What's for dinner? Dan Avakian, Barbara Adams, and Guido Ferro met at Dan's Produce Market and shared recipes and tips on the best produce for the week. Read Barbara's Blog for more.

Dan's January
Best of Season

Fruits
Apples
Ambrosia apples
Honeycrisp apples
Pink Lady apples
Tree ripe Fuji apples

Citrus: Grapefruit, Lemons, Oranges and Tangerines

Grapefruit
Texas red grapefruit

Lemons
Meyer Lemons

Mandarins
Paige mandarins

Oranges
Blood oranges
Navel oranges
Texas juice oranges

Tangelos
Minneola tangelos

Tangerines
Fairchild tangerines

Kiwi—California

Kumquats

Pears
Asian pears
Bosc pears
Comice pears
Concord pears
D'Anjou pears
Red pears

Pummelo

Vegetables
Beets
Red beets
Chioggia beets
Gold beets

Bok choy

Broccoli Rabe

Brussels sprouts
Brussels sprouts loose

Belgian Endive

Cardoone (cardoons)

Celery Root

Collard greens

Dandelion, red and green

Fennel

Lacinato, blue and peacock

Leeks

Mustard greens
Mustard greens, curly, China and purple

Nappa cabbage

Radicchio

Sunchokes

Sweet Potatoes and Yams

Treviso

Turnips

Watercress

Wild Mushrooms

Winter Greens
Belgian endive

Chard:
Green Swiss chard
Rainbow chard
Red chard
Yellow chard

Kale, red, purple and green

What? You won't eat Brussels sprouts? They are good for you--and taste great when cooked properly. Dan has the freshest--on their stick. Just cut them off and start cooking.

How to Prepare Brussels Sprouts
Brussels sprouts are a member of the cabbage family, and available August through March. They range in size from 1–1 1/2-inches in diameter and have a lovely nutty flavor. Always pick small, bright green heads that are firm and tight. Store Brussels sprouts in a plastic bag up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Columns to Savor
Dan Avakian

A Honey of a Crisp

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!; I Yam what I Yam—but a Yam’s No Yam at all!; and Pomegranates: They’re Not Just for Staining Your Clothes Anymore!

Read more about Dan Avakian.

Dan's Web site www.producepair.com

Produce Expert
Dan Avakian

Getting Fresh with
Dan "The Produce Man"

Discovering Dates

Chestnuts

Broccoli Rabe

Discovering Dates

When I was a kid in Vermont, my grandmother would always send a plate of dried fruit to us at Christmastime. I couldn’t stand any of it. But I liked the little wood fork that came with it, and one year I took a chance and stabbed a date. After I stuffed it into my curious mouth, I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet flavor and soft texture. Every year after that I looked forward to the fruit platter just for the dates, and I would try to get to it before my competition—three sisters, a brother and my parents. When we moved west and I became of age to work a real job at a produce stand. lo and behold, there were dates. Not just a few mixed in with other dried fruit, but bags full of just dates. This became my new “candy,” replacing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups without a second thought.
What I didn’t know at the time was that there are more than 1,500 varieties of dates. They grow on date palms (one of many species of fruit-bearing palm trees) and have been cultivated as food for thousands of years, probably originating in the Middle East. (At one time Iraq led the world in date production, but cultivation and exports have declined dramatically in recent years.) Here in the California, where Spanish missionaries planted the fruit in the mid-1800s, more than 4,000 acres are devoted to the date industry around Palm Desert, Coachella, Indio and Thermal.
Dates grow in clusters at the end of a long spine that sticks out from under the fronds on the leafy top of the tree. Each cluster produces anywhere from 600 to 1,700 dates. The labor-intensive harvest is performed by specially trained “palmeros” who either climb up to the crest of the palms or are hoisted up on platforms. They cut the date clusters from the stalk and lower them down to the field workers who then shake the dates from the branches into field bins. From there the dates are taken to the packinghouse where they are cleaned, graded, sorted according to their firmness and packed in boxes for shipping. Soft dates have the lowest sugar content but are pleasant to eat and wonderful to cook with. Semi-firm dates have medium sugar, and firm fruit dates which have been cured the longest by naturally drying over an extended period of time have the highest sugar content. (In fact, sugar can be made from dates. A granular sweetener made from ground, dehydrated dates is great on oatmeal and in cooking. Although it does not dissolve in liquids, it is unprocessed and is high in fiber, minerals and iron—a perfect replacement for processed white or brown sugars, which contains no nutrients at all).
When selecting dates in the store, look for soft, semi-firm or firm, but not hard dates; they will keep for up to a year in the refrigerator. They are high in iron and potassium. They also contain moderate amounts of folate and A and B vitamins. Research has shown that dates are beneficial for anemia and fatigue and can also help with constipation.
The holidays are a perfect time for cooking with dates—as part of a fruit spread with figs, or in cookies, oat bars, fudge bars and many other tasty treats. Firm Medjool dates are the top sellers for fresh eating, and their full flavor and high sugar make them perfect for holiday cooking. If you plan to add dates to any of your recipes this year, remember to adjust the sugar to account for the dates’ high sugar content.
There are several date varieties to choose from like the Deglet Noor, Bahri, Zahidi  and of course those date coconut rolls, but the “Cadillac” variety remains the Medjool. So add some dates to your holiday mix and who knows, maybe a candy habit will be replaced by the perfect date.

I’ve heard stories of street vendors in late autumn, their pushcarts full of hot, fragrant freshly roasted chestnuts. But I’ve only heard of them – never seen them myself. Most likely selling permits, along with health department inspections and other bureaucratic barriers, have brought an end to such curbside commerce. Nonetheless, the chestnut remains synonymous with the romance of the holidays and the cozy comforts of wintertime by the fire.

The original American chestnut was a larger and sweeter nut than its European siblings. It was a dietary staple of the Native American Indians who taught the pilgrims how to cook chestnuts in stew and grind them into flour. Not only humans depended on chestnuts for survival; many forest animals would also gather and store them for the winter. Chestnut trees made up about 25 percent of the eastern American forest, and were so abundant that it was said that a squirrel could jump from chestnut tree to chestnut tree from Georgia all the way to New York without ever touching the ground.

Because of their hard wood, chestnut trees were used for railroad ties and telegraph poles. Paneling, furniture and musical instruments were among other uses. Chestnut wood is also the major source of tannin for tanning leather. But it wasn’t these uses alone that killed off the native population of chestnut trees. In the late 1800s, importers began bringing in foreign trees to be grafted onto existing American trees. Some of these—articularly oriental varieties from Japan—brought with them a tree blight that spread very rapidly. By 1950 the trees were virtually gone. Efforts are underway to reintroduce disease-resistant American varieties, but that process will take a few hundred years.

Today, commercial chestnut tree farms can be found in several parts of California. Typically the first California chestnuts hit the market in September, but this year they came a little early, due to the warm spring. Look for the “colossal” variety, which is a European and Japanese hybrid that’s great for boiling and makes one heck of a roasted chestnut as well. You can also California-grown examples of the revered Italian “marrone” variety that is commonly seen in jars of syrup on specialty store shelves.

Fresh chestnuts are too often mishandled not only by the average consumer, but also by retailers and in some cases, the growers themselves. At time of harvest, chestnuts have a moisture content of about 50 percent. Yet all too often, they’re displayed in the dry section of the produce department alongside walnuts, pecans and other dry nuts. Chestnuts should actually be kept under refrigeration right around 32 degrees with high humidity. At home, they should be stored in plastic in the refrigerator until a few days before being used. At that point, they should be taken out and “cured” for three to five days at room temperature. This allows some of the starch to turn into sugar, and encourages slight dehydration so that inner skin of the nut, which is called the pellicle, will peel away easily after roasting.

When selecting chestnuts, size does not matter. Some varieties are simply larger than others. It is important to squeeze the nut. If it gives, it was allowed to dry out somewhere along the supply chain and it’s no good. Chestnuts should be firm with dark stripes.

Roasting chestnuts can be flubbed as well, so here’s the real dope: Cut an X on the flat part of the chestnut, making sure to pierce the shell. This lets the pressure escape and prevents the chestnut from exploding in your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the chestnuts on a cookie sheet bake for about 30 minutes for small chestnuts, 40 minutes for larger chestnuts. Place them in a warm, damp towel immediately after roasting to retain moisture. Chestnuts can also be roasted over a gas or wood fire in a specially made chestnut roaster.

 Chestnuts are low in calories and contain only .02 grams of fat. They are higher in carbohydrates than other nuts, but hey, it’s the holidays. Besides, 30 percent of our brain’s energy comes from carbs. Vitamins B, and C, a little calcium, iron, magnesium and lots of potassium round out the chestnut’s nutritional profile.

Now you’ve got all of the chestnut information you need to impress your family, friends and co-workers at holiday parties. It’s the perfect icebreaker for conversation around—what else?—an open fire.

Broccoli Rabe

Only a small, select few buy broccoli rabe at my market for home use. But since several surrounding restaurants use it, I am able to stock it on my vegetable rack without it ending up in the compost bin or on my dinner table every night. This month, I’ve decided that it’s time to get the word out to curious cooks everywhere: broccoli rabe is a fantastic vegetable that tastes great and is extremely versatile and healthy.   

Broccoli rabe (also known as rapini, broccoli raab and brassica rapa) was first brought to the US by Italian farmers in the 1920’s. With its origin in the Mediterranean and China, it’s not surprising that the vegetable is most popular in Italian and Asian communities.

Broccoli rabe looks similar to broccoli with its little buds called florettes. But it is not actually a broccoli, although some experts in the field consider it a wild distant cousin. Others say it is more closely related to turnips, since the saw blade-edged leaves resemble turnip greens and carry a similar peppery flavor.

While the experts hash out the vegetable’s origins, we can enjoy its culinary credentials. The entire bunch of broccoli rabe is edible; the broccoli-type buds in between the mustard-like leaves and the tender stalks all are used when cooking. The flavor is described as pungent, nutty, peppery and bold.

Broccoli rabe can be used in pasta as a side to chicken, pork or salmon, chopped up and cooked with Italian sausage, stir-fried, in soups or sautéed with garlic and parmesan cheese. It is best to steam broccoli rabe for three to five minutes before sautéing. Alternatively, place the broccoli rabe in a metal colander and pour a pot of boiling water over it to scald it, let it drain and then sauté. Both of these pre-cooking methods help remove bitterness and soften the broccoli rabe enough to work with.

When selecting broccoli rabe in the store, look for deep, dark leaves and buds. This product ages quickly, so produce departments have to be on their toes to keep it fresh. Avoid yellowing, wilted leaves and any slime around the band.

At home, separate the bunch and wash in cold water. Store broccoli rabe in a plastic bag or moist paper towel in the refrigerator for no more than three days.
Broccoli rabe is rich in calcium, potassium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C; the perfect green for a balanced diet. It’s available year round, but is best in cooler months. So add some broccoli rabe to your shopping list, and add some spice to your next cooking creation.
 
Sources Di Arrigo Brothers Produce (Andy Boy), Ocean Mist Farms, Local chefs and suppliers to Dan’s Fresh Produce.