Tangled Branches: Satiated

riveting tales of how we sustain ourselves

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

More Green Garlic

A couple of ideas featuring green garlic I tried out over the weekend.

Rosemary Chicken Skewers

I first had these several years ago, then lost the recipe. There's a similar one here, with good photos of the process. I didn't fiddle with aluminum foil on the ends of the skewers but I'll admit it might make a nicer presentation than blackened rosemary leaves. We're not that fussy for weeknight family dinners.

Step one is to find some straight woody branches of rosemary to use as skewers. I stripped the leaves off the lower part of the stem and left a tuft of leaves at the top.

Cut up some boneless skinless chicken thighs into kebab-size pieces. Finely chop rosemary leaves, lemon thyme, parsley, and green garlic. Toss the chicken pieces with the herbs, a small amount of olive oil, and salt and lemon pepper.

Cut a few shield-shaped pieces of onion to mingle with the chicken on the skewers.

Now for the fiddly part. Poke holes in the chicken pieces with a metal skewer and then thread them on the rosemary twigs, with a piece of onion between a few chicken pieces.

Grill until the chicken is cooked through.

I served this on naan with a yogurt and chile sauce, but I think the sauce obscured the flavor of the rosemary. The rosemary is really the whole point here. Next time I'd be inclined to serve this with salsa verde and maybe rice instead of bread.


Mushroom Omelet with Green Garlic and Tarragon

This was a Plan B dinner after our Plan A grilled steak got rained out.

First make the mushroom filling. Slice about 8 oz. of ordinary grocery store mushrooms. Thinly slice the bottom portion (where it's solid, before the leaves branch off) of one or two green garlic stalks crosswise. Finely chop the leaves of about 3 sprigs of tarragon. Chop together the top part of the green garlic with an equal amount of parsley. Heat olive oil in a skillet, then add mushrooms, the sliced green garlic, and the chopped tarragon. Cook until the mushrooms soften and give off their juices, then add chopped parsley and green garlic leaves. Season generously with salt and pepper to taste, and continue to cook until the mushroom juices are reduced a bit.

Remove the mushrooms from the skillet, and make an omelet. When the omelet is almost set, add the mushrooms on top. Fold over and serve.

There were too many mushrooms to fit in the omelet, but we liked them so much that we ate the rest of the filling on toasted slices of baguette.

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posted by Entangled at 9:29 AM 0 comments