Instant Pot Collar Green Sag Paneer

Tomorrow promises to be a beautiful autumn day, so be sure to visit the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market for its last day of its tenth season. The market will be open between 10 am - 2 pm on the corner of Agate and 19th Ave. You'll find plenty of fall fruits and vegetables from Camas Swale Farm.

Camas Swale has abundant collard greens, which are delicious roasted in a low oven. I also like to use them in sag paneer, as opposed to spinach which I find always cook down to a tiny portion that fits into a single dessert bowl. This time I converted my my stovetop recipe for the Instant Pot, which was able to reduce an enormous pile of leaves into a fragrantly spiced puree in a matter of minutes.

Instant Pot Collard Green Sag Paneer

2 bunches collard greens (or kale), washed, stripped from stems, and chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 to 2 fresh hot chili, diced
4 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 inch ginger root, diced
2 Tbsp grape seed or canola oil
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
salt to taste
8 ounces paneer cheese, chopped into small cubes
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala

1.Turn the instant pot to sautee. When warm, add the oil, and then the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and fenugreek and let them sizzle for a few seconds until fragrant. Add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger, and chili pepper and cook, stirring for a couple minutes. Then add the chopped tomato and cook down a couple minutes longer until they have collapsed and released their juice. Press cancel.


2. Add the collard greens or kale and a generous pinch of salt and give the contents a stir. The liquid from the tomatoes and rinsed greens should be enough, but if it seems very dry, add a Tbsp or two of water. Seal the lid, and program the instant pot to cook at high pressure for 2 minutes. When the cooking is complete, press cancel and carefully release the pressure. 

3. Stir in the coriander and garam masala. Use an immersion blender to puree the greens into a smooth paste. Taste and season with salt if needed. Stir in the cubed paneer cheese and transfer to a serving bowl.

Collard Greens with Emmer and Parsley Pesto

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you will find fresh eggs and pastured chicken, beef, pork, and lamb from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, baked goods made with local whole grains from WildFlour Oven, fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company, and plenty of fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including collard greens and cabbage. 

For a fresh but hearty salad, I combined a tangle of sauted collard greens with cooked emmer dressed up with a lemony parsley pesto. This made a nice side for an end of September barbecue. 

  

Collard Greens with Emmer and Parsley Pesto

1 bunch collard greens
1 shallot, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Rinse the collard greens and cut out the thick stem from each leaf. Cut the leaves into 1 inch wide strips. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil, and when hot, add the shallots. Saute until soft. Add the collard greens and a generous amount of salt and pepper, stir to coat in oil, and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes until the leaves have soften.

1 bunch parsley
1/3 cup almonds
zest from one lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
Lightly toast the almonds in a dry skillet on the stove top or in a oven or toaster oven. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend into a coarse pesto. Taste and adjust seasonings.

1/2 cup emmer or other sturdy grain
Cook with 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt for about 25 minutes until al dente, tasting frequently. Drain through a fine mesh strainer.

Mix the pesto into the emmer to coat. Then in a pretty serving bowl, gently mix the emmer with the collard greens and serve.

Taiwanese Meat Ragu and Spring Vegetables

This Sunday is the first day of the eighth season of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. Be sure to be on the corner of 19th and Agate between 10 and 2 to pick up organic vegetables from Camas Swale Farm, pastured meats from Fair Valley Farm, and fresh flowers from Tiger Lily Art company.

For your market purchases, here is a recipe for a Taiwanese meat ragu served on rice with roasted and fresh spring vegetables. This is a take on the Taiwanese dish lu rou fan, inspired by recipes from here and here and here. My sister and I both have an irrational love for this dish, which we'll order at a hole in the wall Taiwanese restaurant when I visit her in Chicago. I wanted to make a version that had the same flavors, but would be as easy as a slow roasted Bolognese sauce. I decided to skip the blanched pork belly, but use a base of caramelized shallots for a deep, rich flavor. 

And while I had the oven on low for the ragu, I also roasted some spring radishes and some collard greens (this recipe without the chorizo), which made a delicious accompaniment to the dish, along with some crunchy fresh carrots and cucumbers, a handful of cilantro, and a jammy egg. If you get to the market at 10 on Sunday, you can be eating this for dinner Sunday evening.

Taiwanese Meat Ragu

(serves eight and freezes well)

6 Asian shallots, sliced
2 Tbsp canola oil
8 large dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 2 cups boiling water
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp of five spice powder
1/4 cup regular soy sauce
1/4 cup dark soy sauce 
1/4 cup sweet rice wine

1. Start rehydrating the shiitake mushrooms in 2 cups boiling water. Heat a large Dutch oven or other oven-safe pan over medium heat. Add the canola oil and then the shallots and cook until they are deeply caramelized. Don't be afraid to let them sit and sear between stirring. 

2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Chop the softened shiitake mushrooms and strain the rehydration water to remove any grit. 

3. Once the shallots are well caramelized, add the ground meat and cook through. Then add the garlic, brown sugar, and five spice powder and stir to dissolve. Then add the soy sauce, rice wine, and the reserved mushroom broth and bring to a simmer.

4. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. Cook for two to three hours, allowing the liquid to reduce, the meat to become extremely silky, and a rich, roasted flavor to develop. Check on it occasionally and add a little water if it dries out too quickly. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. 

5. While the oven is on, roast some radishes, collard greens, or other vegetables to serve with the dish. Prepare a jammy egg for each diner by submerging into a small pot of boiling water and simmering for exactly 6 minutes before running under cold water. Cook a pot of rice.

6. Serve the ragu over rice with roasted and fresh vegetables, a jammy egg, and hot sauce on the side. Enjoy. 

Leftovers Bibimbap

This year, my solution for using up Easter eggs was bibimbap. This dish also served the purpose of using up leftover Easter ham, leftover roasted asparagus, and leftover collard greens, and made a dent in my latest batch of kimchi.

I took inspiration from the bibimbap sauce here and the miso lentils here. Once we got over the pain of peeling favorite eggs, this meal was a hit with enough different toppings to please everyone, including sesame carrots for bunnies.

Bibimbap from Easter leftovers

bibimbap sauce
1/2 cup gochujang
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Mix together all of the ingredients and thin with 1-2 tsp water if it seems too thick.

eggs
hard boiled if you have ones to use up, or cooked for 6 minutes in boiling water.

ham
1 cup diced ham, sautéd in a hot skillet in 1 Tbsp canola oil and 1/2 tsp soy sauce until brown on edges. Add 1 tsp miring, cook down, and remove from heat.

cooked greens
1 bunch greens blanched and quickly sautéed in a little sesame oil, or use pot roasted collards, sauté with a chopped onion in olive oil and then roasted in a closed Dutch oven for one hour at 325 degrees.

roasted broccoli or asparagus
1 small broccoli head cut into spears, tossed with oil and salt, and roasted on a preheated baking sheet at 475 degrees for about 12 minutes. Alternatively roast trimmed asparagus similarly but for about 7 minutes.

sesame carrots
1 carrot julienned and sautéed in a hot skillet in 1 Tbsp canola oil with 1/2 tsp sugar until soften. Add 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp mirin, cook down, remove from heat and toss with 1 tsp sesame seeds.

miso lentils
3/4 cup puy lentils cooked in boiling water until soft (~18 minutes) and drained. Transfer to a bowl and mix in 2 tsp miso paste, 1 tsp sesame oil, a small pinch of sugar and black pepper.

toasted sesame rice
Coat the bottom of a large skillet with 1 Tbsp sesame oil and heat over medium low. Add 4 cups of cooked rice (I like to use a mixture of brown and white rice) and pack down. Cook for about 5-7 minutes until the bottom has developed a toasted crust (peek with a spatula).   

kimchi and sesame seeds to garnish

To serve, scoop out a serving of toasted rice, layer on all desired toppings, and drizzle with bibimbap sauce.

Roasted Collards with Chorizo and Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

This week at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to summer produce from Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm, pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm, and beautiful fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company.

The season's bounty is reaching its height of outrageous beauty, like these blush tomatoes and purple tomatillos. With produce this pretty, it seemed a shame to roast the tomatillos for my usual salsa, so I blended them up fresh with cilantro and a hot pepper.

Even as the produce is reaching its peak, the days are getting cooler, and it's not hard to justify turning on the oven. For less glamorous looking collard greens, I made a version of these pot-roasted collard greens with chorizo. Cooked for an hour in a low oven, the collards' flavors soften and deepen, the onions melt into a sweet jam, and the chorizo infuse the dish with a decadent richness.

Layered on top of tender Lonesome Whistle Farm beans, these rich collards made a delicious bed for a fried Fair Valley Farm egg, topped with the bright notes of the fresh tomatillo salsa and slices of blush tomatoes to make the plate outrageously pretty.

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

1 pint tomatillos
1 small jalapeño or other spicy pepper
1 handful cilantro leaves
1 pinch salt

Hull and rinse the tomatillos. Halve them and toss them in a food processor. Halve and seed the jalapeño and add it to the food processor along with the cilantro and salt. Pulse to chop into a salsa of the desired coarseness. Reserve.

Roasted Collards with Chorizo

1 large bunch collard greens
1 medium onion
2 chorizo sausages (about 5 ounces)
2 Tbsp canola oil
salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Rinse the collard leaves, cut out the stems, and slice crosswise into 1/2 inch strips. Peel and dice the onion. Cut the sausages into quarters lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/2 inch chunks.

2. Heat a large heavy bottomed pot with a lid, such as a Dutch oven, over medium heat. Add the oil, the onions, and a pinch of salt, and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the sausage pieces and continue cooking until the onions are very soft. Add the collard green strips and stir to coat in the oils. Place the lid on the pot and transfer to the oven. 

3. Cook for about an hour until the contents are deeply roasted and caramelized. Stir, taste, and add more salt if needed. Cover until ready to serve.

Market Start and Collard Leaf Presents

Time to celebrate: the fourth season of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market starts up this Sunday June 9 from 10 AM - 2 PM on the corner of Agate St. and 19th Ave. You can look forward to fresh produce from Sweetwater Farm and pasture-raised meat and poultry from Fair Valley Farm including:

strawberries!

zucchini and pattypan squash (delicious grilled)

sugar snap peas and fava beans (serve with fresh pasta)

spring onions, spring garlic, and fennel bulbs (try pickled)

kale, chard, collards (try these collard leaf presents)

braising greens mix, lettuce, and salad mix 

Italian green cauliflower and broccoli

potatoes and beets (try this quinoa and beet salad)

and a few early cukes - they won't last long!

also new: salsa and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

and pastured chicken (try spatchcocked)

A celebration isn't complete without presents, so for the Farmers Market start, I encourage you to wrap up these delicious collard green packets, inspired by a recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy. Hers is a delicately balanced mix of coconut-flavored black rice in collard leaves simmered in ginger-flavored coconut broth, but I employed her approach as an appealing way to repackage leftovers. For the filling, I mixed up black rice with leftover grilled peppers, scallions, and cherry tomatoes, and served them nestled in some leftover Thai sweet meat winter squash curry from the freezer. Unwrapping a side of rice from a brilliant green package made the whole meal feel very festive. In that festive spirit, please come out and celebrate a new season of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market June 9th!

Collard Leaf Presents

adapted from Deborah Madison

for the stuffed collard packets
2 cups cooked black rice
1 cup chopped grilled vegetables, such as spring onions, summer squash, peppers, and tomatoes
1 handful cilantro leaves, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
8 collard leaves 

for the broth
3 cups water
1 large carrot, scrubbed and chopped
1 celery stalk, rinsed and chopped
2 star anise
3 slices of fresh ginger
salt to taste
1/2 cup or more coconut milk

1. To make the filling, combine the rice, grilled vegetables, cilantro leaves, and salt and pepper.

2. Prepare the collard leaves by cutting away the tough base portion of each stem. Bring a large, shallow pan of water to a simmer, add the collards, and cook until tender, about five minutes. Lift them out and set them on the counter with the base of the leaves facing you. 

3. Place about 1/3 cup of the filling on the center of each leaf. Fold the bottom portion of the leaf over the rice, bring the sides tightly over the rice, then tuck the farthest end of the leaf over snuggly to make a package.

4. Prepare the follow broth (or use your favorite coconut curry) for simmering you collard packets. For the broth, combine the water, carrot, celery, star anise, ginger, and salt and simmer, partly covered, for about 30 to 40 minutes until reduced to 1 cup. Strain the broth through a sieve, transfer to a wide pan, and add coconut milk to taste. Set the collard packets, seam sides down, in the pan, cover, and simmer for about five minutes. Serve the collard packets in shallow bowls with the broth.

Cranberry Beans and Collard Greens

I was excited that the first installment of this year's Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA included these heirloom Vermont cranberry beans, which I hadn't had a chance to sample last year. As a native New Englander, I wanted to honor these beans' heritage with a simple but enlightened preparation. 

We also had some collard leaves from our Open Oak Farm CSA, which seemed like the kind of substantial green that Alcott or Emerson would have espoused. I started a bean pot with some sauteed leeks and jalapeno, and then simmered the beans until just tender.

Then I sauteed sliced collard greens with plenty of garlic in a shallow pan, to which I added the beans and their liquid. Another twenty minutes on the stove simmered off most of the bean juice, melded the flavors, and rendered the greens silky but not too soft. These beans were a delicious accompaniment to roast ham for dinner, and the leftovers were even more scrumptious the next day topped with a fried egg in a New England take on huevos rancheros. 

Cranberry Beans and Collard Greens

2 cup cranberry beans, sorted, rinsed and soaked while you prepare the other ingredients

4 Tbsp olive oil (divided use)

1 large or 2 small leeks

1 jalapeno pepper

5 cups water

1 bunch collard greens

3 cloves garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut off the root and green part of the leeks, slice the white part lengthwise, and rinse thoroughly. slice lengthwise again and then cut into 1/4 inch slices. Seed and chop the jalapeno pepper finely.

2. Heat a Dutch oven and add 2 Tbsp olive oil. Over medium low heat, saute the leeks and jalapenos until they become nicely caramelized, about 6 minutes, but avoid letting them brown. 

3. Drain the beans and add to the pot along with 5 cups of water and a generous pinch of salt. If you like, you can presoak the beans for a longer period of time, but I find it unnecessary, especially with this newly dried beans. Bring the pot to a very gentle simmer and cook for about an hour (longer for older beans) with the lid cracked. Keep an eye on the liquid level. You want the beans to have some broth, but if they seem too soupy, simmer with the top off. Turn off the beans when they are just tender and add more salt and pepper as needed.

4. Rinse the collard greens, cut the center stem from the leaves, and chop them into 1/2 inch strips. Peel the garlic cloves and mince them.

5. Heat a large, shallow pan that can hold all of the beans. Add the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil and briefly saute the garlic. Then add the collard greens and a generous pinch of salt and saute until they turn bright green and fragrant. Now add the beans and their liquid, mix, and let the collard greens simmer in the bean juices for about twenty minutes. Once the greens are the desired degree of tenderness and the beans have thickened, serve warm. These are delicious topped with a fried egg. 

Other recipes for heirloom beans

Pumpkin and Rio Zape Bean Soup

Coffee Braised Lamb Shanks and Arikara beans

Green Flageolet Bean and Tuna Salad

Creamy green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet bean soup with Indian spices

Arikara beans with tomatillo pork

Ireland Creek Annie Baked Beans

Flageolet bean salad with fennel, orange, and tapenade

Arikara beans with roasted fennel and peppers

Jacob's Cattle bean and ham stew

Calypso beans with ginger and black mustard seeds

Ireland Creek Annie bean bruschetta

Lemon and herb Dutch bullet beans

Minty green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet beans and roasted squash soup

Rio Zape beans with toasted chile sauce

Arikara bean gratin

Calypso bean and leek soup