Once again I must apologize for the long silence, my dears; the last week of school-->finals week-->week of a really big order of baked goods simply knocked me for a loop. But now I'm back on my feet and ready to go again!
Okay, so now that I've gone through the facts of the food (well, a lot of them... I couldn't possibly cover all the foods I love and use in just a couple of entries), we're ready to start the cookin'.
We're going to start off basic, cooking some grains; I figure since I preach quinoa like it's the answer to the human condition, I should probably tell you all how to cook it. ^_^
Quinoa is cooked like rice, but it cooks a bit quicker. Generally the rule is 1 cup of quinoa to a little less than 2 cups water (try 1.5 and work your way up from there if necessary). Before cooking, you must rinse the quinoa thoroughly to remove the bitter saponin film on the outside of the grain. Soak it for about 10 minutes in room-temp water, give it a nice swish with your fingers, and drain it through a mesh sieve; or, if you don't have time to soak it, just rinse it and drain it a few times. Before you add it to the water, make sure it's drained thoroughly, otherwise there will be too much water and your end product will be soggy.
Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan (medium-high heat), throw in a pinch of salt. Add the quinoa, give it a nice stir, then replace the lid and reduce to a simmer (medium-low). If it's been soaked it will cook a bit more quickly; generally it'll take about 15-18 minutes. Once the time has passed, take the lid off the pan and tilt it so that you can see if there is any water left that hasn't cooked off yet. If there is none, turn off the heat and fluff the quinoa gently with a fork, then transfer it to a large bowl. If there is still water, let it go for a couple more minutes (you can give the quinoa a try if it looks done; if it is, then leave the top off the pan so the water will just evaporate).
Once your quinoa is in the bowl cooling, I like to add a little olive oil and just toss it gently. You don't have to do this (it won't stick together like pasta if you don't), but I like the flavor. If you're going to use the quinoa for breakfast, you could use some butter instead; but my favorite quinoa recipe is a basic salad that is PERFECT in the summer. It's similar to tabouli, but with some garbanzo beans in it.
3 cups cooked, cooled quinoa (that's about a cup uncooked, it expands a good bit)
1.5 cups garbanzo beans (if canned, give them a quick rinse)
1/2 of a seedless cucumber, chopped
3 medium vine-ripe tomatoes, chopped
1.5 cups finely chopped fresh cilantro (if you're a hater, you can use parsley/basil/mint/any combination thereof)
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
juice of 1 lime
few tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
In a large bowl, gently fold together the quinoa, beans, cuke, herbs and tomato. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients to make a quick vinaigrette, pour over the salad and mix thoroughly. Cover and chill for at least a half hour, then serve.
FYI: I'm a recipe-tweaker myself, so I won't be offended if you change something about this recipe (or any recipe that I post on here) to better suit your tastes. You could vary it by adding some avocado, switching out the cucumber, cilantro and lime juice with roasted veggies, oregano and balsamic vinegar; it's incredibly versatile. Then, of course, you can use any kind of bean you choose. Red kidney beans are very good as well.
More recipes will be following soon, and for those of you who want to say that I forgot to cover fishes and other animal-derived foods in my "facts of the food", I did that on purpose. I'm going to cover them recipe by recipe. For instance, if I'm posting an entry about wild sockeye salmon, I will give you a lesson in Omega 3 fatty acids and fish protein, etc. I do not prefer to have you stock up on frozen fishes, as frozen fish is kind of a hit-or-miss situation in terms of quality (if you're buying at Trader Joe's, however, I think that there is no miss... all the fish I've ever gotten there was fantastic). Given that, I would prefer that we learn as we go.
Have a great day kids, and enjoy the sun if it's out! Gotta get that vitamin D ;-)
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment