Aubergine

Fruit Essentials

August 8, 2013

Fruit mosaicFruit Essentials

Have you ever come home from the market after purchasing fruit to find that you spent money for nothing?  I have plenty of times and it ticks me off every time.  Here are some Fruit Essentials that may help you have more fruit shopping success.

Did you know that many plants that are botanically fruits are not sweet?  We think of them as vegetables or non-fruits.  Avocados, beans, coconuts, corn, cucumbers, eggplants, green peppers, okra, peas, pumpkins, sugar peas, string beans and tomatoes all fall in the fruit category.  Some cookbooks make a distinction between fruit, vegetables and fruit vegetables.  Fruit vegetables are foods that are botanically fruits, but are most often prepared and served like vegetables.  These fruits are considered fruit vegetables: Aubergine, autumn squash, avocado, bitter melon, cantaloupe, chayote, chile, courgette, cucumber, eggplant, gherkin, green bean, green sweet pepper, hot pepper, marrow, muskmelon, okra, olive, pumpkin, red sweet pepper, seedless cucumber, squash, sweet pepper, tomatillo, tomato, watermelon, wax gourd, yellow sweet pepper and zucchini.

Pectin is a substance contained in some fruit which is used for making jams and jellies thicker.  High pectin fruits are apples, cranberries, currants, lemons, oranges, plums and quinces.  Low pectin fruits are bananas, cherries, grapes, mangos, peaches, pineapples and strawberries.

Low pectin fruits seem to discolor quicker than high pectin fruits ( bananas and eggplants).  Lemon juice or vinegar slows the discoloring process.  Other fruits and vegetables that discolor quickly are avocados, cauliflower, celery, cherries, figs, Jerusalem artichokes, mushrooms, nectarines, parsnips, peaches, pears, potatoes, rutabaga and yams.

Bruising:  When a fruit is bruised the cell walls break down and discoloration begins.  The process can be slowed down by refrigeration.

Cleaning:  It is important to clean our fruit and vegetables.  Rinse fruit in cold running water and scrub as needed before cooking or eating.  Soaking fruit in water for more than a few minutes can leach out water soluble vitamins.

Peeling:  The fruit skin usually contains a lot of important nutrients, but if you need to peel a thick-skinned fruit cut a small amount of the peel from the top and bottom.  Then on a cutting board cut off the peel in strips from top to bottom.  A good way to peel thin skinned fruit is to place the fruit in a bowl with boiling water and let stand for about 1 minute.  Remove and cool in an ice water bath.  You could also spear the fruit with a fork and hold over a gas flame until the skin cracks OR quarter the fruit and peel with a sharp paring knife or potato peeler.

Wax:  Oh those beautiful waxed apples that wink at us at the market.  They are beautiful because they are waxed.  I don’t know about you, but I would rather not eat wax.  Wax can be removed from the surface of fruits by washing them with a mild dishwashing soap and then thoroughly rinsing them.  This will remove most of the wax, but probably not all of it.

Purchasing Ripe:  Purchase these fruits fully ripe:  Berries, cherries, citrus, grapes and watermelon.  All of the fruits in this list, except berries, can be refrigerated without losing flavor.

Purchasing Not-So-Ripe:  Apricots, figs, melons, nectarines, peaches and plums develop more complex flavors after picking.  Store these fruits at room temperature until they are as ripe as you would like them.

Refrigeration:  You can refrigerate apples,ripe mangos and ripe pears as soon as you get them.  Do not refrigerat bananas.

Seasonal Fruit:  Winter is the season for citrus.  Fall is the season for apples and pears.  Late spring is the season for strawberries and pineapples.  Summer is perfect for blueberries, melons, peaches and plums.

Washing:  Dry fruit with paper towels or kitchen towels and then use a blow dryer on the cool setting to completely dry fruit.

Squeezing:  A microwave can be used to get more juice from citrus fruits.  Microwave citrus fruits for about 20 seconds before squeezing the fruit for juice.

 

 

Eggplant Essentials

July 29, 2013

Eggplant 3Eggplant Essentials

Eggplant (also known as Aubergine or Melongene) is an egg-shaped vegetable with a typically dark purple, shiny skin, though some are yellow or white.  Eggplant was so named because the delicate white varieties that resemble eggs.  Eggplant grows on a plant (Solanum Esculentum) in the nightshade family and is actually a fruit and not a vegetable.  It is actually technically a berry.  Eggplants have not always been popular.  They were once known as “mad apples,” because it was thought that they caused insanity or death.  They have been used in China since 600 BC.  Thomas Jefferson first brought the eggplant to America from France in the eighteenth century.  Male eggplants are rounder and smoother at the blossom end.  They have fewer seeds which are bitter.  Female eggplants are more oval and the blossom end is usually deeply indented.  They tend to have more bitter seeds.

Eggplants are at their best from July through September.  Select smooth, firm, glossy-skinned eggplants with green caps and stems.  Smaller eggplants are sweeter than large ones.  The fewer the seeds in an eggplant, the sweeter the eggplant.  The more seeds in an eggplant, the older the eggplant.

Store eggplants in perforated plastic bags in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator for four to five days.

Eggplants should be cooked immediately after peeling or cutting because the exposed flesh discolors rapidly due to oxidation.  To prevent this start cooking as soon as you have cut it.  If there is an unavoidable delay, promptly coat the surface with lemon juice or submerge with pieces in acidulated water.

Salt the flesh of a large cut-up eggplant to draw out any bitterness.  For frying, it is always good to salt the eggplant or otherwise remove excess moisture.  Only eggplants with tough, thick skins need to be peeled.

Eggplants should be cooked in only the minimum amount of fat or oil or without any at all because they have inner air pockets.  Eggplants can absorb several times their weight in oil, even when breaded.  Cooking with too much oil or fat breaks down the eggplant’s texture.

Slicing eggplants is so much easier when using a serrated knife.

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