Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets [Hardcover]

In her previous cookbooks Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and the classic Greens Cookbook, among others, Deborah Madison scored with savory yet sophisticated fare--the kind of food even meat lovers relish. Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets finds Madison shopping those havens of quality, taste, and diversity, and devising recipes based on their seasonally available bounty. Among the 350 recipes--not all vegetarian--fans will immediately recognize the Madison hand in dishes like Soft Tacos with Roasted Green Chiles, Spinach and Green Garlic Soufflé, and Winter Squash "Pancake" with Mozzarella and Sage. There's more to the book, however: "Many people still think that the farmers' market is the place you go to for cheap food," says Madison. More to the point, they're a source for "truly local and therefore truly seasonal [food], quite likely raised by sound sustainable methods and by someone who might become your friend." It's a message most readers will embrace.

The book offers chapters deftly arranged by fruit and vegetable families as they appear in the markets, such as "The Vegetable Fruits of Summer: Eggplants, Tomatoes, and Peppers" and "A Cool Weather Miscellany," which includes recipes such as Sautéed Artichokes with Potatoes and Garlic Chives and a marvelous "essence-of" soup, Elixir of Fresh Peas. Madison also treats unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, presenting the likes of lamb quarters in a soup made with Sonoma Teleme cheese, and sugar loaf chicory simply grilled and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Recipes for delightful salads like Melon Salad with Thai Basil also appear, as do a selection of pastas and risotto, such as Winter Squash Risotto with Seared Radicchio, and sweets like White Peaches in Lemon Verbena Syrup and Date, Dried Cherry, and Chocolate Nut Torte. With sidebars like Atlanta's All-Organic Market: Late October and color photos throughout of vendors, produce, and many of the dishes, the book offers the perfect match of Madison and the markets. --Arthur Boehm

Madison (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) celebrates the seasonality of produce from farmers' markets across the country in this sophisticated cookbook. Sharing a few meat recipes, Madison has organized this collection by category (Corn and Beans, Stone Fruits, etc.) and included recipes mostly using vegetables and fruits. Not just another how-to for arranging tomatoes on a plate, the book presents such year-round recipes as Cabbage and Potato Gratin with Sage, or Corn and Squash Simmered in Coconut Milk with Thai Basil, alongside tributes to highlighted markets. Vegetarians will welcome main courses such as Braised Root Vegetables with Black Lentils and Red Wine Sauce or Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding. Recipes do demand close reading: one calls for a can of coconut milk but uses only part. However, shoppers learn how to use sunchokes (Sunchoke Bisque with Hazelnut Oil), Concord grapes (Concord Grape Tart) and even hickory nuts (Hickory Nut Torte with Espresso Cream). Madison's custom preparations suit farmer's market boutique style: she cuts each type [of squash] in the way that best preserves its form: lengthwise for the zucchini, crosswise for pattypans and round squash. Chefs will love the Herbs and Alliums chapter introducing Marjoram Pesto with Capers and Olives and Herb Dumplings for Soups and Ragouts. Also strong are composed salads, such as Avocado and Grapefruit Salad with Pomegranates and Pistachios, the eggs and cheese chapter and extensive fruits and desserts, such as Blood Orange Jelly and Greg's Huckleberry Pie. This is a book cooks will reach for to enliven repertoires.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Some 350 recipes for all seasons.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

“Deborah Madison is a wonder. Just when you imagine that you have more than enough cookbooks, she comes along with another you can’t do without. This one is more than a cookbook, though--it's a passionate celebration of the joys of buying and cooking fresh, seasonal food from the farmers’ markets she has visited across the country. She makes following the seasons irresistible. If you’ve thought about eating seasonally but don’t know how, run out and get this book. You need it.”
--Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life

"This book is important on several levels. First, for the brilliance of consumate cook and recipe writer, Deborah Madison. Her food is superb. Second, it is a guide to getting to the heart of America and our foods, visit our farmers’ markets. Third, it is a book to believe in. If pressed to select a single thing that could save our food supply from a hellish destruction by international corporate interests, I would have to say it is our farmers’ markets. Deborah Madison brings them to life for all of us. Bless her for this gift.”
-Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Host of Public Radio's national food show, The Splendid Table™


"Deborah Madison reconnects us with the most unique foods still found inthe farmers markets of North America. As if that is not enough of a gift,she offers us wonderful stories from the field and kitchen, and gloriousrecipes to boot. This is food writing taken to its highest calling.To walk through a farmers market with Deborah Madison is my idea ofheaven. To taste what she does -- and now, what we can do -- with thediverse produce found there is to truly taste the Spirit in the Flesh. LocalFlavors is no less than aluscious miracle."
--Gary Nabhan, PhD., author of Coming Home to Eat


"Deborah Madison is a wizard at combining ingredients in new ways that feelhonest and traditional. She is one of very few people responsible forreinventing and furthering the cause of American home cooking, and LocalFlavors should be as well received as her classic Vegetarian Cooking forEveryone."
--Mark Bittman, author of The Minimalist Cooks Dinner

In Local Flavors, bestselling cookbook author Deborah Madison takes readers along as she explores farmers’ markets across the country, sharing stories, recipes, and dozens of market-inspired menus. Her portraits of markets from Maine to Hawaii showcase the bounty of America’s family farms and reveal the sheer pleasure to be found in shopping for and cooking with local foods.

Deborah Madison follows the seasons in her cross-country journey, beginning with the first tender greens of spring and ending with those foods that keep. Recipes such as Chard and Cilantro Soup with Noodle Nests and Lamb’s-Quarters with Sonoma Teleme Cheese launch the market season, followed by such dishes as an Elixir of Fresh Peas or a Radish Sandwich. Recipes for Whole Little Cauliflowers with Crispy Breadcrumbs and White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage illustrate the range of the robust crucifers, while herbs and alliums provide the inspiration for a lively Herb Salad, tisanes, and Sweet and Sour Onions with Dried Pluots and Rosemary.
Deborah Madison challenges the conventional view of what’s seasonal. A Young Root Vegetable Braise celebrates that early crop of delicate roots, while Braised Root Vegetables with Black Lentils and Red Wine Sauce offers an elegant centerpiece dish for the heartier roots of winter.

Superlative fresh eggs, along with handmade cheese, are featured players at the markets everywhere, and here they appear in such simple dishes as Fried Eggs with Sizzling Vinegar and Warm Ricotta Custard featuring fresh whole-milk ricotta. Because organically raised poultry and meats have an increasingly important presence in our farmers’ markets, they are included, too, paired with other market produce that highlights their flavors, as in Roast Chicken with Herbs Under the Skin.

Late summer corn and beans inspire Corn Fritters with Aged Cheddar and Arugula and Shelly Beans with Pasta and Sage. When markets are filled with squashes and melons, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, Deborah Madison shows us that they’re perfect ingredients for simple, vibrant dishes, such as Braised Farmers’ Long Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic or Tropical Melon Soup with Coconut Milk. For the happily overwhelmed cook, Platter Salads suggest how to go ahead and use all of the market’s bounty.

Fruits, another vital part of farmers’ markets, are generously featured. Huckleberries, unusual grapes, and figs; stone fruits like plums and peaches; heirloom apples, persimmons; winter citrus and subtropical fruits are all here. Fig Tart with Orange Flower Custard; Peach Shortcake on Ginger Biscuits; a Rustic Tart of Quinces, Apples, and Pears; and a Passion Fruit and Pineapple Compote are just a few of the luscious desserts. And, because the market features more than fresh foods of the moment, recipes based on dried fruits, oils, vinegars, preserves, and other long-keeping foods help the reader continue eating locally once the market season has ended.

By going behind the scenes to speak with the farmers and producers, Deborah Madison connects readers directly with the people who grow their food. Full-color photographs of gorgeous produce, mouthwatering dishes, and evocative scenes from the markets will entice every reader to cook from the farmers’ market as often as possible.

“Deborah Madison is a wonder. Just when you imagine that you have more than enough cookbooks, she comes along with another you can’t do without. This one is more than a cookbook, though--it's a passionate celebration of the joys of buying and cooking fresh, seasonal food from the farmers’ markets she has visited across the country. She makes following the seasons irresistible. If you’ve thought about eating seasonally but don’t know how, run out and get this book. You need it.”
--Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life

"This book is important on several levels. First, for the brilliance of consumate cook and recipe writer, Deborah Madison. Her food is superb. Second, it is a guide to getting to the heart of America and our foods, visit our farmers’ markets. Third, it is a book to believe in. If pressed to select a single thing that could save our food supply from a hellish destruction by international corporate interests, I would have to say it is our farmers’ markets. Deborah Madison brings them to life for all of us. Bless her for this gift.”
-Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Host of Public Radio's national food show, The Splendid Table™


"Deborah Madison reconnects us with the most unique foods still found inthe farmers markets of North America. As if that is not enough of a gift,she offers us wonderful stories from the field and kitchen, and gloriousrecipes to boot. This is food writing taken to its highest calling.To walk through a farmers market with Deborah Madison is my idea ofheaven. To taste what she does -- and now, what we can do -- with thediverse produce found there is to truly taste the Spirit in the Flesh. LocalFlavors is no less than aluscious miracle."
--Gary Nabhan, PhD., author of Coming Home to Eat


"Deborah Madison is a wizard at combining ingredients in new ways that feelhonest and traditional. She is one of very few people responsible forreinventing and furthering the cause of American home cooking, and LocalFlavors should be as well received as her classic Vegetarian Cooking forEveryone."
--Mark Bittman, author of The Minimalist Cooks Dinner

Deborah Madison is the author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and The Savory Way, both of which were named the Julia Child Cookook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone also received a James Beard Award, and This Can’t Be Tofu! was nominated for a Beard award as well. The Greens Cookbook, now a classic, was her first book. A contributor to many magazines, among them Taste, Fine Cooking, Gourmet, and Garden Design, Deborah Madison was awarded the M.F.K. Fisher Mid-Career Award from Les Dames D’Escoffier in 1994. She is a member of Slow Food and a board member and former market manager of the Santa Fe Area Farmers’ Market. She lives in Santa Fe with her husband, Patrick McFarlin, who painted the watercolor illustrations of market scenes.

Greens Wild and Domestic

It's spring, and farmers' markets across the country are beginning to open. Greens are the vegetables that many will start out with. They're what you can count on finding early in the season. And depending on where you live, greens may flourish throughout the duration of the market, or they may disappear as soon as some real heat comes on. Greens like it cool, and some even like it cold. Salad greens are a huge challenge in Phoenix past March, which is just when they're looking great in Santa Monica. They might be diminishing in Sacramento by about June, but in Santa Fe or Londonderry, Vermont, they're with us from start to finish.

A key sign that it's spring isn't only that greens are available but that they have an irrepressible quality. They practically glow. I've picked up bunches of kale that squeak with vitality, spinach and chard that bounce with life. The arugula is nutty, not bitter; chicories have a sweet edge from the last frost of the season. Green potherbs, like sorrel, nettes, and wild spinach, are tender and delicate, and the deep reds of the red lettuces, like Merlot, haven't lost their luster as long as there are those nightly temperature dips. This is also when you might find miner's lettuce, chickweed, and other edible weeds, which, if you haven't tried them, make exciting additions to salads.

This green glory will fade as the season progresses into labored production, when hot days and nights keep plants churning and growing overtime. But for now, everything is leafy at its very best. This, in fact, is one of the prime times for big green salads, now and the fall. Come midsummer, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers will better fill that role.


The Simplest Tender Greens serves 2 to 4

If your greens are tender and not too voluminous for your pan, simply wilt them in a skillet with the water that clings to their leaves after washing, or steam them. Although boiling is usually considered a less nutritious way of cooking vegetables, the more quickly they cook, the fewer nutrients they lose, and tender greens will spend only the briefest time in a big pot of boiling water.

These methods are especially well suited to those quick-cooking greens, such as spinach, young chard, and wild spinach, although tougher greens, like kale, can also be treated this way if simply cooked a bit longer. (For the more assertive greens, like mustard, see the next recipe.) In general, 2 or 3 people can easily consume a pound of greens, for they shrink to nearly nothing.

1 to 2 pounds greens, coarse stems removed
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil or butter
lemon wedges or vinegar

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While it's heating, wash the greens.
2. Add salt to taste to the water, then plunge the greens in all at once.
Cook just until they're tender, then scoop them into a colander. Leave them
to drain from 2 to 5.
3. Toss the greens with olive oil or butter to taste and season with salt and
pepper. Put them in a bowl or on a platter and serve with lemon wedges or
vinegar. A bit of acid always benefits greens.

Cooking Greens In the Pan: Put greens that have been washed and not dried
in a wide skillet and sprinkle with salt. Cook over high heat until tender from
3 to 5 minutes turning them occasionally with tongs. Lift them out of the pan,
leaving any liquid behind. Toss with butter or oil, taste for salt, season with
pepper, and serve.