Farmers Market Month, Day 1: berries, coconut, salmon, acini de pepe

[rachelmanija]

At today's farmers market, I bought so much stuff that I had to call it quits early as I could literally carry no more. I now have berries (rapidly diminishing, they are PERFECT), kale, Chinese broccoli with edible yellow flowers (broccoli rabe), mandarin oranges, goat cheese, apricot kefir, pickled daikon, tempeh (for snacking - it's Korean style and very tasty), six eggs (white, brown, and blue-green), golden beets, sweet potatoes, onions and garlic, green garlic (garlic sprouts), and salad greens (which got so squashed that I decided not to make a salad tonight).

At the market, I bought and drank a green coconut, ate half the meat, and took the rest home. Not at the market, I ate a mango pastry I'd brought back from Tucson and warmed in the microwave. It was delicious. So were the things I made for myself:

Blueberries and raspberries in a coconut half:



Broiled soy-garlic salmon (an old stand-by) on a bed of acini de pepe, with capers, pickled garlic, and kimchi. Elderflower cordial.



Salmon from freezer. Acini de pepe from pantry. Let me explain the acini de pepe. I had a box of it which I bought a while back on a whim. It's rice-sized pasta (pastina). I decided to use it up in lieu of rice, since it's been sitting in the cupboard for ages. I have never cooked the stuff before and thought it would make about two cups. It made something like eight cups. Or more. I now have a giant bowl of acini de pepe that I need to make use of.

I'm thinking "in lieu of rice" and... um... maybe a grain-based salad? Heat with butter and maple syrup for breakfast? I believe it's normally used in soup, but I don't feel like making soup. Will take non-soup ideas if you have any. Especially if they involve any of the ingredients I already have. I also have Chinese sweet sausage I want to use up - maybe I could make a sort of fried rice with it, and eat with stir-fried garlic greens and/or Chinese broccoli. It's perfectly nice, neutral pasta, just... there's a lot of it.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I've cooked with orzo, which is pretty similar to acini di Pepe. I definitely think you can make fried 'rice' and 'rice' salad with it -- being pasta, it doesn't get as hard as cold long grain rice does. Just be careful about cooking duration, so it doesn't turn tough or burn, and about additional liquid, so it doesn't turn mushy.

Also I am envious. It's 2 months to the farmers' markets here and I've never seen a coconut at one. *calls up the picture of berries in a coconut half and licks screen*

[rachelmanija]

Ah! Thanks. I think tomorrow I'll try the fried "rice" and maybe also seeing if it works as a breakfast dish. No more bread experiments till I finish it, that's for sure.

Those are possibly the best raspberries I've ever had. The blueberries are pretty great too.

[rosefox]

Yes, it works really well for pasta salad. My mother makes "Tuesday night pasta sauce" of cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs, and salt in the blender and pours it over cooked acini de pepe for an instant supper that's brilliant cold the next day. It will take any sauce you want to throw on it, and is also perfectly happy with chopped raw veg and olive oil or the salad dressing of your choice (or even, I suppose, mayonnaise).

[rachelmanija]

That sounds good. Is it a cold sauce?

[rosefox]

Yes, uncooked, poured straight from the blender onto warm pasta. Since yours has already been chilled (I assume), you might want to mix in a little olive oil to keep it from turning into one giant pasta clump.

You could probably also mix some of it with egg and the green garlic and and maybe some cheese and perhaps just a bit of flour, and fry or bake it. That's Depression-era "this one egg is all the protein my family gets today, how do I stretch it out" cooking, but when I was growing up, pasta pancakes were my absolute favorite thing to do with leftover spaghetti, and I bet they'd work very well with small pasta too.

[rachelmanija]

Thanks! Also for the pasta pancake suggestion. I've never had that but it sounds great.

[rosefox]

You're welcome! I wish I could tell you proportions, but it's such a throw-it-together thing... enough egg and flour (or breadcrumbs) that it all sticks together, is the important part.

Mario Batalli says you should fry pasta pancakes in 1/4 cup of oil, which reminds me that you can fry cooked small pasta in hot oil until it gets brown and crunchy, salt it, and eat it by the handful like popcorn. I do this with elbow macaroni sometimes. Be warned that it might actually pop out of the skillet as water comes out of the cooked pasta and hits the hot oil; I recommend putting a screen over the pan.

[minoanmiss]

! I should have kept going after my fried pasta got tough and taken it to the crunchy stage. I'm going to try this.

[rosefox]

The oil has to be really hot (as with most fried things). I pan-fry ravioli sometimes too and they blister very nicely, like dumplings.