Our chefs were so excited to participate in the Capital Harvest on the Plaza (CHoP) Farmers’ Market Chef’s Demonstration on June 11. It was a perfect, sunny DC day for checking out all the fresh summer produce at the market outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Our oh-so-charming chefs, Executive Chef Shannon Shaffer, Sous Chef Andro Franetovic, and Chef Keith Wamback, were happy to teach the enthusiastic crowd how to make a delicious herbed potato gnocchi from scratch.
CHoP features produce, meats, and cheeses from local farmers and artisans and encouraged our chefs to incorporate the fresh ingredients into the dish. At the end of the demonstration, the crowd happily sampled a rich yet summery potato gnocchi with fresh peas, Cajun andouille sausage, goat cheese, onions, basil, elephant garlic, and a light heirloom tomato sauce.
Catch the action on our video:
Shopping at the market. Our ingredients featured:
Peas, tomatoes, basil, elephant garlic from Lois’s Produce
For those of you living in the DC area or if you’ve been watching the news, you know that we just got walloped by a 48 hour blizzard, the biggest snowstorm in the Nation’s Capital since 1922.
My favorite moment was when a group of cross-country skiiers came gliding down 15th Street, a usually busy downtown thoroughfare.
Besides roads and power lines, grocery stores were definitely hit the hardest - the approaching storm coupled with Super Bowl Sunday left neighborhood stores with little produce, meat, dairy or bread – I swear people were running for the last bags of tortilla chips!
With more snow on its way….here is a delicious hot beverage recipe to help you keep warm and toasty! The best part is that you can easily piece together this recipe with items from your spice cabinet.
Mulled Wine
Ingredients
1 Strips of zest from 2 oranges
2 bottles (48oz) Syrah or Merlot
2 cinnamon sticks, about 4 inches each
8 whole cloves
2 whole star anise pods
2 pieces vanilla beans, about 2 inches each
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Triple Sec
Directions
Pour wine and Triple Sec into medium-size saucepan and cook on medium heat. Wrap all the spices in a piece of cheesecloth and tie with string, submerge into wine. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Do not allow mixture to boil. Once sugar is dissolved, reduce heat to low and keep warm, covered, for 30 minutes. Pour into mugs directly from stove and keep the mixture warm in between servings.
(If you don’t have cheesecloth, you can always just strain the wine after heating and infusing.)
What recipes or dishes are you cooking up in the snow?
Our chefs were so excited to participate in the Capital Harvest on the Plaza (CHoP) Farmers’ Market Chef’s Demonstration on June 11. It was a perfect, sunny DC day for checking out all the fresh summer produce at the market outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Our oh-so-charming chefs, Executive Chef Shannon Shaffer, Sous Chef Andro Franetovic, and Chef Keith Wamback, were happy to teach the enthusiastic crowd how to make a delicious herbed potato gnocchi from scratch.
CHoP features produce, meats, and cheeses from local farmers and artisans and encouraged our chefs to incorporate the fresh ingredients into the dish. At the end of the demonstration, the crowd happily sampled a rich yet summery potato gnocchi with fresh peas, Cajun andouille sausage, goat cheese, onions, basil, elephant garlic, and a light heirloom tomato sauce.
