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New Year, New Take on an Old Favorite: Greens, Bacon, White Bean Pot Pie

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I love cold, wintery weather… the more freezing, the more dreary, the better. I’ve loved these days since college in Virginia, when exams always seemed to fall on the snowiest, coldest days of the year and I would find myself sequestered with my favorite people in our house with soup, DVD marathons of The OC or Sex and the City (yep, college was in the early 2000s). Now when the weather is cold & dreary I can’t help but want to cook ALL the comfort food, watch all the crappy TV, and snuggle under a blanket with my loves. Unfortunately, it never, NEVER gets below 40 degrees in South Mississippi. Like, ever. This week, though, we went from having a rainy 75 degree New Year’s Day, to an icy 23 degree Friday. (and next week we’re looking at 7o degree temps again, too). Anyway, this means that I had to seize the moment and make ALL the food. So far, I’ve roasted a chicken, baked cookies, made curried cauliflower & cabbage soup, and baked this PERFECTION of a pot pie. We ate it on the coldest night while the sleet was peppering our wall of windows, and then we snuggled down to watch something Netflix recommended. I hope you’ll do the same since it’s a delcious way to take advantage of the seasonal greens all over grocery stores, and make a homey, yummy supper.


 
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Author:
Serves: 4-5
What You Need
  • PIE CRUST:
  • 1 Pie Crust
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 Tablespoon Milk
  • FILLING
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 slices cooked bacon, diced
  • 4 slices, thick cut ham, diced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 carrots, peeled, finely chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Kale, Collard greens, or chard leaves chiffonaded/sliced into strips
  • 2 cans White (Cannellini) beans, drained
  • SAUCE
  • 3½ Cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 3½ Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3½ Tablespoons all-purpose flour
What to Do
  1. MAKE THE FILLING
  2. Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven, and cook the onions until translucent.
  3. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
  4. Add in the celery, carrots, and garlic and sautee' for about 2-3 minutes
  5. In handfuls, put the greens into the pot and stir until wilted.
  6. Once the greens have been wilted, add in the beans in and the ham and bacon.
  7. Cook and stir for 5 minutes and then scoop into 4-5 small ramekins or 1 large deep round corningware dish
  8. MAKE THE SAUCE
  9. In the same dutch oven, and without worrying about wiping it out, melt the butter.
  10. Once it's entirely melted and bubbly, add in the flour a tablespoon at a time and whisk it in vigorously so that it totally incorporates. Continue until you've used all the flour.
  11. Keep stirring and cooking until it's turned golden in color.
  12. At this point, pour in the stock ½ Cup at time and keep stirring.
  13. Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously until thickened and reduced slightly (about 10 minutes)
  14. ASSEMBLE THE PIES
  15. Pour the sauce evenly over the filling.
  16. Put the pie pastry over the top of each pie and cut slits in the top to let out any additional steam
  17. In a bowl, whisk the egg & milk until entirely combined.
  18. Using a pastry brush, paint the tops of each pie for a gorgeous, golden brown crust (not necessary, but HIGHLY recommended)
  19. Bake at 350 until bubbling and golden brown.
  20. Serve hot.

 

Sweet Potato Shells

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img_4204   We’d hit another picky period with my little person… if it’s not catfish, shrimp, (whaaat?) pasta or potatoes, he’s not interested. I mean, can I blame him? Nah. BUT I’ve seriously been sweating bullets about what to feed him vegetable-wise.

THEN, I realized that sweet potatoes have been a big hit in the past and WHAT IF I COMBINED THEM with pasta?!?

It worked. He had thirds of this recipe and asked for it a few days later… plus, it can be made in big batches and refrigerated so you can have it for a whole week… if you’re into eating the same thing for a whole week. 😉

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Cous Cous with Peaches, Sweet Corn and Bacon

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This week at the store I had a little freak out. I looked around and noticed that watermelons, peaches, and corn were on sale. BIG time sale. For Labor Day.

Know what that means? Summer is ending, officially. No more seersucker. No more white dresses. No more white shoes (do people even wear white shoes?) I know everyone is getting excited about the advent of pumpkin-spice deodorant and pumpkin-flavored cheeseburgers and what not, (Before you get offended, know that I’m VERY excited about this, too) but still, I can’t help but feel like my toddler when I just told him that no, he can’t eat the entire bag of cheetos by himself (he’s started hanging his head, poking his lip out, and mumbling sadly). I HATE summertime hot weather, but I LOVE summertime produce.

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Mississippi Chanterelle Risotto

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I’ve not always had great luck with risotto… when I was first married, we had my VERY gorgeous friend who is a SUPER accomplished home cook and hostess over for supper while her fella was on an adventure to the other side of the world. She was (and still is) one of the coolest, prettiest, nicest, funnest people I know in real life. So, you know– I wanted to bring my A-game.

In an effort to impress her with my own cooking skills (insert eye roll here) I tried to make a bacon, lemon, English pea risotto and ACK! It was awful. So bad. Too much bacon, too much lemon, hardly any peas. And the RICE! Oh, it tasted like grains of sand were lodged in the middle of each piece.

Flash forward to a couple of years ago: Rice pudding & Risotto were two recipes I decided I wanted to perfect since Rice is a major, MAJOR Mississippi crop. I’m still working on the rice pudding (but I’ve got a lead!) but the risotto has come a LONG way since that first big huge failure and is something I’m finally willing share. Then, of course, when you combine Mississippi grown Delta Blues Rice (Rice GRITS, no less!) and Jones County golden chanterelles from Wild Woods Cuisine, well, how can it be bad?

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Riffing on Robert St. John: White Bean & Ham Stufato

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Have you ever eaten at a Robert St. John restaraunt? He’s got what amounts to a restaurant owners compound in Hattiesburg,  right down the street from the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.

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A rustic Italian spot, a new orleans pub and a southern fine-dining experience,  a super swank cocktail bar, and now, a much anticipated hamburger joint are all within the confines of basically one parking lot. ALL the food at all the places (well, I don’t know about the burger spot yet since the lines have been too long for me to try it out) is really delicious, and the ambiance is always perfectly suited to the cuisine. Anyway, I’m a huge fan, especially since his food is great, AND uses his platform to support hunger initiatives in Mississippi.

He also has some pretty lovely cookbooks, and we were leafing through the Italian one, and ran across a recipe for white beans. My dad has basically been talking about wanting a bean dish for DAYS, since it’s what he wants to eat in cold weather, AND we had a huge bone-in honebaked ham (and what do you do with a ham bone if you’re from the south? You season something.) I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and I didn’t have all the things to make his unique seasoning blends and herb blends, so I just kinda went with my gut. What resulted was my take on his already warm, creamy, Mississippified-Italian white bean dish that is PERFECT for a cold, cold night.

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Kale Greens & Toasted Pecan Pesto

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How do you feel about pesto?
Me? I can mostly take it or leave it. UNLESS it’s on a pizza. but then I pretty much always take ANYTHING and EVERYTHING if it’s on a pizza, so that’s not really a fair thing to say. I think it’s something to do with the pine nuts and all that basil.
Anyway, a friend of mine, some other of my favorite mamas, and I were talking about getting kiddos to eat veggies (so far the sweet potato & spinach mac ‘n cheese and veggie puree’ squeeze pouches have been my only success stories) and my sweet friend said that kale pesto was THE way to go. On sweet potatoes, on pasta, whatever. It was GREEN and her little lady ate it up.

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Genius plan: Sweet potato & Spinach mac & cheese

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As the mom of a toddler who hates (HATES! DESPISES! DETESTS!) all green vegetables that aren’t either roasted, pureed, or fried, I’ve had to get creative about how to serve them to my little guy. What he doesn’t hate, though, is cheese. and what does he LOVE? well, mac ‘n cheese, of course. like everyone in all the land. My plan? combine what he hates with what he loves…. *diabolical laugh*

I’ve had some die-hard mac-n-cheese fans turn up their noses when I’ve mentioned adding vegetables to their most favorite food, but (and I can say this from actual experience and from the perspective of someone who REALLY loves Mac’n cheese,) it’s deeeeee-licious. Want to test it out on your own picky eater? (…or yourself. No judgement. I eat this off my little guy’s high chair tray BEFORE he can. it’s that good. I’m not ashamed about it. 😉 Here’s the recipe!

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Lucky Soup with Black Eyed Peas, Greens, and Bacon

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By now, y’all know that I’m not going to let a New Year’s Day pass without eating Black eyed peas and greens in SOME form or fashion for luck and money in the New Year… I’ve made pickled peas, black eyed pea hummus, and this year, I combined the two good-luck foods with pork (a German good-luck food) into a spicy, warm soup. I had some friend over…one of whom asked, “wait, what’s the deal with this soup? is it really eaten for luck?”
This gave me the chance to explain what little I know about the peas… but thankfully I’d read this post about the history beforehand so I knew a little more than past years.
In short, the peas are tied to southern history… they were introduced to the south from West or North Africa and are an ancient food eaten on that continent and also across Asia. Either way you tell it, eating BEP on New Year’s Day dates back to the Civil War. Black eyed peas are undoubtedly an important ingredient in some soul-food dishes, so while there are multiple stories about WHY we eat the peas (from the White Southern Community AND the African American Southern community) exist, I think that the history of BEP as a soul-food staple gives credence to that legend. The way the history goes, the only thing many slaves had to eat on the first day of January were these peas because they were one of the few crops left in the winter fields since the Union armies and Slave-owners thought of them as livestock feed. That day in 1863,  the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, outlawing slavery and these peas were consumed. From then on, they’ve been considered good luck for the future.
Thinking that BEPs are tied not only to good luck but also to a major milestone for freedom and justice in our country makes me even more committed to eating them and looking ahead on the year and what it can bring! Read on for yet another way to have your luck (and for a generally warm, hearty soup for winter time!)
Lucky Soup
What you need:
1 bag  of dried black eyed peas soaked overnight (or 2-3 cans)
4-6 Cups of washed and chopped greens like turnip or/and kale
one jalepeno, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 green pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3-5 strips of bacon
2 cans of diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
salt, pepper
1 /2 Tablespoon of ground thyme
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Optional: A splash or two of red wine or balsamic vinegar

 

What to Do:
If you’re using dried black eyed peas, the first step begins the night before you plan to make the soup…dump the peas out and sift through them for any beans that have been eaten through or are a darker or redder brown… i don’t think they’ll hurt you  but it’s better to get rid of them in the beginning. Once that’s done, rinse them in a collander and then soak the dried peas in enough water to cover them and then a little bit more. The peas will soak up the water and hydrate, making them soft enough to cook and eat. If you use canned or frozen peas you can skip both of these first steps… and if you forget (heaven forbid!) to overnight soak your peas, then you can do a “quick soak” by putting them in a pot of salted, boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Honestly, I worried that I hadn’t used enough water in my overnight soak, so I did about a 2 minute boil of the peas anyway… the “quick soak” method doesn’t really hurt anything, BUT, beware, it does mean that you’ll end up with more half-peas or peas without the thin casing that holds the two halved together since the boiling water tends to rub that off more easily.
Once your peas are softened or softening, it’s time to cook the bacon! Pork has some sort of lucky significance for Germans, plus bacon just goes SO WELL with peas and turnip greens that it makes sense that we’d cook our veggies in all that flavor. Put the bacon in your pot and cook until brown…
While that’s happening, take the time to dice up your vegetables. Celery, onion, garlic, green bell pepper, and jalepeno pepper were what I used, but you could substitute red bell pepper and chipotle pepper if you wanted a litte bit different look and flavor here..

TIP:  did you know that whole jalepeno peppers freeze really well? If your garden grows more than you can handle, or you just accidentally buy too many at the store, you can drop them in a plastic bag and freeze them until you need them! These came from my aunt’s garden, and thanks to her I have all the peppers I need for a year!

 

Ok, so your veggies are chopped and your bacon has crisped in the pot. Take the bacon out and put it on a paper towel to cool for a bit. Then, dump in your onions into the bacon grease in the bottom of your pot and cook until their translucent.

Add in the garlic and cook briefly until tender, then add in the other diced vegetables. Stir them and cook them until they are a little tender and add in your salt, pepper, thyme, and red pepper flakes. (I gave my approximate seasoning measures above, but I was being conservative this time. feel free to liberally season this soup to your liking!)

Add in your peas, your canned tomatoes and tomato paste.

While that’s all simmering a bit, you’ll want to prepare your greens if you haven’t already.

TIP: I like to clean mine ahead of time and then store them after rinsing them and pulling the leaves off of the stalks (because those kale and turnip green stalks can be TOUGH) in a damp paper towel in a large zip-lock bag. This keeps the greens from wilting and can keep greens (and lettuces, too) fresh for nearly a week. If you haven’t prepped your greens in advance, rinse them thoroughly and pull the leaves from the stalk, then chop or rip up the greens into smaller pieces.

Dump those into the pot (and if you’re adding vinegar or wine, now is the time to do it) and stir around until everything’s all mixed together and let simmer on low for at least one hour so all the flavors mix together. I cooked mine for about 1.5 hours, then let it sit for another 2 hours, then reheated it and tasted for salt and pepper.

 

Serve it with bread and a side salad and you’ve got LUCK for the whole year! Happy new Year!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Rosemary Browned Butter

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My friend Zach recently introduced me to the delicious world of homemade gnocchi… he brought over all of the ingredients to make beet gnocchi and regular potato gnocchi and we celebrated the end of his first year of teaching. (he’s a rock star) Although I loved what we made, the whole time we were cooking (which was a long time since TWO different kinds of gnocchi and a salad for 4 people means that I used nearly every pot in my house, the blender, several cutting boards, and more mixing bowls than you could imagine)  I just kept thinking, “well now, wouldn’t this be AMAZING made sweet potatoes?”  I mean, what isn’t made better by the south’s very own superfood?
 Thankfully, I didn’t have to invent the recipe since other cooks although thought this would be a great combo. I did, however, made a few changes and combine a few different recipes, given what I had on hand and what flavors I wanted.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Rosemary Brown Butter
Serves 4
What you Need:
For the Gnocchi
 2 pounds sweet potatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (1/4 for dough, 1/4 for serving)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/3 cup for the work surface
For the brown butter

1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)
2 fresh rosemary stalks
What to Do:
Some recipes I looked up tell you to bake the sweet potatoes, but I was a little bit under the gun since I was hosting two friends/coworkers/fave gals for a summertime dinner and only started cooking about 30 minutes before they were to arrive. Since I’d just tested out regular and beet gnocchi, I knew making this stuff was a pretty involved process, and that meant I needed to cut time in whatever way I could. Rather than bake or roast them, I boiled the potatoes instead, which didn’t really sacrifice flavor as far as I could tell. You could do either, depending on the time you’ve got! (in fact, I’d say if you’ve made gnocchi before, this recipe could take about 75 minutes..but if you’re new to this fun culinary experiment, then allot 90-95 minutes or so from beginning to end)
once I’d gotten the potatoes boiling, I put the flour, egg, and seasonings together in the mixing bowl. When the potatoes were ready, I cooled them in an ice bath, pureed them in a food processor, and mixed it all in with the flour mixture.

 

 

Once the potato and flour mixture have been fulyl incorporated, and the texture of the dough is smooth and not too wet or sticky, I dumped the dough out onto a floured surface, separated in into about 5 equal sized hunks, and rolled each into a long, thin cylinder about the width of a thumb.

Once that’s done, I boiled a pot of water. Then, I started to cut the dough into small rectangles (about 1″ by 1 1/4″).

To give the gnocchi the little characteristic ridges, use a fork to roll the little pieces of dough… mine honestly never turn out perfectly, but they still taste GREAT. Drop the dough into the boiling water and wait until it pops up to the top..about 1 minute (when it floats, it’s cooked all the way through…if it’s still on the bottom of the pot it may need a minute or so more).

 

 

To make the browned butter sauce, take the stick of butter in a sauce pan or skillet and cook over medium high heat, swirling it around the pan a little, and waiting until the bubbles/foam goes down a bit. the butter will start to turn brown, and at that point, drop in the whole rosemary pieces and let simmer for 1 or 2 minutes to infuse the butter with the rosemary flavor. Other recipes call for sage browned butter, or pecan browned butter, or balsamic browned butter… I figure you can’t go wrong with any of them. I chose rosemary because I have a HUGE rosemary plant outside my kitchen door, and I thought the two flavors would mix well together… they DEFINITELY do.

Once every thing is ready, serve the gnocchi with the Parmesan cheese, the browned butter, and a sprig of rosemary and enjoy!

 

Classic Red Beans and Rice

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OH. MY. STARS. it’s been too long.i’ve had three posts raring to go since late January and then things got busy and the last thing I’ve wanted to do when I got home was turn on my computer…and then I got into Game Of Thrones on Amazon… but it’s time. I miss blogging about food, and taking pictures of food, and just generally talking about food. (plus… my pretty friend Fancy flattered me by asking when I was going to post something new. Fancy, here you go!)
This recipe was supposed to come out around the time of Mardi Gras, since what’s more Louisiana that Red Beans and Rice? Even if the weather has gotten a little warmer (but not much! what’s up with the freaskishly cold weather??) and the confetti and beads are long gone from Beale Street, this recipe still tastes divine. It’s a combination of my grandmother’s classic Louisiana recipe, the Cook’s Illustrated test kitchen version, and the one from the River Road Recipes Cookbook.  Read on.
What you Need:
To cook:
Andoille Sausage (1 package, or a 1.5 lbs)
1 tablespoon of oil
2 onions
5 garlic cloves
1 green pepper
2 ribs of celery
1 cup of Camellia brand dried red beans (washed, dried, and soaked)
2 table spoons beef stock
3-5 cups of water
2 squirts of ketchup
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
 
To Serve
1 bunch green onions
Hot sauce
1/2 cup of rice per serving
What to Do:
Obviously, begin by rinsing and soaking the beans (overnight is best, but 6 hours will do in a pinch. Basically, you want them full of water and tender.)
Dice the garlic, green pepper, onion, and celery. In a large stock pot, sautee’ the onion in the oil until translucent then add in the other three ingredients to release the flavor, stirring for 1-2 minutes.
At the same time, boil the sausage, pricking after a 5-7 minutes to release the oil. I think this makes it just a little bit healther since it gets rid of the excess fat. Once the sausage is parboiled, cut it into 1/2″ or 1″ rounds and brown in a skillet.
Remove from the heat and put it aside to add in later.

 

Add the Stock and liquid to the large stock pot with the vegetables. Add in the bay leaf, the red beans, the red vinegar, the squeezes of ketchup for good measure, and the sausage. Simmer on low heat for 2- 2.5 hours. The longer and slower this cooks, the more flavorful and creamier the red beans will be.

Once the liquid has cooked down somewhat and the beans are soft, take about 2 cups of the beans and liquid and using a food processor or blender, puree’ that amount. Add the pureed beans back into the pot with the rest of the beans. This makes them even creamier and smooth.

Serve with hot sauce, vinegar, green onions, and white rice.