Shoot, I missed it

Next year, I will go to Slow Food Nation.

Three-grain risotto and bean-and-basil salad

At a dinner party recently, we served a three-grain risotto and a bean-and-basil salad.

For the risotto, wash and dice one leek and one bulb of fennel, and sauté in olive oil and salt. Add 1.5 cups oat berry, one cup barley, and half a cup of rye berry, and six to seven cups of liquid (a mix of vegetable broth, white wine, and water). Bring to boil ,reduce to simmer, cover, and let cook at least an hour, stirring occasionally. Before serving, stir in grated parmesan cheese.

For the salad, shell a few pounds of beans — we had a mix of black-eyed peas, cranberry and dragon-tongue beans, and coco negro and coco blanco. Cover in an inch of water, bring to a boil, cook a few minutes, drain, and rinse cold. In a large serving bowl, combine four apples, quartered, cored and sliced thin, and olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar; keep adding dressing as you add more ingredients, which soak up the liquid. Wash and thinly slice most of a pound of crimini mushrooms, and add, along with the beans and the leaves of two bunches of basil.

Both dishes keep well in the fridge, and are better the following day.

Fettucini Alfredo

Following this recipe, I made 3/4-pound of fresh parsley fettuccine. I left out most of the lemon: the ingredients I used were 2 cups white flour, 1/2 tsp salt, half-bunch parsley (stems removed and then minced), 1 capful lemon juice, 2 capfuls olive oil, and up to 2 Tbsp water. Rolled out thin on a floured work surface, let to relax, and then rolled again and sliced, this makes a lovely fettuccine: bring salted water to a boil, and cook pasta two minutes until fettuccines float. But as the only dish (plus salad) for two it wasn't quite enough; I think 50% more would be perfect.

We had the pasta with a simple cream sauce: melt most of a stick of butter, add ground black pepper, a healthy amount of grated parmesan cheese, and a good-sized splash of heavy whipping cream. If you do not use parsley in your pasta, add some minced parsley to the cream sauce. Good eats.

Lost notes; barley and beans

I had put together a long list of meals I've made this summer, so that I could remember to write them up for you. Unfortunately, after keeping this list for two months, slowly typing up recipes, I have left it in my pocket when I last did laundry.

Some meals I remember, but will soon forget. Breakfasts are often eggs valentine — poached eggs, served over sautéed spinach on english muffin — or scrambled eggs with pesto, or oatmeal, or melon. Lunches and dinners are often some variation of rice and beans. For example, today's lunch:

Dice and wash one leek, and sauté half in a medium saucepan in olive oil. Add one cup barley, two cups water, and a little salt. Cover, bring to boil, and cook on medium until water is absorbed or cooks off.

Meanwhile, shell half a pound of beans: we have black-eyed peas right now, and also coco blanco and coco negro. Boil a few minutes. While beans are boiling, sauté the rest of the leeks in olive oil and salt. Drain the beans and add to the leeks, and continue to cook on medium until barley is done.

Wash and dice five brown button mushrooms. Mix mushrooms and beans into barley, and transfer to wide bowls. Serves two for lunch.

Dinner party: purple veggies, summer soup

We had a dinner party a while back — I'm very behind in blogging my dinners — for some folks from my department. In addition to salad and bread and homemade beer the guests brewed, we had a summer soup and roasted purple veggies. The soup showcased our new soup tureen, which we found in a Free Box in the Berkeley hills.

Wash, peel, and slice red onions, beets, blue potatoes, and purple sweet potatoes. Toss in a glass lasagna pan with dried thyme and salt, and bake 400 degree or so for a while (one hour?), until the roots tenderize.

For the soup, shell one pound fresh beans (a mix of canellini and cranberry). In a saucepan, sauté onions and diced poblano peppers. Add beans, corn sliced from the cob, and vegetable stock. Flavor with marjoram, minced smoked paprika peppers, and salt and pepper. Cook half an hour until beans soften.

Six-course meal for two

We had enough for a third and maybe a fourth, but last night's meal my boyfriend and I shared alone.

1. Lavash Crackers. In a kitchenaid with paddle attachment, combine in order 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole-wheat bread flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp instant yeast, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 cup water. Mix until dough comes together into a single ball. Let dough sit 15 minutes, then knead by hand 15 minutes. Let proof 2 hrs until doubled. Degas, relax, and roll into a flat rectangle, just the same size as your largest cookie sheet, and transfer to said sheet lined with parchment. Mist the top of the dough with water, sprinkle with stripes of caraway seed, cumin seed, sesame seed, poppy seed, and paprika, and slice diagonally into cracker-width strips. Bake 15 minutes in a 350°F preheated oven — strips will grow together, but will snap apart.
   
2. Baba ganoush. Pierce two medium eggplants, and bake 40 minutes in a 400°F oven until brown and mushy and starting to deflate. Remove from heat, shock in cold water, and peel. Combine eggplant insides in a blender, food processor, or standing mixer with whisk, along with salt, a few Tbsp tahini, juice of 1/4 lemon, and one minced smoked paprika peppers, to taste. Transfer to small serving bowl, sprinkle liberally with crushed dried paprika, and drizzle with olive oil.
   
3. Green hummus. Shell a pound and a half of washed fresh garbanzo beans. Boil beans 40 minutes until soft. Drain, and transfer to blender, food processor, or standing mixer with whisk. Combine with a few Tbsp tahini, a Tbsp olive oil, juice of 1/4 lemon, one clove or more minced garlic, salt, and three sprigs minced parsley to taste. Transfer to small serving bowl, sprinkle liberally with crushed dried sumac berry, and drizzle with olive oil.
   
4. Side of feta and olives. In a small serving bowl, combine 1/4 lb pitted kalamata olives, 1/4 lb goat's feta in 1/4-inch cubes, three sprigs fresh oregano, juice of 1/4 lemon, and drizzle with olive oil.
   
5. Dolmas. Cook one cup dried brown rice (1.5 cup salted water, covered, brought to a boil, reduced to simmer 30 minutes, then left to steam at least 20 minutes until ready). Since you don't have much experience rolling dolmas, you'll use more grape leaves than really optimal, so prepare to use half a 1-pt jar of pickled grape leaves. Roll 10 large dolmas.
   
6. Salad. Wash and remove stems from one bunch purslane. Wash and chop 6 baby lemon cucumbers. Combine purslane, cucumbers, and juice of 1/4 lemon, salt, and olive oil.

Refrigerate everything before serving, and pair with a chilled white wine for a fantastic summer dinner. Total cook time: three hours or so of continuous work for two?

Parsley and lemon bow-tie pasta

In the kitchenaid with paddle blade running, combine in order

• just under 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• a fair amount of parsley, washed, stems removed, and coarsely chopped
• juice of one lemon
• 1 capfull lemon extract
• 2 capfulls olive oil
• 2 large eggs

Dough should come together into a stiff yellow dough. If it is still dry, add up to 1/4 cup water, but I didn't need any.

Roll out dough as thin as possible. I did not need to let the dough relax nor did I need flour, but you might. Cut into rectangles about 3/4-inch by 1.5-inch, and pinch into bow-ties.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, with salt and olive oil in the water. Boil pastas just 2-5 minutes, until they float. Serve with diced and lightly cooked sweet purple pepper, more parsley, and grated cheese.

Colorful Greek-inspired rice-and-beans

Here's a very colorful dish that can feed a crowd.

Long before you will want to eat, bring to a boil

• 2 cups dried brown rice
• 3 cups water
• 1 tsp salt

and simmer covered 20-30 minutes, until the water has been absorber. Remove from heat, and allow to steam covered at least another 30 minutes. The rice will holds its heat for an hour.

Wash and shell

• 1 lb fresh black-eyed peas

to yield a little under a cup. When selecting black-eyed peas, prefer the plump yellow ones for ease of shelling. Beans will pop out once you remove the strings. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and blanch the beans about 2 minutes.

Wash and thinly slice

• 2 small heads of chard, one yellow and one read

Either blanch or steam the chard until it has reduced in volume and turned even brighter colors.

Combine rice, beans, and chard in a large bowl along with

• 4 oz feta (preferably a fresh goat feta, but we used a mix of amazing feta from Farmers' Market and awful crumbled feta from Trader Joe's (pdf))
• 1/2 lb pickled pitted olives, mixing kinds (we had about half kalamata and half provençal, from Cheeseboard)
• salt
• olive oil
• dried or fresh oregano
• lemon juice (or, in our case, the juice of one lime combined with a moscatel vinegar)

Serve warm. Serves three with leftovers as the only dish, or four with a bowl of ice cream to finish.

Falafel

While my boyfriend taught his class, I spent Sunday afternoon sitting outside, reading blogs and newspapers, and shelling 3/4 lb fresh garbanzo beans.

For the pita, I started the dough in the morning. In a large bowl, I mixed 1.5 cup white flour, 3 cup whole wheat "bread" flour (whole wheat flour with 2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten per cup), 1/2 Tbsp salt, 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast, 1 Tbsp honey, 1 cup warm water, and 3 Tbsp olive oil. I mixed the dough by wooden spoon and kneaded it by hand, rolled it into a tight ball, and left it in the bowl covered with saran wrap to rise.

With the dough made and the beans shelled, the rest of dinner came together in less than an hour. I set the baking stone in the oven and preheated 500°F. Then I cut the dough into four pieces, and flattened into pitas. (It turns out that the oven bounce for this dough, after seven hours of proofing, is a lot: the pitas you want are at least eight inches diameter and about a quarter inch thick before cooking. I did not achieve this.) With the oven heated, I transfered the shaped pitas to the stone with the pizza paddle. The pitas need to cook roughly 10 minutes, but I checked them regularly.

I boiled the washed garbanzos at least 30 minutes, with some whole garlic cloves added to flavor the water. (I would put garlic into the falafel, except I'm mildly allergic to garlic.) My boyfriend drained, cooled, and mashed the cooked garbanzos, adding salt, cumin seed that he mashed in the mortar and pestle, and minced parsley. Then he mixed in an egg and some flour. I heated a wok with an inch or so of vegetable oil, and continued to add flour until the dough was workable. Then I rolled the garbanzo mush into balls and fried directly in the oil, removing them to a bowl lined with paper towel when the outside had turned a golden brown.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend prepared a tatziki with plain goat yogurt, sesame seeds, salt, julienned lemon cucumber, diced sweet red pepper, and shredded iceberg or green butter lettuce. We transfered everything to serving bowls, and prepared the individual sandwiches at the table. Delish.

Polenta gnocchi with pesto

We enjoy homemade pasta around here, and there's no pasta easier than gnocchi. Traditionally made at the end of the month before payday — and lending their name to the tax collectors who steal your paycheck — gnocchi (sing. gnoccho) can be made with any leftover mush-of-starch. Mashed potatoes seem to be most popular in the States, but polenta or wheat are also tasty. Combine leftover starch mush with eggs, salt, and enough flour to make into a dough, roll into balls, and boil two minutes until gnocchi float.

To that end, we brought two cups soy milk combined with two cups lightly-salted water to a boil, turned off the heat, and whisked in two cups polenta meal. Covered, this sat for about thirty minutes to cook. The by-then-cool polenta mush we combined with two eggs and a fair amount of flour, ending up with twice as much dough as we wanted. We rolled out all of the dough into gnocchi, deciding to freeze half of it. (This would have worked, too, if we froze them separated by layers of wax paper. As it is, we are currently defrosting a tub of solid polenta, to re-roll into gnocchi on Monday.) We brought salted and well-oiled water to a boil, and cooked the polenta two minutes until the balls floated.

The blender had burnt out, so the pesto we made by hand. We mashed half a cup pine nuts in the mortar and pestle, and also mashed one garlic clove. These we combined with half a cup good olive oil, a tsp salt, a quarter cup grated parmesan, and half a bunch each of spinach and basil, minced. The pesto at hand, we cooked the gnocchi, draining in a colander set in a ceramic serving bowl, emptied the bowl of the hot water, and then combined the pasta and sauce for a dish that in the U.S. if the height of gourmet.