One little Piggy went to Market, and along the way he met an Alligator

I made my way, as is my wont, to the Riverbank Market in the Hutt today. Another gorgeous Wellington summer's day, and the place was packed. On my way there, I ran into the Alligator, and we got to chatting.

Turns out that, unbeknownst to me, the Alligator is a chef. Now, I'll be honest, I only met the Alligator a month or so ago, prior to Morgue's Big Day, and I must say he's a top bloke. So it was with great interest that I learned he was a man who is actually a certified professional in this food thing, whereas I am just a highly opinionated (yet open-minded, no less) amateur.

I do love meeting other foodies, and we had a brief discussion about these:
The Alligator had found them, and, thinking them to be a nectarine of some variety which he was heretofore unacquainted with, had decided to buy some and use them in some sort of flan (which he had yet to devise, but with all his chefly skills, I presume he will make a marvellous job of it).

Not to be outdone, I bought a few myself when I found them, equally perplexed as to what these curiously shaped summer fruits, that appeared to be some sort of cross between a nectarine and a very small mango, might be.

The answer: A Plum. Of exactly what variety, I can't say, but I ate one and they are definitely plums.

Now, I'm sure you'll be expecting a rundown on how I took these plums and gave them to Dessert Chef (since I'm really no good at flans and other desserty stuff, really), and what a delicious dish we made to rival the masterwork that the Alligator would surely produce, but sadly, it is not to be.

I bought nice ripe ones, and by the time I got home, they had somehow got squashed. So we ate them just the way nature intended, and they were delicious.

Assuming they weren't some bizarre GE crop, that is.

Do I have a point? Yes, I do. Would someone please give the Alligator a job, already?

Hailing from the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the US, the Alligator has in mind to start a business over here which is close to my heart (but which I can't reveal for fear of some big corporate stealing it from him - yes, I know you're out there!), but he needs to get a foothold in NZ to be able to stay and realise this vision, and to do that he needs a job. So, someone, please employ a Chef with long rows of pearly white teeth who spends his days lying in warm mud waiting for unwary birds to come to rest in his mouth. There'll be no shortage of skewered poultry kebabs, thats for sure.

And while we're talking about the market, I thought I'd water your mouths with a taste of the goodies I picked up there today.
And what better place for delicious fresh watermelon, than tossed through a cool garden salad with fresh mint and olives?

Celebrate Summer Fruit

How to get things rolling again after a post like that? There's only one way, and that is to celebrate new life.

I'm loving going to the market right now, as the stalls are overflowing with beautiful fresh summer fruit, straight from the Hawkes Bay, Nelson or wherever all this lovely stuff comes from. We've been eating fresh plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, melon, cherries, strawberries, boysenberries, and blueberries in the last couple of weeks.
Yesterday I bought fresh cherries from a market stall for $5.00/kg!! They've been priced between $16.00 and $30.00/kg in the supermarket, and the ones I bought are perfectly ripe and delicious. I'm not even using them for cooking or desserts, just gobbling them straight out of the fruitbowl. This is a magical time of year. Berries are also in season and in plentiful supply. Again, what will cost you $5.00 in the supermarket for a punnet of berries you can find at the market for $2.00. Need I say it again? Get out to your local markets, people!
If you really feel the need to put these luscious summer beauties in the oven, try apple and boysenberry crumble with ice cream. Or just good old blueberry pancakes, hot off the stove, with a sprinkle of fresh blueberries on top. Get out there and enjoy it, it won't last long!

I never thought I'd say it

This post is so important that it's skipping the queue and pushing in at the front.

It contains the following mind-blowing revelation: Asparagus is delicious.

I'm not talking about the chewy muck that comes in cans, or even the finger-thick monstrosities that you can buy at the supermarket when it's in season, which requires more energy to chew and digest than you'll ever get out of it in the process (yes, that's a completely unscientific exaggeration which I won't even try to back up - it's just an ingrained prejudice). The good stuff - which you can currently find at farmers' markets for anywhere from $1.50 to $2.00 a bunch - is the crisp new baby tips. These are so sweet and crunchy they deserve to be gobbled up by anyone who has the good sense to lay their hands on them.
As to how to cook them, it couldn't be easier. The truth is that you pretty much only want to get them warm. Any more than that and they'll just go soggy and chewy like their bigger brothers and sisters.

Most nights we cook up a little steamer of carrots and broccoli. I steam the carrot for 10 minutes, adding the broccoli after 5 minutes. For the asparagus, just break off the bottom 1/4 of the stalks and pop them in the steamer when you take it off the heat, and let the steamer sit while you dish your plates. After that 2-3 minutes, the asparagus will be warm and moist and still crunchy and sweet. I drizzle a teeny bit of extra virgin olive oil on them too, and eat it all up straight away before it gets cold.
I can't believe I just did a plug for asparagus. Is that a sign of some degenerative disease? Seriously, this is lovely stuff, just coming into season, cheap and plentiful at the markets right now, and you would be doing yourself a big favour by getting it into you (without even starting on all the good stuff that must be in it - it's green all over, for goodness' sake!).

Checking out the Local

My hand was forced on Saturday morning. Due to an unprecedented amount of pressure being placed on our usually cruisy weekend, I had to brave the cold (and the sheer fact of being out of the house before 10am!) and whip around the local farmer's market in Porirua. I know it was barely last week that I stated how unlikely that was to happen, and along comes the universe to prove me wrong.

There was no time for photos, and since I was on my own I didn't even have the bonus of Isaac's buggy to load up with the good stuff to be found there. Accordingly, since I had to carry it all on my shoulders in reusable bags, I hurried through the stalls, snapping up bargains and checking prices and quality, before doing a second circuit to make sure I had covered everything on my shopping list.

Overall, there were less stalls and so a little bit less in the way of variety and value, but what we must have saved in petrol by not having to drive over the hill to the Hutt certainly made up for that. It would be worth making it out of bed to get down there again in the future, and since I managed it on the coldest Saturday morning that we've had so far this year, I can probably make it happen in the future, too.

Pumpkin update: Still no news. Suspect we may have more luck when it gets warmer.

Seedlings update: Broccoli and spinach were doing well until the rain turned our lawn into a pond, and our cat decided that she couldn't swim through that, so she dug up the planter boxes to, well, you know. Salvaged what we could, but its probably back to square one there.

Call Yourself a Market?

A few weeks ago, we swung past the Tawa market, but from the signs and the number of people and trucks about, we thought that it mustn't have been up and running yet, so we went to the Hutt instead.

Today, as things worked out, it was far more convenient for us to go to the Tawa Market, and since it was already an hour since its official start time, I took Isaac and we drove down there, expecting to find a half-dozen vendors at least.

There was one truck, and a stall selling eggs for three times the price you can get them at the Hutt Market. I put Isaac back in the car, went home to pick up C, and we went to the Hutt instead.

Since when is one grocery truck a market? I checked over the prices, and I might as well have gone to a supermarket if I was going to get my veges there instead of at the Hutt Market.

So now it looks like we'll be trekking over to the Hutt every week, unless by some miracle we manage to get in to the Porirua Market, which is pretty much driving away by 8.30am. I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Just a little moan. Now I'll move on to the Saturday Night Dinner Post: Homemade Meatballs with Special Orange Pasta Sauce.

Busy Saturday

Market Update
We swung by the Tawa Market at 9am, only to see that it didn't start until 10.30am, so off to the Hutt we went. It was crisp and cold by the river, and we got a grand haul of fruit and veges and other stuff.
We spent about $33.00, but that included a a banana loaf for $3.00. We ate the banana loaf at Aunty L's but here's an idea of what $30.00 will get you:


Pumpkin Patch
I have to ask myself: does the person write the blog, or does the blog write the person? If I had not written earlier in the week that I was going to get out and plant the pumpkins today, would I have got out and seen the mission I actually had in store and turned around and gone back inside? Or, knowing that I had determined that I was going to do something, and that there were witnesses to this declaration, did I feel that I could not back out of the work involved for fear of looking like a copout? So I bent to the task and spent and hour and a half clearing weeds before I could spend the required 10 minutes to actually dig a few holes, spade out some compost and plant the pumpkin seeds. I decided in this process that it had been terribly wise of me to leave this job for almost 2 years, as it had given the vege patch we had planted and lost to weeds time to lie fallow, and for the grasses to bond lots of nitrogen into the soil making it good fertile planting ground. That suited me fine. I also dug up quite a few large nails, which suggests that there is plenty of iron in the ground, which is also good. It would all be coming up roses, if it was a rose garden. Don't mention the rose garden right now, though. I think the weeds are winning there too.

So the end result is that the pumpkins got planted, which is really quite miraculous, and probably only because I had told my blog that I would. Now it's holding me to ransom. I would say that tomorrow I'm going to go out and put down some more seeds, this time carrot, beetroot and silverbeet, but I'm afraid it might rain and I'd still have to do it.

On the upside, I also discovered three potato plants, a lemon balm, and what appears to be a shoot resembling a Bay Tree. I can't imagine how on earth a Bay Seed made its way into my vege/weed patch, but if it turns out to be then that's all good. I was going to post a photo of my efforts, but you've probably all seen a patch of dirt before. Now, if I'd thought to do a before and after photo, that would've been good.

The smell of roast pork and veges is filling the house. More on that tomorrow...

Sometimes we cheat

Its hard to be good all the time.

Some days, like everyone, we're too tired and it seems like too much hard work to get into the kitchen and cook a meal. So we made the call, and I went and picked up the fish and chips. No photos of the greasy feast will grace this page.

Which raises the issue of how good is good, and how bad is bad? There are fanatics on this topic, and I have to admit I'm not one of them. I'm a realist. We're a single income family with a toddler and a mortgage, and we have to balance our food spending with our concerns for our health and nutrition. There are things we can stretch to, and there are things we do regularly to save money. Apart from the occasional slip when the local chippy gets the call, we walk this line as best we can.

So, How Good is Good? In an ideal world, we would eat only certified organic meat and produce, vegies grown in our own garden, eggs from our own free range chickens, and make our own milk and cheese from dear Daisy who doubles as a full time lawn mower. But the hard facts are you can't have livestock in a suburban area, the levies charged by the council to keep chickens swallows up any savings you might make by having them in the first place, and any vegies we grow will only be enough to occasionally supplement our diet, never to sustain it. If anyone has ever tried to do a full grocery shop in an organics shop, they'll know just how hungry or poor you'll end up as a result. I fully support the concept of organics, but we just can't pay that sort of a food bill. So, next best option is the local grocer's market. We've been going to the one in the Hutt for the past few weeks and I'm loving it. The variety is great, you can shop around for price and quality, and it's a chance for the whole family to get out for a walk around by the river. Even with the extra petrol expense, we come away with more vegies than we ever used to at the supermarket, for less expense overall. This week we'll probably check out the Tawa market, as its closer to home. Looking forward to that.

Also, How Bad is Bad? We avoid as much processed food as we can, but there are things we tolerate and things we don't touch. We know how bad they are, but we still eat processed smallgoods like salami, luncheon and sizzlers, in small quantities. Every couple of weeks we weaken and get the above-mentioned shark and tatie. But we pretty much don't touch the extremes, the McDs and the BKs of the world, unless we're travelling and really too tired to care. There are an awful of people with an awful lot to say about the fast food giants of the world, about how they destroy the environment and the health of everyone they touch, and 99% of the time I fully agree with them. But sometimes, its just what you need. I would be a hypocrite to claim that my position was otherwise. Yes, there is no nutritional value in the food that these companies serve; they are largely responsible for the environmental degradation of several third world countries; there is a strong ethical and health argument to support the general boycott of these companies, and this has been documented by others more thoroughly and succinctly than I could hope to achieve here. But as long as the economic models we live within value speed of service and fat-saturated taste over good health and ethical business practice, there will be a market for KFC, BK, McDs, DQ, and AJs.

So what exactly, I hear you ask, do we not touch? I personally just can't abide prepackaged dinners. TV Dinners, to use the American. I simply have too much pride as a cook and someone who eats to stoop to that. There are a few organic suppliers who do nice risottos and soups and suchlike in single serves, and full credit to them, but that's the limit of it. I just can't imagine what must go into those meals to make them all heat up just right at the same time. And don't get me started on the issue of heating plastic in the microwave.

Well, that was a rant.

To end on a good note, last night we had Stuffed Sausages with Coconut Rice. Very quickly:

Vigorously boil 6 Real Sausages (ie, not precooked) for about 5 mins, then remove to a grill tray and slice lengthwise to about 3/4 deep. While these cool, mix up in a bowl 2 chopped fresh tomatoes, about 4 finely chopped garlic cloves, freshly ground salt and pepper, about 1/4 cup of grated edam and parmesan cheese, and a handful of chopped fresh herbs such as parsley or thyme. Squeeze this into the sliced sausages and place under a grill. Give them a good 15 mins, time enough to brown up beautifully, melt the cheese and cook right through.

This basic recipe can be modified to suit your own tastes and the flavour of sausage you have on hand.

To make the Coconut Rice, first fry up a finely chopped onion in a large pot. Then put 1 cup of boiling water, 1 cup of rice, and a tin of coconut milk in the pot with the onion and a little sprinkle of salt. Bring to the boil then turn down to a gentle simmer until almost all of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft to the bite (about 20 mins).


Enjoy.