Jack of All, Master of None

A great thing about the Rockton Market has been the opportunity to gather recipes from market attendees who stop to chat.

 I am a good cook, I really am.  Preparing a delicious meal, listening to moody British songwriters on Pandora, chopping onions just as Julia instructs in French cooking.. ah that is a very good evening.  Though I have read "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"*  in its entirety, I have not yet actually MASTERED it.  Suffice it to say that while I love cooking, I love reading more. But a person, especially not a person with two kids anyway, can't spend all her time reading and so cooking allows me to do something else I love and to share it with others.

And so, what fun to hear suggestions and techniques from others and share them, along with recipes I have tried, and share them with you here:

First up, Eggs in a Hole  This recipe comes by way of a skinny, towheaded 7 year old who, as far as I am concerned, meets the minimum requirements to go to college (is able to speak to strangers and can make eggs).

Ingredients and Tools:

1. Equal number of eggs and pieces of bread
2. Round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter

Directions:

1. make toast with all of the bread
2. cut a round hole out of each slice of toast, reserve cut out
3. place the ring of the  toast-everything outside the cutter on a hot griddle griddle (I guess you should butter or spray the griddle)
4. crack an egg into the center of each ring and let let cook until the eggs are sunny side up-firm and white on the bottom, sunny on the top
5. place on plates and use the toast rounds to dip into the hot, runny yolk

I baked this, so a little different, and of course loaded up the cheese!  (It is a Club rule, after all, that everything should be a dairy.) 

Fried Green Beans with Chili Powder

This technique, from an older man who maybe has already been to college, seems pretty self explanatory.  Cook the green beams in a frying pan with oil, season with chili powder. I have not tried this myself because, honestly, why would a person ever waste good green beans by not steaming them with garlic and then tossing them with butter? Club rules! 

Salted Spanish Radishes

The same guy went into great detail about how to eat a Spanish Radish last week. (Slice them thin, sprinkle them with salt, let them "sweat" in the refrigerator, take out to the garage and eat slices one at a time while drinking lots of beer.)  Obviously this is something I will never do, as I do not care for radishes of any ethnicity with any amount of butter, but it is part of the market repertoire, so it must be include

* I would like to point out that I bought my copy of the cook book shortly after we bought our TV when we lived on Beacon Street, before it became trendy because of the movie Julia & Julia.  No money to do laundry, but after watching classic reruns of The French Chef at midnight on WGBH I simply had to have her book.