This Week’s Harvest, 9/22

First off, I suppose I should explain why I didn’t update last week.  We had a large number of family members in town, and were busy dining out.  Life’s rough.  Knowing this would be the case, I cancelled last week’s delivery, in favor of a double one next week.  In the meantime, I do seem to have come up with a signature salad dressing, which was mainly invented to liquidate the two bunches of parsley I got last time.  Here it is: chop up half a bunch of parsley and two small green onions.  Put them in a jar with some white wine vinegar.  Season with salt, pepper, and a spoonful of Dijon mustard.  Add two or three times as much olive oil as you put vinegar.  Shake (with the lid securely fastened, obviously) and toss with salad.  The best one I made had crisp, sweet, raw green beans, peppery radishes, juicy tomatoes, and a head of lettuce.  Also, I’m changing the format of this blog to a once-a-week post.  From now on, it will be the haul of the week and recipe ideas.  If I cook anything spectacular from it, the recipe will definitely end up on my main blog.

But on to the produce.

I think I’d like to make that warm green bean salad again, using shallots in place of the onions, and of course, a couple different colors of tomato. I’m excited about the corn, because I got these cool peppers to cook with them.

They are neither local nor organic, but they are seasonal and at least they’re from France, so not too far away.  They’re fresh piments d’Espelette!  The ones I don’t cook right away will slowly dry and I’ll be able to use them all winter long.  Yay!  Anyway, I’d like to make a Basque-inflected corn salad, or maybe even a corn and pepper chowder.

For the first time maybe ever, I know exactly what I want to do with the celery: make this spicy Chinese salad.  If I have any left over, it’s about time to make stock again, judging from the bag of frozen chicken carcasses in my freezer.

If apples make me sad for the upcoming winter, pears do just the opposite.  Their season is so transient that I just have to seize the day when it comes to that lush, fragrant fruit.  I think I’ll do something simple with these, like poach them and serve them over caramel ice cream… which would be a great use for those eggs.

Originally published on Seasonal Market Menus.

Advertisement