Mashed Potatoes with sauteed onions and greens

This is a great comfort food sort of a dish. It's easy to prepare and came in at under half an hour prep time, which is nice. I purposely left out "turnips" in the title because I thought I didn't like turnips, but it turns out that they blend very nicely into this dish and they were quite tasty. Deborah Madison says that this can also be a summer dish, especially when farmers markets have sweet little turnips with their greens. The dish uses the turnip greens, but I made it with chard since the turnips I bought didn't have the greens attached. She recommended broccoli rabe in place of the turnip greens, but I couldn't find those either. I think most any greens will do.

Here's how to get started

Peel 4 russet potatoes (about 2 pounds) and cut them into chunks. Peel 3/4 pound turnips (8 to 10 small ones or a few larger ones.) Put them in a pot, cover with cold water, add 2 t. salt and 1 thyme sprig. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 20 - 25 minutes.

While those are cooking, slice 2 onions and saute them in 1 T. butter plus 2 t. olive oil (or whatever combination you like.) Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until golden and tender - about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

While that is cooking, wash and trim the greens. Cook in boiling salted water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain and add the greens to the pan with the onions.

When the potatoes and turnips are done, scoop them out of the pot into a bowl. Mix in 3 ounces of goat cheese and some butter to taste (I used 2 T.). Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, mound the mashed veggies on a platter, and smother it with the onions and greens.

Cost to Prepare

2 pounds potatoes - $1.00

3/4 pound turnips - $2.00

3 oz. goat cheese - $4.50

2 onions - $1.50

turnip greens - free if you buy them attached to the turnips OR

chard or other greens - $2.50

salt, pepper, butter, oil, 1 thyme sprig - negligible

TOTAL for 4 people - $11.50

I actually didn't use all the goat cheese, so that made the dish less expensive.

Portobello Sandwiches with mozzarella and greens

Oh wow, I will definitely be making this again. These open-faced sandwiches are good enough to serve to company. It took under half an hour and had a big flavor payoff. I think garlic mashed potatoes would be a nice accompaniment. Deborah recommends a pinot noir to go with this meal, but I think any red will do.

We had leftover hamburger buns that we needed to use up, so that's what we used for these sandwiches. The recipe calls for ciabbata or good crusty french bread, which would be fabulous.

Let's Get Started

Preheat the oven to 400º. You'll need one portobello mushroom per person. Using a damp paper towel, wipe off the cap of the mushroom. Remove the stem and the gills. The gills are those dark brown things inside the mushroom. A spoon works great to remove them. Drizzle the inside of the mushroom with olive oil and set on a baking dish. Chop 2 cloves of garlic together with a small handful of parsley leaves. Sprinkle the garlic-parsley mixture onto the inside of the mushroom (saving 1 t. of the mixture for later). Add salt and pepper and pop them in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until they are sizzling.

While they are cooking, wash and trim 1/3 pound greens. I used beet greens and curly kale. Any kind of braising greens will do. Heat 2 t. oil. Add the greens, the rest of the garlic-parsley mixture, a pinch of red pepper flakes and some salt. Saute the greens until they are tender. Taste for seasonings and doneness of the greens

Cut some fairly thick slices of fresh mozzarella. Put the mozzarella slices on top of the mushrooms, then layer the cooked greens on top of that. Bake for 5-7 minutes, until the cheese is melted. While that is baking, toast 1 thick slice of bread per person. Place the cooked mushrooms on top of the bread and serve.

Things I'd do differently next time

I just realized that the recipe called for 2 garlic cloves, a small handful of parsley, 1/3 pound of greens and 4 portobellos, but I only used 2 portobellos. If I were making this for 4 people, I think I'd increase the amount of garlic and parsley and greens, because those amounts worked perfectly for 2 portobellos.

I'd also try this with ciabatta or focaccia bread. It would also be wonderful with polenta or garlic mashed potatoes instead of the bread.

Cost to Prepare (for 2 people)

2 portobellos - $4.00

fresh mozzarella (4 slices) - $3.00

1/3 pound greens - $1.50 (organic)

2 slices bread - $.25

2 cloves garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, olive oil - negligible

TOTAL - $8.75 for 2

Wine-Braised Lentils

I normally think of lentils as being pretty bland, but these are full of flavor and they make excellent leftovers. This recipe comes from the "supper sandwiches" section of the cookbook. Although it features something over bread, it certainly didn't seem like a sandwich.

The red wine in the lentils, along with aromatics and tomato paste really give these lentils a wonderful flavor. The recipe called for french green lentils, which I decided to try even though I had regular lentils on hand. The green lentils are smaller and they have a firmer texture. They were super yummy, but I bet plain lentils would be fine in this, too. The red pearl onions are really tasty with this dish, but too fussy for me. In the future I will just used sauteed onions, or better yet, caramelized onions. The recipe calls for chard, spinach, or other greens. I happened to have spinach in the fridge, so that's what I used. This would also be fine without the greens, though they lend flavor, color and nutritive value.

This dish didn't take long to cook. Here's how you get started.

Rinse 3/4 cup french green lentils (or other lentils). Parboil them for 5 minutes, and drain.

Dice 1 large carrot, 1 small onion, and 1 or two celery ribs (about 1/3 cup each). Heat a little olive oil in a sauce pan and saute the veggies over medium-high heat until browned a little. Add one crushed garlic clove and 1 T. tomato paste, mixing well. Add 1 1/2 cups dry red wine and 1 t. dijon mustard. Add 1 1/2 cups water, 1 t. salt, and the drained lentils. Simmer covered 30-40 minutes until the lentils are done.

While the lentils are cooking, blanch 12 red pearl onions and peel off the skins. Saute them in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until they begin to color. Add a splash of wine or water toward the end to deglaze the pan. Season with salt and pepper.

Wash one big bunch of greens. With the water still clinging to it, wilt the greens in a skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Stir the cooked greens into the lentils, add a tablespoon of butter or olive oil, taste and season.

Toast 4 slices country bread and rub each slice with halved garlic. Spoon the lentils over the bread and garnish with the onions.

Things I'd do differently next time: Start one or 2 onions cooking over low heat before starting the lentils. Let them caramelize while the lentils are cooking. Use the same pan for cooking the greens to cut down on dirty dishes.

Approximate cost to prepare:

3/4 cup french green lentils (organic) - $.75

1 onion - $.20

1 carrot - $.10

1/3 cup celery - $.10

1 1/2 cups red wine - $1.00

12 red pearl onions - $.90

1 bunch spinach - $2.00

4 slices country bread - $1.50

TOTAL for 4 people = $6.55

Black-Eyed Peas with Coriander and Greens

January 5, 2010

I chose this dish to start with because I associate black-eyed peas with the new year. Someone once told me that they are supposed to bring good fortune, but I think that only applies when you eat them on New Year's Day. I missed by 4 days, but perhaps the gods of fortune will smile on me anyway. I figure I get extra points with the kitchen gods because I cooked my own organic peas from scratch, rather than using frozen as the recipe suggested.

I'm going through the book in a completely random manner, by the way. I'm hoping to utilize ingredients when they are in season. This dish came from the chapter entitled "Hearty Cool Weather Suppers". In the introduction, Deborah Madison talks about supper as distinct from dinner. She says that it doesn't carry the formal expectation that dinner does. Supper is for when you bump into a friend at the farmer's market and invite them over to share the bounty. It's for a Sunday night or a Thursday. It can be far more casual and simple. This appeals to me.

The black-eyed peas dish, however, took me about an hour and a half to prepare. This is largely because I forgot to soak the peas earlier in the day. Here's how the evening went:

I rinsed the black-eyed peas and put them in a pot with boiling water to soak for an hour. Meanwhile I prepared 2 bunches of chard, coarsely chopping the leaves and finely chopping the stems. I used one bunch of rainbow chard and one bunch of red chard. The addition of the cut up stems was a great idea. I loved not throwing them away and they provided a lot of nice texture. The recipe also called for wild greens, which I didn't know where to find. The recommendations were amaranth, blanched nettles or wild greens. Does anyone know how to safely incorporate these into your cooking? Can you really just go pick dandelion greens from your lawn and eat them? Somehow this seems hazardous to me.

I then diced one onion, whacked up half a cup of cilantro and half a cup of parsley, diced a couple cloves of garlic and set all that aside. Then I started cooking the bulgur.

One of her tips for how to make cooking more enjoyable and economical is to use what you have. I already had course bulgur, so I used that instead of the fine or medium bulgur that was called for. By this time, my peas had been soaking for about 40 minutes, so I decided to just start cooking them.

I then cooked the onions in some olive oil until tender, added the cilantro, parsley, garlic, and diced chard stems and let that soften a bit. Then I added 1 T. tomato paste, some paprika, and the chopped greens, and seasoned with a little salt. I then put the cover on, turned down the heat to very low and let the greens cook until they were "meltingly tender" - her words - much more lovely than "falling apart" - my words. This took about 25 minutes.

When the peas were soft, I added them to the chard mixture along with some of their cooking liquid. I actually made a double batch of black-eyed peas and froze them so that I would have them on hand the next time I made this dish or a soup or something. Her recipe says to use 3 cups of water to cook the frozen peas in and then add all the water, so you know just how much to put in. I guessed. I checked for salt and pepper (usually one of my failings as a cook, but I remembered this time.)

By then the bulgur was done and I served the peas and greens over the bulgur, with a spoonful of greek yogurt on top. With the yogurt, this dish makes a complete protein. Without it, the dish is completely vegan.

This is a very unpretentious looking dish. It reminded me of the look of some Indian food. The flavors, however, are more Greek, so she recommended a spicy Greek red wine to go with it. I couldn't find one easily or cheaply, so I substituted an Italian red (2007 Terra Mia) from the Abruzzo region of Italy. That's where the earthquake was in April of last year. George and I visited this area and it is stunning. We raised a glass and wished for prosperity and healing for the Abruzzo region, and toasted our first sit-down, candle lit dinner of 2010.

The dish was SO delicious. It's interesting that it has coriander in the name of the dish, but no coriander seed - just cilantro. I always think of them as different, though I know they are the same plant. I guess half a cup of cilantro is quite a bit and it must have contributed significantly to the flavor. I would definitely like to make this one again. I think I could do it in under an hour using my extra peas in the freezer and my ever developing chopping skills.

This recipe serves 4, so we had leftovers that went into the freezer. I'll let you know if the freezing works out well.

If I made this dish again: I would soak and perhaps cook the black-eyed peas ahead of time, or use frozen peas. Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.

Cost to prepare:

1 cup black-eyed peas - .65

2 bunches chard - 4.60

cilantro - .20

parsley - .20

tomato paste - .20

bulgur - .45

onion - .50

Olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, paprika - negligible

TOTAL without wine = $6.80

Cost of wine - $8.99

Served 2 people, plus leftovers for another meal!