Cruciferous party

I love the word cruciferous.  Cruciferous is another word for cabbage-family vegetables and they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  Today my stars are kale and cabbage

Beer-Braised Kale with Pancetta
- 1 bunch Kale
- 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup pancetta
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 beer
- 1/2 cup stock ( I used vegetable)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Start by washing the kale.  Pull it off of the hard stems and break into pieces.  I used my salad spinner to wash and dry it off.  Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and saute onions and pancetta until getting browned.  Add the garlic at the end (I grate it with a microplane).  Add the kale and a bit more oil and coat it with the oil and onion mixture.  Add the beer and stock to cover kale about 2/3 of the way.  Put a lid on and simmer for about 20-25 minutes.  Enjoy :)  We had some leftover meatballs.  I probably should have let it braise 5 more minutes it was still not quite tender, but it was still yummy.

Turkey Stuffed Cabbage 
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1/3 cup uncooked brown rice
-2/3 cup water
- splash Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper
- 8 cabbage leaves
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- splash white wine
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 tsp. tomato paste
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce

- Bring 2/3 cup water to a boil.  Add rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Bring a wide, large saucepan 2/3 way full of water to a boil.  Add cabbage head whole for about 6 minutes.  This helps so that the leaves peel right off and don't tear.  Drain and cool. 

Combine the ground turkey, rice, tomato paste, some juice from the fire-roasted tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, onion, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.  Spoon into the cabbage leaves and place in a dutch oven (I used the same pot I boiled water in for the cabbage).  I placed them with the rolled side down so it stayed together, but you could use a toothpick or string if desired.  Pour sauce, rest of the fire-roasted tomatoes, stock, and wine over top.  Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes, basting and stirring occasionally.   Serve.

These were absolutely delicious.  I didn't miss the red meat in them.  It made some extra sauce to pour over the top.  Probably one of my favorites on the website so far!  Thanks for reading :)

Hodgepodge

Sorry I have been away for a while.  Things have been very busy and I left my laptop cord at a friend's house so I have had a dead lap top for a week :)

Anyway, this past week's CSA box had:
Kale
Roma Tomatoes
Corn on the Cob
Red bell pepper
Peaches
Green beans

We went to Erin's parents house for dinner on Friday night and we were going to be busy a lot of the weekend, so I tried a dish that used up a lot of our food to take there.  I ended up doing a Quinoa salad with roasted corn, red pepper, and green beans

Quinoa Salad with corn, green beans, and red pepper
- 2 cups quinoa
-4 cups chicken broth
-4 ears of corn, roasted
- 1 red bell pepper, roasted
- 2-3 handfuls green beans, blanched
- salt and pepper
-4-5 tbsp butter

This took a bit of time to make, but I made it as I was doing things on Friday.  Start by roasting the corn and red bell pepper.

To roast corn in the oven, preheat to 400.  Peel the husks back from the corn, but not all the way off.  Remove the corn silks.  Put a small pad of butter inside each cob as you wrap them back up in the corn husks.  I made two packets by wrapping to cobs in foil and placed directly in the oven.  Once they have cooled and are able to be handled, stand up the corn and cut the kernels off.  I put a ramekin bottom-up in the bowl and cut down the cob so the kernels fall into the bowl.

To roast the red pepper, you can do it at the same time as the corn.  If you have a gas stove, which I don't, you can just char it on top of the burner.  Since I don't have one, I used the oven.  Just put the pepper on a small baking pan and put it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 turning every ten minutes or so.  When you take it out put it in a brown paper bag or wrap tightly in foil to keep the heat in.  The pepper will shrivel in about 10-15 minutes.  Once it shrivels it is very easy to peel the skin off.  Cut off the top and squeeze out all of the seeds then dice the pepper.

To blanch the green beans, boil a pot of water and salt it.  Cut the ends of the beans off and cut into bite-size pieces.  Drop the beans in the boiling water and after about 3-5 minutes remove and put the beans into ice water to stop the cooking and keep the color.

Make the quinoa as instructed on the package.  I always make mine with chicken broth instead of water.  Combine the veggies with the quinoa and toss.  Add a tbsp. of butter and voila!  People really liked it at Erin's moms.  I totally failed on taking pictures during cooking and of the final product so I only have one of the veggies before adding the quinoa!  Oops!

 

In other news, I actually baked yesterday for our Labor Day party.  I made a skillet pineapple upside down cake from scratch and people seemed to like it.  It's not really related to the post at all but I was just happy I baked something and it turned out.