Empanadas and Citrus Turnip Salad!

Stephan was stuck at home again due to a little superstorm called Sandy – the upside was that he did all of the dishes in the house and made dinner!  Lucky me! (For real, as people truly suffer around this city I feel so appreciative that we were so unaffected and grateful for a hot home cooked meal – xoxo NYC!).

Since Stephan made dinner I will turn the blog over to him to describe what he did:

“I had a hankering for empanadas last weekend so with a little of my hurricane sandy work from home time I made empanada dough (gluten free with: bob’s redmill baking mix, tapioca flour, masarepa yellow and white, a little xanthum gum, corn oil, earth balance, adobo and onion powder).

I let the dough sit until I was done with telecommuting work.  I made two fillings: the first with poblano peppers from farm share, red onion, and tofu seasoned with cumin and this smokey salt mix that penzeys makes, and the second with greens  (don’t forget to super wash the greens – I did – gritty nastiness – sorry Helene) left from farm share beets and turnips.  I seasoned the greens with garlic onion and crushed red pepper.

I pan fried them lightly in olive and corn oil  then laid them on a cookie sheet and finished them in the oven right before Helene came home.

I felt like it needed something to freshen the fried food up so I took a few farm share turnips and sliced them with finely diced red onions and clementine wedges.  Dressed the salad with a citrus vinaigrette.”

So with the tables turned I will do my own review: So delicious!  After such a long crazy week – and walking a mile in the chilly weather from the only subway stop I can take back from Manhattan – it was amazing to come home to lovely warm savory empanadas!  The dough was incredible – it had all of the rich earthy flavor of cornmeal, but without it being crumbly.  The texture was perfect – these little pastries held together perfectly.  The tofu and poblano empanadas were spicy and creamy – with lovely spice.   The beet greens had great flavor.  And the turnip salad was light and bright – simple and refreshing.

From the box:

• beet and turnip greens
• poblano peppers
• Japanese turnips

 

Prepping for Hurricane Sandy with sauteed beet greens and fresh tortillas

As hurricane super storm Sandy was headed for NYC – Stephan and I had a great desire for some fresh tortillas.  I fell in love with fresh corn tortillas during our trip to Tulum, Mexico this past May – and we kept meaning to go to a tortilla factory/restaurant in Corona, Queens.  So before the winds started picking up we headed out on the LIE to Corona to Tortilleria Nixtamal.  We bought a pound of fresh tortillas for $2.50 – score and amazing guacamole.  Then at home Stephan whipped up in no time at all refried black beans, sauteed veggies, and sauteed beet greens to make into soft tacos.  It was all very yummy – and a great last meal before Sandy hit us hard…

From the box – just the beet greens

Green chard and beet greens with tofu – Tibetan recipe called Tofu Tse Tofu

Well into July we are still getting lots of greens.  Many worse things can happen than too many greens, I know.  But still, it can be a little overwhelming thinking of new ways to cook the greens.

I tried this recipe from food.com for Tibetan recipe for greens with tofu (Tofu Tse Tofu).  Since I basically followed the recipe I won’t go into my normal (likely not too helpful) narrative description of what I made.  For greens I used green chard and beet greens – even though I used lots of greens they cooked down nicely.  I also cooked scallions with the tofu.  I also tried to make tea infused rice by putting a tea bag in the rice cooker – husband didn’t think it worked out super well (rice came out nicely but he didn’t think it was especially tea-y).  Next time I might brew the tea and then use that to make the rice – although those extra steps sound a bit time consuming so that might not actually happen.

Stephan’s review: “Very tasty – savory tofu – luscious greens – fluffy rice with just a hint of tea.”

From the farmshare box:

• beet greens
• green chard
• scallions

Vegan Frittata with beet greens and spinach & beet and potato hash browns.

Breakfast for dinner night.  What a beautiful evening – great for dining al fresco on our porch.  It is supposed to be in the 90s by Wednesday so I am really enjoying the great weather before it gets all oppressive.

Vegan Frittata with beet greens, spinach, scallions red onions mushrooms and garlic.  A very easy dish that requires sauteing all of the ingredients listed above (or really any combo of veggies that would be good in a regular omelette).  All of these ingredients can be very wet (and will be combined with tofu that has a lot of water – even the extra firm kind).  One thing I do to mitigate this is take the saute and press it into a sieve to press out excess water.  Then I made the tofu much like I made the tofu ricotta (except here I didn’t have arugula or other herbs).  Next I combined the tofu mixture and the sauteed veggies and baked them at 350.

Beet and potato hash browns.  I meant to par boil both the beets and potatoes, but I ended up doing a full boil.  I am not so happy that when I sauteed them scallions, garlic, and red onions that the mixture basically all went red (also I am realizing that I did a lot of sauteing with this dinner!).  I suppose I could have roasted them instead or roasted them and then sauteed them, but that was more steps than I felt like doing tonight – to be honest 🙂

Tonight’s featured farm share veggies:

• Beets and the beet greens
• Scallions
• Baby Spinach