Channeling my inner Anthony Bourdain

One thing I love about Anthony (or as I call him, Tony) Bourdain is that on his show No Reservations, he invariably visits the major farmer's market of wherever he has traveled.  For him and the show, it makes good television as you really get to see what a culture is all about when you visit a market -- this is especially true in many of the third world countries he visits where people don't have the luxury of having a grocery store stocked with every imaginable item at the end of their subdivision.

I, like Tony, really enjoy a farmer's market and have seen my share of them around the country and world.  In Los Angeles, there was a fabulous place in downtown where a large Hispanic population would shop and where I got introduced to things like horchata and what a chalupa is supposed to look like when you don't purchase them at Taco Bell (slogan: "We're pretty sure there's at least some beef in our tacos").  In Tokyo, I got to walk around what is one of the world's largest fish markets, a place where all of the chefs come to get their fish for sushi restaurants across the city.  In Syracuse, they had over 20 different varieties of snow on display.

And so, with the sun shining, I made a trip to the Durham Farmer's Market Saturday morning to check out what they had going on this weekend.  The Durham Farmer's Market is but one of many reasons that I love Durham and this entire area.  Set in downtown, it is a fantastic collection of everything that makes this region great.  For one thing, how many markets out there have a local brewery (Fullsteam, http://www.fullsteam.ag/) giving away beer?  While some may question the need to have a beer at 10:00 AM on a Saturday morning, I would remind those people what my grandmother used to say: beer isn't just for breakfast.  In this case, it's a nice mid-morning refresher.

In any event, I came home with some fantastic goodies from the market, some of which I had last night.  The first thing I'll mention was a delicious beef shank.  I purchased the beef from Meadow Lane Farms (http://www.meadowlanebeef.com/), a family I'm beginning to know better and better since they are who I try to buy our meat from when at the market.  There are many advantages to buying grass-fed, all natural beef that I won't go into here.  The benefit of buying the beef shank is that it include the bone marrow, one of Tony's favorite dishes that he's always raving about.

The other item I'll highlight below is the blue sweet potato.  I, for one, never knew they came in a blue (or really purple) color, but sure enough, they do.  And they are delicious.  A little bit of internet searching tells me they are popular in Japan and Hawaii.  Who knew?

So to take advantage of the marrow, I was told to slow cook the beef shank in order to let it create a really nice broth.  So that is exactly what I did.  First, I chopped up some carrots, onion, celery, and garlic to form the base of the broth:

Next, I seared the meat:

I then put the meat in the slow cooker and cooked the onions and garlic in the pan that had the meat in it for a few minutes.  I added some port wine (see?  I told you yesterday there was a reason I had it out), and then poured that with the other veggies over the meat.  Add a few spices, and here is what I have so far:

Cut to: 10 hours later, and the meat is looking good so it's time to make the rest of the meal.  I read a few different recipes for the blue sweet potatoes and so I'm sort of going off a few different ones.  Apparently, one popular thing is to make a butter sauce with lime zest and lime juice, so that's what I will do.  I decided I'd also make a nice risotto to serve the beef on because I thought it would do well with the broth.  So here I've got the potatoes boiling and the risotto starting (the broth is on the back burner staying warm to be added to the risotto, for those who have never made it before):

Here I am midway through the risotto.  I decided to add some mushrooms because I think that will go with the other flavors nicely.

Here's the cheese on standby, ready to be thrown into the risotto.  With this much fresh parm, you know it's going to be good:

At this point, the risotto is about done and so I'm starting the butter sauce.  I've sliced the potatoes into little rings and they are in the oven staying warm.

Here I have added the lime zest:

And here we have the final product.  On top is a small salad I made to go with this meal.  It's essentially just lettuce, but it's "oak leaf lettuce," a variety I have never had before that I got while at the market.  I thought I would try it on its own the first time.  At the bottom, you can see the blue/purple sweet potatoes.  Their taste was similar to regular sweet potatoes, but by virtue of being fresh and locally grown, they tasted better.  The lime-butter sauce was really good, too, and worked well with the flavor of the potatoes.  Finally, we have the risotto topped with beef shank and its broth.  Wow, that's all I can say.  This was so darn good.  The broth from the beef was amazing and mixed in nicely with the risotto.  The beef was also good, though I think I ultimately cooked it a little too long. 

Not seen here is the bone with the marrow, which I also tasted.  I don't know how many of you have had marrow before, but it's a really intense and interesting flavor.  I think it's an acquired taste, because there's certainly nothing else like it, but I think it takes some getting used to.

All in all, a meal that I think not only does Tony proud, but I think does this area proud as well.  Almost every ingredient was from the market, meaning it was locally grown and harvested.  Best of all... it was damn good.