Mizuna and Escarole Salad with Caramelized Pears

mizuna leaves

This salad speaks autumn. You’ll find pears, Bartlett and Bosc especially, all over the Farmer’s Market, and the escarole and mizuna are hardy greens that we see this cooler time of year. Try this at Thanksgiving too, as complement and neutralizer for the typical carbo and turkey-heavy meal. The basic recipe is from Gourmet Today, 1000-pages with 1000 “contemporary” recipes. Since Gourmet Magazine is no longer published each month, I’m finding this new cookbook to be the magazine’s permanent heirloom for my kitchen bookshelf.

4 firm, yet ripe pears, Bosc or Bartlett

1 tablespoon plus ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 small bunch escarole

1 small bunch mizuna

3 handfuls Ranui mixed salad greens

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

¼ teaspoon Real Salt

Pinch cayenne

Preheat oven to 425° F. Peel and core the pears, then cut them into 8 wedges each. Toss them with the tablespoon of olive oil and spread in one layer on a large baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper. Roast the pears, stirring and turning a couple of times, until they are tender and beginning to brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool.

Wash the escarole and mizuna. Tear away any thick ribs and discard. Tear the tender leaves into bite-sized pieces. Mix with the salad greens to make up about 8 cups total.

In a small bowl, whisk together the shallot, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper, until the salt is dissolved. Add the remaining ¼ cup of oil in a slow stream, whisking until smooth. Toss the vinaigrette with the mixed greens and the roasted pears. Divide onto chilled plates.

Makes 5 to 6 servings.

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Potato and Eggplant Curry

About this time of September someone in Park City will ask me if the Farmer’s Market is still open on Wednesday. Are you kidding? —This is harvest, abundant with tomatoes, peaches, pears, plums, butternut and spaghetti squash, bell peppers and on and on. It looks like John is still getting tomatoes from the Ranui greenhouses and those lovely purple Viking potatoes are again in our CSA box. So go buy some eggplant from East Farms at the Farmer’s Market. Serve this curry with basmati brown rice, steamed in a vegetable broth to which you have added a good pinch of saffron, and plain yogurt or a yogurt raita, along with a few dollops of chutney, your choice flavor. I made this in a pressure cooker and it took 8 minutes. After releasing the pressure stir in the tomato wedges. I barely changed this recipe from the one in my 1972 dinner party bible The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas.

potatoes, eggplant, peppers and spices

2 medium or 3 small eggplants

2 or 3 organic purple Viking or russet potatoes, well scrubbed

2 bell peppers

1 small Anaheim chile

¼ cup unsalted butter

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoons Real Salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

Scant ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 to 2 /12 cups water

4 or 5 tomatoes, cut into small wedges

Wash the eggplants and slice them lengthwise about ½ inch thick. Lay them on a plate covered with a paper towel and salt generously. After about ½ hour, rub off the water that has beaded on top of the slices and cut them into large cubes. Cut the potatoes into cubes. Remove the seeds from the bell peppers and chile and cut them into ½-inch squares. Measure all of the spices into a cup.

Melt the butter in a wide pot (or pressure cooker.) When it has melted, add the olive oil. Add the spices and the garlic and cook and stir a minute or so. Add the eggplant, potatoes, peppers and chile, stirring the vegetables to coat them with the spices. Add the water (the lesser amount if using a pressure cooker,) and cover the pot. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes (8 minutes for pressure cooker), stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes. When the tomatoes are hot, serve the curry.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Mole Enchiladas with Arugula, Potatoes and Carrots

Day of the Dead Altar

For the last few autumns, to celebrate the Day of the Dead, I’ve been traveling to Oaxaca Mexico, at the same time many Mexican families gather for the November 2 holiday honoring their deceased ancestors, relatives and friends. It is not at all a morbid celebration, but an all-night party, with huge feasts of tamales and chocolate and flowers and incense and tequila and more, including the 7 traditional moles of Oaxaca. I am not giving you a recipe for mole here, only recommending that you use it as the sauce for this casserole of stacked tortillas and vegetables. In fact, I suggest you purchase a jar of good quality mole (Dona Maria is easy to find) and use it as a base for your sauce. The jar says mix 1 part mole to 4 parts water. Substitute V-8 juice or tomato juice for some of the water. Heat this red mole, whisking until smooth, adding a scant tablespoon of almond or peanut butter.

3 cups chopped potatoes (1/2-inch dice)

1 cup chopped carrots (1/2-inch dice)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch arugula, stems removed and discarded, leaves coarsely chopped

12 to 15 corn tortillas

1 cup crumbled cotija or feta cheese

Real Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 to 5 cups red mole sauce or enchilada sauce

½ cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

Steam the potatoes and carrots separately until they are just tender to the bite, but not soft, about 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook and stir the onions until they are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and stir another minute or so. Stir in the potatoes and carrots and the arugula. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush some oil in a deep casserole dish. Put about ¼ cup of sauce in the bottom.

Lay a tortilla down, sprinkle a little of the vegetable mixture on top and then about a tablespoon of the cotija cheese. Spread with a few tablespoons of sauce. Lay down another tortilla, follow with vegetables and cheese and sauce, continuing this stacking and layering until you are out of filling. End with a tortilla dipped in the sauce. Sprinkle with the Monterey Jack cheese.

Bake until the sauce begins to bubble around the edges, about 30 minutes.

Makes about 8 servings.

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Pickled Pink Red Onions

El Mercado

Have you ever enjoyed the red onion condiment at a Mexican restaurant and wondered how they took the bite out of the onion, but kept the fresh quality?

This recipe, from my favorite cookbook author Deborah Madison, offers the answer. These onions go well with most every Southwestern style meal and they keep at least a week, covered and refrigerated. Watch them turn pink…

2 medium red onions

1 quart boiling water

2/3 cup rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar

2/3 cup cold water

1 teaspoon sugar

10 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

Peel the onions and slice them into rings as thinly as you can, less than 1/8^th inch thick. Separate the rings and put them in a colander inside a bowl.

Pour the boiling water over the onions and let sit for 3 to 5 minutes, until the onions begin to soften. Drain and put them in a wide-mouth quart jar covered with the vinegar, cold water, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaves. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour.

Makes 2 cups

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Purple Potato and Beet Salad

Purple Viking Potatoes

This week in our CSA box we have Purple Viking potatoes. The skin is purple but the flesh is white. And you’ll stain them fuchsia when you toss them with the beets and yogurt. Dill pickles in potato salad? Try them. In my family recipe, they are an essential potato salad ingredient, adding tang, spice and interest. Incredibly flavorful and never harsh all-natural Kosher dill pickles are Bubbies brand, found under refrigeration in your local natural food store.

If the oven is on for baking something else, roast the beets in a covered casserole with about a half-inch of water; otherwise boil them in plenty of water. Either way, peel them after they have cooked and cooled—the skins will remove easily when you slide them away using your fingers. I usually cook beets the 1^st or 2^nd evening after we receive them so they are ready to slice and add to our dinner salads. If you cook the beets specifically for this recipe, peel them when they are cool enough to handle.

I’ve adapted this recipe from one in Moosewood Restaurant Low-fat Favorites cookbook.

3 medium beets, scrubbed and stems trimmed to 1/2-inch, cooked until easily pierced with a knife

4 Purple Viking potatoes, scrubbed

1/3 cup finely chopped red onion or shallots

¾ cup plain yogurt

3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup chopped dill pickles

½ teaspoon Real Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the potatoes in 1-inch cubes. In a large pot of salted water, boil the potatoes, 15-20 minutes, until tender to the bite. Drain and set aside to cool. Remove the peel from the beets and cut them into ½-inch cubes.

Mix together the potatoes, beets, onion, yogurt, parsley, vinegar, chopped pickles, salt and pepper. Season to taste with more salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Makes 4 to 5 servings.

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Mess o’ Greens and Beans Soup

What a lovely Indian summer of a week this is. Jack Frost has been visiting Ranui Gardens most nights but has backed off for a spell while we enjoy glorious blue-ribbon days. Mild frosts in fact benefit kale and collards, which are in John’s mess o’ greens mix: these hardy greens become sweeter after they’ve been frost kissed. We can enjoy this substantial soup with a southern accent on our crisp-cool evenings.

It’s easy to cook black-eyed peas if you prefer them over canned: start with ½ pound of dried beans. Rinse the beans and put them in a large pot with about 4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 45 minutes or so, until tender. If you use a pressure cooker, black-eyed peas cook in 10 to 11 minutes. This recipe is adapted from one in Moosewood Restaurant Low-fat Favorites cookbook.

8 ounces Mess o’Greens, or collard greens or kale

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 onions, red or yellow, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups vegetable stock

1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes (about 2 cups)

2 (15-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed (3 to 4 cups)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Pinch dried thyme

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1/2 teaspoon Real Salt

2 cups cooked brown rice

Rinse the greens well and remove the coarse stems. Chop coarsely and set aside.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Stir in the onions and cook and stir until they are translucent. Add the garlic and cook and stir another minute or so. Add the vegetable stock, chopped greens, tomatoes and their juice, black-eyed peas, vinegar, brown sugar, thyme, allspice, hot pepper sauce and salt. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the rice and simmer another 5 minutes. Season to taste with more salt and hot pepper sauce, if desired.

Makes about 4 servings.

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Carrots Cooked in Vodka

From my friend Teri I learned the habit of jotting brief margin notes along with the date I made a recipe in my cookbooks. Noted variations and revisions are helpful when searching for inspiration for meals and besides, a perusal of recipe pages becomes a tour down memory lane. In my ancient and well-used copy of Fast Vegetarian Feasts by Martha Rose Shulman, Teri, with her typewriter printing, wrote, “Original, Tastey! The alcohol doesn’t all evaporate~~~~~TT, 3/84.

Martha Rose’s headnote says “carrots, like people, get a nice lift from vodka.”

½ pound carrots, sliced thinly on the diagonal (2 cups)

¼ cup vodka

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

½ teaspoon honey or agave syrup

1 teaspoon butter

Pinch of salt

Place the carrots, vodka, orange zest and honey in a medium saucepan. Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes, until the carrots are tender when pierced with a fork. Toss in the butter and salt and serve.

Makes 4 side dish servings.

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Grand Canyon Memories

We are all back safe from 16 days on the Colorado River, trying to integrate into our normal lives. Many of us are still recovering from bruises and cuts and tweaked backs but we are mostly sound. Oh the stories to be told…

I can’t wait to see photos–one morning a camera took on everyone’s feet, because each person’s tell a slightly different tale of wear and abuse–desert sand, dry air, hot sun, sharp rocks and bushes, insects, from biting flies and red ants to ½-inch-tiny scorpions, and the daily time in water–magical fresh-water springs, white travertine pools and the brown silty Colorado.

We ate very well. Recipes for 2 dinners I posted in recent blogs. Team 5 ended up preparing stuffed portobello mushrooms, since the shrooms were looking a little worse for cooler wear by day 5. We drizzled them with purchased Italian dressing and stuffed them with diced red peppers—pan-sautéed instead of grilled, they were a hit!

We have chard in our CSA boxes this week so here is a variation.

Grilled Chard-stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Sea salt

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dried “Italian” herbs

Freshly ground black pepper

4 medium to large portobello mushrooms, stem removed

1 medium potato, cut in ½-inch dice

1 bunch chard, stems removed, cut in ½-inch pieces and reserved

1 red onion, cut in ½-inch dice

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 pinches red pepper flakes

¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Make a vinaigrette: Whisk 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar with the mustard and some salt in a bowl. Drizzle in 1/3 cup of olive oil, a little at a time, whisking. Season with the herbs, black pepper and more salt to taste.

With a spoon, scrape and discard the dark gills from inside the mushrooms. Pour about a tablespoon of vinaigrette into the open bottom of each mushroom and set aside to marinate.

Drop the diced potato into a pot of boiling salted water and cook until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add the chard leaves to the pot and cook until the leaves are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain and chop coarsely.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Cook and stir the reserved chard stems and the red onion until the onion is translucent. Stir in the garlic and the pepper flakes and cook and stir a few more minutes. Add the cooked diced potato along with the chard leaves and about 1/3 cup of water. Cook until the water is absorbed and the vegetables are heated through. Season with salt and 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar.

Heat the grill. Grill the mushrooms on both sides until they begin to brown and are soft to touch, 5 to 8 minutes. Divide the filling into the mushroom bottoms. Sprinkle each with about a tablespoon of the cheese and grill until the cheese melts. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 filled mushrooms, serving 2 to 4 persons.

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