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A Girl Needs Her Greens: How to Eat More Greens

A Girl Needs Her Greens: How to Eat More Greens

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Garlic Greens Crostini & Veggies
Garlic Greens Crostini & Veggies

I had joined a CSA program in my hood, and I was starting to see green. Every week I picked up two large bags full of vegetables, many of them greens of some kind. Curly mustard greens, Chicoria (dandelion greens), Mizuna (Japanese mustard greens) and stinging nettles. What’s a girl to do with all these greens?

The Purist told me the way to cook greens was to wilt them with olive oil and garlic, which was delicious. I began wilting greens at every meal. I had wilted greens on top of my fried eggs and toast, for lunch on a warm goat cheese crostini, as a side to tomato risotto for dinner. I also made salads with the greens, then went back to wilting them. It was all good, and good for me, but I needed something different.

One day we got stinging nettles. I had to handle them with gloves or plastic bags before cooking them so as not to get a red rash from the stinging hairs on the stalk. And what to do with nettles besides wilt them like greens? Then, during a weekend in Santa Barbara wine country, I had a a wild nettle flatbread with farm egg, leek cream sauce, smoked mozzarella and thyme at a local organic restaurant (Full of Life Flatbread Bakery). Pizza! With the slightly bitter/smoky twist nettles had on greens – combined with local produce and mozzerella on crispy organic pizza dough! Oh!

A new flatbread obsession took hold: I had to recreate this flatbread – over and over. A girl’s gonna need more greens.

Thank god for CSA.

Read the results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment:

Carrots Galore: Two Carrot Soups & a Carrot Side Dish

Carrots Galore: Two Carrot Soups & a Carrot Side Dish

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Kinda Purist Carrot Soup
Kinda Purist Carrot Soup

After I’d been a member of my local farm share – Silverlake Farms – for several weeks I realized I needed more carrot recipes. These were the most beautiful vibrant carrots I’d ever seen. I’d been eating them raw or in salads, along with the gorgeous radishes I also received each week.

I scoured the internet and asked my cooking friends, but didn’t come up with anything that unusual. Turns out carrots are best in the forms you already know: carrot soup – puréed of course – glazed carrots or as part of a base (as in soups, roasts or mirepoix).

I tried various interesting-sounding dishes I concocted myself, like mirepoix chilaquiles (better than it sounds!) and as an accompaniment in braised cabbage.

I ended up making two soups – the Purist’s form (my friend who knows the right way to cook any food) and one blended with tomato. I also dreamed up a glazed carrot dish with honey and blue cheese. All were supremely delightful.

Tomato Ginger Carrot Soup
Tomato Ginger Carrot Soup

The first soup was the Purist’s. He believes you don’t need to add any sugar, no seasoning besides salt, pepper and ginger nor any chicken broth nor cream.

And it would only work if you had the correct 2-speed Waring Pro blender and homemade vegetable stock made from organic veggies, preferably purchased at a local farmers’ market. So yes, I bought the blender, but I changed the recipe.

I brought my loot over to my friend and fellow foodie’s apartment, the Comedienne. We sautéed the carrots with shallots, onions and ginger, then added sherry, basil, mint and sage stuffed inside a leek (stuffing a hollow leek with herbs was the best idea the Purist had) and let it simmer. We did add chicken stock and cream and then threw it all in the blender. It was divine.

Another cold night, I took inspiration from Au Bon Pain and tried my hand at a tomato-based soup with puréed carrots. This time I sautéed the carrots with garlic and onion (and ginger, a nod to the Purist), added store-bought organic tomato soup, vegetable and chicken stock plus a tiny bit of cream. This soup was satisfying and rustic. I ate the whole pot that night with a crisp green salad.

And finally, tired of soup, I tried a glazed carrot recipe. I sautéed the carrots in olive and grapeseed oil over high heat, adding a dash of white wine and some garlic – ginger too! – and coarse sea salt. I lowered the heat and cooked it all down a bit, then added some honey and finished it with crumbled sharp blue cheese. Honey goes very well with both carrots and blue cheese, so why not put them all together?

This was definitely the best thing I’ve ever done with carrots.

Read the results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment:

Honey-glazed Carrots with Blue Cheese
Honey-glazed Carrots with Blue Cheese
Vegetables In Season: New Year Resolution

Vegetables In Season: New Year Resolution

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Silver Lake CSA Vegetables
Silver Lake CSA Vegetables

I believe in buying locally. I believe in small farms feeding America. I try to eat as many vegetables as possible at every meal because it’s virtually impossible to get in the number of servings recommended for your daily diet, the number needed for fighting off cancer cells not to mention helping regulate various bodily processes more efficiently and keeping you as young as possible. Vegetables = the new fountain of youth.

Eating vegetables in season is just smart, because that’s what you’ll find at your local farmers markets. So when I got an email from my newly-sprouted local neighborhood farm with an offer to join their new Community Supported Agriculutre (CSA) program, I promptly signed up for 10 weeks of fresh, locally-grown winter LA vegetables.

The first Friday pick-up got me a bunch of carrots, celery, arugula, dandelion, spinach, romaine lettuce, fresh garlic, radishes, mizuna (lovely mild mustard eaten raw), red onion and cilantro. The next week I got carrots, red onion, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, broccoli, tat soi, fresh shallots, romaine, arugula, izuna. After that it was celery, broccoli, carrots, radishes, fresh garlic, mizuna, red romaine lettuce, green romaine lettuce, italian parsley, baby bok choy, arugula, green curly mustard… You get the picture. It was a LOT of vegetables.

This CSA share was the best value in Los Angeles, but it was really going to challenge my recipe repertoire.

Read the yummy results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment:

Summer Meals: Grilled Vegetables, Smoked Salmon Pops & Lemon Cupcakes

Summer Meals: Grilled Vegetables, Smoked Salmon Pops & Lemon Cupcakes

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The best summer meals are inspired not only by the seasonal produce freshly picked from the fields, but also the smells and tastes of long, hot days and vacations. Lazy sunny days at the shore and thirst-quenching fruit and citrus and herb gardens baking in the sun all influence what we’re eating. As these dishes start popping up in restaurants and backyards across the country, all you have to do is find the right wine, then sit down and dig in.

Summer meals: Grilled vegetables from Trattoria Uliveto

I love this grilled Mediterranean vegetable plate above from Trattoria Uliveto in Orcutt, California. A great vegetarian summer meal.

Summer meals: Mussels & clams from Trattoria Uliveto

The taste of the sea, perfect for a summer meal: mussels + clams from Trattoria Uliveto.

Summer meals: Tomatoes & salami from Trattoria Uliveto

I ♥ tomatoes: cherry tomatoes with olive oil + cured pork plate above from Trattoria Uliveto.

Summer meals: Salmon pops from Blacklake Resort catering

Food pops are everywhere! These are salmon pops above, also known as smoked salmon lollipops.

Smoked Salmon Lollipop Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 3 oz sour cream
  • lollipop sticks
  • smoked salmon, cut into medium slices
  • caviar (or black sea salt)
  • chives, chopped

Whip cream cheese and sour cream (or crème fraîche) together, form into little balls and push the stick in. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, wrap each one in smoked salmon, dip in caviar and top with chopped chives. If you can’t find caviar, you could try black sea salt to get the same look and level of saltiness.

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Smoked Salmon Pops
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetiser
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Food pops are everywhere! These are salmon pops above, also known as smoked salmon lollipops.
Ingredients
  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 3 oz sour cream
  • lollipop sticks
  • smoked salmon, cut into medium slices
  • caviar (or black sea salt)
  • chives, chopped
Instructions
  1. Whip cream cheese and sour cream (or crème fraîche) together, form into little balls and push the stick in. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, wrap each one in smoked salmon, dip in caviar and top with chopped chives. If you can't find caviar, try black sea salt to get the same look and level of saltiness.
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Summer meals: Lemon Rosemary cupcakes from Central City Market

Lemon goes well with herbs in summer desserts: Lemon Rosemary cupcakes from Central City Market.

Don’t forget the rosé to perfectly complement your summer meal and enjoy those hot days, late sunlight and great vacations!

Stone Fruit Clafoutis Recipe

Stone Fruit Clafoutis Recipe

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Living in California means having fruit trees in your yard, or in the yard of friends, coworkers and neighbors. If your produce yield is not high (unlikely here in the land of sunshine), you’ll surely receive piles of peaches, apricots, plums, oranges, lemons, avocado and figs from those living and working around you. Hint: it might help to be a little friendlier this time of year.

Stone Fruit Clafoutis

I had a large batch of plums this summer, and could hardly pick them fast enough to keep them from dropping to the ground where they became a sugary snack for the wildlife that’s claimed my home as their own. I also just read a book by one of my favorite pastry chefs, David Lebovitz. He moved to Paris, writing about his glorious and perplexing adventures in The Sweet Life in Paris. He described a summer fruit Clafoutis recipe, a simple French custardy dish that wasn’t too sweet and was served warm with morning coffee, which drove me straight to my kitchen with my plums in the midst of a heatwave.

I began baking a new clafoutis each week, with whatever fruit my friends and colleagues brought me. My favorite was using both plums and apricots, as well as whole wheat pastry flour, half and half and organic sugar. I knew just how David felt in Paris. Another similarity with David: I had recently begun doing my dishes in the bathtub (just like in Paris!), but that’s another story. On with the clafoutis recipe!

Stone Fruit Clafoutis Recipe
adpated from David Lebovitz
Ingredients:
  • 4 T butter, melted + more for preparing dish
  • 1¼ lb firm, ripe plums and apricots (or figs, cherries, raspberries)
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ C whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 t vanilla
  • ½ C + 2 T organic sugar
  • 1 C half & half
 Instructions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Liberally butter the bottom and sides of a 2 QT shallow baking dish. Halve the plums/apricots (or figs or cherries) and remove the pits. Place the plums/apricots cut side down over the bottom of the baking dish. If you’re adding figs, cherries or raspberries, sprinkle them over the plums or apricots.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth. Whisk the butter and flour into the eggs until completely smooth, then add the vanilla. Whisk in ½ C of the sugar, then the cream.
  3. Pour the custard mixture over the fruit and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, sprinkle 2 T of sugar over the top. Continue baking the clafoutis for about 30 minutes more, until the custard feels slightly firm in the center and the top is a nice golden brown.

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Stone Fruit Clafoutis Recipe
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 4 T butter, melted + more for preparing dish
  • 1¼ lb firm, ripe plums and apricots (or figs, cherries, raspberries)
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ C whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 t vanilla
  • ½ C + 2 T organic sugar
  • 1 C half & half
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Liberally butter the bottom and sides of a 2 QT shallow baking dish. Halve the plums/apricots (or figs or cherries) and remove the pits. Place the plums/apricots cut side down over the bottom of the baking dish. If you're adding figs, cherries or raspberries, sprinkle them over the plums or apricots.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth. Whisk the butter and flour into the eggs until completely smooth, then add the vanilla. Whisk in ½ C of the sugar, then the cream.
  3. Pour the custard mixture over the fruit and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, sprinkle 2 T of sugar over the top. Continue baking the clafoutis for about 30 minutes more, until the custard feels slightly firm in the center and the top is a nice golden brown.
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Braised Cabbage You Can Eat Every Day

Braised Cabbage You Can Eat Every Day

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Stove-Top Braised Cabbage with Egg
Stove-Top Braised Cabbage with Egg

This week I got the most gorgeous pointy head of green cabbage I’ve ever seen. It was so becoming I kept it out of the crisper drawer so I could lovingly admire it every time I opened the fridge. I thought about my head of cabbage often, wondering what would be the best way to cook it. My friend the Comedienne cooks my favorite cabbage as a side to her best baked chicken ever – or should I say an under, since it cooks under the chicken, absorbing all the juices and drippings. It’s delicious.

But this cabbage deserved to be the star of the show, the main event. I remembered Molly from Orangette describing how much she liked eating cabbage; she cooked it with hot sauce and she could eat it every day. I wanted to make cabbage like that.

I searched her site and found 2 more cabbage recipes (braised) – a stove-top braised recipe for red cabbage and an oven-braised recipe for green – so I switched out the cabbage color to make my own stove-top braised green cabbage with CSA carrots and a poached egg. I used my sweet, sweet head of green cabbage, substituted one of my favorite white wines for the chicken stock/water, opened some good sea salt, and finished it with artisan olive oil from Santa Barbara wine country.

Molly was right; I could eat this cabbage every day.

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Wine-Braised Cabbage
Author: 
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
 
You can eat this stove-top wine-braised cabbage every day! I added carrots and used my sweet, sweet head of green cabbage, substituted one of my favorite white wines for the chicken stock/water, opened some good sea salt, and finished it with artisan olive oil from Santa Barbara wine country.
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, sliced into rough ⅓-inch slices
  • 1 large carrot, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
  • 1 medium head green cabbage, about 2 pounds
  • 1-2 cups good-quality dry white wine, enough to cover cabbage halfway
  • Sea salt
  • ⅛ tsp crushed red pepper flakes or other spice mix (or Sriracha sauce to finish)
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and carrots and cook until onions are translucent and slightly golden. Add cabbage, wine, salt, and seasoning. Cover pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is very soft but not falling apart, about an hour.
  2. Allow the liquid to cook off, so that the bottom caramelizes a bit. Stir the cabbage to incorporate the browned cabbage. Serve immediately.
  3. Top with poached egg and Sriracha sauce if desired.
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Read the results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment: