Cinco de Mayo and we are back ya'll! I hit the Green City Farmers Market season premier on Wednesday morning and picked up some of the first fruits of the season. I got some kale (the brightest green I've ever seen), swiss chard, purple scallions, mixed wild mushroom, asparagus, fresh basil, mustard garlic (which is apparently a delicious weed), and an amazing honeycrisp apple I ate immediately. This morning Kelly suggested that she would feel deprived of Mexican food if I didn't do something about it, so I made:
Wild Mushroom and Poblano Tosdadas with Ancho Cream Sauce, Braised Asparagus with Smoked Serrano Salt, Black Beans, and Guacamole.
The tostadas were built on Los Pericos tostada shells (which I bought at Morse and assumed were local, but guess what, they are from California. Also please see this site as it is random and hilarious: http://chicagotostada.com/.) I topped them with sliced wild mushrooms from River Valley Ranch sauteed with sliced roasted poblanos and garlic dressed with lime. The sauce on top was sort of based on an Epicurious recipe for enchiladas, but mostly made up. I soaked three dried anchos we bought in a giant bag from Maxwell Street Market, cleaned and pureed them, then combined them with four cloves of garlic, a dollop of heavy cream, a tablespoon or two of honey, some of the liquor from the pepper-soaking, sea salt, and a pinch of ground cloves, ground ginger, and ground allspice. I blobbed some of that on top of the mushrooms, then sprinkled on some shredded cheese and popped it into the oven to melt.
Meanwhile Kelly made guacamole and I roasted the asparagus in some olive oil and water and we heated up a can of goya black beans (cheating but delicious and salty.) After plating we sprinkled on some Central Market Austin smoked serrano salt, which is spicy and smoky and salty and very delicious.
We have both been so looking forward to the coming of spring (where is it?!?) and some fresh veggies and the cooking. This was a fine start to the season. Looking forward to pasta with fresh mozzarella and basil with sausage, beans, and greens for dinner tomorrow!
