|
Green days The time comes, even in our land of excess, when even the most excess-minded have had enough. This magical moment tends to fall right about now, at the end of six weeks of more or less continuous gluttony: huge rich meals, parties with trays of cookies and fudge, endless exchanges of gift-wrapped boxes of truffles and bonbons, bottles of champagne beyond number. One steers clear of the digital scale like a vampire avoiding garlic. It is right that our season of abstemiousness falls in January, a wet, cold, gray month that doesn't offer much in the way of locally produced comestibles. Visiting a rain-swept farmers market on a Saturday morning just after the turn of the year is largely an exercise in examining greens: baby salad greens, of course, but also beet greens, chard in its several colors, kale in its varieties of wrinkliness and veinedness, mustard greens, dandelion greens, spinach. Greens are a great buy and good for you, so you really can't pass them over – but, on the other hand, what exactly are you supposed to do with them when you get them home? Baby salad greens don't need any attention other than being washed, of course, but the others generally need cooking of some kind. For some years I have puzzled about this. Kale and chard braise beautifully and quickly in a bit of oil and with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, but their flavors, while distinctive, are not necessarily of universal appeal. A simple enhancement is to soften a chopped onion with some bacon (or turkey bacon) in the oil before adding the chopped greens, and to drizzle the wilted result with some high-quality red-wine or balsamic vinegar before serving. Spinach takes well to a Sicilian-style treatment, in which a handful of pine nuts is first toasted in olive oil (then reserved), followed by minced garlic. When the garlic begins to turn a pale gold, add the spinach with a bit of salt and stir gently until the leaves are wilted. (A wok works well here.) Toss in the pine nuts and a scant handful of currants, give a crank or two from the pepper mill, and serve. An alternative to braising is to add greens to soup. Giuliano Hazan's new book, How to Cook Italian (Scribner, $35), includes a recipe for Sardinian lentil soup distinguished by its meat broth and its inclusion of greens in an otherwise simple scheme. You could certainly dispense with the meat broth in favor of plain water, but the greens do add a subtle je ne sais quoi, or however one says that in Italian. Paul Reidinger paulr@sfbg.com |
||||