Al Dente

What to Cook This Weekend: Chard, Tomato, and Cheese Casserole

I'm in the middle of a light kitchen remodel. Who am I kidding? There's nothing light about any kitchen remodel if you cook nearly every day. In any case, the remodel has forced me to choose less complicated recipes that can be prepared while my husband is nailing down flooring under my feet. What's simple and can be saved for future meals? The good old American casserole.

I was given some organic rainbow chard from my neighbor's garden this week. Having never cooked chard before, I had to consult the experts at Epicurious.com. (By the way, I really love their new design.) I found this recipe for chard in a casserole. As it happens, I can also honestly say I've never cooked a casserole. My husband pointed out that the casserole is a staple of most American household recipe books, but I didn't grow up eating them so I don't have any of my own.

It seemed like a good challenge all around. The end result was this simple recipe (slightly modified from the Epicurious version). I also discovered that my husband is gaga for casseroles, so I may have to take a few lessons from his Midwestern taste buds for other recipes to keep him motivated to complete the flooring project.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 bunches Swiss chard, washed, center ribs cut away, coarsely chopped (about 8 cups), or three 10-ounce packages frozen chopped chard, thawed, squeezed dry
2 cups penne pasta
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
3 red bell peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups packed grated Monterey Jack cheese (about 8 ounces)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced

Directions
1. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass or ceramic baking dish and set aside.
2. Boil water and add penne pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy, large Dutch oven over high heat and add the chard. Sauté until wilted, about 3 minutes. Transfer chard to colander and drain well, pressing chard with back of spoon to release liquid.
5. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy, large saucepan over medium heat. Add bell peppers and onion and sauté until tender, about 8 minutes.
6. Mix in chard and toss to combine. Mix in half of each cheese and the breadcrumbs, then mix with the cooked pasta.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Spoon into prepared dish and layer sliced tomatoes over the vegetable pasta mixture.
9. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper and sprinkle the remaining cheeses over. Cover with foil.
10. Bake casserole until heated through, about 40 minutes. Uncover; bake until top begins to brown, about 10 minutes more.

Mac-and-Cheese Battle Royale

There’s still time to enter Tillamook’s 2007 Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Contest, where you can attempt to prove to the world that your recipe rules the comfort food category. For that matter, you can submit up to three recipes, and thereby cheesily attempt to prove that not only do you have the best recipe, but also the first and second runners-up. Last year’s grand prize winner? Tillamook Crab & Macaroni Bake from Elizabeth Guise. Oh, did I mention the winner gets $5,000? So, you can reign supreme around the casserole counter and ensure you have enough ingredients to keep you in cheesy pasta dishes throughout the cold winter months. Remember, though--even if you win, your recipe still won’t have results as tasty as my grandma’s classic Midwestern macaroni and cheese. Because that’s just not possible (lucky for you, she’s too busy playing bridge to enter).

Al Dente Investigates: Is Silicone Safe?

Over the years, Teflon and silicone products have helped make the excessive scraping of food from cookware and bakeware a thing of the past. But is it safe to use products coated with silicone or Teflon? I'm going to avoid the sticky debate about Teflon. However, I did find an informative recent article about silicone cookware on Dr. Weil's website.

In summary, Weil explains that silicone is natural and appears to be safe for kitchen use, i.e., pure silicone cookware should not leach anything harmful into your food. But he recommends being wary of the quality of the silicone products you are purchasing. If synthetic filler has been added to silicone during the manufacturing process, the resulting product might not heat evenly or could potentially include unnatural chemicals.

For more product-specific information, Weil suggests reading this article by New York Times food writer/author Marian Burros. Burros performed a thorough test of silicone kitchen products and wrote about her findings. (Free preview reading is available with sign-in.)

On the Chopping Block: Mario Batali

In an effort to drive away any real chefs from their ranks, Food Network recently dropped Mario Batali.

Said the almighty Food Network, "We do not comment on contractual agreements that Food Network has with talent." Does that mean they would comment on Sandra Lee's contract?

So why did Food Network drop Mario? Is it because he wouldn't use Cheez Whiz? Or maybe they wanted him to work with his brother, Luigi. In any case, it's a certainty that we'll see his orange Crocs on TV before too long (hopefully stained with Jimmy Fallon's blood).

Happy Hour Drink Special: The St. Germain Cocktail

 

About two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to open my first bottle of St. Germain, a French elderflower liqueur recently released in the U.S., which is, for lack of a more flowery descriptive, awesome. The liqueur has a lovely balance of flavors on the tongue from the opening sip, with notes of both citrus (a delicate lemon and grapefruit combination) and pear and more tropical fruits unveiling themselves. The secret, as in so many great liqueurs, is in the making, as St. Germain is produced from 100% wild, fresh, and hand-selected elderflowers picked only once a year in late spring--the time of year when they’re at the highest level of flavor and aroma. But the care doesn’t stop there. Elderflowers are known for losing their essence quickly, and for only reaching that peak of tastiness for a few days. To capture the flavor and the flowers, groups of bohemian gatherers are rallied to pick the blossoms and then deliver them on bicycles constructed to not bruise the blossoms. After that, it’s just a trip through a further secretive and safe transportation and maceration process. It somewhat sounds like a fantasy, which is really apt as the end result tends to transport drinkers to saying things like, “this is so good, it’s almost otherworldly.”

The interesting and complex flavor of St. Germain also makes it fun to experiment with it in a variety of cocktails and highballs. For example, shaking up 1 ounce of it with 1-1/2 ounces vodka, 1/2 ounce of lemon juice, and 1/2 ounce pineapple juice to make a Martini de Sureau, or subbing it in for triple sec in a Margarita, is a treat. But while experimenting with it is a tasteful exercise, St. Germain may be at its best with just Champagne and club soda in the St. Germain cocktail, which is a beautiful way to wind down during the last fleeting moments of summer. A season which is, like the time available to pick elderflowers, over far too soon.

Ingredients

Ice cubes

2 ounces St. Germain

2 ounces Champagne

Chilled club soda

Directions

1. Fill a Collins glass three-quarters of the way up with ice cubes. Add the St. Germain (thinking of Paris in spring), and then top with the Champagne and club soda. Stir well.

Posh Spice Is a Bottom Feeder

In not-so-surprising news, Victoria Beckham, a.k.a. Posh Spice of The Spice Girls, isn't the best source for nutritional guidance. Victoria recently announced that her secret to staying trim is 200 sit-ups a day and a diet of edamame beans, strawberries, and lettuce. It was also reported that Mrs. Beckham was drinking 2 pints of algae and seaweed shake every day.

Nutritionists say algae and seaweed are certainly nutrient-rich, and strawberries and soy are good sources of protein and antioxidants, but fats and carbohydrates are also a necessary part of our diets. It's been noted that when dieting, many people avoid all fats, which are essential for brain function. Going without can have a devastating effect on the way your brain works, maybe even causing depression. So that is why Posh is never smiling...