Farmers’ Market
Oh, I do love the farmers' market. The RLA and I took a road trip down to the market on Saturday, and I came home with the most wonderful treats.I bought cherry tomatoes for a dollar a pound, and they even taste like tomatoes. For three dollars I got 15 eggs; big, double-yolked, brown ones, fresh from the hens.
And there were fresh garbanzo beans. Fresh, people, not dried. I'm going to roast them and make hummus. There was a guy with a machete and a pile of green coconuts on ice. Yesh. I had a coco frio and loved every second of it. There were heaps of tiny finger bananas, and we bought a hand. Fresh green beans, radishes complete with greens, giant green tomatoes, mysterious greens that I had no idea what they were, acres of dried peppers in a variety of shapes and shades of red. There were baby red potatoes, smaller than shooter marbles, and I roasted them last night, to go with a steak and fresh spinach. I bought a bag of fresh chicarrones and ate half of them before I came to my senses and buried the rest under some particularly stinky garbage, thus preventing myself from retrieving them.
If you have never eaten chicarrones, what can I say? In redneck America they are called fried pork rinds, but that hardly does them justice. They are fatty and crunchy at the same time. They taste of pure essence of pig. Earthy, primal. Greasy. Cholesterol on the half shell. And I love them. Once every five years or so I allow myself the pleasure of such forbidden food. The RLA merely looks on in horror and won't touch them. Good for him.
Tonight I'll make a casserole with the fresh green beans, a can of condensed tomato soup and ground beef, topped with a crust of corn bread. This was one of my mother's recipes from the 50s and one of my childhood favorites. It isn't hard, it isn't haute and it is so very, very warm and filling. She made it with canned green beans, and I use fresh, so it's a little different, but here it is:
Mom's Hamburger Corn Crust Pie
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 lb ground beef
1 lb can cut green beans, drained
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1 box corn muffin mix
Pre-heat oven to 375
Saute onion until tender and slightly golden. Add salt (if using) and meat. Brown lightly. Add beans and soup and heat through. Pour into greased 10x6 baking dish. Top with corn crust. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.
Mix crust according to directions using half the liquid. Spoon in pencil thin lines over filling like a lattice.
Man, you really had me excited for a minute there—until you got to the pork rinds. I’m a vegetarian, so I was getting all excited when you were talking about fresh garbanzo beans… :)
Ah, Mizz Shoes…..
Now this is what I miss from living in Miami. the fresh fruits and vegetables. The Cuban food, and Publix. I don’t miss those drivers…and I am still hesitant to lean on the horn (needed about twice a year in Almost Heaven). I don’t miss the store clerks in Winn Dixie, who if you dared find one and asked about an item, you were invariably told ‘If you don’t see it, we ain’t got it.’ 13 years later and we stilll make reference to the Winn Dixie mentality. I don’t miss people who - if they do look at you - glare. Ah, but I do miss those foods - avocados as big as canteloupes, key limes so tiny and bursting with flavor, freh, hot and crusty Cuban bread, pole beans and strawberry shakes and cinnamon rolls in the Redlands. Thanks for the trip down taste-buds lane!
I read a post like this from you today, and think what you were posting a year ago, and all I can say is, the time off has done you a _world_ o’ good, Miz Shoes.
As for the reciepe, sounds good, and thanks.
More like this, please.