Garden Files, Feb. 06 - Swiss Chard and You

I keep a small garden, and because of crop rotation issues I have to skip growing certain vegetables from time to time. I’ll grow onions every other year, potatoes once every three years, soybeans for edamame once in a great while. But aside from the asparagus bed, I make it a point to plant four things every single year: pole beans, tomatoes, garlic, and ... swiss chard.

The first three might make sense – they’re about the most versatile veggies one can grow, and store-bought just doesn’t cut it for flavor or nutrition. The same goes for the lowly chard – in fact, I find that chard is just about the most essential vegetable crop I grow each year.

The reasons are many. First off, swiss chard is incredibly easy to grow – start it indoors a few weeks before the last frost, put it in the garden once the soil reaches about 50° F/10° C, and let it be. About a month later you can start snipping off the first stalks, and enjoy it all summer and right up to the killing frosts of autumn. It won’t bolt if you forget to pick it for a few days, and like the hydra will grow faster and stronger the more you harvest.

But it’s also an incredibly versatile food. We eat it steamed most often — just ripped up into handfuls and stuffed into a bamboo steamer, put over boiling water for about 10 minutes, and then straight to the dinner table. It adds a slightly bitter crunch to lettuce and spinach in salads. And I prefer swiss chard to collard greens in all cases. But we also freeze a ton of the stuff, and we chop it up and toss it into just about every soup, stew, curry, and casserole from early fall through late spring. We use it in place of spinach in a lot of spinach recipes, and often freeze a few batches of stalks to use in place of celery in soups and stews.

Because a small bed of chard is so productive, you only need about a dozen plants to keep a household well stocked (and still have plenty to give away to friends). It also needs very little space – I generally plant it in the same bed as my pole beans, on the sunny side of the vines’ feet. I plant it in a single row about four feet long, with just about five or six inches between each plant (that encourages it to grow straight and true). It will produce best in late spring and early fall, when the nights get cool enough to keep the insects dormant. Your chard might get a little pocked with holes in mid summer, as several insect pests like to nibble on it; just think of the holes as akin to those found in another great Swiss food item – swiss cheese – and you’ll be fine. By mid-autumn, when the bugs die off, your chard will be gorgeous – thick stalks and deeply savoyed leaves of the darkest green.

Harvesting is pretty simple. For a constant crop, just use a pair of scissors to snip off the larger stalks, being sure to leave a few of the smaller “shoots” in place to grow into the next harvest a few days later. If you skip a week or two and the chard bed gets pretty thick, just cut it off by the handfuls, leaving about one inch of stalk above the root to set the next set of leaves. To freeze it, just rinse it well and cram it into gallon-sized freezer bags. The frozen chard should be fine for most uses until the next year’s crop is ready to harvest.

SWISS CHARD GNOCCHI

These dumplings are an excellent accompaniment to chicken dishes, and make a nice addition to fresh tomato sauce over pasta.

• 2 lb./1 kg. swiss chard leaves (cut off stalks and save for other dishes)
• 1.25 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
• 3 egg yolks
• salt and pepper to taste
• soup kettle of boiling water
• small bowl of flour to dust hands

Steam or boil the chard until tender, then put in a colander and let drain well. When it cools enough to handle, put it in a food processor and pulse-chop it until fine, but not pureed.

Mix the chopped chard, ricotta, flour, egg yolks, and parmesan in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper as desired. Mix until if forms a dough-like paste.

Use a soup pot three-quarters full of salted water to cook the gnocchi. Once the water is boiling, use well-floured hands to work the gnocchi into ovals about 2-3 inches long and an inch or so thick, and gently drop into boiling water. Don’t crowd them – only boil a half dozen at a time. When the gnocchi bob to the top, they’re ready to fish out with a slotted spoon. Place them in a lasagna pan until they are all boiled. Keep them in a warm oven while you cook the remainder.

The gnocchi can be served immediately or can be reheated in the over a day or two later. They’re particularly good drizzled with melted butter or a light chicken or mushroom gravy.

SWISS CHARD AND GINGER DUMPLINGS

These little dumplings are a big hit at our annual dim sum fest. They freeze well, so they also make a great snack.

• 2 bunches chard (one gallon-sized freezer bag), cooked and well drained
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger root (no peel)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• square-cut wonton wrappers
• fresh chard or spinach leaves

Be sure to drain the chard extra well, as too much water will make it difficult to work the won ton wrapper. Mix everything but the wrappers in a bowl. Use a small spoon to put a dollop of chard mixture in the middle of a square wonton wrapper, and bundle up the ends so the dumplings looks like a small money sack, pinched together at the neck. There should be enough moisture in the chard mix to soften the wonton wrapper.

Place each dumpling on a small piece of fresh chard or spinach, and place in a bamboo steamer. Steam the dumplings for 10-15 minutes. Serve with ponzu sauce.

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