I love chard but often find myself at a dead end when trying to come up with new ways to prepare the humble green after weeks, months, years of getting it my CSA boxes.  How many different ways are there to saute, braise, broil, bake, or cream a leafy green?  Sure, I’ll add a little spice, perhaps some candied ginger, an extra dollop of butter, but at the end of the day, I feel like I have exhausted all the possibilities.

This chard preparation, however, is REALLY different.  It’s not that often that I find a vegetable dish that tastes nothing like anything I’ve ever made before, and it’s even less frequent that I actually like (let alone love) that vegetable dish!  With the first bite of this, I knew I had stumbled on something different, and more importantly, something remarkably delicious.  Who’d have thought it would all be thanks to lime pickle?

Indian lime pickle is a very pungent, salty, mildly spicy, incredibly unique condiment made with mustard oil.  I first tasted it back in 2001 when I spent a few months living in Jaipur, India.  The first time I put Indian pickle in my mouth, I’m pretty sure I spit it out and puckered my face with disgust.  Ewww!  But somehow I’ve come to love the pungent condiment, and it’s my favorite part of any Indian dining experience (and the fennel/sugar palate cleanser at the end).

Since lime pickle is decidedly an acquired taste, I don’t really recommend you try this recipe unless you know you like Indian pickles.  The taste of the pickle in this dish is assertive and unmistakable.  Never tried lime pickle or can’t remember if you have?  Pick up a jar at an Indian grocery store, or ask for a side dish of pickle the next time you eat at an Indian restaurant.  If you get it in a restaurant, it’ll probably be mixed pickle (with mango, lime, carrots, and other vegetables), but the taste is 95% the same.  If it turns out you like pungent pickles as much as I do, then by all means, make this easy, unique chard dish and be excited that the world of leafy green vegetables is wider than you might have thought. :)

Swiss Chard with Indian Lime Pickle
Adapted from Epicurious.com
Serves 2

1 1/2 T. Indian Lime Pickle
1-2T. olive oil
juice from half a lemon
1 t. salt
1 T. butter
1 shallot, minced
2 T. water
1 bunch swiss chard, stems removed and reserved for another use, chopped into bite size pieces

Finely mince the lime pickle.  Combine with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt in a small bowl and mix.  Set aside. Heat butter in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add shallot and saute until translucent.  Add chard and toss to coat with butter.  Add water, then cover pan to steam the chard, lifting the lid and stirring occasionally until the chard is wilted, about 3-4 minutes total.  Add the lime pickle mixture and stir to combine.  Cook an addition 30-40 seconds.  Serve atop brown rice or as a side dish for an Indian meal.  Enjoy!

The tumbleweed rolled and tumbled down the windy street as we sat in the diner. Little plumes of dust swirled in its wake, lit by the morning sun. I remember watching the tumbleweed as I ate my breakfast, thinking… where *are* we? I felt like I was in some eerie, abandoned Old West town, but my dad kept things light by making Wile E. Coyote jokes and doing voices from Looney Tunes because that’s the kind of guy he is :)

Who’d have thought that more than ten later I would open up my Mystery Box of vegetable from Mariquita Farms and find a close cousin of that tumbleweed. And furthermore, that I would cook it up into a cheesecake and write a post about tumbleweed and cooking.

But that’s far enough down memory lane. Let’s talk agretti!

A bunch of Agretti

Please do not judge agretti by its appearance. It hardly looks like a vegetable, but rather a strange grass you might find growing at the edge of a pond or an oasis in the high desert. When eaten raw, agretti is the slightest bit lemony, reminiscent of sorrel, and when you bite into it, has the tendency to pop, a little like a juicy grape. Cooked, it loses its pop but retains its flavor. Raw or just barely cooked it has a brilliant green color, which darkens after about 5 minutes of cooking.

When confronted with this vegetable I had never seen before in my life, I was a little… intimidated. The internet offered few ideas, and it isn’t mentioned even once in my LARGE stack of cookbooks… what to do? But of course! Cheese, eggs, herbs, more cheese, bake… this combination rarely fails me.

I’ve yet to see this vegetable anywhere besides vegetable boxes from Maraquita farms, but if you do happen to come across it, I encourage you to pick up a bunch and try out this unusual vegetable!

Agretti and Ricotta Cheesecake
Inspired by 101 Cookbooks

1 large bunch Agretti, rinsed and dried
2 medium shallots
5-6 cloves garlic

8 oz. neufchatel cheese (or cream cheese)
2 c. ricotta, drained for 10 minutes
a large handful of fresh herbs, chopped (I used a mix of tarragon, sage, and parsley)
1/2 c. grated parmesan
2 eggs

1/3 c. goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 325. Oil a 7 inch spring form pan*.

Trim the bottom 1-2 inches from the agretti stems and discard. Chop the rest into 1-2 inch pieces.

Heat about 2 T. olive oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the shallots, cook 1-2 minutes, then add the garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the agretti and very generously season with salt and pepper. Saute until the agretti has reduced to about 1/3 it’s original size. Allow to cool, then transfer to a cutting board and roughly chop.

Put the neufchatel into a large bowl and whip either with a fork or an electric whisk to soften. Add the ricotta, herbs, parmesan, and eggs and mix until well combined. Fold the agretti mixture into the cheese. Pour into the spring form pan, place on a baking tray, and bake for 1 hour.

Sprinkle goat cheese over the top of the cheesecake and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes, until goat cheese has softened. If desired, place the cheesecake under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until the top is golden. Remove from oven, allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then release from spring form pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*Note: if you don’t have a spring form pan, you may use a regular pie plate. Keep an eye on the cooking process though, as the depth of the cheesecake is quite different when using a pie dish versus a small spring form pan. You will likely need to cook the cheesecake for less time.

Uncooked Spinach Balls, about to be frozen

Steven’s grandmother Faela is a woman I wish I could have met.  She passed away long before Steven and I knew each other, so anything I know about her is gathered from old photographs, recipe cards, and stories told by Steven and his family members. One thing I do know is that she was a heck of a cook, with specialties ranging from spinach balls to chicken pie (with few vegetables and lots of chopped hard boiled egg) to brisket and much more that you may or may not expect from a culinarily gifted Jewish Grandmother.

Faela’s recipe for spinach balls makes (in her handwritten words) enough for a small army. Expect anywhere from 100 to 150 spinach balls depending on whether your interpretation of ’1 inch ball’ is a little over, a little under, or spot on the 1 inch mark. I got about 140 from this latest batch. Unless you in fact are feeding a small army, this is probably many more spinach balls than you care to eat at once, however delicious they may be (and trust me they are delicious!). I typically freeze the whole batch, and then bake 10-20 at a time, as desired (which is often!). They are a great just-home-from-work snack to hold you over to a later-than-it-should-be dinnertime (often the case in my house).

Do you have any recipes that have been passed down through your family that are dear to you?

Faela’s Irresistible Spinach Balls

40 – 48 oz frozen chopped spinach (i.e. 3 x 16 oz bags, or 4 x 10 oz pkgs)
12 eggs, beaten
1 c. butter, melted
1 T. black pepper
1 T. salt
2 t. dried thyme
1 T. granulated garlic
4 onions, chopped (a food processor makes quick work of this)
10 oz. dry stuffing mix, or homemade croutons chopped/pulsed into pea sized pieces
1 c. grated parmesan or gruyere

Cook the spinach according to package directions, then drain.  Once cooled, squeeze the excess moisture from the spinach with your hands.  Set aside.

In a very large bowl combine eggs, melted butter, pepper, salt, thyme, garlic, onions, stuffing mix, and cheese.  Mix well.  Add spinach and stir until everything is evenly distributed.  Optionally chill mixture for a half an hour to make it easier to work with.

Working with slightly wet hands, take about 1 – 1 1/2 T. spinach mixture and roll into a 1 inch ball and place on a baking sheet (if you are going to cook the spinach balls right away, leave about 1 inch between the balls; if you are going to freeze them, you can line them up so that they are almost touching).  Repeat until all of the mixture is used up.

To cook the spinach balls right away, bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, until the stuffing is golden brown.  Otherwise, freeze the spinach balls on the baking tray(s) until solid (about 1-2 hours).  Remove from tray(s) and store in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer until ready to use.  To cook from frozen, preheat oven to 350, and bake about 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden.

Enjoy!

Steven about to eat a spinach ball!

I daydream a lot about cooking during the week, especially when I’m on the train. Its rhythmic click-clack, the morning fog, and a warm cup of coffee are just the right combination for daydreaming about things I want to cook. During the week not so many of those dreams become reality, but during the weekend I break out of my daydreams and actually head into the kitchen.

Last week Elizabeth David’s book Italian Cooking kept me company on my train rides to and from work. Ms. David is one of my favorite food writers of all time. Eloquent, elegant, humble, and humorous are all words I would use to describe her writings. Her recipes are less like instructions and more like suggestions. I’ve made quite a few things from her various cookbooks over the years, and I find they turn out best not when you follow her words and ingredient lists exactly, but rather when you use it as a starting point and utilize your own knowledge and creativity to complete the dish.

Her Polpettone recipe (Italian meatloaf stuffed with hard boiled eggs and cheese) is no different. I have an odd love of loaves of meat, and typically turn to Paul Prudhomme’s cajun meatloaf whenever the craving strikes. Moist, spicy, and with a wonderful texture, I am not sure it can be improved upon (except by using rolled oats rather than breadcrumbs — a personal preference that results in a more tender meatloaf). So, when I decided to make Ms. David’s Italian meatloaf, I fused her suggestions with Prudhomme’s technique, and added spices and other ingredients as I saw fit. The result? Fantastic! Don’t get me wrong, I am not abandoning my beloved cajun meatloaf, but this Italian version is different enough that I can definitely make space for both in my repertoire.

Polpettone: Italian Stuffed Meatloaf
Inspired by Elizabeth David

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 t. salt
1 t. black pepper
1/2 t. white pepper
1 t. dried sage
1 t. dried marjoram
1 t. dried oregano
1/4 c. catsup
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. chopped parsley

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 c. rolled oats
2/3 c. bread crumbs or stuffing mix
1 1/2 lbs ground beef (15% fat or higher is best)
1/2 lb ground pork

2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 oz. ham, minced
3 oz. grated provolone

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare vegetable mixture:
Heat about 2 T. olive oil in a large saute pan.  Add onions and saute until softened.  Add the carrot, saute for another minute, then add the garlic and red bell pepper.  Saute the mixture until vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes longer.  Add salt, black pepper, white pepper, sage, marjoram, and oregano, mix well, and saute another minute or two.  Add catsup and milk, mix well, and cook for about 3-4 minutes until mixture starts sticking to the pan.  Remove from heat, fold in the chopped parsley, and set aside to cool.

Prepare meat mixture:
Mix the raw eggs, oats, bread crumbs, beef, and pork in a large bowl.  Using your hands, mix until everything is well amalgamated.  Add the cooled vegetable mixture, and combine well with your hands.  Divide the mixture into two roughly equal parts.

Shape the loaf:
In a 9×13 glass pan shape half the meat mixture into a flat loaf about 6 inches wide, 12 inches long, and about an inch high.  Sprinkle the hard boiled eggs, ham, and provolone evenly over the meatloaf, leaving about a 1/2 -1 inch border at the sides.  Now working with the other half of the meat mixture, take small handfuls, flatten it between your hands, and place atop egg mixture, creating ‘patches’  of meat to enclose the filling.  Take care to enclose the sides with meat mixture so no eggs or cheese will leak out.  Once you’ve used up all the meat mixture, smooth with your hands to make a compact, neat loaf.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, then raise heat to 425 and continue to bake until meatloaf is done, about 35 minutes longer.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes after removing from oven.  Slice into 1-2 inch pieces, and enjoy!  Serve on its own or with some spicy tomato sauce alongside.

There is only one vendor that sells cardoon at my farmer’s market, and they display the stalks in a gigantic flower vase.   Every time I walk past this stand, I think of Tim Burton movies and imagine this vase full of tall, naked, stringy cardoon stalks as a macabre bouquet of flowers…  Even with the eerie association, I gravitate towards this unusual vegetable, and nearly always buy some whenever I come across it.

Similar to an artichoke in taste, and slightly resembling celery in appearance, cardoon is a wonderful, unusual vegetable that is worth seeking out.  Most people have never tried it, and so it makes a great dish to bring to a dinner gathering.  I have never seen cardoon at a grocery store, only at farmer’s markets or through a CSA I used to subscribe to.  It’s pretty ugly as far as vegetables go (pale milky green, jagged edges), and can be daunting if you haven’t come across these stems before.  Though the stalks do require a fair bit of prep work before they are ready to be used, the flavor is lovely, and in my opinion, worth the effort (and it’s certainly no worse than preparing artichokes!)

When considering what flavors marry well with cardoon, think of artichokes and go from there.  To me this means cream, mayonnaise, lemon, vinaigrette, etc.  Here I combined parboiled sliced cardoon with potato, cream, and robust cheese This (very simple) gratin is quite rich and can certainly hold its own as a main dish.  Serve with a green salad, some crusty bread, and perhaps some roasted beets along side for a lovely uncomplicated meal.  Enjoy!

Cardoon and Potato Gratin

3-4 cardoon stalks, each about 24 inches long
2 medium-large (a little larger than fist size) yellow potatoes
1 c. loosely packed grated hard, salty cheese, divided (I used a mixture of Pecorino Romano and Spanish Manchego;  gruyere, parmesan, or comte would also be nice)
about 1 1/2 c. half and half
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Prepare the Cardoon:
Cut off any leaves that are still attached to the cardoon stalks and discard.  Cut the stalks into thirds, about 8 inches long, so they are easier to work with.  Using a paring knife or vegetable peeler, peel the convex side of the cardoons which is stringy and slightly bitter.

Blanch the cardoon stalks in a pot of boiling water with about 1 T. of either lemon juice or vinegar.  Cook until tender, about 10-15 minutes.  Remove cardoons from water, drain, then slice across the grain into 1/4 inch pieces.

Assemble the gratin:
Peel the potatoes and cut into batons, about 1x 1/4 x1/4 inches (no need to be too exact).  Combine the potatoes, cardoon, and the cheese (leaving behind about a handful to top the gratin) in a medium sized casserole dish.  Mix with your hands to combine.  Season with salt (scant) and pepper (generous), then pour the half and half over the top until it comes a little over halfway up the sides of the vegetables.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top, then bake for about 40 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through and the top is nicely browned.  Remove from oven, allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then serve.  Enjoy!

For a blog named after beets, it’s been far too long since I featured a recipe based on my favorite root vegetable.

The occasion for these beets was a vegetarian dinner we hosted last weekend.  Oddly, I find it easier to plan and prepare a menu with constraints such as no meat or no dairy than one in which the whole food palette is available.  Perhaps it’s the same reason I love CSAs… when dealing with a limited set of ingredients, I tend to be more creative and adventurous with the foods I prepare.  There is a similar practice for musicians.  Musicians will deliberately put themselves in situations where making music is really the only thing to do, with few distractions and where supreme boredom is a looming possibility, i.e. move to a mountain cabin for 3-4 months.  The only thing to do is to make music.  Period.  Some of the best music in history is a result of people enforcing constraints on themselves.

Anyhow, when I made these beets last weekend they were but one component of three in a salad from David Tanis’ book A Platter of Figs.  I first saw the cookbook back in 2008 when I went to Chez Panisse for the first time (Thank You Alisha!).  The cookbook had just been released, and Tanis, a chef for half of the year at Chez Panisse, was preparing menus in the vein of his new book.  The meal was simply amazing, and is something I will remember for many, many years to come.  I had been meaning to pick up the cookbook ever since, but this Christmas I received it as a very thoughtful gift, and since then have read it cover to cover.  It is simply lovely.  It is menu based, and embodies so many wonderful ideas about entertaining.  Each menu is a collection of 3-7 recipes (or non-recipes, depending on who you ask… is a platter of figs a recipe?).  Each is designed to be served at a dinner among friends, 8-10 people or so.  Tanis presents a few simple but compelling ideas related to entertaining:

• – A gathering flows similarly to how a menu flows — plan it thoughtfully
• – When serving food, serve it on family style platters rather than individually plating everything.  It makes the experience more intimate.
• – When hosting a dinner party, the focus is people and friendship.  Food may compliment this, but it shouldn’t be the absolute focus.  With this in mind, favor simplicity, seasonality, and quality ingredients to make simple, delicious food

When the party was over and I was cleaning up, I separated the prepared salad into its’ components — beets, eggs, and watercress — since I figured they would keep better separately than in one big massive container.  Then next morning I tasted the beets on their own and thought to myself, these are so delicious!  Slightly pickled, sweet, earthy, and just a hint of mustard… since then I have been eating them on their own and loving it… on top of ricotta spread over rye, mixed with chopped egg as a pink take on egg salad, and plain spoonfuls straight out of the refrigerator whenever I feel the urge.

Whether on their own or atop a watercress salad as David Tanis originally envisioned it, these beets are superbly delicious and quite simple to prepare.  A beet lover will fall more deeply in love, and the beet averse will perhaps give the underrated vegetable a second thought.  Enjoy them thoroughly, and keep in mind David Tanis’ idea that entertaining is a joy to be shared and celebrated.

Enjoy!

David Tanis’ Beets
Adapted from A Platter of Figs

6 medium beets, greens removed, scrubbed clean
2 large shallots, finely diced
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1 T. dijon mustard
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 t. grated orange zest
a squeeze of orange juice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Place the beets in a roasting pan with about an inch of water.  Bake, covered, for an hour, or until the beets are easily pierced with a fork.  Slip off the skins while the beets are still warm.  Roasted beets will keep for 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator.To make the vinaigrette, macerate the diced shallots in a bowl with the vinegars and a good pinch of salt for 10 minutes.  Stir in the mustard until dissolved.  Whisk in the olive oil, add the orange zest, and grind in some pepper.  Squeeze in some orange juice if desired.  Taste and adjust for acid and salt.  The dressing should be somewhat tart so add more red wine vinegar if necessary.

Dice the beets into roughly 1/2 inch cubes.  Place the beets in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.  Whisk the vinaigrette and pour it over the beets.  Toss the beets in the dressing.  Enjoy!

Note:  David Tanis’ original recipe is Watercress, Beet, and Egg Salad.  To make this, simply spread about three bunches of cleaned, trimmed watercress over a platter.  Scatter the beets over the watercress, then garnish the salad with 6 hard-boiled eggs that have been cut into quarters.  This is also supremely delicious!