Kale and Collards

This is yet another post about one of the many nights I cooked up our greens.  We had both Kale and Collards that needed to be cooked, so I threw them together, not knowing if they would really work as a single dish, but they were great.  Honestly, you can't go wrong when you cook any greens in a little bacon fat.

They are so pretty!

I don't really have a recipe to share for this one, but after slicing a Farm Share onion and throwing it in some bacon that had rendered a little fat, I let the onion cook until it was translucent and then threw in the chopped greens.  After stirring for a few minutes, they were good to go!

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Goat Cheese

The Fall and Winter is a great time to receive leafy greens in New England, but it's also a time when you crave warm, comforting food...so sometimes salads aren't the first thing you think about making for dinner.  This salad, however, was a great way to use our leafy greens--in this case spinach--but still satisfy our comfort food craving.

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Goat Cheese.

The only recipe I used for this meal was for the spiced pecans, which I'll post below.  This was a really simple salad to throw together, and delicious!  We thinly sliced a sweet potato and tossed it in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roasted the potatoes in the oven until tender.  We then tossed spinach with thinly sliced apples and the roasted sweet potatoes, and lastly topped it all off with goat cheese and spiced pecans--and dinner was served!

Sweet and Spicy Candied Pecans

From Bon Appétit

Ingredients

3 tbs. light corn syrup (could use Agave nectar as substitute)

1 1/2 tbs. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. (generous) freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 c. pecan pieces

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 deg F.  Lightly cover baking sheet with vegetable oil.  Combine corn syrup and next 4 ingredients in large bowl.  Stir to blend.  Add pecans; stir gently to coat.  Transfer to baking sheet.

Place large piece of foil on work surface.  Bake pecans 5 minutes.  Using fork, stir pecans to coat with melted spice mixture.  Continue baking until pecans are golden and coating bubbles, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to foil.  Working quickly (if you use corn syrup, you really do have to work very quickly!), separate nuts with fork.  Cool.  (Can be made 3 days ahead.  Store airtight at room temperature.)

Quick-Cooked Callaloo

We received callaloo in our Farm Share a few weeks ago, and I wanted to cook it up a little differently than I've had served to me: slow cooked.  It's summer, it's hot, we don't have AC, so the less amount of time I can keep the oven on, the better.  This recipe was inspired by a Gourmet recipe for Brazilian Collard Greens (found on Epicurious.com and mentioned previously on my blog).

What I did was very simple: After rinsing the callaloo leaves and cutting off the stems at the base of the leaf, I rolled several leaves into a cigar and cut the leaves into thin strips.  In a large sauté pan I heated some olive oil and added three cloves of garlic, chopped.  I then added the chopped callaloo, added a touch of salt and pepper, and sautéed until they turned a bright green.  That was it!  And I was pleasantly surprised by the vibrant, non-bitter flavor of the callaloo.  We served this as a side with grilled chicken and corn.

Collard Greens

The collard greens were gorgeous!

And so flavorful!  So, most Southerners think of slow cooked greens when they think of collards.  This is definitely how they are most often cooked, and for a just reason.  They cook slow in a stock that usually consists of ham hock; and the fatty, salty juices of the ham penetrate the often bitter leafy green.  While I have much respect for this method of cooking collards, I try to cook and eat food that is 1) easy (and quick) to prepare, 2) can be made with things readily available in my kitchen (I don't usually have ham hocks sitting around) and 3) is healthy.

So, here is my variation.  It turned out really well, and we ate our collards with smoked chicken my husband pulled off  the smoker that night.

Not-So-Slow-Cooked Collard Greens

Ingredients
4 small cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 bunch of collard greens, rinsed and chopped (stems removed)
1/2 c. chicken stock* (ours bought frozen from Dave's Fresh Pasta.  We keep in on hand in our freezer for occasions such as this)
3-4 tbs Olive oil

Preparation
In a large pan or dutch oven, heat olive oil until it begins to smoke.  Add garlic and let cook until brown.  Remove garlic cloves from oil, or if you prefer a stronger garlic flavor, leave the garlic in the oil.

Add chopped collard greens to the olive oil and sauté for 2-3 minutes.  Next add chicken stock, stir, and cover with lid.  Let cook until greens are tender, anywhere from 10-20 minutes.  The longer you cook them, the more they will soak up the flavor from the chicken stock.  Add freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.

* Real homemade chicken stock, not stock bought from a box or can in a grocery store, will add much more flavor to the greens.  If you can't make or find homemade stock, you might want to add a little more to the dish, e.g. sautéed onions, cayenne pepper, or bacon.

Another way to cook collards that I haven't experimented with sounds fantastic!

Brazilian Collard Greens
(from Gourmet)

Ingredients
1 1 /4 lb collard greens, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves halved lengthwise
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs olive oil

Preparation
Stack half of collard leaves and roll into a cigar shape.  Cut crosswise in very thin strips (1/16 inch wide).  Repeat with remainder.

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 3/4 tsp salt.  Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, stirring, 30 seconds.  Add collards with 1/4 tsp pepper and cook, tossing, until just tender and bright green, 3-4 minutes.

Ravioli with Kale and Portabella Mushrooms

The summer months have turned me into a lazy blogger!  I know my posts have been far and few between, and I'll try to be better as the summer progresses.  After a few out of town trips and a couple crazy weeks settling back into town, my husband and I are back on a little bit more of a regular schedule and finally cooking again.

A few weeks ago it was a cold, rainy day in Boston.  "But wait, isn't this June?" you might ask.  It was, in fact.  June 9, to be exact.  However, it felt more like October 9.  Craving something warm and comforting, we picked up ravioli from Dave's Fresh Pasta and cooked up a meal with some Portabella mushrooms and Farm Share kale and grape tomatoes.

Hopefully this will be my last example of use of Farm Share produce in cold-weather dishes for a while!

Spicy Kale and Turnip Greens

To compliment the goods from a recent cookout (which involves my husband smoking meat), we sautéed Farm Share blue kale and turnip greens in bacon and threw in cayenne to kick it up a notch.

To incorporate the fat (and flavor) from the bacon yet still cook the greens through, we first browned bacon in our dutch oven pan.  Then we threw in our greens, and after a few minutes of sautéing, added water (about 1/2 c.) to continue cooking the greens by braising them.  A little ground black pepper and cayenne packed a punch.  The only thing I would add is garlic, which simply slipped my mind as we threw this together.  The process of cooking greens with bacon reminds me of the how my grandma used cooked green beans: chunks of pig fat cooked into a big pot of freshly-picked green beans from their farm.  So good!

Crustless Quiche with Sausage and Braising Greens

What I thought was a bag of mesclun greens we received in our Farm Share Wednesday was actually a bag of braising greens: baby kale and other assorted dark leafy greens.  I would have cooked them in the way they are intended to be cooked--braised--if they looked a little more appetizing.  But by the time we got to them they were a little slimy.  So, I picked out the good leaves and decided to incorporate them into a dish that sounded a little more appetizing than braised quasi-slimy greens: a quiche!

Usually I love making quiches with crusts; a pie crust is one (or quite honestly, the one) pastry I can do well, but I didn't have the time or the energy to do that today.  Instead I made a crustless quiche.  I suppose in the end it is basically a frittata, but with a little more substance and cooked completely in the oven.

The bowl of braising greens I used in the quiche.

Crustless Quiche with Sausage and Braising Greens

Ingredients

1 large bowl chopped braising greens (or other leafy greens, such as chopped kale, chard, spinach, turnip greens, or dandelion greens)

1 small package hot sausage

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 c. 1% milk

1/2 c. plain yogurt*

Approx. 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

5 eggs

* Usually quiches are made with heavy cream; this is my version of a quiche using yogurt instead.  If you prefer, you can substitute the yogurt for heavy cream.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees with rack in center.  Butter 10-inch pie pan and line with fresh bread crumbs.  In large saucepan, sauté chopped onions with sausage until sausage is cooked through and broken up into crumbles.  Add chopped greens, and sauté until greens are tender, or turn a bright green (3-5 minutes).  Spoon out sausage and greens into pie dish, carefully leaving residual liquid in saucepan (this will prevent your quiche from retaining too much liquid).  Sprinkle sausage and greens with shredded cheddar.  In separate bowl whisk together 5 eggs with yogurt and milk.  Pour egg mixture over sausage and greens, and place in oven for 35-45 minutes, or until center of quiche is cooked through.

This would be great served with a fresh tomato salad and a warm biscuit.

Blanched Greens with Mustard Vinaigrette

Spring time is here (sort of, it's still chilly outside) and our Farm Share is showing more signs of Summer produce (see my next post!).  However, despite the arrival of new produce we still face the challenge of cooking and consuming copious amounts of greens.  The challenge is not in consuming the greens (we love them--they are always so flavorful and of course are so healthy!) but in switching up recipes and introducing different flavors to the weekly rotation.  Doing that successfully with dark leafy greens can be a challenge.

I previously posted a Swiss chard with olives and lemon recipe that was a nice change.  Today I'm posting an easy dish using the mustard vinaigrette recipe I posted before.

I started with red Russian kale...

...and turnip greens.

After washing and cutting the stems off both varieties, I threw the leaves into a pot of boiled water until tender, about 5 minutes.

Directly after boiling I submersed all the leaves in a bowl of ice water for just a minute or so.  I then placed the greens in a colander and let the water drain from the greens for about 30 minutes.  I also patted the leaves dry with a towel (they tend to hold a lot of water, and the dryer the greens, the better the mustard vinaigrette will coat them).  Finally, I tossed the greens with the mustard vinaigrette (about 1/4-1/2 c. total dressing, to taste and proportional to the number of greens prepared) and served cold.

Swiss Chard with Olives and Lemon

Friday night meal, post 3.

Look how gorgeous this rainbow chard is!!

This next picture was snapped as my husband chopped the leaves.  So pretty!

I wanted to do something a little different than what we have done in the past with Swiss chard (e.g., something other than sautéing it in olive oil and garlic).  So I found a recipe using olives and lemon.  The flavors ended up working really well with the risotto: they were a nice, salty compliment to the creamy dish.

Swiss Chard with Olives and Lemon

(from Bon Appétit)

Ingredients

3 large bunches Swiss chard (about 2 1/4 lbs. total)

5 tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1/3 c. quartered pitted oil-cured black olives (2-3 ounces)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbs. fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Cut stem from center of each chard leaf.  Slice stems crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces; place in medium bowl.  Cut leaves crosswise into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips.

Bring large pot of water to boil; salt generously.  Add chard stems; cook until just tender, 3-4 minutes.  Add chard leaves.  Cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes.  Drain in large collander, pressing out any water.  Note: this can be made 2 hours ahead.  Let stand in colander at room temperature.

Heat 4 tbs. oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat.  Add olives and garlic.  Sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add chard and chard stems.  Toss until heated through and any remaining water evaporates, about 4 minutes.  Mix in lemon juice and remaining 1 tbs. oil; season to taste with salt and pepper.  Transfer to bowl and serve.

Here is how the Friday night meal turned out:

The chard was delicious with the risotto, and the parsnips and carrots were like dessert (sweet and buttery).  Thank you, Farm Share, for this delicious meal!

Risotto with Kale

Risotto is such a delicious, satisfying, and diverse dish--I don't make it nearly often enough.  Last night we got home late, were starving, and wanted to use some of our dark leafy greens but do something other than braise or sauté them.  So, we threw them in a risotto.

We didn't follow a recipe, but you can find something similar to what we did here.

What's nice about risotto is you can simply follow the directions on the Arborio rice box but add different ingredients according to what you're feeling: seafood (my favorite!), mushrooms, butternut squash, asparagus, sausage...the list goes on.  For our dish, we sautéed some onions and garlic in olive oil.  I then added some vegetarian italian sausage that we had.  After that cooked for a while, we added the risotto, let that sauté briefly with the onion and sausage, then started adding vegetable broth.  As the Arborio rice soaked up the vegetable broth, we added more, finally throwing in the kale and tomatoes.  I threw in some oregano, ground pepper, and red pepper flakes, and the dish was done in about 30-40 minutes.

Sautéing in our risotto pan.

The finished product!

Root Vegetable Curry

What to do with a slew of random vegetables that must be eaten before our next Farm Share arrives 2 days from now?  This was the challenge we were presented with tonight.  We wanted something different from our usual fare that would use up a lot of vegetables and make good leftovers for the week to come (leftovers are key for to-go lunches during the week!).

Here is what we were working with: green Swiss chard, a huge turnip, celery root (or celeriac), carrots, and parsnips.  We did not follow a recipe for this: we just chopped up all the veggies, threw them in our dutch oven with vegetable broth and curry, and made vegetable-laden curry dish.  I don't think you can really go wrong with curry!  I have to thank one of my readers for their suggestion of using turnips in a curry--that was the inspiration for throwing all these vegetables together and making this dish.

ALL the veggies chopped and ready to go.

We used a dutch oven simply to fit all the vegetables we had to cook!

We first heated some olive oil in our dutch oven and added onion and garlic.  Once the onion was translucent, we added the harder vegetables (carrots and parsnips), along with minced garlic and minced hot pepper.  Then we added curry powder and vegetable broth.  Once these had time to get a little cooked through, we added the turnip, followed by more broth and curry powder.  We let this cook for about 5 minutes.  Then we added the celery root and chard, along with more broth and curry.  We cooked until the vegetables were tender and they had taken on the flavor of the curry, all-in-all about 15-20 minutes total.  I would estimate that I used about 6 tsp. curry all together, perhaps a little more.  I also shook in some cayenne pepper, to bump up the heat a little.

Served on a bed of Basmati rice, this was a nice change from how we often use our produce, and a dish that used FIVE different types of vegetables from our Farm Share!

3/10 Farm Share Arrival

We welcomed another Farm Share box last night and are excited about a few arrivals we haven't seen for a while: Lacitano (or blue) kale, bok choy, celery root, and zucchini.  We also received red leaf lettuce, grapefruit, baby spinach, flat leaf parsley, sweet potatoes, a large beet, and apples.

I will be out of town until next Wednesday, at which point I'll have another weekly delivery update and lots of eating and cooking to catch up on.  Until then, here are a few recipes to leave you with for this week while I'm away:

Spaghetti with Braised Kale (from Bon Appétit)

Celery Root and Apple Soup (you can add parsnips, too)

Potato and Celery Root Gratin with Fontina Cheese (we made this before with our root vegetables, very good!)

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

Potato, Sausage and Kale Frittata

And last (but certainly not least):

Ginger-Garlic Bok Choy

Ingredients
1 bok choy cabbage.  Separate leafy tops from stems and chop into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped into pieces
handful of snow peas (optional)
handful of shiitake mushrooms, chopped (optional)
1 tbs. minced fresh ginger
1/4 c. oil (vegetable or olive)
1/8 c. soy sauce
4-6 drops toasted Sesame Oil
Red pepper flakes, to taste

Directions
Heat oil in pan (Wok or frying pan) until it is at a very high heat.  Add chopped stalks of bok choy, stir until they become tender.  Add remaining vegetables (red pepper, snow peas and mushrooms).  Stir.  Add ginger, garlic and soy sauce.  Stir and allow to become tender.  Then add leafy tops of bok choy.  Add drops of sesame oil, and then red pepper flakes to taste.

This all cooks quickly!  It takes approximately 8-10 minutes to cook everything, so you are constantly stirring and adding ingredients.

Adding the leafy tops of bok choy later keeps them from getting overcooked.  We serve this on top of a bed of steamed brown rice.  Delicious and healthy!


Until next week, happy eating!

Parsley Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Green Swiss Chard and Shrimp

We receive parsley somewhat frequently in our Farm Share, and I have to be honest that I haven't done much with it.  I did some recipe searching, which lead me to parsley pesto.  We had shrimp we needed to cook and the parsley pesto seemed like a good fit, so we went with it.  To use more Farm Share ingredients we also added our green Swiss chard.  I wasn't sure how the pesto and chard would work in the pasta, but it turned out really well!  I think the lemony fresh parsley flavor and ricotta added a nice balance to both the shrimp and dark leafy green.  I imagine it would work great with chicken, too.

Parsley Pesto

(recipe from Epicurious.com)

Ingredients

2 c. (packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves (from 2 bunches)

1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbs. pine nuts, toasted

2 tbs. fresh lemon juice

2 tbs. water

1 small garlic clove, peeled.

Directions

Blend all ingredients together in food processor until almost smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.  (I would like to note that I used 1 bunch of parsley and added about 1 c. ricotta.  I thought the parsley flavor was strong enough with the 1 c. parsley and ricotta, so you may want to start with 1 c. and add more if you prefer a stronger parsley flavor.  We only used about 2/3 of the total pesto volume in our pasta.)

Chard in pasta?  Not knowing how this dark leafy green would blend with the rest of the flavors, we threw it in simply to use it and it turned out better than expected!

For preparation, you can follow directions I previously posted (the Non-Recipe Recipe for Cooking Kale), or look here on Epicurious for more specific but similar directions.  We did the same thing here where we separated the leaves from the stalks, chopped up the stalks and sautéed in olive oil with onion and garlic.  Once the stalks are softened, we threw them and the onions in a pan with the chopped chard leaves and sautéed for another 3-5 minutes.

The pasta was boiled and strained with about six chopped sundried tomatoes.  Once the greens were cooked through a little bit, the pasta and sundried tomatoes were added, along with the shrimp and mushrooms.  This was cooked until the shrimp started to turn pink, then pesto was added, and then all ingredients were further cooked until the shrimp were done, about another 5 minutes.  

And the finished product!  Our shrimp were from Maine--not quite sure if that qualifies as  local--but in New England everything seems so close, we'll call them local fare.  Parsley, onion, and green Swiss chard were from our Farm Share.  Thanks for another delicious dinner (and lunch for the next day)!

Sweet Kale

When we first started receiving hearty Winter greens we didn't know what to do with them.  We both had always eaten spinach and other lettuces, but we had never really purchased or consumed many dark leafy greens (with the exception of Collard Greens; we are from the South).

Once you have an understanding of how to cook Kale or Swiss Chard or Dandelion Greens, I feel like you can do a lot of fun experimenting and add favorite flavors or spices to make a dish all your own.

Here, I simply added Golden Raisins to the Kale sautéed in garlic and red onion.

Non-Recipe Recipe for Cooking Kale

Cut out stems from Kale leaves and set aside.  Cut stems in 1-inch pieces.  Roll leaves together and chop in 1-inch pieces.  In a saucepan, sautée onion and garlic in oil until onion becomes soft.  Add stems to pan and let cook for 3-5 minutes.  Add chopped Kale to pan, and begin sautéing.  Also add some water, enabling the Kale to cook through and become soft.  Cook for 10-15 minutes until Kale is bright green and softened.

From here, add whatever other ingredients sound good: pine nuts, raisins, peppers, chile powder, etc.  Adding a fatty meat to the onion and garlic before adding the Kale is a way to guarantee additional flavor, but you don't have to add fat to make a Kale dish delicious.

Getaway Weekend with Foodies

Last weekend, my husband and I took a trip with friends into the mountains of PA.  It was wonderful to get away, and we all soaked up the time relaxing...and eating!  We had fantastic fare...from Persian the first night to poached eggs for breakfast one morning and quiche the next.  I realized when I got home that I didn't take enough pictures of food!

We were in charge of dinner one night, and we had fun with it.  For the weekend we packed up an entire box of Farm Share produce to cook with: grapefruit and oranges for fruit salad one morning, greens, peppers, and potatoes for dinner.  We didn't end up actually using everything we brought, but we had plenty to feed a cabin of 6 people for at least a couple meals.

For the dinner we were in charge of, my husband smoked an 8-lb. brisket (our first purchase at Savenor's, one of the best places to find local, grass-fed beef in Boston).   He takes no credit for the skill involved in smoking meat, but every time he does it the results are amazing.

With the brisket we sautéed some green and red swiss chard (from our Farm Share).  I also cooked a casserole of spicy mac & cheese and baked slivers of beets and sweet potatoes for a side of "chips" (beets and potatoes also from our Farm Share).

Our sweet potato and beet chips.

Sautéed Swiss Chard

There's really no recipe we follow, but in general, when cooking these bitter, leafy greens, you want to cut out the stems from the leaf.  In a pan, sauté a yellow onion in olive oil (the proportion of onion to chard depends on personal taste and the volume of greens with which you are cooking), add some garlic (2-3 minced cloves), then add the stems.  Once the stems have begun to cook through add the leafy greens.  I typically throw in some water, or broth if I have it, to let the greens soften and steam, and then cook for 8-10 minutes.

A more formal recipe for this same approach to cooking chard can be found here, on Epicurious.com.

Sweet Potato and Beet Chips

I was going to attempt to fry these, but my friend had the brilliant idea of baking them.  

Slice the sweet potatoes and beets on a mandoline at 1/16" thickness.  Next, toss the slices in olive oil and arrange on baking sheets (so as they are not touching) and bake in the oven at 450 degrees (they turn crispy in about 5 minutes, but keep your eye on them so as not to burn them).

I made the mistake tossing the potato and beet slices in a mixture of salt and finely chopped rosemary before baking them.  They ended up being too salty.  Instead, toss the chips in a salt mixture after they have been baked and cooled.  

The idea to do sweet potato and been chips was from our Farm Share newsletter.  Thank you!

Tatsoi Stir Fry

Tatsoi is a leafy green that we received in the Farm Share the week of 2/10.  Our Farm Share newsletter included a recipe for a cold salad tatsoi that had a ginger/sesame base, and from that we drew inspiration to make a sesame/ginger stir fry with more of our vegetables from the share.

Using a wok, we heated up a little oil, threw in the carrots, then we added some water chestnuts, mushrooms and bamboo shoots.  To season, we added minced fresh ginger and some red pepper flakes, along with toasted sesame oil and soy sauce.  Lastly we threw in the tatsoi, barely wilted the veggies, and then served on a bed of brown rice.

Cooking with Kale

So one of the other popular items during the winter in our Farm Share, aside from root vegetables, is hearty winter greens.  We've turned them into soups, put them in lasagna...but this time we just sauteed them up with some bacon, pine nuts and garlic and had them as a side.  Delicious!

(Recipe from Gourmet, found on epicurious.com.  We halved this recipe for the two of us and added pine nuts.)

Winter Greens with Bacon

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 lbs kale (about 4 bunches), tough stems and center ribs cut off and discarded (we also added collard greens because we had them)

* 10 slices bacon (1/2 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch pieces

* 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

* 2 c. water

Preparation

Stack a few kale leaves and roll lengthwise into a cigar shape.  Cut crosswise into 1/4-inch wide strips with a sharp knife.  Repeat with remaining leaves.

Cook bacon in a wide 6- to 8-qt heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, then transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.  Pour off and discard all but 3 tbs fat from pot, then cook garlic in remaining fat over moderately low heat, stirring, until pale golden, about 30 seconds.  Add kale (pot will be full) and cook, turning with tongs, until wilted and bright green, about 1 minute.  Add water and simmer, partially covered, until just tender, 6-10 minutes.  Toss with bacon and salt and pepper to taste.