The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook: Seasonal Foods, Simple Recipes, and Stories from the Market and Farm

Sure, the farmer's market can provide the freshest food available, but how can you tell? And once you've found the perfect heirloom tomatoes, what do you do with them? Cooking teacher and television host Saltsman provides plenty of answers to those questions in this compilation of recipes that shrugs off complex preparation to focus on using seasonal ingredients to their fullest. Saltsman offers tips on buying (how to pick the best corn and eggs, for instance) as well as which vendors to seek out at her local farmer's market in Santa Monica, should you decide to make the trip. Meat, fowl and fish make appearances, but the star of this book is the produce. Saltsman provides a wealth of variations for familiar favorites like tomatoes, mushrooms and squash, and uses more exotic fare to spike some standard dishes: sapote, for instance, is a citrusy, custard-like South American fruit that makes a great twist on crme brulee. Cooks will get a lot of mileage out of Saltsman's simple yet innovative uses for fresh fruit, like a memorable tart made of seared nectarines and peaches, burnt honey and fresh berries, or a savory-sweet salad made with mixed cherries, toasted almonds, greens and aged goat cheese. In her first book, Saltsman proves that minimal effort, coupled with high-quality food, can produce extraordinary results.