On 02/21/2013 08:53 PM, Julie Bove wrote:
> "Todd" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi All,
>>
>> If you were teaching beginners 101 swiss chards, what
>> you teach?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> -T
>
> I have only ever made them one way. It was a recipe I saw online for Quick
> Swiss Chard Supper. I only made it because we were getting CSA baskets in
> those days and the chard was in there. I could tell by looking at it that
> none of us would eat it on its own.
>
> Basically if you have the larger leaves, you need to cut out the ribs and
> either discard them or cook separately. If you are going to cook them, they
> need to be finely chopped and they will take longer to cook than your
> leaves. Then for this recipe, the leaves were finely minced. I did use
> both pieces and didn't exactly follow the recipe because it had you cook the
> chard first and then add ground beef to it. I didn't find that the chard
> needed that much cooking.
>
> So... First I added the chopped ribs and cooked them in a little olive oil
> for a couple of minutes. Then I added the minced leaves, a chopped pepper
> and maybe some chopped celery if I had it. Then a pound of ground beef.
> Salt and pepper. Cook through, stirring and chopping at the meat to break
> it up until the meat is browned.
>
> Then... And you might not like this step... Add enough sweet rice flour to
> coat the meat. Recipe called for regular flour but we were gluten free in
> those days. Cook for another minute, mixing well to get the flour cooked
> through. Then slowly add some beef broth, milk or cream to make a gravy.
> The liquid must be added slowly and stirred through as it cooks. As soon as
> it is mostly absorbed, you add a little more. And keep doing this until a
> nice gravy forms.
>
> This gravy would then be served over mashed potatoes, rice, pasta, or even
> toast. All of which are things you would be unlikely to do. But I will
> sometimes use green or wax beans (well cooked) as a substitute for pasta.
> So you could either do this or make the end result pretty thick and serve as
> a soup. You could even leave out the thickening if you are going to do
> this.
>
> The whole idea behind this recipe is to disguise the chard so that hopefully
> your family will eat it. And this did work for the first few times I served
> it. But then they began to wonder. What are those little red flecks in my
> food? And then they saw the chard. And then they freaked. And then it was
> all over. And this is why I no longer bother to serve Swiss Chard.
>
> When Angela was young, we used to get salads at McDonalds and they had in
> them what I may have mistakenly labeled as baby Swiss Chard. They were tiny
> green leaves that looked like spinach but had a red rib to them. But in
> looking up spinach for you I see that they may in fact have been a variety
> of spinach. Someone else suggested beet leaves. But more and more I am
> thinking they were spinach. If I could get a huge bag of that, she'd be
> happy as a clam! But I have only ever seen it mixed with other stuff that
> she doesn't like.
>
> I do believe that chard can be used in a salad but I've never tried it. And
> raw foodists will use it in lieu of bread or a taco shell to make wraps,
> tacos, etc. Again, never tried that either. But all you do there is wash
> it well and wrap your filling in it. They would use a faux tuna salad made
> of walnuts or some sort of vegetable thing maybe with sprouted lentils,
> sprouted garbanzo beans or corn.
>
>

Wow! Thank you!

-T