the only good chickpeas (besides hummus)

This softens the chickpeas in just the right way.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped, or a tablespoon of jarred garlic
1 tablespoon grated or finely chopped fresh ginger, or 2 tabs of frozen ginger
1½ teaspoons curry powder
1 large bunch (about 8 ounces) greens, such as Swiss chard, kale, or collard greens, stems removed and leaves torn into medium-size pieces, washed, and shaken dry (there should be a little water still clinging to the leaves) or half a bag of frozen spinach
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
1 cup of water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 Roasted Sweet Potato halves, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus additional wedges for serving
1 teaspoon of fish sauce, for serving
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, plus more for serving (optional)

Directions

Roast sweet potatoes. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut sweet potatoes in half, cover in olive oil and roast cut side down for 35 minutes.

Warm a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened a little, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger, and curry powder and cook, stirring frequently, until it all gets really fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes more.

If using, add fresh greens to the pot and stir them into the onion mixture with a wooden spoon, scraping up any browned bits at the bottom of the pot while you do so. (If there are a lot of brown bits and they’re sticking, add a teaspoon or two of water.) Add the chickpeas, coconut milk, 1 cup water, and the kosher salt. If using frozen greens, add now. Let the whole thing simmer, partially covered, for about 20 minutes.

Add the sweet potatoes to the pot and cook for a minute or two—just enough to warm them through. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro if using and taste for seasoning; add more salt or lime juice if necessary.

Serve the braised chickpeas in shallow bowls over rice, topped with a splash of fish sauce and a squeeze of lime.

Adapted from Epicurious.com

now for umami fish

Another killer fridge clean out dish.

1 pound of white fish
4 yellow potatoes
1 package of chard
7-10 campari tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup pickled banana peppers, chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tbsp pickled banana pepper liquid
splash of Cynar
ground mustard
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Quarter potatoes, coat in oil, sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Coat fish in ground mustard, salt, pepper and olive oil. Add a pat of butter and a tbsp of olive oil to a stainless steel pan over high heat. When butter is bubbling, add fish and cook on each side for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Remove from the pan to a plate.

Add sliced garlic to the hot pan. Cook for a couple minutes until browned but not burned, add a splash of Cynar and then add the tomatoes and banana peppers and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the chard (chopped if large pieces) and combine. Cover and let chard wilt for a couple minutes and then stir again. Add the fish to the top of the vegetables, cover, and put back in the oven for 8-9 minutes.

Plate the fish with the vegetables on top and spoon sauce over the top.

umami chard

We saw this recipe on Man Fire Food but couldn't find it anywhere online so we made up the proportions. It is so good - a combination of flavors we would never think to put together. I imagine these flavors would be good with collard greens, spinach, or anything green and leafy.

2-3 slices of bacon
1 onion
1 shallot
1 garlic clove
honey
red wine vinegar
red pepper flakes
chard

Chop the slices of bacon into small pieces. Roughly chop the onion, shallot and garlic. In a cast iron pan, fry the bacon until the fat has rendered. Add the onion, shallot and garlic and fry until softened and fragrant. Pour in the honey and red wine vinegar and add the red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. Add the chard and stir until chard is covered with sauce. Cover the pan and cook for 8 minutes.

making greens meaty

A spring CSA means loads of greens. So far this season we've had mustard greens, turnip greens, beet greens, tokyo bekana (a mild mustard green), arugula, swiss chard, kohlrabi greens and so much lettuce. We've tried a number of different preparations and have actually gotten through just about everything, but a favorite so far has been a quick stir fry.

We had both tokyo bekana and chard and a little bit of cottage bacon. We fried up the cottage bacon pieces in a cast iron pan until browned, added the greens with the stems removed from the chard. When the greens were just about done we added a splash of 18-year balsamic vinegar and then cooked everything for another minute or two. A bit of salt and pepper to taste and you're done.

mi csa su csa: week 7

Rainbow Chard
Onion
Potatoes
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Peppers
Tomatoes
Lettuce

I wanted to get to the chard first, as it had the best chance to go bad before we got to it. It was beautiful - different colors, shapes and sizes. I found a creamed chard and noodles recipe that looked great, but I didn't have any noodles except for boxes of mac and cheese. I decided I could fake the creamed chard recipe, so I made the mac and cheese according to the recipe, chopped up the chard with 2 of the onions and pan fried them, seasoning with salt, pepper, Jamaican curry powder and ground ginger. Once everything was finished cooking I mixed it all together for a tasty twist on mac and cheese.

For an appetizer we chopped up a yellow and orange tomatoes to serve over a very fresh burrata with some cracked salt and pepper and a drizzle of balsamic.

Eggplant was next on the list - gorgeous dark purple, long, thin eggplants. We also got one more pepper this week so we decided to pick up some ground pork and make asian-style stuffed peppers. We made them similarly to our cabbage shumai, along with the dipping sauce, with the addition of the eggplant and onions to the stuffing. The key was roasting the oiled peppers a bit before stuffing them and then cooking them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Served over some sushi rice, the flavors came together nicely.

We've had a beef roast from the other farm in the freezer for a couple of months and finally pulled it out to roast with some carrots and tiny potatoes from the farm, along with some parsnips and vidalia onions. The juices and scrapings from the pan made an excellent gravy.

Got through just about everything, just the lettuce and some of last week's zucchini. But we just got a spiral slicer and I can't wait to make some zucchini noodles with it.

stuffed balls

A great combo...

Turkey Meatballs

2 lbs ground turkey (2/3 dark meat, 1/3 white meat)
1 egg
2 leaves of swiss chard
1 clove garlic
half an onion
parmesan cheese
romano cheese
salt
pepper
garlic power
onion powder
dried basil

Chop up swiss chard, spinach or kale very finely. Mix ground turkey with one egg, chopped chard, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped onion, parmesan and romano cheeses, and spices (all spices to taste). Form into meatballs. Pan fry in olive oil.

Grated cauliflower, carrots or zucchini, in place of the swiss chard, will also go very well and add needed moisture to the meat.

Top with tomato sauce.


Mini Stuffed Peppers

1 package of mini-peppers
1/2 pkg cream cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
salt
pepper
garlic power
onion powder
dried basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the tops and the seeds of the peppers. Heat cream cheese for 20 seconds and add spices. Mix to combine. Stuff peppers with cream cheese mixture and top the cream cheese mix with a small bit of shredded mozzarella cheese. Place on cookie sheet and brush each pepper with olive oil. Cook in the oven for 28-30 minutes. Be sure to remove from the cookie sheet as soon as possible to prevent the cheese from sticking to the pan.