Voluptuous Signs of Spring at the Markets

    It really doesn't matter what the thermometer says, March is a dreary month for fruits and vegetables if your aim is to eat whatever's grown locally.  Granted, we can get salad greens almost all the year round but, by now, I've had it with root vegetables, cabbages and apples--especially since the temperatures have been in the mid to high 20s recently--which explains why the first glimpse of these 2011 crops got my juices flowing.  

Mirepox market....Gorgeous amethyst-tipped asparagus.
Just steam and eat hot with butter or cold with vinaigrette. 

Lavelanet market...These opulently scarlet fraises come from near Perpignan, close to the Spanish border. As with asparagus, you don't need to mess about with them. All I do is slice the strawbs, sugar them (just a little) and put a pot of crème fraîche alongside.

  

Easiest Summer Dessert Ever

   This is assuming that you can get your hands on a tub of crème fraîche--and I'm talking about the super-strength 30 percent variety not low-fat (what's the point of low-fat anything? Just eat less of the real stuff). After that, all you need are fresh glistening strawberries and--we've tried both on recent nights--finely chopped hazelnuts or praline powder, both of which I can buy at local supermarkets.

   I hardly need to explain the technique. Dip strawberry in crème, then dip in solids. Repeat until strawberries are gone. That dark slick on the plate? That's a scoop of devilishly dark chocolate ice cream. When it comes to dessert, I always believe in gilding the lily.

Strawbs and spuds at Albi market

   Before leaving for the trip back, we bought picnic supplies at the little market at the end of the street our hotel stood on. A big chunk of crusty bread, a fresh goat cheese, a slab of pâté, some tomatoes, and a basket of meticulously arranged gariguette strawberries--the first of the season--from this little girl and her maman. 

   I couldn't resist taking a surreptitious shot of this shopper riding off with his big bag of potatoes.