VEGETABLE ACCOMPANIMENT

1. Chard stalk:

Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall

Summary:

The chard stalk is a tender vegetable with a strong taste which one finds from spring to fall. The chard stalk includes a thick leaf stalk, fleshy, white and a broad sheet. There are various indigenous varieties which are differentiated by their colouring, the thickness and the length of their stalk. There are also red varieties, very decorative. After cooking the latter takes clear gray colour. One distinguishes: leafy white beets, vegetables with sheets, small, thin stems and with large green, tender sheets. White chard stalk (white beets with carding brushes) vegetables with stems at coasts broad, fleshy, with white spots (sold with or without leaves, or cut in pieces).

Origin:

The chard stalk belongs to the family of beets. As this vegetable requires a lot of water, you'll find it in rainy areas. The white chard stalk is produced mainly in Switzerland and France.

How to choose:

Must be fresh and of a beautiful brilliant green colour. Do not buy the soft ones whose leaves are faded.

Preparation:

Wash them with running water while specially in the groove of the coasts.

Conservation:

As they are sensitive to pressure, keep them with cool and without piling them up. They last better than spinache, but not more than 2 days; if need be, sprinkle them with water.

Advice:

The chopped sheets can be used in the same way as the spinache.

Health advice:

They are rich in carotene (provitamin A) and vitamine C. Contrary to spinache, they are very good for digestion and do not irritate the intestines.

2. Chicory:

Origin: Belgium

The nature has its small caprices and if she deigns to modify by transplants, she can reserve us also surprises without that the hand of the man intervened in its transmutation. And so in the XIXth century, in Belgium, a man having forgotten his roots of chicories in his cellar, found them one day, quite plump, covered with long yellowish leaves which had developed in the darkness and the heat. Curious, he enjoys it, finds the pleasant taste and begins the culture.
But it is to another Belgian than we owe the endive such as we consume it today. The botanist Brézier developed the endive from a chicory with coffee, having a small root. The markets of the capital began to present this new vegetable in 1846 and we nicknamed it at once the endive of Brussels.

The endive, the member of the big family of Composites:

Witloof, chicory, endive, here is all names used in various regions of the globe and according to the linguistic regions, to indicate this vegetable belonging to the family of Composites. While in the french speaking regions the name endive or cos is used, the German speakers use the name chicory. In North America, endive is the usual name both in french and english speaking region. Only witloof (white leaf, in flemish) makes unanimous reference in the vegetable produced from a root of chicory in conditions of particular culture (forcing).

3. Spinach:

The spinach appears in Europe in the Middle Age. It would come from the Caucasus, and from Persia where it grows to the wild state. It is the Arabs who brought it to us by 1100. To us, it is a vegetable leaf of recent consumption because it knew a real expansion only at the beginning of XVII e century when we were crazy about it cooked in the sugar!
When they are canned with it, it is necessary to drain them before using them. They are very practical to prepare pies or stick small slippers in puff paste.
Frozen, they are presented in small portions so that the defrosting is fast. We can buy them nature and to cook them either to choose spinach with the cream.

4. The Fennel:

Origin: Mediterranean Sea

In the mythology, the huge fennel was a food of the gods and whoever consumed it could reach the knowledge, the old faith of 6 000 years. Used by the Egyptian and the Chinese from the Bronze age, the Greeks made a symbol of victory when they beat the Persians with Marathon in the year 490 BC in a field of fennel. Branches were interlaced to form crowns during the big ceremonies.
Cultivated by Romans for its bulb, they introduced it in England but the inhabitants preferred its seeds to the vegetable itself.

To take away the devils, nothing is worth a handle of fennel thrown to the fire, tell the wise men of the Middle-Age. It is a part of nine spices spells which we can brandish in front of the pain as well as in front of the very sharp gossip. It has the power to beat the fatal figures of 3 and 30; It pushes away the hand of Satan's creatures and cancels the bad fates. It foils the witches and all mean creatures. Its power is so big that Lords and farmers fill the holes of lock of a bundle of leaves and suspend branches over doors to protect the house against the works of the witches, especially those who lead farandole on the eve of the middle-summer.

Culinary qualities of the fennel:

The fennel is regularly consumed and in great quantities with fishes and green fruits to facilitate the digestion.
Nutrition facts (100 g)

Excellent vegetable for thinnes regimes because it consists especially of water.
- Calories: 28
- Carbohydrates: 5,0 g
- Fats: 0,4 g
- Proteins: 2,8 g
- Rich in calcium, iron, vitamins A and C.

5. Celery:

The celery arises of the wild celery ( the nice-smelling ache), native of swampy parties of the coast of the European seas (from Sweden to Algeria). This vegetable was already known in the high antiquity. Greek used it to decorate tables during the feasts and for its aromatic virtues. Very popular as medicinal plant, in the Middle Age, it is that in the middle of XVI e century that it was cultivated as vegetable. The reports of Quintinie mention the celery as vegetable dish from 1623.

The celery is offered in hearts of the base of the plant or as a garnish consisted of pieces of the stems of the celery.

6. Ratatouille:

The Ratatouille consists of 4 main elements in similar proportions in volume:

Eggplant
Zucchini
Pepper (green, yellow or red pepper)
Tomatoes.

7. Piperade:

What the piperade? It is simply a fondue of peppers.

Slice thinly peppers of three colors as well as onion. Make them return slowly to the olive oil without coloring; flavor with the chopped garlic and the chiselled basil.

8. Leeks:

The leek is a biennial vegetable stemming from a variety of garlic native of the Middle East. Already cultivated by the Egyptians, we say that the Pharaoh Kheops offered boots of leeks to reward his best warriors.
Romans consumed it in great quantities. Néron, who ate to clear up his voice, was nicknamed the "porrographe". These same Romans introduced it in Great Britain where it constitutes the "national Welsh vegetable ". This link goes back up to Saint David (VIth century), a saint of the Wales, who would have ordered soldiers fighting the Saxons to carry it to recognize between them.

Light, little calorie, the leek contributes to fight against the obesity or the overweight, with a particular asset for those who wish to make look slimmer: its fibers! Very important in the leek, they have an effect appetite suppressant with a fast sensation of one’s fill. Its soluble and insoluble fibers regulate the digestion, decrease the swelling and so contribute to give a flat stomach " to please you”.

9. Cauliflower:

Its lands of origin seem to be Minor Asia or Cyprus.
Since the Middle Age, this vegetable already honored the table of the popes. Introduced into our regions in the XVIth century, it was cultivated at first especially in abbeys and castles. We called it then: cavalo-fiore. Thanks to the Genoese, it was introduced in France at the end the Renaissance. Olivier De Serres already spoke about it in the time of Henri IV.

As all the cabbages, it is very rich in magnesium, potassium and calcium. It is also low in calories what confers him a place of choice in slimming diets. It is revitalizing, it maintains the health and strengthens naturally the defences of the body.

10. Carrots:

Originally the carrot was white, its orangy tint dates from the middle of XVII e century. Medicinal plant until the Renaissance, it was the traditional vegetable of light meals during the lent.

So the carrot, the goddess of the beauty among vegetables, has several strenght points. It maintains the flexibility of the skin and participates in its hardening.
Indeed, the carrot is the richest food in béta-carotene or provitamin A. One normal portion of carrots covers the daily contributions advised by the vitamin A. The beta-carotene in the carrot is partially transformed into vitamin before being absorbed by our body.

In boxes, grated, in slices, in dices, it is a fast and colored vegetable.

11. Cardoons:

As per botanists, the previous history of the cardoon and the artichoke are the object of a controversy. Is it about two different plants or simply of two selected similar plants, the one consisiting of the consumption of the floral capitulum (artichoke), other one of that of the stem (cardoon)? A common ancestor is probably at the origin of these two sorts: the wild cardoon, which we find in all the Mediterranean pond and which the ancient Greeks named lactos. The Roman growers, in the course of careful selections, made a vegetable adapted to the various producing regions of the empire.

Canned food, the proposed quantities are the following:
- Can: 1/2 ; 4/4 ; 3/1 ; 100 oz, 5/1
- Jar: 37cl, 72 cl.

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