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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Escarole, Currants, Pine Nuts and Garlic

February 2, 2015 by Mary 12 Comments

Cooking is an art and your dish should be like a great piece of art – or design – or music. All of those things, if they’re great, have tension and contrast as well as harmonious elements. Certain notes, colors, images, or type should come to the forefront while others recede. A great dish should do the same. It should have a contrast of textures such as crispy and succulent in a piece of fried chicken, a contrast of colors, such as pomegranate seeds on chicory or frisee and a contrast of flavors exemplified by my favorite combination of sweet and savory or the way a wine pairs with a meal. Thinking about all these things gets me excited when creating a new dish. I know, call me crazy, but since design is in my blood, this is really nothing new. (And yes, I am crazy.) And this is how I came up with this simple but really outstanding vegetable dish of Escarole, Currants, Pine Nuts and Garlic recipe. Of course, a little bit had to do with what I had on hand, as always, but the foresight I had in choosing this combination had to do with the principles above, really basic design rules.

This dish delivers on all – the contrast of colors – black, beige and different greens; the contrast of flavors – the bitter of the escarole pitted against the sweet currants, and the contrast of textures – the softly wilted escarole with the crunch and buttery flavor of the pine nuts, and then the spicy heat of the garlic. Scored on all!!!

I hope you’ll make this dish as it will delight. My husband even talked about it the next morning. And as I said, while this truly evolved from just what I had on hand, I will specifically make this combination again and make this dish for company. And don’t forget to add your LOVE when making. Enjoy!Escarole currents pine nuts and garlic.

ESCAROLE, CURRANTS, PINE NUTS AND GARLIC – serves 2 – 3

1 small head of escarole, washed and cut into bite size pieces
2 Tbs. olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3 Tbs. currants
2 Tbs. pine nuts
Salt
Pepper

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet, add the garlic and cover and sweat for 5 – 7 minutes on low heat. Do not let it brown.

Turn up the heat and sauté the escarole, flipping the garlic on top so it doesn’t burn. Add the pine nuts so they can toast. After a few minutes, when the escarole is still crisp with the dark green leaves wilted, stir in the currents, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with love.

Super Bowl chocolate footballs.How was your Super Bowl Sunday? I hope you didn’t eat too much junk food – that’s why I thought this healthy vegetable dish would be a good counterpoint to yesterday. Supposedly, Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most highly caloric days for most people! Yep, that’s what I heard on the news. I made an amazing beef chili that I cooked for 2 days and I’ll share that with you later but for now, aren’t these little chocolate peanut butter footballs just the cutest? (The peanut butter was a surprise!)

Filed Under: Dinner, Sides Tagged With: currants, escarole recipe, pine nuts, sauteed escarole, sweet and savory vegetables

Kale!

December 14, 2012 by Mary Frances 12 Comments

‘Tis the season for the dark curly greens. You will see it on many a platter as a garnish.

I love kale.

My husband hates it.

For several weeks now, I have been wanting to recreate this salad I had some years ago. I bought kale last week to do it, kept putting it off and then Zachary came home with his girlfriend and used it up for a dinner with some pasta. My husband was safe for a week.

I bought it again this past Saturday. A beautiful full bunch of young looking leaves. Those are the best – tender and delicious.

I bargained with him. I would make his favorite chicken breast recipe, with a fantastic new twist, adding blueberries and shallots, if I could make my kale salad. Of course I added extra doses of LOVE while I was cooking this meal.

Well, he LOVED it!! He even had thirds. We ate the whole thing!

Here’s the recipe:
KALE SALAD WITH DRIED CRANBERRIES, PINE NUTS AND PARMESAN
– serves 2 – 3

One large bunch of kale, washed well, spun dry, stems removed and very, very thinly sliced (slicing it thin, like a chiffonade, is very important)
One handful of dried cranberries, or more to taste
3 – 4 tbs. of toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup hot olive oil
1/2 cup or more of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toast the pine nuts in a baking pan for 3 – 6 minutes until lightly browned.  Toss together the kale, cranberries and pine nuts in a large bowl.

Heat the olive oil in a small pan until very hot and nearly smoking. Carefully pour the oil evenly over the kale. Listen to the sizzle as you are nearly frying the leaves. Distribute the parmesan onto the salad, add salt and pepper to taste. Toss thoroughly. Serve right away.

You will LOVE this, I guarantee!Kale salad with cranberries and pine nutsThis salad is perfect for this time of year. Just look at the colors, so festive for the holidays with the luscious green and red. A great clean and healthy dish to have in the midst of all the holiday richness!

kale salad with sauteed chicken breast in white wine, shallots and blueberries

Our dinner – with sauteed chicken breasts in white wine, shallots and blueberries

Filed Under: Dinner, Salads, Sides Tagged With: cranberries, dried cranberries, hot olive oil, kale, kale salad, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts

A wonderful combination and tangerines are in season!

March 14, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

I first made this salad for my visiting brother, David, and his wife, Pat. What I didn’t realize until much later, was that this became one of Patti’s all time favorite dishes. She went home and made it and made it and made it so many times that finally David said, “Again? Patti it’s really good but enough already!”

We all love beets in our family – after all we’re Polish and the Poles practically only have root vegetables, as my son tells me after living there for two different six month stints. Beets are served at almost every meal, along with horseradish. Soon, I’ll post our all-time family favorite recipe of beets and horseradish, as we get closer to Easter, as it is an imperative Easter breakfast dish in our household.

But I digress. My brother, Mark would say, “Midge (my nickname), is this plane ever going to land?” So yes it is! This is a fantastic, surprising, most refreshing and light combination! Beets are always good with goat cheese and toasted walnuts, but this is a real treat to your palate.

Now you may think it’s a lot of work and time consuming. It does take time but you can divide it up. Roast your beets the night before while you’re making your dinner, peel them and store in the fridge. Also you can toast your pine nuts the night before too. Toast more pine nuts than you need and store in an airtight plastic container so you have them on hand to throw in a pasta dish, on other salads or on some haricot verts, Remember, the more you cook, the easier it is, because you’ll start to have things on hand – salad dressings, croutons, toasted nuts. All good things!

Beets and tangerines on arugula.

An iPhone photo of a photo on a BlackBerry!


BEETS AND TANGERINES ON A BED OF ARUGULA

-serves 4

4 golden beets
1.5 tbs. pine nuts
3 tbs. olive oil
3-4 oz. of washed, dried and chilled arugula
4 tangerines
2 small shallots, thinly sliced
1.5 tbs. raspberry vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the washed, scrubbed and dried beets in large piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with 1 tbs. olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Draw up the aluminum foil to make a packet. Place the packet in a baking dish (they might leak) and roast for 60 – 70 minutes, until they are tender and easily pierced with a skewer. When they are cool enough to handle, peel the beets and cut into sixths or eighths, or store whole in the refrigerator.

In a small non-stick skillet, over medium high heat, toast the pine nuts, stirring constantly until they are golden brown. Place in a small dish to cool.

Using a sharp knife, cut each end off of the tangerine so you have a flat bottom and top, then slice around the curve and cut off the remaining peel. Once the tangerine is peeled, over a medium bowl, slice in between the membranes to release the tangerine sections. Squeeze the juice from the membranes into a small bowl; you should have 1/4 cup.

In another small bowl, toss the sliced shallots and raspberry vinegar with a pinch of salt and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in the 1/4 cup of tangerine juice and whisk in the remaining 2 tbs. of olive oil. Season the dressing with salt.

Place a handful of arugula on each plate. Arrange the beets and tangerine sections on plates and drizzle with the dressing. Top with the toasted pine nuts and serve.

If you have refrigerated the roasted beets overnight, bring to room temperature before using. Also, the tangerines are better at room temperature as well.

Filed Under: First Course, Salads Tagged With: arugula, beets, first course, golden beets, olive oil, pine nuts, raspberry vinegar, refreshing salads, salads, shallots, tangerines, toasted pine nuts, unique

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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