Recipe: Super Tasty Quinoa Dinner

My little neighborhood in Queens was buried under over two feet of snow yesterday- so I rummaged through the pantry to look for something to eat, as one does in such a situation. I like quinoa, but if it’s cooked with just water it can be pretty bland and I need some flavor in my life. Allow me show you how I like to cook it.

Sauteing your peppers and onion first to get them caramelized, as well as using tomatoes with jalapenos adds a lot of flavor. Feel free to use plain tomatoes if you don’t enjoy a little heat, but you should try it, it’s really quite mild and adds a little zing! On the flip side- if you want to intensify the bite add in a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to the onion mix when you add the garlic. Yum!

Directions- Makes approximately 5 cups

1 tsp olive oil

1 small red onion, diced

1 small bell pepper, seeded and diced (red, yellow or orange)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (14.5oz) Del Monte Petite Cut Tomato with Jalapeno

vegetable/chicken stock or water

1 cup quinoa

salt pepper to taste

Optional:

3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed, trimmed and roughly chopped

cilantro

In a medium sized saucepan add the olive oil, red pepper and onion. Cover and sweat the onions for two or three minutes until the onions are translucent. Uncover and saute until veggies start to get a little bit of color, approx. five minutes. If it starts to get too dark, too quickly, turn down the heat and splash in a little stock to de-glaze the pan.

While that cooks- drain the canned tomatoes, reserving the tomato liquid in a measuring jug. Top off the liquid to 1.5 cups with stock or water.

**Add the minced garlic to your pan and saute for a minute more to cook the garlic slightly.

Add the liquid and tomatoes to the pan, bring to a simmer. Add the quinoa, lower heat, cover and cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Turn off the heat. At this point you can add the optional spinach (I didn’t have any this weekend, and I’m not going to tromp through three foot snowdrifts to get some 🙂 so there aren’t any in my pictures, but I normally would add it) add the spinach to the pot and put the lid back on for two or three minutes minutes to wilt the spinach. Fluff with a fork.

     

Salt and pepper to taste, chop up a bit of cilantro to garnish if you’re into that sort of thing- which I am. This is one of my favorite sides with a nice grilled fish or chicken, and it’s hearty enough to have as a vegetarian main on it’s own or with the addition of some grilled tofu.

**note- the reason that I don’t add the garlic at the beginning is because I like to caramelize the onion and pepper to get the fullest flavor possible and minced garlic would burn and taste bitter well before any browning would happen.

Blueberry Galette

I found another reason to turn on my oven the other day.  I love a quick and easy dessert recipe, and this is one that I turn to regularly, especially in the fall and winter. Its easy to assemble before you begin dinner, then you pop it into the fridge to chill while you cook. Just before you sit down to eat you put it in a hot oven and it bakes while you enjoy your supper, it cools as you relax and digest and just when you’re ready to eat a little something sweet for dessert, its ready too.  This also is a great recipe for figs, apples, cherries… you get the idea. I use a boxed pie crust that comes with two crusts individually wrapped. Pie crust is my kryptonite (’cause I have hot hands). This recipe uses one, so I have a second crust waiting for me for another time.  But by all means, if you aren’t as lazy and inept as me, of course you can make your favorite pie crust from scratch.

Blueberry Galette

1 boxed pie crust, chilled

1 pint fresh blueberries

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

zest of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

On a cookie or baking sheet lay pie crust flat. Sprinkle graham crackers, brown sugar, lemon zest and blueberries in the middle. Cut up cold butter into little pieces and sprinkle evenly over fruit.

Fold edges of pie crust over and pinch together to create a pie. Sometimes I’ll do an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, but its not necessary. Bake for 25-30 minutes until crust is golden and fruit is bubbly.  For easy cleanup bake on a piece of foil or parchment paper.  Cool for at least 15-20 minutes. Its extra yummy with vanilla ice cream on the side.

-Marie

Cookin’ Verses Bakin’

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Halloween Fruit Tart

Halloween doesn’t have to be a candy explosion and it’s certainly NOT just for the young, it’s for the young at heart. This tart will get you in the festive mood just in a slightly more grown up manner.

 

PASTRY DOUGH

This is a pate brisse dough

 

8oz Butter

 

8oz all purp flour

 

4 oz cake flour

 

1/2 tsp salt

 

1/4 tsp baking powder

 

3 fluid oz ice cold water

 

I coloured the dough as I was adding the water at the end but think it may be easier to soften the butter and add the food colouring to that and then re refrigerate it before you start.

 

Cut  the butter into little pieces Combine the dry ingredients; Rub butter in by hand or with a paddle on the lowest speed, leaving pieces of butter no bigger than the size of a pea.

 

Stir in the water little by little until the dough holds together. Scrape out of bowl and wrap in cling film and flatten into a disk. chill for 30 mins in fridge.

 

 

Roll out until 1/8 -1/4inch thick and big enough to hang over the edge of a 9 x 9 inch square tart pan,Press into the edges and leave the over hang, Prick bottom of pastry with a fork.

 

 

Chill for a further 30 mins and then bake blind for 20-25 mins leave to cool and trim edges with a sharp knife

 

PASTRY CREAM

1 pink milk

 

2 oz corn starch

 

4 oz granulated sugar

 

1 egg

 

4 yolks

 

2 oz butter

 

1/4 vanilla extract

 

orange food colouring

 

3 oz orange liqueur

 

 

Dissolve cornstarch in 1/8 total amount of milk

 

 

Combine remaining milk with sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil.

 

 

Whisk the whole egg and then yolks into cornstarch mixture.

 

 

Pour a third of the boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking all the while. Return the remaining milk mixture to the boil

 

 

Whisk the egg mixture into the boiling milk, whisking all the time until the pastry cream thickens and returns to the boil. Whisk constantly for 1 min.

 

 

Dissolve food colouring in orange liqueur

 

 

Remove  the custard mixture from heat and beat in the butter, vanilla and orange liqueur.

 

 

Pour into a bowl and cover with cling film pressing it directly onto the surface. Chill immediately

 

ASSEMBLING THE TART

These are the fruits I chose to use

 

Concord grapes

 

Blackberries

 

Blue berries

 

Green grapes

 

Kiwi fruits

 

You will also need some apricot preserve to glaze the fruits with.

 

 

Trim the edges of the pastry with a sharp knife. Remove the pastry cream from the fridge, you may need to whisk it slightly to loosen it up. Then pour the pastry cream into the pastry shell and pop back into the fridge while you prepare the fruit.

 

 

A beautiful assortment of fruits that will set off the orange pastry cream and black pastry perfectly.

 

 

Slice the kiwi and lay in a circle on the pastry cream, overlapping them as you go. Pat the kiwi slices to remove any excess moisture

 

 

Fill in the corners with a mixture of blueberries and concord grapes

 

 

Add a circle of grapes inside the kiwi’s and finish with the blackberries and more blueberries in the centre.

 

 

Melt the apricot jam and brush over the fruit.

 

 

All that’s left to do is cut into the tart and watch the pastry cream ooze out.