Saturday, February 27, 2010

Savoy Cabbage Salad with Apples & Walnuts

 

Keep this one in mind for when the Savoy cabbages arrive in your box.  I had a half of a nice one leftover from making soup last week, so I adapted a recipe by Alice Waters, from Chez Panisse Fruit.  


The original recipe called for a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche or heavy cream, which I omitted.  At this stage of winter, I need to suck it up and become a Weight Watcher for the next month or so.  

Savoy Cabbage Salad with Apples and Walnuts - adapted from Alice Waters

1/2 head savoy cabbage
1/4 c. walnuts
2 T. cider vinegar
1 T. lemon juice
Salt & Pepper
1/2 c. olive oil
2 apples - crisp, eating type

Toast walnuts in skillet until golden.  

Remove core and any tough outer leaves from cabbage.  Slice into shreds.  

Combine dressing ingredients in jar with tight fitting lid and shake to combine.  

Slice apples.  Combine cabbage & apples and toss with dressing.  Chop walnuts and add when serving.  Season with salt & pepper.

Keeps well at least a day dressed, and maintains crunch.

-original recipe called for peeling the apples; I'd leave the peel on for color and added fiber.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Cook With What You've Got - Green Chili Soup

Tonight I made Green Chili Soup from Well Preserved, another blog that I read regularly. This one concentrates on preserving food, and the author, Eugenia Bone, has some very interesting recipes for preserving all sorts of things. In fact, I just bought her book of the same name, and will be trying some of her recipes this summer. The soup uses posole, a dried corn I got from Rancho Gordo. It must be soaked for several hours, (I soaked it for 24 hours!), and then cooked for an hour before you even make the soup. At this point, it is known as hominy, which you can buy in cans. The recipe also calls for roasted chiles, which I had in the freezer. These were easy to do: roast the whole chiles under the broiler or on the grill until the skins blister, let them steam in a plastic bag or bowl covered with a lid until the skins loosen, remove the skins but don't remove the seeds or stem, (leave the chiles whole) then freeze in plastic bags. The soup was just OK, I'm not sure the posole was cooked enough, it seemed kind of chewy. From pictures I have seen, it looks like it puffs up like popcorn, and some of it did this, but not all. I have never bought hominy before, so I really don't know what it looks like!