Archive for the ‘Nuts’ Category

Kale: Catalonian (Spanish) Greens with Raisins and Pine Nuts

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

cooked Kale greens with golden raisins pine nuts Spanish Catalan

Kale – there’s so much more to make with this leafy green than kale chips. Try this easy recipe for Catalonian sautéed greens with raisins and pine nuts. In case you didn’t know Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain . . . .

Yes. I’m back – with food facts and recipes.

It worked. The hints from FFC friends and followers about not having seen any posts in their email box or RSS feed.

I wish I could say I was traveling the world eating exotic food to my pansa’s (belly’s) content. Nope, I came down with a nasty summer bug that lingered and lingered. For nearly two months, I did a drastic clean up of my diet cutting out anything white (flour, sugar, dairy), alcohol, and even my go to remedy for all that ails me . . . chocolate.

Instead I upped the fruit and veggies and have been eating loads of leafy greens – kale , chard, beet greens, spinach, cabbage, etc. If you didn’t know it, leafy greens have anti-inflammatory properties and are full of anti-oxidants, plus they’re good for nutritional healing, particularly for the liver – when you/your body is stressed and your immune system is down.

I like greens raw and cooked, so eating them has been no chore for me.

This recipe for kale and chard with garlic, raisins, and pine nuts is just one adaptation of sautéed greens we’ve been eating for years. Mix it up depending on what’s in your garden, pantry and refrigerator. This raisin/pine nut (and/or almond) combination comes from Catalonia’s take on espinacas con pasas y pinones (spinach with raisins and pine nuts), although they also use other leafy greens.

Espinacas with Raisins and Pine Nuts is usually a first course and is popular in other parts of the Mediterranean from Sicily to Greece. It also makes an excellent side.

This version, and my preference, is to use kale or a kale/chard combo, since spinach is less hearty and wilts much more. I also prefer to saute the greens and skip the parboiling that’s generally customary to other recipes. The greens are finished with orange juice, a technique I picked up from Bryant Terry, a chef and author of Vegan Soul Kitchen.

Kale and other leafy greens are abundant and vibrant now with the cooler temps. So next time you score some, try this Spanish favorite. For all my readers who are into Southern and Soul Food, you’re sure to like these – they’ve replaced the traditionally cooked greens in our house.

Glad to be back. Happy eating!

Tidbits on Kale:

  1. Kale is a variety of cabbage that descended from wild cabbage native to the Mediterranean region.
  2. Kale may have been the first cultivated cabbage.
  3. Kale was one of the most common green vegetables in Europe until the middle ages.

(more…)

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Pumpkin Seeds: Mexican Peanut Pumpkin Seed Brittle – Palanquetas

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

pepitoria pepitas cacahuate mexican brittle

If you checked out my Mexican Pumpkin Seed Pesto, you know that pumpkin seeds have been used in Mexican cookery since pre-Columbian times. Pumpkins are believed to have originated in Central America about 5500 B.C.E.

Pumpkin seeds are used in many Mexican dishes, typically to make thick, rich sauces. However, they are also frequently eaten there as a snack – roasted in oil or used to make palanquetas or pepitorias, a candy brittle.

Know that generally, I turn up my nose at regular peanut brittle – something that started when I was a teenager wearing braces. So, this Mexican brittle is exceptional.  It’s packed with good for you ingredients and has less of the sugary brittle.

Palanquetas (brittle with nuts) or pepitorias (brittle with seeds) are usually flat, round disks, but they are sometimes also packaged as rectangular blocks. Candy makers load them with a single ingredient like pepitas (pumpkin seeds), cacahuates (peanuts) or sesame seeds (ajonjoli) – or, they make them with this trio of  traditional ingredients, sometimes also adding popped amaranth .

With this recipe you’ll be able to make your own at home. It’s easy.  If you’re wary about eating “brittle,” you can boil the honey for less time and your final palanquetas will be more chewy like those fancy, expensive granola bars you find at the natural/health food stores.

This weekend I made two batches – I took one chewy version to a friends’ house and they were an instant hit. The other, I made more brittle-like. Either version will make a great protein snack fit for your outdoor, air and car travels. These also make great goodie gifts during the holidays. To make them more novel, add some ground chile and a squeeze of lime to your honey before you boil.

My version uses honey as the brittle base rather than sugar or sugar and corn syrup that most recipes call for. It’s a hearty snack that’s not overly sweet.

Tidbits on Pumpkin Seeds:

  1. Pumpkin seeds are more rich in iron than any other seed and are an excellent source of zinc, an essential mineral that helps the immune system.
  2. Buy hulled green (untoasted) pumpkin seeds at health-food stores or Mexican/Latin American markets where there is frequent turnover. Untoasted pumpkin seeds are less perishable. Store them in the freezer.

(more…)

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Apple: Charoset – Jewish Apple Dried Fruit Nut Salad

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Apples are not only tasty and good for you, over the thousands of years that they’ve been around, they’ve grown to have cultural and religious significance.

For instance, this Jewish apple salad – charoset is eaten during the Jewish Pesach (Passover) festival. Charoset is also spelled “charosset,” “charosses” or “haroset”  and pronounced ha-ROH-ses or ha-ROH-set.

Depending on the provenance, the salad ingredients and texture will vary.

In the Ashkenazi (Eastern European) version, ingredients traditionally include apples, nuts, cinnamon, sweet red wine and honey – in a finely chopped salad spread over matzos. For the Sephardim (Mediterranean), the salad generally includes dates, other dried fruit, and spices like ginger – pureed into a paste and sometimes rolled into sticky balls eaten with sweetmeat throughout the holiday.

Charoset recipes are typically family recipes that also reflect an ethnic influence. Some recipes add bananas, pine nuts, chiles, cilantro or other local ingredients.

However, whether the salad is finely chopped or paste-like – it symbolically represents the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build ancient Egypt and the salad is one of six items on the Sedar Plate along with bitter herbs.

Since I’m not Jewish, I’m inclined to eat this salad throughout the fall and winter months, when apples are at their peak and dried fruit is abundant. This version is more tart than sweet, made sweeter with the sweet red wine. However, I think the salad would also be lovely using olive oil in lieu of sweet wine and adding some fresh parsley and cilantro for a more savory salad. Or, I may make it simply using orange or apple juice and eat the leftovers in my oatmeal.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about apple salads or your family’s charoset version.

Tidbits on Apples:

  1. There are over 7,500 known varieties of apples.
  2. In some cultures, an apple is a symbol of immortality, love or sexuality. For example, throwing an apple at a person’s bed was an invitation for something racier than apple pie in ancient Greece.
  3. Some folklore credits apples with increasing a woman’s chances of conception.
  4. Apples have also been rubbed on skin to remove birthmarks.
  5. The proverb an apple a day keeps the doctor away, has some truth to it primarily because it helps aid digestion.

(more…)

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Quinoa: African Peanut Quinoa Soup

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

African Quinoa Peanut Soup_ForkFingersChopsticks.com

If you haven’t tried quinoa yet, this toothsome African peanut soup will surely lure you in. It has a slew of nutritious vegetables in a creamy, peppery broth with lovely bits of crunchy quinoa. The soup makes the rotation in my comfort food repertoire several times during the cold-weather season because it is both healthy and decadent.

Although quinoa is native to the South American Andes region (read about its origins), it is now cultivated around the world – from Colorado to the Himalayas to Ethiopia and other areas of East Africa. This dish has a definite African influence – the use of nuts to thicken the stew, and staple ingredients such as sweet potatoes and okra. Frankly, it’s the peanut-based sauce that makes this dish a stand-out. If you don’t like peanuts, you won’t appreciate this dish. But, for nut fiends, you’re in for a treat.

Yes, I’m one of those people who eats spoonfuls of nut butter just because I can. So, when I came across the original recipe for this soup online at FoodDownUnder.com several years ago (the original recipe is no longer on the site), I knew I had to try it. Over the years, I’ve fine-tuned it:  the recipe below is more aggressive with spices and chiles; it also has more veggies, peanut butter and quinoa; and, the consistency is that of a soup rather than a thick stew.

This recipe doubles easily and has been a hit at parties with vegetarians and meat-eaters. It’s a great way to introduce quinoa into your diet. And, if you’re already eating the “Mother Grain,” its a must-have recipe.

Tidbits on Quinoa:

  1. As quinoa cooks, the pearls of germ separate and form tiny spirals. The cooked grain is tender, with a slight crunchiness from the germ (see spirals in image below).
  2. Colorado, with its high altitude and cold climates, was crucial testing ground for introducing quinoa to the United States in the mid-70s. Don McKinley and Steve Gorad, founded the Quinoa Corporation in Boulder, Colo., and first planted quinoa seeds in their backyards and eventually in plots in the San Luis Valley. However, most quinoa sold in the United States is imported from South America.
  3. A quinoa plant can grow to anywhere from three feet to over ten feet tall. Plant stems can be straight or branched, and seeds can vary in color from white, yellow, gray, light brown, pink, black to red.

(more…)

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