Grünkohl, a.k.a. the greens that are better than dessert

Believe it or not, this is so simple yet so delicious I postponed eating dessert so as to polish this off!

Ingredients

• Big bushel of fresh Grünkohl (curly kale, I believe)
• Butter
• Salt & pepper
• Cinnamon
• Squeeze of fresh lemon

Method

1. Wash the kale.
2. Pick the green leafy parts off the stems, tearing the greens into pieces. Discard the stems.
3. Put a chunk of butter into a warm pan and pile on the torn-up greens. It’s fine if they’re still a bit wet from the washing; in fact you want some drops of water in there.
4. Add shakes of salt, pepper, and cinnamon.
5. Let it all kind of wilt over medium heat until the kale is softened, stirring to distribute the spices and butter.
6. Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon.
7. Eat seconds and thirds.

Sauteed zucchini and black olives

Garlic
Zucchini - 2 big ones or 3 little
Black olives - pitted
Cherry tomatoes - just a handful
Some herbs - I like a herbs de provence mix.

Chop zucchini into coins, and halve them so you have little half-moons. Chop the olives and tomatoes in half. Dice the garlic.

Start the garlic in some olive oil, in a large frying pan on medium heat. When it's starting to soften, add the zucchni and herbs and a little salt and toss it all together.

Let it all cook until the zucchini is about halfway done, i.e. starting to soften and maybe even brown. Add the olives and toss again. Let them cook for a couple more minutes. If the zucc's and garlic are browning too fast, add a little water to simmer it all (just making sure it's enough to all boil away in the end). When very close to finished, add the tomatoes and just let them soften a little (but not mush).

Chopped salad

This is my new standby:

Lamb's leaf lettuce (aka mâche, aka Feldsalat, aka Nüsslisalat, aka corn salad)
Arugula (aka rocket)
Cherry tomatoes
Avocado

1/2 Orange

Walnut oil

Balsamico

Salt and pepper

(optional) Other nuts: walnuts or almonds or ..

Pile the lettuces together (lamb's leaf and arugula) in about equals parts on a large cutting board. Open an avocado and scoop the meat out onto the pile. Use a giant knife to chop it all together until it's in soft, moist, fork-sized chunks. Scrape into a bowl. Halve the cherry tomatoes and toss together with the salad. Toss with a dressing of: fresh squeezed orange, walnut oil, a dash of balsamico, salt and pepper. Optionally sprinkle with some other nuts.

I've tried variations of this where I try to add more herbs (mix in fresh basil, or add tarragon or italian herbs or something) but it really is best just as simple as it is!

Variations:
+ Goat cheese instead of avocado (both at the same time is good, but tips the scales toward rich, rather than fresh. Depends on what you're going for!).
+ Spinach instead of the other greens. If you use spinach, strawberries might also be a nice addition.

Sage walnut pesto

1 part fresh parsley
1 part fresh mint
4 parts fresh sage

walnut and/or olive oil

2 garlic cloves
walnuts, toasted
parmesan
lemon juice (optionally also a little zest)
salt

Toast the walnuts: place in a pan and toast on medium-high heat for a few minutes, until nuts are fragrant and starting to slightly brown.

Blend herbs and oil in food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients at will, to preferred taste and consistency.

Serve with:

Ricotta on toast
Prosciutto on toast
Slathered onto fish and baked (so simple, SO GOOD)
Roasted squash
A spoon

Ethiopian recipes

I need to learn to make more Ethiopian food. So good! Found this little blog, maybe will give these a try: http://ethiopianfood.wordpress.com/recipes/ These look good, too: http://www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/recipes.html Also, nice looking spice mix: http://www.food.com/recipe/berbere-200366 Now just to find an injera supplier in Switzerland...

Baaaaacon

After extensive experimentation (involving eating a lot of bacon), I think I've hit a local maximum on bacon preparation (maybe even a global maximum, but who knows if you could do better by searing it in the breath of a dragon or something). I had stumbled across the idea of oven bacon in some food article a while back, and it's definitely an improvement over pan cooking. Since we have a convection oven, we use that, but I suspect this would work fine in a regular oven.

20 min

350F

Cook on a rack

Those are the main elements - not too hot, and the bacon should be on a rack/griddle - something where it's not sitting in the grease (have a pan underneath to catch the grease, of course). The best brand I've found is Applegate Farms Sunday Bacon (no nitr[a,i]tes, has an organic option). All this together produces an amazing fluffy-crispy texture without any burnt or gooey spots.

Stuffing

• 1 loaf medium-weight bread (not too heavy or too light -- a Bauernbrot is good, e.g.) 
• yellow onions 
• chopped celery stalks 
• lots of sage (dried or fresh leaves) 
• lots of parsley 
• some thyme 
• lots of butter 
• chicken or veggie broth 
• salt and pepper to taste 

Preparation: cut the bread into cubes, and dry it out. Either: 1. Leave it out on the counter for a couple of days, or 2. Spread the cubes on a cookie sheet and place in a 170C/350F oven for an hour. (have also made this with toasted bread, and it's just fine!) 

When the bread is dry: Chop onion, celery, sage, parsley, and thyme. Saute in very generous amounts of butter (maybe 1/2 cup or so), in a pot large enough to hold the bread. Prepare about 3 c of broth. When the onion and celery are soft and translucent, toss in the bread and coat thoroughly. Remove from heat. Pour in broth, tossing bread to distribute. Cover to keep warm, and let the mixture rest until all broth is absorbed (20 - 30 mins) and stuffing is chewy (not mushy or crunchy). Stir and enjoy!

Homemade cranberry sauce

So easy, and so yum! Never again will I use the canned gel...

1 c ruby port

3/4 c orange juice

frozen cranberries (frozen raspberries + frozen cherries are a delicious substitute in a pinch)

approx 1/4 c sugar, brown or white (use more for cranberries, less for other fruit)

cinnamon

cloves

Bring port and o.j. to a boil. Turn down to simmer, add fruit, and add spices and sugar to taste. Simmer until fruit is mushy and sauce is reduced to desired thickness, maybe 20 mins or so. Sauce will also thicken as it cools.

Herbed Salmon Ball

1- 14 ¾ oz can of salmon

1- 8 oz pkg of cream cheese, softened

1- clove of garlic, pressed

½ C. small curd cottage cheese

¼ C. minced onion

1 tsp. fines herbes, crumbled

½ tsp. thyme, crumbled

1 C. chopped parsley

Drain salmon. Remove skin and bones. Combine all ingredients except salmon until well blended. Stir in salmon. Form into a ball. Chill 3 hours. Mixture will be soft. Place in serving dish and surround with crackers.

Sauteed Collard Greens and Anchovies

You may not believe me when I say that this is DELICIOUS. But it is. I was skeptical at first, too, but you'll just have to try it for yourself. :)

2 bunches of collard greens

half dozen cloves garlic

1/4 onion (or 1/2 of a small one)

1 small tomato

1 two-ounce can of anchovy fillets (I did this with the salted ones, packed in oil. Fresh may be even better)

1/2 small lemon

Stack up collard leaves and roll into a tube; slice into pieces about 1 inch wide. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add collards. Let boil for about 10-15 minutes, until they are bright green and the stems are soft, but the leaves are not mushy. Drain.

Meanwhile, saute chopped garlic and onions. When they're about halfway done, add the (drained) anchovies. Mush the fish around as the garlic and onion finishes cooking, so it's mixed up well and the fish "melts" into the oil. When the fish first come out of the can, they can smell pretty rank; as they saute, the smell should diminish and the fish become soft and mild.

When fishies and veggies are softened, add in the chopped tomato and boiled greens. Toss them around for another couple of minutes to soften the tomato and mix other flavors with the greens.

Top with the juice of the 1/2 lemon and serve. Voila, delicious nutritiousness!

P.S. This goes fantastically well with a white wine. I'm drinking a 100% Roussanne with it right now, but I bet a crispy chard (or hell, even a buttery one) would be great, too.

P.P.S. I'm on a greens kick, so more greens recipes will likely pop up as I experiment with them. Oh, the excitement!

Butternut Spinach Bake

• 1 small butternut, or other orange winter squash 
• Heaps and heaps of frozen spinach 
• Onions 
• 1/2 c heavy cream (or ricotta, for less fat) 
• 4 eggs cinnamon + nutmeg + black pepper + dash salt 

Cut squash into halves or quarters, and steam until soft enough to scoop out seeds and peel. 

Saute spinach with onions until onions transparent and spinach thawed. 

Scramble eggs and mix with heavy cream. 

Mash up squash in a bowl with spices. 

Then stir in cream, eggs, and spinach. 

Butter a baking dish. Pour in the mixture and top with cheese! Bake at 350F (uh, something celcius?) for 20 mins or until firm and edges are browning (and cheese is crisping).