Summit County Citizens Voice

New potatoes and asparagus have been on sale recently at Safeway. Together, they make a fine vegetarian meal, and it’s an early season staple and classic in farmhouse restaurants in central Europe. Just boil and serve with some melted butter.

Crispbread, Nutella, sliced ripe banana and some sesame seeds = perfect snack.

Safeway has also been carrying bags of small bell peppers recently, They’ve been incredibly fresh, sweet and juicy, a nice contrast from the sometimes-wrinkled super-sized green bell peppers. Then, the only question is what to do with three pounds of peppers. Since I have some paprika flowing in my veins, I instantly thought of Lecsó, a Hungarian pepper stew that’s a good eastern European comfort food. I’d never made it before, but this recipe was a good starting point for some Balkan improv.

So I ended up with bunch of the little fingerling potatoes and the mini-bell peppers, wondering what to do. I ended up making a curried veggie stew, using sun-dried tomatoes (softened in a veggie broth) as a base of for the curry sauce, finishing the stew with a touch of fresh-grated ginger. Sorry, no recipe. This was a classic kitchen improv dish.

Here’s a closeup look at the finger potatoes, including the super-cool purple ones. They’re a joy to look at and a while lot of fun to cook with. Look for them in the potato bin at Safeway.

This is going back a few months in the archives, but I had to include it in this food-related post. If you’re wondering, it’s a giant puffball, found growing not far from Frisco.

That puffball was the centerpiece of our menu for a few days, including this open-faced sandwich with sliced tomatoes and topped with a fried egg.