Collard Greens, Two Ways

Above: Smoky Collard Greens, from Claire Robinson's Five Ingredient Fix. Below: Sauteed Collard Greens with Prosciutto, a la Piccina Cucina

 

We apparently have a penchant for bitter greens in this house. Actually, I think we probably just have a penchant for anything we can smother in olive oil, but hey, let's take the healthy excuse. Our latest discovery, adding to the broccoli rabe and brussels sprouts repertoire, is collard greens. So good! The first time I made them, I did them just like I do broccoli rabe, except I added a little (ahem) butter in with the olive oil. This time, I added a little prosciutto (just getting healthier and healthier). Served it with pork chops (mmm, pork with a side of pork!).

Another great way to make them, as I discovered in Five Ingredient Fix, is to sautee them with paprika, cayenne, and onions for a smoky flavor. I served those with aglio e olio.

Both ways are good (or all three ways, I suppose), and since it's a side dish, hey, try them all.

SMOKY COLLARD GREENS
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium sweet yellow onion, sliced
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and ground pepper
2 1/2 lbs (about 2 large bunches) collard greens, stems chopped off, sliced into thick ribbons, and halved

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or sautee pan over medium-high. Add the onion, paprika, and cayenne, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion has softened. Add 1/2 a cup of water to the pot (SIX ingredients!). When the water simmers, add the greens (pack them in, they'll wilt). Season with more salt and pepper if needed. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes or so. Remove the lid, toss the greens, reduce the heat to medium-low, and continue to simmer until the greens are completely cooked and the liquid has all evaporated, about 10 more minutes. Serve warm.

SAUTEED COLLARD GREENS, WITH OR WITHOUT PROSCIUTTO
1-2 tbsp or so olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
4-5 slices prosciutto, torn into smaller pieces (optional)
1/2 - 1 tbsp butter
1-2 large bunches collard greens, stems chopped off, sliced into thick ribbons, and halved
1 cup chicken broth

Prep your greens, then add olive oil and butter to a large sautee pan over medium heat. If using prosciutto, add to pan and cook until a little crisp. Add the garlic. Let the garlic cook a few minutes without getting brown, then add all your greens to the pan. Let them start to wilt, tossing to combine. Add chicken broth, and toss again. Continue to cook and rotate until the greens wilt and most of the water has boiled off. Takes longer than rabe, about 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Thai Chicken Curry

(adapted from Williams-Sonoma's Food Made Fast: Weeknight)

This is a pretty neat cookbook. Joef got it for me a few years back for my birthday, and it's perfect for my style of cooking - fast, and not too many ingredients. If something takes more than 1/2 an hour to make, it had better be a special occasion, or something I can just leave on the stove for a couple hours while I go about my business.

Pasta is my favorite "fast" food (and favorite food in general, really...and pretty much my whole diet), but when it comes to weeknight cooking, I default to pasta, perhaps, too often. So I was excited to try this recipe, and it was really yummy, and fun to make.

The cookbook gave this a "30 Minutes Start to Finish" rating. I'm going to have to disagree. There was a lot of prep involved, which took about 20 minutes on its own, and then there was the actual cooking, another 20 minutes or so. Still, not bad for a meal that looks and tastes pretty fancy. I especially liked the crispiness of the green beans.

I'd make a few modifications next time (reflected in the instructions). It called for two limes. It was just too limey. And I couldn't find Thai red curry paste, so I used red curry powder, which was probably not an ideal substitute, although it worked. Finally, I got panicky at the end that it wouldn't be enough sauce, so I added the whole can of coconut milk (as opposed to 1 cup), and then doubled the broth, fish sauce, and curry paste. (Even with that doubling, it was still too limey.) Of course, then it was really brothy.

So, let's see if I can reproduce this:
1 lime
1 package (1-1.5 lbs) boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp peanut oil (careful, the flash point on this stuff is intense - lots of bubbling and popping)
1/4 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1.5 tbsp Thai red curry paste (alt. if absolutely necessary, red curry powder)
1-2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
2/3 - 1 1/3 cups chicken broth
1-2 tbsp Asian fish sauce
6 green onions, including white and tender parts, sliced
1/4 cup fresh basil (Thai if you can get it, which I couldn't)
Steamed brown rice, for serving (1-2 cups)

Grate 1/4 - 1/2 tsp lime zest and squeeze 1/16 - 1/8 cup juice (like 1/2 a lime, maybe 1 whole lime, depending on what you want). Set aside. Cut the chicken into thin strips or cubes and season with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until golden. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add the green beans to the wok and cook, stirring frequently, until they start to get tender and a little golden/crispy. Transfer to the plate with the chicken.

Stir the curry paste into the pan over medium-high. Stir in the coconut milk, broth, and fish sauce. Bring to a simmer and stir, scraping up any browned bits on the pan. Stir in the lime juice and zest.

Add the chicken and green beans back to the pan and stir to coat with sauce. Simmer until the chicken is opaque throughout. Stir in the green onions and basil, then serve over rice.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan

(inspired by Eataly)

Joef and I finally made it to Eataly last weekend. We've been wanting to go since it opened, and we finally got the chance on a weekend trip to NYC.

It was pretty impressive - just huge. The selection was staggering (and you pay for that selection). At the same time, while I really enjoyed myself there and am glad I went, I think ultimately I'm more impressed by the small, family-owned Italian groceries that we used to go to in Chicago and that exist all over New York. I feel like you can get just about whatever authentic ingredient you want there, too. That being said, it was definitely worth the visit.

We ate at the pasta restaurant (La Pasta, appropriately), and for the antipasto misto, one of the three items was a delicious shredded brussels sprouts dish with pecorino and olive oil. I decided it wouldn't be too difficult to recreate, and since I'm on a brussels sprouts kick, hey, why not?

I think I almost got it. Next time, I'd cut off more off of the ends of the sprouts, because I think they get a little more bitter. Also, I'm trying to figure out if they blanched the sprouts beforehand or not - mine were a little crunchier, more like a slaw. Still, they were really good - a nice side dish with steaks with herbed butter and some orzo.

1 package fresh brussels sprouts, sliced thin
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice, fresh-squeezed, optional

When you prep the sprouts, make sure to peel off the outer leaves that may be browned or yellowed. Once you've sliced them, put them in a bowl, and add olive oil, parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. I'm not sure about proportions (wow, what a great recipe!), but enough olive oil to coat, and parmesan to taste. Add a squeeze of two of lemon juice, stir, and serve!

Blueberry Bounce and Blueberry Bounce Mojito

Two recipes in one today! You may recall our Raspberry Bounce experiment from www.cottagesmallholder.com. Well, we couldn't get enough of making our own liqueurs, so Joef (he's the drink master) adapted the recipe for blueberries. I liked this even better than the raspberry. The only differences in this recipe besides the fruit are that we mashed up the blueberries, used sugar in the raw instead of white sugar, and we didn't have to let it sit as long. All good things, I think. Plus, how beautiful is that color?! Plus, blueberry bounce mojitos!

BLUEBERRY BOUNCE
300g fresh blueberries
350g sugar in the raw
1.5 liters (or more) of medium quality vodka (don’t be tempted to go for the cheapest)
Sterilized 2-liter bottle

Wash blueberries. Mash blueberries. Place berries in the large bottle, squeezing the berries through the neck of the bottle.

Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with vodka to 2-3cm from the top.

Shake it up a little, then leave it in a dark place, shaking every now and then, for about two weeks (shorter timeframe than its raspberry cousin).

What will you do with your blueberry bounce, you might ask. The answer is, make a million of these "mojitos", because they are delicious:

BLUEBERRY BOUNCE MOJITO
2.5 shots blueberry bounce
8-10 fresh mint leaves
juice from 1/2 small lemon
Tonic water
Dash bitters
Ice

Squeeze half a lemon into a tumbler glass. Add mint leaves. Muddle/bruise. Add blueberry bounce. Add ice. Top with tonic to fill glass, or to taste. Add a couple dashes bitters. Stir. Drink and enjoy!