Chickpeas with Chard and Caraway

I have been struggling with this post for days now.  I first tried writing about how Sebastian came to suddenly like beans last spring.  I tried talking about the month this winter when the boys and I decided weeknights would mean there had to be beans of some kind for dinner.  Lewis thought we were crazy, I had only meant it as a joke, but both boys loved the idea.  My favorite part was the easy answer to "What's for dinner?"  Everyday I would happily reply, "Beans, and something else."

However every time I tried to write this post it was mind numbingly boring.  I could not even write more then a few sentences before I was too bored to write anymore.  Then this evening I finished off the leftovers as part of a clean out the fridge dinner and I realized I needed to give up on the cute back story.  I just needed to share the recipe with you, before I totally lost the taste memory and could not describe it.

This dish is a chick pea and vegetable sauté with the simple twist of caraway seeds. It is funny how we tend to associate certain flavors with a single dish, like caraway with rye bread when really their flavor is very versatile and refreshingly unexpected when used elsewhere.  The carrots add a subtle sweetness, the chick peas are nutty, the chard has a slight bright tang and the caraway is the unexpected note that makes you crave more.  I enjoyed it as much at room temperature tonight mixed with plain Greek yogurt as I did the night I made it and the Greek yogurt with the olive oil stirred in.

Chickpea Saute with Chard and Caraway
Adapted from Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi: A cookbook I have been really enjoying using recently

Note:  All the vegetable measurements can be tweaked depending what you have on hand.  If you don't have chard the author suggests using a combination of spinach and chard without blanching them and adding a sprinkling of ground sumac or ground Persian lime, personally I think an extra squeeze of lemon juice would also give you a similar brightness, and I would try kale as well.

2 large bunches chard leaves
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
4 medium to large carrots (mine were large and I would not want less carrot), peeled and cut into 3/8 inch pieces
1 tsp whole caraway seeds
2 cups homemade chickpeas, or substitute rinsed, canned chickpeas
1 clove garlic chopped fine
1 Tbsp fresh mint chopped fine
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro chopped fine
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, while the water is heating separate the chard leaves from the stems, reserving both.  Add salt to the boiling water and blanch the stems for 3 minutes before adding the leaves to the water.  Continue cooking the chard leaves and stems for another 2 minutes before draining.  Rinse the chard under cold running water to stop the cooking process.  When completely cool, squeeze all the excess water from the chard and then roughly chop the chard.

While the chard is blanching heat the olive oil over medium heat and cook the carrots and caraway seeds and sauté for 5 minutes.  Add the chard and chickpeas and cook for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic, lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  Remove from the heat to cool before tasting to adjust the seasoning.

Before serving stir the yogurt with the olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper.  I served the yogurt on the side so everyone could decide for themselves if they wanted the yogurt on top.

Tuscan Cannellini Beans with Sage and Onions

With the end of Halloween I can begin obsessively planning Thanksgiving dinner.  Although I must confess, I started planning the menu for Thanksgiving long before October 31st.  Even before I became excited about costumes by realizing Lewis and I could join our chimney sweep and chimney as Mary Poppins and her umbrella, I was testing recipes for the end of Novemebr.  This is the first year Thanksgiving will be in Vermont, moving north from New York City.  With this change of state I decided it is time to change the menu as well to one that is local and seasonal with a protein for my vegetarian sister-in-law.  So this year there will be no ratatouille or string beans on the table.  Instead I will be serving Savoy Cabbage Gratin made with St Andre cheese, a vegetable dish I have not yet settled on, and these savory, sensuous, cannellini beans.

I make cannellini beans with escarole and my boys always love it, however they only tolerate the escarole, eating just a token amount. The part they love and happily devour is the beans.  This dish is more layered with flavor then the beans alone from beans and escarole, rich and full of flavor.  Cooking the sage in the oil before adding the beans makes the sage richer and softer and its flavor more nuanced in the finished dish.  This will be served here often, not just for Thanksgiving.

From Scratch Cannellini Beans (Think of this as a blank canvas for many meals)

I always soak my beans because I prefer to spend less time waiting for them to cook with the burner on.  If you forget to soak them or just prefer not to it will take longer to cook your beans but they will still cook.  If not soaking your beans start the cooking with 2 minutes of a hard boil before turning down to a simmer.

3 cups dried cannellini beans, rinsed and picked over
Water for pre soaking plus 6 cups water for cooking
1 fresh bay laurel leaf (if unavailable use dried)
2 tsp kosher salt (If you do not cook the beans with salt they can be salted later but they will never be seasoned all the way through)

Put the rinsed beans in a large pot and cover with 9 cups water.  Bring the pot to the boil and boil hard for 2 minutes.  Turn the heat off under the beans and cover the pot.  Leave out at room temperature for 2 or more hours.  I often soak my beans after boiling for longer with no ill effects.  Alternatively you can soak the beans at room temperature in cold water for 6 to 8 hours before cooking.

 After soaking drain and rinse the beans and place back in the stock pot.  Cover with 6 cups of water (You will need more water if you never soaked them) and add the bay laurel leaf and salt.  Bring to the boil over high heat, lower to a simmer and cooked partially covered until tender.  My beans cooked in around 45 minutes to an hour.  If you did not soak your beans first expect them to take longer to cook, also if your beans are not fresh they will take longer to cook.

Tuscan Beans with Garlic and Sage
Adapted from Rose Elliot's New Complete Vegetarian

3 small to medium onions chopped (or 1 large and 1 small)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp fresh sage chopped fine
1 recipe From Scratch Cannellini beans with liquid or 6 14 oz cans cannellini beans
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
lemon for serving

Saute the onions in the olive oil over medium heat until translucent, add the garlic and chopped sage and cook until both the sage and garlic are fragrant, a few minutes.  Add the beans and their liquid and stir well before covering and cooking over a very slow simmer for with the lid on for about an hour.  f you are pressed for time you can cook the beans for less time but the flavor will not be as complex.

Season the dish with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before serving.  Delicious when first made but even better after the flavors have mellowed in the fridge overnight in the fridge.  We enjoyed it hot, warm and cold (well, Sebastian did not like it cold).  My plan is to make it a day or two ahead of time and serve it at room temperature for Thanksgiving.

Mesclun sauteed with Garlic and Optional Rhubarb

Lately Julian has been asking me when it is summer, my answers to him are complicated.  How do you explain to a five year old that summer "officially"  begins on the summer solstice but many folks mark the beginning of summer as Memorial day?  However for me the start of summer coincides with our first summer CSA pick-up at The Intervale Community Farm.  For all his incessant questioning on the meaning of summer I know that Julian feels this as well.  Both Sebastian and Julian where counting down the hours to our first pick-up and telling me about all the areas of the farm they planned to explore.   Our CSA is not the kind where you drive somewhere and are handed a bag or box and leave.  Instead there are tables set up with produce and signs that say how much to take.  Some items involve a choice, while others just require you to weigh out your share.  There are also pick your own crops such as this weeks strawberries and herbs.

Our first pick-up last week was truncated and short as it was not yet school vacation and that evening I had to rush off to principal interviews at The Integrated Arts Academy.  Happily the principal interviews and search committee meetings are over.  I will not be running out to attend interviews where I can hear why a candidate believes "Art is a defendable value in education." or how they create "A positive school culture."  The search committee met on Monday and we selected 2 candidates that we all would feel comfortable having as our interim principal.  Now I am just waiting to find out which candidate the superintendent chooses.  I have a favorite, so being the patient person that I am (ha!) I have been checking the district website obsessively to see if there is an update.

The end of this process means maybe I can spend a little more time in my kitchen.  I feel like dinners around here lately have often consisted of finding food to fling at my children.  But with the beginning of the CSA and the weekly food assignments it creates, plus the end of additional outside commitments, it is time to get creative.  Creative because at this point we are not receiving the glut of produce that I know is coming.  For now we have been greeted by heads of lettuce, a greens choice, garlic scapes and mesclun mix.  All of these items I can use up quickly except the mesclun mix, (okay, I may or may not have problems with the lettuce as well).

The mesclun mix is a battle that in the past has gone on all summer.  I have a basic character flaw that prevents me from not taking my share.  After all there are signs on the mesclun bins that say, "Please weigh accurately."  Obviously this is a valuable item and I should treat it with respect.  However my children do not eat salads and I don't love salads enough to keep up with the mesclun all summer.  So I end up using most of my mesclun mix to slowly feed my compost all summer.

However this last week I went to prepare dinner one night and found we had no vegetables left in the house except the bag of mesclun.  As I stood grumpily staring at the assorted leaves I had a sudden inspiration to treat them like any of my favorite greens (spinach, chard, kale, lambs quarters...) and cook them with garlic and olive oil.  I decided to play with some rhubarb as well and added some at the end of cooking.  The result was good enough that Julian happily ate some, although he did complain about the rhubarb pieces as he did not like the tart lemon and artichoke flavor of them.  Tonight I served it again, this time without the rhubarb.  Julian took thirds.  With or without the rhubarb I am happy to know I will not need to compost my mesclun mix this summer.

As for Thursdays pick-up at the farm, it was just what the boys and I needed to celebrate the first day of summer vacation.  For the last several years my boys have been allowed to roam free at the farm once I walk them through the parking lot.  They have special hide outs as well as elaborate projects they coordinate with their friends.  While they are playing I pick up our produce and practice adult conversation skills.  This week they began, with a group of friends, discovered a wonderful mud puddle and began by transporting shovels of mud to the sand box.  Eventually Julian and his friend Casey decided to stay and play in the mud.  Slowly their group of friends began to migrate over, one by one, where they all dug, and splashed and explored.

Now summer has begun because we have started weekly visits to our farm.  Last year a fierce argument waged when Julian and Sebastian were talking about "our farm" to our neighbor Ada, whose daddy owns and runs another local farm.  She insisted it was not their farm, she has a farm, but they do not.  I stepped in because I know how fierce my children's attachment is to the farm.  I explained that now the ICF is a co-op and so we own one share of the farm.  I was not going to try to explain to her that it is theirs because they love it so much.

Sauteed Mesclun Mix with Garlic and Optional Rhubarb

This is one of those dishes that is more a technique then a prescription.  The basic idea is to saute some garlic (you can use green garlic, garlic scapes, regular garlic, or even omit the garlic and use onions or shallots) in olive oil or butter, then you add the greens and stir until the greens are completely wilted.  If you want to use the rhubarb just chop up a handful and add it for the last few minutes of cooking so it softens but stays firm enough that it retains its own character and 5 year olds can pick it out.  Please treat this as a guide only.

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Butter or other favorite oil

1 minced clove of garlic (or 2 scapes, 1 small shallot, 1/2  a small onion, 2-3 scallions chopped)

1 lb mesclun mix (or whatever your CSA has gifted you with)

1 large or 2-3 small stalks rhubarb chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces (1/8 to 1/4 cup) optional

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add the oil or butter.  Add the garlic or onions and saute until fragrant, then add the washed and dried mesclun mix and kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, mixing and wilting as you add it, if it seems dry add more oil.  Once the mesclun mix is all wilted add the rhubarb and put the lid on briefly until the rhubarb is heated through and softened.  Check the seasonings and serve.

Asparagus Cooked in Brown Butter, Again...

We have been back from NYC for a week and back to our Vermont routine. I love the rituals we do once or twice a year as they give me a chance to see how much my boys have grown and matured since the last time. Ever since Julian stopped napping visiting New York has gotten better and better. When everyone still needed to nap, it felt like the whole day was spent either getting people to sleep or figuring out how to feed them. Now we can have breakfast in the morning and spend the whole day exploring without racing the clock to fit in a nap. Both boys are more interested in the places we visit now as well.

On this trip we had dumplings in the village, went to the Museum of Natural History twice, once to visit the butterfly conservatory and once just to explore. We also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the "Bambu" exhibit on the roof. Perhaps the boys favorite was just playing in as many of Central Parks playgrounds as we could. If you go to New York with children you can spend your whole visit playing on the playgrounds. For the record, playgrounds were nowhere near this great when I was growing up in New York.

While we were in the village for Dumplings we went to the Union Square farmer's market. I got 3 bunches of asparagus. Buying asparagus that early in spring felt like an illicit pleasure to my Vermont eating sensibilities. When we are at home I often grill asparagus, however having a grill indoors in an apartment is generally frowned upon, something about fire risks. So I made another favorite, asparagus cooked in brown butter. I shared this recipe here last spring as well, it is delicious enough that it bears a revisit.

Like grilling and roasting this recipe caramelizes some of the sugars, resulting in a sweeter flavor. It also retains some of the crisp tender quality that my children require, or to be more precise is not stringy. In addition the brown butter melds with the asparagus and makes the flavor smoother, silkier and richer. When I make grilled and roasted asparagus Sebastian will not eat the tips and I get extra of my favorite part. With this recipe the sumptuous flavor is the most perfect in the tips and Sebastian eats the whole thing. I have noticed he even saves the tips for last. (This year he has begun shunning the tips in all recipes, yeah I get them!)

Pan Browned Asparagus with Browned Butter

From Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 pounds thin or medium asparagus, ends snapped off where they naturally break

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large skillet set over medium heat. Place the asparagus in the skillet in a single layer (I don't always have the space for a single layer, if so shake the pan occasionally to rearrange the asparagus). Season with kosher salt to taste. Cover the pan and cook until crisp tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove the cover, raise the heat to medium high and cook, shaking the pan occasionally to turn them, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer the asparagus to a serving platter with a slotted spoon or tongs. Season with pepper and serve immediately. (or, you can tell your family to wait while you just take 30 photos of the finished dish for your blog.)

Leek Fried Rice with a Fried Egg

The hardest step of cooking is just deciding what to make. In case you have not figured it out already I spend a lot of time thinking about food, reading other blogs, trolling through my cookbooks and otherwise obsessing. However I often find myself in the kitchen trying to decide what's for dinner and experiencing chef's block. However I am now familiar with enough recipes and techniques that most of the time I can look at what we have and eventually come up with a meal. Not always a meal that a 4 and 7 year old want to eat, but you can't have everything.

Chef's block is a problem Lewis often has, an issue that can rear it's ugly head every week. I work on Saturdays and he has to make dinner. Lewis is competent in the kitchen carrying out all the technical aspects with ease. By his own admission, he lacks the understanding of how flavors combine that allow for improvisation, but he is adept at the skills of cooking. However he is often lost over what to make.

For most of this winter he has been making spaghetti carbonara or Chinese Hamburger with Peas for dinner every Saturday night. My children are perfectly happy, I however am bored. So Lewis promised not to make either until further notice, and I received a phone call at the end of my work day asking if I would pick up dinner. Mean nasty wife that I am, I said no. Then I subtly pointed out a recipe for fried rice that I was salivating over on Smitten Kitchen. As happy as I was when he decided to make it, I was even happier when I tasted it.

The recipe originally comes from Mark Bittman, who very clearly states in the article that it must be made with leftover rice as freshly cooked is too moist. We did not have enough leftover rice so Lewis made a batch of brown rice. I guess that means the version he served me was inferior, to tell the truth I am a little fearful to try it the real way. I really don't need for this recipe to be even better. In addition we only had one ancient leek in the vegetable drawer rather then the 2 cups the recipe calls for. It was still delicious, with caramelized leeks, the savory richness of the soy sauce and the richness of the fried egg topping all of it. One of those dishes that is better then the sums of its parts. Make this the next time you need dinner and just cannot think of what recipe to prepare.

Leek Fried Rice with a Fried Egg

Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Mark Bittman who based it on a Jean-Georges Vongerichten recipe

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp minced fresh garlic (jarred pre chopped garlic will not work here)

2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

salt

2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and pale green parts only (we only had one, if I was making it I would have substituted onions for the leeks we did not have, not that I am not grateful)

4 cups rice, preferably day old (we used Brown Basmati rice but any leftover rice would be wonderful)

4 large eggs (or more, I really wished I had 2 on top of my rice)

2 tsp sesame oil

4 tsp soy sauce (we used mushroom soy sauce which gave a really great deep flavor, regular is fine)

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped garlic and ginger to the pan and saute until crisp and brown stirring occasionally. Remove the browned garlic and ginger in the pan with a slotted spoon to cool on paper towels and salt lightly, make sure to keep the garlic ginger flavored oil in the pan (Lewis actually wiped the pan out as the was unclear on Smitten Kitchen, however the video on Mark Bittman's recipe has you retain the flavorful oil). Return the pan to medium low heat and add the leeks.

Cook the leeks for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until tender and soft but not at all browned (actually Lewis admits he kind of burnt them, we agree it would be better tender and not burnt and with the two cups of leeks called for not a single, miserly, shriveled leek from the depths of the fridge). Season the leeks lightly with salt and raise the heat to medium and add the rice.

Cook the rice while stirring until it is all heated through and season to taste with salt, bearing in mind that you will be garnishing the dish with soy sauce at the end. Divide the rice onto 4 plates, if you want to get fancy like Lewis did pack the rice into a one cup ramekin before inverting on to each plate.

Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of oil in a nonstick skillet over low heat and fry eggs with the lid on until the whites are set and the yolk is soft. I have an irrational fear of unset whites so we flip them over gently before serving. Top each serving of rice with an egg, drizzle 1/2 tsp sesame oil and 1 tsp soy sauce around the outside of the pile of rice, sprinkle the crispy garlic and ginger over the top and serve.

French Crepes

Sometimes as Lewis or I make breakfast on the weekends one of the boys will come in like the small tornadoes they are and upon seeing what we are doing run out to share the good news with the other tornado. Crepes always elicit the excited running to share their good fortune. I love standing in the kitchen with the French recipe, that even my weak language skills can translate, and hearing their excitement. "Julian, Julian, we're having crepes!" Part of my love for this ritual is the culinary knowledge they have unwittingly picked up. Really the batters for crepes, pancakes, waffles and popovers are very similar, and the 2 of them can unerringly tell which one is being prepared. Of course every time they are overjoyed at good food, it makes me happy, helping slightly to erase the times they whine over another dish.

This recipe was taught to us several years ago by a French woman who worked as an ESL teacher to the many refuges who are resettled her in Burlington. She had printed out the recipe from a French food site and on the back written a conversion from weight to volume. In the end she let Lewis and I keep that print out. We used her approximation for over a year before one Sunday morning I flipped over the paper and realized I was perfectly capable of translating the recipe. "3 ouefs" is 3 eggs, "250g de farine" is 250 grams of flour, "30 grams de beurre" is 30 grams of butter.

When made with the volume measurements written on the back the crepes were always good and we happily ate them for many breakfasts and a few dinners. However the crepes made following the french (metric) measurements were far better then the ones we had made before. No surprise really as most of the measurements were very different. The true french crepe we now make are thin, eggy, with a subtly that makes them irresistible. They must be good, or else Sebastian would not have had 9 at breakfast the other day.

Most of the time we spread strawberry freezer jam on each crepe, each of us has our prefered way to spread the jam, roll them up and eat it. They are more decadent with caramel chocolate sauce or chocolate ganache. You can always gild the lily by adding whipped cream. If you leave out the orange extract they can be served with savory fillings, brie and ham, leftover stew, sauteed mushrooms and leeks and a million more combinations. They are a great use for reinventing leftovers.

This is the single recipe, we have had to start doubling the recipe if Lewis and I wish to eat any of them.

French Crepes

Adapted from supertoinette.com (Although they have since altered their recipe)

While I have given a version in volume it will be different for every type of flour, to be accurate it is best to use a scale that weighs in grams. Both ways will be delicious.

1/4 litre milk (a glass quart measuring cup should have this as a marking)(lait)

1/2 cup white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (62.5 grams de farine)

1/2 cup unbleached white flour (62.5 grams de farine)

3 large eggs (3 oeufs)

1/8 tsp kosher salt (1 pincee de sel)

1/8 - 1/4 tsp orange extract (Eau de fleur d'oranger)

2.2 Tbsp butter melted (30 grams de beurre)

2 Tbsp butter melted for the pan

Place all the ingredients except the butter in a large mixing bowl and blend with an immersion blender (alternatively you can use a large wire or place in a blender). Once the batter is well blended add the butter in a steady stream while continuing to whisk or blend. Most recipes suggest you allow the batter to rest for 1 hour and up to 1 day before using, if I ever allowed the time for this without people passing out from hunger I am sure it would be a great idea.

Heat a nonstick saute pan or crepe pan over medium high heat and brush with butter. Pour in a ladle or 1/4 cup of batter and tilt the pan to spread the batter around. I then fill in any uncovered areas with dollops of batter. Cook the first side until the edges are dry and curling a little and then flip over. Cook briefly on the second side. Place on a plate and continue to use the rest of the batter to make more crepes, layering them on the plate.

When all the batter is used serve the platter of crepes with the jam of your choice or caramel chocolate sauce or chocolate ganache, or whatever fillings you want.

Cabbage with Almonds, Capers and Raisins

It is officially winter out with temperatures below freezing and even in the teens at night. On Wednesday I walked to school with 2 boys who insist on wearing there sledding goggles every day along with face covering hats. They and their friends happily threw snow at each other, rolled in it, kicked it, and occasionally walked forward. When I collected Sebastian off the bus he and Julian and 2 other neighborhood children broke out into a spontaneous gleeful snow ball fight. One little girl chose to stand next to me and eat fists full of fresh snow while her sister and the other children ran around flinging snow at each other. I stood there on the street happily watching them, thankful that I had put on my snow pants so they could play and I would not freeze into a pillar of ice. Lia, the snow eater, ended up shivering and cold.

A return to winter also means a return to my CSA having storage vegetables instead of a bounty of freshly grown produce. If you are new to visiting my blog, then you have not yet heard of the cabbage that is part of my biweekly winter vegetable share and its test to my creativity. Cabbage is one of the many vegetables that people largely left behind when refrigeration and global food production took hold. It still has a place on peoples plates but mostly as coleslaw and sauerkraut, as well as an appearance on St Patty's Day.

Personally I don't really like coleslaw and especially not when the outside temperature is below freezing. So the trick is to come up with uses for the 8 cabbages I receive over the winter that are inventive and delicious. Every winter I get better, figuring out another trick that makes me look forward to cooking with and eating my cabbage share. Yesterday I added a recipe that moves cabbage more firmly into the category of vegetables I love.

It began when I found a recipe on Smitten Kitchen for Cauliflower with Almonds, Capers and Raisins. Part of being successful with my CSA is not to run out and buy every vegetable I see a tempting recipe for, but instead cook with what I have. Therefore I could either wait until March, and the end of the winter CSA, or find a substitution from what I have. As I read and reread the recipe, lusting after the flavors, I began to imagine it with cabbage instead of cauliflower, as they have a similar flavor profile.

When I went to make it I decided to also use some kohlrabi, not because I thought the dish needed it, but because the cabbage I had was so small. I also had to modify the cooking technique as the one time I tried to roast cabbage I found it brought out some of the more off putting flavors of cabbage rather then caramelizing and sweetening it. I also used more topping, just because it sounded so good. The original recipe calls for fresh parsley, tarragon and chives. I substituted fresh cilantro as I will have less trouble using the leftovers and I knew the flavor would work well with the other ingredients.

The end result was an epiphany of what cabbage can be. The cabbage was browned and caramelized in spots with a flavor very similar to cauliflower, only subtler. Then there was the counterpoint to the cabbage and balance from the other flavors, sweetness from the raisins, a mild acidity from the vinegar, sharpness from the capers, earthiness from the almonds and the crunch and richness from the bread crumbs. The cabbage also had a very fresh taste in this dish, which is really wonderful for a vegetable that was harvested at least 2 months ago.

Cabbage with Almonds, Capers and Raisins

Printer Friendly Recipe

1 small cabbage, cut into fourths, cored and then sliced finely yielding approximately 4 cups

1 largeish kohlrabi peeled and then sliced into long matchsticks (optional, although add more cabbage if not using) yielding about 2 cups

3 Tbsp unsalted butter (divided use)

8 Tbsp fresh soft bread crumbs (to make them just take some bread and whiz it in a food processor, any extra can be frozen for future use. Contrary to popular food wisdom I often make bread crumbs from the heel of the bread, the brownness just adds to the flavor)

2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

6 Tbsp whole roasted unsalted almonds

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 Tbsp golden raisins (feel free to sub dried sour cherries or cranberries if you don't like raisins, or even apricots)

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar (I used my favorite sherry vinegar but I think the white wine vinegar would have been just as good and less expensive)

2 Tbsp capers (salt preserved capers are preferable, if using soak in warm water for 30 minutes and then drain. Brine preserved ones only need to be rinsed and drained)

2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro

Heat a large skillet over low heat and add 2 Tbsp butter (my skillet is 13 inches in diameter). When the butter is melted add bread crumbs and cook while stirring until toasted and fragrant, approximately 3 minutes. Transfer crumbs to a bowl and set aside. Wipe out or clean and dry skillet.

Place skillet over medium heat and add 2 tsp olive oil. Add almonds and sauté until lightly toasted and fragrant (although this may be a little hard to judge as the almonds are brown to start with. It should take about 2 to 3 minutes). Season with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, using a light touch. Transfer almonds to a plate or cutting board and when cooled chop each one into 3 or so pieces (the original recipe that Deb from Smitten Kitchen was following specified cutting them into thirds which she found laughable until she tried it. Turns out when you chop almonds thirds is the most reasonable way).

Wipe out or clean and dry skillet and add remaining 1 Tbsp oil, heat the oil over high heat and add the cabbage and kohlrabi if using. Cook the vegetables over high heat, stirring occasionally until browned in spots and tender. (At this point my guess is this took 15 or so minutes, next time I promise to pay attention). While cooking the cabbage and kohlrabi melt remaining 1 Tbsp butter over low heat in a small saucepan, when melted add the raisins (or other dried fruit) vinegar and 2 Tbsp water. Simmer until raisins are plump and soft, drain and set aside.

In a small bowl combine almonds, capers, raisins and cilantro. Season well with pepper and set aside (as my capers where salt preserved I did not add any salt, if yours are brine preserved add salt to taste). Toss so everything is well mixed.

Place cabbage and Kohlrabi on a serving platter or casserole dish and spoon almond, caper herb blend over the top and then sprinkle with the bread crumbs before serving.

Black Bean Burgers

Last spring in preparation for going to hear Michael Pollan speak, I read, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto I realized that many of the veggie meat substitutes we ate were highly processed, with all the implications to the planet and our health as a Twinkie. So while it may be lower in fat then the real thing, the ingredients are shipped all over the country and many of the ingredients are not possible to make in your home kitchen. You can make them but you need chemicals and chemical reactions to produce them. So gone are the veggie bacon, veggie sausage and veggie burgers from my freezer. Sigh. We aren't vegetarians but these products were so convenient.

I tried to make veggie burgers last spring. My 6 year old was so excited for a "homemade veggie burger", right up until the moment he tasted them. Well this months Gourmet has a black bean burger recipe. It looked so appetizing in the photo and the recipe was easy, so I decided to try again to make veggie burgers.

The recipe called for 2 cans of black beans, however I used dried. Dried beans are cheaper, tastier, lower in sodium and are not mushy. I have figured out 2 tricks to make cooking with dried beans easier. The first one is, just go ahead and soak and cook up some beans. Once they are done look up recipes and cook with the beans now residing in your fridge. Cooked beans in the fridge are like beautiful produce you found at the farmer's market that you bought on a whim. (No, this doesn't mean you should leave them there until they become compost). Once it is lounging in the fridge you have to be creative and use it.

The second and often harder approach for me, is plan ahead. Cooking dried beans is really not that time consuming in a hands on way. So if you want to cook with beans for dinner, remember to soak the beans the night before.

So for these burgers I rinsed, sorted and began soaking the beans before going to bed the night before. Cooking them for dinner took about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. If you cannot do that the night you need them soak them overnight and while making dinner on the second night cook them until tender. Then put them in the fridge for the next nights dinner prep. You can also just used canned beans, I give you permission.

The first time I made the Black Bean Burgers my 3 year old was in the kitchen watching, snacking on black beans. His brother was not much of a bean eater so I swore him to secrecy, and went ahead and prepared the burgers. At dinner that night 3 out of 4 of my family members loved them. Surprisingly the 3 year old bean lover is the one who would not eat them. However I think that is related to the 3 bowls of beans he had snacked on during dinner preparation.

I prepared them again last night, making even more changes to the recipe based on the first attempt. One of the changes is because of my new jar of Smoked Spanish Paprika that I got from a Penzy's order that Cheryl of Cranky Cakes and I split. They were even better last night with the new additions and are now firmly part of my repertoire. Last night my 6 year old even figured out they were made with beans and now says he loves beans because "they are so yummy". The 3 year old again opted for the bowl of plain beans, because now he remembers refusing them the first time. If I come up with any other great changes I will let you know.

Black Bean Burgers

Adapted from Gourmet, February 2009

1 cup dried beans

1 bay leaf

1 onion chopped

1 tsp butter

2 garlic cloves, germ removed if any, and minced

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp smoked paprika (If you don't have smoked use regular sweet paprika)

1 tsp dried mixed herbs (I used a mix of thyme, marjoram, and basil. Oregano would also work well, stay away from dill, and sage).

1 tsp tomato paste

2/3 cups bread crumbs lightly toasted in a 350° oven or toaster oven, divided use

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

addition 8-19-09

(adding tsp of powdered egg whites to the mix makes the burgers hold together better)

Pick over and rinse the dried beans and then soak in 6 cups water at least 6 hours. Drain and rinse the beans and place in a large pot with 6 - 8 cups water and add the bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. After about 45 minutes add salt to taste, continue simmering beans until they are tender. Cooking time varies based on the type of bean, their age and quality. In this case total cooking time was approximately 1 1/2 hours. While the beans cook melt the butter in a pan and add the onion. Stir the onion to coat with the butter and sprinkle lightly with salt. Lower the heat to low and cook stirring occasionally until light golden brown. When the onion has reached the desired color add the garlic and cook briefly.

After beans are tender put 1 1/4 cups drained beans in a food processor with mayonnaise, cumin, soy sauce, paprika, dried herbs, tomato paste, 1/3 cup toasted bread crumbs and pulse until a coarse purée forms. Empty into a bowl and stir until well combined with the cilantro and 1 1/2 cup cooked black beans. It is helpful but not essential to place in the fridge for 30 minutes before forming. To form burgers place remaining bread crumbs on a plate. Form mixture into 4 - 6 burgers with wet hands. When shaped coat both sides of patty with bread crumbs.

To cook, heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large non stick skillet until hot but not smoking and cook until golden brown on each side. If desired put sliced cheese on the top after flipping.