Clarified butter is really important in cooking, especially Classical French cooking. The process, is to remove the majority of fats and milk solids in butter. This makes the smoke point higher and makes it so you are able to cook food in the butter without it browning or burning the butter. 

All you need is a pot and a spider. A spider is the result of an illicit love affair between a strainer and a spoon. What you get is a large spoon that is mesh, instead of solid. They are usually relatively cheap at kitchen stores, some grocery stores or department stores or even Amazon.com if you want it delivered. 

To separate the solids, just heat the butter in the sauce pan and the fats and solids will rise to the top. You can then skim them off with your spider. The first couple times making clarified butter might be a bit of an experiment. You don’t want to burn the solids or they will colour and flavour the whole batch, but you do need high enough heat to get all the solids to rise. At the end, you can strain the butter if there are still bits in it, especially if some did brown a bit. It is easiest to do this with a larger amount of butter and a smaller pot, so it can layer at the top. Clarified butter does keep well, either in the fridge or in the freezer. When you need it, you can just take some out and heat it to melt it again. 

Good luck!

I love the farmer’s markets and this is a great time to go. First of all, the produce tends to be fresh, local and often organic. Plus, it supports the local producers. There are a lot of foods that are only available for a very short period of time. Fresh beans are something that everyone should take the opportunity to meet. If you want to really make a bean soup special, use fresh beans. Imagine minestrone with all fresh, not dried beans. They go great in salads, either bean salads or lettuce salads, soups, beans, casseroles, or pastas. Spaghetti carbonara with fava beans and roasted tomatoes anyone? I found fresh fava beans at the market the other day and bought a bunch. They were delicious and so fresh!

To use these, they need to first be shelled. Pull the string running down the spine of the bean pod by pulling at the stem. The bean will just pull apart like a pea pod after that. There are usually about 4 or 5 beans to a pod, but up to 8 can be grown in the pod. The beans need to be shelled again, so to speak as the outside is inedible and sour tasting. To do this, blanch them for about 30 seconds. The skin will crack and wrinkle and pull off quickly. The beans will split in half and be tender and tasty. 

Fresh lava beans. 

Opening the pods. 

The pod is like a thick, fuzzy sleeping bag for the beans. 

Blanched beans. This skins are already coming off. 

De- poded, de- skined, fresh fava beans. 

If you love garlic as much as I do, you will LOVE garlic spears. Garlic, is a bulb so, each clove can be planted and the head of garlic will grow below the planted bulb and green shoots will appear above ground, similar to leeks. The flowering bit of the garlic is garlic spears. The cook like asparagus but have a subtle garlic flavour. So, they can be grilled, roasted, steamed or sautéed. They are also good dipped in a homemade, herb dip. I roasted some in tin foil, drizzled with a bit of olive oil, seasoning and some parmesan cheese. To make a really quick and simple herb dip, combine mayonnaise, and plain Greek yogurt in equal parts and chop some herbs and season with salt and pepper. Marinade in the fridge to let the flavours combine well. 

I chopped the thin tips off. 

Tomatillos are a little more available through out the year but they are a fun product. They taste fresh when often tomatoes don’t and there is a time of year when tomatillos are cheaper than tomatoes. They come still covered in brown leaves that need to be pulled off. The tomatillos will be a bit sticky. After, they can be cut the same as tomatoes. They can be rated by themselves with a little salt or in salads, salsas, and several other dishes. Just use your creativity.

Husked and unhusked tomatillos.