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About 7 minutes after I posted my Optimistically Spring Egg Salad on Monday, it began to snow. Sigh. Another bitter cold week, another trek through the winter Greenmarket. I don’t mean to sound like a locavore lunatic, but I do about 90% of my weekly grocery shopping at the Greenmarket in USQ, year round. And during the winter I perversely feel more compelled to go a few times a week. If the farmers are there in the cold, I feel a responsibility to show. If it is snowing, I am there. Greenmarket is a commitment people. But we’ve reached the stage where the variety of the pickings are slim, and my haul is pretty similar every trip — alliums, apples, cabbage, potatoes, cheese, yogurt, and meat. Sometimes a squash, often mushrooms as well. Which has lead to a weirdly out of season meal more often than not here — burgers, potato salad, and coleslaw. It’s funny that it is such an iconically summer meal, when all of those ingredients are ones that thrive in storage and midwinter.
In a way I’m appreciating the way that the limited options have me digging deeper into what is available. In the peak of Spring or Summer, I’m not buying 4 different kinds of kale, or 8 varietals of apples or potatoes. But now in the bleak midwinter I’m picking up a handful of each from each farmer and exploring to differences that terroir and type can make. For my Winter potato salad, I’ve settled on a combo of the yellowish-white La Ratte fingerlings for their sweet nutty butteriness, Peruvian Purples for the intense color and earthy, slightly umami flavors reminiscent of mushrooms or walnuts. And pink firs for their beautiful blush and waxy texture.
I roughly chop a dozen assorted fingerlings, 2 small onions, 3 shallots, and 4 cloves of rocambole garlic, toss them with olive oil and then spread them out on a baking sheet. A good sprinkle of sea salt and it all goes into a 400 degree oven for about half an hour. I let it cool slightly, then pour into a bowl with 2 heaping tablespoons of crème fraîche, the juice of half a lemon, a few good grinds of black pepper. It gets folded all together and then either served warm or put in the fridge to chill. Sometimes I drizzle a bit of walnut oil over the top and/or sprinkle with chopped scallions and herbs.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
