Like every other city dweller, I eagerly traipse to the farmer’s market armed with my re-cycled, Eco-cotton bag with the nice orange flowers on the front, bought at a sustainable, organic store to buy vegetables.
I buy peppers. Strange, twisted shapes, elongated and pointy with the prettiest graduation of colours. I buy radishes. Achingly pretty in many different hues from cerise striped with a brush of palest pink to deep crimson red. I buy chili peppers, all shapes, sizes and colours. Kale, purple and long, elegantly shaped, blue – green. I buy 4 different types of Basil, each with its own distinctive aroma of some other gorgeous basil partner. Lime, lemon, Thai, purple.
And then, there are the tomatoes. Wringing my hands in frustration in case I miss even one of the varieties, I fill a bag with black Russian, Zebra, Brandywine, Caspian Pink, Black Krim and Pruden’s Purple. The baby cherry tomatoes, nicknamed 'adult candy', are so sweet and sublime I buy two cases to take home.
Armed with my treasure trove of precious gems, sparkling with multi-coloured lusciousness, I walk home satisfied that I am so enlightened and well adjusted as to avoid the drab of supermarkets.
My bounty fills many bowls and containers in my kitchen, giving me a sense of domestic bliss as they smile so gorgeously at me with endless culinary possibilities.
Then they rot and fill the apartment with fruit flies that bite you in many places.
The truth is that as much as I adore these elite vegetables, I buy them mainly to make my kitchen look good and to give myself some satisfaction that I know good food. My friend once commented that everything I buy from the farmer’s market looks old. Being already a week in the bowl and despite my insistence that the non-use of chemicals will give a tomato a more rustic look, I had to secretly agree.
Of course, I do try to use a lot of the veg for cooking, but I do find myself holding back so that some of the more beautiful specimens remain in their bowls a little longer. The answer, I know, of course, is to only buy enough to use within the next few days, so that the quality of these vegetables can really be appreciated. But each week when I find I have spent another $60 on food that will only be half used, I realize that the artist within me and the desire to make my kitchen a cook book showroom is winning.
This, I discovered, is a good way to use the vegetables immediately.
1-2 lbs tomatoes.
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
½ piece celery, chopped
½ chili, chopped
I bay leaf
½ tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp good quality balsamic or red wine vinegar
A very large handful of torn basil, (any type or a mixture)
Olive oil
1. Heat the oil and saute the garlic, onion, chili, celery and bay leaf over low heat until soft, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and increase the heat a little. Stir well, cover and cook slowly for about 1 hour until soft.
3. Add the salt and cook, uncovered to evaporate some liquid and thicken.
4. Add the vinegar and basil, stir again and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Enjoy this sauce with pasta, vegetables, make into soup with some stock or water or freeze.
This recipe means I can feel happy knowing the radishes have been used and it also looks beautiful in the fridge with it’s hues of pink and orange.
Pickled Radishes
A bunch of radishes, 6- 10
1 small red onion, sliced
1 chili, sliced, (remove seeds to lessen heat)
½ carrot, sliced into matchsticks
1 cup white wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1 tbsp coriander (ground or seeds)
6 tbsp sugar
5 bay leaves
2 tbsp salt
Olive oil
1. Wipe and slice the radishes
2.Place radishes, onion, chili and carrot in a small saucepan and add a little olive oil. Heat through and cook on a gentle heat until the veg are soft but still crunchy.
3. Heat the sugar and vinegar in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved, add other ingredients and stir.
4. Once cooled, place the vegetables in a glass jar and pour the pickling liquid on top. (Sometimes there is not enough liquid, so repeat step 2.)
5. Seal the jar, leave to cool and place in refrigerator. It should be ready in two weeks.
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