It's just a little pipe dream that if we ever wanted to do something different, we think we could embark on this project together. So, we're "archiving" our favorite recipes from this here blog that could easily be a restaurant-quality dish. This is the first.
The Meal: White Bean and Swiss Chard Stew with Hot Sausage and Poached Egg
It had been a while since we had gotten together to collaborate on dinner, and we still couldn't quite decide on what to make. Bill was overwhelmed with swiss chard in his garden, and since I have never cooked with it, I made it his responsibility to come up with an idea for dinner.
The Ingredients: 1 cup celery, finely diced
1 cup carrots, finely diced
1 cup shallots, finely diced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups tomato puree
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained
2 bay leaves
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Large bundle of swiss chard, about 10 leaves
4 links hot Italian sausage
2 eggs
3 tbsp. white vinegar, any type
The Directions: Start with my favorite part - finely dicing the celery, carrots and shallots.
Put these in a large Dutch oven or soup pot with a few tablespoons with a liberal amount of salt and pepper for seasoning. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until just tender.
Add the tomato puree, chicken stock, and rinsed beans.
And the crushed red pepper flakes, thyme and bay leaves. If the stew looks too thick, feel free to add additional chicken stock and tomato puree. Taste for seasoning and add as necessary.
Keep this going over a medium-low heat while you prepare everything else.
For the sausages, fill a medium skillet with 1/8 inch of water. Add the sausage and cook over medium-high heat.
This technique allows you to cook the sausage all the way through without burning the outside first. Once the water evaporates, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet to help them brown. Once browned, cover and set aside until you're ready to serve.
(Once again, these sausages were from Touch of Italy. I'm actually obsessed. Hand made sausage makes all the difference.)
Oh, and picking greens from the garden and eating them less than a half hour later? Yeah, I'll take it.
To prep the swiss chard, cut the stems off. You'll need to go up into the leaves and get all of the fleshy stem out. Then, rip into sections how you see fit and rinse them.
Then, blanch the leaves in boiling water - cooking just a couple of minutes. Remove the leaves from the water and place into a sieve or colander. With a spoon, squeeze all of the excess water out. Then, stir into the stew.
Finally, you'll want to cook the eggs just before you're ready to serve. Plate up the stew in a shallow bowl and top with two sausage links. In a large saute pan, combine the vinegar and enough water to cover the egg when dropped in. Bring the water to a simmer. Crack your egg into a small finger bowl, and gently slip it into the simmer water.
As the whites begin to cook, gently fold the whites over on itself, enveloping the egg yolk. You can gently swirl the water in the pan to ensure that the eggs don't stick to the bottom, rather than moving the egg and risking breaking the yolk.
When the whites have finished cooking, gently pull out of the water.
Finally, top the dish with your egg and garnish with fresh cracked black pepper.
I would have been a happy camper had I ordered this at a restaurant. And, if you don't want to make this yourself, just wait about a decade and come enjoy it at our restaurant.
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