Dinner Improv: Quinoa dressed Local-Style

After some heavy eating, I came home hungry for something light. With a crisper full of local vegetables, I chopped up some asparagus, radish, carrots and scallions to cover at least part of the color spectrum. Add a little balsamic vinaigrette with home-grown basil and mint. That part was easy. I'm not the sort of eater who can go without protein lightly. But I'd already had a heavy lunch with flank steak and spinach.

Enter quinoa. Benefits:

• SO easy. Popped it in the rice cooker with 1 part quinoa and 2 parts chicken broth (although water or veg broth would have been just fine)
• All protein! Quinoa has anywhere from 12-18% protein and has a ton of essential amino acids which make it a great light and healthy protein source.
• Tasty. If you haven't had it, quinoa has this light nutty taste and a cool grainy texture which make it a really nice change.
• Makes for great leftovers. I threw the whole box in the rice cooker and now I have a ton to use for salads, side dishes and even breakfast (heat it slowly with vanilla soy milk and warm spices like cinnamon or nutmeg, drizzle with local honey).

Quinoa sounds perfect! Enter the big "but". I realized that my quinoa was only local in that my local Trader Joe's is just down the street. So I did a little hunting and found that my dreams of a local quinoa-filled summer would not come true. On the other hand, I found this great website, Local Fork, which has a guide to locavore resources in NYC. With a little effort and broadening my farmer's market options, it looks like I can try some new grains and keep it local all the while!

Local items: asparagus, radish, carrot, scallion
Home-grown items: basil, mint
Could do better: quinoa
Pantry staples: grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper

Prepping for One Local Summer

In less than a week, I'm starting the One Local Summer challenge which requires one meal a week that is completely local (oil, salt, pepper and spices are allowed to be non-local). Participants will blog about their entries and share them on the main site over at http://www.farmtophilly.com/, the hosts of the challenge.

I'm in the midst of clearing out my fridge and keeping it chiefly local or organic or some approximation thereof as the farmer's market gets into full swing. Tonight, I grilled up a flank steak (which was not particularly local, but taking up valuable space in the freezer) with a marinade made of garlic, cilantro, salt, pepper and local scallions. I served this with grilled local sweet potato half-moons tossed in sea salt and chili powder. The real centerpiece, however, was an all local/home-grown green salad (although the vinaigrette required transgressions, of course). I used red and green leaf lettuces from our container garden, as well as home-grown basil and mint. I tossed these with farmer's market scallions, radishes and carrots.

It will take some major steps to turn that meal into a One Local Summer-eligible one, but it felt good to be able to throw together a mostly local dinner using what was available to me already in my fridge. That's the ultimate goal - to make these meals so effortless that I won't even consider the take-out option.

Local items: carrots, radishes, scallions, sweet potatoes

Home-grown items: lettuces, basil, mint

Could do better: meat, garlic, cilantro

Non-local staples: olive oil (from local shop that supports local farmers), vinegar, salt, pepper, chili powder

Impromptu Tea Party, or Dessert for Breakfast

 I've been determined to work my through The Greyston Bakery Cookbook over time to perfect my baking skills.  I'm generally an impatient (although I prefer to call it innovative) cook and so baking has been a particular challenge.  Faced with a few hours to kill and an abundance of eggs from our CSA (which has spurred so many of my recipe choices these days), I dug out the book and got to work. 

I decided to attempt the Earl Grey Tea Cake on a Sunday afternoon.  This recipe combines a not-so-obscene amount of eggs, butter, and sugar with the usual characters of salt, baking powder, flour, etc.  The secret to its greatness comes in the four bags of Earl Grey tea which get crushed into the batter giving off a beautiful aroma of bergamot and smoky tea.  

Even with my commitment to diligent recipe following, I made one minor adjustment which was to use Stash Premium Double Bergamot Earl Grey in place of your run-of-the-mill Lady Grey.  I was fairly confident that this tweak could not result in a change of chemistry.  And in fact, my gamble paid off.  The citrusy smokiness was gorgeous and made for a sweetly satisfying cake and removed the need for the brewed tea icing that the recipe also calls for (okay, that's two tweaks).   These adjustments also made the cake less indulgent when eaten over the next few mornings.  

Dinner Improv: Gorgonzola Ravioli in a Mushroom Beurre Rouge

I had planned the perfect dinner, complete with portions for leftovers to keep us going through the week. As with the best laid plans, I forgot to pick up the final (mildly crucial) ingredient on my way home from work. Rather than fall victim to this fairly common mishap (and the easy reach of the takeout menu), I took a few moments to reflect on what I could cobble together.

I must admit that the centerpiece of the dish came from my dear friend Trader Giotto. A stash of ravioli and tortellini in the fridge and freezer has come in handy on more than one occasion. Tonight, I pulled out the gorgonzola ravioli and dreamt up what I'll call a Mushroom Beurre Rouge.

I heated a saute pan with Stonehouse California olive oil (from a local market in NYC, Provisions, that I am in love with) and some butter. To this I added one large shallot minced until the shallot was fragrant and soft. Next, I added some sliced baby bella mushrooms that didn't make it into last week's frittata. Just as the mushrooms were cooked, I added a bit of leftover red wine (roughly 1/4 cup) and reduced. Stir in some frozen peas and my sauce was complete. I combined this with the ravioli and garnished with fresh parsley from the farmer's market and fresh cracked black pepper.

The earthiness of the mushrooms and wine was balanced by the sweet butter and salty bite of the gorgonzola cheese. For a bit of additional acidity and texture in the meal, I also sliced up some farmer's market carrots (one orange and one lovely yellow) and tossed those with a light mustardy balsamic vinaigrette. Time from start to finish was roughly 25 minutes.

Though I used up the last of a bottle of wine with this dish, I didn't open a new one to accompany it. I used a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo in the sauce and it would have been a lovely addition in the glass as well. I'm a fan of cooking with the wine you will drink (or at a bare minumum, one that you would drink) if that's a possibility.

Farmer's Market Week in Review

I think spring came a bit later to Brooklyn than to other places, or at least seemed to come later this year than last year. Our farmers' market just got asparagus this past week and has been chiefly showcasing flowers and starter plants along with root vegetables and a handful of the earliest of spring onions.

Our take this week: scallions, leeks, carrots, sweet potatoes, parsley, chives, rosemary, spinach and the first (weekend) showing of asparagus.