Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa

Just in time for the blessedly dipping temperatures, this full-flavored side accompanies the Pan-Seared Gulf Grouper I made for Country Roads Magazine's Test Kitchen. Sweet, nutty squash spiced with smoked paprika and cinnamon, drizzled with olive oil and roasted. Folded into a quinoa and arugula mixture and tossed rapidly with red wine vinaigrette and honey.

Calling this one a success! I've never actually had a pumpkin spice latte, so consider this my method for heralding fall. You can find the grouper recipe—with an achingly good, silky sundried tomato and caper topping—right here.

Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa
Yield: 3–4 servings

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1-inch pieces
Olive oil (for roasting)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup quinoa, uncooked

1 cup vegetable broth

1 cup water

4 ounces baby arugula

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup toasted pecans

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, toss squash with paprika, cinnamon, salt and pepper, and drizzled olive oil. Place the butternut squash on a sheet pan and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until tender.
3. Meanwhile, cook quinoa according to package directions, using half vegetable broth and half water for the liquid.
4. Stir arugula into cooked quinoa. Add red wine vinegar and honey, tossing rapidly. Fold in the roasted squash.
5. Serve, adding a sprinkle of toasted pecans to each plate.

Kale Tabbouleh

Boy, I love a colorful dish. And it's a good thing that this was supposed to be served cooled, because I was photographing it till the sun went down. (That is not a figure of speech.)

It's cool. It's crunchy. And, wonderfully enough, it fits in with the vegetarianism I'll be trying for the next month. I'm hoping to re-inspire myself in the kitchen, and to spend some time getting more ambitious with ingredients. My ambition has fallen away!

Here we have a dish that's fairly simple: a little chop-chop-chop with the various ingredients, cook your quinoa and let it cool, and then toss it all in a simple dressing.

But the variety of ingredients and the hushed beauty of how they tumble across the plate...it's the perfect summer dish, I think. One you'll want to eat in the evening light with a chilly, crisp vino. Anyway I'm getting silly just staring at these colors again. Try it out for yourself!

Kale Tabbouleh (adapted from the glorious Food52)
Yield: 4–6 servings.


Ingredients:
1/2 bunch curly kale
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup quinoa
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 Persian cucumbers, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
Juice from two limes
1/4 high-quality extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Set aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile, wash the parsley and kale and pat dry. For each, chop off stems, then slice into 3/4-inch ribbons. Rotate bunch clockwise, then repeat process. Slice until greens are very finely diced, but do not form a paste.
3. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion. Add parsley and kale. Drizzle in lime juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add quinoa and toss until fully combined.
4. Serve!

Confit Beets with a Garlic Feta Spread

We don't have much time left with beets (the season wraps up here in July, I think), so I'm inclined to go a little crazy. Stained hands be damned.

On Father's Day, I made a roasted beet and carrot salad to accompany the delicious steaks my dad grilled up. And now just two days later, I'm back on the beet wagon.

This confit beet crostini comes courtesy of Indie Plate ingredients again. I'm partnering with the Baton Rouge grocery delivery service to demonstrate the myriad mouthwatering morsels you can craft up with their offerings. I find the recipe, do the shopping, and take the pictures. But I need a good jumping-off point.

I try to be a from-scratch cook as much as possible, and a key part of that is fresh produce. And I like knowing for sure that it's coming from local farms, where it might not be the prettiest or most pleasingly shaped, but it's the real deal.

So here's what came inside my Indie Plate parcel.

And so I trimmed them. Placed them in a pan.

Heart beets.

And here's where the confit part comes in: I covered the beets with about an inch of oil (maybe a little less) and in the oven they went. When they came out, I let them remain in the oil until they were cool enough to handle and peel.

Then I sliced the beets and assembled the crostini, using a whipped garlic feta spread I made with feta from Indie Plate (sourced from Rockin' R Dairy in Tylertown, MS). 

Finished with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette and served!

Confit Beet Crostini
Makes three crostini
[Ingredients from Indie Plate in bold]

5 beets, trimmed (if beets are on the large side, they should be halved)
Olive oil (enough to cover beets in a high-sided pan—about 1 1/2 cups)
4 oz. feta (room temperature)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt
Pepper
Curly green leaf lettuce (for garnish)
Balsamic vinaigrette (I made mine with Fresina's balsamic vinegar)
Toast (for serving—seasoned with dried herbs and drizzled with oil before toasting in oven)

1. Preheat oven to 300. Place the trimmed beets in a high-sided baking pan and cover with one inch oil. Roast for 45 minutes until fork-tender.
2. Make whipped feta topping by placing feta, 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer to whip feta until it's the consistency of a spread.
2. Take beets out of the oven and allow to cool under the oil. Once you're able to handle the beets (about 20–25 minutes), peel them and slice them into 1/2-inch thick slices.
3. To assemble: Spread feta on toast. Top with curly lettuce, then beet slices. Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette. Serve.

Test Kitchen: Zucchini Hash with Arugula Mint Salsa Verde

I don't have the lengthiest attention span. Usually, I jump from new recipe to new recipe, a culinary globetrotter. Doesn't leave a lot of room for refinement.

Next Saturday I'll be doing a cooking demo at the local farmers' market, thanks in part to this little blog! I've worked in a professional kitchen and I've been demonstrating my recipes online here for a few years. But I haven't done a demo like this, so I want to bring something special.

You can find the final recipe at the bottom of the page, but allow me to take you through the process, with words and pictures.

I started with zucchini and tomatoes. I first made this Zucchini "Pasta" with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes last year, with zucchini ribbons, a traditional pesto, and a creamy lemon sauce.

On my first reworking, I used cherry tomatoes rather than vine-ripe, and I used the julienne setting on my mandoline to slice the zucchini into more noodle-like shapes. I replaced the creamy lemon sauce with a lemon yogurt sauce and opted for an arugula mint pesto, sweetened by honey and spiced by cayenne.

The results? The cherry tomatoes—topped with fresh garlic—were delicious, but I should have roasted them for longer at a lower heat, because they weren't evenly caramelized and had charred a bit at the bottom.

The pesto, which I added to bit by bit in the food processor based on taste tests, was good but its consistency too similar to the yogurt.

The noodles were too moist and could have used more seasoning. Not to say that the dish was a disaster—far from it—but it was easy to see where I could improve and how.

On to test two! I added yellow squash to the mix, still julienning the squashes but squeezing them dry before I cooked them—this time on higher heat with a little lemon pepper, going for a crisper noodle.

I went for slightly larger tomatoes, cutting them into eighths and sprinkling them with garlic powder rather than fresh garlic—mostly because the shape of the wedges made them not as conducive to topping with garlic slivers as the cherry tomatoes were. I tossed the tomatoes completely in oil and rotated the pan in the oven halfway through the roasting process, which ran for about an hour and a half at 250.

 

I used the same lemon yogurt sauce but instead of the arugula mint pesto, I grabbed some fresh arugula and mint, chopped it up, and mixed in honey, lemon juice, olive oil, and cracked black pepper.

And so we arrive at the final recipe. It's pretty...and pretty tasty.

Zucchini Hash with Arugula Mint Salsa Verde
Yield: 8 appetizer servings

Ingredients: 

For the zucchini hash:
2 large zucchini, peeled
1 large yellow squash, peeled
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon lemon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the roasted tomatoes:
1 large tomato, cut into eighths
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cracked black pepper

For the lemon yogurt sauce:
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Zest and juice from one lemon
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Parmesan)

For the salsa verde:
1 cup arugula, minced
1/2 cup mint leaves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
Cracked black pepper

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 250. Place tomato wedges on  a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder and pepper, and toss tomatoes. Roast for an hour and a half, rotating the pan halfway through, until tomatoes are evenly caramelized.
2. Make the sauces. In two different bowls, combine the ingredients for each sauce. Cover and chill each sauce for thirty minutes.
3. Julienne the zucchini and squash. I used the julienne setting on my mandoline slicer, but you can do it by hand as well. Using a clean towel, squeeze the moisture out of the slices.
4. In a large skillet, heat two tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic and sautée for 2–3 minutes. Add in julienne squashes and cook, flipping often, until the slices are browned and starting to crisp.
5. To plate: Begin with a heaping mound of squash. Top with a dollop of lemon yogurt and a spoonful of the salsa verde. Tomato wedge on the side.

Fish in Crazy Water (Pesce all'Acqua Pazza)

Those Italians. Beautifully vivid with their recipe names. You can almost picture a cartoon mustachioed chef with steam rocketing out of his ears, elevating his quaking leather boots from the ground as he tests out this so-called crazy water.

Truth be told, it is a little zany.

A few lessons learned from this recipe:

1. A little crushed red pepper goes a loooong way. I guess that's effect produced by the long-simmer. The flavors meld and spotlight the spice.
2. My new kitchen smokes up right quickly. Thankfully there's a powerful vent, but the noise and air did detract somewhat from my inhaling of the aromatics.
3. Speaking of aromatics! The Italian term for a bundle of lovely smells sauteed in olive oil (here I used oregano and parsley) is soffritto. I imagine it's somewhat related to the French mirepoix, which refers to the usual suspects (onions, carrots, celery, what have you) used in making a stock.
4. Must work quickly with a gas stove and thinly sliced garlic. When initially sauteeing the garlic, I had to shake the pan a lot to keep the garlic from sticking. Using a wooden spoon would have caused it to clump.
5. The combination of grilled corn and pesto is more of a winner than the Dillon Panthers.

I used pollock for the fish here, mainly because I was looking for something not-too-pricey that didn't bring a strong flavor (here's looking at you, salmon) along with it. Pollock did a great job at absorbing the flavor of the tomato and spices while still bringing along its own pleasant fishiness.

To complement the hydrating psychosis, I chose a couple of other summer standards with a bit of Italian flair. I cannot get enough of tomatoes and corn right now. Grilling them? Even better. The additions of a balsamic-based marinade (for the tomatoes) and a heaping dose of pesto ladled over the ear of corn and I was practically mopping my plate to ensure nothing fell by the wayside.

Fish in Crazy Water (Pesce all'Acqua Pazza) [adapted from Cooks Illustrated]
Serves 2 - 3.

4 fillets pollock (the kind I purchased were very narrow)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 small red onion, halved and sliced thinly
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 stems parsley and 2 sprigs fresh oregano, tied together with kitchen twine (soffritto)
1 cup chicken stock (or dry white wine, which I would have preferred to use but forgot to purchase)
2 cups water
Juice from one lemon

2 ears corn
1/4 cup pesto

2 large Creole tomatoes, cored and halved
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
Salt
Pepper

1. In a 9x13 baking dish, whisk together balsamic, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper. Placed tomatoes face down in dish and let marinate at room-temperature for 15 - 20 minutes.
2. In a 12-inch skillet, heat up olive oil over medium-high. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Shake the pan to keep garlic from sticking. Cook until pale golden.
3. Add in red onion slices, stirring constantly, until onion is translucent and beginning to brown.
4. Pour in chicken stock, water, cherry tomatoes, and the soffritto. Lower heat to medium and let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile heat grill pan to medium-high, drizzling it with a bit more olive oil. Add tomatoes (hollow-side down) and ears of corn. Grill tomatoes for two minutes before flipping. Remove after another five to six minutes, as tomato starts to caramelize. Grill corn, turning frequently and brushing with oil, until browned on all sides.
5. Carefully slide fish fillets into broth mixture. Reduce heat to low, cover pan, and let cook for another 10 minutes.
6. Serve by halving fish fillets, placing them in a bowl, then ladling the broth (along with onions and tomatoes) over the fish. Squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle parsley over each bowl.
7. Ladle pesto over corn.
8. Enjoy!

Strawberry Pecan Bread

It was difficult not to dance and bow before my oven as this baked...that's how delicious the smell was.

I'm still breaking in my new apartment kitchen. It's a tad smaller than my old place, but the gas stove/oven and general non-broken-downedness of the place does do wonders. And this was my first use of the oven, generating heavenly aromas as the loaf pans basked into perfection.

Strawberries  are such a gift. I want to find a way to incorporate them into every recipe, but then I guess they wouldn't be so special.

Folding these darlings into the batter was like swaddling your child in a blanket and dropping him off at daycare. Here, daycare is a bakery. Warm, cozy, your kid probably comes home with a great tan. Just the usual child-tending hullabaloo.

[Side salad: my new kitchen as a skylight and I'm so happy. The old place involved a constant battle with awful, yellow dull light.

At last I was able to combine the senses and enjoy both the smell, look, and taste of this marvelous creation.

Then the struggle became not eating it all before dinner...

Strawberry Pecan Bread (adapted from Farm Fresh Southern Cooking)
Makes 2 loaves.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cup vegetable (or neutral) oil
2 cups hulled and diced strawberries
1 cup chopped pecans 

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease two loaf pans and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in beaten eggs and oil. Fold in strawberries and pecans.
3. Pour batter into loaf pans. Put in oven and bake for one hour (or until top is golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.)
4. Cool completely, slice, and serve. (I didn't make it through the cool completely part. It still works!)

Note: The bread freezes terrifically. If you're cool with saving it for later!

Quinoa-Stuffed Bell Peppers

Today I packed up my kitchen, and it's difficult to explain the sensation of seeing this room that's become so important and wonderful and productive for me transform into boxes and emptiness. But we're moving to New Orleans this coming week, and I can't wait to set up a new kitchen, along with all the delicious food options and inspirations. It's going to be so lovely.

Here, though, is a simple weeknight recipe I made with an old favorite in mind:  Quinoa and Pistachio Salad with Moroccan Pesto. Instead of roasting the peppers, I stuffed them! I also opted for a tomato flavor over the Moroccan pesto.

Fresh thyme was a key player--tying the recipe together much like the Dude's rug and his living room. The herby aroma elevated the stuffing into a freshly delicious meal.

The tomatoes came from the garden of one of my bosses, and acquiring them kickstarted this whole recipe! Combined with quinoa, chickpeas, tomato puree, parsley, garlic powder, cumin, and the aforementioned thyme, then topped with mozzarella at the end. As it stands, I think it's the last meal I will cook in my kitchen! Not too elaborate, but delicious and cheap and fairly healthy. I will get fancy again sooner or later, but for now, this was a lovely note to go out on.

Quinoa-Stuffed Bell Peppers
Serves 2 - 3.

3 large bell peppers (cut off tops and hollow)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium zucchini, diced
3 small tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup chickpeas
1/4 cup tomato puree
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1/4 cup minced parsley (plus more for garnish)
4 sprigs fresh thyme, minced
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high until shimmering. Add zucchini, tomatoes, and chickpeas and sautee for 5 - 7 minutes until tender.
2. Stir in puree, garlic powder, cumin, parsley, and thyme. Cook--stirring often--for another 3 minutes.
3. Spoon mixture into hollowed-out bell peppers. Set on coated baking sheet (slicing a bit off the bottom of the peppers if needed, so they stand upright. Fill a small bread pan halfway with water and place on bottom rack of oven (set low). Place another rack in the middle of the oven and set the baking sheet with bell peppers on top. Cook for 18 - 20 minutes.
4. Add fresh mozzarella to the top of each bell pepper. Return to oven for another five minutes, until cheese melts.
5. Sprinkle each pepper with minced parsley and serve.

Summer Salmon Burgers

Here's another meal that pairs well with the weather.

After I made the maque choux last week, I could not stop thinking about those flavors. I can't wait for the rest of summer: so much corn and tomatoes...all the time.

I turned them into a relish here, topping grilled salmon--I would love to ramble on about how much I enjoy the taste of warm, pink flesh but I would hate to be incarcerated for intent to cannibalize.

I added mint to the relish to enhance the connection with the cool cucumber salad. The salad idea came from my cousin Mary--she made hers with zucchini, whereas I was the victim of a poorly supplied market and had to opt for cucumber. Not such a sore loser, though! It got along swimmingly with the mint and lime juice.

Last but not least...the brioche. I'm not much of a baker in terms of cookies and cupcakes, but I do love churning out a great pastry or bread. Kneading and shaping the dough, watching it brown in the oven, pulling it apart as it still steams...mmmmm. All that before the first bite even!

Enjoyed with the crisp Nobilo sauvignon blanc and now a viewing of Apollo 13 as I blog. Houston, we have a problem...my plate is empty! (So many apologies.)

NOTES:
1. I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe for brioche buns. My house isn't crazy warm like hers, so I proofed the dough in the oven. For the first rise, I preheated the oven to 170. When it reached the temperature, I popped the dough in the oven, shut the door, and turned off the heat. After an hour, it had doubled in size. The recipe made more buns than I needed, but I fully aim to use the ocean of brioche I have produced. Halve the recipe if you must!
2. Another brioche note! I ran out of regular milk, so I used almond. No noticeable difference! Might even have been better ;)

Summer Salmon Burgers
Serves 4.

4 skinless salmon fillets
1/2 cup pesto
Salt & pepper (to taste)
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons oregano
Olive oil (for cooking)

Brioche burger buns
2 tablespoons olive oil (for toasting)

3 ears corn, shucked
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 mint leaves, sliced chiffonade style
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

2 cucumbers, halved and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 mint leaves, chopped
1 lime, juiced
Salt
Pepper

1. Prepare brioche buns. Set aside.
2. Coat salmon fillets with pesto and seasonings. Place in a small bowl covered with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450. Combine corn, bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, garlic, and mint in a large, oven-safe skillet. Add olive oil and stir to combine.
4. Place skillet in oven and cook for 20 - 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Reserve relish to a medium bowl to cool.
5. In another bowl, combine cucumbers, oil, mint, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and place in fridge for thirty minutes to allow flavors to meld.
6. Remove salmon from marinade. Heat two tablespoons olive oil in medium grill pan. Add salmon fillets skin-side up and cook, 5 - 7 minutes per side.
7. Toast brioche buns in a small skillet over medium-high heat.
8. Place salmon on toasted buns, topped with relish. Remove cucumber salad from refrigerator and serve on side.