EatLocal365 » swiss chard

Dark Days Challenge: Breakfast

Lindsay — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:31:33 +0000

The final week of the Dark Days Challenge is focused on breakfast. We’ve done a bunch of breakfast posts, so we were a bit stumped.

I wanted to do another baked good, but didn’t want to split two dozen muffins or a whole coffee cake with Erik over the next two days.

Yogurt and granola parfait with strawberries? I just couldn’t decide. So then I forgot all about it…

….until this morning. I was out for a run in the beautiful almost-spring weather and remembered. Dang it! So here’s what I had for breakfast – two poached eggs on leftover mixed green salad with sunflower thyme pesto. Completely local, but maybe not breakfast-y enough for some people. It totally hit the spot for me, though. Maybe I’ll have a muffin for lunch to even things out.

Why Buy? DIY! How to Make “Hot Pockets”

Lindsay — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:27:40 +0000

Many of our friends have had babies in the last couple of years. We’re really lucky to have this amazing group of kids to play with and moms and dads to admire. They’ve given me quite a bit of food-related knowledge. For example, if it falls on the floor, it is either totally contaminated (first kid) or fine after you shake off the dog hair (second kid).

I’ve also learned that one of the best things you can give parents of a newborn is food that can be eaten with one hand. Since we really like these “haute” pockets (shmancy, huh?), we figured they’d be an awesome food gift for our friends who just had their second daughter…especially since their first child is only a year old. Heroes!!

This recipe does take a little bit of time, but it makes six good-sized pockets, enough for almost a week of lunches. They’re sturdy enough to toss in your purse (maybe wrapped in one of these cute food cozies) and taste just as good at room temperature as they do warm. I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure you could freeze and reheat them like the real thing (2 minutes in the microwave or 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven).

In my quest to convert you to the DIY version, I tried to look up comparable nutrition information. I gave up. They’re all so meaty and cheesy that it’s not a fair contest. You could fill this dough with whatever you want, though, so if you have a favorite flavor, give it a try!

Greens-Stuffed Haute Pockets

Serves 6

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (SWM = Somerville Winter Market)
1 1/2 tsp	Active dry yeast
10 ounces	All-purpose flour	You’ll need some extra for the counter.	Wild Hive Farm
1/2 tsp	Kosher salt
1/2 tsp	Sugar
2 large	Eggs	1 for the dough, 1 for the filling	Red Fire Farm CSA
3 TBsp	Olive oil	You’ll need a little extra for the bowl the dough will rise in.
About 2 pounds	Mixed dark leafy greens	About 4 bunches, but don’t worry too much about it	Organic (not local, because the timing didn’t work out)
4 cloves	Garlic	Chopped finely	Red Fire Farm CSA
1 tsp	Ground cumin
1 tsp	Ground coriander
Big pinch	Kosher salt
4 or 5 grinds	Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

To make the dough, add the yeast to 1/2 cup of room temperature water. This will dissolve the yeast so that it’s ready to work.

Whisk together the flour, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, and sugar. This is sort of a lazy girl’s version of sifting.

Whisk together one egg and the olive oil. Add this and the dissolved yeast to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until it forms a shaggy (i.e. dry) dough.

Dust a clean counter with flour and dump out the dough. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes until becomes nice and smooth. It shouldn’t be sticky, so knead in a little more flour if it is.

Pour a drop of olive oil into a clean bowl. Form the dough into a ball, put it in the bowl, and roll it around in the oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for an hour or until it has approximately doubled.

While the dough is rising, get a big pot of water boiling. While it’s heating up, prepare your greens by removing the stems/ribs.

Once the water is boiling, blanch the greens. To do this, add a couple of big handfuls of greens to the water and cook for 3 minutes (only 1 minute for spinach). Don’t crowd the pot too much. While the greens are cooking, fill a big bowl with ice water. Once the time is up, shock the greens (stop them from cooking) by transferring them from the pot to the ice water. Use tongs or a spider to let most of the hot water drain off first. Once the greens are cool, drain them well.

Once all the greens are blanched, shocked, and drained, squeeze the pile with your hands to remove most of the water. Then, roll up the greens to a dishtowel that you don’t really care about and wring out some more water. Avoid white towels, because they’ll turn green. The idea is to get rid of as much water as you can so that the pockets aren’t soggy.

After you’ve squeezed and squeezed, you’ll have a loaf of compacted greens. Chop this up into about 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Set aside until the dough has risen.

Once the dough has risen, put the ball on a lightly floured counter and cut it into six equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball and let them rest on the counter for 15 minutes. This will relax the dough so that it doesn’t spring back when you roll it out.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

While the dough is resting, beat the second egg and add almost all of it to the greens. Save about 2 tablespoons. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to the greens and mix well. I like to use a fork, because it helps to break up the clumpy greens. Plus, I just used it to beat the egg, so it’s already dirty.

After 15 minutes, roll one of the dough balls into a circle approximately 7 inches across (that’s about the size of my hand). If you keep your counter floured and rotate the dough after each roll, you’ll keep it from sticking and get a better circle.

Lightly pack the greens mixture into a 1/2-cup measuring cup and turn them out onto the bottom half of your dough circle. You might need to use a slightly larger or smaller cup, depending on the volume of your greens. Using the reserved egg mixture, brush a little onto the bottom edge of the circle. You could use your finger if you don’t have a brush. Stretch the top of the circle over the greens to meet the bottom edge. Fold and crimp the edges together. The egg will help glue the pocket shut.

Transfer the pocket to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly dusted with cornmeal and repeat with the other five dough balls. Three pockets will fit on each sheet pan. Brush the pockets with the remaining egg for a nice, shiny finish.

Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through for even browning.

Cooking for One: Inappropriately Large Salad

Lindsay — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:52:25 +0000

Here’s another attempt at avoiding delivery while Erik is out of town – a salad that is nearly the same size as my laptop. I’m a hungry girl, so normal salads don’t really do it for me. I need a thoughtfully composed bowl of tasty things or I don’t feel satisfied. Instead of giving a recipe, I’ll give you my little guiding principles for making a GIGANTIC, super-filling salad.

Guideline 1: Commit. Get a big bowl. Much bigger than you think you’ll need. Better to look silly and keep your salad together, than use a small bowl piled precariously high. The second part of committing is to use your hands to toss everything together. Maybe I’m not very coordinated, but I’ve never had good luck with salad tossing utensils. I either toss more on the floor than in the bowl or don’t adequately mix everything. My (clean) hands work great though!

Guideline 2: Only use things you like. I don’t like celery, so you won’t see it in any of my salads. I prefer dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, etc.) to lighter ones (romaine or iceberg). I also like some sweetness from fruit and a mixture of crisp and soft things. I don’t like a huge bowl of crunchy veggies, because I get bored of chewing them. You get the picture. It also helps to have some prepped stuff in the refrigerator. If you like beets on your salad, as I do, roast a few right away, so that they’re ready for a quick salad later in the week.

Guideline 3: Know a few good dressing recipes. I love the standard oil and vinegar, but it doesn’t always make the cut. We have found that raw food cookbooks and websites (like Choosing Raw) have great recipes for interesting dressings that can turn a pile of produce into a meal.

Guideline 4: Mega salads aren’t diet food! It’s a meal, so treat it like one and pay attention to what you’re putting in it. Like any meal, it should be substantial enough to keep you full, but not overloaded with calorie-rich ingredients. The salad I made today had a riff on this avocado-mustard dressing with a small avocado (about 200 calories) and a tablespoon of olive oil (120 calories). I also added about a tablespoon of toasted pine nuts (50 calories or so). As a meal, this is fine for me. It’s filling and delicious, but not a reason to reward myself with ice cream this afternoon. Even though it’s definitely ice cream weather…

Check out our salad posts for some ideas. As the weather warms up, it’s nice to have an arsenal of dinner ideas that don’t require the oven or stove.

Versatile Grain and Veggie Salad Recipe

Lindsay — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:49:32 +0000

It’s Greenmarket Grains Week! We are so fortunate to live in an area where we can get a wide variety of local grains and flours. We rarely buy this stuff at the store anymore, but if we do, we stick to the bulk section and King Arthur Flour (relatively local and employee-owned).

This salad will make you love grains and dark, leafy greens. I wish I were eating it right now for breakfast.

We rely on this on Friday nights in the fall and winter when we need to clear out the refridgerator before our trip to the market on Saturday morning. It’s not really a recipe – more of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” – so feel free to play around with the quantities if you have more or less of something.

Makes 4-6 servings and keeps well for a few days in the refrigerator

Local Ingredients:

Roasted vegetables
Greens
Red onions
Feta
Grains (We used farro from Cayuga Pure Organics this time, but feel free to mix it up.)

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of roasted vegetables (leftover is great, but if you’re roasting just for this recipe, leave out the garlic and go easy on the salt)
1-2 bunches of dark, leafy greens (leftover sauteed greens or fresh)
3-4 cups of cooked grain (see table below)
1 cup of red onion (about 1/2 large or 1 small)
1 cup of feta, crumbled (about 4 ounces)
4 tablespoons of lemon juice, divided (about 2 lemons)
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
Salt

Directions:

Roast the vegetables, if you need to. (Follow these instructions.) Start cooking the grain while the vegetables are in the oven.

Cook the grain: Bring the water to a boil. Add the grain and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook (covered) at a simmer for the noted time or until al dente. Taste frequently, because you want slightly chewy, separate grains for this, not soft, mushy ones. Once the grain is cooking, move onto the next step.

GRAIN	CUPS WATER	CUPS GRAIN	COOK TIME
Barley, pearled	3	1	25 mins
Barley, hulled	3	1	45 mins
Buckwheat groats	3	1 2/4	10 mins
Farro	3	1	25 mins
Oat Groats	3	1	30 mins
Rice, brown basmati	3	1 1/4	35 mins
Rice, brown, long grain	3	1 1/4	45 mins
Rice, brown, short grain	3	1 1/4	45 mins
Rice, wild	2 3/4	1	50 mins
Rye, berries	4 1/4	1 1/4	45 mins
Spelt	5	1 2/4	35 mins
Wheat, whole berries	4 1/4	1 2/4	60 mins
Wheat, cracked	3 1/4	1 3/4	15 mins
Wheat, bulgur	3	1 2/4	10 mins

Chop the red onion and soak it in cold water for about 30 minutes. This will remove some of the “sting” and make it milder.
If the greens are fresh, separate the stems from the leaves and chop each into bite-sized pieces. Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a pan. Add the stems and saute until they begin to soften (about 5 minutes). Add the greens one handful at at time, waiting for them to wilt slightly before adding another handful, so that you can fit them all in your pan. Once all the leaves are in the pan, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Cover and allow to cook for 3-5 minutes or until bright green. If your pan doesn’t have a lid, use a pizza pan (like we do) or tin foil.
Taste the grain to see if it’s done. Once it is, drain off any extra water and cover the pot until everything else is ready.
To make the dressing, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the bottom of a large salad bowl. Slowly whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add the grain, roasted vegetables, red onion (drained), greens, and feta to the bowl and mix well.

This time, we used farro, roasted celeriac, carrots, sunchokes, kohrabi, and potatoes, Swiss chard and kale, and feta. Feel free to use your imagination and leftovers!

Produce Profile: Swiss Chard

Lindsay — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:18:13 +0000

We LOVE dark leafy greens. Especially covered in olive oil and garlic. Mmmm…. I understand why many people don’t, though. They’re often overcooked and under-seasoned, which makes them bitter and mushy. If you’re scared of dark leafies, Swiss chard is a good place to start , because it’s readily available and tastes a little like spinach. In fact, you could use Swiss chard leaves as a substitute for spinach in just about any recipe. We only have a few more weeks in NYC before the season ends, so go get some!

So beautiful! How can you resist those colors???

Background:
Swiss chard is native to the Mediterranean and is a member of the chenopod (or Goosefoot!) family, which includes beets, spinach, and quinoa. Each large, dark green leaf grows on a thick stem, the color of which helps to distinguish the different varieties – white, yellow, red, rainbow (a combination of colors). It scores a 670 out of 1,000 on the ANDI scale, which is a holistic nutrition scoring system. Broccoli only gets a 376! The ancient Greeks honored it for its medicinal qualities, so you know it must be good for you.

Selecting Swiss Chard:
The leaves should be dark green and free of tears and large holes. Swiss chard from organic farmers will will sometimes have small holes in the leaves because insecticides weren’t used, but that’s fine. The leaves should also feel “springy”, not limp. The stems should be relatively blemish-free, but a few marks or cracks near where it was cut from the ground are okay.

Benefits of Swiss Chard:

Great source of phytonutrients, which help to reduce inflamation and provide antioxidants
Regulates blood sugar
Excellent for bone health, due to high amount of calcium and vitamin K

Basic Preparation:
As a first step, follow the directions in our post here. Once it’s chopped, you can just saute it with some garlic and onions (soften the onions, garlic, and stems for about 5-7 minutes, add the greens for another 3-5 minutes, finish with a sprinkling of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice). This makes a great side or addition to pasta, soup, or pizza. If you’re feeling advanced, you could also use it as a filling for sandwiches or calzones or in a grain salad like the one below.

Swiss chard is best stored unwashed, since the leaves will start to spoil quickly if they’re damp. Store it wrapped in a paper towel in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for the longest shelf life, but you’ll be lucky to get a week out of it. Swiss chard is best eaten within a few days of bringing it home.

Starter Recipes:
Here are two that combine Swiss chard with a sweeter vegetable to ease the “greens-o-phobia”.

We like to vary this recipe from The Kitchn to use whatever we have on hand. Details to come!
I think I’ll give this one a try soon, too.

Sources:
The World’s Healthiest Foods
Eat Right America

How to Prep Dark Leafy Greens

Erik — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:55:35 +0000

Fall in NYC brings an abundance of dark, leafy greens. Prepping any type of leafy green is a similar operation, but some greens require a little extra TLC because the ribs and the leaves cook differently. This means that you have to separate the two in order cook everything nicely. While this is always an option with softer greens like kale or spinach for taste or texture preferences, with tougher greens like Swiss chard and collard greens it’s kind of non-negotiable.

Note about washing and storing greens:

If you know and trust your farmer, washing greens is more about getting the dirt off so you don’t dull your knives or hurt your teeth. If you wash the greens before you chop them, fill your sink (or a salad spinner) with enough water so the greens will float. Toss them in and swirl them around a bit. The dirt will fall to the bottom and you can scoop the greens off the top. If you chop them first, you can save some water by rinsing them in a salad spinner (if you have one).
If you don’t know or trust your farmer, add regular white vinegar to the soaking water and let everything sit for a few minutes before rinsing well. Check out this NPR story if you want more information.
Either way, if you do this before storing the greens (the way we do it), make sure you dry the greens thoroughly, wrap in paper towels, and tuck into a plastic bag before placing in the refrigerator. The drier they are, the longer they’ll keep. If you do all this you can get up to 5 or 6 days in the refrigerator without serious wilting, otherwise you should use them sooner.

Directions:

Trim the stems at the point where the leaves begin. It’s helpful if you leave the rubber band on, so that the stems stay together. Save the stems for later, but put them aside for now, except for the last inch or so at the “ground” end of the stems, which you should cut off and discard.
If you want to remove the ribs, take each leaf, one at a time, and fold it in half along the rib. Run your knife along the rib (towards you) to separate it from the leaf.
Gather up all of the ribs and stems from the first two steps, and cut them into bite-sized pieces (about 1/2 to 1 inch).

These are the basic steps for prepping “stemmy” leafy greens like Swiss Chard. Now, if you plan to sauté the chard you would want to give the rib pieces about a 5 minute head start (maybe with some onion and garlic) before adding the actual greens to the pan. The ribs are perfectly edible, but they tend to be fibrous (kind of like celery) and need this extra step.

For our dinner, however, we wanted to cut the greens into “ribbons”, so they would be more evenly spread out in the dish. We also like using raw greens in salads, but they have to be sliced thinly the same way or you risk wearing out your jaw. To do this, lay out 5 – 6 of the leaves in a stack. It’s helpful to put bigger leaves on the bottom and smaller leaves on the top. If you removed the ribs, fold the stack in half on the cutting board. If you didn’t remove them, roll up the stack like a cigar.
Next, cut the stack or roll cross-wise into “ribbons”. If you are cooking the greens, 1/2 to 1 inch ribbons work well. If you’re eating them raw in a salad, you might want them thinner.

One more note: we forgot to wash our Swiss Chard at the beginning of the process. Chard with the full stems is a bit unruly for our salad spinner, so we would normally wash everything after step #1 (or even step #2). This time, however, we made the mistake of throwing all of the ribboned leaves and cut-up stems into our salad spinner and washing them after the fact. Don’t do that. In order to properly sauté the ribs for 5 minutes before adding the greens, we had to pick them all (or most of them) out of the mix. What a pain! Nobody’s perfect!