Voodoolily's Snacktastic Recipe Thread!!

[Count Nerfedalot]

Adventures in healthy eating, epsiode #5(?)

I'm trying to eat healthier, and the biggest hole in my healthy eating attempts is finding enough tolerably edible dark leafy greens.  I've also picked up gardening as a hobby mostly as therapy and because I hate store-bought tomatoes. I do love me some homegrown spinach, but it doesn't survive the June/July heat, which came in early May this year, right after the late last frost.  So I decided to experiment and put in some Swiss Chard in front of the rack of pole beans, then promptly forgot about it after it got hidden behind the wall of green. So, Saturday I was picking beans and bothered to look down at this stuff that was getting in my way and realized it was the chard, all growed up, some nearly 2 foot tall!    This weed is supposed to be edible?  A neighbor had said something about loving grilled chard, (wtf? grilled leaves?) but I pretty much only cook with fire or microwaves and was grilling some tilapia anyway (charcoal fire, baby, I hate the taste of propane), so a short Google search later I got me several different recipes for grilling Swiss Chard and set out to try something.

Several somethings actually.  

I took some plain half leaves (after cutting out the stems), brushed on olive oil, sprinkled on sea salt and fresh ground pepper, and grilled them. It was like some bizzaro recreation of the Daily Show skit where whatsisname macho guy is lampooning liberals by grilling leaves. Ah well, busted!  Yep, there I was, grilling leaves.    Some came off the grill crispy with browned spots and some were still dark green and droopy but still stiffened up by the time I got them from the grill to the table. All quite tasty, but a bit chewy (and crunchy at the same time!? go figger).  Did I cook them too long? Too little?

The stems I'd read (on the internet so it must be true!) take a bit longer to cook so I blanched them 3 minutes in boiling water then gave them an icewater bath before doing the olive oil, salt and pepper thing and tossing them on the grill.  Delicious! Kind of like a soft non-fibrous celery that tastes like a cross between butter lettuce and almonds with a hint of spinach. Very mild, yet very tasty. Next time I'll try without the boiling and see if I can save the extra pans and cleanup.

But the piece de resistance was the grilled wraps.  OMG.  More of the oiled half leaf strips, laid out in crossed pairs. Add a slice of tomato, still warm from the garden, a pile of shredded Kroger brand "Italian Cheeses" (supposed to be a slice of fresh mozzarella, but I was fresh out of that since like, um, 2001 or so), a little chopped basil (I'm having to weed this stuff out of the planter box I put it in it's growing so well) and a sprinkle of sea salt and ground pepper.  Many of the recipes call for garlic and/or onion but I'm allergic to garlic (thanks 20 years of undiagnosed Celiac disease and the resulting perforated and malfunctioning intestines ) and no big fan of onions so I skip them. Then I wrapped the ends around until i had little green square origami surprise packets with the ends flopping around as soon as I let go of them.  Hmm, forgot to steam the leaves first to make them wrappable so I poke toothpicks through to hold em together and toss on the grill for 2-3 minutes per side and serve em up hot and gooey.  

WOWOWOWOW!  

Is this healthy? For real?  Leafy greens (and cheese! ) but without butter and/or bacon? And it actually tastes GOOD??? And the hardest part of the whole thing was brushing on olive oil (supposed to only do that on the outside after the wrapping, doh)!  I'm definitely going to try this again.  Maybe I was just starving or something, but even The Countess loved them (not so much on the grilled leaves), and her idea of vegetables is potato chips and pickles.  

I will definitely be trying this again soon, I gots tons more chard in the garden!

[Sky]

I'm mad for green and red leaf lettuce matched with grilled food. Whether it's grilled chicken or turkey sandwiches, burgers; or even some grilled and sliced turkey over greens. Often my tomato and lettuce is piled higher than the protein.

Get one of these dealies to enhance your lettucy experiences: http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Salad-Spinner/dp/B00004OCKR/

Oh, and don't forget to toss some slabs of onion and pepper onto the grill while you're at it. Sweat the peppers in a bag and peel them when you're done.

[Signe]

I love bitter greens.  My mom was Italian and she made them for nearly every meal.  Swiss chard, mustard, collards - the more bitter the better.  If I'm making some spaghetti aglio olio (garlic and oil) and I have some left over, I throw it in with the pasta.  Otherwise, my main method of cooking them as a side is sautéed with garlic and oil and sometimes sliced red onion.  If I'm making for people who don't like their greens too bitter, I'll blanch them first.  I also use them instead of spinach or escarole sometimes when I make Italian soup.

[TheCountess]

 Maybe I was just starving or something, but even The Countess loved them (not so much on the grilled leaves), and her idea of vegetables is potato chips and pickles.  

Yes, I did love them and the sight of The Count flipping leaves on the grill was...precious.

[Sky]

If I'm making some spaghetti aglio olio (garlic and oil) and I have some left over, I throw it in with the pasta.

Try a real skunky indica leaf. I used to love harvest time for that dish.

[Signe]

I will.  And a side salad of purple kush with a butane honey vinaigrette.  Yum.

[JWIV]

Swiss chard is one of those things that most Americans only discover when they sign up for a CSA and starting getting a ton of it every week.  It really is good stuff though and you can do a lot with it.

To interrupt all this healthy eating talk though, I'm going to a housewarming tonight and we signed up for a dessert, so  . . . baked cheesecake with lemon topping (homemade lemon curd).    It's all from an Irish cookbook I got while on my honeymoon and a great little spot out in Moll's Gap in Ireland.  If you do the Ring of Kerry, do yourself a favor and stop in.  The locale is beautiful and the food fantastic.

[ghost]

Swiss chard is one of those things that most Americans only discover when they sign up for a CSA and starting getting a ton of it every week.  It really is good stuff though and you can do a lot with it.

A-fucking-men.  I still don't like it that much though.  I prefer spinach.

[MuffinMan]

Please ship this directly to my face.

[Signe]

I know!  He grilled them lemons on that cake!  Tis awesome.

[Count Nerfedalot]

Further experimentation has shown that contrary to being an unnecessary step, boiling the Swiss Chard stems was critical to how they turned out.  Grilled stems, without boiling first, came out softer and less fibrous than a bamboo skewer, but just barely.  I tried (smaller and smaller) bites from three different stems then threw the lot on the compost pile.

But the wraps were every bit as good the second time around as the first, so it wasn't a fluke.

[Khaldun]

Blanching almost any vegetable is a good idea--fixes color, but also often really improves taste if it's something where you want a semi-fresh flavor.

[JWIV]

This is what happens when your kids actually start going to school, it's like a bake sale or back to school party or some other such nonsense at least every few weeks (or so it feels like)

This isn't my best work by far - I had some trouble melting down the chocolate with the first half, so things were a bit uneven - but basically,  they're smores.  Recipe from http://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe_search/recipe.jsp?id=91599

Crushed graham cracker cups, with a hershey's bar and half a marshmallow, then dipped in melted hershey.

[Paelos]

It's a great idea, but I think melting chocolate in the microwave is a lose-lose. It doesn't work as well and the results are rarely appealing even if you pull it off.

My suggestion to improve the recipe would be to make a chocolate ganache. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-ganache/

The method results in a much more forgiving topping that hardens in a shiny, pleasing to the eye texture.

[voodoolily]

Made the elaborate all-day ramen broth today. Cook 8qt of water with konbu first (10 min.) then dried shitake mushrooms next (30 min.) then a whole chicken (1 hr.) then 6 lbs. of pork neck bones that have been browned in the oven (6 hrs.), then add some scallions, onion and carrot for about an hour. Finish w/soy sauce, mirin, sake that have been cooked with the chicken bones from step 3.  Pork belly, corn, nori, green beans, scallions, kimpura for toppings, plus noodles of course. Pretty much mind-blowing.

You should try to find smoked pork neck bones or smoked chicken thighs. If you have a German or Russian deli in town they'll have them.It makes a big difference! Also, you can use a pressure cooker to get the all-day broth in only a couple of hours. Old Japanese dude trick.

[Trippy]

WB

[voodoolily]

 

TY

[cmlancas]

Made the elaborate all-day ramen broth today. Cook 8qt of water with konbu first (10 min.) then dried shitake mushrooms next (30 min.) then a whole chicken (1 hr.) then 6 lbs. of pork neck bones that have been browned in the oven (6 hrs.), then add some scallions, onion and carrot for about an hour. Finish w/soy sauce, mirin, sake that have been cooked with the chicken bones from step 3.  Pork belly, corn, nori, green beans, scallions, kimpura for toppings, plus noodles of course. Pretty much mind-blowing.

You should try to find smoked pork neck bones or smoked chicken thighs. If you have a German or Russian deli in town they'll have them.It makes a big difference! Also, you can use a pressure cooker to get the all-day broth in only a couple of hours. Old Japanese dude trick.

SHE DOES EXIST!

Also, most butchers can get smoked neck bones for you (they last for a good while and there's a good margin on them).  Hocks work too, no?

[Signe]

She's been off writing a book that I can't wait to eat! 

Err... I mean read.   

[Paelos]

It's not a pot of beans in the south if there's not a hock in there. 

[voodoolily]

I love hocks, but I agree, they're a pot of beans thing, to me. I think the curing salts give them too distinct a flavor. Too hammy. Smoked neck bones are just smoky and meaty and savory. I do like crumbled bacon in my ramen though, because of course I do.

Yes, I've been writing a book. I mean, I wrote a whole book! Almost 80K words of book! Breakfast: A History will be published this spring by AltaMira Press (a division of Rowman and Littlefield). I'm breathing again, playing Paper Mario Sticker Star and thinking about reviving the blog. It's nice to be missed. 

[Paelos]

I request a holiday cookie recipe that uses brown sugar please. I have a ton of it left over from a bread pudding incident.

[Evildrider]

A bread pudding incident?

[Rasix]

That sounds like one delicious incident.  

In bread pudding related news, the barbeque truck near my house has started making bread pudding.     More reasons to work from home.

[Paelos]

A bread pudding incident?

I made several efforts at perfecting a pumpkin bread pudding recipe for Thanksgiving. The key turned out to be using cinnamon raisin bread to soak up the pumpkin custard.

[Evildrider]

I love doing that.  I tend to use this apple cinnamon bread I can get around here. 

[voodoolily]

I think gingersnaps use a lot of brown sugar, don't they?  Chocolate chip cookies use a good amount, too.

[Ard]

Caramel uses a fair amount also, use that as a layer in a bar cookie.

This is the recipe I use to make soft, chewy caramel.  I sub out the corn syrup for molasses though.
http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2048/aunt-emilys-soft-caramels

[Signe]

I used to make chocolate chip cookies and use mostly brown sugar instead of regular sugar.  They would be like crispy candy cookies instead.  They were awesome.  These days I just make pizzelles at xmas.  No brown sugar but still awesome.  I've pretty much reached my goal of making them as thin as possible and still be able to hold them.  I've not, however, been able to replicate my grandmother's perfect biscottis, no matter how hard I try.  :( 

[Paelos]

Caramel uses a fair amount also, use that as a layer in a bar cookie.

This is the recipe I use to make soft, chewy caramel.  I sub out the corn syrup for molasses though.
http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2048/aunt-emilys-soft-caramels

Man, caramels. That's a dangerous idea right there.

[Ard]

Caramel uses a fair amount also, use that as a layer in a bar cookie.

This is the recipe I use to make soft, chewy caramel.  I sub out the corn syrup for molasses though.
http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2048/aunt-emilys-soft-caramels

Man, caramels. That's a dangerous idea right there.

Tell me about it.  I almost wish I'd never started making it, especially since that recipe is easier than the one my mom uses.  That reminds me that I need to make another batch yet for christmas gifts.  That recipe is for a really soft chewy caramel.

Here's a recipe for a hard one that's closer to toffee that I also liked (uses no brown sugar though):
http://www.inspiredtaste.net/8947/salted-caramels-recipe/

Here's the one my mom uses, which is a bit in between (uses mostly brown sugar):
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/candy/walnut-caramels/

[cmlancas]

Yes, I've been writing a book. I mean, I wrote a whole book! Almost 80K words of book! Breakfast: A History will be published this spring by AltaMira Press (a division of Rowman and Littlefield). I'm breathing again, playing Paper Mario Sticker Star and thinking about reviving the blog. It's nice to be missed. 

How does one procure a signed hardback copy of said book?  Collecting these (especially about food) is a small hobby of mine.

Wish I still had my damn Colicchio book (saw him at a cooking school down here, he was fantastic).  That guy can really cook/recipe create.

[Yegolev]

In my experience, brown sugar goes in lots of things.  I'm a kitchen-cowboy, though.  Worst case, acorn or butternut squash.  I can't seem to cook a butternut that doesn't want brown sugar or maple syrup.

Upcoming experiment: What Does Fennel Go In?

[Ruvaldt]

Fennel goes in my dolmas.  Mmmm mmmm.  Ground lamb, rice, fennel and green onion in grape leaves.

Grilled fennel is also wonderful with a little lemon or orange.

[Signe]

The other night my sister made a lovely baked cod with fennel root, chopped tomatoes and other herbs and spices.