How to Eat an Unfamiliar Vegetable {Friday Five}

I saw plenty of unfamiliar produce at farmers' markets in Hawaii. Often I ask farmers what to do with strange items but when I purchased the above taro root from a non-native English speaker, I didn't receive much guidance. My family was suspect of the taro after eating poi and I wanted to show them it could be tasty so I employed my five step plan to enjoy an unfamiliar vegetable:

1. Raw - I taste everything raw to see what the initial characteristics are like. In the case of taro our tongues were coated with thick starch and not much other flavor. I knew this meant we had to cook the taro for a good while to break down the starch and add heavy seasoning to trick our tastebuds.

2. Steamed - A quick steam is a good way to enjoy vegetables whose initial raw taste has good flavor. I suspected that taro would take a long time to steam thoroughly so we skipped this step.

3. Boiled and Pureed - Most root vegetables taste good when boiled in salted water. Puree with a little butter if the texture is off putting. Peas, beans, and leaf vegetables can also be quickly boiled and added to purees. I meant to try boiling taro but ran out of space on the range. 4. Oven Roasted - Nearly all produce, including fruit, taste sweeter after a trip in a hot oven. Toss the raw product with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper (or brown sugar in the case of fruit) and cook until caramelized. Roasted taro mixed nicely with potatoes prepared the same way.

5. Fried in Bacon Fat - When all else fails, pull out the big guns: bacon drippings. There is precious little that doesn't taste amazing when fried in bacon fat and indeed the taro was more than palatable this way. To completely cook the starch, we fried each half-inch side for five minutes.

What do you do when you come across an unfamiliar vegetable?

Please excuse the poorly lit photos. Despite ample outdoor light for some reason I chose to take pictures in the kitchen. I blame it on the mai tais.

Mangoes! {Video}

Our Hawaiian rental house has a fruit tree grove. Naturally Lil and I explored it as soon as we arrived. Green mangos hang from long studded tails, ripening and reddening as they sink to the ground.

These fresh mangoes have succulent smooth flesh, not at all like the sometimes-stringy import versions we can buy in Ohio. We are enjoying them fresh with breakfast and mixed into drinks with limes from trees on the property.

Before we left, Lil shot this video of one way to peel and slice mangoes. The other 'hedgehog' method is pictured above. Lil's commentary is cute, but the subtitle should be 'why Rachel needs a tripod and not a six year old holding the camera.' Sorry.

Do you eat mangoes?

Rhubarb Shrub, a Drinking Vinegar {Recipe}

Shrubs, also called drinking vinegars, are the new 'thing' in the drink and DIY field. Shrubs are a way of preserving fruit by making them into a syrup with vinegar that was widely practiced by Colonial Americans. The LA Times wrote this week about using shrubs in cocktails. Studies show that raw vinegar may contribute to weight loss, lowered cholesterol and improved digestion. I discovered last year that apple cider vinegar is a cinch to make at home with a little loving neglect.

Where does this all lead? To my newest obsession: rhubarb shrub.

Before you say "I could never just drink vinegar!", as my sisters recently did,  hear me out. The flavor components of a shrub are acid from the vinegar, sweetness from sugar, and flavor from the fruit. What else relies on acid, sweetness, and fruit to quench thirst? Lemonade, the summer picnic staple. Commercial sodas are also sweet, acidic syrups diluted with fizzy water.

How To Make Shrubs At Home

Because I believe in preserving the potential benefits of the raw cider, I make shrub the 'cold' way. Most recipes call for a 1:1:1 ratio of fruit, sugar, and vinegar but I prefer less sugar. Since vinegar provides the preservative effect, there's no reason not to experiment with small batches and find your own perfect ratio.

My ideal rhubarb shrub is 1/2 cup chopped rhubarb with 1/3 cup white sugar soaked in 1/2 cup homemade apple cider vinegar. I leave it at room temperature for 2 days and then move it to the fridge. After the taste is full of rhubarb tartness in a few weeks, I strain out the fruit. Serious Eats outlines several other ways to make fruit shrub.

I drink my rhubarb shrub over ice with fizzy water from the Soda Stream. Surprisingly enough for a girl who likes to drink like myself, I have not delved into the world of mixing alcohol with shrubs but you know I will soon.

Are you a fan of drinking vinegars? Have you made a shrub? Tell all in the comments!

Rhubarb Shrub Time: 15 minutes active, 7-14 days aging Makes approximately 1 cup

1/2 cup fresh rhubarb, washed and chopped into one inch pieces 1/3 cup granulated white sugar 1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar

1. Mix all ingredients in a clean glass jar. 2. Allow to sit at room temperature for 2 days. 3. Move the the fridge and allow to age for an additional 7-14 days until the shrub achieves the taste you want. 4. Strain out and discard the fruit. Keep the shrub in the fridge and enjoy diluted with water, club soda, or in a mixed drink.

Grilled Bok Choy & Tatsoi {Recipe}

Remember last week when I picked strawberries and toured Bird's Farm? The bok choy and tatsoi in the high tunnel were too beautiful for me to resist.

Rich in Vitamin A and C, these greens are tasty ways to supplement your diet. They are mild in flavor, sweeter than kale or mustard greens, and the crunchy stem adds texture to dishes.

The young plants are often sold as baby bok choy or baby tatsoi. The stems are so tender when young they can be eaten raw, sautéed in a stir fry mix, or cooked quickly as in our favorite preparation: grilled bok choy.

I predict bok choy and tatsoi will be the next 'hot' green vegetable like kale is now. They are even easier to assimilate into the standard American diet and oh so delicious.

Do you eat bok choi and tatsoi? What's your favorite way to cook them?

Grilled Bok Choy Time: 10-20 minutes heating grill, 5 minutes preparation, 5 minutes cooking

1 head of young bok choy or tatsoi per person 1 teaspoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Slice the head in two lengthwise and wash thoroughly for any sandy soil that may reside in between leaves. 2. Drizzle with olive oil and soy sauce and sprinkle on a light coating of salt and pepper on the cut side. 3. Grill the bok choy, cut side down, over very hot coals for 4-6 minutes or until the greens are browned but not burnt. Serve immediately.

Marvelous Mint {Wordy Wednesday}

Mint is a weed by any definition. Many gardeners even consider it invasive - the stuff will fill a space and beyond.

Our patch resides in a bed alongside the house bordered by the sidewalk. For the most part, this contains the spread and last year oregano actually overtook some of the mint zone.

We "tend" (mint actually requires no work) our mint madness because we love the herb. Lil eats the leaves fresh like salad greens and makes them into nests and garden sculptures.

I harvest fresh leaves frequently for drinks and dessert garnishes. At least once a year I fill the dehydrator, crushing the dried leaves for tea.

When mint flowers in late summer, bees and other pollinators 'sup on the nectar while my family enjoys the petite purple blooms.

Despite it's overgrowing habit, I'm mad for mint.

Do you grow mint? If so, how do you enjoy it?

Rhubarb Infused Vodka

It's rhubarb season in central Ohio! I like rhubarb in jam, strawberry rhubarb pie, and my grandmother's rhubarb crunch. But my favorite way to enjoy this slightly sweet, floral, first "fruit" of spring is in a vodka infusion. You might think I'm a lush but hear me out. Rhubarb is tongue-searingly sour and requires a lot of sugar or another strong flavor to temper the tart. Until I infused vodka with rhubarb, I had never truly appreciated the subtlty of the rhubarb flavor.

Making an infusion, with rhubarb or any other fruit, is dead simple. Chop or mascerate fruit in a clean glass container. Fill with vodka to cover all the fruit. Age in a dark place, tasting regularly, until the infusion matches your desired flavor. Strain out the fruit and enjoy the infusion as a mixer or on its own with fizzy water, a delightfully low-cal, high-zest drink.

In the case of rhubarb, I like to leave the infusion for up to two weeks. The clear vodka will turn a dusty red color and keep its piquancy for up to a year. The picture above shows the last of our 2011 rhubarb infusion, in one of my favorite jars made in Columbus Ohio, surrounded by the fresh rhubarb from the Greener Grocer that will make this year's batch.

I am reserving some rhubarb to make into a shrub, a sweetened vinegar infusion. I suspect that the shrub method will show off the many characteristics of rhubarb much like the vodka infusion I hold so dear.

Do you like rhubarb? How do you prepare it?

Food Dialogues with US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance

Do you know about the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA)? It is a newly created umbrella organization of state farm bureaus and grower's councils. Their mission is to "lead the dialogue and answer Americans’ questions about how we raise our food". Their new website Food Dialogues is designed to help facilitate conversations about how people, the planet, and businesses are affected by agriculture. I have been a member of the Ohio Farm Bureau (OFB), member of USFRA, for over a decade. This relationships started because of their Nationwide insurance discounts and continues because I want to be part of the food culture in Ohio.

Conflicted History

My feelings about the Ohio Farm Bureau, and hence the USFRA, are mixed, though. While the OFB presents the stories of friends Sippel Family Farm and Marilou Suszko in their lovely and informative Our Ohio magazine, the values advocated by OFB are often out of line with my own. I passionately argued against the intrusion of 'livestock care board' into the Ohio state constitution while the Farm Bureau helped deceive Ohioans into voting for Issue Two a few years ago. Similarly, while I believe in the rights of workers to organize, the Farm Bureau presented anti-union arguments in last fall's Ohio Senate Bill 5. I truly couldn't understand their position on SB 2, as the farm bureau itself is an organization of workers.

The USFRA is made up of other groups that ruffle my feathers, including Monsanto, Dow AgriSciences, and DuPoint as "Industry and Premier Partners". Behind the scenes, these monied and influential businesses promote agricultural bills that generally work against the diverse, organic, small farms that I believe are healthiest for farmers, consumers, and the environment.

Continue the Conversation

Despite conflicts, I believe that staying in the discussion is important. If local food advocates turn their backs on the USFRA, our voice will be lost. Perhaps by making some noise about what we want to see in the food system, we can affect change.

There are so many reasons to speak up. The honeybees and rivers need advocates to call attention to how farm waste can affect species far from farm sites. People who do not have the time or courage to speak up - the working poor, undocumented immigrants, and children - need us to insist on affordable food that does not compromise human and environmental health. People like me who care about antibiotic overuse must speak up for the farm animals who are given disturbing quantities and varieties of medicines to stay alive during stressful raising conditions. Farmer workers themselves, sometimes locked into contracts to use products that may be harmful to their personal health, need consumers to demand safe growing conditions.

The USFRA is hosting conversations virtually at Food Dialogues and on their facebook page. I set up my profile and joined the Facebook page to ask questions like:

• How will the USFRA support and grow the number of small organic farms in the US?
• Why is there arsenic and antidepressants in chickens and what is the USFRA doing to stop this practice?
• How can environmental protection be promoted when agricultural subsidies encourage over-production?
• Transporting livestock to slaughter, produce across the country, and even farm workers between farms uses an excessive amount of fossil fuels. The Eat Local movement reduces this demand. How will the USFRA support reduced 'food miles'?
• Why are there no councils or groups of produce growers in the USFRA? Maybe if a vegetable council promoted fresh produce, Americans would have more access to affordable fresh food.

Please join me in dialogue about growing food in the US. Leave a comment below (about agriculture, food, or anything you like) and enter to win a prize package of a Crock-Pot Programmable 6-Quart Slow Cooker and two reusable designer shopping bags from Envirosax.

Giveaway details: Prize package is a Crock-Pot Programmable 6-Quart Slow Cooker and two reusable designer shopping bags from Envirosax. Prize Pack ERV - $68. Prize is provided and delivered by USFRA; Entrants agree to not hold Rachel Tayse Baillieul or Hounds in the Kitchen liable for the prize. Entry open to US resident adults 18 years of age and older. Entries as comments on this site will be accepted from 10 am EST Wednesday April 11, 2012 - 10 am EST Wednesday April 18, 2012. One winner will be chosen on Wednesday April 18, 2012 by random.org and notified via email. In the event that a winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.

Disclosure: The US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance paid me a stipend to introduce readers to their Food Dialogues website and Facebook page. All opinions are clearly my own.

Spring Chimichurri With Boiled Eggs On Grilled Asparagus {Recipe}

Nothing says spring like firing up the grill, eating local asparagus, enjoying herbs from the garden, and reveling in the wonder of the egg. Combine them all in this grilled asparagus chimichurri recipe and the season bursts forth from your fork.

Chimichurri is an Argentinian herb sauce typically made with chopped fresh parsley, oregano, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil. Like Italian pesto, chimichurri is flexible to your personal taste. Substitute any and all fresh herbs popping up in your garden or at the farmer's market.

Traditionally, chimichurri tops grilled steak and is indeed a tasty light counterpoint to rich meat. Drawing on a fantastic appetizer prepared by Jim Budros, Steve Stover, and Rich Terapak at a Franklin Park Conservatory cooking class, we pour chimichurri over grilled asparagus. The herbal garlic sauce highlights the sweetness of the crisped asparagus. Full-bodied chopped boiled egg completes the dish.

Serve chimichurri asparagus with a bread salad for lunch, as a side for dinner or as an appetizer over toast points. We might make it to share with family this Easter Sunday.

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Added to Hearth and Soul.