quick fire pea greens with toasted cashews, mushrooms, and ponzu

I'm a believer in the power of greens: so delicious, so good for you and so much variety it's impossible to get tired of eating them.  While most people become bored with wintertime produce,

I actually love this time of year at the farmers market because the stalls are full of leafy greens, chards, citrus and root vegetables.

I was excited to come across pea greens at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago, and have been playing around with ways to cook them ever since.  These greens are crunchy and taste of freshly shelled peas, so they would work beautifully in their raw state in a salad.  I've also seen these greens at Safeway, called dow miu.  Now is the best time to purchase them as they are in season, as farmers gear up for fresh spring peas.

I absolutely love the tangy-sour flavor of Ponzu, so I decided to combine them with buttery toasted cashews and earthy mushrooms to create this light and refreshing dish.


Ingredients:

• A handful of sea-salted cashews
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4-6 ounces mushrooms, such as Nameko or Shitake
• I large bunch of pea greens
• 1/4-1/2 cup ponzu
• 1/4 cup water

1. Trim the ends of the pea greens stems

2. Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the cashews.  Toast them dry while stirring until they are golden and fragrant.

gorgeous tendrils

3. Next turn down the heat, add the olive oil and immediately add the mushrooms, stirring vigorously so the nuts do not burn.  The oil really kicks up the cooking process.

4. Add the ponzu and bring to a simmer - coating the mushrooms and cashews in the sauce.

5. Add the entire bunch of pea greens and the water.  Stir the greens so that they are coated - about one minute.  Cover and allow the greens to steam for 1-2 minutes.

6. To finish, plate and garnish with a sprinkling of kosher or sea salt.  Serve immediately.

Buon Appetito, Tutti!

Banana Cardamom Cookies

Last year I totally got into the cardamom craze ( if you haven't tried Three Twins Dad's Cardamom ice cream yet, do yourself a favor and go find a pint ASAP ).  When my colleague came across this recipe for Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts (via turntablekitchen.com) I couldn't wait to try them out.

As I was gathering the ingredients for the recipe, I spotted an extremely overripe banana ( I seriously think I'd had it in my kitchen for 2 weeks) that I had been saving for banana bread.  In looking over the recipe, I realized I could substitute the banana for the 1/8 cup of white sugar.  My thought was that the sugars had condensed so beautifully inside the peel that they had almost become banana liqueur.  When added,  the overripe banana would add an entirely new/unique flavor profile.  

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom
• 1 stick of butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cups of brown sugar 
• 1 extremely overripe banana
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
• 1/4 cup of toasted chopped walnuts

1.Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

cardamom pods

cardamom sans hulls

grinding the cardamom

I wasn't kidding when I said it was overripe!

2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar for about 3 minutes on high, and then add the vanilla.  Continue to mix for about 2 more minutes.  When the mixture looks light white and fluffy, add the banana and mix till it's smooth.  Add the egg and mix again until it's fully incorporated.

creaming the sugar and butter

getting my cream on... 4 minutes in

ALWAYS toast your nuts because it 'wakes them up' -
you never know how long they've been sitting on the shelves

3. Add the whisked flour mixture into the sugar mixture on low speed in 3 stages, until just combined. Do not overmix.  Next add in the oats and mix until incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the nuts and chocolate chips by hand.

4. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter and dump your dough on top of it.  Wrap securely and chill for at least one hour.  (I did this ahead of time and left it in my refrigerator for 5 days!).  


*This step is very important, because it allows the butter to re-chill.  Later, when the cookies are baked, the water in the cold butter will turn to steam in the oven, leavening (aka making them rise) your cookies.

5. When you're ready to bake your cookies, preheat your oven to 375.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

6. Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto prepared sheets, pressing them down slightly to create a small disk. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, and remove them from the oven once the edges are lightly browned.  Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack after one minute.

I brought the cookies to an Oscars party and they were a hit!  The banana adds such a luscious element of flavor to the cookies - so much better than just plan sugar!

The great salt-baked sweet potato experiment

I bought two types of sweet potatoes at the Civic Center Farmers Market last week: a light sweet potato and an orange flesh sweet potato.

Backup.  To be honest, I thought I bought one sweet potato and one yam.  Which led me to wonder - what is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam?  

I found a helpful article in Bon Appetit, which provided me with the following clarification:

Sweet potatoes originated in South America and come in dozens of varieties; the orange-fleshed ones in question are only eaten in the United States. Yams, on the other hand, are rarely available in the United States, though they are popular in South and Central America, the West Indies, many Pacific islands, and parts of Asia and Africa. Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes have a rich, sweet flavor; yams are particularly bland, starchy vegetables that are best used as a background for more flavorful accompaniments. Sweet potatoes typically have a smooth skin, while the skin of yams is rough and somewhat shaggy.

Anyways, awhile back I was introduced to this awesome way of baking potatoes and I decided to do a little experiment to see which type of sweet potato would ultimately respond best.

Instead of wrapping my sweet potato in foil or piercing it with a fork, you simply wash the potato, dry it, rub it with olive oil and then liberally apply kosher salt all over the potato.

If you think about it, it's a genius idea, because by coating the potato in salt you are causing it to retain all the moisture it would normally lose during a dry bake.  

Here are the steps I took:

1. wash the sweet potatoes

2. coat the sweet potatoes in olive oil

3. pour a good amount of salt in one hand and use the other to press all sides of the potato into the salt.  Apply liberally

4. bake potatoes in a 400 degree oven, anywhere from 20-45 minutes, depending on the size of the potato

5. remove potatoes from the oven and brush off superfluous salt.  I tend to like a lot of salt on my sweet potatoes, so I didn't wipe away very much

interiors of the sweet potatoes

they are so moist, it's almost like slicing butter

And there you have it!  I have to say I think the light sweet potato responded best to the salt bake. The flesh was velvety smooth and super moist.

I encourage you to try this baking technique the next time you are planning on baking potatoes or sweet potatoes.  Or conduct a little experiment on your own and try this on any root vegetable!  It's a completely natural way of baking them, and you save yourself (and the environment) a sheet of foil.

You can read more via the Bon Appetit article here: http://www.bonappetit.com/tipstools/tips/2008/11/difference_between_sweet_potato_and_yam#ixzz1o2ms7N7j