Silver Beets - Swiss Chard

Green and Colourful Vegetables

Silverbeet is similar to Swiss chard, the only difference is that Swiss chard has colourful stems, it comes in yellow, white, orange and pink.
They are excellent for cooked salad, for filling of pies or omelette, the young leaves can be used to add to salads.  Chopped fresh leaves can be added to soups or be used as stir-fry mixed with fish or meat and a lot more.

In My Kitchen.
I do a lot of cooking with these healthy green vegetables. From simple soups to vegetable rolls and pies.

Fresh silver beet is best to pick early morning, wash and dry it before using.

For the salad, get the young leaves, wash, and put in a salad spinner to dry (together with other leafy greens), keep refrigerated.

Wash the large leaves a few times to get rid of the sands, it is essential, because eating a sandy vegetable is not pleasant.

Preparation - Boiling

Washed silver beet leaves

Cooking in boiling water for a few minutes

Cooked Silver beet after Draining the Water

Cover the container, and keep it refrigerated until it is needed, or for further cooking.  I reheat this vegetable and serve with white sauce, delicious.  Or chop finely and mixed with eggs to cook omelette roll.

The water from this boiled vegetable is good, it is a shame to throw it away.  Use it for the base of vegetable soup or even for a refreshing drink.


Instead of spinach, I use silverbeet for omelette roll.  Delicious.




Omelette roll with silver beet filled with salmon
3 eggs-separate the yolk and the white

1 cup chopped cooked silver beet, (drain and squish the water)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic chives
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon butter
Oil /butter for cooking

Filling
100 g tin red salmon
2 teaspoons cream cheese  and 2 teaspoons mayonnaise

Salt and white pepper to taste
(mix all together)

To cook
Melt the butter, add in the flour mix to make the mixture smooth.
Add in the egg yolk, and stir in the silver beet, chives, smooth mix together
Beat the egg white to a soft peak, add into the silver beet mixture, stir together gently
Spread the mixture onto a hot fry pan with the oil/butter, and cook for a few minutes


Get another fry pan ready (heat it up) to cook the other side


Transfer and flip it over to the other hot fry pan, keep on cooking for a minutes

Transfer to a large piece of baking paper, roll the omelette.

To Fill
Unroll the omelette and place the filling, spread evenly onto the fresh omelette, and roll it over and over to make a long roll.

Wrap in a clean cloth, and refrigerate for a few hours before cutting to small pieces.

Place the sliced omelette roll on to a platter to serve.

Now you have it, I hope you try the recipe, such a pretty dish and it is easy to do.

Tasting the Omelette Roll

Sayur Lodeh
(Javanese Cooking)
Braised vegetables in spiced coconut milk.  In Java, the tradition of Sayur Lodeh uses spinach, eggplant, snake beans, and added with chopped tempeh. Spices and herbs:  Fresh chilli, garlic, onion, galangal and peteh.

Sayur Lodeh Swiss Chard - Silver Beet.
(Susy Sayur Lodeh)

Swiss Chard Sayur Lodeh with Prawns

It is based on the Javanese dish, but I added fresh prawns, and serve as it is or with steamed white rice.
Ingredients
300 ml of coconut milk
150 ml of vegetable stock
12 large raw prawns
Spices: chopped fresh chilli, spring onion, garlic
Sugar and salt to taste.
2 cups blanched chopped Swiss chards

Method
Place the stock and coconut milk on a large saucepan
Add in the spices, and cook over medium heat, bring to a simmer.

Keep on simmering for 5 minutes to give the spices to release the flavour.
Add in the vegetable - Swiss chard, salt, sugar and bring to simmer again to cook until it soft enough.

Add in the prawns and cook for 5 minutes further.

Check the seasoning


Ladle the sayur on a deep plate and serve straight away.



Other dishes using Swiss chard or silverbeet are ricotta and vegetable pie, mixed vegetable muffins, lentil soup with silver beets, omelette with silverbeet, sautee silver beet served as a garnish, chicken wing stuffed with silver beets and mixed nuts and but not least is the famous Javanese dish 'Pecel' ( mixed cooked greens served with peanut sauce)


Today is Sunday, and I am lucky enough to have time to cook the stuffed chicken wings.

Recipe:
Stuffed Chicken Wings with Swiss Chards and Mixed Nuts.
12 chicken wings, wash and clean.  Loosen up the skin underneath which is going to be filled with the stuffing.

The filling - stuffing
500 g chopped cooked silver beets or Swiss chards
Mixed nuts
Mixed fresh herbs and garlic chives
2 tablespoons mixed nuts
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tablespoon soft butter or olive oil
Salt and white pepper
(Mix all ingredients together)
Divide the stuffing into 12 small balls, and keep aside

Stuffing the Wings
Fill the chicken wing with the stuffing, each ball for each side of the win.  Do the rest of the wings.

To Bake
Place the wings, skin down (the stuffed part on top) on a baking tray, and bake over preheated oven at 175 degrees C for 27 minutes.  Turn them over and bake another 18 minutes.


Take the tray out of the oven, let them stay on it for 7  minutes.  Transfer on a serving plate


To serve: it is delicious to be served hot or at room temperature.


Pecel (Javanese Dish), mixed cooked vegetables, bean sprouts, and dressed with peanut sauce.

I prepared the Silver beets/Swiss chard for the Pecel.

Peanut Sauce

Peanut Sauce

1 tablespoon peanut butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, salt to taste.  Spices: fresh ginger, fresh red chilli, fresh kaffir lime leaves and juice of a half lime/lemon.

Put the ingredients in a pot (except the lime juice), add 2/3 of water
Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the peanut butter is melted.  Stir and stir to make it smooth sauce.  Take it off the heat,  salt to taste, and add the lime juice, mix together.
To serve: place the sauce on a bowl and drizzle with a little vegetable oil.

To serve the Pecel at room temperature or cold.

The recipes are my own,  and they work well for me, I do hope they will work for you too.  Happy Cooking.




Until Next Post
Susy