appetizer Archives

Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Wings

Feb 2 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

If you’re hosting a Super Bowl gathering this year, we’ve got a new favorite you’ll want to add to your lineup–Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Wings. These little fire balls are so much better than you might think. Their texture and taste stands up to the traditional chicken wing but they have far less calories and are seriously fun to eat.

This is not a new idea of course. The healthier version of your favorite burger, fries, nachos–you get it–has been around forever. Normally, my philosophy is, “if you want some cheesy nachos, buy good tortillas and organic cheese and good quality ingredients and just go for it and enjoy them in moderation!” This year, I had two talented dietetic interns working with me, pushing me beyond my comfort zone. Grace Chan and Jane Pelcher, of Golden Gate Dietetic Internship Program, expanded my horizons as they went on a search for healthy wings we could demo with our friends at AAA in Walnut Creek at a Four Pillars of Health event they were hosting for employees.

Scanning numerous options they found, I encouraged them to make the recipe as replicable as possible across the country and as vegan, vegetarian, and food allergen friendly as possible. Ever so slightly adapted from a delicious recipe by Gimme Delicious Food, they tested this fool-proof recipe in their own kitchens for our upcoming demo and decided this was the winner!

Let me just say that these little nibbles are exciting in your mouth. When we arrived at AAA for the demo, Stan Paskewitz of Sodexo had his kitchen staff prepare both this recipe and my Winter Squash Quesadilla with Creamy Avocado Sauce from the Joyful 12. I was blown away by the crunchy texture, taste, and zing of the cauliflower buffalo wings. As the demo went on, AAA employees had the same reaction–surprise, delight, and culinary joy!

What really blew people away was the difference in calories between a cauliflower wing and a traditional wing–whoa! As health supportive educators, we’re not against chicken wings by any means. What we do want to help people realize is that you can get playful with getting more veggies into your diet and feel good knowing they will balance out a junk filled night like the Super Bowl with their nutrient packed makeup.

So here’s to keeping your Super Bowl party healthy and delicious–packed with spice, flavor, and cruciferous vegetable love–regardless of which team wins! Thank you Grace and Jane for upping my game with your expertise and amazingly fun “Guess the Calorie Count” game for our favorite Super Bowl indulgences.

Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Wings

2017-02-02 21:57:00

Adapted from Layla, Gimme Delicious Food

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Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

45 min

Total Time

55 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

45 min

Total Time

55 min

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, washed and cut into bite sized pieces
1⁄2 cup milk (V use water or almond or soy milk)
1⁄2 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour (V use brown rice or garbanzo flour; GF use gluten free flour)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1⁄4 tsp salt
1⁄4 tsp ground pepper
1 cup hot sauce
1 tbsp butter (VL use Earth Balance)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425-450F.
Mix the milk, water, flour, and spices in a medium mixing bowl. Mix until the batter is thick and able to coat the cauliflower without dripping.
Dip the cauliflower in the batter either one by one or in batches. Shake off excess batter. Lay the cauliflower single layer on a lined and greased baking sheet.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown, flip the florets half way.
In a small saucepan on low, heat butter and mix in hot sauce. Remove from the heat just as it starts to melt. Stir together and set aside.
Once the cauliflower is done, remove from the oven and put them into a mixing bowl with the wing sauce and toss to coat evenly. Return cauliflower to baking sheet and bake in the oven for another 20-25minutes.
Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. Enjoy!

Notes

V Vegan, GF Gluten Free, L Lactose Intolerance

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Orange Tomato Brown Butter Seared Scallops

Nov 3 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

I want to let you in on a little secret. Decadent holiday entertaining is only a seared scallop and orange tomato browned butter spoonful away. I wouldn’t lead you on…not when it comes to one of my all-time favorite recipes.

If you’ve ever tasted freshly made butternut squash ravioli pan seared in a brown butter sage sauce or petrale sole gently bathed in brown butter, capers, and lemon, you’ll know why chefs use browned butter. Learning to brown butter in culinary school, known as making a beurre noisette sauce in French, was sometimes torture. We did it again, and again, and again until we got it right which means perfect. The trick was in not just trusting your eyes to know when it was ready but really tuning into your nose to do the work–that oh so tender moment between a perfectly toasted hazelnut and a burning disaster.

But my friend Barbara, a beloved Brazilian student and amazing chef, changed my world when she came into school one night and told me about these buttery, juicy scallops she had made the night before with a creative twist. She paired them with browned butter. Wait. She didn’t stop there. Creating a complex and rounded taste, she combined that browned butter with acidic tomato puree and sweet fresh juice from an orange. I started salivating just thinking about it. So I clearly made the best rendition I could imagine from Barbara’s sensual description the minute I had a free night off from school–of course for my dearest friends.

The heady aroma and the buttery yet citrusy taste of her rich sauce will make you beg for more. I don’t often moan and groan after taking a bite of a dish, but these scallops are a spoon-type situation. Oh, yes. Drop that fork and pick up your spoon. You are going to want to scoop up every last ounce of this sauce!

And to make my version of Barbara’s brilliant scallops bullet proof for the home cook, I throw my sauce into a blender to ensure it doesn’t break (fats separating from their other liquid components), which turns the sauce into the most vibrant orange color, sure to break those winter blues. So whether you decide to hog this recipe all for yourself or serve your friends these jewels of decadence this holiday season, be sure to say a quiet “obrigada” to Barbara when you’re licking your spoon.

Barbara’s Orange Tomato Brown Butter Scallops

2015-10-27 21:42:19

Serves 4

Save Recipe

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

25 min

Total Time

40 min

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

25 min

Total Time

40 min

Ingredients

Oranges, 2, juiced
Tomato puree, 1 cup
Butter, unsalted, 4 tablespoons cubed
Salt, 1 ¼ teaspoons (divided)
Scallops, 8, dried thoroughly, side muscle removed
Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon
Chives, 1 bunch, diced

Prep

Blend tomato puree, juiced oranges, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon salt over the dried scallops.

Make brown butter sauce

Heat butter over medium high heat until milk solids start separating from butterfat.
Swirl butter in pan. When you smell hazelnuts and brown bits start to form, remove from heat and add to the other sauce ingredients in the blender. Pulse until combined.

Cook the scallops in batches of 4

Preheat aluminum pan. Add ½ tablespoon vegetable oil.
Carefully place each scallop in pan. Do not move scallops until you see a brown crust forming on the bottom of the scallop.
Turn scallops over in the pan. Turn heat down to medium low.
Cook for another minute. Let this batch rest on a plate while you cook the remaining 4 scallops.
Reheat satsuma butter sauce in a pot over low heat until warm.
Serve 2 scallops per person in shallow bowls on top of the sauce. Eat with a spoon!

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Can’t Eat Just One–Crisp Kale Chips

Sep 21 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

I make it a game each week to come up with a whole host of delicious ways to use up my fresh fall greens–and yes, kale chips are at the top of that list.

When it comes to making it easy to use up greens, for me, it’s all about making them too convenient to pass up when I start to refrigerator dive for my breakfast, lunch, or dinner ideas. Try this no waste tip when you come home with your next bundle of kale, collards, or other hearty greens:

Give them a good wash: tear off their leaves from the woody stalks and dunk them into a big bowl of water, so that any dirt or organic bugs that have hitched a ride home with them drop to the bottom of the bowl.
Scoop them up, dry them in a salad spinner or on a towel, and place them in a sealed container, so they are now ready to be used.
Save the stalks for your next soup or saute–they’re crunchy and loaded with nutrients but need a little extra cooking time.

The next time you get a craving for a salty and crunchy snack, don’t forget that kale chips are only 10 minutes away, since you’ve already done the hard work of getting them ready to be cooked. Whether you have the curly variety or the flat one known as dinosaur kale, this green makes a delicious and fun chip that’s so good for you.

And if you’ve been making kale chips for years and are looking for a little inspiration for other ways to relish kale, join us as we gear up for National Kale Day on October 7th, 2015. We’ll be joining the National Kale team as they share tips, recipes, and fun ideas for how to get the whole family loving kale and all greens. At JoyFoodly, we’ll also be launching the next phase of our Joyful 12 School Project, in partnership with the national program Wellness in the Schools, making their amazingly delicious and simple Ginger Kale Salad with all 350 children of Lu Sutton Elementary in Novato, California through Food Literacy Cooking Labs. Stay tuned and join us in this kale celebration!

Can't Eat Just One Crisp Kale Chips

2015-09-15 16:40:50

Serves 4

Note on substitutions: we know that you can’t always find flat kale, also known as Dino or Lacinato Kale, so curly kale works great, too. See below for how we alter the recipe slightly depending on which type of kale you use.

Save Recipe

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

10 min

Total Time

20 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

10 min

Total Time

20 min

Ingredients

kale, 1 bunch
olive oil, 2 - 4 TBS
salt, 1/2 tsp

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Preheat oven to 300F.

Prep kale

For flat kale, cut off the tougher bottom part of the stem and leave the upper stem and leaves in tact. This will make a nice big chip. Otherwise, you can pull the leaves off in big chunks on either side of the stem. Be sure to use bigger pieces, as the kale will shrink in the oven.
**If you have curly kale, the stem is tougher, so we recommend you remove it with a knife and then tear the curly leaves apart into bigger pieces.
Wash well in water. Use a salad spinner to dry and then lay them out on paper towels or a clean cloth to get them completely dry. *For curly kale you need to get between the creases!

Cook

Rub kale pieces with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. This will keep them from burning in the oven and allow them to crisp up.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Do not overlap; ensure they all have space in one layer on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 5 minutes and check. You may want to move the cookie sheets around so edges on one part of the tray do not get too hot due to your oven. Cook for about 3 minutes longer or until they just start to turn brown on the edges but not burning! This can happen fast, so remove them and know they’ll keep cooking a little on the hot pan out of the oven. *Note, curly kale can take a little longer to cook so keep an eye on it.
Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and enjoy within the hour. Yum!

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Guest Feature with Luke’s Local: How to Build-a-Quiche as a Dinner Strategy

Aug 31 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

How many times a week do you scratch your head and wonder, “how will I ever work in grocery shopping and cooking?!” This week, I’m jumping for JOY as we announce a new partnership with one of my favorite local, farm fresh delivery services, Luke’s Local.

Starting today, when you buy their Peak Season Produce Bundle, you can use our special JOYFUL12 coupon code to receive 10% off. And to go with that amazing produce box, I’m sharing my tips and one of my all-time favorite Joyful 12 quiche recipes on their beautiful blog today. Head on over to do your grocery shopping this week and get inspired to make weeknight meals a breeze.

Here’s a quick list of all the links you’ll want to click on:
Luke’s Peak Season Produce Bundle
savings code: JOYFUL12

Heirloom and Tomato Quiche Recipe

Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs

Apr 2 by Chef Hollie Greene 2 Comments

Pimento cheese is more than a spread. It’s a food with a rich history and a scrumptious taste that Southerners adore. Growing up, we’d eat pimento cheese on crackers, on sandwiches, and always when gathered with family and friends. This Easter, I’m highlighting this childhood favorite in a celebratory way–stuffed in my deviled egg filling.

When I teach kids about new foods and dishes that are from different cultures, I love to tell them the story of how that food made it to our modern day tables. In the case of pimento cheese, it all started back in the late 1800’s when expensive imported pimento peppers from Spain and an American Neufchatel cheese from the Northeast was blended with cream to make cream cheese and these two foods were combined to make a delectable spread for tea party sandwiches, enjoyed by affluent families.

Fast forward to the early to mid 1900’s, when Kraft’s cream cheese became an industrialized food standard and pimentos were heavily grown in the South. These fancy sandwiches became a blue collar means to feed factory workers across the country. Even as this Southern spread didn’t technically originate in the South, it’s always been a humble favorite and a part of our historical food identity. If you walk into any Southern home today and you don’t find a container of pimento cheese, ask to see their id’s, cause I’d reckon they do not originally hail from those parts!

Each Easter, I especially enjoy pulling out my mom’s antique deviled egg plate, and I relish the process of making my homemade version of pimento cheese with my husband. We always save some on the side to dunk our crackers in as we work, and we most definitely ensure that those first deviled eggs go directly into our mouths before they get into the family’s–you know, quality control!

I hope you and your family enjoy your own traditions this holiday season, and may my family’s tradition of pimento cheese make your celebratory table just a little richer.

Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs

2015-03-31 11:56:17

Serves 6

Culinary note: this dip is great as a sandwich stuffer, on top of hamburgers, or on top of your favorite cracker. If you loved deviled eggs, try adding a little pimento cheese to your regular recipe and see if people don’t scoop those puppies up!

Save Recipe

Prep Time

25 min

Cook Time

10 min

Total Time

35 min

Prep Time

25 min

Cook Time

10 min

Total Time

35 min

Ingredients

Eggs, 1 dozen
Cream cheese, 8 oz
Cheddar cheese (white, sharp), 8 oz
Sweet onion (Vidalia), 1/8
Roasted red bell peppers, 8 oz jar
Lemon, 1/2
Mayonnaise, 1/2 cup
Hot sauce, 1 tsp
Salt, ½ tsp
Chives, 1 bunch

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Wash all produce.
Place eggs in a deep pot and cover with cold water. Bring up to a simmer. Once you see small bubbles form, set the timer for 11 minutes. Maintain temperature so that the water stays at a low simmer (not a boil).
Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Cut into smaller pieces.
Grate cheddar cheese on the big holes of a grater (or buy already grated).
Take the piece of the onion you’ve cut off (⅛ of a whole onion) and grate it over the small holes of the cheese grater.
Dice roasted red peppers; reserve 1 tablespoon of the juice from the jar and mix that in when ready to assemble the dip.
Juice ½ lemon.
Chop chives and set aside as a garnish for the deviled eggs.
After the egg timer goes off, remove eggs and place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Let cool. Peel eggs, cut into halves and scoop out yellow yolks into a large bowl. Mash yolks with a fork.

Assemble

In a food processor or kitchen aid mixer, combine the pimento cheese dip ingredients: roasted bell peppers, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, lemon juice, mayonnaise, grated onion, hot sauce, and a tablespoon of juice from the roasted red pepper jar. Mix until smooth.
Mix 1-½ cups of the pimento cheese with the egg yolks. Place in a pastry bag or Ziploc bag and push the mixture all the way down to one corner and twist the top of the bag closed.
Snip off the tip with a pair of scissors. Squeeze out the pimento cheese filling into each half of the eggs. Garnish with chopped chives.

By Chef Hollie

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Exploring Spring Peas

Mar 30 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

Can you tell the difference between a sugar snap pea and a snow pea? Kids at Lu Sutton Elementary can! They learned about the three most common types of peas we eat during spring as a part of the Joyful 12 School Project and their “Eat Green” challenge during the month of March.

We just completed week four of our Joyful 12 School pilot at Lu Sutton Elementary in Novato, CA, and we’ve accomplished so much in the few weeks we’ve been there. I’ve had parents and teachers tell me that the children are coming home talking about the vegetable of the week and saying things like, “It’s so important to try new foods,” and asking their parents to make them spinach smoothies. I promise, I’m telling the vegetable truth!

In addition to every member of the school receiving free access my Joyful 12 Online Kitchen Learning Lab to learn how to cook vegetables at home with their families, the amazing thing about our project has been the community effort from teachers to parents to community partners that have made it possible for us to help this school community excite, educate, and empower 360 children in Novato to learn how to explore seasonal vegetables as their new healthy (and delicious) food culture!

Each Monday, 360 kids have sampled our vegetable of the week through the school food samples I’ve been making with Miguel Villarreal, Director of Food and Nutritional Services for NUSD, and his dietetic interns Dorette Franks and Robin Larkson: Brussels sprouts, asparagus, spinach, and this week was peas!

Each Wednesday, our friends and partners, Chefs Elianna Friedman, Amy Nghe and Rachel Kiichli from Bay Leaf Kitchen, have taught anywhere from 30-50 kids of the school as I’ve been teaching their parents how to cook the vegetable of the week at least two different ways. Last week, we made a spring spinach Minestrone and Spinach Pesto Toasts (in just an hour!) and this week was a Spring Pea Fried Rice and fresh strawberries for dessert.

Our vegetable report cards in the gymnasium are filling up with kids declaring they’ve tried the vegetable of the week with their stickers (see photo attached of weeks 1-3)! Kids will fill out their last board for peas this week!

Huge thanks to all of our partners in the Bay Area for their support of this pilot: Director Miguel Villarreal and the Food and Nutritional Services Department of NUSD, Bay Leaf Kitchen, Whole Foods Market® Novato, The Humane Society of the United States, and the SF-Marin Food Bank. Our amazing chefs, educators, and dietetic interns: Amy Orlandi, Dorette Franks, Robin Larkson, and Delaney Kidd.

If all this talk of peas has made you crave a heaping plate of them, you can make our Spring Pea Veggie Fried Rice at home with your kids and experience the joy we felt when this Novato community came together to celebrate cooking, eating, and relishing seasonal veggies!

Spring Pea Veggie Fried Rice

2015-03-27 17:11:32

Serves 8

Save Recipe

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

30 min

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

30 min

Ingredients

Pre-cooked and chilled brown rice, 6 cups (cooked)
Coconut oil or vegetable oil, 2 TBS
Carrots, 2
Ginger (fresh), 1 TBS
Green onions, 1 bunch
Green peas, 1 cup (fresh shelled or frozen)
Eggs, 2
Tamari (gluten free soy sauce), 1/2 cup
Sesame oil (dark), 2 TBS
Lime, 1

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Cook the brown rice in advance. This is a great thing to do the night before. Cook according to package instructions. Hold in refrigerator.
Peel and grate the carrots, peel and mince the ginger, slice green onions into small dice (both the white and green parts). Set aside some of the green tops of the onions as a garnish!
Shell fresh peas (or use frozen).
Chop cilantro and set aside as a garnish.
Zest and juice lime.
Crack eggs into bowl and beat them with a fork.

Cook

In a large deep bottom pan, heat the oil over medium high heat and cook the carrot and ginger for approximately 3 minutes.
Next add your other vegetables (scallions and peas) and cook an additional 2 minutes on medium high. *Note – you can substitute whatever vegetables you have on hand for what’s in this list, including frozen veggies. Try to make sure there is a variety of colors – green, red, orange, etc.
Push the vegetables to the left side of the pan. Next add your two eggs that you have lightly beaten with a fork in a separate bowl. You will scramble them on the right side of the pan and then mix them into the vegetables.
Add your tamari and sesame oil, and check for flavoring. Add the juice of ½ lime. Cut the other ½ lime into wedges to garnish each serving of the fried rice.
Mix in the chilled rice well and cook for an additional two minutes on medium high heat or until heated through.
To serve, you can top each bowl with extra green onion and cilantro.

By Chef Hollie

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Veggie Fried Rice–My go-to Meatless Monday Meal!

Jan 19 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

Every week, we have to figure out what to cook while also handling the one million other chores our lives demand. It ain’t easy! But when it comes to Mondays, I love getting off to a great start by joining families across the nation in eating a meatless meal.

Almost seven years ago, I started teaching cooking to kids in the New York Housing authority as part of my job as a chef instructor at The Sylvia Center. We focused on what was growing in season, always cooking one savory vegetable dish and one sweet dish for dessert in class. Every now and then, a child would ask, “Hey, where’s the meat?” Our answer was simple but true, “You already know how to eat meat! We’re going to focus on learning how delicious vegetables and fruits can be.” Usually, that’s the last I’d hear about the meat!

The key to our success was keeping the recipes simple, focusing on flavor, and introducing new vegetables and fruits in a way the kids were already familiar with, like veggie fried rice. It’s one of those recipes that even today I use and tweak by season in my Joyful 12 Kitchen Learning Lab and in my own home kitchen.

So when you’re scratching your head about what to cook on Meatless Monday, don’t sweat it. My Sweet Treat to Eat Kohlrabi and Sweet Potato Fried Rice is guaranteed to be easy and please your entire family.

Here are my two tips to make this your go-to Meatless Monday meal of choice:

Shorten your cooking time by saving some of your brown rice from take-out or from another meal that required you to cook it. The texture of fried rice is best when cold rice is used instead of freshly cooked!
Use frozen veggies when fresh are not available. Fried rice is SO forgiving. The rule I use is to keep it colorful. Maybe you’ll put in frozen peas and frozen broccoli but add a fresh carrot or red bell pepper to keep a fresh taste and crunchy texture.

If you want to learn how to cook veggies your kids will demand, join my Joyful 12 Online Kitchen Learning Lab. You will learn over 100 family friendly, gluten and allergy free, recipes to love cooking and eating seasonal veggies every month of the year and improve the health of your children with JOY!

Sweet Treat To Eat Kohlrabi and Sweet Potato Fried Rice

2015-01-14 16:18:55

Serves 4

Culinary note: this recipe requires pre-cooked brown rice. A great shortcut is to use up extra from take-out. Fried rice actually works best with cold rice which guarantees that perfect chewy-tender texture. Otherwise, you will need to cook 2 cups dry brown rice to yield the 6 cups cooked this recipe is created for. Follow the cooking instructions on the rice packaging.

Save Recipe

Prep Time

25 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

25 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

kohlrabi (purple or green), 1 small to medium
green onion, 1 bunch
sweet potato, 1 small
bok choy, 2 medium
eggs, 2
coconut oil, 2-3 TBS
hoisin, 3 TBS
worcestershire sauce, gluten free, 3 TBS
rice wine vinegar, 2 TBS (or 1 lime)
sriracha, 1 tsp
tamari (gluten free soy sauce), 2 TBS
brown rice, 6 cups cooked
cilantro (fresh), 1 small bunch

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Wash all produce.
Cut green onions into rounds. Separate the white bottoms from the green tops. You’ll cook the white bottoms and save the green tops to garnish the fried rice.
Peel and grate sweet potato on the big holes of a cheese grater.
Cut bok choy into small pieces.
Peel and cut kohlrabi into rounds. Then cut slices and then dice.
Chop cilantro leaves and set aside for a garnish.

Cook

Preheat a large skillet or sauté pan over medium high heat. You want a pan large enough to eventually hold all the vegetables, plus the cooked rice.
Add two tablespoons coconut oil to the preheated pan.
Add the whites of the green onion and the grated sweet potato. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
Add the bok choy and diced kohlrabi. Add another ½ to 1 tablespoon coconut oil to the pan. Saute another minute.
Add worcestershire sauce, hoisin, tamari (gluten free soy sauce), rice wine vinegar, and sriracha to the pan. Stir into the veggie mixture. Sauté another minute to combine flavors.
Add the cooked brown rice to the pan and keep cooking for another minute or until heated through.
With your spoon, move rice and veggie mixture to the left side of the pan. Add the two beaten eggs to the right side and quickly scramble. Then mix both together with your spoon.
To serve, garnish the stir fry with the green tops of the spring onions and some chopped cilantro for color and texture.

By Chef Hollie

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Creamy Crab-n-Bacon Endive Boats

Nov 6 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

What a delectable delight to be asked by Whole Foods Market Northern California to share my most fond crab memories for their holiday newsletter. This recipe is inspired by a holiday love affair with crab–what better way to nourish and delight your loved ones at this time of year! Wishing you and your family a nutty sweet season filled with an abundance of crab.

Creamy, luscious, oh-so-exciting crab is in season! To be exact, since I live in the Bay Area, Dungeness crab season officially kicks off each year on the second Tuesday of November—barring crab conditions and price negotiations.

Where I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, we celebrate blue crabs, which are local to our barrier islands. As a kid, I would spend hours and hours patiently waiting for my crab trap to lure in enough blue crabs that I could proudly bring them to my mom to receive an abundance of praise. Being a kid, I always forgot this also meant a big cry after I realized she was going to cook them for her famous blue crab dip and the cocktail party that would follow.

Crab for me signifies a special tasty tradition that’s anchored around this time of year—holiday season. When you grow up next to the water, you have a respect for tides and seasons. You only eat oysters on the East Coast when you are in an “R” month (basically colder months), and you only eat crabs when they are in season. It’s just the way it’s done.

So as a chef, when I think of my favorite holiday preparation for crab, I no longer fall upon those Charleston traditions of rich and creamy She Crab Soup which require blue she crabs, I go for simple preparations that highlight where I live today—and take a California spin on honoring the Dungeness crab, which is WAY more exciting and plentiful compared to those blue crabs of my childhood.

I celebrate Dungeness crab by taking a playful approach with their sweet and slightly nutty flavor and combining it with a few savory and tangy components like fall apple and smoked bacon, a wee bit of mayonnaise and fresh herbs, and I tuck it inside tender endive boats that are irresistible to even the most discerning kid’s palette. I mean, who doesn’t love a small “boat” brimming with creamy crab?

Here are three more of my crab centered easy holiday prep tips:

1) To save time:

Buy already picked crab from your local Whole Foods Market or local fisherman. These professionals can save you time, energy and truly make your holiday entertaining a breeze by answering all your questions and even picking your crab for you.
My chef tip to ensure no shells are in your picked crab meat:
Spread the picked crab onto a baking tray, turn your oven to 400F, and once it’s come to temperature, pop that tray in the oven for just 1 minute. The heat will turn any remaining shells that were overlooked bright white and you’ll be able to spot them quickly to remove them. In fact, this is a wonderful task to give your kids!

2) If you decide to cook whole crab yourself:

Don’t overcook it! A general rule of thumb is to cook Dungeness crabs between 12-20 minutes—depending on their size. Your timer starts after you’ve placed them into the boiling water and covered the pot. And you’ll know your crab is over or under cooked by the crab shell and meat. When crab’s undercooked, it’ll be tough to remove the shells. When it’s overcooked, the meat will feel dry.

3) Don’t leave any meat behind!

We all think we have the best way to pick crab, but I always love learning from others on their tips to make sure to leave no sweet crab meat behind. Fine Cooking is a source I always trust, and their quick tutorial is one I’d invest time in the next time you’re about to dive into cracking your crabs.

Creamy Crab-n-Bacon Endive Boats

2014-11-04 15:05:45

Serves 6

Save Recipe

Prep Time

35 min

Cook Time

10 min

Total Time

45 min

Prep Time

35 min

Cook Time

10 min

Total Time

45 min

Ingredients

dungeness crab, cooked and shelled, ½ lb
apple smoked bacon, 2 slices
mayonnaise, 6 TBS
lemon, 1
worchestershire sauce, 2 tsp
fresh tarragon, approximately 2 TBS
fresh chives, approximately 2 TBS
salt, ¼ tsp
jalapeno, 1 small
green apple, ½
endive, 3-4

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Wash all produce.
Cook bacon until crispy. Let cool and then crumble with your fingers. Set aside.
Pick through crab with your fingers, looking for any shells that may have been overlooked.
Finely cut chives and tarragon. Save some chives to the side to garnish the endive boats.
Cut jalapeno into small dice, avoiding the seeds. Note: the easiest way to cut a jalapeno is to cut around all four sides of the stem, avoiding the seeds.
Make the dressing for the crab stuffing by combining mayonnaise, the juice and zest of the lemon, thinly cut chives and tarragon, worchestershire sauce, and salt.
Cut half the apple into small dice and add to the dressing, to keep it from browning.
Pull endive leaves apart. These will be your boats. One tip: cut a tiny little piece off the bottom of each lettuce cup to help it stay upright when you fill it!

Assemble

Combine the crab with the dressing and mix well. Taste for seasoning. Check to see if you want more herbs or more salt.
Stuff endive leaves with a heaping scoop of the crab stuffing. Garnish each endive boat with a sprinkle of crumbled bacon and chives.

By Chef Hollie

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Peach Bacon and Heirloom Tomato Toasts (PBT’s)

Aug 13 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

JoyFoodly is delighted to create recipes each month for Whole Foods Market’s ‘Now in Season’ program. Be sure to look for our recipe cards in your Northern California stores, and don’t forget to speak with your Whole Foods Market produce person when picking out your summer tomatoes. They always have the best tips and easy recipes—and often offer tasty samples.

There is nothing like a ripe summer tomato. Their sun kissed sweetness can not be replicated any other time of the year. Eating a tomato in season represents everything delightful about long hot summer days, when mealtime means reaching for something juicy, fast and easy. That’s what our PBT’s are all about.

When I was growing up in the South, everyone grew their own tomatoes. You could see wild vines reaching for the sky in every neighbor’s backyard. Who had the best was a matter never to be settled, but we could all agree upon one culinary truth. No matter how good your tomato was, it was always better tucked between two crunchy pieces of bread slathered with thick lemony delicious mayonnaise.

As a purist, I still relish those simple tomato sammies, but I also love to play with the amazing heirloom varieties you can find in your local Whole Foods Market and neighborhood farmer’s market, all with different colors, textures and flavors. Yes, it presents many more decisions to be made, but I love the adventure of it all. If you have ever felt overwhelmed with how to pick the perfect tomato, here’s an easy guide to help you make those tough decisions!

And in our Joyful 12 Learning Lab, I’m sharing all the ways you can prep tomatoes in your home kitchen.

In this recipe, I’m taking it one step further, combining sweet peaches and a tangy and herby fresh farmer’s cheese for our open faced bacon tomato sandwiches. If you’re like me, summer seems to go by way too fast. Make these heavenly toasts for your dinner or lunch today, and hold onto the taste of summer just a little longer!

Peach, Bacon, and Heirloom Tomato Toasts (PBT’s)

2014-08-12 23:56:20

Serves 4

Save Recipe

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

heirloom tomatoes, 3-4 (a mix of colors)
peaches, 2
bacon, applewood smoked, 4 slices
basil, fresh, approximately 3-4 tablespoons (when cut)
fresh farmer cheese (fromage blanc or a soft feta), 2/3 cup
ricotta cheese, 1/3 cup
olive oil, 1 tablespoon
salt, ¼ teaspoon
pepper, ¼ teaspoon
sandwich loaf bread, gluten free, 4 slices

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Wash all produce.
Slice tomatoes into rounds.
Cutting around the pit, cut peaches into two bigger halves. Then slice those halves into rounds.
Cut basil into thin slices or tear with your fingers. In a bowl, combine the two cheeses, about two tablespoons of the cut basil, olive oil, and salt and pepper with a fork until smooth.

Cook

Cook bacon until crisp. Set aside over paper towels to cool slightly and absorb any excess oil.
Toast bread under a broiler for 3-4 minutes, or until browned and crunchy.
To make your PBT, first slather the cheese mixture on the toast. Next, top with a piece of bacon, then slices of the peaches, then the tomatoes. You can top the toasts with extra cut basil to decorate and add an extra kick of freshness.

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/

Yellow Watermelon Feta Skewers with a Sweet Balsamic Drizzle

Jul 28 by Chef Hollie Greene Leave a Comment

Does cooking and eating well have to be hard? I’m a firm believer that we can all throw together simple snacks, meals, and sweet treats that are not just beautiful to look at but also seriously nourishing. That’s what this watermelon feta skewer recipe is all about.

Recently I taught a cooking class to twenty-eight of the most eager, engaged kids at Bay Leaf Kitchen Camp here in San Francisco. They built the most amazing summer veggie chicken curry, creating a dish that had layers of flavors. Their savory and creamy yogurt based curry started with blooming (or gently awakening) their spices in oil, then sweating the garlic, onion, and ginger to release these aromatics, and finally to simmering their rainbow of chopped veggies and seared chicken thighs in the creamy yogurt broth they had made. It was devoured not just because they liked the final plate, but because all along the way of cooking it, the sights, smells, and tastes of the raw ingredients convinced their senses it was going to be delicious!

What I love to teach kids is how chefs, just like artists, create food that’s as visually delicious as it is tasty. Colors, textures, and flavors are all tools I can play with. The key is to play, not strain, when you’re cooking, and remember that you’re smarter than the food! Watermelons can’t talk back.

If I apply those same principles to simple summer cooking, here’s how I’d break it down:

Have an adventure the next time you’re in the supermarket. Yellow watermelon vs. red? Yes, why not! It has a slightly different taste than red and makes you smile.
Think about the five flavors when you cook: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (or meaty). In these skewers, I choose feta to give that salty flavor to offset the sweet watermelon, and cherry tomatoes to add a little touch of balanced acid.
Use different textures in your food! In these skewers, the watermelon is lush and juicy, the cherry tomatoes are crunchy, and the feta is creamy.

Let the kid in you relish in just how fun and easy summer cooking can be!

Yellow Watermelon Feta Skewers with a Sweet Balsamic Drizzle

2014-07-28 12:14:15

Serves 4

Note on substitutions: we are using feta, but you could use your favorite salty cheese. For a vegan delight, use a firm avocado instead of cheese and just add a little salt on top. Pick out fun colors of cherry tomatoes at your local grocery store or farmers market to make the skewers even more colorful!

Save Recipe

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

yellow watermelon, small, 1
cherry tomatoes, 1 pint
feta cheese, 7 oz
basil, 1 small bunch
balsamic vinegar, ½ cup

Special equipment

wooden skewers

Prep

Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
Wash all produce.
Cut watermelon into medium sized cubes. You can also buy pre-cut watermelon, but I love getting a whole one. That way, I can blend up the leftovers with a lime for a refreshing drink.
Cut feta into medium sized blocks. Note: if you cut feta too small, it will crumble when you try to put the skewer through it.

Cook

In a small pot, reduce the balsamic vinegar by half, by letting it simmer and stirring every so often. Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer and allow the vinegar to reduce slowly. It should be the consistency of molasses, thick but still spreadable. If you accidently (like I often do) reduce it down too much to where it won’t drizzle, a quick fix is to stir in a few teaspoons of maple syrup or agave to loosen it up. Plus, it tastes great.
Set up an assembly station with watermelon, feta, basil, and cherry tomatoes, and ask your kids to help you put these together!
Vary the colors and texture as you build your skewer. Here’s an example: watermelon, feta, basil, then tomatoes, and repeat! Note: we leave our basil leaves whole and just fold them over as we put them on the skewer.
Serve as a snack or appetizer with a little reduced balsamic drizzled on top!

JoyFoodly http://www.joyfoodly.com/