Farmer's Market Meal #1

Farmer's Market season is here! This year I am going to try my best to get to a market at least once a week and support local farmers and I'd like to try and post my findings and some recipies. This past Saturday I visited the Green City Market in Lincoln Park (www.chicagogreencitymarket.com). I actually went for two reasons: fresh veggies and Stephanie Izard (www.stephanieizard.com). Stephanie (of Top Chef fame) is going to be opening her restaurant, Girl and The Goat, in June. She is giving out goat buttons with numbers on them. Each button is a raffle ticket for a dinner for two during her friends and family night. I covet these buttons so of course I showed up at the market where she was giving away buttons. I also wanted to make her my BFF, but she was pretty busy so the friendship making will have to wait until another time. I got my button and that's all that matters.

So, besides a goat button I also picked up some Russian blue potatoes, shallots, and asparagus. Here's what I made with all of this farmer's market goodness.


Roasted Russian Blue Potatoes

Russian Blue Potatoes have a gorgeous purplish color that make for some great eating. I just did a simple roast. Chopped up the taters, drizzled some EVOO on them, sprinkled with salt and popped them in the over for about 20-25 min. When they were done I just added some pepper and a little thyme, but you could also use rosemary.

Pan Roasted Asparagus

I debated about baking the asparagus, but then I decided to just pan fry them and see what happened. Fist, I chopped a little shallot up and put it in a pan with some butter and EVOO. I let it cook for about a minute and then added the asparagus along with some garlic powder (I didn't have any real garlic on hand) and some salt and pepper. It took about 10 minutes to cook them up.

And to drink I just mixed a little left over Sav Blanc with some sparkling white grape juice.