Ribollita

We have been making lots of wonderful dishes with the greens from the garden this season, one of my favorites was a stew inspired by Ribollita the Tuscan stew made with lots of vegetables and several different kinds of greens.  We used canned tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, greens, garlic and cooked cannellini beans.  I cooked the greens, potatoes and carrots ahead of time so that we could prepare and eat this stew during our 45 minute class.   The students cut everything up and we put it in boiling water then let it cook while we cleaned up for about 10 minutes.  We added grated Parmesan cheese right before we ate the stew, which was fabulous.


Here is a recipe for a traditional version from Bonappetit -
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/02/ribollita

Citrus Week

The last week of January was citrus week at Peralta the entire school cooked recipes that featured citrus in one way or another

Kindergarten made a kale salad with lemon.  I have learned that knives and Kindergartners are not a good combination so making this kale salad with scissors was perfect.  We added lemon juice, lemon peel, tangerine slices, olive oil and salt.  The kale was grown in our gardens

 

    









Second Grade classes made orange cake that filled the entire pod with the most amazing aroma.                                                          

 1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1tsp. baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup oil

2 oranges

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl.  We used the entire orange grated on a grater, the Cuisinart works also but isn't as hands on.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients and pour into a 9" x 12" pan and bake at 350 until done, about 20 - 25 minutes in our little convection oven, possibly a little longer in a conventional oven.  

Third Grade Students made a citrus salad with Oranges, Tangerines, Grapefruit, Pineapple and Lime Juice.  

 

A Fourth grade class made preserved Meyer lemons.  The recipe that I have been using has been a little too salty lately so you might add less salt.
 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Preserved-Meyer-Lemons-102747

Fifth grade students drew all the different kinds of citrus and then tasted them.

Broccoli and Citrus Salad

What's more fun peeling tangerines or cutting broccoli?

Even though some Presidents aren't fond of it kids usually like cooked broccoli. This recipe makes it even better.

To make this recipe we used -

Cooked or steamed broccoli
Peeled and segmented tangerines
A dressing of rice wine vinegar, a little roasted sesame oil and salt.

We made this salad with the addition
of steamed brussel sprouts
in a first grade class

The addition of some steamed brussel sprouts was also very good.  We made this salad right before lunch in a first grade classroom and the students couldn't get enough of it.

These are students lining up for seconds

Winter Greens and Pasta Salad

We have a nice crop of winter greens  
in the Peralta Garden this year
including red and green chard,
red kale, collards and sorrel. We made
a wonderful salad with all of the different
greens and some pasta

Red Chard 

Sorrel and Chard



This is of course a rough recipe but any combination
should be good. We added tomatoes and sorrel but
they are optional. The basic recipe is cooked greens,
pasta, Parmesan cheese, garlic and lemon juice.

1 pound cooked pasta
1-2 bunches cooked greens - kale is good
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 - 2 lemons
Grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove of smashed garlic
Olive Oil
Salt

Another Positive Review

Rice Salad with Roast Persimmons

This salad got a good review

When I started thinking about this entire week of celebrating persimmons I wasn't really sure what I could make besides salads and cake so I did a little research and came across roast persimmons.  Wow they are a revelation!  I am still figuring out exactly what can be done with a roast persimmon but the few times we have used them they are really wonderful.  This rice salad used about -

4 cups Cooked Rice
1 Roast Delicata Squash
2 Roast Persimmons
1 lb. Roast Baby Carrots

Students helped me to peel and cut the squash into batons that we tossed in olive oil and salt and then roasted until they were soft and a little browned.  The Persimmons were peeled and cut into quarters also tossed in olive oil and salt and then roasted until they were soft and a little browned, the carrots got the same treatment. The cooking class cut all the roast vegetables into small pieces and we mixed it all together.  I added a little salt and olive oil but really the roast vegetables had plenty of flavor.

Quantities are hard to remember - I think I used 4 cups of uncooked rice, 5 lbs. of carrots, about 6 squash and maybe 6 persimmons.  We also added a few handfuls of roast broccoli but I don't think that it was really necessary.  

We did not make this at school

I got so excited about roast persimmons that we made a tart with a lemon/orange curd and roast persimmons

Green Salad with Persimmons

Drying the spinach was actually way too much fun

We made two green salads in our week of cooking persimmons.  I started the week with a 3 pound bag of baby spinach and 1 1/2 pounds of romaine hearts and it was all used by the time we were done.

The #1 Salad (Pretty Conventional)
Baby Spinach
Persimmons
Jicama
Fennel

With a Rice Wine Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil Dressing


The #2 Salad (Not so Conventional but very good)
Baby Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Persimmons
Oranges
Apples

The dressing was Blended Hachiya Persimmons, Yogurt, Lime Juice, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil

Winter Fruit Salad and Salsa with Persimmons

Winter fruit can make a great fruit salad.  For this remarkably good fruit salad that was made by fifth grade classes  we used -



Fuyu Persimmons
Oranges
Tangerines
Apples
Pomegranate Seeds
Mint
Lime Juice

Chopping Fruits and Vegetables for Salsa

In one of the fourth grade classes we made persimmon salsa with these basic ingredients

Fuyu Persimmons
Jicama
Cilantro
Oranges
Lime

We divided the class up into five different groups, each group made a slight variation.  One group substituted lemon juice for lime, another group added a pepper, another group added green tomato, one group got a little hot sauce.  There were some allergies to citrus and jicama so one group had no citrus and another had no jicama.  A hot pepper would have been a nice addition but I don't let students handle hot peppers.  When all the salsas were done the students had some time to sample each one and decide which they liked best.  I highly recommend this salsa especially now when the local tomatoes aren't very good.