In my last article I asked if for some input.
I wanted to know if you had heard of the following foods available here, and if you used them; nopales, chayote, camote blanco, camote amarillo, yucca, platanos machos, platanos manzano, calabaza, epazote,guayaba.
From the people who responded I got the idea that at least a few of you hadn't, or at least aren't familiar with the Spanish names. Calabasa translates to pumpkin and refers to the little green pumpkins that are sold here. You just use them like you would any other squash. If you have shopped in a mercado, I am sure you have noticed plastic bags full of diced vegetables, calabasa is one of the veggies. The plastic bags are for soup. Personally, I prefer to chop my own vegetables,so I haven't ever bought any of the mix Actually, about the only things I ever buy in the mercado that have already been peeled or cut are coconuts and nopales.
Speaking of nopales, or cactus paddle. I did a blog post on nopales entitled Nopales and Me.
As for camote, those are sweet potatoes, camote blanco is white sweet potato, I grew up calling it boniato and eating it as a sickenly sweet dessert. Here is a link to a facts sheet on boniatoscomplete with nutritional information and some recipes. Camote amarillo is the orange sweet potato that you probably bought NOB. I like to bake camote amarillo and carrots together in the oven and serve with an ginger orange glaze. Here is a fact sheet for sweet potato.
Moving down our list we come to chayote. Funny thing about chayote, I have a cookbook that my mom gave me when I turned 18 in 1973 (you can do the math if you want) and it has three listings for chayote! This is the Chicago Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook originally published in 1948 but I have the revised edition published in 1971. I love this cookbook, I learned to cook out of my mom's copy which was the 1962 edition. The recipes are pretty basic Cooked Chayote, Fried Chayote and Chayote,Carrot and Avocado Salad. Pretty exotic stuff for the 1070s don't you think? I also wrote a blog post called Consider the Humble Chayote in which I give my favorite chayote recipes.I have also substituted chayote for zuchini in a few recipes and have eated stuffed chayotes in a cocina economica. Try the chayote halwa, it's really good, even if it's a weird colour.
For a glimpse into the past here are the chayote recipes from the Encyclopedic Cookbook. Actually, while I doubt that I would make the salad, the other two sound great to me.
Next week I will write about the rest of the list. My special thanks to everyone who takes the time to make a comment, it really helps me to write a column that is useful to everyone.
CHAYOTE,CARROT AND AVOCADO SALAD
1 1/2 cups diced carrots
1 1/2 cups diced chayote
French Dressing
Lettuce
1 1/2 cups diced avocado
Cook carrots and chayote separately in boiling, salted water until tender. Drain, add a little French dressing and chill. Cover salad plate with shredded lettuce, pile chayote in center,surround with a ring of carrots and a ring of avocado. Serve with French dressing or mayonnaise. Serves 6
COOKED CHAYOTE
1 1/2 pounds chayotes
1/2 cup water, 3/4 teaspoon salt.
Pare chayotes, and slice crosswise into 3/4 inch slices. Heat water and salt to boiling, add chayotes, cover pan tightly to prevent escape of steam and heat again to boiling. Reduce heat at once and simmer about 25 minutes. Drain. To serve,season with pepper and butter. Serves 6 to 8
FRIED CHAYOTE
1 recipe Cooked Chayote
1 egg,beaten
1 cup dry bread crumbs
fat (personally, I would use olive oil or vegetable oil)
Dip slices of chayote into egg,roll in bread crumbs and brown in fat. Serves 6 to 8.
Theresa is the author of ¿What do I do all day? and Theresa's Cooking Blog. Her weekly column, Comida Listo, can be found on Yolisto most Tuesdays.
