Impromptu Greek Salad and Homemade Hamburgers

Ever since I eagerly devoured an awesome Greek salad at Westville in the West Village, I have been craving the combination of leafy greens and creamy feta. So Wednesday during lunch I followed my cravings. I wandered through the Union Square Greenmarket, beginning with a selection of a variety of lettuces, bright red radishes that were calling out to me, a red onion, and finally, feta cheese from Lynnhaven Farms. Back in midtown, I stole little plastic cups of balsamic vinegar from the deli across the street (shhhh). Then at my desk, I chopped and assembled the. best. impromptu lunch ever. The lettuces had that lively tenderness that signaled freshness.

So I assembled the same salad to accompany burgers for dinner that night, and then for lunch a couple of days later. By then, it was clear that two days in the refrigerator had taken their toll on the lettuce, and they now had the more wilted quality of supermarket mixed greens. See, the difference is noticeable! And although $6 per little tub, the feta cheese was worth it for its creamy, salty tang. It was reminiscent of the goat cheese my mom made when I was a child from the milk of the goats raised in our backyard barn. I didn't know how good I had it then.


As for the burgers, the meat was ground chuck from Hawthorne Valley Farm, picked up from the Greenmarket a week ago and frozen solid. While it took its time defrosting in a water bath, I improvised some hamburger buns that came together surprisingly quickly. The key was taking the necessary amount of flour and yeast out of the refrigerator that morning so they were nice and warm when it was time for baking after work. I used half whole wheat and half all purpose flour to give it a little more fluff than my usual dense all whole wheat bread.

It was a test run for my locavore potluck next month, and they came out good enough that I will be serving them again then. They may not be perfectly round and airy like store-bought buns, but they will be wholesome, made with simple ingredients, and hot from the oven. The recipe below is more for my reference so I can replicate it. And not so much a hard and fast recipe. Because there are things I'm not sure about. Like the ideal size of the pan, and whether the pan needs to have sides so that the buns rise upward. Advice is welcome.

I prepared the burgers with worcestershire sauce, and some freshly chopped sage from the deck. They were grilled to medium-rare perfection served with those salad ingredients again - sliced red onions, lettuce, and feta cheese, albeit non-local ketchup of course. Yum. I'm glad it's grilling season again, that the grill is fixed after a two week hiatus, and that I have another package of local hamburger meat awaiting me in the freezer for a future barbecue.

Hamburger Buns
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup warm water
1 tbsp olive oil

Combine yeast and 1/2 cup warm water and let sit a few minutes until bubbly.
Meanwhile, combine flour and salt. Then add olive oil, yeast mixture, and half the remaining water. Combine in bowl with a rubber spatula. Add additional water as necessary until a slightly sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and need 10 minutes, adding flour as needed so it doesn't stick to everything. Return to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in warm place for 40-60 minutes until doubled in size. (My warm place is inside my gas oven with the door propped open, and in that situation, the dough was over-ready and sighing back on itself when I poked holes into it at 45 minutes, so make sure you check on it periodically.)

Preheat oven to 400. Grease two small or one large baking pan. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and gently press down, pressing out air bubbles. Divide in half and set one half aside under the bowl. Divide each half into five balls (ten balls total) and place on pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let sit 25-35 minutes until proofed - the rolls will touch each other slightly. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, removing when rolls are golden brown and hollow when you tap the underside.

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Bicycling vs Spinning

May is Bike Month here in NYC, and I think I know why...because it's finally consistently warm enough to encourage the public to ride outside. Likewise, I've been biking a lot more these days. Although my bike is an old piece of junk that clanks obnoxiously, it still plugs along reliably, and I've gained enough confidence that I can now ride solo in Manhattan. Just this week, I commuted to work by bike for the first time, and I can't wait to do it again next week. Although, as I crawled across the steady upward incline of the Queensborough bridge, I thought to myself, it must be like childbirth, whereby you only get yourself to do it again by blatantly ignoring the pain it takes...BUT the "biker's high" I get afterward helps too.


Last weekend, I rode about 25 miles in one day, beginning with a refreshing but leisurely paced morning 10 mile ride: we got up early for the Brooklyn Greenway Waterfront Tour. Although I was running late, I was lucky enough to catch up with the mass of bikers at the East River Park in Williamsburg and continue southward on Kent Ave in Williamsburg, where they have just approved construction of a protected bike lane. The tour continued into the gated-off industrial innards of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They're in negotations with the development corporation to push back their fences for a Greenway alongside the water.


Next we had a pit stop at Empire Fulton-Ferry State Park, where they were nice enough to set up port-a-potties and offer water and donuts (which I happily used my willpower to reject). We headed past the future site of the Brooklyn Bridge park, where they have already started to demolish pier structures, and then down the first actual completed segment of the Greenway on the Columbia Street waterfront. It looks like an elevated paved sidewalk/bike path, and they had just planted little trees earlier that morning! Our tour finished at Valentino Park in Red Hook where there's a nice view of the Statue of Liberty. It was an interesting ride, although disappointing to learn how long they expect the completed waterfront to take (approximately another 5-10 years), but I really respect the vision and dedication of the Brooklyn Greenway organization.


Last week I also went to a spinning class at the gym with coworkers. I was curious to try it out and see if it would be a good way to train for biking outdoors on bad weather days. In truth, I found it to be godawful boring and torturous. I often have that experience with gym classes, since I'd much rather be working at my own pace or stop when I want to stop. In this case, it felt pathetic to be biking and sweating away in a black box or a room, spinning our wheels, and going nowhere.

Like A New Old-Fashioned Gal has said, in olden days, life incorporated a lot more manual labor, including the exercise involved in transporting oneself around. It seems silly the way people stop and take the time to run in place on treadmills at the gym. To that end, I really like the idea of getting my exercise by commuting by bike or walking partway to work on perfect-weather days.

Pros for Biking:
- Great exercise
- Contributes to my health
- Get home earlier than I would if I went to the gym after work
- Fun
- Biker's high afterward
- Makes me feel badass
- Helps me indulge my inner map geek when I figure out routes
- Could save money on metrocard if I bike enough
- Could save money by cancelling my gym membership, but see below
- Electricity-free workout (unlike the gym)
- Gas-free transportation (unlike the subway or car)

Cons against Biking:
- I sweat. A lot. As a result I get weird helmet hair.
- I have to get up earlier in the morning to have time to stop at the gym near my office to shower off my sweat before work.
- Bridges or anything resembling a hill is hard (New York City may look flat, but as soon as you're on a bike you learn it's not)
- Higher risk of intaking the pollutants from New York City air

And the pros outweight the cons! The bike wins! Now let's see if I can keep it up. And if I ever find a nicer bike. If you want to join the fun, check out all Transportation Alternatives for rides, resources, and volunteer opportunities, and Bike Month for bike events this May...like National Bike to Work Day next Friday May 16, complete with snacks provided by eco-friendly City Bakery at all East River bridges. Guess who's looking forward to that?!

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The Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Perfect Spring Dinner

Now that it's spring, what better way to celebrate than to head to Brooklyn Botanic Garden to see the cherry trees in bloom. Admission is free on Saturdays if you can manage to get there before noon. So last weekend after our hearty breakfast of eggs and ramps, we biked down to the BBG. Well I thought it would be mostly downhill. I'm not sure why, except that going south always seems like it should correspond with going downhill. Little did I know that it would actually be uphill most of the way on Washington Ave to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I guess that would be why they call it Prospect Heights. I was huffing and puffing, and the hill seemed to have no end, with just ten minutes to go before noon. But we managed to make it with minutes to spare. And it was worth it to see tons of pink cherry trees in full bloom.


I particularly liked the culinary beds, to indulge in fantasies of my own vegetable garden. I think swiss chard is such a pretty plant, with its bright colors and shiny leaves.


I also liked the garden paths winding around a pond with Japanese sculptures, lined with elegant weeping cherry trees, willows, and Japanese maples, complete with cute turtles sunbathing on rocks!



There weren't a lot of flowers out this early in the spring, but there were pretty tulips.


I'd like to go back later in the summer to see how the garden changes with the seasons, to enjoy more colorful flowers, and to see how the vegetables and herbs in the culinary beds have grown.


Later that night we enjoyed a great dinner that felt so wonderfully springy because I was lucky enough to find the first asparagus of the season at the Greenmarket the day before. I snapped the tough ends off the asparagus, rolled them in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then roasted them for 10 minutes at 400. Meanwhile, I let some quinoa simmer away while Jesse pan-fried thin flounder filets in olive oil and seasoned them with salt pepper.


To top it off, I mixed up an herb mayonnaise using garlic, lemon juice, and some parsley from my urban garfunkel garden. I'm not a big fan of quinoa. Although Jesse loves it for its high protein content, and we often substitute it for pasta or rice for that reason, I think it has a dull soft taste that can sometimes ruin a dish. But with a dollop of lemony fresh mayonnaise, the quinoa was transformed into something I could enjoy. And that is something to cheer about.


We enjoyed dinner with cold mugs of Wiesen Edel-weisse beer. It cloudy wheaty bright taste, great for warm spring or summer days, was the perfect complement to our meal.

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Ramps, Two Ways

Ramps are a sign of spring. And spring is truly here, with wild warm days that have helped my soul crawl out of the drudgery of winter. Spring has reminded me how great the world can be when it is actually sunny and warm and green everywhere. A kind of wild leek, ramps appear in early spring and don't stay in season for long. I was thrilled when I saw them at the Greenmarket last week and snatched them right up. They can be used in place of onions or garlic, and they are also traditionally eaten with bacon and scrambled eggs.

Since I've already used up my bacon allottment for the month, I chose to pep up my eggs and ramps with butter and a cheddary cheese. Together with a sourdough rye (also from the Greenmarket because I was too busy to bake bread last week), it was a perfect hearty breakfast. Ramps have a very distinct flavor, which is a little more earthy and pungent in smell and taste than onions or leeks. When I rinsed my ramps, I found they had a weird film at the bottom which I peeled off. Also, FYI, you can eat the white bottom part and the green leaves (unlike leeks, of which you can only eat the white part).


Scrambled Eggs and Ramps
1 tbsp butter
1/2 bunch ramps
5 eggs
1 tbsp milk
salt
pepper
2 tbsp cup grated cheddar cheese

Rinse the ramps and chop off the very bottom. Chop into small pieces and sautee over medium low heat in butter until wilted. Meanwhile, slice your bread and place in toaster. Then, whisk eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and cheese in a small bowl until combined. Once ramps are wilted, add egg mixture and stir continually until eggs are just cooked through. Butter your toast and plate with scrambled eggs and ramps.


For dinner tonight, creamy orzo with lemony shrimp and greens and the pungent taste of ramps. I think feta cheese would kick the whole dish up a notch, but I was too cheap to buy it after so many recent grocery purchases.

Orzo with Shrimp, Ramps, and Swiss Chard

1 cup orzo
15 small shrimp (I used frozen, cooked shrimp with tails already cut off for ease)
1 tbsp butter
1/2 bunch ramps
1/2 bunch swiss chard
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

Place orzo in a pot of salted water, bring to boil, and let simmer about 5 minutes, until orzo is tender. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Meanwhile, place shrimp in a bowl of water and let sit for about 10 minutes until defrosted.

Rinse and chop off bottoms of ramps and chop into small pieces. Sautee over medium low heat with butter until wilted.

Rinse and chop swiss chard leaves into small pieces, discarding stems at bottom. Add swiss chard, salt, and pepper to the pan and continue to sautee until wilted.

Add shrimp, orzo and lemon juice to the pan, and stir to combine. Cook another couple minutes until shrimp are heated through. Grate parmesan over top and serve.

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Dark Days Challenge Final Week: Skate, Lemony Kale, and Fries

This is a variation on an old standby of ours: fish, kale, and oven-baked fries. I picked up skate instead of flounder at the Greenmarket because it was cheaper and I wanted to try something new. We thought we could just pan fry it - but instead it took forever, stuck to the pan, and fell apart, and the texture is much chewier than flounder. Next time I would do some research on a better way to cook skate. Except there probably won't be a next time, because I don't think Jesse ever wants to cook with skate again.

As for the kale, I cooked it for about 15 minutes in a tablespoon of butter, a half cup of white wine, the juice and zest of half a lemon, and some freshly dried rosemary. It turned out very lemony, but it gave it a nice kick, similar to that of the balsamic vinegar I usually use for cooking kale. I thought toasted almonds would add a nice crunch, but for some reason the almonds were barely discernible among the forkfuls of leafy greens. While this kale preparation was fine, it was nowhere near as good as the kale with bacon and currants I cooked last week, which was just amazing. Now I'm wondering how long I need to wait, for my waistline's sake, until I can buy bacon again.

And we overcooked the fries, which stuck to the pan and fell apart in the oven. All told, not our finest meal, especially since Jesse was feeling sick and rested on the bed while I ate alone.


I also roasted several beets and tossed them with toasted almonds, olive oil, and an Italian Country Vinegar, a mix of red wine vinegar, garlic, and herbs. It will be nice to have those beets handy in the fridge as a snack this week.

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My Urban Garfunkel Garden

In just spring, when the world is puddlewonderful.
- e.e. cummings


Yesterday was such a beautiful early spring day. The sun was shining, New York City was bustling with people and plants and life, and I was in an unusually good mood. I've been feeling perpetually grouchy lately, but the warm day filled me with promise of brightness and warmth and happiness before me. As my fried Jessica put it, the day lent a nostalgia for what we knew was to come as in summers past: lazy hot days, sipping cool beers in gardens, lounging around lush parks, walking in warm twilights and nights.


I started out the morning with visits to both McCarren Park and Union Square greenmarkets. The little trays of herbs and plants at the market called to me, and I was determined to make today the day I finally got my urban garden going. My mom is an ardent gardener, and I grew up surrounded by beautiful lawns and flowers, and ate fresh broccoli and peppers from her vegetable garden. But personally, I never had any motivation to get down with the dirt and manual labor of gardening.


Until I started to explore local eating, and realized that the most local way of all is from your own backyard. Or in my case, from a container garden on my miniscule deck. I feel lucky enough in Brooklyn to have any outdoor space at all past a fire escape - ours is a little wooden deck with a grill and a rusty chair, used mostly when cigarette smokers visit. As well, I can walk out onto a small roof space from my window, where the warmth of the black tar will be good for tomatoes and basil later this summer I think.


Without meaning to, I selected flats of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme from the Blew Farm stand, just as in the Simon and Garfunkel song. Back at home, I was lucky enough to have potting soil left over from the previous tenants. And I had some indoor plants that were on their last legs, from the dry heat in our apartment and the ravages of our dog's teeth. So I pulled out the old plants and gently potted the new baby herbs and set them out on our little deck.


I also had a packet of mixed greens seeds that were a Christmas gift. I was too lazy to start the seeds inside a few weeks ago, so I planted them directly into a container bought at Home Depot. Now I cross my fingers and hope that the seeds will sprout, and that I'll be able to enjoy homemade salads before the oppressive New York summer heat kills them.

And so now, I wait, for nature to run its course. For fickle, blustery early spring to warm around the edges, for plants to sprout, for fresh crunchy vegetables to appear in the farmers market, for my herbs to grow tall. And in waiting, must not forget that I need not wait for warm weather to feel alive.

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Dark Days Challenge Final Week: Kale and Chicken with Bacon and Currants over Rice

In thinking of a way to use up the bacon I bought last weekend, I thought back to the kale salad with bacon vinaigrette that I had at Diner not so long ago. I loved that salad, with its delicate chiffonades of kale and crunch of bacon and breadcrumbs.


But I didn't think that the tight little leaves of kale I get from Garden of Eve farm would suit a salad. So I decided to cook the kale on the stovetop and make use of the bacon fat. For Jesse's benefit, I added in chicken (big strong man needs protein) and served it over rice (a complete meal must include a starch).


I also added currants, which was a nice touch. I think currants may be my new favorite pantry item. I bought them on my last stock-up trip to Fairway because they were the cheapest dried fruit by far (about $2/box compared to $8/box for blueberries etc, thinking I would use them to make homemade granola. Well, I haven't gotten around to making granola yet, but the currants were perfect in with kale and bacon - providing a nice salty-sweet complexity to the dish.


And while I was initially opposed to adding carbs to my green leafy-heavy meal, I think the rice also really benefited the meal, since bites of sweet black rice tasted wonderful with crunchy bacon. (Thanks again to Jesse's mom for the colorful rice!) The chicken breast, a lucky find at the farmers market a few weeks ago, was not the star of the show, and I would only include it if you have a craving for meat, or, like me, have a big strong man around who requires meat. And as for the shallots, you could subsitite onions as I normally would have, but I was lucky enough to get free shallots at the farmers market for having exact change :-)


Kale and Chicken with Bacon and Currants over Rice
3/4 cup rice
1 1/2 cup water
4 strips bacon
2 shallots
1/2 lb chicken breast
1 large or 2 small bunches kale
heaping handful of dried currants
salt
pepper

Combine rice, water, and a pinch of salt to a small pot. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 40 minutes until rice is tender.

Meanwhile, lay bacon in a large pan and cook over medium heat, turning every few minutes, until crispy. Remove and let drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

Mince shallots and cook in bacon fat over low heat until softened. Meanwhile, slice chicken into fairly small pieces. Add to the pan and turn heat up to medium to allow the chicken to brown. Turn chicken pieces over after a few minutes to brown the other side.

Meanwhile, rinse kale and chop into very small pieces. Add to pan and lower heat to low. Let wilt a little. Then add 1/4 cup water and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes. Tear bacon into bits and scatter bacon and currants over pan. Add salt and pepper and combine. Serve kale mixture over rice.

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