fast food: a fake "bouillabaisse" and some garlic flatbread

A friend recently told me many of my recipes on the blog were "involved." Or fancy, or something along those lines. :) I do like to experiment and try new recipes, but a lot of my cooking is also super quick and simple. This is a recipe inspired by one of the recipes in Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express - 20 minute meals ("Fast Fish Soup"). Michael and I set the timer to see if we could make it in 20 minutes, and it took 22 minutes, but we also made a garlic flatbread with some left over pizza dough I had in the fridge. So all in all, pretty quick. I will definitely try more recipes from this book this winter. I also like Bittman's style - it encourages improvisation with its "narrative" style recipes rather than exact measurements. I took some frozen fish out of the freezer yesterday, and everything else was on-hand in the pantry or fridge.

quick fish soup
1 chopped onion
1 minced/pressed clove of garlic
1/2 tsp paprika
4 cups stock (fish, veg, or chicken)
1 can chopped tomatoes with juice
pinch saffron
salt and pepper
a couple of leaves of kale, de-stemmed and chopped roughly
1 lb white fish, cut into chunks
garnish: chopped parsley

1. Cook onion, garlic and paprika with a bit of olive oil until onion is soft.
2. Add stock, tomatoes, saffron, salt and pepper, kale, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for five minutes
3. Add fish and cook until cooked through (about five minutes).
4. Serve garnished with parsley and with bread.

garlic flatbread
we had leftover pizza dough, so I just spread it out on a cookie sheet, cranked up the oven high (500), and spread olive oil and pressed garlic on the dough, baked until brown (about 5-10 minutes).

holiday salads: crispy kale and brussels sprouts salad with pecorino and almonds

photo credit: Stella Chen (updated Feb 2014)

I haven't posted in a while...been busy with life lately...And with our CSA a lot of our meals have been improvised, including a lot of frittata and roasted vegetable dishes to use up whatever random roots or vegetables we've received. It's made me a better cook I think - needing to think of improvisations. But a couple of friends have asked me recently what happened to my blog, so I thought I would post a few recipes around the holidays. I made this salad for Thanksgiving. The lemon and dijon vinaigrette make it a bright salad to complement other (heavier) sides. I've made it a few times since and will make it again on Christmas Eve.

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 T Dijon mustard
1 T minced shallot
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 large bunches of Tuscan kale (about 1 1/2 pounds total), center stem discarded, leaves thinly sliced
12 ounces brussels sprouts, trimmed, cut in half, then cut whisper-thin
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup almonds with skins, coarsely chopped
1 cup finely grated Pecorino

1. mix vinaigrette: lemon juice, dijon, with minced shallot and grated garlic, salt and pepper, set aside.

2. prep kale: fold the leaf over and hold the leaf with one hand, so you can rip out the tough stem with the other. then stack the leaves, roll together into a fat wad, and cut in thin slices (chiffonade). Cut brussels sprouts (trim stem, slice in half, then slice thinly). 

3. toast almonds with a bit of oil in a pan. salt lightly. 

3. Add 1/3 cup oil to dressing, whisk. 

When you're ready to serve, mix everything together. If prepping in advance, you can keep toasted almonds, cheese, dressing, and kale mixture separate. 

The recipe is from epicurious. 

another raw kale salad + a very green frittata

This is me using up more of our great CSA veggies. Simple but delicious. Raw kale, cut into ribbons, tossed with some pea shoots. Toast some walnuts (or pecans), add some cranberries (or cherries) for a little sweetness.

My other recipe did not photograph quite as nicely, but it was delicious and it did make use of three of our CSA vegetables: leeks, squash, and more of the pea shoots. Frittata is one of those great dishes where you can toss in whatever is in the fridge that you need to use up. I had a small piece of white cheddar cheese that got grated in, but Parmesan or Gruyere would be good, too.

I'm not going to write out a "recipe," but here is what I put in it:

very green frittata with caramelized onion, squash and leeks
5 eggs, 1 leek, 1/2 large onion, 2 baby patty-pan squash (could use 1 small zucchini), pea shoots (handful), parsley (1/2 cup), salt and pepper, 1/2 cup cheese (parmesan, or Gruyere, or cheddar)

Brown Market Shares: Week 1 (+ recipe for penne with kale pesto)

Michael and I signed up for a weekly share of vegetables through a program at Brown called "Market Shares." It's like a CSA, but they work with multiple farms instead of just one. The program is only open to Brown students, faculty and staff and the pick-up is conveniently on campus. I was also super excited that they also had an option to sign up for a dairy and bread share. So we will be getting a loaf of bread each week from Seven Stars Bakery (as close as I will come to Ann Arbor's Zingermann's here), and cheese and yogurt from local Narragansett Creamery. This is this week's installment:  kale, leeks, collard greens, scallions, patty-pan squash, pea greens, apples, garlic. Yum yum. It's a lot of greens. Kale pesto pasta for dinner... (nothing fancy...just a quick and easy weeknight dinner...)


PENNE WITH KALE PESTO

ingredients:
1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
olive oil
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup, or more to your taste)

1. Pasta: Make pasta according to package directions for al dente (I used a whole wheat penne and it was about 9 minutes). When you drain, make sure to save about 1 cup of the liquid. 

2. Pesto: Remove the stems from the kale (trick: fold in half, hold on to leaves and rip step out with your other hand. This way you get all the tough fibers out and it's faster than using a knife). Chop roughly. In a blender or food processor, pulse garlic and pine nuts, then pulse in about 2/3 of kale and add some olive oil, maybe about 2-4 T total, depending on what you need to get it smooth. (I was using a blender, and so I also had to add in some of the pasta liquid to get it to puree nicely. A food processor would work better.) You should get a nice green mush.

When the pasta has about 1 more minute, drain the water and keep about 1 cup of it (I used some of this to blend the pesto). Add the noodles back in the pot, add the pesto plus the 1/3 of chopped kale. Add a bit more water if it's dry looking. Stir. Grate the cheese and stir into the pasta. If you let it sit a minute it will absorb some of the extra sauce and the chopped kale will wilt nicely into the penne.

Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with a little extra cheese. I like a little spice on my pasta, so I added in a sprinkle of red pepper flakes as well.

mung bean tomato soup with kale

This is another recipe from Anna Thomas's Love Soup - a great cookbook. I had some mung beans in the pantry left over from making this amazing salad. Also, I found out that this little Indian spice shop in Providence sells the dried beans in bulk, so I was thinking about what else I could use them in when I came across this recipe in the "summer soups" section of Thomas's cookbook. She cooks them down so that they partially disintegrate, thickening the soup.

moroccan-style quinoa with chickpeas and chard

This seemed like a good make-after-breakfast-and-bring-for-lunch salad...however, it's very very hot today. So I will now need to go for a swim before heading to the office for the day. Literally sweating over a hot stove, as the expression goes. I need to get more no-cook recipes to survive the end of August (oops - that's coming up pretty quickly... I mean the end-of-summer heat, which looks like it's extending into September).

ingredients:
oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
1-2 carrots, peeled and cut in small dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/ tsp red pepper flakes
1/2-1 cup quinoa, rinsed (depending if you want this to be slightly larger)
1 1/2 cups broth (or water)*
3/4 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed (or whole can)
2 T golden raisins
salt and pepper
6 ounces kale, stemmed and chopped (or chard)
2 T pine nuts, toasted
1/4 tsp lemon zest plus 1 tsp juice
2 T crumbled feta cheese (which I didn't have...but would be delicious!)
fresh herbs to garnish (mint, cilantro, and/or thyme)

*use slightly less liquid if using chard (releases more water), and err on the conservative side. it's easy to add a bit more water while cooking, but a bit of a mess if you end up with too much water

instructions:
1. Heat oil in a saucepan over med-high, add onion and carrot, cook 5 minutes (until onion softens). Add garlic, coriander, and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant (30 seconds). Add quinoa and cook, stirring, until toasted and aromatic, about 3 minutes.

2. Stir in water/broth, chickpeas, raisins, and 1/8 tsp salt. Place kale on top, and bring to simmer, cover, reduce to low, and simmer until quinoa is cooked (about 15 minutes). Off heat, gently stir in pine nuts, lemon zest, and juice, and sprinkle with feta, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil if desired.  I also garnished with a bit of fresh mint and thyme.

recipe from Cooking for Two, from Cook's Illustrated

quinoa kale salad with apricots and blood orange

This is based on a recipe from Pam Anderson for Runner's World magazine, advertising it as a high-protein recovery salad. It's a variation of another good kale-quinoa salad Jessica made last week that I had to remake soon after. Remembering the great citrus flavor, I added one blood orange to this salad as well. I thought it was maybe missing the crunch of some toasted nuts, but it was tasty and I felt like I got some much-needed vitamins.

kale + quinoa + fruit + bean + dressing

Variation #1: apricots, kidney beans, yogurt-Dijon dressing

Variation #2: blood orange, chickpeas, citrus dressing

Recipe here from edible perspectives

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa (red or white)

1 bunch kale

1 can kidney beans

shallot or 1/4 red onion

4 apricots, pitted and diced (could use dried)

cilantro, garnish

optional: slices of 1-2 blood oranges

dressing:

Olive oil (3T), Dijon mustard (1tsp), Honey (1tsp), Cumin (1tsp), Yogurt or kefir (1/3 c), salt and pepper

1. Quinoa: rinse and add to pot with 1:2 ratio quinoa to water. Bring to boil then simmer 20 mins. Transfer to a bowl, let come to room temp. (Tip: make extra to have on hand for other recipes, or just for morning breakfast.)

2. Prep other ingredients. Wash and cut kale in ribbons. Rinse and drain beans. Thinly slice onion or shallot. Dice apricot and cut blood orange. Mix dressing. 

3. Combine everything. Enjoy!

how to use your winter CSA, part II

The selection doesn't look any different yet from last time...The farm is still giving us a mix of some hoophouse greens and fall/winter storage vegetables. I am looking forward to spring! Here's what we made the last two weeks:

butternut squash (from last box): winter couscous and red curry butternut soup
celeriac (from last box): apple-celeriac salad
sweet dumpling squash: quinoa-stuffed squash, and we still have more to use up
carrots: minestrone, plus raw for lunches
kale: crepes and minestrone
red onions: beet risotto, winter couscous, got thrown in everything!
potatoes: minestrone and more of those delicious potato chips
beets: beet stew with lamb, beet risotto, Jessica also made a roasted beet salad, and still more beets....I'm afraid it's turning into a beet blog...

Also, take a look at this recent NYT article, Winter Poses Challenges for Chefs with a Local Ethos
From the article: "Locally grown. Market-sourced. Farm to table: These phrases have become the mantras of the American menu, promising ingredients that are supremely fresh, in season and produced within a tight radius of the restaurant. But what can they possibly mean in the dead of winter, in northerly climes where farms are battened down and the earth is as hard as a raw cabbage?"

see here for our last CSA box and what we made. Preview for next time: beets + greens, carrots, squash, greens, potatoes, kohlrabi

veggies for breakfast: kale crepes

Here's another way to get an extra serving of veggies in the morning...Kale crêpes! I made Jessica have some and tell me I wasn't crazy...They are very green. :)  

Puree some (de-stemmed) kale leaves with 1 cup milk in blender or with immersion blender. I used about 4 leaves. Pour into a bowl. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs, 1 cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour), 2 tsp sugar, and whisk. Serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup.
Serves 3-4.

I thought the house smelled a lot like kale as I was making them, but when they cooled down and I ate some of the leftovers cold, I could hardly taste the kale. They were great leftover and would be good with a savory topping, too.

minestrone with kale, white beans, tomatoes

 This recipe came to my inbox from the New York Times Recipes for Health, just when we had fresh kale to use. Pretty much everything else is in the pantry. We had our beautiful purple potatoes and purple kale from the CSA. As I was cooking, Jessica was heating up some amazing smelling smoked bacon next to me, so I threw in some of that, too, and garnished with crispy pieces. It would be vegetarian and vegan without the bacon and the parmesan rind. Yum yum.

how to use your winter CSA: what we made

 Jessica and I get a bi-weekly CSA share from Sunseed Farm, just outside of Ann Arbor. I thought it would be fun to track what we made with our produce, and do this regularly so you can also see how the produce changes as we move from the dead of winter to warmer temperatures. Today they told us this is a "transitional period" at the farm, as the spring stuff isn't up yet and they get to the end of winter storage items. He said in the hoophouses it is now April weather, so they will soon be growing spring veggies.

This is what we got last time and what we made:

Kale and Bok Choy - Green Soup
Carrots -Winter Slaw
Purple Potatoes - Cabbage-Beet-Borscht  also purple potato chips, also pizza with leeks and potatoes
Celeriac -Winter Slaw
Greens - Roasted Beet Salad
Butternut Squash - still in storage...
Beets -Cabbage-Beet-Borscht

and looking ahead, this is what we got today for the next two weeks. Expect recipes with squash, carrots, onions, beets, potatoes, kale... Any ideas for above items are welcome! :)

 

sesame kale salad with cranberries

 This was a quick packed lunch for the office... Thought: I have kale wilting in the veggie drawer and must eat something green today! I once had a great raw kale salad from the farmer's market with a sesame dressing. So this is a variation of that. Cut the kale into ribbons, "massage" or mix with the dressing, sprinkle with sesame seeds and cranberries for a little sweetness. Throw in a tupperware and go!

dressing:
olive oil / vinegar / soy sauce / sesame oil / agave or maple syrup

Sesame oil can be super overpowering. Just add a dash of the soy and sesame, and just enough of the sweetener. Rice vinegar is nice and light if you have it, or use red wine or apple cider.

soup swap, part II: Cabbage Borscht and Green Soup

 This is part II of our colorful winter soup swap. Part I included Carrot Ginger and Black Bean. Lots and lots of soup... The best thing was that we got our little kitchen cranking out so much soup, did the dishes, and it was done. And through the swap we got so much variety! And lunches for the week! (And dinner...) Click below for recipes.

saucy winter soba noodle stir-fry: with kale, cabbage, and carrots

I was inspired by this recipe for a hot buckwheat noodle salad with peanut tamarind sauce from The Guardian's "10 best winter salad recipes." I threw in kale, because it's delicious and the thin ribbons stick perfectly to the noodles. And I got to practice my julienne skills from the knife skills class I attended Saturday (carrots) as well as the chiffonade (kale ribbons). I made extra sauce so that I could re-do the dish or some variant later this week.

green on green: kale and brussels sprout salad with dijon viniagrette

I think my friend Synne is the first one who made me reevaluate brussels sprouts. For our Thanksgiving dinner in Berlin she brought a salad made of "whisper thin" shaved brussels sprouts with lemon, thyme, hazelnuts and parmesan cheese. It was delicious, and so different from overcooked from-frozen soggy sprouts. I don't think I had ever eaten them raw before. The recipe is here from 101 cookbooks.  For Thanksgiving this year I made a brussels sprouts hash from epicurious. Lots of butter, and on the softer side....but it was a big hit and we had no leftovers!

know your kale, and a winter pasta recipe

 In her book My Berlin Kitchen, Luisa Weiss mentions the lack of dark leafy greens in Germany. From my experience, it's true. My (vegan) friend Alan first pointed out to me how hard it is to get kale there, before I had done much cooking with it myself. And I recently had a discussion with a German friend about it--who was trying to defend Germany but gave up.  It's very hard to find fresh spinach in the grocery store (although in the US as well - when it's not baby spinach), or fresh kale (found in the frozen section), collard greens or chard. They do love their kale in the winter - but only if it's been cooked to death into a mush and served with sausage (see photo below). Which is good, don't get me wrong, but only one of the many good ways to cook it. You can often find it fresh at the Turkish markets and local farmer's markets.  Left to right, in the photos above: curly kale, red kale, and black kale (also called dinosaur or lacinato kale). These are the kinds I've seen in US grocery stores.