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Curly Kale and Potato Soup

Doesn’t this soup look warm and cozy? Ok, the photo may be just a bit out of focus, but I swear most of it is steam. I realize I may be alienating my new readership with two kale recipes in only twelve posts, but  I really want you and kale to get along.

This is a simple and healthy soup, perfect for when the weather is chilly and you feel like you’ve eaten too many cookies. It’s from Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food. Coincidentally, it’s great with popovers (see previous post).

Curly Kale and Potato Soup

1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb potatoes, cubed (I used Yukon Gold)
1 bunch curly kale, washed, stems removed, roughly chopped
large pinch salt
6 cups broth

1) Heat oil in large pot. Add onions, cook until soft and beginning to brown, 10-15 minutes. Add garlic and cook for a few additional minutes.

2) Add potatoes, kale, and salt and stir for a few minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for about 30 minutes (or until potatoes and kale are tender.) Add additional salt, if needed.

3) Serve hot, garnished with freshly grated parmesan and a drizzle of good olive oil.

If you want to add some protein, I think white beans would be a nice addition to the soup. Many of you may be able to find potatoes, onions, garlic, and kale at your winter farmer’s market.

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Posted 08 March 2010 | simple dinners   soup   vegetarian | Comments (3) Tagged: , ,

Popovers

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but sometimes I’m lazy in the kitchen. There have been many evenings when I tell my husband he is on his own, and I eat cereal for dinner. While standing at the counter.  Watching Gossip Girl. I know – yikes.

Other times, I’m only half-lazy. Sometimes I make a simple soup that just doesn’t seem like dinner on its own and I feel the need to gussy it up. Nothing turns a basic supper into something warm and cozy like a hot, eggy, airy, popover. They are divine with salted sweet cream butter, or butter and jam, or butter and honey – you get the idea. Go buy some butter.

I used to beg my mother to make these whenever she was making a holiday dinner – she was often resistant, because they need their own space and time in the oven. If you’re making anything else that needs baking time, things can get a little tricky. So they really aren’t that great for a fancy dinner, despite their glamourous appearance.

The perfect solution is to make them with a main dish that is easy, and cooked on the stovetop.

I am lucky enough to have a mini-popover pan – but you could make them in a muffin tin (a large muffin tin would be even better.) They may turn out differently shaped or not quite as tall, but they will be equally delicious.

This recipe came with my popover pan, and is pretty basic. But the results are heavenly.

Popovers

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup milk
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 T unsalted butter, melted
2 T unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces

1) Lightly grease pan and preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

2) Blend flour through melted butter in bowl, mix with an electric beater (or whisk vigorously) for about two minutes. Batter should be smooth and thin. You can make this ahead and store it in the fridge, but let it come to room temperature before using.

3) Place pan in hot oven for about 2 minutes. Remove, and put one piece of butter in each cup. Fill each cup about 1/2 full.

4) Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees, and bake for 20 more minutes.

Popovers should be golden-brown and puffy. Enjoy steaming hot with…butter!

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Posted 05 March 2010 | baked goods   bread | Comments (4) Tagged:

Citrus Snow Granita

Today I smelled spring – just a hint. The air was chilled, but it had green smell, and the birds were in full song. I realized the snow would soon be gone, and I would be cooking very different things. Visions of fresh spinach salads, wild ramps, and strawberries swirled in my head. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. It is March, I live in Wisconsin – winter is still here.

But my spring thoughts made me crave a bright, sour taste (or it could be because I’m 8 months pregnant.) So I came up with a transitional treat that would feature winter, yet hearken the coming of spring.

I made a basic lemon simple syrup, and drizzled it over clean, fluffy snow. It was like those Hawaiian shaved ice treats you get at the state fair, but so much better. The clean snow had a fresh, mineral taste and a light texture that makes a fun treat for kids, but also would make an intriguing dinner party dessert or sorbet course.

Make it fast, before the snow is gone!

Citrus Snow Granita
Serves 4

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
zest from one lemon
6 cups of clean snow, lightly scraped from a big drift near your back door

1) Heat sugar, water, lemon juice and zest in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Cool to room temperature, then chill in refrigerator until ready to use (syrup needs to be cool when you pour it, so as to not immediately melt your snow.) Strain out and reserve lemon zest.

2) When ready to serve, place 1 cup snow in four pretty dishes.  Pour 1/4 cup lemon simple syrup over each portion. Stir lightly, then add an additional 1/2 cup snow to the top, and barely incorporate (the syrup melts the snow a bit, so adding more snow after pouring gives it a fresher look.) Garnish with reserved lemon zest.

Variations: You could use any flavored simple syrup for this dessert, the process would be the same (including straining out the solids). Some to try:
– 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and a scraped vanilla bean
– 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and a bunch of mint
– 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup blood orange juice and zest
– 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup lime juice, and mint (mojito!) You could stir in a glug of rum just before serving this one too!

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Posted 03 March 2010 | dessert   kid stuff   vegetarian | Comments (6) Tagged: , , ,

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is more than a blog post, this is an opus. I apologize in advance for the length… but chocolate chip cookies are very important to me. I have a history with them, life would be less without them, and I am always happy when I eat a good one.

Biting into a perfect chocolate chip cookie will always remind me of my dad. I have an amazing father – and I truly mean amazing.

He went to school to become and architect (when I was a toddler, no less), and was the first in his family to earn a college degree. He worked for the federal government as an architect from my childhood, through my brother’s graduation. For a design-oriented person, the federal government is not the sexiest place to be an architect. But it did afford him a more substantial salary than a private firm would have offered a young designer, and it allowed him to work a schedule that allowed him to be the dad he wanted to be – which was more important to him than working at a swanky private design firm.

My dad was there to coach our softball teams, attend our recitals, and to cook. Weekly, he made delicious Sunday breakfasts of pancakes or eggs.  Sometimes he created lavish Saturday night suppers – eggrolls, fried tacos, cherry cheesecake – whatever tickled his fancy that week. He made fudge, peanut brittle, toffee, divinity…and cookies.

Peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate chunk, chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip, chocolate with white chocolate chunks – he made batches and batches of cookies. And he made most of them sans recipe.

Sigh, no recipe – when it came to re-creating the perfect chocolate chip cookie, I was on my own. So I began a quest for MY perfect chocolate chip cookie.

I say ‘my’, because this is a subjective art. I like my chocolate chip cookies chewy, with some structure, and I like the cookie part to be rich, buttery, with a toffee-like undertone – a perfect complement to the chocolate, instead of merely a carrier for it. This may not be another’s idea of perfection. Some people (gasp), enjoy their chocolate chip cookies thin and crispy (I can hardly write that, it seems so wrong.) So if that’s your cookie, you need to look for another recipe.

In July of 2008, the internet food blogosphere was overtaken with the ‘New York Times chocolate chip cookie’. The article was written by David Leite, renouned food writer and blogger , and the recipe was adapted from chocolatier Jacques Torres.

I made it, and was quite pleased. More so than I had been by the other dozens of recipes I had tried. But (and I cringe to even say this, especially being in the presence of such greatness as David Leite and Jacques Torres), it was still not MY perfect chocolate chip cookie.

After another 8 or so runs, as I tweaked different ingredients, I eventually found my bliss. Be prepared, unless you are dealing with a crazy person who prefers crispy, thin chocolate chip cookies, you will make people swoon and you may receive marriage proposals. They really are that good. And while my recipes usually aren’t that fussy, this one is. A chocolate chip cookie is so simple, you can’t take many shortcuts without losing some magic.

Anna’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
18 oz packed brown sugar (about 2 1/3 cups)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
8 1/2 oz bread flour (about 1 2/3 cups)
8 1/2 oz all purpose flour (about 1 3/4 cups)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
20 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

1) Cream the butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat them on high, for about five minutes until they are very light and fluffy.

2) Add in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla, mixing well after each addition.

3) In separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until incorporated.

4) Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, and mix on low until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

5) Cover surface of dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24-72 hours. Be sure to taste test a spoonful of dough every few hours, to make sure its getting along.

6) When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop dough (about the size of golfballs) onto cookie sheet, flatten slightly. Sprinkle with sea salt.

7) Bake for 8-11 minutes. The centers should look soft, but not doughy, and the bottom edges should just be turning gold. Let cool on sheet for a few minutes, then transfer cookies to cooling rack to finish.

8) Enjoy with ice cold milk.

Tips and Tricks

-I’m picky about my sugar, especially brown sugar. If you ever do a brown sugar taste test (you mean, not everyone does this?), you will find there is a difference. I always use cane sugar, and avoid beet sugar like the plague. When brown sugar is made from beet sugar, molasses is added to already refined white beet sugar. It tastes funny. With cane sugar, the molasses occurs naturally and does not have to be added. A common grocery store brand  of cane sugar is C&H.

-A food scale is really best for this recipe, as flours don’t weigh the same. Bread flour really is important for good cookie structure.

-Eat as much dough as you like (insert standard caution about consuming raw eggs here), but if you cook them right away, they really won’t be as good as if you let it chill for awhile. 24 hours minimum, but you can go up to 72 hours and things only get better…your cookies will have more color, and more toffee flavor.

-I spring for Maldon sea salt, but I have yet to plunge for really fancy chocolate. I do think a Valhrona or Guittard chocolate feve or chunk would take this recipe over the top, but honestly, Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet does just fine. For some reason, I’m not partial to Ghiradelli – it has an overly fruity/chalky  quality that I don’t care for.

-Use a standard baking sheet – no fancy ‘air cushion’ sheets, and nothing too dark. Do NOT overbake these cookies.  All ovens are not created equal, so keep a close eye your first time around.

-I don’t bake more than one sheet at a time – I just can’t get two sheets properly baked in my oven at the same time. But I have a nasty old oven, so whatever.

-You can scoop these out, flatten slightly, and then freeze on a cookie sheet. When individually frozen, toss into a storage container and freeze. You may need to increase cooking time by 2 or so minutes, but you can cook them directly from the freezer. I always do this, expecting to be able to make a few cookies whenever the mood strikes. However, I underestimate the deliciousness of raw, frozen chocolate chip cookies…

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Posted 01 March 2010 | baked goods   comfort food   cookies   dessert   vegetarian | Comments (14) Tagged: ,

Green Smoothie

I frequently make smoothies for my son and I, either for breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack. They taste great, pack in some nice vitamins and fiber, and we get to use straws (which is always a hit with a 20 month old.)

All of the vegan and vegetarian folks are really big on ‘green’ smoothies – I was skeptical at first. Could I really incorporate something as distinctive as spinach or kale into a smoothie, and not have it taste like cold veggie soup?

And please note, I do NOT have a fancy blender. It is a 10 year old Krups, that I’m certain didn’t cost more than $50.

The great thing about smoothies is that you don’t need a recipe at all. Just throw in what you have on hand, what you like, and chances are it’s going to turn out pretty good. But just in case you are nervous about adding in some green, here’s a template to get you started.

Green Smoothie

1/4 fresh pineapple (or 1 cup frozen)
1/2 fresh mango (or 1/2 cup frozen)
2 large curly kale leaves, tough stems removed
juice of one lemon
1 fresh or frozen banana
1 T honey
1 cup water
enough orange juice to immerse the solids
if you used all fresh fruit, throw in a handful of ice cubes

Whirl in blender on high, until everything is blended, and you no longer see tiny kale particles (may take several minutes if your blender is puny like mine.) Makes enough for 2 adults, and one toddler. Serve cold, with a straw.

Variations: endless! Substitute spinach for kale (it blends up a bit smoother), and frozen berries of any kind make a delicious addition – but be aware, if you add a red or blue fruit, your lovely green hue is muddied (although the taste is still wonderful.) If you like a thicker smoothie, add a few generous spoonfuls of plain yogurt. If I’d had leftover coconut milk from making curry, I think a 1/4 cup of that would have made this smoothie into something delightfully tropical.

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Posted 25 February 2010 | beverage   breakfast   vegetarian | Comments (4) Tagged: ,