Simple sauteed power greens

One of the things I like best about growing up is changing tastes. When I was little, I had an on-off relationships with most vegetables, notably mushrooms. I loved them one week, and hated them the next. With growing up coming changing ideas of what tastes good, and I love it. I can be more creative, try different ingredients and recipes, cook things that are good for me at which I would have turned up my nose years ago. One of those things is kale. Since I worked on a CSA farm and tried Kale Chips for the first time, I have been looking for more ways to use this power green more often. One excellent option is in soup, like the Olive Garden copycat of Zuppa Toscana I made. Delicious and packed with healthy ingredients.

So as I had recently purchased more kale at Sprouts Farmers Market, along with some golden beets and fresh garlic heads, I decided to try another kale classic: Italian Sauteed Greens. I'm sure this is yet another popular side dish with a long and debated over past. But basically it's garlic and olive oil with various greens sauteed lightly, and usually a tangy dressing like vinegar or lemon juice added. Also it is sometimes spicy, but since I'm a wuss I did not add hot peppers or hot pepper flakes. Feel free to if you love heartburn.

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale, cut into small strips

1 bunch beet leaves, in small strips

3-4 cloves garlic, diced

2 tbsp good quality olive oil

1/4 cup tangy thing (I used banana pepper liquid and 3 tbsp lemon juice)

Sprinkle sea salt

3-4 banana pepper rings

Step 1: Dice up your garlic into bits. You can use a garlic press or chopper if you want.

Step 2: Saute the garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil 4-5 minutes, you should be able to smell it.

Step 3: Cut the greens into tiny strips. Add to the pan, and cover tightly. Let it steam in the garlic oil for 10-15 minutes, or until fully wilted.

These greens were so vibrant and lovely even before cooking! All that heart-healthy nutrient-packed deliciousnes...

Step 4: Add your sour notes, lemon juice and banana peppers. Stir, cover, and saute another 5-10 minutes.

Banana pepper rings are a new love of mine. I put them on tuna sandwiches, on pizza, into my greens... they're awesome. And lemon juice is a necessity for life.

Step 5: Once wilted and everything is combined, move to plate and garnish as you like.

I added a little sprinkle of fresh parmesan cheese and some sea salt. It was the most perfect balance, and the tart juices too away a lot of the harsh bitterness most people don't like about greens.

I also had some cottage cheese on the side, to complete a whole, light lunch. It's filling without feeling stuffed, and ridiculously good for you.

Mmmmmm...

What's your favorite way to cook greens of any kind?

Ratatouille niçoise

There are several recipes or types of food which I've heard of, tried, or seen but have not yet tried to cook myself. One of those is ratatouille. The 2007 Disney movie brought the dish into the main stream consciousness with its adorable main character, Remy, a rat who just wanted to be a great chef. Ever since then it's been in the back of my mind as a 'make this someday' dish.

Ratatouille the dish is traditionally a French dish consisting of stewed vegetables. It originated in the French province of Nice, and comes from the Occitan language "ratatolha" and the French word "touiller" meaning to toss food. There are similar dishes in many other cuisines, including the Catalan samfaina, the Majorcan tombet, the Spanish pisto, the Italian caponata, Greek tourloú, and Filipino pinkabet. French chef Michel Guérard came up with a new version called Confit byaldi for the Disney movie. It can be served as a side dish, or made a whole meal when served over rice.

In my version, I pulled together several variations, and used what I had available in my kitchen. I had planned on a potato leek soup sometime this week, but silly me had only bought one leek, so into the ratatouille it went. While I'm at it, I'll throw the potato in there too. Oh, and a single turnip I had bought for who knows what reason. Also I had no fresh tomatoes, but my pantry is never without a can of diced tomatoes.


Ingredients:
3 zucchini (I just happened to have three different colors, so at least it'll look pretty)
1 turnip
1 potato
1 leek
1/2 red onion
3 large bulbs garlic
1 leek
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 green bell pepper, sliced

Step 1: Slice the onion into thin strips, dice up the garlic, and slice the leek. Add them and the bell pepper to a frying pan on low with the butter and cover.

Let that cook and caramelize, stirring occasionally, while you preheat the oven to 350 and proceed to the next step. 

Step 2: Slice the zucchini into thin coins. Peel and slice the potato and turnip as well.

 Step 3: Layer the potato, turnip, and zucchini in a casserole pan.

Step 3: To the pan add the can of diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then pour over the vegetables in the casserole dish.

Step 4: Cover in foil and bake at 350 for 45 min to an hour. You'll know it's ready when the slices are soft when poked with a fork.

I also took the foil off after 45 minutes and let it bake another 15 minutes to evaporate some of the juices. You can now serve it over rice or couscous, with fresh crusty bread, and/or sprinkle on some mozzarella. Deliciously vegetarian and very low fat and low calorie. Bake up a batch, put on the Ratatouille movie or some classic Julia Child and enjoy!

If you have a favorite French recipe, anecdote of your trip Paris or first year of chef school, or a story of attempting a French recipe that ended unfortunately, please share here!

Mixed seafood linguini in lemon-butter sauce

I'm very thankful that I have the ability, when I'm at the grocery store and see a bag of mixed seafood on sale, I can just throw it in my cart and think nothing of it. That's exactly what happened last week. I saw the mixed seafood on sale, and decided seafood linguini was for dinner that night.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb pasta
1 lb bag mixed seafood
1/2 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 tbsp garlic
1/3 cup butter/margerine
1/3 cup lemon juice
Sprinkles of garlic, italian seasoning and sea salt
(I added a few squirts of fish sauce because I have that. Because I'm weird. But it's salty and goes great with seafood.)

 

Step 1: Boil the pasta. While it's boiling, throw all the other ingredients into a pot. The lemon, butter and spices will coat the seafood and veggies. Simmer with a lid for about 5 minutes, then without a lid for another 10 or so. 

 

 Step 2: Once the pasta is done (~7/8 minutes) throw that in the pan to coat with sauce. You can adjust by adding butter, oil, lemon juice, or white wine as needed. Cornstarch or flour can thicken the sauce too.

 Once the seafood is soft, and the vegetables give when poked with a fork, or you're hungry, it's done!

Pumpkin seed makeovers

One of my favorite parts of fall is carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. Salty, crunchy, the perfect snack. A friend of mine decided to try branching out and putting weird things on the seeds we roasted. Here are our concoctions and my humble opinions thereof.

 This is the batch I made the day before, soaked overnight in salt water. They were simply roasted with olive oil and sea salt. My favorite, the old classic.

Indian spices: turmeric, curry powder & coriander

Brown sugar and cinnamon sweetness

Chili powder and chipotle pepper

Garlic and salt, a classic combo

All four batches of seeds, mixed with oil and a bit of salt each

Step 1: Mix seasonings, 2 tbsp oil and some salt into each batch.
Step 2: Spread the seeds in a single layer over a cookie sheet.
Step 3: Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, mix around so nothing burns, bake another 10 minutes.

 Each batch was put into its own labeled baggie.

The garlic salt was good, like original with garlic. The curry had a strange aftertaste. The spicy ones were nearly too much for me but tolerable. And the sugar ones caramelized and burnt into clumps... so as much fun as it was, I'll stick with the classics. But now you know.

Oven roasted whole chicken

When I moved into my new apartment, I went on a stock-up grocery trip as I always do. One thing that was on sale was whole chicken (90 cents a pound or something). Since I had already brined and roasted a whole pheasant, I figured a whole chicken shouldn't be much more difficult. So I got one a stuck it in the freezer. Then one day I decided it was starting to get cold enough to count as fall, and chicken soup is great fall weather food! Of course, I roasted the meat and just enjoyed some tasty baked chicken first. The carcass is in the crock pot today for chicken soup.
I took out the bird, made a nice brine, and roasted it the next day. And it turned out tender and amazing!

Ingredients for brine:
1 cup salt
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup pink moscato (because I had no open white wines)
5 bay leaves
sprinkle garlic, sprinkle black pepper
About a gallon of water

Step 1: Mix all ingredients in a pot large enough to hold the whole bird. Add water to the top (once bird is added, not before, or you'll spill everywhere. Not that I've ever done that...).

Step 2: Stick it in the refrigerator overnight (or at least for 4 hours. you can put it in there in the morning, head off to work and finish it later that night too). I had to put the milk sideways on the bottom shelf to make room for a day, but well worth the space-hogging.


Ingredients for the bird:
1 whole frozen chicken, thawed in fridge
Several gobs of margerine or butter
1 whole apple, lemon and/or onion cut into quarters (I used one whole Gala apple)
Salt, pepper, and paprika

Step 3: Take it out, pour the brine down the sink. Wipe off the bird and place in a large baking pan. Rub it down all over with margerine. I despise raw chicken, so this is super disgusting for me, but it is a necessary evil of epicuriosity. Shove some butter chunks under the skin if you can too. If there are bits and pieces inside the cavity, take those out and dispose of or cook separate. (I don't know what to do with a chicken neck and neither I nor my boyfriend is interested in trying liver just yet, so unfortunately I threw them out. Maybe someday I'll be braver). Then sprinkle it all over with spices, and shove the aromatics (apple, onion, lemon) up the butt. Sorry, inside the cavity...

 Step 4: Put into an oven at 425 for 15-20 minutes. This will lead to a nice crispy outside skin. Then lower the heat to 375 for about another hour.

 Once it's all nicely browned and roasted, it looks and smells divine!

Take the aromatics you stuffed it with out and discard. Use the meat any way you like! It is tender and moist and super flavorful. Not bad for $5 a bird.

I served it with broccoli cheddar rice and candied carrots on the side. Perfection. Now I think I also need to work on learning how to properly carve the thing rather than just stabbing and sawing until a piece falls off...

Thai chicken peanut curry

I had been dying to try out my new Thai cookbook since moving to Colorado, and had a craving for it all week. I looked through it yesterday, and found a recipe for Peanut Chicken Curry for which I had all the ingredients but a few. So I went to the store on the way home from class to pick up those things and whipped up a surprisingly easy and oh-so-tasty dinner!

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 can coconut milk

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp diced garlic

2 tbsp curry paste

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup crushed peanuts

1/2 small cucumber, peeled and seeded

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp brown sugar

RICE

2 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup green onion

1 cup rice

1 cup chicken stock

Cilantro, if you can find it. King Soopers didn't have any. :(

 

Step 1: Dice the onion small, cook in a frying pan with 1 tbsp oil for 1-2 minutes. Add coconut milk and chicken stock. Simmer 2 minutes.

 Step 2: Dice up the chicken.

 Add diced chicken, garlic and curry paste. Bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes.

 Step 3: Cut up pineapple, cucumber and crush peanuts. Meanwhile, boil or microwave the cup of rice in chicken stock.

 Step 4: Once chicken is cooked through, add pineapple, cucumber, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar and peanuts. Simmer 1-2 minutes and serve immediately.

 Step 5: To cooked rice, add lime juice and onions (or cilantro) and fluff.

Cilantro would definitely kick the rice up a notch, but no complaints here! Sure cucumber, chicken and pineapple seems like a weird combo, but it really is delicious! Sweet but complex, the flavor is fantastic! The original recipe calls for fish sauce, lemongrass and lime leaves too, but I don't think the taste suffers at all by omitting them. Prep took about 15 minutes, cooking took less than 30. Totally worth it!

Feta and Red Pepper hummus

As a spread, appetizer or snack, hummus is filling, satisfying and nutritious. You can eat it with fresh veggies or crackers, or spread it on a sandwich, wrap, burger, gyro and more. I love hummus, and had some chickpeas left over from an earlier curry recipe, so I decided to make a snack. Most hummus recipes call for tahini, of which I had none, so I created my own recipe. I love garlic hummus, and red pepper hummus, and feta cheese hummus. So I figured, why not combine it all!? Turns out that was an excellent idea, and I hope you think so too.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup garbanzo beans/chickpeas
2 tbsp feta (~1 oz)
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp water
1 clove garlic, diced
2 tbsp red bell pepper, diced
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seed
Dash salt & pepper

 Step 1: Blend the first 4 ingredients in the blender, scraping sides with a spoon. Add water until desired thickness.

 Step 2: Add all spices, mix well and pour onto serving dish.

Step 3: It's that easy, now enjoy! I cut up a carrot, a celery stick, a roma tomato and had some wheat thin crackers. Delicious!

Amount Per Serving (1/4 cup)
Calories		215.4
Total Fat		15.9 g
	Saturated Fat	3.0 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.5 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	10.5 g
Cholesterol		6.3 mg
Sodium		298.6 mg
Potassium		140.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		14.9 g
	Dietary Fiber	2.9 g
	Sugars	0.2 g
Protein		4.2 g