Product Description

For more than a quarter century, the Santa Monica Farmers' Market has inspired both renowned chefs and home cooks, making it a regional market with national presence. One of the largest markets in the state, it stands at the forefront of a national trend toward cooking with local and seasonal ingredients. For more than twenty years, Amelia Saltsman has shopped its stands, talked with its farmers, and cooked its magnificent produce for family and friends. The result is The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook, a celebration of the market s excellence and its hardworking farmers. What s the difference between white and green zucchini? What are amaranth, sapote, and ramps? With Amelia as your guide, you ll learn the answers to these questions and more. You'll also find advice on how to select and store produce, stories about farmers and their crops, chef and farmer cooking tips, and more than 100 of Amelia's simple, tempting recipes including: -- Fava Bean and Pea Shoot Salad -- Classic Tomato Soup with a Goat Cheese Swirl -- Black Cod with Green Tomatoes -- Roast Leg of Lamb with Oil-Cured Black Olives and Herbs -- Seared White Nectarines with Burnt Honey -- Meyer Lemon Sundaes with Cara Cara Oranges and Tangelos With a foreword by acclaimed cookbook author Deborah Madison, a design by Ph.D and photos by Anne Fishbein.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #388389 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Sure, the farmer's market can provide the freshest food available, but how can you tell? And once you've found the perfect heirloom tomatoes, what do you do with them? Cooking teacher and television host Saltsman provides plenty of answers to those questions in this compilation of recipes that shrugs off complex preparation to focus on using seasonal ingredients to their fullest. Saltsman offers tips on buying (how to pick the best corn and eggs, for instance) as well as which vendors to seek out at her local farmer's market in Santa Monica, should you decide to make the trip. Meat, fowl and fish make appearances, but the star of this book is the produce. Saltsman provides a wealth of variations for familiar favorites like tomatoes, mushrooms and squash, and uses more exotic fare to spike some standard dishes: sapote, for instance, is a citrusy, custard-like South American fruit that makes a great twist on crème brulee. Cooks will get a lot of mileage out of Saltsman's simple yet innovative uses for fresh fruit, like a memorable tart made of seared nectarines and peaches, burnt honey and fresh berries, or a savory-sweet salad made with mixed cherries, toasted almonds, greens and aged goat cheese. In her first book, Saltsman proves that minimal effort, coupled with high-quality food, can produce extraordinary results.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
The farmers' markets are one of our nation's greatest resources, and knowing how to cook from them can unlock their deep treasures. Amelia Saltsman gives us the key. The recipes are simple and straightforward and reading them makes you want to run right out to your nearest farmers' market and transform the best of America's farming into your family's favorite meals. --Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW's "Good Food"

When a masterful cook with a strong scholarly bent sets out to create a portrait of her farmers' market, this is what you get--a book far beyond the usual. Amelia Saltsman gifts us with dishes we want to cook and insights into the little known and familiar we are discovering in our own markets. This is the book to keep in the kitchen and then stash on the back seat of the car on Saturday mornings. --Lynn Rossetto Kasper, host of NPR's "The Splendid Table"

When you cook food that is locally grown and in season, the importance of shopping at farmers' markets becomes crystal clear: that's where you'll find ripe, tasty ingredients. Amelia's book is an amazing resource to have with you, a complete season-by-season handbook to guide you through the bounty of the market. --Alice Waters, Chez Panisse

Review
Amelia's book is really three volumes in one: gleanings from the culture of farming; a guide to produce, meats, and cheeses found at this extraordinary market; and a great cookbook. -From the Foreword by Deborah Madison

Amelia's book is an amazing resource to have with you, a complete season-by-season handbook to guide you through the bounty of the market. -Alice Waters owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant

...for anyone who has ever stood in the produce aisle of the supermarket, wishing for something more; for anyone who has wandered past the rows of beautiful produce at a farmers' market gazing longingly but unsure where to start. -Suzanne Goin, chef-owner of Lucques and AOC restaurants