Eat Dessert First: The Chocolate Tarte and Highland Kitchen (CBS Boston)

Go ahead, eat dessert first! I won’t tell.

There’s a stretch of Highland Avenue in Somerville, heading past the Somerville Hospital and towards Union Square, that doesn’t have much going on. Not much, that is, except for a bakery with the best cupcakes in the world (The Chocolate Tarte) and a fantastic restaurant (Highland Kitchen).

Pro tip: The restaurant often has a long wait, so put your name on the waiting list and then head down the street to The Chocolate Tarte for a sweet “appetizer.”

Read the rest of my article over on CBS Boston.

More photos:

The Weekly Vegetable: Spicy Cheesy Kale Chips

Joel and I received a Facebook event invitation from a friend for a potluck dinner dubbed Epic Feast 1, taking place outdoors at a farm in Concord on a Sunday night. (Epic Feast 2, which will be in October, is supposed to really be epic, complete with a whole roasted pig, but the prequel is just a small, friendly potluck.)

Joel made mandel bread (mandelbrodt - Yiddish for almond bread) - a recipe from an aunt's cousin or a cousin's aunt or somebody somewhere on his family tree. He had raved about his amazing mandel bread in the past, but this is the first time I've gotten to try it. It was amazing. I'll post the recipe at a later date if he lets me!

I decided to make use of more of our Week 1 CSA goodies by making kale chips. I've made them once before and they came out great, but that was with curly kale, which seems to be the type featured in most recipes I've seen. I had red Russian kale, though, so I wasn't sure if it would work - I think it's a bit thicker than curly kale, and less...curly.

Since I'm addicted to spiciness, I complemented the kosher salt with a generous pinch (or several) of ghost chili sea salt. I also boosted the heat with a dash of chili-infused oil in addition to the regular olive oil. Since I had some shaved asiago cheese lying around, I sprinkled it on top.

The first batch were kind of fail chips rather than kale chips. Just a bit overdone. Gotta watch these things like a hawk...they go from perfect to fail within seconds. Anyways, this one is a work in progress. People seemed to like the results, but it took me several batches to really get the timing down, and even then, they looked pretty ugly. Pictured below is the first batch, which was the biggest fail.

Ingredients Kale (I used red russian, but curly kale works particularly well) Kosher salt and/or a specialty salt of your choice (I added ghost chili sea salt. Any type of garlic salt would probably be good!) Olive oil Chili-infused oil (Optional) Cheese (Optional. I used shaved asiago because it was in my fridge, but something like shredded parmesan might work better. Asiago cooks kind of strangely, and to get it to a good doneness, you have to let the kale go a bit too long.)

Directions Pre-heat the oven to 350F; cover a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Rip kale leaves off of the stems, wash, and tear these into the desired size. (Think potato chips.) I discard the stems - is there anything you can do with them? They seem so tough. In a large bowl, drizzle a generous amount of oil(s) on the kale and mix thoroughly so all leaves are coated (like a well-dressed salad - not drowning). Add salt and any additional seasoning you'd like to add, and mix again. Arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet and sprinkle cheese on top. Set a timer for 8 minutes, but start checking on the chips a few minutes earlier than that. You want to take them out when they're just starting to get crispy around the edges, before they've turned brown all the way through.

By my fourth batch, things were looking up:

Check out the CSA Week 1 intro post to learn more about what was in this week's share.

Art Review: Dale Chihuly's 'Through the Looking Glass' (CBS Boston)

Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (And What Alice Found There) begins with Alice sitting in a very normal-looking room, talking to kittens. Sixteen paragraphs later, she’s through the looking glass, all mixed up with kings and queens, and beautiful, magical nonsense.

The Chihuly glass exhibit, running at the Museum of Fine Arts through August 7, is certainly beautiful and magical, although it brings to mind the whimsy of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (the original film adaptation; not the creepy recent version) more than Alice’s world on the other side of the looking glass.

Read the rest of my article over on CBS Boston.

More photos:

The Weekly Vegetable: Kohlrabi and Beet Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Another day, another CSA meal! Ok, we're only two days in. I hope I'll still be this enthusiastic come November.

The main course Friday night was barbecued chicken drumsticks that we had started marinating a couple days before. They grilled up perfectly. On the side, though, we made a salad that was bursting with leafy green CSA goodness.

Ingredients for the salad Kohlrabi  Beets  Plenty of leafy greens (We used small amounts of Swiss chard, romaine, red leaf lettuce, and beet leaves. I'm not sure if kohlrabi leaves are generally considered edible, but they seemed to be on the tough side, so we left those out.) Swiss chard stalk, chopped (just for some extra crunch!) Bonus ingredient: walnuts (or another type of nut, dried fruit, goat cheese, etc.) Ingredients for dressing Cilantro (about half a cup) Olive oil (a quarter cup) Garlic powder Lime juice (we used half a lime) Oregano Tabasco (optional)

Directions Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a blender until the cilantro is finely chopped. Peel the kohlrabi and chop it as desired. Have you eaten kohlrabi before? It has the texture of apple slices but the taste of a broccoli stem. Chop the beets as desired; julienned works well here. Combine the kohlrabi, beets, all the leafy greens, the chopped Swiss chard stalk, and any other ingredients you wish, and dress it.

This was a substantial salad! With a couple more ingredients, it could probably stand on its own. I'd add goat cheese next time.

The Weekly Vegetable: Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Spicy Sauteed Greens

For the first meal made with CSA ingredients, I was thinking big. I was honestly thinking of preparing everything from yesterday's "menu exercise" post. But by the time I picked up my share and dragged it - plus other assorted groceries - home, I was sweaty and grouchy and wanted something much less involved. I decided to push the elaborate salad until the next day and just focus on the gnocchi, which would only require a couple of the vegetables, particularly ones that didn't have to be chopped in difficult ways. I also took the logical shortcut and bought prepared gnocchi at Shaw's.

This dish was ridiculously easy to make. By the way, most of these CSA "recipes" that I share with you won't have exact amounts or cooking times. They're designed to be easy starting points for improvisation. (And by "designed," I really mean that I threw a bunch of stuff together in the kitchen, it actually worked out, and now I'm sort of telling you how to replicate it.)

Ingredients Gnocchi (I used prepared; make your own if you feel like it) Greens to sauté (I used Swiss chard and red Russian kale; spinach and broccoli rabe would probably be good alternatives, as well as most other dark leafy greens) Garlic (chopped) Frank's Red Hot Tomatoes (I used a can of diced tomatoes with chipotle that I received at an event ages ago) Olive oil

Directions Start boiling water for the gnocchi. While it's heating up, get your greens washed and torn and ready to be sauteed. Chop up a clove or so of garlic as well. Cook the gnocchi once the water's boiling; the prepared gnocchi that I bought only needed about two minutes. Drain the gnocchi and set it aside for a moment. Heat up some oil and the chopped garlic in a pan large enough to accomodate all the greens. (Keep in mind that greens like kale cook down a lot, so use more than you think you want.) Once the oil is hot, add the gnocchi. Don't shake it around too much at first - let one side start getting crispy. When the gnocchi is almost fried as much as you want, add the greens and the Frank's. (Give it a generous drizzle of Frank's if you like some heat. This is one of the main components of the original Buffalo wing sauce, folks. This and butter.) Finally, add some tomatoes - diced or however you prefer. Cook everything to the desired doneness. It'll probably only need a minute or so more at this point.

That's it! Not very ambitious...but it was delicious!