Eating my way to back to health.

Quinoa stuffed acorn squash

After a week of drowning in kleenex and misery a girl re-emerges with a strong desire to get back to her old self. I figured that if I couldn't fight that cold with muscles and moxy then perhaps the only thing I could do to defend myself was to eat healthy.
Ok there was that one night where we polished off a bag of Doritos. But people, we were sick, and we needed comfort of the kind that covers your fingers with orange cheesy powder.
In my defense, I started the following day with a fruit smoothie, which left me feeling fully redeemed for my previous night's indulgence.
A girl has to live.

But the point I'm trying to make here is an important one. And it goes something like this:
Mmm mm! That squash was good.
I felt like I just threw Autumn on a plate and ate it all up.
And Autumn? You sure are one tasty treat.

I'm not sure I even want to tell you that I've had a bag of red quinoa in my cupboard for over a year gathering dust. I even dutifully packed it up when we moved here from Paris. You'd think that what with a new city and a new cupboard that perhaps the quinoa would get noticed. Well it took 8 months, but it finally did.

If there is any thing that might knock this cold on its ass it's got to be this stuffed squash. Even if it hadn't tasted good, which it did, it just looked so darn pretty I started feeling healthy before I even sat down to eat it.

Now that is some kind of moxy.


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Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

The squash
I cut the acorn squash in half and scooped out the seeds. I brushed lightly with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, then roasted for about 40 minutes at 200c (that's 392F, but I guess just round up to 400F)

The quinoa
I cooked the red quinoa as per the package directions. In a frying pan I sauteed some onion and finely sliced carrots in olive oil. I added some chopped garlic, a bit of ground allspice and pimenton de la vera, (a spice combo used in the Moro cookbook). Then I added the quinoa to the pan and tossed it all together and topped with fresh coriander and some crumbled feta. Finally, I put this into the roasted squash and served it.
Note:
Goat cheese would also be good instead of the feta.

I bet this tastes better when Zuni does it..

Farro and Tomato Salad with Basil and Anchovies

I recently crossed another food "first" off of my list.
It goes by the name of Farro.
Ok, so you probably eat it all the time and you are shocked that I have never had it OR made it myself.
But for those of you aren't so well acquainted with farro, let me get technical for a second.
Farro, is an ancient variety of wheat, and it is very commonly eaten in Italy.
To put it even more simply: farro is like a bowl full of little wheat nubbins.
And I do love a big bowl full of nubbins.

The only farro recipe I could find in my cookbooks came from Zuni. My instincts nudged me at first. No, they actually screamed at me and told me to NOT follow this recipe. And before I proceed, let me just state this is not an attack on Zuni, this is just me knowing my tastebuds and that's that.
I loves me some Judy Rodgers so don't even go there.

First of all the combination of tomato and cucumber bores me (don't come near my tabbouleh with that cucumber!) Add basil to the mix and I am pretty much down for the count and snoring loudly.

Ok, maybe you love the combination, but this is not always about you, ok?

But I figured it was Zuni, I had to give it a shot. Yes, I have faith in the almighty Zuni.
And who knew, maybe with the anchovies this would be some miraculous combination that would change my life forever.

I cooked the farro for about 10 minutes, and let it cool. I then added some chopped tomato, cucumber and a couple of salt-packed anchovies. I tossed it with a mix of olive oil and sherry vinegar. Finally, I added some fresh basil and some salt and pepper and dug in.

Alas, it did not change my life forever.

But I tried, and that's what counts.

The good news is, I sure do like farro. Hearty and chewy and, well, hearty some more.

And have no fear, I did eat that bowl of misguidedness. I mean it was fine, but I did feel some regret about the fabulous farro salad I could have had if I had followed my instincts in the first place.

And the truth is, that I bet this farro salad tastes fabulous when Judy Rodgers has a hand in making it. I bet she has some magical pixie dust that she sprinkles over it at the end that would just make me want to eat it all the time. But alas, said pixie dust cannot be found in my cupboards, and last I checked, there was no Judy Rodgers in there either.

But at least there is Farro in my life now. I can definitely see some wheaty nubbin happiness in my future.

Sweet Saffron Pilaf made by a clumsy girl

Sweet Saffron Pilaf with Nuts and Currants
(except I didn't have any currants)

I'm sure that you already know that I am clumsy in the kitchen. But if I forgot to mention it before, it's probably because a can of beans fell out of the cupboard and onto my head and affected my short term memory. Even I consider it a miracle that I have made it this far without having sacrificed a single finger or toe. Blood has been shed, on an almost daily basis, but never so much as to require stitches. Although, I am way over my Bandaid budget for the month.

Aside from the physical dangers that I risk with my clumsiness, I make a bit of a mess when I cook and yes, even sometimes when I eat. If the person across from me finds a miscellaneous pea or two under their plate, it's most likely mine, and not theirs as I generally hope they will believe. My boyfriend however, knows better, and shakes his head at the messes I frequently make. And this is where I say:
"What?" and pretend as though I have no idea what he is shaking his head about.

So perhaps it wasn't a great idea when my boyfriend and I decided to buy a new couch and chose a white one. I've been known to sit on the couch with a drink, a snack, sure, even a 3 course meal. But now, with the gleaming white surface beneath me, it only makes me nervous. Those plastic couch covers that you thought were only used by women named Ethel who have plastered every surface of their living room with doilies, suddenly seem not so much weird, as very, very practical. Well, the doilies are weird, but the plastic? Thumbs up Ethel.

But since I've got another year or two before I'm that crazy, the plastic is out of the question. Even if it meant I could sit happily on my new couch with a big bowl of spaghetti on my lap.
It seems that now I'm just going to have to take precautions.

Things were looking good when I decided to make this Sweet Saffron Pilaf. Right up to the very last minute I had deemed it relatively couch-acceptable. And then I poured on the bright yellow saffron/milk mixture and it was all over. It sure looked pretty though.

Sweet Saffron Pilaf with Nuts and Currants
Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness, Indian Home Cooking
Clarkson Potter, 2004

For copyright reasons, I have only listed the ingredients, so you can decide if it's a recipe you might want to try. Click here to read the recipe instructions at Leite's Culinaria.

1 1/4 cups basmati rice
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
1 tablespoon of milk or cream
1/4 cup ghee or canola oil (I used peanut oil and it was fine)
one 2 inch piece cinnamon stick
10 whole green cardamom pods
one inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup chopped blanched almonds
1/4 cup chopped shelled pistachios
2/3 cup sugar

About the rice
The rice is a very nice combination of flavours and smells great as it cooks. I would definitely make it again. If you want to break away from the standard white rice thing, which I rely on far too often, this is a good and somewhat exotic alternative. And you know, if you call it exotic, it just makes it seem that much better. Or is that just me?

My changes
-I omitted the black currants, because I could not find any.
-My basmati takes a ratio of equal parts rice to water, so I did not use the amount of water recommended in the recipe.
-The recipe instructs you to pound the 10 cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle so that the pods split open. But once the rice is cooked it does not instruct you to remove them. I'm not sure that biting into a cardamom pod or even a seed is going to be particularly appetizing to most people.
So next time I would be tempted to just throw them in whole to let them flavour the rice and remove them after the rice is cooked.