I made spaghetti with swiss chard and garlic chips

Found this recipe on smittenkitchen. It came out great. The garlic chips really did look as golden and pretty as in Deb's arsty photo! But it was NOT as easy as she made it out to be. It takes a lot of work to slice all those cloves super thinly. And the recipe calls for two pounds of chard! That's a lotta chard! Three bunches worth at the grocery store. By the time I de-stemmed and de-ribbed every leaf, there was a mountain of shrubbery on my kitchen counter.

BUT, the result was delicious. I recommend this dish if you have a couple sous-chefs to help deal with all that chard and garlic.

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Garlic Chips
Gourmet, November 2008

Makes 4 to 6 servings

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 head garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise though I am sure crosswise would work as well
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried currants (we skipped this) (so did I--currants just seem weird with the other ingredients)
2 pounds green Swiss chard, stems and center ribs finely chopped and leaves coarsely chopped separately
1/2 cup water
1 pound spaghetti
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, cut into slivers
6 ounces feta, crumbled (1 1/2 cups)

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer garlic with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.

Cook onion in oil remaining in skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add currants and cook, stirring, until plumped, about 1 minute.

Stir chard stems into onion mixture with water and 3/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Cook, covered, over medium-high heat until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in chard leaves and cook, covered, until stems and leaves are tender, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 5 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water and drain spaghetti.

Toss spaghetti with chard, olives, and 1/2 cup cooking water, adding more cooking water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with feta and garlic chips.

I made asparagus cashew stirfry

This is a really delicious stirfry with an interesting mix of flavors: basil, mint, hoisin sauce, lime. And it's very healthy. It's in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking and on her blog. I've made it a few times, but I like this adaptation the best.

Asparagus Cashew Stirfry

toasted sesame oil
8 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into slices thick as a pencil
4 green onions, thinly sliced
scant 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (peeled)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 a bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
a couple big pinches of fine-grain sea salt
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 big handful of toasted cashews, chopped up a bit
a few handfuls of spinach, or chopped kale, or chopped chard (I left this out. In the past, with all the mint and basil AND kale, it was just too many leaves, youknow?)
zest and juice of one lime
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 small handful fresh mint, slivered
1 small handful fresh basil, slivered

Have all your ingredients prepped and within arms reach of the stove. Heat a splash of sesame oil in a large pan, or well-seasoned wok over medium high heat. Alternately, you can do this in a dry non-stick pan - one of the few occasions I still use non-stick. When it is hot, add the tofu, and cook until golden - a few minutes. Remove the tofu from the pan and set aside. (I cooked the tofu with garlic, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, and some soy sauce.)

Add another (generous) splash of oil to the pan and, as soon as it is hot, add the onions, ginger, red pepper flakes, asparagus, and salt. Stir fry for about a minute, then add the garlic, cashews, and spinach and stir-fry for another minute, or until the spinach wilts. Return the tofu to the pan. Stir in the lime zest and juice and the hoisin sauce. Cook for another 10-20 seconds, stirring all the while.

Remove from heat and stir in the mint and basil. Taste and add a bit more salt if needed.

I served it over whole wheat lo mein noodles, which was delish. Brown rice udon would also be good. I think soba would get too mushy. I also topped it with some chopped scallions.

Serves 2-4 (main/side)

I made some Qrazy Quinoa!!!

This is a dish I made up. I was in the mood for something hearty and healthy, so I conceived of the most hearty and healthy and delicious dish ever made: a cornucopia or roasted veggies, superfoods, carmelized onions and leafy greens coated in delicious pesto.

Qrazy Quinoa, an SG orig

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash
2 cups quinoa
1 bunch kale
1 red onion
1 can corn
1 cup pesto (click the link to see how I make it. You can always buy some, but it's so easy to make yourself and tastes much better when it's fresh.)
1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
2 large cloves garlic
salt & pep
some olive oil
grated parm
crushed red pep

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and then sit down, put on some jams, and deal with your squash. Skin and chop that sucker into 1-inch cubes. This will take about 30 min of good hard physical labor. Then spread out the cubes on a baking sheet, sprinkle them with olive oil, s 'n' p, and pop it in the oven. I didn't pay close attention to time, but I think they roasted for about 30-40 min. You know they're done when they start browning and you can pierce them easily with a fork. About 20 minutes into this time, you will want to start roasting your cherry tomatoes. Same thing: toss 'em on a baking sheet with oil, s, p. They take about 15-20. They'll brown a little and start to pop and shrivel when they're done. Don't overcook--you want them to still be juicy.

While all that roasting is happening, make your pesto and cook your quinoa. Depending on the brand you buy, you may have to rinse it first. Then, just follow the instructions on the box: twice the liquid to quinoa, bring it all to boil, then cover and simmer. I like to cook my quinoa in broth, or maybe half broth half water for a little more flavor.

Now you've got some veggies roasting AND some quinoa simmering. Time for the kale and onion. Heat up some olive oil in a pan. Coarsely chop the onion, and throw it on, letting it carmelize. Mince the garlic and throw that on too. When that stuff is almost done, rinse and chop the kale, and add it to the pan. It will cook down pretty quickly--you don't want it to get too wilted. 5 min should do it.

Ok, now ALL THE COMPONENTS are ready. Dump them all into a huge bowl or pot, PLUS THE CORN!!! and mix it all together. Serve with the parmesan and red pepper for garnish.

The end.

We made a Middle Eastern feast!

YO! SG here. It's been a while, but I'm back on the Who Cooked What scene to tell you about this Middle Eastern feast in which M, Hill, Lanez, Nat and I participated a couple weekends ago. As you can see, we enjoyed it picnic-style on a blanket on the floor. Because sometimes it's more fun to eat that way.

I made some baba ganoush:


Followed the recipe pretty exactly. I tried roasting the eggplant over an open flame on the stove, which is pretty simple. You just need some tongs to keep turning them. But I got scared and took them off too early because this skin was so charred--but I guess that's what is supposed to happen. I roasted them a little longer in the oven after that to get them soft enough.

Natalie made some delish hummus:


M was in charge of falafel (I believe we used the Moosewood recipe, right M?):


I wanted to make avgolemono, which is really Greek and not Middle Eastern, but I was getting over a cold and was really in the mood for this comforting, nourishing lemony rice soup I used to get from a local Greek restaurant back in Jersey. I found this recipe in a comment on epicurious. There were a million comments after it, all saying how much better the recipe posted by "A Cook from Boston" was than the actual epicurious recipe! We followed it pretty exactly. Thank goodness I had Martha to help me "temper" the eggs, which I had never done before.

Here it is copied and pasted:

I'm 34 and have been making this since I could stand up on the stool in my Yia Yia's kitchen (my grandmother who is now 80 yrs. old). Soupa Avgolemono: 8 c. homemade chix stock, 1 c. orzo, 4 eggs/ separated, juice of 3 lemons, fresh ground black pepper. This recipe will make a perfectly balanced salty, rich, filling, comforting soup. Boil broth, add orzo and simmer until tender 20 min. Whip whites until medium peaks, add yolks beating continuously, add juice, beating. Temper eggs with 2 c. broth, adding in constant slow stream while continuing to beat furiously so you do not curdle the eggs. Add egg mixture back to remaining broth and serve. When reheating, do not re-boil - heat slowly until very warm or you may curdle the eggs. Garnish with thinly sliced lemon. I sometimes add more than juice of 3 lemons, as the sourness is the best part of the taste! You should taste lemon, richness of eggs, salt of chicken, and starch of rice, in that order and you've made it perfectly. You can also add thin pieces of shredded chicken meat (pull off bone in strips), although classic recipes don't include chicken, vegetables, garlic or any of the ingredients many reviewers added to "fix" this recipe. Try mine and you'll be hooked for life!

And here is what the finished product looked like:

Here is us enjoying the meal by candlelight:


And this is how full we were after:


Here are two vids. The first is of us all putting Hill's pitas in the oven, and the second of us dining to some jams.

I made a rice bowl!

This recipe is based on the rice bowls at Community Food and Juice on the Upper West Side. It is a bowl of rice with lots of julienned veggies, a protein, and a cilantro-lime dressing topped with peanuts! I was there recently and greatly enjoyed my tofu rice bowl and thought it would be easy to recreate at home and it was. One caveat: we have a mandoline, which makes all the slicing superfast and easy. If you don't have one, it will take a little longer, but will still be good!

The components:

Brown Rice (I recently discovered that I really like medium grain brown rice and that is what I used)

Protein:
The restaurant offers salmon, tofu, and grilled chicken. I've used both cubes of tofu sauteed with a bit of sesame oil, and also used edamame. Baked tofu would probably be really good also. Or hard boiled eggs!

Veggies: (This is very flexible - these are some things I've used)
cucumber
red cabbage
bean sprouts
jalapeno
carrots
daikon
avocado

Dressing:
cilantro, finely chopped (a few TBS)
lime juice (I usually use two limes)
sesame oil (enough dashes to make it sesame-y)
mirin (about a half TBS)
mint (I didn't have this, but I'm sure it would be good)

Garnish:
chopped peanuts
scallions
sesame seeds

close up!

Assembly: Cook the rice and your protein. Start prepping vegetables. If any need to be cooked, do it! You can either mix all the veggies in a mixing bowl (the slightly easier way), or wait until you're plateing, then create individual vegetable piles in your bowl and mix it in the bowl as you eat (this is how the restaurant does it). Mix the dressing and chop the peanuts and scallions. When the rice is done, put it in your bowl, and either top with vegetable mix, or assemble your chosen vegetables. Top with dressing and garnish. Enjoy!

I made your basic butternut squash, sweet potato+carrot soup

There are about a billion recipes out there for butternut squash soup, so I am not quite sure what struck me about this one, as I was Googling recipes a few weeks ago, except maybe for the fact that it contained coconut milk. (I love coconut milk so much. I love everything coconut actually. Coconut water, coconut sorbet, coconut-scented SOAP - I love it all.)

OH - another thing that I found appealing about this recipe was that it did not involve roasting anything. Roasting vegetables makes them taste really good, but it takes so much time, and I was hungry. So this recipe won over some of the other recipes that I saw which instructed me to roast squash for an hour or two.

I modified the recipe I found a bit, and here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 or 3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut in large cubes
1 liter vegetable or chicken broth
1 large can of coconut milk (you don't necessarily need the whole can)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
cinnamon to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
dash of maple syrup

GARNISH IDEAS:
pumpkin seeds
pita chips/bread crumbs/crackers
avocado cubes
BACON**
PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING

Heat some olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and braise until soft. Add butternut squash, carrots and sweet potato and sautée for about 2-3 minutes.
Then add the stock and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until veggies are soft.
Then add some of the coconut milk and mix with a handheld mixer until you get a very smooth soup. Add more coconut milk if desired. Season with some salt and freshly ground pepper, cinnamon and cayenne to taste.

This made enough soup for about 5-6 servings. I tried allll the garnishes mentioned above, at different times. The soup is so smooth, so its nice to have some chunks of of other stuff in there to keep things interesting.


**Especially delicious.

Poor man's pea risotto.

Hello.

I just walked in from work a few minutes ago ravenously famished. All I had in the fridge was a container of leftover brown rice (plain, too much of it, from a measurement oversight this past weekend), half a bag of frozen peas, and some grated parmaggiano cheese.

So, I threw a glob of butter into a medium sauce pan, splashed some extra virgin olive oil on top, and then a few spoonfuls of the brown rice (3/4 a cup maybe - already cooked that is). I added lots of salt and pepper and some red pepper flakes too, and let it all get sassy and loud on high heat. Then I lowered the heat, added the frozen peas, gave it a good stir, and covered it all. I left it alone for approximately 4 and a half minutes, or the length of this Alicia Keys song I was jamming to. When I returned, I turned the heat off, threw in maybe 1/4 cup of grated parm, gave it another good mix, and then threw it onto my plate.

The results were delicious, surprisingly creamy, and tasted very reminiscent of a good pea risotto. A happy, hungry accident indeed.

Love,
Joey

I made an Autumn Millet Bake...it's good for winter too!

With the start of the new year, I wanted to up my healthy food intake a bit. I also tend to fall into food themes (see last year's "Winter of Cabbage", and the previous year's "Experiments with root vegetables") and this year was no exception - I've suddenly become interested in whole grains. First up: Millet. Maybe you already know how good it is; I did not until just last week!

I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks which is a blog with lots of healthy recipes, but it is actually a Mark Bittman recipe and is, unsurprisingly, very simple and delicious!

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus oil for the dish

3/4 cup millet
1 medium butternut or other winter squash or 1 small pumpkin, peeled seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes (I used butternut squash)
1 cup fresh cranberries
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon minced sage leaves or 1 teaspoon dried (I randomly had fresh in the house)
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey (I used maple syrup - I'm not really a honey fan)
1 cup vegetable stock or water, warmed
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds or coarsely chopped hazelnuts (I don't like pumpkin seeds and didn't have hazelnuts. I ended up adding scallions and chopped walnuts for some crunch)

Preheat the oven to 375F and grease a 2-quart casserole, a large gratin dish, or a 9x13-inch baking dish with olive oil.

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the millet and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and golden, about 3 minutes. Spread in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

Scatter the squash or pumpkin cubes and the cranberries on top of the millet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the sage and drizzle with syrup. Carefully pour the warmed stock over all. Cover tightly with foil and bake without disturbing, for 45 minutes.

Carefully uncover and turn the oven to 400F. As discreetly as possible, sneak a taste and adjust the seasoning. If it looks too dry, add a spoonful or two of water or stock. (I added another quarter cup or so). Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on top, and return the dish to the oven. (I skipped this part, and added my scallions and nuts after it was out of the oven) Bake until the mixture bubbles and the top is browned, another 10 minutes or so. Serve piping hot or at room temperature.

Serves 4 to 6.

My Perfect Peanutbutter Chocolate Brownies! (Hyperbolic, I know, but so so good)

I have been experimenting with peanut butter chocolate brownie recipes for a few months now and about two weeks ago I finally pieced together a bunch until they tasted exactly how I wanted. What's here is a long "from scratch" version of the recipe, but right after I will post my shortcut version of the recipe which tastes almost as good.

Ingredients:

1 pound unsalted butter

1 pound semisweet chocolate chips

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate (if you can’t find baking chocolate, use those bitter German chocolate bars you can find in any grocery store or bodega– the fat purple squares, you know what I’m saying?)

6 extra-large eggs

2 tablespoons real vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups sugar

½ cup Nutella (yes, Nutella!)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ cup creamy natural/unsweetened peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour your brownie pan (13x9, or bigger, whatever you have – you can just make according to thickness of the pan)

Melt together the butter, 1 pound chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly.

Stir together the eggs, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Put the Nutella in the microwave for about 10 seconds to loosen it up a little bit, then stir it into the mixture (don’t overstir, but get it mixed in).

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Then, put your peanut butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds until it is melted and liquidy. Pour the peanut butter as evenly as you can in 3 or 4 rows (depending on wide the pan is) across the width of the pan. Take a butter knife and run it straight down from top to bottom. Then do this again a few inches apart from bottom to top. Repeat until you have one of those pretty swirled arrow designs up and down. If you’re not sure what I mean, then you can also just glop the peanut butter all over the brownies, Jackson Pollock style. It doesn’t matter. It will be amazing no matter what. (It should look something like this.)

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the knife comes out clean enough (though in my oven these are sometimes ready in about 20 minutes, so just check a few times) . I say clean enough because it's better if they are a little underdone; they will continue cooking outside of the oven and you really want thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifm chewy and fudgey and delicious. No one wants a dry brownie. At least I don't think...


LAZY BONES RECIPE

Buy a box of Betty Crocker or Duncan Heins (whichever) fudgey brown mix. Make it as you always would, just replace apple sauce for the oil, add the Nutella into the batter before pouring it into the pan, and glop on/beautifully swirl the peanut butter as specified above. It's not AS good as the above recipe, but it takes a quarter of the time, saves you some money, and they taste really f-ing good.

I made a Daisy!

A few weeks ago I was browsing the food blogs, and a cocktail recipe jumped out at me from The Paupered Chef, mainly because it had whiskey and grenadine and sounded both tasty and doable. Nothing came of it until Z and I became the proud owners of a seltzer maker, headed over to the Coop for a pomegranate, and went to town. There are a few steps to the drink, but nothing too strenuous, and you get to juice a pomegranate (because grenadine is made of pomegranates and sugar, something I didn't know!). The drink was so tasty that it was the featured cocktail on New Year's Eve.


Here's the link to the recipe, which includes instructions on how to crack ice in your hand (satisfying but very cold -- the following time we just used cubes):

http://thepauperedchef.com/2009/12/my-perfect-daisy-with-homemade-grenadine.html

And here are the basics with my notes in bold:

• 1 pomegranate
• 1/4 cup of sugar

Press firmly down on the pomegranate with the palm of your hand and roll it around until it is soft. (This part is fun) Make a small slit with a knife along one side. Squeeze as much juice out as you can. (Be careful, the juice can spray) It will have about 2 ounces of juice. Pour the juice into a jar and add an equal amount sugar, which should be about 1/4 cup. Secure the lid on the jar and shake until the sugar dissolves.

• 2 ounces Rye Whiskey (We used Maker's Mark since that's what we have in the house)
  
• 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon homemade grenadine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons simple sryup
• club soda (or seltzer!)
  

Pour the whiskey, lemon juice, grenadine, and simply syrup into a shaker. (Sadly, we have no shaker, so we stirred it and it was fine). Add enough ice to come 3/4 of the way up the sides. Shake for 10 seconds. Strain into a glass filled with cracked ice. Top with a bit of club soda. Enjoy!