Flush with
baby kale right now, this dish was probably my best improvised dish yet this year. Inspired by many a salad I have eaten I took something raw and turned it into something warm and hearty and so good you can make new friends just by sharing it. The key to this dish is that the beets and the onion are somewhat sweet, and while the aged balsamic vinegar is somewhat sweet as well, the acidity balances the dish so perfectly that I want this dish to be my final one on death row. I’m not there yet, but just in case, you know?
You really want to slice the beets thinly as they will be sauteing in the pan rather than being boiled. You also don’t want to over cook them as a little texture is very nice in this dish. The onions should soften and the kale should be cooked gently, for just a short period of time. You don’t want to turn them into a spinach like mush, they should retain some of their crunch, which the stem will provide.
6 cups of baby kale? yes, it cooks down, even after a minute or two. But it’s so darn nutritious that why not? 618% of the Vitamin A you need for a day! 411% of the Vitamin C you need for a day! Fiber galore! It can make you rich! Kale! Seriously, why the heck not? Plus, you can fill your tummy for 211 calories. Seriously, do I really need to convince you? Fat loss schools and Weight Watchers be damned, this doesn’t need to be a side dish. While it is great on its own, the aged balsamic vinegar gives it that ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes me want to serve this at my next dinner party. It’s not inexpensive stuff, but one bottle will last you forever, seriously.
Kale is an extremely overlooked vegetable, and is best in early summer. Stuff your face while you can because kale is one of the most healthful foods you can eat, and it’s very filing as it is full of fiber. The good kind of fiber. Regular kale is a bit more tough, so baby kale is my personal choice, but you could certainly make this with regular kale as well. Just cook the kale a little longer. You won’t regret trying this dish. And you can thank me by sending huge bags of cash.
 Baby kale |
 Aged Balsamic Vinegar |
 cooking |
| Baby Kale with Beets and Onions |
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Recipe type: side, entree
Author: Warren
Serves: 2
A lightly cooked kale salad, a new take on what has been a boring bistro salad.
- 6 cups baby kale
- 1/2 cup beets, sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar (w/ must)
- Slice the beets into tin little discs.
- Do the same for the onions.
- Saute the beets for a few minutes to soften.
- Add the sliced onions and soften as well, just a few minutes.
- Add the baby kale and let wilt, but not cook to a mush.
- Plate, and drizzle with aged balsamic vinegar.
Serving size: 313g Calories: 211g Fat: 8.3g Saturated fat: 1.1g Unsaturated fat: 7.2g : 31.5g Sugar: 7.2g Fiber: 5.8g Protein: 8.0g Cholesterol: 0g
This could easily be topped with pine nuts (pinoli) or goat cheese to great effect. Don’t hesitate to experiment.
Nutritional Analysis
-No cholesterol
-High in calcium
-High in dietary fiber
-High in iron
-Very high in manganese
-High in potassium
-Very high in vitamin A
-High in vitamin B6
-Very high in vitamin C
1.2.4
Tags: balsamic vinegar, beets, kale, onion
American, Appetizer, Budget Recipes, Dinner, Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Low Carb, Quick Recipes, Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Spring is the season of
garlic scapes. It is a short season, so take advantage of it while you can as these tender stalks of allium ether will be gone before you know it. Eating garlic scapes is like playing hide and seek with garlic, you know it’s there, but you are not sure exactly where.
This was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. And likely the simplest to make. You can really use any cut of meat, particularly if you are cutting it thinly. But the combined flavors of the three simple ingredients are enough to make me want to emulate a Roman feast, but those are details I won’t get into here. Garlic and beef go together exceptionally well. And the shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) adds that additional level of umami (the contentious sixth flavor, meatiness) to the dish. My dinner mates were blown away by this and we are actively seeking more garlic scapes tomorrow.
While some people like to cut the garlic scapes into small pieces, I prefer long ones, that look and feel like string beans, but unlike string beans they are not string beans, they are garlic scapes. Let’s move on. If cooked quickly at a high heat, they retain their moisture and flavor, and impart the perfect counter texture to the steak. During preparation, you should cut the tips off the garlic scapes as they are tough and don’t soften when they cook. The stem of the garlic scape is tender, juicy, and lightly redolent of garlic without that garlicky bite. They add a tremendous amount of flavor without a lot of punch, which is perfect for most people. As a side note, if you have a lot of garlic scapes, garlic scape pesto is a treat, and that will be a follow up post.
The steak is most easily cut when slightly frozen. I can cut perfect, almost comically rectangular slices of beef when I leave the steak in the freezer for about 30 – 45 minutes (depending on the size) and then start cutting while the steak is slightly frozen. Or mostly thawing a frozen steak. This is not necessary, of course, it’s just fun and makes slicing steak easier. This dish was honestly the best I have had in a long time, and if you have access to garlic scapes, I highly recommend trying this recipe. But you may have to share more than you would like. I often serve it with brown rice, by the way, as the sauce is too good not to be soaked up.
 Garlic scapes |
 Steak geometric perfection! |
 Garlic scapes cooked |
| Garlic Scapes and Steak Stir Fry |
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Recipe type: Entree
Author: Warren
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 4
This simple dish has tremendous flavor, with the beef mingling with the garlic scapes unlike anything else.
- 1 3/4 lbs steak (I like sirloin for this)
- 1 bunch garlic scapes (about 7oz)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Remove the flowery tips of the garlic scapes and slice the stalks into the desired length.
- Slice the steak into strips and set aside.
- Heat a deep pan (I like a wok) with the oil and sear the garlic scapes for about five minutes, long enough to soften them a bit.
- Remove the garlic scapes and set aside.
- Cook the steak until it is almost done in the oil left in the pan.
- Drain the liquid that leeches from the steak (there will be a lot).
- Place the garlic scapes back in the pan, pour in the soy sauce and toss for a few minutes until everything is coated.
- Serve.
Serving size: 255g | Calories: 475g | Fat: 15.9g | Saturated fat: 5,3g | Unsaturated fat: 10.6g | : 16.7g | Sugar: 0.6g | Fiber: 1.1g | Protein: 63.7g | Cholesterol: 177mg
- Very low in sugar
- High in phosphorus
- Very high in selenium
- High in vitamin B6
- High in vitamin B12
- High in zinc
- High in cholesterol
1.2.4
Tags: garlic scapes, steak
American, Beef, Budget Recipes, Dinner, Gluten Free, Japanese, Low Carb, Lunch, Quick Recipes, Vegetables
Chai is the name for a spiced Indian tea that is generally served milky and sweet. I particularly like chai in the winter, as it is hearty and warming, but I find it quite satisfying as iced chai tea in the summer as well.
As with most food, there is no rule with chai, it is all about personal preference. Find the flavors you like. Experiment with them. Add more, add less of others. In India, chai, like curry, is no one mix. Different regions use different flavors, and even one particular family may make their curry or chai in a completely different manner than the family next door. Basically, find the flavors you like and play with them until you find your preferred taste.
What I do is simple, I take a black tea that I like (it can be a malty Assam, or a lighter Ceylon, or any thing in between. Using a tea bag from the store will work well too since a lot of flavor comes from the spices that steep with the tea, so heck, go ahead and use that bag that came with your Chinese food last night.
My chai ingredients:
Black tea
Green cardamom (crack the pods open)
Black peppercorns
Cinnamon (whole or small pieces, powdered will work, but won’t filter out easily)
Cloves
Ginger
Vanilla Extract (just a few drops)
Milk
Sugar
Directions:
Steep the mix in hot water for about 3 minutes. Add milk and sugar to your taste, it’s really that simple.
I find the best way to make chai is with an infuser basket. Place your selected ingredients in the basket in your cup, and remove when done. You could always toss all the items in a pot and pour the tea through a strainer, whatever is easiest for you.
Tags: cardamom, cloves, ginger, spices, tea
Budget Recipes, Dairy, Drinks, Indian, Low Calorie, Low Carb, Misc, Quick Recipes, Vegetarian
Roasted garlic is one of the easiest things to make and is not only great when included into other recipes, but it is magnificent on its own, squeezed out onto a crust of bread. Garlic is a lucky little bulb; like all nubs in the Allium family, it has a high concentration of both flavor and sugar. When roasted, the Maillard reaction changes those sugars into a garlic caramel, which coincidentally are two of my favorite flavors.
Roasted garlic bulbs make for a simple snack to have around, and while it may take some time to roast, it’s pretty much fire and forget as you pop them into the oven for a while, wait, and they are ready to eat. Roast, let them cool a bit, snip off the top and squeeze onto a toasted baguette and you have license to ignore the kids.
One tip, though. Most recipes you find suggest you cut off the top of the bulbs with the head intact and then roast. That’s fine if your goal is to peel the bulbs, but I find it much easier to pull the bulbs apart without cutting them, roast, and squeeze the garlic out. Peeling roasted garlic is a hassle I’ll leave to the celebrity chefs who dump that work on their assistants.
Ingredients:
1 head of garlic
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Pull the garlic bulbs apart from the head and place in a sheet of aluminum foil.
3. Fold up the foil to create a pouch, leaving some air space.
4. Place foil pouch in the oven for 45 minutes.
5. Let the garlic cool a bit before attacking it. Just snip the top off a bulb and squeeze out the sweet, garlicky goodness.
Salsa
Per a request, this is my basic salsa recipe (enjoy this one, Tom). The great thing about salsa is that you can tweak it left and right to make the kind of salsa that suits your taste. Do you like cilantro, add an entire bunch (I do, it’s one of my favorite flavors). Hot or mild, play with the jalapeno to taste. Add a few chipotle peppers if you like it smokey. There are endless ways you can modify this recipe to make something incredible. I’m a huge fan of green salsa made with tomatillos, and I’ve even made salsa with spirits and odd spices. My point is that this is a great basic recipe and I challenge you to make it your own. Your taste buds will thank me.
Ingredients:
3 large tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon green jalapeno chilies
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
The easiest way to make this is to place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse slowly until all ingredients are chopped but not pureed. I like a thick salsa, so I often add the garlic, lime juice and salt first, pulse (to get the garlic chopped well) then add the remaining ingredients and roughly process.
If you don’t have a food processor, or prefer to not use one, just chop up all the ingredients and mix together in a bowl. It is that easy. Sprinkle with a little dried cilantro, or even thyme or Mexican oregano for garnish.
Tags: salsa, spicy, tomato
Appetizer, Budget Recipes, Dip, Fruit, Gluten Free, Hors d'oeuvres, Low Calorie, Low Carb, Mexican, Quick Recipes, Salads, Sauces, Sides, Snack, Vegetables, Vegetarian
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