This spring (now summer) has been quite the whirlwind! I have been cooking, but have all but abandoned recipes for the most part. Lately our dinners have been "experiments" based on things I've cooked in the past, and it's all been going quite well. I am wasting less food this way because I'm using up what's in my fridge instead of what I bought for a specific recipe (and forgot about).We eat a LOT of greens. I chop up kale, chard, collards or tot soi and add them into whatever else I'm cooking. I volunteer at the farmer's market selling vegetables for the Food Bank, so each week I come home with whatever greens are in season. Sadly, it's getting too hot for most of my favorites, but a few native "weeds" are coming onto the scene that apparently thrive in 100 degree heat (not me!).
My favorite so far is purslane. People just go wild for this stuff at the market. It really does grow like a weed in Tucson, but it's actually a succulent. It has oval-shaped waxy green leaves with pinkish-red edges and has a somewhat sharp, astringent bite to it (but nothing like arugala). The coolest part is that it has more omega 3 fatty acids (the ones found in fish) than any other vegetable. And at $1 lb, it's much cheaper than salmon!
You can eat purslane raw in a salad, stem and all, but tonight I picked the leaves off and sauted them with some beet greens, olive oil and a bit of salt. A little bit of lemon juice would have been nice but I didn't have any. I don't think purslane is available outside of the Southwest, but if you ever get the chance to try it you should (or just come to my house for dinner!).
And in other news... yesterday I bought myself a birthday present: the 11-cup Cuisinart Pro food processor. Oh what a beautiful machine! I got it 50% off at Macy's so I just couldn't say no. I have one of those blender/food processor combos, but the processor bowl is tiny and I can pretty much only make pesto in it. Also, I bought it refurbished off Overstock back in 2004 and whenever I turn it on it makes a terrible noise and the motor smells like it's burning. Not the best machine!
The new food processor, however, is AMAZING! I was hesitant to spend all that money, but now I know that it will be worth it. It came with the regular chopping blade, a dough blade (the BIG reason I bought it), a shredding blade and two thicknesses of slicing blade. Oh my goodness I AM IN LOVE!! Yesterday I made salsa, and then made a salad of tabouli consistency by mincing up some kale, beet greens and carrots, then sauteeing those in olive oil and adding some curry powder.Tonight we made pizza. I usually make pizza dough with my Cuisinart stand mixer, but you have to let the dough knead for 8 minutes, and the mixer tries to shimmy off the counter because it's moving so much. Anyways, this post it too long with too many boring details already, but the pizza dough in the food processor was incredibly easy, took about 2 minutes, and I didn't have to let it rise. The crust would have had a better texture if I did though, and if I hadn't left my pizza stone in my Brooklyn oven (what was I thinking?!) the bottom would have crisped much better. Not my prettiest pizza, but got it on the table in less than an hour, which was pretty impressive I think. That's almost how long it takes to get a pizza delivered these days! This picture makes the poor pizza look much uglier than it tasted. Andy at the green pepper half, and I opted for the tomatoes.
