Eating In Season: Hot Harvest Curry

If you live in the Grand Rapids area, you probably know that the Fulton Street Farmer's Market is a homegrown haven for cooks during the summertime. With vendors covering every food group, from whole grain breads to cheese, sausage and eggs. The vegetables, though, are my favorite part. Organic farms show up with the ordinary and bizarre; brussels sprouts on the stem, sweet purple potatoes and tiny wrinkled peppers.

My Pilipino husband gets bored if our meals don't have a regular kick, so I like to experiment with the hot peppers. When you have a wide variety to choose from, it's fun to experiment with the different flavors and levels of heat. The cherry bomb is my personal favorite; it's like a stoplight colored strawberry, and it packs a punch.

These peppers are cayenne, hot banana and one orange paprika pepper in the bottom right corner. The cayenne are just plain hot, but the banana peppers have a mellow citrus with lots of heat. Paprika peppers are sweet, fruity and citrusy like a tomatillo.

Anyway, I decided to try using all in-season foods, so I came away from the market with broccoli, hot peppers, sweet corn, tomatoes and hot banana peppers. I fried them all up in cut thick sliced bacon (which Reagan proudly processed last winter). In a moment of genius, Reagan suggested coconut milk, so I just turned it into a curry. Here's the recipe:

6 strips thick bacon, cut into small pieces

2 large hot banana or hungarian peppers, finely chopped

2 tsp salt

Fry bacon with peppers and salt until all begins to brown, then add:

6 cobs fresh sweet corn, with kernels cut off the cob (~4 cups sweet corn)

1 cup coconut milk, including fat

1 head broccoli, crowned and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ginger

Simmer this for approximately 15 minutes on medium heat, or until the corn begins to darken and the broccoli is bright green but still firm, then cook for 5 minutes more with:

2 large beefsteak tomatoes, coarsely diced

That's it! Although it's not quite ethnically correct, it would be great served with some toasted nan. It's sweet, creamy and spicy with a fresh crunch. Add more peppers if you like to cry.