17.1 Families of vegetables

Cooks learn vegetables in families. Members of one family often look alike, grow alike and suit the same cooking. Four families come first: the cabbages, the fruit-vegetables, the gourds and squashes, and the leafy greens.

The cabbage family

The cabbage family is called Brassica. Its members are grown for their heads, their flowers or their leaves. Most grow quickly and like cool weather. Many are very old plants, and nobody knows where they first came from. They cost little, they are easy to find, and they are simple to prepare.

• Bok choy, also spelled pok choy, is a southern Chinese cabbage with white stems. Its dark green leaves sit on long white ribs that join at a rounded base. The stalks are crisp and mild, a little like romaine lettuce. It can be eaten raw but usually goes into a stir-fry or a soup. Look for bright white stalks and dark green leaves with no brown, wet spots. It is sold all year, and Korean kimchee is a pickled, fermented form.
• Broccoli is a flower. A thick stalk carries gray-green leaves and one or more heads of green florets. Eat it raw, or steam, microwave or sauté it, and serve it hot or cold. The stalks are very firm and do well with blanching first; stems often go slowly into soup. The leaves are usually not eaten. Choose firm stalks with tight, closed, dark green florets, and pass over any with yellow flowers.
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• Brussels sprouts were first grown around 1700. Many small heads grow in rows up a thick stalk, like tiny cabbages. They are usually steamed or roasted. Their flavor is strong and nutty and goes well with game, ham, duck and other rich meats. The best are small, firm, heavy and bright green, ¾ to 1½ inches (2 to 4 centimeters) across, at their peak from September to February.
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• Cauliflower grows one head per stalk: creamy white florets wrapped in big green leaves. Cook the head whole, or break it into florets to steam, blanch or stir-fry. Pick firm, tight heads with crisp, bright leaves. A yellow color or florets that spread apart mean it is past its best.
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• Head cabbage comes green or red. Green cabbage has a big, firm, round head of tightly packed pale leaves; flat and cone-shaped heads exist too. Red cabbage is a separate strain and can be tougher. Use it raw, as in coleslaw, or in soups and stews, or braise, steam or stir-fry it. The large leaves can be steamed soft and rolled around a seasoned meat filling. Choose firm heads whose cores have not dried out.
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• Kale has large leaves that are ruffled, curly or bumpy. Its somewhat bitter taste suits game, pork and ham. It is usually boiled, stuffed or added to soup. Look for crisp, gray-green leaves; the peak is winter. Ornamental kale, in pink, purple, yellow or white, can be eaten but is best kept for decoration.
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• Kohlrabi looks like a root but is a swollen stem, bred by crossing cabbage with turnip. The skin may be pale green, purple, or green touched with red; the flesh is white and sweet, like turnip, and can replace turnip in many dishes. Young plants are milder and more tender. Peel a mature one; just scrub a young one. Eat it raw, or boil or steam it whole, sliced or diced, or hollow it out and stuff it. Its peak is June to September.
• Napa cabbage, also called Chinese cabbage, is common in Asian cooking. The head is long and stout, with firm, pale green leaves. It is moister, more tender and milder than green or red cabbage. It can be eaten raw, but it is at its best stir-fried or steamed.
• Savoy cabbage has curly, ruffled leaves, often in mixed greens and purples. Cooks use the word savoy for any vegetable whose leaves are wrinkled, wavy or bumpy. Savoy is milder and more tender than ordinary cabbage and can stand in for it, raw or cooked. Its peak runs from August through the spring.
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Fruit-vegetables

To a botanist, avocados, eggplants, peppers and tomatoes are fruits: each grows from the ovary of a flower and holds seeds. Chefs cook and serve them as vegetables, so the kitchen treats them that way.

Avocados are pear-shaped, with rich, fatty, light golden-green flesh around one big pit that cannot be eaten. Some have smooth green skin; others have bumpy skin that is almost black. An avocado is at its best for only a short time. A firm one lacks flavor and creaminess; a ripe one gives to a gentle press but is not mushy. Ripe Haas avocados have nearly black skin, while other kinds stay green. Leave firm ones at room temperature to ripen, then refrigerate them for a day or two.

Avocados are mostly eaten raw: on salads, mashed or puréed into sauces, sliced into sandwiches, diced into omelettes, or halved and filled with a cold meat, fish or chicken salad. Cut flesh browns very fast. Dip cut pieces in lemon juice and wrap what is left tightly in plastic. Choose fruit with no blemishes or wet spots. The Haas peak is April to October; Fuerte avocados peak from November to April.

Eggplants (in French, aubergine) come in two main types. Asian kinds are round or long and thin, from creamy white to deep purple. Western kinds, more common in the United States, are shaped like a fat pear, with shiny lavender to purple-black skin. Both have dense, khaki flesh that tastes of little on its own and soaks up other flavors as it cooks. Grill, bake, steam, fry or sauté them, with the skin on or off. Choose plump, heavy eggplants with smooth, shiny, unwrinkled skin; the peak is late summer.

Salting sliced eggplant and leaving it to drain for 30 minutes takes out moisture and bitterness. It also stops the slices soaking up oil. The flesh is full of watery cells with tiny air pockets around them. Heat pushes the air out, and in unsalted eggplant oil runs into the empty pockets, so fried slices turn soggy. Salt pulls the water out of the cells first. The cells collapse, the pockets collapse with them, and there is no room left for oil.

Peppers belong to the Capsicum family and are native to the Americas. Christopher Columbus called them peppers because some tasted fiery, though they have nothing to do with peppercorns, the spice he was really looking for. Cooks in India and Asia took them up, and they are now basic to those cuisines.

Peppers come in green, red, yellow, orange, purple and white, and in shapes from tiny teardrops to cones and balls. Inside the dense flesh is a hollow, lined with white ribs that hold the seeds. A chile's heat comes from capsaicin, which sits in those ribs, not in the flesh or the seeds. Cut out the ribs and seeds and much of the heat goes with them. Small chiles are usually hotter, but heat changes with the kind and with the weather it grew in: hot, dry seasons make hotter peppers. Choose plump, brightly colored peppers with smooth skin and a bright green stem. Wear gloves to handle Scotch bonnets or habaneros, which can burn.

• Sweet peppers, or bell peppers, have thick walls and crisp flesh. They are heart-shaped or boxy, sweet and fairly mild; red ones are the sweetest. Slice them raw into salads and sandwiches, or stuff and bake, grill, fry, sauté or purée them. Green ones are sold all year; other colors are easier to find in summer and autumn.
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• Hot peppers, or chiles, each have their own flavor, from mild and rich to fiercely hot. They are central to Asian, Indian, Mexican and Latin American cooking. The bigger, milder chiles, poblano and Anaheim among them, are good stuffed and baked or sautéed for a side dish, but most chiles are used to season sauces and other dishes.
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• Dried chiles taste stronger and sharper than fresh ones, and drying often gives a chile a new name. They are ground into chili powder, or soaked and puréed for sauces. One dried chile cannot replace another without changing the dish. Buy them clean and whole, still a little flexible, with no white spots and no stale smell.
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Tomatillos, also called Mexican or husk tomatoes, are small and bright green, no bigger than a little tomato, inside a thin papery husk. They taste tart and lemony. Use them raw in salads, puréed into salsa, or cooked in soups and stews. Pick ones whose husks have split but still look fresh, with plump, shiny, slightly sticky skin.

Tomatoes run from green (unripe) through gold to deep red, and from tiny currant tomatoes to huge beefsteaks. Plum tomatoes are meaty with few seeds; slicing tomatoes are full of seeds and juice. They spoil quickly, so most are picked mature but still green and ripened by wholesalers in rooms with set heat and humidity, which harms flavor and texture. Most are eaten raw, but they can also be roasted, grilled, sautéed, pan-fried or pickled. Choose plump, smooth, shiny tomatoes with an even color that fits the kind. Sun-dried tomatoes packed dry can be softened in oil or hot water.

Gourds and squashes

The gourd family has almost 750 species, all from warm parts of the world. They grow big roots, fast trailing vines and large leaves, and their flowers are often handsome and good to eat. A few came from Africa, but chayotes and most squashes first grew in the Americas.

• Chayote, also called merliton or vegetable pear, is a staple food across Central America. It is pear-shaped and slightly lumpy, light green, with one edible white seed. It is starchy and very bland, so it is usually paired with stronger flavors. It can be eaten raw, but roasting, steaming, sautéing or grilling improves it. Its peak is late autumn and winter.
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• Cucumbers are either pickling or slicing types, and one cannot replace the other. Pickling cucumbers (cornichon, dill, gherkin) have sharp black or white spines and taste bitter raw. Slicing types include the everyday green market cucumber, the burpless, the round yellow lemon cucumber and the seedless English or hothouse cucumber. Some are sold with a wax coat to keep in moisture; peel waxed skin off. Choose firm cucumbers, not hard, limp or yellow.
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• Squashes split into winter and summer types, by season and by skin. Every squash has a central cavity full of seeds, larger in winter kinds. The blossoms can be eaten raw in salads, battered and deep-fried, or stuffed with cheese or meat and baked. Choose squash with whole skin and good color, and no soft, wet spots.
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• Winter squashes include acorn, banana, butternut, Hubbard, pumpkin and spaghetti. Their hard shells and seeds are not eaten. The flesh is sweeter and stronger than summer squash and can be taken out of the shell before or after cooking. They are rarely eaten raw; bake, steam or sauté them, or purée them for soup or pie. Their peak is October to March.
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• Summer squashes include patty pan, yellow crookneck and zucchini. Their skins and seeds are soft and are usually left in. Eat them raw, or grill, sauté, steam or bake them. Their peak is April to September.

Greens

Greens are leafy vegetables that can be eaten raw but are usually cooked. They have a long history in Indian, Asian and Mediterranean cooking and in the cooking of the southern United States. Most taste strong and spicy; the mild ones usually eaten raw are the lettuces.

Greens are mostly water, so they shrink a great deal as they cook. Plan on 8 ounces (250 grams) of raw greens for each portion. Choose young, tender leaves with good color that are not limp, and avoid dry-looking stems and yellow leaves.

• Collards are a loose-headed cabbage with bright green leaves and a sharp, tangy taste. In the American South they are simmered slowly with ham hocks or bacon until very soft and served in their cooking liquid. They are rich in iron and in vitamins A and C, and best picked young or after the first autumn frost.
• Mustard greens, another member of the cabbage family, have large, frilly, dark green leaves and a bold, bitter taste. Serve them raw in salads or as garnish, or cook them, often with white wine, vinegar and herbs.
• Sorrel is a common wild plant of the buckwheat family. Its sour taste lifts soups, sauces and other vegetables, and it suits fatty fish and rich meats. A few minutes of moist heat turns the leaves into something like a purée.
• Spinach grows fast in cool climates and has smooth, bright green leaves on thin stems. Eat it raw, cook it by almost any moist-heat method, microwave it or sauté it. It grows in sandy soil, so rinse it again and again in cold water until no grit is left, and handle it gently because it bruises. Pull off the stems and large center ribs.
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• Swiss chard is a beet that grows no root bulb; it is grown for its wide, flat, dark green leaves. Steam it, sauté it or put it in soup. Its tart taste, a little like spinach, goes well with sweet foods such as fruit. Look for crisp leaves and clean white or red ribs.
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• Turnip greens are the long, deeply notched leaves of the turnip. Their pleasant bitterness is close to peppery mustard greens. Steam, sauté, bake or microwave them.