When I picked up my CSA box this week, there was a box of chokoes there with a “Free! Take as many as you like!” sign.
Not being one to pass up free food, I took two. Not one, because what’s the point of one choko? Not three, because I’ve never had chokoes before, so what if they were awful? So. Two chokoes in my vegie crisper. What does one do with a choko?
I asked the Architect’s mum. She wasn’t sure either but pulled out an awesome Dictionary of Australian Recipes (or something) that was printed in the 1930s or thereabouts. In it we found that chokos could be boiled, steamed, roasted, mashed, fried, etc etc etc. Add butter and salt, they all seemed to say.
So choko #1 is at this very moment hanging out in the steamer basket, peeled, quartered and de-seeded, just waiting to be steamed lightly and smothered in dairy salty goodness (and served with some rosemary roast lamb, nom).
Choko #2, still in the fridge, has in its near future a more modern treatment (thank you, internet) and will be stirfried with garlic and sesame oil and a dash of shao-hsing wine.
I ignored the warnings about the irritant in choko goo and dealt with it as I would any other vegie. Interestingly, the skin on my left hand (which was holding the choko as I peeled it) has lost a couple of layers and my palm is very smooth. Choko skin peel – you saw it here first – coming soon to an overpriced James St beauty salon near you.
Anyway. Yay for expanding vegetable horizons, I say. I feel very Queenslandish right now.
UPDATE: First choko: Tasty. Fresh. Butter and salt were good.
Actually you have had choko before, although not very often. Very common in
Central America though their’s are very large, very dark green skin and surprisingly tender. They grow on a lovely vine which, when I was little in Bris, lots of people had trellised around porches and pathways. You could see if the seeds sprout etc etc. Buen provecho.
PS What’s a CSA box. Couldn’t tell from your link.
this was a nice post, and i wanted to comment, but could think of nowt. So I googled choko\ song and came up with the following:
give me d choko d choko/
i gbadun d choko/
i need d choko/
anywhere u c me make u flash me d choko/
wether na 4 go slow/
me n ma friends dey lite up d choko/
we no send tobacco/
if u take am 2 much ma guy u go pai oh
[...] search says no. Maybe it was at the old place; I’m too lazy to check. In the comments of the choko post, me ma asked what this CSA thing was. CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. No, it’s not [...]