One Pot Stovetop Creamy Kale Mac and Cheese

Yes, adding kale can justify mac and cheese being “healthier”, can’t it? Please say yes because that’s what my conscience was telling me when I wanted to combine two of my top 25 foods all in one pot. Perhaps I’m making up lost time as a kid when all I wanted to eat was mac and cheese, but instead I was fed a healthy diet of fresh fish, greens and rice. Oh, the “trauma” of eating fresh homemade food during childhood.

Please, let me explain.

As a hungry kid growing up in a family with five younger siblings, we add suffered from the pain of growing up in two cultures. When I say “pain”, it’s from the perspective of a thirteen year old who was always hungry for American foods. Granted, we never were actually hungry because my parents had a whole backyard of garden fresh vegetables and herbs. Practically every meal we ate was homemade, 50% homegrown and always fresh.

Fresh and homegrown were bad words back then when my siblings and I were growing up. Why? Because all we wanted to eat were mac and cheese, hamburgers, french fries and pizza. As kids, not only was it torture to have to help out in the garden and pull weeds every weekend when we wanted to play Atari, but it was even more torture to have to eat all the greens that my parents grew.

Yuck. That’s all we could think of every day for three meals a day. That amounted to 21 meals a week that had to be homemade and fresh. But we ate everything my parents put in front of us or else we’d starve.

The pangs of hunger and cravings for cheesy mac and cheese were only satisfied once a month. And that was in the form of the boxes of Kraft mac and cheese. If it was on sale, then my Mother would treat us to three boxes. Now if you did the math, that would mean three boxes between six kids, which meant that after it was all cooked, each kid only had about 1.5 cups of mac and cheese.

Yes, we were all good at math, including the two year old twins who knew how to count out exactly their fair share of 1.5 cups of  Kraft mac and cheese.

So, now as an adult, I often have cravings for this comfort dish and always remember how little I had it growing up and am now making up for all those childhood years of lost mac and cheese dinners. So what does all mean?

Well, what it all means is that I indulge in my quick stove top mac and cheese, my “healthier” broccoli mac and cheese and now this kale version that’s super creamy, quick and satisfying.

Now that you know my childhood struggle, you can now join me and enjoy a big bowl of kale mac and cheese for me. And I’ll enjoy a few bowls of this creamy goodness myself.

Enjoy,

diane

Yield: Serves 6-8

Total Time: 40 min

Yes, you can certainly bake this dish to cook the macaroni into the cheese a bit more like I did in my past Broccoli Mac and Cheese Recipe. But if you're an impatient eater like me, this stove top version will be equally satisfying. Cook based on how patient (and hungry) you are. If you choose to finish it off in the oven then pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the mac and cheese in an oven proof vessel for about 20 minutes.

16 ounces pasta (penne, elbow macaroni or shells)1 large bunch of kale, stems removed and leaves chopped1/4 cup unsalted butter1 medium onion, minced1/4 cup flour2 cups whole milk1 cup chicken broth8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese1 cup grated Parmesan cheeseabout 1/2 cup of extra cheese for topping (optional)1/4 cup bread crumbskosher or sea salt, to tastefresh cracked black pepper, to tasteIn large pot, boil water and cook pasta to package instructions. Rinse pasta with cold water and allow to cool.Heat the same large pot on medium heat, melt butter and add onion. Cook onions until soft, then add flour. Stir the flour quickly to combine the flour and onion roux mixture. Add milk and chicken broth.Allow mixture to come to a gentle boil and sauce will thicken. Return heat to low and add cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese. Continue stirring gently until all the cheese is melted.Add the kale and pasta to cheese mixture. Gently stir together until the pasta is heated through and kale is tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add extra cheese and bread crumbs on top.Serve warm.

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Creamy, Slow Cooked Scalloped Potatoes – first time and not last.

This is my first time, this curious obsession, of cooking with a slow cooker. For as long as I could remember, I’ve been stalking slow cooker recipes, often wondering how/why/what could possibly be the advantage having a slow cooker. Quite frankly, I’m more fearful of actually pressing a button on an appliance, leaving it on all day and coming home to a burned down house.

My gut feeling has always been to leave the house with everything turned off and I’ve been known to circle back on the freeway to make sure my curling iron was on off. That’s how much of a wimp I am about leaving anything with heat on all day.

Then there’s this talk, I hear, about how a slow cooker can cook things down to a wonderful, flavorful texture. Oh great, so will everything taste like a stew? Gloppy soup?

Then there’s the photographs I see on Pinterest with incredible cheesy, gooooeeey, decant mac and cheese recipes. Obviously their house didn’t burn down during the making of the dishes.

And the photographs of roasts cooked down to the perfect fork-tender texture slay me to eye-popping interest. Well, if they were able to pin this photo, then their house still must be standing up, untouched by fire.

Ok, so I’m comforted to know that people are still alive, standing and cooking food that makes my stomach growl at midnight when I’m browsing Pinterest.

So here I go, and I tell Todd that I want a slow cooker and I want it now. Like, right– now — so I can experiment with a scalloped potatoes recipe for Christmas.

Todd, the most awesome guy in the world, the same guy that will nurture dishes through hours of laborious steps just to get the perfect texture, and who doesn’t judge me nor my secret obsession. We bought a slow cooker that very day.

The first thing I made upon bringing home my first slow cooker (now 3 weeks ago) was a pork rillette dish. My traditional recipe calls for about 4-5 hours of braising the pork over the stove, but it also requires stirring the pot every 30 minutes. I successfully made the dish to tender perfection with only stirring twice.  Wow! And the cleanup was super easy.

Now I’m hooked and more curious to find out what type of dish can benefit from this all-day-cooking process with a push of ONE button.

Granted, there are some dishes that I would never cook in the slow cooker because I’m looking for a different flavor and texture. But for anything cheesy or stewy, I’m all for experimenting.

This time, I’ve been intrigued by scalloped potatoes in the slow cooker so that for Christmas, it can stay warm during the feasting without drying out. This is one of those potluck dishes that often dries out and gets cold so fast, that the warm-tender texture of the potatoes has dissipated.

My second slow cooking experiment were these potatoes and it was a super success, resulting in a cheesy, creamy and quickly eaten batch of scalloped potatoes. Best of all, the dish can remain warm, and still gooey, meltingly cheesy throughout the evening.

I’m hooked and look forward to cooking more from the slow cooker. Best of all, my house hasn’t burned down!

Any favorite slow cooker recipes that you have? I’ve love to see. Please leave your link.

Hail to the slow cooker!

-diane

Yield: Serves 4-6

Total Time: 8 hours

This recipe was cooked in a 6 qt. Crock Pot. ****The cooking time on this recipe is varies tremendously depending on how thick you cut the potatoes. I knife-sliced my potatoes at about 1/4". You can use a mandoline. As long as the slices are even and consistent, the batch will cook evenly. This 3 pounds of potato recipe took 8 hours on High (gently stirred 3 times, every 2 hours) to become soft based on how thick my potato cuts were. Look at my opening photo for a visual cue.

The flavor of this recipe can vary, depending on what cheese you select. I chose two cheeses with lots of flavor: extra sharp cheddar and fresh parmigiano reggiano. Have fun with it and try using your favorite cheeses.
We'll often make this and other similar potato dishes with russet potatoes or if we are feeling luxurious, Yukon golds. Different varieties will affect cooking times.

3 pounds of Potatoes (1360 g), washed and sliced to about 1/8"-1/4" I kept the skin on but you can peel your potatoes if you please.3.5 cups (590ml) Heavy Whipping Cream1.5 teaspoons (8g) Sea Salt (based on how salty your cheese is)1/2 teaspoon (1g) freshly grated Nutmeg (or 1/4 teaspoon of dry nutmeg)1 teaspoon (2g) freshly grated Black Pepper2 cups (170g) grated extra sharp Cheddar Cheese1 cup (80g) freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheeseIn large bowl, combine heavy cream, salt, nutmeg, black pepper. Stir well. Add potato slices and gently stir to coat potatoes with cream mixture.In small bowl, combine grated cheeses.Spray or add thin layer of oil on inside of crock pot. In three parts, layer potatoes and cheese. **refer to step-by-step photographsAfter layering of potatoes and cheese is finished, pour left over cream mixture evenly over potatoes.Cook on high for 6-8 hours, gently stirring 3 times every 2 hours. When stirring, with wooden spoon, gently scrape the edges inside the slow cooker free of the cheese. When finished stirring, press potato slices down evenly into the cheese sauce.

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Shrimp and Avocado Noodle Salad with Creamy Ginger Vinaigrette

Our road trip back yesterday from San Francisco was slightly longer than usual, but the beautiful route along the 101 was worth the extra 2 hour drive.  It’s not often that we get to see a mix of California’s gorgeous oak woodland interior and stunning rolling coastline, so the 10 hour drive was visually fabulous. If you ever get a chance to road trip our home state of California, please add Route Highway 1 PCH and 101 on your list. You will not be disappointed.

We spent the last 4 days in San Francisco for a video shoot with Blue Bottle Coffee along with a visit with family. It seems like we’ve been making this trip quite a bit this year, so for our drive home we wanted to mix things up to see more of our beloved state. Gosh, California is just so beautiful in Spring and we’re smitten with it beyond words.

some iPhone images from San Francisco

view of the city from Bay Bridge

cherries in season at the Castro Farmers Market 

The Richmond Bridge in the distance,  Marin County 

Along our drive home we talked about Sierra, the garden, our next travel work trip and what we were going to share on our next post. Then we remembered the avocado shrimp noodle salad! Oh yes, can’t forget that amazing avocado shrimp noodle salad. We had shared an image of this dish about 10 days ago on our Facebook page and wanted to make sure we were able to test the recipe a few more times before we posted.

For our last food photography & styling workshop, the kind folks at The California Avocado Commission were so generous and sent us some avocados to photograph and style with. And with the leftovers, we were able to have a feast of avocados to eat for our Cinco De Mayo party!

Even after the workshop, we had a few gorgeous avocados left over and decided to use those for lunch in our noodle salad. So here it is, one of our favorite lunches to feast on. It’s a fresh and satisfying noodle salad with creamy avocado and grilled shrimp. The creamy ginger vinaigrette binds everything together so well and toss it up a bit to blend the avocado in with the noodles, you have yourself a winning noodle salad.

This noodle salad is wonderful when it’s cold and with all the amazing warm weather we’ve been having, consider it the perfect picnic dish. Hoping your weather is warming up and sunshine is filling your days!

hugs,

diane and todd

P.S. many of you have asked us about attending our food photography/styling workshops at our studio. We plan on adding two more dates this Summer and will be announcing them soon. In the meantime, you can sign up on the waiting list and get a pre-notification of dates before we officially announce. Sign up for waiting list here at Eventbrite. 

Yield: 2 Servings

Total Time: 10 min

6-8 oz dried Asian Noodles *See Note 1Creamy Ginger Dressing *recipe follows1/2 lb Shrimp, shelled & deveined1 Avocado, dicedGrape Seed or Canola OilSea Saltfresh cracked Black PepperCilantro, Thai Basil, or other herb of choice for garnish, chopped or torn1/4 cup of olive oil or grape seed oil (we prefer grape seed oil because it's lighter and neutral tasting for this dressing)1 teaspoons of sesame seed oil2 heaping teaspoons of minced ginger (about a 1" knob)1 teaspoon of mayo1 tablespoons rice vinegar3 teaspoons of soy sauce1/2 teaspoon sugar2 teaspoons of lime or lemon juice1 teaspoon of minced cilantro, extra sprigs for garnishCook noodles to package directions then rinse and cool under cold water.Make the dressing: Combine all ingredients together well. Set aside.Heat a medium saute pan over medium-high heat.Lightly oil pan and cook shrimp about 30 seconds on each side or until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.Starting with 2/3 the amount of dressing, toss noodles, shrimp, avocados, and dressing together. Taste for seasoning preference and add more dressing if necessary.Garnish with fresh herbs and serve.

Note 1: Usually we'll use a rice noodle such as the Vietnamese bun or pho noodle or a quality ramen or somen noodle. Use whichever type of noodles you prefer most.

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Takenoko Miso Potage: Creamy Bamboo Shoot Soup With Miso

Takenoko or bamboo shoot is a quintessential harbinger of spring in Japan. My mother bought a couple of beautiful, huge shoots at a grocery store in Kyoto last week and had then shippedh ome to Yokohama. So now we’re in the middle of takenoko heaven: takenoko rice, takenoko in stir-fries, and much more. As a change of pace from all the traditional takenoko dishes, I made this very creamy, subtle soup that was a big hit. The gentle flavor of the takenoko comes through very well, and it’s a great way to use up bits of the shoots that aren’t as good looking, like the heel. And the creaminess is not derived from a flour-based roux (it’s thickened with cooked rice), so this soup is gluten-free. (You can make it vegan by replacing the butter with oil, but the flavor is better with butter.)

If you’re in Japan or have access to a very well stocked Japanese grocery store, you may have access to fresh bamboo shoots. If so, follow the instruction here for pre-cooking them. Otherwise, use vacuum-packed precooked bamboo shoot if you can. If you can’t find that either, canned, boiled, unflavored bamboo shoot (not pickled or dried) will do, although it won’t be as good.

Serves 4

the white part of 1 leek1 tablespoon unsalted butter1/3 cup (80ml, or about 3 heaped tablespoons) plain cooked white rice 1 small bamboo shoot - about 1 cup cut up plus 4 thin slices for garnish 1 cup (240ml) water2 cups (480ml) whole soy milk or cow’s milk 2 tablespoons sweet white miso or saikyo miso, or plain white miso with 1 teaspoon sugar salt and white pepper sansho leaves, chives or parsley for garnish

Slice the leek finely. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan over low-medium heat, add the leek and saute until soft and translucent. (Adding a pinch of salt will help the onion soften faster.)

Cut up the bamboo shoot, leaving 4 slices for garnish. Add the cut up bamboo shoot to the pan and saute briefly. (Remember it’s pre-cooked and already tender.)

Add the water and rice. Turn up the heat until the water is boiling, then lower the heat again to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the water is almost all evaporated and the leek is very tender.

Blitz the contents of the pan in a food processor, mixer or with a stick blender until smooth. If you want it to be very smooth, pass through a sieve.

Wash out the pan, and return the puree to it. Add the milk. Heat up while stirring over medium heat, until it’s bubbling gently. Take out a little of the mixture and put into a small bowl and add the miso. Stir until the miso is melted, then add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with a slice of bamboo shoot, and something green (I used chives here).

I used a gorgeous, naturally sweet white miso, also from Kyoto in this recipe. Use saikyo miso if you have it (see Miso primer), or just a plain white miso with a little sugar.

I made this with some leftover rice. If you don’t have any around, you can use 1 tablespoon of raw uncooked rice instead. In that case, increase the water to 1 1/2 cups and simmer for 20 minutes instead of 15, before the pureeing step.

If you don’t have leek, use a medium onion instead.

You can try this method with many other precooked vegetables. Just steam, boil or even microwave any of these until tender, and use instead of the bamboo shoot.

peeled, broccoli stalks carrotparsnipgobo (burdock root) fennel bulb

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