Author Archives: The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth about Garlic

According to answers.com

66% of the World’s Garlic comes from China. Just look at any forking granulated garlic in your kitchen. If you look at the fine print you will read it’s from China. Most of the fresh garlic from your grocery store is also from China.

5% of the garlic comes from South Korea

Another 5% of the garlic comes from India

And ONLY 3% is grown in the USA

I forking guess the leftover 21% is spread thin across the world or unknown.

Garlic has been found to be useful for killing bacterias and viruses.

Garlic reduces your risk for heart disease, lung cancer, allergies and has been found to be an immune booster.

And that’s some forking truth about Garlic.

Forking Truth

Spicy Pickled Parval with Sweet Onions Recipe

Parval

I saw fresh Parval at the market and they looked fresher than the Tindora that I buy sometimes. The tindora look the same but are smaller and you can use them like cucumbers. Both the Tindora and the Parval are members of the watermelon family. The seeds in the tiny Parval are very similar to hard watermelon seeds but the seeds in the tindora are soft and edible. I thought the Parval would be good pickled and I used a whole sweet onion so I’d have the sweet onion flavor and also a good amount of pickled onions for sandwiches.

This recipe is quick and easy you just bring ingredients to boil and pour over your cored Parvel, Sweet Onion and Fresh Dill. Place it all in a sanitary container, set in your refrigerator and it will be ready in about three days.

Ingredients

About 3/4 Lb. Parval (cored)

Sweet Onion Sliced Thin (I used a whole onion but you can use less if you don’t eat pickled onion)

Bunch of Fresh Dill

1 1/2 Cup Water

1 Cup Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt

1/4 teaspoon Celery Seed

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

1 Bay Leaf

4 Garlic Cloves Minced

1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns

Bring all the liquids and everything except the Parval, Onions and fresh Dill to a boil and then pour over the Larval, Onions and Dill and mix. Place in a sanitary container in your refrigerator and the pickles will be ready in about three days.

Forking Good!

Rambutan

Cute little fruits that are easy to peal. They taste sort of similar to sweet green grapes with one large pit in the center that is edible and can be cooked.

Rambutan grow on trees and are native to Indonesia and Malaysia. They currently grow all though South East Asia and are strongly related to the Lychee.

Give them a try!

Forking Good!

Burro Banana

Not only does the Burro Banana look different from other bananas it can also be used different. It can be prepared savory like a plantain or sweet like a regular banana.

So I go to taste it.

You have to open it on the other end of the stem.

The thing about it that is the most different to me is the mouth feel. It’s completely itch free with a creamy but thiner than a regular banana creamy texture. This banana doesn’t cling to your mouth the same way. It also is somewhat sweet but not as banana bright sweet as regular bananas with a slightly sort of citrus after taste.

Forking Truth

WTFork is a Cherimoya?

Cherimoya

The Cherimoya is a fruit that grows on a small evergreen tree. According to Wikipedia Mark Twain called the Cherimoya, “The Most Delicious Fruit Known to man”.

I tried one.

You scoop it out like an avocado.

It kind of breaks up into pieces with seeds. You need to remove or spit out the large hard seeds.

I don’t know if my fruit was a good representation of a typical Cherimoya or not but mine was sweet but mildly flavorful. It almost was like a creamy but fruity banana but sort of half strength in flavor and texture. Like if a banana and a citrus had a baby and the mother was the banana. The texture was light but also creamy but not as creamy as a banana.

The Cherimoya fruit is very similar in appearance and taste to the Guanabana Fruit I tried in Mexico.

Forking Truth

Japanese Yam with Spicy Banana Ketchup

Japanese Yam

The Japanese Yam is so tasty and delicious. I love to prepare it in a very simple way. I just love to eat it as oven baked fries. It’s sweet and almost chestnut tasting with a banana almost aftertaste. So I just used a teaspoon of my home made Hot Spicy Green Ketchup recipe posted a few pages back and whipped a banana into it. I do note the Spicy Green Ketchup recipe was made with the extra hot peppers I had around my freezer and can be made with different peppers or less hot peppers.

To make Japanese Yam Oven Fries I just set my oven to 375 and cut one large Japanese yam in steak fry wedges. and placed them on a lightly oiled pan. I also lightly sprayed the yam wedges with canola oil. They roasted for about 35 minutes. They got fresh crushed Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper as they came out of the oven.

They are very tasty. Try one!

Forking Good!

Halloween Candy goes out of Style

After passing out Halloween Candy out a number of years I learned that today’s kids don’t care for the same candies that were favorites of mine. It seems that Halloween Candy goes out of style just like fashion changes.

Kid’s from my day liked Reese’s Cups, Peppermint Patties, and M&Ms the best! We were given many other candies like Goldenberg Chews, Chewy Banana Pops, Tootsie rolls, Pixie Stixs, Rolls of Sugar Dots and Smartees too!

Today’s kid’s don’t eat candy with peanuts or peanut butter because they have forking allergies. I have no idea why they aren’t crazy for M&M’s or Peppermint Patties. I tried giving them out only a year or two ago and they didn’t move.

After years of passing out different candies the one that stands out HIGH above the rest universally with today’s children are……..

Last year I served 82 Halloweener’s and 43 out of 82 picked the Giant Pixie Stixs. Kid’s like pure Forking Yards of Sugar! They are the cheapest candy to forking give out too. They 50 to a box and weren’t much more than $10.00.

In second Place was the Plain Hershey Bar as 24 out of 82 picked that. Hershey Bars have been around forever every bodies Grandparents ate them. They are still around but just are pretty far behind Giant Pixie Sticks.

15 kids picked assorted other things and one at the bottom was boxes of Cracker Jack. I guess the disappointing prizes make the pop corn treat less appealing or maybe it’s the peanuts in them that I forgot about?

Forking Truth

Rainbow Carrots two ways with Apple, Basil and Black Rice

I used Heirloom Carrots and infused each color differently. While the carrots roasted I also threw my pan of rice in the oven since it was on. I added seasoning to the rice so this was a very easy dish to whip up.

Ingredients (Oven at 375)

6 Yellow Heirloom Carrots pealed and cut in chunks

6 Orange Heirloom Carrots (either pealed or not and cut in chunks)

6 Red Heirloom Carrots (either pealed or not and cut in chunks)

about 1 1/2 Cup Vegetable Stock

1 orange cut in 1/8 wedges

1 Apple cut in small pieces (only edible parts no core) Peal if you like

1lb. Black Rice

Water

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 small hot pepper minced (I used a chile de arbor)

1/2 Sweet Onion Sliced Fine and then Chopped

Fresh Ground Sea Salt

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

about a Tablespoon of Kosher Salt

A couple splashes of Heavy Cream

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Some Fresh Basil

Directions

Rice goes in a pan, add 2 parts water per one part dark rice, salt, garlic, hot chile, onion. splash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Cover pan. Place in oven and it will be done in an hour.

Place yellow carrots in a pan with vegetable stock, and a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and cover.

Place Orange Carrots in a pan with Oranges, Cup Water, Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Cover.

Place Red Carrots with Apples, Cup Water, Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Cover.

Add all the carrot pans to the oven. Depending on how you cut them and how the carrots are they will be done in about 1/2 hour or up to an hour to be fork tender. I found that my yellow carrots cooked up much quicker than the others.

When Carrots and Rice are done remove them from the oven. Throw out the oranges from the orange carrots.

Take the yellow carrots and blend with a little bit of the vegetable stock.

Add about two splashes of Heavy Cream. Taste and determine if it needs any more seasoning.

Plate up your Black rice, add some pureed Yellow Carrots, Top with orange carrots, red carrots and apples. Add Fresh Basil, Sea Salt, Black Pepper and drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.