Lasagna with Kale--World's Healthiest Vegetable

I had no time to update my blog but I have been cooking a lot and eating so well over the past long weekend that writing about food seemed almost too much.

The idea of today's post came to me a couple of days ago. While watching the Italian movie "La Grande Bellezza" and looking at Rome's most beautiful landmarks, I started to dream about some of my favorite Italian dishes--vegetarian pastas and risottos.

So today I decided to make a lasagna. In my home lasagna almost always means white béchamel sauce and vegetarian filling that would make all of us happy. Béchamel helps my vegetarian son, who does not like most vegetables, accept any vegetables if I put them between the sheets of lasagna.

After the trip to TJ I came home with a large bag of Tuscan kale (to make the dish as healthy and Italian as it could be). In recent years, kale became THE vegetable and is often called world's healthiest vegetable. It features in almost all healthy diets and especially those detoxifying, based on juices. It is super rich in many vitamins, particularly K, A and C, helps lower cholesterol and when included in a daily diet, it is reputed to lower cancer risk by mitigating the genetic predisposition to it.

Kale has a nice earthy and nutty taste and a slightly firm texture thanks to which this lasagna, besides being healthy, can also be very tasty and satisfying.

Kale Lasagna
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
9 lasagna sheets,
10 oz kale leaves (one large bag), chopped,
1 medium onion, chopped,
2 garlic cloves, sliced,
2 tbsp olive oil,
4 tbsp butter,
4 tbsp all purpose flour,
2 and 1/2 cup milk,
4-6 oz shredded Pecorino cheese,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. In a large frying pan heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and fry on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until transparent. Add washed and chopped kale leaves and fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes until kale twiddles.

2. Make béchamel. Melt butter in a medium pot over the medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Pour in milk and using a whisker make a smooth sauce. Bring to boil, while whipping continuously, and set aside. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Preheat oven to 375F.

4. Use about 1/3 of the béchamel sauce to cover the bottom of an oven proof dish. Spread three sheets of lasagna on top of it. Cover the lasagna with half of kale and put half of shredded Pecorino on top.

5. Place the second layer of lasagna on top. Use a half of the remaining béchamel to cover it and spread the second half of kale on top of it.

6. Cover the kale with the third layer of lasagna. Pour over the rest of béchamel and spread the remaining pecorino. Cover with the aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the foil and let the lasagna bake for another 10 minutes until it turns dark gold.

Take out of the oven, let it cool down a little bit, cut and serve.

Fish with Thyme and Vegetables--Mediterranean Diet to Fix the Heart

Ever since I started this blog there has not been a longer break between posts than just few days. Until now. For the first time ever food and cooking became completely unimportant to me for almost two weeks. A dramatic health event, which affected my family member, made me unable to cook and even enjoy food. But at the end it came back to food again. The whole experience has proved one more time, what I often stress in my posts on this blog, that food and diet together with a lifestyle defines our health and also the way we look.

But although I believe in benefits of a healthy diet, I was surprised to learn that, even in this modern medicine times, before reaching for medication, doctors would prescribe diet to correct a problem. So again, food became very important to me, more than ever.

Today, staying in that healthy mood and convinced even more about its benefits, I made fish for dinner. I prepare this dish very often. It is a light and easy dinner, in the Mediterranean diet tradition. It works great with such delicate fish as sole or trout when no much seasoning is required. Thyme, lemon, olive oil, and vegetables do the trick leaving the delicacy of the fish intact. When you open the foil in which the fish is baked you can smell the aroma of fresh thyme evaporating from the fish. I usually serve this fish with boiled baby potatoes or brown rice.

Fish with Thyme and Vegetables
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 lb (6 fillets) of sole or 2-3 trouts,
1 yellow or orange bell pepper,
6 baby or 2 regular zucchini,
3-4 Roma tomatoes,
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,
1/2 bunch of fresh thyme (about 12 branches),
1/2 lemon.
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cut out 6 pieces about 12 by 12 inches,of aluminium foil.
3. Cut tomatoes in slices and put 2-3 pieces on each of the foil.
4. Place one fillet of fish on each foil, on top of tomatoes. Season fish with salt and pepper.
5. Cut the bell pepper in half, remove seeds, and cut into thin slices. Place a few on each fillet.
6. Cut each zucchini in four and put on fish (if you use regular zucchini take the seedy core out).
7. Remove leaves from half of thyme brunches and sprinkle over the fish and put the remaining thyme brunches on top of each portion.

8. Sprinkle each fillet with olive oil and lemon juice. Close the foil first alongside and then on both ends.

9. Place each piece on the oven rack and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Let fish cool in the foil for about 5 minutes. Remove from the foil and serve.

Spicy Papaya Pie--A Carotene Bomb

These days papayas are everywhere in Washington DC. They come mostly from China. They are yellow outside and intensely orange inside because they are very rich in carotene (vitamin A). For this reason papayas were introduced in Africa and in South East Asia, to prevent blindness among children. Since it is such a healthy and nutritious fruit, I have already written about it on my blog and I keep trying to incorporate papaya in my family's diet. But, besides that one recipe and fruit salads where I often include papaya, I am still in search of a perfect papaya recipe.

As I mentioned in my other post, I ate a savory papaya dish at one of my friends' house. I enjoyed it very much, especially that I do not eat scallops which it was served with. I was not able to contact my friend, who lives right now somewhere in Africa, to get exactly the details of that recipe, but this dish was so unique and tasty that really tried to reproduce it and started to experiment myself.

Through a trial and error process, I created something that reminded me of that savory dish he served. This dish stays slightly on the sweet side like anything made of carrot, pumpkin, or sweet potatoes, but I think it came out quite interesting. I made one vegetarian version of it and one with prosciutto. On the picture you see bacon, although at the last moment I decided to go for something more delicate and I used prosciutto instead. I think it was a good decision as bacon could have overshadowed the taste of the papaya. I prefer papaya with prosciutto, if is served as a stand-alone dish with baguette or as a seafood accompaniment (like my friend did it), but a purely vegetarian version is also worth trying.

Spicy Papaya Pie

Ingredients:
1 small very ripe papaya,
1 egg,
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan,
1 small onion, chopped,
4 cloves garlic,
1 tbsp all purpose flour,
2 tbsp sour cream (heavy whipping would also make),
1/2 cup chopped parsley,
1/2 cup prosciutto ( optional) cut into strips,
3 tbsp oil,
1 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp pepper,
1 tsp red smoked pepper,
a pinch of Cayenne pepper (or more depending on how spicy you like it),
2 tbsp breadcrumbs.

Preparation:
1. Peel off papaya and and cut into small cubes, squeezing gently some of the extra juice. Put in a large bowl.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil and fry onion for about 3 minutes. Add prosciutto and fry for additional 1-2 minutes.
3. Add onion with prosciutto to papaya and follow with garlic, egg, flower, cream, parsley, Parmesan, and all the spices.
4. Using a blender grind the whole mixture until it resembles cottage cheese. If you do not have a blender you can just grate papaya on a big hole grinder and add all the other ingredients.
5. Spread another tbsp of oil all over the baking dish and sprinkle it with half of breadcrumbs. Cut garlic into slices and arrange over the bottom of the dish (it will be absorbed into the papaya during baking).
6. Put the papaya mixture into the dish, and cover with remaining breadcrumbs on top.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until breadcrumbs are gold and the papaya almost brown.

Serve warm.

Healthy Quinoa Salad--Tabbouleh from South America

It is fall, but only on a calendar. Yesterday, on the third day of autumn, thermometers in DC showed again almost 100F. We still run around in flip flops (Thank God not in crocks any longer), while in some parts of Europe girls have already started to wear boots and warm coats. People in Central Europe eat hot soups and drink hot tea, while we keep grilling and refresh ourseleves with cold drinks. And, although pumpkins already preside over my kitchen counter, I still make summer food.

I have prepared another salad today. This was my best choice for such a hot day. I used quinoa, something very healthy. You may say that "healthy" is a very popular word when it comes to salads. By the way, can salad be unhealthy? It seems to be in its definition to be healthy, like no other food. But quinoa is definitely very healthy.

But what is it? It is not a classic grain, although it looks like cous cous or bulgar wheat. Quinoa comes from South America. It is a so-called psudocereal and, surprisingly, it is related to beets and spinach. It is gluten free and a complete source of protein, also rich in magnesium and iron.

Recently, probably because of its nutritious values, quinoa became more widely available at food stores. For this salad, I bought plain white quinoa at Trader Joe's. But you could also get there organic, white or red quinoa. When cooked, quinoa looks like grains with tiny sprouts.

I made a salad similar to the very popular tabbouleh, which could be served as a meal in itself for lunch or as an accompaniment to grilled meats, for example. As quinoa is rather neutral in taste, to enhance it, I used watercress with its peppery and tangy flavor. I served it with quarters of fresh figs, a seasonal addition, that gave the whole salad a slightly sweet taste.

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked quinoa,
1/2 English cucumber,
1 pint cherry tomatoes,
1 cup watercress--preferably leaves only,
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts,
4 fresh figs (optional),
juice from 1/2 lemon,
3 tbsp olive oil,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Cook quinoa according to instruction on the box (usually 1 part of quinoa in 2 parts of water) and cool it down.
2. Peel the cucumber and cut it into small cubes.
3. Cut tomatoes in half.
4. Combine all the vegetables, watercress, and pine nuts with quinoa.
5. Add lemon juice, oil, and season with salt and pepper.
6. Decorate with figs and serve.

Papaya Dressing--Healthy Hollywood Fashion

Papaya is a very nutritious fruit coming originally from Central America but it now can be bought in most supermarkets all over the world. I have been a great papaya aficionado for many years. Thai salads with green papaya are excellent but I mostly use ripe papayas to make fruit salads or something else.

Papaya has one third more Vitamin C and twice as much Potassium than you can find in orange juice and, on top of that, it is also a good source of Vitamins E, A, and K. No wonder papaya has many "believers" among Hollywood celebrities. It has been claimed that it irons out wrinkles and speeds up metabolism. It is considered to be so healthy that some stars stay just on a papaya only diet for days, or at least drink a papaya smoothie everyday as a first morning drink, mixed with tomatoes, strawberries, mango, or just water.

Until recently, I was eating papaya mostly for these healthy and rational reasons. I made some papaya-banana or papaya-mango smoothies with a squeeze of lime, and I tried to make various desserts including papaya, which I found tricky, because its delicate taste was not always easy to bring out.

Once, I ate at my friend's place a delicious dish made of baked papaya with grilled scallops and garlic. I will try to obtain his recipe and will post it in the future. But I think that this healthy fruit should be served fresh as much as possible, so all its nutrients remain intact and can benefit our body.

I have bought it today again not only for its nutritional values but also for its photogeneity. Looking at this interesting fruit, and its dark orange flesh, I was struck by an idea to make an exotic salad dressing from it. I thought that adding vinegar would make it taste stronger. I think it worked pretty well and I enjoyed how it made many simple dishes taste more interesting and mysterious.

I have made a big  jar of it and used for many purposes. Papaya stores pretty well in a refrigerator but a dressing made from it thickens next day and acquires a jelly-like consistence, so it is better to eat it the same day you make it. Here are some of my ideas.

Papaya dressing

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup papaya cut into cubes,
1/2 cup of grape seed oil (which is more neutral in taste than olive oil),
1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar or other good quality white vinegar,
1 shallot,
salt and pepper,
black cumin to decorate.

Preparation;
1. Peel off papaya and remove black seeds.
2. Cut the fruit in pieces and put about 1 and 1/2 cup of it in a blender.
3. Add chopped shallot, vinegar, and oil.
4. Season with salt and pepper,and blend into a smooth puree.
5. Use black cumin for decorating and to enhance the taste.

Spread this dressing on top of an avocado.

Serve on a delicate lettuce, such as Boston, Romaine hearts, or Iceberg.

Use as a dip for shrimps for a party snack (e.g., instead of the much heavier mayonnaise dressing or a spicy tomato dressing).