green peppers & egg sandwiches
12 Feb 2008 2 Comments
in bell pepper, eggs, vegetarian Tags: breakfast, Chicago, cooking for one, eggs, italian cooking, Italy, olive oil, sandwich, skillet
This is one of my favorite sandwiches because I can get everything local and because it is something my family made for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I was growing up. My grandpa and great uncle grew up in a Sicilian family who immigrated via New Orleans to Chicago. Uncle Ronnie was a butcher, so these sandwiches followed dinners of Italian sausage and peppers and the leftovers went with the eggs. Now they follow sausage-free meals when I sauté an extra pepper or two or they emerge on their own, worth the work of slicing a pepper.
For two sandwiches or one generous sandwich (a good idea):
slice 1 green pepper into strips and sauté in olive oil on medium-high heat until soft and slightly charred about 15-20 minutes. Scoop the cooked peppers into a bowl
slice a hand’s length from a loaf of Italian bread (or baguette) and cut that in ½ lengthwise.
rub the cut sides into the oil in the skillet and fry till toasted. Weighing down the bread will flatten it and more deeply toast it. I often use my tea kettle or another cast iron skillet.
whisk an egg or two with a little cream and a little salt & pepper. Scramble in the skillet.
assemble eggs, peppers on the baguette and sandwich. Eat.
If you are upset by how the egg and pepper squidges out the sides, try hollowing out your bread a little.
kohlrabi salad with purslane and mysterious mini-greens
18 Jun 2007 Leave a Comment
in greens, kohlrabi, recipes, vegan Tags: olive oil, salad
the kohlrabi plant has its own special way of being a vegetable
The Kitchen Gardener’s Companion, Pat Katz’s A-Z encyclopedia for using the food that you grow, 2000
oh, pat, it’s true. kohlrabies look like alien vegetables or vehicles – door knob sized bulbs of waxy celery green or purple like shredded purple coleslaw cabbage. Since hardly any one eats it, kohlrabi gets compared to everything: cabbage, turnip, cauliflower. It is like the asian pear of veggies. Impossible to describe; go find them.
5 small purple kohlrabis, broken off from their stalks and leaves. Pare away any nubbins or hard spots but no need to go so far as peeling. Cut them into cubes. Sauté them in a bit of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Let them sit in the hot pot until your greens are ready.
pick over 5 generous handful of greens. This week I got purslane, some mild form of mustard with tiny, ruffled leaves, and a mysterious micro-plant with a transluscent stem and two bitty leaves, like clover. I think any mix of mild fresh summer greens would be good, but the purslane’s nice because it is so juicy and queer.
in a big bowl, toss the greens with the hot kohlrabi and dressing. For the dressing, shake together in a jar:
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup of olive oil
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ cup minced, fresh cilantro
It is surprising that kohlrabies are not better known, since they are easy to grow and store, as well as being easy to enjoy in many different ways. Their name is German, taken from the Italian caroli rape, cabbage turnip.
The Kitchen Gardener’s Companion, Pat Katz’s A-Z encyclopedia for using the food that you grow, 2000
black radish and spinach salad
10 Jan 2007 1 Comment
in greens, recipes Tags: black radish, olive oil, salad
- black radish (one, maybe two if you are spicy; they’re beautiful, kinda witchy)
- spinach (one bunch)
- pear (bosc pears are particularly nice, and if it is earlier in fall, apples)
- lemon
- garlic
- fresh sage
- dijon mustard
- olive oil
- balsamic
- a big salad bowl
for dressing
Roast one head of garlic. Mince two cloves of garlic and one tablespoon of fresh sage. whisk together 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, 4 bulbs of roasted garlic, minced raw garlic, sage with about ½ cup olive oil and ¼ cup of balsamic.
for salad
Cut the pear in half, then in quarters and slice off the remainder of the core. Cut into thin slices (leave peeled). Squeeze half a lemon over the pear.
Peel the radish. Then shave patches of radish into the salad bowl. A veggie peeler or paring knife will work as a tool.
Rinse the sand off the spinach. (If you do not have sand and grit in your spinach, then it is from a bag or some other such garbage. While I utterly appreciate the feeling of liberation at not having to clean or cut your own veggies, it is just not worth the risk of E. coli (Escherichia coli) for your self and the destruction of the environment for everyone else.) Use icy cold water so the greens stay crisp and gently but thoroughly pat dry. I lay out salad greens on a clean kitchen towel or paper towels or some combination of absorbent materials and lightly roll it all up like a sleeping bag.
Rip spinach into slightly larger than bite sized pieces.
Toss everything with the dressing in the salad bowl. I use my hands.
