Corned Pork Meatballs

“Corned” meatballs might sound odd, but I’m hearkening back to the original meaning of “corned” here, back when corns referred to any small grains.  Often, those grains were coarse grains of salt used in brines and pickling solutions.  That’s where we get corned beef from — it doesn’t have anything to do with the kind of corn that grows on long stalks, but it does have a lot to do with salty brines.

Rolling these meatballs in coarse, grainy cornmeal makes them corny in both the traditional and modern sense of the word.  The cornmeal also provides a nice crunch and is a healthy swap for commercial breadcrumbs.  (Breadcrumbs are a snap to make yourself, though: just buzz some staling slices of bread through a food processor, pour the fresh crumbs into a screw-top glass jar, and stick the jar in the freezer.  You’ll have breadcrumbs any time you need them!  Fresh crumbs can also be briefly toasted to deepen their flavor before adding them to recipes.)

When shopping for cornmeal, be on the lookout for the coarsely milled variety.  The finer meal is nicer for baked goods — if you mill the cornmeal finely enough, it becomes corn flour — but the coarsely milled cornmeal works better as a breadcrumb stand-in.  It also imparts a more pronounced crunch and flavor to savory cooked dishes.

Corned Pork Meatballs with Basil & Mint

1 pound ground pork, preferably from pastured hogs
1 medium onion, minced
1/4 cup or so of fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/4 cup or so of fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 egg
Pinch sea salt
Cornmeal

To make the meatballs, place pork, onion, herbs, egg, and salt in a large glass mixing bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly combine them. The mixture will be very wet, so add enough cornmeal to make a mixture dry enough to roll into balls. (It’s best to add the cornmeal a bit at a time, mixing the meat each time, until you’ve reached a nice consistency. If you dump in a large amount of cornmeal at once, you might wind up with a too-dry mixture that will be crumbly. Add a little water if this happens.) Stack the balls on a plate as you roll them.

Scatter some cornmeal on another plate and roll the balls in the cornmeal one by one until each is completely covered. In a large saucepan, heat about 1 T. of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add meatballs — working in batches if your pan isn’t big enough to hold them all — and cook them for about 5 minutes or until they’re golden-brown on all sides. You’ll have to shift them around with a spatula (or gently shake the pan) to make sure you cook them evenly.

The meatballs make tasty appetizers, or you can include them with your favorite pasta dish. They’re also great with eggs in the morning. If you have leftover meatballs, you can quickly re-fry them on the stovetop to bring back the cornmeal crunch, or you can serve them cold. I actually preferred their flavor when I sampled them cold the next day — their overnight stint in the refrigerator made the basil and mint flavors stand out more.

Enjoy!

Sautéed Portabello Salad

Grill them, stuff them, use them as hamburger toppings … portabello mushrooms are a favorite summer treat.  But my favorite way to enjoy them is to slice them very thin and sautée them with extra-virgin olive oil and a pinch of sea salt so that you wind up with portabello crisps.  It’s the perfect base for a quick salad featuring whatever is plentiful in your garden or at the market.  You can also snip a few fresh herbs to go on the top of your crisp-yet-cool masterpiece.

Portabello Summer Salad

This serves two for a side salad or one for a main, but you can vary the amount of veggies depending on what’s available and plentiful.  Just be sure to slice the portabellos very thinly before cooking them.

Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
2-3 portabello mushrooms, thinly sliced
2-3 medium tomatoes (Romas work well), chopped
Handfuls of fresh lettuce, roughly chopped if they’re big leaves
Fresh herbs (such as chives, basil, or dill), minced
Balsamic vinegar

In a medium- to large-sized saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat for 1 minute. Slide in the portabello slices, making sure each one is fully touching the pan, and let cook for about 3 minutes. Flip over slices, season with a pinch of sea salt, and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. The mushrooms should be shriveled around the edges and turning a vague golden brown through their mushroom/earthy color.

Lay the tomatoes and lettuce out in sections on a plate, leaving a section for the mushrooms. Add the cooked mushrooms to the plate and scatter the herbs over everything. Drizzle the remaining oil from the pan onto the plate — add some fresh oil to the tomatoes and lettuce if you like — then drizzle on a few threads of balsamic vinegar only onto the tomatoes and lettuce. (The mushrooms will be so richly flavored from having been sautéed in thin slices that they don’t need any additional seasoning.)  Serve promptly.

Enjoy!

Cucumber & Apple Salad

Scandinavians do a lot with crisp, sweet vegetables and fruits.  So do Russians and Pols (and anyone else who lives in cooler climates where you’re more likely to grow carrots than bananas).  I drew on those sweet-and-cool traditions to make a simple summer salad featuring two of Michigan’s best crops: apples and cucumbers.  Nothing beats a hot day like a quick-to-assemble summer salad!  If you have an herb garden, feel free to substitute different herbs for the dill and mint.

Cucumber & Apple Salad

Serves 2 as a side dish or 1 as a main meal.  You can just multiply the ingredient portions to match your needs.  You could also toss in some cooked brown rice to make this a heartier salad, although the salad would lose a bit of its sweet crunchiness if served that way.

For the dressing:
Approx. 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1-2 T. apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. dried OR 1/2 tsp. fresh dill
1/4 tsp. dried OR 1/2 tsp. fresh mint (mince or tear mint into small pieces if it’s fresh)
Sea salt to taste

For the salad:
1 medium or large cucumber, chopped or thinly sliced
1 firm, crisp apple (Fuji and Pink Lady apples are my favorites), chopped
1 carrot, grated (optional)
1 small onion, minced (optional)

Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. These are approximate measurements — if you like your dressing to be more sour, add more vinegar; if you are a huge mint fan, add more of that. If you want your dressing to be thinner but don’t want the sourness of added vinegar, add a teaspoon of cold water.

Mix salad ingredients together in a large bowl, then toss with the dressing. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Goat Cheese with Fruit Compote

Assuming you can find a comfortable spot in the shade, now’s the time to go on a picnic!  Fresh fruits and cheeses, pickles and olives, pasta and potato salads tossed with crunchy vegetables…heck, if you can find a grill, you can bring along lamb kebabs, too.

But let’s say you decide to go on a last-minute picnic and you don’t have time to marinate meat or assemble a salad.  Still, I’m sure you have some interesting leftovers in your refrigerator or cupboards.  Cheese is one of the linchpins of a picnic — you could start with what you have in the cheese drawer and take it from there.

Like cheese, fruit is one of the classic picnic staples; it’s hardly surprising that it’s also the #1 accompaniment to cheese.  (And to nuts, especially buttery, rich nuts like macadamias.)  If you have any leftover fruit compote on hand, I recently discovered that the compote is a natural pair with fresh, creamy cheeses like goat cheese: the earthy tang of the goat cheese is off-set by the sweetness of the fruit.

If you don’t have any compote on hand, try topping your goat cheese (or any other soft, fresh cheese) with a spoonful of naturally sweetened jam or jelly…or a fruit chutney.  I’m seeing more and more chutneys sold alongside cheese in the grocery stores nowadays, so if you don’t have any good picnic foods on hand, you can always just stop at at reasonably well-stocked grocery store and make a beeline for the cheese section.

May your picnic grounds be smooth and grassy!

Rhubarb-Strawberry Compote with Cocoa Crepes

Even though the simmering action of making a compote might make you think of winter, what goes into a berry compote is all summer: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, even rhubarb.  All you need is some fruit, some liquid — wine or water works best — some sweetener, and some spices.  You’ll have a refreshing fruit dessert in just 20 minutes.

I like to leave my compotes chunky and then use them as fillings or eat them plain as fruit soup, but you could also purée your compote to make an elegant sauce for drizzling over ice cream or pie.  And actually, you can keep the berry compotes coming in the winter time, too, seeing as that’s prime cranberry season.

Summer Berry Compote

1 pint berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc.)
2 stalks rhubarb, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B
1/4 cup water
6 whole cloves*
2 whole cardamom pods*
1 stick cinnamon*
2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. pomegranate molasses or tamarind paste (if you don’t have either one of these, use 1 T. light molasses and 1 T. lemon juice)
1 tsp. tapioca flour or cornstarch (optional)

Place all ingredients except tapioca flour/cornstarch in a medium-sized saucepan and stir well. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and remove spices. If you’d like a thicker compote, whisk in the tapioca flour/cornstarch while the compote is still piping hot. Let sit for 5 minutes to thicken.

Serve compote immediately or let it cool, depending on what you’re going to do with it. A cool fruit compote served with a dollop of Greek yogurt makes a wonderful summer dessert soup, for example, or you can fill crepes with the compote and then top with the yogurt as I did for the pictured dish. Since the compote will keep for a week in the fridge, you can serve it over waffles, pancakes, or cereals. Or you can blend it with fresh fruit to make a richly-flavored smoothie…or serve it with ice cream or frozen yogurt. The possibilities are endless.

Enjoy!

* In order to be able to fish out the spices more easily, place them in a reusable muslin tea bag or tie them into a square of cheesecloth.

Red Pepper Tahini Sauce with Roasted Vegetables

When it comes to vegetables, you can’t beat the roasted ones.  The slow-cooking process (as opposed to a quick pan fry) both accentuates and moderates the flavor of everything from beets to zucchini.  The prize for Most Amazing Transformation probably goes to garlic, which turns into a creamy, smooth paste that’s almost sweet.

It occurred to me that puréeing my two favorite roasted veggies — garlic and red peppers — into a sauce would probably be a good idea.  It was, especially when I added a spoonful of tahini and a dash of pomegranate molasses.  The resulting thick sauce is superb atop roasted veggies, tossed with pasta and fresh herbs, or served with chicken or lamb.  (The latter works especially well if you’re making a Mediterranean lamb dish such as kebabs or schwarma.)

Red Pepper Tahini Sauce

In a food processor, blend the meat from 1 roasted red pepper* and the squeezed-out cloves of 1 roasted head of garlic**.  Add 1 T. tahini, 1 T. pomegranate molasses (use 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice if you can’t find the molasses), and a pinch of sea salt.  Blend again until smooth.  Sauce can be stored for 4 days in the refrigerator.

* To roast a red pepper, preheat your oven to at least 425 degrees F, placing a piece of aluminum foil or a battered pan on the bottom rack to catch any potential drips that might splat from the roasting pepper.  When the oven is ready, place bell pepper(s) directly on the middle rack.  Roast for 20 minutes or until the pepper is starting to blister and blacken.  Remove from oven and immediately place in a zip-loc plastic bag.  Seal and let sit until pepper is cool enough to handle.  At that point, the skin, stem, and seeds should be easy to peel away.

** To roast garlic, cut about 1/2″ inch of the top away from the head of garlic and discard.  Place the head on a sheet of aluminum foil, lightly salt and pepper, and drizzle with a hint of extra-virgin olive oil.  Loosely bunch the foil up and around the garlic, folding the foil over at the top to seal it.  Roast at 425 degrees F for 45 minutes.  Remove and let cool for a good hour before attempting to push out the cloves from their papery skins — roasted garlic is very hot and sticky!

Lentils, Pistachios & Scapes

It just doesn’t get any easier and more savory than this, folks: leftover cooked lentils (even if they’re not leftover, they cook in 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the type of lentil), roasted pistachio meats (didn’t even have to crack ‘em), and sautéed scapes (or garlic or onion or whatever aromatic you’d like).

This legume + nut combo also happens to provide one heck of a plateful of protein.  You can enjoy it all on its lonesome like I did or serve it as a side dish.  Or you could gussy it up with cooked grains and/or dried fruit and/or meat, call it an exotic pilaf, and serve it as a meal.  Lamb would be a wonderful accompaniment to the flavor of this tasty triad!

Lentil & Pistachio Salad

Combine cooked lentils*, roasted pistachios (salted or unsalted, it’s your call), and sautéed aromatics** in a dish.  Drizzle with a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and toss gently.  If you’d like a bit of tartness to cut through the earthiness of the lentils and the richness of the nuts, add a bit of balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses and toss again.  Dried apricots would also provide a pleasant counterbalance to the dish.

Enjoy!

* Red lentils are actually hulled versions of other varieties (green, brown, black), so they only take about 5 minutes to cook al dente (i.e., still firm to the tooth rather than mushy).  Other varieties may take as long as 20 minutes to reach a good chewiness.  Either way, you can store cooked lentils for up to a week and use them however you’d like.

** “Aromatics” means anything in the allium family: garlic, onions, chives, scapes, ramps, leeks, shallots, etc.

Poached Egg Atop Mixed Veggies

Egg poaching is generally a three-step process: first, you boil water; next, you crack an egg into the boiling water, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and simmer the egg for 3 minutes, occasionally skimming a slotted spoon around the edges of the pot to make sure the egg isn’t sticking; finally, you use the slotted spoon to remove the egg so that you can perch it atop toast.

Assuming you don’t skip that all-important step of reducing the boil to a simmer, poaching an egg is pretty easy — you’ll feel like a pro after you’ve done it two or three times.  But last week, I came up with a way to condense those three steps to one AND replace bland toast with a round of leftover veggies.  Now I like my poached-egg breakfasts even better!

Poached Eggs Atop Sautéed Vegetables

Assorted vegetables of your choice, precooked as necessary (while you can eat raw broccoli and green beans, I think they taste better after having been briefly cooked for 5 minutes in simmering water)

Eggs, preferably from pastured hens

Sea salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste

Select a frying pan that will suit the quantity of veggies and eggs you’re preparing.  (You want the veggies to form a solid layer from one side of the pan to the other, so don’t choose an over-large pan.)  I used a 6″ crepe pan for my individual serving of veggies + 1 egg.  The pan you choose needs to have a matching lid.

Drizzle enough extra-virgin olive oil into the pan to lightly coat the bottom of it and set the pan over medium-low heat.  After about a minute — the oil should be fairly hot — add the veggies.  Sautée them for 3 to 5 minutes or until they’ve browned/softened to your satisfaction.  I sautéed drained canned beans, chopped tomatoes, and precooked broccoli for about 3 minutes for the pictured dish.

Crack an egg (or eggs) on top of the sautéed veggies, cover the pan with the lid, and cook for 3 minutes.  Do not lift off the lid during those 3 minutes!  The egg needs the trapped steam to poach since you aren’t fully immersing it in liquid.

Remove the lid promptly after 3 minutes.  Use a heat-proof spatula to carefully slide the veggies and egg out of the pan and onto a plate.  (The proteins in the egg white will have set and should hold the veggies together like a pancake if handled gently.)  Salt and pepper to taste.

Break the yolk and enjoy!

Chocolate Yogurt with Blueberries & Cashews

First it was omega-3s, then it was antioxidants; now, the food rage is probiotics.  (Mind you, these have all been mainstay elements of whole, unprocessed foods for millennia, long before food scientists and genetic engineers and corporate interests got involved in our food chain.  Thankfully, we’re now “discovering” that traditional cuisines contain plenty of foods that keep us hale and hearty.)  Probiotics — literally, “pro-life” in a nutritional/biological sense — are beneficial bacteria that do things like help our digestive systems establish and maintain healthy intestinal flora.  These flora then facilitate our metabolism and enhance everything from our immune system to our neurological functions.  In short, probiotics aren’t just “pro-life,” they’re “necessary-for-life.”

Probiotic foods include fermented specialties like yogurt, kefir, cultured buttermilk, cultured sour cream, coconut kefir (a non-dairy drink), lactic-fermented sauerkraut and kimchee (and/or any other vegetable), miso soup, fish sauce, traditionally-brewed soy sauce…there are plenty to choose from.  Yogurt, however, is probably the most common item on the American probiotic list.

Given yogurt’s popularity and  how much everybody loves chocolate, why not have a probiotic dessert?  Transforming plain Greek yogurt into chocolate yogurt takes less than a minute, and you’ll have a rich, creamy dessert that tastes like chocolate mousse.  Or stir naturally-sweetened jam (i.e., sweetened with grape juice rather than refined sugar or high-fructose corn syrup) for a fruity, ice-cream-like probiotic treat.

Chocolate Yogurt

To make chocolate yogurt, start with about 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (preferably whole-milk yogurt) in a small bowl.  Using a fork or whisk, stir in 1 T. maple syrup and 2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder until you have a smooth chocolate yogurt.  Taste it to check the sweetness level and add more syrup if desired.

Serve unadorned in a pretty glass or bowl or top with fruit and/or nuts.  (I topped mine with cashews and blueberries.)  If you like, garnish with a sprig of mint or a dollop of natural jam…or swirl in some jam to get a fruit-and-chocolate effect.

Enjoy!

Cocoa Nibs Trail Mix

Chocolate as we know it doesn’t much resemble the pod on the tree.  (Chocolate is made from cocoa “beans” that are actually seeds, and those seeds are encased in pods that grow on cocoa trees.)  A looooong process has to happen before the seeds of a tropical plant can become a candy bar: the pods are cut down, the seeds are removed from the pods, the seeds are spread out to dry and ferment in the sun for several days, the dried seeds (“beans”) are shipped off to chocolate factories, the dried seeds are roasted, the roasted seeds are pressed, and the resulting cocoa butter (the fatty part of the seed) and the cocoa powder (the non-fatty part of the seed) are mixed back together — usually along with several other ingredients such as sugar, vanilla, nuts, etc. — and then conched and tempered to form glossy chocolate bars.  Not a terribly high-tech process, but certainly not something you can do as a weekend project.

You CAN, however, find roasted cocoa nibs to use in your everyday cooking.  I finally stumbled upon some the last time I was visiting the deservedly-lauded Zingerman’s.  I was delighted to finally get my hands on the roasted nibs — that’s as close as most of us are going to get to the source!

The  nibs taste like very buttery, faintly chocolatey nuts.  They have that distinctive cocoa scent, too, which adds to their charm.  I enjoy eating them plain, but be warned that they are absolutely unsweetened and don’t taste like the chocolate most of us are used to.  They are, however, glorious additions to items you’d normally complement with nuts: salads, muffins, cookies, ice cream-based desserts, etc.  (I also think they’d be great with rice pilafs and chicken dishes, but I’ve yet to test those theories.)  Nibs also make a very sophisticated trail mix, much better than the mixes that contain sugary chocolate chips.  In short, if you can find some nibs, you’re in luck!  Just think of them as a wholly new ingredient to be enjoyed a little bit at a time in a variety of dishes.  Store the nibs in a cool, dark place, savor their nutty crunchiness, and let them inspire you!

Nibs Trail Mix

Combine chopped cashews (the organic roasted and lightly-salted ones at Trader Joe’s are particularly nice), raisins (again, you can’t beat the organic ones at TJ’s), and cocoa nibs in your hand, on a plate, or in a bag.  I used a ratio of 2:2:1 (cashews : raisins : nibs) and loved the results, but of course you can use whatever proportions suit your taste buds.

Enjoy!

Southwestern Fried Egg Salad

I love eggs, especially the eggs with the bright orange yolks that I get from my farmer every week.  (Thanks to the proliferation of farmer’s markets and community-supported farms, even urban dwellers can get honest-to-goodness eggs laid by hens who spend their days scratching in the dirt for tasty bugs…as opposed to eggs from factory-fed hens who eke out a miserable existence based on corn and soy.  Check sites like www.localharvest.org to find nearby markets and farmers.)  But although I’m a big fan of quality eggs — talk about the ultimate sustainable and nutritious food! — I’m decidedly not a fan of traditional egg salads, which seem to be more about mayonnaise than eggs.  Why mask the flavor of a wonderful egg?

Recently, though, I decided to make a completely modern version of egg “salad” by lightly frying a scrambled egg (thus making a thin pancake of sorts), cutting it into pieces, and tossing the egg with some veggies.  This quick and easy egg salad was much more flavorful and satisfying than the sopping-with-mayo variety, plus of course you could use this idea with whatever veggies strike your fancy.

Southwestern Fried Egg Salad
One egg serves one person, so simply multiply amounts as needed.

1-2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 egg, lightly scrambled with a fork
1/4 cup canned black beans, drained
1 tomatillo, papery husk removed, flesh chopped
1 Roma tomato or a handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped

Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium-low heat (I use mark 3 out of 10) for about a minute, then add egg, swirling the egg so that it coats the pan. Note that a larger pan will require more oil and will result in a thinner eggy “pancake”; a smaller pan will require less oil but a bit more time to cook, plus the egg will be thicker. Use whichever pan you prefer.

Let egg cook for 1-2 minutes or until surface begins to become opaque. Use a spatula to peek at the underside. If it’s lightly browning, carefully flip the egg over and continue to cook. Check again after another minute. If you’re making a 3- or 4-egg batch, the eggs will obviously require a larger pan and will take longer to cook. Just be sure to fight the urge to turn up the heat, because if you do, you’ll probably overcook the eggs and make them rubbery.

When the egg is done, use a pan-safe spatula to gently cut it into pieces. Slide out of pan and into bowl, then toss with beans, tomatillo, and tomato. Add more oil if desired; salt and pepper to taste. You may also want to sprinkle a little chili powder over the top and/or add chopped fresh cilantro. If you’re making this dish for lunch or dinner, you could always serve it alongside salsa, guacamole, and/or sour cream or Greek yogurt.

Enjoy!

Peach & Ginger Crepes

When I get on a kick, I get on a kick — I can happily eat the same thing for several days in a row if I like it.  It’s even better when the dish/ingredient being eaten is multipurpose-able.  After all, leftovers are the ultimate convenience food!

Crepes are my most recent food fixation: first the savory fish tacos, now sweet fruit rolls.  Seeing as the typical crepe recipe makes 10 to 12 normal-sized crepes (six inches across as opposed to the gargantuan twelve-inchers you find in Europe), I thought I’d make some non-tacos with the second half of the batch.  These fruit-laden crepes can be served as breakfast, dessert, or snacks, and as usual, you can customize them to fit your fancy.

Sweet Fruit Crepes

Chopped fruit of your choice +

Creamy ingredient of your choice (yogurt, cream cheese, whipped cream, coconut cream/whole coconut milk, etc.) +

Spice of your choice +

Sweetener of your choice +

Crepes (see “Mastering Crepes the Easy Way” for a basic crepe recipe)

Bonus ingredient: chopped, toasted nuts

The pictured crepe holds chopped peaches, coconut cream, ginger, and a drizzle of honey.

Line the center of a crepe with your chosen combination of ingredients, gently roll up crepe, and enjoy!  If you’re serving a crowd and would like to create a crepe buffet, set out a variety of cut-up fruits and spices and allow the guests to choose their own fillings.  How’s that for a creative party pleaser?

Blueberry-Almond Soup

It’s summertime, and the blueberries are calling.  (So are the strawberries and the blackberries and the rest of the berry bunch.)  Time to celebrate with some fruit soup!  It’s ridiculously easy to make — which is probably one of the chief reasons fruit soup is on every cruise ship’s menu — and can be made as thick or as thin as you like, with whatever sweet spices you like, and with or without dairy products.  Truth be told, fruit soup is really just a low-liquid smoothie.  You probably already have plenty of soupy ideas!

Blueberry-Almond Soup

In a blender, combine equal parts of blueberries* and slivered almonds.  Sprinkle on a few dashes of cinnamon or ginger, drizzle in a tablespoon or less of maple syrup or honey, and pour in enough whole milk or coconut milk until the blueberries and almonds are barely covered.  (You could also use half milk and half Greek yogurt, or replace all of the milk with kefir.)

Blend briefly — just until ingredients have begun to mix and thicken — and dip in a spoon to check the sweetness level.  Add more sweetener and/or spices if you’d like.  Blend the mixture for another few seconds, until you have a thick, soupy consistency.

Pour into a pretty glass, garnishing with additional blueberries.  Serve as breakfast, dessert, or a cool and refreshing snack.

* You can substitute any berry of your choice for the blueberries.

Roasted Kale Chips

Unbelievably.  Easy.  And.  Delicious.  Best four words I can come up with to describe roasted kale, my latest culinary adventure.

I’d been meaning to try making my own kale chips for almost a year and hadn’t gotten around to it.  (Even though some good friends of mine always have kale on hand to feed to their lizard, and every time I see the lizard, I think he must be on to something.)  But in a recent burst of fulfilling my gastronomical to-do list, I decided to finally try making my own kale chips.  I’m happy to say that the kale experiment yielded a far more impressive result than the rutabaga one.  Not that there’s anything wrong with rutabaga — it certainly has a whimsical name! — but it isn’t nearly as tongue-teasing as kale chips.  Even a recent bag of East of Eden tortilla chips seasoned with Mexican spices couldn’t trump the kale chips.

The secret is tri-fold: tear the kale into smallish pieces before baking them, don’t overcook them, and use a full-flavored, unrefined oil like peanut to give them fantastic crunch and flavor.  You’re ten minutes away from chip nirvana!

Roasted Kale Chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Thoroughly rinse kale, shake off excess water, and pat dry with a clean kitchen towel.  Tear the hard “spine” free from the leaf and discard, then tear up the leaves into smaller, chip-ish pieces.  Place pieces on a baking tray or cookie sheet that has turned-up edges (as opposed to a completely flat tray or sheet).  You’ll probably be able to fit about 4 torn-up leaves on a standard-size tray.

Drizzle about a tablespoon of unrefined peanut oil onto the leaves.  (If you use another type of unrefined oil, read the label and make sure it can handle the heat — otherwise, it’ll burn and throw off the flavor of the chips.  Peanut goes up to 395 degrees F, but sesame only handles up to 350 F.  Coconut oil can easily handle 375 F.)  Season chips with sea salt.

Using your fingers, carefully swirl each chip in the peanut oil until each one is well-coated on both sides.  Bake for 4 minutes, then promptly remove chips from oven and use tongs to turn each one over.  Bake for another 4 minutes.

Serve immediately…and beware!  Homemade kale chips are highly addictive and will probably wind up supplanting your potato and tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Cornbread "Panzanella" with Goat Cheese

I can’t be sure about this, but I’m guessing Italian panzanella sprang out of that greatest of all culinary traditions: using up the leftovers.  After all, who hasn’t grown up hearing “waste not, want not”?  The original Tuscan recipe calls for making a caprese salad — tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, red wine or balsamic vinegar, and extra-virgin olive oil — and tossing it with cubes of crusty, almost-stale bread.  The bread takes on the deep flavors of the vinegar, oil, and tomato juice and winds up making the most delicious croutons you could imagine.

That’s the same idea here, except that you’re using southwestern ingredients rather than Tuscan ones and cornbread instead of crusty loaf bread.  Like the original panzanella, this recipe is a great way to use up extra cornbread and to give it new life — cornbread is by nature a bit dry and crumbly, so it soaks up nearly as much liquid as the bread used in panzanella does.  ¡Qué rico!

Cornbread “Panzanella” Toss

Using any cornbread* you like (my favorite is the Crusty Soft-Center Spoon Bread from the Highest Deity amongst the culinary gods, The Joy of Cooking), either cut the cornbread into wedges or cubes.  Toss with drained black beans, chopped tomatoes, and chopped fresh cilantro.  Drizzle on some lime juice and extra-virgin olive oil and gently mix again.  Crumble soft goat cheese over the top of the salad and grind on a few rounds of coarse sea salt and mixed peppercorns.  If you like, sprinkle on some slivers of minced red onions before serving.

Enjoy!

* If you want to make this a gluten-free dish, simply use corn flour (not corn starch!) rather than wheat flour when baking your cornbread.  The majority of the grain in cornbread is cornmeal, anyway, so substituting corn flour for the small amount of wheat flour called for won’t make too much of an impact on the overall recipe.