Bring On Spring Produce!
Use new season pineapple to make this roast pork and salsa from A Better Choice!
Pick up a pineapple
Think a pineapple is just a pineapple? Think again. Like apples, there’s a range of different varieties available, each with their own flavour profiles. Many pineapples are at their peak in spring and at the Market you’ll find the delights like the low-acid Aussie Gold, the cute and compact Aussie Jubilee and the enticingly named Aussie Rough.
Unlike avocados, pineapples do not ripen after they are picked so choose wisely. When it comes to selecting, the nose knows – if the bottom smells fruity and sweet, pop it in your basket.
A perfect pineapple is a delight as is, or add a salty, limey, chilli kick by sprinkling it with some Mexican Tajin from the South Melbourne Market Grocer. For a quick and light weekday dessert try these pineapple filo parcels or make this decidedly tropical pineapple and passionfruit upside down cake and invite some friends over for afternoon tea.
Image from A Better Choice!
And then we come to savoury pineapple dishes, which are up there with sultanas in a stew for controversy, especially when it comes to pizza. Most Italians would consider this addition an abomination - the closest thing you’ll get to Hawaiian at our authentic Roman eatery Pizzateca Lupa is a customer into brightly coloured shirts.
But if you are proudly pro-pineapple on pizza, or have fond memories of gran’s ham steak and pineapple, try this roast pork with chilli pineapple salsa – it hits the same flavour notes but with a fresher, brighter taste.
For a budget friendly meal, buy cheaper cuts of meat like skirt or flank steak from one of our butchers and tenderise it by using a marinade that contains fresh pineapple juice – the bromelain in it helps to break down the collagen that can make these steaks chewy. The upside to all this collagen is it adds lots of flavour; seared and thinly sliced, a flank or skirt steak might just become your spring barbecue favourite. Don’t have a juicer at home? Swing past Juicello and make sure you also pick up a refreshing sugarcane juice for the road.
If you’re already on the kombucha making bandwagon (Moses and Co Market Wholefoods sell SCOBYS if you’d like to give it a try) keep your pineapple peels to make tepache, a naturally fermented drink. It’s a delicious way to reduce waste.
Pick up freshly squeezed pineapple juice at Juicello
Take on an artichoke
Globe artichokes are popular in cuisines across the Mediterranean and Middle East, yet with their somewhat daunting, pangolin-esque exterior, they too often get passed by. Artichokes are a type of thistle and the part we eat is actually the bud of its flower - if you leave them unpicked they will blossom into big purple flowers, resembling a giant version of many a farmer’s nemesis, the scotch thistle.
Most artichoke dishes do take time to prepare, planting them firmly in the weekend project cooking category. But with their delicious nutty flavour and buttery texture, they definitely sit in high effort/high reward square in the effort-to-reward ratio. Artichokes are also a great source of inulin, a prebiotic fibre that feeds your friendly gut bacteria - another good reason to add them to your plate.
Try these delicious Mediterranean roasted artichokes as a delicious appetiser or side dish or a vegetarian artichoke and spinach lasagne (we won’t judge you if you take a short-cut and buy prepared artichoke hearts from one of our delis).
Image from A Better Choice!
Not all artichoke dishes are complicated and a whole boiled artichoke with vinaigrette is a classic that can be whipped up on a weeknight.
Prepare the artichokes by cutting the stems off, leaving about 5cm remaining and, using a sharp knife*, cut 5cm or so off the top of the closed bud. Place them into a large pot of salted water with half a lemon thrown in and boil for about 30 minutes. While they are cooking you can make a vinaigrette of your choice or even a good garlicky aioli. Once the artichokes are cooked, take out of the water and turn upside down for 5 minutes to drain.
When it comes to eating them, peel off the outer leaves one by one, dip into your vinaigrette and use your teeth to scrape off the fleshy part. Please don’t eat the whole leaves! Eventually you’ll reach the tender artichoke heart, which you can eat whole, but first you’ll need to remove its fuzzy little crown. It’s quite the eating adventure, so for the uninitiated, we recommend doing a bit of research on YouTube first.
*Plan a visit to Mo Sharp Knife Sharpening if your blades need some TLC!
Peas please (and their leaves)
We won’t deny that a bag of peas in the freezer is a godsend for adding something green to an otherwise beige meal, but sweet, fresh spring peas are worth seeking out. Peas are a good source of protein, iron and folate making them a great meal choice, especially for expecting mums.
When you have the time, podding peas can be quite mediative. But if your smart watch is sending heart rate notifications at just the thought of it, podding peas is a great activity to get small hands involved in the kitchen (kid safe knives from Spotty Dot will also help keep high heart rates at bay).
For a less hands-on option, sugar snap peas have a tender, edible pod and can be eaten raw in a salad, added whole to ramen or sauteed with olive oil, garlic and asparagus and tossed through fresh pasta.
Snow peas are a stir fry staple, but like Melbourne’s weather, they can go from delightful to dreary in a matter of seconds. To retain their crunch, make sure you cook them briefly or add them right near the end of cooking time if mixing with other, longer cooking items. If you’ve left them in the fridge too long and they’re looking a bit limp, pop them in a bowl filled with cold water for 10 minutes and they’ll soon crisp up – a trick that works equally well on sad herb bunches.
The young pea shoot leaves from the snow pea plant are also edible and with their delicious, sweet, pea flavour, they might just become one of your favourite leafy greens. You can find a vibrant tangle of them at Fruits on Coventry.
Try them in this quick and easy stir fry. Using all four variations, it’s the EGOT** of pea dishes.
Pea, snap pea, snow pea and pea shoot stir fry
Serves 2
- Two large handfuls of pea shoots, cut into 10cm sections
- 100g snow peas
- 100g sugar snap peas
- ½ cup shelled peas
- 3-4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tsp finely chopped red chilli (optional)
- 2 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp salt or 1 tsp fish sauce
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- Heat the oil in a large pan or wok over high heat.
- Add the crushed garlic and chilli (if using) and stir fry for about 10 seconds until it starts to become fragrant but not burnt.
- Add the vegetables and toss in the pan for about 30 seconds, then add the sesame oil and salt or fish sauce.
- Keep tossing until the vegetables become just tender. It will happen sooner than you think!
Serve this alongside steamed rice and some grilled marinated chicken skewers or steamed fish.
Serve your stir fry in one of these handmade, Japanese dishes from In2Homewares.
Also in season:
Asparagus, avocado, beans, beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrot, cauliflower, celery, choy sum, daikon, fennel, gai laan, grapefruit, leek, lettuce, lychee, mushrooms, okra, onion, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, radish, rhubarb, shallot, silverbeet, spinach, spring onion, squash, swede, sweet potato, turnip, watercress, witlof.
**A person who has won all four of the big American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.