Market Meals: Shopping with Chateaulin's Chef

By: Cheri Browne | August 03 2011
Posted in Rogue Valley - Cook It - Rogue Valley

Chef Chad Smith shops the market for fresh, delicious produce. Photos by: Cheri Browne

Walking through a Farmers Market in the summer is an experience that can easily overload your senses, as well as your instincts for what to buy and how to cook it! We were lucky enough to catch up with Chef Chad Smith of Chateaulin Restaurant in Ashland, Oregon at the Ashland Market, and asked him to help us shop for edibles that would result in a healthy, tasty meal.

He led us through the market as he scoured each booth, looking for the best ingredients for a quiche he planned on preparing. It wasn’t long before his box was full of everything he needed—Dunbar Farms flour for the pâte brisée, and for the filling, Barking Moon leeks, kale, collard greens, and chard, Willow-Witt eggs and sausage, and Mama Terra goat cheese. And the best part? Our grand total for everything we needed to make this easy, gourmet, fresh, farmers market meal was less than $20!

Preparing the "Farmers Market Quiche" in Chateaulin's kitchen.

Take a stroll through the booths and enjoy the excited sounds of locavores sharing their delicious plans for newly found ingredients, the vibrant colors and sharp earthy scents of sweet onions, leafy greens, and tomato plants mingling with the sweet smells of freshly baked breads, and the fuzzy softness of a ripe peach in your hand or feathery tickle of carrot tops brushing against your arm can carry you to some far away places. 

Let yourself be swept away in this sea of sensation and leave with a basket full of entirely different items than what was on your list. And when you find yourself overwhelmed with all the options, not knowing how to prepare something, or just unable to decide which unsuual new item to take home, try asking the farmer behind the produce for suggestions. Or even turn to the person next to you in line—you may be surprised at how far a simple “what are you making tonight” will take you.

The next time you find yourself wandering the farmers market booths, pick up these easy-to-find ingredients and try chef Chad Smith’s amazingly delicious Farmers Market Quiche recipe at home. 

Cheri Browne is a writer, photographer, reveler of Southern Oregon and enamored connoisseur of all things West Coast.