Navajo Fry Bread & Navajo Tacos

When I was 11 I spent a summer in New Mexico with my mom. She was intent on soaking up as much of the culture of the region as possible, so we took a lot of day trips. Many of those trips took us to the nearby Navajo reservation where I quickly developed a love of fry bread.

Fry bread (spelled as either two words or just one - "frybread") is a food that seems to be common to many American Indian tribes. It is what it sounds like - fried bread. Dough is formed by hand into a flat patty-like shape and then fried until golden on both sides. The way I remembered it, it tasted just slightly sweet, like some really yummy white bread and a funnel cake had a baby.

Fry bread will win no health awards. In fact, this article in Smithsonian Magazine basically calls out fry bread as one of the causes of obesity among American Indians. Regardless, I loved it. My favorite way to eat it was in a Navajo taco - fry bread dressed up with beans, lettuce, tomato, and other fixins. Fry bread is also great topped with honey as a sweet treat.

Navajo Fry Bread and Tacos
Printable Version




Navajo Fry Bread
Makes 4 pieces

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 powdered milk
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
corn, canola, or vegetable oil for frying

Method:
Add dry ingredients to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to blend. Turn processor on and slowly pour water in the pour spout until a ball of dough forms. The dough should be just moist enough to pull away from the sides and stay together in one ball, but still be sticky to the touch.
Remove dough to a lightly oiled bowl and let rest while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Dough should rest for at least 10 minutes.
When ready to fry dough, pour oil 1/2 deep into a large skillet. Heat oil to 350-365 degrees.
Cut dough into four equal portions. On a floured work surface, use your hands to pat each dough piece into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. You can also use a rolling pin. Use your thumb to create a depression in the very center of the flattened dough.
When oil is ready, gently slip the formed dough into the oil. Use a spatula to press down the dough to allow oil to coat the top. Fry about 2 minutes until the bottom is browned, then flip to brown the other side. Remove to a plate covered with paper towels. Fry bread may be kept warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

Navajo Tacos
Makes 4 tacos


Ingredients:
4 pieces fry bread, recipe above
Southwest-Style Black Beans, recipe below
1/4 head of lettuce, shredded
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
any other taco toppings you like (shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, etc.)

Method:
Top warm fry bread with beans, lettuce, tomato, onion, and any other topping you wish. Eat open face with a fork and knife or use your hands and eat taco folded in half.

Southwest-Style Black Beans

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
one 15 ounce can black beans
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 teaspoon tomato paste (optional, use if you have on hand)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash dried oregano
dash ground cayenne pepper


Method:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm olive oil. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is transparent.
Add black beans and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Add tomato paste and seasonings and stir to combine.
Reduce heat to low and simmer while preparing remaining ingredients and frying bread.

Verdict?
Absolute yum. I greedily managed to eat two of these in one sitting. I napped shortly thereafter. But seriously - I lucked upon a really tasty recipe. The bread had that faint sweetness I remember, courtesy of the milk powder. It puffed up nicely, regardless of whether I shaped the bread by hand or used a rolling pin. My beans recipe might not be super authentic, but they were quite tasty. Definitely give this a try when you're in the mood for something comforting and filling.


Frybread recipe inspired by:
Manataka American Indian Council
What's Cooking America
Emeril Lagasse

Mediterranean Orzo Salad

So here's something you won't hear often:  This is a recipe inspired by one of my favorite dishes from my college dining hall.  I will say that apparently our Dining Services has won many awards, so the food was probably on average slightly better than most other college's food.  Not that it didn't stop us from complaining at the time.

But this dish was one thing I was always happy to see on the menu.  It is simple in concept - orzo, tomatoes, spinach, and feta - but hard to get the flavors just right, as I discovered from trying to make this several times.  But I think I got it down...  For the uninitiated, orzo is like what you'd get if macaroni and rice had a baby.  It is pasta in a grain shape, about 1/2 inch long. 

Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Serves 6
by Me, inspired by PUDS
Printable Version


Ingredients:
1/2 pound orzo
6 ounces fresh spinach
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved if large
1/3 pound feta, crumbled
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil  (or fresh if you have it, see below)
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Method:
Add orzo to a pot containing generously salted boiling water.  Cook according to directions on package.
Place spinach in a large colander.  When orzo has finished cooking, pour the pot's contents over the spinach, allowing the boiling water to wilt the spinach.  Shake out all liquid and pour orzo and spinach into a large bowl.
Stir in all remaining ingredients.  Taste for salt.  If feta or lemon was particularly mild you may wish to add up to an additional tablespoon white wine vinegar.

Verdict?  Well, you know I like this lots.  I hope it isn't just my nostalgia for college days talking.  Give this a try and let me know!  This is a great dish to bring to a party, especially in these summer months where you want something light but also filling.  I highly recommend you try this with fresh basil if you have it available - use about 1/4 cup and either cut it into fine ribbons chiffonade-style, or tear it into pieces and stir it in.  That will really take the dish to the next level, I promise you.

Summertime Cabbage and Kidney Bean Salad

Another AZEats recipe.

It is hot. Very hot. In Azerbaijan, that is. Here in NY we're having an extended period of early spring-like cold rainy gray days. Never mind that it is June and people elsewhere in the country are eating peaches!

But my friend abroad is hot, so despite the fact that I had a carrot and parsnip latke recipe to post for her, I'm going to skip that and not make her fry anything in this heat. So here is a salad recipe to enjoy using the cabbage that has apparently just come into season in Azerbaijan. For those of us in the U.S. - this recipe will work well as a summery side dish to serve at BBQs or elsewhere in place of our typically mayo-heavy slaws.

Summertime Cabbage and Kidney Bean Salad
By Me
Serves a small army
Printable Version


Ingredients:
1/2 head green cabbage
2-3 teaspoons salt, divided
1/2 pound carrot
1 green bell pepper
2-3 scallions
1/4 cup (gently packed) cilantro leaves
1 15 ounce can kidney beans (or an equivalent amount of dried beans)
5 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
2 oranges, peeled, and cut into membrane-free wedges

Method:
(If using dried beans, soak overnight and boil until softened through. Drain and cool.)
Using a knife or a food processor, shred the cabbage into thin strips. Put cabbage in a large bowl and toss with 1 teaspoon salt. Let sit while preparing the remaining ingredients.
Finely chop the carrot, bell pepper, and scallion. Add them to the bowl with the cabbage. Coarsely chop the cilantro and add to the bowl. Add the kidney beans and stir to combine.
In a small bowl, whisk together orange juice, cider vinegar, olive oil, remaining salt, and red pepper flakes if using. Pour over vegetables and toss to evenly coat. Arrange orange slices on top. Serve immediately, or refrigerate overnight for even better flavor.

Verdict? Refreshing and tangy good. The orange and cilantro together really say "summer" to me. I really wasn't sure this recipe would work with the kidney beans in it but am very pleased with the result. As mentioned in the instructions, this is even better the next day, after the flavors have had a chance to meld. So prepare it a day in advance if you can, but it is still great when eaten right away.

Sweet Ricotta Blintzes with Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce

I love breakfast. Well, not that yogurt and muffin I eat at my desk while reading my email. Weekend breakfast. I'm not a morning person but when I wake up on a weekend morning with nothing to make me rush out of the house, well - that is one of my favorite moments. It has so much potential. I could do anything! I could eat anything! Sometimes I even think of what I want to make to eat the night before, I love it so much.

Usually I go for eggs, maybe pancakes, but this particular Saturday I decided to go in a different direction. Crepes, I thought...with ricotta (after inventorying my fridge). A few cookbooks later and I found my starter recipe in that standby book for home cooks - the Joy of Cooking. It is a blintz recipe. After a moderate amount of research trying to figure out the difference between a blintz and a crepe, I'm convinced it is pretty much the same thing, with crepes being of French origin and Blintzes hailing from eastern Europe. Some say it is about yeast, others about cooking one one side vs. two...If anyone cares to shed any more light on this, I'd welcome the info.

Modifications from the original: The ricotta, of course (the original calls for farmer's cheese or cottage cheese). I left out the orange zest and raisins optionally called for in the original - the former because I hated my zester and the latter because I didn't have any. I added a dash of orange extract instead and I think it worked. I now have a spiffy Microplane (love it!) so I'll try it with zest next time. I think raisins would be overkill at best and at worst out of place in this dish, so I vote for leaving them out.

And oh yes, the strawberry balsamic sauce. Why vinegar with strawberries, you might ask? Well, balsamic vinegar isn't your usual vinegar. It has complex flavors and sweetness of its own. And it really seems to bring out the strawberry's own flavors. I confess to not coming up with this combination on my own, but having some raspberry balsamic jam at an Italian market. It worked there, and I'd like to think it works here.



One final note - I'm sure this seems like a lot of work, but let me tell you that it really isn't so bad, especially since so much can be made in the blender/food processor. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to prepare the blintzes. Just keep that pan buttered and they'll come out perfect. Sure, this isn't as quick and easy as pancakes from a box, but with not too much work you can have a breakfast that tastes like something you'd happily pay good money for from a restaurant.

Sweet Ricotta Blintzes with Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce
Serves 2-4

Printable RecipePreparation notes: The below recipe is in three parts, the blintz itself, the cheese filling, and the strawberry sauce. The blintz batter needs to sit for 30 minutes and the strawberry sauce needs to simmer for a while, too, so I advise tackling all the tasks in this order: 1) prepare blintz batter through the resting stage, 2) prepare strawberry sauce and start it simmering as directed, 3) make the cheese filling, 4) cook the blintzes, 5) fill, fry, top, eat! You can also prepare the blintz batter, cheese filling, and strawberry sauce a day in advance and refrigerate it.

Sweet Blintzes
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
Makes 8-10 blintzes

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
pinch of salt

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
When ready to prepare blintzes, coat an 8 or 10 inch skillet with butter. Heat pan over medium-high heat. When butter is melted, remove skillet from heat and pour in about 3 tablespoons of the batter, enough to just coat the bottom of the pan. Return skillet to heat and cook until the bottom is golden and the top is dry. Place blintz on a piece of wax paper and prepare next, stacking the finished blintzes between sheets of wax paper.



Ricotta Filling
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup ricotta cheese

2 ounces cream cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon orange extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more as needed

Method:
Combine all ingredients except the butter and oil in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth.
Drop an equal amount of the filling in the center of the uncooked side of a prepared blintz.
Fold in the sides of the blintz to make a rectangular package in which the cheese mixture is completely encased.
Heat the butter and oil in a skillet until the butter is melted and any bubbles have subsided. Add the blintzes, seam side down. Cook until the bottom is golden and then flip and brown other side as well.
When the blintzes are done, set them on a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
Transfer the blintzes to the serving plate and top with the strawberry sauce.


Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce
by Me
Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon butter (unsalted if you have it)
3 tablespoons sugar (use an extra tablespoon if your strawberries aren't very sweet)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Method:
In a small saucepot over medium-high heat, stir together the strawberries, butter, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the mixture has nearly reached your desired consistency. Add 1 tablespoon of the balsamic vinegar and let boil for one more minute. Reduce heat to low and and add remaining tablespoon of vinegar. Stir and let simmer until thickened, or until you're ready to eat!

Verdict? Yummmmm. Seriously. I'm getting hungry thinking about these now, and I just ate lunch. By the way, you can freeze the assembled blintzes (before pan frying them), so feel free to make a double batch and store some for later use. I have three of these babies in my freezer at home; can't wait to go eat them. Breakfast for dinner anyone?

By the way - if you want to attempt to reduce the fat used in this dish, you can probably get away with pan-frying the filled blintzes in your most non-stick skillet with less oil/butter or even cooking spray. For making the blintzes in the first place I'd advise trying to butter the skillet just every other blintz if trying to reduce the fat. That second one will be a bit tougher to get out of the pan, but it should still be fine. This dish will never be totally low fat but you can trim off a bit here and there. Enjoy!

By the way - sorry for the long delay between posts. Life got busy for a bit, but look for a new recipe tomorrow, one for you AZEats people. That one will be followed by more breakfast. Yummm.

Jamaican Style Rice and Peas

When I was growing up, there were several "Aunts" of mine who would make rice and peas. For the uninitiated, rice and peas is a dish common to many Caribbean and Central American countries. It is basically kidney beans (or pigeon peas or whatever bean the particular country has available) mixed in with rice and spices. Sounds simple and kinda bland, right? Not so, trust me.

I always looked forward to going over to my Aunts' houses for rice and peas. There were slight variations in them, some were spicier, had more coconut milk, etc., but I liked them all. The rice in each of them was perfectly cooked, not one grain stuck to another. This - I cannot accomplish. I think they may have used a rice cooker; I'll cling to this belief so as to not be a total rice failure.

But I'm okay with my rice failure. I came to this realization when sitting over a bowl of my own take on rice and peas, my "mushy" rice giving the whole thing an almost risotto-esque quality. Probably not true to the original, but tasty and comforting nonetheless. And so I'll share the recipe with you - with a tip of the hat and apologies to my Jamaican/Panamanian/Bajan relatives.

Preparation notes - This recipe can be made using canned beans if you're deciding to make this at the last minute. Just put them in a pot and start from where you add the coconut milk. The texture will be a bit different but it'll taste much the same. For those who have had the dish before, mine is heavy on the coconut milk, thyme, and spice in general. It isn't "spicy" per se (unless you let the scotch bonnet pepper break), but lots of different spices are used to give this dish its full flavor. If you do want this spicy, pierce the pepper once or twice before you put it in the pot. Keep an eye on it to make sure the seeds don't spill out into the rice or else you'll probably want a fire extinguisher handy when you eat.

Jamaican Style Rice and Peas
By Me, Serves 4-6
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups dried kidney beans (or one 15 ounce can)
1 15 ounce can coconut milk
2 cups vegetable stock (or water)
1 cup white rice (long grain, or whatever you have)
3 scallions, cut into 2-inch strips
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed and coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
5 sprigs fresh thyme (by sprig I mean small groups of single stems)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (or habanero if not available)

Method:
Rinse kidney beans and let soak overnight in a large bowl, covered with several inches of water.
In a large pot, boil the kidney beans in 6 cups of salted water for approximately 40 minutes, or until a bean can be easily crushed. Watch while boiling to make sure some water remains in the pot.
Stir in the coconut milk, vegetable stock, rice, garlic, scallions, garlic, salt, and thyme sprigs. Add the pepper, being sure not to break the skin.
Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for about 30 minutes or until rice is fully cooked, stirring occasionally to prevent rice from sticking.
Remove pepper as soon as you notice its skin has broken. Remove thyme stems before serving. Taste for salt and serve.

Spinach and Gouda Quiche with No-Roll Crust

As promised, AZEats recipe #2.

I like quiche a lot - how can you go wrong when there's eggs, cheese, and pastry involved?! But I have a confession to make. I used to use storebought crust. I just felt like my minikitchen with its two square feet of counter space wasn't conducive to rolling out dough. (I'm not exaggerating about the lack of space, either - my old apartment's counter was exactly 1 foot wide and 2 feet deep.) But after several weeks of eating processed premade pastry stuff for recipe constest entries, the last thing I wanted to do was bring some premade pie crust in my house. Plus I just got a brand new Pyrex pie plate that I needed to break in. So it was time to make my own crust.
But this recipe is for my friend, and I'm not going to make her roll out crust in her minikitchen, either. So - the hunt for a no-roll crust recipe began. Most recipes I found called for vegetable oil to be used, sometimes shortening, too. I wanted to stick with butter, so I kind of made up my own recipe. I also wanted to minimize the amount of dishes she (and me) had to wash, so this recipe can be made right in the pie dish. Pretty cool, no?

As for the selection of spinach and gouda, well - I tend to make broccoli quiches but wanted to branch out a bit so spinach it is (plus it has been on sale at the stores around me lately - notice a trend in my recipes?). And Gouda, well, my friend told me that she basically has available three kinds of cheese - something salty and white, something mellow and melty and yellow, and gouda. Gouda it is.

A quick preparation note - Gouda is fairly soft and might not shred well. Try freezing it for 30 minutes or so first to harden it up a bit. If the Gouda just crumbles - don't worry, that will work just fine. And note to anyone who tries to cheat and use the food processor to crumble the Gouda - just use the "pulse" setting and don't process it too long or you'll have something that looks like the inside of that nut-encrusted cheese & wine ball that is ubiquitous at parties... I learned this firsthand, yes. It still works in the recipe, just will require that you manually break it up into "pieces" so you don't have a giant blob of gouda in your quiche. Also - fluff up the flour a bit in the bag before using it. The reason a lot of baking recipes seem to work for one person and not for another is due to how flour can settle during shipping, causing one cup of flour used by one person to weigh a lot more (and thus contain a lot more flour) than someone else's. To combat this, stir the flour in the bag to fluff it, scoop out more than your measuring cup can hold, and then use the back of a table knife to push off the excess, taking care to not pack more flour in your cup than it naturally picked up. I will also give weight measurements for those of you with kitchen scales.

Spinach and Gouda Quiche with No-Roll Crust
by Me
Serves 4-6


No Roll Pie Crust:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 7.25 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 stick salted butter, melted (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons milk (plus more if needed)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Add flour, salt, and sugar to your pie dish. Stir with a fork to evenly distribute the salt and sugar.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the melted butter. Stir to combine (this will be a sort of half-stir, half-mashing motion).
Add the milk a tablespoon at a time and stir. Mixture should have the appearance of large crumbs but be able to be molded almost like clay. Add up to another tablespoon of milk if needed.
Using your hands, gently press the mixture flat against the bottom and sides of the pie dish. It will seem like you won't have enough dough, but you will - extra dough hides in the corner between the bottom and sides so be sure and shape that area carefully.
Shape the top edges if you want to be fancy about it. (I just kind of did a quick semi-pinch thing.)
Using a table knife or fork, make about six small cuts in the bottom of the crust (to prevent air bubbles from forming under the crust).
Place an oven-safe plate on the inside of the crust to weigh it down (you can also cover the crust with foil and use about two cups of dried beans or rice to weigh it down).
Bake the empty crust for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are light golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool.

Quiche filling:
Ingredients:

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt (divided)

10 ounces fresh spinach, roughly chopped into 1 inch ribbons
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (divided)
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
6 ounces Gouda cheese, shredded or crumbled

Method:
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until beginning to soften. Stir in the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook until onions are fully soft.
Add the spinach and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the spinach has wilted. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and the Gouda. Stir until combined. Stir in the spinach mixture.
Pour the egg and spinach mixture into the cooled pie crust, ensuring that the spinach is spread out evenly.
Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, or until center of quiche is slightly firm to the touch, and a knife inserted in the center of the quiche reveals no uncooked egg.

Verdict? Really yummy. In fact, I can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch today! (I even ate some cold when I was preparing my lunch last night.) Seasoning the spinach well ensures that the seasoning is spread throughout the whole quiche (instead of getting lost in pockets of egg as happens with some quiche recipes that mainly have you season the egg mixture). Gouda's subtle tang is a good mix for the earthy spinach. And that crust? Nice and flaky and better than anything I'd have previously bought in a store. So it isn't perfectly thin and I totally lack the skills to make the edge pretty, but - I think you'll like it and appreciate the ease as well as the taste. Next time I'll try and press it out even a bit thinner, though. Isn't that cross-section pic with its spinach ribbons pretty?!

Spaghetti with Chard in Tomato Sauce

I first had chard when I was doing a summer study-abroad program in Spain. My host mother asked me if I liked "acelga." She repeated the word twice for me and I had nothing but a blank stare to give her in return. I went for my Spanish/English dictionary and looked up the word to see the translation as "swiss chard." That might as well have been in Spanish, too - I had no idea what it was. Thankfully my host mother was vegetarian like I am, so I knew the mystery chard was safe to eat. She prepared it as a fresh soup, if I recall correctly; simply pureed with a bit of garlic, olive oil, and salt. I enjoyed it. And I promptly forgot all about chard upon returning to the U.S.

Anyhow, back to the almost present. I'm a sucker for pretty colors, and the bright magenta, yellow, orange, white, and red stems of the chard caught my eye one day while walking through a farmer's market. This variety is apparently known as "rainbow chard." Attached to those stems were big, beautiful green leaves. I asked the guy running the stand how he recommended cooking the chard. His recommendation? Saute it and add it to spaghetti sauce. Two years later I'm still making chard this way. (Rainbow chard image taken by Flickr member Trillbilly, used pursuant to Creative Commons license.)

Chard season is not yet here, so expect to see another recipe or two using it in the future, and likely showcasing its rainbowy beauty better. This meal, however, is all about being simple, hearty, and comforting...oh yeah, and tasty.

There is a lot of flexibility with this meal. If you already have a favorite spaghetti sauce, then just add some chard to it and call it a day. You can saute it separately ahead of time and then add the cooked chard to the sauce, or add it raw. The advantage of cooking it separately is that you can give the chard more of its own flavor - you can make it garlicky, for example. The advantage of doing it all in one pot is fewer dishes to wash. I went with fewer dishes to wash, as this is supposed to be a simple meal. You can also use any kind of pasta you happen to have on hand; the heartiness and strong flavors of this preparation mean that the sauce can hold its own when served atop whole wheat pasta as well. One last note - I used fire roasted canned tomatoes; the fire-roasted tomatoes just add another layer of flavor to the whole thing. If you can find them, please try them, but just plain old tomatoes will work as well. I know this picture I have does the dish no justice, but here goes:

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard in Tomato Sauce
by Me

Ingredients:
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 25 oz can Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes (I recommend Muir Glen brand)
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Method:
Add olive oil to a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat until softened, but before the garlic begins to brown.
Stir in 1/4 tsp salt.
Add tomatoes and herbs/spices. Stir. Cover and let simmer.
Meanwhile, wash the chard carefully and trim the stems. Cut the chard horizontally into 1/2-inch wide ribbons.
Create a well in the middle of the skillet and add the chard a bit at a time, allowing the previous batch to wilt before adding more. Once all the chard has been added and has cooked down a bit, stir to incorporate the chard throughout the sauce.
Cover and turn heat down to medium-low. Let simmer for an additional 10 minutes or so. You want the mixture to reach a nice thick consistency.
Remove bay leaves. Taste for salt; add the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt if desired. Serve atop pasta of your choice.

Mom's Potato Salad

I had a barbecue at a friend's house to go to this weekend. When asked what dish I wanted to bring I had to think about it for a while. There were too many options - vegetables, salads, appetizers, desserts...I couldn't decide!

So I decided to base my decision on this: What is the one BBQ food I'd rather be made by myself than anyone else in attendance (or bought from a deli)? The answer - potato salad.

This wasn't because I think that mine is the best, but rather because I look at potato salad as a very personal food. Everyone has their own idea of how it should be made. Some like mustard, some say no way. Some use mayo, some use (*shudder*) Miracle Whip. Some use egg, onion, pickle chips, relish, other veggies (I've seen carrots and peas used!)...you get the idea. I wanted to eat potato salad made my way.

Today's me-recipe is really a mom-recipe. This is how my mother made her potato salad, and I won't eat it any other way. I take that back - I'll eat potato salad whenever it is around, but I probably won't enjoy it unless it at least bears some resemblance to this recipe. We use both mayo and mustard, celery for crunch, cayenne and dijon mustard for kick. Mmmmm. (Apologies for the bad picture today, by the way - I didn't have my digital camera and the BlackBerry pic is much worse than I imagined it would be!)

A few notes about this recipe. First, use a more waxy (as opposed to starchy) variety of potato. Avoid Idaho/"baking potatoes"; I used "Yukon Gold." Use a sweet onion such as Vidalia if possible. Use real mayonnaise - I swear by Hellman's, their "light" variety with the light blue lid is also good if you want to save a few calories. Avoid the "low fat" green lid one at all costs. You may prefer less salt in your potato salad; add about half and taste before adding more. Use regular yellow mustard for a more smooth potato salad; use dijon mustard such as Grey Poupon if you want to give the dish some tang (I like it, but I don't think everyone does).

Mom's Potato Salad
By Me!
Serves a small army (about 8-10)

Ingredients:
6 medium potatoes, boiled
6 eggs, hard boiled
3 stalks celery, finely chopped (about a generous 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup chopped onion
7 Tbsp mayonnaise (about a scant 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 Tbsp mustard
2 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp sweet paprika (i.e., regular paprika, not smoked), plus more for garnish
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Method:
Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes, about 3/4" on each side. Add to a large bowl.
Peel the eggs and cut into smaller cubes, about 1 cm on each side. Add to the bowl.
Stir in the mayonnaise and mustard.
Sprinkle the seasonings on top. Stir the whole thing together until it is well blended.
Refrigerate for at least an hour but preferably overnight to allow the flavors to settle.
Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle more paprika on top to garnish.

Verdict? It should come as no surprise that I like this after reading the intro to this post. So I'll just write what a friend of mine said - this is a very egg salad-like potato salad, with the hard boiled eggs giving the whole thing a bit of smoothness, while the celery and onion add crunch. If I'm making this for myself sometimes I'll add almost twice as much celery because I love the crunch. But that's just me. :)