Courters cook up a healthy meal from ingredients grown locally
Locally sourced meal of lamb, crostini makes use of Chattanooga Market selections
BARRY SAYS: Few things have impacted our lives the way the Chattanooga Market has over the years. Our shopping and eating habits have both been changed as we’ve made very conscious efforts to shop local and eat healthy. That all started once the market opened and started offering arts, crafts and locally grown or sourced produce.
KELLEY SAYS: It’s true. Once you’ve eaten a tomato or a cut of lamb that was harvested that morning or the day before, it’s hard to eat something that was picked weeks earlier from who knows where. That’s why I wanted to prepare something for this month’s feature from the market, which opened this past weekend.
BARRY: By the way, in case you didn’t hear, high winds Saturday evening did some damage to some of the vendors. Lots of people turned out to help, helping to clean up and offering tents and the like. The market was closed when the storm hit, and no one was hurt.
KELLEY: Because it is early in the season, there wasn’t a lot of produce yet, but I found enough deliciousness to make a nice and easy meal. I got bread from Bluff View (full disclosure: where I work), hydroponically grown lettuce, garlic and herb spread from Rafting Goat Cheese and Mediterranean Tomato Jam from Fairywood Thicket Farm and lamb chops from Sheerlock Farms. The salad was simply the fresh lettuce with some balsamic vinaigrette, which was not from the market. I also bought a basil plant, which we used for the meal and will plant for later.
BARRY: A veritable cornucopia of goodness.
KELLEY: I marinated the lamb chops for several hours and then grilled them on the stove with a pad of garlic and herb butter. I cut the loaf of bread into crostini (Italian for “little toasts”) and browned them on the griddle. Then it was simply a matter of spreading a little goat cheese and jam on the crostini then topping with chopped basil.
These were the star of the meal.
BARRY: One of the things we loved about 212 Market, which sadly closed last week, was that chef Susan Moses proved with every meal that local and simple can be outstanding. This meal was pretty darn simple, but it was very good. KELLEY: Yes it was.
Market Fresh Lamb with Crostini
4 lamb chops
1⁄3 loaf bread, cut into crostini Mediterranean Tomato Jam Garlic and herb goat cheese
4 pats herb and garlic butter
4 fresh basil leaves Hydroponic lettuce Balsamic vinaigrette
After marinating the lamb for several hours, I grilled the four chops. I also browned the crostini, and then it was a simple matter of spreading some goat cheese and jelly on them and sprinkling a little fresh basil on top. Serve with salad. Fresh simple and delicious.
Contact Barry and Kelley Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.