A Little Cookery

Last weekend, we went to the last Hill-Stead's Farmers Market of the season. This was our first year attending the market, but we'll definitely be back next year as it's a really nice market with lots of goods noms and is quite close to home, too. Anyway, on our last trip, we bought lots of local apples and pears, goat's milk yoghurt, turnip greens, and a rather yummy-looking frozen shepherd's pie.

The pie we ate Sunday night with buttery, garlicky green beans and braised cabbage.

The frozen pie did not come with reheating instructions (and I didn't think to ask when I bought it), but I found baking it, covered, for 30 minutes at 400°F and then uncovering it and baking it for another 30 minutes worked fine. I sprinkled the pie with a Penzey's Hungarian Smoked paprika before shoving it in the oven and it gave the pie some nice color.

The pie came from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme -- we've bought yummy yoghurt and frozen lamb bolognese sauce from them in the past so I had no qualms about purchasing a pie. My only regret is that I did not purchase two -- one for Sunday and one as an emergency "forgot to plan" supper.

To make the buttery, garlicky green beans, I just microwaved fresh green beans and peeled cloves of garlic until the beans were tender. Then I mashed the garlic into bits and tossed the beans and garlic with unsalted butter. Seasoned them with fresh ground black pepper and salt and that was that. Green deliciousness.

The cabbage was a first attempt and tasted okay, but needs tweaking. I took two small green and red cabbages from my garden and chopped them into small pieces. I cooked the cabbage and a chopped red onion in a hot pan with unsalted butter and olive oil until the onion was translucent, then I poured in some low-sodium chicken broth, covered the pan, and let it simmer for about twenty minutes. I gave the cabbage a good stir, seasoned it with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and parsley.