Purple Sweet Potato

Many people have never seen or eaten Purple Sweet Potatoes and Purple Yams. (Yams are the ones with rougher skin)

You can Roast them and make them into oven baked Fries with just a sprinkle of oil and pop them in a 350-375 oven for about a half hour and then just sprinkle them with fresh crushed sea salt and black pepper. Other people make this potato into desserts just like you can do with pumpkin. Sometimes they also show up as a mashed dish.

I like them them as steak fries.

I think Purple Potatoes are kind of cute.

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Huitlacoche Quesadilla

Huitlacoche is also called Mexican Truffle or Corn Smut but almost every forking menu I’ve seen it on just calls it Huitlacoche.

A fungus or disease causes corn kernels to swell in size and turn a blushish color and boy it looks forking unappetizing but you need to cook it till it turns black and then it can be used.

People prize Huitlacoche for it’s woody sweet, savory mild mushroom flavor. Most often it’s served in Quesadillas but also can be used in egg dishes, sauces and soups.

Huitlacoche has been considered a delicacy for centuries in Aztec Cuisine and is many times more expensive than the corn it comes from. It can be purchased fresh, frozen, canned and bottled.

Forking Good!

Depending on where you forking live you might have never seen fresh Chickpeas.

The Chicken is a Legume that is high in protein and is one of the earliest cultivated Legumes.

Other names for the Chickpea are, Garbanzo Bean, Ceci Bean and Channa.

These raw green one taste similar to  raw English Peas and can be prepared as similar dishes but do take a forking long time to shell.

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Clafoutis Type of Dessert From Bottega in Yountville CA

I never Tasted a forking Clafoutis kind of dessert until I ate at Michael Chiarello’s Restaurant Bottega in Yountville CA. I do have to say it was the most delicious dessert I’ve tasted this year so far. The cake part wasn’t sweet but almost a pancake or crepe kind of taste with an almost custard like texture. The strawberries in this dessert were concentrated with Sweet Strawberry Flavor and the almost tart tangy cream with that balsamic drizzle and the hit of Black Pepper was pretty darn-right forking amazing. I had some very good and great food in California but that Clafoutis from Bottega is what I think about most.

According to Wikipedia a Clafoutis is a baked French Dessert with Fruit traditionally baked with black Cherries with Pits! The pits release a small amount of Amygdalin and that compliments the flavor.

The acceptable fruits to use in a Clafoutis are, Red Cherries, Plums, Prunes, Apples, Cranberries and Blackberries.

If you use a forking different fruit your dessert is a forking Flaugnarde.

So I decided I wanted to make my first Clafoutis. I looked at many different recipes and they do forking differ a bit. So I actually found an Apple Clafoutis Recipe by Michael Chiarello on Foodnetwork.com so I tried that one cutting the recipe in half and not running out to buy anything special like a vanilla beans or Calvados Fruit Brandy. I just used what I forking had around the house.

When I studied the ingredients I was forking surprised that this Clafoutis Recipe is actually pretty low in fat and sugar and has very little flour. I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted 4 servings. I only used 2 eggs, 1/4 C. Flour, 1/2 cup milk Slightly over a tablespoon of butter and I think it was only 3 tablespoons of sugar plus two tiny apples.

I mixed up Flour, Sugar, Cinnamon, Salt, Eggs and Milk

Then I Cooked peeled Apples with butter till butter browned.

I then added vanilla, salt, sugar, and poured into buttered glass bowl and topped the apples with batter.

The Mixture got baked for about 22 minutes at 400 degrees.

I topped it with a little powdered sugar, cinnamon and Black Pepper.

Instead of Creme Fraiche I mixed some similar tasting Whipped Cream Cheese with Nonfat Greek Yogurt and added some Balsamic Vinegar to it instead of drizzling the dessert with Balsamic Glaze.

The Apple Clafoutis had the same taste but I thought the strawberries gave it a little more pop and zing.  My Companion however felt different and preferred the dessert made with apple.

In a few weeks maybe I’ll try Gordon Ramsey’s Recipe for Clafoutis his differs and has fresh ground almonds and heavy cream in the recipe.

Now I know what forking Clafoutis is.

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Yu Choy

Yu Choy is of the Mustard Greens or Cabbage Family.  It can be stir fried or boiled like spinach. I tried it both ways and prefer it boiled because it taste like really good spinach that way. I tasted bitterness in it when it was stir fried but preferred it sweet tasting like spinach.

I cleaned it up and put the Yu Choy in a pot stems down in boiling vegetable broth till the vegetable got as soft as spinach.

I drained the Yu Choy and added caramelized onions, fresh ground sea salt,  fresh cracked black pepper and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. Yu Choy taste much better than baby spinach and also budget priced as all this Yu Choy only cost $2.18 from my local Asian Market.

Forking Good!

Cassava also called Yuca Root

Cassava also called Yuca Root is a starchy root that’s as easy to prepare as a potato. You do need to peal the skin and then your ready to boil, bake, or maybe fry cassava.

I cubed my pealed cassava covered them with some water and a little Kosher Salt in a covered pan for an hour in a 375 degree oven till fork tender.

I blended the cassava in a corn soup I was making. The cassava made the soup very creamy without adding cream.

Forking Good!

According to  www.SpecialtyProduce.com Red Corn contains 350% more Antioxidants than White or Yellow Corn and Red Corn also provides 20% more Protein than White or Yellow Corn.

SpecialtyProduce.com also posts that Red Corn has Anthocyanins that have Anti-Inflammatory Properties that have been linked to reversing Nervous System Damage and can also Reverse the effects of Diabetes.

I Forking don’t know if all that is true but I can tell you Red Corn Forking Taste Good!

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Filipino Eggplants

Filipino Eggplant next to a Chinese Eggplant

I saw Filipino Eggplants at the Market today so I thought I’d give them a try. I don’t know if mine were typical or not but seemed to have a very thick skin so I removed it.

I thought they seemed more dense than Chinese Eggplants so I broiled them till they had crispy ends.

Broiled and with skin removed Filipino Eggplant

I made a thin not sweet Asian Style Inspired sauce and added it to the Eggplant along with sautéed green onions and chopped cilantro, and green onion tops.

The ends stayed crispy that way.

Forking Good!

Castoreum comes from the Beaver’s Castor Sac ( that’s the scent gland). The castor sac fluid is mixed with urine and the castor sac is located under the beaver’s tail by it’s anus. (Forking Yuk!)

Castoreum is considered a “Natural Flavoring” and is listed on food labels that way. (“Natural Forking Beaver Butt area Juice”)

Castoreum is used mostly in Vanilla, Strawberry and Raspberry processed foods. (Non vegetarian Forking Beaver Butt area fluids)

Vegetarian and Vegan foods don’t have Castoreum in them.

Foods marked K do not have Castoreum in them since Beavers and anything from a Beaver can never be Kosher.

Scandinavian Schnapps is traditionally made with Castoreum.

Jamie Oliver made a point about letting the world know about Castoreum and was  talking about Castoreum on a past David Letterman Show. (easy to find on Web) (very funny you need to Forking watch it)

Not a lot but 300 pounds of Castoreum is consumed annually. (Forking Gross)

The Huffington Post reported that Cadbury Cream Eggs have a slight amount of Castoreum  in them.

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Mangosteen

Mangosteen are delicious and VERY DELICATE. I’ve only noticed them being sold at AJ’s Fine Foods and the Asian Market. It’s hard to describe the flavor but it’s very tropical tasting not the same but almost like passion fruit and lychee mixed together in ultra soft delicate tangerine like segments.

What nobody tells you is that they are dangerous to open. I read that when they are fresh and just picked they are easier to open. The mangosteen we get here have a thick shell that’s like is like hard waxy wood and gets harder every day. Mangosteen requires much more skill  with a knife than hard squash.

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