One Local Summer - Week One

Back in April I signed up for the One Local Summer event over at Farm to Philly. I thought it would be a neat way to challenge myself to really use more local and seasonal ingredients in my cooking. I'm excited to see what northern Virginia has in store for me this summer! We were pretty busy this weekend, so my first local meal was a pretty basic brunch we had on Saturday morning before heading off for the day.



We had bacon, eggs, and fruit salad with whipped cream.

The bacon I picked up at the farmer's market from a kind of local farm aggregate called EcoFriendly Foods. It comes from pastured pigs and is cured with just salt and sugar. It was definitely the best local bacon I've had so far, but not quite as good as the local bacon we used to get when we lived in New Jersey from Cherry Grove Farm.

The eggs were from Joel Salatin's famous and fabulous Polyface Farm. I joined their buying club a few months ago. Every month I place an order with them and pick it up from one of their northern Virginia drop off spots. I cooked the delicious dark yolked eggs in some of the fat left over from cooking the bacon.

The fruit salad was strawberries from Toigo Orchards and some not-so-local peaches (they came from Georgia via Whole Foods). I would have left the peaches out happily, but they were in my fruit basket and going bad, so into the salad they went. To top our fruit I whipped a little heavy cream from J-Wen Farm. Selling raw milk is illegal in Virginia unless you go through a cow sharing program, but the stuff from J-Wen is not homogenized and is just pasteurized rather than ultrapasteurized. The fruit was so naturally sweet that the whipped cream didn't require any sugar. I don't eat very much dairy at all, but I just had a hankering this weekend so I picked the cream up at the farmer's market.

And there you have it!

Greens Series - Day 5 - Southern Style Collards

We've finally come to the end of my week of greens! I'm ending the week with a collard greens recipe that goes against every cooking instinct in my body. In general, I like to cook vegetables for a short amount of time in a shallow skillet with a minimum of liquid; these collards are cooked for a long time in a big pot of boiling water! The result is tender, smokey greens that go perfectly with Southern staples like BBQ. We had these tonight with BBQ beef brisket.


Southern Style Collards

ingredients:
3 quarts water
1.5 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 T hot sauce
1 tsp cajun or blackening seasoning
1 smoked turkey wing or drumstick or a smoked ham hock or shank
1 T olive oil or bacon grease
2 bunches of collard greens

In a stock pot, heat the water to boiling with the salt, garlic powder, black pepper, cajun seasoning, and hot sauce. Add the turkey wing, lower to a simmer, and cook for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the collards. De-rib the collards by folding the leaves in half and cutting along the rib. Stack the leaves and cut them into strips, then roughly chop them.

Add the collards to the pot along with the 1 T of olive oil or bacon grease. Simmer for a further 45-60 minutes.

To serve, scoop the greens out with a slotted spoon. You should be left with a pot full of flavorful broth called "pot likker" and a well-cooked turkey wing. You can shred the meat and save the meat and broth to make soup later. I'm eyeing up my leftovers to make a turkey and okra stew.



The original for this recipe is the work of the infamous Paula Deen: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/collard-greens-recipe/index.html

-----------------

So that's it for the Greens Series! I hope you've enjoyed it and maybe found some new recipes to try out. I've definitely been enjoying eating them all week. :)

-----------------

Posts in the Greens Series:
Relaxed Kale Salad
Spinach Pesto
Baby Bok Choy with Ginger
Broiled Kale
Southern Style Collards

Greens Series - Day 4 - Broiled Kale

This is another rather unusual way to make kale. I used to make kale or collards several times a week and just braise them with a little garlic and chicken stock. I liked the greens cooked that way, but my husband got so sick of it after awhile that I had to find other ways to make them. This way is surprisingly delicious, different, and takes less than 5 minutes to cook!


Broiled Kale

ingredients:
1 bunch of kale
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Preheat the broiler. Remove the ribs from the kale and roughly chop it. Line a large baking sheet with foil and spread the kale out. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the kale under the broiler. Watch it the whole time! Don't take your eyes off it! When the edges just start to brown (this only takes a minute or two or three), take it out of the oven and give it a stir. Put it back under the broiler and watch it until it starts to brown again (just another minute). Take it out and serve.

-----------------

Posts in the Greens Series:
Relaxed Kale Salad
Spinach Pesto
Baby Bok Choy with Ginger
Broiled Kale
Southern Style Collards

Greens Series - Day 3 - Baby Bok Choy with Ginger

Baby Bok Choy with Ginger

ingredients:
1 lb baby bok choy
1 T fresh grated ginger
1 T coconut oil
1/2 tsp sea salt (or 1 T tamari wheat-free soy sauce, but this choice is up to you; if you want the umami that soy offers without eating soy itself, you might try adding in an anchovy or a smidge of anchovy paste)

Cut 1/2 inch off the bottom of each bok choy bunch. Rinse the leaves under running water to remove grit, but don't pat dry; you need the water that is clinging to the leaves.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add the bok choy a handful at a time as it wilts down. When all the greens are in the skillet, add the ginger and salt or soy sauce. Cover and steam for 3-4 minutes. Remove the cover and let the liquid cook off.

-----------------

The technique for this recipe came from The Garden of Eating by Don Matesz and Rachel Albert-Matesz.

-----------------

Posts in the Greens Series
Relaxed Kale Salad
Spinach Pesto
Baby Bok Choy with Ginger
Broiled Kale
Southern Style Collards

Greens Series - Day 2 - Spinach Pesto

I kind of like spinach, or at least I don't hate it, but I particularly dislike how mushy it gets when you cook it. Even just barely wilting it turns it too soft for my taste. Turning it into a pesto sidesteps the whole mushiness issue and is a nice milder alternative to an all-basil pesto. You can use pesto in lots of ways; as a salad dressing (cold or warm), an alternative to mayo in chicken salad, a way to add some zest to soup, a sauce for steamed veggies. Tonight I'm making split chicken breasts and I'm rubbing the pesto underneath the chicken skin.


Spinach Pesto

ingredients:
7 oz raw baby spinach (this is the size of the salad bags of spinach at my grocery store)
1 cup of fresh basil
1/3 cup walnuts
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place the spinach and basil in a food processor and process down to a coarse paste. Add the walnuts, garlic, and salt and process until the walnuts disappear. Scrape down the sides if necessary. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a thin stream. Taste it and adjust the salt level.



-----------------

Posts in the Greens Series:
Relaxed Kale Salad
Spinach Pesto
Baby Bok Choy with Ginger
Broiled Kale
Southern Style Collards

Greens Series - Day 1 - Relaxed Kale Salad

Welcome to my first blog series! This week I am going to focus on greens. Greens are one of the most nutritious things you can eat, packed with vitamins and minerals and even protein and fiber. Everyone knows they should probably eat more of them, but it's hard when you only know one or two ways to prepare them. That is where this series comes in. Each day this week I'm going to prepare a different recipe for various green leafy things, exploring many different varieties as well as cooking techniques.

First up we have an unusual raw kale preparation. It's called "Relaxed" Kale Salad because the action of massaging the kale with a little salt and extra virgin olive oil wilts down the tough raw kale leaves significantly and makes them tender enough to eat without cooking. The original recipe can be found here: http://freshtopia.net/vlog/?p=97 There is a video about the salad at the link that is pretty cute. I usually use regular green curly kale in this, but I also like using red curly kale, which gives it a nice color. I've never tried using lacinato (dino) kale for this, so if you give that a try let me know how it works out!


Relaxed Kale Salad

ingredients:
salad:
1 bunch of kale
1-1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tart crisp apple, such as gala or fuji
1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

dressing:
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 T (1-1/2 tsp) raw honey
1/2 T (1-1/2 tsp) brown or Dijon mustard

Remove the stems from the kale and give it a rough chop. Put the kale in a large mixing bowl and drizzle with the olive oil and salt. Massage the kale with your hands for 5-7 minutes until it wilts down significantly and becomes tender.

I started with a bowl of kale that looked like this:


And after massaging I ended up with this:


Roughly chop the apple and walnuts and add to the greens. Whisk all the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Toss to distribute. You can eat it right away, but it will also keep in the fridge for at least a day or two. The kale is more than sturdy enough to hold the dressing for that long and the flavor can even improve with time. The only thing to watch out for if you want to hold it in the fridge is that the some of the apples can become a little mealy.



I've enjoyed this salad immensely ever since I started making it two years ago. I hope you'll give it a try!

-----------------

Posts in the Greens Series:
Relaxed Kale Salad
Spinach Pesto
Baby Bok Choy with Ginger
Broiled Kale
Southern Style Collards

Blog Series?

I've been toying with the idea of doing a blog series. I've been wanting to eat more greens lately, so I thought I could combine the ideas and do a week-long series where each day I would make a different greens recipe (kale, collards, etc) and blog about it for you guys. What do you think? I already have ideas for some of the dishes I would make, and, hey, who couldn't stand to add more greens to their diet? ;)

EDIT: Sounds like the greens idea is on! I will collect my thoughts and recipes this week and I'll kick off the Greens Series next Monday, Feb 2.