Broccoli-Mushroom Custard GF

This versatile one-dish meal is delicious, also easy to make ahead, or in quantity for planned-overs. I made the broccoli-mushroom version for supper for our 51st wedding anniversary: we wanted to spend time on a nice long walk, not sitting in a restaurant.

This recipe features a custard that surrounds both veggies and rice. The cheese adds richness, and if you choose the feta-cheese option, it also provides the salt.

Here's the recipe. It's helpful if you have some leftover cooked rice. I always make extra rice, 6 cups at a time in my rice cooker. The cooked rice keeps for several days in the fridge, or forever in the freezer. If you don't have leftover rice, cook some up right away!

This recipe makes about 6 servings.

Ingredients. All measures are approximate. This is a very flexible recipe! (see below for variations)

1 1/2 pounds broccoli
1 pound brown mushrooms
1 T butter
3 cups cooked rice. I think white is nicer in this recipe. I use short-grain.
1 cup feta cheese crumbles
3 extra large eggs or equivalent
1 cup whipping cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
Whole nutmeg (optional)

1. Pre-cook the broccoli by steaming it briefly in the microwave. Chop into bite-size pieces.
2. Coarsely chop the mushrooms, then saute in the butter until beginning to brown all over.
3. Heat the rice until soft in a 9x13 glass baking dish in the microwave, about 2 minutes.
4. Toss the broccoli, mushrooms, and rice together in the baking dish.
5. Sprinkle the feta cheese over the mixture. Use more if you'd like.
6. Beat the eggs well, then add the cream and milk and beat again. Pour over the contents of the baking dish.
7. Grate nutmeg over the top (optional)

Bake at 350 for nearly an hour. Check after 50 minutes to see if it's cooked to the center.

Variations:

• Use other vegetables. Sauteed greens, strips of pre-steamed carrots, sauteed onion, whole cloves of garlic, strips of sauteed pepper (red bell would be particularly nice, or if you want some zip, sauteed chilis).
• Use parmesan instead of feta. You'll probably want to sprinkle salt on the rice while warming it unless you use feta.
• Add meat, such as roasted chicken or pork; or add canned salmon. Increase the milk by 1/2 cup.
• Sprinkle the top with crumbs (no longer GF) or ground pecans or ground hazelnuts.
• Add 1/2 cup pumpkin or winter squash, cooked and pureed, to the custard before pouring it over the rice and vegetables. 
• For added piquancy, use sour cream instead of whipping cream. 
• Make in individual casseroles, adjusting cooking time. 
• Serve on a bed of sauteed greens. Or serve with a green salad, or fruit salad. 

Hummus - Basic recipe

I haven't made hummus for a while. I like to have some sort of beans soaking and noticed the bag of garbanzos someone gave me. So I put them in water a couple of days ago, and by yesterday they needed rinsing and cooking. I turned off the heat last night when I went to bed and just hoped they were done.

This morning I tested them and they were cooked enough, maybe not quite all the way to very soft but good enough for hummus.

I have a new food processor that would surely smooth them into a pleasant paste.

The food processor had a residue of green powder in it. This was left over from drying greens from the garden and pulverizing them for use in the winter. One pound of greens - enough to fill my picking basket - dried down enough to make less than a half-cup of powder. So what was sticking to the food-processor bowl was a significant amount, something I didn't want to waste. Green powder would make a perfect amendment to hummus, so after I got out all I could, I just whirred the cooked beans in the same bowl. (My food processor has 3 nesting bowls.)

Here's the recipe I use. If you like to measure precisely, this is probably not the recipe for you!

Basic Hummus

1. Soak a 1 pound bag of garbanzos for a day or 2, rinse thoroughly.
2. Put in a pot with a lid, cover with an inch or more of water, and cook until tender.
3. Scoop half the beans into a food processor (or less if yours handles only small batches), using a slotted spoon.
4. Let the processor work until the beans are mostly smooth, adding cooking liquid to get to the consistency you like.
5. While the processor is working, add several tablespoons of sesame tahini (made from raw sesame seeds). I prefer a hummus that tastes strongly of sesame. You may want to use less.
6. Toss several garlic cloves into the processor chute while the processor continues to work.
7. Add salt to taste, 1 tsp or more.
8. While the processor is still working, squeeze a lemon over a strainer and into the processor chute.
9. When everything looks homogeneous, stop the processor and taste. Adjust as needed.
10. When you are satisfied, scoop the contents out into a container with a lid, pour several tablespoons of tasty olive oil over the top, and refrigerate. Serve on salad or with raw or cooked veggies.
11. Refrigerate the cooked garbanzos and their liquid for another batch of hummus or to make another garbanzo-bean recipe.

This is a gluten-free recipe made only with real foods.

Spring treat - frizzled garden greens

We planted a fair number of quick-growing greens when we got back from New Zealand in April. We were eager to get something out of the garden, and some greens take only 30 or so days.

And then the 30 days went by (rather quickly) and now we have lots of greens, some of them bolting already despite our very cool June. They include several kinds of mustard, turnip greens, radish greens, kale (old and new), chard (old, just starting to go into its second-year biennial seed-producing phase) - a total of 8 kinds.

If I'd left them in the garden, they would have become tough and bitter. I have other options: leave them in the fridge till I need them (but there are more every day); sauté them and pack for the freezer against a day next winter when they'll be great in a soup; or….

Frizzle them!

I have done this before with kale but not as a regular habit and not with other varieties of greens. Here's what I'm doing now:

I'm looking over the greens when I first gather them from the garden. I don't want to wash them if I don't have to. Mostly they are fine, since I have harvested them by cutting them off several inches above ground level with scissors.

Then I'm laying them out on foil on a cookie sheet. The foil has been used several times, and already has a thin coating of olive oil, which adds a perfect flavor for greens. Once there, I wipe them around a pit in the oil, and if they seem dry, I'm adding a few more sprinkles of olive oil.

Then into the oven they go. The oven has been preheated to 400 degrees. Or else it is hot from baking something else, and that's the temperature I use. They go on the bottom rack.

Then I do my best to keep an eye on them. I don't want them getting black. They could use moving around at about the 3 minute mark. In 5 minutes, they are ready to take out, usually.

Once they're out, I let them cool off. Or I sprinkle them with parmesan. Or I sprinkle them with salt.

I serve them with supper. They're great on soup, or just to eat by hand with almost anything. (So far, with everything.) They're reminiscent of nori.

I'm thinking of crumbling them into leftover rice tonight, after it's reheated. Though they really are best when they are crisp, and it takes almost no moisture to soften them up and the rice may wreck them.

Last night supper got delayed by Father's Day calls from the kids, so I didn't go out harvesting. Instead I just grabbed a handful of mixed greens from the produce-keeper bag in the fridge to frizzle. So if you don't have a garden but want to have these very tasty (irresistible) healthy crisps around, you can certainly use greens from the farmers' market or store.

Let me know how you're using them.