This week we focus unabashedly on scapes, the curlicued shooting-stalks of hardneck garlic plants. Their season is fleeting—fire up your food processors and grills! We like simply anointing garlic scapes with olive oil and sea-salt and singeing them on a hot grill or grill pan –just until they’re crisp, tender if you want to keep some of their garlicky flavor, […]
Read moreThis week’s recipe is sweet and simple, and it’s a twofer. In no time, you’ll have a small bottle of ruby-colored syrup and a little dish of fruit compote. Local strawberries take the star role in this recipe, with rhubarb as the character actor, and parsley playing the part of “mystery ingredient.” We had two other local inspirations. Grown-up rhubarb […]
Read moreWhat to eat now: Asparagus is in its prime. How can you resist? Eat local asparagus while you can–see recipe below. What to drink now: Market Cocktails are returning to Osteria La Civetta on Thursday evenings. Cin cin! Asparagus with Brown Butter 1 lb. thin spears of asparagus, washed, trimmed 2 Tbs. neutral oil 4 Tbs.unsalted butter Sea-salt, or use […]
Read moreSummer is waning. The autumnal equinox falls on September 22. Make salad while the sun shines. Here is an easy-going chopped vegetable and bread salad called fattoush. If you can find powdered sumac, a tart, deep-red, Middle-Eastern spice, dust it over the finished salad. Similarly if you can forage some purslane, put that in, too. Both add a refreshing, authentic […]
Read moreSue Bourque returns this week for another Buy Fresh Buy Local food demo. Sue is a registered dietician and nutrition educator with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, Those of you who’ve seen Sue in action before, will also know she’s an accomplished cook. This time, she’ll be giving a tomato tutorial, and Gazpacho soup is on the menu—an American-style Gazpacho, […]
Read moreThis week’s recipe combines butter-poached peas, scallions and garlic scapes, which become a quite different vegetable when cooked–bean-like and sweet. Spring Vegetable Ragout 10 oz sugar snap pea-pods, trimmed (about 4 cups) 8 oz shelling peas (about ½ cup shelled) 8 garlic scapes, tender parts only, top-knot discarded 8 scallions, trimmed back to six inches 1 cup pea-cooking water, plus […]
Read moreOur recipe this week is for a large whitish botanically-enigmatic knob in the turnip family. The Macomber turnip. also known as the Westport turnip, was introduced to Westport by the Macomber brothers in 1876. It’s crisp as a radish, sweet as rutabaga, white as a turnip, and winsomely smooth and mellow when cooked. Turnips suspiciously like these are also called […]
Read moreLast week we ran a recipe for roasted eggplant. This week we’re roasting cauliflower. Even people who profess not to like cauliflower one bit can fall in love with this dish. Roasting brings out the sweetness of cauliflower and slightly caramelizes it. And the recipe couldn’t be easier. Roasted Cauliflower 1 lb or so cauliflower, washed and trimmed 3-4 Tbs. […]
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