What else can we do with mustard greens?

I brought some mustard greens home from the supermarket last week in the hopes of making something with them myself instead of only relying on the packaged pickled mustard greens I like to get at the Asian grocery and serve on white rice.

The ideas tried so far:
1. sauteed mustard greens with turkey kielbasa slices and onions, served over leftover colcannon
2. more mustard greens and the kielbasa/greens leftovers in a curried potato soup
3. raw mustard greens on sandwich of corned beef on rye
4. bell pepper, zucchini and shredded mustard greens stir fry with sweet soy sauce and fresh ginger

All these applications of mustard greens were delicious, and my husband was downright shocked at the difference in spiciness between the very mild and limp cooked greens and the raw greens on his sandwich, which were as peppery as nasturtiums.

In five minutes of poking around on the Internet, I've found recipes that treat the mustard green much like greens of other sorts:
1. just like collard greens with pot liquor
2. just like sauteed kale with garlic and chile flakes
3. just like bok choy, stir-fried and braised and served with soy sauce and sesame oil
4. as part of a mixed salad, especially baby greens

With their frilly edges and bright, spring-green color, the mustard greens available here are just begging me to use them more often with less cooking time. Perhaps blanched and simply dressed as a wilted salad, or tossed into a pot of beans at the last minute so they don't lose their peppery bite.

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This is a corn fungus. Instead of throwing it out, I ate it for lunch.

Sitting on my cutting board here in nice little slices is huitlacoche, or corn smut. It's a fungal disease that happens to corn kernels, turning them into giant gray bulbous mushrooms instead of tightly packed rows of yellow kernels. It's not considered a problem so much as an alternate food source to our Mexican neighbors, and they introduced the idea to Americans.
More info about huitlacoche and a scarier-looking photo available at http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Mexican-Ingredients-1032/huitlacoche.aspx
I'm sure it's easy to come by here in Illinois corn country, but I've only seen one seller of huitlacoche so far, the person I talked to at the Bloomington Farmer's Market who sold me a little clump for a dollar.

My plan: cut it in slices, saute it and add it with some sauteed zucchini to a quesadilla.

The result: my huitlacoche did not live up to its vaunted reputation for truffle-like smoky goodness. Maybe there wasn't enough, maybe I didn't use the correct method for cooking it, maybe the batch I had was unusually bland, but you know your corn fungus isn't impressive when zucchini has a more pronounced flavor. I found that although there was fungus in every bite of my lunch, it was too subtle for me to notice it most of the time.

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Today's sandwich: Tzatziki chicken wrap

Leftovers used: chicken fingers from take-out dinner, tzatziki sauce from Falafel Fun Fest 2010 The Reckoning: Mediterranean Extravaganza of Extreme Fun and Festivity (a recent potluck party -- don't ask me why the name is so ridiculous, I just approved it), cilantro also from FFF10TRMEEFF.

Instructions: cut chicken fingers into thin strips, warm a burrito-size flour tortilla in the microwave for 20 seconds, lay out chicken strips in center of tortilla. Spread liberally with tzatziki and sprinkle with lots of cilantro leaves. Fold up bottom of tortilla over chicken, then one side, then finish wrap by folding over the other side and pulling tightly.

Tzatziki sauce

1 cucumber
1 or 2 large cloves of garlic
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or strain lowfat yogurt through paper towels/cheesecloth/coffee filter)
fresh ground black pepper
optional: 1 to 2 tsp fresh chopped dill

Peel cucumber and scoop out seeds with a spoon. Grate with the fine holes on a box grater and squeeze the juices out of the grated cucumber. Place squeezed cucumber in a bowl. Run the garlic through a garlic press (use this tool because it minces very fine and squeezes juice -- mmmm, extra garlicky) into the bowl with the cucumber. Mix in yogurt (and dill, if using) and a dash of black pepper, garnish with more black pepper.

Tzatziki is used as a sauce on falafel and gyros, and I've had it served to me over sauteed mushrooms and onions at a festival food stall. It's great on many fried foods, sandwiches and meats. I also like it as a vegetable dip and I make it a snack by scooping it up with crackers.

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Today's sandwich: brunch quesadilla

No advance planning here, just throwing together what’s around the house because I didn’t feel like eating leftovers from last night’s dinner. I'm saving the leftovers to take to work. I've always liked bananas and cheese, since I used to eat bananas wrapped in American cheese as a kid.

Here’s a picture before I folded the quesadilla together and cooked it:

Banana Brunch Quesadilla

1 burrito-sized flour tortilla

a couple of spoonfuls of peach jam (whole fruit, homemade and canned this summer)

1/8 cup to ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese (leftover after making strata recipe below)

1 banana, cut in half crosswise and sliced lengthwise

Spread half the tortilla with peach jam. Cover with shredded cheese. Top with banana slices, as many as will fit on the tortilla, and eat the rest of the banana. Fold the blank tortilla half over the filling. Place in a dry skillet and cook each side until golden brown.

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