Friday, June 4, 2021

RECIPE: Scrambled Eggs with Senposai and Chive Blossom Hollandaise

Here's another quick recipe using SENPOSAI!  It uses only one pan, and dinner was on the table in 30 minutes. If you make the hollandaise fresh, add the egg whites to the scrambled eggs.

Scrambled eggs are my last-minute solution to the  'oops, I forgot to plan dinner' dilemma.  If I have spinach or arugula in the fridge, I usually add it to the eggs, so I decided to try the recipe with senposai.  As you can see, we like a high senposai-to-eggs ratio.  Feel free to use less. 

After dinner, my husband declared he was a senposai fan!  

The next day, he used the leftover eggs in an open-faced sandwich, layered between ham and cheese and then baked until the cheese melted.

The hollandaise is optional, turning the meal into a deconstructed Florentine Eggs Benedict.  I made it because I had chive blossoms that needed to be used, and we now use cold hollandaise instead of 'mayonnaise'.  It was so good I'm making a second batch before the chive blossoms are all gone.

Scrambled Eggs with Senposai and Chive Blossom Hollandaise

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 3 T. ghee
  • 2 cups chopped onions (1 large or 2 medium)
  • 4 cups chopped senposai, including the stems
  • 1.5 t. himalayan pink salt
  • 1 t. powdered jalapeno, cayenne or black pepper to taste
  • 1/2 t. cumin, either ground or seeds, your choice
  • 12 eggs, beaten to combine (I use an immersion blender for this)
  • Chive Blossom Hollandaise either freshly made or at room temperature

In a large saute pan, melt 1 T. ghee over med-high heat and saute the onions and senposai stems, stirring occasionally until the onions are dark brown on the edges.  I add the onions first and let the senposai stems steam on top of them until the onions start to brown.


If you stir too often, the onions will cook through before they brown.  If the heat is too low, they won't brown at all.  You want them nicely browned but not mushy.  This will take 10-15 minutes.



I clean and chop the senposai leaves while I'm waiting for the onions to brown.

If you're going to make the hollandaise fresh, remove the pan from the heat and make the hollandaise now.

Return the onions to medium-high heat.  Add 1 T. ghee to the pan, add the senposai leaves and cook for about 2 minutes until they're wilted but still bright green.  Don't overcook them as they will continue to cook after you add the eggs.


Season with salt, pepper, and cumin.

Add the last tablespoon ghee to the pan.  Add the beaten eggs and reduce the heat to medium.  Stir constantly until the eggs are half coagulated, 3-5 minutes.  

Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir until they're creamy, another 3 minutes.  There should still be a little moisture in the pan - don't cook them until they're dry!


The pan I use is enameled steel, made by Chantal.  If I cook the eggs on medium or medium-low they do not stick!  You can see in the photo below, they are not stuck to the pan.  

Even if they did stick, I would not use a non-stick pan.


Serve drizzled with hollandaise and sprinkled with additional chives and blossoms.





RECIPE: Easy Chive Blossom Hollandaise

We now use hollandaise instead of mayonnaise, since I've figured how to make it quickly and easily.  

Hollandaise is not typically spreadable when cold, and it's impossible to reheat, so most recipes make a small batch to be used immediately while still warm. I make a big batch, and use a little more liquid than normal so that it's spreadable when cold.

Using an immersion blender, it comes together in minutes, and has never failed me!

Original recipe: Foolproof Hollandaise in 2 Minutes

Chive Blossom* Hollandaise



 Makes 2 cups (1 pint)

Ingredients

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 T. lemon juice
  • 4 T. water
  • 1/2 t. himalayan pink salt
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1/4 cup each minced chives and chive blossoms*
  • Optional: pinch of ground cayenne or hot sauce

Scrub the egg shells before separating the eggs.  Save the whites to add to your next batch of scrambled eggs.

Combine the yolks, water, lemon juice and salt in the bottom of a pint jar.

Add the chives and chive blossoms.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over high heat, swirling constantly, until the foaming subsides.  Transfer to a 2-cup heat-proof liquid measuring pitcher, either stainless steel or borosilicate glass.

Place the head of the immersion blender in the jar and turn it on.  With the blender running, slowly pour the hot butter into the jar until all the butter is added.  Continue blending until it's thick and creamy.  

When it's hot, it will be pourable.  It will thicken as it cools. When it's cold it will be spreadable.

NOTE: adjust the amount of water, depending on your intended use.  Use 1 T. if you're going to consume all of it hot, use 4 T. for spreadable when cold, and use 2-3 T. for a texture that's thicker when warm but needs to come to room temperature to be spreadable.   

* You can use other herbs and seasonings!  I've made garlic hollandaise, lovage hollandaise, harissa hollandaise, and lemon hollandaise by using 2 T lemon juice and 3 T. water.  Use your imagination!




RECIPE: How to Clean and Prepare Senposai

It occurred to me that it might be helpful to document how I prepare senposai for cooking, to show how easy it is, much easier than any other green!

How to Clean and Prepare Senposai


First, I rinse each leaf under running water, removing any dirt caught in the center rib.  The leaves are flat and easy to clean.

I stack the rinsed leaves in my salad spinner.  One full 'load' is the right amount for 4 servings.

If the leaves are really dirty, I will fill the spinner and give them a second rinse.  If they're clean, as they have been, I spin them dry.

Next, I remove the center rib.  For some recipes I reserve the ribs, for others they go on our compost pile. 

The plants are young now and the leaves fit easily in my spinner.  As the leaves get bigger, I remove the ribs before I spin the leaves, and I cut the leaves in quarters so they'll fit in the spinner.

Compare this process to cleaning curly kale for instance - I rarely cook curly kale because it's so hard to get the dirt out of the crevasses!  The only green that's almost as easy to clean as senposai is russian kale which is also flat and mostly crevasse free, except for the ruffles around the edges.

 

Most of my recipes call for chopped senposai.  

Once I've removed the ribs, I stack the leaves according to their size.  The smaller leaves I cut in half lengthwise and stack both halves.  Then, I slice them (this is much easier with a very sharp knife!) crosswise.


The larger leaves I quarter lengthwise, stack all four, and then slice them crosswise.  If the leaves are really big, cut them into 2" strips.


Once all the leaves are sliced crosswise, I chop the mound into roughly 1" pieces. 


 
If I'm going to use the ribs, I chop them coarsely.
 

 
 
 

Thursday, June 3, 2021

RECIPE: Creamy Senposai and Optional Chicken Stew

There is SENPOSAI in the farm store!!!  

I LOVE senposai!  Described as a "cross between cabbage and komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach)", senposai, which translates as Thousand Wonder Vegetable, tastes more like sweet cabbage than mustard greens or spinach.  

It looks like a smaller version of collards, which makes it easy to wash and de-rib, but it cooks MUCH faster, in minutes as opposed to half an hour, and it's more toothsome than spinach or other salad greens.  I use it wherever I might otherwise use spinach or kale.  It freezes beautifully, both raw and blanched.


 

Here's a recipe I concocted for dinner tonight using as many farm-store vegetables as possible.  It's sort-of an UN-recipe because you can substitute most of the ingredients for something else.  It uses only one pan and it's ready in 10 minutes, once you've done all the prep.  I had dinner on the table in 30 minutes!

Creamy Senposai and Chicken Stew

Serves 4 

Ingredients

  •  4 T. bacon fat, lard, or ghee (I used ghee made from farm milk)
  • 1 c. chopped onions (I used green onions from the farm store, both the green and white parts)
  • 3 cups chopped senposai (I remove the ribs, slice thinly, then cut into 1" pieces)
  • 2 cups cooked chicken, cut or torn into small pieces OR 3 additional cups chopped senposai
  • 2 cups liquid - broth, milk, or water (I used chicken broth, made with farm chickens)
  • 3 T. flour (I used sweet rice flour)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese (I used gouda, but any melting cheese will work)
  • 1 t. Himalayan pink salt
  • 1/2 t. cayenne (optional, or you can use freshly ground black pepper)
  • 1/8 t. freshly grated nutmeg or 1/4 t. ground nutmeg
  • Chopped chives and chive blossoms for garnish (or sage blossoms).

Melt 1 T. fat over medium heat and saute the onions until translucent; 4 minutes for yellow onions, 1 minute for green onions.


 

Add the senposai and saute until wilted but still bright green, 1-2 minutes.  Remove to a bowl and reserve.


 

Melt the remaining 3 T. fat over medium heat and stir in the flour.  Whisk until medium brown, about 2 minutes.  Reduce heat to low and add the liquid, stirring vigorously with the whisk to prevent lumps.  Raise heat to medium and cook until thickened, about 3 minutes.


Stir in chicken and cheese, then stir until the cheese melts, about 1 minute.  Don't raise the heat or the cheese will separate.

Add the seasonings and stir to combine.


Add the reserved senposai and stir until heated through.  If it's too thick, add a little water.


Serve, garnished with chives and their blossoms.


You can serve this over toast (creamed chicken on toast), or with rice or pasta, but they're no longer part of our diet so we ate it neat/Paleo as stew.  We both went back for seconds!  If you replace the chicken with senposai, you can serve it as a side dish.


Here are some additional senposai recipes you can try: