QUINOA ORZO WITH ASPARAGUS + PRESERVED LEMON DRESSING

Purchasing my first bundle of asparagus each year marks a tectonic shift in our kitchen. I feel ready to let go of heartier soups and starchy roots as I start to dream of the vibrant greens that only early spring can bring. Peas, wild nettles, bright salads, freshness...

Today I wanted to share a super easy dish that lets asparagus bask in its natural glory. Speaking of natural glory... have you tried storing your asparagus in water? It's a great way to keep the spears firm and fresh. I like the notion of treating asparagus like any other spring bloom... maybe I'm just a produce nerd, but I'd be quite happy to get a bouquet of asparagus in lieu of flowers.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 cups uncooked quinoa orzo* (any orzo will do here, or you could substitute a few cups of cooked wild rice for this recipe)
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and sliced
• 1 large or 2 small preserved lemons (if you don't have access to preserved lemons - I think using additional fresh lemon juice and fresh lemon zest would make a nice substitution). For details on making your own preserved lemons, here's a recipe for you.
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice + more to taste
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan + shaved Parm for serving
• freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
• for serving: arugula or chopped parsley; another squirt of fresh lemon juice; shaved Parm or crumbled goat cheese

*A local company named Edison Grainery has been doing all sort of interesting things with grains, specifically organic quinoa. We're addicted to their quinoa crispies and I really like their quinoa orzo.

Fill and large stock pot with tap water and salt very generously. Set pot over high heat and bring water to a boil.

In a large mixing bowl, set up an ice bath for the asparagus.

When the water comes to a rolling boil, blanch asparagus slices until vibrant green and just tender, depending on the thickness of your stalks, this could take 1-3 minutes. Don't pour out the cooking water, simply scoop out tender asparagus with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge the veg into an ice bath. Keep your salty cooking water on the stove and use it for your orzo.

Cook orzo until it reaches your desired texture. (For those of you using the Edison quinoa orzo, I've found that the cooking time is much longer than that suggested on the package.)

While the orzo is cooking, go ahead and make your dressing. A note on preserved lemons: when using preserved lemons, you want to discard the flesh and use only the peel. Rinse the pieces of preserved lemon peel and place them in a blender or food processor. Add olive oil, lemon juice, grated Parm, plenty of ground black pepper and salt to taste. Blitz all ingredients. Taste for seasoning and add a little more lemon juice and/or salt as desired.

When the orzo has finished cooking, drain and transfer it to a serving dish. Pull asparagus from the ice bath, pat dry and add to the orzo. Generously dress the dish, adding additional salt or lemon juice to your liking.

Serve warm or room temp with ample freshly ground black pepper, shaved Parm or creamy goat cheese, scattered arugula leaves or chopped herbs. Although not necessary, I like to give the dish one last squeeze of fresh lemon juice just to bring out the springy brightness.

Enjoy!

serves 4-6

BTW, did you guys read the new piece by Mark Bittman about cooking and eating in Berkeley? I'm happy to see Mark so enjoying California produce and our beloved Monterey Market, but I have to say... I'm scared that the already-insane parking lot situation is about to get much much worse!

QUINOA WITH SWEET TOMATOES, GREEN BEANS + BASIL

Even though it has been feeling a bit like winter here in Berkeley - we're talking plenty of fog, wooly socks, gray skies, high temps in the 60s - I know it's summer out there somewhere.

Every time I step into Monterey Market I see edible proof of mid-summer heat. A few weeks back I bought the most tender yellow beans. Peaches are bursting with sweet juices. Melons abound. And a few days ago I saw the piles. The piles of dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes. I smiled, did a little jig, and snatched up pounds of the beauties. For decades, I was committed to heirloom tomatoes, then I discovered dry farmed Early Girls. They don't look too snazzy when you compare them to the heirloom lookers, but man oh man the Early Girl flavor is incredible. Sweet, like candy.

Good tomatoes make this simple dish sing. A quick stint on the stovetop only heightens the sweetness of the tomatoes, then their juices mix with the garlic-infused oil, there's a slight crunch to the parboiled green beans, and the fluffy quinoa soaks up all the juicy tomato goodness and becomes almost creamy like risotto.

This dish is light, relaxed, and summery - it's delicious served with the Slow Roasted Salmon and Meyer Lemon Relish from my last post, or can stand on its own as a nice one-bowl vegetarian option. (Leave out the feta, and we can feed our Vegan friends too!)

The recipe is quite flexible....  You can eat it warm or at room temp. Leftovers are delish, and you can bring this dish to a potluck, or even pack some up for a plane flight as I did a couple of weeks ago. I can't tell you how happy I was at 35,000 feet, passing up airplane food to nibble on this quinoa. Yes, I was strapped into my uncomfortable plane seat, passing the time watching bad TV, but I had freshness in hand and it tasted darned good.

INGREDIENTS
(printable recipe)

• 1 cup quinoa
• sea salt
• a couple of handfuls tender green or yellow beans ( about 6 ounces), rinsed
• 1 pound dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes or firm sweet cherry tomatoes, rinsed
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced into thin slivers
• chopped fresh basil leaves (or micro basil if you have access to it)
• optional: Crumbled feta

First make your quinoa: Using a fine mesh strainer, rinse quinoa with cool tap water, then place quinoa in a medium saucepan. Cover with 2 cups water and add a pinch of salt. Place saucepan on the stove top and bring the liquid to a boil. Turn down flame to low, cover and simmer quinoa for 15-17 minutes until tender. Let cooked quinoa rest for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Let the quinoa sit in the saucepan while you prep the other ingredients.

The beans: Trim stem ends off beans and parboil them in salted water for 3-4 minutes until vibrant and tender. Immediately spread cooked beans onto a clean dishcloth and allow them to cool a bit before handling. Once the beans are cool enough to handle, slice them into bite-size pieces. Set beans aside while you prep the tomatoes.

The tomatoes: If you are using Early Girls, slice them into 6-8 wedges. If you are using cherry tomatoes, go ahead and cut the cuties in half. ( By the way... do you use a serrated knife to cut your tomatoes? I find that it's so much easier.) Heat olive oil in a medium cast iron or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add garlic slivers to the hot oil and let them sizzle for 20-30 seconds, then add tomatoes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and let the tomatoes cook for 2-3 minutes. Take pan from the heat and add the sliced beans to the tomatoes. Salt to taste.

Transfer quinoa to a serving bowl, stir in tomatoes, beans and all the juice and goodies from the pan. Salt to taste. Top with chopped basil and feta.  

If you are planning to take this salad on a picnic or for a work lunch, I suggest adding the feta and basil just before serving.

Serves 2-3 as a main; 4-6 as a side

Psst... Any of you with kids at home, you know that the start of school is fast approaching. If you're anything like me, you are desperate for school lunch inspiration. Katie Morford from Mom's Kitchen Handbook has come to our rescue - when Chronicle sent me a copy of Katie's new book, I was stoked.  Best Lunch Box Ever: ideas and recipes for school lunches kids will love is packed with tasty, healthful lunch ideas. Lilah is already scheming up what she wants from Katie's book. Phew!

STONEHOUSE OLIVE OIL + BLOOD ORANGE BROWNIES

Back in September, Trish from Stonehouse Olive Oil hired me to shoot some new images for her website. When I got Trish's call - I was stoked at the opportunity to work for a woman who is passionate about her business, especially when that business is such a delicious one. I first met Trish almost 20 years ago when she and P worked together at Alice Waters' Cafe Fanny - as long as I've known her, she has dedicated her life to good food. I'm guessing that many of you are probably already familiar with Stonehouse from their shop at the SF Ferry Building. If you don't know these oils, you should. They are awesome, and I am totally hooked.

The photos above are from a field trip last month to Talcott Ranch in Carneros. When Trish offered to let me tag along, I jumped at the chance to walk through an olive grove at harvest time - the array of olive trees dripping with ripe fruit was simply breathtaking. Getting to see, touch, and smell the place where my food comes from always inspires me and makes me quite hungry!

Trish's life has been all about olive oil for over 15 years. Being food obsessed myself, one my favorite things about this project has been hearing Trish share her knowledge of oils and her food philosophy in general. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and I wanted to share with you guys...

Erin: So many of us food-lovers are ultra conscious of where our produce comes from, but we don't always have the same depth of knowledge about olive oil. The seemingly countless olive oils lining the market shelves can be daunting for consumers. Plus, all the controversy about bogus extra virgin oils from Europe has left me all the more confused. What are you guys up to at Stonehouse?

Trish: Here at Stonehouse, we taste through all our oils at the end of crush (harvest time) and select only the oils that are fabulous. I use our oils all the time, and we have a very loyal following that keeps us honest! We also have our oils certified but the COOC, the California Olive Oil Council, which has some of the most stringent extra virgin requirements in the world.  The COOC  is the best insurance a customer has these days to make sure they're buying the real deal.

It's overwhelming how corrupt the international olive oil industry is. Although it makes perfect sense, when you consider olive oil is one of the top commodities in the world, worth billions and billions, and it is incredibly unregulated.  It is not an exaggeration to say most of the extra virgin olive oils in the supermarket are not only NOT extra virgin, but not even 100% olive oil.  For people who want to know more, Tom Mueller wrote a great article for The New Yorker years ago, and followed it up with a book this year, for those who want to geek out on the subject. 

Erin: Name a few food artisans/cooks/purveyors who inspire you? 

Trish: There are so many!  I have to give 1st nod to Full Belly and Riverdog farms, as probably 70-80% of what I eat is grown by them.  Alice Waters and Michael Pollen get a lot of press in the food movement, and deservedly so, but the farmers themselves are the biggest heroes for me, because they really have skin in the game-- their lives on the line, their physical bodies-- in a way writers or restaurateurs do not.

And Capay Valley is a special place for me. It's been a pleasure to watch the farmers there grow and become part of the Farmer's Market revolution that has culminated with the opening of the Ferry Building in 2003, which is a kind of mecca for me.  Even after 10 years, I still feel blessed and weepy every time I walk into that building.  It's so gorgeous I feel lucky and honored to be a part of it.  And we're one of the most successful stores in there, which still blows my mind. Sometimes I think, wait, do I really have a store here? or am I dreaming?


Erin: What are your most dogeared cookbooks?

Trish:  The #1 most beat up is Fields of Greens, partially because it's 20 years old and one of my 1st cookbooks.  As a young vegetarian it was my 'joy of cooking,' my go-to bible.  Many of my standard dishes are from that book.  I guess I've turned back to it now because of my health issues and it has the 60's/70's cross cultural cooking I still like.  Remember the 1st time you made gazpacho and felt sophisticated?  

Alice's The Art of Simple Food is great - it feels like the culmination of all her years of experience.   I like the variations of the recipes she offers, so that each recipe really has 5-6 versions, which is how I cook, rarely the same exact thing twice.  Her Vegetables is a standby as well. 

Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi is a newer cookbook I'm cooking my way through and loving (Jerusalem is on it's way).  I'm also big on blogs these days for inspiration--Smitten Kitchen and Heidi, and of course Yummy Supper!

STONEHOUSE BLOOD ORANGE BROWNIES 

These brownies are not your standard fare. They do have all that dense chocolate goodness you want out of a brownie, plus the blood orange oil, quinoa flour, yogurt, and ample dose of cinnamon make for a surprising and healthful bite. With ingredients like these, we could even eat brownies for breakfast. Yum!

INGREDIENTS - thank you Trish!
{printable recipe}

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder (Trish suggests Valhrona, 100% cacao)
• 1 cup quinoa flour
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon Ceylon Cinnamon (or a 1/2 teaspoon standard cinnamon)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1/3 cup Stonehouse Blood Orange Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.

Into a medium mixing bowl, sift dry cocoa, quinoa flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt - dry whisk to mix, set aside.

In a standing mixer, or using a hand mixer, blend the eggs together then add yogurt, blood orange oil, and vanilla and mix until combined. Slowly add dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Continue to mix until well blended.

Wipe the insides of a 8x10 inch pan with a little bit of Blood Orange Oil. Pour the batter in and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

QUINOA + KALE PATTIES

First off, I wanted to thank you for all of your kind and enthusiastic responses about my book news. I'm deeply grateful and all the more inspired to make a delectable cookbook for all of you!

Okay. Now, let's get back to cooking...

After 3 years of growing food in our backyard, we're finally really getting what works and what doesn't. It pained us to recently tear out our entire raspberry patch, when we accepted that it just wasn't getting enough sun. But when it comes to greens and herbs, we can rock them all year round. Kale is the family fave and we have a whole bed devoted to growing all sorts of varietals - now we don't even have to make a trip to the market to procure some tasty greens. This makes my inner lazy cook especially happy!

Ever since I got Heidi Swanson's book last year, I've been wanting to make her quinoa patties. I often find myself with leftover cooked quinoa in the fridge and I end up eating it with all sorts of things... leftover roasted chicken, salsa, herbs, beans, and almost always avocado. Transforming leftover quinoa into hearty little savory cakes is brilliant and I love the versatility of Heidi's recipe. I think you could use quinoa or any other grain here - brown rice, millet, and/or amaranth would all be delish. And adding veggies to the mix seemed like a natural addition:  if you don't have kale, try spinach, broccoli, shitake mushrooms  - whatever you have on hand, or grow in your own backyard. Avocado, salsa verde, lemon, salt, cilantro, and garlic oil all were tasty topping for the patties we made, and I can imagine so many more ways to enjoy these savory cakes - I'm sure you can too.

SPICY QUINOA WITH TANGERINES, PISTACHIOS, AND HERB PUREE

Here in Bali, we've been buying these tangerines for months now and I still am awed every time I cut one open - the contrast of the ultra-dark green skin and the bright ripe orange interior is a thing of beauty. I wanted to celebrate these stunners with a recipe for you, and I came up with this new dish that I am crazy about.

I knew I wanted to make something with quinoa, tangerines, and pistachios. After adding a little of this and a little more of that, we have a recipe that is sweet, savory, spicy, salty, and wholesome all in one bowl.

In order to get the kids to eat this dish, I served all the elements separately. Lilah, favoring pistachios and tangerine slices, ate everything but the spicy dressing. Otis helped make the puree and loved everything but the feta. P and I doused our quinoa in the verdant puree and liberally sprinkled every goody over the top. We all went back for seconds - success!

This quinoa could easily be a vegetarian main course and I think it would make a delicious accompaniment for simple grilled chicken, or a whole roasted fish.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa (brown rice can also be used in this recipe)
• 1/3 cup fresh tangerine juice
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 4 teaspoons lime juice (approximately 3 limes)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch of fresh ground black pepper
• 1 or 2 jalapenos, de-seeded and chopped
• 1 (loosely packed) cup fresh cilantro leaves + extra for garnish
• 1/2 (loosely packed) cup fresh mint leaves + extra for garnish
• 1/2 cup pistachios
• 2 large, or 4 small tangerines
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta

 

Rinse quinoa several times. Then combine quinoa with 3 cups of water in a large sauce pan. Bring water to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until grain is tender and cooked. Rinse with cold water. Let cool to room temp.

Place tangerine juice, olive oil, lime juice, 1 teaspoon salt, black pepper, chopped jalapeno, 1 cup cilantro leaves, and 1/2 cup mint leaves into a blender. Blend until you have a nice vibrant green puree.

Prepare tangerines: Peel 2 large (or 4 small) tangerines. I kept the peels on for the photographs because I just love the look (and my one and only knife here is duller than you can imagine!), but I wouldn't recommend eating that much peel in the salad. Check out this post, for a really easy way to slice citrus for salad.  Or, if you happen to have tangerines with tender membranes, you can just peel them and use the sections unsliced. Set aside tangerine slices/sections.

If you have picky little eaters, serve all ingredients separately. Otherwise, toss room temperature quinoa and dressing together. Scoop a mound of dressed quinoa onto each plate. Scatter tangerine, pistachios, feta, and the remaining fresh herbs over the top.

Enjoy!

makes 4- 6 servings as a side dish, or 2-3 large mains

QUINOA SALAD WITH FAVAS AND PRESERVED LEMON

I am always looking for new ways to enjoy quinoa and I suspect this recipe will become a staple for us when favas are in season. If you don’t have access to favas, I think steamed, chopped asparagus or even spinach, would be a delicious substitute in this dish. Plus here's another use for those preserved lemons you might have made with me a while back.

Eating favas in the middle of California winter, I feel like a traitor to my friends at home. Here in New Zealand it is early Summer and favas ( aka “broad beans” ) are ready for harvest and impossible for me to resist. I stumbled on this recipe in Australia’s Gourmet Traveller (my new favorite food mag) and loved the mix of flavors. I ended up making a lot of changes to the original recipe until I was satisfied with the balance of fresh, creamy, lemony, flavors I craved. I served the salad to P and my mom - when they oohed and aahed, I figured I needed to share the recipe with you.

This salad can be a one-bowl-meal in itself or works as a substantial side dish for grilled fish or chicken.

Quinoa Tabouli

What to do with quinoa? Here's a tasty recipe....

1 cup quinoa
3 large tomatoes, chopped or cherry tomatoes quartered would be nice
1 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 cup scallion, finely chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons mint, finely chopped
salt to taste

First rinse quinoa several times. Then mix quinoa with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Simmer and cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Let cool to room temp.
Mix all ingredients with the quinoa, add salt to your liking, and you've got your tabouli.

This is a great dish to bring to a picnic.

Serves 6