The University Farmers Market opens tomorrow morning, and our own market, on Broadway, will be back a week from Sunday. Better yet, the University market is switching to year-round operation. Admittedly this means a lot of mussels and kale in the winter, but I like mussels and kale. Iris likes to get a blueberry strudel.
My friend Kenji is from southern California, and the first time he went to a Seattle farmers market in the spring, he said, “Wow, that was a lot of greens.” It would be cool to do a time-lapse photo of a market stand over the course of the season, and watch the colors explode and then fizzle out.
Here are some things I have threatened to make with market produce this season:
* lobster and corn chowder (Iris is extremely excited about this)
* corn chowder with fresh shelling beans
* sour cherry fool
* apple pie with cheddar crust
* just plain old corn chowder
* sausages with plums
You’re also invited to hold me to my pledge to buy more meat at the farmers market and less at the supermarket.
Speaking of chowder, I made chicken chowder last week. Chicken chowder doesn’t sound too inspiring, does it? Not to me, either, but per Jasper I started with a good organic chicken, made a strong chicken broth, then shredded the meat by hand and added it back in at the end along with the cream and a shake of cayenne. It was delicious.
The chicken was Smart Chicken brand. I recommend the product, but their website makes me want to hurl:
> MBA Poultry is the creation of Mark Haskins, our Founder, President and CEO. He named our company after his three children: Mark Jr., Bridget, and Amber. Smart Chicken® was named when Mark realized that if you have an MBA, you are likely to be smarter than most. Therefore, he named our chicken MBA Brand Smart Chicken®. Our MBA is a degree in family, which tells you how we like to treat our associates who care for our products.
I have a degree in snuggles and kittens!
I am not 100% sure what a sour cherry fool is, except tht I am one. Recipe please?
Well, katre, this is sort of embarrassing. I told my editor I wanted to write an article about creating a great sour cherry dessert, one that would even please people (like me) who don’t like cherry pie. The problem is, I haven’t actually developed the recipe yet, and sour cherry fool (which would involve cherries whipped up with cream somehow) is just one idea.
But I have been threatening to make it, that part is true. Definitely look for this article in the summer. Of 2007.
You don’t like cherry pie? I’ll bet you haven’t had it made with fresh cherries. With an almond crust, of course.
I don’t recommend doing the fool. sour cherries actually have a fairly delicate flavor that would tend to be muted by the fat in the cream.
If you’re completely against pie, might I suggest a financier with cherries baked on top? Killer served warm with ice cream.
The financier sounds like a good idea, but here’s what I’m really after. I want a sour cherry dessert that captures the effect of eating a plain, raw sour cherry. Iris and I devoured hundreds of them last summer, but I recognize that this is a peculiar habit. I tried making a sour cherry cobbler (actually Laurie made it, I think), but the cherries ended up tasting dangerously like canned cherry pie filling.
Could I flavor something with fresh cherry juice, maybe?
Have you ever had the cherry fruit popsicles from Trader Joe’s? They’re more like whole cherries held together with some frozen sweetened cherry juice. Maybe you can do something like that.
That’s an excellent idea. You should do this for a living.
Smart Chicken is excellent! I ordered some mail order since we had no other air chilled brands at the time. It was expensive though. All in, with shipping, about $8 or $9 a pound. But it sure was delicious.
We buy our vegetables and fruits from a very large vegetable store here – and the quality is fresh, trucked in from their farm everyday. I can do that time lapse photo for you, if you want.
sour cherry frozen yogurt? lots and lots of big chunks of cherry. i’ve been making strawberry frozen yogurt and it’s excellent the next day.