Beans on Toast, Haute Rendition

M. came up for dinner the other night, and there was a lot of talk (or, rather, gchat) beforehand regarding what exactly we would make. She has different points of reference than I do in the kitchen, and always seems comfortable just winging it. I’m happy to throw together random things in a pot when I’m the only one eating dinner at the end of the process, but if there are guests–even guests like M, whom I have known since birth–I usually want to be more by-the-book.* But wing it we did, and with fine results.

I had this massive bunch of Swiss chard in the fridge, which I lobbied pretty hard to have included in the meal plan. When your produce was picked just a day or two before it arrives in your kitchen, it tends to last longer than something you bought at Gristede’s. But even so, I’m trying to be smarter about using the more delicate & perishable items earlier in the week and saving the cabbage and other hearty things for the weekend. So I was inclined to use the chard sooner rather than later. 

I also had a can of chickpeas. And M. had a half a loaf of excellent bread she’d been given by someone that day. (This seems to happen to M. all the time, the receipt of random gifts of food. I wonder sometimes how I can reconfigure my life so that it is a common occurrence for me, too.) And since there are almost always tahini and lemon in my fridge, the conclusion was to make a sort of deconstructed hummus–chickpeas smashed lightly with a fork and dressed in my favorite tahini dressing from The Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook. Those we would spread on toast and top with some sauteed chard.

The end result was a wonderful, light summer dinner, which was almost impossibly healthy. But don’t hold that against it.

*It doesn’t much matter what book that is, however. Ottolenghi, Deborah Madison, David Tanis…

Chickpea & Swiss Chard Tartine

makes 6-8 little sandwiches

Tahini dressing:

(adapted from the Metropolitan Bakery)

1/4 c tahini

1/4 c warm water

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 cups chickpeas

2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

1 large bunch Swiss chard, stems & leaves separated

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

salt

lemon juice

3-4 scallions, chopped

6-8 slices good crusty bread

Whisk together all the ingredients in the dressing. Smash chickpeas lightly with a fork. Toss with the dressing and parsley. Let sit while you prepare the chard.

Dice the stems and cut the leaves into ribbons. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the stems and cook until they start to soften. Add the leaves & a bit of salt. Saute until the leaves are cooked through and the stems are tender. Add the chopped scallions and a squeeze of lemon juice. Remove from the heat and taste for salt.

Toast the bread. Spread some of the chickpea mixture on each piece, then top with some chard. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil if you like.

Couscous

About a year ago, a reader suggested that I check out a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Plenty for something he calls Ultimate Winter Couscous (also available on his blog on the Guardian). Well, it took a while for me to get around to it, but I finally made it for dinner a few weeks ago. It should come as no surprise at all that it’s another winner. I admit, the ingredient list is a bit long. But if you are someone who cooks a lot, chances are most of these things are in your pantry anyway. And if they’re not, then this is an excellent excuse to go out and buy some saffron and preserved lemons, and to make up a batch of harissa. 

Start with a roasting pan, with chopped carrots and parsnips, peeled shallots, cinnamon sticks, star anise, bay leaves, ginger, turmeric, paprika, and chili flakes. Toss with olive oil and salt, and roast in a moderately hot oven for 15 minutes.

Add some cubed winter squash, and stick it back in the oven for another half hour or so, until the veggies are tender.

While that’s doing its thing, get the couscous ready. Mix the dry couscous with a pinch of saffron, salt, and olive oil in a big bowl. Pour boiling water (or veggie stock, if you’ve got it) over it, stir it up, and stick a plate on top of the bowl until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Stir in a little butter and put the plate back on top until you’re ready to serve.

Add some chopped dried apricots, cooked (or canned) chickpeas, and some water (or the chickpea cooking liquid) to the roasting pan and cook another 10 minutes. 

Just before serving, stir in some harissa paste and chopped preserved lemon skin into the veggies. 

Serve a couple of big spoonfuls of the vegetables over a plate of the couscous, and top with a lot of fresh cilantro.

It’s a very flavorful dish without being overwhelming, and filling without being too rich. It may no longer be winter, technically, but the pickings are still pretty slim at my greenmarket, so a dinner based on root vegetables and legumes isn’t out of the question just yet.

Tamarind

The last time I was at Kalustyan’s, I bought myself a little container of tamarind paste. Or possibly tamarind concentrate. Or extract, maybe. I had no idea what I was going to do with it–and apparently no idea what was actually inside the little plastic tub–though I had definitely flagged a few recipes that were likely suspects. It also shows up a lot on the menu of one of my favorite take-out joints, Cafe Mingala. And mostly it just seemed like a good idea. But then it sat in my fridge, unopened, for ages, while I got distracted.

Ottolenghi to the rescue! I stumbled across an older post on his blog, a recipe for swiss chard, chickpea and tamarind stew. Score!

Like many recipes from everyone’s favorite Cordon Bleu-trained London-based Israeli chef, there are some unusual ingredient combinations. And it’s not a “let’s throw everything in a pot and see what happens” kind of stew, either. I suspect that it could work with that technique (one of my favorites) but I decided for this maiden voyage, I’d stick to the playbook. Mostly.

So I blanched and drained some Swiss chard.

And I sauteed some onions with caraway seeds.

I may have forgotten to add the tomato paste to cook before the chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and spices, but I don’t think any serious harm was done. I also realized that whatever the form of the tamarind in my fridge it was not the same as what Ottolenghi is asking for. Mine is thickly runny, a bit like pomegranate molasses. But after searching around online a little, I made a somewhat-educated guess and swapped in about 2 teaspoons of the concentrate for the 4 tablespoons of watered down pulp.

And then I let it simmer while I made some rice (short grain, like I was told to do).

To serve, spoon the stew over the rice and top with a big spoonful of Greek yogurt, a drizzle of good olive oil, and a pile of chopped cilantro.

It is rather tart (thanks to the tomatoes and the tamarind) but with a good amount of sweetness, and then the occasional zip of a caraway seed. And it is delicious. I should probably find some other recipes that call for tamarind, because I have a lot of it now, but I might just wind up making this weekly until it’s all gone.

New favorites

So I have been a bit overloaded with potatoes lately. For several weeks now, we’ve been getting 4 POUNDS of potatoes with each delivery. It’s a little ridiculous. So I keep looking for new interesting ways to prepare them. Often it winds up being just a variation on mashed potatoes (with celeriac, with kale, with turnips, with mustard seed, hot pepper, and coconut…) but that never feels like a whole meal.

This recipe, on the other hand, is not only a legitimate meal unto itself, it’s also my new favorite thing in the world. It comes from Deborah Madison’s giant veggie cookbook, and it is a Lebanese stew with chickpeas, carrots, and tomatoes.

Start off by cooking some chopped onion in olive oil. Meanwhile mash up some garlic with ground coriander (that was a new technique to me–I’ve seen garlic mashed with salt, but never a spice).

Then in go the potatoes, cut into a chickpea-sized dice, the carrots in a rough chop, the garlic/coriander mix, and a dried hot pepper.

Cook that for a while, and then add the chickpeas…

and some peeled, diced tomatoes.

Stir it all up, add a bit of water, and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, maybe 20 minutes.

Garnish with chopped parsley, some lemon juice, and black olives (I used oil-cured Moroccan olives, which seemed like the best choice from the options at Agata & Valentina).

Once again, I learned that Deborah Madison has most of the answers (the question being in this case, “What do I do with these potatoes?”). I also learned, again, to trust her marginalia, which advised for this recipe that it is also good cold. And is it ever. I enjoyed this quite a lot when it was straight out of the pot, but somehow after sitting in the fridge overnight, it tasted ten times better the next day, not even heated up. I find that to be rare with potato dishes especially.

Easy Peasy Weeknight Dinner

I think I spent more time looking at possible recipes for dinner tonight than I spent actually cooking.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make some traditional Catalan-style spinach, so I bought some sultanas (aka golden raisins) and pine nuts, and then promptly ate that week’s spinach with something else and forgot about it. So tonight, in the midst of doing a couple of loads of laundry, while I was trying to figure out how to make a first dent in this week’s delivery, I remembered that plan. But it seemed like the Catalan elements would work better if I cooked them with the couscous. So here we go.

First, in goes the spinach in a big pan, just until wilted basically:

Then to prepare the couscous I wanted to serve it with:

I really can’t remember where I learned this (totally, completely non-traditional, will-get-you-punched-in-the-face-by-a-Moroccan) method of preparing couscous, but it’s awesome. Take some nuts, some dried fruit, a little salt, some olive oil (and whatever else you want–chopped herbs, shredded carrots, whatever), mix it all up with your hands in a bowl, then pour in some boiling water and cover it with a plate:

Oh, yeah, we need some protein, too. Good thing I’ve got those chickpeas in the fridge:

Toss the spinach back in:

I know the couscous LOOKS like a big boring beige mess, but trust me, it’s good:

And voila, dinner is served, and the laundry has still got 20 minutes to go in the dryer:

Catalan Spinach and Chickpeas with Couscous

1 bunch spinach (3/4 lb.)
1 c. chickpeas
2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 c. couscous
1/4 c. pine nuts
1/4 c. sultanas
salt
olive oil

Wash and trim the spinach, and put the leaves, still dripping, in a pan over medium heat. Cover, stirring occasionally, just until cooked. Remove to a strainer and set aside. Put on a kettle of water to boil.

Pour 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil in the same pan over medium heat again, and add the slices of garlic. Cook just until fragrant and lightly golden, then pull them out. Toss in the chickpeas and let cook while preparing the couscous.

In a heatproof bowl, combine the couscous, pine nuts, sultanas, cooked garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil. Mix it all up with your hands (it’s messy, but it really works better). When the kettle boils, pour in 3/4 c. water, stir it all up, and cover the bowl with a plate. Let sit while finishing up the spinach.

Roughly chop the cooked spinach and add it to the pan with the chickpeas, and a little salt. Let it all warm through then turn off the heat.

Remove the plate from over the couscous and taste to see if it’s done. If there’s still water left, pour it off.

Serve the spinach on top of the couscous.

Ideas to Try

From the New York Times:

Sweet and Sour Cabbage With Tofu and Grains
Zucchini ‘Pasta’
Quinoa With Corn and Zucchini

From Smitten Kitchen:

Zucchini Bread

From 101 Cookbooks:

Lemony Chickpea Stir-fry Recipe (with spinach instead of kale)

Catching up — weeks #1-3

Lemon Balm (week #2) Syrup

1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 bunch lemon balm

put all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. turn off heat and steep an additional 15 minutes. strain. chill.

Lemon Balm Martinis

2 Tbsp. lemon balm syrup
4-5 Tbsp. vodka

mix over ice. pour into chilled glass. serve with a lemon twist.

garlic scapes (weeks #2 & #3)

White Bean and Garlic Scapes Dip

courtesy of the New York Times

Penne with Bright Lights Swiss Chard (week #3), Garlic, and White Beans

adapted from Gourmet

Summer Spinach (weeks #2 and #3) with Chickpeas

courtesy of Madhur Jaffrey in Saveur
cool collapsible tupperware courtesy of my sister, Lindsay