Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen (39 page)

1.
Place a large (10-to 12-inch) heavy skillet over medium heat. After about a minute, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Turn the heat to high, and add the onion. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the onion begins to soften.

2.
Add the bell peppers, salt, and garlic, and cook for about 1 minute. Then turn the heat down to medium, and continue to cook and stir (tongs work best) for only about 5 minutes longer. The peppers should be barely cooked. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

spinach with garlic

Makes 2 to 3 servings

S
o simple, and so good. This delicious little dish cooks so fast, you can make successive batches and the first batch will still be hot by the time you’re finished with the second. Another reason to make it twice: The first batch might be gone before you get to the second. People walking through your kitchen, armed with forks, know how to make this disappear. You can make this with fresh or frozen (either whole-leaf or chopped) spinach. For this dish, they’re pretty much interchangeable.

1.
If using fresh spinach, place it in a colander and rinse well. Shake to remove most, but not all, of the water clinging to the leaves. If using frozen spinach, thaw it in a colander by running it under room-temperature tap water, and then let it drain well, pressing out most of the excess liquid with the back of a spoon. (It doesn’t have to be bone-dry—just not soupy.)

2.
Place a large (10-to 12-inch) heavy skillet over medium-low heat, add the tablespoon of water and the olive oil, and heat for about 30 seconds. Then add the spinach, and cover the pan. Let it cook, covered and undisturbed, for 30 seconds for fresh spinach or 1 minute for frozen. Then uncover, toss with tongs, and turn up the heat to medium-high.

3.
Add the garlic and salt, and cook, stirring with the tongs for about a minute longer, or until the spinach is wilted. Lift out the spinach with tongs, leaving behind any extra liquid. Serve right away.

THE SPIN ON SPINACH

The year-round availability of packaged prewashed baby spinach has made it so much simpler to enjoy this great vegetable more easily and more often. I often buy spinach loose, in bulk, rather than packaged, which is usually a less expensive way to go. Look for bulk spinach in the produce departments of many supermarkets and at farmers’ markets. I like to rewash the packaged prewashed spinach, just as I do the bulk-bought kind. It’s a simple procedure if you intend to cook the spinach, because you don’t need to spin it dry. The water still clinging to the leaves after you’ve shaken them a few times becomes part of the cooking process. (However, if your spinach is destined for a salad, spin it very dry.)

braised brussels sprouts in mustard sauce

Makes 2 to 3 servings

T
hrough this dish, I’ve discovered that many people who think they don’t like Brussels sprouts turn out to be wrong. The trick is to slice the sprouts thin and cook them until they’re very tender. This makes for a bit more work, but it elevates the sprouts to melt-in-your-mouth status. It’s worthy of becoming your Thanksgiving signature. For a change of pace—and a lovely sweet flavor that goes with the sauce—this recipe uses shallots instead of onions or garlic. They’re easy to find and easy to cut if you use a very sharp paring knife. You can use any kind of prepared mustard in this recipe. I have made it with everything from Dijon to good old French’s yellow.

1.
Use a very sharp knife to cut off and discard the base of the Brussels sprouts. (As you do so, the outer leaves will fall off. Keep and use any that are not bruised!) Then slice a piece from one side, place the sprout cut side down (for slicing stability), and cut the sprout crosswise into about 5 slices (more or less, depending on its size). Repeat until you have cut up all the sprouts in this way.

2.
Place a large (10-to 12-inch) heavy skillet over medium heat. After about a minute, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the shallots, and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in the Brussels sprouts and salt, pour in 3 tablespoons of the water, and spread everything evenly across the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let cook, undisturbed, for 5 minutes.

3.
Meanwhile, combine the mustard, brown sugar, and remaining 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl, and stir until blended.

4.
Once the Brussels sprouts have cooked for 5 minutes, pour in the mustard mixture, stirring to distribute it well. Turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook, undisturbed, for 3 minutes.

5.
Stir again, and decide if you like the sprouts cooked to this degree or if you want to cook them a bit more. You can leave the skillet on the stove over low heat for up to 5 minutes longer, in which case the sprouts will brown and become more intensely flavored—it’s your call. Serve hot or warm, topped with a generous amount of black pepper.

dark leafy greens with very sweet onions

Makes 4 servings

H
ere’s your opportunity to become acquainted with some of those mysterious edible dark green leaves you are being told are so good for you. I recommend using some combination of kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and chard to complement the sweet flavor of the onions. Other possible candidates include spinach, escarole, beet greens, dandelion greens, and turnip greens. Don’t be put off by the apparent enormity of the quantity of greens. They cook down dramatically.

1.
Place a large (10-to 12-inch) heavy skillet over medium heat. After about a minute, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the onions, turn the heat to high, and sauté for 2 minutes. Then reduce the heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, for another 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and soft.

2.
Add the greens in three or four batches, sprinkling them very lightly with some of the
salt after each addition. As they cook, turn the leaves with tongs, bringing the wilted ones from the bottom to the top of the pile.

3.
When all the greens have wilted to your liking, grind on a generous amount of black pepper, and serve hot or warm.

LARGE GREEN LEAVES TAKE OVER THE WORLD (OR AT LEAST YOUR REFRIGERATOR)

Green leafy vegetables are huge until they’re cooked, and they can present a volume challenge for your refrigerator. They’re also fairly perishable. Two solutions: Either simply cook and eat them the same day you buy them, thus avoiding the need to store them at all, or, precook them slightly. When you get home from the store, put a large pot of water to boil over high heat, and set a colander on a plate next to the stove. When the water boils, turn the heat down to a simmer. Rinse your bundle of greens, still bundled, under cold water, and then dip the leaves (holding the bundle by the stems with tongs) into the hot water for about 10 seconds. As you remove the leaves from the water, shake as much of the water as you can back into the pot; then let them drain in the colander for a few minutes. Take the colander to the sink, and use your hands to squeeze any excess water out of the leaves. After squeezing, you will have a tight little bundle of partly cooked leaves, with their volume many times reduced (and their refrigerator shelf life many times increased). Transfer the bundle to a resealable plastic bag or an airtight container, and refrigerate for up to several days. When it’s time to make this recipe, simply slice the bundle into strips, and proceed.