MUSIC
As we're walking here through the ice box, and it's cold in here, my eyes caught these
boxes.
This is one of my favorites.
I cook these all the time.
This happens to be, it's coming to an end right now, you know, it's a full item, so
before it goes into Christmas time and everything.
So what's happening now is, you've got to see the bulb size, it's going to be small.
Sometimes it doesn't matter, I mean, a lot of people like that big bulb size, but me,
I always look to the smaller ones.
I cook it with a lot more tender, you know what I mean, and for some of you who don't
know what fennel is, it's got that licorice taste, that, you know, the fennel taste, the
licorice taste.
I mean, it's great in salads, it's really good braised, you know what I mean.
Yeah, that's what I do, I roast it, I roast it, yep.
It's really good braised in all too, so, but I like a nice bulb like this.
As in the fall, sometimes you'll see a more flatter, you know what I mean.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
I always like the bulb form, because I like the center of the fennel, I mean, absolutely.
And listen, my mother, she got the rest of the salt, she never threw anything away.
Right.
She would cut this all up, but she would use quickness in the pasta, she would use this
for different stuff, and at Halloween, she would use it for the hair for the pumpkin.
I use it on top of, I'll use it on top of what I do is I cut those stalks and I'll grill
fish on top of it.
Oh yeah, it's great.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
No.
You've been lifting boxes a few years, haven't you?
Yeah.
So you like eggplant?
I love eggplant.
So we were talking before about eggplant doesn't like the cold.
Well, a lot of times, see what happens is when they put them in these boxes, they wrap
them, so.
Ah, okay.
That's beautiful.
Right, that's a great color.
You want that shine on there, right?
You want to look for a shiny eggplant, you want to look at the cap here, you want to make
sure that's nice and green.
In the summertime, when you get them locally, they'll have spikes on them even.
Yeah, yeah, I know and I pick them from my own garden.
People say, well, what do you like?
You like a heavy eggplant or like a light eggplant?
Chefs have a lot of different ideas with them.
I always like the eggplant that's heavy.
My wife always, I mean, a lot of chefs like a light eggplant, I think they're kind of
spongy, you know what I mean?
Right, right, right.
So because the seeds will give the bitterness on the inside.
The seeds will give the bitterness on the inside.
But you want that shininess, that's the most important thing.
A lot of people years ago used to go for a male and female eggplant by looking at the
bottom blossom.
I never found that that changed anything, you know what I mean?
So this is what you want to do.
Dude, you need to salt them?
That used to be a clear question.
I used to have to salt them and drain them.
What my mother did was she used to salt them to take the bitterness out.
Right, right, right.
So she would cut the eggplant up, she would put it, she would salt it, and then what she
would do, put it on this brown paper, and then she put these number 10 can.
You know, the number 10 can is the can.
You press it down and the water would come out and the juice would do is the bitterness.
Yep, the seeds are what's bitter, so that's what you want to do.
