Brooklyn Forager

Don't let "easy" make you think "quick". I had a couple of false-starts after finding this recipe on The Kitchen because I failed to notice the amount of chopping and the decent amount of braising time. I will say this, however: MAKE THIS.

My husband developed a taste for collard greens in Pensacola last summer and hasn't looked back. We've tried collards at every imaginable opportunity since then. This recipe has gotten the official stamp of approval. Even after Blue Smoke in Manhattan (I know. Why would there be good collard greens in Manhattan, but it's Blue Smoke!), if I may say so myself, we liked this recipe better.

I give partial credit to the recipe I started with (10 cloves garlic, wine, good broth and chili flakes? Yes, please.) and the rest to the Niman Ranch bacon I used the first time. Subsequently, I also tried this recipe with medium-slice deli ham and was very pleased with the results. (Trust me, though - try it first with the bacon.)

After classifying this dish as a Southern-style stir fry, I was also able to serve it as a main dish with a generous bowl of rice. In order to round out the meal, I improvised some Chili-Roasted Carrots with a sad little bag of baby carrots left in the crisper. They had a smoky sweetness that complemented the collards well and so, my friends, today you get two recipes for the price of one.

Braised Collard Greens (adapted from The Kitchen)

• 1 bunch collard greens (usually 1 1/2 - 2 pounds)
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• Red pepper flakes, to taste
• 1/4 pound bacon, ham or other smoked pork (try smoked turkey even if you don't eat pork...)
• 1/2 cup wine (any wine is fine - I always used some sort of leftover white wine)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Cut and trim the tough stems away from the collard leaves. Stack the leaves, roll tightly and slice into ribbons. Wash the ribbons thoroughly and set aside to drain.
2. Cut the bacon (or other smoked meat) into 1-inch pieces.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large high-walled skillet or extremely wide pan over medium heat,  add red pepper flakes and bacon. Cook until bacon is getting crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.
4. Add the onion and garlic to the skillet with bacon grease and turn the heat to low. Cook them slowly, stirring frequently, until soft and golden (about 10 minutes). Don't let them get too dark, althoug a nice caramelization is nice. 
5. Add greens and bacon to the skillet, stirring until wilted. Add wine and chicken broth and season with a little salt and pepper. Bring to a low simmer, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes over low. (This keeps the collards a bit al dente, if you will, so cook longer if you like them with a softer texture)
6. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with broth over rice. 

Chili-Roasted Carrots

• 1 bag baby carrots
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven (try the toaster oven - less energy use, cooler kitchen) to 450F.
2. Combine all ingredients in baking pan covered in foil (the foil will save you a huge headache later). Toss well to make sure carrots are completely coated.
3. Roast for 20-25 minutes.  Enjoy!

The last couple of weeks have been intense in Forager land, with excitement happening as far away as Mexico and, of course, right here in Brooklyn.  I'm back on track on this spring day that feels like summer to tell you about a recipe that was born out of a winter day that suddenly turned into spring.  

I love spring! It offers up brief baths of sunshine in the coldest days of winter and, for a couple of weeks, plays hide and seek as well.  On one of the first beautiful spring days, I hit the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market to take advantage of the textile recycling and see what was on offer.

In poking around the booths, I found Bradley Farm , based in New Paltz, NY, with beautiful pork sausage on display.  I loaded up on onions for the Tigress Can Jam and got some late winter butternut squash and greens.  These seemed like the perfect ingredients for a last cold weather casserole, until spring came out from hiding in full force, screaming for something lighter - less squash, more leeks.

I went with a recipe from Lidia Bastianich using sausage, leeks and campanelle.  I've actually not made one of her recipes before and can't imagine why I never did.  The recipe was simple, flavorful and really beautiful.  I found tricolor vegetable radiatore at Trader Joe's that mimicked the campanelle just enough to catch the sauce and bits of sausage.  It also called for just a small amount of sausage which stretched a pricey and amazingly tasty product a long way. 

Sausage and Leek Pasta (adapted from Lidia Bastianich)

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2/3 lb sweet Italian sausage (casings removed), crumbled
• 2 large leeks, trimmed, light green and white parts cut into 1/2-inch pieces, washed well, and drained
• 1/2 small white onion, minced
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 cups frozen young peas
• 1 cup homemade or low-salt chicken broth
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lb. campanelle or other shaped, dried pasta
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving if you like

The October 2009 Daring Cooks' challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen.  The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.   I can't tell you how excited I was to get started on these recipes.  I love to try recipes from various Asian cultures, but never really tried Vietnamese food on my own.  The trick for this month was to really nail the broth, and the best part is, with a good recipe, it's impossible to fail. 

We were given a short version of Pho Ga (Chicken Pho), but I went with Jaden's longer beef recipe which can be found on her website.  What makes the broth special is attention to detail.  To begin, onions and ginger are broiled very closely to the top of the oven (I used the toaster oven which may not have been ideal, but saved a lot of energy!) until they are nicely charred. This imparts some extra depth of flavor and richness.

 

While the charring is undertaken, whole spices are toasted to add an additional layer of flavor.  The recipe calls for star anise, cinnamon, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cardamom pods.  I was tempted to add in peppercorns because for me no recipe is a recipe without garlic and black pepper.  I held back in both instances to give the recipe a shot as written.  Also, who am I to judge what a recipe for Pho needs? I've eaten it and enjoyed it, but this was the first time.

Once the spices and aromatics are prepared, they go in the pot with beef bones, fish sauce, sugar and some chunks of meat.  I must say that if I had any idea how good that simmered beef would be, I would have added three times the amount.  I used about half of what Jaden suggested mainly because I didn't get enough when I was at the butcher.  These pieces of meat were some of the best parts of the whole dish. 

I made the broth on a Saturday evening, refrigerated it and then made the Pho on the following day.  I can't say for sure that the broth was even better, but the spices and meatiness really came through once the soup was put together. Most of the work in the broth is waiting and drooling over the simmering pots, so it's silly to say that the broth makes the soup, but it really does.  The extra steps in preparing it from scratch, and preparing it this way were well worth it. 

We used all the traditional (or at least suggested) toppings for the Pho - mint, cilantro, sliced chilis (one Serrano and one Jalapeno from our garden!), bean sprouts and slices of raw skirt steak to cook in the broth.  I took Jaden's advice and made a dipping sauce of chili paste (our Sriracha had turned, so I used sambal olek instead) and hoisin for the freshly cooked pieces of beef.  Delicious. The sauces do also add additional flavor to the soup and once I had a bowl of straight soup, I started mixing a bit in. 

We got 8 good sized meals out of this challenge and easily could have stretched it for more.  I will absolutely be adding this in.  I just wish I had more freezer space to make gallons of the broth to keep around.  Such is the burden of living in Brooklyn.

The next part of the challenge was to make dessert wontons.  Jaden's recipe was for chocolate wontons, but also invited us to get creative.  I made three types of wontons in four shapes.  I made a straight chocolate wonton with 70% dark chocolate, a banana-chocolate combo, and the piece de resistance, a lemon ricotta wonton with blueberry dipping sauce.  These last were inspired by our wedding cupcakes which combined lemon curd, blueberries and lots of buttercream icing.  I struggled to be super creative, but I did enjoy the process of thinking about great combinations to put in the wontons which also turned out to be fascinatingly easy.  I nearly said fool-proof and that's probably dangerous, but as long as you don't over fill the wrappers, you can really put just about anything in them and fry them up.  I can't wait to experiment more in the future.

 

This week, I was hardly able to stop and think, let alone plan and prepare a complex meal for the challenge. So, it became a test of a well-stocked pantry. I made a Chorizo, Onion & Chevre Bread Pudding with some ingredients that have been stored well since my last trip to the farmers market. To complement it and give us some color, I marinated carrots and radishes for a crunchy side salad.

For the bread pudding, I picked up some natural dried chorizo from a local natural grocery. The chorizo was made in Pascoag, RI which is a bit farther than I usually source, but I could get there and back in a day if I needed to, and frankly, that night, I was desperate! The onions and bread were from the farmers market. The bread was organic multi-grain harvest bread from Bread Alone Bakery, a regular at the market. I ended up using about 2/3 of a loaf and probably could have used more.

Once the sausage and onions were sauteed and bread was cubed, I combined 4 local organic free-roaming Nature's Yolk eggs with 2 cups of milk (from Trader Joe's - a big fail, but fortunately I used it up, so I have to work harder next time), sea salt, cumin and paprika. I also crumbled in 6 ounces of Coach Farm Black Pepper Goat Cheese. The best part, in my opinion, was the addition of a medley of chopped rosemary, greek basil, sage and parsley all from my budding herb garden.

I combined the bread mixture and the egg mixture in a casserole and baked it for about 60 minutes at 350F until set and golden brown. The herbs grew nice and fragrant and the chorizo really permeated the custard. I debated doubling the chorizo because it's so good, but these proportions really worked to maximize flavors without anything stealing the show (1 cup chorizo, 1 1/2 cup chopped caramelized onion and about 3/4 cup chopped herbs).

To complete the experience, I opened a bottle of Benmarl Winery Zinfandel. Benmarl is a Hudson Valley winery that I discovered at the Hyde Park farmers market last weekend. They typically grow their own grapes, but since Zin isn't really native to the Hudson Valley, they do source these grapes from California. It's not 100% local, and I do have their Slate Hill White which is a blend of grapes that are sourced locally. The chorizo really called for a big fruit-forward wine, however, and the Zin was ready to play. This Zin has tons of purple fruit on the nose and in the mouth, with a jammy smooth mouth feel. There is a good amount of heat which could be off-putting, but it really complemented the creamy, spicy textures and flavors in the bread pudding.

Farmers Market: onions, bread, carrots, radishes
Homegrown: greek basil, rosemary, parsley, sage
Provisions: Daniele natural chorizo
FreshDirect: Coach Farm Black Pepper Chevre
Pantry Items: olive oil, sea salt
Fail: milk (organic, not local)

So, One Local Summer 2009 is finally here! Just to recap, the goal is to make at least one meal from all local ingredients (exceptions: oil, salt, pepper, spices) and write about it to share with the world over at Farmtophilly.com (collective posts go live tomorrow!) I am traveling and don't have access to my pictures, but I'll post them in the next day or two.

My menu consisted of:

• Farmers' market greenhouse tomatoes with caramelized-onion-infused oil and homegrown basil
  
• Chard and chevre frittata with caramelized onions
  
• Homegrown green salad with farmers market carrots, radishes, scallions and homegrown basil and mint
• Chateau Lafayette Reneau Seyval-Chardonnay NV from the Finger Lakes
  

For my meal, I utilized a couple of local options - mostly the farmers' market and winter CSA leftovers, but also FreshDirect which has a nice selection from a handful of local purveyors including a selection of NY state wines.

I sauteed one large bunch of green swiss chard with caramelized onions that I had made earlier in the week. When I caramelize onions, I cook them up with olive oil, salt, pepper and a good shake of ground cayenne pepper. I then put the onions, oil and all, in a jar in the fridge. I kept aside some of the oil to use as dressing for my tomatoes (which really didn't need dressing at all!) I put these aside while I beat 8 local organic free-roaming eggs and got them started in the same pan where I'd tossed the greens. Once the eggs started to set, I added the chard mixture and dotted the whole pan with about 2 ounces of chevre (I could have easily used all 4 ounces though...next time!) and finished the frittata in the oven.

The sweet caramelized onions with the tangy chevre and the earthy greens made for a wonderful combination of flavors. The tomato salad served as a bridge into summer which was an interesting contrast to the green salad which held the last bastions of our spring haul. I think the lettuces are just about to be done for the season which is sad because we got them in late and they are already on the tough side.

The one aspect that I didn't love was the wine. I selected it chiefly because it was very inexpensive and fit the bill for local. For the price, it was fine, but I thought it was rather thin with a lot of crisp apple flavors and oak competing with each other at first taste and then just disappearing rather abruptly. I will definitely explore the local vino options more as this challenge goes on.

Farmers' market: greenhouse tomatoes, carrots, radishes, scallions
CSA: yellow onions (which I had caramelized earlier in the week)
Homegrown: red and green leaf lettuces, basil, mint
FreshDirect: Nature's Yolk eggs, Coach Farm chevre, Chateau Lafayette Reneau Seyval-Chardonnay NV
Pantry Exceptions: Olive oil from Provisions, sea salt, black pepper, ground cayenne
Non-local: balsamic vinegar