Recipes are Road Maps…Learning to Cook Intuitively and Finding Joy in the Kitchen

By Chef Andrea

A few of the cookbooks I added
to my collection last year.

There’s probably been a cookbook or food magazine beside my bed for more than 75% of the nights I’ve slept on this earth, maybe more.  I am that person who actually reads the cookbook, you know the introduction and thoughts the author shares before you get to the recipes.  I also enjoy reading the introductions to recipes where the author shares little tidbits of info like how the recipe came into existence or ways to alter it with different little tweeks.  Yet despite all the cookbook studying, I have to say it’s a bit of a rare moment when I actually follow a recipe exactly as it’s written.  I’m more likely to do so when I’m baking or making a recipe for the first time from a culture I’m not familiar with.  In the case of baking, it’s different than cooking.  A person will do well to respect the laws of nature which include the ratios of baking.  But cooking is a different ball game and there’s plenty of room to improvise and personalize a recipe to make it your own.  And that is the topic of today’s conversation—learning to cook intuitively, and hopefully having a little fun doing so!

I realize my audience ranges from longtime, experienced cooks and CSA members to the other end of the spectrum with individuals who are still finding their way in the kitchen and learning what it means to eat seasonally from a CSA box in the Midwest.  Plus there’s all of you who fall somewhere in between.  There’s a place for all of you at this table, so pull up a chair and lets talk.

End of Summer Vegetable Ragout

What is a recipe?  It’s a list of ingredients accompanied by a list of instructions for how to bring those individual ingredients to life.  It’s a map to guide you along the way, but the actual journey is up to you.  In the beginning as you are first learning to cook, or if you’re making a recipe for the first time, it is advisable to follow recipes.  This helps you learn the path, but once you know the path you can start to veer from it.  If you don’t have a basic knowledge of cooking, this is a good place to start.  As you read a recipe, start looking up the words you don’t understand or know.  What does it mean to saute or braise?  What is a “chiffonade of basil” or what should you do when a recipe tells you to “reduce a sauce to half.”  You could go to cooking school to acquire this knowledge, or you could just dive in and get started with cooking.  As the recipes you make start to come alive, you’ll quickly start to build your knowledge of some of these basic cooking skills.  Honestly, the best way to learn how to cook is to actually do it!

One of my longtime mantras is “Never Be Intimidated by a Vegetable.”  The same goes for cooking.  Yes, some recipes can seem intimidating with their long list of ingredients and/or a long list of instructions.  If you are feeling intimidated by a recipe, it’s ok to choose something that seems a little more approachable.  No one expects you to be a gourmet chef and honestly, some of the best food you will ever make may be the simplest to prepare.  If you start with good ingredients, you don’t need to do much to it.  Many vegetables taste great simply prepared with salt, pepper and butter!  Honestly, this is how I cook many vegetables, including the sweet little baby white turnips and asparagus we’ve been enjoying this spring.

Caramelized Fennel and Beet Pizza

I’ve had members tell me things like “I made your recipe, but mine didn’t look like yours.”  You know what, that’s ok.  Ten people could prepare the same recipe and it could turn out 10 slightly different ways.  Just remember that “Life is Research!”  There are no failures in the kitchen, only opportunities to observe and learn.  Honestly, one of the best ways to learn about food is to watch and see what happens.  In culinary school I never wanted to make mayonnaise because I was so afraid I would mess it up and it would break.  And then one day my friend and cooking partner insisted I make the mayonnaise.  “No Donnie, I can’t make it.  I’ll mess it up!”  Donnie refused to make it which left me with no option except to try.  I did, and I broke the mayonnaise.  My worst mayonnaise fear had been realized, and man did I feel liberated!  I did it, I messed up the mayonnaise!  That day I learned how to recognize the signs of what mayonnaise looks like right before it’s about to break.  I learned how to prevent that from happening and I learned how to fix it if I did mess it up.  Did I fail that day when I messed up the mayonnaise?  No, I conquered it!

Squash and Poblano Quesadillas

While it can be fun to explore new recipes, sometimes it’s good to stick to some tried and true, good old reliable recipes.  If you’re just learning to cook and/or learning how to eat out of a CSA box, I encourage you to find a few basic recipes that you can master.  The beauty of cooking with the seasons is that your ingredients will always be changing, so even if you make the same five-ten recipes all the time they’ll never be the same.  For example, find a recipe for a stir-fry sauce that you like.  Maybe it’s a teriyaki sauce or an orange sauce.  The stir-fry sauce will always stay the same, as will the basic procedure for making a vegetable stir-fry but you can adapt the preparation each week to include whatever vegetables are in season!  The same goes for things like quiche, pizza, quesadillas, scrambled eggs, etc.  Don’t waste time searching for new recipes all the time, just stick to the ones you know and like!  Remember, recipes are there to guide us, but you can learn to substitute ingredients that are similar.

Vegetable Enchiladas

You’ll notice many recipes include things like “Salt, to taste” or lines like “adjust the seasoning to your liking.”  What exactly does this mean?  It means it’s hard to tell someone exactly how much salt or pepper a recipe will need.  Yes we can ballpark it, but the final adjustments to seasoning really need to be done in the kitchen using your own senses.  This is why it’s important to start to learn more about how different ingredients can change the way food tastes.  Why do we salt food?  Because salt helps to wake up our taste buds and enhances the flavors within a dish.  You seldom want food to taste “salty.”  Rather, you want food to taste balanced.  If you taste something and it tastes “bland” or is just lacking in flavor, it may just need a little more salt.  When you add salt to a dish, make sure you incorporate the salt and then let it set for a few minutes so the salt can dissolve.  Give it another quick stir and then taste the food again.  If you skip this step, you can easily add too much salt to a dish!  The other type of ingredient you may want to use sometimes to adjust the seasoning in a dish is some kind of an acidic ingredient such as vinegar or lemon juice.  Acidic ingredients also help to wake up our taste buds.  If you taste a dish and it tastes “flat,” it may benefit from adding a little splash of some type of acid.  This concept hit home and finally made sense to me when I was in culinary school.  I was in one of my first skills classes and I was making a basic lentil soup.  I seasoned it to what I thought was “perfect” using salt and pepper and then took it to my chef instructor to taste.  She agreed, it was a pretty good lentil soup.  But then she told me to go get a bottle of sherry vinegar.  I brought her the vinegar and she added just a little splash to the soup.  I stirred it in and tasted it again.  Wow!  Everything in the soup came alive with just that one little addition.  So what do you do if you aren’t sure what a dish needs and you don’t want to mess up the entire thing!?  Separate a little portion and play with it.  Add a little salt, add a little acid and see what it tastes like.  If you find something you like, try to replicate it with the rest of the dish.

Apple Turnip Quiche

Cooking is an essential skill we all need in order feed ourselves.  I fully acknowledge that there will be days when making a meal, cleaning the kitchen and doing what it takes to feed yourself and your family will feel like a chore.  That’s the reality of life, but I do hope there are more days when the kitchen is more like your happy place, a place where you can retreat to at the end of the day and actually find joy in the process.  As you gain confidence, build your skills and start to assemble your own collection of recipes you enjoy making, you’ll also likely find yourself cooking more intuitively.  You may reference a recipe, but then you might start to just cook using whatever ingredients are in season and following your own instincts with how to prepare the food, build a meal and do the final steps of seasoning.  So remember, recipes are here to guide us, not restrict us.  Have some fun, get creative and enjoy the process of creating food.  If you learn something along the way, I hope you’ll share it with our membership in our Facebook Group so we can celebrate along with you and learn from each other!

August 24, 2017: This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Tomatillos

Cooking With This Week's Box

This week’s box is packed full, so lets dive in and start cooking.  As usual, we’ll start with this week’s featured vegetable, tomatillos.  If you’re feeling like making a traditional tomatillo salsa this week, go right ahead.  The purple tomatillos in particular make a gorgeous salsa, raw or cooked.  If you’re looking for something a little different, try the Roasted Tomatillos & Chickpea Curry recipe in this week’s newsletter (see below).  This is a very easy dish to make, leftovers are even better than the first day, and it’s an easily adaptable recipe.  You can keep it simple with just the chickpeas, or add some thinly sliced chicken breast to the mix.  Serve this dish with slices of fresh, salted cucumbers and diced tomatoes. 

This week I came across this recipe for One Pot Pasta for Late Summer.    This recipe really does use one pot and celebrates the simplicity of summer cooking, which somehow always comes around to a dish containing pasta and fresh tomatoes!  This recipe includes several items in your box including the pint of small tomatoes, some of your zucchini, and an onion.  You’ll also need to snip a few herbs from your herb garden to round out this dish which will stand on its own, or serve it alongside a piece of sautéed fish or chicken. 

While we’re talking about noodles, I should mention that this week’s yukina savoy can stand in for bok choi in most recipes, including Melissa Clark’s recipe for Spicy Ginger Pork Noodles with Bok Choi which we featured in our June 2016 newsletter.  Use the entire bunch of yukina savoy in place of the bok choi in this recipe.  This is one of my favorite recipes for several reasons including 1) it’s very easy to make 2) leftovers are equally delicious 3) it’s always a  crowd pleaser—who can go wrong with noodles?!

I keep thinking we’re at the end of green bean season, and then Richard finds more green beans!  That’s ok though, they’ve been really good and, sadly, this really is the last week for them.  I’m going to try this recipe for Ginger & Garlic Green Beans.   This recipe is written for a 2 pound quantity of green beans.  Unless you have more  beans lingering from last week’s box or have some from your own garden to supplement this week’s half pound bag, you’ll need to either cut this recipe down or substitute some other vegetables in place of some of the beans.  I’m going to use this week’s broccoli (stems and florets) along with the green beans and smother them both in garlic and ginger.  This dish will go great alongside this recipe for Chicken Teriyaki featured at NYTimes Cooking. Serve the chicken over steamed rice, and make sure you make enough so you have plenty of leftover rice to make Fried Rice with Edamame later in the week.  There’s a simple recipe featured in our August 2015 newsletter.  This recipe calls for a half pound of edamame and some corn.  Since we don’t have corn this week, just double the amount of edamame in this recipe.  You have about one pound of edamame in your box, so this will work out perfectly.  You can use ground pork, as the recipe calls for, or you can leave the pork out and have a vegetarian version.     I love fresh edamame in fried rice and I love how fast it is to make fried rice!  You’ll have dinner on the table in no time!

This week’s Italian frying peppers are going to find their home on an Italian Sausage Sandwich with Spicy Grilled Peppers and Fennel-Onion Mustard.  As long as you have the grill fired up to make the parts and pieces of this sandwich, you might as well enjoy this meal out on the patio taking in some summer night air. This is a substantial sandwich, so you won’t need to serve anything more than some fresh tomato slices to go along with it.  Finish off this meal with the French Orange Melon or some chunks of watermelon for dessert!  Not sure how to cut up a watermelon?  Check out this video at gimmesomeoven.com.  The author, Ali, shows you how to cut a watermelon in several different ways! 

What shall we do with this week’s cucumbers?  Perhaps we should make Cucumber Mojitos!  Summer won’t last forever, so make a drink to enjoy as you grill out on the patio.   You can make it with or without rum, your choice.

Well, we’ve almost finished eating through this week’s box.  The final little bit of zucchini, onions, garlic and the green bell pepper will go into a saute pan and be used in a morning scramble that will become a Breakfast Burrito when wrapped up in a tortilla along with some fresh tomato salsa. I don’t have a recipe for this, so feel free to wing it and customize your scramble to match whatever little bits and pieces of vegetables and other ingredients you have lingering in your refrigerator. 

This brings us to the end of another week’s CSA box.  If you are wondering where the sweet corn is this week, please take a minute to read Farmer Richard’s newsletter article which will answer your question.  I’ll see you back here next week for more summer recipe ideas.  Next week’s box should have some colored sweet peppers in it as well as some poblano peppers, which is one of my favorite peppers.  Thankfully I have a whole week to figure out how I’ll incorporate them into next week’s meals.  Have a great week!—Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature:  Tomatillos

Tomatillos are an interesting “vegetable,” which are technically a fruit.  Despite the fact that they are often referred to as a “green tomato,” they are a bit different.  Tomatillos grow on plants that are similar to a tomato plant, but they are usually larger and have more of a wild, jungle-like appearance.  Their main stem is thick and sometimes resembles a small tree trunk! The plants can grow to be over seven feet tall, so we put stakes in between and tie the plants to them progressively as they grow in order to keep the plant upright and the fruit off the ground.  Tomatillos grow from pretty little yellow blossoms which are a favorite food source for bumble bees and other pollinator creatures.  The fruit is hidden inside a husk that looks like a little paper lantern.  You know the tomatillo is ready to pick when it fills the husk completely.  While most tomatillos are green, this year we’re growing a heirloom purple variety that, when fully ripe, is dark purple on the outside and light purple inside!

Tomatillos may be eaten raw or cooked and have a mild, tangy flavor that is slightly fruity.   Purple tomatillos are more fruity and sweet than green tomatillos.  When raw, tomatillos are firm with a dense flesh.  Once cooked, tomatillos soften and break apart becoming more like sauce.  They have a lot of natural pectin which is a natural thickener.  The outer husk is not edible, so this needs to be removed before you use them.  The fruit inside might feel a little sticky, which is normal.  Just give them a quick rinse and you’re ready to go. 

One of the most familiar ways to use tomatillos is in making salsa!  Tomatillo salsa may be prepared with all raw vegetables which will give you a fresh, chunky salsa.  The alternative is to cook the tomatillos on the stovetop with a little water before blending the softened, cooked tomatillos with the other salsa ingredients.  If you cook the tomatillos first, you’ll get a more smooth salsa.   Roasting tomatillos along with the other salsa ingredients such as onions, garlic, peppers and even limes cut in half will further develop the flavors of these ingredients giving you yet another version of tomatillo salsa.  You can roast the vegetables over an open flame on a grill or gas burner on your stove or put them in the oven under the broiler so you get that nice charred exterior.  Tomatillo salsa is delicious when simply served as a snack or appetizer along with tortilla chips, but it can also be used to top off tacos, quesadillas, make enchiladas, or served alongside your morning eggs or stirred into a bowl of black beans and/or rice.

Cooked purple tomatillo salsa (left) and
fresh purple tomatillo salsa (right)

Salsa is not the only thing you can do with a tomatillo.  There are many other interesting ways to take advantage of their unique tang and natural pectin.  The tanginess of tomatillos pairs very well with pork and can make a delicious Pork and Tomatillo Stew  which is thickened by the tomatillo.  They can also be used to make sauces for chicken and bean dishes, blend them into guacamole, or incorporate them into soups such as the Chilled Buttermilk and Tomatillo Soup we featured in a past newsletter.  They can make a delicious fresh vegetable salsa or salad when combined with fresh tomatoes, corn, edamame, onions, garlic, sweet and/or hot peppers and fresh herbs such as cilantro, parsley or basil.  Purple tomatillos are one of just a few purple vegetables that actually retain their purple color when cooked.  In fact the color of a cooked purple tomatillo is a stunning bright purple that is just gorgeous!

Tomatillos are best stored at room temperature until you are ready to use them, however it’s best to use them within a week.  They are also very easy to preserve for use in the off-season.  One option is to make salsa now and either can or freeze it.  If you don’t have time to make salsa or just want to have tomatillos available in the off-season for other uses, you can freeze tomatillos whole and raw.  Simply remove the outer husk, wash and dry the fruit.  Put them in a freezer bag and pop them into the freezer.  They don’t retain their firm texture after freezing, so don’t be surprised if they are soft when you thaw them.  If you are using them to make a cooked salsa or some other cooked preparation, the texture issue isn’t an issue.  If you are interested in purchasing a larger quantity of tomatillos to preserve, watch your email for a special produce plus offer within the next few weeks.  Have fun and enjoy this unique selection!

Oven-Fried Tomatillos

Yield:  4 servings

Olive oil cooking spray

1 pound tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed and cut into ½-inch thick slices

¼ tsp salt 
¼ tsp ground black pepper

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Creole or Cajun seasoning (or other spice blend to your liking)

2 large eggs

1 ¼ cup panko breadcrumbs

¼ cup ketchup

¼ cup mayonnaise

1. Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 425°F.  
2. Sprinkle tomatillo slices with salt and pepper.  Set aside.
3. Combine the flour, garlic powder and seasoning blend of your choosing in a shallow dish.  Crack the eggs into a separate dish and lightly beat the eggs.  Put the breadcrumbs in a third dish.  Dredge the tomatillos in the flour mixture, dip in the egg and then coat both sides with breadcrumbs.  Place the breaded tomatillo slices on a backing sheet with a rack.  Generously coat the slices with cooking spray.  
4. Bake the tomatillos for about 8 minutes or until the top side is crispy.  Turn the slices over and spray the second side with cooking spray.  Return the tomatillos to the oven and bake an additional 6 minutes or until the second side is also crispy.
5. Meanwhile, combine the ketchup and mayonnaise in a small bowl.  Serve the tomatillos warm with the dipping sauce.  The outside of the slices will be crispy and the inside will be warm and soft.

Recipe adapted from EatingWell.com.

Roasted Tomatillo and Chickpea Curry

Yield:  4 servings

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
1 pound tomatillos, husks removed
1 poblano pepper or jalapeño pepper
1-2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup cilantro (handful of fresh leaves & stems)
1 tsp dried oregano or 1 Tbsp fresh oregano
1 tsp salt



Chickpea Curry
⅓ cup coconut milk, plus more to taste
1—16 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Roast the poblano or jalapeño pepper and tomatillos directly on an open flame either on your stovetop or on a grill.  If you don’t have a gas range, you can also roast the vegetables under the broiler until nicely charred and soft.  Once the pepper is cool enough to handle, scrape the skin off of the pepper and remove the seeds.  
2. Put the tomatillos, poblano or jalapeno (you may want to start with just half of a jalapeno and add more later if you want more heat), and the remaining salsa ingredients in a food processor.  Process everything to a smooth sauce consistency.  Pour the salsa into a bowl and set aside.  You should have about one cup of roasted tomatillo salsa.
3. Put ½ cup of chickpeas into the food processor and pulse it a few times to mash them.  Set aside.
4. Heat a saute pan over medium heat.  Add 1-2 tsp olive oil, then add the curry powder and stir it into the oil.  Let it sizzle in the oil for about 30 seconds.  It should be very aromatic.  Add ½ of the tomatillo salsa and cook for about two minutes.
5. Next, add the mashed chickpeas, the remaining whole chickpeas, the remainder of the salsa, and ⅓ cup coconut milk.  Mix well and bring the mixture to a gentle boil.  Reduce the heat and continue to simmer the curry until it thickens a bit (5-7 minutes).  If it gets too thick you can thin it with a little water.  Taste and adjust the sauce to your liking by adding more coconut milk, salt, pepper and/or a squeeze of lime juice.  
6. Serve over rice or quinoa with lime wedges on the side.

Recipe adapted from www.chefdehome.com.

Chef Andrea’s serving suggestions and variations:  You can make this dish as spicy or as mild as you’d like.  Sliced, salted cucumbers are a nice accompaniment for the dish that helps cool off the curry.  While this dish is good made per the recipe, I think it would also be good served with fresh, diced tomatoes on top or with the addition of chicken.  

Vegetable Feature: Green Curly Kale

By Andrea Yoder

     In the foreward to her book, Brassicas—Cooking the World’s Healthiest Vegetables…, Laura B. Russell states “When Hippocrates said ‘Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food,’ there’s little doubt in my mind  that he was referring to foods drawn from the brassica family.”  We thought it fitting, given the topic of our main article, to feature green curly kale.  This is just one of several varieties of kale we grow.  Our other varieties include red curly, lacinato and baby kale as well as collard greens.  These greens vary from others we’ve sent your way in that their leaves are thicker than say spinach.  As such, they need to be cooked a little longer or “marinated” to soften the leaves.
     Kale may be eaten raw or cooked.  Raw kale salads have become quite popular in recent years and are great for the summer when lettuce and spinach are less available.  If you choose to eat kale raw, we recommend thinly slicing it and “marinating” it for 30 minutes or more with oil and/or an acidic ingredient (such as vinegar or lemon juice) to soften the leaves and make them more palatable.  Kale may also be stir-fried, sautéed, steamed or added to soups, stews and the like.  Baked kale chips are also a fun way to eat kale and a healthy alternative to potato chips!  Due to the recent surge in popularity of kale, there are loads of recipes available on the internet.  We hope you enjoy your “Wisconsin Superfood” this week!

Kale Chips with Almond Butter and Miso

Yield:  4-6 servings

¼ cup almond butter

2 Tbsp warm water

¼ cup chopped onion

1 ½ Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 Tbsp white miso

2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp tamari

¼ tsp ground turmeric

⅛ to ¼ tsp crushed red pepper

1 bunch green or red curly kale, washed

Salt, to taste

1.       Preheat the oven to 300°F.  Lightly grease two sheet trays and set aside.

2.       Place all of the ingredients except the kale and salt into a blender or food processor.  Puree until smooth. 

3.       Shake any excess water off of the kale.  Strip the leaves off the main stem.  Discard the stems and tear the leaves into large bite-sized pieces.  Place the leaves into a large mixing bowl and drizzle the almond butter mixture on top.  Using your hands or tongs, mix the kale to evenly coat all of the pieces with the almond butter mixture.

4.       Spread the kale pieces evenly on the two sheet trays and lightly sprinkle with salt.  Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.  Remove the pans from the oven and lightly toss the kale pieces.  Return the pans to the oven and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until all the pieces are crispy. 

5.       Remove from the oven and let cool, then carefully lift the kale chips off the baking sheets and serve.

Recipe adapted from one originally published in Food & Wine magazine in March 2012.

Vegetable Quesadillas with Pistachio-Kale Pesto

Yield:  4 servings quesadillas and 1 cup pesto

Kale Pesto:

½ cup pistachios

1 clove garlic

½ cup olive oil

2 cups raw kale, packed

2 cups basil, loosely packed

Juice of 1 lemon, more to taste

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Quesadilla Filling:

2 medium zucchini
1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 Tbsp olive oil

8-10 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 cup cheese, shredded (variety to your liking)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

4 tortillas (9-10-inch)

1.       Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. Cut zucchini into slices ¼-inch thick.  Lay them on a sheet tray and brush with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Flip the slices over and repeat on the other side.  Thinly slice the onions and toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat.  Put the onions on the sheet tray with the zucchini.  Place in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until the zucchini are tender.  You may need to remove the onions before the zucchini is finished. 

2.        While the zucchini is baking, prepare the pesto.  Place all the ingredients for the pesto into a high speed blender or a food processor.  Blend until nearly smooth. Adjust seasoning with additional salt, pepper and lemon juice as needed.

3.       Assemble the quesadillas.  Spread approximately 2 Tbsp of kale pesto on half of each tortilla.  Top with zucchini slices, onion, and cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle cheese on top of each tortilla, then fold in half. 

4.       Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add ½ Tbsp olive oil. When the skillet is warm, add the quesadillas and cook on each side for about 2 minutes or until the tortilla is golden and the cheese is melted. Cut into quarters or thirds and serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from one originally sourced from purelyelizabeth.com

Featured Vegetable this Week: COLLARD GREENS

by Andrea Yoder

We seldom highlight collard greens and they are often overshadowed by the recent increase in popularity of kales, which are very similar in nature. Collards are in the family of brassicas and thus are related to vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli & turnips. They are characterized by thick, sturdy, flat, rounded leaves and boast  a host of nutritional attributes including being low in calories, high in fiber, and they are good sources of beta carotene, vitamin C, calcium, B vitamins and antioxidants. They have long been an important staple ingredient in southern cooking in the United States. The plant is thought to have been brought to the US during the era of slave trade either directly from Africa or possibly from Haiti. Collards are eaten in countries throughout the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Farmer Richard looks over the field of collard greens

The traditional southern way to prepare collard greens is to boil or cook the greens for 30 minutes or more in a broth with some sort of a pork product such as a ham bone, ham hock or bacon. While collard greens do need a bit more cooking than spinach to become tender, it is a common misunderstanding that this is the only way to cook collards. Because they are a thicker green, collards do stand up to moist-heat cooking methods such as braising. They are a great addition to soups, stews, bean, lentil and grain dishes where they can be cooked with the other ingredients without becoming overcooked. While cooking collards with liquid will likely yield the softest texture, they can also be stir-fried or lightly sautéed, methods that highlight their flavors and bright green color. You can also use collards in raw salads or slaws, just make sure you allow a few hours for the greens to rest in the dressing or vinaigrette to soften the leaves. Some southern cooks will make a creamy cole slaw using thinly sliced collard greens and serve it on top of a barbecued pork sandwich.

The large flat leaves also make a great wrapper and can be used in place of a tortilla, spring roll wrapper or the like. You can fill them with a whole host of ingredients such as finely chopped greens or other veggies, cooked grains, beans, meat, hummus, etc. Add a sauce to the wrap or dip it in a flavorful dipping sauce and you have a meal! You can use the leaves raw, or blanch them briefly in boiling water, cool and then pat dry. This will help soften the leaf and make them more tender.

The leaves are large and flat which make them perfect for wrappers!

Collards can stand up to other more bold flavors and ingredients including hot peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, curry & other pungent sauces, pork, soy sauce, and cream. Store collard greens loosely wrapped in plastic in the crisper drawer until you are ready to use them. Wash them in a sink of clean water and shake off excess water. Remove the thick center stem and then prepare the leaf by leaving whole, cutting into bite-sized pieces, or stack the leaves and roll them so you can slice them thinly.

Simple Garlicky Greens

“If there could be only one recipe in the world for leafy greens, 

I’d vote for this one.”

—Nava Atlas, Author of Wild About Greens

This is a basic recipe for cooking greens that can be used for a variety of greens including kale, spinach, mustard greens and a variety of Asian greens (eg bok choi, yukina savoy, etc). This can easily be a “go-to” recipe that serves as a base for a whole host of variations. In addition to the suggestions below, you can simply mix Garlicky Greens with beans or grains to round out a meal.

4 to 6 servings
1 bunch collard greens
1 to 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil or sunflower oil
3 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed
Juice of ½ to 1 lemon, or apple cider vinegar, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

1. Cut leaves away from stems. Stack a few leaves on top of each other and roll snugly from one of the narrow ends, then slice thinly. Chop in a few places to shorten the ribbons.


2. Heat the oil in a large steep-sided skillet or stir-fry pan. Add the garlic and sauté over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden.


3. Add the greens and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until just tender, approximately 5 to 8 minutes. Add small amounts of water, wine or vegetable broth during this time, if needed—just enough to keep the bottom of the pan moist.


4. Add the lemon juice or vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Variations:

Sweet Additions:  Once the greens are cooked, stir in ¼ to ½ cup raisins, dried cranberries or currants.

Nutty Additions:  Sprinkle ¼ to ½ cup toasted nuts over the top of the greens in the pan prior to serving.

Savory Additions:  Once the greens are cooked, stir in any of the following:  ½ cup sliced brine-cured olives, ½ cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes, or 2 to 3 Tbsp capers.

Spicy Additions:  Stir any of the following into cooked greens, to your taste: dried hot pepper flakes, fresh seeded and minced hot chili pepper, chili oil or hot sauce.

Spicy Peanut or Cashew Sauce

Recipe borrowed from Nava Atlas’s book, Wild About Greens

This rich, spicy sauce is great on just about any variety of greens.  It is a great addition to the Simple Garliky Greens recipe in this week’s newsletter.  Serve the sauce with the greens or mix the greens with a cooked grain (rice, quinoa, wheat berries, etc) and top it off with the Spicy Peanut Sauce.

4 to 6 servings
1 Tbsp olive oil or other healthy vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 scallions, top and bottom parts, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 fresh hot chili pepper, seeded and minced or a pinch of dried red pepper flakes
½ cup natural-style chunky peanut butter or cashew butter
1 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp granulated sugar

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and the bulb part of the scallions. Sauté over medium-low heat until the garlic begins to turn golden. Add the tomatoes, chili pepper, and the green top parts of the scallion. Cover and cook just until the tomatoes have softened, 2 to 3 minutes.


2. Add the peanut butter, soy sauce, and sugar. Once the peanut butter starts to soften from the heat, stir to combine with the tomato mixture and add a small amount of water, just enough to make this a medium-thick sauce. Stir into nearly done greens.

Cooking Grass-Fed Beef...A Few Basic Tips for Success

The way in which animals are managed and raised does directly impact the qualities and characteristics of meat.  It is important to realize this because it will directly affect how you cook your meat to get the best quality end product.  Grass-fed beef from animals that have led stress-free lives grazing on pastures tends to be more lean and flavorful when compared to conventionally raised, grain-fed beef.  If you are accustomed to cooking conventional, grain-fed beef, or have had less than delicious results cooking or eating grass-fed meat previously, there are a few things to consider that might make a difference in your end result.

DO NOT OVERCOOK THE MEAT…TIME & TEMPERATURE ARE IMPORTANT!

The first thing to remember, and possibly the most important, is do not overcook the meat!! Grass-fed beef is more lean and has less marbling than grain-fed beef.  Since fat is an insulator, and grass-fed meat is so lean, it will cook faster than grain-fed meat and may be less forgiving without the fat to cover up a little bit of overcooked meat.  When you are reading recipes, take the guidelines for how long to cook a piece of meat with a grain of salt.  The time it takes to cook a piece of meat will depend on other variables including the size and thickness of the piece.  There are other ways to test the doneness of a piece of meat as well.  One way is to test the doneness of some pieces of meat, such as a chuck roast or stew meat, to see if it is “fork tender.” When a fork is inserted into the piece of meat, the meat should slide off the fork easily.  If it does, the meat is done.  If the fork doesn’t come out easily, the meat needs to cook longer.  Other ways to judge the doneness of meat include touch and temperature.  Learning to judge the doneness of meat by touch takes practice and time to master.  If you’ve ever wondered why chefs are always poking meat on a grill, it’s because they are feeling the resistance the piece of meat gives to touch.  The more the meat is cooked, the more firm the meat will feel.  This is something you will just have to practice and master over time. 

Checking the internal temperature of a piece of meat while it is cooking is a more reliable way to monitor the degree of doneness.  The USDA recommends cooking beef to a final internal temperature of 140-170° F, however most chefs would recommend a range of 120°F for rare meat and an upper range of 165°F for well-done meat.  You can use a simple meat thermometer or meat probe to test the internal temperature.  Insert the thermometer into a thicker, more centrally located place on the piece of meat.  If the piece you are testing contains a bone, make sure the thermometer is inserted away from the bone.  Also, remember that meat continues to cook even after you remove it from the heat source.  This is called carry-over cooking.  Don’t forget to take this into account when you are cooking and remove the meat from the heat before it reaches your final desired temperature.  Smaller pieces of meat, such as a rib steak, will continue to carry-over cook for about 5 to 10 minutes and the temperature can increase another 5 degrees.  If you are cooking a larger piece of meat such as a roast, the meat can continue to cook for an additional 15-30 minutes after being removed from the heat source.  The temperature of a larger piece of meat can rise as much as an additional 10-15 degrees. 

The next thing to remember is that you control the flame.  What I mean is that you have control of the temperature at which you are cooking your meat.  Remember, grass-fed meat doesn’t have as much fat to insulate it so it will cook more quickly.  If you are cooking grass-fed beef over a high temperature, you can cook the meat too quickly and cook the moisture and fat right out of the meat, making it dry and tough.  

COOKING METHODS:

Another important factor is to choose the correct cooking method for the cut of meat you are preparing.  Cuts of meat that come from a part of the animal that is used and exercised more will be tougher.  To tenderize these cuts you should use a moist heat cooking method which will use a longer cooking time and added moisture or liquid to help tenderize the meat. 

• Moist Heat cooking methods include braising, stewing, boiling or cooking in a crock-pot. 

• Tougher cuts of beef include the following:  Chuck Roast, Arm Roast, Rump Roast, Round Steak, Stew Meat and Short Ribs.

Cuts of meat that come from muscles of the animal that are not as active will be more tender.  These cuts of meat can be prepared using dry-heat cooking methods

• Dry Heat Cooking methods include grilling, sautéeing, roasting, broiling, stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying. 

• More tender cuts of beef include the following:  Rib Steak, T-bone Steak, Sirloin Steak, Sirloin Tip, Flank Steak and Skirt Steak. 

FLAVOR:

Finally, lets talk about flavor.  Yes, it will ultimately come down to a matter of personal preference.  Grass-fed beef has been described as having more of a juicy, rich, robust “beefy flavor” in comparison to grain-fed meat.  The flavor of grass-fed meat has also been described as “clean” in comparison to grain-fed meat.  The higher fat content and marbling in grain-fed meat may leave more of a coating in your mouth and an after-taste that you won’t experience with grass-fed meat, which may be why some people describe the flavor as “clean.”  Animals that are grass-fed have a distinctive, sufficient flavor that can stand on its own without a lot of additional seasonings and sauces.  Let the natural flavor of the meat stand out by using simple salt & pepper seasonings or simple herb rubs for starters.   For braised dishes such as pot roast, the flavor of the meat will be infused into the cooking liquid creating a flavorful rich stock or sauce.  As you begin to experience the flavors of grass-fed beef, we encourage you to keep it simple so the true flavor of the meat comes out and you can taste the difference for yourself.

 

 

This video clip from The New York Times and Mark Bittman discusses and shows you some of the differences between cooking with grass-fed and grain-fed beef. This video does a great job of  highlighting some of the differences that we have mentioned in this post.

There are a lot of resources available to guide you in your endeavors to cook grass-fed beef.  One of our favorites is Shannon Hayes’ book called The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook .  She offers a lot of really simple, down-to-earth and resourceful ways to successfully prepare grass-fed beef.