Swiss Chard over Croutons with Egg

Ever since I made this, I've been hooked on starch+greens+egg. Simple, cheap, warm. Comfort.

Croutons
1 day-old baguette, chopped into small cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives
salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl. Heat the olive oil, stir in the garlic, and turn off the heat. Add the herbs to the garlic oil, then pour it over the bread crumbs and toss.

Spread the bread crumbs out in a single layer in a baking pan. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 15 minutes or until crispy.

(This will make more croutons than you'll need for this dish. Save some for later!)

Chard
olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 bunch Swiss Chard, tough stems cut away and chopped
salt
1/2 cup low sodium vegetable broth
2 eggs

In a wide pan over medium heat, saute the garlic and shallots until they begin to soften. Stir in the paprika and red pepper flakes and cook for a minute more. Add the chard, sprinkle with a little salt and stir until it begins wilting. Add the vegetable broth and cook for about 10 minutes until the broth has cooked down and the chard is tender.

Serve over croutons, topped with a fried egg.

Serves two.

Buttermilk Cake with Meyer Lemon Blueberry Compote

On Wednesday, we had dinner at a friend's apartment. An apartment which also happens to be our old apartment. The experience of reentering a once-lived-in home was strange, but as the dinner got rolling I essentially forgot I was in my old dining room. Our friends made chana masala; it was just perfect. We brought dessert.

Fans of the M;4M facebook page may remember that only a couple hours prior to the dinner, I was polling them for recipe suggestions. The dessert needed to travel, and to be assembled in one hour or less with only ingredients I had on hand. I got so many wonderful suggestions, but was inspired by a suggestion Joe made for something berry-y. In my freezer are the remains of 10 pounds of Michigan blueberries I purchased off Blue Star highway last July. Berry-y!

I also had one meyer lemon and some aging buttermilk. So I set out to make a buttermilk cake with blueberry compote. It was done in one hour, transported in parts, and enjoyed by all, including our friends' fluffy cat.

Cake adapted from this recipe.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
zest of one meyer lemon

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease a 10 by 2-inch round cake pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With an electric mixer in a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer speed on low, beat in the buttermilk and flour mixture in alternating shifts, beginning with the buttermilk. Fold in the lemon zest.

Spoon batter into cake pan. Drop pan once or twice on the counter to distribute the batter. Bake until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes.

While the cake bakes, prepare the blueberry compote.

2 cups blueberries (frozen are fine, no need to thaw)
1/8 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup water
juice of one meyer lemon

Reserve 1/2 cup of the blueberries. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries with the water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the berries break down, 3-5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and reserved berries.

Serve cake with blueberry compote and a dollop of whipped cream.

Guest Post: Jenny's Mom's Cucumber Sandwiches

I am so happy that Jenny has agreed to share her [mom's] delicious cucumber sandwiches. Since I first saw them some two years ago to the tune of Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You, I've been baffled-transfixed by them. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how the bread got that shape. At one point Ali, Jenny's girlfriend and one of my dearest, oldest friends, explained to me that a mold gave the bread its shape. But still I did not understand. I imagined shoving a loaf of white bread into a narrow mold.

It wasn't until maybe two months ago that I finally understood the bread was baked inside (!) the mold. This, friends, was quite a realization. I think I need to order a bread mold like now.


Usually, when one learns how to make my mom’s super popular cucumber sandwiches, they make a slightly grossed out face. Suspicious partygoers give my appetizers sideways glances and ignore them for a while. Then, before you know it, someone has a few beers and takes a bite—suddenly the laughing stock of the snack table is the first to go.

I’m not the savviest gal in the kitchen, so easy snacks work well for me. This is about as easy as it gets.

Jenny’s Mom’s Cucumber Sandwiches
Makes 18-22 mini cucumber sandwiches

2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced about a quarter-inch thick
1 packet of Italian dressing mix—the little pouch of powder. My mom and I swear by Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing and Recipe Mix. Don’t get zesty!
1/2 cup of mayonnaise (stop judging!)
1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese (non fat is not as delicious, obviously)
Dill—Also, my mom and I swear by McCormick’s “It’s a Dilly” Delish. Salt-free is fine.
2 tubes of Pillsbury Crusty French Loaf
2 bread tubes

The big thing that helps in making these glorious little sandwiches is a Pampered Chef Bread Tube. If you can’t get your hands on a Pampered Chef tube, you can find knockoffs that will do. Just Google “bread tubes.”




Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Grease the bread tube very lightly with cooking spray and take each of your Pillsbury loafs out of their package. Put an entire loaf in each tube and make sure to fasten both ends of the tubes with the handy caps they come with.

Place tubes on a cookie sheet and bake for one hour. Let stand for 30 minutes or so when they finish.

Meanwhile, combine the mayo, cream cheese and Italian seasoning in a bowl. Use a hand mixer until everything is blended nicely, but still a bit thick. Throw it in the fridge for 40 minutes or until your bread is done and cool.

When the bread is cool, cut it into half-inch slices.

Top each baby bread slice with the cream cheese mixture, a cucumber slice and sprinkle with dill.

Eat, enjoy and make sure you have breath mints handy.

Potato Leek Gratin

In the past, I've had trouble with runny gratins. So this time, I tried making a béchamel sauce with the milk and flour, rather than pouring/sprinkling it over the assembled dish. This helped enormously. The texture and end result were exactly what I've always wished my gratins would be.

2 large leeks (white and light green parts only)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
salt, pepper
3 russet potatoes, sliced very thinly
1 carrot, cut into tiny cubes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the leeks lengthwise, then crosswise into thin half moons. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, then add the leeks and thyme and cook until the leeks soften, about 10 minutes. Push the leeks off to the side and whisk the flour into the butter. Cook for a minute or so then add the milk, whisking until the sauce thickens. Stir the leeks in, season with salt and pepper, and remove from heat.

Spoon a little sauce in the bottom of a medium baking dish. Then add a layer of potatoes and some of the carrots. Layer more sauce, more potatoes and carrots until all is finished off. Cover the top with the cheese and bake, covered, for about 30 minutes, then uncovered for another 25 or so minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the cheese is golden brown.

Downward Facing [Hot]dog?

Another Tuesday, another New York Times trend piece. I saw this article last week, but was reminded of it when I realized I was the post-yoga chef for two friends Saturday night.

Raw Kale and Citrus Salad

My friend Emily and her mom were in town last weekend for a yoga workshop. Emily called and suggested we all have dinner together. I offered to cook and this is the first of two dishes I made. Despite the black kale and the blood oranges (which Emily raised an eyebrow at, and which I admitted were "kind of goth"), this is a bright salad. Seasonal, not Seasonal Affective Disorder.

1 bunch kale
2 cara cara oranges
2 blood oranges
1 meyer lemon, zested and juiced
1 large shallot, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
coarse salt and pepper

Cut tough stems away from the kale, then slice leaves into thin, long strips.

Carefully cut the peel away from the oranges, then slice them crosswise. If the slices are large, half or quarter them. Combine with the kale.

Add the lemon zest, juice, and shallots to the bottom of a large bowl. Whisking, add the olive oil, then a little salt and pepper. Pour over the kale and oranges and toss with your hands to coat. Let sit for half an hour before eating; the acidic citrus will soften the kale as it sits.

(inspired by)

Tempeh Meatballs

I wasn't sure if these would turn out. Or, specifically, adhere.

They didn't. They basically fell apart upon first bite (if not earlier). Despite that, the flavor was delicious. If I try again, I think I'll use a mix of tofu and tempeh, and/or puree the whole mixture into more of a paste before forming the balls. But I can tell you now that using lots of oil will help your efforts with these. Where the oil was plentiful, a stabilizing (and tasty!) crust formed. So don't skimp on the fat.

Sauce
3 shallots
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
olive oil
1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Tempeh Balls
8 ounces tempeh, crumbled
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots
2 tb fresh basil
2 tb parsley
1 tb chives
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 egg, beaten

Sauce
In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes in the oil until the shallots soften. Add the tomatoes, turn the heat low, and cook, breaking the tomatoes against the side of the pot with your spoon, until the tomatoes break down and a thick sauce forms, 30 minutes or so. For a smooth consistency, puree with a hand blender before stirring in the parsley.

Tempeh Balls
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Form the mixture into balls and fry it over medium high heat until all sides are golden brown.

Garnish with Parmesan cheese. Serve with sauce over garlic bread or pasta.