Wrap up

So, I've been a little lax on the blogging for the past few weeks. I've been cooking and eating, yes, just not writing about it. Here's a little wrap up.

Last Saturday, Renee and I went to Jessica's Stand on 47th Street. I'd known about the place for several years but somehow never made it out there. Essentially a farm wedged in between a golf course and some cookie-cutter houses, Jessica's grows lots of organic produce and imports a fair variety of other organic goods. Can I afford to buy produce there every week? Probably not. But man, everything I bought was wonderful. I now have a jar of pickles going, thanks to the organic kirbies, dill and garlic. The butter lettuce made a great salad with just some coarse salt and olive oil. I also bought some Jerusalem artichokes--or sunchokes--which I'd never prepared before. I browned them in butter and olive oil, then steamed them in a little rice vinegar and water, then mashed them with sage and bacon, all as per the recipe in the new Jamie Oliver book.
I've made a few recipes from that book in the past week, each of which came out pretty well. I sort of regret making the sunchokes with so many other flavors since I'd never tried them before. Still, they were quite tasty.
Also, I made an indian fish soup from the Oliver book. I found an Indian grocery in Bradenton--India Bazaar, 26th St., near MCC--that sells fresh curry leaves, bulk spices and a variety of vegetables that I don't know what to do with. A very simple soup, it entails frying spices--mustard seeds, turmeric, cumin seeds, and chili powder with curry leaves, ginger, garlic, chilis and onion, then adding basmati rice, water, coconut milk and snapper.
Oh, and there have been cookies. Lots of chewy, chocolate chip cookies--recipe courtesy of Good Eats.