Literally Stuffed!

Hello everyone!  It feels like it’s been ages since my last post so apologies all around.  I am participating in an alumni theatre production at my college and have spent more time working on sets then in the kitchen.  The performances are this weekend, which means I’ll be in rehearsals every night this week so it’s likely my disappearing act will continue for a short while.  I promise to make my usual Wednesday post with my share items and veggie person, but not sure about how much cooking I’ll be doing.

All that being said, I haven’t completely ignored my culinary responsibilities!

On Friday I made good use of my kale, swiss chard and collard greens.  I didn’t want my lovely leafy greens to go bad this week so I looked for recipes that would make the best use of them.  My boyfriend’s birthday was also this week so I wanted to make an extra special dinner for a great guy to enjoy.  Normally I’d bake a cake for him, so this was a real departure from his past two birthdays – homemade dinner and store-bought pastries!  Thanks to our neighborhood bakery, Patsy’s, for our delicious desserts!

I started working on prep for this dinner around 6pm on Friday and we ate around 10pm…I spent the entire 4 hours in the kitchen!  I’m sure for the more experienced cook (and someone with more than one large sauté pan) the time would be drastically reduced, but what can I say…it was a labor of love.

This dinner was all about stuffing - Roasted, Stuffed Red Peppers, Stuffed Collard Greens, and Swiss Chard Stuffed Garlic Bread.

The prep for these dishes took so long due to the lone large sauté pan.  Both the kale for the stuffed red peppers and the collards had to be cooked and cooled before I could get into the rest of the cooking.  Then I had to use the same pan for the red pepper stuffing and again for the collard green stuffing.  Let’s just say my pan got a workout on Friday night and was washed and dried approximately 350 times…at least that’s how it felt!

Let’s break it down by dish, shall we!

Roasted, Stuffed Red Peppers

I love red peppers – raw, grilled, roasted, whatever.  When I saw this recipe using kale I knew it would be a winner.  It also used brown rice, which the collard recipe used as well so I figured it making both means no random extra rice hanging out in the refrigerator languishing unused until it was thrown away.  It’s also a really nice vegetarian dish so if you’re having friends or family over and they don’t eat meat you can whip these up and everyone can enjoy them!

Made on their own this dish would be fast and easy to prepare even though it has quite a few components in the stuffing – chopped onion, red pepper, kale, brown rice, lemon juice, garlic, parmesan cheese, and pine nuts.

In retrospect I should have cooked the kale first to free up my lone sauté pan, but I didn’t and started with prepping the pepper halves.  Oh well…live and learn!

I started with the pepper halves (3 peppers for 6 halves), gunked out all the seeds and weird inside pepper flesh (is there a name for that?), brushed with olive oil inside and out, added some pepper and sale to the insides, and popped in the oven (cut side down) for about 15 minutes.  Take them out of the oven and gingerly flip them over (you’ll want to use a spatula since they’re soft)..

The kale (with the stalks removed) then needs to be cooked (just dump a few tablespoons of water into a sauté pan and cover), strained in a colander and finely chopped.  Sauté pan wash & dry #1

Then you take your sauté pan and add the chopped pepper and onion until the onions are nice and golden, add in the kale and other goodies and remove from heat.

Note: I also should have warmed the pine nuts earlier too, but I didn’t and had to rush to get them done and added to the stuffing.  When the directions say to stir them constantly they are not kidding.  I stepped away from the oven for a few seconds and the next thing I knew they were almost burnt on one side!  At $6 a jar, it’s a costly mistake to burn your nuts…err…you know what I mean!

Spoon the stuffing mix into the pepper “shells”, sprinkle on some of the leftover pine nuts, and bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.  Sauté pan wash & dry #2

Stuffed Collard Greens

I made some ingredient switches from the recipe (which the author suggested as alternatives).  I used ground turkey instead of venison, whole grain rice instead of bulgur (I don’t even know what that is), and Paul Newman brand tomato basil sauce (on sale!) instead of a low-sodium option (because I wanted it to actually taste good).

To start, you need to take your collard greens, cut out the stalks, and slice in half.*  Then you need to cook the leaves just a little, until they turn bright green.  You just use your handy dandy sauté pan with about an inch of boiling water, and cook the greens just enough – cook them too much and they won’t be sturdy enough to act as a wrapper for the filling.  This whole process took me awhile because I only cooked about 4 leaves at a time.  I was afraid if I put all the greens in at once the cooking times would be too different and some of them would be overcooked and some undercooked so I just sucked it up and took the longer more careful approach.  When the greens were cooked just right, I removed them from the pan and laid them out flat on a dish to cool (they can be layered on top of each other and they won’t stick together).  Sauté pan wash & dry #3  

Now it’s time to make your filling!  The recipe didn’t call for this, but I put a tiny bit of olive oil in the pan before adding the ground turkey and onions.  Let the turkey cook fully, then add in the cooked brown rice, onion powder and garlic powder.  I know a full tablespoon of the seasonings looks like a lot, but it tastes fantastic so don’t skimp!  I added a little salt and pepper as well even though the recipe didn’t call for it.  

Now it’s time to stuff and roll the filling into your collard green halves…it’s kind of like an arts and craft project.  *This recipe is probably easiest when you have LARGE collard leaves, but mine were on the medium to small side and managed to make due.  It just resulted in leftover filling, which I plan on making a pasta sauce with since I have zero time to cook this week.  My greens also had some holes here and there so I doubled up with some of the smaller greens to “patch” them up when needed.  I also overlaid some of the smaller greens to create a larger leaf to stuff and roll and it worked pretty well.

Take a few spoonfuls of the filling and tightly roll the greens around it.  The photo in the recipe shows the filling in the middle of the green, but I found it easier to spoon the stuffing a little bit closer to the end of the green so I could make the roll tighter.  Some of the stuffing will fall out of the ends, but just try to stuff it back in there as best you can.  Place the rolls into a glass baking dish and when they’re all in there cover them with the tomato sauce.  Pop in the oven and cook at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. 4^th and final sauté pan wash

    

Swiss Chard Stuffed Garlic Bread

I saved the easiest recipe for last.  It doesn’t get any more basic than this…and the best part – NOT SAUTE PAN NEEDED!!!  The recipe is big enough for 2, one pound loaves of bread, which was waaaaay more than I needed to make so I just played around with the ingredient amounts and improvised to make 1 small loaf.  I bought a small loaf of ciabatta bread from the grocery store.

Cut the stalks out of your swiss chard and break the leaves into small pieces.  In a bowl, mix the greens with some olive oil and set aside.

Take a baking sheet and put a layer of aluminum foil on top.  Place the loaf of bread on the foil and cut deep slits in the bread without cutting through the bottom.  

Melt some butter and add minced garlic.  With a brush, coat the insides of the bread slices with the butter and garlic mixture.  

Stuff the oil coated swiss chard into the slits in the bread.

I got creative and added some fresh mozzarella I had the in fridge (cut into small cubes) and stuffed that in with the swiss chard.

Wrap the bread with the aluminum foil and pop the baking sheet into the oven at 350 degrees until the bread is cooked through.  I had mine in there for about 10 minutes, but I think 15-20 minutes would be best if you prefer it a little crispier.  

That’s it!  So simple and REALLY full of great flavor.