Thyme-Spiced Almonds, with a kick
February 26, 2012 § 3 Comments
A third of this batch has disappeared in the last 48 minutes. There are only two of us in the house. In my dad’s words, “These are the best [crunch] spiced [crunch] nut-things [crunch] I’ve ever had [crunch, crunch]!”
If you have a hankering for spicy food, up the amount of red pepper flakes and pepper. Just don’t skimp on the fresh thyme.
Ingredients:
3 cups almonds, raw
1.5 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup thyme, fresh
2 tablespoons Mexican oregano, dried
1 teaspoon dried garlic flakes
1/2+ teaspoon sea salt
10 cracks pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees on convection. In a large bowl, toss almonds with honey and olive oil. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and toss until thoroughly coated. Line a sheet pan with a Silpat mat or grease thoroughly. Bake for 18 minutes, stirring half way through. Cool completely before packaging.
Diet Notes: Gluten-free, SCD-safe
Addictive Artichoke Gratin
February 22, 2010 § 1 Comment
I’m cozied-up on the sofa at home beneath a grey sky. The heater’s humming in the background. I have a seventh batch of candied citrus peels bubbling away on the stove and the house smells lived-in and fresh. I’m in Regina-veg-out mode.
I’m recuperating: This past Friday through Sunday zipped by in a whirlwind of ooh-and-ahh Bellagio fountain shows, the best strawberry jam of my life, irritating casino music, back-to-back visits to a chocolate chop, a salon and a hotel with limp cucumbers and empty beer bottles on the patio and a beautiful wedding to boot! Sadly, the Vegas-fun petered out a mere hour into our homeward bound drive when we got stuck at the Hoover Dam. We crawled along the highway with the windows down for nearly two hours! But, never fear, I made good use of the time… While we inched, I recipe-planned! And if I manage to make all the recipes I came up with in the car, I’ll eat approximately 5 meals a day for the next week and a half!
But! Ta-DA! I’ve crossed one recipe off my list and guys, there’s no better way to put it: this artichoke gratin is positively ADDICTIVE. It takes no time to throw it together, either.
A few notes about this recipe: First, I prefer to make my own bread crumbs. It’s cheap and a snap: I buy a 99-cent baguette from the store – often days or weeks before I intend to use it in a recipe – tear it into chunks and let them dry out on the counter for a day or two. (If you’re pinched for time, simply toast 4-6 slices of bread in the toaster oven.) Whirl stale/toasted bread in a Cuisinart or blender until the texture is fine. While the Cuisinart is dirty, I often blend a few cubes of Parmesan cheese to avoid hand-grating. I make bread crumbs (with or without the Parmesan cheese) in advance and store the crumbs in in the freezer. It keeps wonderfully for at least a month and it’s convenient to have at-the-ready for a quick, mid-week dish.
Second, if you choose to use canned artichokes as I did, the artichokes are already soaked in a salty brine that lingers, even after a thorough rinsing. The Parmesan cheese will add more salt to the recipe. Because of this, I added no additional salt and I found it plenty seasoned.
Ingredients:
2 cans (15 oz.) artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth (in a pinch, use bullion)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup scallions, chopped (including the green part)
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter, melted & unsalted
Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare bread and cheese crumbs: Use stale or toasted bread and pulverize in a blender until finely ground. Set aside. Using the Cuisinart or blender, blend a few cubes of Parmesan cheese to yield approximately 1/4 cup. (Eye-balling is fine here.) Combine with bread crumbs. Melt 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter on the stove or in the microwave. Combine with bread crumbs and set aside.
2. Rinse and drain artichoke hearts. Chop in half. Chop scallions and parsley and set aside. Heat oil on medium in a brimmed pan and saute scallions until wilted (approximately 2-3 minutes). Add artichokes and cook an additional minute. Add vegetable broth and red pepper flakes and cook a few minutes until some of the liquid has evaporated, but not all.
3. In a baking dish (I used 8″ x 8″) pile artichokes in the bottom of the pan. Top with bread + butter crumbs. Bake in the oven 10 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. Serve immediately.
Diet Notes: Nut-free
Minestrone (to kick off Twenty Ten!)
January 2, 2010 § 3 Comments
My family is divided when it comes to New Years’ Resolutions. Some members of my family treat January 1st as if it were no different than October 4th and July 29th. Other members of my family make resolutions pronto, and when they hear I haven’t made mine by January 4th, nag me to do so, ad nausea – as if I’m running out of time? I have mixed feelings about “resoluting” (doesn’t that sound more fun than “resolving”?). For the past 17 years, New Years has arrived directly after a semester ends (often a brain-squeezing one at that) and the last thing I want to do is make another laundry list or Venn diagram. That said, list or not, I do relish blank slates, fresh starts, new numbers and one more reason to pause, rewind, clean up, make food, goof-off with friends and look forward to something new.
Comic by Bill Watterson
And so, despite my recent resurface to the world after Thesis Season and graduation, I have made a hope for the new year. In short, I’d like to move nice and slow and live a little bit lighter. In the past half-dozen weeks, I’ve been moving faster than ever, subsisting on whole-milk yogurt, bread, apples, peanut butter and chocolate, and I didn’t have enough brain power to read the morning comics in the back of the paper. Something’s gotta give, if you ask me. That brings me to the kitchen: I’d love to soak up my afternoons fogging up my glasses over a big pot on the stove; I’d like to stir away my evenings; I’d like to smell my breakfasts.
I’m jump-starting this new year with a wholesome bowl of minestrone soup. I made this last week, inspired by the latest issue of Cooks’ Illustrated Magazine, and polished off the whole pot with my family. This week I plan to whip out my heavy pot and simmer-away early January.
This soup is hearty, healthy and while you do have to hang around the house for a little while (unless you have a crock-pot), it hardly requires brain power. There are a modest number of ingredients in the recipe, but don’t let that deter you. Half of the ingredients are the standard soup aromatics – celery, onion, carrot. The more unusual ingredients include 1.5 cups of V8 Juice and a Parmesan cheese rind. If you don’t have a Parmesan rind, cut up a 1″ x 1″ block of Parmesan cheese and let it melt into the broth. Parmesan is an essential ingredient. This soup is strictly vegetarian – no chicken stock, here – and the flavors are extraordinarily rich, thanks to the cheese (and red pepper flakes).
Wishing you a healthy new year with hearty appetites and plenty of sweet teeth.
Ingredients (serves 8-10):
1 cup dried beans (I prefer heirloom Colorado River beans or Christmas Lima’s)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste
10+ cups of water
1 Parmesan cheese rid
1.5 cups V8 Juice (low-sodium is fine)
1/2 cup chopped basil
Methods:
If you prefer to crock-pot this recipe, be sure to bring dried beans to a boil first, before adding them to the crock pot. Once beans have been brought to a boil, then combine all ingredients in the ceramic basin and let the crock do the work. To cook soup over the stove, follow the instructions below:
1. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sea salt into 8 cups of cold water. Add beans and soak at room temperature overnight.
2. The following day, drain beans and rinse several times. Heat oil in the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven and cook onions, celery and carrot until softened and slightly golden and caramelized, about 7 minutes. Stir in cabbage and garlic for 1 minute, until aromatic. Transfer the vegetables to a dish and set aside.
3. In the same pot, add soaked and rinsed beans, water and Parmesan rind to the now-empty pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and vigorously simmer, stirring every once in a while, until the beans are fully cooked. (Depending on your dried bean this could take any where from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours.)
4. When beans are tender, add V8 juice to the pot and add reserved vegetables. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Discard Parmesan rind. Just before serving, stir in chopped basil and serve with grated Parmesan cheese on top.
Diet Notes: Gluten-free, Nut-free
Garlicky Greens!
November 13, 2009 § Leave a Comment
My mom’s go-to lunch usually involves half a box of spinach, a big chunk of mild cheese and a little pat of butter. Together, the two of us can polish off a pound of leafy greens in a couple days. We both love spinach (I love rainbow chard and collard greens, too) and we cook them in slightly different ways. I like my greens with a lot of garlic and lemon juice and plenty of aged, sharp cheese.
Tonight I filled up a bag of spinach from the farmers’ market and decided to whip up this dish as a supper “side.” While this dish can definitely stand-alone, it is also one of my favorite starting-points for other recipes. Use this recipe to bulk up a soup, add inside of a sandwich (very good!), stuff into an omelette or frittata or mix with beans (lentils or cannellini beans go nicely).
Ingredients (for one):
3 large handfuls of greens (spinach, rainbow chard, collard greens, etc.)
juice of half a lemon
4 large garlic cloves
1 tablespoon olive oil
slivers of Parmesan cheese*
sea salt, pepper
*If following a vegan diet, omit cheese. It’s still very flavorful.
This plate of greens will shrink to a one-size portion in a matter of minutes.
Methods:
1. Thoroughly wash all greens and leave damp. The water will help the vegetables steam. If using a heavier green like collards or rainbow chard, remove thick part of the stem and rib and reserve for a soup for another day.
2. Heat olive oil in pan on medium. Saute chopped garlic, stirring constantly. When garlic begins to turn golden and is aromatic, add ripped greens.
3. Cover with a lid for 1-2 minutes until leaves are bright green and wilted. Remove lid. Add lemon juice and stir. Serve immediately, garnished with slivers of Parmesan cheese (you can use a carrot peeler to do this).
Diet Notes: SCD-safe, gluten-free, nut-free, vegan (see asterisk)
