Tag Archives: zombies

Kenepa, aka Zombie Fruit

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I’ve discovered that my kids are no longer picky eaters.  They won’t all eat everything; but they will pretty much try anything.  They’ve gone from “no sauce, this food can’t touch that food” to “I learned how to make lentil stew”.  I don’t really know when these gastronomic adventurers arrived, or what they’ve done with my “bland food only” kids, but I’m going to keep mum for a while longer and enjoy eating with these alien-spawned creatures.

On Friday I took Syd (1/2 of the blond twins – aka the blister sisters) and a friend to the Haymarket.  There were more exotic/foreign fruits and veggies than usual.  Among the fresh figs and dragon-fruit, jackfruit and lychees, were some I’d never seen before.  I was kind of staring at some little hairy ones, trying to figure out what they were and if I could con the alien-spawn into trying them, when a women started hooting and hollering behind me.  “HOOO, dems all mine!”.  She was a sketch, colorful headwrap and dress.  She had a mesh shopping bag- the kind that looked like macrame from the 60s.  She was laughing and pointing at some boring looking little green fruits.  They looked like a smaller oval shaped key lime.  “Dems my favorite dere”.  Being as how I had 2 teenage girls with me, and how easy it is to horrify teens, I decided to make conversation with my colorful new friend.  “So what the heck are those things and why are they so good?” “Dems Kenepa, dey from da islands” she said.  “Dey be soooo good! You has to try one”.  Haymarket vendors are very free with the samples, and the guy at this stand gave me the thumbs up.  “Okay, how do you eat them?”.  “Yee bites off de heads and eats de fruit inside, like de brains”.  OMG!!! Does she know about my zombie loving alien-spawn kids?  They’ve been obsessed with anything zombie for a good 3 years now.  How could I not have known about this fruit??? I bought a pound of the tiny little things.  That would be plenty, I thought.

We started trying them on the way to the train.  You really do bite them off at the top, right below the stem.  The skin is hard and cracks off easily.  Inside, is the strangest stuff.  There is a gooey, gelatinous substance.  It tastes sweet, and tangy, but leaves a weird feeling on your mouth.  Sort of like when you eat a not-quite-ripe banana.  Some of the gel is in kind of snot-like strands clinging to the shell.  Most of it is clinging to a big, hard seed in the center.  She said you could roast the seeds, but I’m thinking that after everyone sucks the brain slime off of them that just isn’t happening.  Sounds not-so-appealing, right?  Well, the alien-spawn kids loved them.  They seemed to love biting off the “heads” and sucking out the slime.  They also liked the flavor.  They polished off the whole pound before dinner.  They spent the rest of that night, and the weekend, asking if I was very sure there weren’t any more.  I’m going to look for that vendor this Friday, and see if he has more of these strange green things.  I’m starting to wonder if there is some link between the fruit and my zombie loving crew.  Maybe it’s just a coincidence.  And so is that Twilight Zone theme song playing in my head…..

Canning our way to safety (or what to eat when the Zombies come).

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Finally, a day I don’t actually “work”.  I am still getting oriented to the new job, so I’m working 24 hours this week in addition to my usual hours at work in Boston.  Yesterday was Friday, AKA “Haymarket Day”, so I stopped by after work.  There were slim pickins to be had at the fair.

I wanted to pick up some amazing-yet- inexpensive veggies to have on hand.  I’d hoped to buy in bulk for canning.  The best deals yesterday were: sweet corn (3 for $1), tomatoes (3lbs for $1), and limes (10 for $1).

Last night I decided to can the corn, as my kids weren’t in the mood for it on-the-cob (If I weren’t a nurse I’d check their temperatures.  Being a nurse, of course, I don’t actually own a thermometer).   Then I figured, as long as I was in the kitchen, I’d make some salsa.  I always used to buy it in bulk, but after the first use it sat in the back of the fridge and got fuzzy.   This time I would can it in 8oz jars (one use with our family).

I also sliced up 3lbs of onions that were at that “eat me or send me to college” age.  I put them into a crock pot with 1/2 a stick of butter.  After 24 hours (yup- just keep cooking them on low) they are just the sweetest, brownest, tenderest things you ever ate.  The finished product came to almost 3 pints.  They last well in the fridge (well they would, if people didn’t eat them up).  They are amazing on pizza.

Today, on my day of rest (while I did some laundry), vegetarian daughter (Avery) asked why I hadn’t canned something more useful.  She said ” I like vegetables, but it would be more useful if you’d can some stew or chili so we have whole meals ready”.  Hmmm…”you mean the vegetarian kind?”.  She looked at me as if I were slow (13 year olds are wizard at that look).  Then she patiently explained “Mom, you can things so we will be prepared.  For emergencies, like a zombie apocalypse, you know?  Obviously in an apocalypse it’s every mammal for himself!“.   How could I be so silly?   Why hadn’t I canned beef products for just such an event?  Well, dd and I went back to the Haymarket.   We still weren’t able to get anything terribly great, but did buy a case of (14!) mangoes for $5, and 3 lbs of strawberries for $2.   She ate 3 (yes-3!) mangoes on the way home.  Then I quickly started what I hope will be life-changing beef stew.  Last fall we bought 1/2 a steer from farmer Kevin (another nice neighbor).   My kids call him Merlin.  The steer, I mean.  They name everything.   The pig was Henry (and, yes, I did check to be sure their future therapy was covered by our insurance).  Anyway, back to Merlin.  He’s at freezer camp in the basement.   I fetched out some Merlin (?) shin slices for the stew.  After slow cooking them in a roaster for a few hours at 300f, I put them into the crockpot with the pan drippings and some of the carmelized onions.  I filled it with water to stew overnight.  Tomorrow I’ll skim the broth, chop the meat, roast some carrots, add potato and some herbs to the whole thing and can up some hearty zombie-thwarting beef stew.   But first, I’ll be going to work.  Because my day of rest is over.  Where did it go?

Addendum: After work today (Sunday), I called on the way home to see what they’d had for dinner.  Hubby said that after smelling the beef all day he thought he’d wait for me to make the stew.  Really.   It was already 745pm.  I wish I were kidding.  He was able to cope and cook up some sausages instead.  I’ve roasted the carrots, filled 9 pints with these and some raw diced potatoes, beef and broth.  I still haven’t decided if I should thicken it for stew, or leave it as is for soup.  It can chill until tomorrow when I’ll skim to remove fat and process in the canner.