Two Excellent Kale Suggestions

A few years ago I had never even eaten it, but kale has become one of the items that Katie and I really look forward to in the summer. These two recipes are some of our favorite ways to use kale.

Caldo Verde

Ingredients

* 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
* 1 onion, minced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 6 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
* 2 quarts fresh veggie stock
* 6 ounces linguica sausage, thinly sliced (any sausage will work)
* 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
* ground black pepper to taste
* 1 pound kale, rinsed and julienned

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons olive oil for 3 minutes. Stir in potatoes and cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes more. Pour in stock, bring to a boil, and let boil gently for 20 minutes, until potatoes are soft.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-low heat, cook sausage until it has released most of its fat, 10 minutes. Drain.
3. Mash potatoes or puree the potato mixture with an immersion blender or food processor. Stir the sausage, salt and pepper into the soup and return to medium heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Just before serving, stir kale into soup and simmer, 5 minutes, until kale is tender and jade green. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and serve at once.


Baked Kale Chips

Ingredients

* 1 bunch kale
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.


Don't forget that the Breezy Willow site has hundreds of recipe ideas using items from our shares, too. Check the BW link on the right hand side of this page.

corn chowder with roasted poblanos

Upon seeing that we had been granted the boon of fresh corn a few weeks back, my good friend Natalie suggested this recipe for corn chowder from the Mayo Clinic. I then made it with a few modifications, and it was good. Damn good.

• 2 poblano or Anaheim chilies, halved lengthwise and seeded (I picked up 2 poblanos for this)
• 2 or 3 Yukon gold or red-skinned potatoes, about 1 pound total weight, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (I used 1 pound of mixed potatoes from my share)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 1/2 red bell pepper (capsicum), seeded and diced (as Laura loathes bell peppers, I substituted a banana pepper instead)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 4 ears corn) or frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 2 cups vegetable stock or broth
• 1 cup 1 percent low-fat milk
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (fresh coriander)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Preheat a gas grill or broiler (grill). Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.

Arrange the chilies skin-side down on the grill rack, or skin-side up on a broiler pan lined with aluminum foil. Grill or broil until the skins begin to blacken, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let steam until the skins loosen, about 10 minutes. Peel the chilies, discarding the blackened skin, and chop coarsely. Set aside.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan, add water to cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and transfer to a small bowl. With a potato masher, partially mash the potatoes and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper and saute until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and cook for 3 to 4 minutes longer. Stir in the roasted chilies and the partially mashed potatoes. Add the corn, vegetable stock, milk, pepper and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Simmer uncovered until the soup thickens, 25 to 30 minutes.

Ladle into warmed bowls and sprinkle with the cilantro and oregano. Serve immediately.

This was simply spectacular - hearty and flavorful. The substitution of the banana pepper for the bell variety certainly amped up the spice level, but it wasn't overwhelming. I will definitely keep this in my rotation of dishes to do when corn is plentiful.

Pasta with Baked Eggplant

The foundation for this meal came from this recipe at AllRecipes. We didn't have all of the specified ingredients, but thought we could experiment, so here's our modified version:

Ingredients

* 1 eggplant, peeled and sliced
* 2 eggs
* 1 tablespoon water
* 1 cup dry bread crumbs
* 2 tomatoes, chopped
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
* 1 handful of fresh basil
* olive oil
* balsamic vinegar
* fresh mozzarella
* cooked pasta

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet or pizza pan with olive oil.
2. Slice the eggplant slices 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Trim the skin, maintaining the round shape of the slices. In a small bowl, whip together the egg and water. Place the breadcrumbs in a separate small bowl.
3. Dip the eggplant slices one at a time into the egg and water mixture, then into the breadcrumbs. One by one, place the coated slices in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet or pizza pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven approximately 15 minutes. Change oven setting to broil, and continue cooking 3 to 5 minutes. Check the slices frequently while broiling to avoid burning.
5. While eggplant is baking, cook pasta of your choice.
6. Combine tomato, onion, garlic, and basil in a bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar to taste (probably only a splash of each).
7. For serving, place two roasted eggplant slices over pasta. Top with tomato mixture and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Brother Ilchester's Summer Highball

Brother Ilchester's Summer Highball, cc by-nc-sa image from John Cmar on Flickr

The past few weeks have seen a robust crop of peaches and nectarines from our CSA shares. In pondering the latest fruits, and what to do with a forlorn bottle of triple sec, I came up with the following refreshing concoction:

• 1 peach or nectarine
• 1 part triple sec
• 1 part gin (I used Citadelle)
• 3 parts tonic water

Pit and slice the fruit. Place slices on a paper towel, and freeze for approximately 60 minutes. Mix triple sec, gin, and tonic water over the frozen fruit instead of ice.

This turned out quite well, and perfect for the ridiculously hot and humid weather of late. Having the cool fruit to munch on toward the end of the drink was wonderful.

More Fruit Goodness

Watermelon Salsa
Last weeks' watermelon was enormous. And after having two sharing parties with our neighbors and our family, we still had 1/4 watermelon left. Casey has sent the e-mail with a watermelon salsa recipe and that sounded pretty great. I didn't use that recipe, however, but I liked the idea. I prepped everything we had in our kitchen as if I were making regular salsa, substituting watermelon in place of tomatoes.


I diced and seeded the remaining watermelon and added onion, jalapeno, and cilantro to taste. Excellent.

Tennessee Peach
We also wanted to use a few peaches that were perfectly ripe. We found this recipe for a Tennessee Peach online. As with most recipes, we used it more as a jumping off point rather than a strict set of directions.

Ingredients:

3-4 fresh peaches
1 fresh lime
3 shots of whiskey
1-2 tbsp. simple sugar syrup
ice

Directions:

Peel peaches and puree in a blender. Transfer to a separate bowl and rinse blender.
Combine 5 oz. peach puree, 3 shots whiskey, juice of one lime, and one glass of ice.
Add simple syrup to taste (we used brown sugar syrup, which was AWESOME!)
Makes two servings.

Creamy Fruit Salad

Finding myself with a wondrous surplus of fruit in our recent CSA shares, I heavily adapted this recipe for creamy fruit salad as a fruit-based side dish. As usual, my goal is use as much of the share food as possible, without adding in other produce unless truly necessary. I used:

4 peaches, diced and pits removed

4 nectarines, diced and pits removed

8 Methley plums, diced and pits removed

2 cups blueberries

1/4 cup trail mix

1 (1 1/2 ounce) box sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix

1/3 cup sweetened lime juice

2/3 cup water

Combine the peaches, nectarines, plums, blueberries and trail mix in a large mixing bowl. In small mixing bowl, combine pudding mix, water and lime juice with a wire whisk until smooth. Add pudding mixture to fruit. Mix gently until thoroughly coated. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

This was incredibly easy and quick to make, and the result was quite tasty. The lime juice added a strong flavor base.

Veggie Broth

Do you find yourself throwing away tons of vegetable scraps after cooking with all of your awesome CSA produce? Before you throw your veggie cuttings into the compost heap or the trash can, you can squeeze a little more life out of them by making your own broth. You can use the broth as a replacement for any water requirements, i.e. cooking rice. Risotto and soups also require broth.

A quick Google search will show you any number of recipes and techniques, as well as opinions as to what should or should not be included. Many people like to use whole vegetables. I tend to think that would be expensive and wasteful considering the amount of edible scraps we have after cooking. Many others have recipes with very specific combinations and amounts. This seems like too much work and thought.

As far as what veggies to use and which to avoid, our experience is that most veggies that you like to eat will be a great addition to your stock. Our favorites include: Potatoes, onions, garlic, turnips, parsnips, squash, peppers, carrots, celery, and herbs.

Some problem veggies include: Tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, broccoli, asparagus, and cilantro. These are delicious to eat, but they end of getting slimy and gross or their flavors dominate the broth.

Because we don't use a regular recipe our stock tastes different every time. We're ok with that, but if you want something more consistent you may consider sticking to a recipe of your liking.

First, you need to collect veggie scraps over a few days. We use a plastic storage container and keep it in the fridge.


When the container is full, or when you anticipate needing broth, put all scraps into a large pot and fill with water.


Bring water to a boil and let it simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. It's not the most appetizing thing to look at, but it will make your home smell fantastic.


Pour the liquid through a large colander into another large pot or bowl to collect the broth and separate the scraps.


Strain broth into a storage container for use later. We use an old pitcher and often save some in the freezer.



You can use it immediately or store it for a week or two in the fridge. A simple sniff test will tell you if it has gone sour (it will be obvious). The frozen cubes seem to last a very long time and we use them if we're caught without fresh stock.