Recipe requests?

Swampy just went shopping, and realizes that he uses a lot of different vegetable ingredients. Swampy will be glad to post more recipes, but are there specific ingredients that you pass up in the grocery store that you are curious about? If Swampy has used them, he'll post a recipe or tips for cooking them.

Some of the types of things that Swampy cooks with pretty routinely:

parsnips
chayote squash (christophene fruit)
plaintains
yuca (cassava)


(Anyone else use unusual ingredients? Share and Swampy night want recipes from you)

[1nana]

Have you ever tried jicama?

I love it just as a snack all by itself (cold and crisp), on a veggie platter, or in a salad.

[peekawho]

Plantains, please!

[TrudieC]

Plantains would be great!  Parsnips too!  I don't think I can get the other two here, maybe yucca.

Artichokes are something I cook - my husband taught me to make his Nona's stuffed artichokes - out of this world!  

Another weird one are the chicken hearts my ex-husband insisted I cook him (they do taste good).

Asparagus is my favourite vegetable.  How common is it for everyone here?  I eat it at least once a week.

On the fish side I often cook rainbow trout.  My husband won't eat tuna or salmon so I turn to it for my red fish fix.

Brussel sprouts are my husband's favourite so cook those quite a bit too.

Yogurt cheese or labineh and pine nuts are amazing!

[wonko]

I would love to learn more about how to select and cook with eggplant, artichokes, asparagus, brussel spouts, or any overlooked produce.  Bring it on, please!  

[swampcritter]

Okay, let Swwampy start with plantains...recipe to follow later on.

[crecco]

Yes Trudie, stuffed atichokes are out of this world. I also love asparagus and brussle sprouts too. Turnips, either raw or cooked rate right up there too.

[swampcritter]

Yuca (cassava) should be available anywhere there is a Latino or African population. It survives shipping well.

[Beachwalker33]

I have the best recipe for brussel sprouts.Boil as many as desired in about 2 inches of water for 15 minutes.Cut in half lengthwise add a couple pats of butter.Squeeze about 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon add a handful of pinenuts, cook additional 5minutes or until tender. Taste better then you can imagine. Add some fried salmon cooked in butter,garlic,fresh dill and some sliced lemon and baked potato with butter,sour cream and chives if you want. Healthy and so good Oh! I always have lots of tartar sauce with salmon,mmmm

[TrudieC]

Here are links to some brussel sprout, asparagus, parsnip, and turnip recipes already posted on this site.  I will try to get together some of my artichoke things.

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/679781

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/671804

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/630329

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/629782

[Cherie762]

I have grown very fond of eating raw walnuts or pecans, I know they are good in baking and in salads, Im wondering if they can be used in any other recipies, Im trying to lose weight so no deserts.

[swampcritter]

Sure, Swampy uses walnuts in lots of main dishes, pecans sometimes too.

The easiest way to add some nuts is to hand break a few of them and add them to your rice just as you start to cook it.

A little more work is to make pesto, even though pine nuts are the traditional thing for pesto, you can make it with cilantro and walnuts. However, that won't help you lose weight.

[TrudieC]

I was out for dinner the other night and had pork tenderloin encrusted with walnuts and cookd with apple sauce.  Out of this world!