Spinach, peach, and walnut salad May 16, 2008

Would you be upset if I told you that we now have fresh peaches at our local farmer’s market? I know, it seems unfair, but here in Southern California, not only is there a veritable deluge of strawberries, but in the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen apricots, nectarines, peaches, and plumcots start to trickle in, not to mention cherries and blueberries. Yes, my favorite season at the farmer’s market is here.

But being a native Northeasterner, I am all too aware that many of the rest of you are unlikely to see a freshly picked peach for several months to come. Tragic, it’s true, but fear not, as this simple little salad recipe uses dried peaches (available at Trader Joe’s and elsewhere) to great effect, rehydrating them in red wine and orange juice until they’re sweet and succulent. Not quite the same as a fresh peach, I’ll admit, but the juicy little slivers were pretty delicious. The rest of the salad, a variation on my beloved
fruit-nut-cheese combo, was good, if not entirely memorable, but I’ll certainly hold on to the dried peach trick and use it again once the summer bounty is over.

This recipe, below, was found here at The Kitchn.

Spinach, Peach and Walnut Salad (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup red wine
4 dried peaches, cut into bite-sized slivers
About 6 cups washed baby spinach or arugula
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 ounce soft, mild goat cheese

1. Bring the orange juice and red wine to a boil and simmer the peach slivers until soft and plump - at least 15 minutes. The red wine mixture should also reduce considerably.

2. Toss the spinach with the toasted walnuts and scallions.

3. Remove the peaches from the wine mixture, drain, and toss with the salad. Make sure the wine has reduced at least by half - if not, let it simmer a little while longer. Whisk with the olive oil and vinegar and taste. Pour over the salad and toss with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Divide among four bowls, crumble a little cheese over top, and serve.

Bittersweet mocha coffee cake May 12, 2008

This is one of those instances where you don’t get what you were expecting, but in the end, you’re more than happy with what you got. Dylan and I were headed to a brunch with his medical school friends several weeks ago and were debating what to bring along. He is known for his baked french toast, which is always made with some sort of sweet, tender fruit on the bottom. (Though I’m most definitely a sweet breakfast person, I’ve never been a fan of french toast until his, which is moist and creamy, but not eggy or soggy.) But there are only so many french toasts a person can eat before wanting to mix it up a bit. We debated crepes (too much labor for a big crowd), a frittata (meh), and scones (best right out of the oven and hence not as good for taking to a brunch 35 minutes away).

Flipping though Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Cafe, a cookbook devoted entirely to brunch foods, he came across this bittersweet mocha coffee cake, which we agreed sounded too good to pass up. Now, when I envision a coffee cake (bittersweet mocha or otherwise), I picture something of the more traditional variety, with a large, moist crumb and always with some sort of fabulous sugary, crumbly topping. Isn’t that crumble topping pretty much a requisite of coffee cake? So when Dylan pulled this dark, chocolatey, and decidedly crumb-free cake out of the oven, I’ll admit I was a little shocked. I wouldn’t say disappointed, exactly, (because one tiny taste of a bit that had fallen off revealed that “disappointed” is not a word to be used with this cake) but surprised.

I think most would agree that this is not a traditional coffee cake, but it is dense and chocolatey, with just a hint of mocha flavor. The chocolate chips melted throughout the cake, settling towards the bottom to create a particularly decadent and gooey layer. It didn’t seem out of place as a sort of dessert for the brunch, but with a light glaze on top, I think it could be equally appropriate for a full-on dinner dessert. In the end, nearly the entire cake had been consumed by the hungry med students, always a good sign, and we happily left the remaining chunk with the hosts.

Bittersweet mocha coffee cake (12 or more servings)

Ingredients:

non-stick spray
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
1/4 cup milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray bottom and center of a standard-sized tube pan or Bundt pan with non-stick spray.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter for several minutes with an electric mixer at high speed. Add the sugar and beat for several minutes longer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each, and then beat in the vanilla.

3. In a second bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder, slowly mixing them together with a whisk. Combine the coffee and milk in a measuring cup with a spout.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 installments, alternating with the coffee mixture, beginning and ending with the dry (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry). After each addition, use a spoon or rubber spatula to sir from the bottom of the bowl just enough to blend. Fold in the chocolate chips with the last addition of flour. Don’t overmix.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading it evenly into place. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted all the way into the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 30 minutes before removing the cake from the pan. Then invert it onto a plate (if you used a Bundt pan) or pull out the tube and gently lift the cake off and onto a plate (if it’s in a tube pan). Cool for another 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Romaine salad with corn and pepitas May 2, 2008

[I'm off to Norway for a conference tomorrow morning- I guess there are some upsides to academia after all. I'll be back and posting in a week...]

Woo hoo- more fun with romaine! Seriously, enough of the stuff. This was the last head in our giant Costco bag of 6 and while I’m all for salad, I was happy to see it go. I was pretty much ready to do anything with it- anything at all to be done with romaine for a while- when I stumbled across this lightning quick, simple little salad in the April 2008 issue of Everyday Food. And to my surprise, I’m a romaine fan again.

Simple as can be, this salad mixes nothing more than lettuce, onion, corn, and toasted pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) and yet packed a punch. Don’t leave out any of the ingredients- the corn and pepitas were especially tasty and interesting additions. And I’ll admit that the sour cream based dressing didn’t hurt. Normally I’m not a creamy dressing sort of girl, but this one definitely worked for me. Alongside a tex-mex veggie burger topped with freshly made guacamole, this was a delicious weeknight dinner.

Romaine salad with corn and pepitas (serves 2-4, depending on portion size)

Ingredients;

1/3 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp ground cumin
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 head romaine lettuce, thinly sliced crosswise
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place pepitas on a rimmed baking sheet, and toast until golden brown, 6-8 minutes. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together sour cream, vinegar, and cumin, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add romaine, corn, onion, and pepitas. Toss to combine; season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Stir-fried Quorn (or chicken) with spinach April 29, 2008

I have a new easy weeknight dinner obsession and would you believe it’s a fungus? I stumbled across Quorn tenders a couple of weeks ago at our local campus convenience store and figuring they were free to us (as RAs, the school gives us a declining balance to either use or lose), I picked up a bag. Quorn is essentially a soy-free meat substitute made from mycoprotein and most closely resembles chicken. It comes in a variety of forms in the freezer case, from patties to the “tenders” that I picked up, essentially little nuggets ready to throw into a stir-fry. I can imagine that most of you out there, aside from perhaps the vegans, are a little dubious if not downright repelled, and I’ll admit I was, too. As someone who is mostly vegetarian (just a little chicken and seafood in my diet), I tend not to want my food to resemble fake meat, but rather have it be proudly and obviously fresh veggies and grains. That said, I can appreciate the fact that sometimes you want something a little heartier and a girl cannot live on tofu alone. I’ve been warming up to tempeh recently and am trying to keep open minded about other meat substitutes.

Quorn is one that I actually tend to think meat eaters will like. It’s definitely meatier in texture than tofu and while it’s not quite chicken (lacking the stringy fibrousness), your guests might not even notice. Being a pseudo-vegetarian, I’m perfectly happy to eat chicken, but I’ll admit that I’m not crazy about the whole process of trimming and cutting raw chicken and I always have a mild fear that I’ll stumble across a gristly, mystery bit while chewing. Not so with Quorn, which requires nothing more than opening the bag and pouring the still frozen tenders into a hot frying pan.

But lest I sound like I’ve become an undercover Quorn spokeswoman, rather than simply a blogger writing about cooking, on to the recipe.  For my first Quorn dish, I simply used Mark Bittman’s stir-fried chicken with spinach recipe in How to Cook Everything.  Simple, tasty, I can’t complain, beyond saying that this was a stir-fry on the drier side. If you’re putting it atop rice, you might want to add more liquid to the sauce. But all in all, the dinner was quick and easy and was a good first way to try Quorn. That said, it’s made for chicken, so by all means go ahead and make it that way if you’re dubious of these new-fangled fungus-based foods.  We’ll certainly be making more Quorn/chicken stir-fries in the near future, so if you’re intrigued, keep your eyes open.

Stir-fried quorn (or chicken) with spinach (serves 4, with rice)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp peanut or other oil
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 cup sliced onion
1 package (12 oz) Quorn Chik’n Tenders (or 12 oz boneless skinless chicken breast, rinsed and patted dry, cut into 1/2-3/4 inch chunks
1/4 cup chopped scallion (white and green parts), plus minced scallion greens for garnish
2 cups chopped spinach, trimmed, washed, and well dried
1 tsp sugar (optional)
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp cornstarch (optional)
1/4 cup vegetable stock, chicken stock, or water
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp sesame oil

1. Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add half the oil, swirl it around, and immediately add half the garlic and ginger. Cook for 15 seconds, stirring, then add the onion. Raise the heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes soft, about 5 minutes. Remove the onion.

2. Stir over high heat, add the remaining oil to the pan, then the remaining garlic and ginger. Stir, then add the Quorn (straight from the freezer) or chicken, stir again, then let it sit for 1 minute before stirring again. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the Quorn has warmed up or the chicken has lost its pinkness (3-5 minutes for the chicken, longer for the Quorn). Turn down the heat to medium.

3. Add the 1/4 cup of chopped scallion and the spinach to the pan and toss. Return the onion ot hte pan and add sugar, if desired, and the soy sauce and toss again. When the spinach wilts, season with salt and pepper. If using, combine the cornstarch with the stock or water and add to the pan. Otherwise, just add the liquid. Raise the heat to high and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the liquid is reduced slightly and you’ve scraped up all the bits of chicken or Quorn. If you’ve used cornstarch, the sauce will have thickened.

4. Garnish with the sesame seeds and minced scallion greens and drizzle with the sesame oil.

Quinoa salad with tempeh April 26, 2008

I used to be convinced that all cookbooks should have pictures and would be horribly disappointed when I got a new cookbook only to find that it was page after page of text. Wasn’t seeing the food an essential part of the experience? How else would I choose what to make first? But over the past few years, and especially since I started writing Superspark, I’ve come around to the idea of the picture-free cookbook. While I still appreciate a good photo, I’ve come to realize that not every cookbook would be improved by peppering it with pictures. Take, for instance, one of my new stand-bys, Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Weighing in at over 1000 pages with nary a picture to be found, can you imagine how unwieldy it would have been had there been photographs as well? In this case, where the book becomes almost a reference, given the choice, I’d rather have more recipes than take up room with illustrations.

There’s a second reason why sometimes a lack of photos is good, though, and Bittman’s recipe for quinoa salad with tempeh illustrates it perfectly (pun noted, though not intentional). There are recipes that are stand-out beauties, that will make your guests sigh as you bring them to the table. Then there are the recipes that will never win a beauty pageant, the ugly babies of the culinary world, if you will. In most cases, they’re not so much unappealing in appearance as completely unassuming, unnoticable, unimpressive. Yet, they’re often quite delicious. Had I seen a photo of this quinoa salad with tempeh ahead of time, I’d have been unlikely to choose it from the hundreds of other recipes in Bittman’s book because it just doesn’t pack a visual punch.

And what a loss, because it actually ended up being unusual and tasty. This is a tempeh recipe that you could serve to a non-tempeh lover because crumbled into it’s tiny particles and sauteed until crispy, the tempeh actually almost takes on the flavor and texture of a nut. (When I said, “See you like tempeh!” after Dylan scarfed down a bowl, he promptly responded, “What tempeh?”) Combining the tempeh with quinoa (also slightly nutty and crunchy), a smattering of fresh veggies, and a light sort of Asian-inspired sauce, the dish becomes surprisingly filling, so much so that what was intended as a side dish became a light dinner for me two nights this week. With lots of interesting textures and healthy grains, it may not be an eye-catcher, but this quinoa salad with tempeh is worth a try.

Quinoa salad with tempeh (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa (about 1 cup raw)
3 tbsp peanut, canola, or other neutral oil
4 oz tempeh, crumbled
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp slivered garlic
1 cup mung bean sprouts (optional)
1 tomato, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce, to taste
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup chopped scallion for garnish
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

1. Cook the quinoa. Drain in a strainer, if necessary, and rinse.

2. Meanwhile, put the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the tempeh and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 10 minutes. Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook for another minutes or two, then add the bean sprouts and tomato (if using), stir, and turn off the heat. Stir in the vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce and transfer to a bowl.

3. When the quinoa is dry and cooled, toss it with the tempeh mixture. Taste and add salt if necessary and a healthy sprinkling of black pepper Garnish with scallion and cilantro and serve.

Strawberry scones April 22, 2008

Oh, how I love a scone. Blueberry, chocolate chip, ginger, cinnamon- I don’t discriminate. But strawberry? Now that’s unusual. So when they were posted here on Baking Bites several weeks ago, I just couldn’t resist trying them, especially when it turned out that the ingredients were all currently sitting in my kitchen, just waiting to be transformed into a warm, golden baked good.

They ended up being a little ornery to make, mostly in that the dough didn’t exactly cooperate the way that I had expected it to after reading the recipe. With a full 6 ounces of yogurt, the dough was incredibly moist, to the point of almost seeming more pourable than shapable. Seeing that that was going to be an issue, I floured my counter and hands well as I went to shape the dough into rounds to be cut into scones, but there was no hope. Half of the dough ended up attached to my fingers, the other half in a sticky pile. Never fear, should this happen to you, just make drop scones instead. Equally easy, equally delicious and the texture ended up being wonderful- the moistness remained after baking, resulting in a scone that was much less dry than what you typically find in coffee shops these days. I decided to top mine with just a sprinkling of sugar in the raw, but should you want something a little fancier, follow Nicole’s advice and whip up a light orange-infused glaze.

My only complaint was that a quick pulse in the food processor to chop up the berries ended up completely pureeing them so that there was a hint of strawberry flavor, but no actual pieces. To get around that problem, I’d put the berries in completely frozen (I had thawed them) or cut them by hand and blend them in. But beyond that, no complaints- these were delicious and I would definitely make the recipe again.

Strawberry Scones(makes eight-ten)

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, cold
6-oz (1 container) yogurt (choose plain or a complementary fruit flavor, like lemon)
1 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen

Drizzle (optional):
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp [fresh] orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse for 5 seconds to combine.

3. Cut butter into 4 or 5 pieces and add to food processor with flour mixture. Process for 10-15 seconds until no large pieces of butter remain. Add yogurt and frozen strawberries to food processor. Pulse for 10-15 seconds until mixture comes together into a ball.

4. Divide dough in half and shape into two balls. Place the balls on the baking sheet and press down until dough is 1-1½ inches thick. With a knife, cut a cross into the dough so that each disk is divided into 4 pieces. (If your dough is very wet, as mine was, just use a spoon to drop small balls of dough onto the baking sheet, rather than shaping into two balls and cutting.) If topping with sugar in the raw (rather than glaze), sprinkle sugar over the tops of the dough.

5. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until scones are lightly browned. Let the scones cool on the sheet for 5-10 minutes. Divide the scones along the lines you cut before baking and remove to a wire rack to cool.

6. While scones cool, prepare the glaze, if so desired. Combine powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. When scones are cool enough to touch (it’s ok if they’re still a little warm, especially if you still want to serve them warm), drizzle glaze onto scones with a fork.

Mexican chopped salad with honey-lime dressing April 19, 2008

My dear Dylan is addicted to the big box stores. When we first moved into our current apartment, we spent multiple Friday nights at Home Depot, where he excitedly looked through lumber, screws, and other sundries while I tried to make the time pass. He has a similar addiction to Costco, where he can happily peruse aisle upon aisle of kitchen wares, furniture, and electronics for hours. Luckily, it is only occasionally that he feels any compulsion to purchase said items.

Me, I don’t get the whole phenomenon. Having lived nearly all my life in large, densely-packed east coast cities, not only is it difficult to find a Costco-type store (especially if you don’t have a car, as I didn’t in the past), but who has room to store 24 rolls of toilet paper or huge vats of condiments? But on the West Coast this isn’t a problem- we’re practically attached to our cars, unfortunately, and buying in enormous quantities seems to be de rigeur. So it happened that we recently ended up with six heads of romaine and a 4 pound bag of spinach, all at once. For two people.

As I put together a list of recipes I wanted to try in the upcoming week, clearly I was going to have to focus on those two ingredients. Beyond my cookbooks and the usual list of food blogs I follow, when searching for new recipes, my two go-to sources are Epicurious and the new, fun Food Blog Search. A search for romaine inevitably turns up a never-ending tally of caesar salad recipes and looking for something a little different, I happened upon this recipe for Mexican chopped salad with honey-lime dressing (from the July 2003 issue of Self) on Epicurious.

I tend to like the Self recipes well enough, but what you have to realize when you’ make them, is that you are generally sacrificing some taste, some decadence, some fun, in the name of healthy eating. So it was with this salad- it was good, fine, perfectly edible, but it would be hard to get TOO excited about it. Lots of colors and textures mean lots of different nutrients, so that’s a plus, but as you eat the salad, you would never forget that the foremost adjective used to describe it would be healthy.  You know what I mean? So if you’re trying to be virtuous, trying to increase your nutrient intake, by all means, try this chopped salad out…but I’ll keep searching for a more fun way to use my remaining heads of romaine, thank you very much.

Mexican chopped salad with honey-lime dressing (serves 3-4)

Ingredients:

Salad:
2 heads chopped romaine lettuce (you may want to add more lettuce if serving 4 people)
1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, rinsed and well drained
3/4 cup chopped seeded tomato
3/4 cup chopped peeled jicama
3/4 cup fresh corn kernels, uncooked (or frozen or canned)
3/4 cup thinly sliced radishes
Half a ripe avocado, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

Honey-Lime Dressing:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro (or more to taste)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 tsp chopped jalapeño pepper (use canned for less heat)

1. Toss all salad ingredients in a large bowl. In separate bowl, mix dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over mixture and toss again. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spaetzle with vegetables and poached egg April 15, 2008

I’m simply crazy about spaetzle, the tiny pasta-like dumplings that can be whipped up from just in a flash. In fact I’ve posted about them an inordinate number of times in the year or so since Superspark’s inception, considering what a simple and unassuming dish they are. But I just can’t get over how quick and easy they are to make and I somehow feel that this news must be shared with the world, especially those who regularly slave away with their Kitchenaids or pasta rollers to make fresh pasta. Spaetzle are SO much easier for day to day cooking, people!

All of this goes to say that anytime a new spaetzle recipe passes through my Google Reader, it gets an immediate star, marked for future making. This particular recipe was originally posted here on Eating Out Loud where it was deemed a “breakfast spaetzle”, though I found it through Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen. Being firmly of the breakfast-anytime-of-day school, so this seemed to me a perfect quick dinner option and a good way of incorporating some fresh veggies into an otherwise carb-rich dish. Plus I’m slowly coming around to the merits of poached eggs, having been a scrambled (and scrambled alone!) devotee for most of my life.

In the end, I wasn’t as wowed by the recipe as I had hoped to be. I felt like it was crying out for a little more flavor and sauciness. Seasoned only by salt and pepper, it was, to be frank, a little bland. On the plus side, the spaetzle recipe itself was great and marked an improvement on some others I’ve made. Oftentimes, it’s hard to get the dough through the colander or spaetzle maker and it all turns into a bit of a sticky mess. In this case, perhaps because of the resting time, the dough was of just the right texture to push through easily, forming the delicate little dumplings with surprisingly little ado. So I’d certainly hold on to this recipe for that innovation alone. Beyond that, I like the idea of vegetables in my spaetzle as well as the poached egg idea, I’m just looking for a way to jazz it up and make it a little more flavorful. Any suggestions?

Spaetzle with vegetables and poached egg (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 roasted red pepper
2 scallions chopped
1 small head of broccoli, broken into small florets
2 tablespoons butter

1. Put a pot of salted water on to boil. Place flour in a bowl and create a well in the center. Crack 2 eggs into well and add milk. Use a fork to whisk the milk and egg together, then mix in flour with a wooden spoon or your hands until a dough forms. Let ball of dough rest for 10-15 minutes.

2. Using a spaetzle maker, a colander, or a slotted spoon, press dough through holes into boiling water. When the spaetzle rise to the surface of the water, they are done. Skim them off and place into large bowl. You will probably want to make them in several batches, but each one only takes about 2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat a skillet and add the butter. Add the broccoli and cook until starting to turn bright green, about 2 minutes. Add spaetzle to skillet and turn to coat in butter. Fry until they begin to take on a little color, then add the scallions and roasted red pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes.

4. Crack the 4 remaining eggs into the spaetzle water (or a clean pan of boiling water, if you don’t mind more dishes) and poach for 3 minutes. Place the spaetzle/veggie mixture on a plate and place poached eggs on top. Season with salt and pepper. Before eating, run your knife through the egg so the yolk oozes down into the spaetzle.

Roasted quinoa with potatoes and cheese April 12, 2008

Seriously, how beautiful are the colors in this dish? When I look at this photo, it looks more like a field of spring flowers or an Impressionist painting than something edible. But in reality, it’s just a simple little side dish from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, possibly my favorite cookbook these days. This dish was borne of leftover quinoa and the Bittman cookbook is actually perfect for that sort of thing. The grains section is pretty thorough and packed with good ideas, so looking up quinoa in the index gave me a whole range of options to choose from.

This amalgamation of quinoa, veggies, potatoes, and cheese was good- not, perhaps, the MOST exciting thing I’ve ever eaten in my life, but excellent for everyday fare. For me, it was really the cheese that made the dish- melting over the grains of quinoa, gluing the ingredients into gooey, savory clumps, the cheese was essential. I couldn’t help but think, every time I took I bite, that a vegan version would indeed be very sad. Yes, the potatoes were lovely, the quinoa, crunchy and nutritious, but without that cheese, what would bring it all together? So enjoy the dish, both for its pretty palette and for its health value, but don’t skimp on the cheese

Roasted quinoa with potatoes and cheese (4-6 servings)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 lb small waxy potatoes, like fingerling, new red, or Peruvian purple (preferred, for aesthetics), peeled if you like, and cute lengthwise into wedges
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled
salt
3/4 cup of quinoa
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup scallion, sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
1-2 tbsp minced fresh chile (like jalapeno or Thai) or add hot red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste
6 oz cheese, preferably smoked like gouda, cheddar, or mozzarella, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup minced parsley for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Grease an 8 x 10 inch roasting pan with a tbsp or so of the olive oil.

2. Put the potato wedges and garlic into a large pot with water to cover, salt it, and turn the heat to high. When the water begins to boil, stir in the quinoa. Adjust the heat so that the water boils assertively and cook, stirring once or twice, for about 5 minutes.

3. Drain the quinoa, garlic, and potatoes in a strainer, but leave them fairly wet. Spread them into the prepared pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with the remaining olive oil, and gently toss with a spatula. Spread them out again. Roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Gently toss again, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and return the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until the potatoes are tender on the inside and golden on the outside.

4. Add the scallion, bell pepper, and chile and toss everything one last time. Taste and adjust the seasoning, keeping in mind that the cheese will add some saltiness. Spread the cheese over all and return to the oven for another 5-8 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Fish tacos with citrus salsa April 9, 2008

One of the greatest things the West Coast has to offer is their fish-based Mexican food. To a native East Coaster, the idea of putting fish in a burrito or taco is frankly foreign and kind of repellent, at first thought. Isn’t Mexican food supposed to be a cheesy, gooey mess? Why would you put a fish in it?

In Southern California, however, seafood-based Mexican food is practically ubiquitous and it only took a single fish taco from one of the leading chains to convert me. I still like a traditional burrito well enough, but given the choice I’ll take a fish taco almost any day. Now, all fish tacos are not created equal, and I will admit, for taste alone, I am of the fried fish school of thought (as opposed to those healthier grilled fish varieties). I’ve written before about the best fish burrito in town, a hulking fried fish extravaganza from Senor Fish (locations in Pasadena and elsewhere in the LA area, just google it), but as far as making my own fish tacos or burritos? I wasn’t quite up to it until the other night…

What finally inspired me? The gorgeous shrimp tacos on Food Blogga- that Susan could make just about anything look good! As is my way, I fully intended to copy her, step for step, only to find that on the day I was going to finally make my tacos, Cook’s Illustrated arrived with a feature called Fish 101, instructions on the proper technique for cooking fish in five different ways. Given that most of my hang-up in cooking fish revolves around not having a clue as to what I’m doing, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to learn how to saute tilapia to perfection and then put together some lovely soft tacos with Susan’s unusual grapefruit-jicama-avocado salsa.

So how did they turn out? Absolutely fantastic, even if my picture doesn’t adequately reflect it. The fish was perfect- crispy on the outside, nice and flaky on the inside, complemented perfectly by the citrus and the avocado. I’ll admit I was shocked by just how good they were and am already looking forward to having them again tonight- with some leftover salsa, a quick 5 minute saute and we’ll have another gourmet dinner.

Fish tacos with citrus salsa (serves 4)

Ingredients:

Salsa:

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
3 scallions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 ruby red or pink grapefruit, peeled, de-seeded, and diced
1 navel orange peeled, de-seeded, and diced
1/4 cup peeled jicama, diced
1 avocado, diced and sprinkled with lime juice to prevent discoloration
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon minced jalapeno pepper (without seeds)
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro

Fish:

4 mild fish filets (I used tilapia)
sprinkle of kosher salt
1-2 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup flour (or as needed)

1. To make the salsa, simply combine all ingredients in a medium size bowl and toss gently until well combined.

2. Pat fish dry and season both sides generously with salt. Let fish stand for about 5 minutes, until it glistens with moisture.

3. Place the flour in a pie plate and dredge fish in flour. Shake off any excess.

4. Heat 1-2 tbsp oil in skillet over high heat. Add 1-2 tbsp butter and heat until foaming subsides. Reduce heat to medium and add fish to pan. When bottom of fish is golden brown, use two spatulas to gently flip fish. Continue to cook to desired doneness.

5. While the fish is cooking, warm soft taco-size tortillas in the oven at ~250 degrees, being sure not to burn them. When fish is done, cut into large bite-size pieces (about 6 per tilapia filet) and divide among tortillas. Top with a generous helping of salsa and fold in half. Garnish with additional cilantro, if desired. Enjoy!