With my current paleo diet, I’ve been shopping the farmers markets. Couple of weeks ago, I was briefly stranded at the chicken stand, which lead to a lively discussion, and I got there early enough to get eggs. Not only the best chicken, but the best eggs, too. Amazing farm-fresh, cage-free eggs and chickens.
Fried up in the morning, those eggs have a creamy consistency, flavored like eggs. No two are alike. Yeah, well, the cracking part is a little off, as each eggs cracks differently.
So I asked the guys at the chicken ranch stand, just who had the best produce at that farmer’s market.
“You know, guy down the row, with the good produce.”
That’s like my line, the good local place with homemade tortillas….
So there’s one guy, one farm, turns out the affable old fellow selling the tomatoes isn’t really the farmer, “No, I’m just, like, the marketing department.” He carts the produce, mostly tomatoes, to market and sells them.
A few weeks ago, maybe a month back, he had the sweetest little cherry tomatoes that were deep purple in color.
Called chocolate tomatoes, sweet and tasty, just amazing flavor, and no two look alike. So the next time around, same guy, he had a couple of rows full of what looked like chocolate tomatoes. I inquired if they were the same, the sweetest, most delicious tomatoes I’ve ever tasted.
“No, those are ‘Russian,’ or ‘Indigo’ tomatoes, still a little green, you have to let them ripen some….”
From my chili recipes, I used to always peel the tomatoes, usually beef-steak monsters. For day-to-day cooking though, I would just slice the cherry tomatoes in two. With the indigo, there are the prettiest ones I’ve seen, dark purple going to tomatillo green on the ends, just captivating colors.
Back in the day, one of the guys I teamed with when I raced street bikes, he used to have the oddest breakfast request, “Could I get a couple of slices of green tomato?”
I hadn’t thought of him for years. The idea, though, made me think. I tried it, and what worked, I would slice those green, indigo cherries in half, then sautéed in bacon grease for maybe twenty minutes before adding the eggs.
Worked well with a couple of other recipes, too.
As I understand it, but I can’t claim any true heritage here, fried green tomatoes.
Russian Green Tomatoes
Via that Paleo Blog:
“Warning: do not stick your fingers up your nose or around your eyes after cutting peppers. Pretty sure this is the 3rd time I’ve talked about this on my blog. I guess writing in my blog as a therapy session doesn’t actually help me out.”
Recipe for shredded pork and plantains.
This morning went out early, bought, among other things, brown tomatoes. Thinking of saving the seeds and seeing if I can get them to grow. Since I eat mostly veggies, fruits, and meat, it’s a real bonus to grow my own or get the freshest at farmer’s market. Yum!
I’m convinced there’s a health benefit to locally grown food.
Around here, just tastes way better.
I’ve been following your comments about diet. Do you eat any carbs at all?