Farmer's market: May 24th

Monday's lovely purchases:


Pea tendrils/pea shoots

from here (I know, I know! I have a camera, I love taking pictures...it just gets kinda late by the time I get home. And I do have a plan to change this. But it involves clear packing tape, which was completely and utterly used up by the girls moving out last week. Oops.)

The leaves and climbing tendrils of early peas are often used in Asian cooking, and are best used soon after purchasing. But--I'm trying to push that time with the Alton Brown method, which involves soaking in a sink of cold water immediately after purchasing for 20 minutes, spinning in a salad spinner (whee!), putting on a paper towel or in my case, piece of leftover cotton, rolling it up, putting in a plastic bag, and sucking all the air out with a straw. It's supposed to last for about 10 days. Here's hoping!

It cooks quite quickly, and tastes delicious sauteed for ten seconds in hot olive oil. I guess in general I'm not that much of a sauteed greens alone kind of person...I mean, they weren't bad, but it's just not my thing. But I do love wilted spinach in pastas and such, so some of the below recipes look pretty tasty (and it does have a nice taste raw, too!)

Pea tendrils with coconut

Butternut squash risotto with pea tendrils

Sesame pea-shoot salad (also contains snow peas, regular peas, and sugar snap peas. Just in case the pea tendrils weren't enough)

Citrus-glazed pea tendrils over rice


Tatsoi



from here

Another unfamiliar green, tatsoi is from the Brassica genus (related to rutabaga, turnip, kohlorabi, cabbage, broccoli, mustard) and can endure temperatures down to 15ºF. No joke. I haven't tried it yet, but it also underwent the Alton Brown treatment and I hope to use it for dinner tomorrow.

Chilled sesame-ginger tatsoi

Browned butter pasta with tatsoi

Tatsoi with rice noodles

Almost all of the dishes that are "put together" (as in, don't involve "use it as a green in your favorite mixed salad!") use ginger and sesame for flavor complements. So I'm guessing that's a good bet...