We picked up a loaf of Finnish Ruis Bread from Nordic Breads at the New Amsterdam Market a week ago, and it brought back a flood of memories.
I went to junior high school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and one of my best friends was a girl from Denmark. We were friends for a long time before I realized she didn’t grow up in the US because she spoke 100% perfect American English. But I digress.
We’d visit her country house on the weekends, and to this day I remember the delicious breakfasts her mother made. Rich, dark coffee with warmed milk and home made strawberry preserves spread with Danish butter on heavy, dark Ruis bread, although the Danes call it Rugbrød. The fine taste of the sweet strawberries with the salty butter blended beautifully with the heavy taste and texture of this traditional Scandinavian rye bread.
So when we got our Ruis loaf home, we slathered thin slices with butter and some of my favorite Cherry Blackberry Sage Clove Spreadable Fruit from SchoolHouse Kitchen along with a pot of Earl Grey Tea from Bellocq (both from the New Amsterdam Market as well). Before we knew it, the entire loaf was gone, and it was time for a nap.
Try the delicious and very healthy traditional breads from Nordic Breads Sundays at the New Amsterdam Market and Thursdays at the Rockefeller Center Greenmarket, as well as Whole Foods stores in Union Square, Bowery, Columbus Circle and Tribeca!
This morning I strolled through the Union Square Greenmarket with a friend, and we selected a pound of these sweet, firm seckel pears from Caradonna Farms. Hailing from Ulster County, New York, Caradonna’s tent is filled with the bounty of the fall harvest, including apples, squashes, concord grapes, and hearty greens. We had the pears for breakfast with a hot cup of Earl Grey tea. It’s mornings like these that make eating with the season so delicious and so right.
You might first see the long tables covered in hot pink cloth with row after row of spice-filled bowls, or you may smell the rich, intense fragrances emanating from the bowls, especially on hot summer days. Spices and Tease sells an incredible variety of spices, mixes, black teas, and herbal teas at the Fulton Stall Market and several other markets in the city. Their bowls are overflowing with colorful curries, cinnamon sticks, and spice mixes from around the world, including Herbes de Provence, Cajun mixes, and many many more, including a favorite, Onion Bacon Salt. They also have herbal digestive teas, rooibos red tea, Earl Grey and black teas.
This is a family-owned business, and they are always happy to give you ideas and advice about what spices to use for any recipe you’re cooking. Maybe some of their spices will inspire you to start exploring whole new worlds of cooking. The website is under construction, but keep checking in at www.spicesandtease.com for their upcoming online store.
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