HotM #15: Quinoa as tabouleh with herbs (versatile quinoa 2)

Almost a similar post as the previous: versatile quinoa, soaked, then cooked, and ready for use: here I turned it into a tabouleh salad with fresh herbs: lemon thyme and oregano, a gift from friends. I added chives and spring onion. Both herbs are flourishing well in a small garden patch, and are just the right stuff for this month's Heart of the Matter: Cooking with Herbs. No t(h)yme to waste: straight on to it.
Tabouleh with quinoa and fresh herbs

Cooked quinoa (see previous post)
Fresh lemon thyme, each small leaf removed from the stem
Fresh oregano, each leaf or cluster taken from the stem
Chives, chopped
1 whole spring onion, chopped
a few red radishes, chopped
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
horsetail powder
salt and pepper to taste

In case you wonder about the balsamic vinegar: et oui. I did like some sweetness in this salad.

Versatile quinoa &: a lunch salad

This is a truly excellent way to prepare and eat quinoa, if you can spare the time: first let the quinoa soak in double the amount of water for 4-12 hours. In step two you do as you would get quinoa straight out of the packaging: bring it to a boil and cook it to moderate heat in fresh water for 15 minutes. Step three consists of letting it cool, and storing it in the fridge, for use when you need to.

It is different than boiling it directly? Oh yes. Does it taste good? Oh yes. It's the method out of Vitalité gourmande, a book where soaking and sprouting things is standard procedure.

I filled up 4 small glasses of quinoa and soaked it in 8 glasses of water.

I used some for Lunch: 2 slices of smoked salmon, 1 spring onion, chopped, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, salt and pepper, olive oil.

The strawberry tart that barely passed as baking

It is quite obvious that I was really inspired by the artful way in which strawberries were piled high on a plate during a meal last Wednesday. So when I went to the farmers market this morning, strawberries were a sure item on my list. Little did I know that another ingredient I bought would come in handy as well.

My older strawberry posts mention how I like to eat strawberries best, but after a morning running errands, my mind's eye crystallized around something like this:
- a layer of cake, a layer of cream, and a layer of the grainy fruit we are enjoying this month.

I really am no baker, nor willing to join the league of hundreds of foodbloggers, whose brave attemps at classic baking recipes I admire from a safe distance. Small wonder then that I chose a biscuit cake, a mixture of crumbled cookies and butter.

It's probably all I can muster in the pastry department. But I am always willing to experiment with the levels of fat and sugar. Except for the slapdash rim of the crust (aesthetics), I was quite pleased with the taste.
Strawberry tart, quick and easy

Serves 6

The crust:
200 g cookies (here: Novellini di farro, spelt cookies, senza zucchero aggiunto)
5o g very soft butter
2 tablespoons of jam, any will do (here: fig jam from S.Miniato, senza zucchero aggiunto)

My source for this crust can be found here, with the spelt cookies and sugarless jam my own (un)doing. I followed suit with a cook from Groningen who bakes this cookie crust for 10 minutes in a 180 °C degree oven. So basically, combine the blended ingredients, and put on the bottom of a cake tin to bake. Let cool afterwards. Flip crust over onto a presentation plate.

The cream:
150 g goat cheese from raw milk (very mild)
4 tablespoons water
1/3 teaspoon garam masala (for a soupçon of sweetness)

I decided to use the mild goat cheese I bought this morning at the market, as cream. In a small bowl, mash the goat cheese with the water, until somewhat smoother. Add the garam masala. Put the goat cheese mixture on the layer of cake.

The fruit:
500 g strawberries

Wash the strawberries with the green stems on. Drain, remove stems, and arrange the strawberries on the cream and cake, starting from the centre. You'll need about half of the 500 g strawberries.

Put briefly in the fridge if desired. Serve.

Surround yourself with critical eaters.

It's not a cupcake, it's mousse (mango, avocado, apple)

Two containers of strawberries are spreading their fragrance, while I am making a mousse that resembles a cupcake.

As I have a beautiful and ripe avocado, I'm trying out the Mousse of Mango, Avocado, and Apple with Integral Sugar from the Vitalité gourmande cookbook (2004) by Pol Grégoire and Françoise De Keuleneer. These cooks technically don't do dessert-they do dishes with a sweet touch.

This mousse isn't photographed in the book. Perhaps on account of the color? Who is keen on green mousse? I am, especially having skipped lunch due to chores. But it turns out to be quite tasty. The finely chopped orange peel is exactly right, so do go through all that trouble with the peel. Or use a gadget.Mousse of Mango, Avocado, and Apple with Integral Sugar

Serves 4

the flesh of 1 ripe avocado
1 ripe mango, peeled
2 apples, peeled
peel of 1/2 orange, finely chopped
juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons integral sugar [optional in my view]

Blend the avocado, apples, and the mango together with the orange juice until a smooth consistence is reached.

Ladle into small cups. Sprinkle the orange peel on top. Serve at once.

Note: I tweaked the sugar, but each person could for instance sprinkle a bit of sucanat over his portion of mousse together with the orange peel.

Strawberries forever

Reporting about eating the local strawberry of the season is always fun. Joanna at Joanna's food did it, and Ilva at Lucullian Delights has recipes too. I ate my first strawberry last Sunday. Not without emotion, but last Wednesday's experience (see picture) during a work lunch surpassed the premiere: strawberries arranged dramatically on a plate. Still life with a bonsai tree.
But suddenly I realised that strawberries in season are all too often confined to weekends to me. As in: you step out to Saturday's market; you eat strawberries on weekends. That's why I was struck by the remark by my hosts that day: we eat them every day now.
They are right. What a waste not to. I'm about to step out. Report follows.

Spicing up your summer (with cottage cheese garni)

With the holidays over, and balmy temperatures in the land, it's time to spice up the summer. Especially with the neighbors chattering over dinner in their garden. How you ache to follow suit!

Here's a quick snack that can be served while waiting: white cottage cheese garni, usually decked with fine slices of small red radishes, chopped spring onion, and parsley, and well-seasoned with salt and pepper (see 'Belgian regional' of April 18, 2007).

This is a local specialty from around Brussels, the famous boterham met plattekaas. Slightly comparable to tzatziki, perhaps less runny, and usually served, alongside knife and fork, and a specialty beer, on a very long slice of bread.

I fancied a hot and spicy version, with chunky radish bits.

Cottage cheese (plattekaas) garni, spicy version

Serves 4

200 g cottage cheese
1-2 tablespoons water
1 knifetip wasabi
salt, pepper
a bit of cayenne powder to taste
plenty of fresh chives, chopped
1 bundle of small red radishes, cut into fours or bigger chunks
part of the green outer leaf of leek, cut into very, very fine slices, Asian style.

Combine all ingredients. The water serves to make firm cottage cheese a bit more runny. Taste while making this, to arrive at the right amount of spice. I served this on Italian crackers for a change. Take a bite. Recline in your deck chair.

Ways of Escape

Just got back from a region that pares historical grandeur and quick pace with rural vistas and slow life.Where breakfast chooses you at pastry counters..Where churches flaunt their marbles..
and local specialities help you through sightseeing.. the pane di pescatore.. ..or the torta della nonna.
After a full day, other specialties beckon.. the affetati..
Or the bistecca fiorentina. Where the fegatini de maiale..
Are just the thing after spotting deer.But don't you worry, there are veggies too.
Where the hour of the aperitivo..
..not only comes with filling appetizers,
but also has interesting canottiere to look at.Where only good gelato is picked up by the choosy!And where your finale is simply the best pizza in the world.

Interludium

The month has barely started, but Leafy Cooking is ready for another experience extra muros.
Report soon to follow.

I scream in Belgium

Your screams are justified at the sheer size of this ice cream dish in Belgium. Coupe Kiwi.

But there are places here who do this just right. I'd like you to get the exact flavor.

Who make their own ice cream, and fresh whipping cream as well. Where the waiters are on hand and friendly. Go and look around in small provincal towns. If they're full of ladies on a tea break, you hit the right spot.

Be on the lookout for the place where they do everything from scratch. Croque monsieurs, spaghettis, waffles, crepes. Tell-tale sign is a freshly baked puff pastry filled with the very same fresh whipping cream, served with your coffee and tea. Not just a cookie from a tin.

Be on the lookout for the place where they overdo it. Not on the friendly disposition, but on the calories. Where they decorate your ice cream dish with powdered sugar. Then visit it every seven years.

Fish on Wednesdays

I was over for lunch at the house of a grand old lady with a predilection for old books, who daily cooks an entire meal to herself. But two makes a party, and Wednesday is fish day. Here, I was invited to white fish with spinash in béchamel sauce, and mashed potato, briefly grilled. There was chervil soup and rijsttaart/tarte au riz for dessert. I always enjoy the fine tableware as well.

The ginger weapon

You remain shotfree all winter, but then, when the season is about to change, when coats and temperatures alter, a pernicious little virus meddles with your bronchi. And when you ask around about how long this one lasts, your sniveling colleague says: two weeks.

This calls for drastic action: ginger, added to soup. But ginger not in the shape of a small piece, peeled and added to vegetables, oh no. We are getting out heavy duty weaponry: Oscar, our extractor (see: Gadgets). And we extract the juice from a big piece of fresh ginger.

This liquid gold is what we are using, a few tablespoons at a time, in soup. And while we are at it with Oscar, we might as well extract the juice from 1 beetroot, 2 carrots, and 2 radishes (rettich).

Here's the rettich:We fight back not just with one soup. Our ginger supply lasts at least for two, and then some. The advantage of extracting over juicing is that the result keeps its freshness much longer, so that overnight fresh storage of the ginger juice is an option.

Soup 1: Beet and carrot soup with ginger
This soup is a a mix between a raw beet soup (see: Beet) and my daily gesture, the 15 minute soup.

1 leek
1 onion
1 beet
2 carrots
2 radishes
1-2 tablespoons of fresh ginger juice

Sauté leek and onion until soft. Add water, taste, season, and mix.

Extract the carrots, the beet, and the radishes, and add to the leek and onion soup. Add the ginger juice as well. Let this come to a brief boil, and serve. This soup has the freshness of juice, but the hot comfort of soup.


Soup 2: Another pumpkin "+": Pumpkin with ginger
I've made Pumpkin "Plus" soup before, but here the plus is a serious shot of fresh ginger.

Serves 4

1 whole pumpkin
2 leek
1 onion
4 tablespoons of ginger

Sauté pumpkin, onion, and leek until soft, add 1 liter of water, taste, season, mix. Then add the ginger. Let come to a brief boil, and serve.

The taste of ginger will make those who don't like pumpkin soup linger over their cup, and eat it.

Oeuf cocotte, XL version with spinash

I like oeuf cocotte, an egg, oven-baked in a ramequin, a lot. I have posted one before, and recently made new versions, but I have not been able to make good pictures of either meal. Last Saturday I made up for that in an unexpected way.

Back from the local market with some spinash, I used it at once in an XL-version of this oven-baked egg. Ingredients were thrown together to produce gourmet lunch on a day not noteworthy for any down time.
Oeuf cocotte, XL version with spinash

Serves 4

1 medium-large ramequin, coated with olive oil
4 eggs
1 clove of garlic
400 g spinash
2-3 tablespoons of plain joghurt
a sip of milk
salt, pepper to taste, or other condiments
Fresh chives and basil, or any fresh herbs, chopped
2 tablespoons pecorino, grated

Preheat oven to 200 °C.

Heat the olive oil, add garlic, then spinash, coat the leaves with the oil at high heat, then lower the heat at once, cover, and let wilt for about 10 minutes. I did not remove the stalks, nor did I chop the cooked spinash. Drain the spinash in a colander.

Mix the eggs, season, add the joghurt, the grated pecorino, and a sip of milk.

Put the spinash into the baking form, and cover well with the egg mixture. Sprinkle with some pepper, then add the herbs. Lower the heat to 180 °C. Bake 25-35 minutes, it may take longer depending on your baking form, mine certainly took at least 35-40', until slightly browned.

Offer to the surprise visitor, impressed by your multitasking, but who also pities you for not taking the time to enjoy your food.

Train gang

A colleague took me out to lunch to a train: an old train wagon, part of a restaurant. First and second class are back into dining all over again. And should this food not be to your liking, just pull the emergency brake...

No thyme for cooking: herb risotto

Lately I don't seem to get much time in for cooking. But the beef stock that I had left from making soup, called for a bit of inventiveness. I settled on risotto, in this case the quick version, omitting two important gestures: to add the beef stock hot, and to stir in the liquid ladle by ladle. But when household chores remain to be done, a compromise can be a useful thing. Chives and basil added at the last 3 minutes turned this into a herb risotto.


Herb risotto

Serves 4

1 clove garlic
1 onion
400 g arborio rice
1 liter beef stock
1,5 dl white wine
salt, pepper to taste
chives, basil

Soften the onion and garlic in some oil. Add the rice, coat it well with the oil, at moderate to high heat. Add the liquid ladle by ladle if you can spare the time, or if not, at once, then cover until done (about 40 minutes), at low to moderate heat. Add the herbs for a remaining 3-4 minutes.

Stop vacuuming. Eat.