Farmers' Market Inspired Dinner

When I found out a friend was coming for dinner last Saturday,　I started rummaging through recipes for meal ideas.　 But I quickly abandoned this, recalling one time I had committed to a recipe and went to 7 stores looking for panko, a key ingredient in the dish I wanted to make. This time, I opted for a more free-style, rudimentary approach to preparing dinner – hunt and gather my raw materials and see where they would lead me.
Without a list or recipe, I first went to the parking lot of a nearby shopping mall where every Saturday morning it is transformed into a small farmers’ market. I live in Burlington, so the produce sold in this market is all from farms in Halton and Niagara region. There were peaches, corn, beets, peppers, broccoli, melons and array of other fresh colourful harvests. By the end, my bag had been filled with carrots, cauliflower, potatoes and plums. After a quick trip to the supermarket, where I picked up boneless chicken breast on sale ($2.99/lb), I was ready to get in the kitchen to see what to make of all this.

I was happy to be able to incorporate locally grown produce in the meal. I cut the carrots into batonnets to be enjoyed before dinner with crackers and cheese. With some cumin, turmeric, saffron, and cilantro the two heads of cauliflower were made into a spiced cream of cauliflower soup. The potatoes didn’t need much fiddling – cut in half with skin on, parboiled, then thrown in a pan with browned butter and garlic, a great accompaniment for the rosemary encrusted chicken I baked.

Unfortunately, my guest arrived before I was able make dessert . After dinner, the plums, in a variety of colours, smelling sweet and looking so plump were begging to be consumed. I reached for one of the yellow Japanese variety and took one bite. The sweet-tart juices literally squirted and ran down the side of my mouth. “Oh wow”! I thought a quick dessert was in order. I cut up the plums into wedges, heated some butter in a pan and added the plum wedges, followed by a tablespoon of brown sugar and a dash of vanilla. I added a splash or two of Cointreau and let the plums poach in the liquid. Once cooled, served in chilled martini glasses and topped with a scoop of French vanilla ice-cream, this dessert completed a late summer evening meal inspired by local farm produce.

No matter where you are, pick local seasonal produce for your meals. Consult the seasonal produce guide for your province or country. Here’s one for Ontario:
http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/availability.html