Corn in Seattle, fresh from the farmers, is so sweet, juicy and flavorful that it is easy to understand the anticipation for the first ears that appear on the farm tables of Alvarez Organic in late July.  This corn is quickly followed by plump and succulent ears grown at Willie Greens.   Soon the market is full of silky green ears!  After shucking, boiling and roasting as much as one can eat we offer a couple of recipes to keep you going back for more!

Corn Cherry Tomato Basil Salad serves
2 cups washed and stemmed Billy’s cherry tomatoes (large ones cut in half)
8 ears shucked, cooked in boiling water for 5 minutes and removed from cob 18 ears of
Alvarez Organic corn
1/2 cup basil dressing

Directions:
Mix corn and cherry tomatoes with enough dressing to coat, season and serve.

Basil Dressing (makes more than you need for this recipe)
2 cup loosely packed Billy’s basil leaves
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
Put the basil and lemon zest in a blender and pulse a few times.
With the blender running, slowly pour in the olive oil and puree until smooth.
Transfer to a small bowl, add lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Fresh Corn Chowder
1/4 lb. Zoe’s Dry Cured Bacon from
2 large diced Wall Wall Sweet onions from Willie Greens
4 Cups chicken stock
4# large Yukon Gold potatoes peeled and chop from Olsen Farms
4 cups fresh Willie Green’s corn shucked, cooked in boiling water for 5 minutes,removed from Cob
1 cup Golden Glen Creamery Cream
salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
Fry Bacon in 6-8 qt sauce pan.
Remove bacon, drain on paper towel, chop and reserve.
In bacon fat, sauté onion until translucent.
Add potatoes and cook for 3 minutes, add stock and simmer for 10-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft but holding their shape.
Add corn and cook for 3 minutes.
Add cream, heat for 3 minutes, season and serve with crusty bread and a hearty market green salad.

One treat all cooks agree on is the pleasure of having someone else cook for them. We had the extreme pleasure the other night at Staple and Fancy, the newest member of Ethan Stowell’s ESRseattle group http://www.ethanstowellrestaurants.com/. In a funky old warehouse space the the “other end” of Ballard Avenue, Ethan and Angella Stowell have created a very chic and trendy but very casual place to eat. The menu comes on a plank of wood and gives the option of paying a set sum and letting Ethan and his team create.

Well, a couple of hours and much incredible wine chosen by Perry Atkins later.Eleven of us were in food heaven. Spot prawns and beans, squid ink pasta and crab, pork fried rolls, sword fish, fried peppers,grilled baby zucchini, pork hunks too large to be called chops gnocchi with fresh corn- these are all too mundane words to describe the luscious dishes we swooned over consumed. A few felt their platter of crab on squid ink pasta was less amazing than our platter but ours was so good we would not share!

Then came dessert. Not always a must in my life-I like my sweet things in the late afternoon- but, brownie cake with grappa ice cream, Hazelnut tart-no stick chewy mess here but perfection and a light ricotta cheese cake with fresh blueberries in a light syrup disappeared faster than it was set on the table!

Congratulations Ethan, Angela, >>>>>>>>>>>>>Chris, Elwood, etc

From the Chefs table.
We love when a client asks us to take something from our repertoire and play with us. In this case our client asked us for a farro grain salad with summer flair. Seemed like a tabbouleh style salad would be a perfect match.

Of course, this meant a trip to the University District Farmers Market to the Bluebird Grain Farms table. I could, and did go on line to their great web site http://www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com I just need to see with my eyes while I hold produce in my hand and talk to someone who knows and is passionate about their product-really gets that motivation up!

I got both the Potlatch Pilaf “A northwest blend of Bluebird split farro and Oregon Jewel Wild Rice” and the Whole Grain Emmer Farro and lots of cooking tips.

The package directions or both products states that one cup of grain put in 3 cups of water with a teasp salt, brought to a boil then simmered covered on low should cook in 50-60 minutes. i found it was closer to 40 minutes. The product instructions also state that that the yield from 1 cup dry should be 2 cups cooked. but found this to be more like a cup and 1/2. Both products were easy to cook.

I mixed the Potlatch Pilaf and the Emmer Farro and turned the grains out onto a sheet pan to chill in the walk-in while I prepped the rest of the salad. The following recipe is a suggestion of things to add to the cooked grains. i really liked the combo of grains. The Emmer gave the salad a little “chew”.
Please add what ever you have from the market that strikes your fancy. This salad is healthy and delicious!
Potlatch Pilaf and Farro Tabbouleh
serves 12
4 cups cooked grains
1 bunch minced parsley
1 Walla Walla salad onion- about 1/3 cup minced
1 clove garlic minced with 1 teasp salt
1 bunch chopped mint
4 tomatoes, chopped small
2/3 c olive oil
1/3 c. lemon juice+ zest
salt and pepper to taste

The thing about organizing a contest is that it is a lot like writing a recipe. The end result needs to be delicious which means the ingredients have to be top notch and easily accessible. For us at Mangetout Catering. the perfect end result was giving away Market Bucks at four Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance Markets-University, Magnolia, West Seattle and Broadway so that the winners could use them right away and enjoy the same incredible produce that make our recipes so delicious.

Very Fun Market Contest
Ingredients:

fresh farm produce

http://tonnemaker.com/

http://www.ilovetiny.com/

http://www.mttownsendcreamery.com/

http://www.localrootsfarm.com/

NFMA “Market BucKs”

Happy contest winners

We love our local farmer’s markets, and we are excited about their new program! The Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance (NFMA) has just launched a new “buy local” incentive program called “Market Bucks”.

“Market Bucks,” are usable currency for any product at any of the seven NFMA Markets. They are printed “bucks” for the value of $2.00 each, and are used just like regular dollars. If you want $4.00 dollars worth of heirloom tomatoes, you hand the farmer two “Market Bucks” and the tomatoes are yours!

Mangetout Catering has purchased some market bucks of our own, and we would like to share them with you. There are a couple different ways to earn market bucks from us in the upcoming summer months:

1) Place a catering order with us between July 15th and August 15th and earn “Market Bucks” as a thank you gift from us.

2) Win “Market Bucks” in our Twitter contest!

Follow us on Twitter and win!

-Saturday July 24th we will be at the University District and Magnolia Markets.
-Sunday July 25th we will be at the Capitol Hill and West Seattle Farmer’s Markets.

-At each market we will tweet our location at a specific vendor stall. The first person to see our location tweet and find us at the designated stall at each market will win $50 market bucks!

Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance market locations and days:

Columbia City: Wednesdays 3-7
Lake City: Thursdays 3-7
Phinney: Fridays 3-7
University District: Saturdays 9-2
Magnolia: Saturdays 10-2
West Seattle: Sundays 10-2
Capitol Hill/Broadway: Sundays 11-3

Walking into a farmer’s market is for me instant sensory overload. Approaching the market I am filled with anticipation heightened by the shoppers coming and going with bags of produce and other treasures, and my own need to strategize which stall to seek first and what main purchases I hope to make. The moment I step into the market I am overwhelmed instantly with the colors and textures, sounds and smells that envelope me and welcome me in. I need to take a moment and just feel the space, adjust to the sound, inhale the goodness. Rain or shine. It never fails to fill my spirit.

On Thursday I stopped in at the Lake City market to pick up my Market Bucks-more on that later. My impression of this market is always leafy green and coolly shadowed. It seems to sit under these huge leafy trees, but that may just be my perception. It is my “wander around” market because it never seems hurried or harried. It smells of onion and corn because I enter at Alvarez Organic Farm’s bountifully delicious stall. This time I am picking up my first case of Walla Walla sweet onions. I was delighted to see that in just a couple of weeks the number of stalls have doubled. So far this year the market is all on one level and extends into the little parking lot beside it. Delighted to pick up some fresh raspberries from Hayton Farms and raspberry lavendar spread from Woodring for our chocolate raspberry cake, and some fresh peas and sugar snaps from Willie Green’s for a new summer salad on our menu.

I was filled with hope that the surrounding neighborhoods will flock here after work to partake this accessable deliciousness. I hope all of you with whom we share our Market Bucks will visit this charming market many times this summer.

On Saturday I made a quick stop at the University District market to get something special for the 4th of July. The sun was being sleepy and the market was surprisingly calm as well. Walking into the sight and smell of wooden boxes of Billy Alstott’s vibrant heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs and hardy arugula, juxtaposed with the rustic stall and gorgeous multi-hued greens of Rents Due’s lettuces, beets and carrots, I found myself slowing down to take in Nash’s always amazing looking produce display. Choosing cherries from Martin Family Orchards, Willie Green’s salad onions, Billy Alstott’s heirloom tomatoes and some spring garlic from Blong’s, I checked out the Wooly Pig stand for pork tenderloin. What a treat-a taste of a piece speck from this fat bred pig!

One of the true treasures of a farmers market is often the opportunity to talk to the very person whose blood sweat and tears have produced the very special item I am considering. Finding out as much as possible, as quickly as possible-some history about the item, how to store it, tips on cooking and or serving it-is a very essential part of the process of making a memorable dish. In this case the tenderloin of the Mangalitsa pig is very small and does not have much of the extraordinary fat to keep it moist in the roasting. The trick I was given was to insert small slices of the speck-that delicious fat laced smoked bacon- in small slits in the little loin. Knowing that piece of speck would have many uses in my kitchen, armed with a little more knowledge about this tasty melt in your mouth fat, I set off for the next step in the process.

Our rainy cold 4th of July needed a little market pick me up. Clearly not a BBQ day, I decided to sear and finish in the oven the speck-laced pork tenderloins. I sautéed some chopped onion, minced spring garlic and chopped tomatoes which cooked down to a juicy paste. I added red wine, some brown sugar, a little balsamic vinegar and the pitted cherries, then reduced it down to a sweet/tart glaze that was liberally napped over the tender and juicy sliced roasted loins. Wanting simple, I made a crisp salad of mixed greens, fresh apricots, toasted slivered almonds, Smoked Oregon Blue cheese tossed in a sherry vinagrette and added homemade baked beans and served it all with a Whidbey Island Winery 2004 Composition. To finish I made a Pavolva ( the Sea Breeze Farm eggs made the most brilliant meringue and golden custard!) filled with the custard and fresh berries. Wow!! Happy summer everyone!!!

Here is a great article about the Alvarez Organic Farm in the Seattle Times Local news from July 22, 2008, A costly trip from farm to market

Welcome to Mangetout Catering!