Produce News for January 31-February 4, 2011

POMELO (Monday, January 31): Chinese New Year begins this week. It is the Year of the Rabbit. So I thought it would be fun to talk about a few of the Asian fruits and vegetables this week. One of them you have probably seen in the super markets over the past few years, gaining in popularity. This huge thing. No, this is not grown near some nuclear power plant. This is actually called a Pomelo or a Chinese Grapefruit. The first thing you probably notice…is its size. It is big. Actually, this is a small Pomelo. They can actually get to the size of a huge bowling ball. The second thing you may notice is the slight green tinge to the outside rind color. That is very typical of early season Pomelos. You’re probably wondering, what in the world does this look like inside. Let’s cut this open. The Pomelo has a very thick rind. In fact, in China, they will take that rind and they will actually candy it. But the fruit inside, take a look at that. So sweet. Very low acid content, so you don’t get that really sharp bite…but a great Grapefruit flavor.

KIWIFRUIT (Tuesday, February 1): During the times of the Great Khans of China, the Chinese Ming Dynasty, and all of those, this Chinese fruit was actually known as Yang Tao. It originated in the Yangtze River Valley of China. Well, why in the world am I even talking about this? Well, Chinese New Year begins this week. It is the Year of the Rabbit. In the Yangtze River Valley still today, there are about 60 different varieties of this Chinese Gooseberry still growing. Now, when these first started to be imported into the United States, in the late 1950s or early 1960s, it was during the time of the communist Cold War. You couldn’t sell anything that had the name China or Chinese in it. So they took away the name Chinese Gooseberry and renamed the fruit after the cute, brown, fuzzy Kiwi Bird of New Zealand, because that’s where these were coming from. Now, the beautiful emerald green Kiwifruit, this time of year, they are coming from either California or Italy. And this time of the year, it is peak of the season. You want a Vitamin Pill with Fuzz? Grab a Kiwifruit…and by the way, you don’t have to peel it to eat it.

BOK CHOY (Wednesday, February 2): Heh, Chinese New Year begins this week, the Year of the Rabbit, so we have been talking about Asian fruits and vegetables all this week. So we come to one of the most popular Asian greens…Bok Choy. Love Bok Choy. I actually have Bok Choy and Baby Bok Choy here. One of the things I wanted to show you is to make sure you store your Bok Choy, and your Baby Bok Choy, in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Now, one of the first things I want you look for when you are picking out your Bok Choy…white. You want those stalks to be white. It needs to be pearly white. That’s what you are looking for. Now, when you go to prepare your Bok Choy, here’s what I want you to do. Look right in there. Look at that sand and grit. Bok Choy is grown on very sandy soil. Take a look at that. All of that sand and grit can easily get caught down at the base of each stalk. So make sure you take each rib off and you need to thoroughly rinse it off in ice cold water, before you cut it and add it into your stir-fries, or Asian soups. Now if you don’t like regular Bok Choy, then you might fall in love with the baby of the family, Baby Bok Choy. Man, this is one of the fantastic Asian greens. I love to just grill them whole…a little Olive Oil, salt and pepper

CUTTING ASIAN VEGETABLES (Thursday, February 3): Heh, Chinese New Year begins today. Gong Hoi Fat Choy. Happy New Year. It is the Year of the Rabbit. Have you ever noticed how Asian chefs will cut their vegetables? In their cooking, whenever they prepare any vegetable, carrots, squash, Asparagus,…whatever it is they are preparing, they always cut what is called an Asian cut, a slant cut. It is not a true coin cut, which is simply cut straight across a vegetable. They cut at a more diagonal slant. Two things this will do. First, it exposes more of the cell structure of that vegetable, whatever the vegetble happens to be. And that does two things. It allows the vegetable to cook faster in the Wok, because Wok cooking is very fast cooking. The second thing that happens when you expose more cell structure is you have more flavor. That’s why Asian cooking is so flavorful, and that’s why they cook so fast in a Wok. It all begins with the cut…the Asian cut.

CILANTRO (Friday, February 4): Heh, all this week, we have been talking about Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit. So I thought I would bring with me one of the most popular fresh herbs…in fact, it is the most used of all the Asian fresh herbs. I also brought this in today because what happens this weekend? Yes, Super Bowl 45 in Dallas. All roads lead to Dallas, so that means all Guacamole Bowls lead toDallas. So you better have some Chinese Parsley ready for Guacamole. Now, one of the ways to prepare it is to take the whole bunch. Take your knife and cut right down into that bunch of Cilantro without getting a lot of the stems. So now, you take those leaves and bunch them up in a tight mound. Then, you can easily take your knife and chop through them. You chop through the bundle a few times, and now you have perfect Cilantro, ready for your Asian cooking for Chinese New Year, or ready for your Guacamole for the Super Bowl.