Cauliflowers of the rainbow

In the midst of all the madness and fun that is SXSW, I didn't make it to my usual Saturday morning farmer's market. (I was sleeping off the previous night's Antlers show.) On Sunday, when most music stuff had died down, we went to the HOPE farmer's market in East Austin. This market is a little different than the downtown market. For starters, it's a little later in the day-- 11 to 3 p.m., for all you late risers, but significantly smaller. Also, it has more in the way of crafts, which is neither here nor there for me, as I usually just go to the market for foodstuffs. We did get some beautiful handmade chocolate-- look for it in future desserts!(Photo note: this pic wasn't taken in hell. I'm just getting the hang of Photoshop Elements...)

We also got purple cauliflower! I was first introduced to this antioxidant-rich heirloom variety in a quiche that Jesse made for brunch a few weeks back. I loved the pop of color it gave to the dish! Colored cauliflowers (they also come in green and orange, with different respective nutritional benefits) are created by selective breeding. In my (extensive, I assure you) research on colored cauliflowers, I learned that while this may seem like a marketing ploy to attract kids (anyone remember blue ketchup?) it's not the first time plant breeders have used selective breeding to modify a veggie's appearance: until the 17th century, carrots were mostly purple, white or yellow, but Dutch breeders engineered the orange color to honor the royal family!

I was really craving a savory tart of some sort, and found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen (one of my favorite food blogs around.) Looks yummy, but it's got, what, 2 1/2 cups of cheese? A little much for two fairly health-conscious people on a Sunday night. I used sour cream instead of the mascarpone, and eliminated the Gruyere and Parmesan in favor of some thin Swiss slices and blue cheese crumbles on top and lots of fresh rosemary. Lots of flavor over lots of quantity. Success!

First meal of spring!

It's spring here in Austin! As you can tell, this makes me inordinately happy! We've got about a month to enjoy the cool breezes and sunshine until summer muscles its way in, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

I also intend to document lots of it with my snazzy new D-SLR camera, which I am slowly but surely learning to manipulate. This includes awkwardly asking farmers if I can photograph their stalls. One jokingly told me he needed to check with his agent.

In addition to the beautiful greens and radishes below, this stall was selling the season's first pea shoots! According to peashoots.com, pea shoots "have been a well kept secret for many years but they are now set to take the food world by storm and revitalise salads all around the UK!" Sounds like a very can-do, won't-take-no-for-an-answer kind of vegetable. In addition, they're very high in vitamins A and C and folic acid.The pea shoots had such a wonderfully grassy, fresh, flavor. They really tasted like spring. I wasn't in a stir-fry kind of mood, which was the preparation called for by most recipes I found, so I made a barley risotto with fresh mint (also from the market) and parmesan cheese (not from the market.) The technique for making barley risotto is similar to standard risotto, but the barley has a nutty, whole-grain flavor that I thought would balance the assertive herbal taste of the greens. I'm learning a little about macrobiotics and becoming more conscious of balancing meals, both nutrition-wise and taste-wise.

Barley Risotto with Pea Shoots and Fresh Mint
6 c vegetable stock
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 white onion, diced
1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used sauvignon blanc)
2 c pea shoots
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp butter and parmesan to taste
1. Heat the stock in a saucepan. Keep warm over low heat.
2. Saute the onion in 2 tbsp olive oil for about 4 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the garlic and ginger, cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the barley, stirring until the grains are coated in oil.
5. Add the wine. Stir frequently until the liquid is absorbed.
6. Add a ladleful of stock. Stir often until absorbed. Repeat until all the stock has been absorbed, one ladleful at a time, about 40 minutes.
7. When the barley is almost done, cook the pea shoots in 1 tbsp olive oil until just wilted, about 3 minutes.
8. Mix pea shoots, lemon juice, mint, butter, lemon zest, and parmesan into risotto.

And there's our meal! Andy made a delicious salad of sunflower sprouts, red pepper, and walnut to accompany the risotto. We ate Jesse's rhubarb crumble for dessert, which was so good we forgot to take a picture!

Your weeds are my salad

Spring is finally here in Austin, in all its rainy glory, and I ventured down to the market in shorts (!) and a T-shirt (!) this Saturday to pick up ingredients for a late Saturday night dinner. Fresh bunches of cilantro cropped up in nearly every stall, so I picked up a few to make a cilantro-almond pesto. It's the same basic proportions as the mint-pecan pesto I made a few weeks back. I love playing around with different herbs/greens/nuts to make totally different dishes.

Cilantro almond pesto:
2 cups packed cilantro
3/4 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
parmesan cheese to taste (or leave it out for a vegan dish)

Whirl it around in your food processor (or use a mortar and pestle if you really rock) and there you go... fresh pesto to serve over...


Broiled tofu!
This is a work in process. Don't you just love the crispy deep-fried tofu they serve in restaurants? Yeah, me too. But I just can't bring myself to deep fry at home since, you know, I'm trying to be healthy (puts down ice cream spoon.) So broiling, if I can get it right, will produce that crispy, browned outer skin without all the excess oil.
I brushed the tofu with a mix of olive oil, lime juice, salt, and pepper and put it in for about 10 minutes on each side. It could have been a little moister, but it was still great. The experiments will continue!

My favorite part of the meal was the salad I served alongside the tofu steaks. I'd eaten ricotta and dandelion green ravioli at Mozza in L.A., and I liked their slightly bitter taste. And here they were at the market! Although most people consider them weeds, dandelion greens are very detoxifying and have similar nutrition to other leafy greens (lots of A, C, and iron.) I turned to this recipe to make a lovely salad with dried figs and pine nuts. Beware, though! Dandelion greens are prickly... wear gloves when you de-stem and chop them! As a vegetarian, I need all the leafy greens I can get in my diet, and these were great.