It’s not easy eating green. That dinner salad can be so boring, it requires a cloak of fat (salad dressing).

Most people stick to delicately-flavored greens for salads: celery, cucumbers, lettuce,

But in a country that likes its bold flavors, why not try something more robust? Bitter greens add excitement in both flavor and texture.

Almost a year ago we suggested perking up salad with spicy greens. Today, we take on bitter greens. Some of them, like arugula and radish, add both bitterness and heat.

Add one or more of these to your lettuce salad:

 
In salads and other dishes, balance the bitter flavor of the green with an acidic counterpoint: vinegar or lemon juice/lime juice in a vinaigrette, a splash of citrus, vinegar or white wine in other recipes.

Try a new variety of bitter green each month. Look in farmers markets for less commonly found greens (that’s where we first encountered the exciting bitter greens, mizuna and tatsoi, 15 years ago).

If you find that you don’t enjoy a particular bitter green in its raw state, stir fry or braise them (a recipe follows). You can top a lettuce salad with braised greens and warm vinaigrette, or serve them as a side with dinner. Either way, bacon lovers: Try this warm bacon vinaigrette.

RECIPE: BRAISED BITTER GREENS

This recipe uses chard and kale, but you can use any bitter greens alone or in combination. Thanks to New Hope 360 for the recipe.

Ingredients

Sorrel is typically used as an herb, but makes a delicious salad green or stir-fry green. Photo of red sorrel courtesy SassAndVeracity.com.

Preparation

1. SAUTÉ. In a large skillet, sauté the onion in the olive oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms. Toss to coat with oil, then continue to cook for about a minute. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the pan and cook until the mushrooms have softened, about 5 minutes.

2. COMBINE. Add the kale to the skillet, mixing it with the mushrooms and onion. Cook on high flame for about 1 minute, then add the wine and allow it to cook until the smell of alcohol evaporates, stirring constantly. Stir in the garlic and half the stock, then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan part way and continue to cook until the kale has begun to soften, about 8 minutes.

3. COMBINE. Add the chard, toss and cook until it begins to soften. Stir in the remaining stock, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Cook, partly covered and stirring often, until the greens are tender. Raise the heat and cook quickly for a minute or so until most of the stock has cooked off. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, then immediately turn out onto a serving dish.

With all the lovely apples piled high in markets, it’s time to make homemade applesauce. Homemade applesauce is so head and shoulders above store-bought, that you’ve got to try it at least once.

In the video below, the cook doesn’t core the apples. Instead, the apple cores, seeds and all, go into the pot.

 
WHAT TYPE OF APPLE SHOULD YOU USE?

It’s a matter of taste, and you can try different varieties. We prefer a tart apple for more complex flavor. But we like red skin to add color and flavor to the sauce, so we bypass the popular (and easy-to-find) Granny Smiths.

Instead, we look for Braeburn, Jonagold, McIntosh, Northern Spy, Paula Red and Stayman varieties.

You may like your homemade applesauce so much that you’ll consider giving it as holiday gifts. Applesauce freezes nicely.

We were excited to receive a shipment of all the flavors of Smucker’s premium line of preserves, Orchard’s Finest.

We reached for the blueberry preserves—we rarely see a jar of blueberry preserves or jam—and ate it from the spoon.

It was a bit too sweet to mainline, but we grabbed a carton of plain Greek yogurt and made the most delicious blueberry yogurt. And another. And another.

Which gets us to today’s tip: Mix your own fruit yogurt with preserves and plain yogurt. It’s “fruit on the bottom” style, only your fruit will be on the top.

Why do it?

Our favorite cheese course: four different
goat cheeses. Photo courtesy Payard.com.

What’s your cheese passion? Are you singing the blues? Do you clamor for Cheddar? Do you pine for Parmigiano-Reggiano?

We have a passion for goat cheese (chèvre). While variety may be the spice of life, nothing makes us happier at the dinner table than when the cheese course comprises three or four different types of chèvre.

The next time you put a cheese plate together, focus on your cheese passion. You can do it by milk type:

Or go by cheese group. For example:

 
We could go on forever, but you may prefer to browse through our Cheese Glossary for ideas.

Then, combine the cheese course with some lightly dressed salad greens and a cheese condiment or two.

You’ll be in cheese heaven.

Here are more of our favorite cheeses and cheese recipes.
  

Also called Oaxaca chocolate, Mexican chocolate is a cinnamon-scented sweet chocolate accented with cinnamon. Some varieties include clove, ground almonds and/or nutmeg.

Mexican chocolate is used primarily to make hot chocolate, but it’s also an ingredient in pork rubs, as a seasoning for beans, and of course, in Mole Poblano or Mole Negro.* You can also just eat it like candy, bake with it, make ice cream and do anything else you’d do with chocolate.

The Ibarra brand is a large commercial brand and can be found in the U.S.

But for those who want the best Mexican chocolate, take a look at the artisan product—handmade and stoneground—from the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project. An American company and a Mexican company are working together to help small farmers continue to grow the indigenous foods of Mexico.

The result is rich, dense, 70% cacao chocolate: intense, delicious and rustic with hints of smoke.

You can buy it at RanchoGordo.com.
 
*ABOUT MOLE (moe-lay): Each region of Mexico has its own mole recipe. One of the most famous, mole negro from Oaxaca, uses the base mole ingredients—roasted dried chiles, unsweetened chocolate, almonds and spices—plus peanuts, plantains, cloves, cinnamon, onion, garlic, sesame seeds and five different chiles. Mole poblano, from Pueblo, uses the base ingredients plus tomatoes, raisins, bread, lard, anise, cloves, cinnamon, three different chiles, garlic, sesame and other ingredients. The sauces accompany beef, chicken, enchiladas, seafood and turkey, and are served with rice and tortillas.