Grocery Shopping

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Hey Panaderia,

 

I love beet greens! Baby raw ones in salads, cooked mature ones, and I make a quiche-like tart with them.

 

I don't suppose we ever get good starfruit here. It's yellow going to brown spots like Shalmanese said, and has no good flavor to it the times I've tried it. Sliced crosswise, it's beautiful on fruit platters, but I quit buying it because it's a waste if it doesn't taste good.

 

How does your carambola taste?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Hey Panaderia,

 

I love beet greens! Baby raw ones in salads, cooked mature ones, and I make a quiche-like tart with them.

 

I don't suppose we ever get good starfruit here. It's yellow going to brown spots like Shalmanese said, and has no good flavor to it the times I've tried it. Sliced crosswise, it's beautiful on fruit platters, but I quit buying it because it's a waste if it doesn't taste good.

 

How does your carambola taste?

 

I love beet greens too, but unless I go to one specific lady in the big market and ask her really nicely, I can't get them - the farmers all cut them off and feed them to the pigs!  This time she was too busy to have done that, and there was a big old pile of them hiding off behind the napa cabbages.  She was astounded that I would want to consume pig fodder, but asked very on-point questions about how to prepare them.

 

I weep for you northern dwellers - fruit here in Ecuador has a completely different set of flavours than I'd ever have thought it would have (based on growing up in northern Canada.)  To digress slightly, I used to call papayas "old shoe fruits" until I ate my first tree-ripened one.

 

Carambola, when they're really green like the ones in the photo, are tart and acidic kind of like Granny Smith apples or fresh green mango, but with an order more acidity - very good with salt and chili powder.  Once they start to yellow up (but before they get the brown edges) they've got a delicate slightly perfumed flavour, medium acidity, and high crunch.  They're not for everyone, but if you like gooseberries or red currants then tree-ripened carambolas would be right up your alley.  I purposely bought them quite green this week because my other option was overripe, and if I store them with my avocados they'll be perfect by Friday when I need them for cheesecake decorations.  And since I got so many, I'll be able to munch out on them if I want to.

[Maedl]

On a very snowy Saturday morning from Whole Foods, in the midst of total panic of the locals, trying to buy all the toilet paper so they were prepared for the storm:

 

one pound of mussels

lemons

assorted heritage naval orange and grapefruit

Tuscan kale

kale

blackberries

 

Then on Saturday night, in the midst of a snow storm, I pretended I was in Sicily. I opened a bottle of Sicilian white wine, and made the mussels according to the recipe of what I ate in Trapani: with tons of garlic, lemon peel and juice, and parsley. It was good enough for me to remember the sound of waves on the beach and the sunlight dancing on the sea.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

 

Bigger week at the market, and the first time in a while that it hasn't just been more of the same.  Of note this week are the green, in-shell Andean black walnuts.  Ecuador has recently introduced very heavy tariffs on imported foodstuffs, and walnuts are one of those things - the ones from Chile that I used to buy have gone up 45%.  So, this week's challenge is to see how long it takes me to shell and dry 100 local, green walnuts, and find out how many pounds of finished nutmeat that actually yields me.

 

It's also peach season, so I couldn't pass that up!  Durazno type peaches have a flavour that's somewhere between peach and apricot; also available in the market were a type called Abridor, which is a white clingstone variety, and my own tree is producing Guaytambo, which are white freestones.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Panaderia C., 

 

As usual your beautiful (and cheap) cornucopia is amazing! Mmm, I can almost smell those peaches!

 

Also if your green/black walnuts are anything like our local ones, you'll want to wear disposable gloves while working with them and cover cutting boards with plastic film or something. Your shells look thinner, though, more like English walnuts. Our black walnuts stain everything like crazy. They're also very perishable and go rancid quickly, which is enough for me to almost cry over. The flavor while they are fresh is unparalleled. 

 

Good luck with them, I hope they work out to be the better deal for you.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[huiray]

Here are two things that I picked up today at the Indy Winter Farmers' Market – hydroponic "upland cress" and baby kale. I've been chomping on some of both as-is and they are both tender and quite flavorful.  The kale in particular has PLENTY of taste while the "upland cress" indeed tastes just like normal watercress.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

huiray, yes!

 

This is the way kale should be picked when it's still small and tender. The more I harvested my plants, the more they produced. Very prolific, and I would get a fall crop after clearing out the summer flowers, and always a spring crop from the root stock, even if the winter was harsh enough to kill off the vegetation to the ground.

 

What do you do with the watercress? I can get that at my local S-mart, but the leaves are smaller. It looks like it would be delicious raw in a salad, but I have never had it.

[huiray]

Thanks for the Crepes,

 

Yes - baby kale like this is nice.  I don't grow my own but I always look forward to their appearance at the Farmers' Markets, especially with the arrival of the new season.  The hydroponic operations around here can and sometimes do generate kale without regard to the seasons - but in the latter case they tend to be lanky plants which they sell as-an-entire-plant (in a like manner to the cress I pictured) which are also quite tender but sort of "etiolated" in appearance.

 

The upland cress is also new to me.  I presume you are not thinking of the more usually-seen "standard" watercress when you mentioned seeing these at your S-mart (what is this place?).  I simply wilted them in a broth this first time - I just posted about it here - and I conclude I much prefer the standard watercress with simple broths and would use upland cress for other purposes (garnishes, salads, etc) sans stems next time.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Hi huiray,

 

"Etoilated" is a very cool word I wasn't aware of. Yesterday I described some green onions I grew as leggy and floppy due to lack of sunlight, and your word is much more succinct.

 

The watercress available at S-Mart, which is a Korean-owned pan Asian market in my neighborhood, has smaller leaves than your upland variety, and is only identified as watercress, so I assume it's the standard variety.

 

I love shopping and exploring in S-Mart. There are so many ingredients that are new and interesting to me. Unfortunately, I can't read many of the labels on the processed aisles, but the produce and meats are usually labeled in English, so even if I have no idea what it is, I can come home and research them on the internet.

 

I found some fresh water chestnuts one time at S-Mart, and I have not opened or bought a can of them since. I'll never go back, although they are really a pain to peel, but worth the work.

 

I like greens in soup, so next time S-Mart has some nice-looking cress, Ill try this. I will chop into half inch pieces first, because I dislike long stings of greens that slosh drips everywhere when I try to eat it.

[huiray]

Thanks for the Crepes,

 

Here are two previous posts of mine where I showed "standard" watercress wilted in chicken broth/stock/soup – here and here.  Note also the much thicker (and succulent) stems besides the smaller leaves.  I tend to pick up the standard watercress from my local Chinese/"Asian" grocer also,** rather than from a Western supermarket.  I suspect the ones you saw in your S-mart are the standard variety - and probably look like this, or this, or this?

 

** Where it would be MUCH more expensive - like most vegetables as compared with the Chinese/"Asian" groceries; or other non-Western European places (like the Mexican/Central American places...8-10 limes for $1, anyone? (e.g. from one of the Carniceria Guanajuato Supermercados here) or 3 bunches of scallions or coriander leaves for $1 (e.g. from the Chinese grocery).

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Yes huiray,

 

S-Mart's cress looks like the photos you posted, more like the first two.

 

I love the bargains available from S-Mart and also the Mexican and Indian grocers I have right here in my neighborhood. I also love the idea of supporting locally owned businesses whenever I can. Enjoying their ingredients takes an open mind and willingness to research and learn, but that's part of the fun to me.

[GlorifiedRice]

 

 

Pillsbury makes a huge line of frozen Indian breads, did anyone know this?

For some reason I collect Hamburger Helper

And that green stuff is a unique GREEN Japanese style SRIRACHA.

[huiray]

 

 

And that green stuff is a unique GREEN Japanese style SRIRACHA.

 

Interesting.  More details, please?

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Glorified Rice,

 

How do you cook these Pillsbury roti to get them to puff?

 

Did you get these at a regular supermarket? I have never seen them, but I will keep my eyes peeled for them.

[GlorifiedRice]

Interesting.  More details, please?

 

Here is the website

http://musashifoods.com/

[GlorifiedRice]

Glorified Rice,

 

How do you cook these Pillsbury roti to get them to puff?

 

Did you get these at a regular supermarket? I have never seen them, but I will keep my eyes peeled for them.

 

LOL No, I saw em at the Indian mkt near me.

You dry fry em in a pan then put them directly on the flame to puff

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Indian+pillsbury+bread&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=7SEfVaXnBfOIsQT-6oGoCA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1472&bih=690 

^^Look at all the different kinds of Indian breads Pillsbury has

[IowaDee]

Boy that Poppin Fresh dude sure gets around!  I had no idea he was such a worldly guy.  I'll have to respect  him more as I wack that tube against the counter.

[Anna N]

Boy that Poppin Fresh dude sure gets around!  I had no idea he was such a worldly guy.  I'll have to respect  him more as I wack that tube against the counter.

Please do it respectfully. His creator died on April 1. click

[IowaDee]

Oh, I missed that.  There shall be no wacking, only gentle tapping.   

[caroled]

I still have my original Poppin'Fresh that I got for my 7th birthday in '72.

On another note, he also has chocolate crescent rolls ( choc. inside and then drizzled outside as well). I've not tried them ...yet.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I don't really care for most of the Pillsbury products. I've tried the biscuits and crescent rolls, and they're just too chemical-tasting.

 

It's easy and quick to make my own biscuits, and even though I'm not willing to spend the time to make my own laminated pastry for crescents, Pillsbury's isn't really laminated either, so I just usually do without. I remember these being better when I was younger, but that may be because my palate grew up. Me and my sibs used to love Spaghettios. Ick!

 

But I would totally give the Indian roti upthread a try. It's worth a try, but with their penchant for extending the shelf life of their products to a ridiculous extent at the expense of quality and taste, I'm not overly optimistic.

 

 

I still have my original Poppin'Fresh that I got for my 7th birthday in '72.

 

 

I'm wondering what you mean, caroled, by "my original Poppin' Fresh"?

 

I have a little stuffed figure of it (him?) that I got years ago as a gift, if that's what you mean. It was much later than '72, probably the early 2000's when my husband got it for me, and I've no idea where he got it. It's very cute, and I love it.

[GlorifiedRice]

Crepes?

You can buy frozen all butter Croissant dough on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Mrs-Richs-Bakery-Plain-Croissant/dp/B00B04DOQC/

[radtek]

Ah I'll play...

 

Picked up Thursday from the nearest H.E.B:

 

1- 12pk Heineken

1- 12pk Shiner Bock

1-12pk Shiner Premium

1- 750ml Rodenbach Classic

1-750ml  Sawbuck Cab Sav

 

1.5 dozen extra large eggs

1- 2# block of Velveeta (buy one get 1 bag HEB tortilla chips free)

1- jar Mezzeta kalmata olives

4- Hillcountry Fare frozen limeade

2 ears yellow corn (from Florida)

2# organic carrots

1.5# yellow onions

1.5# white onions

3- bunches of green onions

1# roma tomatoes

1# whole white mushrooms

1 bunch of garlic

0.15# serrano peppers

1# baby bok choy

2 packs of lightly salted rice cakes

Hines roasted and salted in the shell peanuts

Calidad tortilla chips

HEB tortilla chips (free)

2 bunches of cilantro that the clerk also didn't bother to charge me for...

 

And the alcohol's total was greater than the groceries'  Gotta have priorities.

 

And today is the big day at my Asian grocer. I went last week and stocked up so nothing today but they'll be jammed packed all morning!

 

 

 

[huiray]

radtek, glad you joined us here!  Nice shopping trip.  Heh, alcohol does tend to drive up the overall coat - but is certainly a "necessity" to those of us who enjoy imbibing from time to time ;-) or, uh, at shorter intervals. :-)

 

I'd be interested in what sort of things you get from your local Asian grocer.  As for the green onions you got from your H.E.B. -- y'know, I've walked into my local (Western) supermarket and held a bunch of green onions in my hand...and put it back, got back in my car and actually drove the extra miles (yes, yes, I know, cost of gas etc) to the Chinese/"Asian" grocery to pick up the green onions/scallions I had needed for something or other for vastly less money, and in a much larger quantity.  Of course, I'd pick up other stuff as well so I could make the extra mileage "work out". :-) 

[huiray]

Regarding the roti and other assorted "Indian breads" -- I've never consciously noted the Pillsbury products.  I'll look for them too.  I *do* pick up frozen naan, paratha, chapatti, samosas, etc from my local Indian grocers from time to time; as well as fresh samosas (and some of the others as well) when available. Yum. One thing that has become harder to find in this regard are lamb samosas as the local places here have tended to just carry the vegetarian ones.  Lately I've found lamb ones again, however.  The brands have all tended to be "Indian" types or even "SE Asian" types...(some may be actually made in the USA but carry an "Indian" name, heh) but Pillsbury -- as I said I didn't actually notice.  Hmm.