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Hello and welcome to Behind the Plate with me, Rob Riches, here on Prozis TV.
The show that serves up a fresh and healthy approach to eating right, and eating clean.
Today I’m here at the Santa Monica’s Farmer’s Market in Southern California
To check out how small farms are serving up fresh, agricultural products to the urban customer
Helping to build the community and further preserve Californian farmland. Let’s go check out what’s in offer.
Walking up and down all these stands, I’m kind of getting the feel for some sort of Mediterranean-based sandwich
That we’re gonna make back in the studio kitchen after here at the farmer’s market. So what better place
To start than the fresh, healthy greens? I’m here at the Coleman Family Farm where they use
A chemical-free practice to check out what’s good to go into our sandwich.
Hi there, I wonder if you can help me. We’re kind of making some sort of sandwich.
Full of greens with probably also fiber and some fish and salmon in there, so we’re looking at
Keeping it Mediterranean and healthy and I like that you use the chemical-free approach
So what can you recommend?
Well, if you’re using fish, I often use this anice to get a little bit of the sweet and spicy flavor.
OK, I like that. And where does this come from?
I’m told that this is originally from the Mediterranean, from somewhere in Europe
But we do grow everything here, freshly grown in California, in Santa Barbara, actually Carpinteria.
And I take it you eat the leaves just like this?
Yeah.
OK.
That’s strong, that’s like an anise flavor?
Absolutely.
It really does taste very fresh, it’s like it’s literally just been plucked from the ground.
That I definitely want going into the sandwich.
Well you can tell how fresh it is by looking at the stems. This was probably just picked yesterday.
And there’s nothing you can do but just taste it.
That’s a great tip, I like that.
And we keep it in water just to keep them perky.
So would you keep these refrigerated? Or on a vase and literally pick them off when you need them?
Oh well you can do it either way. I’ve had great success just keeping it in the refrigerator
Or wrapped in a plastic bag. Everything but the flowers will last you about 3 weeks
So even if it isn’t fresh it still tastes about the same.
I take it you don’t eat the flowers.
I do.
You can eat everything?
They taste exactly the same as the leaves, maybe a little sweeter.
I like that. That would compliment the salmon well, I think. Let’s definitely add some of that.
Any other flavor or textures that would compliment that?
Oh yeah. Well along that line, if you want something milder, the water-pepper here
Is mild and it’s kind of like a pea-flavor almost. It’s really hard to describe
And there’s nothing you can do but just taste it.
Pea, yeah I get it.
Yeah. Like mashed peas.
And that is grown here, everything is grown locally here?
Yeah.
And where is that from originally? What is its country of origin?
I'm not too sure but I would guess by the name that it has something to do with Italy.
So this is really starting to brood up to be a multicultural sandwich, I like that.
Let’s look for one more thing that we can cram into this sandwich.
OK. Well, if you’re going all the way across that sea there you’ll taste these two things: this one is shahi
And this variety is actually from Iraq and it’s spicy.
And the Middle Eastern people will just eat it with their braise meats and their rice. With fish as well.
That after-taste spicy, yeah I can taste that.
And this one is Satar, which is a type of savory, they also call it summer savory.
That’s sweet.
That realty does have quite a rich overbearing flavor, I like that that’s gonna go great with our sandwich.
So um, let’s have those into the bag and we’ll get all of these flavors going.
OK.
Pleasure doing business with you, and enjoy the rest of your day.
So we’ve got our bag of fresh, super-fresh healthy greens here, let’s continue around the farmer’s market
And check out what else we can add into this Mediterranean, mega sandwhich.
So no sandwich is ever complete without adding some healthy sprouts in there, so I’m thinking in this bag
We put some alfalfa sprouts. Nice and healthy, goes in there.
OK, so we’ve got our onion sprouts, and our alfalfa sprouts bagged up. Let's continue around
The farmer’s market. Everything looks so fresh and colorful here and when it comes to Mediterranean
Sandwiches, there’s one food that we can’t leave out. And those are the tomatoes.
So I see a whole ton of variety over there, so let’s check out which one we best put into our
Mega Mediterranean sandwich.
So they sell these in main supermarkets?
Not in the regular grocery store, you’re not gonna find it there.
They don’t ship, is the problem with these kinds, so you won’t find them anywhere but in a local market.
Well these look like heirloom so why don’t I get… Can you bag me up just two of these?
So I’ve got my heirloom tomatoes here and she said a great point I hadn’t really considered before:
A lot of these foods are varieties that you can’t actually find anywhere in the supermarket
Due to the fact that they can’t be shipped and maintain their freshness.
So the benefit of coming to a certified farmer’s market is that
You can buy a lot of different variety of foods that you won’t find in the supermarkets
Due to the very fact that they are farmed and pretty much taken from the ground
In a day or two before coming here.
This really is going to be a super fresh mega Mediterranean sandwich
But I don’t think we’re done just yet, let’s look for one or two more ingredients to add into this sandwich
Before we make our way back to the kitchen.
Now one of the ways I want to add increased extra protein into the sandwich, along with the salmon, is to
Add some eggs into it, great source of complete protein so what better way of it than to add some organic eggs
How fresh are they?
From yesterday. You can keep them 3 and a half weeks, and they’re free-range.
So these aren’t chickens that are kept in cages and you mentioned that they’re happy chickens.
Yes.
Happy chickens mean happy eggs.
Right.
And happy people, happy costumers. I like that. You’ve mentioned that these had sprouts, is that correct?
Is that a certain diet that they have?
Yes.
So what if the chickens are not fed sprouts?
Grains.
OK, we can certainly get enough protein out of these six eggs, you can bag these up and I’ll take those.
So we’re slowly booting up the protein in our sandwich, especially once we add that salmon in along with the eggs
We’ve got a lot of vitamins, minerals in there and also some compex, and some fibrous carbs from the greens
Missing one thing: fats. And for that what better than to add in an avocado?
So let’s get one of these avocados to slice up, adding up to our sandwich, get back into our studio
And get cooking.
So far I’ve had a great time here at the farmer’s market in Santa Monica.
I've got everything I need for my Mediterranean sandwich, but I’m missing the main and key component
And that is protein. I’ve got my fats, I’ve got a little bit of protein from the eggs
But really we need to add in that final amount and what better way to do that than fish, salmon in particular?
So that’s what I’m here to find out, some fresh farm salmon, and find out some of the benefits
Of buying it from a farmer’s market as opposed to some of your more commercial and larger stores.
Hi guys.
Hi.
What do I need to know then about your salmon and how is this going to be better for me
Than buying from the shop?
First of all you know that this is wild salmon. It is not farmed, farmed salmon is gooey, wild salmon is very firm.
So what is the difference between farming and, let’s say, fishing it out of the ocean where they’re happy fish?
OK, so farming is like put them all together in a spot and they feed them
And so they actually don’t get a chance to swim and get their own muscles
So they’re just like these little babies in a river, they swim up to the ocean, they go around the world
So healthy muscles, actually, like chickens in a cage
They feed from the ocean, they’re eating, you know, swimming miles and miles, it’s a different product.
The first time I had farm fish after growing up on wild fish I spit it out of my mouth
I thought it was disgusting and I said 'what is wrong with this?', and they said 'it's farmed'.
So that was the last time I had farm fish.
So that about pretty much wraps up the morning here at the farmer’s market in Santa Monica
And I’ve learned a few things along the way: mainly either you can get a lot more variety
At of farmer’s market than a main supermarket, due to the fact they can get here a lot faster
And keep their freshness; and secondly the different textures and flavors and aromas we’ve experienced here
I can’t wait until I get back to the kitchen and combine these along with some healthy
Whole grain bread to make this superb Mediterranean-based sandwich. Let’s get going.