Seeing Green

This week’s experiments were with three different types of greens. Not lettuces, but the stuff in the grocery store that’s not displayed with the lettuces, but still looks like it’s part of some mean looking salad.  These different greens look all kinds of crazy: prickly-pointy looking, super ruffley, delicate and fragile, potentially a weed from my backyard, or questionably edible. If you haven’t really looked at this stuff closely you should go check it out.  Smith’s grocery store on Horizon Ridge and Eastern is amazing for hard to find produce. I found all my greens there (and a bunch of stuff I would have gotten hit in the head with if asked to name it).  On to the experiments and the results!

Experiment 1:  Kale

Category: super ruffley and questionably edible. I actually have worked with Kale in the past. When I was trying to find good edible non-milk sources of calcium, Kale was on the list.  I wilted it in with Peppers and Onions for Fajitas. It wasn’t actually bad, just a bit chewy.  I haven’t made it in awhile, but I’d make it again- maybe try to find a way to make it less chewy.

This week’s experiment was Kale Chips. I had read about Kale chips on the CNN article I read about trying to eat more veggies- the one that kind of started the whole thing. Then this past week Eileen pointed it out in a magazine as something that sounded interesting. So I thought I’d give it a try. It was quick and easy to make so why not.

Kale Chips

Tear Kale leaves into pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a Baking Sheet. Bake at 300 degrees until crisp- about 20-30 minutes.

These were my instructions no amounts or anything. So I tear the leaves, pour a little olive oil on- which actually seemed like too much. Somewhere I get it in my head that it said Kosher salt. So I poured a little on the kale- once again it looks like too much. Tossed it around, put it on a baking sheet and dosed in pepper.  I bake for 20 minutes.  

Family Verdict

Natalie is not even going to count this week. If it looks anything like lettuce/salad she won’t even give it a fair shot. So assume Natalie says “I don’t like it.” with a squished up face and her tongue out with a piece of green something on it. On this recipe I think Toby really summed it up with his insightful and eloquent reply: “This tastes like salted paper.” For once, my dear, I must agree. The kosher salt made it so salty it was gross. It had a flavor a little more than paper, but it was still just not right.

Conclusion:  Kale isn’t bad. I don’t want to give it a bad rap, but this recipe is bad or I made it wrong. Kale is used in soups frequently in small quantities and it’s good, and like I said I’d do the fajitas again.

Experiment #2  Broccoli Rabe a.k.a Rapini

coarsely chopped rapini

Category: Potentially a weed from my back yard. Shout out to my home-girl Brenda Blackie Kendall who supplied me with the recipe for this green!  Looking for inspiration, I messaged my two cousins on Toby’s side for their best veggie recipes. These girls and their family’s eat almost totally (if not totally) vegetarian so I figured they are well versed on what is good.  I’m hoping to try some more of their stuff as time goes on. 

 Broccoli Rabe and Garlic Pasta

-slightly modified by me

12 ounces uncooked linguine or fettuccini

1 lb Broccoli Rabe

5 garlic cloves, minced (divided 3 and 2)

2 tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

1 cup chicken broth divided

¼ shredded Parmesan cheese

1 lb raw shrimp- shelled, tail off

1. Cook linguine or fettuccini according to package directions. Meanwhile trim ½ from broccoli rabe stems; discard any coarse or damaged leaves. Rinse broccoli rabe in cold water and cut into 2 inch pieces.

2. In a large skillet sauté 3 cloves garlic in 1 tbsp oil for 1 minute. Add the Broccoli Rabe, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and ½ cup broth (only half of the broth). Bring to a boil

3. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 3-5 minutes or until broccoli rabe is tender.Remove broccoli rabe mixture from the pan to a plate or bowl. 

4. Add 1 tbsp oil back to the pan and heat. Add 2 cloves garlic and shelled shrimp to the hot pan. Cook until shrimp are pink- just a few minutes.

5. Return Broccoli Rabe mixture to the pan. Drain cooked linguine and add to the shrimp and broccoli rabe mixture. Add remaining broth to the pan. Stir to combine. Top with Parmesan Cheese.

 

Family Verdict:

Me: Really good. The broccoli rabe I thought tasted very similar to broccoli. Maybe I was just expecting that because of the name, but it was good.  If you didn’t guess my recipe tweek was to add to the shrimp (I also removed the parsley because as I said in a previous blog entry I just don’t buy parsley).  I have to admit I got hungry really quick after dinner that night. I actually don’t know if I had a pound of shrimp, but whatever I had it was no where near enough. Next time I’ll add more shrimp and possibly Sea Scallops to the recipe.  Today with leftovers I actually added fresh steamed broccoli as well, and I thought that really helped add to the bulk and the flavor. So I may try mixing my “broccoli’s next time.  Oh, and the recipe called for 12 ounces of pasta which isn’t a whole box, but it’s most of a box which I find annoying so next time I may up a couple of the other ingredients so the pasta isn’t dry and use the whole box.

Toby: “A delicious and healthy meal”  Score! I think Toby will like it even more with a little more shrimp and the broccoli. 

Natalie: She loved the noodles, cheese, and the shrimp. It’s a no go on the salad-looking greens. Though, I bet I’d have better luck with her eating actual broccoli on this.

Conclusion: A keeper with the adjustment of more shrimp/scallops and the addition of broccoli. 

Experiment #3  Escarole

Category: delicate and fragile. This green I actually thought was the most beautiful of the 3 greens I purchased this week. It reminded me very much of butter lettuce in its look. I was pretty excited to work with it.  This recipe also came from Eileen who found these pair of recipes from Chef Sal Scognamillo of New York’s Patsy’s restaurant.

Recipes:  Penne Bolognese and Escarole Monacina. Like Fancy Nancy, I just feel so fancy when I say these recipe names.  The Escarole Monocina was of course the green recipe, but I’ll share both with you. I’m dying to comment on the ingredients and me making these, but I’ll save it for after I type out these recipes.

Penne Bolognese

5 medium white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

¼ cup olive oil (I used maybe 2-3 tbsp instead)

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

½ pound finely ground lean beef

1 16 ounce can plum tomatoes, with juice (I used a can of whole tomatoes with juice)

2 bay leaves

¼ cup Cabernet Sauvignon

¼ cup beef broth

Pinch of oregano

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley (didn’t use-surprise surprise)

salt and pepper to taste

4 tbsp Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 lb penne cooked al dente

Bring a Large Pot of Water to a boil, add the mushrooms, and blanch of 2 minutes. Drain, chop finely (I whirred mine up in the food processor), and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high flame and sauté the onions for 3-4 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add the blanched mushrooms, garlic, and ground beef and continue to cook and stir to 7-8 minutes.

Coarsely chop the tomatoes and add with their juice, then bay leaves, wine, broth , and oregano. Bring to a boil, reduced heat to low, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

Remove bay leaves. Add butter and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle and stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve over the cooked pasta. 

Escarole monacina

1 bunch of escarole (washed and rinsed)

4 cloves of garlic

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (I once again used about half)

12 Gaeta olives (used black olives)

2 tbsp nonpareil capers

2 anchovy fillets, cut very fine

2 tbsp pignoli nuts (pine nuts)

2 tbsp raisins

salt and pepper to taste.

Roughly cut and then boil the escarole for about 5 minutes. Drain the water and let cool. Cut escarole down a little more.

Saute olive oil and 4 cloves of garlic, sliced, until the garlic is brown. Add the capers, escarole, olives, anchovy fillets, nuts, raisins, salt and pepper. Saute for 1-2 minutes. Add half a cup of water and cook for another 3-4 minutes until the water is almost dissolved.

Top with seasoned bread crumbs, and place under the broiler for about 2 minutes until lightly browned.

Oh my goodness where do I start on this adventure? Ok the Penne Bolognese I was afraid to even try because the recipe called for red wine. Every recipe I’ve tried with red wine has pretty much been a disaster.  I decided to still give it a try because it called for so little of it.  The 16 ounces of plum tomatoes. Come on, the cans come in 14.5 ounce or 28 ounce- why can’t my recipes pick one of THOSE sizes?? Sigh. Purchased 28 ounce can used a little more than half.  Penne calls for 1 pound. My Penne comes in 14 ounces or something. Turns out 1 14 ounce box was MORE than enough. 

Cool thing about this recipe- the mushrooms when they are either finely diced or whirred in the food processor, turn out to look identical to the ground beef once it’s all mixed together. I think it adds to the beefiness without adding a lot of calories.  Although with the called for ¼ cup of olive oil and 2 tbsp of butter I think have more pressing worries on calories than the beef.

Cooking the Bolognese: 1^st step calls for me to “blanch” the mushrooms. I suppose I could have looked it up, but I assumed that meant boil for 2 minutes then remove. Turned out ok so I guess I did that right. Everything else went along without a hitch. Fishing out the bay leaves was a bit of a challenge, but it all worked out in the end.

Escarole monacina: wow, umm lets start with the ingredients since basically every ingredient has a comment! Beautiful escarole, 4 cloves of garlic – I  used about an entire head of garlic between this recipe and the last. It’s all well and good though because I love garlic. I love going to bed at night and still smelling garlic on my hands.  Gaeta olives- ok for real? Eileen had to look it up she said it was a type of black olive or at least it looked black.  Go to aisle at the grocery store with olives- only the regular types: black, green, kalamata, capers. This Smith’s actually has a salad bar like area with like a million different olives. Do you think there was anything listed Gaeta? The olive lady behind the counter didn’t know what they were. I came home with a can of black olives. 

Nonpariel capers.  I had capers in my fridge I didn’t know if they were “nonpareil”, but seriously didn’t care they were getting used. Turns out they were. Lucky me. Anchovy filets.  Once again almost didn’t try the recipe because of this, but Eileen assured me that they don’t taste like fish they just add saltiness to the dish and are a nice background flavor.   Pignoli nut- ok, so I know you’re a famous NYC chef, but if you are giving a recipe to the public just call it a pine nut for goodness sake.

Unhappy Wet Cat or Boiled Escarole? You Decide.

So I’m getting ready to start cooking this recipe and the first thing it asks me to do is BOIL the escarole. Boil my lovely delicate leaves. Are you sure? Don’t you mean “steam” perhaps? Well whatever, it says boil. Plop they go into the boiling water.  5 minutes later I pull it out and my poor escarole looks like an unhappy wet cat.

My anchovy filets to be cut “very fine” was more of an anchovy paste when I was done.

Two funny things happened at the end- or didn’t happen as it were. I didn’t realize until just now when I was typing out the recipe that it asked me to add water to the pan and cook it down just before the end. Oops.

So, I’m at the end of sauteing and I think I’m ready to go and I see it says to top with seasoned bread crumbs (which aren’t part of the ingredients list I have to say in my defense) and broil.  Meh. Tired, don’t wanna do it.  Plop it goes into a bowl and onto the table.  Good times.

Conclusion:

Me: Penne Bolognese – my first attempt at cooking with red wine that didn’t taste like garbage! That made me a little bit (a lot) happy.  It was pretty darn tasty.  I think it called for way too many noodles for the amount of meat sauce it made. I’ll double the recipe next time, but keep the pasta the same- besides, buying a HALF a pound of meat is also annoying.   Escarole monacina- was absolutely horrible. It tasted like fish and raisins.

Toby: Liked the Bolognese as well. He does NOT like mushrooms- more as a concept than as a flavor, so he was a bit mad at me that I chopped them up so small he couldn’t pick them out. I didn’t want to screw up the recipe so I followed it exactly. Next time, for him, I’ll leave the mushrooms in bigger pieces so he can remove them.  Escarole: Yick. He said he tasted the olive oil as a predominant flavor, but didn’t like it in general.

Natalie: Ate her noodles separate which she of course loved. Didn’t care for the meat mixture. Didn’t even put her through the misery of trying the Escarole recipe.

Conclusion: Bolognese we’d make again. The Escarole went straight to the trash- along with my leftover anchovy fillets. Good riddance!

At the request of my darling husband, I will be cutting back to ONE new veggie recipe a week. I guess I was getting a bit out of hand. I can’t blame him though, poor guy hasn’t really like much of what I’ve been experimenting with. I know I said this last week, but I’m going to go with something more normal this upcoming week. Hope you had a good read and a good laugh. I know I did recalling my catastrophes this week!