Farro casserole

I haven't posted for a while. I've been traveling (spring break Boston woo!!) and I've also just been cooking uninteresting, uninventive dishes. Today, this dreary Baltimore day, I decided to break that funk. I made myself an incredibly tasty lunch adapted from (what else?) this 101 cookbooks recipe. The original recipe calls it a "risotto," but I'd say it's more of a rice casserole. It'd make a great pot-luck dish.

Preheat the oven to 400.
Prepare a casserole dish (8x8 or so) with EVOO and lemon juice (the original recipe suggests lemon zest, which would probably be better if you have it)
Chop 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic.
Heat 2T EVOO in a medium saucepan.
Saute the chopt onion and garlic wth a pinch of salt until the onions are soft and beginning to become clear.
Add 1.5c uncooked farro and saute for a minute or so more.
Stir in 1c (1 can) tomato sauce and 2.5c veggie stock.
Allow this to come to a simmer while seasoning with black pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary and salt.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1/2c Parmesan and a GENEROUS 1/2c mozzarella (I cubed some fancy mozzarella--amazing!).
If desired, stir in 5 chopt cherry tomatoes and a handful of chopt olives.
Pour this mixture in to the prepared dish, cover with foil, poke holes into the foil, and bake for 40 minutes or until the farro is soft. Take the foil off for the last few minutes of the baking time in order to make the top nice and bubbly.
Serve topped with shaved Parmesan.

The finished product:


My first helping:


So tasty and so perfect for a chilly winter's day!

Finally, edible tofu

Tonight's tofu trial was tolerable. Saute 3 leeks until soft. Mix in some hummus. Meanwhile, cube tofu in a casserole and add diced tomatoes and some salsa. Mix in the leek/hummus mixture. Top with Brad's Dried Kale Chips - - doubtless the planet's most expensive snack food per unit weight. Cook at 350 for 30 min. I served it with rice cooked with onion, chopt apricots and ginger. And a Rioja. Actually pretty good.

Libby commented!

On Dan: The Cake.
Hello Libby!

Real Chinese Food

By "Real Chinese Food," I do not mean food that is real Chinese. I mean food that tastes like the food I expect Jimmy's Chinese Food Carry-out down the street would sell if it was ever open (and not a front for something criminal.) Tonight I made a version of the Joy of Cooking's "Broccoli Stir Fry" that tastes a little salty, a little sweet, and kinda greasy: exactly like good ol' American Chinese food. Granted, it contains no MSG and nothing was deep-fried, but I think that's for the better. I bet this recipe would taste excellent with bok choi substituted for broccoli, as well.

Stir together in a mug: 2T water, 2T cornstarch
Stir together in another mug: 1/3c wine (I used white, red would prob. taste better), 3T soy sauce, 2T brown sugar
Heat 3T vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat
Add ~1T minced ginger and 4 large garlic cloves, sliced. Stir for a moment, then
Add 1 big crown (1 head) broccoli (cut into medium-sized florets) and 4 sliced mushrooms
Add a generous sprinkling of red chili flakes (or a real pepper)
Cook until the broccoli is somewhat softened but still crunchy on the inside
Pour wine mixture into the pan, stir in 1/2 pkg (~7oz) cubed firm tofu
Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 30 seconds
Stir in the cornstarch mixture
Cook, uncovered, until the sauce thickens, 1-2min

Top with sunflower seeds. Nom over rice.

DAN: THE CAKE

This cake derived from an old clipping for a lemon crunch cake. First, make a crumb topping. I used 3 T. almond oil in lieu of butter, which sort of worked, and 1/4 c. flour, 2 T brown sugar, 1 t. cinnamon. Then I separately mixed 1/2 c. eggbeater (recipe called for 2 egg yolks), 1 package of tofu (recipe: 14 oz. condensed milk, for which I used to substitute ricotta), 1/3 c. lemon juice, and 1 t. lemon zest. Again separately, I mixed 2 1/4 c. flour, 1 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda and 1/2 t. salt. Again separately, I mixed 3/4 c. eggbeaters (recipe: 3 eggs) and 2 c. sugar with the mixer. I added 1. c. almond oil,another 1 t. lemon zest, and 2 t. vanilla. The recipe also called for 1 c sour cream, which I skipped. I mixed the flour mixture into the egg-sugar=oil mix, then swirled in the tofy mix. I used 2 cake pans and cooked it at 325 for 35 min, then sprinkled on the crumb topping and cooked it for another 35. Then I sculpted Dan. Voila. Happy Birthday, Suzanne!

Cute food alert

I haven't found any new or blogworthy recipes lately, but I have had some great moments in cute food. Below are some of the cookies I made for my dear sister for Valentine's day (not pictured: psychedelic unicorns).

Also, Mom made me an AMAZING birthday cake. It was a lemony, cholesterol-free cake shaped like our favorite feline!! I hope she'll post the recipe soon.

The Egg Project, Installment #1

I don't like eggs. Never have. I don't order eggs, I don't make eggs, and when I buy them they typically sit in the fridge for about six months, at which point I question if they are safe for consumption, discard them, and then purchase more eggs which I will not use.

I would like to change. Eggs are cheap, nutritious, and can be sustainable. Also, chickens are all the rage right now in berkeley (you know you're a hippy when you have chickens in your backyard. Well, I guess you could also be a redneck). I have several friends with more eggs then they can handle, thus the local, organic, sustainable egg glut in Berkeley. I'd like to take advantage of this situation.

I'd also like to be the kind of person who can casually say, how do you like your eggs? And then create a perfect specimen. This will also be convenient once I get a Ph.D., when I can take my over-educated, unemployed self and go to work as a short order cook.

So I'm going to endeavor to cook eggs in many different manners as the mood strikes me. Enough people out there like eggs; there must be a way of cooking them that I will like.

First up, scrambled eggs. Seems easy enough. I didn't bother doing any research on the subject. I just melted some butter in the pain, cracked in the eggs, added a little bit of goat cheese, and whisked it around with a fork until they no longer looked wet. Then I salted them. I also sauteed some veggies to go along with the eggs.

Here are the results:



My conclusions? Well, I ate everything. And it was pretty good when mixed with the veggies and put into a pita. However, the grapes were definitely the first thing to go.

A quick internet search after the fact revealed that I didn't use the right technique at all. People have strong opinions about what the best method is and my didn't align with any of them. So I think I will revisit scrambled eggs and see if I can do better.

Other egg dishes I'm excited about trying include sunny side up, over easy, fried, poached, and coddled eggs. Then of course there is the omelet.

Some of these things might be the same, or require special equipment or patience, I really have no clue. I really do hope to become an egg lover by then end of it. However, I don't think anything could ever make me give hardboiled eggs a chance. I will close with an apt biblical quote: Thou shalt not put into thy salad eggs which come from beasts with feathers, for hardboiled eggs in salads are an abomination unto the Lord (Deuteronomy, 22:5).