At the Alemany Farmer's Market this weekend, we saw a mixture of winter seasonal produce (still a lot of citrus, particularly Moro blood oranges) and fresh spring vegetables, such as asparagus, tender pea leaves (which Filipinos and Chinese use in soups and stir-frys,) and kohlrabi.
Above are Moro blood oranges - so good with champagne as a "sparkler" or paired with fennel and shaved parmesan and drizzled with olive oil.
According to the calendar, it's still winter (the vernal equinox is still three weeks away) but the weather here has been absolutely spring-like. So, it's quite fitting that the market offerings are "in between" winter and spring. Below I've included a few photos of what's hot at the market right now.
Asian vegetables (bok choy, gai choy, and choy sum) are currently in season.
Fresh green and purple onions signal the arrival of Spring.
Red sugar cane makes great skewers for shrimp or fish, and tastes great grilled. Chew on them to press out the lovely sugar juices, and discard the tough, fibrous stalk when the juices have been depleted.
Cardoon is an under-appreciated vegetable that tastes like artichoke.
(All images by Kathryn Hill.)
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So that's what cardoon looks like! I've read about it but I honestly don't think I've ever seen it. Thanks Kathryn!
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Thanks for the great ideas and lovely pictures! I visited epicurious for ideas on how to prepare cardoons. Here's the one and only recipe they have on file:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240553
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I love cardoons. Sadly, they are under-apreciated in the United states. I have three ways of cooking Cardoons: the first one is my mother's Cardoon tagine, with chickpeas, saffron tomatoes and lamb (optional). You can even cook it in a tomato ragout with cannellini beans, artichoke, lots of garlic and thyme. The third one is a cardoon gratin: you cook the cardoon, trimed, cut roughly and strings peeled away, in some water flavored with salt and lemon, for about 30-40 minutes. Then arrange them in a buttered casserole and cover them with cream/parmesan, salt and pepper, or cream/chicken stock/parmesan, salt and pepper.
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What's at farmer's markets in New England right now...?
Bupkus.
I so want to live in SF.
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