Kale week: Turkey chili with kale

Turkey Chili With Kale

Again, not absolutely sure from whence I adapted this one, but I suspect it might be from this Kitchn recipe, given how much time I wasted on Apartment Therapy about the time I started making this.

Ingredients

20-ounce package ground turkey

1 cup diced onion

3 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1½ tablespoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes

1 15-ounce can black beans

1 cup cooked corn

1½ cup chicken broth

1½ to 2 cups well-chopped kale (5 to 6 large leaves)

Method

Brown ground turkey over medium heat. Remove from pan and set aside. Lower heat and cook onion and garlic until softened (if your turkey is particularly lean, you might need to add some olive oil to the pan.) Add tomato paste and seasonings; cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, beans, corn, broth and kale. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook covered for about 45 minutes. Serves 6 readily.

Still not much of a dent in the kale supply, but I've yet to exhaust my usual suspect fall kale recipes. Freezer is starting to get fuller, however.

Make-ahead tip: A good choice for freezing. Might need to add a touch more broth when reheating.

Kale week: Kale and roasted vegetable soup

Kale and Roasted Vegetable Soup

I got the original version of this recipe off the website of the Midtown Farmers Market in 2009. They didn’t credit the source, so I can’t for certain either, although I see that Simply Recipes posted the same one at least a year earlier, so possibly that’s where credit is due. At any rate, it’s become my favorite meatless kale soup. It's hearty enough to make a meatless main dish.

Ingredients

3 medium carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise

2 large tomatoes, quartered

1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges

½ small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut crosswise into ½-thick wedges

6 peeled garlic cloves

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 to 6 cups broth

3 to 4 cups well-chopped kale, depending on how much you like

3 large sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1 15-ounce can Great Northern beans or other largish, whitish beans

Method

Brush roasting pan with a bit of olive oil. Arrange carrots, squash, onions and tomatoes on pan. Tuck garlic cloves down into the crevices so they roast without getting dried out. Drizzle with more olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for about 40 minutes at 400 until veggies are tender and brown.

Remove from oven. Once cool enough to handle, cut carrots and squash into ½-inch chunks. Set aside. Put onion, tomato and garlic in a food processor and puree until almost smooth. (I sometimes add a wedge or two of the squash; it makes for a creamier soup.)

(Note: The pureed mixture, with or without the added chunks of carrots and squash, also makes a great pasta sauce, so if I'm just trying to use up squash and tail-end tomatoes in the fall, I stop here and put it into packages to freeze for later use. But since I've got kale aplenty... )

Deglaze the roasting pan with a bit of the broth. Pour into a large stock pot along with pureed mixture, 5 cups of broth, kale, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer uncovered until kale is tender, at least 30 minutes. Taste it to see if that raw kale taste has given way to something richer.

Add beans and reserved carrots and squash. Cook until heated through. Add more broth if needed to reach desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed. Discard herbs. Serves 6 quite generously.

Note: Because this soup is meatless, the quality of the broth matters even more than usual, so if you can’t opt for homemade, at least spring for a higher quality of stock for this one.

Make-ahead tips: Like most soups, this benefits from being made at least a day ahead so the flavors can truly blend, although it's tasty enough when it's first done. I've also made the roasted veggie part a day or two ahead, and I generally chop my kale up in big batches and portion it out as needed over a week of kale-soup binge making. It freezes well, so I put up two-serving portions in plastic containers, label them and then thaw a day or two ahead of time in the refrigerator.

I usually make a double batch of this soup, which takes a very large pot indeed. I make mine in a Le Creuset No. 30.

Kale week begins

Officially, National Kale Day is the first Wednesday in October. But I was on vacation then, and also, I have enough kale to use up that I can't confine it to just one day. So expect a week of my favorite fall kale soups and such ahead.

Every year I have good intentions of just planting one kale plant. But seemingly every year this plan goes awry. Interlopers creep in via a multi-pack of greens. Someone offered me a Dinosaur kale (lacintino) at the plant swap in exchange for something I was just trying to get rid of, so I said sure. And surely enough, I now am facing impending frost dates with four very large kale plants in need of use. So here goes.

First, I start picking the biggest leaves at the base of the stem and go back after more once I've cooked my way through that lot. Wash all the leaves carefully, because falling tree debris tends to nestle in their ruffles. When dealing with the biggest leaves, you'll need to cut out the tough center stem up to the point where the rest of the plant is tender. (If you're starting with small kale greens from the grocery store, skip ahead to the chopping bit.)

If you're going to be using the kale within a week, go ahead and chop it up. If you're hoping to freeze it for later, blanch it in boiling water for a few minutes first to stop the growing process and then proceed with the chopping.

Unless you're making kale chips, you'll want to chop up the leaves. (Just google kale chips if you haven't tried it, it does actually work and is definitely worth making at least once -- just watch them very carefully because the window between raw leaves and incinerated chips is very, very small.)

Place your leaves in a pile several leaves high. Roll up like a jelly roll and chiffonade the leaves into wide ribbons.

If you plan to use the leaves in a saute or pasta sauce, you can store them at this point until you're ready to use. For most other uses, you want the leaves much smaller. In soups, you'll want the leaf pieces no bigger than a soup spoon size at most, and most leaves should be much smaller. Otherwise it's like restaurants that don't rip their salad greens, leaving diners to face a logistical challenge hard to accomplish with any degree of grace. Long ribbons of kale in soup just assert themselves too much and are hard to eat.

Once all the leaves are cut in ribbons, then start chopping until most of the kale is fairly fine and nothing is bigger than a big parsley leaf. I use a chopping bowl and mezzaluna chopper for this. It's one of those tools I probably wouldn't have bought myself since it seems like a uni-tasker, but it's a gift I use frequently in kale season. (Thanks, Mom, even though you really never saw the point of kale.) The chopping bowl is a nice big bowl that gets used for everything from its intended purpose to a Halloween candy holder. It's certainly not necessary to have one, but it really helps keep all those little green kale flecks from flying around the kitchen.

Redbor and green kale leaves make for a more colorful combo in soup.

A big vat of chopped kale will keep at least a week in the refrigerator. Up first, a big vat of roasted veggie and kale soup that's simmering away even now. Too bad I can't even tell by looking at my plants that I've even picked anything. Maybe it's Kale Month.

Zucchini pesto galette and 4 other uses for zucchini

If you wound up with a bumper crop of zucchini you needed to harvest before the cold weather, or just want some recipes to file away for next year’s onslaught, here are a slew of options I’ve cooked lately: 

Summer Vegetable Galette With Pesto

Adapted from The Kitchn recipe. Like all galettes, it has the advantage of the loosey-goosey-ness free-form factor. Rusticity is your friend.

Ingredients:

1¼ cups flour

¾ teaspoon sea salt

1 stick of very cold butter, cubed

¼ cup ice cold water

1 small yellow squash, thinly sliced

1 small zucchini, thinly sliced

1 large tomato or two small, thinly sliced

1/3 to ½ cup pesto

1 egg yolk mixed with ½ teaspoon cream for egg wash

Grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Method:

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt and butter cubes. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With motor running, add cold water until mixture comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate or an hour or freeze for a half hour. (This dough was pretty sticky.)

Roll out pastry on floured board with well-floured rolling pin until it’s about 12 inches in diameter or your desired shape. (I went with a slightly oval shape because it was going to fit on my platter better, just roll your dough more in one direction than the other to achieve that shape.)

Spread a thin layer of pesto over the pastry to within about 1½ inches of the edge. Top with thin layer of zucchini and squash, then tomatoes. Fold up edges to form a galette. Brush edges with egg wash. Bake at 375 for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Let sit for about 10 minutes before slicing. Sprinkle with cheese if desired.

Rating: Surprisingly fast and easy, and quite tasty. The bottom crust got nicely done without the top getting too brown, which can sometimes be a problem with this sort of thing. The slices were completely pick-up-able and the bottom had a nice flaky texture instead of being mushy. I found myself wondering what sprinkling on a little bit of feta for the last five minutes of baking would be like, so there’s another excuse to try it again. 

Zucchini-tomato-onion kabobs

Cut 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash and 1 medium red onion into largish chunks. Combine squashes, onions and 1 pint cherry tomatoes on a bowl. Toss with some balsamic vinaigrette and let sit for a half hour. (Meanwhile, soak skewers in water if you’re using the bamboo variety.) Thread onto skewers and grill until al dente.

Zoodles and fresh tomato sauce

Chop up the equivalent of about 5 medium tomatoes. Peel and slice in 2 garlic cloves. Stir in about 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper. (Add mini fresh mozzarella balls if you’d like.)  Using a julienne shredder or mandolin, thinly slice zucchini and summer squash into thin ribbons. Toss zoodles with sauce.

Grilled zucchini and andouille sausage with quinoa

Slice 2 large zucchini and yellow squash diagonally about ¼ inch thick. Toss with balsamic dressing. Grill until almost tender, about 5 to 10 minutes depending on your grill temp. Thinly slice a medium-size red onion and cut 2 sausage links into ¼ inch slices. Saute until onions are tender and sausage is browned. Cook a cup of quinoa according to package directions. Toss all ingredients together.

Grilled Zucchini With Fresh Dill Vinaigrette

From “Bobby Flay’s Grill It.” Made this one last year before I got all fanatic about taking so-so pictures of whatever I tried that was new, so no pix. But like all the recipes from this book, the dressings/condiments are what really kick it:

Combine 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 2 teaspoons each of honey and Dijon mustard, and 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill in blender or food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Add ½ cup olive oil with motor running to emulsify. (This dressing is a keeper even if it never touches a zucchini.)

Quarter 3 medium zucchini lengthwise. Brush with olive oil and grill until just cooked, about 5 to 8 minutes. Cut grilled zucchini in half crosswise. Drizzle with vinaigrette and serve.

And some links to previous posts that make good use of zucchini:

http://chez-popine.blogspot.com/2014/01/goat-cheese-zucchini-pizza.html

http://chez-popine.blogspot.com/2014/02/couscous-and-veggies-with-lime-chili.html

And a link to a recipe I’ve tried from elsewhere that I can vouch for. Because really, what can't bacon make tasty:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Zucchini-Bacon-and-Gruyere-Quiche-233259

Fish taco quest, taprooms and fall colors road trip

Seed Savers is in a lovely valley in Iowa's Driftless region. Hence all the go Driftless T-shirts for sale in town.

We had a few days of vacation to burn and after a spate of wedding/funeral runs, decided to make a trip to Iowa that didn't involve an officiant. We hadn't been in Decorah in 33 years, and blissfully know no one there, so we booked into the restored Hotel Winnishiek and hit the road.

We made a detour to Lanesboro after Rick Nelson's recommendation in his fall colors food tour. Since we never pass up the opportunity to try out a new-to-us version of fish tacos, that was the obvious choice on the Pedal Pushers' menu. I'm not sure if the fish picked up some bacon flavor from the grill, or where that nice smoky note came from, but the fish was tasty, and guacamole and black bean salsa made for a nice combo. Then we got mildly lost on some really pretty roads before landing in Decorah in time to do some hiking at Dunn Springs waterfall and in Palisades Park along the river. The two restaurants we'd most wanted to go to were closed while we were there, but La Rana was a decent substitute.

The next day amid bouts of museum-going, I had another fish taco opportunity at Ede's The Angry Pickle. This was the winner for sheer size and for the taco wrap itself, a toasted sun-dried tomato version. Tasty, but a tad unwieldly as it was plate-size. Then it was on to Seed Savers for some gawking at exotics, shopping and hiking on their extensive trail network. As a reward, we checked out the taproom of the much-buzzed-about Toppling Goliath, so Dave was happy.

Didn't find the label for this monster at Seed Savers, but it was taller than us.

We wound our way back on some roads that cry out for a motorcycle next time (Hwy. 43 squiggles adorably through cliff-lined valleys.) We took in the newly expanded Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, which now has an even more fabulous collection on exhibit with all the usual suspects in such an unusual spot: Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Constable, Turner, Corot, Morisot, and oddly my favorite, a Kandinksy. Lovely silk screen exhibit ends soon.

Then our last stop was a two-fer: fish tacos and a taproom. Reeds Landing Brewing Co. has a great setting along the Mississippi, tasty beers (a dark porter with dulche de leche notes was oddly my favorite of those we tried), and most importantly, the best fish tacos we've had in the state of Minnesota, and you know how we keep trying. Nicely minimalist, with a fabulous lime aioli that puts it out in front.

It's possible we might make it back to Decorah before another 33 years pass, if nothing else just to have a place to stay in between the best parts: the trips down and back.

Pesto green bean and potato salad

    I was in the market for something to do with these pretty blue potatoes, although sadly they lose some of their vibrancy when cooked.

Pesto, Potato and Green Bean Salad
From "Eat More Vegetables" by Tricia Cornell, a Minnesota author who set out to help us cook through the excess of a CSA basket or overly ambitious farmers market run. It's organized by season, with ideas for making the most of the bounty. She's not a vegetarian, although many of the options in the book qualify, and completely non-preachy. 

I heard about this book courtesy of a fellow book grouper, who has tried many recipes from the book and claims to have never encountered a dud. She baked a trio of tasty tarts from this book for a recent book group in honor of tome of the month, "The Moveable Feast." Another fabulous menu from Chez Lynn. With her endorsement, I checked the book out of the library to try it out myself. (Given that my cookbook shelves are already overrun, a trial run seemed in order.) I've already renewed it once, and I'm hoping an upcoming vacation will give me time to explore it more fully.


Ingredients:
1 pound small potatoes, scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
1 pound green beans
1/2 cup pesto

Method:
Place potatoes in a saucepan. Sprinkle with salt and cover with a generous amount of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until just tender, probably less than 20 minutes. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Trim ends off green beans, snap into pieces. Steam until tender, then plunge into cold water or the freezer to stop cooking process.

Place potatoes and beans in a serving bowl. Toss with pesto. Season with salt if needed. (If you're using purchased pesto instead of your own, there's probably enough salt involved already.)  Serve at room temperature. Serves 8.

Rating: Not bad, and fast. A different variation on potato salad that's good for picnic purposes since there's no mayo involved.

I used a mix of wax and green beans to add even more color.

Fresh pea soup

This recipe is sort of spring meets fall. It's designed to use fresh spring peas and herbs for a bright fresh flavor. But in my case, instead of fresh pea soup, it's really not-quite-so-fresh pea soup. I had harvested some end of season stragglers and then not gotten around to cooking them immediately. They weren't quite ready to sprout, but were definitely not super fresh. But these were my peas from my garden, so of course I couldn't just give up on them. This recipe turned out to be a great way to revive them. It melds the bright spring flavors of spring pea soup with the autumnal flavors of split pea soup that come from more mature peas.

Fresh pea soup

Adapted from Ina Garten, aka Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups chopped leeks, white and light-green parts only

1 cup chopped onion

4 cups chicken stock

5 cups freshly shelled peas (or 20 ounces of frozen peas)

3 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves

2 teaspoons salt

Pepper

6 tablespoons crème fraiche

4 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Method

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add leeks and onion; cook until softened. Add chicken stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Add peas and cook until peas are tender. (If your peas are fresh, this might be as few as 10 minutes, or up to 20 if you're working with peas past prime.) Remove from heat. Add tarragon, salt and pepper. Puree the soup in batches.

Dish soup into serving bowls if serving immediately. Add about a tablespoon dollop of crème fraiche to each bowl; it will melt into a pool in the middle. Sprinkle with fresh chives and serve. Serves about 6.

Make-ahead tip: You can prepare the soup through the puree stage and either refrigerate or freeze it. Then reheat and add crème fraiche and chives.

Rating: Really nice bright flavors even without fresh peas, and I'm sure it would be fab if I'd actually had really fresh peas on hand. Definitely repeatable, and definitely better than peas porridge in the pot nine days old, which never sounded like a winner. (Oh, and if you're one of those people who don't like tarragon, the original recipe calls for oodles of mint, which I of course didn't use since I think it's nature's way of trying to kill me.)