Fish and Chard

Mollie Katzen's Rainbow Chard

The above NPR link is a favorite recipe at our house, and since I grow chard in the garden, we have lots of opportunities to eat it every summer.

Last Night I combined this recipe with my own fish and tomato dish, and a match made in heaven created a lovely new edition to the world....

2 Thick Frozen Fish Fillets (Tilapia, Mahi Mahi, Salmon or probably many others)
2 tbs olive oil
Slivered Onions
Salt and Pepper to Preference

-Put fish in pan
-top with onions and oil
- for 1/2 an hour on low heat in the oven, maybe turn over once.
-Turn oven up to 400 degrees. Wait about 5 minutes to let it heat.

Let the onions start to sizzle in oil.

1 or 2 lemons, 1/3 cup fresh juice

-Pour Juice over sizzling onions and oil, let some lemon evaporate cook for another 15 minutes.

High Quality Tomatoes, a generous portion of fresh chunks (see my slide show pictures for size idea)

-Exactly when you are pulling the fish out, and while the liquid is still boiling hot, toss in the tomatoes and stir around in hot oil.

Let cool for for a couple of minutes, serve over greens (chard or other favorites) or along side potatoes.


This fish soaks up so much lemon, oil and onion juice that you can over cook it and its still good. But I make no claim to be good at cooking meat or fish. I like everything well done.

For me, fish is flaky, burgers are gray in the middle, and pork is NEVER pink.

Cold Berry Pie

Well, this pie is just awesome, but I have no idea about measurements. I make it different every time. So use your judgement and personal tastes.

Cook and Cool your Pie Crust.
(I've used several different ones, from a grahm cracker crust, to home made spelt crust, or yesterday I used a pilsbury rollout and bake one)

So Lets Say:

2 cups fresh berries, or 1 1/2 cup frozen berries for filling "gel"

Boil this down in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon and a couple tablespoons of sugar (to taste) cornstarch will make it even more jelly like.

Then, 3 cups of fresh berries and/or cherries.

Mix berries and jelly stuff in a large bowl and stir around while jelly is still quite warm but not right off the burner.

Pour mixture in pie crust and chill in frige for a few hours or freezer for about an hour.

My friend Jesse asked for this as a birthday dish, it was a hit!

Improv Crepes

Last night I baked some salmon, then I raided the fridge/freezer for a way to serve it.

Here is the random list of things I had in the freezer...

Mushrooms
Artichokes
Onion
Italian Cheeze (romano)
Basil
Jelly
Honey
Pepper Sauce
Vinegar.

I layered some crepes in the bottom of the pan, then filled it with salmon and artichokes.

I sauteed mushrooms in olive oil, made a rue with flour, stirred in 1/2 and 1/2 until I had a veggie gravy, added some dry basil, then melted a bit of the hard italian cheeze for a sauce.

I poured this sauce over the first layer of crepes, salmon, and artichokes.

I made a second layer of crepes and topped it with Brie Cheese and the following sauce mixture:

2 parts Jelly (I had pomegranite, raspberry, and blueberry jelly on hand)
1 part honey
1/4 part chili sauce
1/4 part cider vinegar

Then I melted the brie under the broiler, and... Amazing improv dinner from random groceries I had on hand.

Crepe Tower

I started making crepes a couple of months ago. Jessica, a coworker, had mentioned a new creperie in town and after looking at their menu online... I was inspired to get going in my kitchen. I stuck to desserts on the first few rounds. (Thanks Jessica)

On Friday, the office finally took a trip over to Chez Elle, so I got to see all kinds of crepes, and their special crepe griddle, which made me a bit jealous, not gonna lie. I was out hunting for ideas.

On Saturday night, Sabrina and Natasha came over for dinner, and I decided to do a crepe tower... a layered crepe lasagna sort of dish.

I used Julia Child's Bechamel Cheese sauce recipe with eggs as a guideline for mine. (No, this is not another Julia Child blog, it just doesn't make sense to consult anyone else on french cooking)

So for the Bechamel,

I combined the Flour with Mexican Crema and blended it with my immersion blender to get out all the lumps (a whisk will do) I added the butter and continued to break up the lumps with the immersion blender until the mix was simmering. Then I added a whisked bowl of 1 egg and 2 egg yolks. Finally, I melted shredded mozzarella and added nutmeg, pepper and chili sauce. The Mexican Crema and Mozzarella cheese were my own substitutions for milk and swiss cheese.

To make the tower I started layering crepes with bechamel and a topping as if I was stacking 15 skinny pizzas together. There were:

(all layers had a thin spread of bechamel sauce)
2 carmelized onion layers
2 sauteed mushrooms and wilted spinach layers
2 sauteed artichoke layers
1 roasted asparagus layer
1 pesto layer
2 layers: 1/2 chicken and 1/2 salmon
l layer of Brie Cheese (to hold the salmon/chicken in place on top)

I baked the tower in the oven for about 20 minutes, topped with the leftover bechamel and some fresh tomatoes for garnish.

This is an extremely rich dish. But lovely.


For Dessert:

I made the italian canolli filling (ricotta chees mixed with chocolate shavings, almonds and agave syrup)

We had one canolli crepe and 1 Nutella filled crepe with candied pecans. The dish was topped with blackberries and shared by all 4 guests.

We spent about 40$ for 4 single crepes at Chez Elle on Friday. I fed 4 people for 40$. But I have leftover.

8 or 10 servings of artichokes (costo marinated bulk buy)
9 organic eggs (costco bulk buy)
Most of the rest of a Nutella Jar (costco bulk buy)
2/3 flat of bulk baby bella mushrooms (costco bulk buy)
5 or 6 servings of tomatoes (costco bulk buy)
1/3 bunch of asparagus
Nealy 1 pound of Brie Cheese
9 Organic Free Range Chicken Breasts

Plus nearly 1/2 of the tower. We had some for lunch and will have more with dinner tonight. I refreshed the leftovers by drizzling Meican Crema and pesto over the top.

Swiss Chard

Cheap and easy to grow in your spring garden!

Mollie Katzen's recipe from her book "Vegetable's I Can't Live Without" is amazing, I clearly remember the afternoon over 2 years ago when I heard her describe this recipe on NPR. Russell and I were driving to the farmers market. I bought Chard that day, and have made this recipe over and over again since that time. When ingredients vary, I sometimes add blue cheese, feta cheese, or goat cheese. And walnuts and candied pecans made a nice variation to the pine nuts.

I met a foodie out last night while watching a friends band. "Hi Angela"

I am posting this blog for her... and the link to the original NPR story which I often look up and forward or print for people.


Mollie's Rainbow Chard Decorated with itself and other recipes. I have used and adapted this the Brussels Sprouts recipe also.

Crepes

I am working on a project with the KIPP School of Kansas City to put on a mini international fest for the 7th grade. I mixed up a batch of these this morning. Using the instructions from The Way to Cook by Julia Child. I have also used Julia and Jaques: Cooking at Home. This is a particularly interesting take because Julia and Jaques have different tecniques for resting and cooking the batter. I checked both of these out at the KC Public Library, where you can put a book on hold and have it ready for you at any location, no matter where it is catalogued.

See Julie Child's Recipe. Fill it with Nutella. Amazing!

Cheap and Easy Pork Chops

Costco has great prices for meat. Yesterday, I bought 9 thick cut pork chops for about $14.50. I was cooking a birthday dinner for our cousin Brandon, but we needed to be frugal. I was able to serve a meal that would have totaled over $150.00 at the Mango Room here in Kansas City where I used to work. At $1.50 per chop, $0.50 per serving of pork chop sauce, $2.50 per salad, $.75 per serving of garlic/parm mashed potatoes, $0.50 per serving of brussell sprouts, and $.75 per chocolate/peanut butter or chocolate/blueberry crepes. I was able to feed 4 people this fine meal for a total of $26.00
Pork Chop Recipe:

Tiny Pinch of Salt
4 Thick Cut Chops
1 medium onion
1 orange wedged and chunked

Cut onion in half, dice one half in large chunks, dice the other 1/2 in small pieces.

Rub Chops with a tiny bit of coarse ground salt (kosher, sea salt)

Layer Crocpot with large onions, place chops in croc, turn on high until chops are seared a bit, flip chops and top with small diced onions and orange chunks, cover and let cook until other side is seared.

Once both sides of the chop are seared, poor in sauce mix.

Sauce Mix:

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp Chili Paste (Not Sri-Racha but Sambal Oelek)
2 Tbsp Honey
1 orange, juiced
2 cloves pressed garlic

Poor sauce over chops and let cook on high at least 2 hours.

When chops are cooked, turn them down to low, dip out 1/2 the liquid and reduce it by 75%. As the chops are cooling, they will get more tender.

Serve chops with a spoon of the sauce over top.

Oh! Caserole

My Freezer: I have learned to use my freezer, just in the last couple of years, before that, I pretty much frowned on anything frozen except ice, ice-cream, and cheap frozen pizza (Totino's cheap). So anyway, I have learned to utilize my electricity sucker very well.

Whenever I have bread or biscuit leftovers, I freeze them. One of my favorite casserole toppings is to mix about 4 parts cheese to 2 parts bread/biscuit 1 part mayo... yes this might sound strange. But... think on this...

Mayo is just oil, egg, and flavors, so it has tremendous binding power.
So, try it! Top a caserole with some cheesy, bread and mayo brown bubble goodness.


I made fresh condensed mushroom soup pretty often. So I had this pre-prepped mix of my soup, but you can use canned of course. I made a pretty traditional chicken, broccoli, rice, and mushroom soup caserole. I topped it with cheesy, bread and mayo goodness, and baked it at about 375 F till it had brown bubbles on top.

Stocking up the Bread

About once each month, I spend my weekend baking bread. This time, I made tortillas, pizza crusts, and multi-grain bread.

Improvisation:

I was running out of flour. So... I used my handy dandy food processor to grind up some oats, millet, and hazlenuts.

I will buy random grains and nuts in bulk from the Whole Foods or the Arab Market, so this is what I had stocked up. The problem with this mixture is that it is high in grain goodness, but low in gluten protein.

Gluten (protein) gives bread elasticity (like a balloon can expand to hold air, so can the loaf if it has enough elasticity) When working with large grains or grains with low gluten content, you need to make up for the shortage somehow. Eggs is one way, I also keep high gluten flour on hand, so that is what I used.

I mixed...

5 cups (approx) of some multigrain mix from my previous loaves (I have no idea what all was in it, I think some spelt, wheat, and white flour)

2 -3 cups oat flour with lots of gluten mixed in (probably 1/4 cup doesn't matter though, all gluten flour comes with its own instructions for mixing b/c it is made with different proportions of protein)

1 cup of millet

1/2 cup ground hazlenut meal

1 cup white flour during kneeding

I used my standard ratio of yeast, water, salt, sugar, and oil. (from the "Video Bread" Guy)


The bread is good, however, it is VERY dense. I could have used twice as much gluten and still probably would have had a pretty dense loaf, just comes with the territory with those whole grains and nuts.

Pita Pizzas

Last night, I had some random stuff in my kitchen.

Handmade pitas from a local bakery.
(3 days old, this is too old for bread that doesn't have preservatives)

Frozen All Natural Organic Turkey Breakfast Link Sausage.

Cherry Tomatoes, about ready to wrinkle.



I made olive oil and garlic glaze.
(I used 3 tbsp of oil and 3 garlic cloves for 5 pizzas but could have made 6 easily)



Basted Pitas with Olive Oil Garlic

Toppings: Cherry Tomatoes, Chopped Onion, Turkey Sausage, Grated Cheese

I Made:

Two Sausage and Onion Pita Pizzas
Two Cherry Tomato and Cheese Pizzas
One Cheese Pizza (just wanted some plain cheese and garlic)

We saved one of the Turkey Sausage and Onion Pizzas for Breakfast this morning.


Olive Oil Garlic Ratio:
(1 tbsp of oil per large clove of fresh pressed garlic)

Pita Pizza Ratio:
About 2 pitas per tbsp of oil, but we like a lot of garlic, so you could adjust.

Canned Salmon "Traditional"

Last night I learned that "Traditional" packed canned Salmon has bones, skin, and cartilage. The instructions on the can said to puree this into your salmon patties with the food processor. I deboned and skinned them. I wanted chunks of salmon in the cakes and I had already added my veggies to the breadcrumb/cracker-crumb mixture. (yes, I used both)

I did not want the veggies to be pureed, it is nice to have tiny diced ones in the cake. But, If you wanted to have more omega 3's in the cakes, you could have pureed the bones etc. with your breadcrumbs and veggies, holding aside the biggest meaty chunks to crumble in later.

So, I combined

1 stack of wheat ritz crackers
4 slices toasted white bread
1 handful of multigrain generic "wheat thin" type crackers

2 large cans "traditional salmon" cleaned
1 small can salmon packed in water

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
3 tbs dry parsley (from farmers market, purchased in bulk scoops for 1$ per large scoop)
3 cloves garlic (needs more for my taste)
1/2 yellow pepper (needs more for my taste)
1/2 red jalapeno pepper (needs more for my tastes)
1 green pepper (1/2 pureed) (1/2 diced and set aside)*
1 red pepper (1/2 pureed) (1/2 diced and set aside)*
1 sweet onion (1/2 pureed) (1/2 diced and set aside)*

3 eggs

2 or more cups of olive oil (I buy bulk from the Al Habashi Mart in Kansas City, 128 oz. of the best quality olive oil for $30.00)

pureed the bread and crackers
add 1/2 of each pepper and the onion
add spicy peppers and garlic
(this is where you would add bones etc.)
pureed completely
added diced sweet peppers and onion
added chunked salmon

mixed till even

fried in olive oil on a medium-high temperature

(thinking of using sesame oil for next time, maybe with a soy/sesame/orange flavored mayo)




Served with Lemon Garlic Mayo aka (Lemon Garlic Aioli)

About 2/3 cup real Mayo (can't say exactly what i used, a couple of wallops, you should adjust to taste)
1 large fresh lemon juiced (lime would also work)
3 cloves fresh garlic pressed
Fresh ground pepper
Whisk!

Food is Fun!

Just got off the phone with Sabrina. We spent 20 minutes talking about groceries and another 20 minutes talking about food in general. At the end of this conversation, she challenged me to start this blog.

When I think about it, this blog has, in a way, been requested before. I love to create good food, using my instincts and my general knowledge of how ingredients work together. I avoid choosing one way to cook a dish. I know that every head of broccoli has a different experience of growth, and every individual tomato, sweet potato, and so on and so forth. So I know that no matter what someone does to get the same result every time, there are always subtle differences. I strive for variety and balance in my food. So when my friends and family ask me for a recipe, instead they get a long conversation about a process including many options, improvisations, and dumb luck tales from Susie's Kitchen.

So here you are, ladies and gentlemen, some things I have learned about food since I first pondered the mystery of who invented gravy when I was 10 or 11 years old.