Swiss Chard with Balsamic Butter

Another boom of Swiss Chard from the CSA and from my garden is making me scramble for recipes.  This one comes from Susie Middleton's Fast, Fresh & Green which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest veggie recipe books around.  I like that it uses both the leaves and the stems; especially if you have "Bright Lights" chard - with its array of jewel-like colors, it makes a very pretty dish, as well as a tasty one. So yesterday I made a huge batch of Debbie's vanilla-and-cardamom baked squash, using a Butternut from the CSA and two Delicatas from my garden. Tonight I made it into soup, using the basic two-two-two recipe for all my Cream of Whatever soups, and it was outstanding with the Swiss chard on the side, with some garlic bread.  Jeeps actually put the chard on the bread and ate it like a crostini.

A perfect Autumnal Equinox supper, if I do say so.

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Susie Middleton's Swiss Chard with Balsamic Butter

• 1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar (mine is this fabulous strawberry balsamic that Jeeps' partner Steve gave us for Christmas)
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 3/4 tsp dark brown sugar
• 1 bunch Swiss Chard with stems
• 1 tbsp peanut oil (really try to get peanut oil, it's worth it)
• 2 tsp finely chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp pine nuts (optional; Jeeps doesn't like them so I kept them on the side)
• Kosher salt

In a small bowl, combine the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar.  Set aside

Wash and dry the chard.  Pull or cut the stems away from the chard leaves.  Cut or rip the leaves into 2- to 3-inch pieces.  Slice the stems crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces.

In a small skillet or pan, toast the pine nuts over medium-low heat, stirring constantly.  Really babysit them because they will burn in a second.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add the chard stems with a pinch of salt and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic and stir until fragrant.

Add the chard leaves and 1/2 tsp Kosher salt.  Using tongs, toss the chard leaves in the pan until wilted down.  Scrape the balsamic mixture into the pan, stir, and remove the pan from the heat.  Add the butter and toss and stir until it's melted.  Fold in half the pine nuts.

Transfer the chard, stems, and cooking liquid to a small serving bowl and garnish with remaining pine nuts.

Slawfest

Picked up the July/August edition of Martha Stewart Living yesterday.  I haven't flipped through one in a while...really it just does too spectacular a job of making me suffer from "someone is always doing it cooler".   And Martha has become so freaking ubiquitous, everywhere from Home Depot to KMart.  But I had to do a late run to CVS and what the hell, I'll get a couple of magazines to go with the pint of Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond I planned to sneak into the freezer and eat at midnight without sharing. Well, anyway, Martha (or whoever works for her) came up trumps with a recipe for swiss chard slaw.  Between my garden and the CSA, I have chard and kale out the wazoo, and desperately need new ways to use them.  Martha's recipe had torn toasted English muffins in it, as well as cantaloupe and a scallion dressing.  I didn't follow it to the leetter, just took inspiration, mugged the garden, and improvised something similar for lunch today, which Jeeps and I ate with leftover grilled chicken.   It's crunchy and delicious, and if you grow "Bright Lights" swiss chard, it's a very pretty, colorful dish as well.

Dinner rolled around and Jeeps was putting salmon under the broiler.  "Can you make that slaw again?" he asked.  After the mugging there wasn't much chard left, so I filled in with kale.  Just as good.  In fact it was too good:  I made just enough for me and Jeeps, went to set the table, and came back to the kitchen to find Panda eating it out of the bowl with her fingers.  "Hey, you're not supposed to like that!" I cried.  "It's kale!"

Damn kids...

Damn Swiss Chard Slaw

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All measurements are completely eyeballed

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• 1 bunch swiss chard or kale or mix of both
• 4-5 sprigs of parsley, chopped
• 2-3 scallions, chopped
• Juice of half a lime
• 1 glug mayonnaise
• 1 swirl of sesame oil
• 1 splash of sesame seeds

Cut the stems off the chard and reserve.  Cut the leaves into chiffonade - pile a few leaves, roll them up like a cigar, cut across with your knife into ribbons and dump in the bowl.  Repeat.

Take the chard stems, cut into 2-3" lengths, then carefully cut in half or thirds lengthwise to make matchsticks.  NOTE:  do not do this with kale stems.

Add rest of ingredients to bowl, combine and toss until well-coated.  Serve with something, pile it on toasted bread, or just eat out of the bowl.

Golden Beet and (Green Bean) Salad

You have to laugh at yourself. You'd cry your eyes out if you didn't.

It's spring, which means beets. For those of you with beet issues, just leave the post now, because I love them in a very prejudiced way and I don't have time for non-believers.

DeCicco's always has beautiful produce and on my last trip they had gorgeous, fat, golden beets, which are my very favorite of all beets. I'd had my eye on this golden beet and green bean salad I pinned from Martha Stewart. I remembered to grab crumbled goat cheese and I swear, I swear I bought two bags of French green beans—one for Easter, and one for the salad.

I must have made both bags on Easter because after I'd roasted the beets and had the water boiling to blanch the beans, I went to the fridge and...no beans. What? Of course there are beans, I bought two bags because I knew I was making this salad! No! No this is not happening!

You know that thing where you search the fridge thoroughly for something you know is there. But it's not. But you keep going back to the fridge and searching again? In weird places like the butter drawer?

So anyway, once I was convinced that there were no beans to be had, I kicked myself around the kitchen a couple times but then the show had to go on. I regrouped by roasting some asparagus and it worked out fine, it was delicious. Just imagine it's very fat green beans, OK?

One other thing: I usually roast beets wrapped in foil, but pressed for time, I cut them into 1" dice and roasted them direct on the baking sheet at 425. This is fine, but in small dice at high temp they will caramelize very quickly, and once you smell burning sugar, it's just a wee bit too late. Jeeps and I ate the really scorched ones and left the pretties for the photo shoot. It's all good really.

Golden Beet and Fat Green Bean Salad

• 6 large golden beets
• 6 ounces haricots verts, trimmed and cut in thirds
• Coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot (from 1 shallot)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup loosely packed torn fresh basil, plus small leaves for garnish
• 2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 425. Peel and trim beets and cut into 1" dice.

Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, spread on baking sheet, and roast for 10 minutes. Shake the sheet to redistribute and roast another 10 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning. (Alternatively you can wrap the beets in foil and roast for about an hour). Transfer beets to a large bowl.

Cook haricots verts in boiling salted water until bright green and crisp tender, about 2 minutes. Transfer to ice-water bath, and drain. Add to beets.

Mix vinegar, shallot, and mustard in a small bowl. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking until emulsified. Toss with vegetables, and season with salt and pepper. Stir in torn basil and goat cheese. Garnish with basil leaves. I added some pine nuts as well. It's a salad, there are no rules.

Serve.

Laugh.

Real Simple Barley Risotto

I dog-eared the page as soon as I saw this recipe for Barley Risotto with Butternut Squash and Spinach in the December issue of Real Simple. Then I promptly lent the magazine to my mother so when I finally wanted to make it, I had to call her and have her dictate it to me. Turns out she had dog-eared it to try as well. 

Now file this under "it takes all types" because I made it, and JP and I loved it, even the kids tried some. My mother made it, and she and my Dad thought it was "eh?" and the dog wouldn't touch it. (OK, poetic license—I made that last part up, their dog died years ago, but it sounded good)

So you'll just have to try it yourself and see.

Barley Risotto with Butternut Squash and Spinach

• 1 package pre-cut, pre-peeled butternut squash, cut into 1/2" dice
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 bag of baby spinach
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter
• kosher salt and ground pepper
• chopped fresh parsley

I still don't have the magazine back so this recipe will be a little more prosaic than usual

Preheat oven to 400.  In an ovenproof pot or dutch oven, saute the onion and squash in olive oil for about five minutes, season with a pinch of kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Add the pearl barley, stir to combine and get the barley coated with the olive oil, cook 2-3 minutes

Add the white wine, stir well and allow to evaporate

Add chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, then cover pot and put in oven.

Bake 35-40 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until broth is absorbed.

Remove from oven, stir in spinach, parmesan cheese, butter and parsley.

Serve.

Decide.

I haven't cooked in 2 weeks...

Enough drama, let's eat already!!

It hardly seems possible that I haven't cooked in weeks. But take it from me:  the original title of this post was "Green Bean Slaw" which I found in an issue of Food and Wine about three weeks ago. I was reading it in the car coming home from Vermont, actually, now that I think about it. Anyway, couldn't fold the corner of the page fast enough, couldn't wait to try it. It came out totally delicious, I remember we had it with burgers and corn on the cob. I started drafting the post, uploaded the pictures...and then never finished it.  That strike thing. You know.

So I'll get back into the game with the slaw recipe, because tonight I didn't make anything new or adventurous for dinner. I wanted old faves and old friends, to putter around in the kitchen with music and wine, to chop garlic on my favorite cutting board (and daydream of an attentive observer), with my favorite knife, with a handful of herbs pulled from the garden.

Speaking of which, the heirloom tomato crop numbered exactly two this year. Two (2), both from the "Pineapple" variety. They were amazingly good with grilled chicken (marinated with the garlic and herbs and olive oil), corn on the cob (local from Green Chimneys) and some steamed asparagus and broccoli from the garden. The broccoli also did horribly this year, something just ate the leaves to lace, but I've been getting a few crowns every few weeks.

So here we go.  Better late than never. 

It's really, really good to be back.

Green Bean Slaw (from Food & Wine)

• 1 1/4 pounds haricots verts (thin green beans)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
• 1 medium carrot, cut into fine julienne
• 1 medium parsnip, cut into fine julienne
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into fine julienne
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• Worcestershire sauce
• Hot sauce
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 hard-cooked egg, chopped, for garnish (optional, I didn't use it)

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the beans until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Drain, rinse and pat dry.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook over moderate heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the vinegar, water, mustard, honey and celery seeds. Add the carrot, parsnip, red pepper and onion and toss until warmed through, about 1 minute.

Transfer to a large bowl. Add the beans and toss well. Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce and season with salt and pepper. Garnish the slaw with the chopped egg and serve warm or at room temperature.

Apparently this slaw is also very good when you add bacon.  Apparently?!  YOU THINK????

Beet a Path to my Door

Ha. Thanks to Betty, my Punmaster neighbor, for the title. The beet crop hath indeed arrived: Golden, Chiogga and Detroit Reds. I really only like beets two ways: roasted most of all, and pickled a very distant second. I don't like canned beets, and I don't like borscht (which annoys me because I hear great things about it. It seems like something I should like, but I just don't).

As I posted once before, Croton Creek does an amazing salad with golden beets, heirloom tomatoes and gorgonzola. I've tried replicating it several times but can't quite match it, I think they put crack in theirs or something.

But the other day I teamed up some thyme-roasted beets with arugula and gorgonzola and it was out of this world. And the most satisfying thing was that everything except the cheese came from my garden.

Everything but the Cheese Beet Salad

(And by the way, if beets are not your bag, baby, just substitute carrots, they are delicious roasted with thyme)

• 9 beets of choice (I used 3 golden, 3 Chiogga, and 3 Detroit Reds)
• 5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme (I grow lemon thyme which is awesome for roasting root vegetables)
• Olive Oil, Kosher salt and ground pepper (be generous with all. The more seasoned the beets, the less of that "earthy" flavor there is. The oil you roast them in then serves as the dressing for the greens)
• 1 bunch arugula or greens of choice
• Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 375. Scrub and trim the root and stem ends from the beets. Peel if you're obsessive (I am). Cut in half lengthwise, and then each half into 3 wedges. Put beets in bowl with thyme stems, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and ground pepper, toss well.

Lay out a sheet of aluminum foil.  Dump the beets into the center and fold up the sides to make a packet.

Roast for 30-40 minutes until fork tender. Remove packet from oven and leave open to cool. Pick out thyme stems and discard.

Put the arugula into a salad bowl. Dump in the contents of the foil packet—beets, oil, and bits of herbs, scrape it all in there. Add Gorgonzola and toss well.

Serve.

Die.

Twig and Wheat Berries

Oh behave. My torrid affair with the Moosewood Cookbook continues, and I have unusual grains like Wheat Berries tucked in a corner of my mind. So when I see a bag of Red Mill White Wheat Berries on the shelf at DeCicco's, I think, Ah-hah, yes, I should buy these.

Wheat berries refers to the entire wheat kernel, except for the hull:

They resemble barley, and take about an hour and change to prepare. They smell really good while cooking—toasty, nutty, with a little bit of vanilla in there as well. The Red Mill bag had a salad recipe on the back which I tweaked to suit my own purposes, and served with some grilled apple sausage.

Tweaked Red Mill Wheat Berry Salad

• 1 cup cooked wheat berries (1/2 cup grains to 1 3/4 cup water, simmered for at least an hour)
• 1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2-3 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 2-3 scallions, sliced, or 1 tbsp dried, minced onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Vinaigrette of olive oil, white wine vinegar and honey mustard (or equal parts honey and dijon mustard but the mustard really is the star that pulls the salad together, don't skip it)

Combine all ingredients, toss well. Serve.

Die.

The greens are a sauteed kale, red onion and toasted corn salad which my friend Cyd told me about only in terms of ingredients. I kind of just fudge it all together and it's awesome (plus it addresses some of my anemia issues).

In a Pickle, Part II

These looked (and were) ridiculous easy to make and the Moose said they would keep "practically indefinitely." Love that. I can see these on top of a burger, or in fish tacos, or with bean salad, or on crostini, or with tuna salad, or... (Did I mention practically indefinitely?)

Pickled Red Onions

• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp whole peppercorns (OR 1 tsp of pickling spice which I had in the house, don't ask me why)
• 4 medium red onions, sliced very thin (and apologies to Redman who was wept at the kitchen computer as I sliced.)

Fill a teakettle with water and put it up to boil

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper (or pickling spice) in a bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved

Put onion slices in colander in the sink and pour boiling water over them. They will wilt slightly. Drain well and transfer to the bowl with the marinade.

Cover and allow those babies to get drunk for several hours. Store in the refrigerator and use as needed. Practically indefinitely.

In a Pickle, Part I

I took The New Moosewood Cookbook to bed the other night and—... Yes, may I help you? It was sensational, all right? We are in love.

But anyway, I read through the MC like it was a novel and got really jazzed about a lot of different recipes. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I start getting into yummy slaws, cold salads and pickled things, to be eaten outside with yummy grilled things. Two particular recipes I felt I needed to try right away: Ginger Chick Peas and Pickled Red Onions.

Gingery Marinaded Chick Peas

This calls for dried chick peas, presoaked for 1 1/2 hours. But the Moose does acknowledge that some of us live in the real world, and blessed the use of canned chick peas, drained and rinsed well. I also added my own twist of grated carrot because I tend to think of carrots when ginger is mentioned. Some people think of Mary Ann. Whatever.

Apparently this also tastes best when made a few days ahead, so my batch is chilling out in the fridge and I will have to get back to you over the weekend.

• 2 cans chick peas, rinsed and drained well
• (Optional) 4 carrots, peeled and grated
• 5 to 6 tbsp olive oil
• 3 to 4 tbs lemon juice (I squeezed two lemons)
• 1 to 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 to 2 tbsp finely minced ginger (fresh or from a jar)
• 2 to 3 tbsp red wine vinegar (I confess this seemed like too much acid with the lemon juice; I left it out.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely minced red onion
• freshly ground black pepper

Combine everything, mix well, cover tightly and let marinade "practically indefinitely" (I love that!!). Stir from the bottom periodically during marination.

Wild Rice Salad

This salad is made with brown and wild rices, and a medley of vegetables. With beans added it can be the main dish. And it's awesome rolled up in a lettuce leaf. I served it tonight with tuna cakes, which Panda alluded to in a culinary conversation with her friends. They are made exactly like meatballs, but using tuna instead of ground meat. Breadcrumbs, minced onion, chopped parsley, a little parmesan, an egg or even mayonnaise to bind it all.  Form into patties and fry in olive oil until golden brown. Done.

Wild Rice Salad

• 1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice, made according to package directions
• 3 cups cooked brown rice, made according to package directions
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/2 seedless cucumber, quartered and sliced
• 6 oz red cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Place all ingredients in bowl and toss well with any vinaigrette of choice.

Serve.