Farmers' Market Menus

I don?t know if it?s possible to become addicted to visiting the farmers? market, but I?m pretty close. It just doesn?t seem like the week goes quite right if we don?t make it to the farmers? market on Sunday morning. It?s a great way to start the week, wandering up and down the rows, perusing all the variety of fruits and vegetables, tasting all the samples and just absorbing all the beautiful colors of the flowers and produce.

In addition to the nectarines, this was a good week for basil. The vendor where I usually buy a bush-size bundle of Thai basil for $1 each week had lemon basil this week as well. So I changed my routine and I?ve been using the lemon basil in pretty much everything. It adds a lovely, refreshing citrus flavor to salads and other dishes. I also bought three basil plants for my herb garden. I?m getting a late start this summer, but maybe I?ll have a variety of homegrown basils well into cold weather.


The menus for this week included:

Grilled feta burgers with fresh tomatoes
Sweet Onion Red Potato salad
Watermelon

Medley of mixed mushrooms, green beans, asparagus and peas over
Creamy polenta
Mixed green salad with artichoke hearts and cherry tomatoes

Nectarine and tomato crostini
Grilled chicken
Grilled nectarines with adobo sauce
Corn pancakes

Grilled mahi mahi with Thai coconut sauce
Spicy Thai noodles
Sliced mango

The corn pancake recipe was a very pleasant surprise. It came from a magazine called Farmers? Market Cookbook. When I mixed up the batter it just looked like a bowl full of corn and I didn?t think there was any way it would hold together and make a pancake. Surprise! They were great. Light and fluffy and very intensely flavored with the sweet fresh corn. This is my version that is approximately a half recipe since I?m only feeding the two of us. We still had 12 pancakes, even though the original recipe said 12 pancakes.

Corn Pancakes
1 Tbsp butter, melted
½ c all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
Crème fraiche
Chives

Cook kernels 1 minute in boiling salted water. Drain. Whisk together milk, egg and butter in bowl. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into separate bowl. Stir flour mixture into milk mixture, and fold in corn. Let batter rest 20 minutes. Heat non-stick skillet over medium heat and coat with cooking spray. Spoon batter into skillet into 4? pancakes. Cook until bottoms are set and golden. Flip and cook other side. Top with a dollop of crème fraiche and chopped chives.