The shallot cress may look battered, but it's still got spunk.Photo: Zoe Singer
What to Look For
Shallot cress is back! The first crop to emerge from the Gorzynski fields this year (rather than their greenhouses), it’s a bit battered-looking, but the onion-and-pepper flavor comes just in time to wake up those wimpy “spring salad mixes” ($24 per pound at Gorzynski, available Saturday).
When the good folks at Cheerful Cherry pulled some of their remaining summer fruits from the freezer to make juice last week, they had a change of heart and decided instead to impart some cheer by cooking up vats of strawberry and strawberry-cherry jam. Candy-red, candy-sweet, and full of the wonderful fresh fruit that Greenmarketers may recall from past summers, these old-fashioned jams are a delightful way to relish the anticipation of pleasures to come ($5 per eight-ounce jar at Cheerful Cherry, available Friday and Saturday).
The curry plants at the market (provided in response, the farmer says, to frequent requests) are causing some confusion among cooks; the small, pretty, gray-green plant does indeed have a mildly currylike fragrance, but its culinary appeal is limited and it does not produce the glossy, dark-green curry leaves frequently called for in Indian recipes. For those, check the refrigerator case of a well-stocked gourmet market or a store that caters to Southeast Asian cooks ($4 per —mostly decorative— plant at Hoeffner Farms, available Wednesday and Saturday).
Rabbits know no season for making rabbits, but they take well to cool-weather preparations like braising (see recipe) so if you’ve been considering making a rabbit, act now. The lean, flavorful meat is — cue the obligatory poultry reference — somewhat reminiscent of turkey, and no harder to cut up than chicken ($6 per pound at Northshire Farm, available Saturday).
Beyond the Greenmarket
Until local strawberries arrive in June, apples have a monotonous monopoly in terms of Greenmarket fruit. For a change of pace, head to gourmet markets for Kyoho grapes. The name means “big mountain” in Japanese, and these enormous purple-black globes have a Concord-like aroma and richly complex, sweet, juicy flesh unlike that of any seedless variety ($5.99 per two-pound package at Whole Foods). — Zoe Singer
