Foodie Spring Arrivals

Forecast, $$$ Tips & Teases!

Good Day Friends! 🥂

Spring is here! 🌞 , 🍃 , 🌽 , 🫑 ,🌳 , 🌶 ,🪴 , 🍅

This is truly one of the magical times of the year!  Frost and snow melt away allowing Mother Nature to to bring forth the next bounty of fruits and vegetables for the new year. 

What follows is a Full Intro to Spring, Finding the Best Quality & Cheapest Groceries and also, the Community Poll Results with Teasers on the Upcoming Content that will be dropping in the next few weeks!

First….

Many people are restarting their cooking journeys… Maybe you got busy and cooking time declined… or had little interest before but now are working from home, Uber Eats is getting (and more expensive!)…

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain… cooking can be messy!

The best way to stay clean and tidy when you’re cooking is to have a proper apron. The problem is most aprons are either a) really uncomfortable, b) ugly, c) super-heavy to wear or d) sky-high designer cost.

That’s why I made the perfect apron to fix all of the problems above.

The Octopod “Best Chef, Sauces” Apron is lightweight, stylish and durable. Further, it’s got that cute Octopod Logo proclaiming you to your loved ones as “Best Chef” according to “sauces” 😉

With an adjustable neck strap and tie-back waist, the Apron has maximum coverage and is aesthetic and functional.

Grab one today and start cooking in style!

Do you eat with the the Seasons?

If you do, you already know that by eating with the seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter) we have pre-programmed times on the calendar to change a LOT of ingredients and flavors… which gives us a lot of variety…. Which means we should never be eating boring food!

The whole idea is flavor migration.

For example:  During Winter warm, rich and hearty foods are comforting in the cold… This includes full flavored and darker meats like Bison, Beef, Duck, Goose & Gamebirds. Root vegetables packed with starch and sweetness, and bittering flavors of the Brassica family (brussels sprouts, cabbages, etc) are bold flavors that stand up well to the ingredients just listed!. (There are many more Winter ingredients, but you get the idea). 

As Spring emerges, we have new flavor migrations… new ingredients. 

What does that taste like?

I’m glad you asked! 

Spring Forecast: 

Spring flavors are a fresh, bright, light, sweet and punchy. These flavors are perfect to waking up your palate to “freshness” after spending the winter months eating rich and round foods. Spring is usually called a Chef’s Playground due to so many different flowering plants, herbs and vegetables sprouting up every few weeks giving new options, combinations and possibilities! 

While there a ton of Spring ingredients, and variation depending on your location… I dug up one of my first Kitchen Notebooks and found where I had listed out all ingredients by Season. This helped me immensely as a young cook to drill into my mind what to be looking for (and thinking about) as the seasons were coming and going…. listed are a few notable ingredients worth seeking out and using a lot!

Spring Ingredient Quick-List:

Vegetables

Artichokes

Asparagues

Beets

Fava Beans

Swiss Chard

Morel Mushrooms

Lettuces

Peas 

Watercress

Sorrel 

New potatoes 

Fruits

Blueberries

Rhubarb

Strawberry 

Guavas 

Papaya 

Meats

Halibut

Clams

Crabs

Crayfish

Catfish

Frogs Legs

Lamb

This was not an exhaustive list, but you could take this and cook off this for 6-8 weeks easily without needing many outside ingredients. 

Just glancing, you could easily do:

Artichoke & Pea Risotto with Roasted Halibut

Frog’s Legs with New Potatoes & Watercress

Leg of Lamb with Morels & Artichokes

Beet & Rhubarb Salad

And the possibilities are endless… we didn’t even go into spices and seasonings which add a whole new level of possibilities.

But what we should see is…

Understanding the seasons is a beginners Cheat Code because the old saying “What Grows Together, Goes Together” holds true 99% of the time!

Efficiency & $$$ Savings Tips:

One benefit of eating with the seasons is that, historically, ingredients that are in-season are at their most plentiful supplies… which means lower prices… and premium freshness.

With the advances of Global Food Supplies being shipped across hemispheres, some of this is less noticeable now. And with inflation running at all time highs, it might be easy to say “everything is expensive”… but we can be creative.

Here are some tips for finding the best quality and prices on ingredients.

Try finding a local Farmers Market or CSA Box:

This can be a great way to finding the freshest produce and ingredients, while also supporting local growers. Product is usually picked at peak ripeness, and then sold within a few days. Contrast that with larger agriculture operations where products are sometimes harvested early, so they won’t spoil during transport and are many times treated with different preserving or ripening sprays.

CSA boxes are great because you get what’s available straight from the ground that week (or month). This is a monthly subscription to various locally grown fruits and vegetables. Most farms are flexible and can cater to you and your family's personal needs and preferences. Boxes are filled with whatever is fresh and just harvested. Can be: fresh produce, grains, eggs and/or sometimes dairy products.

*Note: Make sure you have a reputable Farmers Market or CSA. I have seen instances of people buying product from mass produce terminals, then selling them at markets with a big price increase. It’s dishonest and shady… so just do a little research. Word of mouth referals can be great. If the farms or CSA are cagey about harvest dates and won’t allow on-site visits, that can be a red flag.

Canning/Preserving

This is a huge passion that I still practice to this day. When produce and ingredients are at their most plentiful, many times it’s not feasible to eat them all before they spoil! 😂

Enter the world of canning or preserving. By using salts, acids and/or sugars you can preserve most ingredients and have them in your pantry for months at a time, on demand!

While you spend some time upfront processing and canning, you then have the BEST preserves, pickles, etc that nothing in the store can compete with. And it’s not hard.

If more of this content is wanted as we go through Spring/Summer drop a content and I’ll work some in. This is a gamechanger for your pantry and meals.

Best Value Prices

To this day, I would highly recommend checking your Middle Eastern, Asian & Latin American markets for best pricing and many times, freshest produce! I wrote about this a while back…

Grocery Efficiency

Poll Results and Upcoming Content Previews

Got some very helpful feedback from you all! 🙏

First from the Paid Subscribers and then Posted on Twitter… here’s some results!

Results:

Cheap Meals took the majority of the votes in Q(1). Expect more focused content on this going forward. Food costs are up, food quality eating out is at all time lows… which has brought a lot of people back to their kitchens.

Proteins absolutely dominated Q(2) 😂 Honestly, I was even surprised at the spreads given that previous Substacks on Pizza 🍕 & Bread Baking 🍞 had tons of great feedback… Surprised Bread/Baking didn’t score higher… but that’s why Polls are great.

So Proteins will be of interest going forward and got specific Feedback from Paid Subscribers on Fish 🐠 . Delighted to hear that! Fish cookery is one of my loves and look forward to sharing more practical tips and recipes. Fish is such a diverse category! (If you missed the Fish Skin 🧵 on Twitter you should check it out!)

Cuisines of Interest is a much more mixed bag… got multiple Paid Requests for Central American (esp Legit Mexican 🇲🇽 Recipes). Taking all of that into account going forward.

As far as sneak peaks… expect more fish… grilling season is upon us soon… warmer temperatures mean ceviches 🤤 , salsa’s and flavor 💣 sauces and much moaaaar!

So much great content coming up… including a Special Drop all about Wooden Kitchen Utensils that will Feature Custom Octopod Products, a one time only drop!

BowTiedOctopod.eth | Soufflé Chad @BowTiedOctopod

Sneak Peek: Octopod Culinary soon launching “Artisan” Line 🖼 Exquisite cookware from a master craftsman with no retail presence… quality you can pass down generations Excited to bring more of these gems from my past in fine dining straight to your kitchen 🙌🏻 🤌🏻🤌🏻

This is an exciting time of year and the above Road Map should give a great idea of how much Value, Actionable Recipes & Techniques lay in store…

Remember you can get access to every past recipe and all the upcoming content for just $0.17 a day…

If you have any specific Spring Ingredient Questions, drop them in the comments!

Until Next Time 🙏 🙌