Risi e Bisi served with Caprese salad

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 2 ounces pancetta, cut into small cubes
• 1 1/2 cups of small grain brown rice parboiled for 13 minutes or arborio rice
• 8 cups of water or chicken stock, heated until hot
• 1 1/2 cups of shelled peas
• 3 garlic scapes, finely chopped
• 1 cup of cava or dry white wine
• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano
• salt & fresh ground black pepper

1. Add the olive oil 10- to 12- inch heated sauté pan and cook the pancetta for a minute or two. Combine the onions, celery, and garlic scapes and cook over medium heat until they are softened but not browned.

2. Add the rice and stir for 2 minutes, until it is amost opaque. Add 1 cup of cava or wine and stir until the wine has evaporated. Add enough water to barely cover the rice (about 1 cup) and cook, stirring until the water is absorbed. Keep adding water, one ladleful at a time, and stirring constantly. After about 15 minutes taste the rice; it should still be al-dente but getting close to being done.

3. Add the peas and continue to cook for about 4 more minutes, adding a bit more water, until the rice is tender and creamy yet still al dente. The risotto should be quite moist.

4. Add the butter and Parmigiano, mix quickly and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

For lunch I decided to try my hand at a quiche. After perusing four different books and two blogs, I made up my own recipe. Before making the filling, however, I made Clotilde’s Olive Oil Crust. While the crust cooled in the fridge and then baked in the oven, I prepared the filling below:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup cream
• 1 cup Gruyère cheese
• 2 eggs
• about 5 oz fresh spinach
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small onions
• pinch nutmeg
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Wash the spinach well and chop the onions
2. Heat a 10″ skillet (I use cast iron) and cook the onions in the olive oil until soft and light golden
3. Meanwhile, chop up the spinach and add to the onion when it’s soft enough, folding it in until it begins to wilt. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Once the spinach is almost all wilted, transfer to a colander and let drain from excess liquid. Let it cool.
4. Mix cream and eggs until well blended and smooth, add cheese, a pinch of nutmeg (about 1/8 tsp) and mix in the spinach mixture.

Bake in a pie shell in 400 F (200 C) for about 35-40 mins. We had it for lunch with a nice green salad garnished with grapefruit and balsamic vinaigrette.

Fiddleheads stir fried in butter with wild leeks and green onions, garlic, and tossed with cheese tortellini and some good parmigiano.

I picked up my share from KEG this afternoon and in it I got carrots, potatoes, sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes), lentil sprouts (from 5 different kinds of lentils!), lettuce, salad greens, wild leeks, and green onions. With my share, I also get a $20 credit that I can use to buy anything else from the table. I chose eggs from an Amish farm, sausages, and blueberry jam. So tonight for dinner we had bangers and mash and nearly everything on that plate was from my share: I roasted two of the sausages in the oven sprinkled with some of the wild leek and green onions. I made some nice and fluffy mashed potatoes with this week’s potatoes and served it all alongside a very colourful if simple salad of lettuce, lentil sprouts and grapefruit. Link here to pictures of my shares.

Ingredients

1 large can of San Marzano tomatoes

5 tbsp unsalted butter

1 large onion, cut in half

that’s it!

Add all three ingredients to a heavy sauce pan and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes. I probably let it simmer on low for more than an hour as I set the water to boil to cook the past late in the process. Stir once in a while, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pan. This sauce was incredible fragrant. Once it is ready, discard the onions (I saved it for some future use) and serve over spaghetti. You may want to test for salt; I found the flavours so pronounced that I hardly needed any salt. I also followed Smitten Kitchen’s advise and skipped the parmesan cheese on this one. We moaned at every bite. Was it the world’s best tomato sauce? I don’t know but the flavours were certainly indescribable.

*If you ever need to make anything that calls for canned tomatoes, look for San Marzano. The difference is astounding.

After a quick browse through Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, I came across a recipe for potato provençal. It seemed easy enough – rub 2lb potatoes clean, slice them, slice 2-3 tomatoes, place them in a large baking dish with 3 tbps olive oil, salt, pepper, some olives (I added some capers as well) and place in the oven for about an hour. After about 40 mins I added 1 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and the result was sublime. We had it with fresh spring greens for dinner:

And with a cabbage salad and stir-fried radish greens for lunch the next day:

• 1 1/2l of chicken broth
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp tamari sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 4 small carrots, diced
• 1/2 a small squash, diced
• 2 small onions, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, grated
• 4 sundried tomatoes
• 2 celery ribs, finely diced
• 1-2 cups leftover bbq chicken
• 1/2 cup short grain brown rice
• 1/4 cup wild rice
• 1/4 cup red rice
• salt & pepper to taste

After frying the onions, celery, garlic, carrots, tomatoes and squash in the olive oil for a few minutes, I added the chicken, rice, and white wine and covered the pot for a few minutes. Once the wine had evaporated, I added 1 1/2l of broth, some pepper and brought it to a simmer. Half way through (15 mins) I added the tamari sauce and let it simmer for another 15 mins. Once the rice and carrots were soft enough, I added the parsley and let it simmer another couple of minutes. I then turned off the heat and diluted 2 tbsp of light miso in a small bowl using 1/2 cup of the soup broth. I poured the miso into the soup, tried some and adjusted the salt (miso and tamari are salty so you might not need to add much salt).

The resulting soup was quite colourful and hearty:

Alan really liked it!

And I still had nearly 2 liters of broth left for another day!

I stir-fried orange peppers and celery in a tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil until soft. Mixed in a tbsp of finely chopped garlic, cooked another couple of minutes and mixed in about 4 cups of arugula (I wanted to use kale but didn’t have any) and salt and pepper to taste. As soon as the arugula wilted, I added two chopped hard boiled eggs, one cup of millet grits and stir-fried everything until the grits were nicely dry. This is what it looked like:

It was VERY tasty. The millet worked even better than my favourite yellow manioc flour because it was much softer while still crunchy. Plus, the millet’s natural nutty flavour really enhanced the dish. Will definitely be making it again!

I was feeling overwhelmed by work this evening and not at all inspired to cook. Since I haven’t made rice for a while, my immediate thought was to make a simple risotto. Alas, I had neither butter nor parmesan cheese but I decided to go ahead with it anyway. I did find some gruyère cheese in the fridge so I grated about 1/4 cup of it.  My first thought was to make a butternut squash risotto but once I opened the squash, I realized I had let it sit on the counter way too long. It was all porous and dark inside so I had to discard it. Luckily, I had bought some mushrooms at the market this morning so a mushroom risotto it was. But first I prepped the short grain brown rice to render it risotto-ready: I simply parboiled 1 cup of rice for 12 minutes, drained, and set it aside.  I had made a batch of a simple vegetable stock (just onions, carrots, celerey, parsley stems boiled for an hour) so I mixed 1 cup stock, 1 cup water, and 1 cup white wine to a small pot and let it simmer.

I pulled out my paella pan and stir fried 1 small onion and 3 garlic cloves in a tablespoon or two of olive oil. When the onions were soft, I added 1 tsp dried oregano, some salt & pepper and 250g of mushrooms, cleaned and chopped. I stir fried the mushrooms for about 2 minutes, incorporated the rice and then added 1/2 cup of the sock mixture. While the rice cooked (I stirred every once in a while), I felt something was missing in it so I roasted about 1/3 cup of walnuts, chopped them and set them aside. I continued to cook the rice, adding more liquid whenever it dried. Half way through (about 10 minutes in), I mixed in the walnuts and 1 tbsp tamari sauce. My vegetable stock had no salt, you might want to skip either the tamari sauce or the salt at the beginning if you use a commercial vegetable or chicken stock. Once all the liquid had been absorbed, I added 1/3 cup chopped parsley, the gruyère cheese, adjusted the salt and pepper and served it immediately. It was the best risotto I have made so far. It would probably serve 2-3 people so you might want to double it to serve more.

Recipe below the fold

Ingredients

5-7 sundried tomatoes, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 large shallot, chopped

1 bunch kale (I used purple kale)

1 cup corn niblets

1 cup yellow cornmeal [I used Bob's Red Mill's wholegrain medium grind cornmeal]

1 cup spelt flour [also Bob's Red Mill's]

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup butter, chopped

1 large egg

Preparation

Soak the chopped sundried tomatoes in a bowl of hot water.

In a medium bowl, combine cormeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. If using butter, cut the butter into the mixture with two knives or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg and kefir until well blended. Add to the cornmeal mixture. Mix until thoroughly moistened.

Heat a 10-inch cast iron or heavy oven safe skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and stir fry the shallots until soft, add garlic and cook for another minute. Incorporate the sundried tomatoes (drained from the water) and corn niblets and mix in. Add chopped kale and cook until wilted (about 2 mins), adding salt to taste.

Fold the kale mixture into the cornmeal and return it into the cast iron skillet and bake at 350 F for 25-30 mins. Let it rest for 10 mins and serve immediately.