Grains Galore!

As we cleared out our pantry before our move, I had to get creative about what to do with the random grains hiding in there.  Or rather, the internet helped me figure out what to do, and this was one of the successful recipes.  Jonathan loved it, so that means it actually tastes good, as opposed to my thinking it tastes good because I know it's good for me.  This is from 101cookbooks.  It's amazing how the onions just disappear into a delicious background for the risotto; I had no idea that would happen.  You really only have to slice them.

Farro and Millet Risotto

3/4 cup / / 5 oz / 150 g uncooked millet
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup / 2 oz / 55 g unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped
2 cups / 14 oz / 400 g semi-pearled farro
roughly 7 cups / 1.6 l good-tasting vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)
2 big handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan 

It works best to cook the millet and farro separately here. Start by adding the millet to a small thick-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Toast it, stirring constantly, until the millet is golden and fragrant - just a few minutes. Add 1 3/4 cup / 475 ml water, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and a couple generous pinches of salt. Stir, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the grains are cooked and free of liquid. Taste, and if they need more time, cook for a few minutes more, then remove from heat, and leave covered for another 5-10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and set aside.

In the meantime, get the farro started in a separate large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the remaining oil, butter, onions and a big pinch of salt. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Stir in the garlic, and cook for a couple minutes more. Add the farro and cook for a couple minutes before adding 2 cups of the broth. Cook, stirring, until the farro has absorbed most of the liquid before adding another cup. Keep adding stock in increments like this until the farro is cooked through - it takes some time. Once it's cooked, stir in half the millet. Add more broth if needed, the risotto should be loose. Decide whether or not you want to add the remaining millet - it's a personal preference really. The millet makes the risotto take on a more porridge-like texture. Now stir in most of the Parmesan. Taste, and adjust the seasoning. Add more broth if needed - again, you want the texture to be loose and creamy. A spoon should not be able to stand up straight in the risotto.

Serve hot, in bowls topped with the remaining Parmesan, and whatever else you like. In this instance I added some leftover roasted delicata squash {not pictured), a drizzle of curried brown butter, and chopped chives. But some toasted nut oil and chopped herbs might be a nice alternative, or even a swirl of harissa and toasted almonds....

Serves 6-8.

Prep time: 5 min - Cook time: 30 min

Sarah's note: I roasted cubed butternut squash and put it on the risotto, and it was amazing.  I will definitely make it again.  

Israeli Couscous Salad

Well, it's certainly been awhile since I've posted any recipes on here. I blame pregnancy for all of it - mostly for making me want to eat food that doesn't really belong here. The past month or so, though, I've been feeling great, and back to eating good food (for the most part).

I threw this salad together and thought it was pretty successful. This one is fully spouse-approved - Alan loved it and wants to make it all the time now. You can of course try your own variations of what you want to put in. I just threw in whatever seemed to make sense. I'm sorry I don't have a picture... it got eaten too quickly.

Mostly this was inspired by me wanting to try out a new grain. Yes, we get pretty adventurous in our house. I love Israeli couscous - the only warning I'll give is that it really doesn't plump up much when you cook it, so unlike rice or quinoa you have to use more than you think you would need. If it's a small heap in the bottom of the pan, it will be barely larger small heap once it's done cooking.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups uncooked Israeli couscous
2 cups water, chicken broth, or vegetable broth
2 T olive oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup sliced toasted almonds
1 cup feta cheese
1 avocado, chopped
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup chopped basil
olive oil
lemon juice
salt
*optional - 1 cup cooked quinoa

Saute the couscous in the olive oil until it gets toasted, then pour in the water or broth and let it simmer. Check it when all the liquid is absorbed - if it's not cooked through, pour on a little more and let it cook off. Once the couscous is cooked, pour it in a fine mesh colander and pour cold water over it until it's cool.

Combine it with all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. I use a good amount of lemon juice and salt. I like to add some quinoa in too if I have some just for the different texture.

Enjoy!

Double Broccoli Quinoa

I'm not going to pretend like I had any involvement in this recipe - it's taken directly from 101cookbooks. But it was *delicious*, so I wanted to promote it. I included the feta, basil, crushed red pepper, and avocados, and would highly recommend it.

Double Broccoli Quinoa
3 cups cooked quinoa
5 cups raw broccoli, cut into small florets and stems
3 medium garlic cloves
2/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 big pinches salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream
Optional toppings: slivered basil, fire oil (optional)**, sliced avocado
crumbled feta or goat cheese
Heat the quinoa and set aside.
Now barely cook the broccoli by pouring 3/4 cup water into a large pot and bringing it to a simmer. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the broccoli. Cover and cook for a minute, just long enough to take the raw edge off. Transfer the broccoli to a strainer and run under cold water until it stops cooking. Set aside.
To make the broccoli pesto puree two cups of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, 1/2 cup of the almonds, Parmesan, salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and cream and pulse until smooth.
Just before serving, toss the quinoa and remaining broccoli florets with about 1/2 of the broccoli pesto. Taste and adjust if needed, you might want to add more of the pest a bit at a time, or you might want a bit more salt or an added squeeze of lemon juice. Turn out onto a serving platter and top with the remaining almonds, a drizzle of the chile oil, and some sliced avocado or any of the other optional toppings.
Serves 4 - 6.

For all those wheat berries you have under your bed...

Blender Pancakes

1 cup wheat berries
2 eggs
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c milk
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder

Put wheat and 1 cup milk into blender and blend on high for 3 min.  Add 1/2 c milk and blend for 2 more minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.  Cook on hot griddle.

I forgot to put the eggs in one time, and they were totally fine.  Very good with berry syrup. You can also sub milk for almond milk (and presumably other non-dairy "milks").

I think this requires a high power blender, but I've only tried with the vitamix and blendtec.

Enjoy!

Mulberry Madness

My friend has a mulberry bush (more like a tree) in her back yard, so I went to pick mulberries last week.  I loved it!  Spending 2 hours by myself with the quiet of the outside was delightful.  But it took until the next day for me to really see how much work it was.  I picked enough mulberries to fill 5 good-sized ziploc containers, and processing them just to freeze them took at least an hour and a half with the washing, picking out little leaves and bad berries that dropped in the containers, and setting them out on trays to approximate a flash-freezing experience.  Mulberries are big and purple, kinda like blackberries, but their juice is much more tart (and flavorful, according to me) and very intensely dark red-colored.

My hand after picking mulberries

Now I have 4 gallon size freezer bags full or mulberries that are ready to use!  And for what purpose, you might ask?  Yes, that's the question.  I made this recipe that Britta posted last year, and it was delicious.  I let my 4-year-old mix the dough a bit and she kinda overmixed it, so just make sure you don't overmix.  I also did some searches online and found another great recipe for the smoothie lovers out there.  Here it is as I made it:

Wild Mulberry & Celery Smoothie Recipe

• 1 cup wild mulberries
• 1 banana (mine happened to be over-ripe)
• 1/2 cup pineapple, chopped (frozen, from Trader Joe's)
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 stalks of celery
• Blend until smooth and enjoy!

It was so delicious!  My 2-year-old asked for seconds.  I don't like the taste of celery at all, and it was completely masked in this smoothie; I think the coconut milk made that magic happen.  If you have a bunch of wild blackberries that you want to use up in a healthful way, this is a great way to do it.

Homemade Red Sauce

I know Sarah is the Italian food authority here, but I'm Italian now, so I have the audacity to put up a recipe for homemade red sauce. Yes, it's so easy to pour this out of the bottle, but this recipe is actually really simple, and soooo much better than anything in the bottle (though I have to admit, Costco has a great pomodoro sauce). This recipe came from Alan's sister Julia.

Ingredients:
2-4 tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic sliced thinly
1/2 onion diced
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped basil
1/4 cup red wine (optional, but highly recommended)
Salt and pepper
1 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning or oregano
1 T sugar
A little crushed red pepper (if you want it a little spicy)

1. Heat oil in a large pan and sauté garlic and onion in olive oil on low heat till onions are soft and garlic is a little brown.
2. Use a food processor, immersion blender, or vita mix to purée the canned tomatoes. I like to set aside about 1/4 or 1/3 of it to add later so there are some larger tomato chunks.
3. Add canned tomatoes to sauté mixture, and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Add basil, sugar, and the rest of the spices.
5. If you're adding wine, throw in a few glugs (about 1/4 cup) and let it simmer for at least 5 minutes.

Serve over pasta topped with parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, and/or breadcrumbs.

Crispy Kale "Chips"

I keep hearing about kale "chips" and the other day someone handed me one to try at a playgroup for my little boys. It was crispy and tasty.  So, I made a batch today. Yummm.  The only thing is that unless you have a 5' x 5' baking sheet, you will need to do what I did, which is do multiple rounds on your baking sheets in the oven. I used my salad spinner (thanks Britta!!) to dry the kale, which I think is important (but you could just use a towel). And I didn't have sea salt on hand, so I just used regular table salt.  I think these will be repeats in our house!

Ingredients

• 1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• Sea salt, for sprinkling
• 
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes. Serve as finger food.

Recipe from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/crispy-kale-chips-recipe/index.html