Market Happenings
Come celebrate the diverse cultures represented at your market. Our vendors and friends of the market will be showcasing foods from across the world. Our hope is that you will try new foods and find some that you "adopt". We will be cooking a low fat seafood gumbo for you to taste and Christen's Gourmet Pralines will be showcasing their New Orleans/Cajun cookin' in honor of MardiGras. La Tushpa will be cooking home-style Peruvian foods, Kala will help you with your Nepalese dishes with her sauces and appetizers (check out her famous and award winning mango chutney). Royal India is featuring their banana leaf tamales from the south of Mexico, Central and South America. The banana is raised all over that part of the world and is used instead of the traditional corn husks that are typical here in Texas. Tamale Place will have their traditional, vegetarian and dessert tamales along with their fresh corn chips fried in coconut oil and fresh salsas. Cake and Spoon brings us "Flap Jacks" from the UK. A flapjack is a sweet tray-baked oat bar made from rolled oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. This dish is found in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is also found in Australia, but known as a "muesli bar". In other countries including Canada, the United States, and South Africa, flapjack refers to a form of pancake. The Peached Tortilla, Sweet Texas, Pie Fixes Everything, Betty's Glutenless Gluttony will also bring their specialties...and don't miss the music!
Upcoming Events
February 18 - 9am - 1pm Celebration of culture at the market. We are asking that vendors share with you the customs and tastes of each of their cultures. Hang on, this could be fun.
April 27 - 29 - Austin Food and Wine Festival: This festival marks a collaboration between C3 Presents and some of Texas’ most celebrated chefs and restaurateurs. Become a fan on facebook!
May 5th - 10am - 4pm - Hill Country Chicken Coop Tour: Join us for a tour of the coolest coops around! Become a fab on facebook!
Vendor Updates
New this week to the market are La Tushpa (home style Peruvian food) and Fertile Earth Organic Spice Rubs. You will find a familiar face at La Tushpa's. It belongs to Yrua Asmat who works the Poochie Trends booth when Geraldine can't make it to the market. Yrua tell us that "After moving to Austin I realized my accessibility to Peruvian food was limited, compared to eating my mom’s home cooked meals on a daily basis back in Florida. So, I decided to take all the knowledge I had acquired, after ten years of helping my mom cook, and began cooking my own Peruvian dishes at home. Then I met Geraldine, the owner of Poochie Trends, and found out about farmer markets in Austin. I had never heard of them before, and after two years working at the Cedar Park Farms to Market I realized that I wanted to show people how delicious Peruvian food is. I have a passion for cooking and want other people to get a chance at experiencing Peru’s unique cuisine." Welcome, Yrua! Can't wait to try your Peruvian food! Welcome our other new vendor, Fertile Earth, organic spice rubs. This first rub is a thyme blend and the other is a rosemary blend. Both spice rubs are salt free, preservative free and contain no black pepper. All ingredients are spices and herbs. Both rubs are great for grilling, baking, boiling and sauteing and are packaged in 1 oz. metal containers. Please give Saad a warm CPF2M hello.
3 Health Reasons to Cook with Cast Iron
Learn how cooking with cast-iron skillets can be good for your health. Cast-iron skillets may seem like an old-fashioned choice in the kitchen. But this dependable cookware is a must in the modern kitchen. Cast-iron skillets conduct heat beautifully, go from stovetop to oven with no problem and last for decades. (In fact, my most highly prized piece of cookware is a canary-yellow, enamel-coated cast-iron paella pan from the 1960s that I scored at a stoop sale for $5.) As a registered dietitian and associate nutrition editor of EatingWell Magazine, I also know that there are some great health reasons to cook with cast iron
You Can Cook With Less Oil When You Use a Cast-Iron Skillet: That lovely sheen on cast-iron cookware is the sign of a well-seasoned pan, which renders it virtually nonstick. The health bonus, of course, is that you won’t need to use gads of oil to brown crispy potatoes or sear chicken when cooking in cast-iron. To season your cast-iron skillet, cover the bottom of the pan with a thick layer of kosher salt and a half inch of cooking oil, then heat until the oil starts to smoke. Carefully pour the salt and oil into a bowl, then use a ball of paper towels to rub the inside of the pan until it is smooth. To clean cast iron, never use soap. Simply scrub your skillet with a stiff brush and hot water and dry it completely.
Cast Iron is a Chemical-Free Alternative to Nonstick Pans: Another benefit to using cast-iron pans in place of nonstick pans is that you avoid the harmful chemicals that are found in nonstick pans. The repellent coating that keeps food from sticking to nonstick pots and pans contains PFCs (perfluorocarbons), a chemical that’s linked to liver damage, cancer, developmental problems and, according to one 2011 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, early menopause. PFCs get released—and inhaled—from nonstick pans in the form of fumes when pans are heated on high heat. Likewise, we can ingest them when the surface of the pan gets scratched. Both regular and ceramic-coated cast-iron pans are great alternatives to nonstick pans for this reason.
Cooking with Cast Iron Fortifies Your Food with Iron: While cast iron doesn’t leach chemicals, it can leach some iron into your food...and that’s a good thing. Iron deficiency is fairly common worldwide, especially among women. In fact, 10% of American women are iron-deficient. Cooking food, especially something acidic like tomato sauce in a cast-iron skillet can increase iron content, by as much as 20 times.
Read more about cooking with cast iron and get recipes at eatingwell.com.
