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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fingerlings, cime di rape and peas.





I'm the planner and the executioner in my house. I'm queen and maid in my kitchen. Yet, when it comes to cooking a new dish, I always ask Hubby what he thinks.
Yesterday, as I dug furrows in the garden to plant favas- a new breed from Italy given to me by a visiting seed guru from Portland who wanted to know first if I liked favas, then, if I wanted to experiment with old fashioned purple ones- I dug out tiny potatoes I had planted two years ago!

I also found some cime di rape, and tiny pea pods.



I was shocked and pleased and took  the potato fingerlings  gingerly, not sure how and if to prepare them at all. So, I asked Hubby, who is the potato master, how he wanted them cooked. 
"Creamed, with peas and tiny onions!" He said, licking his lips.
"Creamed?" I inquired, incredulous, hating the idea of fussing with potatoes.

So, I took his suggestion. Boil, mash a little, add cream and butter, add peas, and serve.  Not hard.
The hard part was cooking the foundlings.  The bigger ones, brownish in color, never cooked. The smaller ones, tiny whitish ones, cooked in no time.

I served them with grilled salmon steaks, and sauteed cime di rape, which, incidentally, tasted divine with the cream sauce.

Hubby's plate was licked clean.
He'll return to the furrows and try to unearth some more.

12 comments:

  1. You are making my mouth water. I grow peas in one of my deck containers every year, they're like candy when picked young, but I also use the leafs in salads, on sandwiches, and as garnish and the leafs are almost as good as the fresh peas. Now I want to try potatoes in a container, fingerlings are sooooooo good. Can't wait to get started.

    Bon Appetite

    Nancy at the Boat House

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  2. And now for your English readers - what are fingerlings and what is cime de rape??

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  3. I agree with Jane! I don't know what you've found but it sounds exciting and delicious!

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  4. Fingerlings are small potatoes, as small as fingers.
    Cime di rape are a variation of broccoli, only thinner stalks, just a tip of which is broccoli like. They have more character thab broccoli, and a wilder taste, a tad bitter.

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  5. p.s. these were planted a year ago, or earlier. They survived the winter and are just now coming into their own.

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  6. mmmm! I'm planning to plant fingerlings, and many other things this year....if the snow every stops;-)

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  7. so in England you would be eating new potatoes and (purple?) sprouting broccoli? Maybe! It still sounds delicious!

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  8. Sooz, they are real food, varieties grown around the globe. I'm game.

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  9. Sounds like hubby knows his stuff with potatoes! It all sounds delicious and I love salmon steaks, too!

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  10. I am interested in your variety of fava bean. Hope you will post a picture when they mature! Potatoes are great when they give you a surprise like that. I am still finding little red potatoes in my soil. Your recipe sounds like real comfort food!

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  11. I suspect cime de rape actually are the growing tips of rape plants Sooz, which we grow by the trillions of acres for oil in the UK. Agricultural Rape is a brassica and edible so I think that's what it is. :O)

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