115: Chard Gratin

Keeping food in the work fridge is never an ideal situation, thankfully the only semi-casualties were the cherry tomatoes (which weren't in the fridge, but as I said in the Delivery 12 post didn't make it home) and the chard. Being in the back meant it got a little icy.

I'm not sure what to do in that situation. My logic was that as long as it hadn't been thawed/refrozen it was still good, just not crisp in those. I thought it best to just use it all up asap on something where crispness didn't matter as much, and settled on one of the gratins. I used that recipe as a base and did my own thing:

Ingredients:

1 bunch swiss chard leaves roughly chopped, stems thinly sliced

1 onion, diced

2 gloves of garlic, grated

1 rounded tsp flour

1/3 cup milk

~ 1/3 cup breadcrumbs

~ butter/oil, salt pepper

I didn't do it in this order, but I'll write it the way I'd do it next time.

Preheat your oven to 350. I semi-toasted my breadcrumbs per the recipe but not well. Do better than me. 

Start some butter or oil in a large-ish pan, when melted add the onion, some salt, and let it sweat. Add the chard stems and continue to cook until they're tender but have a little bite. 

Add the greens, continue to saute, add a little more salt to taste and a bunch of pepper. 

The original recipe has you blanch the greens first, I'd imagine to make the greens less unwieldy, but I just went in there with my tongs and did my best to handle. Had a lid on for a bit to help it along. 

Once the greens were almost there I added my flour, stirred to coat, then my milk. I recognized the semi-bechamel from my other gratin, and next time I might make it separately. It was hard to tell how thick the sauce actually got.

Towards the end I added my grated garlic. Why the end? I was still in the mood for that raw bite. Earlier if you're not a crazy person, or don't need to ward off vampires.

At the end I stirred in the grated gruyere and topped with the breadcrumbs. In the oven for ~20 minutes. Under the broiler a little longer to brown the crumbs. 

As I said I could've used more sauce, or thicker sauce. I'd imagine in addition to taming the greens, blanching would've helped them turn to a nice bubbly mass but this was still nice and comforting. Definitely a do again.