It has been rather hot lately, and I’m completely in tears looking at my mangold “frying” in the heat of the sun. When temperatures are high, chard usually fades and it is very hard for her to cope with hot and dry weather. This modest Mediterranean princess (silverbeet, mangel, chard lat. - Beta vulgaris var cicla) is two-year leafy plant which was mostly cultivated in coastal areas; luckily she found her place on “continental” plates as well. There are two basic types of chard – first one has big, green and “unkempt” leaves on rather small white stalk, and the other has a bit smaller leaves on bigger and whiter stalk.
Like all green leafy vegetables, chard is also low calorie plant (
Let’s just add little detail concerning cooking process of all green vegetables (including mangold) – it is important to cook it in big, deep bowl and always put in boiling water – sooner it gets done, it’ll stay more “greener”. Greenness is accomplished with the alkaline amount of the water in which you prepare those vegetables, so, if the water is alkaline, mangold stays green, if the water is more acid, green colour is lost. To preserve green colour, add a little bit of soda.
And now – one recipe from our kitchen table (which I managed to remember and write down)
Strudel with mangold and carrots
Ingredients:
About ½ kg of mangold (about
3 medium carrots
1 big onion or two leeks
Boiling cream
Salt, pepper, chilli peppers
Pastry for strudel
Oil
Boil chard. Chop onions finely and stew it until it becomes “vitreous”, then add scrubbed carrots, salt and peppers (and don’t be stingy with them). Drain mangold and cut it rough, mix it with onions and carrots. Stew it for a while, add a little bit of chilli peppers (if you want) and a little bit of cooking cream (or sour cream – which you prefer).
Take a little bowl and mix two eggs with cooking cream (add about
Separate strudels peels and put the first one on the kitchen cloth, smear it with egg/cream mixture and add mangel and carrots. Put the second peel on the first one and repeat the procedure (you can “build” 3 or 4 peels). Rolled strudel peels put in a pan and cut each one of them vertically (like you are cutting baked strudel). Mix mineral water and 1 tablespoon of oil with the rest of the egg/cooking cream mixture and pour it over the strudel (if you don’t have any left, prepare new mixture with egg, a little bit of cream and mineral water). Leave it to absorb the liquid for a while and then put it in an oven to bake for 40 – 50 minutes, on 200 degrees.
You can add a little bit of scrubbed cheese in the strudel (warm filling seems more “creamy”) or on the strudel (it looks more attractive).
Bon appétit!
3 comments :
This looks amazing. It's similar to Turkish boreks(filled pastries). It looks very healthy too. Green leafy vegetables are always healthy.
Yes, boreks are "the base" for many similar food and borek is something very famous here (especially in Bosnia & Herzegovina)-if you use your imagination, you can do miracles in the kitchen :-)
I've had a try to the strudel recipe and it's great! This week I'll repeat it, simply yummy. It was my first time on strudels and was a full success (posted it in my blog in spanish, soon in english ;).
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