flavor of the day: cumin

Farm day today. We seem to be just starting to get cherry tomatoes. I picked two quarts today and saw loads of flowers and green tomatoes on the vines. This could be The Summer of the Tomato, though last year, we had plenty, too.

I was all set to make a curry tonight except that it was too hot. And I was going to make raita -- usually "stuff" (often cucumbers) with yogurt. I got most of the way through the raita only to discover that our yogurt smelled like bad cheese, so we made an abrupt executive decision and had something similar but not quite.

The salad portion of the meal included:
- cucumbers from last week, peeled, quartered, seeded, and sliced.
- micro-steamed cubed potatos, super sweet beets, and garlic, then rapi-cooled
- sauteed cumin and mustard seeds and half an onion (oh yeah, the other half went into that cole slaw I made on Saturday), cooled
- halved cherry tomatoes
- feta cheese
- chopped parsley
All tossed in a light vinaigrette. Turned out well.

On the side, I served rice and tiny sliced carrots, which I'd steamed along with olive oil, butter, more cumin seeds, and a little cardamom.

We had a fresh peach, grapes, and chocolate for dessert.

Another success.

This week's farm share will be easier to get through because my share partner is back from vacation, so we'll only be faced with half of it once again. We'll have no trouble eating the tomatoes (though maybe I shouldn't speak in the plural). We have a smaller amount of lettuce to go through than in past weeks, a lot of carrots and cucumbers, some fresh mozzarella, a few herbs. We also have another huge beautiful onion, some rainbow chard, and a little summer squash.

MMM, maybe a little sautee with squash, onion, and tomato would be good, with some minced garlic and ginger thrown in at the last minute. Or maybe all that with chard instead of squash.

Thursday evening, I'll need to plan something quick because we have 8pm theater tickets. I'll see what else inspires me during the week. (oh! pesto! We're still working on last year's batch with this year's bounty just around the corner!)