Produce News for February 23, 2009

BLUEBERRIES (Monday, February 23): Hey, Mardi Gras is this week and that means we also have International Pancake Day also on Tuesday. So I thought I’d bring in some blueberries. My daughter, little Claire, she absolutely loves blueberry pancakes, and this is one fantastic season! Uh oh! Uh oh. Look at this right there. Take a look at that. What I want you to do with your blueberries, every single day when you have blueberries I want you to open up the package and if you see anything in there that’s moldy, get it out because I guarantee you what’s going to happen…tomorrow there’s going to be like four or five little blueberries and the next day there’s going to be like 10 blueberries. So every day you’ve got to open this up and get out any bad ones. So blueberries and pancakes…here’s what you need to do. Get your best pancake recipe, okay, or your waffle recipe. The blueberries can be frozen or they can be fresh. And what you want to do, get the pancake batter down on the griddle and just when you get it on, that’s when you’re going to sprinkle the blueberries right into the pancake that’s already on the griddle. That’s the perfect way of doing it.

MEAT SUBSTITUTES (Tuesday, February 23): Hey, it’s Mardi Gras today. That means Lent begins tomorrow, and I know for a lot of people, they give up meat during the season of Lent. So I thought I’d go down the produce aisle and find a couple really, really good meat substitutes for you. Are you with me so far? Meat substitutes – here is number one. I love this – portabella mushrooms, the absolutely perfect meat substitute. Anything that meat does, portabellas do almost better. You can put this on a burger. You can use this as an ingredient to beef stroganoff. Oh! Oh! My favorite – beef stroganoff with strips of portabella instead of meat. Oh, it’s so good. You can grill them. You can, you know, you can roast them. Anything that you do with meat, you can do with portabellas. Now also, eggplant is very, very popular as a meat substitute for people, and this is, of course, this is the most popular eggplant. So get your eggplant. Get your portabella mushrooms because if you’re going to give up meat, you’ve got have some protein and you’ve got to have a good meat substitute. These are really good for that.

NATIONAL CHILI DAY (Wednesday, February 23): Hey, National Chili Day is tomorrow. Oh, man! I love a good chili. So I thought I’d bring in my secret ingredient to chili. Now of course you have some meat in there. You have some beans in there. You’ve got your best sauce – tomato type sauce. You’ve got your seasonings, maybe some cayenne pepper of course. Some garlic in there. But you have to have…everybody has to have their secret ingredient, so here is my secret ingredient straight from Johnny Cash – “Burning rings of fire.” We are going to put some beautiful jalapeno peppers into our chili. Now for me, see those seed pods in there? See all that? Yeah, see all the seeds and the…I include all of that into my chili. That’s right. I chop it all up. Now make sure after you’ve chopped up the jalapeno peppers you wash your hands like really, really good. Then be really careful even after that where you put your hands because they’ve got a lot of pepper on them.

WINTER CANTALOUPE (Thursday, February 23):   Hey, this week the Dominican Republic celebrates their Independence Day in 1844. So what does that have to do with produce? Well, Dominican Republic is one of the countries that we are now getting cantaloupe from, especially this time of year. Now a couple things about the cantaloupe this time of year – this is not your mama’s cantaloupe in the summertime. Oh, my goodness! These don’t have the sugar content that you normally would find in the summertime. Also, take a look at this. Look at these stems. This stem is still attached. Now a good cantaloupe…I’ve told you over the years that a good cantaloupe should have a full slip which means the stem slipped fully off the cantaloupe, and you’re just not finding that with winter cantaloupe right now. Now prices are obviously higher, so if you buy this and you really want a melon, how do you get the most flavor out of this melon? Well, first of all it’s going to take about a week. You’re going to take that melon and for about a week you’re going to leave it at room temperature. Cover it up so it doesn’t dehydrate, and maybe after a week it will taste okay.

POTATOES (Friday, February 23):You’ve got your spuds. Refrigerate. Not to refrigerate. Refrigerate. Not to refrigerate. Big question of the day when you’re talking about your spuds. Many different varieties of spuds, and it’s good to know the varieties of spuds because some varieties you will refrigerate. Otherwise you will not. So how do you determine which you’re going to refrigerate? Well, first of all, let’s start with the most popular – the Burbank Russet potato. These are high in starch/low in sugar content. You do not ever in a million years want to refrigerate these because if you get these too cold, the starches turn to sugar. So when you fry this like for hash browns or something, the potatoes turn all black because they’re so full of sugar and not enough starch. But if you have a high sugar content potato like a white potato or red potato, those are high in sugar. You do indeed want to refrigerate those. If you don’t refrigerate them and leave them out let’s say in a cool, dry place, they’re just going to dehydrate before you use them.