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| Strawberry season |
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| Lots of mushrooms |
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| Spitzkohl or pointed cabbage |
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| Let your imagination run |
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| Love those daisies |
I love farmers’ markets. Fresh. Honest. For the most part, at least in Germany, you’re buying local, from the folks who picked the berries, dug the potatoes, planted the flowers, and cultured the milk to make the cheese. There’s no fragrance like a fresh fragrance and no taste like a fresh taste.
I admit I’m a cook. Not a chef. Chefs are cooks who know what the hell they’re doing. I fill plates with food; they create dishes that delight the eye, and linger on the taste buds and in the memory. I make gravy. They make delicate, silky sauces. I can’t hang with that crowd and the folks from Michelin are never going to nail a star on my door. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t shop where the chefs shop and use ingredients that carry the fragrances and tastes of the fields.
I grew up in Michigan and still remember sneaking into a farmer’s plot of corn to pull off an ear of Silver Queen and gobble it down, the sweet juices running off my chin. No cooking. No butter, or salt, or pepper. Nothing else is needed when the vegetables are that fresh.
For the most part, I like my green vegetables at that perfect stage, past raw, but barely cooked, what the chefs call crisply tender. Salads should be mixed field greens, blends of color, with a very light dressing that hides none of the fresh flavor. See an earlier blog for basic vinaigrette and never buy salad dressing again!
My bottom line is: Why eat when you can dine, often for the same cost, or much less. Farmers’ markets offer that choice and Homburg’s is no exception. On Tuesdays and Fridays, from 9 until noon, I like to wander and dream and chat with the growers and sellers. “What should I use these mushrooms for?” and “What’s the difference between this cabbage and that?” Matter of fact, the pointed cabbage in the photo (Spitzkohl) is tasty and easy to fix. In my next blog I’ll give you a recipe.
Not to be missed is the tasting. Never seen a cheese maker that didn’t offer a thin slice, or an olive merchant that wouldn’t let you savor the distinct flavor differences between oil and brine cured.
Germany is known for its salt and smoke cured meats. Hams, sausages, each with a different name and taste, and all so delicious they’ll make you forget Hormel forever. Your body will thank you for leaving the nitrates and other chemical shortcuts behind.
Culinary adventures are the perfect time to expand your repertoire and astonish your family. Maybe I shouldn’t use the word ‘astonish.’ How about lead your taste-bud-retarded kin slowly and carefully into new and pleasant pastures?
Eating healthy, vitamin laced, fresh meals are neither difficult, nor time consuming. Average cooking time for greens such as broccoli is twelve minutes. Carrots and green beans are the same. Stir-fried cabbage and onions are even less. Put hams or roasts in a pan with flavored broth, cover and stick them in the oven at 225ºF (110ºC) and let them simmer all day, while you do other things. Want to spice things up? Add a sausage or two to the pot.
There are other benefits to good cooking.
At a recent dinner party, one of my guests admonished two young men to learn how to cook. “A man who cooks well is a chick magnet,” she said. Golly, I never thought of that!
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| Shopping is hard work. Time for a break. |
