Ingredients

Cooking oil/butter
1 onion, diced
12 oz frozen chopped spinach
8 eggs
Some fried chorizo (probably about 1 1/4 cups)
2 cups of cheese, shredded

Method

Boil the spinach for 2-3 minutes; drain. Preheat oven to 300°F. Butter the casserole dish. Put oil/butter in frying pan. Add onions, fry till translucent. Add chorizo and spinach to onions. Cool spinach mixture. Beat eggs in a bowl, add shredded cheese and mix together. Add spinach mixture. Place in greased/buttered casserole dish. Bake until top of quiche begins to brown, about 55 minutes. Remove from oven. Let sit 15 minutes before serving.

Comments:

• This turned out well, but I was just a touch concerned about how moist the center still was. Next time give it 60 minutes in the oven, and then let it sit for 15 minutes.

I'm continuing my experiments with palak paneer; this time I didn't do so well. Here is what I did this time. If this is your first time trying the recipe, use the experiment 2 link.

Ingredients

12 oz frozen chopped spinach
2-3 tbsp of neutral tasting oil
1 tbsp of ground cumin (better version is 1 tsp)
10 cloves of garlic, chopped (I forgot the garlic)
1 serrano, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp ground coriander (I didnt' have a tbsp, which would have been better)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
regular salt to taste (I forgot the salt)
1 cup of yogurt (I forgot the yogurt and used Half & Half instead)
10 oz of queso panela
1 lemon (I forgot the lemon)

Method

Boil a big pot of water. Put the spinach in. Once it starts boiling again, boil the spinach for three minutes. Drain. Put the spinach in the blender with 1/2 cup of half & half. Make a paste.

Heat the oil. Add the onions and serranos. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add spices and 1/2 cup of half & half. Mix. Cook until somewhat thickened. Add the spinach puree. Simmer a bit. Add the cheese, then serve once it is all warmed.

Result

This turned out adequately. Next time around I should actually read the recipe instead of trying to simply remember it.

Ingredients

Cooking oil/butter
1 onion, diced
2 cups of spinach, shredded
5 eggs
2 cups of cheese, shredded

Method

Preheat oven to 300°F. Spray casserole dish with non-stick spray (or butter). Put oil/butter in frying pan. Add onions, fry till translucent. Add spinach, fry till wilted and excess moisture has evaporated. Cool spinach mixture. Beat eggs in a bowl, add shredded cheese and mix together. Add to spinach mixture. Place in greased/buttered casserole dish. Bake until top of quiche is golden brown.

Comments:

• On my first attempt I used 12oz of frozen spinach. That was probably too much; you don't get much of the quiche-y/custardy effect. Next time I'll use half the amount.
• It took about 40 minutes to cook, but I opened the oven three times, so I could probably eliminate 5 minutes if that didn't happen.
• I chopped a single serrano in with the frying onions. That added some nice heat without being overwhelming.
• I bet this would be great if you added a teaspoon of cumin toward the end of cooking the onions.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odtIX8dGMgQ

2014-03-23: I tried this recipe again from memory. Misremembered the number of eggs and used 8 instead of 5. That meant it took 60 minutes to bake, but that was with opening the oven a couple times. 55 minutes would probably work next time.

I'm continuing my experiments with palak paneer. Here is what I did this time. If this is your first time trying the recipe, use the youtube link below for your first-time recipe.

Ingredients

12 oz frozen chopped spinach
2-3 tbsp of neutral tasting oil
1 tsp of ground cumin
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 serranos, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 heaping tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
regular salt to taste
1 cup of yogurt
10 oz of queso panela
1 lemon

Method

Boil a big pot of water. Put the spinach in. Once it starts boiling again, boil the spinach for three minutes. Drain. Save 1 cup of the water in which the spinach was boiled. Cool the rest of the spinach in cold/ice water. Drain. Put the spinach in the blender with enough reserved spinach water to turn it into a paste.

Heat the oil. Add the garlic, onions and serranos. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add yogurt and spices. Mix. Cook until somewhat thickened. Add the spinach puree. Simmer a bit. Add the cheese, then serve once it is all warmed.

Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice over the spinach dish.

Result

This turned out quite well, and it was within my range of spice tolerance, although barely.

Discussion

• Last time I made this, I used mozarella, but for this recipe you really want a non-melting cheese. The queso panela worked better than the mozzarella, so that could be repeated. Really I want queso blanco. Next time I'll try queso fresco if I can't find real queso blanco. Since I live in Arizona, paneer is not available everywhere, which is why I think of substituting Mexican cheeses. Farmer's cheese or any other non-melting cheese should probably work as well.
• Three serranos were too much, most likely, for most house guests. Next time try one (two max). Since the tiny green chiles one finds in Asian stores are not generally available in AZ, I wanted to substitute serranos.
• The purpose of the cold water bath is to preserve the color of the spinach. Ideally, this dish is intensely green.
• In the long run I may want a slightly more complex dish. Maybe add 1/4 tsp of cinnamon?

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYsLWpcbWqU

Third attempt:

• I accidentally used a tbsp instead of a tsp of cumin. Still worked fine.
• Used two serranos instead of three. Still good. For guests probably one serrano would be fine.
• Used queso fresco. Seemed too tender, started to break apart. Queso panela is better.

2019-01-19: This is my fifth attempt I think. Turned out quite well. Details:

• Used 10 oz of frozen spinach.
• Used queso Panela instead of paneer. This worked great. I'll do it henceforth.
• Use one large, deseeded jalapeno instead of three serranos. I think this is the perfect heat for guests.
• I didn't have garlic/ginger paste, so I used half the amount of prechopped garlic in a jar, and half the amount of pureed ginger from a tube.

This turned out well. Definitely a repeater. Next time I think I would chop the garlic finer. That said, I think I liked the taste of Anita Chawla's palak paneer better. I'll have to email her.

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp of neutral tasting oil
1 tsp of cumin seeds
20 cloves of garlic, chopped
4-5 chopped green chiles (the skinny, tiny ones)
2 small onions, chopped
1 heaping tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp black salt (can skip)
regular salt to taste
1 cup of yogurt
2 cups of pureed spinach
1 pound of paneer, cubed

Method

Heat the oil. Chop the garlic. Add cumin to the oil. Add the garlic, cook over medium heat till slightly gold. Add onions, cook till translucent (limp not brown). Add yogurt, coriander, turmeric, black salt, regular salt. Let it simmer for some time. Add the spinach. Simmer a bit. Add the cheese, then serve once it is all warmed.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYsLWpcbWqU

This turned out decent the first time.

In my quest to eat more greens and also to find recipes that don't heat the house in the summer, I'm experimenting with crockpot collard greens. I took two bunches of collards, cut off the think stems, and chopped the leaves. In the crock pot I threw some coconut milk along with 1 tbsp of hot curry powder. I used a wire whisk to mix the coconut milk and curry powder evenly. Then I threw in the collards. Then I set the crockpot outside on the porch, plugged it in, and set it to low. The amount of liquid in the pot is minimal, which concerns me, but I really don't want a mess of pot liquor. I added 4 oz of water just in case. I'm hoping that four hours will do it. The calorie significant parts are:

Divided up into four servings, that should be about 111 calories per serving.

I ended up letting it cook 4 hours on low. Added a bit of salt. Then I stirred it. Then let it cook another hour. The amount of time was enough to cook the collards without turning them into a stringy mess. The taste was mediocre. It probably is a mistake to make collards without adding some decently sauteed onions and garlic. Or maybe just a tablespoon of sugar.

Tonight I decided to make "flash-cooked hominy with kale or collards" from page 193 "How to cook everything." I used the red pepper option. I didn't have limes handy, so I used one lemon and one small orange. Tasted good. I'll do variations on this again. Next time around I'll just use my standard collard recipe and throw some hominy in for the last five minutes.

Today I made braised chard using the same recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Divided into four, that makes 130 calories per serving. Very tasty. I threw in a couple tepines, too, but that doesn't really affect the calorie count. The chard had an almost buttery taste to it.

Chard doesn't have the bitter taste of mustard greens, so I think in the future I may just eat in raw in salads.

Tonight I once again use the braised winter greens recipe in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. That recipe rocks! I used a bit of green curry paste in today's version, and the taste was wonderful. I'm making this a regular part of my cooking henceforth.

Tonight I'm braising mustard greens based on the approach in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. These greens are very tender, so I'm not going to braise them nearly as long, and I'm going to add some Mae Ploy green curry paste. Here's the nutrition info for today's variation:

Dividing up that mess into four servings, that comes out to 134 calories per serving, which is reasonable for a side dish.

Taste-wise it came out adequate. The mustard greens cooked for only 15-20 minutes, and they still had the bitter taste. I'm curious whether further cooking would remove it. Next time I'll cook it closer to the article's original instructions and see if that makes a difference.