If life gives you beet greens…

| Green Card Gardener

Risotto with beet greens

Growing beets has always been difficult for me in my garden. Before I put up a Berlin Wall-like fence, the tender greens were chewed to the ground by rabbits as soon as they emerged. But even now, and despite painstaking soil sifting and amendment with sand, most of the beets in the rocky Pennsylvania soil are small, woodsy and gnarly. Their greens, however, is a totally different story! It is as if the plants put all their energy into the lush, shiny, large foliage. So every year I end up with several bags of frozen beet greens.

Before I became a gardener, I did not even know that beet greens are edible. That’s no surprise, because unless you buy the beets super-fresh from a farmers market, they reach the store leafless. And that’s a shame, because the leaves have more nutritional value than beet roots.

I have tried different recipes with beet greens but I always return to the same two recipes: Trouchia, a French vegetable omelet, and this risotto. The recipe is adapted from Amanda Hesser’s terrific book The Cook and the Gardener. But since I have such an abundance of beet greens, I maximized their amount and left out the chard used in the original recipe.

Frozen beet greens are easy to break into small bits while still in the bag so no chopping needed.

Risotto with Beet Greens

8-10 ounces cleaned and trimmed beet greens, fresh or frozen

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

4 cups low-fat chicken broth

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

1 cup Arborio rice

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon butter

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan

Salt

Freshly ground white pepper

1. Chop the beet greens if using fresh, or break frozen leaves into small pieces.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet and add the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until soft. Don’t let the garlic brown.

3. Stir und cook until leaves are wilted. Remove from the heat and set aside.

4. Heat the chicken broth in a saucepan.

5. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium-size pot with a heavy bottom. Add the shallot and cook 2 minutes until translucent.

6. Add the bay leaf and the rice and stir to coat evenly. Cook over medium heat until the rice releases a nutty smell and looks glassy.

7. Add the wine and ¼ cup hot broth. Cook while stirring constantly until all the liquid has been absorbed.

8. Continue adding chicken broth in ½ cup increments and stirring constantly, only adding more broth when the previous addition has been absorbed, until all the broth has been used and the rice is tender but not mushy, about 20 to 25 minutes.

9. Add the beet greens and stir until reheated. Then stir in the Parmesan and butter and season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and let stand for 1 to 2 minutes before serving.

Makes 2 servings as a main course, or 4 servings as side dish

Rolls in the snow

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It is not only the snow falling since this morning that makes me feel like in a fairytale. Baking rolls earlier today was also an experience reminding me of Sweet Porridge, a German fairytale by the Brothers Grimm where the pot with porridge does not stop cooking and rises over the edge filling the kitchen, the street and the village… until the girl who knows the magic words makes it stop, and everyone who wants to return has to eat their way back.

I was trying out a recipe for millet bread from The Tassajara Bread Book, a usually very reliable source. The recipe calls for 3 cups whole millet, soaked in hot water. Even though I love rustic wholesome bread I was afraid this was rather bird feed than human fare. So I decided to give the millet a quick boil. I have cooked millet before but never that much at once. The millet swelled and swelled and I ended up with 10 cups. There was no way I could work this amount into the dough for what was supposed to be two loaves of bread so I used 4 cups and froze the rest for some other time.

The recipe makes two dozens rolls. Unlike the porridge in the fairytale, it won’t be hard to finish those off!

Whole Wheat Rolls with Millet

1¼ cup whole uncooked millet

2 scant tablespoons active dry yeast

3 cups lukewarm water

¼ cup honey

1 cup non-fat dry milk

2 cups bread flour

5 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon salt

¼ cup canola oil

2 tablespoons + 1½ teaspoons gluten

Cornmeal for the baking sheet

1. Bring the millet and 3 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the water is absorbed. Fluff the millet with a fork and set aside to cool.

2. Dissolve the yeast in 3 cups lukewarm water. Add the honey and the dry milk and stir to dissolve.

3. Add 2 cups bread flour and 3 cups whole wheat flour add mix with the dough attachment of the kitchen machine until well combined.

4. Let rest in a warm place (I do this in the switched off, cool oven and place a jelly roll underneath to catch any spills) for 45 minutes.

5. Add the remaining whole wheat flour, salt, oil and gluten. Knead with the machine to a smooth dough.

6. Drain the millet if there is water left in the pot. Work the millet to the dough. With floured hands, assemble the dough to form a ball and transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl. I It is OK if the dough it slightly sticky.

7. Turn the dough over once to coat. Let rise in a warm place for 50 minutes.

8. Punch the dough down with both fists and turn it over. Let rise for 40 minutes.

9. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 3 to 4 minutes. Divide in half and shape each half into a long, baguette-like loaf. Cut each loaf into 12 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Sprinkle two baking sheets with cornmeal, or line them with a pastry mat.

10. Place the unbaked rolls at generous distance on the baking sheet. Cover with a damp clean kitchen towel and let rise 20 minutes.

11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place a jelly roll on the lower oven rack.

12. Place the baking sheet with the rolls in the preheated oven and immediately pour 2 to 3 cups cold water on the jelly roll. Close the oven door at once to keep the steam in the oven. Bake the rolls for 25 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

13. Remove rolls from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack. Bake the second batch the same way.

Makes 24 rolls

Lists and leftovers

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First I felt a little silly putting up a detailed list with the freezer content to keep track of each bag I take out. But this is not my personal listmania. It saves me from digging around and getting frostbite on my hands. This list, and whatever else needs to be used up, often dictates what I cook.

A quart of milk with a passed “sell by” date (even after living in the US for 13 years I still don’t understand how this date tells you the actual expiration date…), and several bags of frozen red currants inspired me to make this lemon trifle. I used a mix of blueberries and currants, but only blueberries, or a mix of blueberries and raspberries, will taste good as well. Instead of drizzling the ladyfingers with the usual sherry I used homemade black currant liqueur (cassis) but of course store-bought cassis will be just fine.

Berry Trifle with Lemon Custard

12 ladyfingers

3-4 tablespoons cassis

14 ounces fresh or frozen blueberries and/or red currants

3-4 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

Lemon custard:

2 organic lemons

4 cups milk (2% or whole milk)

4 egg yolks

¾ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Cut the ladyfingers into 1-inch pieces and spread them in a decorative glass serving dish with a wide bottom. Drizzle with cassis.

2. Put the berries in a small saucepan and briefly cook so they pop and release their juices. Sugar to taste and cool slightly, then spread over the ladyfingers.

3. For the lemon custard, zest and juice the lemons. Slowly bring the milk and the lemon zest to a boil.

4. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and the cornstarch to a smooth consistency without any lumps.

5. Strain the hot milk through a fine sieve. Discard the lemon zest.

6. Add a small amount of the hot milk to the egg yolks and whisk to incorporate. Add some more milk and whisk again. The mixing of the hot milk and egg yolks must be done very slowly and gradually so the eggs won’t curd.

7. After all the egg yolks and milk have been mixed, pour it in a saucepan and slowly bring to a gentle boil, whisking constantly.  Cook and whisk until the custard thickens.

8. Remove from the heat. Add the lemon juice and whisk until cooled slightly. Slowly pour the custard over the berries so that the layer won’t be disturbed and the berries won’t rise to the top. Cool.

9. Cover with plastic foil and chill several hours.

Makes 8 servings

The now-or-never raspberry scones

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Most cooks I know have a collection of recipes that they ripped out of some magazine or newspaper with the intention of trying them out some time. I have made it a habit of cleaning those out once in a while, discarding the ones that, if I am honest to myself, I will never ever make.

Corby Kummer’s Raspberry-and-Raisin Tea Scones from The Atlantic were on their way out. I am not sure whether it was that the recipe calls for the flour being sifted five times (I usually never sift flour), or that I could not warm up to the combination of raspberries and raisins.

But because I have frozen raspberries from the garden, and I seriously need to start cooking and baking my way down our overfilled freezer, I gave the recipe a try. However, I made a few changes. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins, and canola oil instead of olive oil. As the dough was a sticky mess, cutting was difficult. So I ended up shaping the scones by hand, but I did this very quickly, so that the consistently would not become too dense – why, otherwise, would I have sifted the flour five times?

I find the result yummy – light and with a subtle sweetness, so you can still put jam or jelly on them. Now I am waiting to hear what my family tasting panel says.

Raspberry-Cranberry Scones

2¾ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup canola oil

½ cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup unsweetened dried cranberries (preferably organic)

½ cup frozen raspberries

1. Sift the flour five times into a large bowl. Mix with the baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk the buttermilk with the canola oil, sugar and 1 egg in a small bowl.

3. Add the liquids to the flour mixture and quickly work it in with a spatula until the dough holds together. Fold in the cranberries Do not overwork the dough.

4. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

5. Place a large piece of wax paper on the counter. Put the dough in the middle of it and place another sheet of wax paper of the same size on top. Pat the dough with your hand to an equal thickness, about the size of letterhead paper.

6. Peel off the top layer of wax paper and sprinkle the individual raspberries over half of the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over it.

7. Place the top wax paper on top of the dough gain and flatten the dough slightly. 8. Remove the paper and cut the dough into 12 to 14 equal pieces.

9. With floured hands, quickly and lightly shape round, about 3-inch scones, taking care not to compress the dough.

10. Place the scones on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Whisk the remaining egg and brush the scones with it.

11. Place the baking sheet into the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and brush the scones again with the egg wash.

12. Put the baking sheet in the oven and reduce the temperature to 425 degrees F. Bake for 18 minutes. Remove from the baking sheet immediately and cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 12 to 14 scones