So how can you be a student of not cooking? Look around you! Base your cooking on ingredients that come from local sources. The Locavore's Dilemma? You gotta KNOW the local sources. If you can't find any sources nearby, turn to the options available by mail from producers all over the country - but keep your eyes and ears open. LOOK for the local and use that when possible.
The menu at Barefoot Contessa was based on "simple, fresh, seasonal food." The key to simple food, though, is to use only the best ingredients. Buy them in season and buy them from the source. And experiment. Taste the strawberries. Try three different kinds of olive oil and see which one you like best.
I am from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I moved just three hours north to Jackson and I can't find local shrimp on a regular basis (besides the guy who brings up a cooler and sits at the gas station from time to time). I have to buy it in bulk when I visit and freeze it. I did not realize how many of my recipes depended on fresh shrimp until I no longer had it.
One of my projects for this month is to actively look for what I do have available fresh around me and focus on that, rather than what I don't have! This summer, I discovered the fresh peaches available at Bank Farm in Brandon (and their peach jam and peach preserves). I need to find other similar farms near me.
What farms do you have near you? Give them a shout out in the comments!
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