Wisdom from a 'vegetable butcher' can get you through farmers market season
I'm sure this has happened to you: You spy some piece of produce that looks great and interesting at the market (farmers, super or otherwise), and then you get home and think, "What the heck do I do now?"
Cara Mangini knows you well, because you're just the customer she was hired to help as one of the first "vegetable butchers" at New York City's Eataly. "Customers walked right up to me with their produce for purchase and I would clean it, peel it, slice it, and prime it," she writes in her new cookbook, "The Vegetable Butcher." "I shredded cabbage, shelled fava beans, shaved celery root, and prepped case after case of baby artichokes. … I discovered that even the most sophisticated foodies didn't always know the best way to cut and prepare vegetables, and needed some inspiration and encouragement."
These days, Mangini is the owner of a produce-focused restaurant, Little Eater, in Columbus, Ohio, along with a produce stand and store in the city's North Market. And her book is an encyclopedic guide to vegetables, featuring her favorite techniques for breaking them down and recipes for enticing ways to cook them. Along the way, she includes tips on seasonality, selection, storage and more.
The book is full of revelations: that the redder stalks of rhubarb aren't quite as sour as the greener ones; that standing fresh corn on a kitchen towel before cutting helps you easily contain the falling kernels; that scoring eggplant halves helps the seasonings penetrate the flesh while roasting.
Those with advanced knife skills and lots of experience cooking vegetables might not need some of the directions on cutting and basic cooking, but even they might be pleasantly surprised by some of the thoughtful, yet simple recipes. The next time I spy beautiful beets at the farmers market, I'll be boiling, smashing and searing them (the way I have for years loved to treat small potatoes) and combining them with chimichurri and crema, as Mangini instructs.
For now, I've been happy to have her take on eggplant steaks: You cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, roast with garlicky oil and serve with salsa verde and yogurt. Any recipe that includes a green sauce like this one catches my fancy. (It's the Italian variety that's heavy on herbs, not the Mexican one based on tomatillos, although I love that one, too.) As Mangini knows, not only can a salsa verde perk up any dish you slather it on, it's also a fantastic way to use up herbs that are starting to wilt.
Every market shopper who cares about produce can appreciate that.