Soul of The South - Kickin' Collard Greens

I want to take a moment to tell you about our latest family adventure, a trip to South Carolina by way of Savannah, Georgia. In addition to what is always a good old time with all the folks I love, I was struck by how beautiful this part of the country is.

The Beach at Hilton Head, Photo: NK

                                                                                                                      

From the white sand beaches to the seemingly endless marshlands, the wild sea birds and trees draped dramatically with Spanish moss (which look wonderfully spooky by the light of the moon), Low Country really is great.     

                          

She-Crab Soup, Photo: NK

                                                                  

And it's not just because of the vistas - the food is pretty good too! With a rich culinary history all its own, Low Country is a place to find and taste the foods of the Gullah Culture, as well as other regional delights like She-Crab Soup. This stuff was good, let me tell you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

As soon as I got finished taking in the astonishingly pretty sunsets

Photo: NK

Photo: NK

and getting my fill of activities like a really fun day of kayaking and mini golf, 

Photo: NK

I knew it was time to get down to the business of cooking. My favorite kind!

I'd had my fill of yummy shrimp and grits during our fun family trip, so I decided to indulge the hankering I had for my favorite Southern side dish - Collard Greens. 

I actually can't believe that I had never made collards at home before because I really enjoy them. Collards are a sturdy, slow-cooking green. They take a while to become tender, but almost no time to prep. It's during the lengthy cooking period that the magic happens. 

You can infuse collards with many different flavors, but the traditional addition is some sort of smoked meat, whether bacon or a ham hock. Feel free to turn this vegetarian by omitting the bacon and cooking as directed from after that point. Relying heavily on a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com, my first attempt at collards was a great success. They were smokey, salty, and even a little spicy, from a generous pinch of crushed red pepper.

If you too are a collard novice, this recipe is a great place to start. Serve collards alongside your favorite Southern dishes, or if you like them as much as I do, throw them over rice, beans, or peas, and they are a meal in themselves. Y'all enjoy! 

Kickin' Collard Greens

Lightly Adapted from Allrecipes.com/Ken Adams

Photo: NK 

Serves 6

Ingredients: 

3 Strips of Bacon

1 teaspoon Olive Oil

1 medium White Onion, chopped

3 cloves of Garlic, minced

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Pepper

1 generous pinch Crushed Red Pepper

3 Cups Vegetable Broth

1 Large Bunch Fresh Collard Greens, chopped into two-inch pieces

Method: 

1. Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook it until it is crisp. Remove the bacon, blot off the oil, roughly chop it and return it to the pan. 

2. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until tender. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 2 minutes. Now add the collard greens and cook until the leaves begin to wilt. 

3. Pour in the vegetable broth and lower the flame to low. Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Cover the pot and cook for 45 minutes until the greens are tender. Scoop the collards from the liquid, serve and enjoy!

Collards! Photo: NK

Ingredient Spotlight: Acorn Squash (+ Brown Sugar & Walnuts)

The Beautiful Acorn Squash, Photo: NK

There are a ton of things that rock about fall - like fuzzy flannel shirts, leaf-peeping, and pumpkin flavored everything.  

Of course, cooking with autumn produce ranks high in our house and I can tell that you too love preparing the foods of the season. Our Foolproof Fall Dinner for Six  post is getting tons of traffic! It is a great menu, if we do say so ourselves. 

For more Autumn produce inspiration check out our super healthy recipe for Apple Rutabaga Mash. But today, we're all about the Acorn. Acorn Squash to be exact. If you are looking for the world's  easiest side dish for your next meal, please, look no further. Today's recipe is merely a guideline, as there are endless possibilities for baking acorn squash. Just let your favorite spices be your guide. 

Our version includes the usual brown sugar and butter, but adds a hint of cinnamon and some smokey paprika (my favorite spice of all time), before finishing it all off with a sprinkling of crunchy toasted walnuts. The textural combo of the tender squash and walnuts is just great. Also - I find it especially cool that this dish is self-contained. Slice off a bit of the squash's bottom and you've made yourself a sturdy little bowl filled with fall goodness. Just get out a spoon and start scooping out the sweet, nutty middles. 

This recipe is so easy - just bake the squash, flavor it like so
(or use your own favorite spices), and bake again! Photo: NK 

Before we jump to our recipe, let's first learn a bit about our main ingredient:

"(Acorn Squash) flesh is sweeter than summer squash, with a nut-like flavor. It is shaped like a ribbed acorn, hence its nickname. The growing period is longer than summer squash, giving it plenty of time to soak up the sweetness of the sun. 

Along with the standard green variety, you may also run across orange and white acorn squash varieties. Although available in many areas year-round, prime season for acorn squash is early fall through winter." ~About.com 

OK! Now let's cook what we've learned. 

Baked Acorn Squash + Brown Sugar & Walnuts, Photo: NK

Baked Acorn Squash With Brown Sugar & Toasted Walnuts

Loosely Adapted from Martha Stewart

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized Acorn Squash (about 1.5 pounds)

1/3 cup Toasted Walnuts, roughly chopped

1 heaping Tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Salted Butter, divided + more for greasing baking sheet

1/4 teaspoon Hot Smoked Spanish Paprika (or regular Paprika)

1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

Salt 

Pepper

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 and grease a baking sheet with butter.

2. Lightly toast your walnuts in the toaster oven if you've not done so already. They should turn slightly golden.

3. Cut acorn squash in half and carefully scoop out all the seeds. Slice off a small part of each of the squash bottoms so they will sit level on the baking sheet later.

4. Bake, cut side down, until golden, about 20-25 minutes.

5. Turn the squash over and pierce the insides all over with a fork. Rub a half tablespoon of butter on the flesh of each half and place any remainder in the middle. Sprinkle the dark brown sugar evenly over each half, follow with paprika, cinnamon, and then a pinch of salt and pepper.

6. Return squash to the oven to bake for another 25 or more minutes with the cut side up. When they are done, the flesh of the squash should be easily pierced with the tip of a dull knife. Sprinkle walnut pieces over each squash and serve warm! These are best eaten with a spoon. Enjoy!  

Dinner 1 2 3 - Smoked Salmon Avocado Rice Bowl In Minutes

Is there such a thing as a case of the Tuesdays? 'Cause if so, I got one. I don't know about you but today was kinda blah. Mercury's in retrograde (yes, I just love Astrology) and everyone seems to be coming down with the old change-of-seasons cold. I'm not complaining (or am I?), but there just seems to be a collective sense of fatigue in the air. After work, as I plopped onto my couch, cooking dinner was dead last on my list. Thankfully, it didn't take me long to remember that today's meal plan involved a recipe that's as easy and fast as it gets. 

Smoked Salmon Avocado & Scallion Brown Rice Bowl, Photo: NK

Better yet, our Smoked Salmon Avocado and Scallion Brown Rice Bowl is packed with Super Foods and healthy nutrients - all in one low-cal package. Anything less and I'd have been on that phone for takeout in a jiffy. 

Our quick dinner is adapted from a wonderful recipe I spotted on Food & Wine's Blog as part of a series called The Food & Wine Diet. Like, hello! Sounds like my kinda dieting! Anyways, this clever spot showcases healthy recipes that are "all created to pair with wine (a 5-ounce glass has anywhere from 110-150 calories) - all for 600 calories or fewer." Should you choose to add the suggested wine pairing to this dish, author Kristin Donnelly recommends Riesling. 

We're skipping the wine tonight, but you certainly don't have to! Without a glass of the good stuff, this recipe probably comes in somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 calories and 17 grams of fat per serving. It also happens to be very delicious. 

Our changes to the original recipe were made both to suit our tastes and use some of the ingredients in our fridge. I subbed out cucumbers for zippier scallions and shallots. Alliums, or vegetables in the garlic and onion family, not only offer major health properties, but they definitely add the interest in this Asian-inspired rice bowl. When used raw, they are at their most potent. By the way, I love cucumbers so I am sure they would be a very welcome addition that you could definitely add back in. Now for the protein - smoked salmon is easy to buy in advance and have on hand in the fridge. A three-ounce package is the perfect amount for this dinner for two. Finally, because I always aim for a bit of extra flavor, we added a very modest splash of low-sodium soy sauce along with a few dots of sriracha for spice. We skipped the nori because it's not in our every day pantry. Cool Avocados round out the flavors of this surprisingly satisfying dish. 

To make this recipe in under 10 minutes, you'll either have to have your preferred grain or brown rice ready-cooked, or just take our recommendation and use our favorite, Uncle Ben's Ready Rice. It cooks in 90 seconds in the microwave and comes in two-serving portions. The stuff is a lifesaver. I hope you enjoy this tasty and fast recipe, as well as all the extra time it will give you to relax and recharge.

Smoked Salmon Avocado and Scallion Brown Rice Bowl

Adapted from Food & Wine/Kristen Donnelly

Wine Pairing: A dry Riesling

Serves 2 

Ingredients: 

1 Cup (8 Oz.) Cooked Brown Rice or other healthy grain, warm (Uncle Ben's Ready Rice)

Salt 

1/4 teaspoon sugar

4 Scallions, mostly green parts and a little white, thinly sliced

1/2 a small Shallot, sliced very thinly

1 Hass Avocado, cut into a 1/2-inch dice
1/2 a small Cucumber, sliced(optional)

Juice of half a Lemon

One 3-ounce package of Smoked Salmon (we used Verlasso brand), thinly sliced

1 teaspoon Low-Sodium Soy Sauce

Black Sesame Seeds, for serving

Sriracha, optional

Method:

1. Pre-cook your rice or grains, or place your Ready Rice in the microwave (follow package directions). You can heat your Ready Rice up just after you've finished chopping all the other ingredients.

2. In a small bowl, combine Scallions and Shallots (and Cucumber if using) with the Sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of Salt. Toss. 

3. In another small bowl, mix the Avocado with the Lemon Juice and stir gently.

4. Scoop the Rice into two serving bowls. Drizzle each with a 1/2 teaspoon Low-Sodium Soy Sauce and mix.

5. Top each rice bowl with Avocado, the the Scallion and Shallot mixture, and finally with the Smoked Salmon Strips. Give it a gentle stir and dot with optional Sriracha and sprinkle with Black Sesame Seeds. Serve and enjoy! 

A Cookie To Pine For - Lidia's Pignoli Cookies

Since I am enjoying an uncharacteristically good run of baking success (remember our Apple Cheddar Hand Pies?), I figured I might as well go for broke. This means ... it's test kitchen time! Today, we're baking a classic Italian sweet - the Pignoli Cookie, and it may as well be the ONLY Italian Cookie in the world, because it is just THE BEST. 

Classic Italian Pignoli Cookies, Photo: NK

The word "pignoli" means pine nuts in Italian, and these little nuts provide the key ingredient for our truly sinful cookies made of sweet almond paste and sugar. The combination is pure simplicity, and the taste and texture - well, they're indescribably good. Once I decided to set out to make pignoli cookies, my next conundrum was which recipe to use. What better source to turn to than one of my favorite classic Italian cooks, Lidia Bastianich? She's my go-to for most authentic Italian recipes. 

What To Know:

Almond Paste from Kalustyan's, NYC Photo: NK

As you may have gathered, I consider pignoli cookies to be insanely delicious, but it does bear mentioning that the ingredients required to make them are quite pricey - the pignoli nuts themselves a major culprit in driving up the cost. Buying pignoli nuts in bulk is a good tactic, as they are super versatile in both sweet and savory dishes (use them to top salads or even as an addition to pasta sauces). Lucky for me, my mom hooked me up with a sweet half-pound box of nuts from Pastosa in Brooklyn. The cost was ten dollars, but that's actually a pretty competitive price for these little guys. You can find some good deals on Pignoli Nuts on Amazon. I've also used the Trader Joe's Brand Pignolis available there. 

The second major ingredient, almond paste, which I purchased at Kalustyan's (an NYC treasure in the form of an amazing spice superstore), wasn't cheap either. Nine dollars a tube to be exact, and this recipe requires two of them! For those of you not located in the New York City area, almond paste (the same stuff used to make marzipan), is readily available in gourmet and specialty food markets. So - pignoli cookies are expensive indeed - but you must trust me that they are worth it. Just a few ingredients and basic steps also means that these cookies are easy to make - even for the baking challenged like myself! Soft and chewy in the middle and studded with crunchy, savory nuts on the outside, they really offer something for everyone. Oh, and they're versatile too; you'll find them a welcome accompaniment to your breakfast coffee as well as a tasty component of any light dessert. A side of hazelnut gelato, anyone? Better yet, their shall we say "special" ingredients make these cookies a fitting hostess or even holiday gift. Did I mention they're the ultimate Christmas cookie? 

Results, Tips & Changes:
Equipment-wise, you'll need a stand mixer with a deep bowl or a large mixing bowl with a hand beater. With Lidia's guidance, my cookies came out positively delectable, however I will note that I cooked them a bit longer than she recommends, as mine seemed a bit less than "springy to the touch" after 15 minutes. I also cut the sugar in half (a half cup of sugar total) and they were perfect. I let them cook about 16 minutes but I would recommend checking them around the 13 minute mark since ovens can vary greatly. When the pine nuts turn golden, they're probably ready. 

Additionally, make sure to let the cookies cool a good 10 minutes before trying to remove them from the parchment paper or the middles will stick. Allowing them to firm up on a drying rack is also key. You could certainly bake these longer for a crunchy cookie if that suits your tastes, but for me, half the goodness of a pignoli cookie is that it is slightly chewy inside. Optionally dust the finished product with confectioners sugar for a more beautiful look! Ok - now we're ready to bake! 

Lidia's Almond Pine Nut Cookies

~Yields up to 30 cookies 
~Text and Recipe from Lidia Bastianich

Original Recipe from - Lidia's Italy