One for the Crock Pot

I need a break from gnawing on Christmas chocolates! This recipe though vegetarian is also pretty stout. I like using underutilized vegetables just to see what they can do. Here, three ingredients, barley, leeks and kale, fit into the underutilized category. Barley is high fiber, kale is a healthy dark leaf green and leeks are in the same healthy family that includes garlic. My uncle grew barley and one year I helped him harvest it. Barley was one of the first grains to be cultivated and was a staple in the ancient armies of Greece and Rome. Italians sometimes use it as a substitute for the rice in a risotto, calling it instead an orzotto.

Vegetarian Barley Stew

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

1-1/2 cups of chopped leeks (about two small stalks, white and pale
green parts only)

1 8-ounce container of sliced baby bella mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice

1 cup pearl barley

4 cups vegetable broth

1 bunch kale (about 8 ounces) trimmed, center stalks removed, leaves
coarsely chopped (about 8 cups packed)

Preparations:
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add leeks and sprinkle with salt and pepper, saute until leeks begin to soften. Stir often, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic and rosemary. Increase heat to medium high and saute until mushrooms soften and begin to brown. Stir often, about 7 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, stir one minute. Add barley and 4 cups broth, bring to boil. At this point, I transfer to the crock pot where it simmers until the barley is almost tender, about 25 minutes. Add kale, stir until wilted about 1 minute, recover and simmer until kale and barley are tender. Depending on what stew consistency you'd like, you may want to add more broth. Simmer about 40 minutes.

Additional Preparation:
When serving, cool slightly, then add two or three of drops each of Tabasco sauce and white truffle infused olive oil.

Comments:
The additional preparation saved this recipe. Without that save, for me, the recipe lacked depth. Kale might be wildly healthy, but it also tasted flat and I had no fondness for its texture either (slightly rough). Once refrigerated overnight, the kale did relax. Served for breakfast, the recipe did just fine. Much of the recipe idea came from the magazine, "bon apetit".

Tabasco sauce and my new acquisition, white truffle infused olive oil, are my two very best recipe rescuers. Recently, one of the food magazines listed Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce as their choice for ingredient of the year. It's a widely available asian chili sauce and your grocer probably carries it. I'm pretty sure this ingredient is being used as a recipe rescuer too. Tabasco Sauce and Sriracha typically sell for under 5 dollars. The white truffle infused olive oil set me back about 40 dollars, fortunately, a little bit goes a long ways

I'd like to know what other people consider to be their very best recipe rescuers!

Throw it in There! Leftover Turkey Risotto

So my problem is how to get my wife to help eat leftovers. Lots of time there's not much leftover and whatever is leftover I can eat for breakfast. But, when you've cooked a whole turkey the leftovers are just too much. Heck, you might as well eat out if you're not going to try to eat what you've cooked, otherwise, home cooking is just too expensive! Fortunately, I can usually lure my wife to the table with the promise of cooked mushrooms. And, mushrooms in a risotto is not an uncommon thing so there was my idea. To this risotto add everything leftover from a Thanksgiving dinner and add a few sliced mushrooms. My little plan worked pretty well and perhaps this can give you a new risotto idea too.

Ingredients:
1 cup of arborio rice
1 quart of chicken stock
1 medium onion, chopped
1 slice of bacon, when cooked chop fine
2 cups of cooked turkey chopped rough
1/4 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup brussel spouts chopped rough
4 medium large mushrooms sliced normal
2 precooked carrots
2 precooked celery
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparations:

Being that the arborio rice only takes about 16 minutes to prepare some of the ingredients may need precooking (carrots and celery boiled for 12 minutes). While these are getting softer, cook the slice of bacon in a large fry pan over medium heat. Once it's crisp remove the bacon and drain some of the oil off. Don't wipe or clean the pan as we want some of the bacon flavor to carry over into the next step. Now add the olive oil to the pan and cook the onion until soft about 6 minutes. Add the spices (white pepper, cayenne pepper, sage and thyme) and stir briefly. Add the arborio rice and stir to coat about 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, turn the heat to high and stir until boiling. Reduce heat to medium, add the carrots, celery, brussel sprouts and bacon. Stir this mixture constantly as it cooks by a gentle boil. This mixture will take about 16 minutes and so I added the sliced mushrooms at about the ten minute mark. Continue to stir gently, add the turkey after the sixteen minutes stirring to warm through for an additional 2 minutes.

Serve with colorful sides (spinach and orange slices).

Comments:

It's a one pan and one pot dinner so not alot of clean up. Nice way to use leftovers. The cayenne pepper gives it a lift beyond the turkey dinner you just had the night before!