Almost Slowfood Featured on Good Bite!

Good Bite is an awesome new website featuring recipes and how-to cooking videos from the web's best food bloggers. Think Gluten-Free Girl, David Lebovitz and Smitten Kitchen.

OK, OK and the point of all this is that Good Bite is featuring my recipe from last week for Simmered Kale with Bacon and White Beans.

Good Bite Says: "For a cool spin that remains true to the lazy dinner philosophy, we like this soulful interpretation from Almost Slowfood. The recipe combines the leafy green with bacon and white beans. Even healthy-food-o-phobes will enjoy this Southern-inspired dish: so, not only is preparation easy, but you won't have to fight with your kids to eat something nutritious. Relax..."

What an honor! I hope you'll check it out on Good Bite and leave a comment there for good measure! While you're at it, take a look at the other fabulous recipes and videos. Good Bite is really onto something magnificent!

Sour Cherry Anniversary

The day after graduating college, I met my husband while out with one of my girls - one of the "my girls" I speak of so fondly in Gnocchi, Gah-nocky. Well, the hubby and I met the very night I had sworn off the emotional agony of dating. Before him, everyone was just not that into me and, of course, I never realized it until I was crying with one or all of my girls wondering why oh why couldn't I find love?

They say it happens when you least expect it and I definitely least expected it while sitting in the dirtiest bar in New York, a little jewel called the Cherry Tavern, bored, grumpy and watching my friend try out her very fake English accent on a bunch of blokes who ate it all up. But then a tall blond came my way and parked himself next to me. There was talk of butterflies and cocoons - weird stuff to be sure - and then an exchange of numbers. While he may not remember this, my husband fell in love with me at first sight. Yes, it's true. He called me and wooed me, bringing wine and ice cream on the first date and a bouquet of flowers the next day for our second. With the exception of a three week break up at the end of our first year, we've been together for 9 years: two of them dating, one engaged and 6 married.

This past Sunday we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary so I decided to make him a special dinner. I had bought a pint of sour cherries at the market and thought duck breast with sour cherries, wild rice and some veggies would be perfect. Oh and it was. So much so that baby girl ate as much duck as we did and got very angry when we didn't give her her own glass of wine. However, she did says cheers and clink her little water glass against our wine glasses as we toasted to ourselves and another 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, etc. - you know to the times-tables, right? - years.

Duck Breast with Sour Cherry Sauce
(This dish is as easy to cook as it is beautiful to look at. It's sure to impress anyone you decide to make it for whether it's a new flame or a lasting love.)

What You'll Need:

1 cup wild rice mix (I like the Lundberg wild rice mix)
2 cups chicken stock
2 Duck Breasts (Moulard or Pekin are tasty options)
1 pint sour cherries
1 tablespoon sugar
1 shallot, finely diced
1 bottle Pinot Noir (For cooking and drinking)
4 sprigs of thyme

About an hour before you'd like to eat, place a small pot over a high heat. Pour in the chicken stock and add the rice. Stir once or twice and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down the heat to a simmer.

Take the cherries, wash them and pit them. I don't have a cherry-pitter so I just cut the cherries and removed the pits by hand. Anyone have a pitter? Is it handy? Then add the sugar to the cherries, stir with a spoon and let them macerate.

Put a frying pan over a medium-high flame. While the pan is coming to temperature, take out your duck breasts, and, with a very sharp knife, gently score the skin in a cross-hatch design. Be careful not to cut the skin. Duck is very fatty - doing this will help render the fat. Sprinkle the skin generously with salt and pepper and place the breasts skin side down into the frying pan. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the fat has been rendered and the skin is a crispy brown.

Holding the breasts down with a pare of tongs, pour out the rendered fat into a container (you can discard this or use it for roasting veggies among other delicious things), sprinkle the uncooked side with some salt and pepper and flip them over. Cook for another 8-10 minutes or until it's medium rare. While I know this is sacrilege, I cut into one breast to see that it's a nice rosy color. You might like other meats well done, but duck is really at its best medium-rare. Remove the breasts and set on a cutting board to rest and reabsorb its juices.


Pour out the remaining fat keeping just enough to glaze the pan. Return the pan to the flame and add the pitted cherries, shallot and thyme, cook for a minute or two and then add about half a bottle of red wine. Let it boil gently until the sauce has reduced by two thirds. I also took a potato masher and squashed the cherries to distribute even more cherry flavor throughout the sauce.

To serve, spoon some wild rice on the plate. Then slice the duck breasts in quarter to half-inch slices and overlap about 5 slices together on the plate. Spoon a bit of sauce over the duck and have a lovely green salad on the side. I also served some roasted carrots and turnips we had leftover from our CSA. This is a wonderful meal for celebrations or for any night you want to eat like a king. Enjoy!

Approximate Dinner Cost
• Groceries - $33.00
• Leftovers – Expect 4 servings at $8.25 a serving.

Hale to the Kale

Willie Mae cooked for my great-grandmother, then my grandmother and, even for a short time, my mother. She was a large woman with a high-pitched booming voice and an old fashioned Southern twang. My mother grew up with her as did my brothers and me. While we loved everything about Willie Mae, we especially loved her cooking. She cooked in the old Southern tradition of stewing and slow-cooking nearly everything from baked beans to baby back ribs. Even her apple pie was more of a heavenly applesauce spread in between two layers of flaky pie crust. The only thing that didn't really work were her chocolate chip cookies since they were also cooked forever and therefore hard as rocks.

The other day, as I was trying to figure out what to do with a big bunch of kale from my CSA, Willie Mae sprang to my mind and I wondered why she'd never made kale for us. Kale is after all a big hearty Southern green used in all kinds of braises and stews. Plus, kale is full of vitamins A, K and C and it's also an amazing source of manganese, calcium and fiber.

However, if Willie Mae ever did cook kale, I imagine she prepared it the same way she did her slow-cooked green beans, which she simmered all day in a hunk of bacon. I decided to follow her lead with a couple slices of bacon, a little chicken stock and even some cannellini beans for an Italian flare. To save our hearts and my sanity, I poured out the rendered bacon fat and only simmered it for 15-20 minutes. The results have permanently turned my husband and I from wishy-washy on the kale front to actively buying it every time we see it at the market. It's that good and so easy to prepare. Baby girl loves it too, picking out the beans first, then the bacon and finally the kale. It's a great dish for picky veggie-eaters since it's soft and tastes mildly of bacon. What's not to love?

Simmered Kale with Bacon and White Beans

(If you're tired, a large bowl of this with some crusty bread would make a fine meal.)

What You'll Need:
2-3 strips of bacon cut into bite-sized pieces (go for the pasture-fed pork if you can - I got mine from my local market, but I also recommend Niman Ranch bacon)
1 large bunch of kale chopped
1-2 cups chicken stock
2 15 oz. cans of cannellini beans rinsed

Place a large pot over a medium-high heat and cook the bacon until much of the fat is rendered, but before it gets crispy. Pour off the fat and add the kale. Toss with tongs until the kale is wilted. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Then add the beans, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

*This can be made with just about any leafy green. This past week I used a mixture of dandelion and swiss chard. And, a good friend used turnip greens in his version and chicken sausage - the possibilities are endless.

*Sorry there is no picture this week because I was super silly and deleted it!! I have kale in the fridge so stay tuned for an update to this post with a picture of the real delicious deal.

* One more thing, my title isn't a mistake. I meant it as hale as in hale and hearty kale, but used it like hail as in hail to the king. My husband insisted I post an explanation as he's a crazy meanings obsessed lawyer.

Approximate Dinner Cost
• Groceries - $7.00
• Leftovers – Expect 7-8 side servings and about 4 meal servings.

Much Ado About Chutney

Just a quick one here, but I've been receiving numerous questions about what to do with the chutney left over from Monday's virtual dinner party. I too asked myself the same question since the paneer cheese ran out way before the chutney did. Here are a couple ideas for what to do with any leftover Apricot-Orange Chutney. To read the original post, click here: A Potluck of Spice & Everything Nice.


Option 1: Tuesday night rolled around and we still had a good two cups of chutney in the fridge. I also had a head of bok choy, about a cup of snow peas, a garlic scape and a bunch of scallions all from our CSA. My husband suggested a stir fry, but I took it one step further and here's how: Place a large frying pan over a high heat and add a quarter cup of chutney and a splash of chicken stock. Bring it to a boil and add the bok choy, chopped, and the snow peas. Saute for about 3 minutes and then add the garlic scapes and scallions, all chopped, to the pan. Cook for just a couple more minutes and serve over brown rice. It was amazing!

Option 2: On wednesday night, I turned on the oven to 400, salt and peppered two pork chops, smothered them in chutney and popped them in the oven for about 15 minutes. The result was caramelized and juicy goodness.

Option 3: Finally, for a snack yesterday, I took some triscuit-type organic crackers, topped them with ricotta cheese and a dab of chutney. Such easy perfection.

There you go, three totally different things to do with all that chutney. Enjoy!

Easy Peasy Strawberry Jam

For the last month, baby girl and I have been eating up strawberries like we'll never see them again. Every week, as we approach the market stands, baby girl screams, "sawberry!" and "teese!" her two favorite market finds being strawberries and cheese. Alas, strawberry season is nearly over. We might get another week or maybe two, but once the heat sets in, we won't be seeing them 'till next year. Sure, I can get strawberries at the supermarket nearly year-round, but those are hard sour white things rather than the sweet, juicy red berries that are so delicate and fleeting, you must eat them or cook them within 48 hours before old age sets in and spoils them.

So, this past Friday I decided to try my hand at strawberry jam. In the morning, baby girl and I sauntered over to the Bradley Farm stand for some of their organic strawberries. Baby girl kept saying, "mah! Mah!" as Ray's wonderful partner handed her berry after berry and, somehow inspired, I kept seconding baby girl saying, "more! More!" each time Ray filled a pint of strawberries. Luckily, I stopped at 8 pints. It was getting sort of embarrassing.

That night, after we tucked baby girl into bed, the husband (who I must say has been really getting into this whole slowfood thing) and I perused the Internet and our cookbooks for jam recipes. While there are many to choose from, we decided to go with the KISS method that I so hated at Citigroup: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Oh yes and we did just that, stupid. There are only three ingredients and one basic step to making this jam. It's that easy

The end result was a not a sugary sweet, but a strawberry sweet pot of the most flavorful jam I've tasted in quite some time. Not content to wait 'till morning, the husband and I made some toast and heaped criminally huge helpings of jam on top. The next morning, baby girl was all over it too saying, "mah! Mah!"

Icebox Strawberry Jam
(To get an unearthly strawberry flavor, you must use fresh local strawberries. Those shipped from thousands of miles away simply won't cut it here.)

What You'll Need:
10 cups fresh market strawberries cut into small chunks
2 cups of sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Wash and cut the strawberries in half or into small chunks. Toss them into a stockpot and add the sugar and the lemon juice. (If you don't have 10 cups of strawberries or if you have more, just remember the ratio of sugar to strawberries is 1:5.) Mash the berries, sugar and lemon juice together, turn on the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer at a low boil for about 30 minutes or until the jam passes the cold plate test, which is plopping a helping of jam on a cold plate. If the jam holds its shape, it's ready. If not, It probably needs a bit more time.


While the jam is simmering, plunk whatever jars and lids you're using into a vat of boiling water to sterilize them. Keep in mind, I didn't take all of the steps necessary to store this jam in my pantry. Therefore, this is icebox jam an really should be eaten within a couple weeks of making. You won't have any problem polishing it off.

Approximate Dinner Cost
• Groceries - $20.00
• Leftovers – Expect 3 full jars of jam. We ended up giving two jars away and keeping the rest for ourselves. One jar lasted two weeks to the day.

A Potluck of Spice & Everything Nice

Today, more than 25 foodbloggers are gathering at Monica Bhide's blog, A Life of Spice, where we're testing recipes from Monica's latest (and quite possibly her greatest) cookbook, Modern Spice and bringing them to the first ever (or so we believe) virtual potluck dinner. I'm bringing hors d'oeuvres!

Monica asked me to test, taste and bring her Paneer with Apricot-Orange Chutney. I'm always looking for cocktail or dinner party treats, especially deceptively easy dishes like this one that make your friends think you killed yourself in the kitchen. I mean, homemade Paneer cheese? Seriously, who knew you could whip that up in 20 minutes! When sauteed lightly in a little vegetable oil and topped with this sweet-tart chutney, it's just about the most refreshing hors d'oeuvre I've ever had. On Friday, we hosted an impromptu get-together to find out what my friends thought about the newest, and I daresay permanent, addition to my recipe box. They liked Monica's dish so much that after a couple sips of wine and usual 'oh no, you go aheads,' all politeness flew out the window as they edged in for seconds, thirds, fourths and so on until the last bite was gone.

Try it yourself and see what other recipes are being shared today at A Life of Spice.

Paneer with Orange-Apricot Chutney
(From Monica Bhide's new and fabulous cookbook, Modern Spice)

What you'll need:

Paneer:

• 1 14 oz. piece of paneer cheese

Paneer Ingredients (If you want to make it yourself):

• 1 gallon of whole milk
• The juice of 4 lemons
• A piece of cheese cloth

Chutney Ingredients:

• 1 tblsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 c. fresh diced apricots (or mango if you can't find ripe apricots)
• 1 tbsp fresh minced ginger
• 1 small green serrano chile
• 2 c. fresh squeezed orange juice
• 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp red chile powder or red pepper flakes
• A pinch of saffron
• 2 tbsp sugar
  
• 1/4 c. chopped dates
• Salt to taste

For the Paneer:
Pour the entire gallon of milk into a large stockpot and set over a medium-high heat. Stir frequently to avoid scalding and bring the milk to just under a boil. Add the lemon juice and turn off the heat. Watch as the milk curdles and the curds separate from the whey.

Drape a cheese cloth over a large bowl, large enough to catch both the curds and the whey, and pour the pot contents through the cloth straining the whey and separating the curds. Pull out the cloth with the curds inside and press out as much of the whey as you can. Fold the cloth tightly around the curds and place in a very shallow dish. Set as much weight as you can on top (I used a frying pan with two bags of rice on top) and put in the fridge to cool and set.

*You can throw the whey out. Briefly, I excitedly thought I could make ricotta cheese, which is traditionally made from boiling down whey leftover from cheesemaking. However, it can't be made from acid-activated whey.

For the Chutney:
Heat the vegetable oil in a medium pot over a medium heat and add the mustard seeds. Cook for just a few seconds (be careful not to let them burn) and then add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and bring up to a boil. Turn down the heat to a vigorous simmer and cook uncovered until the chutney has thickened and the apricots are mostly dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in salt to taste.

To Serve:
The beauty of this dish is you can make the chutney and the paneer a day or two in advance and then, just before guests come over, put it all together. When you're ready, cut the paneer into 1 inch cubes and set aside. Heat a frying pan over a medium flame and add 1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the pan. Once the oil starts to shimmer, toss in the paneer cubes and brown on all sides. The cheese browns very quickly so keep an eye on it.

Drain the paneer cubes on a plate covered in a couple of paper towels then move the cubes to a nice platter. Top each cube with a teaspoon or so of chutney and set a container of pretty toothpicks alongside for easy eating.

Approximate Dinner Cost
• Groceries - $18.00
• Leftovers – Expect 10 servings of about 4 pieces per person at $1.80 per guest!

Freezer Favorite: Kofte Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

While most people think my surname is French, (and sometimes they even assume I am heiress to the Beaujolais wine fortune - I wish!) it's actually an old Christian Lebanese name. Before there was Lebanon, it was Phoenician. We were seafarers and incredible salespeople according to my father. I believe it since he could've convinced you to buy the hair on your head.

Unfortunately, due to my great-grandfather's immediate assimilation and marriage to a nice English girl from Ohio, the only Arabic thing about me is my last name. That and my extreme penchant for all Lebanese food, which is generally very healthy, comprised of lots of vegetables and whole grains with a little meat thrown in here and there. The flavors are very clean and tend to be more tart and less sweet than many of their Arabic counterparts.

As a people, the Lebanese are natural entertainers and cook in such a way that things are easily put together and always at the ready. This philosophy suits my life perfectly as baby girl doesn't always love it when Mommy is slaving in the kitchen and there are many nights when I'm dead tired. When that happens, I open up my trusty freezer and pull out ready-to-cook kofte meatballs and a tupperware of homemade ready-to-heat Lebanese tomato sauce. I make huge batches of kofte and tomato sauce a few times a year, freeze them separately and then I'm set. Paired with whole wheat cous cous, it takes just twenty minutes to put together. Oh, what a hostess I would be in the old country.

Lamb Kofte with Tomato Sauce and Whole Wheat Cous Cous
(This dish is inspired by the traditional Kofte and tomato sauce recipes which include fresh lemon juice and a Lebanese spice mixture aptly named Mixed Spice. While you can find it at specialty stores, it's just as easy to make yourself and have on hand for this dish or for sprinkling on meats, in eggs or any dish you think needs a lil' somethin' somethin')

Mixed Spice: Add equal parts of ground allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek, ginger and nutmeg to a clean spice jar. Shake it all about and set aside.

Place a frying pan over a medium high heat. Add a generous splash of olive oil and three to four medium onions, chopped. Cook until translucent and tender. Set aside to cool.

For the Kofte: If you're looking to have plenty to freeze as I do, put 4 pounds of fresh ground lamb in a big mixing bowl. Add half of the onions to the bowl, a cup of dried currents, two eggs, two heaping teaspoons of Mixed Spice, two teaspoons of salt, a cup of parsley and a few dashes of fenugreek leaves (Optional). Mix it all around until the ingredients are well incorporated. To mold the meatballs, scoop out a medium handful of the lamb mixture and roll gently between your hands, then mold the top like a bullet and make an indentation on the bottom.


For the Tomato Sauce: Place a pot over a medium high heat and add 4lbs of canned tomatoes (I like the Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes), two to four teaspoons of Mixed Spice, two to four teaspoons of salt, the juice of one to two lemons and the rest of the onion. (While I like it tart and aromatic, taste before you go all the way with the lemons and Mixed Spice.) Stir and bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes.

In a small pot bring two cups of chicken broth to a boil, add half a cup of currents and a cup of cous cous. Stir it around, cover, turn off the heat and let sit until the cous cous has absorbed the broth.

Bring the previously onion filled and now empty frying pan back up to a medium high heat, add a splash of olive oil and two kofte meatballs per person. Cook until medium rare in the middle.


To serve, place a helping of cous cous in a bowl, top with two kofte meatballs and smother with tomato sauce. I also like adding a little yogurt to mine for a creamy texture.

Approximate Dinner Cost
• Groceries - $30.00
• Leftovers – Expect 18 servings at $1.66 each!