We just had our first taste of crosne today. Before my (very green) farming boy handed it to me I wouldn’t have been able to tell you crosne existed. It’s quite tasty blanched, and we’re adding it to our beans for lunch and deer veggie soup we’re going to make tomorrow.
Over this past couple of years he’s introduced us to other things too - puffball mushrooms (and other mushrooms), raw gogi berries, varieties of beans, peppers, potatoes, herbs, and more.
I guess I grew up with mainly traditional things. It’s amazing what niche farmers have.
Are there new things you’ve been introduced to and like/dislike? Is there enough interest for a thread like this sharing things we’ve found? (If not, that’s ok.)
We belong to a CSA and we often get some pretty weird stuff. I think a lot of it would be better in the tiny quantities that would be on your plate at a three-star restaurant, but are not so wonderful in normal sized servings. For example celtuce which has a slightly bitter flavor. It’s actually used in Chinese cooking where I think its weird smoky aftertaste can disappear into the other flavors.
We get a lot of sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes. Supposedly if you soak them in lemon you won’t get as much gas, but we have not had to much luck in that department. It’s too bad because they are tasty.
We signed up for a couple of different meal kit delivery services when D20 left for college in August. While they are not new foods per se, I had never cooked with fresh figs, miso, Chinese broccoli or tomatillos before (had them in restaurants or prepared items but never dealt with them in their natural state). I love cooking and trying new things but have been limiting time in stores. The delivery service has been loads of fun!
A grocery store opened nearby last year and we have tried quite a few new ingredients. Big successes are Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, and all kinds of trendy beers. A failure was celeriac. It’s like cooking a brick of condensed celery. Not terrible if you don’t mind celery, but hubby hates it.
I bought persimmons last year. I guess I left them too long, but I am not a fan. We went to Thailand two years ago and tried durian. Just no. Why do people eat it? Ugh.
Kumquats are the best. My grandma had a large kumquat bush covering a wall of her house when I was a kid, so to me they are very evocative of my childhood. I just love the flavor though. I recently bought a large tub. My daughter and I made the most delicious yogurt cake topped with kumquats. Try them, you’ll like them!
We used to enjoy going to the Farmer’s Market, but this summer with Covid we stayed away. That prompted us to “discover” a farm stand (one of the Farmer’s Market vendors) a few miles from home. So funny - we have passed it hundreds of times over the years, but usually when closed. (I think they are open more during Covid, and now that we are retired we pass it mid-day).
Our new foods are not as unusual as Creekand’s but we’ve enjoyed trying them. I got the yellow raspberries many times. At the end of the season we tried the Blond Acorn Squash (which seems to also be called White on the internet) - you can eat the skin. We also bought leeks and made a yummy leek potato soup. The leeks were interesting enough that we added them to our grocery list this week and will start cooking with the more. We will probably start with a Braised Leeks recipe a friend sent.
@colorado_mom wow, leeks are so common in my house that it never occurred to me that they might be unusual to some. I use leeks in stews and Shepherd’s Pie primarily. They are also good roasted with cauliflower, carrots and Brussel’s sprouts.
@helpingmom40 , I have used tomatillos for years in Mexican cooking. They are commonly available in So Cal, and I’ve been finding them more recently here in NY. They make the best salsa. They are an essential ingredient for pork carnitas. Tomatillos are not actually tomatoes, but rather a type of gooseberry.
If anyone is interested, we used kohlrabi in much the same manner as raw cabbage. It was very refreshing as a side salad for a Mexican meal one night. We use Jerusalem artichokes in everything: thai curries, stews, pizza.
I’m definitely going to look for crosne, which popped up elsewhere as Oca, or NZ yam.
Also tried Physalis, or Peruvian ground cherry. Love those.
We’ve tried Jerusalem Artichoke, but it definitely causes too much gas for our family to enjoy it. My guy still sells some. Apparently it doesn’t cause as much gas for everyone.
He has us eating more varieties of squash than I know names for. I grew up with Butternut, Acorn, Zucchini, and Summer/Yellow. Now we use those and Spaghetti, Curry, and others I’d have to ask him the names of. They’re all good.
I love pomegranates (new to me in adulthood, but not recently), so he’s going to try growing two trees for me here in PA. He tells me some guy in Russia developed hundreds or maybe thousands of varieties and one of those could handle cold Moscow winters. The guy never was able to get his into production commercially, but it’s impressive that he could do it. I’d love it if “my” two trees can make it here.
So I had actually heard of leeks but never cooked with them in my kitchen (just substituted with onion if recipe called for them). They do require a bit of cleaning, but now that I’m retired and on covid “house arrest”, I do have more time
A year or two ago we took a Thai cooking class at Sur La Table. The wise instructor lined up all the ingredients on the counter so we could snap a photo on cellphone to aid us when we went to the Asian grocery store to recreate recipes at home. We thought the lime leaves were fun. . Trying to decide whether the ones in freezer are still ok to use. Per initial google research, they might be still good.
We also bought a variety of squash called “mashed potato” at a farmer’s market last fall. It was opposed to have the taste and texture of mashed potatoes once cooked but we found it to be just like white squash. Interesting but not good enough to buy again. We preferred acorn or butternut and real mashed potatoes.
Our Costco brought in some interesting fruits in the beginning of the pandemic (probably some canceled restaurant orders that Costco snapped). While we have tried rambutan and some others before, jackfruit was new to us. Omg. That thing was ginormous… Mr. insisted on eating all of it. I think we are done with jackfruit for quite a while.
@abasket - Fuyu persimmon is Mr.’s favorite fruit. Our Costco carries it in the winter. Mr. eats 3-5 persimmons a day! ?
We tried rambutan too. It was rather tasty and quite interesting looking. I’m not sure I’ve eaten jackfruit. We tried dragon fruit and found it rather bland for the cost.
All of the named squash - like spaghetti squash - taste nothing like what they are named after to me. I like them, but in their own categories - not as replacements.
FWIW, the crosne in our deer/vegetable soup was terrific. The whole soup tasted great IMO. It’s one we do often using things from our farm, but lack of measuring out spices and things means it’s never the exact same twice. We never dislike it, but this one was really good.
My D introduced me to passion fruit a few years ago. Yum!
Persimmons grow well in my area and people are always trying to give them away. I think the trees look beautiful and give a bit of fall color in an area of the country that doesn’t really experience fall. I love the look of the trees but don’t really care for the taste. They are halfway good if they are dried.
We had moose stew last week. It tasted like strong beef. My family loved it, but I thought it was just okay. I have some moose burger in the freezer (hunters keep giving their meat as gifts to my husband), so will defrost and have that sometime soon.
My kids grew up eating deer and thought beef was strange when they encountered it in similar recipes.
I figure we feed several deer throughout the year (they eat off our farm), we might as well eat one of them (or two when the kids were growing up). Does taste better than bucks. We don’t even try for bucks. Can’t eat antlers and I don’t want them on my wall. I suspect it’s their hormones running that give wild bucks a gamier taste. There’s no animal out there where we purposely eat mature unfixed males. Fish are an exception I suppose.
I think we are done with jackfruit for quite a while.