Saturday, December 31, 2011

Massaged Kale Salad

Yes, even Kale benefits from a good massage, in this case, with salt.
Thanks to Liz for this recipe, it will be sure to get us through the winter.
Ingredients
One big bunch of Lacinato Kale (also called black kale, dinosaur kale.  The leaves are long, thinner and straight in comparison to regular curly kale)
1 T. Salt (we used sea salt cause I love it)
Roasted Sunflower Seeds
Blue Cheese
Raisins or Currants (try all kinds)
1 Apple, cored and sliced 
Cider Vinegar
Olive Oil

Rinse and dry kale.  Remove portion of stem, usually at least one third, that is woody and tough.  Stack kale leaves on top of each other and slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips.  Place strips in bowl and add 1 T. salt.  Massage salt through kale leaves.  This will tenderize the kale.  Set aside and core and slice apple. Break blue cheese up into edible chunk size.

Look at kale.  You'll notice that it is shrinking down in size a bit.  The salt is doing its job.
Add all other ingredients.  You'll notice that I didn't put down quantities for most of the ingredients. 

That's cause I wasn't given Q's by Liz.  This is a personal thing.  Use the amounts that you want to eat.  Do it all to taste.  It makes one heck of a salad.  And it keeps for a couple of days. 

Enjoy!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Escarole with Italian Sausage and White Beans Bon Appétit | October 1998


 We substituted what I like to call Faux Sausage, spicy vegetarian sausage links Whole Foods carries.  Also used vegetable broth in lieu of chicken.  Did not miss the prosciutto at all. 

Yield: Serves 12 as a side-dish or 6 as main-course
ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
12 Italian sausages (about 3 pounds), casings removed
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped prosciutto (about 2 ounces)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 large head escarole, chopped (about 10 cups)
3/4 cup dry white wine
4 15-ounce cans Great Northern beans, rinsed, drained
1 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
preparation
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sauté sausage until cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 6 minutes per batch. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to bowl, leaving drippings in pot. Reduce heat to medium; add onion to pot and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add prosciutto and sauté 1 minute. Mix in garlic and crushed red pepper. Add escarole and sauté until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add wine and cook 2 minutes. Add beans, stock and sausage and simmer 10 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to large bowl. Top with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Brown Sugar Cookies

So we don't do much baking here at DRI, but the other day I got the yen for some cookies. Tired of store-bought, I asked, why don't we make cookies. Linda's been telling me about the brown sugar cookies she used to make as a kid. So, here we go.
After a little googling, we found the folowing recipe at Cynthia Furey's Furey and the Feast blog. Linda says that this is exaclty how she remembers the childhood recipe, and I can attest that the cookies are awesome.