For the love of Produce...

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  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited October 2022
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    First time I’ve ever seen Kohlrabi in real life, so obviously had to buy one…
    Kohlrabi is my favourite vegetable, by far. I compare it to broccoli stalks and find both of them eminently more satisfying than broccoli florets. That said, I don't often buy it, partly because it is quite time consuming to prepare in a tiny bachelor suite kitchen but also because of how sorry most kohlrabi looks here in Toronto, despite the relatively steep price given that it is such a simple vegetable to grow.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,792 Member
    BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    First time I’ve ever seen Kohlrabi in real life, so obviously had to buy one…
    Kohlrabi is my favourite vegetable, by far. I compare it to broccoli stalks and find both of them eminently more satisfying than broccoli florets. That said, I don't often buy it, partly because it is quite time consuming to prepare in a tiny bachelor suite kitchen but also because of how sorry most kohlrabi looks here in Toronto, despite the relatively steep price given that it is such a simple vegetable to grow.

    Misattributed quote: That wasn't me, that was @BarbaraHelen2013. I've been eating kohlrabi for decades, though most often raw. For raw eating, it's easy to prepare.

    I'm surprised you don't get good kohlrabi in Toronto. I'm not that far away geographically over in Michigan, and it's pretty easy to find very nice kohlrabi in season at farmers markets, and decent kohlrabi most of the year at the good produce market.

    I guess borders and sub-culture may make a difference?
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Misattributed quote: That wasn't me, that was @BarbaraHelen2013. I've been eating kohlrabi for decades, though most often raw. For raw eating, it's easy to prepare.

    I'm surprised you don't get good kohlrabi in Toronto. I'm not that far away geographically over in Michigan, and it's pretty easy to find very nice kohlrabi in season at farmers markets, and decent kohlrabi most of the year at the good produce market.

    I guess borders and sub-culture may make a difference?
    Oops. I stand corrected. Sorry for that. That'll teach me, I should not try to post something when I'm getting too tired.

    It's possible that there are places to get good kohlrabi in Toronto, but I am living alone, and spending hours of "hunting" all over the place to ferret out such places, if we have them at all, is not an investment I am willing, or even able to make. I just go to my local Loblaws and if I have some time to spend, to my local No Frills, because it makes for a longer walk, which is always good and because they have two (2!) products I cannot get at Loblaws and which happen to be my absolute favourites (No Name oriental style vegetable blend, and Suraj sliced okra). They don't always have them but they very ofen do and it is one sacrifice I am willing to make if and when I can. If not, I buy something more or less similar at Loblaws.

    The reality is, I hardly ever prepare "fresh" vegetables at all. It is always a major investment in time and effort when I do that, because my kitchen is so tiny, and I have to put stuff all over the place to get it done. I essentially only eat frozen: it is convenient, always fresh at peak quality and requires essentially no time at all except for weighing the portions and the 10 minutes of time it takes for the microwave to cook them ^_^.

    I just finished breakfast: 125 ml canned crushed tomatoes, 125 g No Name frozen diced vegetable blend, one can of Brunswick spring water sardines, one tablespoon of a spice mix I make myself and two tablespoons of Pure-Lé psyllium husks. While the psyllium does add fibre that's not really why I use it, I use it because it makes the mixture less liquid, so I can eat it with a fork without making a mess at the computer ^_^. It is my standard breakfast and my favourite meal of the day. For now, anyway.


  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,878 Member
    I roasted whole shallots in the air fryer earlier this week after trying them at a restaurant and liking them. One recipe I saw online claimed these can be successfully frozen and I can now confirm this is so. The shallots I warmed up in the microwave tonight were just as good as when we ate them freshly roasted at the beginning of the week.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 13,975 Member
    Mmm. Pickled tomatoes!

    Did you prick some tiny holes in the tomato skin so the brine can get to the inside of the fruit?

    If your garden has green tomatoes, and if you need to harvest them soon, you can for sure make pickled green tomatoes. So tasty.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 13,975 Member
    @acpgee

    What difference does it make in the final product when you parboil the potatoes first? I haven't tried that. I've been doing roasted potatoes by slicing into quarter-inch round pieces or quarter inch strips (French cut), tossing with oil & spices, and roasting in the convection oven for about a half hour at about 425.


    I'm thinking that if I wanted to roast small whole potatoes, the parboil might make a nice exterior texture. I think it might have even been you who turned me on to the idea of Papas Arrugadas. Those get fully cooked in salty water and then put back in the dry pan to get crispy. I wonder if parboiling whole or halved small potatoes and then roasting would be similar and also deliciously different.

    As winter approaches, I'll be looking forward to making Stuffed Mushroom Mushroom Stuffing. I'm sure I have written about it before, and maybe I'll do that again.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,878 Member
    @mtaratoot

    I think I turned you onto papas arrugadas after I posted a picture from a restaurant serving in the Canary Islands, where the recipe is from. They would have been traditionally cooked in Atlantic sea water. We were there last February and I found them astonishingly good especially with unsalted grilled meat. You were meant to take a bite of the salty potato between bites of unseasoned BQQ'd meat.

    The classic method of English roast potatoes with the first par boiling step is to roughten up the surface when you shake them in fat (traditionally duck fat or goose fat, but butter or olive oil is nice too). Fluffing and roughening the surface of the softened potatoes causes them to hold more fat and get more crispy. The best results I have had was when I accidentally par boiled the potatoes a little too long (say 4-5 minutes) in salted water. They were super soft on the instead but crispy on the outside but not particularly attractive as they had started to crumble apart after a shake in the fat in the dry cooking vessel.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,878 Member
    Argh. Spellchecker. If anything is incomprehensible above let me know.
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
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    One more for ya.
    Rollinia.

    Fizzy review: the softer parts are sort of lemon curd ish, and the firmer parts have a wild texture, like firm applesauce. It’s super creamy and definitely can tell it’s in the cherimoya family.
    Its a ‘small slice’ one. The texture gets overwhelming after a bit but it’s wild and delicious in small doses.

    Learn here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/rollinia-deliciosa-biriba
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »
    First time I’ve ever seen Kohlrabi in real life, so obviously had to buy one…

    Don’t really want to make it into some kind of slaw but I’m struggling to come up with a different plan for it. Research tells me it most closely resembles broccoli stalks, so I may end up cutting it into small dice and adding to a lemon, mint and ricotta orzo dish.

    Does anyone have any suggestions?

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    This is boring conceptually, but I love them raw, thin sliced. (That's how I eat broccoli stalks and cauliflower/cabbage cores often, too.)

    Same. When feeing fancy: Carpaccio sliced, with green apple if have, with a drizzle of blood orange OO and dusting of ground hazelnuts.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,300 Member
    Okay.. sorry for the dumb question but...

    How do you know figs are ripe? Is it when they get a bit soft?

    Also, can you just eat a fig like an apple? What does it taste like? I have some in my fridge. Like I said, stupid question but I have never had figs.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,792 Member
    @purplefizzy: That Rollinia looks/sounds soooo interesting! I wish I could find something like that.

    Your description of it - though far different overall - reminded me that this should be Paw Paw season here, itself a custardy thing. (This would be temperate Paw Paw, Asimina triloba.) So far, I've not found any this year. They don't travel well, but in the past I've gotten a small number at the farmers markets, but rarely. Want!
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited October 2022
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Squash fest continues! From the top center, Kent (Australian variety), spaghetti, and mashed potato squash, double-bracketed by four additional Georgia candy roaster. That's a foot-long ruler for scale.

    Kent is a new variety to me. The squash lady at the market says it's really good. They hand pollinate it to keep the variety pure here.

    wiwyqyaf1ls2.jpg

    The other two Georgia candy roaster (GCR) squash I cooked this morning added up to ten two-cup pyrex bowls in my freezer, plus a little (partial bowl) in the fridge. These 4 GCR will join them, so I should end up with around 30 two-cup portions in the freezer for use over the coming year. (GCR aren't great keepers, but they're too yummy to pass up.) These first two GCRs also yielded around 2 cups of nice big, plump raw seeds to roast.

    The other types will be used up over the next week or two in meals. The mashed-potato ones (very mild flavor) are especially nice for a topping a pseudo shepherd's pie, though I'm not sure that's how I'll use this one.

    Out of curiosity, I weighed my farmers market haul from today, which included all but two (GCR) of the squash show, plus a bag of tomatoes, another of Ida Red apples (not my fave, but I can't get my fave), and a small batch of brussels sprouts. All I knew was that my two bags full felt a little heavier than usual on the quarter-mile (literally) back to my car. Turned out to be 27.8 pounds of fresh yummy veggies/fruits!

    Can you tell that I love Winter squash? 😆
    I like that you put a ruler on there. That is the most objective comparison standard we can use in pictures, without using a scale and that is more problematic because while it gives a reliable indication of weight, it says little about size. Well done.
    For caloric reasons I am staying away from most everything that is even a little higher in calories, but I am sure they are quite good. I have never met a vegetable/fruit I did not like.
    As for me, I just gobbled up a 300 g package of chopped spinach with spices and lemon juice, thickened with 2 tbsp of psyllium husks, 158 kcal not counting the lemon juice and the spices because that is hard to estimate and essentially irrelevant because I count the calories from the psyllium which are largely unusable.

    As for Brussels sprouts, they are essentially the only exception I make to keeping to the lowest energy content possible. They are just too delicious and too easy to use to ban outright!

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