Fresh Food – Come and Get It!

Supporting local food through a visit to the Dane County Farmer’s Market held on May 26, 2010

What a beautiful day it was!  After several sweltering Wisconsin spring days, we finally had a comfortable morning for our visit to the Dane County Farmers’ Market located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Madison, Wis.  This outdoor farmers’ market is held twice weekly from April through November on Wednesdays and encompasses the entire downtown Capitol Square on Saturday mornings during the same time.  They also have a web site where they list their various vendors and the products that can be found there. 

On this gorgeous Wednesday morning, the crew of www.localdirt.com went on a search and discover mission for the freshest local food we could find.  Once we tracked down our favorite local food or perhaps even a new one or two, we were to take this food home and create a meal out of it.  Hence this blog.  Being married to an Afghan and loving food from that part of the world, I sought out fresh mint, spinach, cilantro, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, radishes and lettuce.  I have a family of four and they were all super excited to see the fresh produce come home with me.  Some of the vendors that helped to put the smiles on my family’s faces include Don’s Produce from Arena, Wis., May Vang Xiong of Cottage Grove, Wis., as well as CiCi and Naly’s Produce.

We also have a small farm where we raise chickens for eggs and meat along with a large vegetable garden.  Unfortunately, our garden is not to the point where we can harvest anything quite yet but we always have fresh brown eggs.  The first thing I made with my farmers’ market produce was an egg breakfast dish for the kids called Kahraie.  This is a simple yet tasty, quick meal.  First, you slice the tomatoes and chop the green onions and garlic.  Lightly fry up the onions and garlic and lay the tomatoes around the outside of the pan that has a bit of olive oil.  The pan should be hot at this point.  Once the tomatoes have cooked for about a minute, crack the eggs in the center allowing them to cook to your desired texture.  Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste and at our house, we LOVE pepper!   Five minutes later, happy faces all around the kitchen table.

Our next dish we had is called Salata.  It is an Afghan salsa that uses lots of fresh, chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes and onions along with diced cucumbers, minced garlic and sliced radishes.  These ingredients are mixed with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, a bit of vinegar and lemon juice.  This dish can be eaten alone or as a side to a meal.  We generally garnish most of our food with it along with a fresh mint yogurt sauce.  This salata we prepared was served with traditional Afghan rice called Kabuli Palau.  The Kabuli Palau was made with Basmati rice that requires a great deal of care while cooking in order to ensure that the rice is soft, but not sticky. It is garnished with lightly sautéed raisins, slivered carrots and almonds. 

While the rice was cooking and the salata marinating, I started work on the mint yogurt sauce.  For this, I purchased a locally produced, full fat, non-sweetened plain yogurt as my base.  I chopped the fresh mint very fine, minced fresh garlic, ground fresh black pepper and added a touch of kosher salt.  This was mixed gently and put in a ceramic bowl to be used as a garnish along with the salata on the Palau.  Dinner was delicious!  Again, happy children and happy parents made for a wonderful dinner at our house.  Our children helped with the preparation of all the foods and enjoyed eating healthy food that was found locally.  They are looking forward to going to the next farmers’ market on Saturday to buy more seasonal, fresh, local produce for our lunches and dinners during the upcoming week.

Check out www.localdirt.com for farmer’s markets in your area if you can’t make it to the Dane County Farmers’ Market.   Know your farm, trust your food!  Email me with your food creations using fresh, local produce.  I love seeing pictures too!:  renee@localdirt.com