Quinoa salad

The original recipe is here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/quinoa-with-garlic-pine-nuts-and-raisins-recipe/index.html

However, it turned out double of this:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well!
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper
optional - veggie or chicken broth
optional - crumbled goat cheese


Directions
Place the quinoa in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until toasted, about 2 minutes. Add 1 3/4 cups water (or use low-sodium broth) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the liquid is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast the nuts in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add the olive oil and garlic to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer the garlic to the plate, reserving the oil.

Fluff the quinoa with a fork. Add the nuts, garlic, reserved oil, parsley, fruit and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and toss. Top with crumbled goat cheese.

This receipe (when doubled) served 8 people - with the option for dessert a few hours later.

Stuffed baby peppers

Last weekend ended our CSA. As a thank you, we received 7 pounds of whatever variety of apples they had (which was about 8) and two boxes of potatoes, tomatoes, & baby bell peppers.

I took those baby bell peppers & froze them as an appetizer for the future. Did you hear that echo? Let me say it again - Appetizer Forrrrr the Futurrrrrrrre!!



Here's what happened:

Stuffed baby bell peppers

1 package of cream cheese (1/3 less fat)
1/2 head of garlic (optional)
1/4 cup of sundried tomatoes (or your own oven-dried)
handful of fresh basil or other herbs
a quart or more of baby bell peppers

Preheat oven to 350. Slice one line into the baby bell peppers. This will be where we pipe the filling into the pepper. It makes sense to slice the line where the pepper naturally is face-up. Dig out (if you want) the seeds & ribs of the peppers. (I didn't on the 2nd time making these.)

Mince the garlic, chop the tomatoes into small pieces. Mix into the cream cheese. Place the mixture into a heavy duty quart-size ziploc bag. Snip one of the tips.

Pipe the mixture into each of the peppers. Lay onto a rimmed baking sheet or rimmed dish.

To make now: Bake until the cheese filling looks done - about 15-20 minutes.

To freeze for later: Lay the peppers onto a sheet pan & place in the freezer for about 3 hours. Make sure the peppers don't touch. Then, bag the peppers in a freezer ziploc bag & store for the Futurrrrrrre! I haven't used them since they've been frozen, but I would imagine that you'd bake them for 45-60min at 350 or 375 from frozen.

Yummy!

Spring meal: White pizza with ramps & strawberry salad.

From our CSA this week, we received more flavorful salad greens, mustard greens, 2 pints of strawberries, & a bunch of radishes. We hadn't even finished our first set of salad greens yet! Plus, we've had 3 weeks of strawberries. PLUS! We've still have copious amounts of ramps & scallions. What to do!!

So, tonight I made a white pizza with ramps & a strawberry salad. It was a very nice balanced meal. PLUS!! We had a nice white wine with the meal.

Nice.

Just a warning - don't be afraid of the number of ramps. Ramps are much mellower than garlic or scallions/leeks. Don't fear the ramps!


Here's the basic recipe:

White pizza with ramps
10 ramps
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 or 3/4 cup shredded Italian cheese (we used Sargento's reduced fat Italian blend)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 tablespoons dried basil (or a handful of fresh basil)
1-2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tomato, diced
1 pizza crust

So, I did a dirty, clever trick with the tomato. I purchased an heirloom tomato from the crappy Giant near me (not the super nice Giant). Mostly, heirloom tomatoes have tons of tomato flavor, which is indicated by their scent & their minimal travel time. However, I screwed up & chose a random heirloom without a good scent that traveled from Canada. After I chopped the tomato, I sprinkled it with a very small amount of sugar & a ton of basil. Then, it tasted more tomatoey. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than tasting like water.

Basically, the pizza crust is topped with ricotta cheese, then 1/2 of the ramps, the seasonings, then the tomatoes, then the shredded cheese. (Jeff says that you can cook all of the ramps in the pizza. I liked a few of them raw on top. But taste a raw ramp & choose your own adventure!) Sprinkle the top with the parmesan. Also, I brushed the exposed crust with some olive oil & sprinkled with some parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top the pizza with the rest of the ramps & (if you're feeling feisty, some fresh arugula leaves).

Enjoy with a nice white wine, such as a 2007 Cascina del Pozzo Arneis Roero (Italian white table wine - cheap!). Also, make a nice green salad & top with sliced strawberries & balsamic vinaigrette.

AWESOME!! & very Spring-y!


Aside: Ramps are SUPER ULTRA good pan-fried with potatoes. Just add the ramps near the end of the cooking. Nice onion/garlic flavor with potatoes - very good!!

Ramp pesto.

Behold, my first CSA delivery. Pardon the mess in the picture. It was hard to get everything in the picture! What you see is:

2 strawberry plants (June bearing, I believe)
10 very large scallions
2 bunches ramps
1 large jar of homemade pasta sauce
1 small jar of peach jam
1 small basil plant
1 small parsley plant

First thing that I thought of - What the heck do I do with RAMPS? My first attempt - mixed into a salmon souffle - did not yield a ramptastic meal. It was good, but it didn't highlight the ramps enough.

Tonight, I made ramp pesto. It was great! 4 out of 5 stars!

Ramp pesto
1 bunch ramps
2/3 cup parmiggiano-reggiano cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
4 oz pinenuts
large bunch parsley

Process everything in a food processor.

I cubed 1 large, flavorful heirloom tomato, zested 1/2 lemon, chopped cooked chicken, sprinkled a little crushed red pepper, & put that over my pasta with pesto. It was delicious!

The ramps added a very nice garlic flavor without being overbearing. Most pestos start with a nice garlic flavor & feel like a kick in the teeth after 4 bites. This was a nice mellow flavor that slightly intensified by the end.

If you make it, I hope you enjoy!!

First try: Ravioli

Keri here again with a recipe using my brand new pasta maker! I haven't seen gluten-free raviolis yet... Plus, I doubt that they'll ever have pumpkin, butternut squash, or more creative fillings until many years in the future. This year, the man surprised me with a pasta maker to allow me to create pirogies, raviolis, flavored pastas, etc. Let the creativity begin!

We figured that I'd start with something rather basic for my first ravioli recipe. Now, I want to warn you: This isn't an amazing recipe. It's a first try at making homemade ravioli. It was pretty good, but there's room for improvement.

Firstly, the ravioli filling needs to be almost overwhelmingly flavorful. It needs to be able to stand up to the pasta dough - even though the dough is rolled thin.

Secondly, the dough needed to be rolled with a rolling pin prior to going through the pasta maker. Otherwise, the pasta maker couldn't catch the dough.

After that preface, here are my recipes:

Gluten-free pasta dough

I used Mario Batali's Fresh Pasta recipe as a base. For those of you not doing a gluten-free pasta, feel free to use his instead of mine.

4 eggs
3 1/2 cups Jules' Gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup water (more or less)

Mound the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape.

Start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. If the dough has trouble coming together, add 1/4 cup water. Keep adding water until it becomes a cohesive mass. Gluten-free flour tends to be thirsty, but be sparing after the first 1/4 cup of water. If you overdo it, the pasta maker will shred the dough into little pieces. (Hint: If this happens - just add a little more flour, knead again, & re-roll.)

Remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature. (Hint: Keep most of the dough wrapped until needed.)

Roll 1/4 of the dough with rolling pin until 1/4-1/8 inch thin. Feed through pasta roller at largest setting. Then, feed through pasta roller at the ravioli setting. Cut sheet into large rounds. Add a very small dollop of ravioli into the center of a round. Wet the outer edge of the round. Top with another round & press down gently to seal. You can use a fork to flute the edges if you're feeling crafty. (Hint: If the dough tears, use a dough "band-aid." Wet a small bit of dough, & gently press into the tear. Boiling the pasta makes most of these look fairly normal. Plus, there's sauce, right??)

When done with the prep work, boil the raviolis until they float. Top with sauce, & Done!!


Ravioli filling
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons olive tapenade (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Cook pork on stove top until browned. Remove from heat, & place pork into large mixing bowl. Add ricotta, basil, seasoning, & tapenade. Taste. Add salt & pepper. Add more flavorings as needed. If you need, add other/more seasonings - Remember: It should be almost overwhelmingly flavorful.

Sauce

1/4 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup diced roasted red peppers plus 1 teaspoon liquid from jar
2 tablespoons finely chopped sundried tomatoes plus 1 tablespoon oil from jar
3 leaves fresh basil, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Taste. Add salt/pepper. Done!

Post-race Pizza.

There's nothing quite like home-made pizza. Delicious ingredients combined just the way that we like them... Yum!

For this pizza, I used Jules Gluten-free Flour. It is by far the best gluten-free flour that I've had. No extra ingredients. No adjusting of the recipes. Just use as you would regular all-purpose flour.

I made the dough using AllRecipes Pizza Dough III with a few minor modifications: I gave the yeast about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar for food, I decreased the amount of sugar in the dough, & I added a teaspoon of an Italian seasoning blend into the dough.

Next time, MORE Italian seasoning into the dough!!

For the pizza:
1/4 jar of pasta sauce (leftovers work great for this!)
1 tin of tomato paste
8-12 leaves of fresh basil
Boar's Head pepperoni (gluten-free!)
1 package of Sargento shredded Italian 4-cheese blend
1 diced tomato

I lightly greased the pan prior to putting the dough on it. (Normally, I spread the dough on a flexible, plastic chopping board, & then I flip it onto the baking sheet.) Mix the pasta sauce with the paste. Taste & add any seasonings if needed. (We didn't need any!!) Put down the sauce, then the basil, then the cheese, then the pepperoni, then the tomatoes.

Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Yummy!!!