Pickled Gem Squash

Something little. Something cute. Something pickled. A vegetable with ruffled edges. How could you go wrong?

Well how about if they were SWEET pickles...

I had assumed they were dills, which no one could possibly find offensive - so I bought them.

The pickled gem squash were not as sweet as normal sweet pickles, and they didn't have the cucumber crunch of a pickle - but other than that, if your eyes were closed, you'd think you were eating sweet pickles.

As soon as the kids tasted them they said "like sweet pickles" and that was about the end of the tasting.

They do get extra points for being cute.

They would like great on a tray of pickles and olives or used as a garnish.

This large jar of gem squash cost about $2.79...and is a product of Poland. The ingredients are pretty typical of pickled foods...squash, water, vinegar, sugar, salt, peppers, onion and spices.

Snake Beans or Yard Long Beans

Snake beans go by a bunch of different names - yard long beans, asparagus beans and Chinese long beans. The most fun name of course if you want to entice the kids, would be "snake beans".

The dried black-eyed pea or bean comes from this fresh bean.

These snake beans were sold in a bunch the size of which was large enough to feed our family of four.

I blanched the snake beans first, then just before dinner I stir fried them. I just looked through my "cookbook" (more on that later) to see if I could find the recipe I used for the stir fry but, not surprisingly, I could not find it. I cut off the tips and weeded out the "bad" looking beans - ones that were too wrinkled or had black spots. I had obviously left these in the fridge too long before using - so who knows how much more wonderful they could have tasted if I had managed my fridge contents a little better.

I think I used garlic, beef stock, soy sauce (which incidentally did you know it is called SOYA sauce in Canada? My dh thought I was always pronouncing soy sauce incorrectly until we found out that it really is called two different things in Canada and the USA), cornstarch, pepper and ??

You of course can cut the snake beans into smaller, more manageable pieces - but don't cut them into too small pieces, or you miss out on the fun! If you don't cut them at all, you may have to throw caution to the wind, break table etiquette - and eat them with your fingers, like french fries.

I really liked the flavor of the snake beans and would definitely buy them again. Seems like the kids liked them about as much as they like "normal" green beans. To me, the flavor was similar to a green bean, but actually better tasting (and better looking!)

Beautiful Bitter Banana Blossoms

Beautiful Bitter Banana Blossoms – try saying that fast 5x.

Banana blossoms are a beautiful purple – wine color. Here is some information I found about it:

“Banana Blossoms - Also know as Banana Hearts. The flowers are a purple-maroon torpedo shaped growth that appears out of the top of usually the largest of the trunks. Banana blossoms are used in Southeast Asian cuisines. The blossoms can be cooked or eaten raw. The tough covering is usually removed until you get to the almost white tender parts of the blossom. It should be sliced and let it sit in water until most of the sap are gone. If you eat it raw, make sure the blossom comes from a variety that isn't bitter. Most of the Southeast Asian varieties aren't bitter.”

I peeled off the outer layers and this is how it looked.



The shape is so unusual - kind of looks like a Christmas lightbulb.

I sliced it up – unsure from what I read, whether or not the actual flower looking part was edible…so I refrained from tasting that part. The picture of the blossom sliced up – was about 10 min after I cut it up – as you can see it browns very quickly.



It was quite sticky as I cut it up – there was some type of sap dripping out of the top when I sliced off the tip.

I wish I had read ahead of time “if you eat it raw, make sure the blossom comes from a variety that isn’t bitter”. It didn’t have much of a flavor itself – the only sensation after taking one bite is bitterness and mouth puckering. Reminds me of when as kids we would pick and eat some pin cherries from a tree out at the lake. Just from a very tiny piece in my mouth – it felt like all the moisture in my mouth was being sucked out. I could not swallow it.

I gave tiny portions to the kids and their comments were “it tastes weird!” and “bitter!”

I know there are ways you can cook it up and make it taste better – but I decided to cut my losses. I could not imagine adding this to a salad, as many recipes suggested.

Shanghai Bok Choy

I think the first time I ever saw Bok Choy was in a computer game similar to Pac Man. All these mysterious looking veggies would pop out of the center of the maze…

Bok Choy (a.k.a. Chinese White Cabbage) is, as you may have guessed from it's alternative name - a member of the cabbage family. It can be eaten raw or stir-fried. I voted to stir fry mine.

Bok choy is usually sold in a package of 8 or so little bundles and you can eat the leaves and the stalks, which is a good thing b/c once you start cooking the leaves, they shrivel down to almost nothing.

When I was cutting down the stalks I thought it looked like a beautiful rose and thought it would make a nice garnish for a veggie tray...have the "rose" in the center of the dish and surround it with all the other vegetables.



I really liked the taste- similar to regular cooked cabbage, but a much milder flavor and none of the nasty odor.

The girl thought it was “pretty good”, the boy just said “I don’t know what it tastes like”. They both ate a couple of mouthfuls of it and then asked if they needed to finish their portions (which they did not have to).

Here is a recipe I used to flavor the cooked bok choy (though I did not add the ginger). I would definitely buy bok choy again - and if you have any recipes in which to use bok choy - I'd love to have them.

Dosakai / Dosegai – Indian Cucumber

Now these interesting fellas, took me on quite an investigation.

I purchased them thinking that once I got home, I could do a google search and come up with photos and information on what exactly it was and how to prepare it.

No such luck. Dosegai????

Two searches came up – all the words were foreign.

I posted a search on a helpful board I came across – a wild and exotic food forum. They were very helpful - but with the limited info I gave, no one came up with a name.

So I did what I should have done originally – would have saved me a lot of time – I called the store. The woman who answered didn’t know and passed me on to produce. “It’s an Indian cucumber – except sour”. I inquired as to whether or not their was an alternative name spelling or name – “nope”.

So I began searching under “cucumber” and “Indian vegetables” and came across it. Though none of the spellings were the same as what was on the label of mine. I came up with names like: dosakai, dosakaya, vellarika.






We cut open the “cucumber” and it did taste like a sour cucumber. The consistency and flavor reminded me of a melon. Once we took out the seeds (I wasn’t sure if they were edible) there wasn’t much of it left to prepare. We were not so crazy about it plain – so I fixed it like we fix our cucumbers….sliced up, shake on some salt n pepper and add enough vinegar to cover them. My grandma used to do that with regular cucumbers and sometimes she would add some finely cut up green onion. Great!

Wing Beans

The thing that drew me mostly to this unique bean is of course how cute it looked.

The beans are kind of squarish in shape - with fancy edges - frilly. It's not a surprise that they are also called "princess beans".

I put about 1/2 cup a water to boil on the stove and then threw in the beans and sort of boiled/steamed them for about 10 minutes. I was surprised that the water turned quite green.

My dd thought the beans tasted like regular green beans except they were very bitter...the boy agreed and I have to say that's what I thought also.

I ended up throwing them in a frying pan along with some regular green beans and added some minced garlic, soy sauce and some kind of Asian vinegar and freshly ground red pepper. A bit spicy - but very tasty. Since the beans were so much thicker than regular beans, I cut them in half and then sliced them thinner.

Eggplant

At the grocery store today the kids eagerly kept an eye out for something exotic to buy. Eggplant won.

I've always loved the color of eggplant - dark purple almost black, but I've been afraid to try it.

I was very apprehensive about trying the eggplant, the kids were excited. I searched the internet to find out how to prepare it...found out some interesting things - such as the eggplant is part of the nightshade family (which includes potatoes and tomatoes), and is actually a fruit not a vegetable.

I also read that the eggplant is generally bitter and you can remove some of the bitterness by salting the eggplant and letting it sit for about 1/2 hour, and then rinsing it.

I wanted to find a way to prepare the eggplant that would allow the true flavor and consistency to show. There were tons of recipes but mostly included breading and deep fat frying or mixing it into a casserole type dish.

I finally found a simple recipe: salt the eggplant, then slice it up, and mix into a combination of lemon juice and oil. Then sprinkle on salt/pepper and any other spices you like. I chose Italian Seasoning. Then bake for 10 min in the oven at 400 degrees.

I was really put off by the texture of the eggplant. The skin is thin enough that you can leave it on - and it kind of has a soft, rubbery texture. The inside feels spongy.

I prepared the dish, not feeling very excited about tasting it. I never let on ahead of time to the kids how negative I felt about the whole thing.

I found the eggplant to be pretty tasteless, except for the flavors of lemon and Italian Seasoning that I added. I didn't notice any bitterness so seems like the salting trick worked. The texture reminded me of a pan fried zucchini, but more spongy.

The girl ate a couple of little slices and didn't like it. I think the seasoning was a bad choice and overpowering. The boy didn't seem to really like it, yet awhile later at supper time he asked if he could have some more, and was disappointed when I told him I "disposed" of it.

I'm not really disappointed when we find a food we don't care for. This is all about experimenting with new tastes and introducing the kids to things we normally would not buy.

My only experience with eggplant was in 8th grade cooking class - all I remember was that I didn't like it. Never tasted it again until today. And I don't plan on eating it in the future.

For some strange reason, I think it's cool that it's part of the nightshade family.