Fare Exchange: Time for delicious fresh vegetables and sweet things

You are welcome here at Fare Exchange. You are always welcome to contribute a request and to dig up an answer to somebody else’s. Today we want to know where to find frozen rhubarb and the best coconut cake in town. Another reader wants to know how to make the coconut cake that contains sweetened condensed milk and cream of coconut. And how about creamed eggs, egg salad, shirred eggs and Cobb salad? (The last few are repeat requests.)

Harry Gordon of Tunnel Hill wrote, “My cooking magazines have had several recipes with rhubarb just lately. Do any of the local grocery stores carry frozen rhubarb?” L.S. is trying to reproduce Canyon Grill’s coconut cake and is experimenting with the ingredients mentioned above, but would love a second opinion.

RICE & PEPPERS

Helen Cooper included this in a generous collection. It’s full of color.

Wild Rice and Peppers

1 cup wild rice, uncooked

1 each: small red, yellow or orange and green bell pepper, diced small

2 or 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 large yellow onion, chopped fine

1 cup Craisins or raisins or currants (your choice)

1 cup chopped nuts or sliced almonds, toasted

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil for sautéing onion and garlic

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

Cook rice according to directions; it will usually take 45 minutes to an hour. Let stand for 30 minutes, then drain any excess water.

While rice cooks, chop all peppers, garlic and onion. While rice stands the last 15 minutes, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are transparent. Don’t let the garlic brown because it gets a bitter taste.

Mix peppers, onion/garlic mix, Craisins and nuts in a large mixing bowl. Add rice and mix well, then drizzle 1/3 cup olive oil over and mix again. Pour into baking dish with a cover and bake for 35 minutes in a 350-degree oven.

This is great served warm. Leftovers should be refrigerated and may be reheated or served cold. If serving cold, mix olive oil and a small amount of balsamic vinegar (1 part balsamic to 3 parts olive oil) to pour over. Great with grilled meat and steamed broccoli. When serving cold, have grilled chicken and salad greens for a light meal.

EASY VEGGIES

Ginny Gaines came speedily to help the reader who wanted vegetable recipes. She described the recipe that follows as “easy and good, a dynamic combination. Roasted asparagus is quick and easy, and there are so many ways to prepare. It’s a good vegetable to cook, now that spring has arrived and we can find fresh asparagus, maybe even local soon.”

Roasted Lemon Asparagus

2 bunches asparagus, preferably thick, trimmed

2 tablespoons dry white wine

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large shallow baking pan, toss together the asparagus, wine, salt, pepper and olive oil until spears are evenly coated.

Roast the asparagus until the spears are browned in spots and are just tender-crisp, about 10 minutes. Do not overcook.

Transfer the asparagus to a platter and drizzle with the lemon juice, to taste. Serve immediately.

Variations: Another way to make this asparagus, omitting the lemon juice, is to toss with 1 to 2 tablespoons pesto, or to taste. Serve immediately. Another way is to follow the recipe including the lemon juice and then serve it with hollandaise sauce.

BRABSON TEA

Carolyn Shelton and Sally Seig both sent recipes for the Brabson House mint tea printed last week; it’s quite a local favorite. Ms. Seig commented, “In going over the recipe, it says to boil the lemon rinds and sugar in 6 cups of water. Then later on it says to steep the tea bags in 4 cups of water. That sounds to me like a lot of water. I (personally) would boil the lemon rinds and sugar in the 6 cups, and then do the tea bags in the same water. You can always add more water, but you can’t take away if you’ve added too much.” If you have varied this recipe at all with success — or for that matter, without success — please let us know.

SWEET THINGS

Linda Leake sent this rich delight in a sheaf of recipes for sweet things.These are very chewy and good — and easy.

Chess Squares

1 box yellow cake mix

1 egg

1 sick butter or margarine

3 eggs

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (16-ounce) box confectioner’s sugar

Combine cake mix, egg and margarine. Press into the bottom of a greased 9-by-13-inch pan. Beat eggs and cream cheese together; add box of confectioner’s sugar and blend well. Spread over the cake mix. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes.

NATURAL FLAVORS

The cover of a recent Wall Street Journal section bore a large drawing of Brussels sprouts and other vegetables under this headline: “The Best Diet is Deliciousness.” The premise is that we are taking the best natural flavors, the tastiest raw foods of all, and imitating them with something processed. “In the modern food system’s most disturbing twist, we now take the very flavors that are disappearing on the farm and produce them in factories, sprinkling them on potato chips or fizzing them into soft drinks. Today’s junk food aisle is overflowing with cherry, blueberry, tomato, strawberry — that have gone missing in the produce aisle,” the paper writes.

What is the remedy to this trend? Author Mark Schatzker advises, “Eat food that tastes better. Don’t deceive yourself with fake flavors. Instead, satisfy your desires with real food that is genuinely delicious.”

So why dollop with sauces when the real, simple thing is so wonderful? I am thinking Brussels sprouts for dinner tonight, with just a little salt and lemon. I was thinking solo strawberries, sliced into a bowl, tasty and fresh although my husband peered hopefully into the bottom of the bowl and said, “I can hardly see the cream down there.” Perhaps with the next basket of strawberries we’ll add a little canned coconut milk. That ought to satisfy. We need to retrofit our kitchens and our dining tables, it seems.

What are you doing to simplify your cooking and dining life? Please pass it on.