CSA week 12 - Gumbo z'herbes

I'm not entirely certain about this. There are lots of recipes out there but they all agree on simmering the greens two hours or longer. Collards, OK maybe they can handle that. But chard and turnip greens? And what about the dandelion greens? Most of the recipes put them on the list of greens to include but nobody prepares them to deal with the bitterness.

I'm going to try it, but I dunno.

First step, clean and prep 2-3 pounds of greens--whatever you've got, the more variety the better. For those who haven't read the previous post, I had 1 bunch collards, 1 bunch chard, 1 bunch dandelion greens, 1 bunch turnip greens and 1 bunch radish greens. I did this prep the night before to avoid having dinner too very late.

Next step, get a gallon of water and/or stock (I used two cups of shrimp stock and the rest water) to a boil in a large pot and add the greens. Simmer for at least an hour.

Meanwhile,make a roux. I used the in-oven method. Mix equal parts fat and flour (I used 2 Tablespoons bacon drippings, 3 Tablespoons canola oil and 5 Tablespoons flour) in a big cast iron pot and put it in a 350 degree oven for at least an hour. No stirring necessary. The recipes that specify call for a peanut-butter colored roux, but they all also call for filé powder added at the end too. I don't have any filé so I'm not going to get that thickening. And, as you probably know, the darker the roux, the more flavor, but the less thickening power. So I pulled it out of the oven at around 1 hour 20 minutes. It looks peanut butter colored, but it started a little dark from the bacon drippings so I think I'm in good shape.

After that time, the greens have wilted considerably. Here they are along with half a cabbage, 1 bunch scallions and 1 bunch parsley that are going back into the pot with them later.

But before that, the pot with the roux goes up on the stove and in goes 1 large white onion, 1 green bell pepper and 3 stalks celery, chopped. I cooked that for 10 minutes over medium-high heat before adding the reserved stock and greens which I've roughly chopped, the cabbage, scallion and parsley (although what good scallion and parsley added this early will do I dunno), a ham hock, 2 bay leaves, 4 stalks thyme, 1 stalk rosemary, 4 allspice berries and a generous amount pre-mixed Cajun spice blend because I'm lazy.

It's at this point that I finally understand exactly how huge this batch of gumbo is. I'm going to be eating this for a month; it better be good.

Normally, that's the dish. Just simmer an hour more and serve, but I wanted it a little heartier so I added a couple links of andouille sausage and, 5 minutes before the end, a quarter pound of shrimp.

And here it is served over rice:


Hmmm...no real thickening at all. Or roux flavor, either, disappointingly. This is basically a huge mess of greens in a bucket of pot liquor. Lacking the filé powder, maybe I'll make up a slurry and bring it back up to a boil to thicken it up. It'll probably add a little raw flour flavor, but I'll trade that off for making this sauce into gravy. The greens still have a tiny bit of texture to them--the cabbage a little more--but mainly it's just soft. It's not falling apart like I expected though, so it's still in a pleasant neighborhood.

The flavors of the greens have all melded together to just a generic tasty green. No notable bitterness, or skunkiness from the boiled cabbage either. The herbs and spices round out the flavor a little and there's a hint of smokiness there. The sausage and shrimp weren't in long enough to swap flavors with the greens so they've retained all their flavor. The shrimp are a nice match, the sausage a bit less so. That'll probably change as everything melds in the refrigerator over night, though. I'll have some for lunch tomorrow and report back in a comment.

CSA week five - Swiss chard and turnip gratin

The lentil soup I made yesterday only used half my chard--most of my leaves and none of the stems--so I had enough to try out Sandrine's suggestion of a gratin. Well, not quite enough, but I planted one of the turnips we got back in week one and its leaves have grown so large it's been blocking light to other plants in my herb garden. A quick look on-line found turnip gratin recipes that were close cousins to the chard gratin recipes I found so it was easy enough to split the difference. I used as my base a chard gratin recipe from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters and a turnip gratin by chef Alain Passard as plagiarized and lightly modified by Joe DeSalazar on his blog here.

I didn't measure anything or pay close attention to the time so here's kind of a sketchy description of what I did.

Ingredients:
1/2 bunch chard, mostly stems
1 large turnip with half it's leaves (the rest having been previously sautéed in butter and olive oil with anchovies and capers and served over papparadelle), peeled
fresh breadcrumbs
melted butter
more butter
2 ounces pancetta
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 teaspoons flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
2 to 4 ounces finely grated melty cheese (I used an edam-esque cheese called Amadeus)
seasonings to match your cheese (I used fresh thyme, pimenton and nutmeg. I've never used pimenton and nutmeg together before but it works. Thanks Joe.)

0. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Separate the chard and turnip stems from the leaves. Wash everything and roughly chop. Chop the turnip bulb too.

2. Heat a big pot of water to a boil. Salt as if you were cooking pasta. Add stems and turnip bulb. Return to boil and simmer two minutes. Add leaves. Simmer three minutes more. Drain, cool and gently squeeze out any extra liquid.

3. Meanwhile, prepare a cup or two of fresh breadcrumbs, toss with melted butter, salt and other appropriate seasonings. Bake in 350 degree oven until golden and crisp, tossing regularly. Five to ten minutes.

4. Melt some more butter in that big pot. Add onion, pancetta and spices and cook over medium heat 5 minutes until onion turns translucent. Stir in green and heat through. Add flour and stir until it's all moistened. Add milk, cream and cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and cook for 5 more minutes. The sauce should be enough to coat but not excessive beyond that. After five minutes it should be slightly thickened. Check for seasoning.

5. Butter a medium baking dish and add the chard/turnip mixture. Dot with a bit more butter and cover with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. There isn't enough sauce to visibly bubble when it's done, but you should be able to hear it.

Serve hot as it clots when it cools. This would probably make a good side dish with red meat as it's got a creamed spinach sort of vibe going, but I found it a little unsatisfying on its own. No big flavors here, but the flavorings I chose nicely compliment the mild vegetables without overpowering them. I can see how this could be easily jazzed up into a full-fledged casserole, but the chard and turnips would get lost so better to leave it as is and let it be a supporting player.

CSA week 13 - Gizzards and turnips (with tops) in red wine sauce

I was a bit disappointed in this dish, but I don't think the preparation or the turnips were to blame. The fault lies squarely with the bland and dull chicken gizzards. I shouldn't really be surprised; they came from the bland and dull battery chickens they sell at Publix. It's a shame I couldn't get better. I need to find a real butcher around here.

As I mentioned back on Saturday, I wanted to pair the turnips with sweetbreads. I thought I had seen them around but I couldn't find them at my usual groceries. The lady behind the meat counter at Green Market had never even heard of sweetbreads. (I wonder if she was more confused by someone apparently asking for pastries at the meat counter or by my explanation that I actually wanted thymus glands.) I'll have to keep looking. Green Market had no organ meats at all, but Publix did have beef tripe and liver and chicken gizzards, livers and hearts. I figured chicken gizzards would work too.

The preparation itself was quite simple. I started by cutting up the gizzards and turnips into similar-sized pieces, patting the gizzards dry, seasoning them with salt and pepper and dredging them in flour. I probably should have shaken off a bit more of the flour as I had some trouble with the sauce over-thickening, but otherwise so far so good.

I heated olive oil over high heat and added the turnips and gizzards all at once. Three minutes without stirring started some nice browning despite a slightly over-crowed pan. The pieces were too small to turn individually to get the other side so I had to stir, cook for two minutes, stir again and give it two minutes more.

Then I turned down the heat to a high simmer, added a half cup of red wine (For the wine, I wanted something that could stand up to the gamey flavors I expected from organ meat but not just be a rough table wine. I took a chance on a Spanish 2001 Marques del Puerto Rioja. It was fine enough in the glass with light balsamic and vanilla flavors which contrasted nicely with the dish, but it didn't work so well as an ingredient.), a couple teaspoons of thyme and a bit more salt and pepper, covered and simmered for a couple minutes. I noticed the sauce was getting too thick so I stirred in a couple splashes more wine before adding the turnip leaves and returning the lid for another minute, gave it a stir and cooked uncovered for one minute more. And that was it.

The turnips were tender and tasty, the sauce (after I thinned it out with a bit of water) aromatic but the gizzards, while about as tender as they were likely to get, were dull dull dull. A real disappointment.

Well, tomorrow I'm going to make the caesar salad soup and I have high expectations for some pizazz out of that. Stay tuned.

CSA week eleven - mushroom faux-risotto

As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, despite having risotto rice available, I was of a mind to use Israeli couscous instead. It's rather easier to make (although real risotto isn't nearly as hard as it's made out to be) and it turned out poorly the first time I talked it up so I wanted to have another post with a successful use. And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out so on we go.

I started by slicing up half of the fresh shiitakes in this week's share, and equal amount of cremini mushrooms and half of the spring onion (the left half as I wanted both the white and the green bits). I also soaked a handful of dried mushrooms; since I was going downscale I didn't bother with the good stuff and just used some of my ever-growing collection of dried creminis. The nice thing about storing mushrooms in a paper bag in the refrigerator is that they never go bad, they just dry out. Unfortunately they do so fairly rapidly so I end up transferring them to my pantry and buying a new batch of fresh mushrooms to start again. Dried creminis have a more intense flavor and a chewier texture than the fresh so they are worth keeping around as an addition ingredient option. Plus, you can infuse flavors in the soaking water (in this case I used a couple teaspoons of dried thyme) and use the soaking water as a substitute for broth. When all that was ready I gave it a sweat in butter and olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper over medium heat until everything was reduced in volume by half and nicely tender. I removed the mushroom mix to a bowl.

I added a bit more olive oil to the pan and briefly fried some chopped ham and pork (the sliced stuff for Cuban sandwiches). Again, since I wasn't doing a fancy real risotto here I didn't feel the need to go out and buy some prosciutto. Actually, I'll bet there's a good source of serrano ham in town somewhere. If any of you know, please post it in a comment. I used a couple slices of ham and a couple slices of pork which was probably a bit much. Once that had a bit of moisture drawn out and a little color I added it to the bowl with the mushrooms.

Then I wilted the turnip leaves and added them to the pile. Why not? I mixed everything together (adjusting the salt and pepper to taste) and added a shot of soy sauce to intensify the flavor of the mushrooms.

I heated a Tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and added a cup of Israeli couscous. I toasted the couscous over medium high heat for five minutes, stirring frequently, to get it a nice golden brown. This gives a lot of toasty/nutty flavor to the final dish so don't skip this step. You can do the same thing with pasta, too. Give it a try.

Next, I added a cup and a half of mixed chicken broth and mushroom soaking liquid. I had a bit over a cup of leftover chicken broth in the refrigerator but the ratio isn't important; use whatever you've got handy. Remember to strain the soaking liquid as it gets gritty. Brought it back to a boil, covered, turned down the heat to medium low and simmered for ten minutes stirring occasionally.

At this point the couscous should be just about done: tender and chewy and most of the liquid absorbed. I turned off the heat, added the mushroom mix, a handful of grated Parmesan and a quarter cup or so of some soft mild melty cheese. (I had caciotta al tartufo on hand but whatever you've got will work so long as it's mild or particularly good with ham and mushrooms), put the cover back on and waited five minutes. Then I gave it a stir to distribute the melted cheese, checked the seasonings, and served with a glass of white wine and I suppose a green salad would compliment it if you were in to that sort of thing.

In retrospect, I would have liked another quarter cup or so of broth to make a creamier sauce, but otherwise it turned out beautifully. The couscous was perfectly done much more easily than rice would have been and with less fuss, too. The rest was done no differently than I would have done a real risotto (the mushrooms get mushy if you leave them in while the rice cooks). I don't think the turnip greens added much, but they weren't a problem either. While the sauce unified the whole, each of the components got to keep its individual flavors and textures. The mushroom and toasted couscous flavors dominate with the pork supporting and the cheese mainly supplies texture. All around pretty easy and tasty.

Addendum: A point in couscous' favor is that it doesn't go all chalky and mushy when you freeze it like risotto does. I just defrosted a saved batch and the texture is indistinguishable from fresh. Since I freeze lunches to bring in to work, I really need to start making this more often.

Turnip tops with cavatelli

Well, radish tops, actually. They look like turnips, I got confused and I ended up with a better recipe so I suppose it ended up for the best. I've done the recipe before with genuine turnip tops and, as far as I can recall, the radish tops worked just about the same.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I made the turnip [radish] tops with cavatelli last night. I could have sworn I took a picture, but it's not in my phone so I guess I did something wrong. Here's a picture of someone else's version I stole from www.italianrecipes.ws:


This is typical traditional Italian peasant fare and is very simple, really. Bring a big pot of heavily salted water to a boil, add the greens, cook 8 minutes or so, remove, add the pasta, cook until not quite al dente. Meanwhile, lightly fry garlic or anchovies or capers or red pepper in olive oil just enough to release the flavors. I used all four which would be a bit of a splurge for a peasant, I suppose; I found it to be a little too much for the relatively mild turnip [radish] greens. Optionally, you can add some bread crumbs, too. Next time I think I'd go with just garlic and bread crumbs. That's another traditional Italian preparation without the greens.

Of course all this frugality is lost if you use fancy store-bought pasta like I did. I had the cavatelli on hand due to one of my periodic whims to purchase the extra-fancy version of some ingredient to see if it's really worth the exorbitant price. Usually it isn't, but the hand-rolled cavatelli has a nice chewy texture unmatched by anything Ronzoni offers. On the other hand, Ronzoni is a pretty good choice for your extruded pasta needs. A lot of the more expensive Italian brands are using semolina flour imported from the US anyway so all you're paying for is a couple of sea cruises for the wheat.

Anyway, add the greens and the pasta to the frying pan, making sure just a little bit of the cooking water is included, cook over high heat for a few minutes so the pasta finishes cooking and absorbs some of the flavor from the sauce, and you're done. Easy and pretty tasty.

Edit: the photo I took belatedly showed up in my camera's memory. Here's what it my version looked like. Despite the bad lighting, I think you can see that, compared to my preparation, the photo from the website overcooked both the greens and pasta. Cavatelli shouldn't be unrolling like that and the greens shouldn't have that light-green boiled-out color.