Rainbow Power!

Swiss or Rainbow Swiss Chard is one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat. Like they say, "eat the colors of the rainbow" and you will get all the different nutrients your body needs. It's also true that the darker the color, the higher the anti-oxidants! Just look at those dark green leaves -- rainbow chard is high in iron, vitamins A and C, & it's a great source of fiber.

I was amazed at its color when I saw this at the Ballard Sunday Farmers' Market in Seattle. Even though I had never used rainbow chard, I had to buy it!

I follow this rule when using new ingredients - when it looks complex or you're not sure what to do with an ingredient, keep the other flavors simple. I learned that lesson from one of my favorite wine & tapas restaurants in New York, called Just a Taste. With this dish I kept it simple, but I still kicked up the flavor!

I used:

• 1/2 bunch roughly chopped rainbow chard, thoroughly washed and dried
• 3 tbspns extra virgin olive oil
• handful of walnuts
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tbsn freshly squeezed lime juice
• shaved pecorino romano, parmesan, or any other salty cheese that has a bite to it. This is to balance out the chardiness.

My method:

This is all about a quick sauté ... and quick turning (also, quick eating :)
1. Put the oil in a sauté pan on medium heat
2. Add the walnuts just long enough to coat in the oil
3. Add the chard, salt, pepper, and let it cook for 5-8 minutes, but don't overcook! (Note: both chard stems and leaves are edible. I discarded the tough stems, as they turn the whole dish chewy, but I kept a few tender stems in there.)
4. Turn off the heat, add lime juice, and toss it around for a minute or so.
5. Transfer to your serving dish, add the cheese, & eat it right away!

This is the kind of stuff you don't want sitting around ... hence I don't have many photos of it :)

Here are a few more shots of this tapas dish and its star ingredient:



p.s. I also made little swiss cheese & rainbow chard baked rolls, using the leftover chard. They were all eaten before I could get a photo, so that will be a post for the next time I can find rainbow chard!

When life gives you Tomatoes ...

...eat them! and in as many different ways as you can, because tomatoes are best eaten fresh.


My in-laws had green tomatoes that fell off too early. So, I grabbed one to try it out. Fried green tomatoes are the most popular thing to make with green tomatoes, which I have never eaten. I wanted a healthier approach than frying, so I came up with my very own Baked Green Tomato :)


I used:

• 1 large green tomato, sliced up
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1 big clove of garlic, finely chopped
• a pinch of dried basil (or freshly chiffonade basil if available), or try Italian herbs of your choice
• a dash of salt & freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup of my home-made garlic marinara, the same as I had used for pizza sauce

My method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) while you prep your ingredients
2. Make the breading mix first by mixing bread crumbs, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper in a bowl (big enough to dip the tomato)
3. In another bowl (big enough to dip the tomato) pour the oil.
4. Dip a slice of tomato in oil on both sides, then dip it it the breading mix to coat evenly, and then lay it on a baking sheet. Repeat the coating process for all the tomato slices.
5. Bake for about 10 min or until the coating is golden brown
6. Pull it out, top each slice with the garlic marinara, and some mozzarella.
7. Let it bake again for 5-8 min or until the cheese is nice and bubbly!

We enjoyed Baked Green Tomatoes as a side with penne for dinner. It was like having a whole new substitute for Eggplant Parmesan ... yum! Here are more photos:



The above is also my skeleton recipe for making Eggplant Parmesan (without frying!), which will have to be a post for another time :)

There is beer, and then there ist Bier!

Since Oktoberfest is coming up, and we don't eat any of those famous German Würste, I'd like to pay tribute to my husband's Bavarian heritage by saluting the great beers & of course the music :)

I may be petite girl, but my appetite for good flavor is huge :) and the same applies to the drinks I drink. After marrying into a German family, my taste for beers has opened up even more. I am not the kind of girl who drinks those silly light or "lite" beers for fewer calories, not because I don't need to worry about it, but because it almost never tastes half as good as regular beer.

We recently took a family trip to a cute Bavarian village in the Cascade Mountains called Leavenworth. We not only enjoyed great food and sights and sounds, but some amazing German beers! While we listened to some live Polka in the Biergarten at King Ludwig's, I decided to try the relatively lighter stuff, German style. I asked for King Ludwig's own lighter Bier when I found out they brew it themselves, and boy I was shocked. King Ludwig's Light was crisp, refreshing, and slightly sweet; it was light, but it tasted like beer! It was so good that even my Hefe-Weißbier naturtrüb drinking husband approved of it. The only other lighter beers I've really loved are Hoegaarden or a spicy Belgian.

We'll be celebrating with over 70 microbrews on tap, many of them local, right here in Seattle at the Fremont Oktoberfest, which starts tomorrow. So check it out Seattle!

Also, here are top three healthy Würste as recommended by the Vegetarian Times to enjoy with your beer:
Tofurky Italian Sausage
Yves Veggie Zesty Italian
Veggie Patch Jalapeno Cheddar

Oh! I started my celebrations bit early with these Cinnamon Apfel Streusel muffins:
... with these inside >>

See my Leavenworth set & ...

Basil Pesto

It is the end of Summer here in Seattle, but I want to savor Summer things all the rest of the year. I am not usually a frozen foods person, but I also hate store-bought pesto.

The solution? Basil Pesto. This time every year, I make and freeze my own pesto. You can get incredible, fresh basil from Seattle Farmers' markets, and I recently bought two big bunches. Chances are good you'll find some near you, too, and get it as fresh as you can. Last year, I even bought my own basil plants and kept them growing until I was ready. This is how I create my almost-year-long Basil Pesto.

I used:

• 2 big bunches of fresh farmers' market basil - leaves picked, washed & dried.
• 6 cloves of garlic (we love lots, you can use less if you like)
• 1 big handful of lightly toasted pine nuts (I have also used walnuts, almonds, or pistachios)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground pepper and salt

Missing now, to add later when using:
1 tbsn lime juice & zest of one lime
freshly grated parmesan cheese

My method:
Put your basil, garlic, pine nuts, salt & pepper in a food processor & pulse for ten seconds (almost purée). Add the extra virgin olive oil while pulsing more, until all the ingredients are combined into a nice, thick, classic pesto consistency.

Put it all in a small freezer bag, seal the bag, and flatten it out. With a permanent marker, label it with your manufacturing date, so you know not to keep it too long!

Alternately, you can fill up an ice cube tray, and make little cubes. Once they freeze, transfer them from the ice cube tray to a labeled, air tight bag or container. Cubes are convenient, but it's easy to forget to transfer them, and I like to get it done in one shot with the bag.

My Basil Pesto never lasts the whole year, and neither do I want it to :) but because I skip the cheese, I can keep it for pretty long in the freezer.

When I am ready to eat some pesto, I cut out a piece to thaw and first add some extra virgin olive oil. Then I add my missing ingredients. The lime adds a zing, prevents oxidation, and along with parmesan it puts the creaminess in the basil pesto, making it taste freshly made.

We really love pesto, and this allows us to eat it almost fresh for much longer than basil season. We eat it many different ways - with pasta, on sandwiches, on pizza, on crostini, tomatoes, and more! Check out some photos from a pesto dinner and of this year's batch:

p.s. My favorite wine to pair with pesto is a semi-dry to dry riesling. While not Italian, it's usually a perfect match, give it a try!

Pita Pizza: 2nd Only to New York Pizza!

Today was the perfect day to pay tribute to New York City and I do so with one of its most famous foods, New York pizza! You can find great local pizza places at almost every other block in New York City. I learnt to eat pizzas in New York like I learnt to drink coffee in Seattle.

I also first made my own pizza in New York, and after moving to Seattle I still love to make my own. In NYC, when I wanted to make my own pizza, I'd buy a dough ball from my favorite pizza place. Usually this was about $2.50. I'd make my sauce from scratch and top it off with cheese & the freshest vegetarian toppings I could find.

In Seattle, although I have found a few great pizza places, I haven't yet found a great supplier of pizza dough. I have brought home dough from some popular food stores (I won't negatively name any names), but they did not live up to my expectations. Recently I decided to use a thick, Greek pita instead. They are usually for falafels & gyros but they are perfect for a small, personal pizza.

This recipe is a lot of fun for guests because everyone gets involved and personalizes their meal -- it's especially fun for kids!

Here is my easy Pita Pizza:

For sauce I used:

• 1 28 0z. can of crushed tomatoes (with no additives or spices!) or fresh if you find 4-5 sweet tomatoes, then skip the sugar
• 1 tbsn olive oil
• 4 big cloves of chopped garlic
• A pinch of red pepper flakes
• 7 torn up, fresh basil leaves
• 1 tspn of Italian seasoning blend (or, make your own by mixing these dry: oregano, basil, rosemary, sage, and marjoram)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tbsn brown sugar
  

For toppings I used:

• Shredded Black Creek Buttery cheddar
• Thinly sliced chili peppers, all colors you like
• Thinly sliced crimini mushrooms
  

Put whatever YOU like on it :) In the toppings & cheese especially, you and/or your guests can most easily personalize it, so have fun! and offer them as many fresh ingredients as you have available.

For the crust:

Look for thick, Kronos Greek-style pitas in almost any grocery store. You can also use naans or other thick, flat breads. See the pictures below for an example.

My Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 400F (200C).

2. Making the sauce:

• Heat the olive oil briefly in a sauce pan on medium. Add red pepper flakes & garlic until it's slightly gold, do NOT let the garlic brown at all, I'll take raw over browned any day!


• Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt & pepper.


• Take the Italian seasoning in the palm of your hand & rub it down with the thumb of your other hand. This is one way to get great aroma & taste out of your dry seasoning! Throw it all in the sauce.


• Stir & let the sauce cook on low medium heat for about 10 minutes, then add the sugar, and then let it cook on low for another 10-15 minutes until it thickens as you like it.

3. Prep all the toppings while your sauce cooks, stirring the sauce just once in a while. Once the sauce cools, add your torn basil. Any leftover sauce from pizza night will be great with pasta in the next few days!

4. Lightly brush olive oil on both sides of your pita or naan, then slide it in the oven for 5-10 minutes until it gets some color. Careful not to bake it too much!

5. Layer the sauce, mushrooms, cheese, peppers, (or any other toppings) on top, and slide it back in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until you see the edges crisp up.

(Tip: If you have a little toaster oven, you can bake it for half the time you would need to in a regular oven. To brown and crisp, then let it broil for 5 minutes & it's done, pronto!)

In a pizza place I go for taste + experience, but taste comes first! Here are my three favorite pizza places in the last 3 cities I have lived in:

1) NYC - Singa's Famous Pizza - Love their cheese blend & No, they won't give me their secret!
2) Ithaca - Hot Truck PMP - Love the bread!
3) Seattle - Belltown Pizza - Love the toppings!
(They all have amazing crust and sauce, else they won't be faves.)

Mango Power Cookies

I confess: against conventional wisdom, I make up my own recipes for baked goods (and lots of other things!)

I bake a lot of what we eat as a healthy replacement for frying, but for a long time I did not consider myself a traditional baker of cakes, cookies, etc. You always hear that baking is "a precise art" & I don't like to follow rules when I cook.

Now I'm past all that -- I do it my way. How do I manage something unconventional like Mango Power Cookies? Here are a few guidelines:

1. Start with basic recipes -- then change things around.
   
2. Keep in mind at all times -- how is this going to taste?
   
3. Look for healthier alternatives such as baking without eggs, reducing butter, or natural color for decoration.
   

With these in mind I have realized nothing needs to be a certain way, even in baking. What I call Mango Power Cookies are an example of my method in action.

I love mangoes and I've eaten them in many different forms, but I thought why is it almost nobody puts them in cookies? So, I took a basic butter cookie recipe I had seen on FoodTV and powered it up! with mango, hazelnuts, and orange zest! I make them without eggs, but you can used eggs if you like.

For Mango Power Cookies, I used:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1 tspn orange flower water by A. Monteux
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  
• equivalent of 1 egg replaced with Ener-G Egg Replacer
• a handful of finely chopped Holmquist hazelnuts
• pulp from 1 ripe champagne mango
• zest of 1 orange

For their glaze, I used:

• 3-4 tbsns of orange juice (without pulp, just the stuff you drink - even better use mango juice!)
• 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar
• 1 or 2 hazelnuts, microplaned

My method:

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Beat butter, sugar, orange flower water, mango pulp, & salt till all fluffed up. Beat in the egg.

Mix chopped hazelnuts and orange zest with flour. Add the flour mix to the wet ingredients until the dough forms.

Refrigerate the dough for about 3 hours until nice & cold.

When it's cold, roll the dough out into about a 1/8 inch thick sheet. Use any cookie cutter to cut into shapes.

Put them about an inch apart on a cookie sheet, & let them bake until they are pale golden brown around the edges and the bottom -- about 12 minutes.

After baking, let the cookies sit till they cool completely.

While the cookies are cooling, take confectioner's sugar and beat in the orange juice until it's a nice smooth glaze, no lumps!

Take the cooled cookies & dip the tops in the glaze. While the glaze is still wet, shave hazelnuts with a microplane right onto the cookies!

Let the glaze dry completely before storing the cookies, but not until you try one or a few ;)

Once I had these handy, they were a great mango snack when I didn't have time to slice a mango. They taste & smell like mango with a hint of orange. The hazelnut grounded the flavor, making them less buttery tasting than plain butter cookies.

We ate them with the Original Market Spice Tea, which has a strong cinnamon and orange flavor.

See more photos from a recent batch of Mango Power Cookies: