Part I. My aunt gave us approximately one million lemons from her prolific tree. This is near the top of my list of reasons to love California.
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Part II. Candace and I have finally discovered our farmer’s market.
There are a lot of Farmer’s Markets in San Francisco, and for some reason some of them get capitalized and others don’t. More importantly, none were ever convenient enough to frequent (I know, I know — but I’m a grad student working two jobs, and Bi-Rite is literally across the street from our apartment). I joined Bakar gym for the summer, and UCSF happens to have a lovely concise farmer’s market that opens right as we finish our Wednesday workout. Did I mention that Wednesdays are my weekend? Lovely, indeed.
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Part III. I started reading this Salon.com article (“How Cooking Gave Me Purpose”) without noticing the byline. I loved it even more when I realized who, exactly, had such humble but honest culinary beginnings. Worth a read, and I completely emphathize with his “four stages of learning how to teach yourself to cook.” I feel like I’m watching Candace gracefully stumble through stage two or so right about now.
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Part IV. This is Sonya:
Sonya is the nice lady I go to when I need massage, and she happens to like sorrel (she also enjoys theater, yoga, Hot Cookie, opera, and my cats, but those facets are not quite as relevant).
Tonight Sonya went to Bi-Rite and brought back spring bounty that included spinach, oranges, and sorrel. Have you ever had sorrel? I hadn’t. It starts out innocuously enough but then explodes into a symphony of citrus and pepper and silk. I felt inspired, so here’s what we made:
1 bunch of asparagus, tough ends snapped off even though it feels *so* wasteful
2 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
Handful raisins
Bigger handful walnuts
1/6 of a colossal sweet red onion, thinly sliced
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 tsp ground coriander (although some fresh cilantro would be lovely also)
Nice pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 bunch sorrel, julienned (you can mix in some julienned spinach also)
Juice of one lemon
Splash of apple cider vinegar, generous drizzle of the best olive oil you can find, sea salt, cracked pepper
Saute the asparagus, I did it in coconut oil because it’s all the Paleo rage (I’m not Paleo, but I’m quickly being sold on its virtues). Throw the garlic in about halfway through, then add the raisins and half the lemon juice three-quarters of the way through. When al dente, toss in a bowl with all the other ingredients. Season to taste, serve room temperature.
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Part V.
Is there anything better than dinner with friends?
