Dandelion and spring onion french dip

Now for the more interesting thing to do with dandelions and caramelized onions that I promised. But before going into the sandwich itself, let's talk caramelization. I've used the word before, but I've really just meant browning the onions or whatever. Real caramelization is something else entirely. It's kind of like how both grilling and slow smoking go by the name barbecue. Here's how I went about doing the real thing.

First I sliced up the spring onions, cleaned them well, and put them into my giant cast iron pot with just a little salt and a little oil. The angle's not good, but it's about 2/3 of the way full.

After 45 minutes covered at medium heat they're fairly well reduced and there's a good bit of liquid accumulated. At this point I removed the lid to let the liquid boil off.

About an hour later, the liquid's just about gone and the onions are starting to collapse. There's been a bit of browning [It's more attractive with white onions.], and the pot is starting to sizzle a little at this point. I turned the down to medium-low and started stirring more frequently, about every 10 minutes instead of every 20.

A half hour later, the onions have cooked down even more, have browned appreciably and are melting into kind of an onion jam. Cooking longer would be better, but there's real danger of burning so I pulled them out at this point. The flavor is kind of like browned onions, but sweeter with a lingering mellow complex savoriness. Really lovely.

Now that I've got my onions, on to building my sandwich.

I started by stemming and blanching my dandelions. Then I put a cup of beef broth in a pan, cooked it down a little to concentrate the flavor, added a dollop of caramelized onion and then the dandelion.

While that simmered, I laid a few slices of roast beef on top to warm through and cook just a little. After the beef was warmed up, I grated some sharp cheddar cheese on top. And finally, I assembled the sandwich with all those components plus some tomato.



The dandelion is carrying a lot of beef broth so the bread got properly wet just after I took this picture. I had a little cup for dipping too, but I didn't really need it.

You've got the beef's savoriness against the sweet onion, sharp cheddar, slightly bitter greens and the acid of the tomato--just a lovely combination of flavors. Would browned onions have worked as well? Not really. That would be good too, but it would be more a standard cheese steak flavor profile. This is something different; the caramelization brings out more of a pot roast aspect to the beef so there are different elements coming to the fore. I should make it both ways and compare and contrast, really.

CSA week three - eggplant and dandelion pasta bake

This isn't anything terribly innovative, complex or exciting, but basic recipes are more popular over time and this is the only thing I've cooked in the last few days so here it is.

On second thought, maybe this is complex. Everything gets tossed together in the end, but many of the ingredients needed to be pre-cooked and that ends up taking some doing. Here, to start, are a can of diced tomato in sauce simmering on the back burner; onions, peppers and mushrooms sweating on the left; and the dandelion greens blanching on the right.

When the onion mix was done I reused the pan to soften and slightly brown the eggplant (in batches as I used four Chinese eggplants) and reused the (now well-flavored) pot of water to cook a half pound of ziti to al dente.

I reused the pan again to brown a half pound of sweet Italian sausage and several cloves of garlic.

All that got mixed together with some fresh basil, cubed mozzarella, a load of ricotta, a good bit of Parmesan and finally the tomato sauce. That all went into a baking pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and a few more under the broiler. Despite all the prep, this went pretty quickly and it was in the oven no more than 45 minutes after I started cooking. Even more conveniently, all that prep could easily be done the day before, although I wouldn't mix in the pasta until the last minute.


The end result is unsightly, but certainly tasty enough. The dandelion is the only unusual addition here and I think it works quite well with the eggplant, retaining a good bit of flavor and not dissolving into green flecks the way spinach would have. The emphasis on eggplant over cheese means that it falls apart on the plate, which is bad for presentation but makes it a lot easier to actually eat.

I wonder if I could have added structure by peeling the eggplant and cooking it down into a baba ganoush-ish paste so it would be part of the spackle instead of more chunks to be held together. I do like it's firmness as is, though, since the pasta is maybe a minute overdone, though. In retrospect, I probably should have poured the tomato sauce over top after baking instead of mixing it in. That would have helped both keep the pasta firm and it would have avoided thinning out the cheese.

Anyway, a good use of a lot of eggplant and easy enough for a Monday night.

CSA week one round-up, week two start-up

I think it took me eight days to use up my first week of vegetables; that's not too bad. The key, I think, is to insist on using at least one vegetable each day, make a big batch to use it all up and then pretend the leftovers in the freezer don't count.

Of what I made, there were a couple items not worth a full blog post, but worth mentioning. The dandelions went into this cross between the hindbeh bil zayt and the Azerbaijani herb omelet that I've made before. Right after I took this photo I remembered to toss some walnuts to bring back some of the texture lost when the fried onion and garlic got soggy soaking in the eggs. Darn tasty stuff.

Most of the parsley and garlic chives went into this blue cheese bread pudding. You'll note some structural issues there. I was short on eggs and the bread I was using was a dense fifty-percent whole grain loaf that didn't fall apart as well as well as one might like. Still, yummy, though and it should freeze well.

On to week two:

I left behind my lettuce and replaced it with a second bunch of callaloo which you can see on the left. You might remember that last year I was doing a world tour of callaloo recipes and I think I've got one left over; it's Korean if I remember correctly. No, I just checked my notes and it's Javanese. Unfortunately, it calls for fresh fingerroot which I don't think I can get hold of. Maybe I can substitute in galangal which is similar.

Next over is Chinese eggplant. This happens to be one of the ingredients that I had and didn't use during my recent blogging lapse so I've got a recipe already picked out, dim-sum-style shrimp-stuffed eggplant. It's surprisingly easy to make, at least on paper.

The scallion is a challenge as it's rare to come across a recipe that uses more than a half cup of it and there's quite a lot in this bunch (plus a few more I've got in the refrigerator). I've got a craving for scallion bread, but I recall the recipes I've found for it were rather light on the scallions. I'll have to take another look.

Next over is the yuca. I've never cooked yuca before; I don't think I've ever seen it in it's raw state before this morning. I've seen it boiled into mash and fried up as fries and haven't been impressed with either. A quick search doesn't turn up a lot of other options. Maybe I'll try roasting them; that might help.

The lemongrass is particularly fresh which means that it's tender enough that I won't have to pick it out of a stir-fry or soup. Lots of options there, but none of the other ingredients, except maybe the scallions pair well so it's not an efficient choice if I'm trying to get everything used in a week. I suppose I could use it as part of a dipping sauce for fried yuca, but it seems a waste of both ingredients.

The hibiscus I wasn't thrilled with when I simmered it up African-style as a side dish last year and the sorbet the year before wasn't a winner either, so I'm going to go back to making a drink from it. I'll probably boil it down to a syrup and add it to iced instead of having it straight, though.

And finally, the avocado. We had a few good Florida avocados last year, but most were watery and bland so I don't think much of Monroe avocadoes. But a)part of that was my fault as I didn't always use them at the peak of ripeness, and b)this could be a Choquette for all I know. If it's any good, I'll probably just make some guacamole. If it isn't, maybe I'll try roasting it to see if that helps.

And finally finally, as Marian and I discussed the group blog logistics, we came round to the idea that a Facebook page might work better as more people could find it and it would allow a better forum for general discussion than blog comments do. What do you guys think?

CSA week 20 - Beet, dandelion and potato gratin

I think this is officially the last of the CSA dishes for this year. Well, I've got some turnips left, but two weeks after the last delivery is probably a good place to stop counting. I think I'll do a full wrap-up post for the year some time this weekend after I've thought it over for a bit.

I was hoping to do something with the dandelion greens separately--a Sephardic soup--but I wasn't able to find the Spanish-style corned beef or kosher chorizo to do it up right.

I think the dandelion greens will have a good home here. I found a few beet gratin recipes that used mustard greens and dandelion is a fair approximation.

I'm using potatoes as well in emulation of a recipe by Chef Lance Barto from the restaurant Strings in Denver. When I found his recipe I liked how he layered the two separately for a two-tone effect. And since I've got a few extra potatoes in the pantry to get rid of, why not give it a try?

As isn't unusual with semi-improvised recipes, this didn't work out perfectly and there are lots of possibilities for improvements. I'm just going to tell you what I did instead of writing up some imaginary version; you can adjust as you see fit.

Ingredients:
1 bunch dandelion greens
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 handful parsley, cleaned and chopped
3 medium beets, peeled and thinly sliced
3 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
6 ounces goat cheese
3 ounces Parmesan cheese
salt, pepper and fines herbes to taste (or tarragon and chervil if you don't have a fines herbes blend)
good quality mild red wine vinegar

Step zero, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

I blanched the dandelion greens in boiling water for 3 minutes. Let them cool, then chopped roughly. Then I heated the oil in a medium pan over medium high heat, added the garlic and greens and cooked until aromatic and tender. Moved them to a bowl, let cool and mixed with the parsley.

Nex I heated up the cream and milk in the same medium pot I blanched the greens in. While it was heating I added the goat cheese, forcing it through a slotted spoon to break it up. And I used my microplane to finely grate in 2 ounces of Parmesan cheese. I also added the salt, pepper and herbs at this point. Vigorous stirring and a couple minutes of simmering dissolved most of the cheese but it was still a bit lumpy.

Then I layered the beets on the bottom of the baking dish. My slices were very thin so I got five layers or so out of it.

The dandelion mixture went on next. And the potatoes over that.

I poured the cheese mixture over top, shook and tapped to get out air bubbles and lifted up the edges a bit to get it to seep down through the strata.

45 minutes at 350 degrees with foil over top then I removed the foil, forgot to check the potato for doneness, grated on more Parmesan and topped with a layer of panko bread crumbs. Then back into the oven for another 8 minutes to get it browned and crispy on top. That didn't do the trick but 2-3 more minutes under the broil did.

After 10 minutes of resting, it was time to slice out a piece. The potatoes and beets were a little underdone so back into the oven for 15 minutes. No real change so back for another 20. I'd recommend baking at 400 degrees to try to speed things up if you make this.

OK, after all that baking, I'm really hungry and it's finally ready.
The sauce didn't thicken up much, though. Not enough cheese dissolved in it and nothing absorbant in the solids. I should have added a few eggs in there. The liquid sauce carries the red tint around too so that screws up the cool presentation I was hoping for. Well, it's sort of there. A smaller, deeper pan would have emphasized it more.

Visual aesthetics aside, it tastes great. The potato is pretty much filler, but the combination of the softly sweet beets and salty creamy cheese sauce accented by the garlicy greens and toasty crisp topping is pretty fabulous. A few drops of vinegar adds a tang that brings out the beets flavor and cuts through the fattiness. I can see why so many beet and goat cheese recipes use it. It's a very nice added touch.

The flavors were best a bit before the potato got to the texture I wanted so, if you're going to try making it, best to leave it a little al dente. Also beware the dreaded pink drips of irrevocable staining.

This needs a little more work, but it's definitely in the right neighborhood and good enough to be worth perfecting. I wonder how replacing the potatoes with turnips or radishes would work.

CSA week 15 wrap-up, week 16 start-up

All right, I've got two minor dishes from last week worth mentioning before we move on to week 16. First off, I did add the radishes to the hindbeh bil zayt recipe I made last year

It works pretty well. The fried radishes have a savoriness and a chewy texture that's missing from the dish otherwise so it's a nice addition.

I also made a quick dish by dressing steamed green beans in last week's mazuna pesto pulled pork. Pesto and pork are both good matches with green beans so it was there wasn't much of a brainwave there. I think I might have liked a more traditional pesto better, but it worked just fine once I thinned it out to make it saucier and added a bit of acid to perk it up.

That leaves me with mainly leftover bits of celery, cabbage and bok choy. That's essentially the recipe for chop suey which is a thought. I wonder if there's a way to make it not be lousy while retaining its chop-sueyness. Or are overcooked and bland essential characteristics? I'll have to give that a bit of thought.



As for this week, it's slim pickings but only because I left the lettuce behind and got shorted a zucchini. What we've got--celery, carrots and turnips--is pretty much a stock starter kit. I made chicken stock recently but I could use a batch of beef stock, which would be a good use of the rosemary too. Maybe I'll make a proper stew. Probably enough celery left to make a seperate dish with too.

The turnip greens I've already eaten; they always seem to go first. Lots of stems there too that I'm saving up for a vegetable stock.

The strawberries this week finally have some good flavor, but they're going into the freezer anyway. I've made a lot with strawberries recently (including a galette I haven't posted about) and I'm a bit burnt out on them.

The loquats are interesting and new. They share the same tart-and-mild problem the strawberries have had, though. I can see them as a compote accenting something savory, but I might try adding a little sugar to see if I can bring out their flavor and then go for a sweet application.

Finally, I'm going to be out of town visiting my sister for Passover next Saturday. Anyone want dibs on my half-share? As before, passing it along to someone normally shareless would be my preference.

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 two - Italian dandelion greens and penne rigate

That looks pretty tasty, doesn't it? Well, in reality it's barely edible. As the Tropical Locavore (who really ought to change the name on her profile picture if she wants to remain psuedonymous) complained earlier today, these greens are intensely bitter.

I used the traditional cooking method of blanching then sautéing, but it really didn't help much. Maybe a longer boil would draw out more of the bitterness? I found the water afterward to be flavored quite nicely, actually, and used it to cook the pasta.

The recipe in the newsletter that uses the greens raw is definitely contraindicated. Save that for when we get some chard.

I'm not saying to throw the dandelion greens out; just use them judiciously, balancing the bitterness with other strong flavors. I used a handful along with some of the bok choy in a yakisoba last night where a touch of bitterness was a pleasant element. I can't see them staying fresh long enough to use up a whole batch this way, but at least you'll get some good use out of them.

CSA week 17 - Hindbeh bil zayt and mooli paratha

No surprise here; This is just what I said I'd make--Lebanese sautéed dandelion greens and Punjabi daikon-stuffed flatbread. To complete the pan-nationality, I ate them with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Dandelion greens first. If you followed the link I posted in the week start-up post you saw a lot of variations on a simple recipe. What I did fell in that zone.

Ingredients:
100 grams (one share) dandelion greens
1 handful mixed parsley and cilantro leaves, chopped
2 cloves garlic, slivered
1/4 red onion, sliced thin
salt
olive oil
baking soda
lemon juice

1. Wash the dandelion greens and chop however you'd like. Or don't. I chopped them in thirds. Boil water in a medium pot. Add a pinch of baking soda and the dandelion greens. Simmer 5 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and squeeze dry.

2. Fry onion and garlic over medium low heat in a judicious amount of olive oil until they just start to turn golden. Remove half. Add dandelion greens, herbs and salt to pan and cook five minutes. [Some recipes call for cooking the dandelion for 15 minutes before adding the herbs, but I found that they were already fully cooked after the simmering so I didn't see any point.] Remove to bowl and keep warm.

3. Return reserved onion and garlic to pan and either turn heat up to get them crisp or turn it down to get them deeply caramelized. Either way, top the dandelion with them and a squeeze of lemon.


As you can probably tell from the picture, this is spectacularly flavorful, but I'm really not sure if the dandelion has anything to do with it. Yes, you can taste greens in the mix, and they're particularly yummy greens, but I don't know if that's natural to the dandelion or due to the cooking method. Only way to tell is to cook up every green in the house this way and compare the results which sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

Fair warning, the dandelion cooks down to not a whole lot and you won't want to share.


And now the daikon.

I used this recipe from recipezaar:

Daikon Radish Stuffed Flatbread/Mooli Paratha Recipe #105155

Delicious stuffed parathas make a wonderful heavy breakfast or brunch. These are good make aheads which you can wrap in some foil wrap and take to a picnic.Good to eat in the car as well no mess. Rather than drink soda or juice with this, you can have lassi which is yogurt thinned with water or milk(blend them well to make thickish smoothie type mix) to which you add sugar or honey to taste. Totally delish.
by ladyinred

55 min | 30 min prep

SERVES 4

* 2 cups wheat flour, add to this
* salt
* 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder (cuminseed)
* 2 tablespoons oil
* water, from the grated radish,for kneading the dough (will be explained below) [I got about a quarter cup from the daikon and added a bit more than quarter cup more to get a nicely kneadable dough.]

Filling

* 1 medium diakon radish, grated (after grating squeeze out the water/juice, use it for kneading dough)
* 1/2 teaspoon ajwain (available from indian stores) (optional) [This, according to indianfood.about.com, tastes like thyme. I used za'atar instead.]
* 1/4 turmeric powder
* 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder
* 1/2 onion, grated,juice squeezed out discard this [I used the bottom of the spring onion]
* salt
* 1/4 chili powder
* 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped [I increased the amount and used half parsley]
[ * 1 hot pepper, seeded and finely diced]
* oil (for frying)

1. Make up the dough using the water (as much as you need from the radish) Discard any left over water.
2. Leave the dough covered in a warm place to rest for half an hour.
3. Add salt to the grated radish.
4. After 15 mins squeeze out more water and discard this.
5. Then to the dry grated radish add the rest of the filling mix.
6. now make small balls of the dough a little bigger than an egg.
7. Flatten them out, dip in dry flour and roll them out using a rolling pin to a teacup saucer size.
8. Make smaller balls of the filling mix about the size of an egg yolk and place each filling ball in the center of the dough saucer.
9. Gather the rest of the dough around it so that the dough completely covers the filling.
10. Dip it in dry flour and roll it out again this time bigger than a saucer.
11. Heat a tsp of oil in the frying pan.
12. Add the bread and shallow fry on each side until brown spots appear.


I found the initial rolling and filling rather easy, although the envelope fold I used made the paratha turn out rectangular. Rolling the filled dough out was a little trickier to do without creating small tears and squishing a little filling out. Although the filling when I scooped it was dry, some liquid appeared from nowhere to squirt out onto the cutting board. The final size was a little smaller and a little thicker than I expected.

I fried the bread two minutes on the first side, poured a little olive oil on it before the flip, and then a minute or two on the other. I had some trouble keeping the pan temperature steady as I fried one at a time so I had some mixed results. I think my very first one turned out the best. Probably a good idea to brush off the extra flour better than I did.



As for the flavor, yeah, this tastes like the stuffed bread you get in Indian restaurants so not bad at all. I was afraid that with the chili, cumin and cilantro it would end up tasting Southwestern, but you can kind of get that, but the flavor of the daikon brings it back to Asia. It isn't strong and it isn't readily recognizable, but it's definitely there.

The paratha wasn't a bad match with the dandelion, but that was so good I just wanted to eat it straight. It would be pretty good with the Indian callaloo dish I made last week, I think, or chicken tikka.

CSA week 18 - paprika cream of turnip and potato soup

My original plan was to do some clever play on the cream version of lettuce soup but I got it into my head to use the dandelion greens as a garnish which would have been a bit much green on green. So the soup turned to turnip.

Of the many turnip soups out there, I thought this one had a more interesting spicing than most. I made it pretty much straight other than only having 3/4 lb of turnips left and having to make up the difference in potatoes. I did salt at each step along the way instead of just at the end. I suppose since everything is blended smooth at the end it wasn't really necessary but I'm just more comfortable seasoning as I go along.

The recipe doesn't specify so I had to decide what sort of paprika to use: sweet, hot or smoked. I went with sweet so as not to overwhelm the flavors of the turnip and potato. They're good quality vegetables and I didn't want to hide them.

The suggested garnish, crisp shallots, sounds nice enough, but I don't have any shallots on hand. I figured a garnish of bacon and turnip greens would more than suffice. I would have added some croutons too if I had any bread at the appropriate level of staleness.

The end result is nothing spectacular but nice enough. I would roast the vegetables next time instead of sauteing them in an overcrowded pan which really limited the browning I could do. That should boost the flavors. And I might mix the paprikas to give hints of heat and smokiness. If I did that it wouldn't hurt to replace the bacon with a garlic sausage. I'd definitely have to add croutons then to keep some crunchiness. I wish I thought of all of that a couple hours ago. Next time, then.