Archive for May, 2009
Sorrel & Roasted Potato Soup
I can’t tell you how many times a customer came up to me last season while I was working at the Headhouse Farmers Market and, upon buying a shocking number of sorrel bunches, raved on and on about the soup they planned to make with it – schav. This Russian/Polish/Yiddish classic apparently had a large following of devotees among the shoppers at the market, but I’d never tried it myself. As much as I love sorrel, I wasn’t convinced I wanted it as a base for a cold soup. From what I gathered from these schav zealots, you put a ton of sorrel in a pot of water and waited until it boiled down and then let it chill. I pictured a lumpy green slime with a distinctively bitter taste to boot. Of course, I misunderstood.
With gobs of sorrel growing like gangbusters in the container on my deck, I decided it was time to work out my apprehensions and confusion about this much touted sorrel soup. As it turns out, schav is a complex soup, both in flavor and in concept. Since its origin is a bit muddled, it seems the recipe has also gotten a bit jumbled along the way and across the generations. As I went on an online treasure hunt for a “traditional” schav recipe, I quickly discovered recipes from all over the world and all with a unique twist to the list of ingredients. The only ingredients that seemed “mandatory” were the sorrel (duh!) and at least one egg.
Ironically, after searching high and low (electronically speaking, of course) for the perfect cold sorrel soup recipe, I found the one I fancied the most right on my own cookbook shelf. This one, which I’ve decided for the sake of full disclosure to call Sorrel & Roasted Potato Soup, seemed to have more umph, including potatoes and cucumbers to offset the zing of the sorrel. Oh, and by the way, in case you’re worried the way I was, the sorrel doesn’t get lumpy at all – rather it just sort of dissolves to create a luscious and delicious broth. Thumbs up for the “schav”!
Organic Tzatziki Dip
Whew, I’m plum played out by all the activity of the past few weeks. Gardening in the spring is a joy and a brain teaser, dancing between rain, cold and mini heat waves. Not to mention time-consuming at the moment so it’s been tough to get a lot done in the kitchen. On the plus side, with four types of lettuce, three varieties of carrots, two varieties of beets, radishes, broccoli, kohlrabi, savoy cabbage, rosemary, lavender, parsley, chives, mint, sorrel, and sage now growing happily in my garden’s tidy rows, there should be more than enough ingredients in the next month and beyond to get SFTF’s kitchen out of “sputter” mode and back into “zooming along” gear.
Today’s recipe for an Organic Tzatziki Dip is a delicious hint at the warm summer weather ahead and all the fresh flavors it encompasses. Into this particular batch went some of my last local garlic and tender fresh sprigs of mint plucked from my deck container, and it was served with the very last of my carrots that wintered over. If only cucumbers were in season too… But I couldn’t quite wait for the local cucumbers as I had a real craving for this deliciously cool Greek condiment the other day when the mercury was soaring to an unwelcome 90 degrees.
I’ve typically made tzatziki with the standard plain yogurt, but decided this time to use a container of thick tangy organic Greek yogurt I had sitting in the fridge. When I was traveling about Greece and her islands a decade back, I just couldn’t embrace this unique yogurt that’s become very popular today in the States. My foodie palette hadn’t yet developed into what it is now, and I was pretty close-minded to the idea of a yogurt that was so heavy and not the least bit sweet. Afterall, I’ve always been a vanilla kind of gal. In any case, thankfully I decided to give it another try some years later. As it does with so many savory dishes, Greek yogurt puts this particular recipe over the top and I’ll be making a point to use it every time from here on out.
On another happy note, today is the opening day for the Headhouse Farmers Market in Philadelphia. For those of you in the area, be sure to visit this outstanding market for a diverse assortment of local foods. Weavers Way Farm will be there once again, as well as yours truly on occasion, helping man their table. Also, this year the market is officially expanding to provide the same market hustle-and-bustle on Saturdays as on Sundays so you now have two days to fill up your baskets and bags. Headhouse Farmers Market is open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. near 2nd and South Streets.
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