After a wonderful weekend of rodeo at the (World Famous!) Williams Lake Stampede and the requisite high beef intake that that sort of activity requires, my stomach demanded something 1)something green 2)something bean. Suffice it to say, I knew I needed fibre and vegetable matter. Always listen to your body.
With that in mind, I had a most wonderful time in the kitchen with no recipe and just a few ideas of what I might make. Its days like these when I'm making something for myself for my own timetable that are truly great. If the end product sucks, nobody needs to know about it or go hungry for it. Happily, my experiment proved to be exquisite that I will make this again.
The greens I had on hand were: rainbow chard, kale and beet greens.
...all from my organic box courtesy of P&R Organics. I love getting the organic box. With only a bike for grocery transportation, its so much easier to have the bulk of my weekly purchases delivered. My only quarrel, especially in the greens department, is the volume of greens I get. Because greens cook down to nothing, its important to have a mountain of them.
I chopped 5 cloves of garlic, softened half of it in a frying pan with a little sunflower oil. I cooked the kale first (because it takes longer to cook than other greens) in fish sauce added to stock. 5-10 minutes.
...all from my organic box courtesy of P&R Organics. I love getting the organic box. With only a bike for grocery transportation, its so much easier to have the bulk of my weekly purchases delivered. My only quarrel, especially in the greens department, is the volume of greens I get. Because greens cook down to nothing, its important to have a mountain of them.I chopped 5 cloves of garlic, softened half of it in a frying pan with a little sunflower oil. I cooked the kale first (because it takes longer to cook than other greens) in fish sauce added to stock. 5-10 minutes.
Once the greens wilted, I could season to my hearts content:Lemon to temper the saltiness of the fish sauce (lime would have been better, because its more sour and has less citrus flavour).
Handful of chili flake for a kick. (It ended up nice and spicy like I like it)
Sugar balances the sour of the lemon.
I had set the basmati rice (3/4 of a cup) to cook with a couple handfuls of dry lentils. No presoaking necessary, these cook up nice and firm once the rice is ready. Once the greens were cooked, I removed them from the cooking liquid and used the cooking liquid to finish the rice cooking, thereby retaining all the goodness I cooked out of my greens.
Then the greens are added to the rice and lentil mixture in a wok...Further seasonings included a couple dashes of cumin and coriander, but just enough to lift the savouriness of the dish and not ever power it with thier flavour (I love a good curry, but this was not a curry).
The key flavourings, added at the end were the rest of the chopped garlic (added 2-3 minutes before the cooking was finished). Garlic flavour is soooooo much more potent when fresh and give a nice punch to the dish. Once removed from the heat, I poured a couple generous dallops of seasame oil. Also to be added at the end of the cooking process, sesame oil looses its distinct and delicate flavour if cooked. It is best added as the last thing, ensuring a delightful nutty flavour to the final creation.
The final masterpeice.
Delicious and filling and super healthy. It was part of my healing process after a high meat weekend.
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