I'm having to watch my weight a bit, so please excuse the calorie counting. (Has anyone noticed that I like the word "cream" a lot? That could explain the extra weight...)
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 half white or yellow onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry
1/4 cup flour
5 eggs
2 ounces crumbled feta
2 tablespoons pine nuts
a small handful of fresh dill
a small handful of fresh parsley
zest of half of a lemon
a dash of nutmeg
a teaspoon of black pepper (or to taste)
a teaspoon of garlic salt (or to taste)
9 inch deep pan, I used a square glass one
(see below for sauce ingredients)
Preheat over to 350 or 375 depending on how hot your oven runs
Remove
the stems from the chard leaves and chop fine. Also chop the onion up
and saute them both in the olive oil on med-high heat until soft, adding
the sherry and sprinkling with a pinch of salt about halfway through.
After about ten minutes or so, add the rest of the chopped chard leaves and take off the heat and cover, letting the leaves just steam for a
few minutes. Let it all cool.
Beat the five egg whites until stiff.
In
a bowl mix the 5 egg yolks with the rest of the flavorings, pine
nuts and feta etc., then toss with the flour and the cooked and
cooled chard mixture (but don't add the liquid that has come out of the
chard though). Stir in a 1/4 of the egg whites, then fold the rest in
gently as you would for any souffle.
Spray the pan (9x9-ish) with a bit with PAM or
something then fill and bake for about 45 minutes. The top should be
brown and the middle moist, but not soupy.
For bechamel-like sauce (to add the nice creamy element),
cook 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon olive oil on med-high for a
minute until bubbly, then add a scant cup of skim milk and a pinch of
salt and pepper and a dash of Tabasco and cook, stirring with a whisk,
until thick.
Cut the slightly cooled souffle into four pieces and top each with bechamel.
275 calories per serving OR 220 calories per serving without the sauce
For this recipe, you can either make the squash rolls, or you can fancy them up with bacon and sage if you want a sweet/savory breakfast roll.
Ingredients:
1 little block of fresh yeast, or 2 packets of dried yeast
5 cups of flour, plus 1 cup or more for kneading (dough is supposed to be very soft though)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup Irish or other grass fed butter, melted
1 1/2 cups of cooked and pureed Kabocha squash (or any other winter squash, pumpkin, or yam)
1 egg yolk
1 cup of whole milk, warmed up a little
For the bacon rolls alternative:
1 lb. bacon slices, chopped up, fried up and drained
12 sage leaves
Dissolve
the yeast in a little lukewarm water, then add with all the rest of
the ingredients in a stand mixer and mix it up with your bread hook. (Or
just do it by hand.) The dough is really soft and sticky, that's
okay.
Scoop it out into an oiled bowl, cover it with oiled plastic wrap
and let it rise in a warm place for at least one hour, or until almost doubled in size. Then, adding a bit of
flour as needed, knead gently with your fists for a minute or two on a well floured board, or just do it in the bowl if you don't want to make a mess.
You can form the rolls easily if you keep your hands floured or oiled- cut the dough into four equal chunks, then cut each of the four again, and then again, for 32 total rolls. You can look up how to shape dinner rolls on Youtube if you don't know how to do this, but take each piece then fold up the edges and form it into a nice ball by stretching the top smooth and tucking the edges under. (for bacon version, squish some of the cooked bacon pieces into the middle of the dough.)
If you have one really big baking sheet they
will all fit on one pan, just really close together, but I think doing 16 per regular sized baking sheet is perfect. I also use parchment paper to line the pan because the dough is so soft and I don't like when they stick.
Alternately, you can split the dough into two parts and make 12-16 rolls out of one half, and use the other half of the dough to make cinnamon rolls the next morning.
Let them rise in a warm place until
they puff up nicely, mine usually take at least 30 minutes. Brush the tops with melted butter (for the bacon version, place a large buttered sage leaf on top of each, you can make sure it sticks with a little egg white.) You can also dust the plain ones with flour if you like that look.
Bake them at 350 for 20 minutes in a convection oven (or a little more if you make the 12 giant ones) until they are nice golden brown on top. In my regular oven they took almost 30 minutes on 375, so just keep an eye on the color, your oven might be different.
These are so good with nothing on them, but of course they are best sliced in half and served with lots of good honey.
If you're doing the bacon breakfast version, cut them in half and put scrambled eggs and a slice of cheese inside and just a splash of maple syrup to make a breakfast sandwich.
Ingredients:
3 or 4 cross cut beef shank slices, pasture raised if you can get it
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
4 or 5 small thin carrots
1/2 celery root, peeled and cubed
a few baby turnips, halved, or a regular sized turnip, cubed up
2 or 3 golden potatoes (or sweet potatoes if you prefer)
1 cup red Zinfandel wine
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
several dashes of Worcestershire sauce
water
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon savory
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1 cup shitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon Irish butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
several pats of extra butter
That's right. No onions.
Heat the olive oil in a pot that's big enough to fit your beef shank slices along the bottom. When the oil is very hot, brown the shanks on both sides. Lower the heat to low, and add a cup of your favorite red Zinfandel wine, the Worcestershire and enough warm water to cover the meat by several inches. Add the salt and all of the spices, as well as the garlic cloves, and simmer covered for a half hour.
Prepare the rest of the vegetables, and when the half hour is up, chuck them in the pot too. Cover again and let it simmer for another half hour.
While that is happening, slice your shitake mushrooms and cook them in the butter on very high heat for five minutes, without turning or stirring them, then you can stir them up a bit and cook them to your taste. The reason you don't mess with them at first is because you want them to get roasty-toasty brown on at least one side. If your butter is unsalted, add a pinch of salt at the end.
When the stewed beef and vegetables are done, serve them up in big bowls with a pat of butter in each, making sure you have a little bit of everything in there, and lots of juice for you to soak up with your bread. What I do is pull the little round bones out before serving, but I take the marrow out of each one with a small knife or spoon and mix it in with the stew.
Top each bowl with fresh parsley and a sprinkling of pan fried mushrooms.
Kentish Huffkins originate in Kent county, UK, as you might imagine, and are lovely little bread rolls, sometimes seen with little depressions in the middle. They remind me somewhat of biscuit-like dinner rolls and you can slice them in half and use them for sandwiches or hamburgers because of the shape. I first read about them in Jane Grigson's British Cookery book, and I've been a big fan of them since.
Today I've decided to change the traditional recipe a bit and add in some herbs and cheese.
Now the traditional recipe goes something like this:
1 1/2 lbs. flour
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 oz butter
2 oz lard
1 pint warm water
Mix the dry ingredients (including the yeast), then distribute the fat into it with a large fork or pastry cutter until it is all well mixed in and looks fine and crumbly. Add the pint of warm water and mix until you have a soft sticky dough, but there's no need to knead. Let dough rise for thirty minutes, then roll the dough out on a floured board to about 1 1/2 inches thick, and use a large biscuit cutter to make the rolls. Actually, you don't even have to use the rolling pin, this dough is so soft, you can just kind of flour it and spread it out flat with your hands! IF you use a 4 inch biscuit cutter, you'll get about 10 huffkins.
Let the rolls rise another thirty minutes, then poke a dent in the center of each one and bake for about 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees.
Now to make the herbed version, change out the lard for more butter (so four ounces, or one stick, of butter,) plus add 1 teaspoon each of the following dried herbs and spices to the dry ingredients: thyme, dill, summer savory, extra salt and black pepper, plus 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom. If you don't care for dill or don't have it, substitute dried mint or parsley.
After you poke the depressions in your rolls, and right before you pop them in the oven, place a cube of good quality sharp cheddar into each depression.
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| Before Baking |
A last note about rising times: I am in an old house in California with no air conditioning (yet) so it's quite warm and things are rising very quickly. If your house is cold, you may want to put your oven on it's lowest setting and let them rise in the oven with the door cracked, or just let them rise a bit longer than the thirty minutes.
They are good for breakfast with butter and scrambled eggs. Also, the dill makes it good with salmon, I had one with some lox, mashed avocado with garlic salt, sliced onion, olive oil and lemon juice and it was really good.
The cashier at the market usually has to think for a minute to remember the code for celery root (or celeriac), or she has to look it up. The bagger will frequently look puzzled, and ask me, "What do you DO with that?"
I always say the same thing, "Oh you just peel it, and substitute it in recipes for potatoes."
I like celery root, it has that nice herb-y sweet celery taste, but with starchier texture. True to my word to curious bag-boys at the grocery store, I suggest
using it here as a potato replacement for a fried breakfast side dish.
But first, we begin with the eggs, because they will go in the oven while you make the root vegetables.
Ingredients for Two People:
4 eggs
4 slices of your favorite soft sliced bread (if you're doing Paleo, use "cloud bread")
2 teaspoons of soft butter
4 tablespoons heavy organic cream
salt and pepper
4 ramekins, or just use a muffin pan
Preheat the oven to 350, or 325 convection.
I have the standard little ramekins from Cost Plus World Market, they are fairly inexpensive, and when you're not using them for stuff like this, they are good for serving dipping sauces and condiments.
Start by rubbing the inside of each ramekin with a half teaspoon of soft butter. Then, cut circles out of the center of each bread slice. You can either use a biscuit cutter that's about the same size, or a little bigger than, the diameter of the ramekin. I actually just used the ramekin itself to cut the circles (they weren't perfect, but who cares?) Stuff each circle into the bottom of a ramekin.
Carefully crack a large egg on top of each bread slice, and sprinkle very well with salt and pepper. Top with a tablespoon of cream, then put in the oven for 15-20 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs. They are soooo gooooood.
You can go ahead and serve them in the ramekins, they will stay warm longer, but if you're worried about someone accidentally burning their fingers on the burning hot ceramic (that would be me), you can just run a thin knife around the edge and use a large spoon to gently half-scoop half-slide them out onto the plate.
While your eggs are in the oven, you can make the side dish.
Ingredients for the Side Dish:
1 celery root
4 skinny young carrots (small sweet ones)
olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon allspice
fresh chives
Pour a generous amount of oil for frying in a cast iron (or regular) skillet and turn heat up to high. Don't worry about fat, these veggies don't soak it up like potatoes do.
Start by peeling your celery root. Use a chef's knife and think of it like a pineapple. Cut the bottom off and then use the knife to carve off the outside from the top down, then cut the top off last, it's better to err on the side of wasting than be left with ugly brown outer fuzz.
Slice the celery root into discs, then chop into little cubes. Chop the carrots as well (don't bother peeling them) and put them in the frying pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and ground allspice and cook on high 10-15 minutes stirring frequently.
After ten minutes, just give one of your celery root cubes a taste, to see if it's cooked to your liking, you may like it a little on the firmer side than I do (also check for salt). Use a slotted spoon or spatula to remove from the pan and serve with fresh green chives on top, along with your buttery-creamy baked eggs.
(I had them on the side in the picture, but you should chop the chives on top of the vegetables.)
I did very well at the Sacramento farmer's market on Sunday, everything looked beautiful, and was priced right. I found lots of good veggies and even some potted vegetables and herbs for the garden. Not all of my loot was for eating though, I also got this really pretty ornamental oregano called Kent's Beauty, I can't wait for it to get bigger (I'm an impatient gardener).
Check out the big green onions with the flowers on them, I think they look like little lit candles, I chopped them right up along with the stems!
The recipe today, a pie made with Swiss chard, is obviously a savory pie, it's very yummy served cold for lunch or cut in smaller slices for appetizer.
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| Right out of the oven |
Ingredients:
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch dill weed (chopped)
1 bunch green onions
1 cup walnuts
6 eggs
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon plus one pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (omit if you don't have it, don't use fresh)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sharp cheese for topping (amount is up to you, I used 2 oz feta)
Walnut oil and Balsamic vinegar for drizzling
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put a large pot on the stove on high with a few inches of water in the bottom. Chop the chard into small chunks and dump in the pan. Heat up just until the mass is wilted down, then drain immediately in a colander. Let it cool.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Chop walnuts until you have about a cup roughly chopped. Chop the green onions as well and then add both to the olive oil with a pinch of salt, and fry on high, stirring frequently.
After five minutes, remove the walnuts and green onions from the heat, and for ease of clean up, instead of using a fresh bowl, just use the pot you already used to boil the chard in as a bowl (dump out the water of course!). To that, add your fresh chopped dill, your eggs, cornmeal and spices.
Before adding the chard to all of this, take the cooled chard in your hands and squeeze the heck out of it until most of the liquid comes out. It's amazing how a whole bunch of chard now fits easily in your hands! Once everything is in there mix it all very well.
Rub oil all over the inside of a regular glass pie pan, and fill it with the mixture. Sprinkle the top with your favorite cheese and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Let it cool a bit before serving with vinegar and oil drizzled on top.
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