Category Archives: A to Z Challenge 2015

A to Z Challenge 2015, Jams, Recipes

Is Quince a Quasi-apple?

The only quince I knew when I was growing up was my Great Uncle Quince and I always thought it an unusual name.  For many years, I had no idea it was also a fruit. I didn’t actually try that fruit until about two years ago when I found some at one of the local grocery stores.  Although they look like an apple, they are not and you don’t eat them raw. They must be cooked. Once cooked, they taste similar to an apple and they pair very well with apples and pears. Even though they are related, the quince is the only one in its genus, which is Cydonia, although it is part of the Rosaceae family, along with apples and pears. So, related but not… does this make them like an in-law?

Like many fruits and vegetables, the quince has a long history that goes back to ancient Asia, Turkey, Iran and pretty much the rest of the Mediterranean. Although it likes the rocky slopes and woodland marshes of southwest Asia, do not confuse it with the Chinese Quince. The Akkadians called it supurgillu. The modern name came from 14th century France as a plural form of quoyn. The Greeks called it kydonion melon or kydonian apple.

It is possible that quince may have been cultivated before apples and it may be that many references translated to apple may actually have been quince. Customs surround the quince. Ancient Greeks used it a ritual offering at weddings because it had come from the Levant with Aphrodite and was sacred to her. The Greek bride would nibble on quince to perfume her breath prior to entering her bridal chamber. Paris awarded Aphrodite a quince and it was for a golden quince that Atalanta paused in her race. The Roman Apicius cookbook had recipes for stewing quince with honey and even combining them with leeks.

In the past, quince was once a staple in kitchens world-wide but now it is a novel fruit and is not seen too often. I can find it in the fall at one grocery store in Reno. There is a pineapple quince variety that grows in California, but the majority of them are imported from South America. Although interest has diminished in North America, it is still popular in many Latin American countries.

Uses

How is is used in different cultures? In many ways. In Moroccan, Persian, Romanian and Balkan cuisine, it is used as a confection. Quince can be added to meaty stews and in much the same way as apples or pears. Called melimelum by the Romans, the Greek name means “honey apple” because the fruit was preserved in honey for jam. The Portuguese called it marmelo, a name that combines melimelum and marmelado, which was a favorite confection. The British used it in tarts and pies.

With a high pectin content, quince is easy to turn into marmalade, conserves, jams or jelly. They can be poached, stewed, baked and pretty much treated as a cooked apple. You just can’t eat them raw. They should be cored and peeled before use. An easy way to peel them is to par boil them for about three minutes, then the skin slides right off.

Nutrition information for 1 fruit, peeled and cored
Calories: 52 Fat: 0.1 g Net Carbs: 9.7 g Protein: 0.4 g

Quince Apple Jam

Scone with Quince-Apple Jam. Photo by R. Averett

Adapted for low carb by Rene Averett

Easy to make and will only store a few weeks. Quince may be found in the fall and there are places where you can order it online.  If you make more than you can eat in two or three weeks, freeze part of the batch in a freezer bag and store for several months.

1 Quince
1 Cooking Apple
1 cup sugar substitute (xylitol, like Ideal sugar)
2 cups of water
1 Tbs lemon juice

Peel and grate, or finely chop, the apple and the quince.

Bring the water to a boil and add the grated or chopped fruit. Let them cook, stirring now and then, until they are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the sugar substitute and lemon juice, lower the cook temperature to medium and continue to cook until the sauce thickens to a jam. Let cool, then ladle into a clean jar and store in refrigerator.

Makes about 1 cup of jam. About 16 servings.

Nutrition info per tablespoon of jam (1 serving)
Calories:9.7 Fat: 0.0 Net Carbs: 2.6 g Protein: 0.1 g

Sources for information in this blog include Specialty Produce,
Wikipedia, Nature’s Pride and Nutrition and You

Photo at top from Wikimedia Commons, used with permission – “Quitte Cydonia oblonga” by Dietrich Krieger – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –

A to Z Challenge 2015, Condiments and Sauces

Pursuing the Pasilla Pepper Confusion

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My mother didn’t cook too often, usually stepping in to make something unusual or different from the standard fare that my grandmother served. Coming from a ranch family, my grandmother focused a lot on basic ranch food, meat and potatoes, chicken and hearty food. Mother liked to bake the unusual breads, the different cultural dishes. One of the things that she did every now and then was to make from-scratch enchilada sauce. I remember her coming home from a trip across the border with a bag filled with dried, very dark chiles. She pour boiling water over these and let them sit until they were soft, then put them through a sieve using a large pestle to mash them forcing out the chile juice and pulp that formed the base for the sauce. I believe that the chiles she used were Pasilla peppers.

When I began looking into the background of these peppers, I found there is a bit of confusion about what exactly a pasilla pepper is. Several sites that sell them and Wikipedia are adamant that pasilla, also called chile negro, are the dried chilaca pepper. This is a long, narrow pepper in the Capsicum annum family. It is very dark, almost a chocolate brown color when dried and I am pretty sure these are the chiles that my mother used for her sauce. Like many chiles, it ranges from mild to a middle of the range hot.

However, it seems the California camp has muddied the culinary waters a bit as grocers and cooks in California call the dried form of the poblano chile a pasilla also. This creates two lines of thinking in regards to what a true pasilla is. A couple of recipes I read even include the ancho chile as pasilla, when an ancho is actually the dried form of the poblano. It’s clear that cooks aren’t certain what pasilla is. The word pasilla, pronounced pa-see-ya, translates to “little raisin”, which more properly describes the dark brown chilaca when it is dried.

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Ancho chile from the poblano pepper.  Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used with permission – “Capsicum annuum ancho dried” by User:Carstor – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons –

 

220px-Capsicum_annuum_pasilla_dried
Pasilla peppers from the chilaca chile. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used with permission. “Capsicum annuum pasilla dried” by User:Carstor – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons –

 

 

 

 

 

 

For cooking purposes, any dried chile will work to make enchilada sauce. The different chiles used will alter the taste and hotness of the sauce. Commercial chili powder uses a variety of chiles, such as ancho, jalapeno, New Mexico Hatch and pasilla. The chili powder is also excellent in making Tex-Mex Chili or any other kinds of stew chilies. One famous chef uses chili powder as the base for his enchilada sauce, so it can be a simple process to make homemade sauce or you can start from the dried peppers. One thing is pretty certain, it will be thicker and more flavorful than any canned enchilada sauce you buy.

Nutrition Information per 1 oz (28 grams) of pasilla
Calories: 97 Fat: 4.0 g Net Carbs: 6.0 g Protein: 3.0 g

Keep in mind that once pressed to get the liquid and pulp out, the nutrition value may decrease somewhat, but for calculating the recipe, it’s best to count the number of peppers rather than the finished quantity of sauce to be on the safe side.

Recipes:

So far, I haven’t tried making homemade enchilada sauce, but with Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, I am thinking I will give it a try. At least, I’ll make  one beginning with chili powder or possibly one recipe that uses chipotle peppers, which you can buy canned in their sauce. So, I will refer you to a couple of recipes from other sites.

This recipe for Irma’s Red Enchilada Sauce starts with dried pasillas and dried Ancho or New Mexico chiles. If the pasillas are very crisp, they may already be roasted and you don’t need to roast them a second time.

Here’s a picture-by-picture recipe for Homemade sauce on Instructables using California or Hatch chiles.

And this is the Chipotle sauce recipe that is a little simpler.

Coming next month, I will put up a low carb recipe for enchiladas using low carb whole wheat tortillas instead of corn tortillas and homemade enchilada sauce in time for Cinco de Mayo! (That’s the 5th of May celebration for those not familiar with Mexican customs.)

All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not.  If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted.

Information for this article came from Wikipedia, Eat More Chiles, and Spices Inc

Top photo of pasillas is from Wiki Commons, used with permission- “Fresh chilaca chilies” by Jonathanischoice – Photographed on my kitchen bench. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –

A to Z Challenge 2015

Olives or Olive Oil, the Opportunities Abound

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I have a mixed relationship with olives. I never cared for the taste of them, so I wasn’t one of the kids who sat nibbling on jumbo olives perched on each of my fingertips. But I liked olives cooked into my food and the flavor that added, so most of the time, I use them in the recipe. Not that I’m adverse to serving jars or platters of the various types of olives at a gathering, but I’m just not likely to be eating them.

Olive oil on the other hand…

olive_oyl_goldnbones-250x370No, not that Olive Oyl!… is very useful in cooking just  about anything. I have a supply of that in my kitchen at all times. It’s the choice for pesto and salad dressing because it has a clean, fresh taste.

One of the oldest tree species on the planet, the humble olive has been a part of humanity — and animal – diets for thousands of years. Carbon dating has placed olive trees in Spain as far back as 8,000 years ago. Fossilized leaves were found in the volcanic ash on Santorini that go back 37,000 years B.C. Humans have cultivated it for around 5500 years or longer. The trees themselves live a long time with many being hundreds of years old and at least one dating to 2,000 years old. They came from the Mediterranean and Western Asia regions, spreading across the globe from there. It’s likely that the Spanish brought the olive to the Americas where there is no evidence of their existence prior to the 1500’s.

The olive has figured in many cultures. Its leaves symbolized peace and prosperity. It was, after all, the twig that the dove brought back to Noah to show that land, and at least an olive tree, existed after the great flood, so it also had mention in the Bible.

These days, olives are still a big crop in the Mediterranean countries. Spain is the largest producer with about 6 millions tons a year, followed by Italy with 3.6 million tons. Greece, Syria and Turkey are also major producers. Only about 10% of the crop is keep for eating while the rest are crushed to make olive oil. The main producer of olives in the US is California where they are grown on about 27,000 acres in the Central Valley. If you’ve noticed some of my previous blogs, California is a major producer of much of the food I’ve highlighted. This means that the drought conditions the west is currently experiencing will likely impact the farmers and our food chain. Expect higher prices at the market.

Uses for Olives and Olive Oil

From a culinary and low carb standpoint, the olive and its oil has many uses and is an excellent as it is low carb and good for you. It makes a great snack, if you like the taste of olives, and can be purchased with different stuffings in the pit hole, such as garlic or pimento. Or you could put a little cheese in it. Here’s a few ways you can use olives:

You can make a tepenade or spread from olives by chopping them in a food processor with garlic, olive oil, parsley and a little salt to taste. Use as a dip or spread on crackers, or cheese or vegetables.

Add olives to your salad. Chop or slice them or use them whole.

Add them to the appetizer plates for a family dinner. Try two or three varieties for color.

Nutrition information for black jumbo olives – 1 olive
Calories:6.7 Fat: 0.6 g Net Carbs: 0.2 g Protein:0.1 g

Nutrition information for olive oil 1 tablespoon
Calories:119.3 Fat: 1.8 g Net Carbs: 0.0 g Protein: 0.0 g

Recipes

a-z-olives

As I mentioned, I like to cook with chopped or sliced olives and I do have a few recipes on Skinny Girl that use olives:

Spaghetti Squash Tamale Pie
Tostado Con Carne
Bacon with Alfredo Sauce Pizza

So, folks, how do you like your olives?

All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not.  If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted.

Information for this article was pulled from World’s Healthiest Foods, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Life

The top photo is from Wiki Commons and is used with permission – “Olives au marche de Toulon p1040238” by David Monniaux – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –
The photo of Olive Oyl is from OliveOylloves.com, the official Olive Oyl site.

A to Z Challenge 2015, Breakfast & Brunch, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Pork, Recipes

Nurture with Nopal

I have a fairly good-sized prickly pear cactus growing in my yard that arrived there by bird farmers or some other means and it has yielded a few pears over the past two years. Our neighbor’s desert tortoise is particularly fond of the pads and she often snacks on them. The Mexican name for this cactus is nopal or nopales and it is a source of food, nutrition and, possibly, medicines for humans.

Nopales are native to Mexico and spread over the Southwest in general. The root species is the Opuntia cacti. There are actually 114 known species of this cactus family and the leaves of all of them are edible. In Mexico, the cactus pads are popular in many foods dishes, using both raw and cooked pads. In the spring, the cacti produce beautiful, colorful flowers that mature into prickly pears or tunas, a seedy fruit that can be made into jam, jellies and juices or eaten fresh. The taste is described as a blend of watermelon and strawberry, but I haven’t noticed it so much. I tasted the uncooked pad and found a similar taste to watermelon with just a touch of sweetness.

Using Cacti

When dealing with this cactus, you need to take care to avoid the many little spines that inspire the name prickly pear. Gloves or tongs are very useful in handling these items. In order to use the pads or the pears in cooking, you need to carefully remove the spines. Here’s a video from Rivenrock Gardens, a company that sells Nopales, on how to clean the pads.   Cleaning Pads

The pears are equally as tricky to work with, but there is a quick trick to peeling them and using them without stabbing yourself. Using tongs or forks to handle the pear, you follow the basic directions in this video from The Produce Guy for cutting the pear, just being careful not to touch them with your hands. It helps to wear gloves. If you buy them at the grocery, they are probably already cleaned of the spines so they are safe to handle.

Here’s a tip: If you do get one of the spines in your hand, use white glue to remove it. Simply spread the glue over the sore spot, let it dry and pull it out. It will grab the hair fine spine with it.

Health Benefits

At this time, many of the possible health benefits are being researched, but it is believed to be of use in treating type 2 diabetes. It is high in fiber and pectin, which can reduce sugar absorption in the digestive tract. It is also rumored to be good for treating colitis, obesity and high cholesterol. As more research is done, it will be interesting to see if this is an effective food.

Nutrition information for 149 g (about 1 cup)
Calories:22 Fat:0 g Net Carbs:2.0 g Protein:2 g

I have only used Nopal a few times in the past couple of years, but here is a recipe from this site:

Prickly Pear and Orange Marmalade

Here’s a new recipe that uses the pads:

Nopalitos with Chorizo and Eggs

1 young Nopales Pad, cleaned trimmed, and cut into strips
1/2 cup Pico de Gallo
1 Serrano Pepper, chopped
4 large Eggs
1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano
1 teaspoon Chile Powder
1/2 cup Chorizo sausage
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar Jack Cheese
1/4 cup Queso Fresco
4 Low Carb Tortillas, 7 inch

Cook strips of nopalitos in water with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon oregano. Drain when they are tender.

In a skillet, heat one tablespoon oil, then add the nopalitos for a few minutes. Add the Pico de Gallo, Mexican oregano and Serrano peppers and continue to cook until the onions are almost done. Remove to a bowl.

Add a little olive oil to the pan, then add chorizo sausage and stir fry until it is lightly cooked. Add the vegetables back to the pan and add chile powder.

Beat eggs in a bowl, add a bit of salt and pepper and a little more oregano. Add eggs into the mixture, continuing to stir as they cook. Sprinkle cheddar jack cheese over the top and remove from the heat.

Warm up tortillas over the burner or in the oven. Serve eggs and sprinkle a little Queso Fresco over the top.

Serve with tortillas. Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Info per serving
   Calories: 339 Fat: 24.1 g Net Carbs: 6.9 g Protein: 23.3 g

* If you can’t find tortillas, you can eat them with a low carb flat bread or pita bread or without bread. Low Carb tortillas are 3 nc per tortillas, so that would be 3.9 nc for the meat and vegetables.

All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not. If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted

Information for this article came from Wikipedia, Web M.D., Nopal Export, Nutrition and You.com and Rivenrock Gardens

All photos taken by R. Averett and copyright Skinny Girl Bistro

A to Z Challenge 2015, Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Munching on Mung Beans

Well, not really. I haven’t actually seen a mung bean in my grocery store, so I suspect I will need to visit an Asian market to actually find the bean. But what I do find at the market is bean sprouts and the majority of those consumed in the United States are from the mung bean seed. Those are those delightfully crunchy sprouts that go so well in Chinese food and in salads. But as for the beans themselves, they are also mashed into a mung bean paste that is used in Asian and Indian cooking. What are we missing out on?

Actually, the bean is usually dried for use, then boiled until they are soft. The paste can be made by removing the outer hull, cooking and then pulverizing the beans until they are a dry paste. In some regions of India, the hulled beans are used to make mung dal.  Other areas of India season the whole beans with spices and fresh coconut to make sundal.

Chinese cuisine used the whole bean to make a dessert called lǜdòu tángshuǐ. Dehulled mung beans and mung bean paste are used in Hong Kong to make ice cream. Mung bean paste is used as a filling for mooncakes in East China and Taiwan. Boiled and shelled beans are used as filling in rice dumplings that are eaten during the dragon boat festival.They can also be blended into a sweetened beverage.

In Indonesia, the beans are cooked with coconut milk and ginger to make es kacang hijau, which is a porridge-like dessert. Monggó guisado or balatong is a Filipino stew of whole mung beans with prawns or fish. Again, mung bean paste is used to make a sweet pastry called a hopia that is popular in the Philippines, Indonesia and Guyana, where it is called a black eye cake.

History

Since ancient times, the mung bean has been grown in India and is now widely grown in southeast Asia, Africa, South America and Australia. It seems to have been cultivated in the United States as early as 1835 where it was known as the Chicksaw pea. Although the beans are widely grown for human consumption, they can also be used as a manure crop and as forage for livestock.Of the fifteen to twenty millions pounds of mung bean consumed annually in the US, nearly 75% is imported. The rest is primarily grown in Oklahoma.

The mung bean sprouts are what we see most often in groceries. They are high in protein, calcium, phosphorus and some vitamins as well as low calorie and low carb. This makes them very important for providing protein in areas where people don’t have many other sources.

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Mung Bean sprouts – Photo from WikiCommons – “Bean sprouts 04” by Anna Frodesiak – Own work. Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons

 

Nutrition information
Mung Beans 1 tablespoon
Calories: 45, Fat: 0.2 g,Net Carbs: 5.9 g, protein: 3.1 g

Bean sprouts 1 cup
Calories 31, Fat 0 g, Net Carbs: 4 g Protein: 3 g

Recipes

Asian fusion “Dirty” rice. Photo by R. Averett

Here’s a trio of recipes on Skinny Girl that use bean sprouts in them. I think I need to expand my use, although I do use them often in salads.

Egg Foo Yung
Orange Chicken
Asian Fusion “Dirty” Rice

 All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not.  If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted.

Information for this article came from Purdue University – Alternative Field Crops Manual, Wikipedia, Food for Life, Food for Awakening

Top Photo from Wiki Commons, used with permission – “ചെറുപയർ മുളപ്പിച്ചത്” by Edukeralam, Navaneeth Krishnan S – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons