SPINACH
What a sight to behold: bags of local spinach, even in the coldest months of the year. Thanks to Dan Moore of Terra Greens for growing and Root Cellar Foods for delivering! Some spinach varieties, like Bloomsdale, are deeply colored and bumpy in texture while others are flat, but all are delicious when combined with crisped bacon, sliced boiled eggs, and a honey mustard vinaigrette.
Keep your spinach at the ready by giving the leaves a dunk and swish in a bowl of water, lift them out for an optional spin dry or place directly onto a clean kitchen towel for a loose roll up, which absorbs excess moisture. From there, I tumble them into a clear, airtight container which I keep on the top shelf in the refrigerator filled with all kinds of ready-to-eat greens; I like it front and center where I can see it and use it.
BLOOD ORANGES
There’s a season for citrus and that season is winter, a time when we buy from growers in warmer places if we’re craving oranges, mandarins, Meyer lemons, kumquats, and the featured delicacy: blood oranges— such an unseemly name for such a beautiful fruit.
Blood oranges have a more tart, complex flavor than regular oranges, but their main appeal is their beautiful, variegated colors, which range from beet red and orange to pale pink. To show off the fruit’s beauty, I like to cut it into horizontal slices and remove the peel while enjoying each slice. An alternative is to knife-peel the orange and cut into horizontal slices, rough segments, or supremes. Any of these peeled shapes would be great in our Salad of Beets and Oranges recipe on page 56.
CARROTS
Carrots get us through the winter here in Bozeman and I’m a fan of all kinds, from the slender and symmetric, to the big chunkers that are good for juicing, to the entwined lovers and humorously anthropomorphic (that you can only get from local growers, never sold in stores).
Roast carrots in the oven at 400°F for 20–30 minutes, depending on size. If you have big carrots, cut them up; if you have slender carrots, perhaps roast them whole or cut them in half lengthwise. All you need to make them delicious is a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and for savory carrots, perhaps a shake of cumin, cinnamon, or chile powder, or for sweet carrots try maple syrup or brown sugar.
