Buongiorno,
Thanks to all the participants in our Seafood Watch dinner. Double thanks to Lina for her Gazpacho recipe (I'll post in on Monday) and Claudine for creating this photo album for you to check out.
Ciao,
Marco Flavio
What I found this week:
Organic tomatoes are everywhere -- you can sample the full range of colors, flavors and textures (see my earlier post on my favorite fruit).
Here are three heirlooms I picked from Tomatero Organics Farms in Aptos.
The Aunt Ruby's German Green (see below)
is my current favorite, juicy, grassy and piquant -- and you know my people are picky about tomatoes. With that saturated green hue, it beautifully offsets other tomatoes in a salad. When it's ripe it displays an orange-cast underbelly. Also great fried.
The Green Zebra heirloom. Another not-too-sweet, zesty green variety, excellent for frying.
Least but not last, the Purple Cherokee. I was a bit disappointed by this one. A little too flat in taste, though very meaty and with great texture. Can't really recommend it yet, but I'll try it again and report back. Anyone had an excellent one?
My favorite tomato producer, Two Dog Farms, is back. The best dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes, as good as tomatoes back home in Italy ... yep, you heard me right, and you know I don't say such things lightly. I wrote about them last year here and Nibby replied to me here. Also great zucchini, and everything is organic. Get yourself a piece of that action.
Do try the different grapes that are now available. Always buy grapes organic: they still make Foodnews.org list of ingredients that score highest on pesticide residue (anyone out there remember Cesar Chavez?)
There is life after Red Flame, which I devoured plain and used in my Roasted grape focaccia.
This week I picked up the delightfully sweet Muscat (remember, this one has seeds) and an interesting one (though a little too mild-mannered for my tastes) called Autumn Royal from Benzer Organics.
Also available: Melissa, Concord and a few others.
Muscat grapes
Concord
Scorchingly hot habañeros are here. The orange habañero ranks up there at 210,000 Scoville heat units, and red habañeros hit 150,000. Just as a point of comparison, the ubiquitous jalapeño comes in at 5000 to 25,000 and the Serrano rates 4000 Scoville heat units. Now you get the picture.
Handle these with gloves or a plastic bag. Seriously -- if you touch the inside and then your eyes or other sensitive bits, you're looking at a world of pain. If your skin starts burning, wash with alcohol or milk immediately.
Recipes from Allrecipes and Epicurious.
While they last... summer squash. So versatile and flavorful, and longing to be reunited with their beloved onions in a sauté. They're also the key ingredient in one of my favorite risottos. Recipes from Allrecipes or Epicurious.
Alas, summer's ending: the heralds of Autumn are here. Still, I can't complain: check out this ripe and ready kabocha squash and precocious pomegranates... a sign of good things to come.



























