NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

August 27, 1998

Prairie Fare: Enjoying the Season's Fruits and Vegetables

The harvesting from our garden began in June with my obligatory radish sandwich--thinly sliced radishes, salted and peppered and layered between two inch-thick slices of mayonnaise-laden dark bread. Then there were countless salads with our lettuce and spinach. Simple tossed salads with vinaigrette. Taco salads with slices of cooked chorizo (Mexican sausage) accompanying the highly seasoned ground meat, which was either turkey or bison depending upon my mood. One shrimp and black bean salad sporting a dressing of fresh lime juice, olive oil and Jamaican jerk seasoning. And a "cheeseburger" salad consisting of warm tiny meatballs, chopped dill pickles and onions, cheddar cheese cubes, and a Dijon mustard dressing.

Now my wife, Nicki, and I are into fresh salsas, fairly traditional ones with cilantro and others that feature cucumbers and parsley. I've also been roasting some of our red beets, skins on, in aluminum foil and then peeling and cubing the beets while warm, at which time I begin marinating the beets overnight in an Italian dressing that includes some anchovy paste.

Almost every year, we make fresh pork sausage with our sage and feast on an old-fashioned breakfast. I like my eggs fried. Corn from the farmers' market and our fresh okra make for an unusual stir-fry. Some of our carrots become a sweetening agent for Italian tomato sauce, a component of our eggplant parmigiana.

As for our watermelon, sweet potatoes and hot peppers: pickle, freeze, pickle. Nicki has a really good recipe for watermelon-rind pickles that's heavy on the cinnamon. We'll peel, cook and then mash the sweet potatoes, which we'll freeze for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we'll add something like crushed pineapple, toasted coconut and macadamia nuts or chopped peaches and pecans and bake the combination until bubbly. Our pickled hot peppers are in slices, like the kind you can get at the grocery store, although we think ours taste better.

And so it goes until Mother Nature puts an end to the growing season. Hopefully, most of us are at least a few weeks away from a killing frost, so in the meantime, here's an ethnic recipe that takes full advantage of the region's bounty.

Moussaka
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 medium unpeeled eggplant, cubed
1 medium unpeeled zucchini, diced
1 cup chopped onion
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup olive oil
2 large tomatoes, skinned, cored and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped (or 2 teaspoons rubbed)
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup fat-free ricotta or cottage cheese
½ cup half and half

Procedure:

After cubing eggplant immediately soak pieces in salted ice water while preparing zucchini, onions, peppers and garlic; saute all these ingredients in olive oil for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, herbs and spices and cook a few minutes longer. Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart baking dish that's been sprayed with vegetable oil. In a blender, puree ricotta or cottage cheese with half and half until smooth and pour over the other ingredients. Smooth cheese mixture so it covers top completely. Bake at 325 F for an hour or until bubbly.

What's Your Take on This, Julie?

This is a great recipe that makes use of our summer bounty—whether it's from your garden, a farmers' market or the local grocery store. Moussaka is a classic Middle Eastern main dish that features eggplant. In fact, the Turks learned how to cook eggplant from the Greeks, but they added meat and other vegetables. The Greeks liked it so much they adopted it as a favorite dish.

First written about in China in the fifth century, the eggplant was thought to cause insanity—hence its nickname, the "mad apple." As you might expect, eggplant got its name from its egg-like shape. Unlike present varieties, earlier varieties were about the size of eggs.

Eggplants, botanically, are fruits that are used as vegetables. While most of us associate eggplant with a deep purple color, there also are white and yellow varieties. When you select an eggplant, look for shiny skin and absence of blemishes. A medium-sized eggplant (about 1 pound) provides about four servings. Store eggplants in a cool, humid place.

A pound of raw eggplant contains less than 100 calories plus some vitamin A, calcium and fiber. It can be prepared in a variety of ways including baked, boiled, fried, stuffed, and broiled.

A serving of the Moussaka recipe provides about 315 calories and 22 grams of fat. It also provides about 73 percent of the recommended daily vitamin C, 28 percent of the recommended calcium, along with fiber, B vitamins and iron. You can cut fat and calories by using low-fat milk in place of the half and half and by using skim ricotta cheese, but the texture and appearance of the topping will likely change.

While the fat content is quite high, the main source of the fat in this recipe is olive oil. This monounsaturated fat doesn't have the same artery-clogging properties of saturated fats. In fact, unlike the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid, the Mediterranean Food Guide Pyramid has a tier just for olive oil.

Try something a little exotic with your prize-winning tomatoes, peppers, onions and prolific zucchini. Taste a world of variety by eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. And don't worry, eggplants have not been proven to cause madness.

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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136 and Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187

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