Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - Cooking with the Penguin, Part 2- It's the Little Things... |
... that make me happy.
I was off work today and realized that I could go to the Durham Farmer's Market today. It's now open on Wednesday afternoons so I headed to downtown Durham after my hair appointment.
As I expected, there were fewer vendors than on a Saturday, the regular day, and I had no idea who'd be there. I tried to buy a bulb of fennel but it was about five minutes before 3.30pm, the official opening time, and the vendor couldn't sell it to me. Then, after a bell rang at 3.30pm, sales begun. However, I'd left the fennel vendor and I was filling a plastic bag with fresh peas, still in their pods.
For me, picking and shelling peas (I think they're known as English peas in the US) reminds me of my childhood because my family would pick peas right in the fields during the season. I have looked for peas in the pod here in North Carolina but today was the first time I'd seen them. The vendor was selling shelled peas for $5.00 for a 1lb bag but it's more fun to shell the peas oneself. So, I was picking out the plump pods from a big box. Those were $2.00 a pound.
Fresh peas don't last long so I changed what I had in mind to make for dinner and made a spring pea frittata instead. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand so I had to make a quick trip to the grocery store to get fresh mint and some ricotta salata. The resulting dish was delicate and tasty. The frittata was said to be six servings but the two of us ate the whole thing.
I'd been considering going down to Bunn in North Carolina to pick organic strawberries from Vollmer Farm but with the cost of gas, I've hesitated. Fortunately for me, Vollmer Farm had a table at the Farmer's Market today and were selling large punnets (2lbs 6oz) of organic strawberries from their farm. I bought a punnet and have already but some of the berries to use when I made a homemade strawberry shortcake using a recipe from this past weekend's Parade magazine.
Here's a picture of the strawberry shortcake:
Picking strawberries every year, during strawberry season, was part of my childhood back in the UK. My family would make it a (very long) day trip, driving to Tiptree in Essex. For those who know their jams, Tiptree is the home of Wilkin and Sons, one of Britain's most famous jam and preserves makers. Reminising about strawberry picking is probably another blog entry. |
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About Me
Former Londoner, now living in Durham, NC since 2002.
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