Black Grapes

First of all, clearly I have had grapes, so no I am not crazy to add them to this blog.  I actually love grapes.  I just happened to notice black grapes at my grocery store this week and thought, hey I saw a recipe for those and I have never had them or the recipe so lets try it for G.

Grapes, specifically black grapes; apparently are not wildly popular yet but I am sure they will be.  I could not find much information on Black Grapes themselves, turns out a grape is a grape is a grape. These really did seem to taste much  grapier and sweeter, and didn't have a bitter skin so someone should really tell Wikipedia to get on it and add some Black Grape information.

Domestic grapes began nearly 8000 years ago in an area we used to refer to as the "Near East".  Most table grapes are grown from a European variety are mostly cultivated as "seedless" and have much thinner skin than that of a wine grape.  Table grapes are also less sweet than those of the wine grape variety.

The Black Grapes I purchased seem bursting with juice and were just as good eaten cold as roasted, yes I said roasted.

I had seen a recipe where grapes were roasted, and while at first I thought that was nuts, I really wanted to try them.  I actually checked around and have seen both sweet and savory roasted grape recipes.  I opted for the savory as I was pairing them with roasted pork.  It is really very easy and they came out very tasty.

You take one bunch of Black Grapes, rinse and dry them and remove them from the stems....or not, it is up to you.  Roll them in Olive oil and sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste.  Lay them out on a pan and roast at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Or until they just burst.  I saved the juice from the pan and poured it over my pork and it was DELICIOUS!  I think next time I will just throw them on the same pan as the pork, in the last ten minutes, in the oven and make a pan sauce from all the drippings.

Friarielli

Friarielli, also known as Broccoli Rabe, Broccoletti, Broccoli di Rape, Cime di Para, Rape, Rappini, Rappi…the list could go on forever folks, is very hard to describe.

Friarielli is part of the Mustard family.  It is a green leafy vegetable with firm edible stalks and little clusters of buds that resemble broccoli however do not taste like it at and sometimes has little yellow flowers at the peak of the buds.  It is mostly common in the cuisine of Italy and China, although presented in very different ways.  It is classified as a Brassica rapaIt and is definitely an acquired taste for those who don't care for greens, however I have to say after sampling it myself it has the greens texture of cooked spinach, the stalk texture of asparagus and the taste is between that of greens and asparagus with a bit of a bitter finish.   I quite enjoyed it and will be eating it again.  I can see this sautéed with garlic and shallots finished with red pepper flakes and served over pasta in lieu of sauce.  I was so excited when I finished my recipe I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish, guess I will have to make it again soon to update this blog post.

Sauted Friarielli with Garlic and Shallots
I cut the end of the stalks off and discarded them, then I trimmed the stalks into three sections.  Starting with the lowest part of the stalk I dropped them into boiling water for about a minute before adding the rest to blanch another minute to two minutes.  I drained them from the hot water and left them to cool while I sautéed two minced cloves of garlic and one large shallot sliced.  I removed these from the pan and heated up about three tablespoons of olive oil, then placed the Friarielli in the pan to sauté for about ten minutes stirring frequently with salt and pepper to taste.  I added the shallots and garlic and sautéed a minute or two longer and served warm along side roasted pork and my next recipe, roasted Black Grapes.  See next post.

Eggplant

OK, first of all let me apologize for being so behind on posts.  My daughter wanted to join the Girl Scouts about 5 months ago, so we signed her up.  Then no leaders took the reigns to get these girls started in new troops so my Friend Marlene and I (thank you Marlene) decided to take one for the team and started our own troop.....NO ONE SAID how much time it would take.  Not to mention we joined at COOKIE TIME!!  But I digress, I have been a bit busy lately so I am behind in the posting of my blog....please enjoy as I try to catch up on my weeks.

The Eggplant, also known as Aubergine, Melongene, brinjal or guinea squash is considered a Night Shade.  Eggplants are native to India, this I did not know, however they seem to be cultivated just about anywhere now a days I even grew them in my garden a couple of years ago. This particular Night Shade is in the genus; Solanum along with Potatos and Tomatos.  They often have colorful flowers of white or purple and in the wild the fruit grows much smaller than those in cultivation.  The fruit itself is classified as a berry so I am not quite sure if this is a fruit or veggie, non the less I wanted to try it at home.  The flesh of the fruit is fleshy or meaty as they say, with many many seeds that really should be removed prior to cooking if you don't like the bitter taste.  I seem to only like it in Eggplant Parmesan and thought I could cook it up like my favorite Mushroom Steak Fries (Portabellos) and see if it retained the same texture.  Alas it did not, it became quite mushy inside and I really didn't like it.  So I guess I am sticking to Eggplant Parm for future Eggplant ingestion.  To be honest I didn't even take photos, I was so disappointed.  :(  If you know of any other recipes where the fruit does not tend to get mushy, let me know and I might take another crack at it.