Swiss Chard Gratin, Broiled Leeks, Flank Steak

Yesterday went like this, a typical veggie-box-delivery-day thursday: get up, drink coffee, have half a breakfast, go to workout class, do stretch class (okay so that is new), go to farmers' market for more eggs, get home and eat another half of breakfast (yes i am related to ron swanson), figure out what the heck to do with the giant box of veggies that was delivered to my doorstep earlier in the morning, and then get to prepping it all.

My giant box of work.

Got all my supplies ready - recipes bookmarked, gameplan mapped out, coffee, and phone (fyi even though it looks pretty i do not recommend a white phone if you cook a lot and your partner tends to call you while you are cooking, practically as soon as your hands are covered in junk.)

 Closer-up of the gameplan, and a grocery list.

Written down to-do list which is basically a meal plan too.

So you already know the gist of how i prep for the upcoming week and that is what i did today with the other ingredients that i wasn't also going to use for dinner.

The recipe for the swiss chard gratin i based my dish from is found here.  I chopped and then boiled the swiss chard in salt water, ice bathed it, drained it, and then chopped it some more as you see above.  Also pictured is the cheese that i grated for the gratin.  Since i did not follow the recipe exactly and i did my own lazy ghetto way of cooking (prep work is hard work) i will post my own "recipe," as follows:

Swiss Chard Gratin - serves however many people you need to feed who like cheese and swiss chard but probably not more than 6

2 bunches swiss chard, does not matter what color, boiled until tender in salted water and then dunked in ice bath and then drained and then as much of the water squeezed out as you can
2 garlic cloves
4 ounces swiss-y kind of cheese of your choice, shredded (i used 2 oz raclette and 2 oz Landaff)
1 ounce cream cheese
at least 1/4 cup half and half/cream/milk or more if needed for sauce consistency
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
onion powder, if you want
Parmesan cheese for topping 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then spray an 8 by 8 glass baking dish/casserole dish with cooking spray or butter. 

Garlic press the garlic into a bowl or you can mince it if you don't have a press.  Add the cheese, the cream cheese, and the cream to the bowl and then microwave on medium power until everything is soft enough to stir together, checking the contents often so that you don't over-microwave it.  When it is stirrable into a smooth yet thick consistency (it will thin out some when baking) add the seasonings and stir together, then add the swiss chard.

Here is where if you had extraordinarily large bunches of swiss chard you could easily make more sauce if you need to, a light coating usually works fine though. I do realize this is yet another creamy pink vegetable side dish i have prepared but i did not choose the chard color! 

Put the swiss chard and sauce mix into the prepared glass dish and spread out evenly, then top with however much parmesan cheese you like.  I gave mine a fairly generous coating.  Place in preheated oven and bake until heated through and cheese on top is bubbly/melted, about 20 mins.

While that was baking I had another dish to prepare with one of last week's leftover leeks and the mega huge ones they sent me this week.  I cut the dark green tops off and then quartered the large ones and halved the small one, then rinsed them thoroughly, and trimmed the white part just barely--enough to get those little squiggly roots off.

Then I poured some flavored olive oil in a dish to brush them with, because that is easier than trying to pour oil from a bottle onto a pastry brush.

I put foil down on a sheet pan and since i was using oil already i used the cheap foil and not the nice nonstick foil so i also brushed the foil with the olive oil before sprinkling salt and pepper on the sheet.  Then I lightly brushed the leeks all over with a small amount of oil before arranging them one cut side down on the pan and  then sprinkling more salt and pepper on them.  I stuck them under the broiler on low to cook while i got the flank steak ready, with the chard gratin on the bottom rack of the oven still to stay warm.  When one side started to look softened and slightly charred i flipped them to the other cut side and fanned the stalks out slightly.  I took them out when they looked softened all over. (below is before they went in)

This here is the flank steak i got at the thursday farmers' market, from 5 Bar Beef.  They supposedly take really good care of their animals, and they sell their stuff in smaller quantities than the Da-Le Ranch from lake elsinore does so I got some meat.  It is shown thawed out below.

I just used some Emeril's original essence to season the meat before i put it under the broiler for a few minutes on each side.

Tah dah! the leeks come out and the beef goes in under the broiler, this time on high, for just a few minutes each side to desired doneness.  Flank steak is kind of thin so it doesn't need that long.

Gratin still on the bottom while beef is under the broiler.

Behold the finished gratin!

I let the beef cool slightly and then sliced it across the grain.

It was very tender even though it was previously frozen.

dinner is served

Leek, Chicken, Mushroom, and Comte Cheese Bake in Hazelnut Crust with Bacon Topping

I know the title is kind of long but when i make up recipes i don't know what to call it and i just go with "as descriptive as possible."

We have been rotisserie-chicken-obsessed forever with the garlic herb ones from previously known as Henry's but now known as Sprouts because they are super moist and flavorful and, if i don't eat an entire one in a single sitting, they can be used for lots of things.  Some things like a chicken and green onion scramble with hot sauce, or this amazing recipe for dill and yogurt chicken salad (which is fantastic on celery sticks!), or i just make stuff up with it usually, like today.

In our veggie shipment from Farm Fresh To You we got several leeks and i love leeks!  They remind me of fancy french food and they are great in a soup or awesome caramelized with goat cheese etc. I wanted to try something different with them than what i normally do which is saute them up and put them in omelettes or soup or on burgers so i googled leeks and browsed some of the recipes.  There were several variations of a leek and cheese pie but i wanted to make it amazing so i took that idea and another flavor combo of toasted hazelnuts and bacon with leeks and mashed them together in my head.  I came up with the thing below and thankfully i had the foresight to measure and jot down the stuff i put in it:

Leek, Chicken, Mushroom, and Comte Cheese Bake in Hazelnut Crust with Bacon Topping 

Crust -
2 oz hazelnut meal/flour (or food processor 2 oz hazelnuts just enough to make it mealy but not too much to make hazelnut butter.  i got my meal from nuts.com)
1 Tblsp softened butter
couple pinches salt 

Middle -
1 Tblsp butter
2 medium leeks, light green and white parts, sliced in half-moons
5 oz mushrooms, diced/chopped small to medium pieces (there were white button mushrooms on sale so i used those but baby bellas would work too!)
2 Tblsp minced garlic/onion/shallot mix (this is from trader joes and i just had it to use up but just garlic would work well if you don't have this)
a few generous pinches of salt (sorry, i need to work on measuring this)
2 generous pinches of dried herbs de provence (just dried thyme could work also)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg
2 Tblsp half and half or cream or milk
5 oz shredded/chopped cooked chicken
4 oz shredded comte cheese (gruyere or swiss can be subbed in)
2-3 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and dump the crust ingredients into an 8x8 glass baking dish.  Mash it all together with your hands until it is well mixed and just sticks together enough to press it to the bottom only of the dish.  Bake it on the center rack of your oven for about ten minutes or until golden.  Take it out and set aside until you're done making the middle. Leave the oven on. 

For the middle - on medium heat, melt the butter in at least a 10" nonstick pan, i just used an omelette pan.  When it's heated add the leek slices and saute until very tender and starting to brown, stirring often.  The crust will probably be done for a while before the leeks are tender.  Add the salt and the mushrooms and cook a few minutes, until the mushrooms begin to become tender, then add the garlic(/shallot/onion mix).  Cook, stirring occasionally until everything is nice and soft and then stir in the herbs de provence and remove from the heat.  Stir in the chopped chicken and let cool while you mix the cheese base. 

In a medium bowl blend the ricotta cheese, egg, and half and half together until well mixed.  You can toss some freshly ground pepper in here if you want.  Stir in about half of the shredded comte, reserving the other half for later.  Add the somewhat cooled chicken/leek/mushroom mix to the cheese base and stir it all up and then spoon it into your prepared hazelnut crust, patting it down and making it even.  It's going to be thick, not pourable.  You could always add extra eggs for more of a breakfasty bake, if you like.  Once it's spread into the crust, top with remaining comte shreds and if you plan to eat it right away you can sprinkle the bacon on top before you put it in the oven.  I put in on top afterwards because i knew there would be leftovers and i didn't want rubbery bacon should we microwave it so it's up to you. 

Bake on center rack at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese on top is fully melted and browning along the edges.  Wait for it to stop being scalding before you stick your face in it.

I cut it into 9 pieces and figured out the stats for that. Based on my general estimates the entire dish (sans bacon, because ours are 90 cals per thick slice and some people get that skinny bacon that is like 50 cals per slice) is 1935 calories which makes each slice 215 cals.  You can always adjust whatever lightness you want, for instance use reduced fat ricotta instead of the mega-amazing fresh full-fat ricotta that i used, and two egg whites instead of an egg to save a measly 50 cals per entire dish etc, it's a pretty flexible dish.

The crust was more like a toasty, nutty, soft breading than a crunchy one you might expect from a nut crust, fyi.  Comte cheese has a nutty, slightly sweet taste if you haven't had it before.  I got mine at trader joes.  About .3 lbs is enough for the recipe in case where you buy it isn't by the ounce.

The only thing that could have made this dish better was to pair it with a nice white wine!