Group 19: Basic Ingredients – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

19-4: Exotic Fruits II

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 22, 2024April 23, 2024cape gooseberries, cooking school, dried fruit, figs, fruit, fruit juice, fruit salad, fruit sauce, guava, ingredients, mixed fruit, papaya, passion fruit, tamarillo, vegan, vegetarian

A month ago or so, I promised you the sequel to 19-3: Exotic Fruits I, and now I present to you that sequel, 19-4: Exotic Fruits II.

Here’s my standard blurb about Cooking School, and how the back of the book features spotlights on basic recipes, ingredients, and techniques as part of a “cooking school”.

Due to the way Simply Delicious writes these, I’ll cover these ingredients the same way I did in Part I after the jump, along with the ingredients on the back of this card. I’ll warn you now–I don’t have a lot of recipes for these so far, so instead, I’ll suggest some recipes where you could maybe use these ingredients as replacements or additions.

19-3: Exotic Fruits I

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School March 4, 2024March 4, 2024carambola, cooking school, dried fruit, fruit, fruit juice, fruit salad, fruit sauce, garnish, ingredients, kiwis, mango juice, mangoes, mixed fruit, star fruit, vegan, vegetarian

In today’s edition of “The Way Things Used To Be”, we’re going to see yet another example of how globalization over the last 30ish years has changed everything, including the availability of produce. 19-3: Exotic Fruits I (and its soon-to-be-sequel, 19-4: Exotic Fruits II) highlights three fruits that seemed “exotic” back in the late 1980s-early 1990s: kiwi, carambola (“star fruit”), and mango.

Out of the three, I’d maybe consider carambola as the most “exotic”–kiwi and mango were already pretty popular by the 1990s (the heyday of brands like Nantucket Nectars and Snapple). Plus, which of the three do you think you’d have the hardest time locating in a grocery store these days? I mean, you’d find all of them, but you might have to go to like, two stores? When this was written, it’d have been much harder (especially based on where you lived).

19-23: Nuts

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School February 18, 2024February 18, 2024almond extract, almond meal, almond milk, almond oil, almond paste, almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, coconut, coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut oil, cooking school, hazelnut oil, hazelnuts, ingredients, macadamia nuts, nuts, peanut oil, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, vegan, vegetarian, walnut oil, walnuts

Do you enjoy nuts? I wasn’t a big fan of them growing up, but find myself warming up to them in my adult years. 19-23: Nuts is another entry from Simply Delicious’ Cooking School, and it outlines a lot of different types of nuts, ranging from the more common to some less frequently used kinds. Nuts are found in all types of cuisines, and are a good source of protein and other healthy stuff.

In case Simply Delicious isn’t enough for you, here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for nuts. Compare that to the “nut” wisdom from 35 years ago you can find after the jump.

19-17: Butter, Margarine, and Oils II

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School January 21, 2023January 21, 2023almond oil, avocado oil, bacon fat, butter, canola oil, chicken fat, chili oil, coconut oil, cooking school, corn oil, hazelnut oil, how-to, lard, margarine, olive oil, palm oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, shortening, soybean oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil, walnut oil

To start off 2023, here’s a follow-up to an entry I wrote almost 7 years ago–better late than never, I always say. 19-17: Butter, Margarine, and Oils II is the sequel to 19-16: Butter, Margarine, and Oils I–I had promised back then that I’d write it, I just didn’t think it’d take me that long to do it. You’ll see why this one took so much longer than the first one once you get into it.

To give you an idea of why this one took so much longer: it actually gets more into the different types of oils and fats–the first one was more of a brief overview of the concept.

After the jump, I’ll give some links to Simply Delicious recipes that use these different types of oils. We’ll also take a look at the back of the card, which goes into more detail about different types of fats (butter, margarine, lard, etc.).

19-12: A Variety of Vegetables

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School October 19, 2022October 19, 2022broccoli, broiled, cheese sauce, cooking school, eggplant, fried, mushrooms, new book, peeled, salsify, sliced, soups, squash, steam-baked, steamed, stuffed, summer squash, tender-crisp, vegetables, vegetarian, zucchini

Trying to work my way through more of the Cooking School entries–here’s 19-12: A Variety of Vegetables for you. This one comes courtesy of the NEW BOOK, and features 4 vegetables you may or may not be familiar with.

As usual, I’ll give you a little blurb after the jump about each one and then links to a few Simply Delicious recipes that I’ve already covered that use those vegetables. Hey, it’s important to eat your veggies!

19-6: Fresh Herbs

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School August 3, 2022August 17, 2022basil, bouquet garni, chives, cooking school, fines herbes, garnish, herb salt, herb-roasted, herbes de Provence, herbs and spices, lavender, lemon balm, mint, new book, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, summer, tarragon, Thai basil, thyme, watercress

Since it’s summer, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share my summer garden with you, courtesy of 19-6: Fresh Herbs. This one came from the new book, and is the prequel (of sorts) to 19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs. I had lamented not being able to easily find fresh tarragon back when I wrote that one–well, now I grow it myself in my own backyard.

Growing my own herbs in my own garden for use in cooking was one of the top reasons I wanted to buy my own place, and the garden situation outside was one of my main factors when selecting a house (back when you could have preferences about things like that and didn’t just have to overpay for whatever was available).

I use my homegrown herbs for cooking all year round, and it’s quite the pleasure to be able to use just the amount needed fresh from my own backyard rather than buy overpriced herbs at the grocery store and then watch them wilt and die in my fridge.

19-20: Root Vegetables II

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School December 5, 2020December 3, 2020casserole, celery root, daikon radish, grated, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, peeled, pickled, radishes, rutabagas, salads, soups, steam-baked, steamed, stews, sunchokes, turnips

I recently published 19-19: Root Vegetables I, and promised its follow-up sometime in the future. Well, the future is NOW: here’s 19-20: Root Vegetables II.

For more root vegetable info and links to some recipes that use root vegetables, read on. Also, here’s some reading on Jain vegetarianism–did you know that they specifically don’t eat root vegetables? 🧘

19-19: Root Vegetables I

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School November 15, 2020December 5, 2020beets, carrots, cooking school, ingredients, parsnips, spring, vegetables, winter

I haven’t done a Cooking School entry in forever, so here’s 19-19: Root Vegetables I for your reading pleasure. You can expect 19-20: Root Vegetables II sometime in the near-to-distant future (EDIT: done, linked).

Wikipedia has a pretty extensive list of root vegetables, so if Simply Delicious doesn’t discuss what you’re looking for, they’ve got you covered. It’s a good time for root vegetables, so think about how you can incorporate some into your mealtime rotation if you’re interested.

19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 22, 2018October 18, 2020apple cider vinegar, bay leaves, bouquet garni, celery, cheesecloth, chervil, chives, cloves, cooking school, dried herbs, fines herbes, French, garlic, healthy, herb salt, herb-roasted, herbes de Provence, herbs and spices, Italian parsley, Italian seasoning, lavender, lemons, limoncello, liqueur, nutmeg, orange peel, parsley, rosemary, sage, salads, smoked ham, spice blends, steeped, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, thyme, untested, vinegar, white wine vinegar

19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs has been a recipe-in-the-making for a few months. I mention frequently that I often write these entries months after I complete the actual recipe, but this one actually took me that long TO complete.

Usually, these Cooking School cards don’t have too much in the way of actual recipes–often times it’s more like the card above, more recommendation than actual recipe. I’m not going to restate what they’ve written here–it’s all good advice. Jump behind the cut for some herb blend recipes as well as a DIY vinegar challenge and BONUS limoncello recipe.

19-14: Cheese & Other Dairy Products

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 7, 2016October 18, 2020blue cheese, Brie, butter, buttermilk, Cheddar, cheese, coconut milk, cooking school, cottage cheese, cream cheese, crème fraîche, goat cheese, Gorgonzola, half-and-half, Jarlsberg, milk, Parmesan, party food, sour cream, sweet butter, Swiss, whipping cream, yogurt

As I said in a previous Cooking School installment (19-13: Cooking with Cheese), cheese is a really big part of Simply Delicious, and other dairy products factor in heavily as well. Today we see a lot more alternatives to traditional dairy (coconut milk, tofu, etc.) which is probably good given environmental and ethical concerns related to commercial dairy & meat production. However, it’s important to understand the original ingredient if we hope to find workable alternatives.

Not much more to add to what they’ve written here, but after the jump we’ll take a look at some common culinary dairy ingredients (check out 19-13: Cooking with Cheese for some recipes using specific types of cheeses) and I’ll link you to some recipes that use those ingredients.

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