produce Archives - domenica dreams of calamari

We love spanakopita. We also just went to Costco and bought a pound bag of spinach so it seemed only natural to make spanakopita. This is definitely not traditional, but we tried to use what herbs we had growing and make it a little easier and healthier with just sautéing everything and dumping it on the pastry- nothing wrong with that!

1 puff pastry
4 large kale leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped of each; basil, mint and parsley
3/4 lb spinach
1/2 large sweet onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp mustard seeds
6 oz feta
1/4 cup pine nuts
pomegranate seeds for garnish

{serves 6}

[wilt your greens but not too much]

pre-heat oven to 400º F and bake the puff pastry for 15 minutes (on a baking sheet) it should balloon up; after pre-baking lower heat to 350º F
dice onion and mince garlic
in a large nonstick skillet heat olive oil over medium heat then add onions and garlic, stir occasionally until opaque
add mustard seeds and some red chili flakes if desired
meanwhile, clean and roughly chop kale, spinach, basil, parsley and mint
then add the greens to the sauté pan and lower heat, cook until wilted and dark green (see above photo), add pine nuts and crumble 3/4 of the feta into the mix, remove from heat
with a slotted spoon (to leave behind liquid) move the greens onto the puff pastry, leaving about a 1/2 inch border
bake for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is starting to brown, then remove from oven and crumble the rest of the feta over the top then put under broiler for 2 minutes on high or until cheese starts to get brown
remove from oven, let cool for a couple of minutes then garnish with pomegranate seeds and additional herbs

It is ridiculously hot in SLO right now. Yesterday I sat at home and studied all day but somehow still ended up feeling gritty like I had been strolling the streets of NYC on a summer day, thanks to the steady layer of sweat I kept up until well after sunset..even though I was stationed under the fan, with breaks only to make trips to the little girls room and to the freezer to remove and refill glasses of water. At one point I realized the reason my laptop was moving at the pace of an elderly snail, was probably because the poor thing was hotter than the outside temperature, meaning well over 100. I put it in the fridge. Not like I was getting much done. Heat is definitely not conductive to productivity. Anyways my friend was coming over for dinner but the thought of cooking ANYTHING sounded horrendous so I made a few cold salad-y things that required minimal effort and used up some of our surplus produce.

We got zucchini in our CSA this week, much to my chagrin. I’ve never been a fan and neither is my roommate. This was a big stress on my conscience this week…knowing that I’d have to mask those stupid zucchinis, also knowing it was going to be way too hot to cook anything this weekend unless dinner prep could wait til 8:00 when it finally starts cooling off. But we’re busy girls so this is not feasible. I decided to pickle them because as you know if you’ve seen this Portlandia clip, pickling is the solution if you’re in a pickle.

2 zucchinis
1 1/2 plums
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water

cut zucchinis in halves and grate them long ways using a carrot grater
slice plums thinly
lay zucchini and plums in a small casserole kind of dish and sprinkle sugar and salt over
pour vinegar and water over
let marinate for an hour and stir a little, adding more vinegar if it looks like it needs more moisture

I also have made Pickled Carrots TWICE this week because pickled carrots are especially great. We also had 3 bunches of them.

And here are some pickled onions for good measure.

Tag: produce

Spanakopita

Pickled Zucchini and Plums