Beaverton Farmer's Market Part 3

Although I missed the farmer's market last week due to being at the LP national convention in Denver, I was able to go this morning. Taking a week off must have helped ;-). There was a greater selection of fruits and vegetables than the past weeks combined. I took a walk through to see what everyone had first then made my way back around to get what I needed.

First I bought two large stalks of rhubarb which I made into a pie, recipe to follow in this post. I pick up more asparagus from where I got some two weeks ago, as well as some onions. Made my way over to another stand and got a bunch of carrots and some butter ball potatoes. I found out that these potatoes are good for baking or mashing, but have a heavy starch content so they don't work when cooked too long. I picked up two Yukon golds to use in a curry later in the week.

I didn't get seafood this week, but the snapper I got the last time was delicious. I just fried it up in a pan in olive oil and put some dill and pepper on it, a little bit of homemade cocktail sauce (ketchup, grated horseradish, granulated garlic) and a shot of lemon juice. Before I left I got some strawberries, mainly for my wife who loves them.

I wanted to try and cook the rhubarb again and decided to try and make a pie for a house warming party my wife and I were going to later in the evening. I cut off the ends of the rhubarb to make sure there was no trace of the leaves (They are poisonous!) and ran the stalks through the food processor to get a even thin cut. I put about a half a cup of sugar, cut up some of the strawberries and a few apricots and mixed them together. After making a basic crust I made a small sample pie, turned out good but too bitter/sour. So I added another half cup of sugar, baked the pie and hoped for the best.

After dinner I waited to see if people would be smiling or if their faces were puckering up. Turned out perfect, everyone loved the pie. So here is the recipe including the crust.

Rhubarb Fruit Pie
2 discs of basic pie crust (see recipe below)
2 large stalks of rhubarb
8 strawberries
4 apricots
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs corn starch

Basic Pie Crust
2 cups flour
2/3 cups shorting (cream cheese can be substituted for shorting)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup ice water

To make crust mix flour, salt and shorting using a pastry cutter or two knives. Slowly add water and stir with a fork until pastry sticks together. Add as much water until pastry is moist but not too wet. Break off into two lumps, one slightly larger than the other. Put balls into saran wrap and press down to flatten. Refrigerate for one hour minimum or up to twenty four hours.

Cut up rhubarb and any other fruits (I used strawberries and apricots), add sugar and corn starch and stir. Roll out larger pastry ball and put filling inside shell, cover with smaller shell or cut into a lattice pattern. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 375F. Cool pie after cooking for about 30 minutes to one hour, serve and enjoy.

I'll use the asparagus in a stir fry, curry and just plainly grilled or fried. The carrots came with the tops on. The person selling me the carrots asked if I wanted the tops cut off. I asked if you can cook them, like beet greens. He told me that this is debatable, some say you can other say that they are too bitter. A woman who worked at the booth mentioned that rabbits do eat the greens, so they are edible. I tried some with the guy I was talking to and realized that they are very bitter. I'm going to try and see if I can cook them up so I can go back and give them a recipe.

I may try cooking the potatoes like I did with the blue potatoes I got the last time. They were very small so I sauteed them with onions and garlic in olive oil. They turned out tasty but not much flavor. My wife suggested that they would go better with eggs, such as a side dish for breakfast. I'm thinking of using them when I make chicken breasts later in the week.

Beaverton Farmer's Market - Week 2

I've decided to try and do a weekly journal of the Beaverton farmer's market, of what I've bought and how I cooked and ate it. As for what my wife and I got last week included tomatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, rhubarb (mistakingly called rutabaga by me in my last post, sorry), asparagus, kale and a sourdough rye bread.

The first thing we cooked was the kale in a soup with linguica and a few of the Yukon gold potatoes. It turned out great. It can be made as a vegetarian dish if desired, just leave out the sausage.

Kale Potato Sausage soup
Head of kale
2 Yukon gold potatoes
1 onion
2 to 3 cloves of garlic (or more to taste)
14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
14 oz can of white kidney beans
4 cups of broth
6 to 8 oz of linguica (or sausage of choice)
1 Tbs olive oil

1. Cut sausage thinly and fry on each side until browned, drain and reserve a bit of the fat, add olive oil.
2. Cube potatoes, onions and chop garlic and saute until lightly browned.
3. Add broth, bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer and let cook for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
4. Add can of chopped tomatoes with the liquid inside.
5. Add the beans after draining.
6. Add the kale chopped and stir into soup until it begins to wilt. Let simmer for a few minutes to allow everything to heat up, season with salt and pepper to taste.

We had this for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day, it went great with the bread.

Later in the week we had pasta and used the tomatoes to make sauce. After frying some onion and garlic in olive oil and anchovy paste, the tomatoes were chopped up and added to the pot and cooked on low heat for about an hour. We kept in the skin and seeds, it was great with the left over bread which I toasted in the oven with some granulated garlic.

The asparagus was used in three meals, first simply steamed and eaten fresh on Sunday night. Later in the week I added it to a stir fry, and the last fried up with onions and peppers when we had fajitas.

For the rhubarb my wife chopped it up and baked it with vanilla sugar (sugar you put in a jar with a vanilla bean, try it!) for about 30 minutes, maybe about 10 minutes too long. It did taste good with some strawberries, I think next time we'll try baking it with some apples.

So yesterday we went early to avoid the heat, but didn't get much since we will be at the Libertarian convention later in the week. We did get some asparagus to cook on the grill, turned out great. They had some blue potatoes, we got some of the very tiny ones and will saute them up whole. Picked up some fresh snapper, about a pound for five dollars, to cook up before we leave town. And had to get some fresh bagels, some more tomatoes and some hot sausages from the German deli that cooks them up by the bandstand.

I'll be missing going next Saturday when I'm in Denver, but there should be more variety when I go again at the end of the month.

Beaverton Farmer's Market

I have been waiting months now for the farmer's market to come back in Beaverton. Last year was the first year my wife and I went to the farmer's market on a weekly basis. In the past we visited the Beaverton farmer's market once or twice, but never really bought much of anything. A few years earlier we went to the Tigard farmer's market (over in the Garden Home neighborhood), but it was smaller and we didn't get to many items there.

Last year due to health issues and a more concerted effort to eat locally, we decided to start going to the farmer's market on a weekly basis sometime in the early summer. At first we got a few items, some tomatoes, berries and maybe a sweet onion or two. After a few weeks we expanded to more fruits and vegetables. We would experiment, look on line or go to my cooking bible, Fanny Farmer, to find out how to cook what we got. By the end of the market we were getting dozens of items, bringing our own bags and going to our favorite boots for specific items.

The first day today was a good one. The market was packed and about three fourths of the spaces were filled. Since it is early in the season there weren't many fruit or vegetable options, but a lot of plants and seedlings. There was a lot of asparagus, rutabaga, leeks, leafy greens and even a stand selling tomatoes. There were some booths selling wine, cakes and breads. What I was amazed to see were how many booths were selling seafood and pork. In the past I would see one or two booths, but today I saw at least five. Although I need to eat less meat, I might start eating more local meat which looks to be of better quality than what I usually find in the supermarket.

So we got some asparagus, use half tomorrow night as a side with dinner and the rest in a stir fry later in the week. Four beefsteak tomatoes to use for a sauce with pasta. My wife got a bunch of rutabaga to make me a pie and has promised to not feed me the leaves ;-). A leek to most likely use with the chicken I will be making for dinner tomorrow. And for dinner tonight, a fresh bunch of kale and Yukon gold potatoes to use in a soup with linguca sausage and white beans, served with a sourdough rye bread that we bought on the way out of the market.

I look forward to the upcoming weeks where more fruits and vegetables will start showing up. This will give me an opportunity to make some old favorites and to try anything that I somehow missed last year. Thanks to the Beaverton farmer's market for allowing me to become more of a locavore.