Turkish Greens, Roasted Potato and Portobello Mushroom Stew

The Well Fed Network's Paper Palate site has published my roundup of my favorite Jewish cookbooks.

I really put those books through their paces this current Jewish holiday season. My menu ended up featuring the foods of the Turkish Sephardic Jewish community. A large reason for that was in remembrance of a friend who was of Turkish Sephardic heritage who was a wonderful cook.

From Olive Trees and Honey I read up on some of the Turkish holiday food traditions. I also made some wonderful pumpkin pastries called borekas from that book. I took a number of ideas from a variety of cookbooks and added my own touches to create a Sephardic chicken soup with vegetables and matzoh-fafalel dumplings. From the Book of Jewish Food I adapted a recipe and created a chicken and black-eyed pea dish for my main course. I also served a vegetarian main dish of greens, potatoes and portobello mushrooms which was inspired from a traditional Turkish recipe. My version was adapted from the book Vegetarian Turkish Cooking by Carol Robertson. My recipe is very different from hers, but she deserves credit for sparking my imagination.

As part of a mezze or appetizer plater I served small hot-sweet pickled cherry peppers stuffed with hummus (chickpea dip). Noah made apple pie for dessert. Now, apple pies aren't traditional Turkish Sephardic food, but apples are a European tradition for the Jewish New Year and Noah does like making apple pies, so that's how that came about.

Here's my greens stew recipe. It is very flavorful and flexible. You can use other types of greens and it can be a main dish or side dish.

Turkish Greens with Potatoes and Portobello Mushrooms
Serves four as a main course, more as a side dish

Olive oil or olive oil spray
2 large potatoes, peeling optional, cut into 1" chunks (I used yellow finn, but regular baking potatoes work well)
1/4 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you like your food)
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
3 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 pounds of portobello mushrooms, wiped cleaned, stems discarded, black gills cut away (see note) and cut into 1" chunks
2 pounds of fresh mixed greens washed and cut into large, bite size pieces (I used a mixture of chard, collard and turnip, but you could use beet, spinach, mustard or kale as well)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup of vegetable stock or water
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon vinegar

First roast the potatoes. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees. Grease a baking pan with olive oil or oil spray. Add potatoes. Brush the potatoes with a bit more oil or use spray. Sprinkle with red pepper and salt and pepper to taste. Put in oven and roast until cooked through and browned, turning potatoes occassionally. This should take approximately 45 minutes or so.

While the potatoes are roasting make the stew. Melt the butter (or heat the oil) in a large saucepot with a lid. Add the onions and saute for a minute or two until beginning to soften and then add the garlic. Saute to until the garlic is just beginning to brown. Add the mushroom chunks and continue to saute for a few minutes. Add the greens. Mix well with the mushrooms and saute a minute or two. Add the sugar and the vegetable stock or water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and put lid on pot. Cook covered for 20 minutes or until the greens have cooked through. Taste and correct seasoning. (Add more sugar if the greens are too bitter, more salt and pepper if they are too bland.)

Prepare the tomatoes. Toss the tomato chunks with oil, vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

When the greens are cooked, assemble the dish. Put the greens and mushroom mixture in a large serving bowl. Add in roasted potatoes and toss until combined. Top with a wide ribbon of the tomato salad mixture as a garnish.

Note: Portobello mushrooms have dark brown-black gills under the cap. These gills darken any stewed mixture they are in. To avoid this, simply slice the gills off the underside the mushroom caps after you remove the stems. This is an optional step, but I do it whenever I want to avoid the coloration issue.

Chili -- Slow Cooker Meal for a Pressure Cooker Day

You may wonder, what did the Blog Appetits have to eat while Mom was eating her way through the Fancy Food Show? They had chili. I made a huge batch on Saturday night and it kept us well fed for the duration.

This chili started life as a photo on the cover of the January/February issue of Cooking Light. Gary saw it and immediately began requesting chili. I didn’t use the magazine’s recipe, but I borrowed generously from its spicing. This makes a chili that’s somewhere between mild and medium. If you like it hotter, goose up the hot stuff.

Because my man wanted a slow meal with lots of different kinds of beans on a busy day, I used canned beans and made this in the pressure cooker. You can adapt it for regular cooking by making it in a large skillet and simmering until the mixture was cooked through and thickened. (You might need to add a bit more liquid.) You could probably adapt it to a slow cooker as well. Proceed through browning the meat, reduce the liquid to 1 ½ cups each of water and stock, put all ingredients but the corn meal in a slow cooker and cook on low or medium for 6-8 hours. About a half hour before serving, switch to high, uncover and add in the corn meal, giving it a good stir every now and then.

Turkey Chili with Four Types of Beans
Serves 6 - 8

1 ½ pounds ground turkey (I used 7 percent fat, labeled "lean.")
1 ½ tablespoons sweet paprika
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons grape seed or other vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 canned chipotle chiles, chopped
1 -15 ounce can of black beans
1-15 ounce can of small white beans, rinsed and drained
1-15 ounce can of adzuki beans (or pinto or kidney if adzuki are unavailable), rinsed and drained (The adzuki beans add a slight nuttiness to the dish.)
1-15 ounce can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
2 cups chicken stock, homemade or purchase low-sodium
2 cups water
1-28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
¼ cup of corn meal

Toppings: plain yogurt or sour cream, chopped cilantro, lemon wedges, avocado slices, shredded cheese, fresh salsa, etc.

In a large bowl, mix paprika, garlic, 2 teaspoons of chili powder, 1 tsp of cumin, ½ teaspoon of dried oregano, black pepper and salt with ground turkey. Combine well.

Heat oil in a large pressure cooker. Working in batches if need be, brown the seasoned ground turkey mixture, breaking up the meat into clumps as it browns. Add the onion, 1 tablespoon cumin, 2 teaspoons oregano, 1 tablespoon chili powder, and chopped chipotles. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is softened. Add in drained beans, diced tomatoes with their juices, water and chicken stock. Stir well.

Place and lock lid on pressure cooker. Bring up to pressure and cook at high pressure for about five minutes. Open vent and allow steam to escape until all pressure is released. Take off lid.

Over medium heat, stir in the corn meal and cook until the chili is slightly thickened.

Serve with toppings as desired.