Produce News for January 26, 2009

BOK CHOY (Monday, January 26)  Yes, indeed. It is year 4707, the year of the ox, so we’re going to get you ready for Chinese New Year. It actually begins today. One of the most important items in Asian cooking, right here, Chinese cabbage or bok choy as you know it as. And there’s a couple things I want you to think of when you’re thinking of bok choy. First of all when you’re looking for the best bok choy, here’s what I want you to think of - see these stems? White. They had better be pearly white. That’s what makes a great bok choy. Number two, look at these leaves. The leaves had better be beautifully green. If you see any yellow on those leaves at all I would try something else because they’ve been old. Also, when you…I’m going to peel one of these back. I want to show you something. These grow in very sandy soil, so you’re going to find a lot of silt, and a lot of sand and a lot of dirt right down here. So before you go chopping up your bok choy you better make sure you that rinse it off really, really well in ice cold water.

NAPA CABBAGE (Tuesday, January 27):  Getting you ready for Chinese New Year…began yesterday. You know, in China, man, it’s a week long celebration beginning the new year, so one of the other items we’re gong to talk about is…you’ve got to have a Chinese chicken salad, right? Well, you can’t have an Asian chicken salad without Napa cabbage, beautiful Napa cabbage, and this actually is absolutely gorgeous. This to me is like the perfect size. Sometimes they get really, really large, and the leaves actually get a little bit white. I really don’t care for those because it doesn’t seem to be as sweet as some of these smaller ones. Now one of the things I’m going to do, I’m just going to pick it up and hold it in my hand. I’m going to give it a little squeeze. Now what I’m squeezing here and what I’m looking for is to feel if there’s any bolting in the very center which means it’s gone to seed. You don’t want that. You want to have it give just a little bit. This is going to be perfect for my Chinese chicken salad.  

BABY BOK CHOY (Wednesday, January 28):  Hey, the other day we were talking about regular bok choy, but today I thought I’d talk to you about the baby in the family. The baby in my family happens to be Lincoln Albert Michael Marks, but the baby in this family baby bok choy. Now this is not true baby bok choy. Baby bok choy actually would have very white stems. This actually is called Shanghai bok choy, but you can use them for the exact same thing. Now just like regular bok choy what you need to do is you need to check out right down here because this grows in very sandy soil, and that sand when they irrigate this a lot of the sand will get right down here. There’s nothing worse in a salad or in your stir fry than getting a little grit from the sand in there. So please, you’ve got to rinse this off. Now another thing I love to do with this…oh, you’ve got to check this out. I get some onions going in the saute pan, right. I will just chop this in half and then I’ll just chop it like this. Very, very simple. And then I get a little dried red pepper and put that in the saute pan and saute it up for about five minutes. Oh! That is so good. 

AVOCADOS (Thursday, January 29):  All right. We’re taking a break from Chinese New Year because, guess what’s happening this Sunday? Right. Superbowl 43 - Tampa Bay/Florida. We’re going to have Superbowl 43 so we’ve got to get you ready for your guacamole. So here’s why I wanted to do this today. If you want guacamole, if you want Haas avocados ready for your guacamole on Sunday, you’ve need to start thinking about that guacamole now. Most of the avocados right now are coming in either from either Chile or Mexico and you need to plan ahead. You need to go to the store today and buy your avocados today because I guarantee you if you wait till Sunday just before the game. You go to the store, probably you won’t find a lot of ripe avocados. So what you need to do, go today. Get your avocados that you’re going to need. Personally, I would need about 10, double this amount, and put then them in a shoebox. Put them in your laundry room, and just let them sit there. Go check them on Saturday. If they’re still not fully ripe, put a ripe banana in there. By Sunday, Superbowl Sunday, they’ll be ready! 

LEMON GRASS, GINGER ROOT, CILANTRO (Friday, January 30):  Hey, we’re finishing up with Chinese New Year. Here’s a fun thing. This is called lemon grass. You know how to prepare lemon grass? Come really close. I want to show you. Take the back of the knife. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And then, oh…smells just like lemon. That’s how you prepare actually lemon grass. Also, ginger root – the most important spice used in Asian cooking. Beautiful ginger root. And the most important fresh herb? Right here. Cilantro. That’s why we call this Chinese parsley. Man, they use a lot of cilantro. And one of the things I love to do, I love to wrap this in a paper towel before I’m going to cut it. I wrap it in a paper towel and just let it sit on the counter for like an hour before I’m going to use it. That way when I go to use it the leaves are all really nice and dry so that when I go to chop it and slice it up and dice it up and chop it up, it’s not going to be sticking to my knife. If it’s all wet, man, it all sticks to your knife instead of being chopped. So dry it out first.