Red Snapper Ceviche/Pan Seared

While at the market I saw an ice filled bin stacked with red snapper that was on sale. Normally I steer clear of discounted fish but these had clear, bright eyes, crimson gills, a clean smell and firm texture. At $3.15 a pound it seemed more like a bargin than a discount. I pulled a fish out of the bin and had it bagged with ice. For about $6.50 I got the head, I got the tail, I got the whole damned thing(minus the innerds, of course).

I got the fish home and gave it a good rinse in the sink and scraped the scales off the sides. With my sharpest filet knife I cut along the head and down the backbone, letting both sides fall away. The head, backbone and tail went into the compost, buried about halfway down. My grandmother used to bury her fish carcasses in the garden, covering them with about a foot of soil. Fish will break down pretty quickly in a hot compost heap where the temp is between 104 and 160 degrees, and it provides good nutrient to the soil. It has to be buried in the heap, or else it will stink and draw insects and scavengers.

S. is skeptical of most fish. She only began to eat salmon and tuna after she met me and I prepared it correctly for her. She was unsure of this snapper business but I convinced her that snapper is a clean tasting, mild fish with a good texture that holds up to frying, baking, broiling or smoking. It is not as high in Omega 3’s as salmon or herring, and the mercury content is a bit higher, but very safe when eaten in moderation.

I looked at the filets and decided to do an double entree. I cut filets from the head end, each about 6 ounces. I scored the skin with little cuts and dredged the filets in cornmeal. I took the tail parts, removed the skin and diced up the flesh. I mixed the raw fish with some diced sweet gaya melon, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, basil, garlic, cracked pepper and sea salt. I made a dressing of lime juice, honey, tequila and rice wine vinegar as tossed it all together. I filled two martini glasses with seaweed salad, the ceviche mix, sliced tomatoes and sunflower sprouts.

I cut up some purple potatoes I bought at a farmer’s market and mixed them with some olive oil and garlic and rosted them in the oven. I cut up some asparagus and my market fresh chantrelles and quickly sauteed them in a skillet until they just sweated. I put a pan of olive oil on the stove and brought it to just smoking and laid the fish in, skin side down. The skin crackled and curled, but the little slits allowed the skin to draw up without buckling the flesh. Olive oil is not the best choice for pan frying. It is very heart healthy but it has a low smoke point and will break down quicker that a soy, canola or peanut oil. After a couple of minutes the skin was quite crispy and I turned the filets over, letting the cornmeal just brown. I put everything on a plates. By now the vinegar and the citric acids had “cooked” the fish. We sat down with both and ate. The ceviche was very good, being sour, sweet, a little salty and herby. I wish I had some habeneros to add. That would have brought it up even more. The asparagus, chantrelles, and potatoes were very good but seemed like a kind of “forest” plate, better suited to beef or roast chicken or venison. The fish was very mild and moist, and flaked away easily under our forks. The plates were very pretty, too. I have to get a better camera or more light for these pictures.

S. cleaned her plate and emptied her martini glass, and this is testament enough for me.

Red snapper is a great source of low-fat calories and protiens. It contains selenium which is touted as good for the blood and an agent in fighting cancer and depression and aiding in mental alacrity. The mercury issue means it is best not to eat snapper with great indulgence, and larger fish are subject to ciguatoxin, but that is rarely a problem in store bought fish. Red snapper are not farmed, they are caught from marine environments and their stocks have been severly depleted by overfishing over the years. There are special laws to regulate the fishing of snapper. It is also important that we take care what we put in the ocean, lest it find its way back onto our dinner plates. Seaweed contains B12, iodine, iron, aids in brain development and helps hair become thick and lusterous(no kidding, that is what my research says). Seaweed is both farmed and harvested from natural sources, again prompting all of us to become more aware of our enviroment.

East Lake Farmer's Market

^{LefTeas combines aromatic teas with a sense of humor and wit}

Just inside the Atlanta city limits is the East Lake Farmers Market, located off Memorial on the corner of 2nd Ave and Hosea L Williams Dr. in the East Lake neighborhood. They are in their second year of having a farmer’s market, and hopefully will grow and expand. They are set up in a 150X100 foot fenced in abandoned parking lot, and there are about a dozen vendors under what is becoming trademark folding white canopies. They are on site from 9-1 on Saturdays, but many of the vendors have websites, email addresses and operate buying clubs to broaden their access to customers. Many of them state they have tables at at least three other markets. I am certain as I work my way around I will see them again at other venues.

The Saturday we went was overcast and not too hot, which was good since the market is set on asphalt. Everyone was very friendly, though not too many got out of their chairs as we came to the tables. Produce was very sparse. I wonder if local farmers are having issues because of the heat and lack of rain lately. The tomatoes available were only grape and cherry sized and not very pretty. Same with the bell peppers: all the fruits were small and gnarled. There was a vendor selling free range chicken at $6/pound and eggs at $5/dozen, but she was out of eggs. She said the heat had led to the hens laying poorly and the supply was stretched thin between the buying club and the four markets they attended. I guess I am going to have to do a real side-by-side taste test to justify eggs at $5 a dozen when organic, cage-free, free-range eggs are still $3.15 in the supermarkets. I get the part about supporting local farmers, and it’s not like I eat a ton of eggs a week. I’m glad the USDA has certified them to candle their own eggs and slaughter their own chicken, but I’m not sure it explains why a chicken breast from a local source is 3X the cost of chicken in the stores, and even more expensive than organic, grassfed bison.

What ended up drawing us in, and where we spent our money, was a stand with various succulents run by Kurt Straudt, a self-described garden artist, who also offers classes in making pots and planting and taking care of succulents. He had about thirty kinds of plants for sale and we ended up buying the one we were least likely to kill.

We also bought some herbal tea from the LefTeas stand. The woman manning the spot let us taste the “tea of the day”, Communi-Tea Service, and had sample tins of other teas for us to sniff. They all smelled great, even the one with coconut and vanilla. All her teas are hand blended with organic ingredients. All seventeen “varie-teas” have a left-leaning, tongue-n-cheek theme and a cute image on the bag. I bought a bag of Balanced Bill for $12, which seemes like a lot until you realized you forgot someone’s birthday and you run to Teavana in the mall and end up paying $50-$60 for half a pound of some exotic fruit tea that no one ends up drinking anyway. I’m now thinking ahead to getting gifts of bags of tea with flavor, and political humor.

We stopped by the popsicle man who had all natural, homemade popsicles. S. got a buttermilk/lemon and I got a watermelon/strawberry and they were delicious. They really tasted like summer, full of fruit and sweetness and the delightful contrast of hot and sweaty with cool and refreshing.

Last year the East Lake Farmer’s Market claimed to average 100 people a day. We were there about 30 minutes and saw about 15 people come and go. They boast how the market has helped what was once a crime-ridden area, and I’m not so sure that is the best way to promote your market, but there is no doubt it is a crucible for change in the area. This interview gives some idea how challenging it was to get the market started, and how much local support it needs to grow and thrive. It was a nice place to check out with friendly people and more great local products to try that we would not have found had we not ventured downtown.

Home Made Yogurt

^{All the basic elements of making yogurt: milk, sweetener, vanilla,
and a starter mix.}

For about a month a few years ago I was obsessed with making all things sour and creamy. I experimented with ways to make sour cream, buttermilk, creme fraiche, kefir, farmer's cheese, and the queen of cultured milks: yogurt. The idea of consuming a container of dairy made sour by billions of creepy-crawlies, and of that being good for you, facinated me endlessly. When I learned that yogurt could be made with the simplist of ingredients I set out to make it as simply as I could. I cultured my yogurts in clay jars in dark, warm corners, in glass jars set in pans of warm water, and in primitive yogurt makers constructed of plastic quart containers and a heating pad.

I have made yogurt regularly for years, and only rarely buy a plain yogurt when I need a new starter strain. I’ve eaten commercial yogurt a couple of times, and it was absolutely horrible. Except for a greek-style yogurt called Cultural Revolution which is OMG delicious! In my yogurt I control the thickness, the sweetness, the basic flavors. I mostly do vanilla yogurt which helps me work through my supply of vanilla beans my friend Mark keeps foisting on me. This summer I have made blueberry, peach, strawberry and lemon-zest yogurts, and used them for salad dressings, frogurt, fruit topping, and yogurt cheese. Tonight I made a simple vanilla yogurt to combine with my fruit and green smoothies.

I always start with whole organic milk. One day I am going to start with raw milk to gauge the difference, but I use whole milk vs skim or 2% because I like the creaminess the extra milk fat provides. I heat the milk on the stove to 175 degrees as a safety precaution (although I am not sure with pasturized milk it is necessary). This kills any bacteria swimming around that would compete with my yogurt germs and turn my tart curdles into rancid goop. I toss in the sliced vanilla bean and let the mixture cool to 112 or 108 degrees. This is the perfect temp for my next two ingredients; yogurt starter and honey. I only sweeten my yogurt with raw honey which is loaded with phytonutrients that high heat will destroy. The honey will melt into the milk at 108 degrees, unlike sugar, which needs a higher heat to melt from it’s crystal form. And the live lacto-eating organism in yogurt thrive in the steamy bath between 112 and 108.

I wisk in the honey and yogurt starter (usually just a spoonful of store-bought organic yogurt will suffice) and strain out the vanilla pods. Then I pour the mix into my chosen yogurt brewing container. Tonight I decided to use the electric yogurt-maker S. bought for me last year. It’s not as rustic but it produces consistant results. In about 6 hours I will have eight little containers of thickened milk which I will move into the fridge for another 24 hours. The cold will put the yogurt bacteria to sleep, and the yogurts will be good for about two weeks, although I never have any last that long. About 10 minutes of work and lots of unsupervised waiting. Perfect.

Yogurt has lots of health benefits. It is easier for lactose intolerant people to consume, aids in digestion, promotes good gut cultures, provided calcium, potassium, and B12, and is cooling and refreshing on things like cold blanched carrots, cucumbers, fish, and fresh berries.

Refreshing Sorbets

^{Black Cherry Sorbet and Pickled Watermelon Rind}

I have a list of things I am vowing to never buy again. On that list is sorbet and ice cream. I know how to make about six different kinds of ice cream, including frozen yogurt (I call it “frogurt”!) and raw vegan ice cream. Sorbets are really easy, too, in fact much easier than ice cream. So when I happened to come across a sale on black cherries and watermelon, I made a couple of quarts of sorbets.

I pitted the cherries and put them in a blender with a red wine, honey, and spice mixture and pureed them smooth. I poured the mix into a ceramic bowl and tucked it into the freezer while I peeled, diced and pureed the ruby-red watermelon. Normally I would run the diced pieces through a food mill to separate the seeds, but this melon was seedless. I added a little reduced bourbon with some honey, lemon juice, cloves, nutmeg and stick cinnamon. This I strained to catche the spices and worked it into the pureed watermelon. I poured this into a plexiglass dish and it joined the cherry mix in the freezer.

I cleaned up the left over watermelon rind and diced it into small chunks. I made a brine of salt, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, cloves, stick cinnamon, nutmeg and mint. I brought the mix up to a low simmer. When the ingredients had been allowed to seep for about an hour I strained out the spices again and added the rind, putting it back ont the stove and letting it cook until it was translucent but still firm. I tossed in some lemon slices and a couple of maraschino cherries, poured it off into sanitized jars and sealed them. After they cooled I moved them to the fridge because they were going to get eaten soon anyway.

I opened the freezer and gave the sorbets a stir with a fork, breaking up the sheets of ice forming into little shards. I did this a couple of times over the next several hours. The watermelon sorbet froze harder than the cherry, so I had to pull it out and really scrape and chop it up until I had a redish pink pan of flavorful ice. The cherry sorbet shredded much easier and stayed an amazon crimson color. The next day I took the watermelon sorbet and a jar of watermelon pickle to lunch with some friends. We ate outdoors in their garden and the sorbet went quickly. It didn’t have a really distinct watermelon flavor, but was still pretty good. We put the watermelon pickle on just about everything, from bread to apple slices to sorbet to our martinis. I came home empty handed.

The cherry sorbet I have kept for myself. Nothing sooths and cools as well as a rich, sweet, ice cold snack topped with tart-but-sweet watermelon pickle, especially after mowing the lawn, tending the garden, or walking the dog. The season for these fresh fruits will soon be at and end but I can extend these summer pleasures with a little effort.

Dunwoody Green Market

The Dunwoody Green Market is located just off Chamblee Dunwoody Road, on the black-top of a parking lot between an office strip center and a bank. They are only open on Wednesdays from 8-12, and have about been around about five years. They are a “producer only” market, meaning that only vendor who actually produce the foods and goods can sell at the market. So, no middlemen or resale vendors, only the people from who’s farms, kitchens, craft shops, or gardens the product actually came. They also organize a CSA program that supports local farmers. The CSA is not overseen by the Dunwoody Green Market, but is provided by their most senior members. Like Morningside Farmer’s Market, all sellers must provide USDA certified organic produce.

I guess I had thought most of these markets were basically like the old farmer’s market I used to go to in Auburndale, Florida. It is a huge, sprawling, ecclectic market with over 300 stalls that sell everything from fruit and vegetables to clothes, CD’s knives, and sunglasses. If you wanted to rent a stall, you went to the office, gave them $35 and they gave you a 12X12 square of concrete in one of the football-field-length wings, and you set up you stuff to sell. Kind of like a high-traffic garage sale. But the markets I am going to around here are very organized with many rules about who can and cannot be a seller. And still many of the sellers come in from two or three hours out of town.

I was off work Wendnesday in order to take care of the kind of government stuff they aren’t available for after 5pm and on the weekends. I happened to be in the area and stopped at the market, which was actually pretty busy. There were about 20 vendors set up, some selling produce, some soap, some bread, some meats and eggs. I talked with a woman who sells soap, and she explained to me all the different varieties she offers, how they are made, and how she has a relationship with a sponge diver in Florida who sustainably harvests natural sponges for her. I talked to a man who owns a 178-acre farm past Clarksville. He had pretty decent produce and a basket of fat, golden, delicious-looking chantrelle mushrooms he foraged off his property. The season for fresh chantrelles is coming to a close, so I bought a pint that was probably over-priced, but worth it. I also bought a loaf of freshly baked, rosemary-onion ciabatta from a bread guy I know. Even with conversations it took me about 20 minutes to work my way through the market, and I was going slow. They had pretty good foot traffic while I was there, and I am sure there are lots of people going to work in the am or making special stops by these sellers to fill their pantries with organic, local, hand-harvested foods.

Snellville Farmer's Market

^{S. is “a buzz” with interest over bee-keeping}

Snellville is doing its first farmer’s market this year. The city launched it concept this past June, and will have it run until October. It is open every Saturday from 8-12 and is located in a large open field across the street from the city hall. Booth space is $10 and there are as many as 50 vendors. No one is requied to be a “producer”, nor organic, but all that is encouraged, as is sustainabilty and green practices. Local vendors are the focus.

S. and I went out there and walked around on a misty gray Saturday morning and saw many of the same things I have seen at the other markets: Flimsy white tents, folding tables stacked with rough-looking fruit, people with that farm-fresh, folksy charm letting people sample and taste, and explaining with knowledge and passion (such a rare combination!) about what they are selling, how it was created, and why what they are doing is important. I saw my biscotti guy, and he gave us samples of his chocolate mousse biscotti which was very good.

We talked for quite a while with a couple who own a 45-acre farm on the other side of Monroe. She is taking orders for holiday turkeys but is almost at her limit because predatory hawks have been grabbing the chicks. Right now at twenty pounds the turkeys are just about too heavy for fly off with. Also they told us the trouble they are having with racoons and possums getting into the henhouse and killing the new chicks. Rather than trap or poison they are doing what I suspect people have been doing for thousands of years to protect their livestock: they are using predators of their own, their big family of dogs who run down and run off assorted intruders.

I talked with a young man who was selling organic, fresh, natural chicken for $20 each. $10 for two thighs. $15 for two breasts. I asked him about the prices to be certain I was reading them correctly and he verified that yes, he was selling his chicken for around $10 a pound.

“Chicken…” I said.

“Organic chicken,” he corrected me. He then told me he still had a cooler full, and last week he had some left over, too.

“Why do you think that is?” I asked him. He said he really didn’t know, maybe the market just had too many vegetarian customers. I agreed that must be it, wished him success, and moved on, thinking about how I bought organic natural chicken for about $3.50/pound in the grocery store. I’m sure it wasn’t local, and I was supporting an evil corporate giant with my dollars, and thought it was unfortunate that is took less money to support something I wanted to get away from than it did to support something I was in favor of.

There was a woman selling flowers in arrangements with stalks of fresh herbs worked in. More people selling bread than the other places I have been to. We stopped and had a very detailed conversation with a man who turned out to live only a couple of miles from us who raises bees and collects their honey. He has been doing it for four years now and this year he collected over 80 pounds of honey. He gave my wife a very thorough lesson in starting a hive and keeping it healthy. She came away excited about being a beekeeper. She’s always been a fan of bees, even as a child. She doesn’t relish working in the garden, planting, weeding, harvesting… but she thinks if she raises bees that woud be a good contribution. We bought some wildflower honey.

We met a woman who makes wine jellies and we bought some of these, my favorite being the pommegranate-zinfindel. She doesn’t really have a “product line”, she just takes a few sips of the wine in question and makes a jelly based on how that wine resonates with her. She has some sugar free jellies made with Splenda, but we did not buy any of these.

On our way out we passed a family that had pumpkin plants for sale. She was selling them one pot for a dollar. I bought two and since it was so close to closing time she told me to just go ahead and take them all so now I have eight pumpkin plants.

I liked the layout of the market and the variety of vendors, but I can imagine in the open fiels with no trees or buildings to block the sun it can get quite hot. I think it will be a pleasant stroll in late September, but I don’t know what the vegetable and fruit selection will look like. But I would say this market is worth going back to and supporting, and I hope they have a really good first year.

Herb Oil Poached Salmon

I bought a piece of wild-caught sashimi grade salmon at the market. I clipped some herbs from the garden and dropped them in a pot of olive oil, which I put on a low flame. I checked the temperature with a thermometer and when it reached 140 degrees I eased the fish into the oil, letting it seep for about twenty minutes.

While that was going on I melted some butter, whisked an cage-free organic egg yolk with a squirt of lemon juice and ground mustard. I slowly added the butter to the egg yolk, whisking until I had a passable hollandaise. I set this aside on a warm part of the stove and cooked some Georgia organic stone-ground grits, smoked some yellow tomatoes with applewood chips, and blanched stalks of asparagus.

I cut up a couple of kumato tomatoes and sliced disks of organic raw mozzarella balls. I stacked these alongside some sunflower sprouts and grilled some whole wheat bread slices, which I cut into sticks. Then I sprinkled the salad with Pink Bolivian salt and aged Balsamic vinegar.

I scooped the grits onto two dinner plates and made a small well, filling it with the hollandaise. I laid out a raft of the asparagus, piled the smoked tomatoes next to the grits, and topped with the poached salmon. The advantage of poaching in the oil is that the flesh remained beautifully orange-pink but was cooked through, flaking away but with the flavor and moisture intact. I’d like to try this with a really red piece of sockeye salmon or ahi tuna. I wish the picture had come out better, showing the bright colors.

Substituting olive oil in the diet has many health benefits, including lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol in the bloodstream, leveling out blood sugar, and inhibiting cancer cell growth. Salmon is rich in Omega-3 fatty acid, and wild caught salmon has a higher percentage of Omega-3 than farmed salmon. Asparagus is known to be a blood cleaner and detoxifier, it contains viatmin K and folic acid, is a renowned aphrodisiac, and reduces inflammation. Tomatoes are also viewed as an aphrodisiac, the French called them “pomme d’amour”. They are high in vitamin C, lycopene, and contain 7percent the RDA of iron for women.

Morningside Farmer's Market

Morningside Farmer’s Market sets up every Saturday from 7:30am – 11:30am in a parking lot on Virginia Highlands Ave, and has been in operation for fifteen years. It started as a place where local organic farmers could offer their excess produce to the general public. There are about 10 or 12 farms that come from no more than two hours distance with bushels of assorted, seasonal vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers. There is a guy there that does knife sharpening, and someone who sells homemade soaps and lotions.

Any vendor at Morningside Farmer’s Market has to be certified organic. The market is situated in a kind of bohem neighborhood, where the clientel is relative affluent, but socially conscious. It has a comfortable, relaxed pace, and you can find people walking their dogs, having coffee with friends at the local coffee shops, jogging, or just out with their canvas grocery bags and hemp sandals, purchasing bruised, bug-nibbled, and knobby fruits and vegetables.

I went around to all the stalls and observed that everyone had a lot of the same stuff. I think the trick is to arrive early, as early as 7am, to get the choicest selections. I arrived just after 9:30 and a lot of stuff seemed picked over. I bought some red baby carrots, some lumpy “True Blue” potatoes, a bunch of basil, and a loaf of whole grain sourdough bread from the Magnolia Bread Company. I admit I felt a little compelled to buy the bread, since they are a vendor we use where I work, and I have eaten tons of their breads for free. They are a wholly organic and local bakery owned by a very nice woman who used to be a nurse. All their bread comes from one master sourdough, and all loaves are shaped by hand and baked in a wood-fired hearth. It is awesome, delicious bread.

Across the street from the farmer’s market is a bakery-market called Alon’s. I stopped in and bought some Vermont cream artisan’s butter to go with my bread. The clerk gave me the eye for coming in with someone else’s bread.

By complete contrast I then went to the new Super H Mart that opened a couple of weeks ago. I have a Super H Mart near where I live, and it has never impressed me that much. It is not my “go-to” place for unique and interesting foods. For that I still go to the Buford Farmer’s Market and Dekalb International Market. But everyone at work has been going on with much gusto about how great this market was, so I decided to check it out. It is a good place to save money on seasonal items: $2.99 for big, seedless red watermelons and quarts of strawberries, and $1.49/pound for brilliantly red vine-ripe tomatoes. Otherwise, I was not particulally impressed. Seeing their piles of produce, knowing only a small percentage was local and nearly none raised organically, drew a sharp line between the market I had just come from, where you could ask the man or woman who actually grew the vegetables to tell you about them, and this place, where the origin and treatment of the food was difficult to determine. I did buy a piece of sashimi salmon and a whole red snapper, thinking of ways to marry my market purchases.

The Morningside market is small and doesn’t take long to go through, but they are busy and have a dedicated client base. Being as they are local and organic, it is even more important for the community to support them where it can.

Georgia State Farmer's Market

Claiming to be the largest open air market in the world (I cannot verify that). It has been open since 1958, sits resplendent on 150 acres with nearly 600 stalls, has a garden center with a nursery, wholesale and retail sales, and is a major distribution point for fresh produce in the Southeast and throughout the country. All my fresh produce vendors have offices very near the GSFM. I went down there on a Saturday, which, ironically, is not one of their busiest days. They do a lot of business, though. Something like 3,500 people a day work deals with vendors, and it adds up to about $500 million a year in sales.

With such large clientele its no wonder the market is open, rain or shine, 364 days a year, Mon-Sun, closed only for Christmas. The vendors are allowed to set their own hours, so there’s no telling when you go just how many people will be there. There are good deals to be had, but don’t be afraid to shop around and haggle. They claim to have a very large supply of Georgia grown foods, but I had a hard time finding anything outstanding, other than what was typically seasonal, like peaches and tomatoes. I think small farmers have a hard time being represented there. Organic specialties are not to be had at all at the vendor stalls. A large number of the vendors are Latino-owned, as are many of the customers. It is a great place to get produce by the case, or just by the pound. But it is not a homey place. I don’t think this is the place I will go to build repoire with my local farmer or market vendor. Even though it is huge, it doesn’t take long to exhaust the variety of what is available, either. They have a nursery and garden center at the end of the stalls, with tons of plants and fruit trees and herbs and flowers. There is also a restaurant at the entrance, but we didn’t go in to eat. It’s location in Forest Park makes it tough for me to get to, but might be worth the effort around Christmas time when the trees go on sale. They sell thousands of Christmas trees in Decmember. And the Pumpkin Master has pallets of multi-colored pumpkins and gourds in the fall.

Not some place I would go out of my way to frequent, but definitely a resource for certain things.