Musgovian Medley

I got these beauties at the Green Market this Saturday. I'm still a little disorganized in the kitchen, though, so I didn't get around to cooking them up until tonight. I thought I would have a nice, long, lazy holiday weekend to cook and catch up around the house, but I ended up being pretty busy. Saturday I went to a party, Sunday I hung around the knitting shop until closing time so Jessica and I could go down to Devon street to pick up my mystery spice and have some dinner. And Monday I went down to University Village for lunch with Bob.

So when I finally went rooting around in the refrigerator this evening to see what else I might want to add to the pot, I ran into several other little leftover bits of veggies that were just waiting for that moment to go from questionable to downright rotten. There was some spinach that was miraculously intact for being over a week old and some baby bok choy I had completely forgotten about and some green onions that needed a lot of trimming.

In the cooking news group I read every once in a while, they often talk about "Musgovian" this and "Musgovian" that. I was confused because I had never heard of either Musgovians or their cuisine. And then I caught on--Musgovian means all those things in your refrigerator or pantry that must go or they will go bad.

So I salvaged what I could and set about making my own Musgovian dish.

I'm quite pleased with the results. I sauteed some shallots, garlic and green onions in grapeseed oil. Then I added the eggplant and let it cook for about five minutes. I added the baby bells and the stems of the baby bok choy and let it all cook for another five or ten minutes. Then I added a small can of diced tomatoes, some basil and oregano, covered the skillet and let it cook on low for about twenty minutes.

When it was done, I added the spinach and bok choy leaves and let it cook for just five minutes more, long enough for the greens to wilt. Then I splashed in the juice from half a lemon.

It worked. I wasn't sure all of the vegetables would go together, but they do. And the baby peppers are amazing--it's like all the flavor of a regular-sized pepper has been packed inside of these beauties. My only complaint is that the woman at the Green Market said I didn't need to seed them, but they really should have been seeded. The seeds are just a little too crunchy.

But I will buy them again. They're little powerhouses of flavor.