I Love NY

I love New York.


Being able to walk over to the Greenmarket in Bowling Green, is one of the joys I've discovered at my new job. While not as large as the one at Union Square at 14th Street, this small outpost is there twice a week and thus far, seems to do just fine for me filling in for groceries I forgot to purchase over the weekend; or were not up to my standards when there.
Today, was one of those bountiful days at the market. There was a lot of ripe fruit (blueberries, peaches of several varieties including those cute little white "donuts" I love), apples, plums, and unbearably sweet apricots (I always think of my mom when I eat them) - all of which were cut up for tasting. One vendor was selling fruit "stumps" - fresh juices made from their crops, barely filtered, amazing stuff.
A couple of people were selling various pastries, breads and homemade doughnuts (I bought 1/2 dozen of the apple cider to bring home, one of which did not make it because once I saw how crisp and greasy it was I had to have one with my lunch).
But, I was there mostly for veggies today, since I didn't have much of that in the house. Picked up some fresh corn, a few orange tomatoes similar to the ones I had grown (mine, have finally bitten the dust and the plants are now dead as doorknobs and must be discarded to the garbage heap), several small white potatoes, green beans with vines still attached, a bunch of fresh spearmint (again, mine on the way out). Last week they had zucchini blossoms which I stuffed with goat cheese and scallions, then battered and fried up - wish I'd remembered to photograph those.
When I returned to the office, I happened to look on Twitter to see what was up and there was an update from someone I follow with a link to a recipe for a kind of fresh corn polenta with salmon. I knew I didn't have everything it called for at home, not even with the shopping excursion I'd just been on (scallions for instance, none in the house, and they didn't have any at the market or I would probably have picked them up even without knowing I'd need them). However, I knew I could work with the basic structure of the recipe, had other flavors in mind I could use, could make it more Southern as opposed to Mediterranean. Called Ghosty and asked him to take out the jumbo shrimp I had in the freezer to defrost and figured I'd just wing it, as usual.
So, basically the recipe was this.
Stripped 2 ears of corn (3 ears would have been better but I only had 2), threw that in a small pot with about 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Salt and black pepper to taste. Began heating it up over medium heat, as I chopped up 1 shallot.
Sauteed the shallot in about 1 tablespoon butter until browned and added a dash of hot pepper flakes. Put shallot/pepper mixture into corn/cream mixture. Added a bit more cream at this point, as it seemed like it needed it, maybe 1/4 cup more. Let this boil and thicken, as I went about the rest of business. Finished "polenta" should be thick, but not "gloppy". Thin with a bit of cream, if needed.
Floured about 3/4 lb. peeled/deveined jumbo shrimp. Salt and peppered it heavily. Heated butter and peanut oil in fry pan - about 1 tablespoon of both, give or take (more give I bet). Place shrimp in pan, let brown on 1 side - took about 2 minutes probably. While cooking, chop up (1) good sized orange tomato. Turn shrimp and throw in tomatoes to cook while shrimp finishes off. Salt and pepper to taste if needed.
To plate, place corn "polenta" in bottom of shallow bowl, place shrimp and tomatoes on top.
Note: This may have been nice served with some warmed French bread, lightly toasted, to soak up juices - the tomatoes/butter/oil did make quite a bit of liquid which was rather tasty.
I'm pretty sure that's it. Once again, NOT a recipe per se. Just went into the kitchen, and worked some magic :)