Great Taste Coaster

I saw ugly tomatoes at the grocery store for the first time the other day. Apparently they are quite controversial and have been in the news lately. Somehow I had never heard of them before.

It’s been a cool wet spring here in South Central. Here’s what’s good to buy locally now

• Rhubarb, you either like it or hate it. If you like really tart tastes, rhubarb is for you. I like to stew it with just a small bit of butter and sugar. It looks like brownish phlegm when I’m done, but man is it good.
• Leaf lettuce, when it gets hot, most leaf lettuce will go to seed and get bitter, but for now it’s really good. Green leaf, Red leaf, Butter crunch, all good now.
• Asparagus, good asparagus should still be stiff, not limp, and have no slime at the tip. Keep it in a small pool of water in your fridge until you’re ready to eat it.
• Radishes, they are sweet now and will get spicier and hotter as the weather gets hotter.
• Sugar Peas and snow peas, the peas in the pod will soon get too big so enjoy them now.

Went to Prudhomme’s on Tuesdays and it looks like crawfish season is upon us. We were informed that “buckets o bugs” were available, “alive until we kill ‘em,” and that was an offer we couldn’t resist. Started out with some hush puppies, natch. When the crayfish arrived we went to town. Not a lot of meat in those suckers. Like a tiny lobster, the tail is where it’s at.

All in all, it was a fun experience. I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it, since you go through a bit of work for a small payout, but if you’re looking to try out some fresh crawdads and live anywhere near Columbia, PA, I highly suggest stopping by Prudhomme’s Lost Cajun Kitchen and chowing down on some mudbugs.

These are big in England but not so popular here. Read more »

I’d say 90% of cooking is starting off with good raw ingredients.  Really the rest of cooking is about not screwing up those ingredients.  That being said, all food is best when it’s processed and shipped as little as possible, and local food is where it’s at.  Eating seasonally is great for you because, humans like most animals aren’t designed to eat the same thing all year round.  Seasonal eats forces you to eat things you normally wouldn’t and once you get tired of it, the season ends.  In addition seasonal, local food has more nutrients and better taste.  So enough with the soapbox, here’s what you should be finding and eating now:

• Watercress, I love this stuff and it doesn’t stay around for very long.  It’s best served on soft bread with cream cheese or a soft cheese like wemsleydale.  Trim the crusts on your sandwich and eat with tea in the late afternoon.
• Early spring greens, a lot of growers around here are using poly tunnels.  They are essentially quick and dirty greenhouses, set up over the fields.  I’ve already started getting some mesclun from some local growers.
• Winter Root Vegetables, they’re on their way out, but still good.  Potatoes, parsnips, and beets.
• Lambing season is coming soon.  So get that Easter leg of lamb!