Today
+Alex Crichton came down from SF to meet me at the Mountain View Farmers' Market. After a tricky time finding parking (never driving there again), we were able to stroll around. We knew we wanted to cook food, but had no idea what to make.
The first thing that caught our eye was a bread place (ACME bread) with a massive line. Our assumption was that a big line meant it had to be good, so we filed it away for future reference. We then hit up a Indian stand that had samosas, which were good but a bit cold. It seemed to have a good selection of naan, but we didn't get any.
The next place we stopped was the Santa Cruz Pasta Factory stand, which was selling fancy pasta and ravioli. We ended up getting "Caramelized Onions and Gruyere Cheese Ravioli" after trying a sample. It was only a 12 ounce serving, which ended up being a little small. The seller recommended using olive oil and parmesan reggiano with it. We ended up making "sauce" as follows:
Heat:
-1/2 cup olive oil (ended up being way too much)
-Some crushed garlic (never enough!)
Toss with cooked ravioli and add salt and pepper. Top ravioli with parmesan reggiano.
It was pretty good, though there was a puddle of oil at the bottom. Also, I lack a garlic press, so we ended up crushing the garlic using a plastic bag, a hammer, and my concrete deck. It went okay.
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| Fancy Ravioli in Garlicky Olive Oil |
We also made garlic bread to go with it, using italian bread from the ACME bread stand. We used this recipe here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/garlic-bread-recipe/index.html (but with no parsley). We had a lot of issues with overcooking using the broiler, as we didn't realize how quickly the bread would cook. In the future, we might not do the initial toasting. The final product was a little too cooked around the edges, but the topping was great. I wish it had soaked through a little more though.
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| Slightly Burnt Garlic Bread |
I also really wanted to make this black bean dip that's supposedly the same as the one from Mad Mex (my favorite Pittsburgh restaurant). The recipe is here:
http://www.bigburrito.com/bbrg/recipes/kayablackbean.html. The recipe was a little inexact, so we had to guess on some things. Pureeing the initial mixture was kind of difficult in my blender, but it went okay in the end. We ended up baking it for ~10 minutes at 325 degrees. It came out tasting good, but a little spicier than we would have liked. Next time, we might reduce the chipotle peppers, increase the beans, and slightly decrease the mayo. (I hate mayo, but the taste is well hidden in the dip.)
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| Almost Mad Mex Black Bean Dip |
We ended up getting the pasta, bread, some garlic, and some strawberries at the farmers' market. We went to Safeway for the rest. It was more expensive than I expected, but I didn't have some of the necessary spices or olive oil. Definitely a good meal though - we would eat all of these dishes again.
