kale pasticcio

fantastical cupcakes

the radical muffin kitchen hosted dinner to celebrate our new winter farmshare wherein we decorated these schnazzy cupcakes. Seems the artists were either too enamored with the art or too stuffed from supper to eat them. So although the buttermilk cake is worth a post someday, the recipe everyone has been clamoring for is the make-do casserole served up alongside the root veggie soup.

let’s call it brioche kale pasticcio, shall we? In Italian, literally, “a mess.” Yet in la buona cucina, it is something divine.  In the classic Italian kitchen, veggies and béchamel would snuggle amongst themselves or with some macaroni. This version holds custard not classic white sauce and is dense with rich bread, so emerges a golden savory bread pudding bedecked with greens.

slice and caramelize one medium mild onion in a heavy skillet with butter. Rinse and rip a generous bunch of kale into bite sized pieces and set aside.

butter a large casserole dish, and set your oven to 375°.

slice and cube a heap of day old brioche. We happened to have an acquired loaf lying around; brioche ain’t cheap. Although it is incomparable for soaking and cooking, as in for French toast or this, any dry bread will do. Play with whole grains, baguettes, etc. to create varying textures of wholesomeness. Toss bread cubes in a big bowl.

melt ¾ stick of butter in a small saucepan over low flame. Add a dash of salt, pepper and paprika, and slowly pour in about a cup and a half of whole milk. Bring just to a simmer then turn off the heat. In a bowl aside, whisk together three eggs. Pour the milk/butter in a thin stream into the eggs, merrily whisking all the while.

crumble about a cup of fresh white cheese. We had some marvelous German-styled something from our CSA. Farmer’s cheese, ricotta or feta would also work well. Shred as much hard salty cheese, like parmesan (as was used) or gruyére.

dump most of the custard and half the cheese into the bread crumbs and turn turn turn until all combined. Add in the onions and kale; mix well.  Turn out into the casserole, shake the pan to settle it all together and maybe give a gentle pat. Drizzle with remaining custard (dot with butter if it looks too dry), and cover with the remaining cheese.

bake until the custard is cooked through and the cheese is all melty and browning in spots. About half an hour. We used a pretty deep casserole here so the high temperature did not overcook the delicate custard. Similar recipes often call for baking in a water bath, which hasn’t proven necessary. Of course, if you are a crunchy top junkie then use a broad shallow pan and cook for less time. Keep on eye on it any which way.

sweet transcupcakes from transsexual transylvania

it will be difficult to keep waiting diners at bay, but do let this set ten minutes or so before serving. More mouthwatering than cupcakes, apparently. Certainly, there was none left to photograph.

roasted eggplant, caramelized onion tapenadé

when Brooklyn eggplants dream

the newest, most wonderful stuff to come from the Radical Muffin kitchen: roasted eggplant, caramelized onion tapenadé.

i know those of you I had at caramelized onions.  Others of you maybe daunted by “tapenadé,” but I assure you the French is only to denote spreadability and to make fancy what is an absurdly easy culinary feat.  Perhaps I shouldn’t contribute to the bastardization of tapenadé, originally a Provençal spread of capers, black olives, and anchovies puréed with olive oil, but “tapenadé” sounds better than “mush,” yes?  So call it relish or caponata or chutney, and marvel at its potential versatility: frittata base, ravioli filling, and, of course, spreading and dipping  à la its muse, baba ghanoush.

the quick and dirty: roast eggplant; caramelize diced onion in butter; scrape eggplant innards into onion; add salt, pepper & a generous amount of paprika; mush together; serve.

relish applause or eat in gluttonous solitude.  With wine.

the scenic route: begin by loving your eggplant.  Maybe you’ll save this recipe for when your garden’s eggplants are heavy on their vines.  We got Japanese eggplant in our farm share; we shared it with our beloved guests at a CSA celebration potluck as this dish, straight up with amazing bread.  The moody & handsome specimen in the pics is from the Cortelyou Farmers’ Market.  Head first in the basket, his plump butt made me grab him, and it was the farmer who showed me his nose.

if you’re doing this now, and your kitchen is as hot as ours, then put on your nothingest cooking outfit and crank up your oven to 450°.   Line a baking tray with parchment paper.  If your eggplants are small, like Fairy Tails, or long and skinny like most Asian varieties then roast them whole and give them a good slice with a sharp paring knife to let the steam escape.  If they are of the buldging type, like Prosperosa, then slice them in half and put them face down on the paper.  Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, checking every 9 minutes or so.  At the first check sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Flip and turn it about half way through cooking, and let it go until it is falling apart.

meanwhile, over a high flame, heat your heaviest skillet—cast iron being the unsurpassed champion for this task.  Turn the heat down to low, add a few tablespoons of butter or olive oil (vegan).  Quickly dice or shred the appropriate amount of onion to your eggplant, and add it as the fat begins to bubble.  For a veggie the size of the one pictured (about a pound and a half, I think), one onion of unusual size cooked down to the right amount of sweet buttery sludge.  Turn up the heat, hot but not so hot you burn the fat.  Cook patiently, turning with restraint, for a long time.  Until they are browning and falling apart.  The eggplant will probably be done sometime before they are.  Let it hang out, cooling.

melancholy melezane

when the eggplant is cool enough to handle, scrape it onto the onions.  Cook a little longer, adding salt, pepper and at least a tablespoon of paprika.  That is if you have delicious paprika.  Ours is “Pimenton el Angel” that we picked up at Sahadis.  It is a hot paprika from Spain, and carries a smoked red taste into the dish.  Smash the eggplant, some of the onion too if you are so inclined.  Turn off the heat whenever things seem to smell right and certainly before overbrowning.  Straight out of the skillet it is a robust topping for pasta or rice.  It can warmly great guests to your table as you do final fiddling, and it can stand around just foreves at a cocktail party.  I suspect it keeps well but cannot say because we’ve never left any.

doctored-up tomato soup (for jay)

ingredients

tomato soup – either one box (typically 32 fluid ounces or 1 quart), which does not need water added, or one can of condensed soup (15 fluid ounces), which will need a can of water stirred into it

½ an onion – red or yellow; save the other half for something else

2 cloves of garlic – a bulb is the whole little head you buy; the cloves are the fingers of the garlic fist

paprika – spice

olive oil

Peel and chop the onion. To do this, slice off the scraggly top and the bottom. Sit your onion on one of these flat ends on the cutting board and slice it down the center so you have two halves. Peel off the papery outer layer. Lay each half flat on the cutting board and slice the onion into ribbons then turn the onion half and cut across your slices to make cubes. If you cut the slices very thin, you can just use those and not cut again. That makes for a pretty soup.

Peel and mince the garlic. To do this, rub the outermost papery layer off your garlic bulb. Pull off two cloves (more if you want it really garlicky). Smash the garlic still in its skin under the flat side of your knife. The skin will rumple and be easy to peel right off. Cut off the dry stem end and then chop the garlic finely.

On the stove top, heat a little olive oil (about 2 teaspoons) in a pot over a medium flame. Add about 2 teaspoons of paprika, the garlic and the onion. Stirring every few minutes, cook until the onions are translucent about 10 minutes. Careful about how high the heat is – you don’t want the garlic to brown.

Add the soup, the box or the can & water. Stir, heat and eat!

Of course, this recipe is just an idea. You don’t have to have paprika, right? Leave it out or try other spices or herbs like dried oregano. There are lots of good ways to make simple soup more exciting and use it as a vehicle for more veggies! Try adding spinach, a can of chick peas, or left over broccoli from another dinner.