Kale Salad with Cannellini Beans, Gorgonzola and Balsamic Bacon Vinaigrette

If you’re a follower of healthy food trends, I’m sure you’ve come across quite a few recipes that use kale. If you are not familiar with kale, it is one of the latest and greatest super foods, loaded with vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Because it has risk-lowering benefits for various forms of cancer, and also has cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cardiovascular benefits, kale is being enjoyed not only as an edible green, but also as an ingredient in protein shakes and body-cleansing juices. I’ve only recently been introduced to kale, served by my brother and his wife as a salad mixed with quinoa, and have since been inspired to try out my own version of a mixed kale salad.

Because kale has a very thick and firm texture, it is often recommended to cook it before serving, to help soften it a bit for easier digestion. Many health food sites recommend steaming it for 5 minutes, for maximum nutrition and flavor. You can also sauté it as you would spinach or other greens. You can, of course, serve it raw, as I do in the recipe that follows. To help soften the leaves and make them easier to digest as a raw salad, you want to thoroughly wash the leaves in warm to hot water for at least 5 minutes, making sure to rub away any grit or dirt. You then want to rinse the leaves again in cold water. This method is called massaging. Remove any thick pieces from the kale, then shred or chop the remaining leaves. You can then add your additional ingredients, then toss with a salad dressing.

My mixed kale salad included the following ingredients. You can add whatever amount you prefer:

• white cannellini beans;
• grape tomatoes;
• crumbled gorgonzola cheese;
• fresh bacon bits; and
• home made balsamic bacon vinaigrette dressing (recipe below).

Obviously, the bacon vinaigrette may not be the first choice for a healthy salad, but I was looking to make it a bit more hearty and flavorful. You can substitute it with a lighter dressing, such as a fresh citrus vinaigrette, if you wish.

For more ideas on how to prepare and serve kale, check out the following links:
whfoods.com
cookinglight.com

Balsamic Bacon Vinaigrette Dressing
(Courtesy of finecooking.com)

2 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 small shallot, minced
1-1/2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small (1-quart) saucepan over medium heat, cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a dish lined with paper towels, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the shallot to the bacon fat and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1 Tbs. of the vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pan with a spoon to dissolve the browned bits stuck to the pan bottom. Off the heat, stir in the remaining 1/2 Tbs. vinegar, the lemon juice, and the mustard. Gradually whisk in the olive oil (don’t worry if the sauce doesn’t emulsify). Season with 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper, or to taste.

Sunday Gravy in a Crock Pot: Shortcut or Sacrilege?

A few weeks back I was faced with one of the toughest cooking challenges I’ve ever had to make since starting this blog. It was a beautiful autumn Sunday afternoon, and my wife and I had plans to take our kids to meet up with friends at a neighborhood Fall Festival. We also had a huge craving for a nice pot of Sunday gravy, which we haven’t made in a while. When a hankering for Sunday gravy comes along, there is no turning back.

Knowing that we would be out of the house for a good few hours, spending the time needed to tend to a pot of gravy wasn’t an option. But I was still determined to somehow enjoy my favorite Sunday meal, so much so that I already bought the cans of tomatoes, the beef, pork and veal for the meatballs, and the loaf of crusty Italian bread. With my back up to the wall, I made the crucial decision….I was going to attempt to make my Sunday gravy in a crock pot.

Still a bit shaken and nervous about my decision, I reached out to my Facebook friends to get their opinions. My friend Lorraine Rannali, the Gravy Wars queen, thought I was crazy. Even my cousin – my own flesh and blood – was shocked. But I was determined to conquer my fears and figure this one out.

We’ve all used a crock pot to serve up meatballs at a family party. But this wasn’t just a quick reheat…this was building from the ground up. If you step off of the meatball merry-go-round and think about it, you’re only using a different heating element to warm up a pot. Already I was feeling less nervous, and it was time to get cooking.

The first step that I take when making my Sunday gravy is to heat up some oil and garlic, and then add my tomatoes. Knowing that the crock pot wouldn’t produce the heat needed to warm up the oil, I used some common sense and came up with the practical solution – just heat up some oil and garlic in a small pan over the stove and add it to the tomatoes, Now we’re rolling!

I started by adding my cans of tomatoes to the pot, seasoned it up as I normally would, and then added the heated garlic and oil. The house is smelling good already! I already had the meatballs baking in the oven, and once they were done, I plopped them into the tomatoes and in true old-school fashion (I worked every old-school trick I could think of), I added some of the meatball oils to the pot for a little extra flavor.

Now it was time to head out and hope for the best. I set the pot to the low setting, and off we went to paint pumpkins and stuff scarecrows. Three hours later, we returned and I slowly but anxiously opened the front door. We were greeted with the most beautiful, fragrant smell that any Italian and Italian-American home would be proud of…the smell of Sunday gravy.

Yes friends, you can indeed make Sunday gravy in a crock pot. By following your own traditional recipe, and heating up your oil and garlic in a separate pan, you should have no problems and will not taste a difference. You will have to scale back on the amount that you’re making, as crock pots are much smaller than a regular sauce pot. If you’re making Sunday gravy for a large crowd, leaving the house is probably the furthest thing from your mind anyway!

Apple Bacon Harvest Risotto

A few weeks back, I posted a review of Harpoon Pumpkin Cider (the verdict: not so good). I purchased the cider as a six-pack, so I have since been kicking around ideas on how to put the remaining bottles to good use without simply dumping it all down the drain. One of my favorite dishes that I like to prepare this time of year, particularly on a Sunday spent at home, is a nice pot of risotto featuring seasonal ingredients and flavors. I’ve already put together a Pumpkin Amaretto Risotto, which is one of my favorite recipes on my blog. But this gave me an idea on another seasonal favorite of mine. Since the main ingredient of cider is apples, I though it would be nice to play up on the apple angle. From there, I started thinking of other ingredients that would work well with apples. I immediately thought of  a harvest salad, and quickly came up with smoked bacon, walnuts and gorgonzola cheese. After a bit of research, I found a risotto recipe using apples, bacon and bleu cheese, and white wine and apple cider vinegar as the liquid base. With just a few minor adjustments, particularly using the cider in place of the wine and vinegar, and throwing in some allspice for an extra kick, I put together a dish that I was really happy with. The risotto was very filling and full of wonderful autumn flavors and texture. It’s a perfect recipe for this time of year. If you are a fan of risotto and the fall season, and if you have about 45 minutes of uninterrupted kitchen time available to you, give this one a try. If you don’t have apple cider on hand, I’m sure that the white wine and apple cider vinegar combination would work just as well.

Apple Bacon Harvest Risotto
inspired by a recipe found at betterrecipes.com

4 Strips Thick-cut Bacon, cut into ½” slivers

1 tbsp Olive Oil

2 Golden Delicious Apples, peeled and diced

2 Shallots, peeled and minced

4 cups Low-sodium Chicken Stock

1½ cups Arborio Rice

1 12 oz bottle Hard Apple Cider
(you can substitute cider with 1/2 cup Dry White Wine + 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar)

¾ tsp Kosher Salt, divided

½ tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper

1 tbsp Thinly Sliced Fresh Sage Plus a Few Leaves, for garnish

3.5 oz Gorgonzola Cheese, crumbled

1 tbspn finely chopped Walnuts

Dash of Allspice (to taste)

Place the bacon in a large saute pan and cook over medium heat until golden, rendering most of the fat. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to a paper towel and drain all but one tablespoon of fat from the pan. Add the olive oil to the bacon fat in the pan and saute the shallots and apples over medium-high heat until softened and browned in spots, 5-6 minutes. Season mixture with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Meanwhile, heat the stock over low heat in a small saucepan until it comes to a simmer, then adjust heat to maintain a low simmer.

Add the rice to the saute pan with the apples and shallots and cook, stirring constantly, 2-3 minutes, until rice becomes translucent at edges. Add the cider (or wine and vinegar) then cook, stirring constantly, until absorbed by the rice. Season mixture with a second 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add a ladle of simmering stock and cook, stirring frequently, until absorbed. Repeat additions of stock, adjusting the heat to keep the risotto simmering but not at a raging boil, until rice is just tender, about 20 minutes. Season with pepper, then remove from heat, add sage, reserved bacon, the final 1/4 teaspoon salt, goat cheese, walnuts and allspice, then cover for 2-3 minutes. Give a final stir and serve immediately, garnished with sage leaves.

Butternut Squash Home Fries

Aside from pumpkins, butternut squash is the food that I most associate with the fall season. Every autumn, without fail, I’ll pick up a butternut squash at least two or three times during the season. And every time I pick one up, I say to myself “ok, now what am I going to do different with this?” I love the traditional soups, risottos, pastas and baked butternut squash dishes, but I’m always on look-out for a new idea. Last week, after I bought my first butternut squash of the season, I did some research and put together a recipe for butternut squash home fries that has three easy steps:

1. easy to cut (this is always a challenge, since most fall squash are usually hard as a bullet);

2. easy to prepare; and

3. easy to serve.

What you’ll need for this recipe is one nice size butternut squash, a vegetable peeler, a sharp knife, some olive oil, salt and pepper, and some basic seasonings (suggestions for sweet and savory seasonings are listed below). Start by peeling the skin off of the squash. This step is actually a lot easier that I thought it would be. While the squash as a whole is very tough and often hard to slice through, the skin itself peels without much effort. Next, you are going to cut off and discard the top tip and the bulbous bottom part of the squash. The bottom part houses most of the seeds, so this steps helps you avoid messy cleanup. You can save the bulbous part for another recipe, but I found it wasn’t necessary for this dish.

The squash cut into four equal parts.

Next, you are going to cut the squash in half lengthwise, then you are going to cut both halves in half again, lengthwise. Be sure to remove and discard any remaining seeds. You now have four long, thin pieces of squash.

The next step is to slice the squash into very thin slices. The thinner the slices, the crispier the home fries will be. Depending on the amount of time you have, you can use a food processor with the slicing blade, a vegetable peeler, or VERY CAREFULLY use a sharp knife. When the squash is sliced, you’ll want to place the slices into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Next you’ll want to add your salt and pepper, and your seasonings, and then mix everything up so that the slices are lightly and evenly coated.

Spread the slices evenly onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Make sure that the slices are not overlapping to guarantee that all of the slices are baked through. Place the tray into an oven pre-heated to 375º. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the slices start to brown and curl. Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes. The slices will harden and crisp up a bit as they cool. Serve it as a side dish to chicken, meat or fish.

THE SEASONINGS

The nice thing about this dish is that the seasoning could be either sweet or savory, depending on what you’re in the mood for and with what you are serving the home fries.

For sweet home fries, add 1/2 tspn (or to taste) of either cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or allspice to the butternut squash. You can also add sliced apples to make it a festive fall dish.

For savory home fries, add some chopped thyme or sage leaves and 1/2 tspn (or to taste) of onion powder. You can also add parmesan cheese for extra flavor.

The home fries, perfectly crisp.

Follow up: My friend Tom, who does a thicker french fry-cut version of this recipe, noted that not only is this a quick and easy dish, but it is also a much healthier option than traditional french fries or even sweet potato fries, because it is baked and not fried. To make the french fry-cut version, cut into slightly larger pieces and bake for 40-45 minutes, turning half way through.