IN THIS EPISODE:
As we try to stay healthy in the time of the COVID-19, one can only dream the elusive dream of grazing freely through Union Square Greenmarket, like we did a few short months ago, picking the freshest of produce in order to spontaneously prepare a delicious meal.
In this installment, “Grazing The Greenmarket Pt 2” we access the sweet season of the Union Square Greenmarket, when back in September, both the summer and fall bounty were in full bloom and social distancing was considered a personal pathology, gathering the ingredients for what would become our version of a thick spicy gumbo...
FOODCAST:
INGREDIENTS:
___ Okra (1LB)
___ Celery (three stalks)
___ Garlic (as much as you like)
___ Leeks (one medium sized stem)
___ Green Bell Pepper (one large)
___ Corn (one corn scraped off the cob)
___ Fresh Jersey Tomatoes (about 1LB)
___ Trinidadian Scorpion Hot Pepper (optional)
___ Dried Cranberry Beans (one cup soaked in water)
___ Thyme (a few branches fresh or a tablespoon of dried)
___ Smoked Paprika (to taste)
___ Filé (a tablespoon as a thickener)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Start by soaking dried cranberry beans overnight or for at least 8 hours. Then using 4 cups of salted water for one cup of beans, simmer the beans in a pot or pressure cooker until tender.. about 50 minutes in a conventional pot, half that time in a pressure cooker with an eye to having some left over liquid to use as the base for the gumbo.
In a blender, pulverize the fresh tomatoes and add to cooked beans.
Pre-heat a dry pan and add cut okra making them less slimy, so to speak.
Shuck the corn and using a knife scrap the kernels from the cobb.
Finely chop the garlic and leeks and a bit of bell pepper and celery
Add all to the the pot of of beans and tomatoes.
Then add thyme: we use fresh thyme by tying the little stems together with food string and removing when after cooking also you use a whole chilé pepper, such as habanero, ghost pepper, or in this case the furry Trinidadian Scorpion.
You can use just for flavor and remove at the end or chop it up and add to pot.
Add salt, black pepper and smoked paprika.
Let the stew simmer on a low flame for an hour or so.
The gumbo should be fairly thick but since we dried the okra in the beginning we’ll add filé as a thickener at the end after removing from the pot from the heat. Stir vigorously!
Serve with brown rice or quinoa.
TRACKLIST:
1:::The Wild Tchoupitoulas - "Meet de Boys on the Battlefront"
2:::The Wild Magnolias - "They Call Us Wild"
3:::Dr. John - "I Walk On Guilded Splinters"
4:::The Meters - "Cissy Strut"
5:::The Meters - "Hand Clapping Song"
*this episode has been:
Produced by Anastasia Crisis
Hosted by Sal P
Emceed by Jack Silbert
