Farmer's Market Creations

[chefdavidrusso]

I'm curious to know what everyone is doing with all the great food they (presumably) are getting at this summer's markets.

I went to the Ridgewood Market this morning and saw some excellent eggplant. So I picked them up, along with some fresh mozz from the fresh mozz guy and some fresh basil, and I just finished making a pan of my grandmother's eggplant parmesan. That and a loaf of fresh bread from the bakery stand that's there, and I am one happy Italian!!

[Bond Girl]

One of the hiighlight of my week is to go to the Union Square Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. I see a world of possibilities with everything there. Last weekend, I picked up a variety of heirloom tomatoes, a kirby cuke, some beets, boxes of wineberries, the last of the sweet queen ann cherries, a pound or two of peaches, a few plums, a pound of okra, some green peas, and a couple of ears of fresh sweet corn.

The tomatoes and cuke became a spicy gazpacho flavored with some licorice mint. The beets were steamed and peeled, and some became a part of a salad with french lettuce, bush basil and wine berries, and the remainder were cut up into little pieces and eaten with some goat cheese on top of a pita bread. The wineberries that started to fall apart after a day or two became a sorbet spiked with a little framboise. What I didn't eat of the cherries were thrown into a jar with brandy. I simmered the peaches into a preserve for my diabetic neighbor, and while I was doing that I made a plum frangipan tart for breakfast. During the week, I made a pasta with green peas and corn, and for a change of taste I sautee the okra as taught by Monica Bhide.

[chefdavidrusso]

WOW!! Sounds like yo've got quite a bit of cooking time on your hands...that's great! So when do we get to taste all of these fine creations?

[Bond Girl]

Being a home cook (as oppose to a professional chef), cooking actually relaxes me. My insignificant other, I am sure, would disagree with this.

[Lreda]

A cold green bean, jersey tomato, red onion & fingerling potato salad with white balsamic & home made extra olive oil...... in addition to others.

Salad was good. Nothing like great oil and sea salt to make a salad.

[markk]

"Insalata Caprese" - tomatoes and mozzarella (Hoboken), part of a summer meal from the farmers markets in Hoboken and Newport that included prosciutto and one very delicious melon from the Newport market. The tomatoes were not actually as good as they look.

[chefdavidrusso]

What a lovely looking spread, markk. Were the other fruits on the 3-tier farmer's market as well?

[Cook456]

A Gazpacho....

[ghostrider]

Not doing anything fancy, but lots of simple cooking & eating - boiling the corn, sauteeing the snap peas & so on.

The "bread & butter" corn (hadn't heard it described thus before, but that's what the farmers call it at my Rutherford market - mixed yellow & white kernels) that I bought on Weds seems to be at season's peak - certainly the best so far, hard to imagine it any sweeter.

Blackberries, just wash 'em & put 'em in a bowl with some Breyer's vanilla.

Last week, bought a Persian melon - none around this week, don't know if their season may be over. Wondrous eating.

[emilymarie]

When I lived in Montville years back, there was a farmstand on Rte. 202 called Vreeland's that had the freshest and sweetest corn in the summer--perfect for this dish.

I take fresh corn on the cob, boil it for a few minutes, and then cut the corn kernels off the cob. I then saute the corn (and whatever corn milk and bits came off too) over medium heat in some butter, a bit of olive oil, salt and cracked black pepper, throw in some haricots verts that I've parboiled and cut into 1-inch pieces. I cook this until everything's been heated thru and softens the tiniest bit, and then I throw in some chopped thyme leaves. Off the heat I crumble some goat cheese over the top and serve.

I did not create this recipe (it comes, I say sheepishly, from Amanda Hesser's book, Cooking for Mr. Latte), but I love it and think it a recipe open to interpretation--adding peas, favas, snap peas or sugar snaps instead of haricots verts. Or sauteed mushrooms, maybe? Or roasted tomatoes and ricotta salata instead of goat cheese? It makes a lovely side...

Also, there was a tasty-looking recipe for tomato salad with tahini and lemon juice dressing in Mark Bittman's column in the Wednesday Times? I think that recipe would work beautifully with Jersey tomatoes (now growing in my grandmother's garden).

[tanabutler]

This thread should be in the General Food Topics section, because, c'mon, who doesn't love a farmers market?

Markk, your table is luscious.

Keep 'em coming, y'all.

[Curlz]

I take fresh corn on the cob, boil it for a few minutes, and then cut the corn kernels off the cob. I then saute the corn (and whatever corn milk and bits came off too) over medium heat in some butter, a bit of olive oil, salt and cracked black pepper, throw in some haricots verts that I've parboiled and cut into 1-inch pieces. I cook this until everything's been heated thru and softens the tiniest bit, and then I throw in some chopped thyme leaves. Off the heat I crumble some goat cheese over the top and serve.

Why do you people torture me when I'm at work?!?

[MsSumida]

Went to the West Orange farmers market, small and not great excpet for Valley View Farms of Newton. Anyway, I made the following eggplant dip, served it with semolina bread, and fresh tomatoes, mozz and herbs...great light summer dinner.

grill the following:

eggplant, zucchini, onions, red pepper, tomatoes. Meanwhile saute garlic in a little bit of olive oil till lightly browned. When veggies are done being roasted, peel the skin off the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes, dump everything in the cuisinart, add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, fresh basil, parsley oregano and thyme. Puree to desired texture, taste and dig in. Can be served warm or room temp.

[Cook456]

MsSumida,

That's sounds similar to a roasted eggplant soup that I found in Gourmet mag, years ago. Your version sounds yummy!!!

[Rosie]

Was at the West Orange Farmer's market yesterday. Very small. There were only 2 veg. stands. The one in Montclair on Saturday by the Walnut St train station has 5-6 vegetable stands and a better selection of produce.

[markk]

What a lovely looking spread, markk. Were the other fruits on the 3-tier farmer's market as well?

The sugar plums on the bottom were. The apricots and cherries were not - I don't even know if they grow those in New Jersey, do they?

The melons - well, one of the melons, the orange one in the foreground, also was from the one farmer who makes up the market at Newport (Jersey City) and his melons are always fantastic. The plums came from one of the farmers at the Hoboken market.

[Cook456]

Went to the Farmer's Market on Walnut Street yesterday.

While I was there, I purchased a Peach Crumb Pie. What a disappointment!!! The filling was tasteless, and worse yet the crust was undercooked. The bottom

was soggy and the under the crumbs was a glue like mess.

I wasn't sure which stand had the best fruit/ produce. Which is your tried and true favorite?

[ghostrider]

One of my Weds Rutherford mkt farmers (something like Matarazzo) is at the Montclair mkt on Sat. Their peaches, melons, & corn have all been exceptional this year, just as they were last. Also their red leaf lettuce - love that stuff. Snap peas & tomatoes I'd rate very good, green beans good.

[suzilightning]

i WAS going to go to the farmers market in lafayette because i really wanted some inspiration but when i reached the intersection of 15n and 181n

AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH.

traffic was backed up for about 3-4 miles going northbound. shoot, i forgot it's fair week(or 10 days). for anyone who has never gone to the sussex county farm and horse show - now also known as the new jersey state fair - don't. it is hellacious to get around. especially when you try to squeeze all those cars down to a single lane in each direction.

guess i'll have to wait till next weekend to get inspired

[bradyjr]

I was at a small local farmers market (3 stands) and I found some of the best tomatoes that I have tasted. I turned them into a cold tomato soup by peeling, seeding, chopping, and seasoning with salt and pepper. I served this with a cold tarragon cream sauce made from my own tarragon.

[emilymarie]

Lucky find at the Union Square Greenmarket on Friday--sour cherries. The sign with them said "LAST WEEK", so I had to buy. I've never seen them in the supermarket, and I don't know what variety they were, other than red sour cherries.

Pitted them, and then cooked some of the juice with cornstarch over the stove as a thickener. Mixed the pitted cherries with the cherry juice/cornstarch, a tiny bit of sugar and some flour and baked in a buttered pie pan with a simple "crumb" topping of flour, brown sugar, butter, and some toasted, slivered almonds I had in my freezer. Truly delicious!

On Sunday night made that tomato salad from the Wednesday Times, with homegrown tomatoes. Very Middle Eastern flavors, b/c of the cumin and tahini in the dressing. Large pieces of fresh tomatoes and big homemade croutons, sliced red onion and fresh (from the garden) flat leaf parsley dressed with a mixture of tahini, lemon juice, garlic and cumin. Thick dressing, but a nice change of pace. Next time, I might thin it out with olive oil. But yummy! I love summer.

[raymmmondo]

There's a great new food-oriented website, by a Joisey girl -- with plenty of ideas inspired by what's available at the weekly Farmers' Market in Montclair -- here:

http://catfood.typepad.com/

[Curlz]

Just back from the Montclair FM...having been at a huge FM in Oakland (near Berkeley) all of two weeks ago, I knew I'd be at least a little disappointed, but you know what? Not so much!

I was really pleased to see that there were about a dozen vendors and lots of people shopping...bought some (get this) ROUND zucchini, which I had never seen before--smack me if y'all are on to these. They're called 8-ball Zukes, range in size from a pool ball to a grapefruit, and according to the guy who sold them (no sign), there is also a French name for them--which I promptly forgot. Here's a hint for anyone reading this who works at a farm stand or FM vendor's table...the friendlier you are, the more likely we are to spend $$ at your table vs. someone else's.

Also got some basil (hey--it's August in NJ--I think it's required!), a few ears of gorgeous (picked this a.m.) bi-colored corn (not that there's anything wrong with that...), white peaches, and I tasted a golden plum (Shiro?) for the first time. Too mushy in texture for me, so I bought a few of the Santa Rosa plums instead. Also picked up a small pear tart and some Colby with Basil and a piece of Sharp Cheddar from the friendly gals at the Stoney Croft Farm stand. Oh, and 2 new pickles from Pickleicious!! All this before I had finished a full cup of coffee--not bad, huh?

Apologies for the parentheses-happy post, but hey--it's a humid Saturday and I'm just hanging out. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to make with some/all of this loot! Likely a quick saute using the zukes and basil as a base. Perhaps I'll see if I can't use some of the lagniappe (Mexican oregano and dried chiles) that I received from fellow eG member ranchogordo when I was in Oakland (see my Berkeley and Oakland post in the CA forum)!

[raymmmondo]

...bought some (get this) ROUND zucchini, which I had never seen before--smack me if y'all are on to these.  They're called 8-ball Zukes...

There was a good story on this North Joisey-centric website, last month:

http://www.baristanet.com/barista/2004/07/...ball_zucch.html

[Curlz]

Thanks, Raymond! I found the same recipe on the site mentioned in the thread posted before mine...lots of cross-posting between the two sites, from what I can tell. Much appreciated! I was thinking I might do a stuffed version, but more likely with pignoli nuts and gorgonzola, as I have both in the house. I promise to let y'all know the final result.