One Pot Meal: Chorizo, Chickpeas & Broccoli Rabe

We just ate this for dinner, not even 20 minutes ago.  It was so good that I had to share the recipe with you right away.  The smokiness of the chorizo highlights the creamy chickpeas and pleasantly bitter broccoli rabe, with everything tied together beautifully by the sweet tomatoes.  We sopped up all that delicious broth with slices of crusty bread, baked fresh this afternoon. Tonight was the first time I tried cooking this dish and I am extremely pleased with the results.  Best of all, everything cooks in one pot, which means less clean-up later. This recipe is a keeper for sure.

Chorizo, Chickpeas & Broccoli Rabe
printer friendly recipe

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds fresh chorizo sausage (6 links)
1 large onion, chopped
3 big garlic cloves, chopped
28 ounce can of whole tomatoes
1 bunch broccoli rabe, trimmed and washed
1 1/2 cups canned chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup sherry
1 2/3 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon cumin seed
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
a few grinds of freshly cracked black pepper
a big pinch of kosher salt

Drain the excess juice from the can of tomatoes.  Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl.  Cut into large chunks or squish them with your hands until they break into big pieces.  A lot of juice will come out of the tomatoes into the bowl.  That's exactly how it should be.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the chorizo and brown deeply on all sides.

Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and cumin seed.  Saute for one minute.

Deglaze the pan with the sherry.

Add the tomatoes and the juice that has collected in the bowl.  Mix in the smoked paprika.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chickpeas.

Spread the broccoli rabe over the top of the ingredients in the pans.  Do not stir the broccoli rabe into the pot.  Just let it sit on top.  Season with the salt and pepper.

Pour over the broth.  Cover, lower the heat a smidge and simmer until the broccoli rabe is tender and cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Serve piping hot with fresh bread.

Serves 6

Stir-Fried Greens, Bangla Style & Simmered Spiced Soybeans

Cookbooks make me really excited, especially cookbooks showcasing recipes from far away places that I hope to visit one day.  In my quest to incorporate more vegetarian fare into our diets, I've been looking for inspiration in the cuisine of the India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, all places where I have never travelled but I love the food anyway.  My current favorite cookbook, Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontintent by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, celebrates the food and cultures of those countries with gorgeous photographs, charming anecdotes and authentic recipes.  You should make room for this one in your personal collection of cookbooks because you can curl up with this book in a comfy chair and be entertained for quite a while.  The food photography will whet your appetite and the portraits of the villages and their inhabitants will transport you to new and different places.  Mangoes & Curry Leaves has given me a better sense of the ancient and fascinating cultures of the subcontinent, which I really appreciate.  Every time I cook one of the recipes from the book, I want to run out to the nearest travel agent and book a flight to Mumbai.   Give a couple of these recipes a try and you'll understand exactly what I mean.  The two dishes below pair perfectly with hot, fluffy jasmine rice.

STIR-FRIED GREENS, BANGLA STYLE
printer friendly recipe

1 pound leafy greens like baby bok choi, spinach or dandelion greens
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon EACH black mustard, cumin, fennel, fenugreek and nigella seeds
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or ref pepper flakes
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/12 cups finely chopped onions
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar if using bitter greens like dandelion

Wash and thoroughly drain the greens.  Chop coarsely and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large wok or a large deep heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the spices and cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes, but not the salt.  Stir briefly, then add the garlic and stir-fry for just 10 seconds.  Add the onions and stir-fry, lowering the heat to medium after 2 minutes, until very tender and soft, about 10 minutes.  If using sugar, add now.

Raise the heat to high, add the greens and stir-fry until they are bright green, 1-5 minutes depending on the greens. Add the salt and continue to stir-fry until the greens give off their liquid, then cover and steam for 1 minutes.  Remove the lid and continue to stir-fry until tender and cooked through.  Timing will depend on the greens you use.

Transfer to a bowl and serve hot.

Serves 6.


SIMMERED SPICED SOYBEANS
printer friendly recipe

1 tablespoon mustard oil (I substitute vegetable oil)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 red cayenne chile, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large tomato (about 1/2 pound) diced into 1/2 inch chunks
2 cupped shelled fresh or frozen soybeans (edamame)
1 cup water
1/2 cup coriander (cilantro) leaves

Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over high heat. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and chile and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the onion is well softened. Stir in the turmeric, cumin and salt, then toss in the tomato.  Stir-fry for 1 minutes, or until the tomato starts to soften and give off liquid.

Add the soybeans and mix well. Add the water and bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the beans are softened but still firm to the bite. (Frozen or fresh take the same amount of time.)  Serve garnished with t he coriander leaves.

Serves 3 - 4.

Quinoa Butter Biscuits

For some reason, I had a bag of quinoa flour in my cupboard.   I must have used the flour to bake something but I can't remember what or when.  Has that ever happened to you?  I'm constantly finding goodies in my kitchen that I must have purchased and used at some point but my mind is a complete blank when I try to remember the specifics.  So then I shove those items to the back of the shelf, where they sit neglected, until I stumble upon them again and try to figure out how they got there.  This is why I now have nearly full containers of potato starch, dulse (a sea vegetable that tastes like seaweed) and sorghum flour.  The potato starch, in particular, throws me for a loop because it's such a random ingredient to have on hand.  What the heck was that for?  It's a mystery to me.  

Not wanting the quinoa flour to go to waste, I mixed up a basic biscuit dough using half quinoa flour and half regular flour.  The resulting biscuits were exceptionally tender, flaky and slightly nutty in flavor.  Quinoa is high in protein and B vitamins so it really adds a nutritional boost to an otherwise indulgently buttery recipe.  

QUINOA BUTTER BISCUITS

printable recipe

1 cup quinoa flour, sifted

1 cup all purpose flour, sifted

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cold butter

2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon cold milk (skim is fine)

1 teaspoon nigella seeds (Don't know what these are?  Read about them here.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix together the flours, baking powder and salt.

Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Slowly add the 2/3 cup of milk, stirring with a fork, until the mixture just comes together as a soft dough.

Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead 10 times.

Pat out the dough into a 9" inch by 12" rectangle.  Cut into 12 equal pieces.  Looking at the dough, it should be four pieces wide and three pieces deep.  

Brush the top of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of milk.  Sprinkle with the nigella seeds.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet about an inch apart.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Makes 12 biscuits.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Almond Sweet Cream

This flourless chocolate cake tasted as good as it looked and baking the cake was almost as easy as eating it.  If you like chocolate then you will LURVE this cake because the chocolate flavor is really intense due to the inclusion of high quality bittersweet chocolate.  I used Ghirardelli 70% Cacao Extra Bittersweet Baking Bar, which boasts 70% cacao dark chocolate.  In case you don't know, 70% cacao equals an unmistakable, highly nuanced, deep, dark chocolate flavor that veers decidedly more toward the bitter than toward the sweet. True chocolate lovers, this is the chocolate you have been looking for to punch up your favorite chocolate recipes to even higher level of scrumptiousness.

This cake was the grand finale to a fun weekend supper that we shared with our neighbors.  Usually, I would garnish a cake like this with a few berries and a dusting of cocoa powder or confectioner's sugar but I didn't have any berries at the time.  I did have half a bag of sliced almonds so I whipped up a little sweet cream sauce flavored with almond to drizzle over the cake and topped it all of with a small handful of freshly toasted almonds.  The cool, nutty cream made an amazing combination with the dense, moist, bittersweet chocolate.  In fact, I think I prefer the cream sauce to the fruit that I always used before.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE with ALMOND SWEET CREAM
printable recipe

8 ounces best quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces (not the unsweetened kind)
1/2 pound unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract AND 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
6 eggs
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

8 ounces heavy cream
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan with a buttered piece of wax paper or parchment paper, cut to fit.

Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler over medium heat.  The water in the bottom of the double boiler should be barely simmering.  Stir the chocolate mixture frequently and slowly to encourage even melting.  Remove from the heat when the mixture is completely smooth.

Whisk in the sugar.

Add the vanilla extract and the 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract.

Whisk in the eggs, once at a time.

Sift over the cocoa powder and whisk until combined.

Pour batter into pan.  Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with little moist, dense crumbs on it.  Coll cake in the pan for 15 minutes.   Remove the springform collar and invert the cake onto a plate. The top of the cake should now be on the bottom.  Carefully peel off the buttered paper. Then, invert the plate onto a baking rack so that the top of the cake is facing up.  Cool cake completely.

Pour the heavy cream into a large bowl.  Beat on high with a hand mixer until the creams thickens a lot but is still liquid.  Beat in the confectioners sugar and remaining almond extract.

To serve, cut the cake into 12 wedges and place each piece on a plate.  Drizzle each piece of cake generously with the almond sweet cream and garnish with a spoonful of toasted, sliced almonds.

Read Up & Eat Up for February 14-20, 2010

Last week's best in recipes and foodie news on the web.


BITTER SWEET
My mouth is watering just looking at these savory Little Bundles of Joy.  Crafting Aduki Bean Gyoza by hand looks like a delicious way to spend an afternoon. And then, of course, you get to eat them!


THE LEFTOVER QUEEN
Get your best girlfriends together and start your own Ladies Supper Club.  


SINGING WITH BIRDS
Homemade whole wheat bread warm from the oven and spread lavishly with huckleberry butter sounds like the perfect snack on a blustery February day. 


101 COOKBOOKS
Heidi shows us how to make an incredible Roasted Delicata Squash Salad dressed with miso and harissa.


***PICK OF THE WEEK***
First Lady Michelle Obama Takes on Childhood Obesity in America

Not About Cooking But This Is My Blog And I Can Post Whatever I Want

Let's watch this fuzzy bunny eat some parsley.  Absolute cuteness!

Saturday Night Pizza: Chicken Sausage, Onion & Broccoli Rabe with a Whole Wheat Crust

Yes, my dears, I do realize that naming a post "Saturday Night Pizza" is a bit confusing because today is not Saturday. It's Tuesday. Boo. I miss Saturday and all of its loungy, no work at all, weekend glory. I meant to post this recipe last Saturday but I was really busy doing Saturday activities (for example, napping, watching bad tv, surfing celebrity gossip sites on the internet) which means that I am now posting Saturday Night Pizza on a Boring Workday Tuesday. So be it.

Let's proceed, shall we?

Saturday night is pizza night at my house.  We started making pizza on the weekends a few months ago and we haven't stopped since. We're fortunate to have some deliciously fabulous pizzerias near our house but none of them deliver so that's no good. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT, HARRY? YOU TOO, BARB.   Obviously, I have strong feelings about this. I love Harry's pizza and Barb's pizza but, quite frankly, I am too lazy and cheap to drive across town to pick up a pizza that's going to cost me north of $20 if I get all of my favorite toppings. For that price, I want that baby delivered to my doorstep. Or, for less than that price, I can make a couple of pizzas at home. It's not the same but it's still damn tasty.

Last weekend, we made some whole wheat pizza dough because I had a lot of whole wheat flour leftover from an afternoon of bread making last fall.  I followed Wolfgang Puck's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe.  Skeptics, listen up - whole wheat pizza dough is really quite tasty.  Once you get used to the nutty flavor of a whole wheat crust, regular pizza dough comes across a bit lacking in flavor.  If you don't like whole wheat then by all means sub in regular dough.  And if you don't feel like making the dough then you can pick up some premade dough at the grocery store or the local pizzaria.  Most pizzarias will sell you a pound or two of fresh dough if you call in advance.

Only four more days until Saturday!!

CHICKEN SAUSAGE, ONION & BROCCOLI RABE PIZZA with a WHOLE WHEAT CRUST

one recipe whole wheat pizza dough (enough to make two 12" crusts)
8 ounce can plain tomato sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 links chicken sausage (each about the length of a finger), cooked completely and crumbled
1 1/2 cups cooked and chopped broccoli rabe
1 small onion, thinly sliced
3 cups shredded cheese, any combination of mozzarrella, provolone and parmesan

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and saute for a few minutes until the garlic is very fragrant.  Add the tomato sauce, oregano, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and salt.  Simmer gently for 20 minutes.  Cool completely.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Split the dough in half.  Use each half to make a 12 inch crust.  I use a circular cookie sheet but maybe you are lucky and have a real pizza stone. If you only have a rectangular baking sheet then use that.   (Tip: dust each pan with a bit of fine cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking.)

Spread half of the tomato sauce over each crust.  Spread half of the cheese over each crust.  Top with the chicken sausage, broccoli rabe and onion.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.  Switch the positions of the baking sheets.  Bake for another 8 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Makes two pizzas. Serves 6.