arugula, green onions, mesclun greens, spinach, strawberries
In Recipes on June 14, 2009 at 9:29 PM
The strawberries I bought at the Lawrenceville Farmers Market were so much more fragrant and flavorful than the ones from the grocery store, so I didn’t want to hide them in a dessert. This salad spotlights them in the main course. It also used up the spinach, arugula and mesclun greens that were starting to bolt in my garden.
Serves 4
1 cup sliced almonds
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 clove of garlic, minced or pressed
1 egg
1 lb of chicken tenderloins (or 4 small chicken breasts)
Salad greens for 4 people
1 pint strawberries
4 ounces of goat cheese
2 green onions, chopped
balsamic vinegar
Crush almonds with the back of a spoon. Combine on a small plate with thyme and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dip chicken pieces into egg. Then roll in almond mixture. Arrange chicken on lightly oiled baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes. (Larger or thicker pieces will take longer.)
While chicken is baking, divide salad, strawberries and goat cheese among 4 plates. Top with chicken, sprinkle with green onions and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
(If you’d prefer to grill the chicken, roll the goat cheese into balls and then roll in almond-thyme-garlic mixture.)
Blackberry Meadows Farm, bok choy, green onions, mushrooms, Mushrooms for Life, Wild Alaskan Salmon Company
In Farmers Markets on June 2, 2009 at 12:31 AM
On Saturday morning, I started off with a plan: buy ingredients to cook with salmon. The Farmers@Firehouse market in Pittsburgh’s Strip District had just about everything I needed—even the salmon. Sara Pozonsky of the Wild Alaskan Salmon Company flies it in from Alaska. How’s that for one-stop shopping!
Bok Choy
I started though, at the Blackberry Meadows Farm booth, where the assortment of produce, including dandelion greens and bok choy, caught my eye. Well, I only recognized them because they were labeled. But since I’ve never cooked or even knowingly eaten either, I needed some help…
Heath Gamache and his partner, from Blackberry Meadows Farm
Heath Gamache could have told me what to cook with moon rocks if I’d asked him! He recommended using the dandelion greens with endive in wedding soup—as long as I made my own meatballs. (Look for a wedding soup recipe with homemade meatballs later in the week.)
For an Asian-inspired salmon dish, he suggested sauteing the bok choy in sesame or peanut oil with garlic and ginger, pressing sesame seeds onto the salmon, serving with soba noodles, and garnishing with cilantro and a soy or balsamic glaze. Yum! He also suggested adding some mushrooms from Jonathan Cingota of Mushrooms for Life…
Oyster Mushrooms
Mushrooms are deceiving. If they were a cartoon character, they’d be the ogre with a heart of gold. Their rough, crinkled appearance disguises a delicate makeup and rich taste. The metaphor breaks down (you wouldn’t taste an ogre, would you?) but you get the idea. These mushrooms melt in your mouth. I know because Jonathan was almost sold out of his stock only two hours after the market started.
Jonathan Cingota of Mushrooms for Life shows off his oyster mushrooms
I’m never sure how to clean mushrooms, so I asked. Whatever you do, DON’T RINSE MUSHROOMS. Dust them off with a pastry brush. Jonathan also said that many mushrooms today are grown inside, with HEPA-filtered air, so they’re cleaner than a lot of things you put in your body. Good to know.
