Never go shopping after late night pierogi...

Good morning! Today I was up, to the market and back before 9, just beating out the rain. As referenced in the title of the post, we went out to a show last night and then had dinner after at Veselka, a Ukrainian place on Second Avenue. Borscht followed by meat and potato pierogi. Not necessarily the best of ideas at 1 in the morning, but we were terribly hungry at the time. Last night's meal heavily influenced my shopping this morning.

The List
Tonje's Dairy
Ricotta
Mozzarella in brine

Gorzynski Farms
fava bean greens
celery root
kale

From the guy who also sells fresh porcinis and boar meat
CARDOON

The heavy purifying green purchases were influenced by last night for certain. (Although I'm not sure that the fava bean greens count since they taste rather like they've been injected with butter.) I knew I was going to get the cheeses because I intend to make lasagne this week.

Cardoon I've neither seen nor heard of before. Evidently it's a Mediteranean herb--looks like celery stalks but with spines on the side--whose taste has been described as bitter, artichoke-like or "like celery on steroids". None of these flavors are remotely similar to my mind, so I have a feeling a lot depends on the variety, climate and what it's grown in. I'm very excited to see what I can make with it! I've done a websearch of recipes and there appears to be an Italian/French split on preparation. The Italian versions lean toward (oddly enough) gratins, where as the French are more likely to be prepared with anchovies. I have a feeling we'll be going Italian...