Sweet Pickles!!

Here is something fun and easy to make. I found this recipe in an United In-Flight magazine, imagine that! I have made this with little tiny green and yellow cucumbers that I bought at the Farmer's Market and then quartered them lengthwise. I have also used the little Persian cucumbers from Trader Joe's. Next, I will try it with radishes, why not? Pickles are in....

Raw vegetables

1 cup water, piping hot out of the faucet

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

6 tb sugar

2 1/4 ts kosher salt

Combine water, vinegar, sugar and salt and stir until sugar has dissolved. Pack the vegetables tightly in a quart container or any glass container you have laying around. Pour brine over vegetables, cover, and refrigerate. Let sit for 3 or 4 days at minimum, or a week for optimum flavor. Should be consumed quickly!

Simply Quinoa

Quinoa is such a great accompaniment to pretty much anything. I love that the Incas grew it so long ago. They knew even then that quinoa is high in protein, calcium and iron, a perfect food! They even fed their army with it.

The most important thing is to rinse the Quinoa in water before cooking to remove its bitter coating. I really urge you to do it, it makes all the difference.

My sister-in-law Renee has given me this wonderfully simple recipe which serves 4:

1 tb Virgin Coconut Oil (the one with the coconut flavor) or to taste

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup Quinoa, rinsed

2 cups vegetarian broth (cubes are fine)

Melt the coconut oil in a pot, add the garlic clove and toast until fragrant. Add rinsed Quinoa and stir adding the broth. Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Serve warm and enjoy!

A Nice Little Lentil Soup

I haven't posted anything in a while, but I thought the lentil soup I made today deserves a little air time. I don't have a recipe as such, but here it goes:

I cook tiny black organic lentils in vegetarian broth until tender, maybe 30 minutes or so. In the meantime, I cut half a red onion into small dice (use only a quarter if onion is big) and sauté it in olive oil with a few shakes of red pepper flakes. Then I add 3 tbs or so tomato paste and a few pinches of curry powder and continue sautéing until fragrant. Now I pour in some filtered water until the mixture has a nice soupy consistency. I toss in 2-3 cups of the cooked and cooled lentils and let it simmer until the flavors come together. I season the soup with sea salt and serve with a little chopped chives sprinkled on top, that is it!

Enjoy......

More Cilantro!

I made this stew for my friend Brigitte on her birthday. We tried to convince Stefan, who desperately hates cilantro, that there was absolutely no cilantro in it, so Stefan served himself a large portion and was almost in tears when he tasted it, but as a good German, he finished bravely what was on his plate!

The recipe comes from my absolutely favorite food writer Ruth Reichl, specifically out of her book "Tender at the Bone". It's highly recommended, the book and the stew.

I personally use only 2 cloves of garlic and pork tenderloin from Trader Joe's.

The Swallow's Pork and Tomatillo Stew
Serves 6

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 8 large cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 pounds lean pork, cut in cubes
• salt
• pepper
• 1 bottle dark beer
• 12 ounces orange juice
• 1 pound tomatillos, quartered
• 1 pound Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 large onions, coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 2 jalapeño peppers, chopped
• 1 14-ounce can black beans
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 cup sour cream

Heat oil in a large casserole. Add garlic cloves. Add pork, in batches so as not to crowd, and brown on all sides. Remove pork as the pieces get brown on all sides. Remove pork as the pieces get brown and add salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, put beer and orange juice in another pot. Add tomatillos and tomatoes, bring to a boil, lower heat, and cook about 20 minutes, or until tomatillos are soft. Set aside.

When all pork is browned, pour off all but about a tablespoon of the oil in the pan. Add coarsely chopped onions and cook about 8 minutes, or until soft. Stir, scraping up bits of meat. Add chopped cilantro and pepper and salt to taste.

Put pork back into pan. Add tomatillo mixture and chopped jalapeños. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover partially and cook about 2 hours.

Taste for seasoning. Add black bean and cook 10 minutes more.

Stir lime juice into sour cream.

Serve with rice and with sour cream-lime juice mixture on the side as a topping.

A good Hummus

I love hummus, so this is how I make it. First of all, I do not like to use canned chickpeas, they've got this sweetly, tinny taste that just doesn't do it for me. So I soak dried chickpeas overnight and then cook them gently for two hours in fresh water, nothing added to it.

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1 clove garlic

2 tb tahini

3 tb fresh lemon juice

1 tb olive oil

salt

water

I swirl the garlic in a food processor until finly chopped and add the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil. Then I add water until the hummus is kind of fluffy, season with salt and ta da! The flavorings to add with the garlic are endless: smoked paprika and parsley, fresh jalapenos and cilantro, scallions and fresh jalapenos, cilantro and canned chipotle, cilantro and a touch of curry, just chives ...... And remember, a little goes a long way.

Granola + Smoked Fish Spread - an unlikely pair!

Low fat Granola made with Honey

I found this recipe in the Bon Appetite Magazine and it comes from 

the beloved Molly Wizenberg, I just changed it around a little bit.

ingredients

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds or walnuts
• 1/2 cup coconut chips, unsweetened and crumbled into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
• 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil or canola oil
• 1 cup assorted dried fruit (I use mostly cranberries)

preparation

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; toss. Spread on prepared sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes, about 40 minutes. Place sheet on rack. Stir granola; cool. Mix in fruit.
  
  
  
  
  And the following worked well for a Memorial Day brunch:
  scrambled eggs
  goat cheese ensconced in Herbes de Provence
  home-baked Nutella brownies
  baguette
  fresh berries
  champagne
  orzo pasta salad with Kalamata olives
  smoked fish spread (recipe from my friend Cathy):
  
  
  1/2 pound smoked trout (I used a combination of black cod and salmon only because our fish monger doesn't carry trout)
  1/2 cup creme fraiche
  2 tablespoons minced shallots
  2 tablespoons minced chives
  Juice of 1/2 lemon
  Kosher salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Cilantro!

My friend Tina turned me onto cooking with cilantro in a different way. I sauté a little bit of thinly sliced onion and half a bunch of chopped cilantro in olive oil. The cilantro takes on a completely different taste, more mellow, kind of intriguing. Then I add a few sliced zucchini and continue to sauté all of it until tender. Seasoned with freshly squeezed lemon juice and a bit of sea salt, it tastes quite delicious!