It was not my intention to have a white meal, rather, it was the confluence of elements that i just couldn't wait to use: crab, well, crab waits for no man or woman in the refrigerator, fresh parsnips, and a staple in our kitchen, a fresh batch of Sichuan Pickled Cucumbers.
 |
| Note the very large pile of parsnips! |
It is amazing how well you can eat if you just pay a little bit of attention. Believe me it is not that i spend any time at all searching the market flyers, or use coupons. All you have to do is look around you at the market to see what is fresh and beautiful, and on sale. last week our locally owned market had fresh claw meat on sale for $4.95 a pound. How could i resist?
 |
| crab cakes, yum yum |
Additionally our favorite farm market, Zahradka's opened this weekend. Naturally no fresh local tomatoes(sigh), but with out a doubt i got the best parsnips i have ever had in my life, bar none. Amazing. Parsnips are best touched with a little frost. Best if over-wintered in the garden. Best if never cold stored. Best if they have never languished on a supermarket shelf for weeks, if not longer.
Parsnips are in my mind one of the most unbelievably yummy vegetables in existence. If they're fresh. They were. Being a mid-western girl by birth i grew up eating parsnips, along with other under appreciated root vegetables. I cook them every chance i get; not often as the pathetic examples normally found on grocery store shelves leave much to be desired in the freshness department.
If you cook and eat them at all you know that the instruction to remove the woody core is not something you skip more than once. Inedible! Often it is difficult to even cut through the woody core. imagine my surprise and pleasure when my knife slid right through the center. I cut off a piece and tried it raw, it is immediately obvious that i do not need to core these sweet gems. Yea! All the more parsnips for us.
 |
| Sichuan Cucumbers, recipe courtesy of the Gourmet cookbook |
My favorite method of preparation is very simple, cut them into coins, saute them in lots of butter until the edges are brown and crisp, the inside should be tender, almost like good mashed potatoes.. Add a little salt and pepper and dill weed. Heaven on earth. If you are using 'store' bought parsnips this could take up to 30 minutes.
Most Marylanders will find this blasphemous, but the best part of Monday's meal was not the crab cakes as good as they were, but as you may have guessed, the parsnips. As we were eating them we were planning our next trip to Zahradkas.
 |
| No explanation needed. |
Bon Appetite.
More later,
Morgainne
Don't forget to check out our companion blog the Floating Empire.
No comments:
Post a Comment