The Produce Quiz – What Am I?
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I am a native to the Alps, but along with my 50 relatives have grown throughout Europe and in the USA as well. We are all sweet members of the parsley family. I am totally consumable. From roots to seeds and stems to leaves there is always a use for us. I have both medicinal and culinary properties. Before dinner I am used to flavor the Vermouth in your perfect martini. During dinner my young shoots will be blanched and added to your salad, or perhaps the bread you are eating is made with dough from my ground roots. In Greenland my foliage is eaten as a vegetable. For dessert, you'll find my crystallized stems on the cake or used as a sweetener in stewed rhubarb or custards. After dinner it's my seeds that flavor your aperitif if you are drinking Chartreuse or Benedictine. Medicinally I am used as an anti-inflammatory, and I our sell Alka-Seltzer in China. Though my name may imply it, I still haven't earned my wings. | |
Produce Quiz courtesy of | |
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The answer to last week's quiz: TAMARILLO I'm originally from the Andes (but Im not a fingerling potato). I hitched to New Zealand from South America and they gave me my marketing name in the 60s (but Im not a Kiwi or Feijoa). I can be whatever you want: I'm a bitter fruit or a sweet vegetable; I smell like an apricot or a tomato; I've the consistency of a firm plum or soft eggplant. And, want me you will, with my elegant stem, my satin skin in deep purple, red, orange or yellow, my lush deep blush flesh with purple whorls and edible seeds. If you take me home, treat me to a boiling bath for a few minutes, so I can easily slip out of my skin, cradle me like an egg, and be careful when cutting me fresh, Ill leave stains for sure. You'll need to peel me and I'm quite bitter about it, and you'll probably prefer to cook me, since few like my fresh attitude. I'm best heavily dosed with sugar or citrus and add intrigue to compotes and chutneys, salsas, relishes, sweet and savory sauces. I must tell you that I'm low in calories (around 19 a piece) with vitamins A&C, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and magnesium. Would you know me if I tell you that I'm on a subtropical shrub grown as a houseplant for years?
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