From Chef Lesley Stiles:
Farmers' Market Vegetable Stew w/ Quinoa
Serves 6
2 medium sized spring onions, chopped
4 cloves of green garlic, crushed
2 cups of peeled, cubed butternut squash
1 carrot, sliced
1 bunch broccolini, chopped
2 baby turnips, cubed
½ bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 bunch of kale or chard, sliced thin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ cups of quinoa
6 cups of vegetable stock
Kosher salt and pepper
Heat oil in a large, heavy soup pot
and add the onions and garlic. Sauté for
about 3 minutes and add the squash, carrots,
and turnip. Add the quinoa and sauté for
3 minutes. Add the stock and bring to
a boil. Let simmer for about 15 to 20
minutes until quinoa has released its
spiral and is done. Add broccolini and simmer
3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add
the cilantro and greens. Season to taste.
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Spice Mixture
½ teaspoon cardamom pods
2 teaspoons fenugreek
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
4 cinnamon sticks, crushed
2 star anise
3 tablespoons of cumin seed
Place all spices in a dry, non stick
sauté pan.
Turn temperature to medium high heat
and toast the spices until the seeds
begin to pop and the pan is lightly smoking.
This should be extremely fragrant at
this point. Do not burn the spices. Remove
from heat and let cool. Grind all together
in a coffee grinder. Store in a tightly
covered jar in a dark place.
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Walnut Creek:
Music: Bittersweets
Manager: Keith Farley. E-mail: wmarket@cccfm.org
Market Hours:
Winter hours 9 am to 1 pm
thru April.
Programs:
The Frequent Shopper Card (from Nov. thru April);
Year-Round Parking Validation;
The Veggie Valet booth.
From Keith Farley, Manager:
The weather becomes iffier (yes it's a real word)
this time of year so plan ahead. Throw your umbrella
and rain slicker in the car along with your reusable shopping
totes and frequent shopper card so you are ready in any
eventuality. We are open rain or shine so we will
be there for you.
Remember that you can use our Veggie Valet service, located
at the market table, leave your purchases with us and go
get your car and we will bring them out to you. Simple and
painless.
We will still be a few growers and vendors short this week
so check with me for updates on their return.
See you Sunday!
More
info. |
Martinez, Orinda
& Pleasant Hill:
Markets closed for the season |
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FROM
OUR MARKETS by
Chef Leslie Stiles |
I always love this time of the year when I get into clear out mode because
it somehow makes everything feel new and vibrant and really clean especially
if you do the tree and decoration thing. I don't know about you but I
am really happy to get it all down and tucked away for another year.
Time is right for soups and stews but no one ever said that these need to
be long cooked and mushy. Quick sautées and stir fries are an amazing
thing with winter produce. The Farmers'
Market Vegetable Stew is
ready in 30 minutes and is really good heated up for a couple of days to boot.
If you wanted to add some chicken sausage or stew meat it would work equally
as well as the vegetarian version.
Sauté different winter vegetables with olive oil and the special Spice
Mixture for a few minutes and add a can of garbanzo beans,
a little tomato sauce and some vegetable stock. Let this simmer for about
20 minutes and serve over cous cous. You can garnish this with a little
crumbled feta and chopped Kalamata olives.
 This is a great time to cut up your pumpkins and squashes that have been decorating
your front porch and get them roasting with garlic and olive oil. You may want
to make a pot of polenta and toss some of this roasted squash into it along
with some grated reggiano. Served on a bed of sautéed greens, this can
be meal with or without a salad. This also makes a great side if you grill
some fish or chicken up to eat with it.
These squashes can be made ready for baking by cutting up into cubes and dousing
with a neutral oil such as canola and roasting at 400° for about a half an
hour. Place into your favorite type of freezer receptacle and just give them
a little thaw to add the next time you bake some kind of bread or muffins.
However you do it now is the time to get in the habit of eating "9 a
Day" of fruits and vegetables, this is what is recommended for optimum
health, and the only place to get them is at your local farmers' market.
If you are having a hard time getting out exercising in inclement weather,
put on a rain hat or an umbrella and get with it!
Use it or lose it in 2007!
Slow Food is presenting a screening of the film "Ripe for Change" on
January 13 at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. For more
info go to www.CaliforniaSeries.org. This
is going to be a good one, made by local filmmakers.
Lesley Stiles can be reached at chef@cccfm.org or
on the market hotline 925 431-8361
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DID YOU KNOW? by
Manager Keith Farley |
Big grocery stores are having a hard time surviving
these days. A bay area biggie Andronicos has closed the Walnut
Creek store and there are rumors that more stores are on the block.
Diablo Foods has cut back on their choices at least in the meat
department and has closed one of their stores. The move has
gone to the smaller *urban* sized store and Farmers' Markets.
Hooray! We are making headway. People are starting to
understand that bigger is not better. Buying local and supporting
the little guy is the wave of the future.
Here is a link to an article that goes into depth concerning this,
enjoy. This article concerns big city issues but is applicable to
the "urban-suburban" areas like Walnut Creek and addresses
some of our local chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joes'
Big
stores suffer and why.
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