The Sunday Sacramento farmer’s market is a fabulous one. Now that the pin and all stitches are out of my foot, and I’ve got the OK to move about, I’ll be frequenting it once again. (See October 10 posting re: “2 Cooks…” for history on this topic.) Last Saturday, however, we headed to the Davis farmer’s market. While I did recognize many vendors from Sacramento, it was fun checking out those new to me.

One new table had Endive. It’s in season all the time due to the growing method. I visited a booth on endive at the recent Slow Food Nation in San Francisco and met Richard Collins, a Sacramento native (California Vegetable Specialties). Interesting stuff. Do you like it? Do you know about it? Here’s the scoop…

Endive is the second growth of the bud at the top of a chicory root. They start in the field where chicory family members are grown (curly endive, escarole, frisee, radicchio), then are moved in doors and grow in complete darkness. Field growth takes about 150 days. The second growth inside takes 20 to 28 days. This practice is labor intensive, thus endive is a tad more expensive but worth it!

And now for the fun part… what to do with endive. Like some vegetables, it is not necessarily a straightforward item to use. I’ve seen people look at it and say, “What is this?” or “What do I do with this?” Been there, done that! Bottom line is you just eat it! Eat it raw as an item to snack on like a carrot, celery or jicama stick. Use it to showcase cheese by pulling off a leaf and putting cheese in the leaf ‘bowl’. This is a great party appetizer. Braise it with a little olive oil and garlic as you would bok choy or cabbage. Cut it up and put it in salads. And one of my favorite things to do with it is wrap it in bacon and roast it. I learned this method while doing my practicum at The Waterboy in Sacramento. This easy but incredibly lip-licking recipe is below for your cooking enjoyment!

This leads me to my impromptu Sunday dinner. I do this thing where I pull things out of the fridge and start cooking. The list last Sunday included endive, turkey bacon, asiago cheese, romaine lettuce, a small cod fillet, a small saba fish, garlic, olive/canola oil blend, carrot juice, sake, home made Caesar dressing, kosher salt and a pepper grinder. I made Italian grissini breadsticks earlier so those were contenders. The result?

Asiago Caesar salad topped with saba and cod that was pan seared, deglazed with sake then a carrot juice finishing braise. This was surrounded by bacon wrapped -roasted endive.

The husband hadn’t experienced endive this way and gave the whole thing two thumbs up. He though the saba was cod (teeheehe! My little secret otherwise he probably wouldn’t have eaten it.)