Avondale Market

What you're looking at in the header is Jeanne's patch of lemongrass. I thought that I'd start with it since today's post is about a place that is ALL about fruits and vegetables. 

Here are some big lemongrass stems.  I tug and pull the fattest stems out of the clump, and generaly they loosen with a bit of root attached.  The part that is used is the bottom center part; you have to cut each stem into 3 inch pieces and then peel away the fibrous layers until you get to the white center.  Lemongrass is very fragrant, very lemony.  It gives a bright flavor to Thai dishes and rice.  To use it, I crush up the peeled center and saute it with the spices, onion, garlic and so on when I'm cooking a curry sauce, or I add the crushed pieces to rice before I steam it.  I remove the pieces before serving.  And yes, the leaves are what lemongrass tea is made from. I also made some sweet chili jam with lemongrass, using apples and a big handful of long red chili peppers I bought at the Avondale Farmers Market. I was improvising, and added several pieces of lemongrass to the apples and peppers as they cooked. The jam is so delicious, we adults and Amiri love it on toast over a thin spread of cream cheese!  -  JF

Like Jeanne mentioned, I am going to take you to the farmers' market in Avondale. That's the suburb with the giant spider sculpture downtown. It's also the place with all the Samoan takeaway places that I like so much.

I had been told that this was a big market and that is true. It is huge. Come along and take a look. 

Overcast though it may be, the market was full of people when we arrived at about 11 a.m.

I'm sure there were at least 100 vendors. Jeanne is after chili peppers, and lots of them.  She intends to use them for that pepper jelly.

The prices were good, even very good. 

We both had trolleys and brought them home about 3/4's filled.

Some of these were on the too-ripe side of things, but I chose two that were perfect. 

Here is a food stand that I liked very much. If you look closely, you'll see that it sells Koko Samoa along with it's famous banana pancakes. I bought us some of each. The Koko was exactly like I expected it to be. That told me that I had made it correctly when I tried it at home. 

And here are the pancakes. I was surprised too with their shape. These are not quite the size of a tennis ball. The outer crust is crunchy and the inner part is springy. It's like a very dense giant donut hole I suppose. The banana taste is very mild. One of these and a cup of Koko Samoa is really satisfying. 

There were several musicians at work, adding to the mood of the place. 

I really tried to find out what this is. I was only partially successful. I asked it's name twice, but I just couldn't make out what they were saying. I learned that the white liquid is sweetened coconut milk, but the green stuff is still a mystery. It tastes very bland by itself. 

But put together, the combination is wonderful. I intend to buy some more next time we go to that market and I will get to the bottom of the 'green stuff' mystery. I think green food coloring must be involved. 

 I have had khao tom, that is, sticky rice, with either banana or taro, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed, many times and love it, so I thought this might be along the same lines. I found out that it was quite different.

Instead of being very slightly sweet like khow tom is, this was something completely weird. I can't begin to describe the flavor. The red beans that are in it were not at fault. It's just that whatever spices were used are absolutely foreign to my definition of 'tasty.' 
 Now, I have tried hundreds of new foods since moving to NZ and most of them I've found to be at least 'agreeable'. This one was not on that list. But whether or not I personally find a new food to my liking, I value it for the experience of tasting it. I just don't want to taste this one again...ever...please don't make me... 

I have shown mainly photos of the vegetable, fruit and food stands in this post, but this market has everything imaginable in it. We'll go back sometime I'm sure.  

So, here is Jeanne's pepper jelly. Rather than just using an apple jelly base, as most people do who make pepper jelly, Jeanne has used apples, feijoas, and lemon grass, besides plenty of jalapenos and other peppers. You can see the pieces of pepper in it and the color of course comes from the peppers. The amount of heat in this is just right. I'm a lucky guy.  Btw, the bread slices come from what they call a 'pide' loaf at Zeki's in Henderson.      -djf