I decided that over Christmas that I would "adopt" a new fruit and vegetable that I haven't eaten much of, find one I liked and incorporate into my weekly diet.
These two little stars are low-calorie, packed with vitamins and flavour, and are (like most produce) not that expensive if you keep your eyes sharp.
Soo without further adieu:
The veggie is definitely celeriac (Inspired by the need to make a last-minute substitution to Christmas dinner...ending up in a "celeriac" gravy and dressing addition that worked out so awesomely..damn this stuff is good! Even smells good!)...
Its a winter vegetable, but lower in starch than potatoes or parsnips. Its ugly as sin, and as yummy as..uh..sin.
The texture is more like a potato when cooked, and a bit like jicama when raw...they are high in some vitamins, (Vitamin C, calcium and potassium most of all), extremely low in calories and have a mild flavour which I found to be part potato, part celery, part herb. They are not really sweet like parsnips, the flavour is more "herby" I would say. You can taste the edge of celery in it, and that's why I thought it would be okay to substitute it. (It was.)
MUCH tastier than cauliflower, (which I don't really like...I hate the texture of it and the wierd metallic taste).....and this a nice smooth - and more versatile - texture too. What I did is run to the internet and try to get some info on it. What I learned is that:
1)Even if you eat them raw you might want to blanch them briefly in boiling (already boiling, not cold) water..I spiked mine with lemon juice because I read that it also helps kill any bitterness and preserves the creamy colour. (both succeeded in working).
2)You can fry them like potato chips, oven bake them like french fries, eat them raw or boiled/chilled in a salad. You can puree them like mashed potatoes or further blend them to use in soups.
When I threw some chunks into the lemony boiling water, I ended up deciding to use that for my "stock" base, and added an onion and the (better quality) chicken base/bullion - as it got soft I tasted a piece and was totally impressed! It was so good. I decided to use the few pieces I needed for the dressing (which I used by cooling them then chopping them finely in the food processor just as I would celery)...then the rest of it, rather than NOT eating the pieces, I used the handheld part of the processor to just puree them right in the stock along with the onion. Since the smoked turkey breast was lean and precooked (no juices to speak of) I chopped off a few small pieces of that and threw them into the mix.
So now as a gravy "base" I had this soup, basically, of celeriac, onion, broth and turkey. Then I made the roux of butter and flour and added this in by quarter cupfuls, and it just..man..what a gravy. It was beyond gravy. Its what gravy wishes it was!
I bought another one with the plan of using it as a lower-carb healthy replacement for starchy side dishes. Its quite good roasted with parmagiana cheese evidently, and I really liked it boiled up in the broth, even just like that sliced it was really good.
Seriously, I am kicking myself for not trying these sooner...!
And, if you want a really fast, yummy soup, you can just make the base of the gravy I "invented"....get some chicken broth off to a good rolling boil, throw in one small squeeze of lemon juice, fresh chopped celeriac, and a chopped onion, boil until veggies are soft, blend with a hand blender, season to taste, eat. That easy and its....gaaaaa....its so yummy. (Use good broth or a high quality bullion).
To get you inspired, here's an NPR article on celeriac...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6551175 [1]
And a BBC one:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/knowhow/glossary/celeriac/ [2]
As for the fruit.........
I decided on kiwifruit. Its not something I think about much, kiwifruit...it looks funny. It looks like one of Jack Nicholson's testicles (I just made that up! Yeah! hehe)...
I know I'd had it, but I couldn't remember how it tasted. But I did know from reading it was damn good for you. Here's some info from Wikipedia:
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Kiwifruit is a rich source of vitamin C
-1.5 times the DRI scale in the US.
- Its potassium content by weight is slightly less than that of a banana
- It also contains vitamins A and E
- The skin is a good source of flavonoid antioxidants
- The kiwifruit seed oil contains on average 62% alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid
- Usually a medium size kiwifruit contains about 46 calories, 0.3 g fats, 1 g proteins, 11 g carbohydrates, 75 mg vitamins and 2.6 g dietary fiber.
Kiwifruit also serves as a natural blood thinner....a recent study performed at the University of Oslo in Norway reveals that--similar to popular mainstream aspirin therapy-consuming two to three kiwifruit daily for 28 days significantly thins the blood, reducing the risk of clots, and lowers fat in the blood that can cause blockages.
That's a lot of health in something so small...but they taste nice, easy to slice up and eat and the vitamin C blows oranges out of the water alone, not even counting the potassium, the healthy fatty acids and its blood-thinning benefits. Damn....
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So, there you go, I challenge you guys to pick a NEW FOOD for the new year, and give it a chance. I did and I am now going to make these two things a part of our weekly shop.
Back to the kitchen!