Learning: Sapodilla

Time to review the funky fruits we bought last week in S. Florida!! First will be the sapodilla.


Sapodilla comes from an evergreen tree and is most commonly grown in India, Mexico/Latin America, and the Phillipines/SE Asia. It looks like a russet potato, but when it ripens, it gets really soft and squishy kind of like an avocado. The sapodilla has a couple of black, flat seeds that are about the size of a penny. When it's ripe the brown flesh is soft and squishy - kind of like a ripe pear.

Interesting fact - the seeds have a little hook on them that if swallowed, could get caught in your throat. OUCH. I also discovered that if you eat more than 6 seeds, you might experience abdominal pain and vomiting. So the lesson here is skip the seeds!!


Sapodilla is generally eaten cut in half and scooped out with a spoon. The fruit can also be cut and added to a salad, smoothie, or as a part of a tropical fruit sauce for use in desserts, drinks, pancakes, etc.

The sign at the fruit stand said "Tastes like a pear covered in brown sugar". You could definitely taste hints of brown sugar and it tasted like a pear, apple, and some flavor I couldn't quite place. I can see why people like these fruits. I have a feeling it's a taste you grow up with and love. I wasn't enamored with the flavor, but my husband liked it. I think I expected it to be much sweeter than it was, but it had a mild flavor and was mushy and slightly grainy.

Learning: Cream of Tartar

I was watching one of my favorite food shows today - Barefoot Contessa. I know she might seem a little uppity to some, but I love her simple approach to food and yum does it look good! Of course, she doesn't exactly use low fat ingredients, but sometimes that's ok!

Today she was making this Lime Meringue Tart. I love lime flavored desserts and I love meringue, so this caught my eye. As she was adding the cream of tartar I thought to myself "what the heck is cream of tartar, anyway". So off to Google I went!

What is Cream of Tartar??

I found a few articles about cream of tartar - this one being the best. Cream of Tartar is the byproduct of the wine making process! Who knew!? Apparently, grapes contain tartaric acid and as the wine is fermenting, the grapes leave a residue inside of the wine casks. Here's a great article about the use of tartaric acid in the wine making process, in case you're curious about that part!

Where do you use it?
Cream of tartar is an acid and is used most commonly in baking/dessert applications. It's used with egg whites (and sugar) to create stable and puffy meringue like in the tart recipe mentioned above. It's also used a lot in frostings. The acidity prevents crystals from forming and makes the frosting creamier! There's your Jeopardy trivia for the day :)

The other place you may not know about is baking powder. Baking powder is (in a simplified explanation) baking soda + cream of tartar + corn starch.

Where do I find it?
Cream of tartar is fairly common to find. It should be at your supermarket in the spice aisle. It will last forever! It's not like regular spices that can lose potency, so you can feel comfortable keeping it around for a while.

Substitutions?

• If you don't have baking powder on hand but need some in a pinch, you can use 2 parts cream of tartar and 1 part baking soda (so for example - 2 tsp cream of tartar + 1 tsp of baking soda). 
• If you're beating egg whites, use white vinegar in a pinch. Make a 1 for 1 substitution. (ex: if your recipe calls for 1 tsp of cream of tartar, use 1 tsp of vinegar)
• Substitutions in other baking recipes is a bit dicier. You can use the vinegar or lemon juice option. You can also play around with baking powder, especially if your recipe calls for baking soda (reduce the amt of baking soda and use powder instead).

I hope this is helpful for you! Now go make that lime tart and report back to me :) Happy cooking!

Learning: Cocoa Powder

My sister was in town this past weekend and one of the places we went while we were out and about was Penzeys (I love this place, if you haven't noticed!). Anyway, our mom needed a refill on her favorite thing - Dutch Process Cocoa Powder. As we're picking it up, my sis says to me, "What's the difference between natural cocoa and Dutch process cocoa?" Please take this moment to visualize me making the 'huh?!' face. I have absolutely NO CLUE what the difference is!! I just always use Dutch process because I like it. But "because I like it" really isn't a good reason, is it!??? :)

Fast forward to yesterday. I turned on my trusty google reader and there's a post from one of my favorite food writers - David Lebovitz. He's an American living in Paris and he's a foodie. Food + Paris = 2 of my favorite things EVER. But I digress. He had a GREAT article on the differences between regular and Dutch process cocoas. So today's learning lesson will be just a link to his learning lesson. It's a great post with some beautiful photography. Take a few minutes to check it out, and add some more foodie/cooking random information to your brain! Enjoy!

Cocoa Powder FAQ: Dutch-process & natural cocoa powder

Learning: Green Garlic

On my most recent cooking marathon, I ended up using LOTS of garlic. I mean LOTS. One of the heads of garlic was starting to sprout. The cloves looked like this:


That left me wondering if it was ok to use or if I needed to trash it. I found out that you can indeed use these green cloves, but the green part might be a little bitter. So if you're in a pinch (ie; this is all the garlic you have and it's this or nothing), go ahead and use it. But if you have other garlic on hand, you're probably better off to send it to the garbage can.

One other thing I discovered is that you can plant this green/sprouting garlic. Plant them about 3 or 4 inches deep and about 6-8" apart. Bury the clove (not the whole head!) with the pointy side up and the paper on. It's best to plant garlic in the fall - at least 6 weeks before the first freeze. If you're like me and live in a relatively warm, humid climate, you can plant in January or February and harvest in the summer. (you can plant it any time of the year, really, but if not done in fall/winter you can expect smaller bulbs)

Garlic likes full sun and at least 1" of water at least once a week. When the garlic tops turn yellow (at least 50% yellow) or start to tip over, that means it's ready to be harvested!! You should always store garlic at room temperature!

Personally, I plan on trying this out! I've got nothing to lose and lots of free garlic to gain!!

Let's Learn About: Chipotles

Marji asked a question in one of her comments - can you substitute chipotles for jalapenos. The answer is YES!!! And here's the scoop on the peppers and why you can make the substitution (in most cases!)....

Why?
Because chipotles are jalapenos that have been smoked/dried.

But what's the difference?
They are just as spicy (in my experience), but have a smokier, deep flavor.

How?!
If you're cooking with a dried chili, you can put it straight into a soup or stew to impart a smoky flavor and some heat. You can also boil up a cup or 2 of water and drop the chili in. Let it sit until it's soft then remove, cool, and chop!!

Other forms: 

Chipotles in Adobo

These come in small cans like this and the peppers in a tomato/vinegar/herb sauce. You will end up with quite a few peppers in the can, which can be annoying (because I hate wasting food!!!). I have found a pretty easy solution to this problem. On a small plate, scoop out one pepper with a little sauce into a pile. Make several separate piles on your plate and stick the plate in the freezer for a few hours. When they are frozen, pop the individual pepper balls off and put them in a ziplock baggie and store in the freezer. Then whenever your recipe calls for 1 pepper, you can grab it out of the freezer and not waste a whole can! VOILA!

Chipotle Powder

One of my favorite places in all the world is Penzeys. It's a spice store with locations all over the country and they have EVERYTHING. If Penzeys doesn't have it - you're not going to find it (not easily, at least!!). They are also super affordable! Anyway, the chipotle powder is great and very versatile. You can use it in soups, stews, bbq sauce, the possibilities are endless!

Happy Chipotle-ing! :)

How to cut a pineapple

A lot of things in life and in cooking are just kind of trial and error. I always got mad at how expensive the cut fruit was at the grocery store and thought "OK, really?! I can do that myself!" But if you've never a cut a pineapple before, it's kind of daunting, right? So I turned to the web to teach myself how to do it and I haven't bought pre-cut pineapple in years!

I hunted the internet for a great video to share with you. What I found were 8,000 different ones. Some weird, some crazy, some booooooooooooring. Many of them went about it differently than I did, which is cool. I found the one below, though, that most mirrors my technique. I hope you find it helpful! Go out and try it yourself and report back! I bet you'll be a pro in no time :)

PS: In the 'you learn something new every day" file - I had no idea you could tell a pineapple was ripe by pulling out one of the green pieces! (I always just sniff the bottom to see if it smells like pineapple!)


Epicurious - Cutting a Pineapple Season: 1 - Watch more amazing videos here