Tonight Top Chef Canada started up -- I hope my favourite aggregator site picks it up as I love good cooking competitions. My favourite of the moment is Chopped, where people get weird ingredients and have to put together edible dishes. I want to do that for my friends this summer. I have papers to grade, so now I am thinking about summer cooking. I could use the local CSA stuff to put it together.
Politically correct knock-down, drag-out fights with delicious payoffs at the end (somehow I have many people lining up to judge, but a lot who are really nervous when I tell them they would be good competitors). Just a few thoughts on CSAs and what I can do for my friends (to my friends?). I would love to hear your suggestions and experiences.
What I think I can do with this is utilize local ingredients. We have a good farmers' market in town that starts up in just a couple of weeks, and a local grocery which carries organic and local products as well as exotic foods (Indian and East Asian and African). I think between those and the CSA I am a part of I can do pretty good things for (to?) them.
We don't have fish (although I could get farm-raised catfish or river fish -- but I wouldn't eat them, would you?), but we have beef, chicken, pork, and lamb, as well as more exotic relatively locally-raised animals such as venison (wild ones around here are as corn fed as you can imagine!), bison, elk, and goat (and rabbit, too, I think). We have fresh blueberries in June and July, and herbs already as well as greens, strawberries, eggs, and cheeses. I was thinking maybe beef tongue, which is something I don't think any of my friends will have ever cooked (I will give them more time than 20 or 30 minutes, and let them cook in their own houses with their own pantries, but bring the food to my house for the judging). Maybe that and the kim-chee that the women from a nearby town sell at the market. Or there is someone in my parents' home town who sells emu eggs. One of those per basket could be enjoyable and challenging. Depends on the season, of course, but I could have a lot of fun with this.
On Top Chef Masters this past week people had canned corned beef and marshmallows. I wouldn't be that mean, would I? I was thinking of candying violets that are growing enthusiastically in my yard. Maybe I should think about throwing those into the mix!