Produce News for the Week of November 1, 2010

CAULIFLOWER PART I (Monday, November 1): Mark Twain said that cauliflower
is nothing more than a cabbage that has a little bit of education. In fact
the Latin word for cauliflower is flowering cabbage. That’s where we think
it kind of had its history in Turkey. Then it ended up in England and
Belgium, and that’s were the King of Belgium got ahold of cauliflower…and fell in love with it. And that’s who actually developed many of the varieties of cauliflower that we have today including the white one which is the most popular, and there’s also the green, and the purple, and the orange, many different varieties. The Cauliflower is actually one of the most difficult vegetables to grow on the face of the planet…it’s kind of
like Morris the cat - very, very finicky. It has these long leaves; in fact
you have to take rubber bands and you have to bunch the leaves up over the cauliflower head in order to make sure that this is blanched from the sun. You don’t want the sun to hit this or else it starts turning yellow, very
finicky. Hey, tomorrow I’m going to tell you how to pick out the best
cauliflower on the face of the planet.

CAULIFLOWER PART II (Tuesday, November 2): Some people call it rich man’s cabbage. In fact it is one of the most expensive vegetables in the cabbage family, cauliflower. However, this time of year, one of the best times in the year to buy cauliflower - the weather is perfect in California. Ah, they do happen to grow 80% of the cauliflower for the United States so
whatever happens to California affects the entire crop around the country.
Now how do you pick out the best cauliflower? So you’re walking down the
produce aisle, you’re walking down the farmers market and you see that big display of cauliflower. Well, the first thing you’re going to look for is
the curd. Yeah, that’s what we call the white head, actually the curd. You
want nice white curds. You want to actually pick up the cauliflower also
and give it a little jiggle because you want to make sure that there’s no
jiggling in the curd. That’s not a good thing. That means these are a
little bit more mature and there going to just mush up when you cook them.
Also when you hold it in your hand, it needs to feel like granite. It needs
to feel like a rock. That is how you’re going to pick out the best
cauliflower. When you get it home, get it in the refrigerator right away.

CAULIFLOWER PART III (Wednesday, November 3): All right, you must keep your
cauliflower in the refrigerator, and actually in the refrigerator I turn it
upside. You see, this time of year you can get a lot of rain in California
which is where most of our Cauliflower is grown, and if there’s any moisture
it the center of the head, it’s going to cause it to decay so I store it
upside down. So if there’s any water in there it just comes right on out.
Now when you go to cut this thing, here’s what…I leave the cellophane on it,
everything. Follow me right up here, going to cut this with a knife. And
you’re going to cut the heart out. By the way, cauliflower’s one of the few
vegetables, 100% edible. The core is actually the heart of the cauliflower.
You can actually julienne cut it and put it in your salads. The leaves look
just like bok choy so you can slice those up and put it into your stir
fries. Now there it a secret way in how you cut these curds. Now let me
show you this because it’s very important in how you cook them. When you
cut the curd…here’s what you’re going to do. Cut down half way and break it
off. Got that? Go cut all the way through the curd. Cut half way and
break it off. If you cut it all the way through, the ends of the curd will
melt when you cook them. By breaking off the curd, the Cauliflower will cut
up so much better.

BROCCOLINI (Thursday, November 4): King Tut’s tomb was discovered this very
date in the 1920’s so I thought it would be fun for you to discover
something new in the produce department this fall. You’re looking for new
vegetables that you can cook for your family. Okay, you have broccoli, you
have cauliflower, you have carrots. Then you come along an odd looking
vegetable. You wonder what in the world is it? It looks kind of like
asparagus. But it also looks kind of like broccoli. Ah, you have just
discovered one of the newest vegetables in the produce department. It’s
called broccilini, and it’s actually a cross between broccoli and gai-lan.
Gai-lan is a green in china. Really, really cool green. And in fact that’s
where we get a little of this yellowing from. If you see some tiny yellow
flowers on the head of Broccolini, you might think that’s old Broccolini.
No way. It just gets a little yellowing from the gai-lan which is that
little spicy aftertaste. Now how do you cook broccilini? Super easy, you
ready for this? Any way that you cook asparagus, you can cook broccolini.
Any way that you cook broccoli, you cook broccolini. Come on…discover a new
vegetable this fall.

ROASTING GARLIC (Friday, November 5): Oh, come on. You have never roasted
garlic? That is too bad…because it is so simple. You start…with a whole
head of Garlic. So far…simple right? You get a little dish, a baking dish
that you can put in the oven. The oven’s going to be at like at 250-275
degrees, so low heat. And get out your best olive oil too. Now what you’re
going to do with this clove of garlic, you’re just going to cut off the top
one-third of the clove. That exposes most of those wonderful cloves. Now
you have some cloves on the sides that still need to be cut. Just take your
knife and cut the top of each one, exposing the clove. Put this exposed
Garlic into your baking dish. Pour on the Olive Oil. In the oven it goes…
275 degrees, about 45 minutes. Perfect. When it comes out, the cloves will
simply squeeze right out. Add some into your Mashed Potatoes. How about
making your own Garlic Butter for French Bread. It’s easy now. But it all
starts…with roasting your Garlic.