Oh, it’s getting good around here. Since I have been back from California, I have been to the Union Square Greenmarket quite a few times, and each week, it gets a bit better. At first there were the ramps, beautifully spindly. Then came the green garlic, mild in flavor and hinting of spring, and the baby kale was soft and budding, soon to be replaced by bagfuls of gorgeous gem lettuces.
But I am a creature of habit. When the produce is this good, there is not an awful lot I want to do to it. (Except run home and eat it!) Yes, I buy the same goods week after week. The vendors recognize me by face, and I love this. In a city so large, teeming with both tourists and locals, it is nice to know that the potato man recognizes you. And when the potato man, who was also happens to be my ramp man, has such delicious looking, and tasting veggies, how can you go wrong? His potatoes are packed with starchy goodness. For weeks now I have called them potatoes+ and Brian has coined them super-potatoes. They are that good! So each Saturday I hop on the subway to get my fix.
They’re called little roasters, and the cardboard sign above the bushel even has roasting instructions displayed. But I have never actually done this. These potatoes are tiny, no bigger than a grown man’s thumbnail. So I give them a quick bath in some screaming hot water, and boil them just until tender. Then I pop them in my mouth with a bit of butter, salt and pepper, or if I am really feeling adventurous, some freshly minced dill.
But this past week, as I nodded to the potato man, and plunged my hand in the bushel, I was thinking I really should do a little bit more with my melange. So I came up with the rhyming salad– potatoes and tomatoes cohabitating together. Cherry tomatoes, lively and sweet, halved and salted, waited patiently in a bowl for the boiled potatoes to cool. I sauteed some chopped green garlic in a bit of olive oil, and let that bloom while I chopped some parsley and a bit of chive. Then all the ingredients were tossed together, with a bit more salt and pepper.
When I sat down to eat this rhyming meal, my gurgling stomach was quickly silenced by this springtime feast. I even thought of a few more rhyming meals while I finished my salad. There are: wild leek and halibut cheek, or rib-eye steak and chocolate cake. What about fried smelt and a patty melt, topped off by boiled spam and raspberry jam? I don’t know about any of those pairings, they may just have to wait until the next time I am in rhyming mood. What about you, do you have any other rhyming foods I forgot to mention?
