Greens with Chorizo & Potatoes

This was my breakfast treat after making a 5:30am airport run this morning.

Safeway had tubes of fresh chorizo on sale for $1 last time I was there, so I decided to pick one up. Have never used it before, but thought it would go well with greens. Here's a tip - don't read the ingredients label. While I guess I'm all for truth in nutritional labeling, let's just say "pork" and be done with it. It's sausage, we really don't need to get that specific. Anyway -

First I sauteed a large diced potato until somewhat browned & crispy. While that was cooking, I washed & chopped our bunches of kale and swiss chard. Then I put the potatoes aside and in the same pan, browned half of the tube of chorizo. I was thinking it would cook into separate chunks like fresh Italian sausage does, but it became very "loose." Next I added half a green pepper (chopped) that I had hanging around.

Then I added the chopped greens, and cooked for just a few minutes until they wilted down. Added the browned potatoes, and then fried two eggs over easy to top it with.

The verdict? Yummy. But the chorizo was kind of an odd texture and turned a bit pinkish after adding the greens. I was expecting a nice deep red. Perhaps next time I want to use chorizo I'll look for a more "gourmet" iteration of it. Still, it imparted a nice spicy flavor to the whole dish.

I'm making good progress through our onslaught of greens! Have a fair amount of the greens-potato mixture left, but maybe it'll be good for breakfast tomorrow.

Kohlrabi-Apple Slaw, Pasta with Spinach & Peppers

And the onslaught begins! Finally back from tour and picked up this week's veggies on Thursday - which also included some stuff from last week that lasted OK. In total, I think we got: yellow squash, broccoli, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, swiss chard, dinosaur kale, half a head of cabbage, purple kohlrabi, spinach and arugula. Four big bags squashed in the fridge.

I don't think I'm going to take photos of each week's take, as I did plenty of that last year. Maybe just the unusual stuff - like purple kohlrabi!

I made a slaw out of this - wasn't too crazy about the kohlrabi stir fry from last year. I peeled & sliced this on a mandoline, then cut the slices into julienne. Did the same with a Granny Smith apple & the stem from the broccoli, and shredded the cabbage. Dressing is mayo, a tiny bit of sour cream, apple cider vinegar, a dab of dijon mustard, maple syrup, salt & pepper. Also threw in some chopped mint leaves from the mint forest that is our garden. This was finally a slaw that I liked!

Next I decided to tackle the spinach. We had two huge bunches of fairly young spinach. It cooked way down when I sauteed it with some bell peppers, garlic, smoked paprika and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Tossed this with some pasta and shredded mozzarella-provolone:

Gotta get back into the swing of things in terms of planning & cooking. It's going to be a busy summer, so...we'll see how this goes. But it's good to eat well again!

Panko-Crusted Salmon with Fresh Corn Saute

Oh hi there, blog. It's been awhile. Been a busy few months, and a fair amount of mac 'n cheese, fried egg sandwiches, Panda Express and other gourmet meals keeping me going. Not having a weekly supply of awesome fresh vegetables has definitely influenced my eating patterns. Safeway's produce just doesn't cut it...I'll pick up a few things every week, but having the CSA veggies provides way more variety, better quality and all that.

But occasionally there's time for a decent meal:

The salmon I've made twice now - it's super-easy and really good (also doesn't taste too "fishy," if you're not a big fish person). It's Ina Garten's recipe: basically, you spread Dijon mustard on the salmon, top it with panko bread crumbs mixed with lemon zest, sear the bottom in a cast iron pan for about 3 minutes, and then put it in the oven for a few minutes. These filets were really thin so the total cooking time was only about 5 minutes. I also broil it for the last minute to brown the crumbs.

The corn saute was the result of 20-cent ears of corn at Safeway:

Plus using up a bunch of other veggies I had in the fridge: asparagus, rainbow chard stems (from the Takoma farmer's market), red onion & halved grape tomatoes.

Went like this: saute the onion in some olive oil til translucent, then add asparagus & chard stems for a few minutes. I added a chopped garlic clove too, and then the corn. After a few minutes, I turned off the heat & added the tomatoes, plus a couple chopped green onions. A couple splashes of cream (doesn't really need it, but it was in the fridge), salt & pepper, a little tabasco, lime juice, and some basil & cilantro from the garden. Yum.

Our CSA starts in a couple weeks, but I'm going to miss the first two weeks of it...booo.

Poached Eggs

A first for me: making poached eggs!

I'm somewhat of an egg fiend - I've gotta have them for breakfast on a day off or it just doesn't feel right. And I will happily eat breakfast for dinner frequently. Fried or scrambled are no problem; I can do hard-boiled too. But I've never attempted poached; it just seemed too tricky (especially to attempt soon after waking up). I really like poached eggs though - I'll frequently order Eggs Benedict when I see it on a menu so I can have them.

Last week when we were visiting our friend Susan, she made poached eggs for us one morning, so I got to see the process in action. It didn't look too intimidating, so I was inspired to give it a try.

I used a huge nonstick saucepan, 'cause I was afraid of the eggs sticking to the bottom. Brought water to a boil in it and then lowered the heat so it was barely bubbling. I added a splash of vinegar to the water, though Susan said she doesn't bother. Cracked an egg in a custard cup, created a whirlpool with a spoon and slipped the egg in. The first one looked OK, so I put a second one in. That one blobbed into the first--uh oh. Then I tried to separate them and they started to look really messy. I was hesitant to add any more to the pan, but there was some more space--so I went for two more. Those seemed to stay in their own space.

While cooking, they really look like a mess in the pan, so I wasn't sure how they would turn out. A couple of them were resting on the bottom of the pan too, but especially with the nonstick I was able to nudge them off. Cooking time's supposed to be 3-4 minutes--these were jumbo eggs, so I did them for about 5. When I spooned each out of the water with a slotted spoon and drained them over a paper towel, they looked pretty decent. So, onto the toast!

Success! Topped with our fancy pink Himalayan salt & Penzey's Black & Red. I guess the lesson is, don't worry about how they look in the water...they'll probably turn out fine!

I'll probably still continue to do fried eggs more often (it's definitely easier), but I can see a future of more poached egg dishes. Thanks for the inspiration, Susan!

Chicken Soup

I picked up a cold a few days ago, on the last leg of tour. It wasn't too terrible, and then I thought I was getting better. Last night, I suddenly developed Lauren Bacall Voice, and have been on the edge of losing it with a nasty cough. So, time for some chicken soup!

I made my own stock (below), and rather than make an enormous pot of soup that would probably get mushy and bleah in a couple of days, I put aside most of the stock and boiled some thinly sliced carrot & celery in the remainder. I'd been thinking about tortellini, but Safeway had these fancy chicken & prosciutto stuffed pasta things, so I threw in a handful of those, with some of the cooked chicken and a pinch of dried dill. Salt to taste, a dash of lemon juice & hot sauce to clear the sinuses. This was good stuff...and now I've got a bunch of leftover shredded chicken and homemade stock.

For the stock, I threw a bunch of stuff into a big pot:

Three chicken leg quarters, 2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, an onion (quartered but not peeled), some garlic cloves (smashed, not peeled), a bay leaf or two and some peppercorns. Boiled this for about an hour, then removed the chicken and let it cool in the fridge for a bit before skinning & shredding. Added the bones back to the stock and simmered a little while longer, then strained.

It's a bit labor intensive, but...not doing anything else today!

Tandoori Chicken; Palak Paneer

I don't tend to make Indian food very often, as I don't think I'm very good at it. But I recently got some Tandoori seasoning in a Penzey's spice order, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. None of these dishes are particularly "authentic," but they were pretty tasty. At least evidenced by rob eating 2 plates of it.

For the chicken, I basically just followed the recipe on the spice container: made a marinade of 1 cup plain yogurt (Greek-style), 1 Tbl of the Tandoori seasoning, and the juice of half a lime.

I had a package of 6 chicken legs. Most tandoori recipes I looked at said to skin the chicken before marinating, but...after wrassling with the first drumstick and getting covered in raw chicken goo, I decided to forget that. Besides, chicken skin is tasty. Seasoned the chicken with salt, then stuck it in a plastic bag with the marinade, squooshed it up and put it in the fridge for about 4 hours. Then wiped off the excess marinade, put the drumsticks on a wire rack over a sheet pan, drizzled with a little bit of olive oil, ground some black pepper over, and baked at 400 for about 45 minutes. I flipped the pieces halfway through and then broiled the skin side at the end for just a bit.

 I looked at a bunch of recipes for Palak Paneer (or Saag Paneer; not really sure what the difference is). As usual, conglomerated them into my own creation. Though it seems like paneer isn't really too hard to make yourself, I'd read that Queso Fresco is a good substitute, and that was readily available at my local Safeway.

I started by cutting the Queso Fresco into cubes and browning it in a pan with a little butter and oil. Except...it started to melt pretty quickly, so I really didn't brown it. Not sure if the Queso is more melty, but it definitely did not turn a beautiful golden brown like the pics in most of the recipes. In any case, I removed it to a plate. Rest of the recipe went something like:

• Finely chop one onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 jalapeno (with seeds) and a 1-inch piece of ginger (I grated that on a microplane).
• Saute these in a little veg. oil & butter until softened.
• Add about 1 tsp each garam masala, cumin & coriander, plus a little salt. Cook about 1 minute.
• Add a large bag of frozen chopped spinach, thawed. Cook a few minutes.
• Reduce heat and add 1 cup plain Greek yogurt. I also added about 1/2 cup of water as it looked pretty thick. Most recipes tell you to puree the spinach in a food processor at this point, but I didn't bother. I think I added a good bit more salt and some more garam masala at this point.
• Add in the paneer cubes and simmer for a few minutes. I added some chopped cilantro at the end.

 
This made a ton!! Despite it looking like...a pile of green goo (which I think is the point), it was pretty good. Not necessarily Indian-restaurant-good, but...OK for a white girl.

Instead of rice, I served this with Trader Joe's "Teeny Tiny Potatoes" (which we call Screaming Potatoes, because when you take them out of the oven they emit a subtle high-pitched scream...seriously!). I tossed them with olive oil, salt and some more of the Tandoori seasoning. Should have used more of that as they weren't particularly spicy. Put these in the oven with the chicken at about the 20 minute mark.

Now I gotta get through leftovers of this as well as the pasta e fagioli...poor me!

Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta & bean soup...Marcella Hazan's recipe.

 

I didn't use any meat, and used more vegetables ( "2 Tablespoons of onion" is just madness), plus some chopped garlic.

The leftovers have absorbed pretty much all the broth, so now I don't really have a soup...but it's tasty!