Saturday is the easiest day for me to wake up. The prospect of seeing what is new at the farmers’ market has me jumping out of bed much more easily than I drag myself out on a workday. I made it early and was rewarded with some late season raspberries.
This week there was a wealth of tomatoes which I admired, but avoided. The variety of heirloom tomatoes was impressive. Toad Hill had at least four varieties of eggplant including white ones. Some of my treasures this week included purple beans (that apparently will turn green if I cook them), baby red peppers, baby leeks, corn, pale green patty pan squash that look like flying saucers, zephyr squash (yellow and green as pictured in one of my previous posts) and lots of fruit. The apricots, plums and peaches and blueberries are all from Ohio. One of the other things I have taken to buy at the market weekly is milk from the Snowville creamery. Locally produced milk from pasture grazed cows that isn’t ultra-heat treated as the supermarket organic milks all are. It also comes in a more traditional carton without the plastic spout.
Market fruits and baby peppers
This week I also bought my first ever tempeh. Also from Toad Hill. (tempeh is a fermented soya bean product with a lot more texture and flavor than tofu – if you want to know more there is a lot on wikipedia). I followed a recipe from the Flexitarian Table for Charmoula lamb or Tempeh kebabs, but I didn’t skewer the tempeh. I grilled slices with the halved patty pan squashes which I marinaded with the tempeh after its initial cooking. I don’t have a BBQ so I use a scanpan titanium grill pan on the stove top that works brilliantly.
Charmoula is a Moroccan marinade with garlic, lemon, herbs and spices. It worked really well and Joe (long term vegan) said it was the best tempeh he ever had, which I think it is a credit to both the recipe and the product. It certainly stayed very moist and the marinade was really good.
One of my favorite stall holders with her zucchini blossoms
I didn’t buy any zucchini blossoms but they are so pretty that I took a picture instead.
I served the tempeh with corn on the cob (cooked in the husk in the microwave) and an asian cabbage slaw adapted from 101cookbooks. I know mixing my cuisines – asian and Moroccan, but they worked well together.
It is a mixture of cabbage, baby red peppers, cilantro, serrano chilis, scallions (spring onions) and roasted unsalted peanuts. The recipe called for cherry tomatoes. I made a dressing with lots of lime juice, lime juice, peanut oil, rice vinegar, a dash of ume plum vinegar, a dash of sesame oil, mirin, salt.
