Puy Lentil Galettes

When I was young, my mother had a rule that she would drive me to school if it was -25C or colder. Otherwise I walked. That seemed pretty reasonable to me as a kid, just bundle up and trundle off. If the weather went down to -30C or colder, I didn't have to go to school, which happened a few times as I grew up, living in rural Alberta. I live in Saskatchewan now, and have come to respect the range of -30C to -45C a lot more, as it will exist here for a week at a time. Sometimes longer, sometimes colder. And people keep functioning... going to school and work, running errands. It's kind of amazing. As an adult who lives without a car in a city with sadly mediocre transit, I have made the general rule that I don't go out if it's colder then ~-25C with the windchill because I walk pretty much everywhere and that gets really chilly, really fast. If I can get to a bus, I'll sometimes stretch it to -30C if what I need to do is urgent.

Today it is -32C outside and with the windchill it's -45C. I stayed home. I can research from here, so there is absolutely no reason to subject myself to that kind of cold. 

I've spent a productive morning and then needed food. I felt like cooking to give myself a break from the reading, so flipped through Plenty and found a recipe that worked with what I have in the pantry and fridge. This recipe appears to be a riff on the French pastry 'vol-au-vents' and seemed summer-y, which contrasts nicely with the weather. I had everything called for, so I figured I'd give it a spin. As usual, the ingredients are straight from the book and the instructions incorporate my alterations and observations.

Puy Lentil Galettes

(p. 208, Plenty)

Serves 4

1 cup Puy lentils 

2 bay leaves

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander seeds

5 tbsp olive oil, plus more to finish

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 cups baby spinach leaves

3 tbsp chopped cilantro

3 tbsp chopped mint

juice of one lemon

salt and black pepper

14 oz puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Assemble ingredients:

Cook the lentils in a pot of boiling water with the bay leaves for 20-30 minutes or until thoroughly cooked. Drain in a sieve and set aside. 

In a small frying pan over medium heat, dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds for 2 minutes, or until they become fragrant. Grind them using a mortar and pestle. I chose to use pre-ground spices today as my hands are giving me some grief and a mortar and pestle would probably only compound that.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small pan and fry the onion gently for 6-8 minutes, or until golden and very soft. Add the garlic and the spices and cook for two more minutes.

Combine the onion mixture with the cooked lentils and set aside to cool down. 

Once cool, stir in the yogurt, spinach, herbs, lemon juice and remaining oil. Taste and add salt and pepper to suit. 

Roll out the puff pastry 1 1/4 inches thick and cut out four circles about 3 inches in diameter. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F. When pastry has been chilled, brush with the beaten egg and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden on top and underneath. Allow to cool slightly. I decided to use only 8 oz of pastry because I didn't want too much, and I chose to cut it into squares rather than circles so I wasn't wasting any. 

To serve, place the pastry in the middle of each plate. Pile the lentils high on top so you can just see the edge of the pastry. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil. I didn't add any additional oil as I felt there was enough already present.

This is the first recipe from Plenty that hasn't wowed me. It was good, but it was good in that "It's okay,  but I'd never order it again in a restaurant" kind of way. I found the flavours very muted... it was nice, but perhaps too subtle for what I was hoping for. I think I'd like to play with the filling a bit, see if I could do a variation that didn't rely on quite so much yogurt... I was thinking maybe reducing the lentils by half, increasing the onion and garlic, and then making up the difference with sauteed mushrooms. Change the mint out for some thyme or rosemary, sub the cilantro for parsley... It would be a very different dish, but might be fun. I might play around making variations of this until I come up with something that I really like, but I don't think I'd make this exactly as listed again. The presentation is cute though. I like that. 

Barley and Pomegranate Salad

I am indebted to my lovely Jo who pointed out that I haven't posted here in a week. It's been one of those weeks, and I haven't been cooking much. When I have been cooking, it's been the likes of tea and toast and no one cares about that. ^_~

I was planning to go to yoga tonight (I try to go four nights a week), but it is minus-freaking-ridiculous outside (-38C with the windchill) and because I walk two kilometres each way to get to the studio I decided to stay in and take advantage of the found time to cook a bit.

I've been thinking about people lately, and the way that social media connects them. I am indebted to Facebook because it means that I get to have more participation in the lives of people I care about - valuable when your friends and family are more than a thousand kilometres away, or in some cases across oceans. Tonight while I was cooking I was thinking of my friend Courtney - I haven't seen her in years in person, but I have followed her travels around numerous countries in the last year through Facebook and her blog, something I wouldn't have been able to do without social media as we've never really been pen pals or anything like. One of the things she missed while she was travelling was pomegranates, and now whenever I see them I inevitably think of her. ^_^

This salad is unbelievably simple and incredibly delicious. I really wasn't sure what I was going to think of it because the flavourings seemed all over the map to me, but oh wow. I can see making this again and again... As usual, the ingredients are directly from the book and the description incorporates my observations and adjustments.

Barley and Pomegranate Salad
(p. 238, Plenty)

Serves 4

1 cup pearl barley
6 celery stalks (leaves picked and reserved), cut into small dice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
2/3 tsp ground allspice
salt and black pepper
3 tbsp chopped dill
3 tbsp chopped parsley
seeds from 2 large pomegranates

Assemble the ingredients! I halved the recipe because I was short on pearl barley, having made a beef and barley stew a little while ago. As an aside, I don't like how yellow my photographs are. I think I might need to change the lighting system in my kitchen to combat that... or maybe it's the cutting board... the photos where the board is not on the counter are much whiter. Remember when I said I wasn't much of a food photographer? Still true. ^_^

 Rinse the barley with cold water, then place in a medium saucepan and cover with plenty of fresh water. Simmer for 30-35 minutes or until tender but still firm.

While the barley is cooking, prep your other ingredients - dice the celery, chop the herbs, measure the liquids and spices, and seed the pomegranate(s). I used apple cider vinegar because I didn't have sherry vinegar. I find the easiest way to seed pomegranates is to cut them in half horizontally and then gently crack them so you can invert them. Some people cut them in half horizontally and then hit the skin side with a wooden spoon over a bowl - apparently the seeds will fall out. I haven't managed to make that method work. Another option I've read about is breaking them up into a bowl of water - the seeds will sink and the pith will float for easy separation. Regardless of how you do it, just make sure to check through your seeds for any bits of pith as you probably don't want to eat that.

 When cooked, drain the barley and transfer it to a mixing bowl.

While the barley is hot, add the celery, olive oil, vinegar, garlic (I chopped mine instead of crushing it), allspice, and some salt and pepper. Stir and then leave to cool down completely.

Once cool, stir in the herbs, celery leaves, and pomegranate seeds and mix together. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your liking, then serve.

I ended up mixing everything while it was still warm because I was impatient and wanted supper, and it was still delicious. And easy! So easy... I think it might be fun to sub out the celery for broccolini or asparagus. But asparagus was $10/lb at the local Safeway, so that variation will have to wait a while.

Eat it! You know you want to...

Caramelized Garlic Tart

 As I've developed this haphazard plan to cook my way through Plenty this year, it failed to occur to me that recipe yield was going to affect how many recipes I needed to make per week to feed myself. Some recipes are good for two servings, others for as many as eight. I really wanted to make the Caramelized Garlic Tart (it was one of the first recipes that really caught my attention when the book was still in the store), but it yields eight servings and I wasn't sure I could commit to eating it for two meals a day, four days in a row. (To be fair, it didn't occur to me to freeze any of it, which should be possible). Instead, I decided to make it anyway and halve the recipe. In order to complete the recipe, I needed puff pastry. I decided to make some, as it is cheaper than buying it and I had the time and desire to do so (or at least, to make a simplified version). I will include those instructions in an additional post, in case anyone else feels adventurous (it's not hard, just takes some time). Store-bought puff pastry will work just fine in this recipe, although try to buy an all-butter version if you can find it/can have butter because it will have a richer flavour.

The recipe as listed is intended to fit an 11-inch fluted tart pan. If you happen to have a larger tart pan, or perhaps one that is slightly smaller, you can fiddle with the amount of custard in the overall recipe until you get what you need to fill in the gaps - if going larger, add another egg and a bit more cream; if you are going smaller, reduce accordingly. I chose to work with an 8-inch pan, so I just played until I got what I was after, which was roughly halving the recipe (I had some custard left over). As usual, the ingredients are as listed in the book and the instructions include my observations and alterations.

Caramelized Garlic Tart
p.38, serves 8

13oz puff pastry
3 medium heads of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup water
3/4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp chopped rosemary
1 tsp chopped thyme, plus a few whole sprigs to garnish
salt
4 1/2oz soft, creamy goat cheese (such as chevre)
4 1/2 oz hard, mature goat cheese (such as goat gouda)
2 eggs
6 1/2 tbsp heavy cream
6 1/2 tbsp creme fraiche
black pepper

Have ready a shallow, loose-bottomed, 11-inch fluted tart pan. I sprayed mine with Pam, but in hindsight that was complete overkill with how much butter was in the puff pastry. I am a little paranoid about being able to get something out of the pan in one piece if it's supposed to present that way...

Roll out the puff pastry into a circle that will line the bottom and sides of the pan, plus a little extra. 

Not a circle. Still did the job.

Line the pan with the pastry. Make sure to fit the dough into the fluting so the sides are strong.

Trim off the excess with a knife, or by rolling your rolling pin over it. You can save the scraps for another use (I like to toss them in cinnamon sugar or herbs or spices and bake them as little bits of snack).

Place a large circle of parchment paper on top of the dough and fill with pie weights, rice, or dried beans. Leave to rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes. You want to keep the pastry as cold as possible before baking it so you get maximum flaky layers. Warm dough = greasy mess. Cold dough = flaky awesome. Keep in mind that when this comes out of the oven, you will need somewhere for the hot weights/rice/beans to go safely so they can cool down. Plan accordingly.

I bought myself pie weights. A good investment for me.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the tart shell in the oven and blind bake (with the weights in) for 20 minutes. Remove the weights and paper, then bake for a further 5-10 minutes more, or until the pastry is golden. Set aside for now. Leave the oven on.

While the tart shell is baking, start making the caramelized garlic. Assemble your ingredients. I had to omit the hard goat cheese as I didn't have any. I substituted the creme fraiche for nonfat greek yogurt, and the cream for almond milk. I also chose to use a pomegranate balsamic because I had it, and why not?

Put the garlic cloves in a small saucepan and cover with plenty of water. Bring to a simmer and blanch for 3 minutes, then drain well. Dry the saucepan, put the garlic back in it, and add the olive oil. Fry the garlic on high heat for ~2 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and the water and bring to a boil, then simmer gently for ~10 minutes.

Add the balsamic off the heat; it will sputter.

Add the sugar, rosemary, chopped thyme and 1/4 tsp salt. Continue simmering on medium heat for ~10 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the garlic cloves are coated in a dark caramel syrup. Set aside and enjoy how awesome your kitchen smells, just for a moment.

Add the water, sugar, salt. and herbs. I goofed and added the full
cup rather than the half I should have. It was fine, just took longer to reduce.

To assemble the tart, break both types of goat cheese into pieces and scatter in the tart shell. 

Spoon the garlic cloves and remaining syrup evenly over the cheese.

In a jug (I used a 2-cup glass measuring cup) whisk together the eggs, cream, creme fraiche, 1/2 tsp salt and some black pepper. Pour this custard over the tart filling to fill in the gaps, making sure that you can still see the garlic and cheese over the custard's surface.

I assemble and bake my tarts on a cookie sheet; makes it much
easier to move a newly-filled tart to the oven.

 Reduce the oven temperature to 325F and place the tart inside. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the tart filling has set and the top is golden brown (My little 8-inch tart was done in ~25 minutes). Remove from the oven and let cool a bit. Then remove from pan, trim any edges if required, lay a few sprigs of thyme on top for garnish, and serve with a crisp salad. Yotam says it reheats well; I'll know more on that tomorrow.

Baked!

 This is incredibly awesome. I can only imagine how much richer it would be if I'd managed both cheeses, the cream, and the creme fraiche. But even with my substitutions, it was still delicious - the filling was silky and just the right amount of firm. The garlic is smooth and actually quite sweet - the rosemary and thyme set it off really well. I would love to make the full sized version of this for a potluck of people who like garlic. And knowing how much I like garlic, I think I should have opted for the full two heads of garlic in the small tart. The 1 1/2 heads I used seems a little scanty in hindsight. I recommend arugula for the salad... it's just right.

I'd definitely make this again. I think I'd even make it as a frittata (same filling, minus the crust - think giant, firm omelette if you're not sure what I am talking about)... the filling is that good.

Chai-Spiced "Cinnamon" Buns

I've been having trouble sleeping lately. And by lately, I mean that insomnia comes and goes on its own clock and has done so more or less for the last year. I'll be fine for months at a time and then hit a patch where for a few weeks I won't know if I am nocturnal, narcoleptic, or something else. I find that yoga helps regulate it, as does all the usual tools: no computer before bed, take the melatonin if you need it, stick to a routine. But some nights no matter what I do, I am just not going to fall asleep. Or if I do, I might not stay there. My goal for the last few rounds of this is to try and use the time for something even if that something isn't sleeping. I will read for my thesis. Sometimes I sketch a bit. This time, I decided that I wanted to bake. And perhaps my ambition over-reached my wakefulness, as I decided I wanted to bake myself some "proper" yeast-dough, roll-type buns and now it's past 1 am and I am typing this up as I wait for them to finish baking. ^_^

My favourite dough for making breakfast treats is the Rich Breakfast Dough from Sur la Table's The Art and Soul of Baking. This is one of my two favourite baking books... I can lose hours just reading the recipes. This particular dough is very forgiving, owing to the butter and egg in it, although it isn't quite as over the top in terms of richness as a full brioche dough (disclosure: I have a small obsession with brioche. There, Christine, I've admitted it out loud. ^_^). What I love about this dough the most is its versatility - I can make it, and then use it in a multitude of different ways, from loaves, to buns, to coffee cakes, to thinly layered snack cakes that remind me of pastries. Tonight, I decided on cinnamon buns. And then, because my box of spices from Silk Road had arrived and contained a sample packet of their Chai Spice blend, I decided I wanted Chai Spice buns.

Because this is a yeast based recipe, the dough takes some time to do up properly. Luckily, the most time consuming parts of it are hands off, letting you do something else for a while. If you are going to duplicate this, make sure you have the time for the two rises this will take, or room in the fridge to hold the dough until you can get back to it. As usual, the recipe is verbatim from the text and the instructions incorporate my own additions and observations.

Rich Breakfast Dough
(makes about 1 1/2 lbs of dough)

1/2 cup (4 oz) warm whole milk (110F-115F) - I used almond milk
1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast or 1 1/8 tsp instant yeast
1 large egg plus one egg yolk, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz) bread flour or all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, very soft (not melted)

Combine the warm milk and sugar in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over top. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast has activated and is foamy or bubbling. If you have a stand mixer, setting up in the bowl of the stand mixer will save you some effort later. If you are mixing by hand, have no fear, it can be done with a bit more patience and elbow-grease.

Add the egg and yolk to the yeast mixture and whisk by hand until well blended.

The grapes were my dinner.

If you have a kitchen scale, weighing your flour will give you far more consistent results than the scoop-and-level method of measuring dry ingredients. If you don't, the scoop-and-level method of measuring will still work.

Stir in the flour and salt with a silicone or rubber spatula. Attach the dough hook and knead on low speed for 2 minutes. Don't worry if the dough looks ragged at this point - adding the butter will smooth it out. If you are mixing by hand, this will take roughly twice as long as having a machine to do the work for you, but it's not too bad. Increase the speed to medium and knead for 1 minute. With the mixer running, add the soft butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to blend in fully before adding the next. Once all the butter has been added, decrease the speed to medium-low and continue to knead for 5-6 minutes longer, until the dough looks soft and silky.

Quick laugh at myself here - adding the butter was probably the most fun I've had with a dough made by hand in a long time. It was sticky and slippery and hilarious. There would be pictures, except that I was not going to touch my camera until I'd properly washed my hands. It did take a while to work butter into the dough without the assistance of my stand mixer, but it was fun. Once the butter was fully incorporated, I worked the dough on the counter for a while. Eventually I got a ball of lovely smoothness that smelled wonderful. There's something about a butter-enriched yeast dough... it's like nostril nirvana.

Lightly butter or oil a tub or bowl, scrape your dough into the container, and brush the surface of it with a little butter or oil (an oil atomizer works like a charm for this step). I re-use the bowl I'd been mixing in because I dislike doing additional dishes when they aren't strictly required. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp, lint free towel and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Because my flat was running on the cold side last night, I put the bowl in the oven with just the oven light turned on. Once the dough has risen, it is ready to be punched down and used in the recipe of your choice. At this point you can also freeze the dough for up to one month - just punch it down, wrap it in plastic wrap and then put it into a resealable freezer bag. To thaw, put it in the refrigerator overnight, or place on the counter for ~2 hours or until it comes to room temperature, then proceed with the recipe of your choice.

To shape the buns themselves:

1 recipe Rich Breakfast dough
1/2 stick (1/4 cup or 2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup (2 2/1 oz) firmly packed light brown sugar
whatever other additions you want (i.e. cinnamon, other spices, chopped nuts, raisins, chopped chocolate, frozen berries, etc., etc.)

Once the dough has had its first rise, pull it out of the bowl it had been rising in and put it on to a lightly floured work surface. Press down firmly on the risen dough with your hands to expel as much of the gas as possible, but don't knead the dough or the gluten will be too developed for the dough to roll easily (that said, if you find you have overworked the dough and it's getting dense, let it sit for 30 minutes. That will help it to relax and you can try again). Dust the top of the pressed dough with a little bit of flour, and then roll it out into a rectangle roughly 10 inches tall by 16 inches wide. You will want the wide edge parallel to the edge of your work surface to help with rolling the dough up in a bit.

Something like this.

In a bowl, place 1/4 cup (1/3-1/2 cup if you are feeling really luxe) of soft butter and 1/3 cup (or more if you are using more butter) of firmly packed brown sugar. Add any spices or flavourings you would like to have to this step - I included 2 1/2 tsp of the Chai Spice baking blend. Cream everything together, and then spread it evenly onto the dough, leaving a small, (~1 inch?) border around the edges. I didn't make a lot of "filling" because I really like the dough on its own as well; in this batch of buns, I wanted the filling to compliment the dough, not overwhelm it. But there is a lot of room for play.

If you are adding any fruit or chopped nuts, etc., to the dough, sprinkle them on top of the flavoured butter and gently pat them down.

Beginning with the long edge closest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder, gently tightening and tucking as you go. You can dampen the border with a little bit of water if you want to help it stick, but I found that wasn't required when I was working on it. Roll the dough so the final seam is facing upward and pinch it all along to seal it.

Turn the seam down, and use a chef's knife to cut the roll into 12 equal pieces. I find it easiest to get evenly sized buns when I cut the log in half, then cut each half in half, then each of those portions in thirds. But that might be just me. Place the buns into a lightly greased cake pan, spacing them evenly.

Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or with a damp, lint-free towel again and let rise until the rolls have almost doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes, longer if the room is cold. I threw them back into the oven with the light on and let them do their thing.

After the second rise.

Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the centre. Bake the buns for 30-35 minutes until they are a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Then enjoy. 

Quinoa and Grilled Sourdough Salad

I am in a funk today. I could write about that, but I'd rather write about this awesome salad. Because it is really, really awesome. It reminds me of a similar salad I was introduced to by Aaron while he was still at Cibo. I can't wait to make it with farmers market tomatoes... perhaps even the little zebra striped ones that are all variegated green on the outside and burgundy on this inside. Maybe throw a few little yellow or orange ones in there for colour? I swear, half of eating is looking, so you might as well make it as beautiful and colourful as you can, right?

A lot in this salad rests on the tomato - you want ripe ones and you want to keep the seeds and guts as they will add a lot of necessary moisture to the "dressing" aspect of the salad (also, that is where most of the glutamates - read: flavour - hang out. Why shortchange your taste buds?). If the tomatoes available to you are the mealy, flat winter ones, I suggest giving this recipe a pass until better ones come along. Also, this recipe calls for sourdough bread, and I think it is a good choice, but if you want to change it up, I think any bread with a decent crumb would be fine. Although you probably don't want something that has a thick, chewy crust and a really tender interior just because I find making croutons out of that to be tricky, and having the texture of the crouton consistent just seems like a pleasant aspect of the dish. But that might be just me... I remember having a sun-dried tomato loaf from somewhere... Sunterra, maybe?... that could be an interesting bread substitution. You can also omit the quinoa without significant impact to the recipe, which might be good if your ethical code is making you feel uneasy with the grain. 

On the whole, I found this recipe to be more of a guideline than an actual recipe; that is, I found myself winging it a little bit in terms of proportions and based on what I had on hand, but it was very forgiving. I will most definitely be making this again. As usual, the ingredient list is straight from the book, but the instructions incorporate my observations and substitutions.

Quinoa and Grilled Sourdough Salad
(p. 128, from Plenty)

Serves 4

1/4 cup quinoa
4 slices sourdough bread
1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra to brush the bread
salt
4 ripe medium tomatoes
3 small cucumbers, unpeeled
1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
4 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 1/2 tbsp chopped mint
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
black pepper

Assemble ingredients:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the quinoa in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 9 minutes, or until tender. Drain in a fine sieve, rinse under cold water and leave to dry.

Brush the bread with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with some salt - I used a garlic infused olive oil that I am particularly fond of for this step, and some fine grain sea salt. Lay the slices on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, turning them over halfway through. The bread should be completely dry and crisp - bake a bit longer if you need to. My sourdough slices were pretty big, so I opted to use three rather than four so my salad wasn't actually a bread basket with garnishes.

Remove from the oven and cool down, and then break by hand into different sized pieces. I cut mine with a knife, because that worked better for me today.

Cut the tomatoes into roughly 3/4 inch dice and put into a mixing bowl. Choose a large bowl - you'll be mixing a fair volume of stuff together and you'll want the room. I was using smaller, vine ripened tomatoes because they were what I had, so I chopped up 8 instead of 4. Keep the guts. ^_^ Cut the cucumbers into similar sized pieces and add to the tomatoes. I had one large cucumber, so I diced up just over half of it, aiming to have roughly the same amount of chopped cucumber as I did chopped tomato.

Add all the remaining ingredients, including the quinoa and the croutons, and stir gently until everything is mixed well together.

I omitted the mint and parsley because I didn't have any on hand and didn't feel like spending the $8.81 I have left in January's food budget on such minute portions of herbs. ^_^ I used a regular olive oil for the dressing, and cut the amount back to 1/4 cup. An infused oil would be gorgeous in here (maybe a lemon one? A little bit of citrus could be fun). Mid-prep, I subbed out diced green onions for the white onion I was going to use as a replacement for the red onion as I had them (the green ones) on hand and I didn't want them to go to waste. I also subbed out white wine vinegar for the red wine vinegar, which wasn't an issue for such a tiny amount. Additionally, I chose to finely dice my garlic because that works better for me than having two crushed cloves floating around the salad bowl. If you find that your salad is a bit dry, you can add more of the liquids to up the dressing quotient, or add another tomato. The options are open.

You can eat the salad right away, or let it sit for a bit so the bread softens up. Because I am cooking for only me, I ate it right away while it was still crisp-ish, and will have it again later, when it will be softer. Yay, variety and no effort. ^_~

So delicious. Nom nom nom nom.

EDIT: Another article has come up in my reading about the access and impact of quinoa crop production. I am a fan of having multiple views on a subject, so if you are interested, you can find Slate's take here. It's a worthwhile read. 

Preserved Lemon Experiment

Mostly this post exists to I can laugh at myself a little.

Going through Plenty, I realized that I would need some preserved lemon, as the ingredient comes up with relative frequency through the book. Okay, no problem... I have seen a recipe for them in another book that I own, The Food of Morocco, and it didn't look so hard. Involved lemons and salt, simple enough, right? So without re-reading the recipe (not a practice I advocate or typically ascribe to), I picked up a few lemons and figured I'd give it a whirl.

When I read through the recipe this morning in preparation for making it, I realized I had the wrong salt. The recipe calls for rock salt - I have fine grain sea salt. I figure, what the hell, all salt is sodium, maybe the form it's in doesn't matter so much? Here's hoping, anyway. So I ramble my way through the recipe, winging it in terms of proportions because I preserved two lemons, rather than the recipe's indicated 8-12 as I didn't think I'd use that many preserved lemons. When I get to the end of my monkeying around, it occurs to me that I can't recall ever having tasted preserved lemon, so I have no point of comparison to know if my results are adequate or awful. Fun times all around. If it fails, I am out two lemons, some salt, and a bay leaf. Not a catastrophic proposition. ^_^

Preserved Lemons
(From The Food of Morocco, p. 285)
makes 1 2L jar, or 2 1L jars

8-12 thin skinned new season lemons (unwaxed)
rock salt
1-2 extra lemons
black peppercorns, optional
bay leaves, optional

To prepare a storage jar, preheat the oven to 120C (235F). Wash the jar and lid in hot soapy water and rinse with hot water. Put the jar in the oven for ~20 minutes, or until fully dry. Do not dry with a tea towel.

If lemons are very firm, soak in water to cover for 3 days, changing water daily. Wash lemons if soaking is not required.

Washed and ready.

Cut lemons from the stem end into quarters, almost to the base. Insert 1 tablespoon rock salt into each lemon, close it up and place it in a jar.

I found it easier to try and fill them by standing them in a bowl.

Repeat until jar is filled, sprinkling 1 tablespoon salt between layers. Pack lemons into the jar as tightly as possible and add a bay leaf and a few black peppercorns to each jar if desired.

Wash extra lemons and add the juice of 1 lemon to each jar. Fill with slightly cooled, boiled water. Put the washed skin from a squeezed-out lemon half on top of the lemons in the jar so that if any white film forms (which is harmless, just unattractive), the lemon skin can be discarded when the jar is opened. Seal and store in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks, gently shaking the jars daily for the first week to dissolve the salt. The cloudy liquid clears in this time. Lemons will keep for 6 months or more. Once the jar is opened, store in the refrigerator.

Ta-da!

To prepare preserved lemon for cooking: Remove a lemon from the jar with a clean fork. Separate lemon into quarters and rinse under running water. Remove and discard the pulp. Rinse the rind, pat dry with paper towel and use as directed in the recipe.

I'll update on the progress of this experiment in roughly four weeks. Until then, I am going to keep trying to find preserved lemon elsewhere so I have some kind of baseline to compare this improvisation to.

Spicy Moroccan Carrot Salad

I woke up with this quote on my mind:

Turns out that today was a pretty great day, full of awesome little things. It was cold but sunny outside, which resulted in incredible hoar frost. The frost was irresistible: I was heading to school and got so distracted by it I went back to my flat and grabbed my camera.

Then I sat in the back during one of Bill's 'Atheism' classes, which was fun. Then I had a fairly long conversation with Arthur, the new MA to the office, discussing our research and methods of conducting research. He demonstrated his practice of working on Chinese calligraphy as a means of clearing his mind when he needed to, which was beautiful to watch. I am going to ask him if I can take a picture next time - the paper he works on turns black when made wet with water and then goes back to its normal blue as it dries. I enjoyed watching the characters surface and fade. After that, I read and took notes for a while before braving the cold to walk to the grocery to see if they had any cilantro. Despite the cold, it was a good walk. Everything was sparkly and my inner magpie was thrilled. And then there was cilantro! My walk back to the flat was enjoyable, and cumulated in another bit of everyday awesome - mail. Mail that wasn't bills, even.

I've been waiting for this piece of mail pretty eagerly. In December - after I had returned to Edmonton for the holiday break - I received an email saying that U of R had re-opened the competition for the SSHRC scholarship. This scholarship is a pretty big deal. I had too much going on during the time of the original competition to attempt it, but I was in a better position when it re-opened. So I spent a very chaotic week trying to arrange all the supporting documents and work out a solid proposal. Everything - unexpectedly - came together, despite the very tight deadline. I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people who helped me get it together. This letter would let me know if my proposal made it through the internal competition and would be forwarded to the federal-level competition. I am excited to say my proposal is being forwarded to the federal competition. This is good news! 

I decided that I wanted to make dinner to celebrate, and decided on Spicy Moroccan Carrot Salad from Plenty because it seemed festive. 

Spicy Moroccan Carrot Salad

(p. 14)

Serves 4

2 lbs carrots

1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra to finish 

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 tsp sugar

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 medium green chiles, finely chopped

1 green onion, finely chopped

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp chopped preserved lemon

salt

2 1/2 cups cilantro leaves, plus extra to garnish

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, chilled

Assemble ingredients!

Peel the carrots and cut them, depending on their size, into cylinders or semi-circles ~1/2 inch thick; all the pieces should end up roughly the same size. Place chopped carrots into a large saucepan and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until tender but still crunchy. Drain in a colander and leave to dry out. I found that 10 minutes gave me 'al dente' carrots - that is, cooked all the way through and nicely firm, but they weren't what I would describe as 'crunchy', although I think crunchy might have thrown me off anyway, so perhaps it's all for the best.

Heat the oil in a large pan (I wiped out the large frying pan I used to cook the carrots and used it again) and saute the onions for 12 minutes on medium heat until soft and slightly brown. At first I thought that the 1/3 cup oil was too generous: 

It looked like a lot of oil in real life.

But it turns out just right in the end, so I don't recommend skimping here, although watch the colour of your onions. Mine only needed about 10 minutes to get to the 'soft and slightly brown' stage, and by 12 minutes they were starting to get quite dark, although that isn't a problem for me as I really enjoy caramelized onions. Add the cooked carrot to the onions, and then add the remaining ingredients except for the cilantro and the yogurt. I had to omit the preserved lemon as I didn't have any (although I found a recipe for making some, so that experiment will occur soon).

Remaining ingredients.

Remove the pan from heat. Season liberally with salt (or don't; I skipped this and it was not a problem), stir well, and leave to cool.

Before serving, stir in the cilantro, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve in individual bowls with a dollop of yogurt, a drizzle of oil and garnished with the extra cilantro. I skipped the additional oil as I felt there was enough present to suit my tastes already, although I could see the appeal of using an infused finishing oil rather than just the plain olive oil I'd been working with.

I would say this is easily my new favourite way to eat carrots. I like it warm, and the yogurt is nice but not necessary. The cilantro is also nice, but not necessary (I know some people really don't care for cilantro). Part of me wonders about omitting the cilantro, pureeing the carrots and turning it into a filling for a savoury tart... could be tasty...