Produce of the Week: Spinach

It's winter. That means two things: I'm freezing a good portion of the time, and very little is still growing. This time of year, I normally subsist off of storable produce, like root veggies, winter squash, and cabbage. But my roomie left some organic spinach in the fridge, so let's talk about this little leafy green this week.

A native of southwestern Asia, this member of the amaranth family has become a staple salad green in the States. With ancient origins in Persia, spinach then migrated to India, Nepal, and China. In the early 9th century, spinach made its way to Sicily and proceeded to be quite popular in the Arab Mediterranean, and finally mid-15th century a delicacy in Europe.

Spinach is also a super-food - high in iron, calcium, and a bunch of other micronutrients I've never heard of. Granted, conventionally-grown spinach is a hotbed for pesticide residues. And it found itself at the heart of scandal in 2006 with an E. coli outbreak and 2007 in a salmonella scare. Still, spinach has got it going on! It is full of antioxidants and quite versatile in the kitchen. I decided to take it on an Indian spin for dinner.

Curry Aloo Saag

1 small potato (diced)

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek

1/2 tsp curry powder (more to taste)

salt to taste

spritz of olive oil

1. Heat a skillet with olive oil and pan fry potatoes until tender (can also prebake in oven). Add mustard seeds about halfway through.

2. When mustard seeds start to 'pop', add spinach and fenugreek. As spinach wilts, add salt and curry powder. Cook until spinach is wilted to desired level and potatoes fully cooked.

What else can you do with spinach?

Try a hearty Indian palak dal to get you through the winter cold.

Another beans and greens recipe with spinach and chickpeas.

Ricki of Diet, Desserts, and Dogs has an awesome recipe for a "meaty" lasagna.

Her May SOS Kitchen Challenge also revolved around spinach, so check out all those recipes.

This baked spinach and pasta with roasted garlic sauce looks amazing.

I've been wanting to make this spinach and artichoke hummus forever.

In the summer and early fall, try out spinach and zucchini soup.

Check out my spinachy baked goods from last spring!

Well, that's all folks. Eat spinach, stay healthy, keep warm.

Dare to Bake: Stollen

Oh, the smell of freshly-baked bread (or other yeasty baked good)! There were tempting aromas wafting from my oven as I baked my day-after-Christmas stollen. Sadly, it didn't taste quite as amazing as the smell. Moreover, I think this will be the last wheat flour product I have for a while, as I have not feeling particularly well after consuming baked goods :(

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

My version had raisins and dried apricots. To veganize it, I used an egg-replacer and oil ... but I think coconut oil or a nut oil would have given the bread a little more flavor. Next time I would also use some almond flour (although I did sub in some cornmeal, which gave it some nice texture) and incorporate chocolate, hehe. Anywho, check out the recipes here, and catch you Tuesday when I write a more substantial post about ... spinach?

Not-So-Iron-Foodie Challenge

A little over a month ago, I applied to enter an Iron Foodie challenge hosted by Marx Foods. While my entry did not make the cut (despite the presence of the Swedish Chef), my consolation prize consisted of five samples of some more eccentric ingredients. Although I am under no obligation to post about my experiments with these foodstuffs, it has been suggested that recipients concoct a recipe from several of these component pieces and blog about it prior to December 22^nd. Ah me, that's today ... here goes.

The Ingredients: Hawaiian pink salt; maple sugar; vanilla bean; juniper berries; dried shitake mushrooms

I look at these ingredients and wonder where my creativity has gone. Let’s examine the particulars of these and decide what makes sense.

Hawaiian pink salt – large crystalline structure, pink hue, and slight earthy/smoky undertones.

Maple sugar – fine sweetener with a distinct maple syrup flavor.

Vanilla bean – um, fresh and vanilla-y?

Juniper berries – peppery and perfumy ... not a fan

Dried shitakes - very concentrated mushroomy flavor, earthy

Goodness gracious, what to do? The maple, vanilla, and juniper would clash like the Titans, I fear. Plus, I decidedly dislike the bitter unberriness of the juniper; that's another challenge on its own. So, with three dessert-y ingredients I set forth on festive food fun. After some failures (including a juniper berry shortbread), I decided on a maple butternut squash bar.

Maple Butternut Squash Bar (vegan and gluten-free)

Crust

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tbs vegetable oil

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

pinch salt

Cold water to consistency

Filling

1 cup roasted butternut squash, skinned and pureed

1/4 cup maple sugar

1 tbs maple syrup

1/4 cup almond, soy, or coconut milk

1 tbs arrowroot

2 tbs tapioca starch

pinch salt

Caramel Layer

Follow a recipe like this, and add a pinch (only!) of Hawaiian pink salt.

1. Mix ingredients for crust until they stick together. Press into greased muffin tins and place in oven until it preheats to 350F.

2. In a food processor, combine all filling ingredients until smooth. Done.

3. Take crusts out of oven. Drizzle salted caramel sauce for a completely covered layer. Let cool for a few moments.

4. Plop some nice squash mixture on top of the caramel. Smooth out and move pan back into the oven for another 30 or so minutes, until filling looks set. Remove and allow to cool completely. Serve and enjoy!

Photos up tomorrow!

Produce of the Week: Jerusalem Artichoke

Ah, to be in Washington State again! While Washington, DC can be an exciting place for a young, starry-eyed, non-profit worker to live, it is lacking the distinctly Pacific Northwest flavor I crave. One of those flavors I have been craving is the Jerusalem artichoke - AKA sunchoke. This latter name is actually more appropriate, as the root is related to a sunflower and not an artichoke.

Neither an artichoke nor from the Holy Land, the sunchoke is native to the North American Eastern seaboard, where Europeans first encountered them at Cape Cod, MA in 1605. Why these tasty tubers haven't succeeded in becoming a Thanksgiving staple, I just couldn't say. The French seemed particularly taken with the sunchoke, or rather tompinambour. Despite some periods of disfavor (and suspected connection to leprosy), sunchokes served as a source of nourishment and sustenance during war, famine, and exploration (if Lewis and Clark ate it...). Learn more random sunchoke trivia here.

We may not have the colorful bounty of spring and summer right now, but I love the abundance of root veggies. It may not be the most creative of uses, but roasting these beauties in the oven is by far my favorite preparation method.

Agave-Roasted Root Veggies

4 baby beets

4 baby carrots

1/2 large rutabaga

1 small sweet potato

4-6 sunchokes

1/2 onion

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

sprinkle of thyme

a good drizzle of agave

1. Chop vegetables, toss in oil, thyme, and salt.

2. Spread out on a pan and drizzle with agave. Roast at 400F for 20 minutes. Flip and roast for another 20-25 minutes until soft.

3. Enjoy!

If you want to try something new, try out one of these fun recipes:

Jamie Oliver makes a lovely sauteed j-choke and garlic dish.

Sunchoke chips on Bon Appetit!

Serious Eats posted a recipe for turnip, apple, and Jerusalem artichoke soup.

A nice light salad with hazelnuts!

Another soup recipe with carrots and squash ... sub veggie stock.

Veganize this potato and sunchoke puree with olive oil and almond milk.

One Short Day in the Big Apple

On the Highline, I contemplate picking what appeared to be juniper berries...

I apologize for neglecting you, my dear readers, this busy season has left little time for my lovely little blog. However, I will be heading back to the west coast for a week on Thursday, and will get back into the swing of things again. Next week, we will return to regularly scheduled programming of Produce of the Week, but for now, let me give a quick rundown of my Saturday in New York City.

This short excursion was all about food and Broadway. The day began with a jaunt over to the Highline - an elevated rail track converted into a park! My friend and I wandered over to the lower west side for lunch at a lovely vegan cafe, Sacred Chow. The tempeh sweet potato hash and tofu spanish omelette were both marvelous! Then we booked it up north the catch the matinee of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson ... interesting, good music, but not really my type of musical theatre.

After that busy morning, my friend decided she needed to take a study break. So, we parted ways for a bit and, on the very strong suggestion of a vegan friend, I meandered down to Lula's Sweet Apothecary. Wow, that is some amazing ice cream! While we all know what a chocaholic I am, butter pecan won me over this time (not your typical vegan fare). As long as I was on the lower eastside, I popped over to Babycakes, the well-known vegan, gluten-free bakery. Sadly, my friend and I were sorely disappointed by the over-priced, dry pumpkin cupcake were shared later that evening...

Four Santas are better than one! Luckily, with the Santacon going on, there was a plethora of Santas wandering around the city!

...which brings me to the conclusion of my day in the Big Apple. In a pinch, my friend and I hit up a vegetarian fast food place, Otarian, for a quick bite before our evening show. The Indian chutney burger was rather tasty, but on the whole the place was a bit of a disappointment. That said, A Little Night Music (with Bernadette Peters!!!) was lovely and an excellent way to end my jam-packed day. Looking forward to returning to the city, but in the meantime, it is time to get some shuteye!

A Decadent History

Chocolate. How that word evokes such a sensation of richness and splendor. It embodies decadence and epitomizes extravagance. Yet somehow, in our day and age, chocolate has been demoted to a common junk food. A low-quality candy bar. But it was not always like this.

If we go back to the origins of chocolate in Latin America, the consumption of the processed cacao was not for a post-supper treat. For one, it was only available for men of status, seen as an "intoxicating food," highly valuable and prestigious.

Besides religious and festive occasions, chocolate was used both by the Mexica (Maya, Aztec, etc.) and subsequently the Europeans for medicinal purposes. The brewed chocolate beverage was used to treat stomach and intestinal complaints, acting as a laxative. Combining ground cacao beans in a drink with other ingredients - such as bark, roots, and grains - could treat anything from infections and coughs to fevers and fatigue. Often, though, cacao was simply employed to make unpleasant medicinal herbs more palatable!

More modern interpretations of cacao for medicinal purposes, beginning in the 16th century, make use of chocolate as a beverage, as well. Different combinations of the cacao bean varieties treat various ailments. For example, if one suffers from thinness, a mixture of pochotl and cacahoatl can make someone "extraordinarily fat." In the US, I think we have gathered as much, although we rarely use chocolate explicitly to treat that malady! Rather, in the 20th and 21st centuries was have come to realize the benefits of the phytochemicals present in cacao ... at least the dark stuff. For those unfamiliar with phytochemicals, those are things like betacarotene, found in fruits and vegetables.

Foodie Blogroll is giving away The Healing Powers of Chocolate if you want to learn more about this super-food! Also, check out this great reference, Food of the Gods.