How to Buy the Best Produce

Everyone eats fruits and vegetables, but very few people actually know how to buy premium produce. Do you know how to pick the best sweet onion, or a ripe cantaloupe? I have compiled a list of how to choose produce that is at its freshest, peak flavor, and will have the longest shelf life.

First, you always need to look at the produce, either fruits or vegetables, and check the appearance. Look for discoloration, soft spots, dehydrated stems, and wrinkles. Skins on fruits and vegetables should be unblemished, firm to the touch, and look appealing.

Then check the smell, if the cut stem smells fresh, not fermented, and should even smell good like the vegetable or fruit it is. Smell the bin the produce is in. Does it smell like the apples it contains? If it's a good smell, great, it if smells moldy or no smell at all pass this bin up.

The stems on grapes should be green, not all brown and dried up. Give your grapes a gentle shake, if half the grapes fall off they are old, don't buy them. If the stem is green, the grapes feel heavy, and they all stay on with that gentle shake, you're good to go. Any time you have a soft, slimy, moldy, or shriveled stem, pass on that produce it is too old, and will not have a good texture or flavor.

The most important thing to remember is weight! The weight of any produce should be heavier than it looks. A lightweight vegetable and/or fruit is generally an under ripe one or an old one. Either way, you do not want this lightweight. Pick up a medium sized orange, lemon, or lime, weigh it in your hand for a couple of seconds, do the same with a second piece of fruit. Which one is the heaviest? Return the lightweight, pick up a third fruit again weigh it. When you have several heavy oranges, you have the best there is in that bin. Remember the largest is not usually the sweetest; it is generally the medium sized fruit that will have the best flavor, most sweetness, and the most juice.

Generally, the best places to buy produce are the Farmer's Markets, or the local fruit vendors, and local groceries if they carry local seasonal farm fresh fruit. This produce from local farmers will be the freshest because it is not picked under-ripe and allowed to ripen during transport. The produce will be best tasting and sweetest if it is allowed to ripen on the vine. It will also be cheeper because there is little to no transport cost to pass on to us the consumers.

Specific produce:

Onions: Look for the flattest one that you can find. The flatter an onion is between stem and root, indicates the sweetness of the onion. The perfectly round or enlongated onion will always have the strongest and most bitter flavor regardless of the type of onion. Also, look for firm onions. The onions available in stores in the Spring are always last year’s crop. Old onions will have a spongy feel, try to find the firmest onions so they will last a week or two.

Cantaloupes: Look for an evenly rough skin all over. They should have no green showing through the rough ridges on the skin. This whitish/yellowish fruit will be a ripe, sweet cantaloupe. Again, also check the stem end and the weight of your fruit before buying.

Pineapples: Look at the skin, each of those little points are called eyes. The eyes should be the same size over the whole pineapple, which indicates that it is fully ripe. The coloration of a pineapple can vary, but should be bright in color, not a dull all over brownish color. Pineapples do not ripen after cut, so what you buy is what you get. Pineapples should also be heavy in weight and have a firm feel with a little give for the best fruit.

Corn: Feel the tops of the corn, the end with the silk hanging out. If you feel a pointy tip, exchange for another one, until you find some with rounded tops. This means, they have had a chance to fully develop their flavor and sweetness.

Watermelons: They should be a medium size. Big is not better. Look for that buttery yellow to white spot on the bottom. That is where it sat on the ground, but also where the sugars have settled. The bigger the sugar-spot the sweeter the melon. If the watermelon has clear unbroken stripes all the way around the melon, choose a different one. This one will not be fully ripe or it will have a dull flavor with a mealy texture.

Avocados: Look for dark skins, with no blemishes. They should have a firm texture with a little give. If everyone has been squeezing the avocados they all will be bruised, look for the least "squeezed" ones. Avocados will continue to ripen after they are picked. If you want them to ripen quickly, put them in a brown paper bag for a day or two. The ethylene gas that all ripening fruits and vegetables give off naturally, will help to speed up the ripening process, if you keep it contained within the brown bag. This ripening technique also helps with apples and bananas.

Tomatoes: They should be red, or at least the color of the type of tomato that it is. Pale red tomatoes will not be as flavorful as a tomato left to ripen before harvested. Most tomatoes in the stores are picked green and ripen in transport. They never develop the intense flavor of a truly vine ripened tomato straight out of the garden. If you put the tomatoes in the refrigerator, the tomato will ripen, but with little flavor, and will turn mealy in texture. Store your uncut tomatoes on the counter, and the under ripe tomatoes on your kitchen windowsill to develop the maximum flavor.

My last advice is look at how the produce is stored and displayed at the grocery store. Some of it is kept wet; other produce is kept strictly dry. Some is chilled and other produce is left at room temperature. Try to emulate the same type of storage at home for your produce to have the longest shelf life and most flavorful fruits and vegetables. Always buy seasonal produce in season, and buy locally for the best flavors, least cost, and freshest product. Get to know your produce guy, they are very proud of their produce and happy to talk to you about it. They often let you sample the produce before you buy it, and can tell you how to choose the best.

Buy the best and you will enjoy the best. The best doesn't mean the most expensive. Enjoy Spring, Summer and Fall, it's the best for variety and availability of our local produce. Enjoy your veggies!

All photos were selected off of Flikr, a free photo resource.

Cooking with Hubby

These yellow tulips make me think of butter. Do you know the difference between salted butter and sweet cream butter, or as some call it unsalted butter? For many generations this country has not had anything except salted butter available at stores. You had to be a farmer to get sweet cream butter. Salted butter of course is salted, but the salt is also a preservitive. If you taste sweet cream butter you may find out why most culinary cooks prefer sweet cream butter. It has a clean fresh taste, not stale and it also allows you to control the salt you put into a dish or choose to comsume.

I have been the main cook for my family since I was about 10 years old. I have done it so long I don't have to think about it too much, and I'm able to come up with a quick satisfying meal. Now, that I'm going to cooking classes with my husband, and we are cooking together I am having to gently and carefully share my knowledge without being bossy. Easier said than done.

Try telling a beginning cook, "You'll need to shiffinad these basil leaves." The statement is straight out of the recipe, if the reader doesn't understand the word you may get any kind of results. Mike my hubby, had no idea what "shiffinad" means. I told him, "You can roll up the leaves together the long way. Then with a sharp knife you slice through the leaves to make 1/8th inch threads of basil." I found demonstration is much easier than words to illustrate the definition. There is so much about recipes that I take for granted that a beginning cook may not understand. Take the words, whisk, blend, fold, whip, these all mean different things.

"When it says simmer, but do not boil, what does that mean?" Mike asked me as he read the directions for a bechamel sauce. Then he asks, "what is the difference between a bechamel sauce and a roux?" Or as he really says it in his teasing way, "rux"

"The difference is eggs. A bechamel sauce has eggs, and a roux does not. A simmer is steaming hot and no bubbles, and a boil is large rolling bubbles. The difference can make or break a recipe." I wonder is this too much information or does he really understand what I'm saying? Either way, we keep on cooking.

He pouts, "I don't like eggplant." We start out with a Mousska recipe, that calls for ground lamb, and grilled eggplant.

"Then don't use eggplant, use zucchini." That should solve that problem. But now the recipe isn't Greek, oh well. We are into creating our own recipes. Instead of lamb, we use ground beef, instead of a simple dish, we add mushrooms, and cayenne to add flavor. We still layer the ingredients and cover it with the bechamel sauce. It looks the same, but smells different and taste different. The real question is do we call it by the originating Greek name, or come up with a new one?

I thought I would include a few pictures. We went to see the tulips this month. They were beautiful. There have not been as many tulips as there has been in past years, and it has become such a tourist attraction. Most places are charging too much for parking, then will charge you to get into the feild or display. These fields in my photos were just along the road. We walked around the flowering fields of gold, rubies, and amythist in bloom leading three of our little dogs. It was a pristine day most unusual for April in Washington.
Below you will see me with the quilt I had won 4 awards for, including Presidents Choice. It is one third the size of the origninal pattern, I challenged myself to make it smaller, and it definately was a challenge. It is called the Promise for the rainbow of colors, like looking at the fields of tulips, all lined up in groups of the prism.

To see just a few more of my quilts visit my Fliker account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94911001@N00/ The quilt below won first place, and it's called Coffee and Tea for Whitney. My daughter is a Starbuck barrista, and she likes the coffee colors. But I threw in a lot more than browns, there is a lot of color in this quilt.

Think Greek!

Did you know . . . that there are only two vegetables that we humans regularly consume that are perennials? They are asparagus and rhubarb. I didn't know that. All other vegetables have to be reseeded each year for a new crop, asparagus and rhubarb continue to grow back without reseeding. Good to know!

My daughter, Whitney, always tells me that she knows when I'm trying to teach her something, because I preface it with, "Did you know. . . ?" Now, it's a catch phrase, that I am aware of, and still use. What is something you tend to repeat?

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Think Greek: Food of the Gods.

My husband signed us up for an International Cooking class, so that we can share a fun activity together. The class is at a private home in Lake City Way. The house has a spectacular view of Lake Washington; which they can see close up through the telescope they have in their large bay window facing the water. The home is surronded by beautiful plants, most of which are flowering and fragrant right now. As we pass all of this beauty we enter the always open door to the kitchen/classroom area. This is a large room at the back of the house leading into her private gardens, where the thyme, bay, and other herbs flourish among the ornamental and flowering plants. As we gather for the class we sit in chairs arranged in 4 rows facing a large kitchen that has two stoves, two sinks, an amazing amount of space, and an endless number of tools for this creative and wonderful cook to share her craft with us. I'm all ears ready to learn and tastebuds tingling for the Greek fair that is on the menu tonight. Mike is right this is fun.

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The menu that Louise our instructing chef, demonstrated for us included: Avgolemono Soup, Spanakopita, Moussaka, Ionian Salad, and Rizogalo. What I learned was that the Greeks tend to be light with the garlic unlike their other Mediterranean neighbors, and more heavy handed with the citrus flavors and other herbs such as sage and rosemary that grow wild on their hills. I now have the recipes for some amazing Greek dishes that are surprisingly light and unique to our American pallet. I thought I would share the Avgolemono Soup. That was one that surprised both my husband and I, it was so refreshing and simply good! It would be good for a light lunch, before a meal, or even for someone who has been sick. The soup is a chicken stock base, with rice and eggs, and a bright lemon tang. It has the proteins, the easily digestible rice, and the lightness of a broth type soup. It's easy to make. I've changed the recipe to make it my own so as not to infringe on Louise's copywrited recipes, but the recipes are easy to find on-line if you're interested.

Avgolemono Soup

2 quarts chicken stock (The boxed broth from the store works great.)

2 cups chicken cubed, shredded or left overs (Optional, but if you have it throw it in.)

1/2 cup uncooked white rice

4 eggs at room temperature (They whip better at room temp.)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (Louise says that fresh is far superior. Some recipes call for up to a cup of lemon juice, adjust this to your preferance.)

salt as needed (boxed broth will need a lot less than fresh chicken stock, beware!)

white pepper, freshly ground (it really does have a different taste than black pepper if you've never tried it.)

Thin lemon slices for garnish, if desired.

Minced parsley or chives for garnish, (This adds a lot to the flavor and the pleasing appearance of the soup.)

Bring the stock to a boil. Add the uncooked rice. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer the stock for about 15 minutes or until the rice is just done. Season the soup with salt to taste, over salting slightly won't hurt the soup with the addition of the egg lemon sauce it should be close to perfectly seasoned. (Remember, it's easier to add than to take salt out!)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until they are thick and lemon colored (about 2 minutes). Beat in the lemon juice. Very gradually add about 2 cups of the hot soup to the eggs while beating constantly. (This will temper your eggs, and you won't end up with scrambled eggs. So go slowly, adding the broth a little at a time to the eggs, not the other way around.)

After adding about 2 cups of hot broth to the beaten eggs, finish by slowly pouring the egg mixture into the remaining hot but not boiling broth. (Yes, the reverse.) Stir the mixture in a figure eight pattern with a wooden spoon. (I don't know why it has to be a wooden spoon.) Heat the soup, it will thicken slightly, be careful to not boil the soup. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Garnish each serving with a lemon slice and a sprinkling of chives or parsley.

This soup is best served immediately. This will serve about 6-8 people.

Look for the recipes on Google, they are easy to find.

The Spanakopita is a Greek spinach pie with a Phillo dough crust, Moussaka is a casserole of ground lamb and eggplant (you can use beef if you are squeamish about lamb.) The Ionian Salad is a green Romain salad with a citrus dressing and orange pieces that is amazing. And the Rizogalo is a rice pudding with orange zest! My husband hates rice pudding, and he loved this one.

If you want to know more about any of these recipes just drop me a line, or leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you think, or even better if you tried the soup!

Hello Blogger's World

New experiences, new recipes, new adventures, new crafting projects, including a new English class has led me to this point of endeavoring to embark into the world of cyber society and chatting on the web. The topics covered in this blog will be new things that I learn; random things I want to share with you. Sometimes, I find amazing big ideas, but more often, I find something that is small and more trivial than new to the world, quite possibly it is interesting just to me. Sometimes it is just observations that will stop me and I wonder at the intricacy and the beauty of the world, like the ripples on the sand left by the receding waters. Come see the world through my eyes.

One trivial thing I learned not so long ago is that eggplant, you know that big, shiny, purple, vegetable with the dull brownish green capped stem on top? That huge royal purple thing is a berry, that’s right a berry, related to a tomato! It grows on bushes, and not only that it comes in various sizes from small to large, and are common to most of the world. I have cooked eggplant, I love Eggplant Parmesan, but I’ve not been able to sell it to my husband as a favorite food choice. Maybe you’d like to try this dip, Roasted Eggplant with Garlic Puree, it’s good as a dip for vegetables, and it’s great on pita bread. You can put it on a pizza crust or a whole pita for a gourmet pizza, top with some ripe red tomato slices, and fresh mozzarella cheese, and sprinkle with a little bright green, fragrant cilantro for a real taste treat. Bake at 400 degrees F. till the cheese is bubbly. This easy recipe for eggplant takes a bit of time, time you could be using to learn something new!

Be green with me; be willing to learn. I’d love it if you would share what you’ve learned today in the comment space. Tell me of your personal experiences with eggplant. Was it a positive egg-perience?

Garlic Roasted Eggplant Puree

1 eggplant, weighing about 1-1/2 pounds
4 large garlic cloves, sliced
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1+ tablespoon virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cilantro or parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon Greek unsweetened yogurt (any unsweetened plain yogurt will do but Greek is best)
Salt
Pepper
Cilantro or parsley leaves, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With a sharp knife, make incisions all over the eggplant and insert a sliver of garlic into each one. In a baking dish, bake the eggplant until it is thoroughly soft and wrinkled all over, about one hour; then set into a colander to drain for 30 minutes.

After the eggplant has drained, slice it open and scrape the meat and the garlic slivers out of the skin, discard skin. Chop the eggplant meat and garlic finely with a knife or work it in a food processor to make a coarse puree. Stir in the lemon peel, olive oil, herbs, and yogurt. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Mound it in a bowl, and garnish with some whole cilantro or parsley leaves. Serve with wedges of fresh pita bread, pita chips, or fresh vegetables.