A fancy way to saute some greens – since they are so bountiful in the garden right now.  A bit sparce for foraging this year, but that’s how life is.  Some years are lean years.  Helps us appreciate life more.

Greens del Estrella

I invented this dish when I lived on a street called Estrella. Estrella means star in Spanish. The dish worked out well and thus I have made it many more times over the years.  I could say that it is a stellar dish.

By the time I lived on Estrella, the PhD ink had dried and I was working for a tiny non-profit. In those days I was hard pressed to repay student loans, make car payments, and to make mortgage payments on my 800 square foot starter home in a less than stellar side of town. I loved my home and my neighborhood, but the star was not shining so bright amidst my financial woes.

I had a huge garden and made most of my meals from this bounty. To fill in the food corners that garden vegetables don’t quite provide, there was peanut butter, oatmeal, and really cheap hot dogs. My meals were somewhat, shall we say, monotonous.

Then I was invited to a potluck. It was at fancy wealthy address and hosted by folks whose PhD ink had dried long before. I was starting to be disenchanted with my youthful dreams but still was bedazzled by those that had “made it.” Maturity came soon, but that is a tale for another day.

Anyway, this was a gourmet potluck. I had to bring something fancy. My standard dinner greens, as tasty and nourishing as they were, would simply not do. My daily fare was more like Uncle Smokey did in this post on Chinese Cabbage.  Good food but not fancy.

Notes on the Ingredients

Pine Nuts

Pinyon pine nuts are great. Italian stone pine nuts are sweet and tasty. Chinese pine nuts can have a bitter, almost metallic taste. Some people experience gastric distress after eating “pine nuts.” In most cases it is the Chinese species of pine (Pinus armandii) that includes plant chemicals they can not consume. More about Pines – including pines for pine nuts – on Gardening With Soule.

Greens

For greens use amaranth, kale, sorrel (also called oxalis or shamrocks), chard, Chinese cabbage, bok choi, spinach, or any of the other greens found in our world. This includes beet, collard, mustard, and turnip greens. Then there are any number of foraged greens as well, depending on the season. Cheeseweed, pigweed (an amaranth), purslane or verdolaga (Portulaca oleracea), and so many more.

Do try to avoid mixing too many different kinds of greens together. The flavors can clash. Example, chard is in the beet family and kale is in the mustard family. These two do not work and play well with each other.

Prepare greens by removing tough central stems, then chopping them to edible size. You can do rougher cut if you are snarfing them at home, that’s called “country style.” You do want smaller, fork size pieces for those fancy folk in the foothills. Also small for the judges on “Chopped.” They are not fans of country style.

Wine

Since the wine is mostly boiled away, the least expensive “two buck chuck” will do. How about cooking sherry? It tends to be too salty for this dish. It is best for meat dishes or white sauces.

Pan

What kind of pan? Ideally just use a cast iron skillet for this. A wok pan is designed for high temperature cooking, put not boiling off fluids afterwards. You can also use stainless steel. There is growing evidence that most non-stick cooking posts have long-term health consequences. Thanks to reader for posting a question about skillets on a previous post of ours. Sometimes we Savorists are too used to cooking and forget that there are folks new to this skill.

Sautéed Greens del Estrella

     1/4 cup pinyon pine nuts
     4 garlic cloves, minced
     1/4 cup golden raisins, lightly chopped if they are large ones
     1 pound greens, prepared
     1 chiltepin, ground
     1/2 cup white wine
     salt to taste

Heat a large skillet over medium heat until hot and add the pine nuts.

Toast the nuts over medium heat, stirring often until they just begin to brown.  See image above.

Remove the nuts from the pan and set aside.

Oil the same pan and sauté the garlic to brown the edges and infuse the garlic oils into the cooking oil. About a minute.

Add the raisins and the greens. Stir well so the garlic is mixed in.

Sauté, stirring often, until the greens wilt and begin to give up some of their water.

Sprinkle in the chiltepin and salt and blend in well.

Add the white wine.

Give this another good stir to get the elements all mixed in.

Reduce heat to low and let the liquid boil away.

Once most of the liquid boils off, remove from heat.

Place in serving dish and garnish with the toasted pine nuts

For fancy, place in a warmed casserole dish, then top with the pine nuts. Add some edible flowers for pretty, and take it to your party.

After Words

Just had a thought as I am posting this. Some toasted white sesame seeds might work well if you don’t have pine nuts or are concerned about serving them to guests.

Posts we still should do (or repost) including: using purslane (verdolaga), and harvesting pinyon pine – soon!  What might you like us to cover?

Thanks for reading,

The Savorists 

Legal Notes

© Article copyright Savor the Southwest // Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. You must ask permission to republish an entire blog post or article. Okay to use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit. You must include a link back to the original post on our site. No stealing photos.

Disclaimer

The authors of this website have researched the uses and edibility of the materials we discuss, however, humans vary in their ability to tolerate different foods, drinks, and herbs. Individuals consuming flowers, plants, animals or derivatives mentioned in this blog do so entirely at their own risk. The authors on this site cannot be held responsible for any adverse reaction. In case of doubt please consult your medical practitioner.