Inspired by the life of the market
- Share via
SHE may not have been there from Day One: When the Santa Monica Farmers market first opened, Amelia Saltsman was living in Malibu, running a cooking school, raising young children and driving to Camarillo to buy strawberries. But since she moved to Santa Monica more than 20 years ago, Saltsman, a writer, cooking teacher and producer-host of the cable-access TV program “Fresh From the Farmers Market,” has been a market regular and one of its most passionate boosters.
In August, she’ll publish “The Santa Monica Farmers Market Cookbook: Seasonal Foods, Simple Recipes and Stories From the Market and Farm,” celebrating and documenting the farmers market she loves, one that’s “a five-minute drive and a 20-minute walk” from her home.
Saltsman shops nearly every Wednesday at the Santa Monica market and speaks eloquently about the community she’s found there through the years -- about seeing neighbors, about becoming friends with other shoppers, about the sights and smells of tomatoes, peaches and zucchinis.
But she’s motivated by more than folksy sentiment for a neighborhood institution. It’s her contention that few people realize how this market, by influencing as it does “all the cooking coming out of Southern California,” is of national importance, and she hopes her book will contribute to its reputation as a crossroads of the contemporary food world.
The book has been many years in the making, though it wasn’t until the summer of 2005 that, she says, “I buckled down to it.” It includes recipes, conversations with farmers, descriptions of farm visits, descriptions of varieties of apples, potatoes, avocados and other produce, tips from chefs who are habitues of the markets, “how to choose” information on every vegetable or fruit featured in a recipe -- as well as indexes of crops by season, farm locations and websites, and recipes by season.
It grew from Saltsman’s previous market-related work: cooking demonstrations (staged at the market two or three times a year), market tour and menu classes presented through Sur La Table, and the six-episode “Fresh From the Market” television series that airs on Santa Monica City TV, cable channel 16.
Saltsman built some of the recipes in the book for those earlier projects. The green garlic and new potato soup, for example, is one of the first recipes she demonstrated at the market (in spring 1999).
She designed it to help shoppers get ideas for what might be unfamiliar produce (the green garlic) and to show how easily the tender crops of spring could be turned into a memorable dish (as demonstrated by the more than 300 small tastes she passed out to the demo audience).
Other recipes, such as chicken legs with kumquats, prunes and green olives, came about, Saltsman admits with amusement, because she was working her way down the list of all the crops sold by market farmers that hadn’t yet appeared in the manuscript.
Whatever the inspiration, and no matter whether she’s saying it at the demo stall in the market, on the Santa Monica city website or in her upcoming book, Saltsman’s message is consistent. If you use the market well, she says, you’ll discover “how easy it is to get a great meal on the table” because “the added value of such wonderful ingredients is that you don’t have to do much to them.”
Case in point: her recipe for a Persian-style herb and cheese platter. It resonates with tradition, highlights the Persian herbs that two farmers specialize in and suggests a way to use spring herbs that might not have occurred to many home cooks.
But as layered as the recipe might be, it’s essentially a shopping list and some appealing, concise ideas for presentation and serving.
It’s the kind of recipe that should inspire future readers to murmur what Saltsman says are her favorite words from cooking-demo onlookers: “I could do that.”
*
*
Persian-style herb and cheese platter
Total time: About 30 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Note: Adapted from “The Santa Monica Farmers Market Cookbook” by Amelia Saltsman. “Coleman Family Farm in Carpinteria and Rutiz Farms in Arroyo Grande specialize in Persian herbs, including cool mint (na’nah), sweet tarragon (tarkhoun), spicy pepper cress (shahee) and pungent leek-chive (tareh),” Saltsman writes.
1 bunch each Persian or regular mint, tarragon, Persian leek-chive, pepper cress and/or cilantro
1 pound feta cheese
1/2 pound halvah (optional)
8 pita, 2 large flatbreads or 1 large lahvosh
1 bunch radishes, sliced
1 bunch small spring or green onions, white part only, halved or quartered lengthwise
1. Rinse and dry the herbs up to 6 hours ahead, wrap in paper towels, refrigerate.
2. Snip the herbs into large sprigs or individual leaves, discarding tough stems.
3. Cut the cheese and halvah into one-fourth-inch-thick slices and tear the bread into serving-size pieces.
4. Arrange the herbs, radishes, onions, cheese, halvah and bread on a platter. To eat, place a slice of cheese, several herb sprigs, a radish slice or two, some onion and halvah onto a piece of bread.
*
Each of 8 servings: 345 calories; 16 grams protein; 41 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams fiber; 13 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 51 mg. cholesterol; 971 mg. sodium.
--
Green garlic and new potato soup
Total time: About 35 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Note: Adapted from “The Santa Monica Farmers Market Cookbook.” “Spring or green garlic looks like a skinny leek,” Saltsman writes, “and is the mild-tasting immature garlic plant pulled before the bulb forms cloves. Traditionally, it showed up in markets when farmers thinned the field to make space for maturing ‘heading’ bulbs. Today, growers such as Peter Schaner of Schaner Farms and his cousin William Stehley of Sycamore Hill treat it almost like a separate first crop.”
3 bunches green garlic (about 1 pound)
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons for finishing soup (optional)
1 onion, medium dice
Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound red-skinned or completely red potatoes such as French Fingerling, Red Thumb or All Red, preferably new, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces
1. Trim the root end and tops off the garlic, so that you have the white part and about 4 inches of the green. Discard any yellowed or old-looking leaves. Cut the garlic plants in half lengthwise and then cut crosswise into thin slices (you should have 5 to 6 cups).
2. In a wide pot, heat 3 tablespoons of oil, the garlic and onion over a medium-low heat. Add one-half to 1 teaspoon salt, stir and cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is wilted but still bright green, 5 to 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the garlic and onion are tender, about 10 minutes more.
3. Add the potatoes, 2 cups water, a little salt and several grinds of pepper and cover the pot. Raise the heat and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot partially, and cook for 5 minutes. Add 3 cups water and continue cooking partially covered until the potatoes are tender and soup flavors develop, about 15 minutes.
4. Add 1 cup water if the soup seems thick. Season to taste with salt, pepper and 1 to 2 tablespoons oil. Drizzle each serving with additional oil if desired.
*
Each of 8 servings: 134 calories; 2 grams protein; 15 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 232 mg. sodium.
--
Chicken legs with kumquats, prunes and green olives
Total time: About 2 hours, 15 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Note: Adapted from “The Santa Monica Farmers Market Cookbook.” “This dish was inspired by Moroccan braises with preserved lemons and an old favorite ‘Silver Palate’ recipe,” writes Saltsman. Serve with couscous or rice. Harissa, Moroccan hot sauce, can be purchased at Middle Eastern markets and gourmet stores such as Nicole’s in Pasadena, Monsieur Marcel in Los Angeles and Surfas in Culver City.
1/2 pound prunes, or 6 ounces pitted prunes
1/2 pound kumquats
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 1/2 pounds whole chicken legs (drumstick and thigh)
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup mild green olives, pitted
About 1/2 cup chicken stock
Harissa (optional)
1. If using prunes with pits, bring one cup of water to a boil and pour the boiling water over the prunes to soften, about 15 minutes; drain and use a scissors to pit them. Quarter the prunes.
2. Quarter the kumquats lengthwise, remove the seed and center pith, and if you feel energetic, cut the quarters in half again lengthwise. Set the prunes and kumquats aside.
3. In a wide pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Working in batches if necessary to avoid crowding, add the chicken, season generously with salt and pepper, and brown, turning as needed, until golden on all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate.
4. Pour off all but 1 to 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pot, reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the onion. Stir well, scraping the pan bottom to loosen the brown bits, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and soft, 5 to 7 minutes.
5. Add the garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute more. Add the wine, raise the heat to medium, and cook, stirring to deglaze the pot, until the liquid is reduced by slightly more than half, about 3 minutes.
6. Return the chicken to the pot and add the prunes, kumquats, olives, and a little salt and pepper. Stir, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning as necessary. Add one-fourth cup of the stock, and simmer covered until the chicken is very tender, about 1 hour, basting occasionally with the sauce and adding stock, if needed, to keep the chicken half-submerged in the sauce. The dish may be made a day ahead and reheated. Serve with couscous or rice. To serve with harissa, remove a little of the sauce from the chicken and stir in harissa to taste; drizzle over plated dish.
*
Each serving: 368 calories; 28 grams protein; 21 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams fiber; 18 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 93 mg. cholesterol; 318 mg. sodium.
