Friday, December 30, 2011

Save Yourself from Yourself Post-Holiday Kale Salad

If you're like me, the last few weeks have been chock-full of deliciously terrible things, like fudge and toffee and cookies of every shape and size. Oh, it was glorious. However, by the end, I felt something like this:

So, I made this salad immediately upon arriving home from my holiday family visit, and have made 2 more batches this week already. I actually ate it so many times I googled what happens if you eat too much kale. (answer: people say you CAN eat too much raw kale and it'll give you hypothyroidism. I didn't verify that information anywhere legit, though so don't take my word for it). So, moderation in all things, even raw kale, apparently.

At any rate, this was super easy, extremely delicious, kept well until the next day, and is good for you. What else can you ask for?

The stuff:
-1 bunch curly kale
-1 lemon
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-craisins
-walnuts
-parmesan (optional)

What to do with it:
Take the kale and cut out the really thick bottom portion of the stems. Stack the leaves on top of each other, and cut it into thin ribbons (you might need to cut it once lengthwise down the middle if they are too long)*. Put them in a bowl and squeeze all of the juice from the lemon onto the kale. Use your (clean) hand to squeeze or massage the kale for a few minutes- it makes it just a bit softer and also gets the lemon well mixed in. If you can, let it sit there for a bit, if you can't just proceed onwards. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil over the leaves, add salt and pepper to taste, and toss with a fork. The, coarsely chop the craisins and walnuts and throw those in- these are the main source of calories so you can judge for yourself how much you want. I put in a lot of nuts because the dinner I was having was light and I wanted protein. If you'd like, you can grate in some good quality hard cheese (I used parmesan the first time and skipped it the other times). It does add a little something, but it is optional.

I ate mine with just a roasted sweet potato and it was delicious. The salad comes together extremely quickly, and if you microwave the sweet potato (roasted is better but microwaved actually is fine) you can have a very healthy dinner ready to eat in about 10 minutes. This may become a weeknight staple!



*note: for Christmas I got a very nice (VERY SHARP) chefs knife. I was really excited to use it, until about 30 seconds into my salad making experience I sustained an injury in the line of duty. Not to be thwarted, after taking important steps (like using half a box of bandaids and calling my Mom to tell her I got hurt) I took this picture with my left hand raised in the air above my head. I think it came out pretty well, all things considering. Lesson learned, when they say to curl your hands under while chopping, they're not kidding!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Coconut Carrot Curry Soup

This is a really nice soup that you can throw together pretty quickly, but that is really warm and delicous and tastes way more complicated than it really is.

1 can coconut milk (usually I use light, but this was regular and oh, it was so decadent tasting)
5-6c water
2 big leeks
10-12 carrots, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 inch plug of fresh ginger, chopped
2-3 tsp red curry paste (or to taste)
pinch of salt

Chop everything up, you'll ultimately blend it so don't get too bent out of shape about how they look, but they should be approximately the same size so they cook at the same rate.


Heat the oil in a large pot, toss in the leeks and ginger, and let it brown just a little. Then throw in the carrots. Cook for about 5 minutes. Then pour in the liquid. In general the amounts (like, of carrots/leeks/etc) don't matter so much, it isn't an exact recipe, but you want the liquid to cover the top of the veggies.

Add the salt and curry paste (I use the Thai Kitchen version, which they have in the ethnic section of my regular grocery store). If you like it spicier, add 3-4 tsp, less spicy, add 1. The only thing is, you don't want to overpower the taste of the carrots and end up with what basically just tastes like curry sauce, so I'd taste along the way.

Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, until everything is very soft. Then, blend with an immersion blender or else put it in a big blender. Continue to simmer a bit once blended so the flavors can really combine, then enjoy!

Given that it's basically just veggies and coconut milk it is amazing how rich this tasted, and the color is just amazing and bright. The only work is really the chopping, and then you just let it go- the whole thing takes about half an hour, of which 20 minutes is simmering. Definitely feasible for a nice winter week night dinner!









Monday, December 19, 2011

Peppermint Shortbread Cookies- Put These on Your Christmas Baking list ASAP!

Oh... these are good. I'm not gonna lie, you probably should skip to the recipe and go make these immediately, then finish the post while munching on them.

I must confess, these were not actually my own idea. Yesterday we went to The Trails Cafe, which is a cute little place right in the middle of Griffith Park. Along with this amazing avocado sandwich, we also had the daily special, a peppermint shortbread cookie.

The only thing was, while it was pretty delicious, I didn't feel like it was quite pepperminty enough. So, I set to work. I found Ina Garten's shortbread cookie recipe and went from there. 

3/4 pound butter (unsalted)
1c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3.5c flour
1/4 tsp salt

AND

10 full sized candy canes

Preheat the oven to 350. While it's heating, put the candy canes in a food processor (or, I guess, hit them with a hammer or some other creative solution). The pieces should be very small, big chunks will melt and spread when the cookies bake. Cream the butter and sugar together really well. Add the vanilla and salt and mix well, then stir in the candy cane powder/pieces.Then gradually add the flour- the dough will be a bit crumbly. Smush it together and wrap in plastic wrap. Set in fridge to rest for about half an hour.

When it's ready, roll it out. I made mine a bit thin, you should remember that there is nothing in these cookies that will make them rise (no eggs, baking soda, etc), so they will essentially be exactly the same thickness as they are when you put them on the cookie tray.

The recipe says to make them half an inch thick and bake for 20-25 minutes. You should probably watch the first batch carefully, since mine were relatively thin (which actually tasted good and crispy in the end) they only took about 17 minutes. You don't want them to be too brown, the edges should just barely be getting brown. When they look good, put them on a cooling rack and get ready to enjoy!


NOTE 12/13/13- since posting this, I tried again to make these cookies, and it did not go well. They spread out all over the sheet and generally looked like a crazy flat weird mess. Not to be deterred, I tried again. It turns out it is CRITICAL to let the dough chill. This time, I rolled it into a log, covered it in saran wrap, and put it in the freezer for at least half an hour. Then, I just sliced the cookies (which after all, is easier than rolling anyways!). The remainder of the dough went back in the freezer. In addition, I would slightly reduce the number of candy canes to 8. When you blend them in the food processor you end up with some amount of candy cane dust, which then acts just like sugar, and melts and can cause them to spread. I also baked them on parchment paper- do NOT grease the cookie sheet. Good luck!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna

This is a nice winter meal that was the perfect thing to have baking and smelling delicious while decorating the tree, and then to be enjoyed while admiring the twinkling lights.

I found this recipe over at Four Corners Foodies but made a few minor tweaks.

Squash filling:
1 butternut squash
1/4c almond milk
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
salt/pepper
1/8c parmesan cheese

Spinach filling:
1 24oz package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 egg whites
salt/pepper

Bechamel sauce:
4c almond milk (or regular milk)
4 tbsp butter (or butter substance of your choice)
4 tbsp flour
2 pinches nutmeg
pinch cayenne

Misc:
1 package no-bake lasagna noodles (I used Barilla flat noodles)
2/3c bread crumbs
1/3c parmesan
2 tbsp olive oil
optional, about  3/4c mozzarella

The first thing to do is get the squash going- cut it in half, remove seeds, and rub a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg on it. Bake at 400 until it is very soft, probably about 45 min. Scoop out of the rind into a bowl. Mash the squash, stir in the almond milk and the parmesan. Taste it, it should be very moist and delicious- add more of whatever you think it needs. Remember that the béchamel will also have nutmeg so no need to go overboard on that. I did consider using canned pumpkin in this, and I think that might actually work if you don't want to spend the time roasting. If you do that, I'd recommend the larger sized can, because this was a pretty large amount of squash.

Thaw the spinach and really squeeze all the water out (one way is by putting it in a clean dish towel and squeezing). Mix well with the 2 egg whites and salt/pepper. You could leave the egg whites out, but they do help make it puffier.

Now, this was my first time making béchamel, which was convenient because just that morning we'd watched Top Chef where they had to make the four "mother sauces", of which this is one. At any rate, it turned out to be really easy, and also easy to vegan-ize, if you're into that kind of thing. Melt the butter, stir in the flour, and let it brown a little. In the meantime, heat up the milk so when you add it, it isn't cold. Gradually whisk into the flour mixture and add the nutmeg and cayenne. Bring it to a boil and let it cook for 10 minutes, being sure to stir a lot. Then you can set it aside.

Finally, it's time to assemble. Put a thin layer of sauce, then noodles, then spread with squash and drop spinach all over it. Keep going, I ended up with 3 layers of filling with a layer of noodles on the top. Pour any leftover sauce over the top. Then top with mozzarella, if you like, and then the breadcrumbs and parmesan, finally drizzle the olive oil on top.

This smelled amazing and looked BEAUTIFUL. It is also a really nice and hearty vegetarian main dish. You could make it vegan by making appropriate milk/butter choices, and eliminating the cheese (I'd add extra salt to make up for what is in the parmesan).

I served it with a really simple salad, and it was a delicious dinner!


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