Clue #1: The Houseplant Has an Alibi

The first clue looks like a houseplant seen leaving the scene with a knife. Fresh aloe vera leaves contain a cool, clear inner gel known colloquially for soothing your knife wounds (kitchen-related, of course), but also can be used in drinks, smoothies, fruit salads, and salsas. Emphasis on inner gel: trim the spiny edges, remove every bit of green rind, drain and discard the yellow latex, then rinse the clear gel thoroughly before dicing and briefly blanching it. The rind and latex are not dinner; they are the beginning of a bombastic bathroom battle. Prepared aloe is mild, slightly vegetal, and slippery-crisp. Pair it with citrus, fruit, herbs, or chile. What does this have to do with polenta? The aloe has retained counsel from Palo Alto and will not be taking further questions.

Clue #2: A Fungal Conspiracy

The Mycopia Organic Chef’s Sampler is an edible police lineup: several cultivated specialty mushrooms, all giving slightly different stories. Trim the dry ends, separate the clusters, and slice the thick ones lengthwise. Then cook them in a wide, hot skillet with a little oil and enough room to brown; crowding the pan creates the fungal equivalent of Caltrain at 5:12. Finish with salt, butter or olive oil, garlic, herbs, or lemon, then pile them over toast, pasta, eggs, rice, or polenta. There is that word again: polenta. You have probably declared this a breakthrough. It is not. You have found one matching noun and already contaminated the evidence with butter.

Clue #3: Cornmeal Under an Assumed Name

Bob’s Red Mill Polenta is coarsely ground corn that cooks into a creamy golden base for sauce, cheese, butter, vegetables, and compliments intended for the person who did the actual work. Bring three cups of salted water to a boil, whisk in one cup of polenta, lower the heat, and stir for about five minutes. Add more liquid if it tightens up like a South Bay homeowner opening a property-tax bill. Serve it soft, or spread it in a pan, chill it, then slice and grill or fry it. Mushrooms just make sense on top. Peppers do too. This clue connects to nearly everything, which makes it either the key witness or the person on Nextdoor who reports every helicopter.

Clue #4: Peppers of Interest

Ava’s has all kinds of peppers, from sweet and grassy to the tiny hot ones that make confident adults stare silently across Shoreline Lake. Color and size are unreliable witnesses, so identify the variety and taste the smallest possible piece before committing it to dinner. Use gloves for truly hot peppers, or wash your hands well and keep them away from your eyes, Sherlock. Sweet peppers can be sliced and sautéed, blistered whole, or roasted until blackened and peeled. Hot peppers should enter gradually, like a drummer moving into the apartment upstairs. Peppers work with mushrooms, tomatoes, and creamy grains. In detective fiction, this would be a clue. In California, it is just called “lunch”. is coarsely ground corn that cooks into a creamy golden base for sauce, cheese, butter, vegetables, and compliments intended for the person who did the actual work. Bring three cups of salted water to a boil, whisk in one cup of polenta, lower the heat, and stir for about five minutes. Add more liquid if it tightens up like a South Bay homeowner opening a property-tax bill. Serve it soft, or spread it in a pan, chill it, then slice and grill or fry it. Mushrooms just make sense on top. Peppers do too. This clue connects to nearly everything, which makes it either the key witness or the person on Nextdoor who reports every helicopter.

Clue #5: The Tomatoes Have Seen Things

Sun-dried tomatoes are ripe tomatoes with much of their water removed, concentrating the sweetness, acidity, and deep tomato flavor until one strip can take over an entire pan. Ava’s has dry-packed and canned/oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes. Soak dry ones in hot water for about ten minutes, chop them, and save some soaking liquid for the sauce. Drain canned or oil-packed tomatoes and use them directly; their seasoned oil may also be delicious. Add them to pasta, eggs, beans, dressings, polenta, or a mushroom-and-pepper sauté. Their alibi places them in Calabria, but all five clues now fit suspiciously well near one skillet. The mastermind is close. Check behind you. No, the other way. Astonishing work.

The Reveal

The thing tying all these ingredients together is you!. Not our first choice for lead detective, frankly, but the badge is already laminated. Buy all (or most) of these clues, create a recipe from them (preferably edible), and send a photo to newsletter@avasmkt.com. The best creation will appear in a future newsletter!

Or… just make our recipe. You can improve it, reject it, or build a pepper canoe full of polenta and shame. Just be sure to photograph the evidence before eating it. Chain of custody matters, and you look hungry.

Ava's Evidence Bowl

Mushroom polenta with peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and aloe relish. Makes 4 servings, assuming nobody “checks for poison” three times over the stove.

Ingredients

• 1 cup polenta and 3 cups water
• 8 ounces mushrooms, torn or sliced
• 2 peppers, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup properly prepared, diced clear aloe gel
• Olive oil, 1 garlic clove, 1 lemon or lime, salt, and pepper
• Herbs, butter, or cheese, if available
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Method

1. Prepare the aloe carefully: drain away the yellow latex, remove all green rind, rinse the clear gel repeatedly, dice it, blanch for 1 minute, and rinse again. Use only the clear gel. If unsure, pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking medication, omit it; most clues still counts.
2. Brown the mushrooms in olive oil. Add the peppers, then the garlic and tomatoes. Splash in a little tomato-soaking water or plain water and cook until saucy. Season with salt, pepper, and citrus.
3. Whisk the polenta into 3 cups boiling salted water and cook on low for about 5 minutes. Add butter or cheese if you enjoy life. Toss the aloe with citrus, herbs, olive oil, and salt, then spoon a little over each bowl. Photograph before (and after) serving.