Robert Schueller: These Produce Items are Ready for Prime Time
If you want to please diners looking for healthful choices, make produce a menu priority. Offering a changing array of seasonal fruits and vegetables can differentiate your operation and keep your menu fresh.
Robert Schueller, director of public relations for Melissa's, the Los Angeles-based specialty produce company, tracks specialty produce sales closely. He knows which items consumers are buying now, and which may be five years away from acceptance.
It's a fast-changing picture. Fruits and vegetables that were considered ethnic or exotic just a few years ago are now ready for prime time. If you're not serving some of the following, says Schueller, you're not capitalizing on the flavors diners are loving right now.
Chayote: This pear-shaped vegetable has the texture and mild flavor of a firm summer squash. Peel and parboil, then add to a mixed-vegetable sauté to lend a Latin accent. Asian chefs like Charles Phan of the Slanted Door in San Francisco use it, too.
Edamame: Fresh soybeans in the shell, popularized in Japanese restaurants, where they're an irresistible, peanut-like snack. Offer this high-protein legume as bar food, as a sandwich accompaniment in place of fries or chips, or as a component of your salad bar.
Fennel: Not just for the Italian table anymore. This crunchy, licorice-flavored vegetable, which some call sweet anise, has a taste people crave. Shave it raw into your house salad or slaw, add it to a crudité platter with dip, or braise wedges to partner pork chops or pot roast.
Jicama: "Years ago, people said, 'Is that a water chestnut?'" recalls Schueller. "Now jicama has bumped the carrot way off the scale." Sweet, juicy jicama is a winner on a salad bar, on a raw-vegetable platter with dip, or as a crunchy and original addition to your house salad. Serve a jicama, orange, and avocado salad with tacos, carnitas, or other Mexican fare.
Mango: The world's most popular fruit, according to Schueller, and one of the fastest-growing produce items in the U.S. If you thought mangoes had to have that beautiful reddish-gold blush to be ripe, think again. Some of the best new varieties, including the Kent and the California-grown Keitt, are fiberless, green when ripe, and easy to remove from the seed. In salsas, dessert sauces, salads, and beverages, mango is a hot flavor trend.
Radicchio: One of the top specialty produce items at retail, says Schueller. With its brilliant burgundy coloration, radicchio has terrific presentation potential. Use its cupped leaves to hold salads or slaw, grill wedges for a steak accompaniment, or shred this pleasantly bitter Italian chicory into your house salad to take it upscale. An insalata tricolore (three-colored salad) with radicchio, endive, and arugula is a beauty.
Red Swiss Chard: In plate presentation, color is everything. The cherry-red ribs of this handsome chard keep their color when cooked. Steam and toss with olive oil and garlic as an à la carte side, or pair with pork tenderloin or sausages.
Strawberry Papaya: Many people have had unimpressive encounters with papayas that were picked underripe and shipped by boat from Hawaii. The new salmon-fleshed strawberry papayas from Brazil should make some converts. They are picked ripe and air freighted, so the taste is there, and the color is gorgeous. As a breakfast-plate garnish, a fruit salad enhancement, or a smoothie ingredient, they're worth a look.
Tomatillos: The little green "husk tomato" (which is not a tomato at all) is the essence of Mexico's salsa verde and chile verde. Non-Latinos are now accustomed to its tart, perky taste, making salsa verde an ideal low-fat choice for topping chicken or fish. Serve with a corn and black bean salad to continue the theme.