Springtime at Union Square Greenmarket

Ramps, asparagus, and fresh flowers.  What more can you ask for? And spring only gets better from here on out.

Grazin' Angus Acres Beef Jerky

The other day, I made the embarrassing admission to Significant Eater that I had never eaten beef jerky.  Call me a snob, but I just never understood the appeal of eating packaged, dried beef.  When I spotted beef jerky sold at Grazin' Angus Acres, a grass-fed beef purveyor at the Union Square Greenmarket (that also happens to sell the best eggs at the Greenmarket), I knew that I finally had to give beef jerky a try.  A grass-fed, local, artisanal, $10 for a quarter pound beef jerky that needs to be refrigerated? Ok, well maybe I am a bit of a snob, but this beef jerky is pretty good stuff.  It's intensely spiced and the leathery texture that I assume is inherent to all beef jerky is not as off-putting as I expected it to be.  According to Significant Eater, Grazin' Angus' beef jerky tastes just like a Slim Jim.  I wouldn't know, but if that claim is accurate, I may just have to snap it to a Slim Jim one of these days.

The Greenmarket Challenge: Day 8

Rather than supplementing my Greenmarket purchases with purchases from the supermarket as I usually do, I bough all of my purchases from the Greenmarket this week. I set myself a budget of $110, which is only slightly more than what I normally spend for two weeks of groceries. Keep in mind that this budget will cover my breakfasts, lunches, and dinner for the next 12 days; that's $11 a day, a fair budget considering my average lunch in midtown Manhattan is $8. I have allowed myself some leg room to use ingredients such as grains, sauces, and garlic that I already had on hand, but other than that necessary allowance, my entire diet for the week will consist of local foods. Follow along with me as I document local my meals over the next twelve days of my Greenmarket Challenge.

Day 8

Breakfast: Strawberries, yogurt, and honey

Lunch: Spinach salad with hard boiled Knoll Crest egg, sugar snap peas, and roasted asparagus

Dinner: Roast spare ribs from Flying Pigs Farm, sauteed kale with onions, polenta

As if I didn't already get my pork fix at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party this weekend, I decided to cook my spare ribs from Flying Pigs Farm for the eighth day of my Greenmarket Challenge. I chose this meal more out of necessity-- the ribs were the only meat from the Greenmarket remaining in my refrigerator-- than out of a desire for more pork fat. Nonetheless, they made for an excellent dinner, with the Italian-ish spice mixture I rubbed on them making these ribs very different from the sweet and spicy pork I had stuffed my face with all weekend.

I rubbed the spare ribs with a mixture of salt, pepper, and sage, and roasted them at 325F for 75 minutes. Unfortunately, my camera battery died at the dinner table, so I have no pictures to commemorate the 8th day of the Greenmarket Challenge.

The Greenmarket Challenge

The locavore movement is often dismissed as idealistic philosophy that cannot be practiced by anyone but the very well-heeled. There is a certain degree of truth to this: go to any farmer's market and you will be shocked at what people will pay for local foods. However, one does not need to break the bank in order to eat locally.

This weekend, I set out to the Union Square Greenmarket to conduct that experiment for myself. Rather than supplementing my Greenmarket purchases with purchases from the supermarket as I usually do, I would buy everything from the Greenmarket. I set myself a budget of $110, which is only slightly more than what I normally spend for two weeks of groceries. Keep in mind that this budget will cover my breakfasts, lunches, and dinner for the next 12 days; that's $11 a day, a fair budget considering my average lunch in midtown Manhattan is $8. Some of these items should last me even longer than 10 days, as well. I have allowed myself some leg room to use ingredients such as grains, sauces, and garlic that I already had on hand, but other than that necessary allowance, my entire diet for the week will consist of local foods.

Shopping for this week's meals was certainly challenging. Due to my price constraint, I will have to decrease my meat consumption during the week and may have to eat more vegetables (gasp!) in order to fill myself up. Also, as few recipes include only ingredients that can be sourced from New York in early June, this week will challenge my culinary creativity in order to use only the ingredients I purchased at the Greenmarket. These challenges will help me to eat more healthily and force me to be think outside the box when I cook.

I did have a weekly menu in mind while shopping as doing without it would be nearly impossible to stay within budget, but I won't be posting it (what would be the fun in that?). Instead, stay tuned throughout the week to see what I cook for my Greenmarket Challenge.

Here's what I bought (prices are from my recollection). Note that the pictures contain a few items that my significant eater bought, and are not included in the below list:

- Milk Thistle Farm Milk ($4)
- Cherry Lane strawberries ($8/qt)
- Cherry Lane asparagus ($8 for a large bunch)
- Cherry Lane spinach ($3)
- Knoll Crest eggs ($4)
- Grazin' Angus Acres ground beef ($8)
- Grazin' Angus Acres chicken ($21, by far my biggest splurge)
- Paffenroth yellow onions ($1.50)
- Paffenroth thyme ($1)
- Paffenroth potatoes ($4)
- Eckerton Farm sugar snap peas ($2.50)
- Eckerton Farm kale ($4)
- Eckerton Farm scallions ($2.50)
- Mountain Sweet Berry spring garlic ($2.50)
- Tonjes Farm Dairy ricotta ($2.50)
- Flying Pigs Farm pork spare ribs ($10)
- Flying Pigs Farm chorizo ($10)
- Rick's Picks Slices of Life ($6)
- P.E. & D.D. Fish monkfish ($10)

Best Eggs of the Greenmarket: Grazin' Angus Acres

I have tried nearly all of the eggs sold at the Union Square Greenmarket, and can now proclaim those from Grazin' Angus Acres to be the best. At $8 per dozen, these eggs are by far the most expensive eggs sold at the Greenmarket, but I assure you they are worth every penny as they far surpass any other egg sold.
Sold only during the spring months (yes, eggs do have a season), when the hens are freely roaming the pasture, these eggs have the most deeply orange yolk I have ever seen; they are the richest and creamiest eggs I have ever tasted. The yolk has a slightly grassy flavor, a reminder of the pasture on which they were laid. The white, an afterthought in most eggs, is creamy in these. With eggs this fresh and rich, make sure to cook them minimally, leaving the yolk runny. In my opinion, poached and served over toast is the way to go.

The Pheasant Phlop

Isn't it frustrating when you have all the necessities of a perfect dinner, but the outcome is awful? Let me tell you about my latest failure: The Pheasant Phlop.

It all started on my recent trip to London to visit my brother and his family. On my first day there, my brother took me out to the English countryside for that quintessential English sport of clay pigeon shooting.

My mind rarely strays from food, even while holding a shotgun, so I began to think of how I should try cooking a game bird when I returned to New York. I was not a very good shot, so didn't begin to contemplate the possibilities of hunting my own game bird; yes, my hunting fun would begin and end with clay pigeons.

A few days later, my girlfriend and I visited the adorable London neighborhood of Notting Hill. Full of boutiques and food shops, it's no wonder that Notting Hill was our favorite area in London. I especially loved the Books for Cooks shop, a store selling only cookbooks.

This shop seemed to have nearly every cookbook imaginable, from antique titles to books on molecular gastronomy. It even has a cafe that cooks up daily specials made from recipes that appear in the cookbooks it sells.

Still in need of a souvenir for my trip, I asked the Books for Cooks saleswoman for a cookbook on modern British cuisine. She suggested Matt Tebbutt's Cooks Country, which she claimed is "what Britain is cooking now." I flipped through the book and saw that it was exactly what I was looking for: modern takes on traditional British food. I came across one recipe for "pot-roast pheasant pheasant with smoked bacon and cream" and I was sold. I bought the book.


So now, I had my inspiration to cook a game bird from the clay shooting and I had the perfect recipe to carry out my the inspiration. I returned to New York on a Thursday and my first task that weekend was to find a pheasant. I knew that Quattro's at Unions Square Greenmarket carried pheasant, but was unable to make it out to Union Square. Instead, I made a visit to Citarella, pointed to the sign for pheasant and asked the butcher for one. Alas, Citarella was out of pheasant, so I had to wait one very long week to make what I knew would be one terrific and incredibly inspired dinner.

The next Saturday, I woke up promptly at 7:30 and made my way to Union Square to buy a pheasant. Quattro's had pheasant, so I purchased one for $20, knowing full well that it was money well spent on the perfect dinner. I purchased the rest of the ingredients for the dish and returned to my apartment.

That night, I prepared the recipe. The recipe seemed too simple for me to be getting so excited about, but I knew it would be delicious. I seared the seared the pheasant in butter, browning the skin beautifully. I tossed in some chopped onion, celery, a head of garlic, and bacon. Then I added a cup of wine, a couple bay leaves, a few springs of thyme, and a cup of cream. I put the pheasant back in, and tossed the pot into a 400F oven. The cookbook recommended an oven time of 15 minutes, but this seemed on the low to me, so I eagerly waited for 20 minutes while the aromas of the braising liquid filled my apartment.

After twenty minutes, I removed the pot from the oven and let it sit for another ten minutes. The braising liquid was perfectly creamy; it had all the makings of a great dish. After letting the dish rest, I excitedly cut into the bird. It was completely raw. What gives? Maybe the pheasants in England are smaller than the one I had bought at the Greenmarket. I calmly put the pot back into the oven. I knew it would still be a great dish, it just needed some more time in the oven.

It would take another 20 minutes before the pheasant was cooked through. Finally, I would be able try this dish with perfect inspiration and made from the perfect recipe. The result? Rubber. The pheasant could hardly be cut with my sharpest knife, and chewing it was a workout. To add insult to injury, cooking it for another 20 minutes had caused the braising liquid to separate, so that it was no longer creamy. The meal was an utter disappointment.

So there you have it: The Pheasant Phlop. How could a meal so inspired, be so awful? Was it a bad recipe? Was it poor execution on my part? Or was it just not meant to be? I'll never know.

Egg Salad Sandwich with Pickled Green Tomatoes

During one of my trips to the Greenmarket in late November, looking to break up the monotony of apples and root vegetables in my tote bag, I picked up a jar of GT1000s from the Rick's Picks' pickle stand. I usually don't care for pickles, but the description on the jar
persuaded me to give these a try: "curried green tomato condiment." Green tomatoes make me nostalgic for the years of my childhood that I spent in the South, and I am a sucker for curried anything, so the purchase seemed like a no-brainer at the time. However, like many of my more whimsical food purchases, the jar of tomatoes sat untouched in my pantry for a couple of months. It was only while making an old standby, my mother's recipe for egg salad, that I found a use for the GT1000s. I am glad I did, as the tomatoes added a nice component to one of my favorite sandwiches. I have since added the pickled green tomatoes to bratwurst and sliders with great results, but nothing beats them with egg salad.


Egg Salad Sandwich with Pickled Green Tomatoes
Makes enough egg salad for more than 1 sandwich
Ingredients:

• 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 tsp. mayonnaise
• 2 tsp. dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. celery seeds
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 to 3 slices pickled green tomatoes
• 2 slices sandwich bread

Directions:

1. Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl. If mixture seems dry, add more mayonnaise. Taste for salt and pepper.
2. Top one bread slice with egg salad. Top with tomatoes. Cover with second bread slice to make sandwich.