During a busy but fun weekend I didn’t have time to blog, but I did have time to get  to the Midtown Farmers’ Market:

Obviously, this picture was taken at home rather than at the market, but my purchasing was comprehensive enough that I feel it’s a fair representation of what was to be had from the farms around Minneapolis on June 20. Starting at the bottom left and proceeding clockwise I got:

Strawberries. There were a few strawberries last week (which I stupidly didn’t buy immediately and so ultimately was denied their joy) but this week several farmers had quite a few quarts. We kept these out for a couple of days for snacking–fresh, in-season strawberries are really a whole different fruit from whatever gets shipped from California to the supermarket, and certainly one to be savored during their fleeting time. After these strawberries started to get a little too ripe we pureed the whole bunch and made the reddest sorbet ever.

New potatoes. I have seen the sundry potato here and there this year, but this weekend was the first time that there were a lot of tiny ones that I believe were actually recently grown. I love boiling small potatoes in salt water (jackets on!) and eating them dipped in aïoli, and that’s exactly what I did as soon as I got home.

Tiny zucchini with blossoms. The real selling point here was the flowers, which rapidly became fiori di zucca fritte. The squash themselves were cute but not all that flavorful; roasting seemed to help. Doesn’t it always?

Baby Beets. Although I bought beets in Michigan at least three weeks ago, this was the first time I saw them at the market in Minneapolis. I guess things get started a bit more slowly around here.

Kale. Last week’s kale went in a Tuscan bean stew so I bought it again this week to make the much-hyped kale chips. Since it was over 90°F out today I had no desire to fire up the oven, but hopefully reasonable temperatures will return soon so I can dispatch this kale.

Kohlrabi. I actually had no plans to buy kohlrabi, but when the person in line in front of me raved about last week’s not lasting a day in their house and proceeded to buy two bunches (six kohlrabi!) I had to try it. Upon returning home, I discovered that one can eats the little bulb part on the bottom (after peeling it). I also discovered, to my dismay after having just cleaned pounds of lettuce, kale and beet greens, you can use the kohlrabi greens as you would any other cooking green. So the salad spinner came out again. The kohlrabi bulb itself was really good; cutting into it it smelled just like broccoli, but its flavor was very mild and sweet. The greens are destined for a saag-like curry.

Daikon. While there are plenty of radishes everywhere, I only found one vendor with daikon, and they just had a couple of bunches. I actually approached thinking it was a strangely early parsnip or some kind of white carrot, but I was quickly disabused of that notion by another farmers’ market denizen who swooped in and grabbed the prime bunch. Not to be left behind, I took the other. I’ve been using this like I would use any radish: eating it raw and pickling it.

Onions. Small onions are all over, and I managed to snatch a few bigger ones.

Salad Greens. Leaves continue to be in their prime; it is a good time for salads in our house.

Sugar Snap Peas. I actually had my choice of sugar snap peas or english shell peas, but since I am both lazy and economically-minded, I went with the sugar snaps (no need to shell and you can eat the shell!). These are so sweet and tender that they make perfect crudités, and I think they’ll be good in a stir-fry.

Broccoli. I had read in the paper that broccoli was coming into season, so I was not surprised to see it. As far as I remember broccoli will be around for a while, but it’s always exciting to get the first crop of the season.

I’m definitely reaching the point where I worry about using up all of the produce in my fridge before it goes bad or I go to buy more. There are worse problems in life.

Besides all of the edible treasures from today’s trip to the Midtown Farmers’ Market, we also took home a small group of succulent cuttings ($2.00). I thought I recognized the plant from my new (old) book, Plants for the Home, purchased at a thrift store for just $0.69. Of the succulents for sale, this was one of the few the woman selling them couldn’t identify. I told her I was pretty certain it was a Burro’s Tail (Sedum morganianum). She kindly wrapped it in newspaper so that the little guy would survive our bike ride home. After some looking around on the internets, I have decided this is most likely a Peperomia columella or Pearly Column and *not* a Sedum morganianum. I’m more than a little disappointed it’s not a Burro’s Tail, which is clearly more fun sounding… but it’s still pretty and will probably grow into long braids one day with proper care. Have you grown either in your home?

About 10 minutes ago I was going to write about my first adventure in laying out a gallery wall (I suppose this handful of sentences somewhat counts). I bought a number of Ribba frames from IKEA to go with one I already had and used the papers inside to test possible layouts on our bedroom wall. This seemed like a novel idea. It’s not. West Elm apparently had it before, so I learned from Abbey while poking around (to echo Abbey, “God bless IKEA.” West Elm’s gallery frames are waaaaaaay too expen$ive). The important bit is, I had fun putting our wall together and learned something in the process. Great minds think alike, right? Once the print I ordered from bigcartel.com arrives I’ll be sure to share pictures. Check out this post for more on how to make your own picture/frame/gallery wall.

Update: Check out this article on the New York Times for more details on how to hang artwork.

Amazing what two weeks will do. I missed the last two weeks of the Midtown Farmers’ Market while on a trip home (and enjoying the very fine Midland Farmers’ Market). You might recall that my last trip, while exciting because of the first appearance of asparagus, was a bit disappointing since that was the only fresh vegetable to be had. This week, the market really exploded with summer produce–I can finally buy (more than) enough fresh vegetables for the week.

Greens. Greens are the most readily available thing right now: tons of lettuces, spinach, kale, bok choi and kohlrabi were available, as well as every kind of herb. I picked up a bunch of kale, nearly a pound of spinach, and an assortment of salad greens. Not a bad deal for 6 dollars,though I had to spend about an hour washing and drying greens at home. A bunch of dill and a bunch of parsley came home as well since I had a use for them in mind.
Roots. The first spring onions are available, and there are plenty of radishes to be had. So far, no sign of baby beets or turnips. I cannot resist buying radishes whenever I see them, nor could I turn down sprightly little purple onions.
Peas. Sweet peas were out in full force this weekend–every farmer seemed to have an abundance of them. They are sweet and tender.
Rhubarb. Rhubarb, the herald of spring in these parts (along with asparagus), is still available. I have not had nearly enough rhubarb this year so I had to have some.

I have some ideas for how to use all this great produce, but this is the first week where I have more fresh food than I know what to do with! I’m sure I’ll figure something out and have an empty fridge by next Saturday morning!

Short answer: no.

But why even ask the question? Once again, radical claims by  Cook’s Illustrated could not go untested. Cook’s Illustrated #99 had the gall to suggest that one could cook crispy, creamy french fries in just six cups of oil.

If six cups of oil sounds like a lot, consider that usually when making fries at home I use at least 3 quarts–that’s 12 cups–of oil. The reason for all that oil is temperature control: trying to retain enough heat in the oil so that adding a bunch of cold potatoes doesn’t cause the temperature to drop for very long. Temperature control is the key to great fries. Cooked first at 325° for tenderness throughout, fries are finished at 375° for golden, crispy exteriors. Adding a pound or two of 75° potatoes can drastically reduce the temperature of the oil, so the more hot oil the better. In my restaurant days, I remember lovingly adding 70 pounds of oil to the fryer every Monday morning. Nothing you could drop in there was going to lower the temperature by much. Sometimes I dream of that fryer.

How did Cook’s propose to cook 2½ pounds of potatoes in such a small amount of peanut oil? By eschewing specific temperatures all together. In this recipe, ¼” matchsticks of yukon gold potatoes (I usually make fries with russets, but those are apparently too starchy for this technique) are added to six cups of room temperature peanut oil in a dutch oven. You then turn the heat on high, and after five minutes the oil will be bubbling happily. 15 minutes later the fries will have reached the state that is achieved by the usual 325° parcooking step: the fries are limp and blonde but cooked through. Cook’s promised that after an additional five to ten minutes cooking, the fries would be golden and crispy.

I waited five minutes. Still limp. Ten minutes. Not much goldener, not much crispier. Fifteeen minutes. My steak was getting cold. It took a full 17½ minutes of additional cooking (for a full cook time of 37½ minutes, which is not that far off the mark from normal fries if you consider the time to heat the oil). I should probably mention here that the small stove in my apartment is seriously weak on BTUs and it’s quite likely that this prolonged the cooking time. But if BTUs and temperatures were going to be a factor, Cook’s could have gone to the trouble of listing specific temperatures. On draining the fries I was disappointed to see that many of them had broken into stubby fragments.

In spite of their short length, the fries tasted fine. They were a little too crispy and not creamy enough in the center–probably a consequence of the long cooking time and the relatively low-starch potato. They weren’t terrible fries, but they weren’t that great either–I have gotten much better results in terms of appearance, flavor and texture using the traditional two step method and more oil. And even though they used only six cups of oil, that’s still kind of a lot of oil. If I’m going to go to the trouble, I’d just as soon use the 12 cups and make fries the right way. As excited as I was by the possibility of fries with less oil and less hassle, sometimes making a bigger mess is worth it. Especially if someone else has to do your dishes.