Valley Cafe Vegetables

Some of you who grew up in the age of strip malls, Applebees and P.F. Changs will not remember when most restaurants had narrow street fronts and were long and thin, stretching through to a back alley. The Valley Cafe in Ellensburg continues this grand tradition of narrowness, but this venerable establishment had foresighted designers, and is blessed with a row of ancient skylights to alleviate the inevitable darkness of this building design.  The experience of walking back in time is very strong at The Valley Cafe, especially as the booths, counter, and most of the furnishings are original.

Ellensburg makes a great day trip from Pasco.  The day we were there was chilly and windy, but sunny, and we were glad to get in out of the jacket-piercing breeze to see what we could find on The Valley Cafe's menu that would be friendly with our way of eating.

We decided on the Steamed Vegetables and a separate order of Spicy Asian Shrimp.  After we ordered, I asked the server if any bread was involved in this meal.  We're getting used to heading bread off at the pass so it won't be wasted.  She hesitated a moment, but said "No."

It took quite a while for our order to be prepared, and when the vegetables arrived, they were a delightfully colorful and flavorful mix of vegetables I'd never seen combined before.  As well, they were topped with a little cheddar-jack cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds, something I'd also never considered doing to vegetables.  Naturally, I took notes.

As it happened, the chef himself brought the rest of our order to the table, and I told him how remarkably tasty the vegetables were, and how unusual was the combination.  He said, "Well, you didn't want broccoli, so I just put together some other vegetables."  Turns out, the server thought I'd asked if any broccoli were involved in our meal, thinking we didn't want it!

I never fail to be intrigued by the happenstances that result in new dishes.  This one is a new favorite of ours, and it goes particularly well with the cafe's Spicy Asian Shrimp, so I concocted an easy-peasey version of that, too, and it'll be up next.
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VALLEY CAFE VEGETABLES
Cook gently so your vegetables will retain their color and flavor.  

2 tablespoons ghee or butter

4 carrots, peeled and cut into coins
1/2 pound asparagus, snapped and cut into 1-inch lengths
1/3 of a small red cabbage, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 jar (6.5 ounces) marinated (or plain) artichoke hearts


Pumpkins seeds lightly toasted in a dry skillet
Shredded jack or cheddar cheese (optional, of course)

In large skillet, melt ghee.  Add carrots and stir fry for a couple of minutes.  Add asparagus and cabbage, and continue cooking until all is just beginning to soften.  Add red pepper pieces, and cook, gently stirring occasionally, until all vegetables are crisp tender.  Don't overcook.

Remove to serving platter or individual plates, and tuck artichoke pieces here and there evenly.  Sprinkle with cheese and pepitas.

Makes 4 generous servings.

Heidi Swanson's Spiced Coconut Spinach

Things are slightly hectic around here lately, but my mind continually returns to the kitchen, especially as the farmers' market season gets underway.  Several ideas are circling in my mind about refining, nay, reinventing, my way of cooking.  I'm excited about sharing some ideas and approaches I've been discovering.

I am usually a slap-it-together-and-see-what-happens kind of cook.  Once in a while I carefully create a constructed dish, but I've often wished I could be a slow-down-and-think-about-it, mindful, kind of cook more consistently.

Meanwhile, I tried this recipe by Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks, who somehow manages to be mindful, deliberate, and spontaneously creative with ingredients on hand ... all at the same time. 

I had what turned out to be 14 ounces of fresh spinach from the very first Pasco Farmer's Market of the year, and so doubled Heidi's recipe, which made four hearty servings.  Having no shallots, I used onion in their place.

I highly recommend this dish.  It's very calming to toast the mustard seeds, cumin and coconut.  The scents and subtle colors appeal to the senses.  You have an awareness that you are doing something to spinach that will be very, very good.   Preparing the ingredients all ahead of time creates a sort of serene kitchen ballet as the dish unfolds in real time, and really, not so much more time than slapdashery would take.

An early Spring dish that nourishes on all levels.

Kohlrabi Greens

The sweetest, crispiest organic kohlrabi can be found at Fred Meyer these days.  I'm hoping to see it at the farmer's markets this year.

In the meantime, we've been enjoying it raw, peeled and sliced, sometimes as a great chip stand-in with guacamole.  It can also be shredded and used in salads, adding an interesting, fresh flavor kind of like a cross between cabbage, turnips and broccoli.

Normally, I discard the leaves and store the Sputnik bulbs in the fridge 'til ready to use them.  But the last couple of bunches had leaves that looked perfectly fresh and tantalizing, so I washed them, sliced them, and have been cooking with them ... and they are wonderful! 

Kohlrabi greens are closest to kale when it comes to cooking time ... they're not as tender as beet greens, but are more tender than collards, which need to boil for an hour.  Just wash the leaves, rip out the thicker parts of the stem, slice the leaves thinly, and saute for 10 to 15 minutes with onions, garlic, crushed red pepper ... or even apples or tomatoes and herbs.  Voila!  A new green!

What to do with Coconut Butter

Healthy fats like coconut oil beat sugar and flour every time for clean, sustained energy and a happy metabolism. 

So, in the midst of the Easter onslaught of factory-churned-out chocs and candies with additives galore, I just got out my beautiful marble Easter eggs for color, and made Nancy's coconut-date energy balls.

These are really, really, good, plus, as you can see from Nancy's description, they have all kinds of positive health implications.  I increased the organic citrus peels to two teaspoons each, which gives these little citruspheres a powerful resemblance in taste to those horribly unhealthy lemon bars which we all remember fondly for their ability to make our teeth hurt.  We should have listened to our teeth!  Our bodies didn't want that much pure refined sugar.  Nancy kept going on her theme and developed raw cacao superfood truffles, which look tempting to me to try.

As often happens, finally having found a recipe that used the coconut butter I'd bought on impulse, another way to use this luscious stuff appeared.  Ryan's coconut cream and blueberry bark is incredibly delicious.

As with the citrus balls, you soften the jar of coconut butter (or coconut cream) in a pan of warm water on the stove, pour it out (I used a Silpat; Ryan used parchment paper) and slap frozen blueberries evenly across the top.  The frozen blueberries solidify the coconut butter.  Just break the bark into bite-sized pieces (this is important, because chomping into a big piece may cause a blueberry laundry crisis) and store 'em in the fridge.

Many thanks to Nancy and Ryan for adding variety to my energy arsenal!

More ideas for making coconut bark here.

Update:   Here's a seriously convenient way to keep coconut cream and coconut butter accessible.  If you've ever tried to dig 'em out of the jar with a pointy knife, you know what I mean.  Warm the coconut cream or coconut butter in the uncovered jar set in a pan of water on the stove.  May take 15 minutes or so at a simmer.  Stir occasionally.  When soft, spread coconut cream or coconut butter onto a Silpat.  Let harden, and either cut or break into roughly tablespoon-sized pieces.  Store them in a jar or other container.  For coconut cream, one tablespoon heated with 1/4 cup water makes 1/4 cup.  Stir a piece or two into curries, with a little water, or into sauteed veggies with Asian seasonings.  For the coconut butter ... you can either resoften with your preferred warming method, or just enjoy it as a snack.

Coconut cream pieces ready to reconstitute ... or just eat!

On Not Eating Certain Scenery

Last April we were cleaning up flower pots in preparation for new planting, when a mama quail, completely camoflaged, whirred out of this pot when we approached it.  We carefully inspected the pot, and sure enough ... we found a nest with 18 little speckled eggs in it.  Mama came back later, and I took this picture of her.  Yes, she is there ... at about 12 o'clock.

The next day, she temporarily left the nest, and I quickly took this picture of the eggs.

I had seen a quail couple, with the mama waddling about and looking really round, exploring our yard for a nest site a couple of days before.  We learned that quail eggs take 28 days to mature.  Sure enough, about that much time went by (with us tiptoeing around the flowerpot every time we went outside to work in the yard) when we noticed that hatching had begun.

The hatching was quickly over, and the quail parents set immediately to their task of teaching the little ones how to queue up, hide in a cluster under mama's wings, and keep close to the fence or stay under shrubs when the annoying person with a camera stepped carefully out of the house.  But I was not able to get good pictures of them because they never stood still!

For several days, the training went on, with one parent herding and fussing over the chicks, showing them how to find food and avoid predators, and the other parent standing guard atop the fence. Then they were gone.

I thought our quail excitement was over, and I had cleaned out the flower pot and planted new flowers.  One day, though, I saw a quail family in our yard, with significantly larger chicks.  Were they our quail family?  I don't know.  But all in all, it was fun and educational to watch Nature at work.

And this time, no recipe.

Chard Gets its Mojo Back

Formerly flat bunches of chard, after reconstituting submerged in water for two hours.

Our big hanks of chard from the CSA boxes tend to stick out of normal-size bags, and they wilt down to a pretty thin and floppy state when kept in the fridge too long.  I had accumulated quite a bit of chard, and wondered if it would be possible to restore the chard to its plump, crispy state.  Much to my surprise, I found that it is!

Because I didn't really expect the outcome to be this amazing, I didn't take a "before" picture. But my chard was flat, folks.  Droopy doesn't begin to describe it.  I trimmed the stem ends, and put it all in my big old yellow Tupperware bowl (you know, the gigantic one).  I filled the bowl to the brim with water.  Two hours later, I noticed that the chard was curling up crisply out of the bowl.  I prepared to spin it dry, but realized, as I lifted the leaves out, that it was already dry.  In the bottom of the bowl, only about 1/4 cup of water remained.  The chard had absorbed all the rest.  It looked as if it had just been picked.

So don't give up on your greens.  I suspect the key thing was to trim the stem ends; the water was probably absorbed into the chard through the stems.

Update:  It works for spinach, too.  Be sure to freshly tear or cut stem ends and make sure the stem ends are submerged.  I do think the leaves take up the water from them.  And I was delighted to discover a new way to use chard from commenter Janet.  Thank you!

Creamy Lemon, Garlic and Tarragon Chicken

 

Mr. Eating the Scenery once posited  that if tuna could be called Chicken of the Sea, it only stood to reason that chicken could be called Tuna of the Land.  Of course, this is the same man who wondered, upon observing this sign outside Yakima, a nearby city, if there was a corresponding sign outside Palm Springs billing it as the Yakima of California.  You can see why I like to keep Mr. ETS well nourished.

My intentions for these two free-range tuna ... er, chickens, started along the thyme and rosemary line.  But sunshine, bobbing robins, miscellaneous birdsong, bright green tarragon springing up outside ... diverse factors converged to make it obvious that something quite different was called for on this bright (albeit chilly) Spring day.  Herewith, the result.
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CREAMY LEMON, GARLIC AND TARRAGON CHICKEN
  
Long ago my mom taught me to cut up a chicken.  Later, my youthful, preppy self learned that you can buy chickens already cut up!  Now that I have reverted to local, free-range chickens, which come to me whole, I find that chicken-cutting-up skills, apparently, never leave you. 

2 lovely, free-range, local chickens  (mine were each about 3 pounds)
Coconut oil or your fat of choice
1 cup chopped tarragon
1 organic lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed
8 cloves garlic, crushed or roughly chopped
1 cup white wine
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pan juices from roasted chicken
1/2 cup Pure Eire organic Jersey cream
Fresh tarragon

Cut up chickens into leg/thigh pieces and breast pieces.   I left the breasts whole because I don't have a cleaver.  Put backs, necks, wings (if they're scrawny) into a plastic bag and freeze to make stock later.

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

In large Dutch oven, heat coconut oil.  Brown leg/thigh pieces on both sides and remove to plate.  Brown breasts on skin sides, then turn upright in pan.  Pour in white wine.  Scatter half the garlic and tarragon over the breasts, and top with half the lemon slices.  Place leg/thigh pieces on and around the breast pieces, and top with remaining garlic, tarragon, and lemon slices.

Cover, and bake for 50 minutes.  Check internal temperature of breasts; when it is 165 degrees, chicken is done.  Lift chicken pieces from the Dutch oven and place them in a shallow casserole.  If you've left the breasts whole, remove the meat from them for easy serving.

Pour chicken juices through a strainer into a suitably sized saucepan.  Heat to a simmer, reduce if desired, stir in cream, heat through and pour over chicken pieces.  Top with fresh tarragon sprigs or chopped tarragon.

Serve with optimally prepared, fresh, local vegetables of your choice.

Makes 8 to 10 hearty servings.  And don't forget to make stock with the backs, wings and bones!

Box Eleven

The last three boxes are all coming in a row ... this is the time of year when growing things really take off, and apparently it's mostly GREEN!  Chard, parsley, Walla Walla sweets, spinach, and delectable asparagus.  Like last year, I'll be sorry to see the boxes end, but am enormously grateful for our local farms and the fact that the farmers' markets are just around the corner.

Cheese Louise

The other day I stopped in at Cheese Louise, a cool little cheese and gift shop on The Parkway in Richland.  I love going in there, because the proprietors (who would rather be called "cheese mongrels" than cheesemongers) truly are dogged in their pursuit of cheese excellence.

Yes, their cheeses come from all over the world, but the shop is local!  And some of best cheeses in existence do, in fact, come from other parts of the world.  Cheese Louise does carry some Northwest-made products, as does Ariel Gourmet right next door.  And let's face it, if I knew of any locally-made cheeses, I'd be all over them.  I depend on my readers to let me know about local foods, because I can't discover them all myself! 

Anyhoo, that day at Cheese Louise, I slowly came to realize, through discussing the offerings with one of the delightful cheese consultants, that I was in the mood for feta.  "But not just any feta!" I insisted.  I have been disappointed in feta before ... expecting a sharp, briny tang and getting instead a chalky nothingness.  But at Cheese Louise, you can taste before you buy.  One taste of the all-sheep's-milk Pastures of Eden feta cheese, and my eyes lit up. Peoples' eyes lighting up is probably a pretty common occurrence at Cheese Louise.

That cheese was destined to be crumbled over a simple Greek salad of red pepper, cucumber, tomato, and Kalamata olives, with a drizzle each of lemon juice and olive oil, and a finishing sprinkle of oregano.  More will be stirred into sauteed spinach with mushrooms, and it's the kind of cheese you could just serve a hunk of, along with walnuts, crudites or fruit, and enjoy immensely.

If you haven't done so yet, do pop into Cheese Louise for a delightful cheese browse!

Asparagus and Prosciutto Bundles

Something there is about asparagus that makes one want to create elegant dishes with it.  It's a stalk, for one thing.  Cooks don't get to play with stalks all that often.  So, when I read the very short list of ingredients on a package of Parma proscuitto (pork, salt) at Costco, I felt the time had come for me to try prosciutto for the first time ever. 
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ASPARAGUS AND PROSCIUTTO BUNDLES

I adapted this super simple version from several recipes online.  Some called for a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, which I used, but prosciutto is salty, and the salty Parmesan seemed redundant.  So I left it out of my recipe.

1 pound luscious, local CSA asparagus
3 ounces prosciutto (if using two slices per bundle)
Butter

Lay two pieces of waxed paper out on countertop. Peel slices of prosciutto apart and lay them on one of the pieces of waxed paper.  It's okay if they overlap a bit--you just want to get them apart for ease of use.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Generously butter a 9 x 9-inch baking dish.  Reserve some butter for topping the bundles.

Bring about 1/2 inch lightly salted water to boil in a skillet.  Snap tough ends from asparagus, and wash the stalks.   Simmer asparagus in the water for just a few minutes, until stalks are just crisp tender.  With tongs, remove asparagus from skillet to the other piece of waxed paper.

Divide asparagus stalks into equal-sized bundles.  Wrap each bundle with a piece of prosciutto.  I used two pieces per bundle.  Some directions called for securing them with toothpicks, but I found the prosciutto adhered to itself quite well, and shrank a bit further in the oven, keeping a tight hold on the asparagus.

Place bundles in baking dish, and top each with a little butter.  Bake for 10 minutes or until things start to sizzle a bit.  Remove from oven, turn each bundle a little to bathe it in butter, and serve.  It's easiest to cut the bundles into bite-sized pieces with a sharp knife.

Makes 6 bundles, or about 3 servings.

Winter CSA: Tenth Box

Asparagus (and thus, to me, true Spring) is here!  Our farmer specializes in asparagus, and it doesn't get more tender or fresh than this.  As well, we have mixed salad greens, spinach, Walla Walla sweet onions, chives, and cilantro.  Only two more boxes, and I'm set to appreciate the heck out of all this local greenery ... and then start frequenting the local farmer's markets! 

Nature's little creatures also like our fresh CSA asparagus ...

Duck Eggs

I probably should have seen this coming, but of course I did not.  Being a tad impulsive when in the presence of interesting food opportunities, and because the duck experiment turned out so well, I couldn't resist continuing the duck theme, and so picked up a box of Russ and Laurie's duck eggs when I saw them in the cooler with the chicken eggs at the Northwest Seafood Market pickup site.

Googling, I find that duck eggs are larger and richer than chicken eggs, and the shells are harder to crack.  After using the duck eggs in a scrumptious omelette, and in another berry flaugnarde, I can attest that both facts are true.  I honestly think one duck egg is equal to two chicken eggs.  Easy.

As well, duck eggs are supposed to perform exceptionally well in baking, possibly due to their extra rich quality.  I plan to use them in a grain-free bread or pancake recipe to see if the higher rise and better texture claims are true.

The duck eggs are available for $4.75 a dozen in the cooler at Northwest Seafood Market in Richland, but if there aren't any there, contact Russ at his website.

Update:  Due to job changes and a relocation, Russ will be shutting down his farm after the winter egg subscriptions end later this month.  As long as the eggs are available, they'll be in the cooler at Northwest Seafood Market.  Contact Russ if you need the details to order and pick up meat chickens, which will be processed next weekend.  Wow, I'll really miss Russ and Laurie's wonderful products.  My deepest gratitude and best wishes to you in this next adventure in life!

Ninth Box

Box Nine contained two bags of golden delicious apples (crisp and juicy!), a big 'ol fennel with tentacles reaching everywhere, green onions, salad greens, spinach, chard, sage, and chickpeas.  The salad greens were scrumptious in a salmon salad, and the green onions found their way into Tom Kha (a Thai soup).  The fennel looks to me like it should be in a gratin.  Hmm.  I sauteed the chard and spinach together, and they were delicious.  I recently read that if you eat leafy greens regularly, you will get your needed Omega 3's as well as calcium.  Eating scenery has its perks!

And that's Bananagrams in the background.  If you haven't discovered the joys of Bananagrams, and you like word games, well--you're missing out.  Go get it!  It's way more fun than Scrabble, because it's fast moving, you don't have to wait for other people to take their turns, and you're completely in charge of your own word arrangement.

Kale with Garlic, Sage and Thyme Butter

A serendipitous dish, put together with ingredients I had on hand.  The thyme and sage in my herb garden looked particularly fetching, even after our winter freezes, so I decided to stride confidently in the direction of the kale dish I was beginning to envision.

Sage and butter have long been happy partners, and I discovered that kale loves sage, too.  This is a company-worthy kale dish, with a little heat from the red pepper, a satiny smoothness from the butter, and a rich, savory taste from the herbs and garlic. 
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KALE WITH GARLIC, SAGE AND THYME BUTTER

1 bunch lacinato kale
1 large onion, peeled, halved and sliced
5 tablespoons butter or ghee

6 cloves garlic
Leaves from 1 handful of fresh thyme sprigs
A handful of fresh sage leaves
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 cup chicken broth or white wine
Salt if needed

6 small fresh tomatoes, quartered

Wash kale, remove thick stems (I do this by ripping the kale away from the stem) and slice the kale into thin strips.

Peel garlic cloves and place them in a small food processor with the thyme and sage leaves.  Process to a fine chopped state.  Alternatively, chop the garlic and herbs finely with a knife.

In large-ish skillet, heat butter or ghee over medium heat.  Add onions and saute for a few minutes.  Add garlic and herb mixture and saute a few more minutes, stirring occasionally.  Finally, stir in the kale and chicken broth, bring to a simmer, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Taste sauce for salt; I added 1/4 teaspoon.  Just before serving, stir in the tomatoes and heat just until the tomatoes are warmed through and savory looking.  Serve hot.

Makes 4 hearty servings

Bison Chili

Whoa!  This is what happens when you've been craving chili and you see "Buffalo" on a package of ground meat at the grocery store:  You throw three packages of the stuff in your cart, and go home to create the best darn chili on the range.  Yessiree, this is hearty, satisfying fare.  I didn't have a recipe, but I wrote down everything I did.  'Cause this chili is definitely going to be made again. 

As the creative process unfolded, the red pepper and kohlrabi in the photo were relegated to crudite status.  I made an innovative cornbread stand-in, using macadamia oil instead of grapeseed oil, that turned out to be amazingly good.  Yee haw!

Because absolutely authentic chilies don't contain beans or tomato, I'm thinking about trying this sans-tomato next time.

This recipe comes with a book recommendation:  The Buffalo Commons by Richard S. Wheeler.  
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BISON CHILI 

The ancho chili powder will determine the overall taste and heat level of your chili.  I make my own with those leathery ancho peppers sold in the Mexican food aisle at the supermarket, mixing in a dried hot chili pepper or two. Make a lot!  Good ancho chili powder is hard to find, and makes a great gift.  It's especially important for red sauces for enchiladas, and chilies like this one.

3 pounds ground bison
2 tablespoons oil (I used avocado oil)

4 carrots, in 1/2-inch dice
1 turnip, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch dice
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 onions (I used a red onion and a white onion), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 head garlic, cloves separated, peeled and minced

2 tablespoons ancho chili powder (see note above) or regular 'ol chili powder
1 tablespoon regular 'ol chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon cumin seed, toasted in a dry skillet and slightly crushed with mortar and pestle
1 teaspoon salt

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 jar (7 oz.) tomato paste
3-4 cups water

3 fresh bay leaves or 1 dried bay leaf

In large soup pot, heat oil.  Add bison, break up with your spatula, and begin to saute.  While that's going on, prep your veggies in the order given and add them to the pot, stirring well each time.  By the time you get to the garlic, things should be sizzling along nicely.

Scatter the chili powders, paprika, cumin seed and salt over the meat/vegetable mixture, and stir well, cooking for a few minutes 'til the spicy aroma begins to waft around your kitchen.  Stir in the bay leaves.

Add the spaghetti sauce, the tomato paste, and 3 cups water.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 to 40 minutes. If you like a saucier chili, add another cup of water.

Makes 8 to 10 hearty servings.

Eighth Box

Delivery of Box Eight was delayed because of very cold weather.  But stuff is taking off again!  Spinach, salad greens, parsley, fennel, lentils, squash, garlic ... and cute little leeks.  Ah, Spring.  I can almost taste the asparagus to come ... and meanwhile we'll enjoy these fresh, green wonders.

A Trio of Toasted Nori Chips

From left:  Nori Faux Wasabi, Nori Con Chipotle, and Nori Coco Szechuan.

I have a little fascination going with sea vegetables.  Mr. Eating the Scenery, however, eschews them.  I recall a long-ago salad I made with hiziki ... he said it tasted like a locker room smelled.  The gauntlet was thrown.  But in the intervening years, he has yet to even taste anything I make with sea vegetables!

So this recipe caught my attention.  But I had to mess with it.  I went slightly crazy.  It's the curse of culinary curiosity.  If ingredient x works, why not try ingredient y?  And then, z?

I used Nancy's recipe, and it is perfect. She uses 3 tablespoons of water per five nori sheets. I started out using too much water on the wasabi flavored chips, and the folded nori stuck fast to itself, took 30 minutes to crisp, and the layers didn't curl and separate airily like the subsequent batches where I brushed on less of the water mixture. So ... curb any heavy-handed liquid tendencies!


A TRIO OF TOASTED NORI CHIPS
Adapted from The Smart Palate

I didn't have wasabi powder, so used horseradish.  I love silicone basting brushes ... they work really well for this, clean up fabulously in the dishwasher, and you don't have to pick bristles off of your food.

For each flavor:

5 sheets nori
salt to your taste

Nori Faux Wasabi
2 teaspoons Bubbies pure horseradish
3 tablespoons water

Nori con Chipotle
2 teaspoons chipotle puree
3 tablespoons water

Nori Coco Szechuan
2 teaspoons coconut aminos (a very useful soy sauce substitute)
3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons ground Szechuan pepper, sprinkled on before folding nori.
No salt for this one; the coconut aminos are very salty

Heat oven to 250 degrees.

Brush a sheet of nori with liquid mixture.  Sprinkle with salt to taste.  Fold in half and press lightly.  With kitchen shears, cut nori into five or six strips.  Repeat with remaining nori sheets.  This is like craft class in grade school!  And you get to eat your project!

Lay the chips in a single layer on a Silpat-lined baking sheet.  Place in oven for 12 to 15 minutes.  Chips will crisp and begin to curl a bit.  When they're dry and crisp, remove to cool.

You can brush them with hot sesame oil as Nancy did, or hot chili oil, I suppose.  I didn't have any spicy oils, so I didn't ... but I think it would be very delicious.

I put all my chips in the same bowl, so I could be surprised by different tastes!

Each batch makes about 30 scrumptious chips.  None of which Mr. Eating the Scenery would touch.

Mustard Greens with Ginger-Garlic Cream

While I love kale, spinach and chard, especially alongside savory meats, once in a while the noticeable spiciness of mustard greens makes a nice change.

For once, I actually followed the recipe directions and strained the ginger and garlic from the simmered cream, although I was tempted to chop them finely and leave them in.  The result is an elegant, creamy greens dish with a hint of exotic, spicy flavor ... quite delectable alongside Thundering Hooves spicy Italian sausage, into which I mixed a generous amount of minced CSA red onion. 
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MUSTARD GREENS WITH GINGER-GARLIC CREAM
From Fast, Fresh and Green by Susie Middleton

1 pound mustard greens
1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 cup Pure Eire heavy (though I prefer "ethereal" as more descriptive) cream
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
4 slices fresh ginger, chopped or smashed

Nearly fill a big pot with water, and add the salt.  Bring water to boil while you stem and wash the mustard greens.  Wash leaves thoroughly (this is a lot like washing the floppy ears of a large dog) and pull leaves away from thick stems.  As you finish each leaf, place it in a large bowl.  When all leaves are washed, run kitchen shears through the bowl a few times to reduce the size of the leaves a bit.

Add all the greens to the boiling water, pushing down to submerge.  Return to a boil for 4 minutes; taste a leaf for tenderness, then continue cooking for 2 more minutes, until greens are tender.  Drain in a colander, squishing the greens against the sides to get all the moisture out.  Set greens aside.

Heat the cream, garlic and ginger in a 1-quart saucepan over very low heat, simmering until reduced to 1/4 cup or so.  You'll need to stir the cream a few times to keep everything reducing nicely. When cream has reduced, remove garlic and ginger with slotted spoon.

Add greens to reduced cream, stir to coat, and heat just until hot.  Overcooking at this point will make the greens begin to release water.  Serve hot.

Makes 2 generous servings.

Saffron Cauliflower Pilaf

Saffron rice pilaf  has long been one of my favorite dishes.  I felt sure I could create a cauliflower version, and it was way easier than I thought it would be.  I checked out a few recipes to see what exactly is in the dish, then assembled my own.

The trick here is to cook it JUST enough so that the onion and garlic are soft but the cauliflower retains a crisp-tender quality.  It reheats beautifully the next day, so could easily be made ahead for a company meal.

And of course, substitute freely!  Golden raisins instead of cranberries, pecans instead of (or in addition to!) walnuts ... invention is the key to the best discoveries.

I found reasonably priced, flavorful saffron at the European Grocery on Huntington Street in Kennewick.  They keep it at the front counter, so you have to ask for it.
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SAFFRON CAULIFLOWER PILAF

 1/2 cup very hot water
1 teaspoon saffron threads

1 medium head cauliflower
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts 

In a medium sized pot, combine very hot water and saffron.  Set aside.

Wash cauliflower and separate it into florets.  Run these through your food processor on the medium shred disc.  You'll get a lovely mountain of cauliflower.

To the saffron water, add onion, garlic, butter, salt and pepper.  Stir.  Bring to a simmer and cook for two or three minutes only.  Add shredded cauliflower and stir well.  Continue to simmer, stirring frequently, until color deepens, cauliflower is crisp-tender, and onion and garlic are cooked (they can be crisp-tender, too, if you like).  This will only take a few minutes.

Stir in cranberries.  The water should all be absorbed.  I didn't need to add more water; you might.

Taste for seasonings, stir in cilantro and walnuts, and serve hot. 

Makes 4 hearty servings.  Also very tasty reheated the next day!

Celeriac and Kohlrabi Salad

Our decision to go grain free means that vegetables play a huge role in our meals.  Many nights I open the fridge, toss vegetables out onto the counter, study them intently for a few minutes while a way of using them takes shape in my mind, and then start chopping.

The resulting creations are usually tasty, and always very nutritious, but only occasionally blog-worthy.  I honestly didn't expect this salad would make it to the blog, but one taste and my eyebrows went up and I fetched my camera.

The beauty of this salad is its unexpected combination of tastes. Who knew that kohlrabi and cilantro would  get along so well with each other, much less make a happy threesome with celeriac?  I suppose because celery is naturally higher in sodium than most vegetables, no salt was needed.

The only dressing is lemon juice.  It seemed that oil would only weigh down this lovely, light and crisp salad, so I stopped ... like an artist has to do at some point with every painting ... when I felt perfection had been achieved.
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CELERIAC AND KOHLRABI SALAD

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 small (about the size of a large grapefruit) celeriac, peeled
2 kohlrabi, peeled
3/4 cup diced red onion
1 cup chopped cilantro

Place lemon juice in large bowl. Cut peeled celeriac into pieces sized to fit into your food processor, and shred using medium shred blade.  Immediately toss shredded celeriac in the lemon juice to coat well.  This will keep the celeriac from turning brown.

Shred kohlrabi on medium shred as well, and toss it, along with red onion, into the bowl with the celeriac.  Stir well until all the veggies are coated with lemon juice and are well mixed.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Just before serving, stir in cilantro.

Delicious the moment it's made, even better and still fresh the next day.

Serves 4 to 6.