Greens Pie

You know, I've been feeling really good lately. I've been running again, eating incredibly healthy food (lots of greens, owing to my lack of sunshine, and heaps of raw foods too) and generally feeling pretty positive. I've been rediscovering bands I love, doing quite well in my classes, keeping up with the lectures I give at the uni, and even found the time to start proof-reading my housemate's final paper. Everything is coming up Milhouse.

So, to celebrate, I broke out the unhealthy food! Ha, not really. I broke out two small sheets of puff pastry, the olive oil, soymilk, vege stock and the bunch of Mangelwurzel leaves that I had sitting in the fridge. Normally I'd use spinach, or maybe even coloured silverbeet (because I used to have huge and profuse plants growing in my garden) but I saw the Mangelwurzel at the Dom Markt and made the purchase. If you're not familiar with it, it's related to silverbeet (chard). Mixed in with a creamy sauce and plenty of seasoning, this was definitely the treat that I deserved! Make it. You're worth it. ;)

Greens Pie

1 large bunch greens (silverbeet, mangelwurzel, whatever!) leaves and stems separated and chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 Tbsp white flour
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
soymilk (sorry, I never measure)
2 tsp vege stock powder
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp siracha (optional; only if you like a kick!)
+ sufficient puff pastry to cover.

Preheat your oven to 210 degrees C.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and sautee the garlic until fragrant. Add the chopped stems and allow to sautee for a few minutes to soften. Add the dried herbs, pepper and stock powder.
Add the flour to the mix and stir so that the flour isn't clumped. Allow to cook for another minute, to lightly toast the flour and get rid of that raw-floury taste.
Add soymilk, about a cup at first, and then more as you need it. Stir constantly to enable the flour to thicken into a sauce without getting lumps, adding extra soymilk as needed to make a smooth but very thick sauce. (Add siracha here, if you need the spice.)
Fold through the chopped leaves, allowing to wilt, before transferring the mix to an oven-proof dish.
Top with enough puff pastry to cover, and bake for about 10-15 minutes, according to the directions on your pastry box. (My oven is insanely slow, and took 25 minutes.)
Enjoy! The filling will be creamy while it's hot, but can set when you refrigerate your leftovers (what leftovers!?).

This is also pretty good as a side dish, if you cringe at how unhealthy puff pastry is... ;)

Asian Greens.

Ok, so here's one that may or may not be local. I'm pretty convinced that Kan Kong wouldn't be shipped all the way from Asia, because it would be revolting by the time it reached Germany, but I don't know in which greenhouse it was grown, so really, it could be from anywhere. I cooked this a few weeks back, before I decided that it was time to eat locally, when I discovered some fresh greens in my local Asian Supermarket. The fruit and veg selection there tends to be pretty unpredictable, so I capitalise on what's good when I can. At the moment, while I'm doing my best to eat locally produced food, I'm only shopping for fruit and vegetables at the market twice a week, so I'll just relive the deliciousness through these photos.

Kan Kong (otherwise known as Kang Kong, plus a long list of other names that are much harder to pronnounce, apart maybe from "Water Spinach") has long, hollow stems that retain their characteristic crunch when stir-fried. It has a strong flavour, with more bite to it than other Asian greens like bok choy. It doesn't have that same watery quality. It's perfectly capable of holding its own in a dish with a strong or salty sauce, and it's great stir fried.

I made this just as an easy dinner, to eat with some rice. On the rare occasion that I get my hands on fresh Asian greens, they get cooked without fuss or embellishment. I prefer to revel in the flavour of the greens, enjoying it all the more because I know it'll be a long time before I eat it again. This batch was cooked with garlic, ginger, and chilli - I think I added some soy sauce, too. Simple, delicious and fresh. I see Australia as a potential part of Asia, and despite European colonisation, the country is incredibly multicultural. That brings together a great food culture, and in Adelaide, my favourite restaurants are all Asian. For me, these are the flavours of home.

Stir-fried Asian Greens

1 bunch Kan Kong or other Asian greens

1-2 tsp finely chopped (or mashed) garlic

1-2 tsp finely chopped ginger

1 tsp chilli paste (sambal oelek is great), or siracha sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce, or to taste

1 tsp oil (not olive! choose an oil with a high smoking point)

Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic, ginger and chilli, sauteeing until fragrant.

Throw in your washed, chopped greens. Stir-fry for a few moments, until greens are beginning to wilt.

Add soy sauce to taste - remember that you can always add more later.

Cook until leaves are wilted, but stems retain some bite - shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes.

Serve with rice. Coconut rice is a good accompaniment, if you have the inclination.

Can't beet a beat.

Ok, so you probably can beat them, quite easily... defenseless vegetable that they are. Terrible humour aside, I think beets are great. Aside from being the easiest-to-grow vegetable I've had the fun of raising (let's not think about all the 40-degree days that decimated the rest of my garden that summer) they're also very easy to prepare. Plus they only cost Euro 1.50 for a bunch at the Dom Markt, which means we're all winners.

For the world's easiest beets, just trim off the greens so that you've still got three centimetres or so of stalk above the bulb - you don't want to give you beet a chance to bleed out all that fabulous colour. Give the beets a good scrub in some water, and place them in an oven-proof dish. Cover them with a lid, or foil if you don't have one for the dish you've chosen. Alternately, you can individually wrap them in foil, but I feel like that's an awful lot of waste for the same results.

Bake them until they're completely tender, so that a knife pierces easily to the middle of the beet -about 25 minutes for small beets, 30-35 for medium beets, or 45 minutes for large ones. I tend to choose bunches with small or medium beets, partly because I have a penchant for anything in miniature, but also because large beets can be a touch woody sometimes. If you're so inclined, the greens that you've removed make a fantastic side-dish (frittata!) or stir-fry - just make sure they're well-washed, because the greens do tend to hold grit.

Wait until the beets are cool enough to handle, and slip off the skins. They'll come off incredibly easily, stems and all, and will leave you with fantastically magenta fingers for a few hours if you don't have plastic gloves to wear. I'm not averse to coloured fingers, so it doesn't phase me in the slightest. :)

Store in a sealed container in the fridge. So little work for so much flavour!