market day

Every Wednesday, there´s a food market in the park right in front of my house, which I was unaware of when I bought the apartment, but is an awesome perk of living here. Even though it´s not a fancy food market, I do get the freshest stuff there, and at half the price of the fruit and vegetable stores in this particular neighbourhood. (I live in Palermo, no, not Palermo, Italy, but Palermo in Buenos Aires.) Well, I guess the comparison in general prices would be like comparing prices in New York with those in mmmm I don´t know, Alabama. Being "the" fashionable neighbourhood, it is assumed they can charge you more for a freaking tomato hahahaha I know I´m getting sidetracked here, but I can´t forget to mention that snobism reaches such heights in this area that we have different divisions like "Palermo Soho" and "Palermo Hollywood". Yes, indeed, Palermo is too freaking cool for South America, we belong in LA or London. My goodness!!!

Anyway, that weight off my chest, I can honestly say I love it here. It´s full of little design shops, artisan fairs, parks, it´s got a great night life, AND the traffic doesn´t suck, which is a big consideration to be had when living in a big city. I can even hear birds singing and stuff like that instead of the sound of cars rushing by.

Ok, focus, Marcela. Back to our regular program. As I was saying, every Wednesday I have the great joy of crossing the street and browsing through lovely produce. Being a fan of all things vegetable, it really is heaven on earth.

Today I loaded up on veggies, so tonight´s meal needed to involve at least some of them (I´m ashamed to say that sometimes I forget to cook something I had bought and I realize my profanity when I open the fridge to find a dying bouquet of basil or lettuce.)

I had to go with something quick because dinner time was approaching fast, so I chose a variation I had seen in "elgourmet.com" magazine (Argentine magazine and food channel, www.elgourmet.com): stuffed mushrooms with mashed sweet potatoes/yams and onions. My first reaction was "that´s a weird combination". Yet, since it was a recipe by my beloved Narda Lepes, I had to give it a go.





There´s not much of a recipe for it. You simply remove the stems of the mushrooms, and keep them for later. You make a thick puree with the sweet potatoes, add some browned onions and the mushroom stems, I added some pesto I had in the fridge, but you can add pretty much anything you want there (for instance, the original recipe had some chicken.) You stuff the mushrooms with the mix using a spoon, then sprinkle some parmesan over it, shove it in a 400°F oven for around 10-15 minutes and voilá! I served it with a zuchinni salad to give it a fresh touch.