Foods Beginning with M, Part 2 Quiz

Answer: Madeira

The wine made in and named after the Portuguese Madeira Islands was carried aboard sailing ships because of its remarkable endurance of extremes of temperature, agitation and other abuse. It may be sweet or dry, the most common being a semi-sweet wine used as an apéritif.

The distinctive wine is produced through processes of oxidation through heat and age. The most popular variety in the US is "Rainwater" Madeira, which is light and semi-sweet. The origin of this term is hotly debated.

Answer: mangosteen

In the tropics surrounding the Indian Ocean, the mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) grows and provides a juicy sweet-and-sour fruit. It has been transplanted to tropical climes around the world. It reached English greenhouses in 1855. The fresh fruit can be rather expensive; it is also available frozen and canned. Asian markets in the US and Canada are a good source.

The purple juice is also an excellent source of stains on kitchen towels and cooks' clothing.

Answer: marrow

A marrow (Cucurbita pepo) is botanically a fruit but culinarily a vegetable. They are oblong squash with inedible skin and seeds but delectable flesh on the interior. The name "courgette" is used in many countries; the name "zucchini" in many others. Gigantic ones are grown for competition; a Dutch one weighed 93.7 kg/206.5 pounds.

In some small communities, people do not lock their cars except during the marrow harvest when unlocked cars are likely to receive the "gift" of a peck of zucchini because it grows so enthusiastically.

Answer: mastic

Mastic, sometimes known as Chios' tears, is the dried resin of a tree (Pistacia lentiscus) which is often harvested in the form of droplets (or tears) of dried sap. The mastic tree grows in the Middle East and figures in Middle Eastern cookery. The flavour is sometimes compared to pine or cedar.

It is useful as a spice in baking and in ice cream. It is also a popular chewing gum flavour. The Greeks produce a mastic-flavoured liqueur called "Mastika." In Eastern Orthodox Churches, it is added to chrism (anointing oil) to scent it.

Answer: sauce meunière

Many dishes, especially fish and shellfish, may be served in sauce meunière. The name speaks to the sauce's humble beginnings; it means sauce made by a miller's wife in French. Cooking fish "à la meunière" originally meant to dredge it first in flour before frying or deep-frying. When used to describe a sauce, "meunière" means a mixture of butter, lemon juice and chopped parsley. The sauce is especially good on trout or sole; in the United States, it is often served with soft-shell crab or oysters.

Answer: minced meat

Minced meat is different from mincemeat. Minced meat (or just "mince") is beef, veal, pork, lamb, goat or poultry which has been reduced by grinding or chopping. It is an especially useful way to make tough cuts usable. The meatball and the meatloaf owe their existence to minced meat. Mincemeat, on the other hand, is a pie or pastry filling made of dried fruits, vinegar and/or distilled spirits, and beef (or other) suet.

A less-authentic version is made with vegetable shortening instead of animal fat.

Answer: Mojito Isleño

To serve with local fish and shellfish, Puerto Ricans make a sauce of olives, capers, tomatoes, garlic, onion and chili peppers, bound with a bit of vinegar and sometimes thickened with a puree of peas or beans. This sauce is called Mojito isleño. It was created in Salinas, another name for which is "La Cuna del Mojito Isleño." The ingredients are remarkably similar to those used in the sauce of the Italian dish "pasta puttanesca."

Answer: morels

Morel mushrooms (Morchella species) grow mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, resist cultivation and are therefore foraged and harvested wild. Because they tend to be scarce, they tend to be expensive. They look a bit like an upright umbrella folded loosely.

Morels grow in the spring and, once harvested, keep poorly. They have a firm texture and a nutty flavour. A simple sautee in butter or olive oil does them nicely, as does their inclusion in a sauce for meat, especially game. Morel bisque is probably served in Heaven.

Answer: mullet

There are a great many varieties of mullets in coastal waters around the world. They have been fished (and farmed) in Mediterranean Europe for twenty centuries.
Like Hawaiians, ancient Romans raised them in ponds. Mullets are often cut into filets and pan-friend, or cooked "en papillote," or added to fish stews and soups. In Florida, US, Boggy Mullet Chowder is an excellent example of the latter.

Answer: mussels

A mussel is a bivalve mollusc which attaches itself to something solid using byssal threads, commonly called its beard. The beard is no longer useful once the mussel is harvested and is discarded before serving. A famous European dish is "moules-frites" which is mussels served with French-fried potatoes.

Another common preparation is steaming in either water or white wine. They are sometimes smoked and even pickled. On the US West Coast, mussels are avoided during the summer months because of the risk of poisoning by red tide.