Pretty things at the market

I had a really nice time at the market this morning. The produce was stunning and the market wasn't as busy as usual (probably due to the fair and the weather), so I got to chat with the vendors for a while.

I returned my milk bottles and picked up a quart of mocha milk, some teriyaki meat sticks, and a yogurt at South Mountain Creamery. If you have not tried the mocha milk, you shouldn't. Save it for those of us that are addicted to it.

I bought some gorgeous multicolored eggs at Whitmore Farm. Some lady bumped into me and cracked one, so I had to cook it as soon as I got home. It had an incredibly deep-colored, rich yolk.

I bought turnips from Glade Link Farm. I never cook with turnips, but I keep meaning to try them in something. On the way home I realized I was going to make a variation of shepherd's pie for the eggplant challenge, with lamb sausage and eggplant in the meat layer and mashed turnips and potatoes in the potato layer. Previously I had thought I was going to make a spiced curried stuffed baby eggplant with lamb. Funny how similar ingredients can make totally different dishes. Today is the last day of the eggplant challenge, folks, though I may make exceptions for you if you send me something next week-I have heard from a few people who are planning to do it and I definitely want to see their dishes!

I also picked up some Thai hot peppers from Summer Creek Farm. My friend Richard eats them raw. They are hotter than habaneros. I don't understand him either. I may end up making a hot Thai eggplant with basil dish later this week because I also bought an eggplant at Tomatoes Etc.

Scenic View Orchards had sold their last honeycrisp apple before I got there, so they promised to hold some for me next week. Thanks! And though I have my own tomatoes in the garden, I was stunned by the beauty of the ones at Jubilee and had to take a picture.

Hope you are enjoying the season and all of its gorgeous produce. And don't forget- today is the last day of the fair if you have not been there. (Tip: the food vendors in the ag section are local and their stuff tastes better- plus they support the local economy. Try a beef ham sandwich from Hemps, and bean or Maryland Crab soup from the New Market Grange. The bean soup is made by a 79-year-old man from scratch. And the corn dogs on that end are hand-dipped and fresh. Just sayin'. And then go to the farm bureau ice cream stand in the first commercial building in the grandstand.)

Shannon

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Asparagus et al.: What I look forward to at the Farmer's Market

I don't remember when was the first time I had asparagus. I didn't grow up with it, but somehow I knew the vegetable. I guess my first encounter with asparagus was not as dramatic nor impressive as the one with bagels. The cooked spears tasted pretty bland. I didn't bother with them for a long time. Once my friend, who was in a graduate school then, invited some friends over for dinner. He fed us wonderful food, and his grilled asparagus was excellent. I learned that asparagus can be good, very good.

Now fast forward a couple of years. I am buying freshly picked asparagus from the farmer's market. The same day, I am cooking the asparagus, trying not to overcook and keep the bright green color. They are so sweet, fresh, and delicious! People have a myth about the thickness of asparagus and try to pick thin ones. I had great tasting asparagus that was as thick as four pencils. The point is not the thickness but the timing. Asparagus tastes best when they are just picked. You want to minimize the time between picking and eating. The best way is growing your own patch (join Shannon, Chelsea, and me in starting one) and the next best option is the farmer's market. I will be at the market extra early this Saturday morning to procure this seasonal delicacy.

So, who has asparagus? Chris and Ruth of Jubilee Organic Farm comes to my mind. Rick of Summer Creek Farm has an asparagus bed but I am not sure if he is bringing some this Saturday. Scenic View Orchard should have some. Glade-Link Farm is famous for their asparagus but sadly, they don't come to the market till the blueberry season starts.

Photo by Dan

Spring farmer's market won't be complete without lettuce, spinach and radish. Rick says he will have all of these. Nancy of Chesapeake's choice will have spinach. I expect Erland and Rieko of New Hope Farm and Jim of Tomatoes et al. will bring their specialty - gourmet green salad mix. Scenic View Orchards will probably bring the most diverse vegetables along with some apples they have kept in a cold storage. Jubilee Organic Farm will have the spring vegetables and cut herbs.

My friend Sandra and her two friends are visiting this weekend. Dan and I are very excited to have house guests staying with us. We have not decided on our brunch menu for Sunday yet, but our friends will be pretty hungry after running a half marathon and thus we plan to cook a lot of food. Most of the dishes will be made from the produce we pick up on May 2 at the market. The timing is perfect.

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Fall is for THIS pie!

I love Saturdays. I look forward to getting up early and baking something for the weekend. Jubilee Organic Farm brings 4 or 5 different types of winter squash to the farmer's market. The very first week they had winter squash, I picked up a butternut squash and made lasagna, using my favorite recipe by Jamie Oliver (slightly altered since I cannot remember every measurement). Another week, I picked up a kabocha squash. This squash came with a rave review of Chris' daughter that when it is baked, it is so tender, sweet and downright delicious. Kabocha squashes seem to be small to medium sized and they have such a bright orange-red color. Once I peeled the skin off and scooped out the seeds, Dan roasted the seeds in the oven. The seeds were not meaty but they were very nutty and had good flavors.

Now the pie. I had this recipe by Dorie Greenspan that I wanted to try. It calls for a butternut squash but I thought kabocha will also do nicely. Roughly following the recipe, I combined cubed and cooked kabocha squash (2 cups), cubed pear (2 ripe pears), 1/3 cup of white rasin and cranberries, orange peel from a half orange and orange juice (2 Tbs), cinnamon (1 Tbs), freshly grated nutmeg (a pinch), coarsely chopped walnuts (1/3 cup), and bread crumbs (I used panko, 2 Tbs). It smelled so good just mixing these ingredients that I was jumping up and down with the joy talking to myself 'wow, this is going to make a great pie'!! Use your favorite pie crust recipe and place the filling. The recipe was for 9 inch pie, but instead I made two mini pies (4 inch) and one in an individual lasagna pan. Dan suggested that we do lattice top so I did.

This pie is really good. It reminds me of a mince pie, Dan said. Maybe so. The sweet flavor combination from the squash and pear on top of nice, cold-weather spice is just good. It is substantial enough to hold you over when you are hungry in a long afternoon. Even though the pie is best on the day is it made, I still enjoyed it two days later, kept at room temperature all the time.

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My favorite pizzas, with Broccolis and with onions

Cool weather vegetables are showing up more at the market and among the warm orange and yellow hue of fall vegetables, broccolis are standing up green. When Gwen of Glade-Link Farm brought broccolis to the farmer's market, I had to make my favorite pizza with broccolis. I think broccolis are best when it is sautéed in a little bit of olive oil and garlic, and this pizza showcases broccoli at its best flavor with backdrop of melting cheese and crispy crust. Yum - it can't get any better!
My another favorite is a pizza with onions. These are not the ordinary onions. They are cooked in butter and soaked and simmered in red wine till they become caramelized with complex flavors from wine. Yellow, white and red onions from Chris of Jubilee Organic Farm are delicious and I had enough red onions to make my onion pizza.

I have made pizzas with different dough recipes and liked them all, from thin crispy kind to thick soft kind. However for the past year or two, I have been making this very simple dough, which turns out extra crispy thin pizzas. The recipe came with a pizza pan (a non-stick metal round pan with holes in it), courtesy of Cook's Illustrated. I modified it to use whole wheat flour and do without a food processor.

Dough for extra crispy thin pizzas

• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
  
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup warm water (~100 F)
• 1/4 cup olive oil

1. If using instant (or rapid) yeast, combine flours, yeast, honey and salt and mix well. Add water, stir with a wooden spoon a few times, then add olive oil and stir a few more time. If using active dry yeast, stir in yeast in warm water first and let it dissolve. Wait a few minutes till it makes bubbles. Add honey, salt, flour, olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon to mix well.
   
2. Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead for five minutes. I usually use a big mixing bowl and just knead the dough inside the bowl to minimize the clean up. When you are done kneading, the dough will look very smooth.
3. If you are going to make pizzas the next day, place the dough in a ziplock back and put it in a refrigerator. The dough will rise very slowly. If you are making pizzas the same day, put it in a mixing bowl, covered with plastic wrap and a towel, and let it rise at a warm place for about two hours.
   

Once the dough is made, the following steps are quite simple. Go through your refrigerator and find all the cheeses and food-leftovers that you like to use.
For broccoli pizza, saute broccolis in olive oil and sliced garlic for a brief time, until they just turn bright green. Since they are going to be baked in a very hot oven, you don't want to cook them too long. We used mozzarella, manchego and fresh mozzarella cheese this time. Dan sprinkled fresh ground black pepper and very thinly sliced dried Thai pepper (from Wendy of Persimmon Pond Plants). This Thai pepper was a nice touch. Those tiny specs of pepper strip gave a nice surprising kick to the pizza.

For onion pizza, we layered a leftover meat (roasted eye-round beef) and olives underneath onions. The sauteed onions in wine is the recipe from Baking with Julia (my baking bible). The original recipe calls for a long long time to gently cook the onions in the lowest heat setting once wine is introduced. Since I make pizzas on a whim, I don't have that long long time to cook down the onions. So here is what I do.

• Slice thin two medium sized onions.
  
• Melt two tablespoon of butter in your skillet. Sautee onions in medium high heat. Sprinkle a pinch of fresh or dry thyme.
• When onions turn transparent, pour in red wine enough to cover the onions (~3 Tbs). Let them cook in medium heat for a few minutes till the wine is reduced to a half.
  
• Continue cooking in low-medium heat until wine is all reduced and absorbed into onions.

You want to use a good drinking red wine for this. I have a bottle of red that was gifted and when we opened it up, it was sadly passed the prime. So I use it for cooking and when I use this wine, I add a really good balsamic vinegar toward the end of reduction.

Preheat the oven at 475 F and bake the pizza for 10 minutes. Once it comes out of oven, let it rest for a few minutes before you cut and dig in.
Enjoy!

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Photos from the Farmer's Market

The Farmer's market is overflowing with the season's best vegetables, fruits and flowers. It is such a feast of colors, and the beautiful fresh bounty makes your heart beat fast with excitement. The photos below show only the vendors in the south row. I volunteered for Cakes for Cause on August 9 and 23 and thus had a limited time window to take photos. I will take more photos from the middle and north rows in coming weeks. Dan also has some photos from the previous markets and we will set up an album or a slide show once they are all compiled.

If you park next to the holiday cinemas and walk into the market, one of the first vendors you see is Shuck Pottery.
I bought a little green tea cup from Michael the other week. Do you have another one just like this one? I asked. No, I am sorry. I don't have one exactly like that one. In fact, I work very hard to make everything look different and unique, and believe it or not, it is pretty tough. He replied in smile.

Elin is wearing a new Cakes For Cause t-shirt. Behind her, you can see the freshly-baked croissants, scones, breads and others. Mike and Kate are working near a lemonade station.
I love the summery dresses and skirts that people wear to farmer's market. When this little girl ordered a strawberry lemonade, I had to take a picture. See her dress, her mom's dress and the lemonade all match!

Erland and Rieko of New Hope Farms sell oriental cucumbers which I love very much. This is the type of cucumber that I grew up with, and is crispy, its skin is never bitter, and extremely versatile. This week they surprised me with bags of microgreen! The only time I ate them was at Morimoto restaurant. If you are into salad green, definitely check this out.

I am always amazed at how many plants come out of the M & W Nursery van. They always bring beautiful trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.
Sarah and Lisa are very knowledgeable about plants and let you know where the plants like to be placed and what kind of care they require.


Jubilee Organic Farm offers the most variety of organic produce in the farmer's market and they are now at the full height of summer produce. Everything looks gorgeous. Did I mention that they bring excellent melons?
Look at the crates of melon stacked up. You can see Ruth is setting up a station where she will cup up melons so that we can sample them before we buy.


Nothing beats the corn crowd at Scenic View Orchards. And their sweet juicy peaches are so good that I have been eating and cooking two quarts to half peck of peaches every week! I am not even going to start the overwhelmingly long list of awesome produce they bring to the market. Just come and see it for yourself.

You face Chesapeake's Choice at the end of south row. Dave and Nancy's farm must be exploding with produce - I noticed that their stand has almost tripled in the size. The table got so long I had to take photos from the other angle.
These two photos don't even cover the dog biscuits and the huge tub of melons that they brought this week.

You know how a kid responds when you lift her and spin her around? She laughs high and shouts, "Let's do it again!" I feel the same way. Let's do it again! - I can hardly wait till this Saturday for another farmer's market.

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Sweetest Watermelon Ever!

After running around chasing a tennis ball in the heat of late afternoon, I came home exhausted. My body was so hot it kept sweating even when I sat still on the chair by kitchen island. Dan offered me a glass of water. When he opened the door of the fridge to get more lime, I saw the round green guy with stripes and shouted! Let's eat the watermelon!!

Dan took it out and started slicing the melon. This watermelon is so ripe it cuts itself, he said. I bit into the slice and it was so full of water and so sweet. By the time I finished my share of slices, I cooled down and felt great.

This yellow/orange watermelon is from Jubilee Organic Farm. They grow excellent produce and I highly recommend their melons. I also recommend running around in the heat of summer (properly hydrate yourself) and then having a bite of the watermelon. You will be in heaven.

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Sunday dinner with my parents, especially my Dad

My story is about my Dad, and his love of summer food.

My father visited me at the farmer's market this Saturday on his way back from the dump. He was sweaty and tired, so we got him a lemonade at the Cakes for Cause booth where I was volunteering. He stayed and chatted a few minutes, and we decided that we would have Sunday dinner at my parents' house. I gave him the 4-pound sirloin that I had just purchased from Rohrer's meats, and he asked me to buy some zucchini and squash. After dad left, I picked up the veggies from Jubilee Organic Farm, and also got apricots and peaches from Scenic View.

Dinner yesterday was a feast. I took pictures, which I'll add to my post when I get them. First, there were kebabs. Dad had marinated the meat overnight in Soy Vay Teriyaki, which is hands down my favorite teriyaki. The veggies were marinated in oil and vinegar. Dad had also gotten ahold of some peppers and onions. We had corn on the cob, and a waldorf cole slaw that I made from a recipe on a bag of cabbage. Then there was multigrain bread. And fresh peaches that I blanched (to remove the skins) and sliced.

After all of the grilled food was on the table, Dad piled a bunch of it on his plate, and then just stood and looked at it and said. "Oh my God." I looked over from my station in the kitchen where I was still prepping food, a little worried, and he said "Dinner looks so good. You know I've been starving myself all day for this." My mom replied, "except for the pancakes and sausage and eggs you had for breakfast." I should note that my Dad is not a heavy man. He grew up on a dairy farm in Frederick and has kept himself active all of these years by doing things like managing the forest on my parents' "gentleman's farm" and taking his recycling to the dump. Dad LOVES summer food, made simple and fresh, with lots of veggies. Where my mother would grow flowers, Dad would grow food, buckets and buckets of it every summer. We always had fresh veggies in the summer, and always too much of them, and that's what summer is for me. Too much of a good thing. And then you can it to make it go away and it keeps coming back long after you're sick of it. But in July, the food is just starting to pour in, and that is the best time.

Dad sat down at the table and started eating as I was still cutting peaches in the kitchen and mom was broiling toast. "I blessed the food already," he said. "Yeah, I can tell," I told him.

Can I just say that was the tenderest sirloin I have ever eaten? And the veggies the height of freshness? I asked Dad, "want me to tell Danny Rohrer how good the meat was?" And he said, "no, don't tell him. It will go to his head."

At one point Dad said, "I'm sorry Shannon, but I just can't do justice to this cole slaw," and he put his back in the serving bowl. There were too many extra helpings of veggies standing in its way and just kept getting pushed back in the queue. It was a good slaw though-make a regular cole slaw and add apples, craisins, walnuts, and celery. Awesome.

The peaches were sweet and tart and very "peachy". Dad teased me, "did you spray these with peachiness?" In fact, everything was sprayed with peachiness.

Shannon

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Granola with berries and yogurt

This is what I have been eating this week for breakfast.

• Granola from CakesForCause (whole oats, rye flakes, almonds, honey, maple syrup and spices)
• Blueberries picked from Glade-Link Farm
• Raspberries from Scenic View Orchard
• Blackberries from Jubilee Organic Farm
• Plain yogurt
  

The berries are exceptional this year. They are big and delicious! We are having a good year for gardening/farming so far. No lack of rain for sure. All the items above can be purchased at the West Frederick Farmer's Market. I heard that Randy at South Mountain Creamery carries awesome yogurt. I will have to try his yogurt (I have been eating yogurt from Seven Stars Farm, PA). Come on out and join me in the line at the farmer's market!

Yeon

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JapChae: stir-fried vermicelli noodle with vegetables

I got three different kinds of summer squash from Nancy at the Chesapeake's choice farm stand, and am also harvesting my volunteer squash. I would like to share some of the recipes for these yummy, young squashes. The first in the summer squash series is a stir-fried noodle. It is a variation of JapChae, one of the most popular and well-known Korean dishes. There are some ingredients that might be new to you:

• DangMyun: Vermicelli noodle. This one is made of 100% sweet potato starch, so it belongs to the cellophane noodle family. Cook the noodle in boiling water till tender about 10 min. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
• Dried Tree Ear Mushroom: This mushroom has a chewy texture with a rather bland flavor. They do look like ears once reconstituted in water.
  
• Dried Shitake Mushroom: Very unique taste. Sometimes you can find them even fresh in a grocery-store. Any Asian grocery store will carry dried shitake mushroom. Two to three mushroom caps in water for 15 minutes.
  

You could use any noodle of your choice, and any combination of mushroom. In traditional JapChae, we use cooked beef (marinated in Bulgogi style, I am sure I will post about Bulgogi at some point) but I skipped it this time. For me, standard JapChae also has to have cooked spinach but I skipped this ingredient too. Instead, here are my line-ups:

• Yellow Squash: from Nancy's farm stand. Julienned, sauteed with Shallot.
• Cucumber: from Chris' Jubilee Organic farm. Julienned, sauteed just to take some water out.
  
• Carrot:from Common Market. Julienned, sauteed with spring onion from Catoctin Mountain Orchard.
• Eggs: made in crepe style then cut.
• Poblano pepper: from my garden. Also julienned and sauteed.

Modern JapChae often features sweet peppers such as green pepper and/or red peppers. Basically if you are not worried about making "traditional" JapChae, pretty much any vegetable that can be stir-fried will do. You julienned them, saute them, and make sure season with salt and pepper for each item.


Now in a big stock pot or your paella pan or anything that is big enough to hold all the ingredients, put a little bit of veg oil, a little bit of sesame oil (Chinese/Korean/Japanese brand will do. Dark sesame oil, not the refined type), garlic, soy sauce and sugar. I don't know why but we make this noodle a little bit sweet. I tend to use a lot less sugar than other people, but it is really up to your preference. I add a bit of fish sauce, probably not very traditional but I do it anyway.
Cook the sauce and garlic a little bit, then on the low heat, introduce the cooked noodle to the pot, coat the noodle with the sauce. I don't measure when I cook Korean food because I adjust till I get what I am looking for. Just to give you a rough idea, I think I used about

• 4 cups of cooked vermicelli
• 2 TBS of soy sauce
• 1 TBS of fish sauce
• 1 TBS of dark sesame oil
• 1 TBS of vegetable oil
• 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• 1 TBS of sugar

Start with this measurements, and taste the noodle, add more stuff as needed. Season with salt and/or pepper. When noodle tastes good, add all the cooked vegetables and mix.



Decorated with egg and poblano pepper strips, this one is ready for me to eat! Sweet and tender yellow squash, crispy cucumber, yummy shitake with all the fixings built-in, this is a perfect one-pot meal for summer night.

Yeon

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Goat Cheese with Smoked Salmon on Oatmeal Bread

Last Saturday, I picked up a tub of creamy Goat Cheese (chèvre) from Alice at the Caprikorn Farms stand. After finishing blueberries from Glade-link Farm in one sitting, Dan and I made quick and simple sandwich for lunch.

• A slice of rye bread or wholewheat oatmeal bread from CakesForCause
• Good smear of creamy goat cheese (chèvre)
• A snippet of fresh dill
  
• One or two slices of smoked salmon

That's it! As Shannon noted in her simple but oh-so-delicious strawberry-chèvre-ciabatta sandwich, these take no time to make and they taste so wonderful. I also made goat cheese stuffed squash blossom following Alice's recipe card. Stay tuned for the recipe and photos!

* Note: I used dill from my herb garden. If you don't have your own herb pots or garden, Jubilee Organic Farm usually brings fresh cut dill to the market. Also, many vendors sell herb plants and you can start your own herb/kitchen garden using their seedlings. In many dishes, you just need a little bit of fresh herb, and it is so handy to have fresh herb plants sitting in your window sill/porch/backyard garden.

*Note 2: I am going to add some cucumber next time I make this sandwich. Mmm... is somebody drooling?

Yeon

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