The mirliton is always the first to go.
In a single night, yards and yards of the vine’s robust and sprawling greenery become woeful ribbons of mush. It’s subtropical, a native of Central America, and even a minor freeze — so slight as to be entirely ignored by the perky pea vines that share its trellis — will finish it off.
Which means, with the local forecast threatening 19-degree nights, we had merliton for lunch. Mark’s recipe is inspired by memories of meals he enjoyed at his grandmother’s house in New Orleans. He slices the merliton and lightly sautees it. Then, after being dipped in egg wash and dredged in Italian breadcrumbs, the slices are browned in hot oil. We ate them with the green tomato relish we canned during the summer garden harvest. Heavenly!
Thanks for teaching me something new.
Never seen or heard of this before, Val, and now I gotta go check Pete’s Frootique to see if he carries it. Thanks for introducing me to this cool plant.
I also have never heard of merliton and will have to check it out. It sure looks edible!
I’ve never heard of merlitons either but they look great. Thanks for posting the truck dried tomatoes. I’ve never heard of that either but what a great idea! I’ll save the link for the green tomato relish too. We didn’t have much success canning our first pickles and relish this year. I’d never done it before and the relish was too watery and the pickles were not crunchy. I’m planning on trying again and I’ll try this recipe then. Thanks for sharing.
mmmm…thanks for the recipe. Just bought a mirliton for planting and I’m especially glad for any recipes! Hope it produces heavily for us. :)