Ginger Loving Care

I know the weekend is near when I get an email from the farmers market director on Friday afternoon. Rebbie Higgins writes about what she’s been eating:

You may feel like you’re up to your armpits in tomatoes (everyone’s a gardener this year!), but it won’t last forever, so enjoy them while you can. Tree and Leaf is already starting to bring their green tomatoes: I fry them in olive oil and serve them on brown rice with a fried egg and salt for comfort food.

Rebbie also highlights the market’s rare gem for that week:

Tree and Leaf grew ginger.  I can’t believe it.  They’re only selling it at the MtP market and it won’t last long.  Combine with butternut squash and the new Quaker Valley Orchard pears, and make a delicious Gingered Squash and Pear Soup.  Top with fried sage and fresh chives.  Sounds like Fall to me!

Ginger! Ginger! Holy crap. I never thought about the beginnings of ginger. How it grows, what it looks like, the climate and soil needed…But oh I’ll buy it (even at $15 per pound.) Young ginger hasn’t grown that pale golden skin yet. The ginger is bright and white, with flecks of hot pink. There were green stems popping out as well. While not edible, they can be added to soups for a ginger flavor. (The woman buying the ginger ahead of me talked about brewing a tea with the ginger stem and pineapple.)

I didn’t have such bold ambitions, but wanted to create something to highlight the fresh ginger.

Haricot Verts with Brown Rice and Young Ginger Matchsticks

The beans were trimmed and cut into thirds and sauteed in oil. I then threw in cooked brown rice to let it soak up some of the oil. Then I threw in half a diced jalepeno with salt and pepper. I then cleared the pan and added in a chopped cubanelle pepper. After that browned, I added everything back in the pan to come together. I added that to my purple bowl and tossed in flat-leaf parsley and the young ginger, cut into matchsticks. This was served with my soy-serrano sauce.