Artichoke, avocado and pumpkin?

[Ian_Lee]

Has anyone tried to blend these three kinds of fruit/vegetable into Chinese cooking?

[Claw]

My mother has used pumpkin instead of wintermelon (冬瓜) to make soup. It tastes quite good.

[Ian_Lee]

My wife has tried to use pumpkin to make Chinese soup too. The result is not too bad.

And strangely the strong odor that exists in pumpkin pie which turns many Chinese away doesn't exist in the pumpkin soup.

I heard that artichoke can also be used to make Chinese soup.

[Gary Soup]

Pumpkin pie is distinctively spiced with "pumpkin pie spice" which is a blend of spices including cinnamon. It's become so closely related to pumpkin that in the west pumpkin pie spice is put in pumpkin soup. Without the spice, pumpkin is a very mild-tasting medium which will pick up whatever other flavors you put in the soup.

In my experience, Chinese people generally don't cotton to cinnamon.

[skylee]

Pumpkin pie is distinctively spiced with "pumpkin pie spice"

I like this sentence. Sounds like a tongue twister.

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

what sort of artichoke? Globe or Jerusalem? I'm a big fan of the latter, since they grow so easily in an English climate, but I've tried and failed to cook them in a Chinese style - they only really work in a big Warming Winter Stew, or parboiled and fried as chips. (plus, a warning for the uninitiated: Jerusalem Artichokes cause serious flatulence).

[chrisburk87]

As I were in China this summer, I twice got to eat pumpkin as a cold dish, and it was the best pumpkin I've ever eaten. I unfortunately don't know how to prepare it.

[geraldc]

In my experience, Chinese people generally don't cotton to cinnamon.

Chinese use a lot of cinnamon, it's one of the key ingredients of five spice, which gets used with a lot with meat etc.

[Gary Soup]

Quote:

In my experience, Chinese people generally don't cotton to cinnamon.

Chinese use a lot of cinnamon, it's one of the key ingredients of five spice, which gets used with a lot with meat etc.

You are thinking of Cassia, which is related to cinnamon, but not nearly as pungent. (Plus, of course, it's only one-fifth of five-spice). My wife uses five-spice a lot, but can't abide the cinnamon-y concoctions in the US.

[Lorenzo]

So the cinnamon in Five Spice is not really cinnamon but Cassia? I had never heard of Cassia, so I looked it up. Sure enough, Cassia is native to China, while Cinnamon is native to Ceylon. Cassia has several names in English, including Chinese Cinnamon and Bastard Cinnamon.

I love pumpkin soup, so long as nobody puts cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice ("pumpkin pie spices") in there!

Nobody has answered whether avocado, native to Central America and Mexico, has made its way into Chinese cooking. It wasn't too many years ago that avocado was a lot more popular in the western U.S. than the eastern U.S., and they were difficult to find in the east. Now, due to the Mexican food craze sweeping our country, avocado is everywhere. What do Chinese cooks think of the avocado?

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

well, i showed an avocado to 5 Chinese friends (including people from north, south and west), none of whom had ever seen one before or had any idea what it was , but they all liked the guacamole i made out of it. or at least they pretended to.

[wushijiao]

What do Chinese cooks think of the avocado?

I strongly doubt they use it at all, except for maybe some high end restaurants and fushion foods in places like San Fran. In China, avocados used to be almost $10 for 2, now in Shanghai, as of last week, they were 38RMB (about $4.50) for 3. I guess in US terms that sounds good, but most vegtables are really cheap in China, ranging from 1RMB-8RMB per kilo. When I'm in the US I eat probably 3-4 avocados per week, so I'm hoping it will start to be incorporated into Chinese cuisine!

As far as pumpkin, there is a great soup they make up in Dongbei that contains corn cobs, pumpkin/sweet potato, potato, green beans and slight amounts of meat. I forget the name. Something like 农汤. I'm sure you could veganize it fairly easilly too.

[geraldc]

I don't think the west really cooks with avocado. There seem to be only 3 main recipes.

Guacamole

California roll

Prawn cocktail

Now if a western chef started using bitter melon （苦瓜), then I'd be impressed, and if they came up with a few western desserts that incorporated durian, then I'd be astounded.

[Ian_Lee]

The US$1.50/pc avocado available in China seems to be an imported item since other vegetables are quite cheap in China.

Actually avocado can be grown in your backyard. I am always given avocado by my co-workers. Anyhow I also just use it for home-made California roll. (I buy my own tobiko, imitated crab leg, nori and Japanese cucumber,....etc.)

Is Japanese cucumber available in China? Now it is really cheap (US$0.39/lb) over here.

I tried growing Japanese cucumber in my backyard. Amazingly a foot-long cucumber would grow out overnite!

[skylee]

In HK, the current supermarket price for avocados is HKD 8.9 (USD 1.2) for 1 and HKD 17 (USD 2.2) for 2.

I like avocado and banana sandwiches (grilled).

[Gary Soup]

According to this article China has an 80-year history of experimental avocado production and good potential for large-scale commercial production. The main barrier appears to be the lack of a market for the product.

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

I like this topic!

Ian, I started growing an avocado plant in England last year (indoors of course), it's now about 35cm tall and looking very healthy, though it will almost certainly never produce fruit. But if they're so easy to get going here*, i'm sure it would be a doddle in southern China, even out in the open.

For alternative avocado recipes, check out vegan cookery guru Leah Leneman (http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv34/vv34leahleneman.html). I find avocado combines brilliantly with curry powder, even the relatively plain sort you get in China.

Geraldc: I brought a packet of 苦瓜 seeds back with me from China to the UK last year, and sewed them back in februar; a couple of of days ago 4 of the little buggers germinated at last. So, give me a few months, and I'll have bitter melon that is naturalized to English conditions and on proud display at Leeds Farmers Market. Though whether anyone will buy it more than once is another matter...

*(in case anyone is interested: simply take an avocado stone, stick 3 pins/cocktail sticks into it and balance it in the neck of a glass jar filled with water, so the bottom half of the avocado stone is immersed in the water. change the water weekly. within a month it should start sprouting roots; when the roots are 5-10cm long, plant it in a pot of compost (or in your back yard if you live in the tropics) and watch it grow!)

[chefintheprc]

I’ve seen many pumpkin items on newer style Chinese menus. Usually steamed or in soup, dumplings and even with salted duck yolks

I agree that the market is rather small for Avocados in China, but I am sure that it will grow as people become more open to new creations in their cuisine. In Beijing the little green wonders can be found for between 13-20Y, very dependent on the season.

I wish I could find some Jerusalem Artichokes here in the Jing. Let me know where to buy them.

[skylee]

I've eaten a very tasty small fried dumpling 煎堆 at a Chinese restaurant in Lima. Instead of the traditional filling lotus seed paste or red bean paste, the filling of that dumpling was lightly sweetened pumpkin paste. It gave the dumpling a light and fresh taste.

[chefintheprc]

That sounds great. I love pumpkin puree in anything. Was it fried on one side in a pan or deep fried?