Kibbeh

Alternative grains. It basically breathes the word "hippie". But they've become the latest bandwagon to jump on, culinarily speaking. Quinoa, bulgur, cous cours, farro, wheat berries (seriously?), they all have become familiar items in your local supermarket all of a sudden. But apart from cous cous, I had rarely cooked with any of them.

But, on a crazy whim, I had recently decided to attempt tabbouleh, a dish fundamentally based on bulgur wheat. So, off I went, purchasing the requisite alternative grain. The dish was a hit, but now I was left with all this...well...alternative grain. Now, I like tabbouleh as much as the next person, but I certainly wasn't going to be eating it straight for the next three weeks to use it up. And I had no idea what else I could make with it.

Well, thanks needs to be given, once again, to Martha Schulman, who includes this recipe in her "Cleaning out the pantry" section of her column. Although, for some reason, her pantry seems to include every single alternative grain on the planet. Well, I suppose she is the writer behind a "healthy recipe" column. It does make a certain amount of sense.  

So, kibbeh (which strangely almost rhymes with tabbouleh...is there a bizarre rule of "-eh" endings when it comes to bulgur?). I had no idea what it was but it used bulgur and therefore was right up my alley.

It turns out, it's a wonderful hearty salad (although she makes it into little appetizer balls, an extra touch I wasn't going to do) with fabulous middle eastern flavors. It's also super easy. Win. Win. The only thing that takes some time is the soaking of the bulgur itself (just pour boiling water over it and let it stand an hour). Now, I was tempted to try and skimp on the timing, but a taste test after 35 minutes or so, I was convinced to give it the full hour treatment. Schulman's recipe also lacked oomph, so I boosted some flavors to make it a more aromatic salad. It's great as a main course salad without anything else, but if you want to make it extra hearty, throw some chopped chorizo on it or put it on a bed of salad leaves, and you're in business.

Ingredients

3/4 cup fine bulgur

2 garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed

Salt to taste

1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and finely chopped

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint

Freshly ground pepper to taste

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 cup dried cranberries

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Method
Place the bulgur in a bowl, add salt to taste and pour on boiling water to cover by 1/2 inch. Let sit for one hour, then drain and squeeze out excess water.

Place the garlic in a mortar and pestle with a generous pinch of salt, and mash to a paste. Stir into the bulgur. Add the walnuts, olive oil, parsley, mint, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cranberries, and  the lemon juice. Moisten your hands and knead the mixture for a couple of minutes, then allow to sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

Serve either on its own as a salad or roll into small balls and place on top of lettuce leaves to serve as appetizers.

Yield: Four to Six

Spinach and Asparagus Pasta with Chorizo

Do you ever have one of those moments where something comes out nothing at all like you planned?
Yeah. Me too.

This dish, in fact, is the result of one of those moments.

Now, nominally, this was supposed to be "Lasagna with Asparagus and Chives", based on the latest Martha Schulman entry on the New York Times.

But, as you'll probably notice in the picture above, there's a stunning lack of lasagna noodles. And also chives. Trust me on this one. Chives feature nowhere in the above picture.

You see, I'm not usually a lasagna person. It's usually way too dense and rich and overwhelming (and usually with way too much tomato sauce, but let's not open that particular can of worms at the moment). But when I saw this version, I thought "This is a lasagna I can get behind". It looked light and summery with not too much sauce (no tomatoes in sight! Just a nice light ricotta) and perfect for a Sunday dinner. This plan was made all the better as I even had (or at least thought I had) lasagna noodles already in my cupboard.

So off I trundled to Tesco, picking up the few things the recipe called for. Asparagus? Check. Basil? Why not? Ricotta? Sure! Why not throw in some spinach, just to be fun and daring? Chives? Well, alas, Tesco was out of chives, but as I had already collected my basil, I thought its absence surely wouldn't hurt anything. And that was all. I proudly walked right past the pasta section, confident in my well-stocked cupboard.

Well, I'm sure you can see where this is heading. To my surprise (and dismay), as I rooted around in my seemingly-lasagnaless pantry, I remembered I had thrown out my noodles some months back when an ant colony had decided to take up residence in our kitchen. While thankfully the ants were now gone, unfortunately so too were my lasagna noodles. Which, it seemed, were basic prerequisites for a lasagna.

No matter. I had other types of pasta. It would serve. And it did! Actually, the whole dish worked out quite well. The ricotta sauce as advocated by Martha Schulman served just as well on non-lasagna noodles (as one would expect) and combined with shredded basil, raw spinach, and some chorizo thrown in for good measure, it was a dish that was surprisingly more-ish.

So thus, while I can claim inspiration by the inimitable Recipes for Health, I have to call this recipe an original.


Ingredients

1 pound asparagus, trimmed

1/2 cup ricotta

2 garlic clovse, finely minced or (preferably) pureed

3 tablespoons chopped basil

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 pound lumache pasta

1/4 cup (1 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino romano (or a combination)

1 bag, washed spinach

1/2 tsp each of red pepper flakes, oregano, thyme, and rosemary

6 ounces Spanish chorizo, diced

Method

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, salt generously and add the asparagus. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with cold water. Boil thin stalks for three minutes, thicker stalks for four to six minutes until tender. Using tongs, remove the asparagus from the pot and transfer to the bowl of cold water. Drain and cut on the diagonal into 3/4-inch lengths.

Add the pasta to the boiling water, and boil until cooked al dente -- firm to the bite. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the ricotta with the oil, garlic, and spices. When the noodles are done, remove 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and add to the bowl with the ricotta. Mix together well. In a large bowl, add the spinach and the asparagus, basil and Parmesan or pecorino to the bowl. Mix the ricotta mixture into the spinach and asparagus. Drain the lasagna, and toss with everything. Serve at once.

Yield: Serves four.

Snickerdoodles

Although I have no idea where the name for these cookies comes from, the best way to describe them is like sugar cookies with a hug. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what makes them taste so good. Take a sugar cookies and roll it in cinnamon sugar. Sounds good, absolutely. But no. They're delicious. Scrumtulescent, I believe would be the word for them. These are classic suburban cookies at their finest.

And they're perfect for baking when strangers come round. That is, when you're not sure whether the recipient likes chocolate or is allergic to nuts or one of the host of other maladies that strike chefs down everywhere. Granted, they won't be on a celiac's top ten list, but apart from them and the vegans, it's hard to find someone who won't like these.

And so for such classic Americana delicacies, there's no better place to turn than the institution that is The Joy of Cooking, now in its 3 billionth edition.

But honestly, if you make these once, you'll have the recipe memorized. It's just that easy. And because I insist on making everything complicated, I actually threw a little pumpkin pie spice into the mix as well (that is, a blend of allspice, cloves, and nutmeg). I'm not sure if it did anything, but with or without, these cookies are definite crowd-pleasers.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose (or plain) flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
Optional: 2 tsp. Pumpkin pie spices (allspice, cloves, and nutmeg)

For cinnamon sugar topping
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Method 


Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease or line 2 cookies sheets. Whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In a different bowl, beat the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the eggs and beat again.

Finally, stir in the flour mixture.

Now combine the sugar and cinnamon to make your topping. Shape the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls, roll in the cinnamon sugar, and arrange about 2 1/2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are light golden brown on the edges, about 12- 14 minutes. Let stand to briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Bacon-Topped Cornbread with Chiles and Cheese

I get hungry just by looking at the name of this dish. I mean, goodness, what isn't there to love? I feel this should be part of my ongoing series of why "Everything's better with bacon". Because it clearly is.

There's no denying cornbread is an American staple. Humble and easy to make, it goes with just about anything. Drizzle honey over it and make it sweet. Chop up some bacon (as we see above) and make it savory. It's hard to go wrong with cornbread.

But strangely, cornbread is still a foreign entity to most Brits. Baked in a skillet, there's something fantastically "frontier-y" about it. There are about 8 million recipes for cornbread online and debates as to how to make it properly can be fierce. While cornbread seems to span the length and breadth of America, you can be judged instantly on where you're from depending on how you make it. Now, I don't have a secret family recipe for it (clearly, as I'm posting this online) but this one, slightly modified from this version via epicurious is tasty as any I've had and fairly easy to make. Judging from the bacon added, I'm thinking this recipe must have Southern origins, but I like to think that I added a bit of southwestern flair to it. Hey, you have to represent local pride somehow. Anyway, I added chiles and Parmesan cheese to the mix, but as I said above, cornbread is forgiving enough to add pretty much anything to.

I also may have forgotten to stir the corn into the mix, accidentally making it a topping. I ended up liking the result, but by all means, stir into the batter before baking. 

Ingredients

6 thick-cut bacon slices

1 cup medium-grind cornmeal

1  cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons golden brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups whole milk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons honey or agave syrup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 cup frozen corn kernels (unthawed)

Optional: 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, 2 jalapeno chiles (sliced)

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F.

The batter prior to baking.

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Reserve 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet.

Crumble bacon into small pieces.

Coat 12-inch diameter ovenproof skillet (I used the same as I fried the bacon in. It makes it an easy one-dish preparation) with bacon drippings.

Whisk cornmeal and next 4 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk milk, eggs, honey, and butter in medium bowl. Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients.

Mix in corn (or reserve to place on top), cheese, and chiles. 

Place prepared skillet in oven until very hot, about 10 minutes. Pour batter into skillet.

Sprinkle bacon (and corn, if using) over.

Bake cornbread until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Cool in skillet at least 30 minutes.

Pan-Toasted Sweet Corn with Wilted Kale and Black Beans

I have no idea why this recipe is so tasty. No clue. I actually debated about making it, after looking at its ingredients. I thought, "Sure, it's healthy, but will it taste like anything?"

Oh. But it does.

Strangely enough, my mother used to make a version of this (based on a Rick Bayless recipe, may the Mexican gods forever shine upon him) with Mexican chorizo and my family used to gulp it down in buckets. No corn in that one, but the essential beans and kale stewed in a broth were the same. I had completely forgotten about the recipe (as Mexican chorizo is impossible to get here), but I recently made the discovery of the Whole Foods recipe section on its website, and it looked, well, like a good healthy side dish. But such a delicious one? Never in my dreams.

Seriously. You won't believe me until you make this. Make it. Try it. It's wonderful.

Serves 6

Ingredients 

Mmmm. Corn.

Kernels from 2 ears sweet corn (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 bag kale or swiss chard (if using chard, cut into medium pieces, separating the stems from the leaves)

1/3 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth, plus more as needed

4 garlic cloves, sliced

1/4 teaspoon crushed red chile pepper

1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/4 cup raw green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

1 green chile, sliced

Optional: Diced Spanish chorizo (1/2 cup's worth), Pasilla and/or Adobo Chiles

Method

Heat a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Add corn kernels and cook, shaking the pan and stirring, until the kernels brown, about 5 minutes. Remove corn from the skillet and set aside.

Rinse the pan to remove any browned corn from the bottom. Return the skillet to medium heat and add broth, garlic and pepper flakes. Add chard stems (if using) and simmer until just tender, about 2 minutes. Add chard leaves (or kale) and stir until they begin to wilt and all fit in the skillet. Cover and cook until the kale/chard is very tender, about 5 minutes; add more broth a tablespoon at a time if it gets dry. Uncover the skillet and stir in beans, chorizo, chiles, vinegar and pumpkin seeds. Cook for 2 more minutes. Transfer the kale/chard mixture to a platter and sprinkle with the toasted corn.

Nutrition

Per serving: 150 calories (40 from fat), 4.5g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 140mg sodium, 22g total carbohydrate (6g dietary fiber, 2g sugar), 8g protein