Shrimp with Chard & Orange Vinaigrette

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by Lisa

It’s the season of getting things on the table quickly. It’s also the season of oranges. It’s also time to mix things up a little. This recipe, another from La Cucina Italiana, is another stealth meal: it comes together in minutes from ingredients you can count on one hand.  My kids loved it. It’s going into regular rotation here & if you’re feeling really pressed for time, you can use pre-cooked frozen shrimp. I actually have a hard time eating these, but my kids love them, so I sometimes keep them on hand.  I generally feel sort of guilty using them, since we can get really delicious shrimp from Pietro, but I don’t always have time to clean and prep them. So.

Shrimp with Chard and Orange Vinaigrette

adapted from La Cucina Italiana

  • 1 bunch swiss chard, leafy greens rough chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1 lb shrimp, cleaned (or equal amount frozen, pre-cooked shrimp)
  • 1-2 oranges
  • 1/3 cup orange juice (from fresh oranges &/or juice)
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  1. Cut skin off orange, being careful not to leave any white pith behind.  Carefully section each orange so the fruit is removed from the membrane. Set aside. Squeeze any excess juice from the membrane and peel into a measuring cup. Add enough fresh or pre-squeezed juice to make 1/3 cup. Add one garlic clove, let rest for  few minutes, then add 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil and mix.  You will have extra dressing. (Remove garlic clove before storing leftovers in the refrigerator.)
  2. Sautee chard in olive oil with  a pinch of salt.
  3. When chard is softened, remove it from the heat and quickly sautee shrimp in the same pan in a little olive oil with the second clove of garlic until pink or warmed through.(Alternately, if you have really good fresh shrimp, steam it, leaving out the garlic clove.)
  4. Separate chard onto four dishes. Top with orange sections, then shrimp. Drizzle vinaigrette over the top of everything.

Kale & Avocado Salad

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by Caroline

We make raw kale salad a lot, but over Christmas my sister made a version that was a revelation to me: raw, shredded kale massaged with avocado, then tossed with avocado chunks, slivered almonds and lemon juice. Yum. I ate it almost every day (an antidote to my daily handful of Christmas cookies?) and the whole family loved it. Yesterday we made it at home for the first time, and Eli wanted in on the action. I supervised at the beginning, but by the end he had taken over the process and, as you can see from the photo, was well pleased with himself (I should have supervised a little more closely; look at that knife!)

There are various versions of this recipe online, but I had a boy eager to make salad (that bears repeating: a five year old boy eager to make salad) so we just improvised, and it tasted great. Here’s how it went:

1 bunch of kale
1 lemon
2 avocados
1 handful (approximately 1/4 cup) toasted, slivered almonds
olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste

Strip the kale leaves from their stems, wash them, and then slice them into ribbons. Dump them into a large salad bowl. Slice one avocado onto the kale and mash it into the leaves with your hands. There is no kitchen implement that can do this for you, just dig in with your bare hands or enlist a willing helper to massage the kale leaves until they are all nicely coated with avocado. Juice the lemon over the leaves, and then add the other avocado, chopped into chunks. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with almonds, season with a bit of salt and pepper, and serve.

Involtini

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by Lisa

It’s been a week of experimenting here in the kitchen and not all of it has been successful.  The carrot mostarda was too sweet, the celery root carpaccio too salty–but the pork involtini were delicious–fast, easy and a huge hit with everyone.

I was inspired by my new issue of La Cucina Italiana, which is a favorite food magazine. The recipes are often too involved and time consuming for a weeknight, but a girl can dream…

Involtini is a technique which involves pounding a meat until it is very thin, then rolling it around some delicious filling, then securing the pretty little bundle with a toothpick. The rolls are browned, then quickly braised, then sliced into pinwheels for serving (or not). This recipe involves only 3 ingredients (+ olive oil and salt), and you can make the rolls ahead of time and refrigerate them until it’s time to cook. They cook in just a few minutes–enough time to steam some broccoli, sautee the rest of the chard, and warm some garlic bread in the oven.

They are adorable. The kids were charmed by them. Just this once, I let them eat with their fingers so the rolls stayed intact. They dipped the rolls in a country mustard, which isn’t necessary, but is pretty good.


Pork Involtini with Swiss Chard

  • 1 lb pork tenderloin
  • 4 large leaves Swiss chard
  • 12 scallions, white and light green parts only
  • salt
  • olive oil
  • Special equipment:  toothpicks
  1. Cut white stems and ribs off the chard, so you have only the leafy green part.
  2. Cut the tenderloin into 4 equal pieces.
  3. Using a rolling pin or meat tenderizer, gently pound the cutlets into very thin cutlets, about 1/4-1/8 inch thin.
  4. Lightly salt both sides of meat.
  5. Lay a single layer of chard leaves over each cutlet.
  6. Beginning with narrow end, roll up each piece of meat and secure with toothpick.
  7. In a large pan over high heat, with a few tablespoons of olive oil, brown rolls on  all sides.
  8. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water, the scallion.
  9. Lower heat. Cover and cook until pork is cooked through, about 8 minutes.
  10. Slice the rolls to your liking, remove the toothpicks, and serve with pan drippings.

Strawberry Pop Tarts

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by Caroline

The cooking division of labor in our household, as I have mentioned before, is basically Tony: stove; Caroline: oven. Or to put it another way, Tony: dinner; Caroline: dessert. It’s never more obvious than at our New Year’s Day party, for which I produce a line-up of cookies, muffins, coffee cakes and the like:

While this year, for example, Tony made a massaman curry, several batches of veggie spring rolls, a green papaya salad, plus a variety of fabulous chutneys and dipping sauces. He did suggest one thing for me to make, though: home made pop tarts. And I couldn’t resist. I found a recipe from Bon Appetit and it’s a great party snack since you prep them in advance and stick them into the freezer until you want them. Eli helped me with the assembly (and took to heart my caution to keep his warm hands off the pastry!):

They were gone so fast I couldn’t take a picture, but you know what a pop tart looks like. These are too good not to make again.

Here’s the recipe, with my notes in brackets:

* 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour plus additional for shaping and rolling
* 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 4 tablespoons ice water
* 12 tablespoons strawberry preserves

* Powdered sugar and fresh strawberries, for garnish [I skipped this step, given the dearth of fresh berries in January]

Preparation

Whisk 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, coarse salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter. Using fingertips or back of fork, blend in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water by tablespoonfuls, tossing until moist clumps form. [You can do all this in the food processor: whisk together the dry ingredients, then add the chunks of butter and pulse until the mixture is coarse and grainy. Then add the water by spoonfuls and pulse until the dough starts to form clumps.] Gather dough into ball. Divide in half; shape each half into disk [or, shape into a rectangle to make your life easier when you roll it out]. Wrap in plastic. Chill at least 1 hour.

Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough on floured surface to about 13×11 inches. Trim to 12×10-inch rectangle, then cut into eight 5×3-inch rectangles.

Arrange 4 rectangles, spaced apart, on each sheet. Spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons preserves in row down center of each rectangle. Top preserves with second dough rectangle. Using fingertips, gently press all edges of each tart to seal; press all edges with tines of fork to double-seal. Using toothpick, poke a few holes in center of top dough rectangle. Cover; freeze tarts on sheets at least 2 hours and up to 1 week.

Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake frozen tarts uncovered until golden, reversing sheets after 15 minutes, 25 to 30 minutes total (some preserves may leak out). Immediately transfer tarts to rack. Sift powdered sugar lightly over. Serve warm or at room temperature [if they last that long] with fresh berries [in season].

Food, and Family.

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By Lisa

We had a long, happy visit back east with my family which involved  a blizzard, the birth of my brother’s twins, 6 trips to NY, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, several great restaurants–and almost no cooking on my part–my mother deserves all of the credit for that.  I cooked the feast of the 3 1/2 fishes on Christmas Eve and we had plenty of Sonny’s Bagels and more Sloppy Joes than I care to disclose (and which I have just discovered I have never written about…)

We also had a series of really lovely moments not so much created by but punctuated with food. So in the spirit of looking back to some of  thing things that made us happy and forward to a year of continuing to nurture our family in all ways, I offer below a few highlights about food, and love.

Lunch at Lincoln Center before NYC Ballet Nutcracker


Dinner at Cafe Fiorello after the ballet included handmade pasta, a tin ceiling, and chocolate mousse with whipped cream served tableside out of large silver buckets. Need I say more?

nightly cocktails and kidtinis in front of the tree. This is a Phantasm, created at the Slanted Door, SF. You’ll have to kill me to get the recipe, but it involves falernum and lemon grass infused vodka.

The Tony Salad and pizza at the local Reservoir. Then don’t take credit cards and there’s no liquor license.


Christmas Eve:  Stringing carrots on a wire for, you know, the reindeer.Yes, they flew by the attic window and ate them all.

As the blizzard began, we found ourselves in Bryant Park, NYC,with my sister and her 2 girls, at Celsius for lunch–a glass enclosed restaurant where we ate, drank, and watched the snow pour down around us. One of the most beautiful ,  fun meals I’ve ever had.


Crazy kids in the even more crazy Dylan’s Candy Store.  Times Square on New Year’s Eve has nothing on this place after Christmas.

Post-blizzard bliss.

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