Market Report

Campanile chef Mark Peel forages the market each week. This week he's making the most of green garlic, which is the plant before it becomes a dried bulb. It looks like a scallion but smells like garlic. Mark combines 4 bunches of green garlic, 4 bunches of baby spring onions and a pound of potatoes to make a soup. He thinly slices the garlic and onions, cubes the potatoes and adds 2 quarts of water and a little butter. Boil until fork tender. Blend the soup in a blender and strain through a sieve. Add salt and pepper and enjoy.

Green Garlic

Green Garlic

Farmer Bill Coleman grows a few different varieties of radicchio, including the one pictured below. This variety, which grows this way in the spring, still has the bitter flavor of regular radicchio but lacks the bulb formation of its cousins.

Radicchio

Radicchio

Celery root is also in season. This knotty bulb has a celery flavor and can be cut up into soups or shredded into salads. The tops have a very strong celery flavor and make a good seasoning for salads or soups.

Support the Farmer's Kitchen at a benefit dinner this Monday, March 16 at Pace. Chef Sandy Gendel and the farmers at the Hollywood Market are providing a seasonal menu, with proceeds going to SEE-LA's Farmer's Kitchen.

Music break: Mexican Shuffle by Le London All Stars