How are brussel sprouts grown?

Ever since I had to prepare meals regularly for hubby, I learnt so much more about food. Shopping for groceries is sometimes an adventure because I would come across stuff I never expected to learn.

Here's an example: This is a picture of a brussel sprout I took with my camera.

And here is a picture of a cabbage I found off the internet from healthandayurveda.com
They both look so similar, don't they? Size would be an obvious difference - the cabbage is relatively bigger. But are brussel sprouts "babies" that can eventually grown into cabbages?

I wondered because the word "sprout" reminds me of "bean sprouts", meaning a baby plant. So it could be possible that the brussel sprouts are actually "cabbage sprouts"? lol

Even the di-section (cut into half from the middle) of the cabbage looks exactly like the di-section of a brussel sprout, as you can see from the picture below. And that is because according to wikipedia, they both come from the same cruciferous family of vegetables:

Image from howstuffworks.com

But do brussel sprouts take root directly from the ground like the cabbage?

... ...

...

Nope!

Here's what I bought from the supermarket recently, look at what it says:

Yes, Brussel Sprouts grow from a Stalk! Not individually from the ground like the cabbage! Can you believe it? lol I love being surprised!

Here's a picture of a brussel sprout plant from biologie.uni-hamburg.de

Haha, now that you know the answer, it is time to enjoy some photographs from us!

The brussel sprout stalk is a little longer than the length of our torsos.

Here's the size of it, placed beside the Wall Street Journal papers.

Without flash:

As you can see, the leaves are cut away from the leaf-stem, making it easier to transport.

But it would be the simplest to transport it without the brussel sprouts still attached to the bulky stalk right? That is why we often seen brussel sprouts in supermarkets already detached and packed into a container or a bag.

The reason why they sold an entire stalk (for US$4.99, which is cheap considering that it has so many sprouts on one stalk) is probably because brussel sprouts are fairly popular in the fall, for the Thanksgiving holiday. The brussel sprouts also taste best after experiencing the first frost of Fall. Those that are grown in temperatures that are too warm or in prolonged cold are said to taste quite bitter in comparison.

All I need to do before cooking it (boil it in soup or roast it in the oven) is to pluck the sprouts off the stem with my fingers. :-)

The round buds of the brussel sprouts grown from the corner in between the stalk and the leaf-stem. I thought of this imagery: If the Stalk is likened to a Torso, and the stem is the arm, then the brussel sprouts would be growing out of the "armpits" of the plant. Hee hee!

Perhaps without the leaf-stem, you can see where the brussel sprouts grown from better:

Tada! We have taken all the brussel sprouts to cook! The stalk is now empty. ^_^

Have a good fall season. <3

Trick or Treat? A one million dollar note

Guess what I saw last night?

...

One

Million

Dollars

...

...

On a single US note!

Would it a note like this be a trick? Or a treat?

Well, with all the fiscal policies the government is taking, maybe we are gonna be facing a runaway inflation. The greenbacks are going to turn into banana notes.

Like if US$1 = 1 Rupiah

*shrudder*

That's neither a trick nor a treat to me. Considering that we are saving in USD, it'll be a nightmare for us to lose everything to inflation just like that.

Autuum sights around my neighbourhood... no more lilies but lots of berries.

Summer is over, and the air is turning cold. How strange it is, that during the summer we wish for cooler nights, and when it's gone, we miss it as we huddle under the blankets wondering when the central heating would be turned on. Hubby and I are decked in long pants and doubling the comfy T-shirt with another long sleeved one on top.

Looking though some of the photographs taken during the summer makes me feel warmer though. Here's the last time Hubby and I went to the beach this summer. This was taken Aug 1st '09. But alas, the earth continues to spin, the weather continues to change. No more flip flops, bare legs or arms, and no need for sun hats... Although I think it is significantly cold now...about 14 oC, not all the foliage has withered away. Most in fact are still green, though the first signs of autumn has started showing itself. The sugar maple tree is the first to start turning red. The other maples have not turned yet. Here's a tree, half-red-half-green.

A clearer shot of the red leaves below. It is standing beside another species of Maple, but as you can see it is completely green.

The oaks are still completely green too, can't wait for them to turn red. In spring time, we get lovely cherry blossoms, tulips which soon disappear into the summer, with lots of lilies and roses blooming away. Now the lilies have withered, and the roses that were blooming have now turned into "fruits", little rose hips.

And A LOT of shrubs around the neighbourhood bore lots of berries on their branches! Berries berries everywhere! Here, I'll show you:

Red berries close up:

From this red berry bush:

Another red berry bush...you can see from the needle-like leaves, that this is a different bush:

A close up of the berries... they look like little bells.

Here's another shrub with lots of orange colored berries.

But most unique of all are these tiny purple berries, in an amazing striking shade of violet:

Every twig joint seems to be sprouting a little cluster of these purple berries.

And here's what this bush looks like. Quite interesting isn't it!Every season has its popular flowers. And as I was telling my mother the other day over the phone, that although chrysanthemums are really popular back in Singapore during Spring (Chinese New Year) time, they seem to be all the rage here in the fall! It's the main potted flowers on sale at the Farmer's Market now. Some red chrysanthemums: This is a really common sight now. I think it may be part of Thanksgiving. Red, white, yellow chrysanthemums lining the stairway to the house:Do you notice two little orange things displayed alongside the chrysanthemums outside people's houses too? They're pumpkins! Hahaha if they were mandarin oranges, it'll really look like Chinese new year together with the chrysanthemums isn't it! Here's another picture of Chrysanthemums with much larger pumpkins on the stairway of another house:

Hubby tells me that Thanksgiving was a holiday that started when the early settlers in America wanted to thank God for all the harvest and blessings for the year. Which is a nice thing to do, being in a strange land far away from their European home, growing crops like corn which they have never grown before.

Anyway, the pumpkins have varying sizes, and here's an example of some small pumpkins sitting on the window sill: And here are some really HUGE ones, taking up the entire space on a garden bench. Other than pumpkins, there are also decorative maizes and squashes, and "scare crows" on sale. Here at the supermarket they also sell MINI pumpkins! I've seen some offices use these mini pumpkins as decorations on the front desk. Did you see the painted on faces on the larger pumpkins? Haha, what does that remind you of?
Halloween! Haha some houses of the neighbourhood are decorated for Halloween too. And supermarkets are having big sales on candy and mini-bars of snickers, Reese's, etc. I wonder what is it they put to make it look like they have cob webs around the fence. Can cotton wool stretch that long? And wouldn't it be soaked from the autumn rains?

Anyway to end, here's a picture of a house decorated for both Halloween and Thanksgiving. With plastic "ghost dolls", scare-crows, and a pumpkin at the doorstep. Can you spot the pumpkin in the picture? It's a big pumpkin, but it turned out really small in the picture. ;-)

Goodbye Summer.

Special Mushrooms and their Relative Cooking Times

My mother-in-law forwarded me an email yesterday regarding the health benefits of enokitake.The enokitake in the picture above has other names, such as golden needle mushroom (金针菇) and velvet shank mushroom. While it is easy to find this mushroom in Singapore in vacuum sealed packets, it is difficult to find in regular supermarkets here. I would probably have to go to an "Asian Supermarket" to buy it.

The email also boasted astounding health benefits of this product of nature: being able to kill 95% of cancer cells by consumption (it can be eaten raw) or extracted to a drip (how incredible is that!) into your bloodstream. I guess the enokitake deserves a place amongst the 'Super-Foods', a term coined in recent years for natural foods with super properties.

What about the health properties of other mushrooms? Most mushrooms can be eaten raw like the enokitake, and surely they have health properties too albeit less documented and circulated. There are also certain dangers I have heard of - other than the obvious fact not to consume toadstools. For example, after washing/ soaking some 冬菇 dried shiitake mushrooms as seen in the picture above, you may think that the water is now "mushroom flavoured" and you may be tempted to use it for cooking. You may even smell the fragrance of the mushrooms in the water. WARNING! THROW THE WATER AWAY. I've heard that there may be poisonous chemicals due to the preservation process. I may not have scientific evidence for it, but surely there are better ways to flavour your food. Better to err on the side of caution. If you know of other health properties of other mushrooms, comment on this article please. :-)

Anyway, time to get onto the first part of my topic:

Special Mushrooms: Introducing 4 types not-so-common cultured mushrooms

Guess what these four mushrooms are? (Hahaha since I my previous post on fruits was already tough for some, here's some useful information to help you guess. I will provide my answers towards the end of this post.) By the way, here's where I bought them from: The Saturday Farmer's Market! This mushroom stall is one amongst many freshly farmed food stalls in the market. All produce (vegetables, fruits, fungi, meat, dairy, honey, wine, etc) are products of New York State, so the farmers probably had to drive down a few hours from the suburbs into NYC every Saturday morning to set up their stalls. This is probably one of those movements to encourage Americans to "Eat Fresh, Eat Local". Although touted to be fresher, healthier, and smaller in carbon foot prints compared to air freight groceries, food at the Farmer's Market is NOT cheaper. lol... Nevertheless, I was excited to try more uncommon species of fungi and talk to the mushroom farmers about it, especially about cooking them.

In summary, I noticed three things:

1. The four unique mushrooms are double or triple the price/lb compared common mushrooms such as white-button, fresh shiitake or portabello.

2. They are more perishable after harvesting compared to common mushrooms (which is possibly they are seldom stocked in supermarkets as they are expensive and they decay too fast).

3. Their cooking time is much shorter than common mushrooms, some maybe just dipping it into boiling water in a short flash, or thrown in as the last item in a stir fry, or just a quick sear on a hot pan on the sides, not totally cooking the whole thing. Of course, they can also be eaten raw.

Cooking it - I feel - is the most interesting part.

I remember my mother would 焖冬菇 braise the re-hydrated dried shiitake mushrooms with 发菜 black moss fungi and other goodies. For hours, and the mushroom would still have a nice bite to it. It tastes even better the next day. It can even be packed into the freezer, and two months later re-heated, and the mushroom would still have a good bite to it. Not all mushrooms can do that.

Other common fresh mushrooms such as the white button mushroom and the portabello can also take quite a bit of heat. They can be lightly seasoned and baked for 45min in the 350F oven and turn out juicy and succulent on the inside. Here's a picture of 2 large portabellos with small chunks of butter hubby and I placed on the grill during our mini-barbecue outings at the park.

Let the portabellos sit on the grill until the butter melts, mingling with the juices that are naturally released by the portabellos due to the heat. It can take a while, but it's yummy!
But the four special mushrooms I bought cannot be cooked for such a long duration in such high heat. So what did I do? I went to an All-Organic Supermart and bought this:

I decided that the mushrooms were delicate, and did not want them to be wasted by charring and sticking to the frying pan. So rather than boiling them in plain water, why not get some ready-made soup and add mushrooms to it?

And finally, here are the answers to:

What are the names of the special mushrooms and their relative cooking time?

Are you ready for the answers? ...*drum roll*

1. Lion's Mane a.k.a. pom pom mushroom, a.k.a. beard mushroom

This one must be cooked very lightly, the lightest of all 4 mushrooms. Just drop it into the boiling soup and turn off the fire at once. It's ready to serve. The flavour is 'likened to that of the lobster or crab'. In fact, it looked like shark's fins when I was peeling it apart with my fingers:

2. King Oyster Mushrooms a.k.a. eryngii or eringii mushroom
The ones that I got this time were smaller younger ones, and the flavour was sweet and the texture was nice to chew on but not rubbery. To get that texture, I could only boil it for 3 minutes - like maggi mee instant noodles. Longer than that and it could be too rubbery/ chewy. They can actually grow much bigger, and I think it might actually be found in supermarkets in Singapore. You can cut it vertically like fries or horizontally like scallops.
3. Hen-of-The-Woods Mushroom, a.k.a. Maitake,

This one appears to have healing properties too... It is said to be effective against leukemia, stomach and bone cancers as well as type 2 diabetes. Which one do you think tastes better raw, the enokitake (golden needles) or the maitake (hen-of-the-woods)? I think the hen-of-the-woods tastes better. The mushroom farmer peeled some and gave it to be confidently to try it raw when I was at the Farmer's Market. The taste is mild and "mushroomy" - for lack of a better word. There's no sour-ness like the golden needle mushroom might have (some people taste some hint of sourness in the enokitake mushroom). Cooking time is very short, shorter than the king oyster mushroom, but can withstand heat better than the lion's mane mushroom. I put it in to boil for only 1 minute before turning the heat off. Here you can see the maitake on the left beside the lion's mane mushroom. Both were the last to go into the pot, and both were prepared similarly: washed and pry-ed into smaller pieces with my fingers. 4. Last but not least, I am disappointed to say that I can't be sure what mushroom it is. It could possibly be the Nameko mushroom that has been outgrown its smaller size into a bigger longer size. I will go to the farmer's market again to find out, and will leave the answer in the comments.This particular mushroom can be left boiling for 5 minutes in the soup before serving. I've never had so much fresh chunks of mushrooms in my soup before. :-DSo yup, that's all, I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed my rich-tasting mushroom soup. Have a great week!