Something New

For My Theory blog this week, I wanted to both try and experience with a new ingredient or two. So I woke up earlier than my liking on a Sunday morning, grabbed my tote, and went Leslieville farmers market. And the sight of the abundance of fresh foods, made me forget how much I just love to sleep!. First order of business was obviously coffee, it also would be rude not to try the pain au chocolate, and maybe fresh strawberries. Ok, now that I'm fully charged, let the hunt for the new ingredient began. After browsing through the market for an hour, I was torn between two items that I have never tried before. The first was black garlic, and the other one was baby zucchini blossoms. They both looked too pretty not to try! so I took both.

I went back home, and the first thing I did was experience the taste and feel of the two, on their own and without cooking. I was completely blown away by the black garlic, It had such a complex flavors!. It's sweet, but not overly sweet, it reminded me of date molasses, and with hints of balsamic vinegar. It truly tasted like nothing i've had before. The texture of it was not as firm as white garlic, but resembled sukkari or medjool dates, it wasn't creamy, but still easily spreadable. Lastly, the smell, you can clearly identify the hints of raw garlic, the sweet and the vinegary note, but the combination of the three, smells like something I know, but I could not put my finger on it, like a tune stuck in your head, but you don't know when and where did you hear it. 

After the roller coaster that is black garlic, the baby zucchini blossoms seemed so simple, nice and not at all as complicated. A fragile velvety flower, with an ever so slightly fruity fragrance. They taste, as one would guess, like a mild zucchini, only slightly sweeter. All these components, make it the perfect vessel for other flavors. 

Later that day, I made lunch using my farmers market goodies. I stuffed the zucchini with ricotta, lemon zest, corned beef and dill. Tossed in a beer batter, and fried!. As for the Black garlic, I spread half a clove on each slice of baguette, topped it with ricotta, mixed micro greens and a honey and chili flicks vinaigrette. I used the rest of the micro greens to make a salad. Lastly, I made a side of labneh and crushed spicy potatoes. Disclaimer: the fries are not burnt, thats the raisin and urfa biber. 

Although I'm someone who tries new foods all the time, from this experience I realized that my food adventures are mainly orders at restaurants, and rarely as a new ingredient to cook with. And giving the fact the both choices were a hit, and would purchase to cook with again, because I thoroughly enjoyed every bite, and loved the exposure to an unfamiliar taste. Also, I'm defiantly going to make visiting farmers market, and picking new items to experience with a habit. 

Writing for this blog has taught me something I did not do before. And that is, tasting the ingredient raw and not interrupted or over shadowed by other flavors. This allows you to analyze each note, and determine which other flavors would go best with it.