Quarantine Cooking: Chard & a Cocktail

Last night I was determined to finish off some leftovers.  I had macaroni and cheese and baked beans in the fridge, and so I decided to complement them with a protein of barbecued spare ribs.  My husband had also brought home a lot of Rainbow and Swiss chard. I put it all in the sink to wash. 

I keep saying I hate to waste, and so I did not discard the stems though I did separate them from the leaves.

I figure the stems are full of nutrients too, and so what I do is chop them more finely in order to cook first.

Oh and I also made myself a new cocktail tonight: the Sidecar. The recipe calls for 1.5 ounces of cognac, 3/4 ounce of Cointreau, 3/4 ounce of fresh lemon juice, an orange slice and sugar on the rim.  I didn't have Cointreau and substituted Grand Marnier, the difference being that Grand Marnier is an orange liqueur made in the curaçao tradition whereas Cointreau is straight up triple sec. Grand Marnier is a blend of cognac and triple sec with a more complex flavor of vanilla, orange and hints of oak. You'd get a more cleaner orange flavor with Cointreau, which I'll get at some point for future Sidecar cocktails, but for the moment, it worked. I luckily had half an orange that was way too pulpy and pithy for me to eat, but ended up being a beautiful garnish.

I had mentioned in another post the importance of mise en place. Below is how important it is.

And so here was my careful arrangement.

Sipping my cocktail, I sauteed the chard stems.

And then I got caught up in my cocktail, a neighbor coming over to visit, getting the rest of dinner together that I didn't get to photograph the garlic and salt and rest of the Swiss and Rainbow Chard going into the cast iron as well as the small pot of hot chicken broth to spoon occasionally into the chard to mellow out the oxalic acid which creates the chalky tasty in your mouth.  Just know that it was a good vegetable accompaniment to a slab of pork spareribs slathered with commercial barbecue sauce as well as leftovers of mac and cheese and baked beans.