Unusual Ingredients Can Spice Up A Meal

Your local produce managers are always ready to answer questions about their favorite topic: fruits and vegetables.

Here are a few points of interest from Lou Jones, at Northpointe Safeway, and Alan Shepherd at the Lincoln Heights Rosauers:

There are more than 400 different items in larger produce departments.

Foods may come from around the United States (California, Texas, Florida), or around the world (Mexico, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Ecuador, Panama, Chile).

Produce purchased from Pacific Northwest suppliers includes apples, potatoes, cantaloupe and asparagus.

Bananas come into the U.S. green in color, not yellow; buyers use ethylene gas to ripen them. Bananas can be categorized in different stages, from 1 to 6. For example, Stage 5 is a partially yellow but slightly green banana.

Jones, who’s been working in produce for 37 years, says tropical fruits are becoming more popular, such as star fruit (called carambola), cherimoyas and mangoes.

Shepherd, with 18 years’ experience, points out the many varieties of tropical fruits in his store, including kumquats, passion fruit, kiwano (horned melon) and maradol.

The maradol is a Mexican papaya, says Shepherd, “a bit cheaper than the Hawaiian papaya, with more of a musky flavor to it.” Mangoes, he adds, are increasing dramatically in popularity: “It’s the number one fruit throughout the world, not just the United States.”

People are always asking questions, Jones says, such as how to pick out a good cantaloupe. While there are many folk tales, he says, there are basically three ways: squeeze the stem indentation (softer means riper), shake the melon and listen to the seeds (it may be overripe if you can hear the seeds), and check the skin color and texture (more golden than green is riper).

“To be honest with you,” says Jones, “you can take a green one and cut it, and it might be just as nice as the golden one. There’s also a little bit of luck involved.”

You can add interest to any meal with the addition of an unusual fruit or vegetable. Try a different fruit for an accompaniment tonight when you serve up Garden Patch Pasta Salad.

Garden Patch Pasta Salad

Adapted from “Betty Crocker’s Pasta Cookbook” (Macmillan, 1995).

1-1/2 cups small-shaped pasta, such as salad macaroni (6 ounces)

1/2 (8-ounce) package pre-sliced mushrooms

1 cup shredded nonfat Cheddar cheese

3/4 cup low-fat ranch dressing

1 small red bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 package (16 ounces) frozen French-styled green beans, thawed

1 - 1-1/2 cups chopped ham, cooked chicken breast or turkey, or miniature shrimp

3/4 cup canned french-fried onions

Cook and drain pasta as directed on package. Rinse with cold water; drain.

Mix pasta and remaining ingredients, except onions, in large bowl. Sprinkle each serving with onions.

Yield: 8 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 354 calories, 12 grams fat (31 percent fat calories), 67 grams carbohydrate, 256 milligrams sodium.

, DataTimes MEMO: The goal of Five and Fifteen is to find recipes where you can do the shopping in five minutes and the cooking in 15. Merri Lou Dobler, a registered dietitian and Spokane resident, welcomes ideas from readers. Write to Five and Fifteen, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.

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