Posted - 1 Feb 2012 SuperKALE Salad Slaw
Check out the new Cut’nClean SuperKALE Salad Slaw in our organic section. It’s made from a colorful mix of shredded organic kales and carrots. Kale has one of the highest ratios of nutrients per caloric content of any food product. With this new rainbow kale salad mix, the hard part of preparing kale is done for you. Look on the back of the package for the recipes for Avocado Rainbow Kale Salad and Tuscan Rainbow Kale Salad.
Posted - 31 Jan 2012 Local Walnuts Are In
The new crop of Sonoma grown walnuts has finally arrived. Buy a big bag. Walnuts can last for over a month in the fridge, and up to a year in the freezer.
To add a little crunch to your walnuts, try this method of toasting. Pour walnuts into a pie pan or baking dish, ‘til you have about a half to three-quarter inch layer of walnuts. Set oven to low temperature (165 degrees F, no need to preheat), and place walnuts in the oven for about an hour. If you accidentally leave them in for a little longer, no harm is done, but here’s the important part: when the walnuts come out, you must let them cool completely to room temperature before you put them in an airtight container. Packing them too soon can leave too much moisture in the container, which can lead to spoilage.
Posted - 25 Jan 2012 Stock Up on Avocados for the Big Game
Just in time for the Big Game, here are a few recipes for guacamole. When covering your guacamole, place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the guacamole to keep air from getting to the surface, then cover the bowl as usual.
Here’s one for the guacamole purist. Take an avocado. Cut it in half lengthwise and remove the seed. Scoop out the flesh and put it in a bowl. Dash salt. Smash. Done. A squeeze of lemon or lime juice will preserve the color, and some folks say that pushing the seed into the finished guacamole will also help to preserve it.
If you want to be a little fancier, try one of these other recipes we’ve collected. Some of these recipes call for raw garlic, but personally, I’d either toast it first, or leave it out. But that’s just me. I ain’t sayin’, I’m just sayin’. (Canned, drained tomatoes may be substituted for fresh)
Classic Guacamole
- 3 Hass avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 1 clove garlic, minced
In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve. (adapted from Food Network)
Chunky Guacamole
- 2 firm-ripe avocados, diced (1 1/2 cups)
- 1/3 cup chopped red onion
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- Salt
In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and toss gently to combine. (courtesy Food Network)
Jalapeño Guacamole
- 2 ripe small Hass avocados
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 small plum tomato (canned or fresh), seeded and finely chopped
- 1/2 small yellow skinned onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
Cut avocados in half around the pit. Separate the halves. Pop out pit with spoon, then scoop flesh of avocados into a bowl. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over the avocados. Squeeze the juice with the lemon halves facing cut-side up, allowing the juice to spill down over the sides of the lemon into the bowl. This method keeps the seeds in the lemon and out of the guacamole. Add garlic, jalapeño, tomato, onion and salt to the bowl. Mash and mix the ingredients into a chunky dip using a fork. Serve with blue corn tortilla chips. For the more adventurous, one or two Serrano chiles may be substituted for the jalapeño. (Food network)
California Guacamole
- 2 Fresh California Avocados, about 1 pound
- 1/2 cup finely crumbled, chilled, fresh white goat cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped, fresh cilantro
- 2 Tbsp. chopped, toasted pistachio nuts
- 1/4 tsp. (or to taste) crushed, red pepper flakes
- 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
Coarsely mash (do not puree) avocados. Fold in remaining ingredients. (California Avocado Commission)
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Posted - 20 Jan 2012 Page Mandarins
(Photo by Jim McKay)
If this picture doesn't make your mouth water, you need to clean your monitor and/or your eyeglasses (glass cleaner is on Aisle 7B). The Page mandarin is the sweetest, juiciest, tastiest mandarin so far this year.
Posted - 5 Jan 2012 A Little More About Apples
When I was a kid, the best selling apple in our family’s produce market was the Red Delicious, followed by the Golden Delicious. In August there were Gravensteins, and during early autumn we’d see Winesaps and Pippins. I remember waiting eagerly each September for the “Pickup” apple, a California Red Delicious apple with a flavor and crispness head and shoulders above its Washington cousin, to show up at the commission market.
That was about it when it came to apples. Fuji was a mountain in Japan, Gala was a fancy dance party, and Granny Smith was that Smith kid’s grandmother.
Today we are spoiled with a huge variety of apples from which to choose. Fuji is our top seller. They’re crisp and flavorful, and good for eating and cooking. Some Fuji apples, particularly those from Washington, tend to develop deposits of liquid sugar near the core. This is called a sugar core. The uninitiated may mistake this as frost damage or rot, but this is not the case! The apple is perfectly fine. One taste will prove it.
Posted - 2 Jan 2012 Good Time for Apples
Apple quality is good right now, with a large selection of varieties. At the moment, Pippin, Braeburn and Honeycrisp are the best eating apples for my money.
It's hard to define which apple is the sweetest, because sugar content is not the only contributing factor to how we judge sweetness. Acidity and texture also play a part. Here, though, are some of the rankings of sugar content for some of our conventional apples, taken from samples in our display case:
|
Pippin |
17.2% |
|
Golden Delicious |
15.8% |
|
Honeycrisp |
15.6% |
|
Gala |
15% |
|
Fuji, Ambrosia |
13.4% |
|
Granny Smith |
13.2% |
|
Braeburn |
12.4% |
Going strictly by this chart, you might conclude that the Pippin is the sweetest apple, but your taste buds will probably convince you that the Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp or Ambrosia is the winner. And individual varieties will differ, too, depending on where and when they were grown. The fun thing is to try several varieties and decide for yourself. Here are some suggestions on which type of apple to use for different situations:
Eating: Braeburn, Cameo, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Macintosh, Pippin, Red Delicious
Baking: Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Jonagold, Jonathan, Macintosh, Pippin, Rome
Sauce: Gravenstein. Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith
Drying: Gala, Gravenstein, Rome
These apples tend to be sweeter: Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious
These apples tend to be more tart: Granny Smith, Jonathan, Pink Lady
Our produce staff will gladly help you decide which apple is best for your needs.
Posted - 7 Dec 2011 Colored Bell Peppers and Brown Mushrooms
Bell Peppers
If you have an electric oven, roasting peppers is an easy task. Lay the whole peppers on a cookie sheet and slide them under the broiler. You can also roast them on a gas grill, charcoal grill, or right on the burners of your gas stovetop. Using tongs, turn the peppers occasionally until they are charred all over. Then place them while they’re still hot into a paper bag, close the bag and wait about 10 minutes to allow the peppers to steam. This makes the skin easier to remove. Cut around the top of the pepper and pull out the stem. Then make a slice down the side of each pepper, open them and gently flatten them. Use a knife to scrape out the seeds and membrane, then flip over (the pepper, not you) and scrape off the skin (the pepper's, not yours). From that point, let your imagination take over. Salads, tapenades, bruschetta, steak topper; it’s all possible.
Brown Mushrooms
They go by many names and many spellings: cremini, crimini, baby bellas, portabellini. Whichever name you prefer, they can be used in any recipe that calls for white mushrooms.
By the way, a portabella mushroom is merely a grownup crimini mushroom.
Posted - 5 Dec 2011 The Mandarin Story
The season's first mandarins are now available. A little on the tart side, but tasty.
What's the difference between a mandarin and a tangerine? And what's a tangelo?
There are many types of mandarins, including Satsumas, Clementines, and tangerines. Botanists are not in complete agreement on the subject, but in general, if it has seeds, it's a tangerine. In addition, the skin on a tangerine is usually darker than the skin on other mandarins, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Other mandarins tend to be a little sweeter, seedless, and easier to peel.
My opinion: Don't worry about which is which. Mandarins are made to be eaten, not studied!
Satsumas and Clementines are mandarins.
Satsuma Clementines
The Minneola is a tangelo, a tangerine/grapefruit hybrid.
.
Minneola
The Fairchild is a cross between a Clementine mandarin and an Orlando tangelo.
Fairchild
The Honey “tangerine” from Florida is actually a tangor (tangerine + orange). When grown in California, it is called a Murcott.
Honey (Murcott)
Because the first mandarins imported into Europe came from Tangiers, they were given the name 'tangerine'.
What are Cuties® ?
“Cuties” is not a variety of mandarin. It is a trade name used by a joint venture of three California citrus growers (Sun Pacific, Paramount Citrus, and Fowler Packing) for their Clementine mandarins and Murcott tangors. Clementines have become increasingly popular in the last few years due to their sweetness, seedlessness, and easy to peel-ness. Cuties are sold by the 5-lb. box.
Minneola image courtesy Sunkist Growers; all other images by Jim McKay
