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.

Accompanied by some nice Quebec cheese and some rooibos tea.

Mark Bittman’s recent column on roasting winter vegetables inspired this simple, yet very fulfilling meal. I chopped a few small carrots, one parsnip, some sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes), and a sweet potato. I added a few whole garlic cloves (with skin), drizzled some olive oil, sprinkled some fleur de sel, black pepper, oregano and roasted them in the oven, pre-heated to 450 F for about half an hour.

Meanwhile I cooked a cup of quinoa with half a cup of dried cranberries in 1 1/2 cup of salted water. While the quinoa cooked (it takes about 15 mins) I roasted a handful of walnuts and chopped a half cup of fresh parsley.

In a cast iron skillet, I stir fried a red onion in a tablespoon grapeseed oil (or any plain vegetable oil). When the onions were translucent, I added a small purple cabbage, chopped, and two tablespoons tamari sauce. I cooked it for a few minutes (I like it crunchy so I sauteed it only till it warmed through) and then mixed in 1tbsp toasted sesame oil, a few dashes ume plum vinegar, and sprinkled some sesame seeds. I then removed it from the heat and set it aside.

When the quinoa absorbed all the water, I let it sit for 5 mins, and then mixed in the chopped parsley, chopped walnuts, and seasoned with a few dashes of ume vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.I also added a bit more olive oil and some balsamic vinegar to the roasted vegetables.

Ingredients

• 2/3 of package of Orzo
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bunch kale (I used red kale), washed and chopped
• handful or more of dried mushrooms, reconstituted and chopped
• 4-5 sundried tomatoes, reconstituted and chopped. Reserve the tomato water.
• 2 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, optional
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

1. Prepare the orzo according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, caramelize the onions in skillet with olive oil or butter over medium-low heat. Separate the onions when ready. Add another tbsp olive oil and the garlic. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the tomatoes, mushrooms, and oregano. Cook for a few minutes, add the capers, and then mix in the kale, a handful at a time until it is all wilted. Use the water you reserved from reconstituting the tomatoes to add some moisture and steam Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the caramelized onions.

3. When the orzo is ready, drain, and stir it in the kale mixture. Add the parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

I’ve had this book for a few months now and it’s really great when you just want to look up an ingredient, or discover some basic ways of cooking any kind of vegetable. But beyond the basics, Bittman offers great variations for cooking any kind of dish from the most basic mac and cheese to Indian dhals to making your own cheese and yogurt. The book is clearly organized, with lots of recipes that can be made in less than half an hour for those busy weekdays. But what I like most about this book – and Bittman’s recipes in general – is that the recipes are always very flexible. He teaches you the basics and allows you the freedom to change ingredients at will. This is great when you are trying to cook with what you have available at the house or at the market.

In the process of researching How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman discovered the incredible effects, both for his own health and that of the planet, of eating more fruits and vegetables and reducing the consumption of meat. After much research, he wrote this short but insightful guide on how to take a minute to consider where your food comes but also how to step beyond the conflicting advices of nutritionists and scientists and simply start eating as if food matters. Michael Pollan goes into more depth in many of the issues Bittman raises, but I find this book is a better introduction to the issues to those who are not yet invested on the issue.

This next book is my favourite cookbook this year. Everything I’ve tried from it has been incredibly tasty and I’ve learned some very helpful tips from it such as how to reduce phytic acid, a substance that interferes in the absorption of zinc, calcium, iron, and other essential minerals, from rice and other grains and how to add extra minerals into food by simply cooking them by simply adding an inch of kombu. The recipes are beautifully organized according to seasons and since the author lives in New England, I can find all of the ingredients here in Ontario.

I love coffee. I’m not addicted and usually have my first coffee of the day some time in the afternoon and I don’t usually have more than two a day. Some days I have none and that’s fine. But I really love the taste of a good coffee and in Barcelona I learned that my favorite way of drinking coffee is what the Spanish call a cortado (tallat in Catalan). It’s usually served in a small glass and in Spain at least half, if not two-thirds, of the glass is filled with espresso and then topped with steamed milk. I like it better this way because the coffee taste is not drowned out by too much milk as in the lattes and capuccinos commonly available in North America. In France I learned that the closest thing to a cortado is a petit crème. Here in Toronto it’s always a bit tricky. Technically, the closest thing is a macchiato, which is an espresso topped with some milk froth. So I usually order a macchiato and ask them to add steamed milk rather than just froth. Call it a wet macchiato. We used to have a perfect cortado every saturday at Ozzie’s but unfortunately he stopped serving them in the little glasses since they broke so easily. Now we have our cortados in half-filled capuccino cups, which is not quite the same.

But lately I’ve noticed that some of the baristas in Toronto know exactly what a cortado is and I can even order it that way – simply asking for a cortado and not explaining how to alter a macchiato. So far I’ve had great cortados at the Dark Horse, La Merceria, and Sam James Coffee Bar. The latest one – the one on the photo above – was from Manic Coffee. It certainly brought me back to Barcelona.

Scrambled tofu & carrots, red kale stir fried with caramelized onions, pine nuts, and seasoned with tamari, and watermelon radishes marinated in a raspberry vinaigrette. It all made my day much brighter.

The mix of colours was sooo nice:

At b espresso