April 2016 – Sue's Seasonal Palate

April 26, 2016 Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas with Tomatillo Salsa

Still inspired by an abundance of, you guessed it, spinach, I was looking for yet another way to use our bounty. Inspiration this time came to me in the form of a quesadilla. Crispy on the outside and melted and creamy inside, spinach adds a healthy component to this popular dish. Quesadillas are easy and delicious any time of day, as a quick snack, lunch, even for breakfast. To accompany the quesadillas I made a simple tomatillo salsa.

With the exception of the cilantro and garlic, the ingredients for the tomatillo salsa came straight from our freezer. Preparing tomatillos for the freezer is easy, I remove the papery husks and freeze them whole and raw in quart bags. A previously frozen tomatillo will not hold up to roasting but are fine in raw preparations like this. The Numex Joe E. Parker pepper used in this recipe is an Anaheim style pepper with a long slender shape and mild heat. We have an interesting variety of frozen hot peppers from gardens past, milder ones like Joe E Parker and poblanos to hotter ones, cayenne, jalapeno, serrano and Thai hot. The surprising thing is that freezing them does not diminish their heat in the least. When a recipe calls for several hot peppers, I start with one, it is much easier to add heat than to take it away.

As always, picking the spinach takes more time than most of the steps in the recipe. The filling is easy to make and used twelve cups of fresh spinach, a real plus for me. If you don’t have an abundance of spinach in your garden, use bagged baby spinach. The slightly more assertive flavor of cremini mushrooms compliments the spinach nicely.

The options for cheese are endless. I used pepper jack and cheddar cheese, a good melting cheese is important here. Choose a large heavy bottom skillet to cook quesadillas. Just a light brushing of oil in the pan is all that’s necessary to brown the tortilla and keeps it from getting greasy. You can either fold one tortilla in half or stack one on top of another. I press lightly on the quesadilla in the pan to allow the cheese to melt a bit and hold the layers together before it is flipped. The pizza wheel is the perfect tool to cut it into portions. Finished quesadillas can be held in an oven on low heat for 20 minutes.

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas

Makes four 8″ quesadillas

Ingredients for the filling

1½ T olive oil or bacon drippings
8 oz mushrooms, button or cremini, stemmed and sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
¼ c finely chopped red onion
12 c spinach, large stems removed

Directions for the filling

In a large skillet heat the oil or bacon drippings over medium high heat.
Add the mushrooms, stirring constantly, until they begin to brown.
Add the onion and garlic and continue cooking, stirring frequently until it looks translucent.
Add the spinach by the handful, wilting it before adding more, until it is all used. Do not overcook. Season with salt to taste.

Ingredients for assembling the quesadillas

Eight 8″ soft tortilla or taco shells, I used whole grain
Olive Oil
1½-2 c grated cheese, I used a combination of pepper jack and cheddar

Directions for assembling and cooking the quesadillas

Preheat oven to 180°F.
Place four tortillas on two baking sheets, divide evenly the spinach and mushroom filling and the grated cheese between them.
Top with the four remaining tortillas and lightly press to seal.
Place a 12″ heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Brush the skillet lightly with olive oil.
Place the quesadillas in the skillet one at a time, pressing down lightly but firmly and cook for about 3 minutes on each side. You can peek by lifting up with a spatula to see if it is getting golden brown. Transfer the cooked quesadillas to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven, lightly covered with foil.
Slice each quesadilla into 6-8 wedges, a pizza cutter works well here, and serve hot with tomatillo salsa or your own favorite.

Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed and seeded and quartered
1 Numex pepper, stemmed and seeded and quartered
¼ c roughly chopped red onion
1 lb tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut into quarters
¾ c loosely packed, lightly chopped cilantro

Directions

With a food processor or blender running, drop in the garlic cloves one at a time letting each piece get finely chopped before adding the next. Add the peppers, onion, tomatillos and cilantro and process until smooth.

April 16, 2016 Chicken Stew with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

DSC_6681a The slow cooker I received as a Christmas gift from my hubby has inspired me to look for new and great tasting recipes that utilize this handy appliance. Many of the recipes that interest me start with chicken thighs. They are an inexpensive cut of meat, full of flavor and hold up well to slow cooking. This easy to assemble chicken stew gets great flavor from smoked paprika, oregano and just a dash of saffron. The original recipe from The Great American Slow Cooker Book called for bone in skinless chicken thighs that went directly in the slow cooker. I like to brown the meat first, it only takes a few minutes and I think adds a real depth of flavor. Also, I leave the skin on, I think it protects the meat, whether you choose to eat it or not.

The recipe is so simple. Drained diced tomatoes, chickpeas, onion, parsley and spices are stirred together in the slow cooker. A paste of garlic, oregano, salt and olive oil is rubbed on the thighs, whether you have browned them first or decide to go the skinless route. Place the thighs in the cooker. Set your timer for 4 hours on high or low for 7 hours. I put the thighs under the broiler for a crispy skin. Serve with toasted Israeli couscous with pine nuts and apricots for a delicious satisfying supper. Definitely a recipe I will make again.

Chicken Stew with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

Serves four

Ingredients

1¼ c drained canned diced tomatoes
1¼ c drained and rinsed chickpeas
3/4c chopped onion
¼c minced parsley leaves
1 t smoked paprika
½ t ground cloves
½ t ground cumin
¼ t ground cinnamon
¼ t saffron threads
¼ t freshly ground black pepper
2 t dried oregano
2 T olive oil, one for the pan and one for the paste
2 t minced garlic
1 t salt
3 lb bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

Directions

Stir the tomatoes, chickpeas, onion, parsley, paprika, cloves, cinnamon, saffron and pepper in a 4 to 5½ quart slow cooker.
Warm a large skillet set over medium high heat and swirl in the olive oil. Add the chicken thighs skin side down, as many as will fit in the pan without crowding. Brown on one side, about 4-6 minutes, turn over and brown another 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a plate and continue browning in batches. Alternately, remove the skin and place thighs directly in the slow cooker.
Mix the oregano, olive oil, garlic and salt into a paste and rub a little on each chicken thigh. Set them into the cooker until they are submerged about halfway.
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 7 hours.
If desired, remove the thighs from the cooker and broil for about 2 minutes to crisp up the skin.

April 10, 2016 Spinach Soup with Middle Eastern Spices

Spring made an early entrance this year, but it’s not quite sure if it wants to stick around permanently yet. One day it’s rainy and seasonably warm, the next we are anticipating wet snow that will bring a coating to possibly an inch to grassy surfaces.

The occasional warm day we’ve been having is causing the spinach in the greenhouse to bolt, that is, go to seed. It ‘s time to pick as much as possible, so recipes that use mass quantities of spinach look good to me. This recipe for spinach soup with middle eastern spices uses a pound and a half of fresh spinach. That translates into approximately 18 cups of spinach, and I say, bring it on!

Cookbook author and New York Times food columnist Martha Rose Shulman got her inspiration for this soup from a Syrian pan cooked spinach recipe. The warming spices, clove, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and coriander are a pleasing contrast to the sweet, mild flavor of freshly picked spinach.

To start, saute a medium chopped onion and celery in a Dutch oven. I checked with the NOA, National Onion Association and they say a medium onion equals about 1 cup chopped onion. When the vegetables soften, add a few cloves of chopped garlic and cook until fragrant. Add stock, rice, bouquet garni and a generous pinch of salt. Bring the mixture to boil and simmer for 30 minutes. This infuses the broth with flavor and cooks the rice which thickens the soup. Remove the bouquet garni and add the spices and the spinach. It is best to add the spinach in batches to the hot broth, continue to add more until it is all wilted. Cover and cook for five minutes, no longer. The spinach should retain it’s bright green color, any longer it could turn gray.

Puree the soup in batches in a blender or blend in the pot with an immersion blender. The final touch is the addition of some tangy yogurt, half is blended into the soup and the rest is a garnish for each bowl. Sprinkle a few chopped walnuts on top before serving. I served it hot but I think it would be good cold as well.

Spinach Soup with Middle Eastern Spices

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

1T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 c finely diced celery
Salt to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ to ½c medium grain rice
6 c chicken or vegetable stock
Bouquet garni of a few sprigs parsley and thyme and a bay leaf
1 ½ lbs fresh spinach, washed thoroughly, large stems removed
¼t ground allspice
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t freshly ground nutmeg
¼ t ground cinnamon
1t coriander seeds, lightly toasted and ground
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 c Greek yogurt (low or full fat)
¼ c chopped walnuts to garnish

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the chopped onion and celery and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add the stock, rice, bouquet garni and salt to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
While the stock is simmering you will have time to measure out the spices and toast and grind the coriander.
After the stock has simmered, remove the bouquet garni. Add the spices and add the spinach in batches, wilting it as you go. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Spinach should still retain its bright color.
Puree the soup in batches in a blender. Be sure to not to overfill and hold down the lid tightly. Alternately you could puree the soup in the pot with a hand blender. Stop at this step if you are not serving the soup immediately.
Return the soup to the pot and heat through, stirring occasionally. Whisk half of the yogurt into the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve the soup with a swirl of yogurt and garnish with chopped walnuts.

April 2, 2016 Triple Mushroom Soup

Creamy, rich mushroom soup, a dish that is so simple, yet so refined. This version, from chef Anthony Bourdain provides maximum flavor with not a great deal of effort. The rich velvety texture of this soup doesn’t come from cream, it comes from the butter that the mushrooms are sautéed in. I used two of the most readily available mushroom varieties, white “button” mushrooms and creminis. If you were not aware, creminis are referred to as portabellos when they grow to full maturity. To up the mushroom quotient, add some reconstituted dried mushrooms, I used chanterelles. Not too many, I started with about a quarter of a cup dried, you don’t want to overwhelm the soup.

We live about an hour from the mushroom capital of the world, close enough for mushrooms to be sold as a local product at our farmers market. Kennett Square in Chester County Pennsylvania is home to farms that produces over a million pounds of mushrooms a week. Kennett Square did not become the mushroom capital for reasons of climate or soil conditions but for reasons of ingenuity. Enterprising and frugal Quaker farmers in the late nineteenth century were looking for ways to use the wasted space under the elevated benches where they grew flowers. They imported spawn from Europe, created the right growing environment and a successful industry was born.

Whenever possible I prefer to purchase whole loose mushrooms. Inspect mushrooms carefully, they should feel damp, not moist. Try to avoid mushrooms that are badly bruised or broken. Many sources say that you shouldn’t rinse mushrooms because they soak up water but the folks at Cooks Illustrated have proven that wrong. They found that after a quick rinse of a six ounce container of mushrooms they gained only a quarter ounce of water. The key is to rinse, not soak and dry immediately. Cooks Illustrated also suggests that if you store mushrooms it should be in a partially open zipper bag. This maximizes air circulation without letting the mushrooms dry out.

Begin the recipe by melting butter in a medium sized pan, I prefer my Le Crueset 5 quart Dutch oven for any soup I make. Add the sliced onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Next add the mushrooms and allow the vegetables to sweat, that is, to soften without taking on any color. The mushrooms will exude their liquid and cook down considerably. If you want, add 1/4 cup of dried mushrooms that have been reconstituted in warm water for about 20 minutes. Stir in the chicken stock (vegetable if you prefer a vegetarian dish) and a small bouquet garni of a few sprigs of parsley and some fresh thyme. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour. Although it wasn’t in the original recipe, I added a small piece of Parmesan rind to add to the umami quality of the soup.

After an hour, discard the piece of Parmesan rind if using, and the herbs. Allow the soup to cool for about 15 minutes then transfer the soup to the blender in batches, being careful to keep the lid on tight; blend until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, season with salt and pepper, reheat and add sherry. One last word of admonition, do not use cooking sherry. It is sherry with salt and other additives to prolong it’s shelf life. Look for a dry sherry to compliment the flavors in this recipe. Saute a few mushrooms slices to garnish the soup and maybe a small sprig of thyme.

Triple Mushroom Soup

Serves four, can easily be doubled

Ingredients

6 T butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
12 ounces mushrooms (I used half button and half crimini)
¼c dried mushrooms (shiitake, chanterelles etc.) reconstituted in warm water for about 20 minutes and well drained, optional
4 cups chicken stock
Several sprigs of parsley
1 sprig of fresh thyme
2 ounces sherry
salt and pepper

Directions

Over medium heat, melt two tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan. Toss in the onion and cook until soft but not browned.
Toss in the remaining butter and then add the mushrooms. Cook for 8 minutes.
Pour in the chicken stock, add the herbs and rind (if using), and bring to a boil. When bubbling, reduce to a simmer and cook for an hour.
Pour soup into a blender (you might need to do this in stages), and process until smooth. Return to the saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour in the sherry, and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with sauteed mushroom slices and a sprig of thyme.

DSC_6564a — The same chanterelles after a twenty minute soak.

DSC_6568a — Add chicken stock , herbs and bring to a boil.

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