Gumbo Z'herbes

I saw the original recipe in the May 2013 issue of Food & Wine magazine.  It's a meat 'n' greens stew, and takes advantage of all the tasty spring greens hitting the markets (or coming up in your garden) at this time of year.  As a stew, you can make it in advance very nicely...the first time I tried this recipe, I cooked it fully in the morning and put it in the crockpot to keep warm until we got home that night.  It also freezes beautifully.

Btw, "z'herbes" is shortening of "fines herbes"...a mix of fragrant, flavorful green herbs such as tarragon, rosemary, thyme, parsley, lavender and so on.  It's pronounced "zayrb", if you're a French linguistics nerd like me ;)

The OR calls for particular amounts of particular greens and particular amounts of particular cuts of pork...I think of it more as guidelines ;)  I LOVE that I can throw in that half a head of cabbage that's left after making cabbage 3 different ways for a regular side dish, the rest of the collard greens left over after making sausage-stuffed collards, the nubbin of romaine lettuce left over from 2 salads.  Use turnip greens, beet greens, mustard greens, chard, kale, spinach, collards, spring mix, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce...about 3 lbs. of whatever is green in your fridge or garden.

And you can throw in handfuls of oddball greens like carrot tops (if you get carrots with the frondy greens still attached), second-year parsley (oddly, my parsley survived our winter and is coming back up and preparing to bolt as biennial plants do), watercress or arugula that you scavenge out of your early garden.

Clockwise from left: Ham hock, chopped hamsteak
with thyme, andouille

I'm also using up the last of our locally-raised hog.  When you buy a whole animal like that, you wind up with...well...weird bits.  Bacon ends.  Bony sirloin roasts.  Smoked hambones.  Tiny pork chops that are too little to serve by themselves.  I'm throwing all that stuff in this stew.  You can use fresh pork shoulder or loin, smoked pork, sausage links (andouille is traditional, and is the only thing I've bought special for this stew), ham hocks, hamsteak, chopped ham, neck bones...about 3 lbs. total.

When you chop up all those greens, it's a LOT.  You'll need an 8 quart or larger pot.  And then you only add 2 quarts of water to that pile.  It seems like too little.  It's not.  Trust me.  The greens cook down and give off their own liquid to make a flavorful broth that the stew is built on.  You do not want too much water here.  Here's how to tell if your tiny amount of water is boiling when you can't see it under a mess o' greens...put the pot lid on, turn the heat to high, and when there's condensation on the underside of the lid, you're good to go.

Lastly, the OR calls for file powder which I don't keep in my pantry.  File is a flavoring as well as thickening ingredient.  I add extra flour to compensate for the lack of file.  Use 2 tbsp flour instead of 4 tbsp and 1 1/2 tsp file powder if you want.  You can always add some beurre manie at the end if your stew seems too watery.

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Creamed Greens

This recipe works for any type of cooked green...kale, chard, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, even collards as long as they're fully cooked first.  This is how I get leftover cooked greens eaten at my house...they go like gangbusters the first night, but tend to linger as leftovers so I recreate them as creamed greens.

The best recipe I've ever had for creamed spinach was a Barefoot Contessa colossus of cream, butter, cheese, more cheese and a lot of salt.  I do love creamy goodness, but not like that every day.  Using milk instead of cream, less cheese, less salt and less butter still produces a yummy dish.  If you want to lighten the sauce further, you could substitute some cooking liquid from the greens for some of the milk.

You can make this ahead up to the point of baking (it will probably take a little longer to brown if the dish is coming out of the fridge) or if you make the sauce and greens at dinnertime, you could skip the parmesan and further baking and just serve it out of the saucepan.

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Greens au gratin

I had scads of end-of-season chard in my garden, and this is what I did with it.  It's similar to the holiday favorite broccoli-n-cheese casserole.  You can use any combination of greens you want, just be sure to cook them and drain them very well.  You'll need about 5 cups cooked for this recipe. 

Before cooking

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White Seafood Lasagne

This is possibly the most labor-intensive lasagne I make.  You cook the sauce, you cook the protein, you make a special filling...believe me, it's worth it!!  You invest a little more time on the front end (when you *choose* to cook), put less time on the back end (when you *need* to cook), and get a knock-your-socks-off dinner...this is exactly what Dinner Done Yesterday is about.

There are food allergies in our extended cookery household, so shrimp is a no-no.  Feel free to use shrimp, or any other seafood, if you prefer.  In this recipe, I used half whole wheat noodles and half white noodles because that's what I had in the pantry.

White Seafood Lasagne
Makes 1 9x13 pan

Boilables:
1 lb. lasagne
1/2 bunch kale, stems trimmed, or 10 oz. box frozen greens

Scallops:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. bay scallops

Bechamel:
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper

Filling:
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg
3 tsp Italian seasoning
pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Heat a 4 quart pot of water to boiling.  Add kale and boil 10 minutes.  Lift out of the water with tongs and drain.  Chop coarsely when cooled (if using frozen greens, thaw and drain thoroughly, then chop).

Add lasagne noodles to the same pot of boiling water (topping up if necessary) and cook 10 minutes.  Drain and lay flat to cool.  Insure that you have 15 whole noodles.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and saute onions and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add scallops and cook until opaque, about 3 minutes.  Drain any liquid in the pan and reserve.

To make bechamel sauce, in a saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour.  Cook 1 minute.  Slowly stir in milk until completely incorporated.  Increase heat to medium-high until simmering.  Reduce heat to medium and whisk occasionally until sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes.  Set aside.

To make filling, combine ricotta, parmesan, egg, spices, chopped greens, scallop mixture and 6 tbsp of bechamel sauce.

To assemble lasagne...divide filling mixture into 15 portions (about 1/4-1/3 cup each).  Spread each portion on one lasagne noodle.  Roll noodle lengthwise and place seam-side down in lasagne pan. 

Repeat for remaining noodles. 

Pour bechamel sauce over noodles, making sure to cover all surfaces.  Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese over top.  Wrap in foil and plastic wrap and freeze or refrigerate.

When ready to cook, thaw lasagne.  Cook at 400F for 30 minutes, or until heated through. Pin It

Waste Not: Bacon

  

Gratuitious bacon shot

More specifically, bacon grease.  My mom kept a coffee can by the stove to collect bacon grease so that it didn't clog up the disposal.  She threw it out when it got full.  I don't know for sure that my grandmothers or great-grandmothers kept a can by the stove the collect bacon grease, but if they many housewives of their generation did and it was to use for cooking.  Most cookbooks written before the 1960's don't specify what kind of fat to use in a recipe...because the cook might have been using rendered bacon fat just as often as oil or butter.

But it's so high in fat!!  So are butter and olive oil, actually.  It's all fat, and you shouldn't go bonkers with any of it really.  Bacon grease is immensely flavorful (like butter) with a high smoke point (like canola oil).  You don't have to drown all your cookery in bacon fat, but a tablespoon added to other fats will help correct their deficiencies.  Just don't add any extra salt to the recipe.

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