Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

I've made this twice; the first time changed my life and the second time was too dry. I'm not totally sure what I did wrong the second time but if you have suggestions, let me know!

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa
from Gourmet via epicurious.com

Lime zest from one lime
Lime juice from same lime
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sugar
1 cup quinoa (triple rinsed)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 medium tomatoes, diced
4 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Whisk together lime zest and uice, butter, oil, sugar, big pinch salt, and a couple cracks of pepper in a large bowl.

Cook quinoa in a medium pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Drain in sieve, then set sieve in same pot with one inch of simmering water (water should not touch bottom of sieve). Cover quinoa wit a folded kitchen towel, then cover sieve with a lid (don't worry if lid doesn't fit tightly) and steam over medium heat until tender, fluffy and dry, about 10 minutes.

Remove pot from heat and remove lid. Let stand still covered with a towel, 5 minutes.

Add quinoa to dressing and toss until dressing is absorbed, then stir in remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.

Top with avacado! Or feta!

Bulger and Green Lentil Salad with Chickpeas

I didn't really like parsley before I made this, and I'm not even the biggest fan of tabbouleh, but this salad has a million things to offer. It doesn't get mushy like tabbouleh and absolutely gets better the more days it's in the fridge. The first time I made this I ate on it for a week and it was amazing every day..but next time I might half it. It makes a lot!

Bulgur and Green Lentil Salad with Chickpeas
from Lorna Sass

1/2 cup French green lentils, discarding crappy looking ones
1 bay leaf
Salt and Pepper
3/4 cup fine or medium bulgur
5 scallions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves
Grated zest of one lemon (the recipe originally calls for two but I thought it was too much)
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup olive oil (light is good)
1 tsp. paprika
1.5 cups cooked chickpeas (rinsed, if canned)
2 cups finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped mint, or 2 tbsp. dried

Cover the lentils with water in a small saucepan, add the bay leaf and big pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until tender but firm, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, put the bulgur in a bowl, cover with water, and let stand until the liquid is absorbed and the grains are tender, 20-30 minutes. [LK note: this needed more time and more water for me]

Whisk together scallions, garlic, lemon zest, juice, oil, paprika, and big pinch salt in a large bowl. When the lentils are done, drain them and add them to the dressing. Press out any excess water from the bulgur and add it along with the chickpeas, parsley and mint. Toss gently and thoroughly, then taste for salt and season with pepper. Serve warm or cover and set aside to serve later with a fresh sprinkling of parsley.

Variation with Walnuts and Tarragon: Replace the mint with 2 tbsp. chopped tarragon. Use half walnut oil in the dressing and add 1/2 cup chopped roasted walnuts to the salad.

A Taste-Splosion!

Okay, so I know that this isn't exactly a recipe in the traditional sense of the word, but let's call it a recipe for deliciousness. I just tried these 100 cal. packs of Reese's Snacksters and I am in awe. I love this product! Only 2 WW points per pack and I really feel like they are a treat. Inside the pack you find Reese's Pieces, cereal puffs, cereal squares, and peanut butter chips. In combination these things are very exciting. I am normally more of a Wonka candy person, but Hershey, you've won me back on these!

Please try these out sometime and note how wonderful they are when paired with black coffee (0 WW points).

Read more at, http://www.hersheys.com/products/details/snacksters.asp

Pizza Sauce: Roasted Tomato and Basil

I've been writing a lot of things recently. Not sure why but I'm going with it. I'm trying to use this as a recipe-holder for things I try out, and a way to process something I made and think about how to make it better next time. So...hope that's fine :)

At my new job we get donations from City Harvest every Thursday for the clients, but whatever is going to go to waste (which is always a lot, I'm told) gets to go home in the arms of the staff. This past week I scored 8 huge, beautiful tomatoes and a ton of bagels. The bagels I sliced and put in giant ziploc bags in the freezer, for easy breakfasts for weeks to come, and the tomatoes got a few variations. This is just one. It makes a beautiful, completely professional pizza sauce, without the crap.

Roasted Tomato and Basil Pizza Sauce

3 large ripe tomatoes
2 large handfuls basil leaves
1 small can tomato paste
bit of olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt

Cover toaster oven pan with foil and set toaster oven to Broil. Slice tomatoes in half and put cut-side down in the pan . Place in toaster oven and broil for 20-25 minutes or until skins are mostly blackened...or at least half. When done put in a bowl and immediately cover with pan lid or cookie sheet. This helps to loosen the skins. After five minutes, remove skins and chop tomatoes.

Saute onions in a bit of olive oil and salt. When transluscent, add garlic and a bit of juice from the tomatoes. Cook for two minutes, stirring, then add tomatoes and 1/2 can tomato paste and a ton more salt. If needed, you can add the rest of the tomato paste but I only used 3/4 can and it was perfect. Do what you feel.

Once everything's incorporated and the sauce is your desired thickness (that's what she said), turn off heat and stir in basil. One second later, when basil is wilted, dump everything into the blender.

Leave the hole on the blender open, or prop the lid a bit so that steam has a way to escape. Blend to desired consistency, which should happen quickly. Cool and use immediately or stick in freezer for later pizza making parties (as I did).

Leftover Surprise

Desperate to try Jamie's Sofrito, but also desperate to eat food that's been threatening to rot in my fridge, I threw this together. There's obviously a million variations that could happen, and the egg was a bit of a wild hair (or protein deficiency speaking through my cravings), but I found this to be surprisingly delicious and will be making it again for sure.

Black Bean Summer Stew with Sofrito

Makes enough for two main dishes.

1 cup (or can) of cooked black beans
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
cumin
corriander
2 tbs. tomato paste (sauce would probably work too)
1 veggie bullion cube (I used two tiny onion bullion cubes)
1 cup cooked sweet potato, in 1-inch chunks
2 tbs. sofrito
2 eggs
feta, crumbled (goat cheese would also be wonderful)
lime wedges
salt and pepper to taste
hot water

Start by boiling a kettle of water. In a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat, saute onions (for me, this process involves salt), adding garlic and a few shakes of cumin and corriander when onions start to get transluscent. Once onions have started sweating a bit, add tomato paste, sofrito, 1/4 cup of hot water and bullion. Stir until bullion cube is dissolved.

Add black beans and sweet potatoes, stirring after each addition. Then add water, a cup or so, until the stew has thinned out just a bit. Turn up heat, bring to boil and crack eggs on top. Keeping heat at medium-high, cover and let eggs poach. Keep an eye on the eggs (won't destroy anything if you to lift the lid a bit), poking the yolks after a few minutes if you like them cooked through. When eggs are cooked to your satisfaction, remove from heat.

Serve into bowls and top with a bit of crumbled feta and squeezed lime.

Sofrito

Apparently everyone else in the world knew that there's this amazing stuff, sofrito, that you use in cooking beans, rice, meat, vegetables, ANYTHING, and it makes it eight thousand times better. How embarrassing. No worries, though because now I have two recipes and a jar of it in my fridge that a coworker made me. Phew!

Two co-workers, one Puerto Rican (Carmen), one 1/2 Dominican (Jamie), each gave me the recipes they swear by (and always have on hand) plus recipes for their signature sofrito dishes. I'm never looking back.

Carmen's Sofrito

20 pieces or more of garlic
2 bell peppers (red or green, depending on what resulting color you want)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch recao (also known as culantro, or Mexican coriander)
2 onions
a little water
10-20 ajices (small round sweet peppers, usually green or orange)

Clean, de-seed, and chop everything into similar-sized pieces. Throw everything in the food processor and add water, a tablespoon or so at a time, until the sofrito looks homogeneous and just a little watery.

Carmen's Spanish Rice

little oil
1 bullion cube
1 small can GOYA tomato sauce
+ water for rice (1:1 ratio)
+ couple spoons of Sofrito
rice

In large sauce pan or saute pan, warm a glug (ya know, a pour out of the bottle) of olive oil, and break bullion cube into it. Add tomato sauce and water.* Bring water to a boil, then add rice. Cover and cook until rice is tender.

*Carmen instructed: "If cooking 4 cups of rice, then use 4 cups of water." Firstly, I don't know what sort of army she's feeding but there's no way I'd ever need that much rice. Secondly, I have not yet made this and don't know if that ratio actually works well, especially with the recipe scaled back. Will have to make this soon!

Jamie's Sofrito
This is the one I have in my fridge

1 clove garlic (peeled and chopped)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper chopped
3/4 cup of water
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbs oregano
1 tbs black pepper
2 tbs. Goya recaito

Blend all together and freeze extra.

Jamie's Beans with Sofrito

Use red or pink with 1/2 can tomato sauce and 2 tbs. of sofrito

OR

For hearty beans:
3/4 cup of water
1 potato (chopped)

Boil potatoes until tender.

1 tbs. of oil
beans
1/2 can tomato sauce (Goya's small can)
2 tbs. of sofrito

Birthday Ritual

As the family pastry gal, I am always eager for the challenge of a birthday. I always require that the Birthday Boy/Girl choose their favorite cake or sweet to celebrate their day. This time it was Sean's birthday and of course he had to pick something with either lots of food coloring or sprinkles... if he had it his way, he would pick both and then flavor it with mango. (Let's just say he still has the palate of a 6 yr old.)

His choice this year... Red Velvet Cake.

I have made this one other time and found it to be remarkably adaptable for the non-egg eaters that I am surrounded by. I adapted this recipe found on epicurious.com (a gem of a recipe-finder).

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/RED-VELVET-CAKE-WITH-RASPBERRIES-AND-BLUEBERRIES-108256

The modifications I made are as follows.

1. Instead of the eggs, I used 2T of apple sauce for each.
2. No berries.

I would have liked to use berries, however they were Remarkably overpriced at Randall's (get it!). Also, I would recommend using a little bit of egg-replacer if you try this one out, because the cake, while incredibly moist, was a bit on the dense side. I thought that it was also a little too sweet, but that is the way that Sean likes it and he was very happy with the outcome. He actually ate most of it over the course of the week. The icing recipe was terrific and I will definitely use that again for other creations.

Pictures to be posted in the next few days... (Waiting for camera to recharge)

Lunch with Mom

Mom's in town for a few days which requires unparalleled entertainment and tons of food. Yesterday we had brunch at Luz, an up and coming restaurant in Clinton Hill and just a few minutes' walk from my house. Brunch was so delicious, we had to go back the next day. The restaurant has sidewalk seating, and a high brow menu at very reasonable prices, including fun cocktails and a Cinco de Mayo margarita special. Ooh la la. What we liked about the food is the beautiful presentation, fresh ingredients and playful recipes that often took a basic (read: overdone) idea and turned it into something exciting.



I had the Palmito (bottom), a salad of hearts of palm, mango, cherry tomatoes, avacado and field greens, surrounded by strips of cucumber and dressed with an orange vinagairette, and Arepas de Queso (top), little corn cakes topped with deliciously salty Mexican cheese and a cilantro pesto.

Mom had the Salmon al Pimienton, a perfectly cooked filet of salmon pan-seared and covered with a spicy-sweet red pepper glaze, served over a bed of creamy cilantro mashed potatoes and garnished with crispy fried shrimp.

After a few tequila-heavy cocktails and all this food it was time for a nap. Can't wait to go back for dessert!

Chocolate Bit Butter Cookies

These cookies are a perfect retreat from the day to day: tasty, buttery and light, they encourage you to slow down and have a snack. Adapted from 101 Cookbooks. Instead of rolling these into a log and cutting, also try chilling them in discs, rolling them out and cutting them into shapes. Just make sure they're still 1/4 inch thick.

Chocolate Bit Butter Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup dark chocolate, coarsely chopped to be just smaller than chocolate chips
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whisk the all-purpose and whole wheat flours together in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, with the back of a large spoon or with an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar and salt for about 1 minute, until smooth and creamy but not fluffy. Mix in the chocolate bits and vanilla. Add the flours and mix just until incorporated. Scrape the dough into a mass and, if necessary, knead it with your hands a few times, just until smooth.

Form the dough into a 12 by 2 inch log. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or, preferably overnight.

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.

Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place the cookies at least 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheets.

Bake until the cookies are just beginning to color at the edges, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking. Cool the cookies in the pans on a rack, or slide the parchment liners carefully onto the rack to free up the pans. Let cool completely. The cookies are delicious fresh but even better the next day. They can be stored in an airtight container forever.

Makes forty-eight 2 1/2-inch cookies.

Lemon Yogurt Poppyseed Cake

I snagged this golden recipe from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs these days. The beauty of this recipe lies in its flexibility, its superb use of yogurt and its stunning color. The zest of the citrus fruit you're using (in my case, Meyer lemons) goes into the batter but the juice is saved to make a glaze with for pouring on top of the cake just as it comes out of the oven. When you bite into the moist yogurty citrusy goodness, your tongue's also met with the subtle tasty sweetness from the glaze. It's just amazing.

Substitute the lemon for any other citrus (blood oranges, grapefruit, lime) and poppyseeds for a fruit filling (blueberries, raspberries) and you've got a new brunch dish every week. It might even be interesting with almond slivers.

Lemon Yogurt Poppyseed Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (+ 1 tablespoon if you’re adding fruit)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (I used Erivan yogurt, could also use Greek for a different texture)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup poppyseeds
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

If using fruit: 1 1/2 cups berries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed (miniature wild blueberries are great for this, and pose the least risk of sinking)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If adding berries, mix them with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 (+) minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in (a pastry brush works great for this, as does using a toothpick to make tiny holes that draw the syrup in better).

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

A Learning Process: Stir Fry

My first post is already in shambles. I have no photos to show for my brilliant "So Sweet, Yet Hot Orangey Stir-Fry". Yep. I made a stir fry to inaugurate this blog the proper way. Stir Fry was taken from the latin Stirfryus; to fry while stirring. Basically, I thought I would start out simple and build from there. Not to say that this dish tasted simple, by any means. I just wanted something that I knew would be successful and near fool-proof. And it was... until I ate it before I got a picture of it. At least I know how to amp up my post for the next go-round.

On to the goods. "So Sweet, Yet Hot Orangey Stir-Fry"

My inspiration for this meal was the plethora of veggies in my fridge. I had a couple beautiful sweet red peppers, a zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, and onions. I even decided to try out the canned bamboo shoots that had been sitting in my pantry for quite some time. Basically, you can cook these things together and add some seasoning, and you've got yourself a meal. I decided to kick it up a notch by making a different sauce.

So Sweet, Yet Hot Orangey Stir Fry Sauce
Juice of 1 orange
4 T. Honey (personal preference)
2 Crushed red pepper flakes packets left over from last week's pizza order
1 T. Vegetarian vegetable bouillon ("Better than Bouillon" brand)
3 T. Soy sauce
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 c. Diced onion
Lots of Black pepper
Cooking Spray

Stir Fry
1 pkg. Extra firm tofu cut into cubes
1/2 c. Diced onion
Whatever other veggies catch your eye and look fresh

Start with a hot wok and a couple squirts of the cooking spray to saute the onion and garlic. Then add the rest of the ingredients in no particular order. I would recommend stirring the vegetable bouillon a lot to make sure that the clumps go away. Heat for about 3 minutes on medium to make sure the flavors have a chance to make each other's acquaintance. Place the sauce in a dish and set to the side.

With the residue of sauce still left in the wok, turn up the heat to high and brown the tofu. Add veggies next. I usually start with the hardest ones first and let those get going before I add things like squash or zucchini (ie; broccoli before the bamboo shoots). That way you make sure that everything has a chance to get tender. Once the veggies look like they are near ready, go ahead and stir in the sauce. Once mixed, you are finished!

Et voila! A magnificent dish... especially served over brown rice and eaten with chop sticks.