H is for Haricot Vert

 

 History: Haricot Vert is French for Green Bean.  From the same family, they are a variety of green beans that are longer and thinner than the types of green beans we commonly find in the US, though they grow just fine here. This post and recipe can apply to any kind of green bean, but there are reasons you might choose the fancier named bean, so we decided to feature it here.  If you are growing beans, the long bean we call string beans can either grow in bushes or on vines that need to be trellised or tied to poles.  There are advantages to the bush beans, like shorter growing time and less plant maintenance.  Haricot Vert are bush beans, though there are other beans that grow on bushes too.  When you are shopping at a farmer's market or the grocer for beans, an advantage would be ease of sorting, cleaning and use.  Haricot Vert tend to be straighter and thinner, so it is easier to find the nicer ones.  When serving green beans, a plate of organized, great tasting beans is the final advantage - you'll look like a pro.

Identification:  When you are standing at the Farmer's Market looking at beans, you will notice the thin, straight beans vs a mass of beans that are thicker and often have a curve at their end. The grocer will often have the Haricot Vert in bags, all lined up and easy to grab.  You will have to sort through the regular green beans to ensure the nicest choices.  There is sometimes a premium price on the Haricot Vert, but the flavor and quality usually makes it worth it.  This is another reason to consider growing them for yourself if you have the room.   Learn more about the health benefits of green beans here.           Season: May through Mid October  

Recipe:  Steamed Green Beans tossed in infused oil

This recipe will keep your green beans (and you can use any strain of green beans) at peak flavor while maintaining the most nutrients

Infused Oil

Ingredients

Garlic cloves (Crushed)

Whole Peppercorns

Fresh Bay leaf

Olive Oil

Lemon Zest

Chili Flake

Cleaned green beans with stem tips cut off

Method of Production

Heat up oil, peppercorns, bay leaf and crushed cloves of garlic gently & not too hot

As it cools, you may add the lemon zest and crushed chili flake

Allow to sit, infusing for at least an hour, meanwhile, clean and steam your beans.

When beans are tender, place them in a bowl and cover with strained infused oil.  Season with salt and more lemon zest, serve hot.

G is for Gardening

 

 

This post will be a little different, growing your own food can bring you back to basics in a wonderful way!

•  Stores like Trader Joes, Whole Foods and even Jewel sell potted herbs that you can take home.  Rosemary, basil, thyme, chives, parsley and cilantro.  This is a small way to stay in touch with your own food.
• Railing boxes are also great for herbs in the nicer months of the year.  You could also plant radishes in them since they don't grow deep and grow very fast.
• Planter boxes/barrels that sit on your balcony, are great for tomato or pepper plants, my Mother-in-Law has a virtual farmer's harvest each summer.  She never has a summer salad without cherry tomatoes beginning about July 15th.
• My favorite gardening suggestion is hydroponic/aeroponic gardening.  Have you ever heard of Tower Gardens?

We have begun a crowd funding campaign to get our own Tower Gardens in our catering kitchen.  We are using a new crowd funding site called MUMZY.  They are helping us in our efforts.  Will you help?  Click here to see the campaign.

                  O'Hare Airport, in Chicago, has a wonderful Tower Garden Aeroponic Garden.

F is for Fennel

 

 

History: The name, Finocchio is the general Italian word for fennel.  There are 2 types of fennel, sweet and bitter.  Sweet fennel is often referred to as Finocchio to distinguish it from the bitter, though even sweet fennel turns bitter as it ages in the ground.  It was first discovered by the Porteguese and recorded in the 15th century.  The fragrance of Fennel during flowering is something to behold.  

Identification:  Fennel is in the carrot family. It is leafy plant with a swollen base.  It is not a true bulb, but is often referred to as a bulb.  The use of the plant is complete from the bulbous bottom, the frond on top, the seeds and most wonderfully, the fennel pollen.  It is found in many Italian pork dishes like porchetta.  More about the health benefits here.  Season: Pollen during spring  Vegetable - Mid July through October  

 

 

 

 

Recipe:

Roasted Fennel with Parmesan and Thyme
Ingredients
Fennel Bulbs
Butter
Parmesan
Fresh Thyme (remove leaves from stems)
Salt to taste
Method of Production
*Wash, trim and cut broad-wise (Vertically through the tops) reserve the fronds for next recipe
*Place cut side up in baking dish and sprinkle with salt, pats of butter, grated Parmesan cheese and fresh thyme
Fennel Pesto
Ingredients
Fennel Fronds
Pine nuts or Walnuts
Grated Parmesan
Lemon Zest
Garlic (optional)
Olive Oil
Salt to taste
Method of Production
*Place 4 (or 5) ingredients in a blender, turn on medium and add olive oil until desired consistency.
*Add salt to taste.
*The roasted fennel is a great side with chicken, pork or fish and the
pesto can be a sauce for them

E is for Escarole

 

 

History:  Escarole is an endive.  The cousin of Dandelion from yesterday, there is a lot to unscramble about all of the Cichorium family. These are all considered Chicory and their uses overlap in a lot of ways, but you can see by the following vegetable names, they look similar in a lot of ways yet their looks are quite different.

• Endive, curly endive, escarole, broad-leaved/Bavarian endive, Batavia endive, grumolo, chicory/frisée, scarola are all part of the Cichorium Endivia family. 
• Chicory, Radicchio, French endive, sugarloaf/witloof/Brussels chicory, Belgian (red) endive, red chicory, succory, Chioggia, Verona, Treviso, Castelfranco (types) are part of the Cichorium Intybus family.

Interestingly, the bullet shaped vegetable with the Endive name is actually not grown in nature.  The name is another important distinction.  Read this Huff post article as I could not say it better myself: How You Pronounce ‘Endive’ Actually Matters, And Here’s Why

Learns about the health benefits of Endive here.  Season: Mid April through September

Indentification:

     

Recipe: - I thought is was called Basta Scalota, turns out, it is Pasta Escarole made in a Bridgeport neighborhood kitchen in Chicago.  This recipe is a soup dish and the escarole can be substituted for any bitter greens.  You could also add canned Indian Peas (discussed on I day) or white beans that have been drained and rinsed.

Ingredients

Yellow Onion, minced

Clove of Garlic, minced

Large bunch of Escarole washed and rough chopped

Olive Oil

Chili Flake to taste

Salt to taste

Angel Hair Pasta ( adjust amount to servings desired)

Method of Production

In a large stock or soup pot, sweat onion and garlic with pinch of salt in Olive Oil

Once fragrant, add the Escarole, pinch of salt and allow to wilt

Add the chili flake to taste

Fill stock pot with appropriate volume of water to cook pasta amount

Simmer greens in the water until desired tenderness

Add Angel hair and cook until Pasta is desired tenderness

Serve soup of  pasta and greens - topped with grated Parmesan

D is for Dandelion

 

 History:  Dandelions (Taraxacum-a large genus of flowering plants) are thought to have evolved about 30 million years ago in Eurasia. They have been used by humans for food and as an herb for much of recorded history according to Wikipedia.  Dandelion are found on all continents and have been gathered for food since prehistoric times.  I chose this because I have always wondered and wanted to learn more about the consumption of them.  As kids, we picked the yellow flowers for our moms, wrote on our skin with them, and propagated the species by blowing the fluffy white seeds into the air, making a wish.  By the time this is published, I will have tried one of the recipes below.  Health benefits can be found here.  Season: March through Early June, then Mid July through October

 

Dandelion Recipes

1. Sauteed Dandelions with Olive Oil, Lemon and Garlic

This is hands down my favorite way to eat dandelion greens. The recipe works best with young to medium-age (and sized) dandelion greens.

Sautéing dandelion greens is a great way to cook them because they keep a lot of their nutrients with this method.

2. Boiled Dandelion Greens

3. Fried Dandelion Flowers

Fried dandelion flowers taste similar to morel mushrooms. They’re very tasty!

4. Dandelion Greens Salad

5. Dandelion Root Coffee

Ok, I know many of you are going to look at this recipe with a raised eyebrow and a high dose of skepticism. But people have been roasting dandelion root as a coffee substitute for centuries. I have a bag of dried dandelion root in my kitchen right now, and I can tell you that it truly does taste like coffee. The biggest difference is that dandelion root is more bitter (tasting much like New Orleans’ style chicory coffee). It’s also caffeine free, and contains more antioxidants and nutrients than regular coffee.Roasting dandelion root is really easy. It’s best to dig up the root in the spring, which is when the roots have the most nutrients.

Again, here is the link to above work... http://www.moneycrashers.com/dandelion-greens-recipes-salad

C is for Cauliflower

 

 

History:  The oldest reference to Cauliflower dates back to the 6th Century B.C.  This wonderful vegetable is in the same family as Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Cabbage and Collard Greens, even radishes (though they are a different cultivar.  Cauliflower comes in white, most commonly, but in recent years, orange, green and purple have become easier to find.  The color changes are due to the different nutrients present in each one. Orange has beta-carotene, purple has anthocyanins which are antioxidant flavonoids and green has C and A.  Eat your colors!!!  The health benefits are found here.   Season: July through November Local

 

Simple Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients	Method of Production
1 head of Cauliflower	1. Cut head of cauliflower into small, bite size
Olive Oil	2. Coat with Olive Oil
Salt	3. Sprinkle with Salt
	4. Roast on high heat - 400°- 425° until golden brown

Cauliflower has been discovered as a great replacement of gluten for things like pizza crust.  While we do not attempt things like that in our kitchen, any recipe that gets people trying new things is good by us.  This simple recipe is a great way to introduce cauliflower to a reluctant eater.  Roasting brings out sweetness and takes away the idea that the smell of cauliflower elicits.  Try it! 

B is for Broccoli Raab        (Italian Rapini)

History:  Broccoli Raab (or Rape or Rapini) came from Italy.  It is a bitter green that is not generally enjoyed by Americans (I challenge you to try it and change your palette).  It is a leafy green with scattered clusters of tiny broccoli-like buds.  The stalks grow from 6 to 9 inches in length.  Broccoli Raab is in the turnip family while Broccoli is in the cabbage family.  Broccoli Raab can be fried, sautéed, steamed and braised.  It is also really wonderful in soups.

Broccoli Raab with lemon, garlic and chili flake

Ingredients

2 bunches of Broccoli Raab

Olive Oil, salt & pepper

2-3 Garlic Cloves

Zest of a lemon

Juice from zested lemon

Red Pepper Flakes

Method of Production

1. Heat sauté pan until hot, then add enough olive oil to coat bottom of pan

2. Toss in Garlic cloves and blanched Broccoli Raab

3. Salt veg with a healthy dose of salt

4. Sauté until desired doneness (like broccoli, you want it fully wilted and tender)

5. Remove from heat, remove garlic cloves & squeeze lemon onto veg

6. Season with lemon zest & red pepper flakes and pepper then serve

You will notice that a lot of the recipes and produce that gets chosen for these blogs, comes from Italy. I think it would be agreed that Italian cuisine is much loved in this country, even if some of the ingredients are either adapted or straight up substituted.     It would be great to see those true Italian items appear in our grocers' produce so that Americans can see what wonderful flavors are available.

A is for Asparagus

 

 

 History:  Asparagus is a Spring flowering perennial, originating from Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia.  It is cultivated world wide these days.  The most common type is green asparagus, but it also comes in Purple and White.  More about Purple Asparagus (@PurpleAspChi) later.

Ingredients

2 bunches of Asparagus

Grated Parmesan

Butter

Salt to taste

Method of Production

1. Wash Asparagus and if bottoms are woody, use a veg peeler to remove outside layer

2. Cut asparagus in bite size pieces or leave long, depending on dish length

3. Place them in oven safe dish, add pats of butter, sprinkle with salt and cover with cheese

4. Bake at 350° until cheese is golden brown

5. Serve hot

If you would like to receive another Asparagus recipe for a grilling marinade,

request it in the comments below!

The health benefits are described when clicking here.  Many of us are aware of a certain, recognizable smell when asparagus is consumed.  It is all a matter of chemistry.  Certain compounds in asparagus are metabolized to yield ammonia and various sulfur-containing degradation products, including various thiols and thioesters,^[49] which give urine a characteristic smell.  There is a small population who don't produce the smell and a small population that can't detect the smell.  Clever facts to know in case you had no idea what I am talking about.