Asparagus, broccoli among top picks right now
Vegetables from California and Mexico have improved in quantity and quality, and the prices are lower this week. Lettuce, damaged for weeks by cold, wet weather on the west coast, is recovering. Broccoli, our trusty winter food, has come down in price, and asparagus from Mexico is on special in several chains, an indication that the crop is coming to market in bigger quantities. Dessert is easier to plan thanks to excellent citrus fruit from various countries, Florida strawberries and Guatemala cantaloupe melons.
It’s soup pot season. If you didn’t stock your freezer with batches of warming soups during harvest season, it’s not too late. Quebec storage roots are in the stores in good condition and at low prices. Cauliflower, down in price, makes a fine soup. So does celery, another vegetable that has dropped in price. The cheapest combination is probably dried peas, potatoes and onions, made fresher looking with a topping of chopped fresh green onions. The next time you go by the root vegetable section, take a look at the prices and make a small investment in these foods that keep so well in the crisper and make such good, cheap meals. As an importer put it Tuesday after commenting on how easy Quebec roots are to cook and what good food they make, “We have been stupid all these years ignoring these vegetables.”
Varieties of citrus fruit seem to increase week by week. Florida juice oranges are now the pineapple variety. I treated myself to blood oranges for breakfast, trying a dark red California one side- byside with an Italian blood orange, which was a little paler in colour inside and out, but had more flavour. Clementines are coming from Spain, Morocco and Israel. The latter are the sweetest, but all are good. If you haven’t made your marmalade yet, you should still be able to find Seville- type oranges from Arizona in specialty stores. You may even see Bergamot oranges, which look like lemons, but are a sour orange grown in Italy and also in California and make a sharp- tasting marmalade.
Another easy dessert is apple sauce made with Quebec apples. Cut them up, simmer unpeeled in a little water and sugar, and purée in a blender or food processor. A dollop of sour cream on top — and there’s dessert!