For the love of Produce...

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  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    o0Firekeeper0o wrote: »
    rjb8kswmt5ux.jpeg

    Loving this pic. Beauties.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    acpgee wrote: »
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    Found some fungi today. Best find was my friend found a Sparassis (cauliflower mushroom).

    We were looking to collect candy caps (Lactarius rubidus). We found SO MANY.

    We quickly got as many as we wanted, then my friend found the Sparassis. We dropped all that by the truck and went for a walk. About three miles with little pokes off the trails to find a few chanterelles, several hedgehogs that were too small to pick, and some Tricholoma equestre. These are edible mushrooms that now have an asterisk. I have eaten them before. I took a few; I won't eat pounds a day for several days in a row. They have been known as choice edible mushrooms going back to Roman times, but a few years ago someone died from them. Very specific circumstances.

    We even found a gnome under a tree.....

    And now your quiz. Can you identify this mushroom?

    I stopped eating foraged mushrooms after the hubby went out with a self proclaimed mushroom expert and brought back some stuff that included a dutch fairy ring variety known locally as a honey mushroom. Their efforts were served at a dinner party with 8 people. I was the only person who got sick. But after losing fluids from all orifices for 3 days the charm of foraged mushrooms disappeared.

    What we call a honey mushroom is Armillaria mellea. There are lots of look-alike mushrooms. I never eat anything that isn't 100% positive ID. My friend isn't just a self-proclaimed expert; he actually wrote the book on North American truffles. Literally. I am slowly (very slowly) expanding the mushrooms I'm comfortable identifying 100%. I have a new one now. We didn't 100% identify the pictures mushroom, but we are 97.7625% sure of what it was. We'll go back next year with it in mind; it's a choice edible.

    It is ALWAYS advised that when you try a mushroom you've never eaten before, you should just eat a little, and don't eat more than one kind you haven't eaten before. There are some mushrooms that cause a reaction in SOME people. There's also the chance something gets picked that ain't quite right. Worse yet, there's routinely a news item around here about immigrants from Asia who go out locally and pick paddy straw mushrooms, but you can't really find those here. What you CAN find is Amanita phalloides The common name is Death Cap. It is a particularly nasty one. It causes your liver to produce a toxin that destroys the liver. By the time it goes to work, your body has already digested the mushroom.

    It's also not a bad idea to not eat ALL the mushrooms you bring home. Save a few so just in case you get symptoms you can take them to the doctor with you so they might be able to figure out the toxin and find out if there's anything they can do to help you. For Amanita phalloides, liver transplant may be the only option!

    Be careful out there.

    I believe what the called a honey mushroom when I lived in the Netherlands that grew in a fairy ring was a species that used to be on the edible list but was later removed. That was the advice I got from another self proclaimed expert who grew up foraging with her dad, much like the first self proclaimed expert. I seemed to react badly to them but no one else at the dinner party got sick and there were 8 people at dinner that night.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    i was actually rather happy to find a way to make cauliflower that my husband would eat, as previously he professed only to be able to swallow if boiled to submission and then drowned in either cheese sauce or hollandaise.
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    Love seeing the ‘whole head’ circulating. Agreed that when it’s just me, not always worth the wait. But when I’m using the oven as a proxy heater, I like to give it about half hour hot (400ish) and then drop it low and slow until I can’t wait anymore. Gets so delightfully crispy-chewy.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    I tried this courgette salad recipe today and thought it was fantastic. Changed a few logistical things in the recipe. Instead of blanching, I put my courgette spears in the salad spinner and poured a kettle full of boiling water over. Once the water had cooled down enough to handle, I drained my courgette and spun them to remove excess water. I made a larger quantity of the sauce and put it in a squeeze bottle in the fridge so the recipe can be made quickly.

    https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/5-minutes-zucchini-salad/
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    Hubby came home with tiny mini cauliflowers. A whole roast cauliflower that is the right size for a veggie side for one or two.
    Ballpoint pen next to the package to demonstrate scale.

    a94qafsks8iz.jpg
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Hubby came home with tiny mini cauliflowers. A whole roast cauliflower that is the right size for a veggie side for one or two.
    Ballpoint pen next to the package to demonstrate scale.

    a94qafsks8iz.jpg

    Wow! I’ve NEVER encountered. So fun!
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    I neglected to get beans soaking a few days ago. I usually soak overnight (or all day), drain, then rinse twice a day for a couple days until they just barely start to sprout. And I wanted a batch of something filling to take for lunch today. I'm working in the field, and it's going to be cold.

    I thought about black eyed peas. They don't need a soak. Instead I made something I don't think I had before. I put some hull-less barley on the stove and cut up some onion, carrot, garlic, mushrooms and hot chile. I sauteed that and at the end added some rinsed lentils, then added the whole mess to the half cooked barley. I poured a cocktail and let them finish cooking.

    Of course I tried some last night, and they are quite delicious.

    Pictures wouldn't be visually appealing, but it makes my mouth and belly happy.

    Do you have sprouting experience for things like lentils? There is a local market that does a mix of semi sprouted things, I think they are red lentils, some form of small yellowish round bean, and some form of pea.

    They are crunchy and short tailed. Delish. Would love to know your faves for eating raw if you have them.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    I recently made the non vegetarian version of this stir fried white cabbage recipe. It tasted surprisingly complex for an easy dish with very few ingredients.
    https://redhousespice.com/chinese-cabbage-stir-fry/
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    @mtaratoot

    If you are looking for more sauerkraut variations to try, my mom used to do Szechuan pickled cabbage. It's hotter than kimchi.
    https://www.food.com/recipe/chinese-pickled-cabbage-szechuan-style-47496
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,244 Member
    purplefizzy wrote: »
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    I neglected to get beans soaking a few days ago. I usually soak overnight (or all day), drain, then rinse twice a day for a couple days until they just barely start to sprout. And I wanted a batch of something filling to take for lunch today. I'm working in the field, and it's going to be cold.

    I thought about black eyed peas. They don't need a soak. Instead I made something I don't think I had before. I put some hull-less barley on the stove and cut up some onion, carrot, garlic, mushrooms and hot chile. I sauteed that and at the end added some rinsed lentils, then added the whole mess to the half cooked barley. I poured a cocktail and let them finish cooking.

    Of course I tried some last night, and they are quite delicious.

    Pictures wouldn't be visually appealing, but it makes my mouth and belly happy.

    Do you have sprouting experience for things like lentils? There is a local market that does a mix of semi sprouted things, I think they are red lentils, some form of small yellowish round bean, and some form of pea.

    They are crunchy and short tailed. Delish. Would love to know your faves for eating raw if you have them.

    For eating raw, I mostly stick to mung beans. When I sprout beans to cook, I don't let them go past the stage where you can barely first see the acrospire begin to emerge. Sometimes I don't wait for the acrospire; I have a pretty good idea that it takes two or three days. It's just about enzymes for me. I don't eat sprouted beans raw because even though sprouting can reduce the amount of lectin, I don't think it eliminates it.



    acpgee wrote: »
    @mtaratoot

    If you are looking for more sauerkraut variations to try, my mom used to do Szechuan pickled cabbage. It's hotter than kimchi.
    https://www.food.com/recipe/chinese-pickled-cabbage-szechuan-style-47496

    Interesting. I have thought about making a fermented green cabbage cut into big chunks instead of shreds like sauerkraut. My kimchi can be pretty hot, but not always. What I seem to have settled on is a sort of "white kimchi" since I use fresh chilies cut in slices rather than ground up into a paste. I have started grinding some of the garlic as well as the ginger and some of the hot chilies. I usually do include some dried red chilies; they don't add that much color. That said, Sichuan pepper is a whole other animal. Well... vegetable.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    https://blog.themalamarket.com/sichuans-naturally-fermented-pickles-pao-cai/
    More on szechuan pickles. I remember my mom's brine was salt water, no vinegar.
  • o0Firekeeper0o
    o0Firekeeper0o Posts: 416 Member
    jh9iajknls0y.jpeg

    u4vat1e9tpax.jpeg

    Oh hi y’all! Been a minute. Love the new UI! I’ve been super busy with basically 2 vacations in a row but I did want to share a couple fantastic produce experiences recently; one was a date with husband to a Laotian restaurant and I had my first-ever shaved green papaya salad; it was INCREDIBLE. I added fish since it was my lunch and I needed the protein but it still would have been incredible alone.

    I also had spaghetti squash for the first time in ages, and learned that if you cut the squash width-wise instead of lentgthwise, you get longer noodles! The fibers of the squash coil inside concentrically. It turned out excellent.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    o0Firekeeper0o wrote: »

    Oh hi y’all! Been a minute. Love the new UI! I’ve been super busy with basically 2 vacations in a row but I did want to share a couple fantastic produce experiences recently; one was a date with husband to a Laotian restaurant and I had my first-ever shaved green papaya salad; it was INCREDIBLE. I added fish since it was my lunch and I needed the protein but it still would have been incredible alone.

    I also had spaghetti squash for the first time in ages, and learned that if you cut the squash width-wise instead of lentgthwise, you get longer noodles! The fibers of the squash coil inside concentrically. It turned out excellent.

    If you crave green papaya or green mango salad, but struggle to find the unripe tropical fruit, I find a combination of spiralized granny smith apple and carrot a decent substitute.
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    o0Firekeeper0o wrote: »
    jh9iajknls0y.jpeg

    u4vat1e9tpax.jpeg

    Oh hi y’all! Been a minute. Love the new UI! I’ve been super busy with basically 2 vacations in a row but I did want to share a couple fantastic produce experiences recently; one was a date with husband to a Laotian restaurant and I had my first-ever shaved green papaya salad; it was INCREDIBLE. I added fish since it was my lunch and I needed the protein but it still would have been incredible alone.

    I also had spaghetti squash for the first time in ages, and learned that if you cut the squash width-wise instead of lentgthwise, you get longer noodles! The fibers of the squash coil inside concentrically. It turned out excellent.

    OMG yes green papaya salad. Here (Big Island Hawaii, Hilo side) it’s probably the best ‘local spin on’ cusine - they do it with avocado. And we have a LOT of papaya - it’s the most affordable produce. I adore it, and have never nailed the dressing. It’s a very finicky balance of lime, chile, and (depending on the recipe) soy or fish sauce, and (in most cases) garlic, tempered with sugar. Honestly I think usually I don’t add enough sugar. I adore the farmers market stand version with really darkly roasted peanuts.
  • o0Firekeeper0o
    o0Firekeeper0o Posts: 416 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    If you crave green papaya or green mango salad, but struggle to find the unripe tropical fruit, I find a combination of spiralized granny smith apple and carrot a decent substitute.

    Thanks for the tip! I honestly don’t even know how to look for an unripe papaya… I have never deliberately sought unripe fruit lol

    purplefizzy wrote: »
    OMG yes green papaya salad. Here (Big Island Hawaii, Hilo side) it’s probably the best ‘local spin on’ cusine - they do it with avocado. And we have a LOT of papaya - it’s the most affordable produce. I adore it, and have never nailed the dressing. It’s a very finicky balance of lime, chile, and (depending on the recipe) soy or fish sauce, and (in most cases) garlic, tempered with sugar. Honestly I think usually I don’t add enough sugar. I adore the farmers market stand version with really darkly roasted peanuts.

    Ohhhh that sounds like HEAVEN ON EARTH. And yes, the dressing was exceptional; I am a wuss so asked for super mild and got almost no spice; what remained was definitely a sweet, tangy fish-sauce dressing that was so perfectly balanced.
    Also, you live in Hawaii, so jealous. Haven’t been since I was a kid but need to make sure I take husband one day :)
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    This is my go to dressing for SE Asian salads. Don't bother with the oil for deep frying shallots and peaniuts if you buy ready fried shallots from the Vietnamese section of the Asian supermarket and roasted peanuts. Or substitute the ready fried onion that Americans use on Thanksgiving green bean casserole that can be found in normal supermarkets.

    Alternatives to green mango or green papaya are pomelo, grapefruit, pineapple, roast aubergine. For the aubergine version, blacken the skin (broiler, air fryer, over a glass flame, BBQ) then peel off the skin and chop up the flesh.

    https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pomelo-salad-with-chile-lime-peanuts-and-coconut
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,956 Member
    And thinly sliced banana blossom is also a typical SE Asian salad that uses the same dressing. But yeah, that's another hard to find ingredient.
  • o0Firekeeper0o
    o0Firekeeper0o Posts: 416 Member
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    YESSSSS! A big bag of my absolute favorite, Meyer lemons, from Costco. I’m so excited :)

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