Corned Pork Meatballs

“Corned” meatballs might sound odd, but I’m hearkening back to the original meaning of “corned” here, back when corns referred to any small grains.  Often, those grains were coarse grains of salt used in brines and pickling solutions.  That’s where we get corned beef from — it doesn’t have anything to do with the kind of corn that grows on long stalks, but it does have a lot to do with salty brines.

Rolling these meatballs in coarse, grainy cornmeal makes them corny in both the traditional and modern sense of the word.  The cornmeal also provides a nice crunch and is a healthy swap for commercial breadcrumbs.  (Breadcrumbs are a snap to make yourself, though: just buzz some staling slices of bread through a food processor, pour the fresh crumbs into a screw-top glass jar, and stick the jar in the freezer.  You’ll have breadcrumbs any time you need them!  Fresh crumbs can also be briefly toasted to deepen their flavor before adding them to recipes.)

When shopping for cornmeal, be on the lookout for the coarsely milled variety.  The finer meal is nicer for baked goods — if you mill the cornmeal finely enough, it becomes corn flour — but the coarsely milled cornmeal works better as a breadcrumb stand-in.  It also imparts a more pronounced crunch and flavor to savory cooked dishes.

Corned Pork Meatballs with Basil & Mint

1 pound ground pork, preferably from pastured hogs
1 medium onion, minced
1/4 cup or so of fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/4 cup or so of fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 egg
Pinch sea salt
Cornmeal

To make the meatballs, place pork, onion, herbs, egg, and salt in a large glass mixing bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly combine them. The mixture will be very wet, so add enough cornmeal to make a mixture dry enough to roll into balls. (It’s best to add the cornmeal a bit at a time, mixing the meat each time, until you’ve reached a nice consistency. If you dump in a large amount of cornmeal at once, you might wind up with a too-dry mixture that will be crumbly. Add a little water if this happens.) Stack the balls on a plate as you roll them.

Scatter some cornmeal on another plate and roll the balls in the cornmeal one by one until each is completely covered. In a large saucepan, heat about 1 T. of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add meatballs — working in batches if your pan isn’t big enough to hold them all — and cook them for about 5 minutes or until they’re golden-brown on all sides. You’ll have to shift them around with a spatula (or gently shake the pan) to make sure you cook them evenly.

The meatballs make tasty appetizers, or you can include them with your favorite pasta dish. They’re also great with eggs in the morning. If you have leftover meatballs, you can quickly re-fry them on the stovetop to bring back the cornmeal crunch, or you can serve them cold. I actually preferred their flavor when I sampled them cold the next day — their overnight stint in the refrigerator made the basil and mint flavors stand out more.

Enjoy!

Caribbean Corn-Coconut Chowder

Chowder is one of America’s great culinary contributions: a hearty one-pot meal that you can customize to your stomach’s delight.  While many chowders sprang out of a seafood tradition (think Manhattan and Boston clam chowders), there are also vegetable-based versions.  I created this one to make use of plentiful summer crops like corn and tomatoes and plentiful summer herbs like cilantro.

Since I also had leftover brown rice in the fridge, I threw that in to give the chowder some extra body and flavor.  You could just as easily use a quicker-cooking grain/pasta like quinoa or a whole-wheat orzo if you don’t have cooked brown rice on hand.  Likewise, if you have frozen corn rather than fresh corn, you can substitute that, too. (Although it’d be a shame not to partake of fresh summer corn, especially for 20 cents an ear!)

Caribbean Corn-Coconut Chowder
Serves 4 people.

2 ears husked fresh corn OR 2 cups frozen corn
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup canned black beans (you can also add the bean juice if you’d like; I use Eden canned beans, which are canned in BPA-free cans with water, sea salt, and a bit of kombu seaweed — all great additions to soup!)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup whole coconut milk
1 cup water
1 cup cooked brown rice OR 1/2 cup raw quinoa or 1/2 cup raw whole-grain pasta*
Fresh cilantro, chopped (use a few sprigs if you’re cilanto-timid or a whole handful if you’re a fan)
1 tsp. dried pineapple sage OR 1 tsp. dried oregano OR 2 tsp. fresh oregano
1 tsp. dried fenugreek (optional)
Sea salt to taste

To prepare the fresh corn, bring a large soup pot halfway full of water to a boil. Ease ears into it and simmer for 3 minutes. Promptly pull out ears with tongs, rinse out pot, and refill with cold water. Place ears in cold water and let cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  (If you don’t promptly chill the ears, they’ll continue to cook and will be too mushy.)  Remove ears and pat them dry. Use a sharp knife to cut kernels into a large bowl.

Combine all ingredients except corn in the rinsed-out soup pot and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the corn during the last minute or two.  (By adding it at the end, you’ll preserve its wonderful sweet crispness.)

This soup can be served warm or cold. Like all tomato-and-spice-containing dishes, it’s even better the next day! Avocado wedges and corn chips make nice garnishes.

Enjoy!

* If you use raw quinoa or pasta, add another cup of water to the chowder to account for the liquid the grains/pasta will absorb.

Summer Pasta with Bacon

Good bacon goes with everything — I have a sneaking suspicion that bacon ice cream would be a hit.  (Especially if you paired the bacon with pecans.)  When I say “good” bacon, I’m referring to bacon from pastured hogs that snort and snuffle about on an actual farm.  You can find this kind of bacon at your farmer’s market, online, or at your favorite well-stocked grocery store.  My current easy-to-find favorite bacon comes from Applegate Farms.  They also make darned tasty hot dogs, deli meats, and sausages.  Eatwild.com has plenty of suggestions for finding pastured animal products at farms in your area.

Aside from improved flavor, better nutrition, and a much more pleasant effect on the environment, one of the big perks of good-quality bacon vs. conventional bacon is that it has not been injected with brine to make it taste better.  (It already tastes great!)  That means splattering is kept to a minimum when you’re cooking the bacon…and that means you can use the bacon grease to fry and flavor other ingredients.  In this case, I chopped up a variety of veggies from my garden and tossed them into the pan with the bacon a minute or two before the bacon was done.  Those four strips of bacon were all I needed to have a single-skillet, deliciously-bacon-seasoned dinner!

Summer Pasta with Bacon
This recipe serves 2 but can be easily doubled or tripled.

2 servings of whole-grain pasta of your choice (I used Tinkyáda’s tricolor vegetable brown rice spirals)
4 strips of bacon, preferably from pastured hogs
Assorted summer vegetables of your choice (I used 2 small cucumbers, 8 cherry tomatoes, 2 small peppers, and 12 green beans), chopped or sliced*
Fresh basil, thyme, rosemary and/or sage as garnish (optional)

Prepare the pasta according to package instructions. When the pasta is al dente, drain it, rinse it with tepid water, and set it aside.

While the pasta is simmering, cook the bacon in a covered skillet over medium heat for about 8 minutes, occasionally turning with tongs. If you’re using good-quality bacon, this shouldn’t be too messy; if you’re using the value-pak variety, you might want to use a very deep pot and long tongs to avoid making a mess out of your stove and burning yourself. Value-pak bacon is also probably going to take longer to cook because it will have more saturated fat than bacon from pastured hogs. (Looking for and buying the good stuff is really, really worth it!)

Add the vegetables and cook for 2 more minutes or until vegetables have softened. Turn off the heat.  Stir the drained pasta into the skillet to warm the pasta and mop up the flavorful bacon grease, then serve promptly.

Enjoy!

* Other tasty summer vegetables include zucchini, eggplant, corn, and anything else you find in abundance at the farmer’s market, in the produce market, or in your garden.

Polenta Pie with Eggplant Caponata

There’s a new crust in town, and her name is Polenta.  She’s an oldie-but-goodie — although polenta dates back to Roman times, it’s still on market shelves today.  It’s basically a cooked cornmeal mash.  Originally, it was served as more of a porridge; nowadays, it can be cut into slices and then grilled, or it can be topped with anything from sautéed mushrooms to grated cheese and then baked.

No matter what you ultimately do with your polenta, the first step is simple: simmer cornmeal until it’s thick and creamy.  After it’s reached that point, you can let it cool and then shape it (supermarket polenta usually comes rolled into a log), or you can serve it immediately alongside whatever strikes your fancy.  You can even make it into an easy “crust” of sorts, as you can see in this recipe for Polenta Pie.  How you choose to fill and top it is up to you!

Polenta Pie with Eggplant Caponata

For the crust:
1 cup coarse cornmeal or polenta
3 cups water
1 tsp. sea salt
1-2 tsp. dried herbs/spices of your choice (if you don’t want to craft your own mixture, an Italian seasoning blend would be an easy choice)

For the filling:
Your choice of aromatics: garlic, onions, green onion, leeks, shallots: approx. 1 cup chopped or minced (if you’re using garlic, only use 6 cloves maximum)
Your choice of greens: spinach, chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens: 3-4 cups coarsely chopped
Your choice of legumes: white beans, chickpeas, black beans, lentils, even green peas: approx. 2 cups drained
1 large chopped tomato (optional)

For the topping:
One recipe caponata OR a few spoonfuls of chunky marinara, bolognese, or similar Mediterranean sauce

Grease a 9″ springform pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the polenta, bring the water to a boil, then stir in salt and cornmeal.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes or until the cornmeal has turned into a soft, creamy mush.  If your cornmeal is fine- or medium-grind rather than coarsely ground, it may cook in as little as 15 minutes.  Remove polenta from heat, stir in dried herbs/spices, and set aside.

While the polenta cooks, sautée your aromatics in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat until the aromatics are fragrant and turning translucent.  (For garlic, this will probably happen in 2-3 minutes; for thick-cut onions, this could take 10 minutes or longer.)  Gently fold in greens and cook for another few minutes until greens are starting to wilt.  Remove from heat and stir in beans and tomato.

Spread half of the polenta in the bottom of the springform pan.  Carefully spoon filling on top of the polenta, then finish by layering the remaining polenta on top of the filling.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the polenta is firm when poked.  Remove from oven and let sit for 2-3 minutes to harden a little before you carefully un-spring the sides of the pan.

Slice and serve the polenta just as you would a pie, accompanying each “slice” with a spoonful of caponata.  A sprig or two of fresh oregano or basil would make a tasty garnish.

Enjoy!

Salmon & Wilted Lettuce Pasta

Crunchy lettuce is great…but so is wilted lettuce!  Lettuces with a faint bitterness/pepperiness to them — arugula, watercress, frisée — are especially good complements to savory dishes.  Plus, because they wilt so quickly, they’re a snap to toss into a sautée or stir-fry at the last minute.  Just the heat coming from the pan and the hot food will be enough to wilt the leaves.

The next time you find yourself with too much lettuce on your hands and not enough ways to use it, wilt it!  Especially when the wild salmon are swimming and in their summertime prime.  (Salmon season matches lamb season: both run from May until October.)

Salmon & Wilted Lettuce Pasta

Serves 2 and can easily be doubled or tripled as needed.

2 servings of your favorite whole-grain linguine, prepared according to package directions, then drained and tossed with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil*
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 lb. to 3/4 lb. of leftover baked wild salmon OR you can sautée it fresh** (how much salmon you serve depends on how much each person likes it — I love salmon and like to have hearty portions), chunked into bite-size pieces with two forks
2 handfuls mixed lettuce leaves

While the pasta is cooking, sautée the garlic in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-low heat. After 2-3 minutes, the garlic should be nicely golden brown (but not burnt!). Add salmon to the pan to warm it through. Remove pan from heat and stir in lettuce, gently lifting the salmon and incorporating it with the lettuce to wilt the leaves.

Toss salmon mixture with drained linguine. Season to taste with sea salt and add more extra-virgin olive oil if you wish.

Enjoy!

* To make this a gluten-free dish, simply use a gluten-free pasta such as brown rice, corn, or quinoa. I find that Tinkyáda brand brown rice works best.

** To sautée your salmon, rinse the filet under cold running water and pat it dry. In a frying pan big enough to hold the salmon, heat a pat of butter over medium heat. When the butter begins to sizzle slightly, slide the salmon onto it skin side UP. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, then carefully flip the salmon over so that it’s skin side DOWN.

Continue to cook for another 5 minutes, then poke the center of the filet with a fork to see how it’s cooking. If the top and bottom are browning and seeming to dry out but the middle is still very pink, reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue cooking, covered, until the center flesh flakes cleanly with a fork. (This will probably take about 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish and the heat of your stove.) Once the fish is done, you can usually slide the flesh right off of the skin with a spatula, leaving the skin behind in the pan.

Crunchy Rice with Lentils & Sauteed Veggies

You know the rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot (or steamer) when you cook it?  The crunchy, coveted, burnt-but-not-burnt grains that everybody fights over?  It’s definitely the best part of the rice, but you usually don’t get much to enjoy per batch of cooked rice.

Well, here’s an idea: purposely make a pan full of crunchy rice!  Just take leftover rice, spread it out in the biggest-diameter frying pan you’ve got, and cook the rice for about 20 minutes.  You’ll have plenty of crunchy rice to share.  In this case, I added some lentils, veggies, and cheese to that crunchy rice to make a tasty dinner.

Mediterranean Crunchy Rice with Lentils & Sautéed Vegetables
Makes enough for 2 very hungry people or 4 mediumly-hungry people, but of course how much leftover rice you have will greatly determine how many diners this recipe will serve.

Cooked leftover rice (about 2 cups)
1 cup lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 zucchini, cut into quarters and then coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. coriander
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. fenugreek (optional)
Feta cheese (optional)

Melt about 1 tablespoon butter or ghee over medium heat in the widest frying pan you have.  Spread rice out in it in a thin layer.  Let cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so to prevent scorching.  If the rice begins to feel like it’s too crunchy, turn down the heat a notch or two.

Prepare lentils according to package directions.  If you have red lentils, only simmer them for 5 minutes; if you have any other kind, it will probably take them 15 to 20 minutes to be somewhat tender to the tooth.

In the meantime and in another frying pan, sautée onion over medium heat for about 2 minutes or until it’s beginning to turn translucent.  Add garlic and cook, stirring often, for another minute.  Stir in zucchini and red pepper and let cook for at least 5 minutes to allow both to soften.

Stir in tomatoes and spices, reduce heat to low, and let mixture simmer for at least 3 minutes.  If you’d like to hold the veggies while the rice and/or lentils finish cooking, you can cover the vegetables, shift them off the heat, and reheat them briefly before proceeding to the final step.

Stir cooked lentils and rice into your vegetable base.  When serving, you might want to top with a sharp-flavored Mediterranean cheese (such as sheep’s-milk Feta) for a nice salty contrast/accent to the dish.

Enjoy!

Lentils, Pistachios & Scapes

It just doesn’t get any easier and more savory than this, folks: leftover cooked lentils (even if they’re not leftover, they cook in 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the type of lentil), roasted pistachio meats (didn’t even have to crack ‘em), and sautéed scapes (or garlic or onion or whatever aromatic you’d like).

This legume + nut combo also happens to provide one heck of a plateful of protein.  You can enjoy it all on its lonesome like I did or serve it as a side dish.  Or you could gussy it up with cooked grains and/or dried fruit and/or meat, call it an exotic pilaf, and serve it as a meal.  Lamb would be a wonderful accompaniment to the flavor of this tasty triad!

Lentil & Pistachio Salad

Combine cooked lentils*, roasted pistachios (salted or unsalted, it’s your call), and sautéed aromatics** in a dish.  Drizzle with a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and toss gently.  If you’d like a bit of tartness to cut through the earthiness of the lentils and the richness of the nuts, add a bit of balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses and toss again.  Dried apricots would also provide a pleasant counterbalance to the dish.

Enjoy!

* Red lentils are actually hulled versions of other varieties (green, brown, black), so they only take about 5 minutes to cook al dente (i.e., still firm to the tooth rather than mushy).  Other varieties may take as long as 20 minutes to reach a good chewiness.  Either way, you can store cooked lentils for up to a week and use them however you’d like.

** “Aromatics” means anything in the allium family: garlic, onions, chives, scapes, ramps, leeks, shallots, etc.

Asian Buckwheat Stir-Fry with Tiny Shrimp

Maybe it’s a childhood memory or maybe it’s something I dreamed, but it seems to me that super-tiny shrimp were popular in cold salads when I was a kid.  I have absolutely no idea what they were called…I just remember thinking they were the cutest things ever.  Can’t remember what they tasted like, either.

Whether it was a dream or reality, I was thrilled to find proof of the tiny shrimp’s existence at Trader Joe’s last week.  They just started selling cans of “Crisp, Tiny Oregon Shrimp” alongside their other canned seafood offerings.  I snatched a can and tucked it into my basket, visions of tiny-shrimp salads dancing in my head.  Would the shrimp be as cute as I remembered?

They were.  And they tasted a lot better than I assumed they’d be, too — firmer and more buttery than standard-sized shrimp.  Another bonus is that they’re already shelled, precooked, and ready to go.  You can add them to any dish: stir-frys, omelettes, salads, various hors d’oeuvres…the list is endless.  Heck, they’re so tasty, you can eat them straight out of the can.  I’m thinking this is a great road-trip choice if you’re the sort who likes to have easy snacks on hand or meal elements that you can assemble in a hotel room.  Cute, delicious, and elegant!  Can’t beat that.

Asian Buckwheat Stir-Fry with Tiny Shrimp
This recipe serves 2, but can easily be doubled as needed.

2 servings of soba/buckwheat noodles (make sure they’re 100% buckwheat if you’d like to make this a gluten-free dish)*
1 crown broccoli, florets removed and rinsed
1 T. peanut oil, preferably unrefined**
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 a large onion, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 T. tamari or soy sauce (use wheat-free tamari to make this a gluten-free dish)
1″ piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
5 oz. can of tiny shrimp, drained

Prepare noodles according to package instructions. When done, rinse in warm water, drain, toss with a drizzle of oil, and set aside. Fill another medium-sized pot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add broccoli, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Sautée carrots and onion in the oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until they begin to soften, stirring occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the pan and burning. Add zucchini and bell pepper and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Add tamari and ginger root and stir well. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let cook for about 5 minutes more.

Stir in broccoli and drained noodles, adding more oil if the mixture seems dry. Top with tiny shrimp and serve promptly.

Enjoy!

* Buckwheat has a strong signature flavor; if you’re not a fan of buckwheat, go with any whole-grain pasta. Brown rice pairs nicely with Asian dishes and is also gluten-free.

** If you don’t have peanut oil, you can use extra-virgin olive oil.

Savory Pineapple Stir-Fry

As already mentioned in my previous post, I love pineapples.  (When I was attending a Spanish-language school in Costa Rica, our chosen names were a combination of our favorite fruit + our favorite color.  That made me Piña Violeta, or “purple pineapple.”)  Most of the time, I cut up a fresh pineapple and eat it; sometimes I throw it into the blender with some coconut milk and bananas.  This pineapple around, though, I decided to include it in a stir-fry loosely based on Vietnamese and Thai flavors.  While I enjoyed the resulting savory mélange with pasta, it would also pair beautifully with brown rice, chicken, or pork. The tamarind is optional, but lends the dish a tangy/sweet flavor reminiscent of lemongrass. (I find that it’s easier to get my hands on fresh and plump tamarinds than fresh and zingy lemongrass.)

Savory Pineapple Stir-Fry
Serves 2 as is, or 4 with the addition of pasta, rice, chicken, or pork.

1 T. unrefined coconut or peanut oil
2 carrots, slivered
1/2 a yellow squash OR 1/2 a zucchini, slivered
4 oz. button mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, cut into thin rounds
Flesh of 1 fresh tamarind OR 1 T. tamarind paste (optional)
1 head of broccoli, florets only, simmered for 5 minutes and drained
1/4 of a fresh pineapple, chopped
1-2 T. tamari or soy sauce (if you’d like to make this dish gluten-free, use wheat-free tamari)
1 tsp. fish sauce
4-6 leaves mint, cut into ribbons
Juice of 1 lime

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add carrot and yellow squash and cook for about 3 minutes to soften them, then add mushrooms and tamarind and stir. Let cook for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have shrunk to about half their original size. Stir in cooked broccoli, chopped pineapple, tamari sauce, and fish sauce. (If you like your dishes salty, use the 2 full T. of tamari.) Let cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, to allow flavors to marry.

Remove from heat and stir in mint leaves and lime juice. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. If desired, toss with pasta, rice, cooked chicken, or cooked pork. (This is a great way to use up leftover cooked meat!) An additional sprig of mint and a wedge of lime would be nice garnishes.

Enjoy!

Wilted Lettuce & Pasta

The arugula piles up sometimes, doesn’t it?  (Especially now that we’re getting into lettuce-growing season.)  Even if you don’t have a lettuce garden, I bet you’ve stared down a half-full container of baby greens and wondered what to do with it.  Salads are great, but no dish can tickle your gastronomic fancy 100% of the time, and you know those delicate leaves won’t last too much longer.  Argh!  Time is running out!

Luckily, though, salad greens can be treated like hearty greens and included in everything from stir-frys to pasta dinners to soups.  Greens are greens, after all, and the biggest difference between curly spinach (we automatically think “savory & hot” dishes) and arugula (“savory & cold“) is the thickness of the individual leaf.  That means all you have to do to use salad greens the way you’d use “savory & hot” greens is lessen the cooking time: rather than sautéeing the greens for a few minutes, just toss them into the meal at the very end, after you’ve taken the pot off the stove and before you dish out the servings.  The residual heat will nicely wilt the greens, softening both their texture and their flavor.  You’ll never have to waste your arugula again!

Wilted Lettuce & Pasta
This recipe is so simple that you can base the ingredient amounts/proportions on your taste buds: if you really like tomatoes, use 2 medium tomatoes or 1 large tomato per person; if you’re a garlic nut, assume at least 2 cloves per person. If your arugula is really getting out of hand, chop up the lot of it and have a very green pasta dish. And of course you can add other veggies at will, or sautée some chicken to go along with the pasta.

Whole-grain pasta of your choice
Coarsely-chopped lettuce
Chopped tomatoes
Slivers of sautéed or roasted garlic (I used roasted garlic chips from Trader Joe’s)
Extra-virgin olive oil
A flavorful, dry cheese like Parmesan or Dutch Parrano (optional)
Sea salt & freshly-ground pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. As soon as you’ve drained it and while it’s still steaming hot, toss in the lettuce, continually folding the pasta up and around the lettuce to allow the heat to wilt the leaves. Stir in tomatoes, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir in or top with cheese and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Soft Taco Crepes

Sometimes you might be in the mood for a crunchy taco, sometimes you might want a soft taco.  The only problem with the latter is that it’s hard to find Qualitarian soft taco shells — the majority of the store-bought ones have all kinds of chemicals in them to keep them soft and supple.  And even though I love making my own tortillas, they fall more into the “crispy”  category than into the ” soft”  one.

Enter an elegant and practical solution: French crepes.  Because these thin, easily-rolled pancakes are not dependent upon gluten to make them work, you can use whatever flour you’d like when making them…such as corn.  Or rice, or potato, or chickpea, or whatever flavor you’d like to use to accent the filling.  (Corn = Mexican, rice = Asian, chickpea = Indian, etc.  Buckwheat flour is traditionally used to make Russian blinis.  You get the idea.)  Leftover crepes can be used to make a round PB&J, or you could fill them with hummus and slivered raw veggies for a quick lunch.  Or fill the crepes with fruit and drizzle them with maple syrup for breakfast.  Once you’ve made them once or twice, you’ll love the versatility and flexibility of one of the world’s most delicious flatbreads.

Soft Taco Crepes

The crepe recipe makes about a dozen crepes; top them with as much filling as you’d like.  Just remember that if you add too much filling, you won’t be able to roll up the crepe!

Canned black beans, drained, or freshly-made dried beans (Eden beans are canned in BPA-free cans)
Corn kernels, fresh and simmered for 3 minutes or frozen and thawed
Freshly-chopped cilantro
Crepes (see “Mastering Crepes the Easy Way” for recipe)
Fresh-style salsa (Garden Fresh is my favorite)
A sharp dry-ish cheese, such as sheep’s-milk Feta, crumbled or grated
Chopped avocado

Mix equal proportions of beans and corn in a bowl. Add as much cilantro as you like (or leave it out if you’re not a cilantro fan). Lay out crepes and top them with the corn and beans. Spoon salsa over that, then sprinkle on cheese. Finish by topping with chopped avocado.

Roll up your taco (if you haven’t overstuffed it the way I always do) and enjoy!

Note: to make these into fish tacos, just include some cooked mild-tasting fish in the filling.  You could even use canned albacore.

Lentil & Spinach Soup with Feta

I’ve always thought lentils were interesting — they’re not quite a pea and they’re not quite a bean, but they are a member of the legume family and as such they make great salads and soups.  Nowadays, the standard brown soup lentils of my childhood have given way to speckled round French lentils, flat green lentils, tiny black lentils, even red lentils that cook in 10 minutes flat and are easily puréed into dips and formed into patties.  The lentil’s the limit!

While lentils are often combined with spiced rice — particularly in the Middle East, where lentils are a staple the way kidney beans are in the U.S. — my hankering for lentil soup hasn’t abated, not even when the cold days of winter have passed and spring is on the way.  Besides, in fitting with the season, this light lentil-vegetable soup features summery Mediterranean flavors like rosemary and Feta.

Lentil & Spinach Soup

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a hearty side.

1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
32 oz. vegetable stock
3/4 cup to 1 cup lentils, depending on how thick you want your soup — the more lentils you have, the thicker it will be (I used a combination of French lentils and flat green lentils)*
1 tsp. rosemary
1 cup chopped spinach, fresh or frozen
Sea salt & freshly-cracked pepper to taste
Feta cheese for garnish, preferably sheep’s-milk Feta

In a large stockpot, sautée onions and carrots in 1 T. butter or ghee over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Your goal here is to allow the onions time to caramelize and build up flavor. (The carrots will do well slow-cooked, too, although they won’t caramelize as much as the onions will.) If you’re in a hurry, cook the onions and carrots for 5 minutes at medium-high heat, then proceed with recipe.

Stir in vegetable stock, raise temperature slightly — enough to bring the mixture to a gentle simmer — and let cook for 10 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot to bring up the caramelized flavors. Add lentils and rosemary and simmer for another 20 minutes. Lentils should be just slightly firm to the tooth — if they’re more like little pebbles, simmer for another 5 minutes and test them again. Stir in spinach, reduce heat to low, and barely simmer for 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve garnished with a generous sprinkling of Feta.

Enjoy!

* Any lentil except red lentil should work well — because red lentils have had their husks removed, trying to simmer them into soup will turn them into mush.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

There’s something ever-so-charming about edible little packages: tamales, spring rolls, pasties, grape leaves…every culture seems to have a neatly-wrapped specialty.  (Maybe they appeal to our sense of orderliness?)  Not only are these wrappables practical to eat and fun to make, their central position in any given cuisine means that centuries of tradition have fine-tuned their perfect blends of simple and savory ingredients.

One of my favorite stuff-and-wrap dishes is grape leaves — whether you make them vegetarian or with meat, you just can’t go wrong if you start out with authentic sheep’s-milk Feta and good-quality leaves that have been cured in water, sea salt, vinegar, and nothing else.  And nutritionally speaking, since omega-3 fats are primarily found in the supple part of plants (the leaves of a plant versus its roots and berries), including grape leaves on your menu is a smart idea as well as a delicious one.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

(1/2 lb. ground lamb, optional)
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup cooked brown rice (you can use leftover rice or cook a batch of fresh rice — just remember that 1/2 cup uncooked will yield more than 1 cup cooked rice)
1 T. fresh mint, slivered, or 1 tsp. dried mint
About 4 oz. sheep’s-milk Feta, or more if you’re a big cheese fan
Approximately 20 brined grape leaves (you can find these at Mediterranean markets or well-stocked mainstream grocery markets)
1 lemon, sliced into thin wedges
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Locate and set aside an 11×7 glass pan. (If you add the lamb to the recipe, you might need more leaves and a 9×13 pan.)

Sautée onions (and lamb, if using) with a pat of butter or ghee over medium heat for about 3 minutes, stirring often, or until onions are soft. Stir in pine nuts, garlic, and tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for another 2 minutes to mellow the garlic (and finish cooking the lamb).  Remove pan from heat immediately.

In a large bowl, combine the onion/lamb mixture, the rice, the mint, and the Feta, crumbling the Feta by hand if necessary. Salt and pepper to taste.

To stuff the leaves, pull out a bunch of leaves and carefully unroll and separate them, setting them on a plate as you go. When you have about 20 unrolled and ready, place an individual leaf on a cutting board, then spoon a mound of the rice mixture onto the leaf. (Only spoon on about a tablespoon to avoid overstuffing. You may have to add more or less depending on the size of the particular leaf you’re working with.) Carefully wrap the left, right, and bottom edges onto the filling, then roll over once or twice to seal the top flap of your leafy “envelope,” so to speak. Transfer the stuffed leaf to the glass pan and place it seam-side down.

Repeat until you’ve used up all your stuffing. (Extra leaves can be stored in the refrigerator for at least a month.) Your pan should be fully stuffed with individual leaf packages. Stud the packages with the lemon wedges and then pour the stock over the entire pan. (If you’re making lamb-stuffed grape leaves and are using a 9×13 pan, you may need a full 2 cups of stock.)

Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes.

Serve hot as a main dish or an appetizer, or serve any time within 3 days of having refrigerated your leftovers. Top with additional Feta if you like.

Enjoy!

Savory Rice Bake

Of all the grains in the world, rice might be my favorite: it makes great flour, freshly-cooked rice is welcome in everything from pilafs to grape leaves, leftover rice is perfect in savory casseroles as well as sweet puddings, and even in the U.S., there are dozens of varieties of rice on our grocery store shelves.  (I’m guessing there are dozens upon dozens of varieties in Asia.)  Rice certainly has earned its place as one of the world’s staple crops!  And considering how much the individual grains pouf when cooked, raw rice doesn’t require very much storage space.

In the spirit of versatility, feel free to substitute whatever veggies or cheeses you have on hand for this rice-based take on spoon bread.  (“Spoon” breads typically contain a high amount of milk and are therefore less firm than a bread made with a higher proportion of flour/grains … hence you sometimes have to eat them with a spoon.  In this version, however, the presence of the sturdy whole rice grains means you’ll be better off with a fork.)

You can use either freshly-cooked rice or leftover rice for this classy casserole dish, although if you use pre-cooked rice, be sure to include the cornstarch to make up for the lack of starch that would be coming from the freshly-cooked rice.

Savory Rice Bake

Makes a 9×11 pan.

1 small onion, minced
5 green onions, minced
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, depending on how hot you like it
2 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1 red bell pepper, minced
2 heads broccoli, florets removed and simmered in softly-boiling water for 5 minutes, then drained and diced
2 cups whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 T. cornstarch IF rice is pre-cooked
6 oz. canned tuna or crab (optional), chunked with a fork
Sea salt & freshly-ground pepper
2 cups grated sharp cheese, such as Parmesan, Parrano, or Gruyere

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease glass 9×11 pan with butter or coconut oil and set aside.

Sautée onion and green onion with a pat of ghee or butter over medium heat for about 3 minutes or until onions are soft and fragrant. Stir in nutmeg and cayenne and remove pan from heat.  (Slightly heating the spices will help release their flavor, but cooking them too long over direct stovetop heat would burn them.)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, minced vegetables, and milk. Whisk in rice. If using leftover rice, add cornstarch and whisk again. Add tuna or crab chunks if desired.

Thoroughly combine egg mixture with salt, freshly-cracked pepper, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese, reserving the final 1/2 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top. Pour egg mixture into pre-greased baking pan.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for about 30 minutes or until top is golden-brown and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Medley Stew

Now that summer is on the way, I’m thinking about gardening and veggies and mounds of fresh produce.  It’s still a little bit chilly out, though, so I’m also still enjoying warm dishes hot off the stove.

In keeping with the winter-to-spring transition, this Vegetable Medley Stew is a cross-seasonal dish — it’s warm and hearty like a winter stew, but is chock-full of veggies and could easily be lightened into a peak-of-summer soup by adding more broth and fewer grains.  Likewise, you could season the stew/soup with whatever fresh herbs you have on hand rather than using dried sage (although the sage imparts a subtle lemony tang).  And with the addition of grains and lentils, the stew is both fragrant and satisfying…and will be for several days, because the flavors will deepen as the soup sits in the fridge.  Just add more broth when reheating if the veggies and grains have absorbed too much liquid for your taste.

Vegetable Medley Stew
Serves at least 4 as a main course.

1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
32 oz. vegetable stock (or chicken or beef, preferably from pastured animals)
15 oz. diced tomatoes
1 zucchini (or yellow squash), chopped
1/2 cup dried lentils
1/2 cup steel-cut oats (choose gluten-free oats if you want this to be a gluten-free dish)
1 tsp. dried sage
Sea salt and freshly-cracked pepper to taste
1 cup curly spinach, coarsely chopped

In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, sautée onion and carrot in a pat of ghee or butter for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft and translucent. Stir in stock, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze it and bring those caramelized flavors into the liquid. Stir in tomatoes, zucchini, lentil, oats, and sage. Simmer for 30 minutes or until oats and lentils are tender. If it looks like the stew is getting too thick for your taste and you’d prefer a lighter soup, add another cup or two of stock (or water).

Season stew with salt and pepper to taste, then quickly stir in spinach. Take pot off heat and let sit for 3 minutes to soften the spinach. (The stew will still be hot enough to “cook” it.)

Serve hot, garnishing each bowl with a spoonful of a creamy cheese such as fresh mozzarella or soft goat cheese if you’d like.

Enjoy!