Deglazed

I will no longer be intimidated by vegetables like romanesco. It has never crossed my path before, but it certainly caught my eye this week. It’s most like cauliflower, which could be the least intimidating vegetable ever. Romanesco can be served just like cauliflower: as crudité, in soup, steamed, baked or sautéd. It’s just little bit nuttier than cauliflower, which certainly inspires me to welcome it home.

India Clay Oven, of San Francisco, has been bringing their tandoor oven to the Temescal Farmer’s Market for the past month and sampling their warm, fresh naan. It’s a wonderful treat for the morning stroll around the market, but I am told it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and will be very nice after a brief stint in the toaster oven. It would never last a week at my house.

Each year, Saveur Magazine puts out the top 100 list of food items around the world. It’s hard for me to understand how not all 100 items are from the Bay Area, but here are the one’s that caught their attention this year. Congrats to our local celebrities.

1. Rancho Gordo, of the Napa Valley, has wowed many local restaurants with 30 varieties of heirloom beans, all indigenous to the Americas. Just like heirloom tomatoes, potatoes and meats, heirloom beans pack exceptional freshness and flavor. But Rancho Gordo is not just beans. They also offer corn tortillas, masa, pozole, wild rice, herbs, greens, and (drum-roll please) Chile peppers!! Their quote, “Never trust a man who doesn’t eat Chiles.” should give you an idea about their enthusiasm for chiles. Find them at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays.

2. Avendanos market was written up as a butcher shop in Bernal Heights, but I see they are quite a bit more. Three visionary ladies (go ladies!) took over the closed space that was once Cicero’s family butcher shop. With Cicero as a consultant, they preserved the family butcher shop charm, and added prepared foods made from the finest ingredients. Brava!

3. My resolution for February 2008: Eat charcuterie at home, when it’s not a special occasion. Saveur has convinced me to scare-up Napa’s Fatted Calf, artisinal charcuterie. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait until my next trek to Napa. They are at the Berkeley Farmers Market and Ferry Plaza on Saturdays.

sidenote: Savuer was honoring the dying breed of traditional butcher shops. My favorite is at Piedmont Grocery in Oakland.

4. Peter Reinhart, the founder of Brother Juniper’s Bakery in Sonoma, got accolades for his life’s work as a baker, author and teacher of artisinal bread making. So what if he now lives in North Carolina. Surly it’s only temporary.

Notice anything wrong with this photo of the Blue Bottle espresso machines at the Temescal Farmers Market this weekend? Maybe it’s that no one is on them? Typically, you can find a least three baristas cranking away all morning, but due to a leaky propane hose, it was drip only for the day. I’m sure the drip was still worth the wait.

Best consumed traditionally, peel and pop, the Cara Cara, is back at the market. It tends to have a short season so hit these up now. Alpine Blue Farms claim it’s a cross between a navel orange and a ruby red grapefruit. But the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside explains that it was a mutation from a Washington navel orange tree discovered at the Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela in 1976. And a delightfully juicy and bold mutation it is.

If you are lucky enough to frequent the farmers markets that stay open year ’round, then you may have noticed piles of orange produce.

My favorite orange delights are the satsuma mandarins. My lazy nature loves the zip peal and mostly seedless pulp. Eating two or three at time is typical, and when my recipes this time of year call for orange zest, I grab a couple of satsumas to do the trick.

I can finally find hachiya persimmons soft and mushy and ready to eat like a slushy. It was worth the wait. If you have ever tried eating these before they are ripe, you know by your puckered lips that something was not right with the situation. It’s the fuyus that are great to eat when they are still firm.

If you have never had a freshly picked, organic carrot, now is the time to indulge. Think rich and juicy, unlike the whithering varieties bagged in plastic. Carrots are pretty cheap right now, so take advantage and start making soups and salads. You might just ward off cancer, stroke, high cholesterol, and other infections as you revive your mothers recipe for carrot raisin salad (which you should then share with me).

I have tried several CSA’s over the past few years, and am more satisfied with Terra Firma Farms than I ever imagined I could be with a CSA. Here’s why:

• The amount of produce you get is reasonably priced.
• The quality of produce has been impeccable and variety impressive, even in winter.
• Even though I do not get to choose my items, I am motivated to eat vegetables that would have ordinarily been out of my repertoire.
• All of the produce is organic, seasonal, local and picked the day before, so I get a gold star from the green police.
• Even though I have to pick up my box, it’s close to my home and it only takes a minute.
• They give me a recipe every week, also archived at their site, so I can be sure to use all of those leeks and potatoes.

Finally, we eat more fruits and vegetables now, knowing we need to make room for the box coming each week. Some of us just need that type of motivation.