Kale Pesto, Green Man Soup, Baked Salmon w/ Chickpeas & Greens, Roasted Curry Butternut Squash

Kale Pesto Pasta
First time I've ever made a pesto type pasta sauce.  Won't be the last.  This one is really tasty!

1/2 box of Rotini pasta or similar shape and size.
1/4 cup toasted Pine Nuts
4-5 Kale leaves
1 Lemon, zested and juiced
Pinch of Salt
1/3 cup EVOO
Optional -- a balance between kale and julienned basil leaves for flavor.

Cook the pasta to package directions, drain and return to the pot to keep it warm.

While the water is coming to a boil, stem the kale and rough chop it.  Add 1/8 cup water to a microwave safe glass bowl, toss in the kale, cover loosely and nuke for 1 minute to soften the leaves.  Take all the solids for a whirrrr in your food processor, and add a drizzle of EVOO as it spins until you get the desired consistency.  Bingo!  Instant pesto  -- about 1 cup.

Spoon the pesto over the pasta and serve with shredded or grated parmesan or romano cheese.

Green Man Soup
A Green Man is a medieval carved figure of a human face formed from leaves.  Popular in British cathedrals and other sites, the Green Man is found in many cultures abound the world.  Supposedly a pagan vegetation god, he is sometimes the masculine equivalent of the Mother Goddess.  In spite of the pagan origin he is found most frequently in church architectural decoration.

My Green Man is a soup made from almost all green vegetables -- broccoli stems, asparagus butts (I know you freeze and save them like I do), kale, lettuce and onion.

2 cups Broccoli Stem coins -- stems peeled and sliced 1/4" or less thin
2 cups Asparagus butts -- sliced into 1/4" rounds
2 cups (compressed) chopped, stemmed Kale
1 cup Lettuce, chopped, packed
1 cup diced Onion
6 cups Water
1 can Evaporated Milk
1 tsp each -- Rosemary, Sage, Oregano
1/2 tsp each Dill, Red Pepper flakes
Optional Toppings -- reserve some broccoli coins and asparagus bits and stir them in before serving.  Thin slice a nice large radish and garnish each bowl.  A dollop of sour cream, Greek yogurt, or that Almond Sour Cream I wrote about a couple weeks ago would also make a great topping.

Simmer things on medium until the water is reduced to about 1 cup.  Ladle the greenery into your food processor and take it for a spin -- you want a nice smooth consistency.

Return the puree to the pot, add the evaporated milk, and stir to combine.  Bring to a simmer for fifteen minutes to finish.  Ladle into bowls and garnish. 

Serve with buttered toast or a crusty loaf.


Baked Salmon with Chickpeas and Greens
Always looking for something special to do with salmon.  This dish is exceptional!

2 skinless Salmon filets
1-1/2 cups cooked Chickpeas
4 Leaves of Kale, stemmed and chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tsp Cumin seed, crushed
1 Lemon, juiced
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
Honey
EVOO
S&P TT

Put the chickpeas in a mixing bowl and smash about half of them.  Drizzle with about 1 Tbsp of EVOO, sprinkle on the cumin seeds, a pinch of salt and some fresh cracked black pepper.  Toss to combine everything.  Lay the chickpea mixture on the bottom of a baking dish.

In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped kale, the chopped garlic, 1 Tbsp of honey and 1/4 cup water.  Toss to moisten the kale.  Then microwave, covered for about 1-1/2 minutes to wilt the leaves.  Spread the kale on top the chickpeas, then lay the salmon filets on top.  Dust the Salmon with a bit more black pepper.

Bake in a 250F preheated oven for 30-40 minutes.

While the salmon bakes, stir together a simple vinaigrette-style topping with the juice of a lemon, a Tbsp of honey, and the Dijon mustard.   Drizzle the vinaigrette over the plated salmon on a bed of the chickpeas and greens.

Roasted Curry-Butternut Squash
with a Lemon-Yogurt Drizzle
Another good find this week.  How to make a side dish into a main course!

2 Butternut Squash peeled and cut into 1" cubes
2 cup cooked Garbanzos
Curry Spice Blend
2/3 cup plain Greek Yogurt or Skyr
Juice of 1 good sized Lemon or Lime
1/3 cup Fresh Basil, chopped Julienne

Peel and cut the squash into 1" cubes.  I par cook the whole squash 3-4 minutes before slicing, peeling and cubing.   Toss the squash and beans with a splash of EVOO.  Dust with your favorite curry spice blend and toss again.  Bake in a 375F oven for 30-45 minutes until the squash cubes are fork tender.

Garlic-Alfredo Eggplant Parm, Chickpea Rissoles, Caulif-Rice Stir Fry and more!

Garlic Alfredo Eggplant Parmesan
Not yo Mama's Eggplant Parm! This version features a very garlicky Alfredo sauce instead of the usual tomato-based sauce.

1 jar Alfredo Sauce
5 cloves Garlic
1-2 Eggplant -- enough for 2 layers in a 9x12 baking pan
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 cup shredded Mozzarella or other white cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (tube stuff is fine here)
6-8 leaves fresh Basil, cut julienne
EVOO for drizzling
Oregano, Sage and Rosemary to taste

Empty the Alfredo sauce into a bowl, add 1/2 cup water to the jar and shake vigorously to release the sauce stuck to the inside of the jar.  Add the shaken water to the bowl of sauce and stir.  Use a garlic press to crush the garlic into the Alfredo, and stir to combine.

Slice the eggplant 3/4" thick.  Lay the rounds out on a baking sheet and drizzle them with EVOO.  Sprinkle with the spices. 

Broil up close for 5 minutes. 

Flip the slices over and repeat the oiling and spicing.  Broil for another 5 minutes.  You don't want the eggplant to be mushy- done.

Lay the first layer of eggplant on a couple spoonsful of the garlic-Alfredo schmeared on the bottom of the baking pan.  Top with half the panko, half the cheese, then half the remaining Alfredo.  Repeat the layering with the remaining eggplant, sauce, cheeses, and then sprinkle the sliced basil on top of it all.

Bake at 400F for 45 minutes or until you get a nice browned crust.  Serve with crusty bread.

Chickpea Rissoles (Patties)
This is basically the Black Bean Rissole recipe I wrote about back in January, but using Garbanzos instead of Black Beans, and a different spice profile to go with the nuttiness of the Garbanzos.

2 cups of cooked Garbanzos/Chickpeas, rinsed an drained
1/2 Sweet Onion (Vidalia, Maui, etc.) diced
2 cloves Garlic
3 Tbsp minced Parsley
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Panko or other bread crumbs
Seasoning  -- I used 2 tsp Oregano and 1 tsp each Rosemary and Sage

Put half of the beans in a food processor along with the onion, garlic, egg, parsley and pepper flakes.  Take everything for a spin until it's finely ground.  Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Smash the remaining cup of beans to break them up a bit, but don't turn them into mashed beans.  Stir to combine the smashed beans, along with the bread crumbs, to the pureed mixture -- so your patties will have some texture.

Form the mixture into patties and fry for 6-8 minutes per side.

Serve with a sauce or two -- marinara, Lizano, remoulade, even a dab of good grainy mustard.


Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry
Simple, tasty, filling, and a bit healthier than a conventional rice stir fry.  Here's what I used:

Cauliflower Rice
Red Bell Pepper, diced
Green Cubanelle Chile, chopped
Mushrooms, sliced
Sweet Onion, diced
Toasted Pine Nuts
Sauce poured on at the last minute; equal amounts of :
Toasted Sesame Oil
White Wine Vinegar
Low Sodium Soy Sauce

Fry the chopped veggies first, in a minimal amount of EVOO.  When they're al dente, add the cauliflower rice and stir until the "rice" is cooked -- maybe 5 minutes...


Baked Zucchini Chips
This is a fun little side dish, snack or appetizer.  You'll need good knife skills, or a mandolin, to get thin slices.

Slice 'em thin, and lay them out on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Then hit them with a favorite spice blend, and put in a 450F oven for about 15 minutes until they just start to darken. Reduce the heat to 150F and continue cooking another 45 minutes or so to get them crispy-dry.

 Serve them up with a favorite dipping sauce -- bleu cheese, remoulade, sweet-hot chili sauce, etc.  The recipe is a bit time consuming for not much munch.  Make a couple trays at a time.  The above tray came from one 8" zucchini, and only yielded this ramekin of chips!

Duck Egg Omelet
I just have to show off this omelet!  One of the prettiest dishes I think I've ever cooked!

We went up to Orlando, stayed with our friend Melinda, and a bunch of us went to the Jimmy Buffet & Eagles concert.  The next morning I made duck egg omelets for us, and this nearly perfect one egg omelet with feta and mushrooms is what I served up for Mel's first taste of duck egg. 

Duck eggs are a bit more expensive than chicken eggs, and you wouldn't want to eat them every day.  But for an occasional treat they are certainly worth the cost.  We're lucky -- a work friend of Sally's has a flock of free range chickens and ducks which just can't seem to stop laying eggs!

Duck vs Chicken Egg Nutrition
Duck eggs are bigger, so you get more eggy goodness:

Protein
   Chicken 6 gr
   Duck 9 gr
Vit D
   C  41 IU
   D  48 IU
Choline
   C  147 mg
   D  185 mg
Calories
  C  72 cal
  D  130 cal
Fat
  C  5 gr
  D  9 gr
Cholesterol
  C  186 mg
  D  619  mg

The higher cholesterol rating is the only slightly negative aspect of duck eggs, but that can be countered by pairing them with a diet which includes less red meat, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans  -- the sort of diet we should all be embracing for a longer, healthier, happier life. 

Vegetarian Fiesta with Cashew Sour Cream, Black Beans, Strawberry Pico de Gallo and Handmade Tortillas

Vegetarian Fiesta
Sally found the basis for this meal on www.bluezones.com  where living longer and eating better go hand in hand.  This is so darn taste-filled you simply don't miss meat!  Except for soaking cashews and watching a pot of black beans simmer, this really isn't a long, drawn-out affair.

Cashew Sour Cream
Expensive, but worth every penny!!!  Think of other things this concoction will go on!

3/4 cup Raw Cashews
3/8 cup water,  plus water for soaking
1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Pinch of Salt

Soak the cashews overnight covered in water.  Or boil up water to cover and soak them for an hour.

Combine the cashews with the other ingredients and take it all for a whirrrrr in your blender.  Makes about a cup of fabulousness!

Fiesta Black Beans
Spices and things add a nice touch to plain old beans...

1 cup Dry Black  Beans
3 cups Water
2 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning
1/2 cup diced Onion
1/4 cup Diced Red Bell Pepper
1/4 cup diced Green Chile of your choice

Bring the water to a boil, add the spices, red bell pepper and half the diced onion.  Simmer for about 40 minutes until beans are tender.  Reserve 1 cup of cooked beans for the recipe, and store the rest in the fridge or freezer for later.

With a fork, mash some, but not all of the reserved beans.  Add to the beans the reserved onion and diced green chile and toss to combine.

Strawberry Pico de Gallo
Don't have strawberries? Try a bit of mango or even blueberries.  Make this while other things are cooking/soaking...

1/4 cup diced White Onion
1/4 cup diced Tomato
1/8 cup diced Green Chile of your choice
4-5 large Strawberries, diced
3-4 Tbsp Lime Juice

Stir ingredients together and chill.

Handmade Tortillas
The last thing you make, just minutes before eating, are the tortillas.  If you don't have a tortilla press, you can still make tortillas by using a pair of foil-covered 1x8 boards 8" long and pressing manually.  Or you can try placing the masa between pieces of wax paper and using a rolling pin.

2 cups Masa Harina flour (no substitute here)
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1-1/2 cups warm tap water

Combine the masa and baking soda, then with a fork stir in the warm water.  If the dough doesn't quite come together into a stiff mix, add another tablespoon of water until it does.  Cover and rest for 5 minutes.

Knead the dough a minute or two to help it come together more. Divide into 8 pieces and roll each into a ball.

Heat a large heavy skillet or griddle pan smoking hot.  DO NOT oil or grease the surface.

Cover the plates of the tortilla press (or your boards) with squares of wax paper.  Place a ball of dough between the pieces of paper and p.r.e.s.s. until the newly formed tortilla is about 6" in diameter and less than 1/8" thin.  Carefully peel the tortilla away from the wax paper and lay it on the hot griddle/pan.  Cook the tortilla for 30 seconds on each side, remove from the pan and stack on a plate. 

Cover with a towel to keep the cooked tortillas warm, and continue pressing and cooking until all 8 tortillas are done.

Put everything on the table and call your partner to dinner!


Golden Beet Soup
I had these beautiful beets hanging around and wanted to do something different.  This is my take on a Golden soup.

1 Leeks sliced into half rings
1-1/2 lbs Golden Beets, peeled and cut into wedges
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, diced large
1-2 Yukon Gold Potatoes, no peeled, cubed
1/2 cup Carrot slices
Bragg Organic Sprinkle Seasoning tm
6 cups Water (less sodium than "no sodium" vegetable broth)

Saute the leek in a bit of EVOO, add all the other ingredients and simmer 1-2 hours.  Served with nice crusty garlic bread.

Broccoli Soup, Biscuits & Gravy

Broccoli Soup
Had a double batch of broccoli that I wanted to use, but didn't want the usual steamed, stir-fried, baked-and-cheese covered fare.  When I settled on soup, I didn't want a cream soup with chunks of broccoli either.  This one filled the bill, and was really delicious.

4-5 stems of broccoli, chopped into florets
6 cups water
1 White Onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small Thumb of Ginger, minced
1 Tbsp Pride of Szged Fish Rubtm spice blend
1/4 cup Half & Half
1/4 Cup Mascarpone Cheese
Garnish

Cook onion soft, adding the garlic and ginger.  Add the broccoli and 6 cups water.  Spice.  Simmer 15-20 minutes until the broccoli is done but not mushy.

Remove the broccoli from liquid, and put it in your food processor.  Discard all but 3/4 - 1 cup of liquid to help in the puree process.  Puree the broccoli and then return it to the pot. 

Add the half & half and cheese.  Stir to combine and taste.  Adjust the spice as desired (a touch of Cajun spice or a small amount of red pepper flakes does not go amiss here).  Simmer for another 15-20 minutes to marry everything together.  Don't thin this down with water, you want a thick, rich soup, not green water...

Serve with a nice crusty baguette and a dollop of sour cream, skyr or Greek yogurt.


Biscuits & Gravy
My Dad's favorite breakfast (or dinner, for that matter) was Cream Dried Beef on Toast, a dish he learned to enjoy while in the Navy during WWII.  Of course soldiers and sailors never called it that; we called it S.O.S.  "Stuff" on a Shingle.   Biscuits & Gravy is the Southern iteration of this iconic American dish.

3 Ingredient Biscuits
Also known as Soda Biscuits or 7-Up Biscuits.

2-1/2 cups Bisquick(tm)
1/2 cup Sour Cream, plain Skyr or plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Lemon-Lime Soda or Ginger Ale or Club Soda
Flour for Prepping the work surface

Preheat oven to 425F.  While that's happening:

Combine the baking mix, sour cream and soda into a soft dough.  Liberally flour your work surface.  Turn the dough out on it, top with a bit more bench flour, and knead, flouring as you go, until it comes together without being a sticky mess.  I often use a spatula for this rather than fingers.

Pat the dough out about 3/4" thick and cut your biscuits out with a 2-1/2" or 3" round cutter.  Makes about 6 biscuits Place the biscuits on a baking sheet., and bake for 15 minutes and they will be GB&D.  

Gravy -- a.k.a. White Sauce With Meat
2-3 Tbsp Butter
3-4 AP Flour
1/4 lb Bulk Sausage
1/4 tsp White Pepper
2 cups Half & Half or Milk

Brown the sausage in the pot where you'll make the gravy.  Keep the flavor (spelled g.r.e.a.s.e.) in the pot and remove the meat for now.

Add to the pot 2 Tbsp butter and melt it.  To that, add 3 or 4 Tbsp of flour and stir to combine.  You'll end up with a greasy lump of flour.  Break up the lump and cook it for a couple minutes to remove the floury taste.  Don't let it start to brown.  Add about 1/2 cup of the dairy and whisk to break up the flour/butter lumps.  Keep whisking and adding the dairy and pepper.  Then, as the white sauce comes to a boil, add the meat.  Whisk and simmer until the gravy reaches the consistency you like.  Ladle over the hot biscuits and serve

Yamil, a recent guest at our AirBnb listing had Biscuits and Gravy for his birthday breakfast. 

I made it extra special with an edible candle holder!! 

Photo compliments of Christine Gagnon.

Savory Butternut, Trinity Shrimp & Tropical C-rice, Scottish Boiled Orange Cake

Gluten-Free Scottish Orange Cake
Scottish and orange?  Yep -- the Scots invented orange marmalade, so the story goes, back in the mid 1700s when a ship came to port with a cargo of oranges that were going bad.  The Captain asked his wife if she could do with the fruit, and marmalade was the result.  Some folks say this recipe evolved from a Jewish recipe.  Who cares?  It's really tasty!

This Orange Cake recipe comes from Kim Nelson, via The Splendid Table, the long running NPR Saturday morning foodie program.  As written this makes a 12" cake.  I used a half recipe and made an 8" cake.  Yes,  an 8" cake is half the volume of a 12" cake -- do the math.

Butter to grease the pan
1-1/4 cups sugar, plus 1 Tbsp for dusting
3/4 cup Almond Flour or meal, plus 1 Tbsp for dusting
3 medium, unpeeled, Navel Oranges (any good, sweet orange should do)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
9 Large Eggs -- yep, 9 of 'em!!

Put the whole oranges in a deep-ish pot and cover with cold water.  Remove the fruit, add a 1/2 cup of sugar, and stir to dissolve as the water warms up.  Return the fruit and bring to a good simmer.  Simmer for 1 hour, until tender as swollen from absorbing sugar-water.  

Remove the oranges, discard the leftover water.  When cool, quarter the fruit and remove any seeds.  Put the fruit in your food processor and puree until smooth.  You can do this the day before and store the puree in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Generously butter a 12" springform pan, and dust it with the tablespoon of almond flour and the tablespoon of sugar.

In a bowl, combine the 3/4 cup of almond flour and 3/4 cup sugar with the baking powder.

With a mixer, whip the eggs on high until thick and creamy.  With a rubber spatula fold the orange puree into the eggs until just combined, and then fold in the almond flour mixture until smooth. 

Pour the batter into the prepared springform.

Bake 45 minutes or until a knife in the center comes out clean. 

Cool, cover and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight before removing from the pan. 

IMHO overnight is too long, really.  But it does need several hours to set up properly.

Yes the cake sags in the middle; nothing you can do about it unless you decide to fill the divot like I did:  whipped cream smoothed and then topped with sliced strawberries...

What a fabulous, light and flavor-filled dessert!  Really orange-y!

Savory Butternut Dinner
There was this butternut squash, just asking to be made into dinner.  But I just didn't want to make another brown-sugar-maple-butter-orange-juice kind of sweet dish.  I wanted something savory -- a real dinner recipe.  So I dug around a bit, combined bits and pieces from here and there, and this is what we had:

1 Butternut Squash, peeled
1/8 cup shredded Parmesan (from a can)
1/4 cup toasted Pine Nuts
1/8 cup Panko breadcrumbs
6 leaves fresh Basil, sliced julienne
1/8 cup chopped fresh Parsley
a dash of dried Sage
1/4 cup shredded herbed Cheese (Aldi brand)

Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet for 5-8 minutes, and then set them aside.

I nuked the squash for about 4 minutes, then halved and peeled it.  In retrospect, I should have chopped the squash into 1" cubes at this point and nuked until just tender.  I laid the squash flat side up in a dish, and topped it with all the other ingredients.  Then I put the dish under the broiler for 5 minutes.  Voila!

The neck parts of the squash were undercooked and had to be returned to the microwave, but the flavor combination was really nice.  Next time I'll cube the squash, toss with a splash of EVOO and then toss with the herbs and such so everything gets coated before the second cooking.

Some of my northern readers may wonder why I use the microwave so much.  When it's 85-95 outside and 80 inside (we don't set the AC any lower than 78), it costs too much electricity and heating up the kitchen/house to fire up the oven for 30 minutes or more.  So we microwave, and then use the broiler for  5 minutes or so to give dishes a nice brown topping.

Trinity Shrimp & Tropical C-Rice

All my own invention!  Shrimp and veg in a tasty combination.  

12+ peeled  Shrimp

2 sticks Celery

1/2 Red Bell Pepper, diced

1/4 White Onion, diced

Cajun Spice blend of choice, to taste

2 cups Cauliflower Rice

1 packet Badia brand Sazon Tropicaletm spice blend

Saute the shrimp in a splash of water and Cajun spice or BBQ sauce of your choice.  Don't over-cook them, remove from the heat when they've just turned orange-pink.  Reserve.

In the same skillet, with a splash of EVOO, saute the Trinity -- Celery, Onion and Bell Pepper -- with Cajun spice until they're just soft.  Toss together with the shrimp.

In a pot, cook the c-rice -- home made or store-bought -- with the Tropical seasoning packet and 2/3 cup water.  Stir to mix the spice blend throughout the cauliflower.  Cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat to reduce some of the water.

Plate the c-rice with place the Trinity Shrimp either along side or on top.  Yum!