Date: Fri 26-Jul-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Illustration: C

Location: A9

Quick Words:

farmer's-market-Valenta

Full Text:

(farmer's markets & seasonal produce for cooking, 7/26/96)

Seasonal Produce Always An Inspiration For Meal Preparation

(with photos)

By Kaaren Valenta

Beautiful weather and an enthusiastic group of shoppers greeted the opening of

the 16th consecutive season of the Bethel Farmer's Market last Saturday.

Located on the grounds on the Connecticut Co-Operative Extension System on

Stony Hill Road (Route 6) in Bethel, the farmer's market offers a large

selection of fresh Connecticut-grown produce, flowers, honey, maple syrup and

home baked goods. It will operate rain or shine from 9 am to 1 pm every

Saturday until late October.

Farmer's market coordinator Russell Johnson was on hand to oversee opening day

even though his own crops of apples, peaches and Concord grapes weren't quite

ready to harvest yet.

"We really got off with a bang this year," said Dr Johnson, who - when he

isn't growing produce - is a dentist in Brookfield.

A few crops, like tomatoes, aren't ready yet but several farmers were selling

greenhouse tomatoes which they had grown. There were ample supplies of sweet

corn, summer squash, green beans, new potatoes, many varieties of peppers,

cucumbers, bunches of fresh basil, salad greens (including interesting Asian

greens like mizuna), boxes of blueberries, and lots of other just-picked

produce.

Nothing inspires meal preparation like beautiful seasonal produce. When

vegetables are truly fresh from the garden, they virtually sparkle with

vibrant flavor that no supermarket offering can match. For those who need some

ideas about creative uses for all the produce available at the farmer's

market, there are a lot of new cookbooks that fill the bill.

Renowned chef and cookbook author Perla Meyers, who has a weekend/summer home

near Washington Depot, has a new book, Fresh From the Garden (Clarkson Potter,

May 1996, hardcover, 372 pp, $30), which serves up a cornucopia of

full-flavored, easy-to-prepare dishes that reflect a diversity of

international influences. Focusing on more than two dozen popular vegetables,

organized by season, Ms Myers offers a collection of nearly 250 recipes

ranging from soups to pastas to entrees.

Chapters highlight each individual vegetable in its turn, with suggestions for

maximizing its potential throughout the season in which it shines most

brightly. She begins with a discussion of the vegetable's best uses and

preparation tips, continues with optimal gardening results and harvesting

instructions, and ends with recommended varieties and advice on storage.

Lettuce in Your Kitchen (Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby; William Morrow

& Company, June 1996, hardcover, 264 pp, $22.50) gives salad a whole new spin.

Welcome to the world of the well-developed salad, where ingredients like

grilled chicken, black beans and shrimp are completely at home and where

roasted pears and other fruit become sweet companions to pleasantly bitter

greens.

Chapters like "Simple Salads" focus on easy-to-prepare salads with few

ingredients, while "Salads with Meat and Fish" take the classic chefs salad on

a spin around the world with selections like Dr Hibachi's Spinach Salad with

Grilled Lamb, Roasted Peppers and Garlic Chips, or Chicory Salad with Sweet

Potato, Bacon and Lemon-Flavored Crumbs. The book includes tips on salad

making, including how to resuscitate wilted greens and how to roast garlic to

perfection.

Fresh & Fast (Marie Simmons, Chapters Publishing Ltd, June 1996, hardcover,

352 pp, $29.95) is aptly subtitled "Inspired Cooking for Every Season and

Every Day." The book is an extension of the syndicated newspaper column "Fresh

& Fast," which appears in eighty newspapers across the United States.

Fresh food is more convenient than packaged, the author says, and includes

more than 200 recipes to prove her point. Whether it's Warm Egg Salad on Whole

Wheat Toast or Lemon Basil Chicken, each recipe is deftly simple yet freshly

conceived and imaginative. Each recipe tells exactly how long it will take to

prepare (most less than 45 minutes) and alerts you in advance to steps that

require a little extra time.

Beyond Bok Choy: A Cook's Guide to Asian Vegetables (Rosa LoSan Ross,

ArtisanJune 1996, hardcover, 192 pp, $25) is a beautiful book designed to help

consumers identify, choose and -most importantly - cook the tasty, healthy,

leafy greens, gourds, melons, squash, roots, sprouts, herbs, shoots, peas and

beans you've been eating in Chinese restaurants and can now find in

supermarkets and often at farmer's markets.

The book is filled with color photographs and its guidebook-like format makes

it possible to slip it into your shopping bag for a trip through the market.

The book includes seventy recipes, some classic Chinese, some original fusion

recipes, such as Sesame-Flavored Flowering Cabbage, Wilted Mizuna with

Balsamic Vinegar and Pea Shoots with Velvet Shrimp.

Nicole Routhier's Fruit Cookbook (Workman Publishing, July 1996, softcover,

432 pp, $15.95; hardcover, $24.95) contains over 400 recipes that range from

appetizers to desserts, all made with fruit. Try, for example, a Roasted

Pepper and Apple Dip with Steamed Shrimp, Cream of Fennel and Pear Soup,

Grecian Pasta (orzo tossed with tomato sauce, feta cheese, sauteed greens and

a handful of dried fruits), Salmon Cakes with Gingered Citrus Sauce, Sauteed

Chicken Breasts with Peaches, Orange Beef with Peanuts, or Creamy Cabbage and

Pears.

There are chapters on chutneys, relishes and pickles, fruit breads (quick and

slow), festive breakfasts, smoothies and spirits, sorbets and ice cream, and

every kind of fruit dessert imaginable. Useful sidebars and tips include

everything from best-taste combinations for a fruit-and-cheese board to

techniques for working with chocolate.