Tag Archives: food

Quinoa, Arugula, and Roasted Beet Salad with Ginger Sesame Dressing

1 Mar

One of the least exciting aspects of my eating habits is my propensity to want to eat salad for every meal.  Not with every meal, for every meal.  I find this desire of mine to be no less normal than the desires of those who insist on eating meat with every meal, only, when I admit to people that, in my mind, salad is no less important than meat, I tend to be the recipient of a lot of quizzical looks.

Sometimes I wonder if this response is based on a very demure idea of what constitutes a salad.  To be honest, I am not entirely sure myself what magically transforms a mixture of several ingredients into something that one could call a salad.  To me, a salad is a bunch of fresh vegetables—some cooked, some not—a bit of protein, a lot of texture, and some sort of dressing or citrus drizzled over the top.  Or, rather, those are the qualities I look for in a salad of my own (not to totally exclude those salads that might boast a creamy dressing, a ton of protein, and perhaps even no vegetables—see how confusing this can get?).

If I were to choose a salad to eat every day, perhaps even at every meal, it would be this one.  Nutty quinoa piled on top of crunchy, spicy arugula, earthy roasted beets, a handful of toasted nuts with just a hint of sweetness, and a kicky, citrusy dressing, all together on one plate.  This is my favorite whole-meal salad.  Unfortunately, it is also the salad that contains every single ingredient that my son finds absolutely repellant (save for the sweetened walnuts), so it is a salad that I tend to consume only when I know that I will be eating alone, and thus in charge of pleasing only myself.  It is my hope that my son will one day discover the joys of beets and quinoa (or, shall I say, rediscover, since that kid ate both of those things when he was a baby, but won’t go within five feet of them now, of course—not that I am trying to make him feel guilty or bad or…where was I going with this?), but if he does not, maybe that’s not entirely awful since, of course, less salad for him logically means more salad for me.

Quinoa, Arugula, and Roasted Beet Salad with Ginger Sesame Dressing

These ingredients, as listed, will make two large, whole-meal salads.  If you wish, you can also make four smaller side salads with this amount of ingredients.

2 beets, trimmed, with leafy tops removed and reserved for another use

1/3 cup walnuts

½ teaspoon granulated sugar

2 cups cooked quinoa (tip: quinoa is most delicious when cooked in a 50/50 mixture of vegetable stock and water), warm or at room temperature

2 or 3 large handfuls of arugula

Dressing:

¼ teaspoon finely grated or mashed garlic

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Wrap beets tightly in foil.  Roast beets for 40 minutes, until cooked completely through.  Remove from oven and carefully unwrap to allow steam to escape, then leave beets—still in foil—to cool.  When beets have cooled enough to touch (about 15 minutes) rub the beets in their foil wrapper to remove skins.  Voila—you have just avoided staining your hands with the diabolically stubborn juice of your beets.

While the beets are roasting, place the walnuts in a pan set over medium heat.  Toast the walnuts for 2 or 3 minutes, until they just begin to emit a nutty aroma.  Sprinkle the sugar around the walnuts, allowing as much of the sugar as possible to sit on the bottom of the pan.  Watch the sugar carefully as it begins to melt, then just begins to turn amber.  Stir the nuts and sugar together, then immediately remove from heat and pour onto a plate to cool.

To make dressing, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together until thick and emulsified.  Taste for seasoning, and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Place a large handful of arugula on a plate.  Place 1 cup of cooked quinoa on one side of the arugula.  Slice the beets into rounds and place beet slices on the other side of the arugula.  If desired, generously pepper the beets (this is what I always do, because I like the beets extra peppery).  Drizzle the dressing over the arugula, quinoa, and beets.  Top with toasted walnuts.  If desired, sprinkle with a bit of sea salt.

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Savory Olive Oil and Walnut Sables

27 Feb

My friend Corinna once confessed to me that when her child was a mere toddler, she developed the habit of calling all crackers “ccokies.”  It’s not like her toddler knew the difference between a cookie and a cracker at that point, having never been served a cookie at that point in his life, so I, of course, thought her plan was pure, platinum genius.

When you really think about what makes a cookie a cookie, I suppose there is not a lot, besides sugar, that really separates a cookie from a cracker.  There is a similar correlation, I feel, between what makes a muffin a muffin and not a tiny little cake (because, really, in most cases there is very little that separates a muffin from a cake, save for serving size and variations in toppings and/or frosting).  Both crackers and cookies begin with some sort of flour, followed by some sort of fat to provide texture and flavor.  After those two building blocks come flavorings and leavening agents, both of which will then veer you off in the direction of either cookie or cracker.

But what happens when you start thinking of how to join the two elements?  Is it possible to make a cookie that is more like a cracker, or a cracker that is suspiciously like a cookie?  Perhaps more importantly, why would someone want to accomplish such a thing?

The answer to all those questions, I give you this:

Melt-in-your-mouth sables that have the delicate, shattering texture of a cookie, but are speckled with fine bits of walnuts and a sprinkling of savory spices.  This is why you merge a cookie and a cracker.  Because there is nothing finer to nibble while having a glass of wine at the end of the day.  Because sometimes when you want a bit of a snack, you don’t really want any sugar to go along with it.  Because these, my friends, may be the most delicious experiment I have ever dreamed up on a whim, and I think you’d be missing out terribly if you didn’t try them out for yourself.

Savory Olive Oil and Walnut Sables

¼ cup walnut pieces

1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 egg yolk

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons water

Optional toppings: caraway seeds, truffle salt, poppy seeds

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse walnut pieces 5 or 6 times until they are ground medium-fine, with a few small chunks of walnut remaining.  Add flour and salt to walnuts and pulse to combine.  Add the egg yolk and pulse 2 or 3 more times to combine.

With the food processor running, pour in the olive oil in a slow stream, allowing the mixture to become uniformly combined.  With the food processor still running, drizzle in the water, then allow the dough to just start to clump together.

Shape the dough into a disc, then wrap in plastic and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Turn the rested dough out onto a well-floured work surface.  Roll out the dough until it is very thin, somewhere between ¼” and 1/8”.  The dough will be a bit crumbly, so roll with care.  Using a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, cut out rounds of dough and place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Reshape and reroll the dough as needed.  Using a fork or the tip of a small, sharp knife, poke several holes on top of each cracker.  If adding toppings, sprinkle each cracker with just a pinch of whatever toppings you choose.

Bake the crackers on the center rack of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops just beginning to develop color.  Cool on the sheet pan for 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  Crackers will be extremely delicate when hot, so transfer them with care.

Makes roughly 2 dozen sables.

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Marinated Goat Cheese

23 Feb

Is there anything better than a plate of fresh bread and an assortment of cheeses?  Maybe a plate of fresh bread, an assortment of cheeses, and some spiced nuts, but, still, it tough to go wrong with the basic building blocks of cheese and bread.  It may not be the healthiest, most complete meal I could ever choose, but it is definitely a meal I find myself leaning towards whenever I am offered an opportunity to pick whatever I want to eat for a special occasion (or just, you know, for dinner on a Tuesday).

The good news about my love of bread and cheese is that spring and summer, however slowly, are surely working their way towards us.  Summer around here means a lot of time spent outdoors, whether it be riding bikes, playing baseball, or heading downtown for a waterfront picnic (a trip most likely taken on a bike…after playing a game of baseball).  Picnics, I believe I’ve mentioned before, are one of my most favorite things in the entire world.  In fact, second only to my love of picnics would be the act of choosing what to take on a picnic, a task I find endlessly pleasing and—dare I admit it—exciting.

At this point I feel as though I’ve got picnic packing down to a science.  Picnics are best eaten sans silverware, though we have been known to pack a vinegary potato salad or herby pasta dish from time to time.  For the most part, however, our picnics are strictly finger food affairs, and are comprised of nuts, fruits, sometimes small slivers of meats, and, of course, bread and cheese.  The bread is nearly always a baguette, but the cheese varies according to whatever we have on hand, or whatever I’ve spotted in the cheese case at the market and fallen in love with (because, yeah, I really really like cheese).  While last summer’s picnic cheeses seemed to lean more towards the category of being firm and sliceable, I have a feeling that the upcoming summer’s picnic cheese will be a strictly spreadable affair.  That is, the cheese in question will be this marinated goat cheese, because it is my most favorite cheese at the moment and I don’t see any signs of it budging from its position in the top spot.

Making this marinated cheese could not be simpler.  It also could not be more adaptable, and, as the seasons change, I imagine I will be changing up the formula quite a bit, just to see what happens.  My most recent version, the one seen here, involves toasted spices, a bit of heat, and a generous bunch of rosemary.  It is utterly fantastic, and I have spent the better part of a week spreading it on bread, folding it into eggs, and scooping it onto crackers.  I imagine it would also be great crumbled onto a tomato salad, and as the weather warms I plan on doing just that, as well as changing up the composition of the marinade to include some tarragon instead of rosemary, shallots in addition to the garlic, maybe a slip of lemon zest, and perhaps even some balsamic vinegar to accompany the olive oil.  Until the warm weather arrives, I’ll be experimenting with this recipe and preparing for as many picnics as I can.

Marinated Goat Cheese

This cheese marinates in olive oil while in the refrigerator, which causes the olive oil to harden as it cools.  It may look odd, but it poses no threat to the olive oil or the cheese.  To bring the oil back to room temperature, simply run the jar under hot water for 15 to 20 seconds.  The olive oil will almost immediately turn back into a liquid.

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, preferably a mix of colors and flavors (I used green, black, and pink)

2 dried red chiles

8 ounces goat cheese

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole

2 large sprigs fresh rosemary

2 bay leaves

extra-virgin olive oil

In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, heat the fennel seeds, peppercorns, and dried chiles until they just begin to pop and their aroma begins to release.  Remove spices to a plate or bowl and set aside to cool.

Roll the goat cheese, 1 tablespoon at a time, into small balls.  Place balls of cheese in a jar that will allow room for all the cheese, plus flavorings (I used a 14-ounce jar and it was a nearly perfect, albeit slightly tight, fit).  To the jar, add the cooled peppercorns, fennel, and chiles.  Add the garlic cloves.  Very slightly twist the rosemary sprigs in your hands to bruise them and release some of their oils, then add them to the jar, along with the bay leaves.  Fill the jar with olive oil to cover everything.

Cover the jar tightly, then allow to marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days before eating.  Cheese will keep for 1 week, in the refrigerator, tightly covered.

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