Morels and other Spring Treats from the Farmer's Market

I am so looking forward to our farmer's market opening back up. I am especially keen to visit the forager again. In another life, I think that could be a great job, but in this one I am afraid of bears, so it's not happening. Instead I will buy my morels from our brave forager and his lovely dog Jasper.

Morels pair especially well with peas and salmon. This is a lovely brown rice risotto - I make it in a cheat way, instead of the laborious adding of broth one cup at a time, I just use left over rice added to sauteed vegetables, some half and half (or non-dairy creamer), and some madeira. This works just fine and takes half the time. I topped the salmon with a roasted scape from the garden. And the risotto is topped with delicious sage blossoms, a little trick I learned from eating at Jerry Traunfield's Poppy restaurant. Delicious!
 

Ahh fresh English Peas from the market. We are only a few months away from enjoying you again.
 

Spring onions and green garlic, the bottom half of whips and scapes, are wonderful farmer's market treats - the milder flavor of these two are perfect for spring dishes.
 

Same again, but with gnocchi instead of rice.
 

Beans and Greens: Vegetarian Iron

Beans and greens don't seem to photograph well, but they taste fabulous and are an excellent source of vegetarian iron. Plant sources of iron can be difficult for the body to absorb, but something about the bean and the green together makes it happen. Go team!

Kale and White Beans - this is a classic Tuscan combo, though I suppose in Tuscany they use cannellini and lacinato kale, where as I've just used great northern beans and regular kale. Saute your kale with garlic and onion in olive oil, then add cooked beans and parm at the end with some salt and pepper to taste. Perfect comfort food.
 

This was a bit of an experiment on the same theme and it turned out fairly well though I won't rely on it as I do the kale white bean combo. This is Gumbo z'Herbs, popular in Louisiana during Lent when many Catholics traditionally abstained from meat. There are some really complicated recipes out there, but mine is just mustard greens, sauteed with onions, garlic, smoked paprika, some Tony Chachere's creole seasoning with black eyed peas and vegetable broth.
 

Banh Mi

So I disappeared for awhile there. Sorry! I think trying to do two blogs was too much. Plus the camera that I used for the blog died on our vacation. And has anyone else noticed how annoying picasa is? I should probably migrate this over to a word press/flicker thing some day, but I don't really want to bother to learn that either. Anyway I've got dozens of old posts that I started and never posted - but I think they are all good eats, so I will just spend a little time getting caught up and re-learning how to do this before you see some new stuff.

In the meantime - here are two banh mi sandwiches we enjoyed this summer. Banh mi are Vietnamese sub sandwiches. If you've never had one, I recommend finding a spot immediately and buying the best $2 sandwich you'll ever find. Lately Charlie and I have been going to Seattle Deli - he gets grilled pork and I get tofu. So good. $5 for both. This is our new treat before going to costco, which has the added benefit of not having us shop hungry at a store where it is difficult to spend less than $100.

The vegetables in banh mi are usually daikon radish and carrots, slightly pickled in rice vinegar with cilantro - in my version below i used french radish, carrot, cucumber and basil.
 

I have no idea how they make their tofu so magical at Seattle Deli, but for my home version I marinated some tempeh in teriyaki, which I later grilled up on my cast iron pan. I sauteed my snap peas in some teriyaki for a healthy side.
 

The sandwich is constructed with layers of veggies and tempeh with mayo and siracha. That lovely flower is a borage blossom from the garden.