Super Natural Cooking

I rode my bike to Gourmet Warehouse the other day in search of pomegranate molasses for the Muhammara sauce (they had it and it is amazing in the sauce!). It was a beautiful day and so I was happy to cycle, but I was also hoping to take advantage of my limited storage space to keep my spending in check. That store is dangerous! As I was wandering up and down the aisles, I found farro! Farro is a grain is similar to barley, but shaped more like brown rice. I hadn’t been able to find it, but of course that is precisely the type of thing the Gourmet Warehouse will keep me coming back for.

I was excited to find it since the recipe includes asparagus which is a currently in season. The final dish is very spring-like with fresh green asparagus and green onions and zesty lemon. I went to Whole Foods the other day, which is another favourite store of mine for the variety of ingredients they carry. Did you know that the all of the beef carried in the West Vancouver store is grass fed and comes from 100 Mile House? I had a grass-fed bison steak last summer and it was amazing and I’m looking forward to grilling the happy beef I bought at Whole Foods this time. While I was there I picked up the ingredients for this recipe: organic green onions, asparagus, walnuts, creme fraiche, parmesan and a lemon. I used a Meyer lemon, which was really nice and fresh tasting, not as intensely sour and acidic as a regular lemon.

Farro is the base for this recipe and it cooks just like barley. The green onions get sauteed in olive oil and then pureed to make a delicious sauce. When the farro is done, the asparagus is blanched in the pot with the farro and remaining broth and then combined with toasted walnuts and lemon zest. It is served topped with the green onion puree, creme fraiche and some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

I started this recipe tonight after getting home from yoga at 9:30. I was concerned it would take a while, but I wanted to use the asparagus while it was still nice and fresh. The whole meal took about 30 minutes to make and it was easy and delicious. When mixed in, the creme fraiche and parmesan make the whole dish nice and creamy and go well with the earthy walnuts, while the green onion sauce and lemon zest in the farro mixture are deliciously clean and fresh and go so well with the asparagus. I was very impressed with how delicious and simple this was and very pleased with the leftovers that remained for future meals. To beef up the veggies in this dish I could see adding a few handfuls of baby spinach or arugula, but it is nice to have the asparagus as the main focus. Hooray for Spring and all the fresh ingredients it brings!

Good news and bad news. Let’s do the bad news first: I wish this cookbook would lie flat when open. I always have to pin the edges under whatever random heavy things are on my counter. Spiral-bound recipes books are very nice for this reason. Now, the good news: I highly recommend this cookbook for the following recipe alone. It was amazing!! The recipe is for the Muhammara sauce as well as the kabobs. I was trying to imagine how to serve it and decided something bready was needed and going along with the Middle Eastern theme, I decided to make pita bread. I found a recipe in The Joy of Cooking and boy was it easy! You make a basic yeasty dough, let it rise for a while then split it into eight little balls which rest under a towel while one by one, they are rolled out into a flat circle and baked. I used my pizza stoneware and could only cook one at a time, but at 3 minutes each, it didn’t take long. They are perfect! Just like what you’d buy in the store, but warm, soft and fresh. Mmm.

Now back to the main recipe. While the pita dough was rising I got to work roasting a couple red peppers for the sauce. You can use bottled roasted red peppers, but I wanted to roast them from scratch. While the peppers were roasting I assembled all the remaining ingredients for the sauce: red pepper flakes, cumin, toasted walnuts, bread crumbs, olive oil, agave syrup, and tomato paste. The recipe called for pomegranate molasses in place of the agave syrup, but I didn’t have any, and couldn’t find any in the store. Heidi does suggest using pomegranate juice instead, but I didn’t have that either and so for a bit of sweetness I opted for the agave syrup. I will definitely keep my eyes open for pomegranate molasses though… sounds delicious! Once the peppers were roasted and skinned I added them to the rest of the ingredients and pureed it all with a bit of salt. The recipe also suggests adding water to bring the sauce to the right consistency, but mine was fine without. I stuck it in the fridge and starting getting the kabobs assembled.

When I was buying the ingredients for this recipe, I had my doubts about putting lemons on the skewers and barbecuing them along with the other vegetables, but on they went, along with red onion wedges, tofu cubes and whole cremini mushrooms. I brushed the kabobs with olive oil and salt and then let The Man take over the barbecuing duties. As he barbecued, I baked the pitas. It all came together in an amazingly delicious-smelling and eye-catching ensemble.

To eat, I laid down a pita and removed the veggies from the skewers, the softened lemons squeezed themselves and soon there was warm lemon juice coating the rest of the veggies and dripping down my arm. I ignored it, slathered on some Muhammara and dug in. It was heaven. The spicy, roasted dip was amazing and was livened up with the barbecued lemon juice. The red onions were deliciously tender and slightly charred at the edges as were the mushrooms and tofu. There was silence around the table as we devoured the kabobs wrapped with pitas and covered with Muhammara. Wow. I wouldn’t change anything in this recipe. If you are a meat eater, you could easily substitute the tofu with cubes of meat. The end result was quite visually appealing as well – the red onions, yellow lemons, neutral mushrooms and tofu and red-brown sauce. My mouth is watering thinking about it all.

So go! Buy this book and try it for yourself!! You will not be disappointed. And with that, I’m off to snack on the leftover pitas and sauce – yes the sauce recipe makes enough for leftovers… perfect!

Quinoa (keen-wa) has fast become one of my favourite grains. It’s easy to make, deliciously nutty and high in protein. I recently bought red quinoa and was excited to try it in this recipe. I prepared and sautéed the onion and garlic and then added the quinoa. The pan was deglazed with wine which was then brought to a simmer. I added the water and then cooked the quinoa as usual. This was a great way to give the quinoa more flavour and it would be fun to try red wine and substitute the Crescenza with a blue cheese for a stronger flavour.

While the quinoa was cooking I starting working on the mushrooms. The recipe calls for 1 pound. I used about a pound and a quarter and bought 3 different varieties; cremini, shiitake and portobello. I love mushrooms and I LOVE them sautéed in butter. Red pepper flakes were added to the butter and this gave the mushrooms some surprise spiciness.

The recipe calls for Crescenza cheese, but I used brie produced by Little Qualicum Cheeseworks on Vancouver Island. The author also suggests trying Gruyere or Tallegio. Once the quinoa was tender, the cheese was stirred in and the mushrooms were served on top.

The recipe made 4 main dish or 6 side dish servings. The mushrooms with melted brie were delicious and the quinoa was was earthy and nutty. I really liked the variety of mushrooms and would definitely do that again and the red quinoa really looked great. It would have made a very rich main dish and was really nice paired with a light salad.

I suppose this could be modified with a wide variety of vegetables and different cheeses – steamed broccoli and cheddar cheese, sautéed zucchini and feta and roasted beets with goat cheese are some ideas that come to mind. I’ve cooked quinoa with veggies before, but I really liked sautéing the onion and garlic and then deglazing the pan with wine; such an easy way to add more depth to the quinoa. I also really liked the cubes of cheese rather than having it shredded and melted throughout. I think it might have been a bit overwhelming to have cheese in every bite. I’ve really appreciated how most of the recipes from this book so far can be used as templates for experimentation; grain + vegetable + cheese in this case.

I’ve got a couple posts queued up but I’m bumping this one to the front of the line. This was the first recipe I made from this cookbook a year or so ago and I found it disappointing. I just made it again tonight and I have to say it was so much better! Last time it was too bitter and sour – I think both the celery and kumquats contributed to that – neither were at their peak. When I saw kumquats in the store today, I knew I had to try this recipe again and they are so much better than the last time I bought them! Much better balance of sour and sweet and not nearly as bitter. The recipe also calls for clementines, which I couldn’t find, but I did find minneola tangelos and so used them instead. They were very juicy and flavourful; sweet yet tart.

The salad comes together really easily – tangelos are peeled and segmented, celery and kumquats sliced thinly, and walnuts toasted. The dressing is simple – olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

The salad is topped with shaved parmesan and I decided to serve it all on a bed of mixed greens. This recipe brings together mouth-watering flavours with the sweet and sour citrus, nutty walnuts and fresh parmesan. I’m so glad I gave this recipe another try! This was a perfect meal for an early spring day like today; bright citrus with earthy walnuts… I wish I had made more because I would have certainly had seconds!

I wasn’t able to find the big fat udon noodles I was looking for, but used buckwheat udon instead and it was really good. The recipe starts off by cooking the noodles in boiling, salted water. While the noodles are cooking, I started working on the curry. The kitchen was soon smelling delicious as the onion, garlic and red curry paste were simmered in coconut oil. The tofu was added and coated with the curry mixture, followed by coconut milk, stock, turmeric, soy sauce and sugar. The recipe calls for shoyu sauce, which is the same as soy sauce or tamari. The curry was brought to a simmer for a few minutes. After taking it off the heat, some lime juice was stirred in, followed by the noodles. All in all, a pretty easy recipe to follow and a quick one too.

To serve, the noodles and sauce were topped with peanuts, chopped shallots and cilantro. I love all the flavours in this meal; coconut milk, curry, lime, peanuts and cilantro, but as a main dish (recipe will make 4 main dishes or 6 side dishes), the result is fairly calorific.

I’m not really a fan of really spicy dishes and the amount of curry paste called for in this recipe was as spicy as I like to go. If you like hot food, add more. This dish would be tasty served with an asian-inspired cole slaw or other cabbage salad. Perhaps savoy cabbage with bean sprouts, snap peas, green onions and a miso-ginger dressing.

I like trying new recipes and then finding ways to stretch them. For instance, I would make this again, but maybe I’d change it up a bit; a broth soup (no coconut milk) and no curry paste, topped with basil and toasted cashews and served with hot sauce on the side – more like Pho than a curry. It would also be easy to add some steamed veggies like broccoli, carrots or chard. I really liked the buckwheat noodles and will definitely use them again.