Market Tastes

This past Saturday morning we made our usual foray to the Tower Grove Farmer’s Market.  Such a perfect family activity as the market is on the edge of the lovely fountain and playground area that we love to visit.  Fun for everyone.  While the boys pootled around the play area, I picked up fresh trout for dinner, some meat from our favourite Greenwood Farms stall and a punnet of these little beauties:

I also gathered up a pound of these quirky little fingerling potatoes that do sometimes look like pudgy little fingers:

I baked the fish with a basil and lime sauce – using up the ailing basil from the windowsill.  They were joined on the plate by the potatoes, combined with a chilli-mint sauce using the orange mint I have sprawling over the tub on the balcony and some broccoli that I lightly sauteed in shoyu for a few minutes after they were cooked.   A light and flavoursome summer meal that rounded off the day nicely.  (Though not quite right for tempting our little man who is pretty ill right now and very much off his food.  Well, worth a shot, and at least the parents were happy!)

Yesterday I was keen to find some way to make good use of the beautiful aubergines.  So I made a sort of ratatouille-style stew that was perfect over rice for dinner last night while the carnivore ate Japanese chicken curry.  The stars of this dish were the remaining fingerlings, the little aubergines and a jar of wonderful home-canned  tomatoes that our friend Denise left when she moved to Toronto in May.

Here is my cobbled together recipe:

Fi’s Market Stew

1/2 lb baby aubergines – chopped

1/2 lb fingerling potatoes – chopped

6-8 mushrooms – sliced

1/2 green capsicum – diced

1/3 summer-sized courgette – sliced

1 large can tomatoes

7oz cooked chickpeas

herbs to taste (I used basil and oregano from the garden)

1/2tsp cumin

2 cloves of garlic – minced

Sautee all veges in pot for a few mins until they are nicely soft and toasty.  Add the spices and tomatoes.  Simmer slowly for about an hour (add some stock if you need to…there was enough water in my can of tomatoes to take the whole hour to reduce).

Serve over rice.

Lets just say that this was so tasty I gobbled it down before thinking to whip out the camera…and that it was a sort of stewy mess, so you can imagine it well enough, it was not too glam, but a great way to use up the market fresh yumminess.

Instead, here are the boys enjoying peach-filled crepes on the rotunda steps at the market while a band plays jaunty little tunes in the background.  A lovely way to spend the morning!