Each week during market season, NowHabersham will provide some recipes that feature the anticipated offerings at the Clarkesville Farmers’ Market as well as other markets in the area. We will strive to offer an array of fresh and healthy options and suggestions to inspire you as you peruse the market on Sunday, or shop the online market. The recipes will be simple so that we don’t have to spend all day in the kitchen and can enjoy this beautiful weather!
Strawberries!
There is nothing that says Spring more than fresh, local strawberries. The flavor is bursting with all things Spring and are so much better than the mealy, flavorless strawberries that come from Florida. Try some with freshly chopped basil instead of mint with a little sugar, yum. Stawberry shortcake recipies on the internet are plentiful and with good reason, they are delicious. So for a little something different:
Strawberry and Chicken Salad
For the dressing, toss together
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
For the salad:
- 4 cups torn romaine lettuce
- 4 cups arugula, bibb or spinach (pick what looks good to you)
- 2 cups quartered strawberries
- 1/3 cup vertically sliced red onion
- 12 ounces skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast, sliced, or take two chicken breasts and bake them then slice. Whichever is easier for you.
- Add some feta or goat cheese crumbles, or blue cheese and some chopped pecans
Kale Chips
Remove the stems of the kale and then wash and dry throughly. Making sure you dry the kale well is the secret to crisp kale chips. Then take 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil per baking sheet and melt it. You need to spread the kale thinly on the sheet so that each piece of kale can get krispy. Use as much kale as you like, but keep the baking sheet proportions the same, so you could make multiple batches or just one batch. Toss the kale and the oil together with your fingers until the kale is coated in the coconut oil. They don’t get thickly coated, just a little bit. Then bake the kale for 25 minutes at 300 degrees.
Asparagus
With the first aspargus of the season, the tenderness and flavor are wonderful so you don’t need to do much. You can blanch them (A fancy term for quickly dropping the stems into boiling water for a short term. You want them to be tender but still crisp) let them cool and then toss with a little vinegrette. Roasting the stems is also great and brings out a little different flavor. To prepare, you want to cut off the bottom of the stems, about an inch for fresh spring stems. Later in the season when the stems are larger, you may need to cut more. Don’t be afraid, pop the stems into a freezer bag and put in the freezer for soup, or pop in the compost bin, no fuss, no waste.
Take whatever amount of asparagus you want, enough for one or four and lay them on a cooking sheet. Sprinkle a little extra virgin olive oil over the stems and toss some good sea salt and pepper over all. Place in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes. Serve.
A Word on Herbs
I love herbs and keep a planter outside my kitchen door planted with thyme, chives and basil. Rosemary and other herbs are also in the garden. I love to pop out the door with my scissors and snip a bunch of herbs to add to my dinner. I love dill with summer squash, chives in my chicken salad and a handful of chopped herbs added to stirfry. If you make it to the Simply Homegrown market in Clayton, try some of Amy’s, from MillGap Farms, fresh herb mixes in scambles eggs. One of my favorite simple meals is grilled cheese. Just a little chopped chives and/or thyme sprinkled on top of some good cheese make grilled cheese a gourmet meal in minutes. There will be lots of herb plants for sale at this week’s market. Buy some and plant near your kitchen door in a planter or the garden. Experiment a little and see how much a simple snip of some herbs can transform your food.
One last tip, use good sharp scissors instead of a knife to chop up your herbs. Easy and quick.
Enjoy and share YOUR recipes with us!
