Braised Collard Greens Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

When I used to think of greens, I would imagine spinach, kale, and maybe some swiss chard, but collard greens were never really on my radar. I had never cooked with them, and all I knew about the large leafy vegetable was that Southern cooks like Paula Deen and The Neely’s like to eat them.

After recently graduating from the professional culinary training program at the CKCA, I made a promise to myself to be more open and willing to try new things and cook with ingredients I’ve never used before. So when I saw some bright green bunches of fresh collard greens at ShopRite the other week, I couldn’t help but take up the challenge.

I had absolutely nothing in mind – all I knew was this: Southern cooks like to stew the greens with smoky ham hocks or bacon. I wanted to keep the dish light, healthy and vegan, so I decided to do a play on the smoky factor and add some cumin and smoked paprika. Chickpeas and diced tomatoes help round out the dish, and stuffing it into roasted sweet potatoes just takes it over the top!

Since collard greens are a sturdy, tougher leaf, they benefit from cooking for long periods of time. You can prepare this dish in your crockpot for a set-it-and-forget-it weeknight meal, or serve it up as hamin, instead of a heavy cholent, on Shabbat.

I’m really proud of my first attempt at cooking with collard greens. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Side note: I apologize for the lack of step-by-step photos. This recipe just sort of happened as I went along and I wasn’t planning on blogging about it. It was just so good that I knew I had to share!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Braised Collard Greens

1 bunch collard greens, washed well to remove dirt
1 onion, thinly sliced in half rings
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 28 0z. can diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1-2 cups vegetable stock
salt and pepper, to taste
8 organic sweet potatoes

Method:

Remove the stems from the collard greens and roughly chop. Set aside. Heat oil in a skillet and saute onions until translucent. Add garlic and continue to saute until fragrant. Add cumin and paprika and saute until onions are well-coated and fragrant. Add collard greens and stir to incorporate with the onions. Add tomatoes, chickpeas and 1 cup vegetable stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 hours, adding additional stock, if needed.

For the sweet potatoes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes and pat dry. Place on a baking sheet and roast until soft and syrupy, about 1 hour.

Cut a slit through the center of the sweet potatoes and stuff with braised collard greens. Serve hot.


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Breakfast Quinoa with Silan Roasted Figs

Unlike other fruits and veggies, figs have a relatively short season. They are usually available in late summer and early fall, but can also occasionally be found in short supply in early summer. They also have a short shelf life, which is probably why you won’t find them imported throughout the year. Since fresh figs are so hard to come by, I am sure to pick up a carton whenever I see them.

Figs and honey are a natural pairing, but figs and silan are like a match made in heaven. Silan is a thick syrup made from dates that’s like a cross between honey and molasses, with a taste similar to roasted sweet potato syrup (the sticky stuff that oozes out of the sweet potatoes when you roast them for a long time). Roasting the figs with silan just takes the whole fig experience to new heights, you’ll never want to eat them any other way!

What’s even better than silan roasted figs? Silan roasted figs over milky quinoa porridge! If you’ve never prepared quinoa as a breakfast cereal, you must give it a try. It’s just like oatmeal or porridge, except it’s got a bite to it. If you’re a fan of quinoa, try preparing it with milk instead of water, and adding sweet additions like apple-cinnamon, maple-brown-sugar, or this fabulous topping of fresh figs & silan. You’ll be making quinoa for breakfast a lot more often!

Breakfast Quinoa

2 cups milk
1 cup quinoa
pinch of salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
silan roasted figs (recipe follows)
warm milk, for serving

Method:

Thoroughly rinse quinoa in a fine-mesh sieve and drain well. Bring milk to a slow boil, stirring occasionally to ensure that it doesn’t burn. Add quinoa and salt. Cover the pot and simmer for 12 minutes. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon and continue to cook for another 6-8 minutes until milk is mostly absorbed and quinoa is the consistency of creamy porridge.

Spoon quinoa into serving bowls and pour over some warm milk. Top with silan roasted figs and drizzle with additional silan.

Silan Roasted Figs

1 container figs, trimmed and halved or quartered
silan
sea salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle figs with silan and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until caramelized and browned around the edges.


1 year ago: carrot muffins
2 years ago: berry sorbet with fresh pomegranates and blueberries

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Sweet Hawaiian Chicken

Sometimes I’m so busy dreaming up new dishes to wow you all, that I forget about the oldie but goody recipes like this one. This sweet and delicious chicken is a recipe I grew up eating. My mother has been making it for years, and it’s just one of those dishes that’s a keeper. The pineapple and maraschino topping provide a lovely garnish, making this the perfect chicken dish to serve over the holidays or at your next party.

If you’ve got leftover pineapple, try this delicious tropical smoothie for dessert!

Sweet Hawaiian Chicken

8 chicken quarters, skin on
1 can pineapple rings
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drain the juice from the can of pineapple rings into a bowl. Whisk in the ketchup and brown sugar. Place the chicken skin-side up in a baking dish and top  with a slice of pineapple and a maraschino cherry. Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover, baste with the sauce, and bake for an additional 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.

1 year ago: rice pilaf
2 years ago: pretty perfection, headbands in a pinch!

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Malawach Cheese Pastries with Dipping Sauce


When the Kosher Connection (a group of kosher food bloggers that I belong to) decided on an April Linkup with the theme “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”, I think we were all excited, but equally spellbound. We can all think of at least a hundred foods that make us say “Wow! that was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted!” How could we possible pick only one?!

You’ve probably realized this by now, but I’m a total foodie. There are so many dishes that I could call my favorites! Like my mom’s cheesy lasagna, my Bubby’s stuffed cabbage, or Pardes’s fries with red wine ketchup. There’s also NoiDue’s mac ‘n cheese balls, Jezebels risotto with truffle “butter” and Chef Avram Wiseman’s wild mushroom & duck confit ravioli in demi-glace sauce. To pick just ONE thing and say that that was the best thing I ever ate is practically impossible.

I started thinking about some of my favorite food memories and I realized something. The best thing I ever ate is about more than just the food I put into my mouth at a given time. It has to do with who I was with, and the memories associated with that experience. It has something to do with comfort. Food that didn’t just taste good, but evokes a feeling of nostalgia and sentiment, even years later.

Some of my best food memories were ones I experienced at Bissaleh, an Israeli-style cafe that was located on Coney Island Avenue & Avenue P in Brooklyn. It’s been closed for years now, but it was once a hub of late-night socializing for people of all ages. Back in my teens, my friend Dina and I would go there in the wee hours of the morning, talking and nibbling like there was no tomorrow. We’d usually order stuffed Bissaleh (Israeli-style spiral boreka), classic malawach, or ftut. We’d also get their amazing steak fries on the side, and of course one of their delicious smoothies like banana, date, milk and honey.

While Bissale allowed it’s patrons to experience an array of Middle Eastern delicacies way into the night, it’s practices were especially shady. The fact that they only accepted cash should have given them away, but there was a lot more to be skeptical about. In the back of the restaurant, down a long corridor, there was a secret hookah bar (way before hookah bars were trendy). From the looks of it though, there may have been a lot more than hookah going on there. Up front, Bissale hailed it’s owned psychic, who would tell you your fortune if you agreed to pay for her meal. We actually did it once, and let me tell you, as crazy as that woman was, she told me some things that were right. on. target.

Bissaleh wasn’t the only happening place on the block. In fact, right next door, there was either a sports bar or a gentlemen’s club, I couldn’t quite figure it out. What I did notice though, is that Bissaleh had a picture frame on the wall that they shared with the bar. The picture would slide open, and they’d periodically send over plates of food or drink to the bar next door. Super shady. It should come as no surprise then, when one night, Bissaleh suddenly closed it’s doors for good, right out of the blue.

A few years later, another Bissaleh location popped up in Miami Beach, FL. They have since closed their doors as well, but I was able to find their simliar menu online, which I’ve included here, for your drooling pleasure.

I’ll never forget those late night outings at Bissaleh. Sure it had a lot to do with the amazing food, but it had more to do with the meals spent with an amazing friend, who’s friendship I have cherished for over 20 years. Dina and I shared a lot more than food there. We joked, we laughed, and sometimes, even cried, over malawach dough.

In light of the April Kosher Connection linkup, I invited Dina over for some deconstructed ftut. I told her about my plans to relive our Bissaleh memories on my blog, and to pay homage to our experiences by choosing ftut as “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”. The only problem with my idea was that ftut is not exactly appealing on a plate. It’s chopped up mallawach dough (a buttery, fried yemenite dough that is similar to puff pastry) that’s baked along with cheese, zaatar and sesame. While it’s superbly delicious, ftut still looks like mush on a plate. So I did what any self-respecting blogger would do – I deconstructed it. These melt-in-your-mouth savory rugelach (rolled pastry) are not only prettier, they’re also more fun to eat. One bite and you’ll be wishing that Bissaleh was still around so you could try the real thing.

Ftut was always served alongside a hardboiled egg, pureed tomato sauce, and spicy schug. The schug was spooned into the center of the pureed tomatoes, so that you could dip your ftut in, picking up as much spice as you desired. The dip really rounded out the dish, taking it from good to over the top. You can use store-bought schug, or make your own, using my recipe below.

Give these deconstructed ftut bites a try, and you’ll understand just why I’ve included them in the “Best Thing I Ever Ate” Linkup. For more “Best Thing I Ever Ate” recipes, see the Kosher Connection Linkup below!

Malawach Cheese Pastries with Dipping Sauce

2 sheets frozen malawach dough, slightly thawed
1 tbsp zaatar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup shredded Syrian or mozzarella cheese
1 egg + 1 tbsp water, lightly beaten
sesame seeds, for sprinkling
1 hardboiled egg, sliced (how to make hard boiled eggs)
tomato puree, for dipping (recipe follows)
schug, for dipping (recipe follows)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine the zaatar and olive oil and brush it over the malawach dough. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the malawach into 8 slices (like a pizza pie). Sprinkle shredded cheese over slices and roll each one, starting from the wider side. Place the pastries seam-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush pastries with eggwash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for approximately 20-30 minutes, until pastries puff and start to brown.

TIP: If you bake these in a toaster oven (like I did), place the tray of pastries on the lower rack and cover the top rack with a piece of parchment paper or foil. This keeps the cheese from turning brown before the pastries have a chance to puff up.

Tomato Puree

Roughly chop 2 plum tomatoes and add to a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth.

Schug

5 jalapeno peppers (see note)
1 large bunch fresh parsley or cilantro*
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
salt, to taste

Method:

Add ingredients to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.

NOTE: You can control the heat of the schug by the amount of veins and seeds that you put in the sauce. For a mild schug, remove all veins and seeds. For a spicy kick, add a little at a time until desired spice level is reached.

* Feel free to use all parsley, or all cilantro, or a mix. I don’t care much for cilantro, so I used only parsley. If you want more of a herby schug (which is more traditional), add another bunch. I prefer mine heavy on the jalapeno!



1 year ago: crocheted pacifier clip
2 years ago: BBQ pulled chicken sammies

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Rainbow Slaw with Poppy-Seed Dressing

I wish I could take credit for this awesome salad combo, but the truth is, I ate a variation of it at Glatt Ala Carte restaurant in Brooklyn last year. The very following Shabbat, I recreated it at home, and I’ve been making it ever since. There’s just something about the colorful julienned vegetables paired with sweet and tart apples, chewy craisins and crunchy honey glazed pecans that just screams spring. It’s light, refreshing, not overly sweet, and incredibly satisfying.


One of the things that I love most about this recipe is the julienned vegetables. There’s just something about the texture that makes it more palatable. And I get to use my favorite tool of all time – the julienne peeler. It makes preparing homemade slaw so quick and easy, you’ll never have to pull out your hand grater again! My favorite julienne peeler is made by OXO. If you don’t have one, you can buy it here.

I used to wonder if my whole julienne obsession was just me, so I did a little experiment. I made my waldorf salad 2 weeks in a row, using the exact same ingredients. One week, I diced the apples into cubes, the way it’s classically done. The next week, I julienned them into thin strips for a more refined presentation. The results were crystal clear. The julienned salad got rave reviews and was finished down to the last drop. The chunkier cubed salad was eaten, but with not much ado, and I had leftovers.


Rounding out the salad is this delicious poppy seed dressing. The honey helps to thicken it so that it emulsifies into a creamy dressing. Make sure to whisk vigorously (or shake in a container) right before serving, to keep the emulsion from breaking.

Sweet & Crunchy Slaw

1 carrot, peeled and julienned
1 zucchini, julienned (do not peel)
1 yellow squash, julienned (do not peel)
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly into 1/2 rings
1/2 granny smith apple, cored, quartered and sliced thinly
1/2 fuji or honeycrisp apple, cored, quartered, and sliced thinly
1/4 cup craisins
1/4 cup honey glazed pecans

Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 cup extra light olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp poppy seeds
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

In a bowl, combine the dressing ingredients and whisk vigorously until emulsified. In a separate bowl, combine the carrots, zucchini, squash, and onion. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat. Gently fold in the apples, and garnish with craisins and pecans.

NOTE: To get an easy and consistent julienne, I prefer to use a julienne peeler, as pictured above. It works just like a standard peeler, except it cuts what you’re peeling into thin strips. To julienne with the peeler, just peel around the vegetable a few times, until you start to reach the center. Discard or save the remainder for vegetable soup. If you do not have a julienne peeler, you may julienne your veggies by hand. Simply cut off the top and bottom of the vegetable. Then, square off the sides so that you have a 4-sided rectangle. Slice thinly into vertical slices. Stack the slices on top of each other and cut into strips.

1 year ago: pineapple chicken & BBQ jalepeno pizza
2 years ago: 1-2-3 decadent molten chocolate chip cakes

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