When Wednesday rolled around this last week, I began to go into panic mode. At my current rate of vegetable consumption, there would be no way that I could go to the S.M. Farmers' Market this weekend. Heaven forbid. Everybody knows that I absolutely love buying produce, and am very passionate about getting the very best vegetables available. Poor Brock had been working late every night as usual, giving me no reason to venture into the kitchen. As you can see from the picture above, I had quite a haul last week: baby eggplant, red and yellow baby potatoes, yellow wax beans, shallots, icicle radishes, red onions, parsley, tomatoes, a dozen brown eggs and two pounds of buckwheat honey.

I was particularly excited about the eggplant. Very adorable. I just couldn't help myself.
How could I possibly live with myself knowing that I had let the most precious little eggplant go to waste. No way! I was determined to do justice for this little guy. It was hardly the size of an egg.
    This called for an emergency dinner party. I begged my friends to come over to join me in my mission to save the vegetables.  With little persuading, they were in, so my trip to the Culver City Farmers' Market would not be in vain. The menu for the night would be based heavily upon roasted vegetables. I love that method of cooking. The flavors get sweeter and more intense, with very little effort. The decided menu for the impromptu dinner party would consist of paprika roasted potatoes with a saffron creme fraiche, a salad with lemon-rosemary roasted eggplant, herb-roasted red onions, yellow wax beans, grilled tomatoes and feta cheese, and finally, a crust-less quiche with Gruyere, caramelized shallots and roasted red peppers. The menu included everything from my haul except for the honey and the radishes, but I was pleased. The Santa Monica Farmers' Market was in sight.
I cut the potatoes in half and tossed them with olive oil, dijon mustard, fresh rosemary, oregano and paprika. I cut the red onions into wedges and marinated them with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and parsley. The eggplant was cut in half and roasted with sprigs of rosemary, lemon wedges, olive oil and, of course, salt and pepper. All three of them went into a 400 degree oven for about an hour.

The eggplant was in its own Pyrex and covered with foil for the first 45 minutes of roasting.

With a bulk of the work out of the way, I started in on my quiche. I have never used a recipe to make quiche. That's the way I was taught to make them when I lived in France. We made quiches so often that you could get a quiche right just by judging the color and consistency of the batter (same goes for crepes). I shredded about a cup of Gruyere in the food processor. Initially, I had started out grating the cheese by hand, but got bored of that pretty quickly. I came to the conclusion that washing the food processor bowl would take less time then grating cheese by hand. That's the way a lazy head thinks! Always trying to find an easier way out. Into the food processor went the cheese and in three seconds flat I had a pile of grated cheese. I whisked together my eggs, half and half, sauteed vegetables and cheese and it was ready to go. Now I just had to wait for the vegetables to finish, since the quiche cooks at a much lower temperature. Here it is in its final form. Bright, colorful and most importantly, flavorful.

For my salad,
I blanched the yellow wax beans in salted water for a few minutes followed by an ice bath to stop the cooking. I sliced the tomatoes into thick slices and grilled them in my cast iron. I mixed the onions, eggplant, wax beans and tomatoes with chopped parsley, crumbled feta and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Every element of this salad imparted such a flavor punch. The roasting had made the onions so sweet, that they practically melted in your mouth. The eggplant was thoroughly infused with the essence of rosemary and lemon. The skin was a bit tough, but we just made do by eating them like artichoke leaves. The wax beans were still crunchy and added a nice contrast to the soft, roasted veggies. The crumbled feta added just the right amount of creaminess to contrast the tartness of the tomatoes and vinegar. The chopped parsley tied everything together and brighten up the whole dish. Here it is before tossing it all together.

Moving onto my potatoes… I had decided to make a simple saffron creme fraiche. 
I steeped a few saffron threads in warm heavy cream before adding it to creme fraiche and chopped chives. It came out thinner than I had hoped because of the addition of the steeping liquid, but was still tasty. Next time, I'll toast the saffron threads and grind them up in my mortar and pestle. A little tip my friend Susan at Immaeatchu opened my eyes to (her blog is food porn at its best). Here are the potatoes. Crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside with (runny) saffron creme fraiche sauce and chives.

Many thanks to Misa, Matt and Brock (who for the first time that week came home for dinner) for helping a friend in need. Disaster averted. Farmers' market, watch out, because here I come.