For the love of Produce...
Replies
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Lychee sorbet made with tinned fruit was awesome. I did enhance scoopability by blitzing the frozen granita mixture with an egg white in the food processor. Will try this with rambutan too, as I saw tins at the asian supermarket. I will continue to leave out the coconut and substitute vanilla for rosewater which really emphasizes the floral scent of those fruits. Next time will reduce the sugar to 35ml from the 78ml called for by the recipe. Maybe will look for a lychee liqueur instead of vodka which i added to enhance scoopability.3
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When I try the rambutan sorbet I am going to make a couple of changes to the recipe I saw online. Drain two tins of rambutan and boil down the syrup to 2/3 of the volume without adding sugar but adding lemongrass maybe in combination with kaffir lime leaves to to infuse. Blitz the fruit, and then blitz together with the strained syrup and a teaspoon or two of rosewater. Add a few tablespoons of lichee liqueur and freeze. Once frozen taste for sugar, adding more liqueur if necessary and blitz with an egg white in the food processor and re-freeze.4
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I am curious what it's going to smell like in my house in a few days.
I made the cauliflower kimchi. I've never even eaten any, but it sounded good. I broke up a half head of cauliflower and soaked it in brine for nearly 24 hours. This afternoon I made paste with four fresh serrano chiles (I took out the seeds for looks, but unfortunately that means lots of the heat will go away too), a bunch of garlic & ginger, red chile flakes, a little Aleppo style chile flakes, some ancho powder, some soy sauce, and some fish sauce. I processed that to a paste. I sliced a jalapeno and mixed it all together. It all fit in a half-gallon jar with headspace to spare. I didn't want to press it down too hard, so I added some of the brine back in. I covered it with a clean plastic bag and filled the bag with more brine to hold everything under the liquid. I'm expecting it will ferment two weeks and be ready about the same time as the sauerkraut I started last week.
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I am curious what it's going to smell like in my house in a few days.
I made the cauliflower kimchi. I've never even eaten any, but it sounded good. I broke up a half head of cauliflower and soaked it in brine for nearly 24 hours. This afternoon I made paste with four fresh serrano chiles (I took out the seeds for looks, but unfortunately that means lots of the heat will go away too), a bunch of garlic & ginger, red chile flakes, a little Aleppo style chile flakes, some ancho powder, some soy sauce, and some fish sauce. I processed that to a paste. I sliced a jalapeno and mixed it all together. It all fit in a half-gallon jar with headspace to spare. I didn't want to press it down too hard, so I added some of the brine back in. I covered it with a clean plastic bag and filled the bag with more brine to hold everything under the liquid. I'm expecting it will ferment two weeks and be ready about the same time as the sauerkraut I started last week.
I'll be fascinated to hear the after-ferment report, maybe even the "during". One of my former co-workers left a whole head of cauliflower in his desk drawer over a warm weekend, in an era when the AC was turned down in our building on weekends. I don't think I've experienced any smell more awful, or more surprisingly widely-dispersed, than what resulted by Monday morning. It cleared fairly fast, but while it lasted - ugh! 🤣
I'd bet the kimchi will taste good when done, though.
(Background: A gardening friend had brought him the cauliflower on Friday. He forgot to take it home.)4 -
A while back, I came home and came inside. I don't remember if I was away at work or off doing some paddling or something. Probably paddling. As I came inside, I could tell something was rotting. I figured I just needed to take out the compost or maybe there was something in the garbage. Or maybe something got left out.
Well, then I realized I had a gallon of sauerkraut and a gallon of kimchi fermenting. I have actually grown to enjoy that smell. I know it's odd, but there ya go. The odor changes during the ferment. The cauliflower already had a bit of stink just from sitting in the brine. Perhaps it already had partially fermented. Groovy!
The batch of sauerkraut I'm currently eating still was bubbling along after the normal three weeks. It had been cool, and my heat wasn't on yet. I let it go an extra week. That made it a lot more sour than normal, but it's still really good.
I kind of thought my approach to kraut was not particularly traditional; it probably isn't. Nonetheless (a friend will echo "irregardless" if I say nonetheless), I saw a jar of commercial kraut in the store last week that looks like my recipe. It was from one of the boutique fermenters. It's just all about the garlic, and LOTS of it. The carrot and caraway is actually traditional, but the garlic maybe isn't. But I like it, so there.
And then I just happened across a kimchi recipe that looks a lot like what I typically make using fresh hot chilies in lieu of or addition to dried red chilies. I need to get me some gochugaru.
ETA: the smell of ROTTING cabbages or other brassicas is NOT the same smell when it ferments with lactic acid bacteria. It's critical to keep the vegetables under the surface of the liquid so they turn into a delicious treat rather than a stinky, moldy mess.6 -
Sorry that this is not produce related, but stink related. I once came home and the house smelled so awful I was convinced we had a dead mouse under the floorboards. Using my nose, I managed to locate the source to a hunk of taleggio cheese the hubby had bought and left wrapped in paper on the counter.5
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The hubby tried to suprise me with a mangosteen, but I suspect he actually bought a passion fruit. I googled, and apparently I need to wait until the skin is wrinkly for it to be ripe.
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These are some of the meals I make
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@VegjoyP
Every one of those photos is speaking directly to my soul! Totally my type of food. But what is the first one? Apples or something else? Looks pretty delish.1 -
chris89topher wrote: »@VegjoyP
Every one of those photos is speaking directly to my soul! Totally my type of food. But what is the first one? Apples or something else? Looks pretty delish.
Yes Macintosh with cinnamon Truvia sugar free maple syrup and peanut 🥜 butter ( Waldens but normally natural)2 -
I am curious what it's going to smell like in my house in a few days.
I made the cauliflower kimchi. I've never even eaten any, but it sounded good. I broke up a half head of cauliflower and soaked it in brine for nearly 24 hours. This afternoon I made paste with four fresh serrano chiles (I took out the seeds for looks, but unfortunately that means lots of the heat will go away too), a bunch of garlic & ginger, red chile flakes, a little Aleppo style chile flakes, some ancho powder, some soy sauce, and some fish sauce. I processed that to a paste. I sliced a jalapeno and mixed it all together. It all fit in a half-gallon jar with headspace to spare. I didn't want to press it down too hard, so I added some of the brine back in. I covered it with a clean plastic bag and filled the bag with more brine to hold everything under the liquid. I'm expecting it will ferment two weeks and be ready about the same time as the sauerkraut I started last week.
I'll be fascinated to hear the after-ferment report, maybe even the "during". One of my former co-workers left a whole head of cauliflower in his desk drawer over a warm weekend, in an era when the AC was turned down in our building on weekends. I don't think I've experienced any smell more awful, or more surprisingly widely-dispersed, than what resulted by Monday morning. It cleared fairly fast, but while it lasted - ugh! 🤣
I'd bet the kimchi will taste good when done, though.
(Background: A gardening friend had brought him the cauliflower on Friday. He forgot to take it home.)
Update:
The cauliflower is bubbling away at a good clip. Not only doesn’t it drive me out of the house, but it smells milder than fermenting kimchi or sauerkraut. It mostly smells like… cauliflower.
Definitely a hint of lactic acid bacteria, but the odor is mild and pleasant. Then again I kind of have grown to like the smell. It’s somewhat diluted by the sauerkraut going in an adjacent container.
Calendar says it still has ten days to go, but it might be ready sooner.
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Pre-emptive Pumpkin question.
Historically, Pumpkin doesn’t really appear here in the Uk - in more recent years they’ve stocked various Pumpkin type squash/gourds for Hallowe’en decoration purposes mainly.
My daughter bought a bunch of these, this year. Various colours and sizes. She doesn’t know if they’re edible even, but is visiting this weekend and has offered them to me to cook with because she feels bad at potentially wasting food by dumping them in the bin.
I’ve said I’ll give it a go, never having cooked or eaten pumpkin 🤷♀️. What I’m asking here is are the pumpkins pictured below of an edible variety? I don’t want to poison anyone if not! 😂
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BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »Pre-emptive Pumpkin question.
Historically, Pumpkin doesn’t really appear here in the Uk - in more recent years they’ve stocked various Pumpkin type squash/gourds for Hallowe’en decoration purposes mainly.
My daughter bought a bunch of these, this year. Various colours and sizes. She doesn’t know if they’re edible even, but is visiting this weekend and has offered them to me to cook with because she feels bad at potentially wasting food by dumping them in the bin.
I’ve said I’ll give it a go, never having cooked or eaten pumpkin 🤷♀️. What I’m asking here is are the pumpkins pictured below of an edible variety? I don’t want to poison anyone if not! 😂
I don't have personal experience with pumpkin varieties but this site seems to indicate all pumpkins (but not gourds) are edible..
https://www.jessicagavin.com/types-of-pumpkin/
I have cooked pumpkin. My recommendation for recipes that call for cooked flesh is to peel after cooking as once the flesh is soft it easy to scoop out rather than trying to peel raw pumpkin which is very hard. I find it easiest to hack the pumkin in half, scoop out the seeds pulp then microwave or roast before scooping out the flesh.
My favourite thing to do with a small pumpkin or squash is Cambodian coconut custard cooked in a whole pumpkin. I normally make some incisions to remove the stem, leaving a hole large enough to scoop out seeds and pulp. Then fill the pumpkin with water to measure out how much custard to make to fill it. I use 1 egg to 100ml of coconut milk and a tablespoon of sugar, but keep in mind that an egg is 40ml when calculating the amount of custard needed. Most traditional recipes call for steaming, but I cook at 300 watts in the microwave until the custard is set. You want to keep the temperature around 70C (when egg starts to set) but lower than 80C (when eggs curdle).
https://www.cambodiarecipe.com/recipe/cambodian-pumpkin-coconut-custard/
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Most of those look like squashes common in the US, so I'd say yes.
Here's a resource: https://www.jessicagavin.com/types-of-squash/
I also normally chop up the squash with peel, scrape out the seeds (which you can also clean and roast separately) and roast the halves or smaller pieces. I might cut the peel off butternut to make soup, but that's the only time I bother.1 -
I think the reason some pumpkins/squashes are sold for eating and others for decor is more about whether they're optimized for eating or cuteness. The ones bred for looks may just be stringy, dry, or otherwise not as tasty. I don't know of any that are poisonous . . . though I'm not an expert.
Reportedly, there's one called "stinking gourd" used as a medicinal that can be poisonous. But there are various articles saying that the common decorative ones are non-poisonous. This is an example:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/gourd/are-gourds-edible.htm
The ones in your photo all look pretty mainstream, though - look like ones that would be sold for eating here.3 -
The passion fruit on it's own was fragrant but quite tart so I had it as a sauce on a flan naranje. That's a Spanish baked custard where orange juice replaces sweetened milk.
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BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »Pre-emptive Pumpkin question.
Historically, Pumpkin doesn’t really appear here in the Uk - in more recent years they’ve stocked various Pumpkin type squash/gourds for Hallowe’en decoration purposes mainly.
My daughter bought a bunch of these, this year. Various colours and sizes. She doesn’t know if they’re edible even, but is visiting this weekend and has offered them to me to cook with because she feels bad at potentially wasting food by dumping them in the bin.
I’ve said I’ll give it a go, never having cooked or eaten pumpkin 🤷♀️. What I’m asking here is are the pumpkins pictured below of an edible variety? I don’t want to poison anyone if not! 😂
The green one in front is an Acorn Squash.
The larger orange one on the right looks like a pie pumpkin.
The large white one also looks like an eating pumpkin with lighter flesh.
The other two look like some variety of Carnival Squash.
I bet the Acorn and Pie pumpkin will have the softest flesh when cooked. The others will still be tasty. There's lots of ways to cook them. One really easy way is carefully cut in half lengthwise. Keep your fingers out of the way. Remove the seeds; you can save them to make pepitos. For that you'll want to soak them in salt water, remove all the stringy flesh, and then let them air dry. Toss with oil, salt, and seasonings and roast. They make great toppings for squash soup by the way. Or just eat 'em.
Place the halves of squash cut-side down on a cooking tray with a little water. The water keeps the squash from drying out as much; the inside steams since the steam underneath can't get out. Bake at 350 until soft; 45 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the squash.
For smaller squash, you can serve the half or cut into wedges or remove the flesh. It's good with butter of course....4 -
I am curious what it's going to smell like in my house in a few days.
I made the cauliflower kimchi. I've never even eaten any, but it sounded good. I broke up a half head of cauliflower and soaked it in brine for nearly 24 hours. This afternoon I made paste with four fresh serrano chiles (I took out the seeds for looks, but unfortunately that means lots of the heat will go away too), a bunch of garlic & ginger, red chile flakes, a little Aleppo style chile flakes, some ancho powder, some soy sauce, and some fish sauce. I processed that to a paste. I sliced a jalapeno and mixed it all together. It all fit in a half-gallon jar with headspace to spare. I didn't want to press it down too hard, so I added some of the brine back in. I covered it with a clean plastic bag and filled the bag with more brine to hold everything under the liquid. I'm expecting it will ferment two weeks and be ready about the same time as the sauerkraut I started last week.
I'll be fascinated to hear the after-ferment report, maybe even the "during". One of my former co-workers left a whole head of cauliflower in his desk drawer over a warm weekend, in an era when the AC was turned down in our building on weekends. I don't think I've experienced any smell more awful, or more surprisingly widely-dispersed, than what resulted by Monday morning. It cleared fairly fast, but while it lasted - ugh! 🤣
I'd bet the kimchi will taste good when done, though.
(Background: A gardening friend had brought him the cauliflower on Friday. He forgot to take it home.)
I came home for lunch yesterday and was trying to figure out what that smell was. Could have been one of the last tomatoes I'm trying to get to ripen in windows; some were visibly rotting. Got rid of those. Then it dawned on me; I opened the bucket that has the cauliflower ferment. It seems the next organism has taken over the fermentation, and the smell has changed. It's different from kimchi or sauerkraut, but similar a bit. It's very interesting to observe the transformation. I'm really looking forward to trying it, but it's only halfway through the recommended two week ferment. Funny; kimchi is three or four days, sauerkraut is at least three weeks, and... who knows about this cauliflower. For sauerkraut, the third organism doesn't really get cranking until the third week. Some people only ferment kimchi overnight or not at all.
It's all good!
I wonder what I will do next. Maybe a traditional radish kimchi. I need to go to one of our Asian markets to get some Korean radish. I think that's the traditional base for it. I also might need another refrigerator if I keep producing faster than I can eat.....3 -
I am curious what it's going to smell like in my house in a few days.
I made the cauliflower kimchi. I've never even eaten any, but it sounded good. I broke up a half head of cauliflower and soaked it in brine for nearly 24 hours. This afternoon I made paste with four fresh serrano chiles (I took out the seeds for looks, but unfortunately that means lots of the heat will go away too), a bunch of garlic & ginger, red chile flakes, a little Aleppo style chile flakes, some ancho powder, some soy sauce, and some fish sauce. I processed that to a paste. I sliced a jalapeno and mixed it all together. It all fit in a half-gallon jar with headspace to spare. I didn't want to press it down too hard, so I added some of the brine back in. I covered it with a clean plastic bag and filled the bag with more brine to hold everything under the liquid. I'm expecting it will ferment two weeks and be ready about the same time as the sauerkraut I started last week.
I'll be fascinated to hear the after-ferment report, maybe even the "during". One of my former co-workers left a whole head of cauliflower in his desk drawer over a warm weekend, in an era when the AC was turned down in our building on weekends. I don't think I've experienced any smell more awful, or more surprisingly widely-dispersed, than what resulted by Monday morning. It cleared fairly fast, but while it lasted - ugh! 🤣
I'd bet the kimchi will taste good when done, though.
(Background: A gardening friend had brought him the cauliflower on Friday. He forgot to take it home.)
I came home for lunch yesterday and was trying to figure out what that smell was. Could have been one of the last tomatoes I'm trying to get to ripen in windows; some were visibly rotting. Got rid of those. Then it dawned on me; I opened the bucket that has the cauliflower ferment. It seems the next organism has taken over the fermentation, and the smell has changed. It's different from kimchi or sauerkraut, but similar a bit. It's very interesting to observe the transformation. I'm really looking forward to trying it, but it's only halfway through the recommended two week ferment. Funny; kimchi is three or four days, sauerkraut is at least three weeks, and... who knows about this cauliflower. For sauerkraut, the third organism doesn't really get cranking until the third week. Some people only ferment kimchi overnight or not at all.
It's all good!
I wonder what I will do next. Maybe a traditional radish kimchi. I need to go to one of our Asian markets to get some Korean radish. I think that's the traditional base for it. I also might need another refrigerator if I keep producing faster than I can eat.....
The updates have been really interesting: Thanks for the continuing reports. I've only done sauerkraut, so limited experience. I always felt that the kraut was less obnoxious smelling than often claimed, but maybe I'm just tolerant of smells.0 -
I'm going through a "house salad" phase at the moment.
We didn't have time to get a winter vege garden going this year and I flat out "refused" to pay $6 for a head of brocolli at the supermarket. Sooooo...
I fired up the hydroponics in the garage so we can take freshly picked leaves as required
My daughter grew some cucumbers
MIL pitched in with some homegrown carrots
I make my own cheese (dairy farmers) so I add a little camembert to my salads too
And the chickens contribute fresh eggs if I want some optional boiled egg
The only purchased things IN my salad is the pumpkin and sesame seeds
It's pretty much our staple at the moment, and we just add different meat toppings.
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BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »Pre-emptive Pumpkin question.
Historically, Pumpkin doesn’t really appear here in the Uk - in more recent years they’ve stocked various Pumpkin type squash/gourds for Hallowe’en decoration purposes mainly.
My daughter bought a bunch of these, this year. Various colours and sizes. She doesn’t know if they’re edible even, but is visiting this weekend and has offered them to me to cook with because she feels bad at potentially wasting food by dumping them in the bin.
I’ve said I’ll give it a go, never having cooked or eaten pumpkin 🤷♀️. What I’m asking here is are the pumpkins pictured below of an edible variety? I don’t want to poison anyone if not! 😂
I have more experience with pumpkins than squash.. so the orange pie pumpkin is great for roasting, mashed pumpkin, anything calling for purée and both savory and sweet dishes! You can also roast the seeds.
I am cooking a pumpkin/coconut cake!
Photo attached .. disregard my ashy oven.
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A quick trip to California and I’m stuffing myself with all of the west coast things I can’t get on-island. Apples, good ones - ones that haven’t been in a container bobbing across the ocean for weeks. Fresh figs. A perfect pear. Jicama.
Don’t get me wrong. Hawaii produce is unreal and varied in ways I’m still discovering. But it turns out I’m nostalgic… for apples. Pomegranates. Persimmons.
Fall flavors. I’m still new enough that I don’t have island produce that feels ‘fall’ to me yet, although the local winter squashes have made for some great soups.6 -
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After a long season, frost was coming so it was time to say goodbye to my tomatoes. I used the green ones to cook, blend and make a ‘green ketchup’; it’s DELICIOUS. It doesn’t taste exactly the same as regular ketchup but it’s tangy and wonderful on almost everything. The orange tomatoes I used to make sauce for sausage-pepper pasta. The black/red ones I saved to ripen (they ripen fantastically well on the counter) and will hopefully be using them in soup later this week!6 -
Cauliflower kimchi update.
Yesterday was the day I was supposed to jar it up and put it in the fridge. I went to the forest to stomp around and collect mushrooms instead. Today's weather is very high wind and a crapton of rain, so I took advantage of the weather.
So today was the day.
I also jarred up the sauerkraut that was supposed to be done today. Can I just say there's a very interesting set of aromas in my house now. It will continue because a friend gave me a couple Napa cabbages from their farm, and they are presently sitting in a big bowl of salt. I will massage them a little more then cover them with water for a few hours while I go get some other ingredients, then rinse rinse rinse, then mix up the next kimchi. But all that has nothing to do with the cauliflower.
It really was interesting how the smell of the stuff changed every few days. The thing I was most curious about was how it tastes. It's actually pretty good! I will make more again some other time, and I might shut down the fermentation a few days early hoping it will be just a little crisper.
The taste is unique. It's mildly sour, but it's also sweet. Slightly crispy with a lot of ginger and garlic accenting the vegetable. It's still crisp to be honest, and it really isn't fermented too long. Maybe I should just stick to the same recipe. Even though the flavors are the same ones I use for Napa kimchi, the flavor is totally different.
There's a sauerkraut thread over in a group that I'm going to copy this to; some of those folks might be interested.
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Finally found a way to serve cauliflower in a way that my brassica hating hubby likes. Try to keep leaves on if you use this recipe because they turn into something similar to kale chips.
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/miznons-whole-roasted-cauliflower5 -
Are mushrooms "produce?" They sure aren't vegetables, and while what we eat is considered the "fruiting body," they aren't fruit either. Mushrooms are more closely related to animals than they are to plants, so...
But they're in the produce section of the grocery, so....
I had fun with some today. I took a bunch of Agaricus bisporus (a.k.a. white button mushrooms from the grocery store) and roasted 'em. First I removed the stipes (stems) and set them aside. I tossed the caps with a little oil and some salt, then put 'em on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I finely chopped the stipes, tossed with oil, salt, spices, and a little panko. Then I stuffed that back in the caps and put them in a 425 degree (F) convection oven for about 25 minutes.
Yummers.6 -
Oh.
Yeah.
Yesterday I chopped up a couple purple cabbages from a friend's farm. She gets a share of the sauerkraut. I haven't made purple kraut yet. Now I'm starting.
Was a bit of a pain, but as it turns out, it was a good thing the two cabbages weighed in a pound or two more than my normal recipe. There were spots inside each heat that were dried, brown leaves. I don't know what would cause this, but I know this farm doesn't use pesticides. It could be insect damage. Whatever. So it took a lot longer to prep than normal as I had to sort out the bad spots every two slices of cabbage. When done, I sorted the whole batch from the giant bowl into a plastic bucket, then sorted again back into the giant bowl. I think I got rid of most of the brown/dry bits. Very odd.
Salted the cabbage and let it sit an hour maybe as I massaged it a few times then packed into a gallon jar. It released plenty of liquid. I checked it this morning, and it was just barely starting to show signs of coming to life.
For a change I made this one very basic. No carrots. No garlic. Just cabbage, salt, and caraway. It will be ready to sample in three weeks.
Then today I put more cauliflower in a brine to soak. In the morning I'll drain it and get the "sauce" going and in a few days my house will smell really funky again. I've already eaten through about half the cauliflower kimchi I made a couple weeks ago. The flavor is mellowing. Ah, fermentation season....
Still not sure mushrooms are produce though.
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1
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Well, it's happened again.
I opened my fridge and smelled something that seemed a little off. I had a couple ideas what it might be. Then I realized, no... it's not in the fridge, it's the two gallon jars undergoing a transformation from lactic acid bacteria about five feet away.
Now I just need to eat a pint of sauerkraut in the next two or three weeks to free up a quart jar so I have enough for the purple cabbage sauerkraut and the cauliflower kimchi.3
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