Raab is Dead; Long live Raab

Broccoli Raab, rapini is pretty much done for the season. Who’d have thought that this passing would fill me with as much sadness as the summer’s last peach? I didn’t see this coming, I thought it was just a short-lived fascination, a curiosity and then one day the bitter green veg isn’t there any more. We, rapini and I did manage one good last meal together – fresh pasta, chili flakes and olive oil .

For dessert; mascarpone. I made my own, which is really easy to do if you can lay your hands on tartaric acid. An ingredient, that isn’t in grocery stores, but you can obtain from the people who supply cheese and cheese accessories, most of whom are doing their work online these days. Served when it was less than 2 hours old. I was going to get some strawberries, but all my store had were those big red cottony things. Organic or not, I want them to taste like something. So instead, I spread my fresh mascarpone on warmed bread with a little vanilla salt on top.

You can flavor salt with vanilla at home. It works to a certain degree but since this was a last second idea to add the salt to the mascarpone, I went down the street to the salt shop* and purchased a special salt that is first flaked then pressed with vanilla beans under pressurized rollers. The thought, which seemed to work as opposed to well-intentioned hype, is that vanilla is embedded in large crystals, which dissolve slowly on your tongue preserving the vanilla flavor. On mascarpone, a cheese made without sodium in any form, the flaked, vanilla scented salt add a flavor, texture and highlighted the sweetness of the cream via contrast.

*Yes, I said the salt shop down the street. It is called The Meadow and they have unique, one of a kind salts and foods in their store. When foodists travel from out of state, they want to visit. The Meadow has the worst website in the world - Hey Meadow, it is really cute your designer knows how to embed flash, but I only want the freakin store hours and phone number from your website. So, I refuse to link but if you are in Portland, please visit.

Interview I conducted with author William Alexander about bread, life and gardening on the PFM Blog here.

I rather write about food but the lawn doesn’t mow itself, a Lawnba would though? I really don’t want to put the lawn off again. Last mowing, the grass was knee high in places. Worse than the drudgery of mowing down the lawn, I think some critters lost their home. Mowing was like my own living Watership Down, a total bunnicost. (No rabbits were harmed in the mowing of my lawn, however some were injured by the lameness of that reference). 

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