Salmon or Barramundi with Winter Greens, Apple & Leeks

I listed 6 ways to incorporate wilted, winter spinach or winter leafy greens into your meals in yesterday's post.

And today, I have two delicious meal ideas to share using wilted spinach (to left) and wilted chard (below).

Both these leafy greens are available through the fall and winter and often on sale "two bunches for the price of one."

I discussed the merits of this kind of deal yesterday, including the importance of wilting (or slightly cooking) extra greens, portioning them into containers, and freezing them, before they turn brown.

Recently, someone made the comment that it appears I post mostly recipes and meal ideas with fish as the main protein item. Noting that today's two recipes include fish, I'm aware that it would be easy to assume that I'm a vegequarian.

However, that's not the case. I eat a variety of protein each day, and some days that doesn't include flesh protein, but rather vegetarian protein such as nuts, seeds, beans and or pulses (I'm not a big soy-protein fan).

I do eat fish at least twice a week -- sometimes 3 times -- stretching a 6-ounce fillet into two meals, eating 3 ounces at dinner and the remaining 3 ounces at lunch the following day. I find 3 ounces of fish like salmon, tuna, mahi mahi, barramundi, to be substantial, since these are all dense and meaty fish.

Speaking of barramundi, I confess to doing something locavores would frown upon: Barramundi is an Australian fish; I purchased it at Whole Foods in Boulder, which means it traveled a great distance to get to my plate and that's not in-keeping with my desire to be a sustainably-aware, eco-friendly consumer.

However, we all act contrary to our values periodically; apropos this story, it's the holiday season and I'm far from home in the middle of America with a hankering for the food of my country. So I bought the barramundi because it's Australian, and at around $8 for two, 6-ounce fillets it was priced competitively -- what can I say; I couldn't resist!


Barramundi with Sweet Potato & Chard Mash
1) Boil, and then mash sweet potato with a little butter. Season to taste.
2) Into the mashed potatoes, toss washed, chopped, and wilted chard (pic to left). Stir together with a little more butter.
Note: This was tip #5 in yesterday's list of ways to make the most of wilted, winter leafy greens.
3) Line a skillet or pan with equal amounts oil and butter, saute washed and chopped leek with washed and chopped celery.
4) As the vegetables begin to soften, add barramundi fillets (or your choice of fish) to the pan, placing them on top of the vegetables.
5) Pour either a little white wine, or lemon / lime juice diluted with water over the fish and veggies.
6) If you have any herbs on hand, like thyme or dill seed, sprinkle over the fish.
7) Cook on low for about 10 mins. Don't overcook the fish, so check it at around 7 mins, perhaps adding a dash more liquid (if veggies are sticking); turning the fish over for another 3 mins if you think it needs more cooking.

To Serve: Spoon a portion of sweet potato mash onto a plate (pic above), followed by a spoon of sauteed leeks and celery. Gently place a whole 6-ounce fillet, or half a fillet of barramundi, onto the vegetables. Squeeze some lime or lemon juice over the lot (pic to left).




Salmon with Wilted Spinach and Buttered Apple
1) Wash, drain and wilt spinach as per instructions in yesterday's post.
2) Place salmon into a hot skillet lined with olive oil, turn heat to low, squeeze lemon juice over fish, and gently cook with lid on.
3) Meanwhile, wash and slice an apple, and if there's room, toss it into the pan with the salmon. If not, saute the apple in a separate pan with some butter, allowing the apple to soften and brown slightly. You might like to add a rasher of sliced, smoked bacon, in which case, saute the apple in the bacon fat, leaving out the butter.
4) Test salmon at around the 7 min mark. You want the flesh to be firm to touch, but inside, still slightly pink and juicy. There is nothing worse than dry fish, so don't overcook it.

To Serve: Spoon a portion of wilted spinach onto a plate. Place either a whole or half fillet of salmon over the spinach and top with sauted apple and bacon (pic above), drizzle with lime juice.

Tips for Making the Most of Winter Greens

Yesterday, I talked a little about making the most of leftover cooked turkey meat and bones, which simmered, produces stock that can then be used to cook rice, pasta, lentils, or to enrich the flavor of casseroles.

I also like to use stock to cook my vegetables; it infuses the veggies and adds flavor. Try boiling broccoli in stock or brussel sprouts (which I suggested last week).

Add stock to partially cover the vegetables (don't completely submerge veggies). Once the vegetables are cooked, whatever liquid is still in the pot, keep it; it's delicious.

And it's rich in minerals, so try pouring it over your meal or into potatoes with a little butter for mashing or over a piece of grilled fish, chicken, beef -- you get the idea.

Spinach is not a vegetable that I would generally cook in liquid; it's already full of water and tossed into a skillet (above pic) over med heat and stirred gently, it wilts quickly (pic to left).

When winter greens are on sale, I'll take advantage of the sale price and buy more greens than I would eat in a week.

I bought two, organic bunches of spinach for the price of one recently, and then I did what I often suggest in this blog and that is, I wilted one bunch, divided it into portions (pic below), and froze those portions for later.

This takes a bit of forethought at the store, and prep once home, but in winter, when phytonutrient-rich leafy greens are less abundant than in spring make the most of winter sales and stock up.

Because delicate leafy greens perish quickly, it's best to take the time to wash, say, spinach, drain it in a colander or salad spinner, and then either store it in the fridge in the salad spinner or wilt it -- as in the pictures above and below.

Once wilted, either freeze portions, or keep portions in the fridge for use within the week. If you plan on eating spinach raw in a salad, consume it within a couple days of purchase -- before the leaf-edges begin to brown.

Spinach freezes well, since it's full of moisture. When you plan to include your frozen spinach portions in an upcoming meal, simply remove a container from your freezer in the morning and leave it out for the day. It'll be unfrozen by the time you're ready to prepare your evening meal.



6 ways to make the most of wilted spinach:
1) Add it to a quiche or omelet, and if you do so, first squeeze the liquid from the spinach as you'd squeeze water out of a kitchen sponge.
2) Toss wilted spinach back into a skillet with some butter, spring onions, salt and pepper and perhaps a handful of raisins and pistachios, and serve it on top of rice and or as side to grilled chicken, turkey, or grilled lamb sausages.
3) Toss with bacon and pine nuts, and spoon over pasta.
4) Add to soups, casseroles, stews.
5) Mash into potatoes or sweet potatoes as you would parsley.
6) Saute with other vegetables like sliced carrots, peppers, leeks, spring onions and celery.

Italian Pasta in Turkey Broth

I relish cooking during the cold weather; the over and hot plates heat the kitchen and enticing aromas fill the home.

You've probably noticed in my fall posts that preference is for thick casseroles, stews and soups made flavorful with stock, vegetables, herbs, garlic and ginger, meat, and or beans and pulses which are rich in protein without being too rich in fatty calories.

After Thanksgiving (and then after Christmas), plump turkey wings, thighs and legs are plentiful and thus priced well.

I picked up an organic leg (pic left) from Whole Foods last week for around $5 and it made fabulous stock. As you can see I placed it in a pot of water with pieces of peeled and chopped ginger root, and a smashed clove of garlic. I simmered the leg for about two hours.

Instead of making stock, a leg casseroles well with fall / winter veggies like onions, ginger root, celery, yams, turnip, and carrot. Casseroled, one chunky let will feed 3-4 people.

To casserole turkey pieces, put all the ingredients I just listed, plus a sprig of fresh thyme or sage, into a baking dish or dutch oven, add a little water or stock, and the lid, and put into a 350-degree oven for about 2 or so hours.

After Thanksgiving, I took made stock with leftover turkey meat and bones. However, stock made from the cooked meat and bones tends not to be as flavorful as stock made from the raw meat, in which case I'll use the less flavorful version of stock to cook pasta, rice, vegetables and to add to casseroles, such as the one I mention above. Stock made from the raw meat, I'll use to make soup.

Pasta and rice cooked in stock is delicious. In fact, there's a wonderful Italian pasta dish which is served in chicken broth (but you could use turkey broth / stock) and topped with cracked black pepper and grated Parmesan.

Pasta in Turkey (or chicken) Broth

1) Make a turkey or chicken as in the picture, and as described above.

2) Pick the meat out of the pot and then strain the stock. Strain again through a fine sieve, removing the impurities so that the broth is clear.

3) Into a pour enough stock to cook your pasta, boil, and then add you favorite pasta, or gnocchi, or ravioli. Cook till al dente.

4) Strain pasta, return to pot and hot plate and add more stock, this time, just enough to cover the pasta, heat but don't boil.

To Serve: Ladle pasta and spoonfuls of broth into bowls. Top with cracked black pepper and grated Parmesan or your choice of a firm, dry Italian cheese.

Traditionally, this would be a starter to a main meal in Italy, since pasta is often served before the meat or fish dish. You could serve it this way or you could serve it with a side salad as a main dish or as a side to the turkey leg casserole outline above.

Thanksgiving Dessert with a Difference

Last week I posted 7 tips for a budget-wise Thanksgiving which included the following tip:

"Why not serve just one dessert, and does it have to be a pie? Could it be whole baked apples stuffed with raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter? Or what about fresh, sliced pears sauteed in butter, brown sugar or honey, finished with a drizzle of cream; even a simple platter of seasonal apples and pears with a selection of nuts and dried fruits."

Today I thought I'd expand on a couple of the dessert ideas above and include one or two more. I'll start with baked apples -- keep in mind that children can be involved in the preparation of this simple, fun-to-make dessert since it's hard to go wrong stuffing yummy things into the center of cored apples :)

Fancy Baked Apples

1) Select apples of your choosing, one per person. I picked up some organic Braeburn the other day for $1.99 lb. At this time of the year, there's really no need to pay more than that for organic apples since they're abundant in fall and well into winter and thus often on sale.

2) Wash apples, remove stem, and with a small, sharp knife hollow out the center of the apples, removing their cores and creating space enough for stuffing.

3) Into a bowl add, per apple, a heaped teaspoon of butter, a little less of brown sugar or honey or orange marmalade, and either some chopped raisins or cranberries, a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and or cloves, and a few finely chopped walnuts or almonds.

4) Bind ingredients with a fork so that the mixture sticks together, if it's too dry and crumbly, add a bit more butter.

5) Either with clean fingers or a teaspoon, take bits of the mixture and shove it into the center of the apple. Pack it in tightly. Now place the stuffed apples onto a baking dish and put a dob of butter on the top of each apple.

6) Moisten the bottom of the baking tray with a little water and cover the apples and tray with tin foil. Bake in 350 degrees until the apples are tender, about 30 minutes or so. The stuffing will have melted into the apple, and some stuffing will melt out onto the baking tray.

7) Remove apples from baking tray with a spatula, setting them on a serving platter.

8) If you wish, you can create a caramel-like sauce with the butter, sugar and honey that's on the bottom of the baking tray by first picking out any clumped, burnt sugar. Next put the tray over a low-heat hot plate and add some whipping cream or even sour cream, and gently stir.

9) If you have any brandy, add a glug if you wish, and turn up the heat as this will help evaporate the alcohol.

To Serve: Pour the creamy sauce from the pan over the platter of baked apples and place in the center of your table. You might like additional pouring cream with your baked apples, or scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Sauteed Pears

1) Bosc Pears are firm and thus they're best for baking and sauteing. And they're in season now and so they're flavorful and plentiful.

2) Allow half to one pear per person. Wash and quarter each pear, removing the core and pips.

3) In a skillet, melt a tablespoon of butter and a half tablespoon of brown sugar per pear. Stir butter and sugar until they melt into one another. Add pear quarters, stir, and place lid on pan. Turn heat to low and allow pears to gently cook in the butter and sugar for about 10-15 minutes.

4) Keep an eye on the cooking process; you don't want the sugar to burn, rather you want the juice from the pears to mix into the butter and sugar thereby creating a delicious sauce.

5) At around the 10 minute mark, add some pouring cream to the skillet and mix it in with the pan juices. Just enough to create a caramel-like sauce.

6) You could also add either lemon or orange zest at this point or if you have any Grand Marnier or Cointreau, add a splash. Taste-test, and test the pears to make sure they're cooked through but not over-cooked.

To Serve: Spoon pear quarters into a serving bowl and coat with pan-made sauce. You might like to sprinkle the top with some toasted walnuts or toasted almonds, or even some chopped chocolate.

Both the above recipes call for butter, brown sugar and cream. If you prefer not to use sugar, use honey or maple syrup instead. If you don't want to add cream, try almond, hazelnut or coconut milk.

If you like my idea of a simple fruit-cum-sweetmeat platter, refer to the post I made back in August. There's a luscious picture of a platter of goodies that would present beautifully on a Thanksgiving table.

If you and your family are gluten-free, obviously a fruit dessert as detailed above would work or you might like to try the Orange and Almond Cake I posted back in April. That post includes a video of the cake which was at the center of my birthday celebration, however it's a fabulously light, flour-free and thus gfree dessert that would go well at the end of heavy Thanksgiving meal.

If you're game, why not try something different, economical and simple for Thanksgiving dessert. The apple, pear, and platter desserts fit this option.

And for something a bit more fiddly and spendy, but light and gluten-free, you might like to try the last option, Orange and Almond Cake.