personal use. You can store the unwashed veggies in the refrigerator (except the tomatoes — which of course aren’t really vegetables anyway) for nearly a week and leave much of the fruit at room temperature, where in some cases its flavor will improve over several days.

It might be a worthwhile experiment in our households to keep a tally for a few weeks of what we choose not to eat after we have paid for it — maybe that’s one of those activities that we will include in our partnership programming. Watch this space for a call to action down the road.

See you at the market!

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 4 cups cooked chicken, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno
• 4 cups romaine lettuce or large leafed lettuce

Whisk first 5 ingredients to blend; mix in chicken, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Wrap chicken in lettuce leaves and use honey-mustard soy dressing to dip.

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 T mustard
• 4 T soy sauce
• toasted sesame seeds

Whisk or shake together until well-blended.

Bring a large of pot of salted water to a boil and add 2 pounds of spinach to the pot. Cook for 1 minute and then remove, cool and chop. Hold water at the boiling point while preparing the spinach.

Boil one cup cream, 3 tablespoons butter and the spinach over medium heat and cook until thick, 5 minutes or more.

While the cream is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the directions. Drain and add to the cream mixture, incorporating the pasta gently into the sauce. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

Dear Shopper,

I realize that I am often preaching to the choir when I write about the great foods available in the market as the seasons change — and I know that many of you shop at the market to demonstrate your support for local farmers but also your commitment to eating healthy. But every week at every market I see you move through the produce stalls and come out with only those familiar vegetables that you grew up eating — and leaving behind those you did not like as a kid or were never fed at home.

Today, I am issuing a challenge. I think it would on a very small scale change your life if you would pick up a bunch of collards or kohlrabi or fennel or that lovely sorrel — kale or broccoli or sugar snap peas — one item that you have never brought into your kitchen before. And if you take us up on that challenge, we will be here to help you use it in a way that will ensure it a place in your seasonal cooking repertoire for the rest of your life. And then maybe you will try another new item next week too!

The recipes we have at our tent follow the season, and each week we have new ones, but I am also available to answer questions at the market or by email if you need some guidance as you work a new vegetable into a menu or want help with how best to prepare it for your family. This year we will also provide more nutritional information about specific fruits and vegetables and periodic updates in the newsletter and on the website about what’s good for you and why.

Our demo diva, Annie Sidley, will also be with us more often at Fairfax Corner (first and third Tuesdays), Reston and Oakton (once a month), and we hope at our other markets if she can have access to a power source. When she comes to cook for us at the market, she cooks with only what is available that day at the market. If you really want to expand your horizons, spend some time with Annie and watch her work.

It is possible to eat your way, or to eat your way back, to good health. Most of the supplements and many of the prescription medications that are advertised like candy on TV treat conditions and illnesses caused by lifestyle choices including your diet. Not only is food cheaper than medicine, you do not have to worry about collateral damage from life-threatening side effects. Carrots don’t kill! And if you learn to enjoy the variety that nature offers us, you will feel full and satisfied — and you will be healthier.

So pick up something new this week — check the Market Update above for what’s new — and let me know about it too. We will share your experiences and your recipes through the Smart Markets grapevine.

See you at the market!

Jean

Dear Shopper,

I feel I need to be inspiring you to come see all the lovely spring veggies and fruits. I know it is hard to imagine that there could be enough worthy ingredients at the market right now, but there really is an abundance of produce already, even if most of it is green. Thank goodness for the strawberries!

Even if you have not had the pleasure of seeing Annie Sidley’s cooking sessions at our markets, you can probably appreciate the menu she sent me for this session at our Reston market this Wednesday, and the list of ingredients she proposes to use. Annie asks first what we hope to have and then develops her menu. Sometimes she improvises if she gets to the market and finds something we did not expect to have.

That’s both the challenge and the fun of shopping at the market — there is always something new sitting there in all its just-picked sassiness daring you to create something spectacular to show off its superior taste and freshness. At some of our markets this week we will have sorrel, a wonderful green light in color, texture, and substance but heavy on nutrients, flavor, and aroma.

You can eat it raw in any salad, but especially one with fennel and citrus, or nuts and strawberries, and cheese would be a nice addition too. Or you can make a lovely cream of sorrel soup, or a lighter spring vegetable broth with the sorrel swirled in at the end. One thing you do not want to do is overcook it, and that doesn’t take very long to do. Read this for more information about cooking with sorrel.

I just learned a little while ago that we would have some today, and I will do some research to find some recipes, or I will create a few of my own. But you can do that too — both the research and the creation — and you will love what you make even more if you are enjoying it with the confidence that comes with making it all by yourself. Just ask your children if you have forgotten the feeling!

While you are working on that, always check our website for recipes, and remember that if you have a smartphone, you can check out our recipes anywhere, even while shopping.

See you at the market!

• Spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onions, and strawberry salad with tahini-honey dressing
• Cream of asparagus soup
• Chicken with cream and mushrooms on a bed of sauteed arugula
• Strawberries/berries with whipped cream

List of items needed:

• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Cream
• Butter
• Milk
• Goat cheese
• Chicken
• Sausage
• Arugula
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Asparagus
• Honey
• Fresh herbs

Dear Shoppers,

I saw something in the paper last week that you may have seen too, but only if you were looking for a 2-inch square in either The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal. An AP story that was picked up by both papers reported that a recent study by an Arizona nonprofit estimates that half of the meat and poultry sold in supermarkets could be tainted with staph bacteria.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute found that more than half of the samples collected from stores in five cities, including Washington, contained staph, and half of those contained a form that is resistant to at least three kinds of antibiotics. While “proper” cooking will kill the staff, no definition of “proper” cooking was provided. But the reader was warned to be very careful not to spread infection during food preparation. I am less worried about the peril to the home cook and family — though it obviously is something to concern us all — than I am about what we may end up eating on the road.

Unless you are buying meat at one of the high-end grocery stores, you will probably pay more at a farmers’ market for your meat, but then if you are already shopping at markets you can easily decide to drop meat at one or two more meals — even in winter — and make up the difference very easily that way.

I have finally reached the point of doing just that. We eat eggs one evening a week with some regularity now — you may remember my waxing eloquently recently about the lowly frittata — and we do have several recipes for frittatas in the Smart Markets collection. (Here are recipes for a baked potato frittata and a spinach, potato and fennel frittata.) Sometimes we just have breakfast for dinner and add a green vegetable to our eggs and market bacon or sausage. You can also make a dinner strata or souffle (easier than you think — especially if you aren’t trying to impress anyone with its beauty) and there is always an omelet with a really good sauce — even one of Gianni’s sauces could be used as the base for a fully balanced meal. And of course you could always go the latest-thing-in-restaurants route and just have a nice big salad with a poached or over-easy egg on top.

Maybe we will have Annie focus on some variations on the egg for her next demo. Just for your amusement as much as anything, here are some other bits about eggs:

• Fresh eggs do have more flavor than older ones — and you don’t even want to know how old grocery store eggs are!
• Eggs should be refrigerated to extend their shelf life, but bring them to room temperature before using them in any recipe.
• Brown eggs are not healthier than white; the color of the eggs reflect the color of the hen’s plumage.
• And to hardboil eggs so that they can be easily peeled, add salt to the water and immediately drain the boiling water from the eggs as soon as they are done to your liking. Then either plunge them into a ice-water bath or begin running very cold water over them until the water is cold and so are the eggs. You should be able to crack and peel them right away. I’ve been doing this for years and it has worked every time.

One other reminder is that older eggs will work better than fresh ones for hardboiling, but I really haven’t noticed much difference with the great country eggs I have been buying at the market. Maybe because their shells are so much thicker.

Here is a nice and easy egg recipe — plant yourself some herbs to add variety to this dish every time you make it this summer. You can buy the herbs at the market too!

Back to the beginning for a minute — I have been talking to our various meat vendors about grass-fed, grass-finished and grain-fed beef, and I have been reading lots of material from many sources — none of which offered nearly so much real information as the farmers themselves. I am working now on a guide for the average shopper and hope to have the brochure available at the markets in a couple of weeks. One thing: The bottom line is to decide what you want to eat and ask the farmer exactly what you want to know. If you are a purist about anything, you have every right to ask, and if you like to experiment or want to try a variety of meats, then you can learn what you like best also by asking. More on this later.

See you at the market!