In which Kate finally gives in to to the kale conspiracy

If you read any articles or blogs or medical sites about dieting in the last year or so, you've been hearing about the wonders of kale. No longer a frilly garnish to take valuable plate real estate, but this is a vegetable that should be cherished, worshipped, steamed, baked into chips and of course, juiced.

About five years ago, my sweetie lived in Chicago. When it was too cold to walk to someplace to eat (groceries were not convenient and he didn't have a car for much of that year), we would get delivery. I cannot remember the name of the place, but I did remember a dish they called "peasant pasta" that I thought I might be able to recreate.

I started with a large skillet and about .75 lb. of hot Italian sausage. I like the sweet kind as well, but this is to your taste. I cut the sausage into small chunks--about the size of your average chocolate from a box--and browned it, stirring often.

Once it was browned, I removed it with a slotted spoon and added 1 T of olive oil to the pan. Then I added the better part of a bunch of kale torn into approximately 2" pieces, and five cloves of chopped garlic. Figure 2-3 cups of loosely packed. 

When the kale was wilted and bright green, I added .75 lb of chicken breast, which I had cut into bite-sized pieces. 

Once the chicken was opaque, I added 2 cans cannelini beans (drained and rinsed), 1.5 cups of low-sodium chicken broth, one can of tomato paste. For spices I added a teaspoon of oregano and a few shakes of red pepper. 

I simmered this combination for about an hour until the broth was mostly cooked down. Then I threw a pound of gemelli in boiling water. While the pasta was cooking, I added half a cup of heavy cream to the skillet and slowly stirred in a half cup of shredded grana padano (It was cheaper than the good parmesan this week).

Next up, I drained the pasta. I used gemelli for this because my goal was for a hearty meal, and I wanted a pasta that wasn't going to get lost in all the other flavors. The pasta went back in the pot, as did the contents of the skillet. Several stirs to mix well later and  I had a very tasty meal. Well, I had a meal and a half. Nexx had at least two.

Now, I do have some plans for improving this. More kale, for one thing, possibly onions, though I'm not completely sure about those. Pancetta. Mushrooms. I figure on making this again after the first of the year when the January cold really starts setting into New England

Homemade bread for the post-surgical patient.

There's a whole lot on the Internet about wheat these days. Must eat whole grains. No, wheat is evil. Wheat is responsible for the obesity epidemic.  Humans haven't really evolved sufficiently to eat grain.

I need to eat more produce, I know this. I also know that I've eaten wheat in various forms all my life and it hasn't killed me yet. I don't have celiac disease. So I am going to eat the stuff here and there. 

I went looking for "easy bread recipes" before I had my surgery and bookmarked this recipe from PBS . I came back to it last weekend when I thought I could stand to do a little cooking, but kneading was not going to be a good idea.

Very simple ingredients:

1. 500 grams all-purpose or bread flour (17.5 ounces)
2. 1 teaspoon salt
3. 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
4. 1 1/3 cups warm water
5. 1/4 cup olive oil
6. 2 tablespoons olive oil, in a small bowl

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast to evenly distribute all the ingredients. Add the water and 1/4 cup olive oil, and then mix everything together until you have a uniform dough. You can use your hands, but you'll lose a bunch of dough because it will stick to your fingers. (I love instructions like this. I used a wooden spoon) Using something narrow and sturdy like metal chopsticks or the handle of a wooden paddle works great because they have very little surface area for the dough to stick to.
2. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place for 18-24 hours to rise. (for this I have found I have to turn the oven on and leave the dough on the counter.)
3. Once the dough has risen, you can either make one giant focaccia with all the dough, or split it up and bake smaller loaves. I use a pan that’s 7.5" x 9.25", and it's perfect for half the dough. If you end up keeping some of the dough for later, just cover it back up and put it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
4. Put the olive oil in a small bowl and use a pastry brush to brush the bottom and sides of the pan with a generous coating of oil. Drop half the dough into the pan, and turn it over a few times to coat it with oil so it doesn't stick to your fingers. Press the dough towards the edges of the pan in an even layer with your fingertips. This is how the focaccia gets its dimpling, so while you want the dough to be roughly the same thickness, the little divots your fingers leave are a good thing.
5. Use the pastry brush to spread a layer of olive oil onto the top of the dough. Cover and let it sit in a warm place until it doubles in height.
6. When your dough is almost done rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (205 C). 
7. When the dough is finished rising, sprinkle the toppings onto the top of the bread. I used kalamata olives (rinsed and chopped) and fresh rosemary. Put the pan in the oven and let it bake until the top is golden brown (about 20-30 minutes).
8. Remove the pan from the oven, and then carefully transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool. The focaccia is best eaten the same day, but you can put it in a sealed container once it’s cooled all the way if you want to keep it for longer.

 My dough came out a little sticky, so I added a few more ounces of flour. This is also where I discovered I need to generate sufficient heat in the kitchen in order to get my dough to rise.

We ate the bread with some piave vecchio cheese. It didn't look very pretty, but it was delicious. We only left it to cool enough so we could pick it up and eat it. I did one on Sunday with half the dough and another the following day. This will be done again.

Pancakes!

I love pancakes. If you find yourself in Connecticut, I will take you to Chip's Family Restaurant, which has the best pancakes I've ever had. Light, fluffy and if you like, in a metric ton of different flavors. And yes, Nashvillians, they're loads better than Pancake Pantry.

I've never actually made pancakes from scratch. I grew up on Bisquick, which always tasted just fine to me, until I went to Chip's.

And since I'm taking it easy, I'm using a pre-made mix. Specifically Arrowhead Mills buckwheat pancake mix. I first came across buckwheat in crepes around 1992. I spent much of my spare time at the theatre in Park City, Utah (there were some fabulous people in that organization, but we've since fell out of touch). Up the street was the Cafe des Artistes, which did savory buckwheat crepes. Yum. Nice depth of flavor and a nuttiness that I really enjoy. The cafe closed down before I left, sad to say, but it was a fun place and I think fondly of Val, who used to regularly wear a shirt that said, "Bite me."

Basically, for today's brunch (for two), I added 8 ounces of apple pie filling to my pancake mix and whisked it in just enough to make sure everything was well-blended. If you mix it too much, you get chewy pancakes due to an increase in gluten.

I figure you can probably use applesauce, which will give you a more even flavor and texture, but I think the pie filling added some nice texture to it. I enjoyed with a bit of butter. I have had apple pancakes with sour cream, but that never quite worked for me. 

There are two very good reasons why I don't have pictures today. One is, we ate the pancakes too quickly. The other is, well, I kind of suck at making pancakes. I can't seem to keep the pan at an even temperature, whether I let it cool or turn the heat down. Add to it that my stove is at a bit of an angle and well . . .they were tasty, but they were not pretty.

My next batch of pancakes will be a bit more involved. There will be bacon, for example, and probably chocolate chips. I got this idea from the nice people at Vosges, who make a bacon-chocolate bar. As Peter Sagall of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, fame said when he tried it, "I can now die happy. And sooner."

Happy weekend, everyone!

Cheating

I'm a bit under the weather at the moment. After much discussion with my GYN and then an oncologist he recommended, I scheduled a hysterectomy for 11/5. Hurricane Sandy rescheduled it to last Monday, but the procedure is over and done, the panic attack (at least I think it was a panic attack) that sent me to the ER is over and I am in the process of writing a very snarky letter to the hospital administration.

But what, I hear you ask, does that have to do with cheating? Well, for the next five weeks or so, I am under stern instructions to take it easy. While I'm good for short walks, anything that requires a lot of movement, especially bending is pretty painful. Twisting is right out.

I still have to eat, and ordering out gets pricey, so for the next few weeks, I'm going to do something I never thought I'd do with this blog. I'm going to post the quick, easy meals that can be as much assembly as cooking. The ones that don't take a lot of time, and you can do in your sleep and still feel like you presented your self and your loved ones with some semblance of nutrition. For example, my dinner tonight:

• 6 ounces chicken torn from a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store's deli
• half of a small container of brown rice leftover from delivery
• 1/3 can of Amy's Curried lentil soup (I am not being paid for this endorsement, though I'd love to be).

First step, put the soup in a small saucepan on the stovetop. Next step, resurrect the rice. This means taking it out of its cardboard container, flaking it with a fork (because some had stuck together) as I put it in a microwave-safe dish. I stirred in about 2 T of water and put it in the microwave for two minutes. Poof! Fluffy rice.

This went down on the plate, beside the chicken. I didn't bother heating the chicken, I find rotisserie chicken to be yummy cold. I did sprinkle it with a little salt and pepper. Your blood pressure may vary.

I let the soup cook down a bit until it was more of a sauce, and spooned it over the rice.

Warm, filling, protein & fiber. I'm currently out of fresh produce since I can't drive and my main grocer isn't delivering until they bounce back from damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Next week--apple pancakes, without any chopping.

Shopping the Sales

I am a very lucky person. I live outside of the borders of New York City, but being in one of its bedroom communities, I have a lot of its benefits. One of these is a store called Fairway. Besides the best cheese counter I've seen outside of Murrray's Cheese Shop in the Village, they occasionally have fabulous sales, and I've never had anything from the store that wasn't of the highest quality. And when I don't feel like cooking, their hot bar makes a damn fine cheese steak.

I was in the mood for pesto (which I bought, I don't do a lot of cooking in November), but Nexx, as he has often mentioned, is a meatitarian. Meat is necessary at two out of three meals (caffeine for breakfast). I'm really not living with a male human. It's a six-foot cat in an Asian man suit.

Anyway, at a lovely Italian restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama I had some lamb finished with pesto, so when we went to Fairway, we looked at chops. I wasn't in love with the way they looked, then Nexx drew my attention to some boneless legs--nicely wrapped in twine. The price was right, so into the cart they went.

I've made lamb a few times, usually chops, though I have roasted an entire leg. The one I bought was about 3/4 of a pound, which I figured would feed the two of us pretty well, especially with pasta.

Lamb and garlic do well together and I had a glut of garlic in the fridge. Focusing my rage at the politcal ads on television, I used a paring knife and stabbed several holes in the roast, about 3/4 of an inch apart. Into the holes, I slipped some slivers of garlic. Once that was complete, I added a light sprinkle of salt, followed by some freshly ground pepper. Instead of your standard olive oil, I used some lemon oil. Lemon and basil go well together in various presentations (including gelato) and I thought it would lighten the meal up a bit.

I roasted the lamb at 425 F for about thirty minutes, which was a guess. I stabbed it with the meat thermometer (I'm really not that violent a person, I promise) and it registered on the low side of medium rare. I pulled it out of the oven, covered the pan with foil and started the water for pasta.

While the pasta was draining and its pot was cooling, I sliced the lamb thinly. Some of the garlic fell out onto the cutting board, but my sweetie valiantly rode to the rescue and ate them. After tossing the pesto with the pasta (say that five times fast), I put it onto plates, topped with sliced lamb and added a touch more pesto to top everything off.

We served this with a Spanish red wine--a tempranillo, if I recall correctly. Pairing this dish with alcohol is kind of tough. Pesto can be pretty delicate, so a white might be called for. Lamb, on the other hand, is rather rich and can stand up to a red. The red and the basil didn't quite work, but I can live with that.

It's not a combination I expect to have every day, or even every Sunday, but if Fairway keeps having the lamb at that price, I look forward to finding other things to do with it.

What's your favorite way to eat lamb?

Minty Fresh

Well, not just minty, there's a whole lot of other flavors in this recipe. But while I used up all the cilantro and basil in preparing the dish, I have a colander full of mint left and the kitchen smells great.

I'm not sure what I was looking for when I found this week's recipe, but this caught my eye. I've never made Thai food before, though the ingredient list had something suspicious. Let's take a look.

2 Thai chiles, sliced

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup gluten-free fish sauce (such as Thai Kitchen brand)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger

1/2 garlic clove, chopped

12 ounces rice stick noodles (maifun)

2 tablespoons (or more) vegetable oil

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" cubes

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot

1 tablespoon chopped fresh lemongrass from peeled bottom 4" of stalk

2 cups (loosely packed) cilantro, coarsely chopped, divided

1 cup (loosely packed) mint leaves, coarsely chopped, divided

1 cup (loosely packed) basil leaves, coarsely chopped, divided

Large butter lettuce leaves

If you guessed the sugar seems a bit high, you're thinking the way I was. You might recall from the coffee jelly and the ginger beef  entries that my local Asian authenticity monitor (hi Sweetie!) that American interpretations of Asian recipes seem to contain a hell of a lot more sweetener than needed.

So I cut the sugar down to a teaspoon.

I strongly recommend you draft a sous chef or a medium-sized child who thinks helping in the kitchen is fun. There's a whole lot of chopping to do.

Chop the peppers and the ginger and juice about three limes before you do anything else. This way you can put the dressing together and let the flavors blend. Then do your herb chopping.

 . . . . 

Whisk first 4 ingredients, 2 teaspoons ginger, and garlic in a small bowl until sugar dissolves. Set dressing aside.

Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, 2–4 minutes. Drain; put in a large bowl.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Add chicken; stir 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoons ginger, shallot, and lemongrass. Stir until chicken is cooked through, 3–4 minutes. Add to noodles. Add half of all herbs and half of dressing; toss to coat.

Line bowls with lettuce leaves. Divide noodle mixture among bowls. Top with remaining herbs and dressing.

 . . . .

One thing I will ding the nice people at Epicurious is not mentioning that when you drain rice noodles, immediately rinse them with cold water. I run my fingers through them to make sure they're all cold and not sticking together. 

This worked out very well. While I love a creamy rich Thai curry (especially one with lots of basil), this is deliciously light, but not lacking in flavor in the slightest. The only flavor changes I'd make is up the ginger with the chicken to a full tablespoon.

There were no leftovers. They were eaten by the authenticity monitor.

If you try this, let me know if you like it, or if you made any variations of your won. Thanks for reading!

Rub the duckie

I've been tossing this idea around in my head for a while. Duck takes very well to fruit, but I live with a man who does not like cooked fruit, though some exceptions can be made for citrus.

I kept forgetting to buy the Chinese five-spice powder I wanted to use, but I did get some orange peel recently. While the traditional duck l'orange is too sweet for my sweetie, I thought maybe I could spice it up a bit. I put together the following:

3 T dried orange peel
2 T dried lemon peel
1.5 t salt
1 T ground ginger
1 T crushed red pepper
1 T garlic powder

Blend your spices together well--ground ginger, even of the best quality can sometimes clump up.

I'm still using the method I found from Emeril, bless his heart. With this pan-roasting method, it's easy enough to do on a weeknight. Not that there's anything wrong with saving a bird for a nice Sunday dinner.

I really liked this one. The ginger dominated, but the citrus added a touch of both light and bitterness that gave the whole combination a lot of depth. The sweetie had two helpings. I promised him I'd eat the rest for lunch tomorrow, because he doesn't want me to it in front of him, since tomorrow is leftover night.

I still intend to try a variation with five-spice powder, though maybe I will use sesame oil instead of olive. Watch this space!