The prickly pear is a cactus fruit that is actually a berry. The pulp of the prickly pear is sweet and moist with an aroma and flavor similar to a combination of the tastiest tropical and subtropical fruits, strawberry, watermelon, honeydew melon, fig, and banana. The salmon or pink to magenta-colored flesh of the prickly […] More
Olives are fruits. They are either cured for table consumption or pressed for cooking oil. Black olives are ripe. Green olives are not. Green olives have a salty, tart taste. Black olives have a smooth, mellow taste. Ways to serve olives Olive fruit is most often served as an appetizer or added to salads, meat, […] More
Olive oil is made by gently crushing and pressing olives until the oil is separated from the fruit pulp. The flesh of a ripe olive is about half oil. When the skin of a just ripe olive is broken, the first oil to flow from the flesh is called “virgin”, “sublime” or “first expressed” oil. […] More
Slice a fresh passion fruit in half, place it in the palm of your hand, and enjoy its juicy, slightly musky sweet-tart tropical flavor with a spoon. Both the fruit and juice of the passion fruit combine well with other fruits and juices, especially tropical fruits. In addition to being eaten fresh, passion fruit can […] More
Blackberry, brambleberry, dewberry, boysenberry, loganberry, marionberry, olallieberry: blackberry is the collective name for a large group of fruits in the same genus. Blackberries are also called brambles and brambleberries, particularly in England. The boysenberry, loganberry, marionberry, and ollalieberry are common names for popular blackberry varieties or hybrids ‘Boysen’, ‘Logan’, ‘Marion’, and ‘Olallie’. Dewberries are almost […] More
Plantains have a mild squash-like or potato-like or sweet potato-like flavor with a faint sweetness reminiscent of a banana. Well, you’ll have to taste the plantain to decide. Exactly what flavor you ascribe to the plantain will, no doubt, have something to do with how it’s been prepared. The plantain is a fruit–a very close […] More
If you have seen the fingered citron–known as Buddha’s hand, you will have not forgotten. Hanging from the tree, it looks like a bright yellow, multi-tentacled octopus, and sitting on a tabletop it looks like–well, the hand of the Buddha, that is the bright yellow version. Besides the Buddha’s hand, there is also a non-fingered […] More
Apples for eating out of hand, apples for baking and cooking, apples for sauce and juice, apples to serve with savory dishes, and apples for dessert: there is an apple for every use. Apples that ripen early, apples that ripen mid-season, and apples that ripen late for eating right into winter: there is an apple […] More
The stark white flesh of jicama is cool and crunchy, perfect for eating out of hand after peeling. Jicama can be diced and added to fruit or green salads or speared and featured on dessert trays next to cantaloupe and pears and cheese cubes. Jicama can be combined with other vegetables in stir-fries or added […] More
Sauerkraut is pickled white cabbage. How to make sauerkraut in a stone crock Finely sliced cabbage is placed in a stone crock, a hardwood keg, or a barrel and layered with salt. As the layers are built up, they are pounded down with a wooden mallet. Then the layers are covered with a clean cloth, […] More
A yam and a sweet potato are not the same vegetables, but they can be substituted for one another in most recipes. The yam has more natural sugar and is, therefore, sweeter than the sweet potato and its flesh is moister than the sweet potato. Yams–depending upon variety—can have a flesh that is white, yellow, […] More
Celeriac can be served cooked or raw. Celeriac combines the sweet taste of the mildest celery with the light peppery zip of parsley. Celeriac—which is also known as celery root, celery knobs, and turnip-rooted celery—is a cool-weather vegetable that comes to harvest between late fall and early spring. How to choose celeriac Kitchen Helpers from […] More
Stephen Albert