The farmers’ markets are bursting, so here are a few recipes to put the bounty on the table
Harvesting a meal: From market to table, these recipes utilize WNY's bounty
The farmers’ market is supposed to be food you feel good about, but the September market always leaves me a bit queasy. All those lovely fruit and vegetables, fresh as can be, and a chance to put your money in the hands of the people who grew them. Sure, that’s nice.
But how on earth can I justify a third kind of muskmelon? The exploding profusion of peaches and corn, tomatoes and watermelons and a hundred more offerings makes my head spin.
Then I start worrying that I’ve bought too much, usually after the third trip back to the car. The pressure starts building before I can even buckle my seat belt.
How can I make the best use of my haul? What’s going to happen to whatever isn’t eaten fresh? If I’m going to fire up the oven anyway, what else should I make?
Developing a stable of reliable dishes is key. After this trip to market, three suggestions stuck: a corn pudding laced with crunchy kernels, green chile and cheddar cheese; a tart of tomatoes and summer squash; and plum buckle for dessert.
If you’re a big enough food dork to take a book to the farmers’ market, Los Angeles Times food writer Russ Parsons’ “How to Pick a Peach” is an able companion. In it, Parsons offers a recipe for an all-heirloom tomato tart, built on a foundation of puff pastry and caramelized onions.
A few minutes slicing, some dough from the supermarket’s frozen dessert section, and voila, a “tart” that’s actually as flavorful as it is colorful.
But the tomatoes I’ve seen locally so far have been less than fabulous, making the squash a natural partner. Besides, it looks pretty.
Grilled eggplant, peppers or radicchio would work too, with dollops of soft goat cheese.
(A note about puff pastry: Don’t open the paper inner envelope until you’re ready to use the dough. It’ll start drying out in an hour.)
For this recipe, grating the corn helps the sweet, starchy milk ooze out. Beaten frothy with milk, it releases its corniness and helps thicken the pudding.
Green chile cheddar corn pudding
For pudding:
2 cups grated corn and juice
Kernels sliced from 2 more ears
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon flour
3 eggs
1 7-ounce can roasted green chiles
1/2 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
For dish:
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons fine bread crumbs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter dish and dust with crumbs.
Grate corn into bowl. Add milk, sugar and salt and beat with immersion blender or electric mixer until frothy, about 3 minutes. Beat in 1 egg at a time, then the flour. Fold in chiles, most of the cheese and corn kernels.
Pour batter into baking dish. Scatter remaining cheese over top. Bake until browned and puffy, about 35 minutes.
My wife, Kathy, was eager to use some beautiful, plump red plums and baked them into a cobbler.
The result was so juicy it could have been served in a glass.
We puzzled over what to do with the rest of the plums. It was Parsons to the rescue again, with a recipe for buckle. That’s a cakey, cornmeal-enriched cousin of cobbler, able to soak up all the plummy flavor.
The original recipe calls for pouring the batter into a 9-inch pie plate. My version expanded mightily in the oven, overflowing the dish. A more experienced baker would probably know exactly why that happened. All I can say is, you might want to use a bigger dish.
Cornmeal buckle with plums
Topping recipe:
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
Batter recipe:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoonsalt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 pound plums, pitted and cut up
For the topping, cut butter in eight pieces and put in food processor with sugar, flour and salt. Pulse until the texture of coarse crumbs.
For the buckle: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large baking dish, like a 9 by 13. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
In another large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter with the sugar and egg until the mixture is fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add half the milk and beat until smooth. Gradually beat in the rest of the milk.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until well moistened. The mixture will be the texture of cake batter. Fold in the plum pieces. Pour into the pie plate and spread evenly. Scatter the topping mixture evenly over the top. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Serve warm.
If you have to, though, you can make this dessert a day ahead. Cover with foil overnight. If possible, warm for 15 to 20 minutes in a 300 degree oven before serving.
