A little something green

So this year the thing that I can't figure out to do with in my CSA box is greens. Greens like chard, beet greens, spigariello, mustard greens, kale, etc. So in the last few weeks Sarah and I have been scouring our cook books to find something - anything - to get us through this. By the way, I have a cook book problem: I like them too much and am running out of space in my kitchen to hold them all...damn.

Anyway, here is one variation on "Bread with Greens". Jesse smelled me eating something like this at lunch and had to have the recipe. No pictures this time, sorry.

Greens and Red Onion Pizza

1 Batch Pizza dough (see earlier post)
Olive oil
1 small yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
bunch of fresh herbs (I like oregano, basil, and thyme, but it's up to you)
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
5 cups cooking greens (chard, kale, spinach, beet greens, etc.)
Olive oil
2 very small red onions or 2 large shallots, thinnly sliced into rings
A good handfull of mozzarella
1/4 cup kalamata olives, diced
Extra cheese (romano, feta, brie, anything you like really)
Fresh oregano
Fresh basil

Make dough about 1 1/2 hours before hand. Pre-heat the oven to 500F about an hour before you're ready to bake the pizza. Rinse and chop the greens, do not dry.

Saute the onion in olive oil for about 10 to 15 minutes with some salt to draw out the juices. Once these have carmelized add the garlic, herbs, and pepper flakes; saute for another minute or two without browning the garlic. Add the greens all at once, cover, and steam them in their own water until slightly wilted then remove the lid and saute the greens over low heat with some lemon juice until all the liquid has evaporated. Set aside.

Roll out the dough onto a peel or pizza pan and cover libearally with olive oil. Sprinkle half of the red onion rings onto the dough then cover with the wilted greens. Cover this with mozzarella, then diced olives, a little extra cheese, and fresh oregano. Slide the whole mess into the hot oven and bake for about 7 minutes, or until the cheese just starts to bubble. Pull it out and top with strips of fresh basil. Voila!

Another variation would be to use butter in the pizza dough instead of olive oil and add an egg to enrich the dough. Then make a filling with the same wilted green saute by adding an egg and a hand full of cheese with about a tablespoon of paprika. Roll out little rounds of dough, about 6 inches across, and plop some of the filling in the middle. Fold the dough over the filling to make a turnover and pinch the edges with the tines of a fork. Brush with egg wash, poke holes in the top, and bake in a 400F over for about 15-20 minutes. This is adapted from Deborah Madison's
Vegitarian Cooking for Everyone.

Guest Chef: George!

Udon and Broccoli A La George!

Udon Ingredients:

1 lb (ish) udon (fresh or frozen)
1 carrot
1/2 onion
mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
3 or 4 green onion stalks
2 T. sesame seeds
1-2 T. rice vinegar
1 T. sesame oil
1-2 T. soy sauce
vegetable oil


Directions:

Boil water for udon - cook for about 1 minute and then strain and rinse with tap water until cool to touch. set aside.
clean and slice mushrooms, carrots, onion, and green onion (separate white and green parts). Mince the garlic. Blanch carrot to begin with - put large frying pan (with lid) over high heat. Add a small amount of water when pan is hot, then add carrot and cover, add a small amount of vegetable oil if desired. Stir occasionally, carrot will probably char a bit, but once they're soft enough add onion, garlic, white parts of the green onion, and mushrooms and a little bit more vegetable oil. Let cook for about a minute.


After vegetables have cooked for a bit, add udon, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. stir fairly constantly for another minute or so before adding green onion (just want them to wilt) and turning off the fire.


sprinkle sesame seeds on and adjust vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil levels to taste.


Broccoli!

Ingredients:

3 heads broccoli (torn apart - see pic)
3-4 cloves garlic (minced)
vegetable oil
salt to taste

sauce
1 heaping tsp. corn starch
3/4 c. water


Directions:

blanch the broccoli - small amount of water and broccoli in a covered pan until broccoli turns nice and green and slightly soft but still firm.
While broccoli is blanching, combine cornstarch and water (start with the water and add the cornstarch to the water), stir until cornstarch is completely dissolved.
Strain broccoli then add 1 T. vegetable oil and garlic to the pan. cook the garlic for roughly 30 sec before adding the broccoli back in to the pan. stir for about a minute. Pour in the cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Add salt to taste.

Yum deliciousness!!!

The Golden Log

This is a recipe for my "Golden Log" which is basically like a calzonne but with a sushi like roll to it. I was thinking of a way to use what I learned from the Cobbler Roll and apply it to something savory, here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. coriander

1 tsp. turmeric
1/4 C. cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 C. milk

Filling:

1-2 Chicken Breasts

1/2 can of chic peas (or dried)

1/2 can of black beans (or dried)

Tomatoes

Cilantro

Onions

Potatoes

Sweet potato (or yams)

(FROM Jeff's previous post):

"To make biscuits: sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter either using a stand-up mixer or a pair of hands (you can use your own or somebody else's, as long as they're ok with that kind of thing) until everything resembles coarse crumbles. Leave some pea sized chunks of butter scattered throughout, this will make the biscuits a little more flaky.

Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk or milk all at once. Stir a few times to wet the dough, then let it all sit for about 10 minutes to rest. Turn the very sticky dough out onto a heavily floured surface and fold over on itself five or six times. Use plenty of extra flour if you need it to keep yourself from getting DOUGH-HANDS!! Uhh....disgusting."

While you are working on the dough get the chicken and the potatoes/yams cooking. Once the chicken cooks up a bit put in the chick peas and black beans. Try to mash that mixture up a bit. Kinda shred up the chicken, and mash up the ligumes. Doesn't need to be crazy, but get rid of the big chunks. 

Mash the potatoes/yams up, add milk, some butter, some salt, some pepper. Also, chop up some cilantro, tomatoes and some fresh onions. 

Roll out the dough on a HIGHLY floured surface. Try to get it as thin as possible without losing the integrity of the dough. The thinner it is, the more times you can roll it, the more times you roll it, the smoooooother the inner parts of the Golden Log will be. 

Make a simple cilantro, tomatoes, and onion salsa. 

Place the whole log into the oven at ~350F for about 30mins - 1 hour or until the outside is good and crispy. Check the bottom of the log before consuming to be sure that it has cooked all the way through. Cut lengthwise to try to see the roll, and add the salsa to the top. It is a spicy, savory, and very hardy meal that will last days. 

Fresh Caught Mussels

A couple of weeks ago I went on a nice camping trip to some cabins on the ocean. A friend of mine Kate and I like to get mollusks from the sea whenever possible as we are divers. She suggested that we try to snatch some mussels for dinner one night. The tide was low enough on Saturday morning and we were successful at extracting a number of pounds of these delicacies. We actually caught more than we could eat with 20 people (tho many veggies), so it really is easy to get a bunch. The only thing is that you cannot collect mussels between May and Augustish because you can get red tides which makes the filterers toxic to your brain. 

To cook:

Scrub clean (doesn't do much good luck)

Pan + Butter + White Wine + Garlic

Let them steam and open up. The ones that don't open are duds. Grab the fiberous material they use to hang on to the rocks and pull it out of its shell. Eat around the fiberous bits and enjoy!

PS

There is really something deeply satifying in hunting/gathering your own food.

pineapple spiral

The Spring and Summer seasons of Beijing meet with street intersections laden with vendors selling wares of pottery, services... and fruit.

oh, pineapple quarters: real sweet treat

For the affordable sum of ¥1, the common people pause on a typical afternoon to enjoy a quarter of a pineapple on a stick - a cooling and tangy refreshment to ward off the dryness and heat of Beijing.

The vendors wheel their goods up to the street curb, pull off a tarp that covers a bounty of fresh fruit, and set blade into action...



...With this in mind, it was time to try my hand at this art of carving pineapples and see if I could tame this flowering fruit in my very own kitchen.

[click here to learn how you, too, can carve your very own pineapple]

eggs benedicite

"Making eggs in Beijing can be an exciting deviation from the regular breakfast duty..."

Not Your Average Chicken Soup

This soup was recommended for me by my teacher and it's soooooooooooo delicious!

INGREDIENTS

1 whole organic chicken
wild/brown rice
celery
carrot
onion
mushrooms (so far I think shiitake are the best)
parsnip
parsley
bay leaf
3 pieces dang gui tou (angelica sinensis root)
3 pieces bai shao yao (white peony root)
3 pieces bai zhu (white atractylodes root)
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

rinse and pat dry the chicken after removing the bag of organs. stuff the cavity of the chicken with the rice (rinsed or presoaked) to weigh it down.


chop the vegetables and add half of them to the pot to contribute to the broth. add all herbs setting aside some parsley for final garnish.


add water until the chicken is totally covered with enough extra that the pot can simmer for 3-4 hours without the chicken being exposed. Bring the pot to a boil then turn the heat way down so that it is only just simmering. You want to slow cook the chicken over 3 hours or so.

around 30-45 minutes before you want to serve the soup, add the remaining vegetables to the pot . after that 30-45 minutes prepare one large bowl and a smaller bowl -CAREFULLY remove the chicken from the pot - it will basically fall apart so be aware and place in the larger of the two bowls. remove all bones and anything else you aren't excited about eating - for me this is any skin and knuckles (even though I have heard these are some of the best parts) - and discard. You can add all the meat back into the soup or you can keep it separate. It's pretty much ready to go at this point! Check the salt and pepper levels and enjoy! garnish with parsley.

I don't have any pics after this point because I get so messy deboning the chicken I can't pick up the camera and then the soup is so good I forget to take any =)