Friday, April 22, 2011

More dandelion greens

I share my CSA box with a friend. She was telling me how she needed to cut the bitterness in the dandelion greens from this week's box. I told her that I used yogurt on top of my dandelion stuffed crepe to cut the bitterness, as well as, a bit of cider vinegar in the greens recipe. She made me think, though, of all the ways I could cut bitterness, or make it more a part of the recipe itself.  Bitterness can be mitigated by anything smooth and creamy, like cream cheese, cream, milk or even potatoes. This got me thinking about how to fix my last bunch of bitter dandelion greens. My friend said she used pine nuts and lots of butter in her recipe, but I went a different route.  I sautéed cubed pancetta in oilive oil and butter, threw in diced calcot onions, added the chopped greens and 1/2 c vegetable broth, covered the pot on a low flame for 15 minutes.  Then when I removed the lid I added 1 cup of boiled, diced creamer potatoes.  I peeled some and left the skin on others. (strictly out of laziness, I peeled the ones whose skin came off easily) I stirred it all around for 4 minutes, added 1/4 cup grated Parmesan and served it alongside Dorie's carrot salad from Around my French Table. The whole preparation was fast and the dinner was comforting and no more bitter than was pleasing to my palate.
 Point to remember: potatoes mitigate bitterness.

2 comments:

WITNESS said...

I like your new background :-)

Samuel and Anitra said...

That dish sounds delicious. Wish we lived closer to each other so I could have tried it!