Will green tomatoes ripen?

Some of the green tomatoes will finish ripening and the rest can be the basis for green-tomato treats. Chuck Marr, K-State Research and Extension Vegetable Crops Specialist, recommends that gardeners:

¢ Harvest all fruit as soon as a freeze enters the forecast.

¢ Divide the harvest into tomatoes that show color and those that remain green.

¢ Leave the fruit at room temperature for several days, in case some of the green tomatoes are going to complete the ripening process.

¢ Eat or preserve the tomatoes that ripen. Discard the small greens and cook the full-sized ones.

A lot of people are crazy about fried green tomatoes. They simply dip tomato slices in olive oil or an egg wash, coat them with bread or cracker crumbs, and then fry them in a skillet until golden brown.

Another idea is to put pizza sauce and cheese on green-tomato slices and then cook them in a 400-degree oven until the cheese melts and starts to brown. If you close your eyes, you have trouble believing you’re eating a vegetable that’s good for you. They’re a real late-fall treat.

Q: How do you make sweet potato fries?

A: Here’s a recipe that I made recently for a WIC program. I really like this one because they’re oven fried – not deep-fat fried.

4 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled

Olive oil, for sprinkling

1 teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Set the oven at 400 degrees. Grease a rimmed baking sheet with some oil. Use a sharp knife to quarter the potatoes lengthwise. Cut each quarter into thirds or fourths to make thick spears. Place the spears flesh side up on two large baking sheets. Drizzle with the oil (about 3 tablespoons), and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast the potatoes for 35 to 40 minutes, or until they are cooked through. Serve immediately.

Q: What foods should not be frozen?

A: There are some foods that should not be frozen – primarily because of poor quality once they are thawed. Here are some foods and their potential quality problems when thawed:

¢ Cheese in blocks – become crumbly, best used in baked products

¢ Cooked egg whites – become rubbery

¢ Cooked egg yolks – become gummy

¢ Cream pies – watery with soggy crusts

¢ Cottage cheese – separates and becomes mushy

¢ Custards – become watery

¢ Gravy – fat may separate, stir when reheating

¢ Raw vegetables with high water content – become watery and limp

¢ Jelly on bread – may soak into bread

¢ Lettuce – becomes limp

¢ Mayonnaise – separates

¢ Milk – higher fat milks will separate

¢ Milk sauces – may separate

¢ Raw potatoes – texture may change, color may become dark

¢ Radishes – poor texture, pithy

¢ Sour cream – separates

¢ Raw tomatoes – watery, limp, best used in cooked products like soup

¢ Raw whole eggs – become gummy

¢ Yogurt – separates

¢ Meringue – toughens

¢ Egg white icings – become frothy and weepy

¢ Cheese or crumb toppings on casseroles – become soggy

¢ Gelatin – becomes weepy

¢ Fried foods – become soggy

¢ Cooked pasta – mushy, have a warmed over flavor

Q: Is it true that if you heat up a lemon before juicing it, you’ll get more juice?

A: You don’t actually get more juice from warming the lemon or orange, but it certainly appears that way. That’s because when the fruit is warmed, even just to the touch, the fruit tends to release its juice more readily. In other words, you work at it less.

Try placing the fruit in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. A 20-second zap in the microwave works, too, as does rolling the lemon on the countertop a few times to soften the rind.

Q: Why do sauces thickened with cornstarch look translucent, while those using flour as a thickening agent appear milky?

A: The gluten protein in the wheat flour causes the milky appearance. Wheat flour contains about 10 percent protein by weight, whereas cornstarch is almost pure starch with no protein. Gluten protein is not soluble in water and does not break down during the cooking process. Because light cannot pass through the gluten, the result is a milky appearance. On the other hand, because cornstarch has no protein, the light can pass right through its starch-water mixture. Therefore, sauces made with cornstarch are translucent and glossy, and those made with wheat flour are opaque.

Q: I have always wondered why buttermilk is called buttermilk when there is not butter in it? Isn’t it actually low in fat?

A: Historically, buttermilk was the name given to the liquid remaining after churning cream into butter. Today, very little buttermilk actually comes from butter. Instead, buttermilk is produced by fermenting skim milk by adding “friendly” bacteria, then churned. Either way, it has a rich tangy flavor, containing all the proteins and casein of sweet milk. The souring and churning processes, however, does make the casein more digestible.

Despite its name, buttermilk is very low in fat, ranging from 1 to 2 grams of fat per cup.