Stewed Spring Greens

My goal this year is to get better at cooking without recipes, and I think I am making progress. I have been practicing looking at what I have on hand and imagining what dishes I could make from those ingredients. Yesterday, what I had were three different types of greens that probably needed to be eaten. So I decided to slowly stew them and see what happened.

I heated some olive oil over medium in a very large pot, then added diced onion, sliced carrot and sliced celery. I sprinkled everything with salt. I let the vegetables soften while I washed and chopped the greens: spinach, escarole, bok choy (with the stems) and some celery leaves for good measure. I filled the pot with the greens and poured over a small amount of chicken broth. (Add a lot more broth and you’d have a pretty good soup.) I turned the greens with tongs a few times to mix them with the oil and cooked vegetables. Then I reduced the heat to low and covered the pot. I let the greens slowly stew for a good long while, turning them every now and then, until they had wilted nicely. There was just a little liquor left in the pot. I seasoned to taste with more salt and some pepper.

This was a really nice dish that would work with any combination of greens, I’d bet. And the season for greens is almost upon us! I served this with spaghetti with red sauce and a crusty bread.

Light Dinner: Calzone and Sauteed Kale

Calzone with marinara tomato sauce and kale with breadcrumbs.

If you have pizza dough on hand, it’s a snap to get an easy meal like this on the table on a weeknight. I recently found out how easy it is to make pizza dough and freeze it (here’s the recipe). I think frozen pizza dough works better for making calzones, because you don’t have to stress as much about rolling it out thinly or making a perfect circle (not that I stress about those things anyway).

Just remember to take the dough out of the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. I like to let it sit on the counter for at least an hour so that it will come to room temperature before working with it.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. On an oiled baking sheet, pat and stretch the dough out into an approximate circle. I think it’s easier to make one calzone for 2 or 3 people, but if you want to try making individual smaller ones, go for it.

Once the dough is stretched out to a good size, cover one-half of it with your chosen filling ingredients. For this calzone, I used chopped sun-dried tomatoes, red onion and shredded mozzarella. No sauce is necessary. I think it’s better to keep a light hand with the filling, because too many ingredients have a tendency to explode out of the calzone during baking.

Brush a little water around the edges of the dough. Fold the dough over the filling and crimp the edges together. Use a knife to make five slashes in the top to let the steam escape during cooking. Sprinkle the calzone with coarse salt and slide it into the oven. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden-brown.

While it’s cooking, you can make a simple marinara dipping sauce. Heat up a can of tomato sauce over medium-low and add some spices, such as garlic, oregano and hot red pepper flakes. Just let that bubble while the calzone bakes and serve it alongside in a small bowl.

I think sauteed kale makes a nice alternative to salad, especially in the cooler months. You can substitute other greens, such as chard or spinach, of course. I steamed the kale first, then sauteed it with some garlic and breadcrumbs. Here’s the recipe.

Kale with Garlic and Breadcrumbs

Time to make: ~20 minutes
Yields: 2-3 servings

• 1 bunch kale or other greens
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lg. clove garlic, minced
• Hot red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 tbsp. breadcrumbs, preferably homemade
• 2 tsp. capers
• Juice of ½ lemon

Wash the greens. Remove the stems and roughly tear the leaves. Steam with a small amount of water in a covered pan until wilted, about 5 minutes. Remove to a colander and let drain. (This step can be done ahead.)

Heat the garlic in the olive oil over medium until it starts to sizzle. Add the hot red pepper flakes and breadcrumbs, and stir until they turn brown. Add the capers and greens, and saute until the greens are warmed and coated with the breadcrumbs and garlic, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and squeeze the lemon juice over.

How to Make Croquettes

I have been making croquettes — or little fried cakes — for a long time now. They are always popular, and for me they are comfort food. I usually make them with mashed potatoes or beans. It didn’t occur to me that I could use another vegetable until I found Mark Bittman’s recipe for spinach croquettes. But then I realized that the basic croquette is a versatile recipe that can be adapted quite freely. And since it requires cooked vegetables, it is the perfect vehicle for using up leftovers.

Last night I made croquettes with leftover cooked kale. They were surprisingly good, and even the baby ate three small ones. I would also try making them with other greens, artichoke hearts, broccoli, carrots, corn, peas, sweet potatoes or winter squash.

I served them dry, though, which I would amend for next time. Croquettes really need some kind of sauce to be complete. My husband suggested hollandaise sauce, which would be quite decadent and delicious. But even something as simple as a pesto, salsa or aioli would work. But even without the sauce, they are yummy and very quick to make. If you have time to chill them beforehand, all the better.

Basic Croquettes

Yields: about 6 croquettes

• 2 cups cooked vegetable, either mashed or chopped fine
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ cup cheese, grated
• ¼ cup breadcrumbs, plus more for cooking
• seasonings of your choice: chopped onion, fresh herbs, seasoning mix, etc. plus salt and pepper to taste
• 4 tbsp. oil
• ¼ lb. cooked, flaked fish or ground meat (optional)
• Hollandaise sauce, pesto, salsa, aioli, or other mayonnaise or dipping sauce to serve

Combine the vegetable, eggs, cheese, breadcrumbs and seasonings in a bowl, and mix well. Add the meat, if using — these will make the cakes more of an entree than a side dish. If the cakes aren’t holding together, add more breadcrumbs. If they are too dry, add more beaten egg to bind.

Form the croquettes into cakes. You should have at least 6, or you can make mini-cakes to get more. Lay on a sheet of wax paper on a plate and cover with wax paper. Chill for at least half an hour and up to a day.

Heat the oil over medium-high. Dredge the cakes in breadcrumbs. When the oil is shimmering, fry the cakes until well browned, about 5 minutes per side. You may have to cook the cakes in batches depending on the size of your pan.

Serve with the dipping sauce on the side.

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Greens Cooked with Bacon

In the South, it is a New Year’s Day tradition to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens. When I was a kid, I was convinced that this “tradition” was a trick to get me to eat things like black-eyed peas and collard greens. Now, of course, I realize this is one of many New Year’s food traditions designed to bring good luck and money in the coming year. I like both foods more now, anyway, and besides, who am I to buck tradition? They may know something I don’t.

So this year for New Year’s Day dinner, we had a contemporary but rustic menu featuring pan-roasted sausages, swiss chard cooked in bacon and black-eyed pea salad with roasted butternut squash, peppers and goat cheese (recipe from Fresh Every Day by Sara Foster).

I actually reworked the black-eyed pea salad into a soup a couple of nights later, adding some crumbled bacon and serving it with croutons smeared with goat cheese, and I liked it even more. That should just remind me that I usually prefer bean soups over bean salads.

For me, the real hit of the night was greens cooked in bacon. This is a very simple way of cooking any kind of greens, including collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, spinach and chard, which I used. The result is bright green and tasty with a strong (but not overwhelming) flavor of bacon, unlike the way overcooked, mushy, overly meaty greens I remember from my childhood. (It may be heresy, but I do think it’s possible to improve on some Southern recipes.)

Best of all, this is so easy to make that you can eat it much more often than once a year. That is, if you didn’t make a resolution to stop eating foods cooked in bacon fat. Enjoy.

Greens Cooked with Bacon
Time to make: ~30 minutes
Yields: 4 servings

What you need:

• 2 slices bacon
• 2 bunches cooking greens, washed and stems removed

1. In a large skillet, fry the bacon until crisp and remove to paper towels to drain.
2. Reduce the heat to low.
3. Add the greens to the bacon fat, cover and cook over low.
4. Stir occasionally and add a tablespoon of water if needed to keep from sticking.
5. Remove greens when cooked to desired tenderness, as little as 5 minutes for spinach, up to 25 minutes for tougher greens.
6. Top with crumbled bacon and serve.

Inspired by a recipe from Fresh Every Day.

A Harvest Thanksgiving Menu

As is our tradition, we are heading up to the mountains of North Carolina tomorrow for a Thanksgiving weekend with my mother, stepfather, brother and stepbrothers. This year, my brother and I are largely responsible for the meal. The theme that emerged from our menu brainstorming is one that celebrates the bounty of the season, focusing on a bounty of simply prepared vegetable recipes. I think it’s going to be delicious!

A Harvest Thanksgiving

• Avocado and Orange Salad
• Winter Squash Soup
• Sage-Roasted Turkey with Caramelized Onions and Sage Gravy
• Simmered Greens — no recipe needed; just trim the greens and simmer until tender, about 7 minutes, then toss with butter and lemon juice
• Pan-Roasted Carrots (recipe from Fresh Every Day)
• Scalloped Potatoes (recipe from The New Best Recipe)
• Pumpkin Cheesecake

Happy eating to all of you today!

How to Make the Perfect Stir-Fry

The secrets to a successful stir-fry are organization and preparation, which are also the keys to accomplishing pretty much any complex task. Cooking is a small mirror held up to life (profound, huh?). If you can pull off a good stir-fry, you can probably successfully manage three complex software development projects with deliverables expected in late December, or the equivalent. We’ll see.

Before you even start cooking, you’ll want to get yourself and all of your ingredients organized. When the cooking starts, it goes fast, so you’ll need to have everything ready and at hand. The first thing I do is cook the starch, either rice or noodles, such as Chinese ramen-style noodles or angel hair pasta. The rice will steam and then stay warm while I’m preparing the stir-fry. The noodles will be done fast and then can sit in their pot until I’m ready to mix them in and reheat them.

Second, prepare the protein. I usually use boneless chicken breast for this dish, but turkey, pork, shrimp, scallops, fish or tofu should also work just fine. For 2 people, I use about ¼ pound of protein. Remember, traditional stir-fries are skimpy on the meat and generous with the vegetables. Cube the meat and let sit in a mixture of 1 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. sherry and ¼ cup water while you prepare the vegetables.

Choose 2-3 vegetables for the dish, enough to make ½ pound. Keeping it simple keeps both you and the stir-fry from getting overwhelmed. Dice or slice each vegetable into as nearly uniform pieces as you can make them. Arrange the cut vegetables in bowls in order of their cooking time, with the longest cooking vegetables first:

1. Mushrooms: 5-10 minutes, depending on type and thickness
2. Cabbage, spinach, other greens: 4-6 minutes
3. Asparagus, broccoli, carrots, green beans: 3-5 minutes
4. Peppers, snow peas, sugar snap peas, summer squash, zucchini: 2-3 minutes
5. Bean sprouts: less than 1 minute

These are just suggestions. You may want to try other vegetables.

In addition, mince 2 garlic cloves and ½ tbsp. ginger root, and place them in line behind all the vegetables.

Next, prepare the sauce. My base stir-fry sauce is a mixture of ¼ cup chicken stock, 2 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tsp. cornstarch and 1 tbsp. flavoring, such as a bottled Asian sauce, sake or rice wine, or fermented black beans soaked in sherry. Feel free to experiment. I give a suggested variation at the end of this post.

Finally, get your garnishes together. Chopped nuts, sliced scallions, raw bean sprouts and minced fresh herbs all make good garnishes.

The last step is to prepare a coating for the protein for cooking it. Drain away the marinade and toss the chicken (or whatever you’re using) in a mixture of ½ tbsp. sesame oil, 1 tsp. cornstarch and 1 tsp. flour.

Now you’re ready to assemble the stir-fry:

1. Heat 1 tbsp. peanut oil in a nonstick skillet over high until shimmering
2. Add the protein in a single layer and cook without disturbing until browned
3. Flip each piece and brown the other side in the same manner
4. Remove the cooked protein to a plate
5. If needed, add another ½ tbsp. peanut oil to the pan
6. Add the vegetables in order of their cooking times and stir-fry, keeping the food moving constantly, until tender
7. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir-fry 30 seconds
8. Reduce the heat to medium
9. Return to the protein to the pan and mix in the sauce
10. Stir-fry until the sauce thickens
11. If using noodles, stir them in and heat through
12. Remove from heat, garnish and serve

Sweet Chili-Garlic Stir-Fry Sauce

Serves: 2

Mix together:

• ¼ cup chicken stock
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. honey
• ½ tbsp. rice wine vinegar
• 1-2 tsp. chili sauce, depending on taste
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. cornstarch

Sausage, Beans & Greens Stew

Sausage and beans, beans and greens — both are classic combinations. This simple, one-pot, weeknight supper combines them all. This dish took less than 30 minutes to make and was a big hit at the table.

Sausage, Beans and Greens Stew

Serves: 2
Time to make: ~30 minutes

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ medium onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Italian sausage links, sliced
• 1 can of any beans, rinsed and drained, or 1 cup pre-cooked beans
• 1 lb. leafy greens or cabbage, chopped
• ½ cup chicken stock
• grated cheese (optional)

Heat the olive oil over medium-high in a dutch oven. Saute the onion, garlic and sausage until the sausage is browned. Add the beans and greens, tossing to mix and wilt. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and let simmer until the greens are tender, 7-10 minutes. Season to taste and garnish with cheese, if you like.

Notes: I love chicken sausage because it is leaner but still tastes like the real thing — to me, at least. While Italian sausage is called for, you could substitute any sausage flavor of a similar size.

Bonus Recipe: Easy Garlic Bread

I served this with my version of Easy Garlic Bread. Cut an Italian or French loaf into thick slices, but don’t cut all the way through. Slip a pat of butter between each slice and smear with a dab of roasted garlic paste (a handy ingredient that you can find in most grocery stores). Wrap in foil and heat at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Voila!