Archive for the 'grains' Category
Since Friday night, I have cooked pretty much nonstop: Hazelnut & Apricot Scones; Chocolate, Hazelnut and Espresso Shortbread; so many variations of miniature quiche I lost count (hundreds of them); Roasted Carrot Hummus; Sun-Dried Tomato and Olive Spread; Crostini; Pork Tenderloin with Orange and Pomegranate Molasses; Potstickers; Chicken Satay; Stuffed Rolled Turkey Filet; Roast Turkey, made into sandwiches with Maple-Orange Sweet Potatoes; Roasted Beet, Purple Potato and Carrot Skewers; Espresso Chocolate Chunk Brownies; and Coconut Milk & Ice Wine Chocolate Truffles, not to mention the menu from last night.
Today, being Sunday, the sound of racing on TV triggered a Pavlovian response in me - an urge to putter around the kitchen and bake scones or something. But I resisted; instead we went to the Bowlerama.
I swore last night I wouldn’t cook dinner tonight, and I didn’t. We ordered pizza. I’d like to say I’m sick of food; sadly, I don’t ever seem to tire of it, unless I’m pregnant. (I’m not.)
But here’s something: I went for coffee at Cafe Rosso last week with a few friends, one of whom picked up a vegan bar made with quinoa. I was shocked to learn that my friend A*, who is vegetarian, had never heard of the stuff. (Although come to think of it, it is entirely possible she may just not have recognized the proper pronounciation - KEEN-wah - and just thought it was something new to her. The teeny uncooked specks in the bar were hardly recognizable.) Nevertheless I dropped off a bag on her mailbox today, and was going to email her cooking instructions, but decided to do it here instead. Not only because I think everyone who is getting more than a little tired of rice should know how to make quinoa, but just because I know she reads this blog.
Here are my top 11 reasons you should try quinoa:
1 ) it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it an excellent source (about 20%) of complete protein. (In fact, the WHO claims that quinoa contains a better protein balance than any grain, being at least equal to milk in terms of protein quality)
2 ) it’s a good source of dietary fiber
3 ) it’s gluten free, and considered easily digestible
4 ) it makes you feel nutritionally in the know when you pronounce it properly in conversation
5 ) it’s high in B vitamins, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, folic acid, vitamin E, iron and zinc
6 ) rice is so last millenium
7 ) its mild, nutty flavor lends itself well to soups, hot grain breakfast cereals, or really anything you’d use rice or couscous for. I bet it would make great rice pudding (except that you’d have to call it quinoa pudding)
8 ) it may be germinated in its raw form - germination activates natural enzymes and boosts vitamin content. Quinoa apparently has a short germination period: only 2-4 hours resting in between paper towel soaked in water is enough to make it sprout; this softens the grains, making them suitable to be added to salads etc.
9 ) it has a light, fluffy texture; isn’t hard or heavy like many other whole grains
10 ) it’s cheap, and you can buy it in bulk
11 ) like rice, you can freeze it in freezer bags once it has cooked and cooled, then thaw it for quick salads or side dishes, to throw into soup, etc.
The biggest thing to remember when cooking quinoa is to rinse it very well first - it usually has an invisible coating that tends to be bitter. Otherwise, you can just cook it like pasta, in a pot of boiling salted water for 15 minutes, or like rice: 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa, boil, turn down to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Easy.
* Names have been withheld to protect the reputation of innocent vegetarians.
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March 16 2008 | grains | 5 Comments »
Despite my abhorrence for any connection between guilt and food, I couldn’t help but look at dinner tonight as penance for last night’s rib free-for-all. Mike looked glumly at it and asked, “what’s this to go with?” Nothing, that’s it. But it was delicious, really, and even Willem gobbled it down once I added a bit of shredded roasted chicken from the freezer to somewhat disguise the chick peas. I actually think I enjoyed it as much as the ribs. Mike thought that was pushing it a bit, but agreed to feeling much better afterward.
It started out as something I saw in a recent issue of Cooking Light magazine (one of my favorites, and they don’t even pay me to say that) and quickly took on a life of its own. Now it doesn’t much resemble the original, except that they both have the aforementioned grains and chick peas.
I have to say, it’s a pet peeve of mine when recipes call for 3/4 cup of chick peas instead of a can, or 1 cup of chopped onion instead of 1 chopped onion; those who follow recipes to the letter might wonder what to do if their chopped onion amounts to 1 1/4 cups, or if it comes up short might shave a chunk off a second onion to make up the difference. Some of these quantities just don’t need to be as precise.
I really do love cooking with barley. The very best thing about barley, brown rice, wild rice and lentils is that they all take the exact same amount of time to cook. So that means you can throw any combination in a pot of boiling water, and they will be done in 40-45 minutes. Drain, and you have a great side dish, addition to soup or base for a grainy salad. The original recipe called for almonds and green onions; I had toasted chopped pecans left over from a late-night attempt at a sundae, and no green onions. There were grape tomatoes though, so those went in. I added curry paste to the dressing as well, and boosted the quantity.
Brown & Wild Rice and Barley Salad with Chick Peas
1/3 cup brown rice
1/3 cup wild rice
1/3 cup barley (pearl or pot)
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
a few green onions, chopped (optional)
1 bunch curly or Italian parsley, chopped (optional)
small handful chopped toasted pecans or almonds
Dressing:
3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Tbsp. flax oil (or more canola, or olive oil)
2 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. curry paste or powder
In a large pot of boiling water, cook the brown rice, wild rice and barley for 40-45 minutes, until tender. Drain well and run under cool water to stop the grains from cooking. Transfer to a bowl and add the chick peas and raisins.
Whisk together all the dressing ingredients (adjusting them if you like to suit your taste) and pour over top. Chill in the fridge until the mixture is completely cool, or for up to a day.
Add the tomatoes, green onions, parsley and pecans (or save them to sprinkle on top) and serve. Serves 4-8, depending on whether you’re eating it as a main course or side dish. (It would go really well beside a filet of salmon.)
Later in the evening, the ice cream I ran to the corner store to buy last night wouldn’t stop calling to me, so I had to eat it just to shut it up. I hardly ever buy ice cream because it speaks my language, but I did yesterday because I had leftover honey-chocolate ganache (I made another batch of cupcakes for CBC) that I didn’t want to go to waste. Besides, my brain rationalized, I already ate half a rack of ribs and a buttered baked potato; I might as well go for the hot fudge chaser.
For last night’s honey-chocolate ganache and toasted pecan sundae I warmed the ganache, adding a bit of half and half to thin it just enough to make a fudgy, truffley sauce. Tonight there was still a bit left, and I had the bright idea to resurrect it with a spoonful of peanut butter. I set the small saucepan over the heat, stirred in a spoonful (all-natural would have been healthier, but wouldn’t have had as smooth a mouthfeel, so I went with the creamy light stuff) and drizzled it warm over vanilla bean Breyer’s light.
(So much for penance.)
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March 12 2008 | beans and grains and one dish and salads and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
Today was the grains show, and the slow cooker show. Another long day.
A couple weeks ago, in a panic over the thought of being away from home for dinnertimes on end, I made a few batches of freezable things to stash away for Mike and W. Not that I didn’t think they could survive happily on eggs and toast.
One of those things (as part of an article I was working on for What’s Up Kids magazine in Toronto) was turkey chili with barley. Barley has more fiber than whole wheat bread, brown rice, or oats. It’s great stuff. And Canada is the second largest producer of it. In Alberta, we produce half the Canadian crop.
The trade-off tonight at 9:30 was so fast that I didn’t get a chance to ask Mike what they ate tonight, but the empty container evidence in the sink suggests it was a turkey chili night. This photo was one I did for the magazine - the piece was on edible bowls. (For kids who like to play with their food, and parents who hate doing dishes.)
Turkey Chili with Barley
Canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 lb. lean ground turkey
¼ cup chili powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper (white pepper, if you have it)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 can chicken stock, undiluted
1 28 oz. (798 mL) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup jarred salsa, hot or mild (optional)
2 19 oz. (598 mL) cans white kidney or navy beans, drained
1/2 cup pot or pearl barley
Low fat sour cream and fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)
Heat a drizzle of oil in a large, heavy pot set over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes, until softened. Add the turkey and cook until no longer pink. Add the chili powder, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper and cinnamon. Cook for another minute.
Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, salsa, beans and barley and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. By then the barley should be cooked through.
If you want to serve it right away, let it simmer for another 15-20 minutes, then taste and adjust the seasonings. Otherwise, let it cool and then refrigerate overnight; reheat on the stovetop over medium heat after a day or two. Add some extra stock or tomatoes if the barley has absorbed too much liquid and it has become too thick.
Serves 8.
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February 29 2008 | beans and chicken & turkey and grains | No Comments »
I hope no one was expecting a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner of, say, beef Wellington and strawberries dipped into chocolate fondue, which would of course end up seductively licked off our fingers. A friend emailed me today, concerned with these public dinnertime duties and consequent pressure to cook an amazing romantic meal, and suggested I cook nachos, paired with a fine Kokanee and a Safeway apple pie. But the best part was her suggested narrative (obviously she watches Nigella):
My heaving bosom was barely concealed by the lace doily covering them. The heat of the oven door caused a fragrant drop of perspiration to roll playfully down my neck. I was immediately taken by the spicy hardness of the roasting chips. The succulent velvety texture of the avocado wrapped itself tightly against the awaiting firm black olives……
Seriously, I’m thinking this website should have guest authors.
So since the teacher’s convention is on and my sister is a teacher, my 9 year old niece, Emily, and 5 year old nephew, Ben, are here for two days, including a sleepover. Plus Mike has band practice tonight, so I’m cleared of any V-Day pressure that might have otherwise been. Beyond that, the extra bodies pose a slight obstacle at dinnertime because, among all the other mealtime prejudices (only orange cheese, no weird bread) Emily is lactose intolerant. When I asked them what they wanted for dinner, both (and this doesn’t often happen) answered the same: pancakes!
No, you can’t have pancakes for dinner.
Yes we can! We want pancakes!! Please can we have pancakes?
Well, it would be easy. And there’s the matter of maintaining my Cool Aunt status. But when I stopped to think on it, I realized that pancakes made the proper way, notwith a box of soapy-tasting ultra-refined mix, aren’t really a bad thing. Grains (I use mostly whole wheat flour, ground oats, some flax seed, and they have no idea), eggs, soy milk or yogurt, a drizzle of canola and flax oils, batter scattered with sliced banana and/or berries, actually does deliver complex carbs, healthy fats and protein. Phew. So they’re happy and I’m not guilty of baking animal-shaped chicken nuggets or ordering pizza. And with the miracle of modern freezers, breakfast is taken care of too.
Good pancakes don’t require a recipe, if you can remember that to make them you need two of everything: 2 cups flours and grains (this can be all one kind; I use a combo of whole wheat flour, sometimes some oat flour, sometimes some quick oats or oats that have been whizzed in the food processor, sometimes some oat bran, always a sprinkle of ground flax seed), 2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, 2 cups milk (or soy milk or thinned yogurt), 2 eggs and 2 Tbsp. (although you could use more) oil - canola and flax are my pancake oils of choice. Mix the dry ingredients (adding a pinch of salt if you think of it) and the wet ingredients separately, then whisk them together.
The secret to good pancakes is keeping the heat fairly low, and if you want to simulate that first pancake that never turns out quite right and gets thrown away, drizzle the pan with oil and then wipe it out with a paper towel. Cook until bubbles are starting to break on top, not until they have all already broken through the surface. You don’t want to exhaust all leavening potential. Scatter berries or sliced bananas on the surface before you flip it; the fruit is more evenly distributed that way, and won’t risk turning your pancakes green with berry juice. Another way to get them in is to simmer a handful of fresh or frozen berries in some maple syrup until they burst, turning the syrup a brilliant heliotrope (love that word).
Mike and I had yesterday’s leftover couscous, and yes, a few pancake pickings.
(P.S. If I was so inclined to make a special dinner for Mike, I might have chosen braised lamb shanks with mashed potatoes and Pavlova with cream and partially smushed fresh berries for dessert.)
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February 14 2008 | freezable and grains and vegetarian | 1 Comment »
I had a nap this afternoon. We all did. It was absolutely delicious - in my sleepy stupor I remember likening it to falling backward into a big, soft, voluptuous coconut cream pie. It was that yummy. Apparently I dream a lot like Homer Simpson.
But then when we woke up, it was 6:22, Mike had to leave in an hour, and we were all starving.
Solution: combine what was left of that brown and wild rice salad with the chopped remains of the slow-cooker chicken and a few halved grape tomatoes. Voila! Dinner.
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February 01 2008 | chicken & turkey and grains and leftovers and salads | 1 Comment »
Once in awhile, particularly on days when it drops below -30 (seriously - it was minus 47 yesterday morning with the wind chill factor. -47! Global warming, where are you?) I get the urge to pull out my slow cooker and experience the gratification of smelling dinner simmering all day long. It could be this urge was subconsciously triggered by the current barrage of ads for McCain’s Slow Cooker Solutions - those $10 frozen meals packaged in an ice cream tub instead of a bag, that you toss into your slow cooker instead of your microwave. (It doesn’t say much that their ultra-styled photo still looks like Puritan beef stew in a can. And look… they even bought the Health Check symbol to go on the front. Have you seen the recent exposé on CBC’s Marketplace?)
People. Slow cookers ARE the solution, they don’t require a solution. People don’t bring them home and think, what on earth am I going to do with this contraption? It takes a full four minutes to dump some meat, vegetables and liquid into it and press the “on” button! Thank goodness someone found a way to shave a precious minute or two off of that daunting process. I love it when companies come up with solutions to problems that didn’t even exist in the first place.
I’ve heard you can roast (and I use the term “roast” loosely… since it’s really an entirely different cooking method) a whole chicken in the slow cooker, but I haven’t tried it before. So I did. All you need to do is loosely crumple up three balls of tin foil a and put them in the bottom of the slow cooker, and set the chicken on top to keep it from sitting against the bottom. If you want to shove a few cloves of garlic or half a lemon inside the chicken, feel free to do so. No need to truss it. Just drizzle with a little oil or rub with soft butter (this ensures a crispy, golden crust - in the oven, anyway) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set it on low for 8 hours. I’ve seen recipes that call for 10.
Now in theory, if you want your skin more golden, crank it up to high for either the first hour or the last. Many cooking methods for roast beef and pork blast the meat with high heat at the beginning or end in order to create a crisper, deeper crust, which adds flavor and a more appealing texture. But as long as the chicken is cooked through; the juices run clear and joints wiggle freely in their sockets, there’s really no need if you’re not concerned with aesthetics. Besides, the chicken skin doesn’t really brown much in a slow cooker even if you do crank it up.
The bird was totally done after 6 hours, but I let it go awhile longer - because the lid traps any moisture that might escape from a traditional oven environment, it stayed perfectly moist and juicy. When I tried to lift it out with tongs, it fell apart as if it was delicately made out of cards. No need to carve this thing. For a crisp, crunchy skin I prefer the oven method, but this meat will be fantastic in sandwiches, salads, curries, quesadillas, fried rice… really anything chicken goes into when you’re not eating it off the bone. And because it literally strips itself for you as you try to get it onto the plate, you can slip away the skin and still be left with plump, flavorful meat.
To go with, a rice pilaffy-salad that I learned while food styling for Rose Reisman. It’s dead easy - since brown and wild rice require the same cooking time, you boil about half and half in a big pot of water (or stock, for more flavor), as if you were cooking pasta. Drain, cool, and add chopped dried fruit, a big bunch of parsley (a great way to get your greens - it’s not just for garnish anymore), toasted pecans (I was sad to find I didn’t have any, but always keep a jar of roasted almonds in the cupboard) and a delicious dressing made with orange juice, sesame oil and garlic.
Rose’s Brown & Wild Rice Pilaf with Dried Fruit & Pecans
(a variation of)
3/4 cup wild rice
3/4 cup brown rice
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1-2 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried chopped apricots
almost a whole bunch of fresh curly or flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Dressing (I always double this):
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp thawed orange juice concentrate
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
In a medium pot, combine both types of rice with the stock or water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 40-45 minutes or just until the rice is
tender. Drain excess liquid in a colander, transfer to a large bowl and set aside to cool. Once the rice has cooled, stir in the pecans, green onions, cranberries, apricots and parsley.
To make the dressing, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients, or shake them all up in a jar. Pour over the salad and toss to coat. Serves 8.
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January 29 2008 | chicken & turkey and grains and salads | 3 Comments »
Most often when I make rice, I make extra just so that I can have it in the fridge for fried rice or rice pudding. The grains are more separate when the rice is completely cooled, so it’s a perfect use for leftover takeout rice, and makes a great fridge cleaner.
Tonight I had: 6 mushrooms, an egg, the very last bit of shredded turkey, a couple green onions and a handful of frozen peas. Yes, you can make a yummy dinner with this.
Get a large pan really hot and drizzle it with a drizzle of canola oil and sesame oil. Fry the mushrooms until they release their moisture. If you have a bit of grated ginger or garlic, add that too. Add the rice and cook until it and the mushrooms are starting to become gilded around the edges. Throw in your chopped chicken, turkey, pork or tofu (shrimp are good too, but add them at the very end to avoid overcooking) and a handful of frozen peas.
Push everything to the side and crack in an egg; stir it up a bit with your cooking implement to break the yolk, and then stir it into the rice, making it scramble right into the mixture. Cook for a few minutes, stirring now and then, and add a glug of soy sauce too. A small dab of curry paste is tasty as well - or a large dab, if you’re going for curried fried rice. Curried fried rice with shrimp is my Dad’s favorite - all this, without the egg yolk or mushrooms.
In under 6 minutes. Now that’s fast food.
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January 11 2008 | eggs and grains and one dish | No Comments »
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