Saturday, May 11, 2013

Adventures in Food Group Alchemy

The ancient art of Alchemy. One has to wonder how it stuck around for so long given the fact that you can't really turn lead into gold.


But as I was ruminating over the dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables in my food stock, it occurred to me that while alchemy might not be possible when it comes to noble metals, perhaps I could perform a bit of "food group" alchemy using the ingredients I had on hand.



First up - green things!


As I was taking stock of the pantry I came across an ancient jar of alfalfa and other seeds intended for sprouting. I was psyched because I thought this would be a great way to grow some quick and easy salad greens. Unfortunately, when I opened the jar my nose quickly told me that they had gone rancid.


What? You mean to tell me that food won't actually keep for 10+ years? Wait, don't answer that.

I started kicking myself for using up all of the mung beans to make soup a month or so ago. Then it dawned on me that I do have an enormous store of other kinds of dried legumes, and perhaps some of these could be sprouted. A quick glance on the interwebs and, voila!

Sprouted Lentils
I think I'll give these little guys another day or two to get them firmly into the vegetable category but I think they should make a nice salad. Score one for the alchemist!



Next up - fruit.


OK... now granted, this one was gonna be a tad bit more difficult, but maybe I could pull it off.

Now, technically speaking, the distinction between a "fruit" and a "vegetable" is really more of a culinary or cultural categorization that a scientific difference between different sorts of plants. Generally, we tend to call sweeter plants fruits, and their more savory cousins vegetables.


So maybe... just maybe with a little bit of ingenuity, I could push the boundary a bit and move some vegetables into the fruit category. And what vegetable do I have astounding amounts of... you got it, pumpkins!


So, when I saw a photo of pumpkin preserves over on An Exacting Life, I was beyond thrilled! I altered the recipe a bit... basically this is just pumpkin pieces marinated in sugar and lemon juice, then cooked and chilled. The result was a rather fruity tasting treat!

Pumpkin "Preserves"

All in all I'd have to say I am quite pleased with my little experiments.


So... anybody got any other ideas for food group alchemy?


16 comments :

  1. Don't have any suggestions right now, but I am looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.

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    1. Well, it should be interesting. At the moment I'm trying to figure out if I can make lemon marmalade with my lemon juice and maybe some orange peels for pectin. We'll see...

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  2. Hi Cat, sorry I didn't send my recipe along; I had thought from another post that you only had pureed pumpkin! Are you into cloves?

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    1. No worries, I found about a zillion recipes on the web, and most were very similar. I do like cloves, and most recipes called for them, but since I'm eating pumpkin bread every morning for breakfast, I'm kinda getting tired of the whole pumpkin pie spice thing - so that's why I left them out.

      But I'm so glad you posted that picture because I never would have thought to even experiment with it otherwise!

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  3. I think that, technically speaking, pumpkin IS a fruit. As are tomatoes. And I just recently read that beans are also a fruit (NOT a "magical" one as in a certain rhyme I remember from childhood which includes "the more you eat the more you toot"). Maybe that's why I like those veggies better. (Wait! NOT because they make me, um, toot ... I really shouldn't write when I'm tired!!!!!!)

    My personal favorite is to use rhubarb (technically a veggie) as a fruit, but I don't remember seeing rhubarb in your list of options. If you are done with snow, perhaps you could forage for edible greens (dandelions come to mind)?

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    1. Yes... I think there's a very fuzzy line between fruits and veggies. Hey, if Ronald Reagan can re-classify ketchup as a vegetable, anything is possible!

      I was just thinking about dandelions as I was digging a bunch out of my yard yesterday. Unfortunately they're on my allergy no-no list. And rhubarb... well... I had a bad experience with rhubarb as a child, and after puking my guts out for a solid week I haven't even been able to contemplate the stuff without getting queasy!

      But in the good news department, I just harvested a bunch of scallions yesterday, and now that the weather is finally warming up a bit the spinach and peas are starting to grow much faster, so perhaps there is more hope in the salad department than I initially thought!

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    2. Supposedly, whatever has a seed in it is a fruit; every other part of the plant is vegetable.

      Your alchemies are awesome--I can't think of more. I do have an easy recipe for pumpkin butter (once you have pumpkin puree). It's sort of like apple butter, only with pumpkin (and therefore vitamin A). I use it on toast and on peanut butter sandwiches (like a jam) and have thought it might be good mixed in with yogurt.

      In case you're interested, I use Smitten Kitten's recipe, except I replace the apple juice with water (that's what's on the ingredients list on the jars I like) and I use half as much cloves and twice as much water. Then I just heat it to a simmer, but it already seems thick enough to me without simmering it for the full 30 minutes.

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    3. Mmmmmm.... pumpkin butter sounds delicious. I think I'll have to give that one a try. Thanks!

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  4. I knew that fruits vs veggies had something to do with the seeds--thanks, Debbie.

    Rhubarb leaves have oxalic (spelling?) acid in them (therefore don't eat them!) and according to my mother-in-law, if the rhubarb gets frozen, the stalks absorb some of the oxalic acid. Perhaps you had more oxalic acid ingested than you intended--but I agree, if I had that kind of experience, I'd swear off a food for life!

    As a general thought ... there is a big emphasis by the government to increase fruit and veggie intake, especially veggies ... but I've also seen emphasis by nutritionists on eating different colors of fruit and veggies ... I am wondering if it would make more sense to encourage the eating of different colors and less on concentrating whether items are a fruit or vegetable, and if we would all be healthier as a result ... thoughts? I guess I'm thinking about this since a lot of the "veggies" my family likes are really fruits.

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    1. Yup... actually we were eating the rhubarb out of the garden, so I think that I probably ate some of the leaves. Still... it makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.

      Anyhow, I think anything that gets Americans to eat more fresh plant foods is a good thing! Michael Pollan says that what we really need to focus on is eating plants, not seeds. I think the old adage about eating the rainbow is a good place to start!

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  5. I saw this a while back on pinterest http://www.picklee.com/2012/08/01/recipe-substitutions/ - I've also seen quite a few recipes for using courgettes to make cake thats a bit like carrot cake. Beetroots can also be used to make brownies and other sweet treats. They're also really sweet when they're roasted.

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    1. Those are some great substitutions... unfortunately not anything that helps in my current situation, but all good info to keep on hand.

      I think that "courgettes" are what we call zucchini, yes? If so, then I have several batches of this "courgette cake" - which we call zucchini bread, in my freezer at this very moment! :-)

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  6. I was intrigued by the pumpkin preserves on An Exacting Life's blog as well - I'd never heard of them before, but they look good!

    Thanks for the reminder - I need to get sprouting too. Luckily I have mung beans in the pantry, but I might try some lentils too.

    Looking forward to seeing what else you come up with :)

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    1. I'm starting to think that with the exception of the fruit, I could probably do this $21 challenge thing for a good long while - especially once the garden starts producing! What an eye opening experience!

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  7. Oh man I have no idea what I could contribute! I'm terrible in the kitchen and it's not just skill, it's just plain lack of desire to get creative. I admire your abilities!

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    1. Ha! Well, somehow I think that if you were trying to keep your grocery spending down to $21 for the month, you'd probably find some latent kitchen creativity buried somewhere!

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