Wheat Berry Salad

Summer salad time!  Yeah.  Veggies. Cool and refreshing.

I saw this nice little recipe on The Kitchn and I have to say that this dressing is phenomenal.  I imagine many ways I can use it.  It is a flavor fortune. It has miso paste in it so the umami quotient just goes up.  Love it!


My recipe for the salad is loosely based on the recipe.  I used wheat berries instead of brown rice because I have a ton of them and I like them.  The salad dressing I quadrupled and glad I did because even on a plain bed of lettuce it is super outstanding.

And to my friend from retreat, I used the dried fruit that you didn't particularly care for in this recipe.  It was perfect.  The dried cherries that were kind of sour to you became slightly plump and sweetened a bit.  They were a nice foil to the salad.

Wheat Berry Salad
Loosely based on this recipe from the Kitchn.

1 cup of dried wheat berries
2 cups broccoli
1/3 cup mixed dried fruit
1/4 cup chopped chives

dressing:

4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons honey
1 heaping tablespoon yellow miso paste
8 tablespoons safflower oil
8 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

Boil the wheat berries in water for about 45 minutes until fairly soft.  Set aside to cool.

In a blender add garlic, chop and then add the remainder of ingredients except the oil.  Blend well. In a thin stream add the oil to the dressing as the blender runs.  This is particularly easy to do if you have a little hole at the top of your blender.

Chop broccoli and chives and mix with wheat berries.  Toss with dressing and add in mixed fruit.  Chill.  Good the first day- even better the next.

Mushroom and Beluga Lentil Burgers

Two summers ago I went through a vegetable burger craze.  I tried tons of them.  You can see the ones that are good in my recipe index.  I stopped making them for a while.  I guess I got bored and a little discouraged.  They weren't the texture I had been seeking.  The best one was a recipe I had found on Food Network.  This one beats it.  You can see in the picture it looks crispy.  It was delicious.  The mushrooms really make it meaty.  If you make this and use a lentil other than Beluga or French Puy, you will not need to add as may binders as I did.  Drop one of the eggs and drop the instant potatoes.

I froze the remainder of the patties I made for a future quick meal.

I bought the Beluga lentils at Trader Joes this past summer when we were in DC. I have not seen them around here but I will keep searching.  They are one delicious lentil. I recommend giving them a try.




Mushroom & Beluga Lentil Burgers
makes 12 patties

1 1/2 cups cooked mushrooms, minced
1.4 cup onions, minced and sauteed
8 ounces cooked Beluga lentils
1 cup bulgur wheat
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon grainy mustard or dijon
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons instant potatoes, dry
salt and pepper

In a large bowl combine mushrooms, bulgur, lentils and onions.  Add salt and pepper, worcestershire sauce, dijon, mustard and eggs.  Add instant potatoes and bread crumbs.  You should be able to gather a ball of the mixture and shape into a patty.  You need a gentle hand with these until they are fried.  They will crisp up nicely after pan frying in olive oil.

Spread some gourmet ketchup on this and add a few raw onion rings, place on a bun and WOW- flavor rush.

Wheat Berry Salad

Wheat berries are tastey and toothsome. They give you something to bite into and chew on for a while. That's a good thing when you are trying to eat less and want something to last. It not only lasts in your mouth but it lasts in your digestive track. Which means it will help you feel full for a longer time. Another good thing when you are trying to eat less.

Wheatberry's star quality doen't end there. One cup of cooked wheatberries will give you over 8 grams of fiber, essential minerals and vitamins. All for the price of 151 calories. How can you go wrong. That's a lot of bang for your calories.

Add in what you like, anything goes. I made this salad kind of simple because it was my first time using wheat berries. Oh and it won't be the last time.

Wheatberry Salad

1 1/2 cups wheatberries
8 cups of water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 cup chopped Vidalia or red onion
1/2 cup chopped radish
avocado slices
radish slices

Bring salted water to a boil and add wheat erries. Let cook at a simmer for about 45 minutes. You want the wheat berry to be tender. Drain and set aside.

Stir together the sauce ingredients, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, dijon, s and p and any spices you desire. Stir in the wheatberries. Eat at room temperature or cold.

This girls gone corny!

The other day when I wrote about cornbread, I said that I had found a stellar recipe in the book, The Cornbread Gospels. Indeed I did. I made it up the other day. It was SO easy and SO tastey. I liked it so much that it will be a regular in our house.

One of the best qualities of this "fritter" or "pancake" is that it cooks up with relatively little grease. All I used was cooking spray. AND you can add any left overs or things you want to use up to the batter. Top with sour cream and you are good to go. Or cheese, as Crescent Dragonwagon suggests. Unbelievably delicious.

SAVORY ONION-SCALLION CORN CAKES
recipe courtesy of the author, Crescent Dragonwagon
The Cornbread Gospels, Workman Publishing, NY

1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal (or 1/4 cup each stone-ground yellow cornmeal and masa harina)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 scallions trimmed, white and green portions thinly sliced
kernels cut from 3 ears of fresh corn (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 to 1 green chile, finely minced (with seeds for heat, without for mildness)
vegetable cooking spray

1. Combine the flour, cornmeal or conrmeal and masa harina, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring well. Set aside.

2. Combine the buttermilk, egg, and sugar in a second, smaller bowl, whisking together. Set aside.

3. Combine the onion, scallion, corn, and chile in a third bowl. Set aside.

4. Using as few strokes as possible, stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture until the two are barely smoothed out. Then stir in all the vegetables.

5. Spray a heavy nonstick skillet with oil, then place over medium-high heat. When it is hot, ladle on the batter; using a 1/4 cup ladle will yield about 12 good size pancakes, which will make 4 Mexi-stacks, see below (a slightly smaller size is good for these when you're using them as a side dish). Flip the cakes when the tops have plenty of bubbles and the sides look done, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes. The second side takes 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

6. Serve hot from the griddle.

Mexi-Stacks
Make the masa variation of the cakes. Open a can (15 ounces) of black beans and pour the contents, juice and all, into a small saucepan. Heat the beans through while you assemble the following on a tray.

* 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar or monterey Jack cheese
* 2-3 ripe Haas avocadoes, peeled, pitted and coarsely mashed in a small bowl with the juice of 1/2 of a lemon and a little salt
* homemade or bottled salsa
* dairy or tofu sour cream (optional)
* chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Have 4 heated plates ready. As the cakes come off the skillet, lay 1 in the center of each plate. Spoon the black beans over them equally. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the beans and top with a second cake. Quickly spread the mashed avocado over the second cake layers, and top with a third cake. Spoon the salsa on top, add a dab of sour cream and a snowfall of cilantro, if using, and serve immediately - to many wows.

* I didn't exactly do the Mexi stacks but I so liked the idea. Since I did not have fresh corn, I used ramps, yellow, red and green pepper, minced. I also used purple onion. I chopped enough so that I would have a little over 1 1/2 cups to add to the pancakes.

Jook = Comfort

Jook or Congee is a porridge type dish made of millet or rice. You can read all about it on Wikipedia. Click here. It is an extremely variable dish. You can make it sweet or savory. I went for the sweet, hoping the kids would help me eat it. (They didn't).

The thing I like most about jook, is that it warms your very soul. On a day like today, in NY, that's a very good thing. It's very filling as well.

You can find a recipe similar to mine all over the internet. I added brown sugar and vanilla bean to make it more palatable for the kids. I really liked it.

Sweet Potato Jook

1 sweet potato, diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup millet
6 cups water
1 vanilla bean scraped
1 cinnamon stick
1 1' piece of ginger
pinch of salt

In a large sauce pan add millet, water, cinnamon stick, vanilla pod and ginger. Cook for about 30 minutes and add sweet potato. Cook until mixture becomes thick like porridge. Add brown sugar. Remove cinnamon stick. Spoon into bowls.

SCALLION PANCAKES: KING ARTHUR STYLE

I am not being paid to say this (although I would love it if I were) but King Arthur's Whole Wheat Baking Book is one of my absolute favorite cook books. There are so many amazing recipes in there. I have not had one turn out bad yet. They seem to be very accurate. The fact that they get more whole grain in without taking taste out is so awesome. If I were to pick only five cookbooks out of the 100 I have, I would pick this one for sure. Yeah the other four Joy of Baking, Gourmet's Cookbook, Dorie Greenspans Baking: From My Home To Yours, Ball Canning and Preserving. I think those are the ones I turn to constantly.

Tonight I made Scallion pancakes, whole wheat style. They were amazing. Very easy and extremely tastey. The dip was amazing as well.

SCALLION PANCAKES
Based on the recipe from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking

2 1/4 cups unbleached flour
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups water
1/2 cup peanut oil
pinch of salt
Kosher salt
2 cups green onions/scallions, sliced thinly

In a mixer combine flours and add water and pinch of salt. Continue mixing the dough on low for about six minutes. Remove dough and place on oiled surface. Coat hands with oil to keep this sticky dough from adhering to your hands. Cut dough into six parts. Roll each part into a ball. Flatten ball out to about 8 inches and rub about a teaspoon of oil on top. Sprinkle with scallions and a little kosher salt. Roll up the round in to a log. Turn log into a coil. Flatten to an eight inch round again. Carefully lift and place on hot skillet. Heat until lightly browned. Serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce
Based on King Arthur's recipe

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons mirin
1 garlic clove minced
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Combine all and whisk.

PAPER CHEF CHALLENGE

I ran across this Paper Chef challenge at Scottish Cow. Whats really cool about these challenges is that they give you a list of ingredients and you have to produce a recipe. Like Iron Chef. This was my kind of challenge. I just read about it last night and just so happened to have all the ingredients.

The list of ingredients is as follows:
quinoa
rice wrapper
tomatoes
yogurt

Rice Wrapper Filling

eggplant, about two cups roasted
juice of one lemon
s and p
1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups quinoa

Roast eggplant in a 450 degree oven. Peel and cut in strips and roast until softened. Place in a covered dish with a tablespoon of olive oil. The steam will soften them further.

Place garlic in processor, mince. Add eggplant and pulse. Dont puree. Remove and stir in remainder of ingredients.

Place rice wrappers in hot water in bowl to soften, one at a time. Place filling in lower third of wrapper. Roll once, fold in sides and continue to roll.

Cover with a damp paper towel as your oll the remainder or cover in plastic wrap.

For the yogurt portion of this recipe you can follow my link to raita.

Minted Barley with Dukkha

I know the picture isn't exactly clear, I am trying to master my camera. Bear with me. My husband knew a Middle Eastern man a long time ago who taught him about dukkha. He fell in love with the spice and says I really should start incorporating it into my meals. I really havent so far but today I did, finally. I have to say that I love its flavor. I have had it on chicken before but it is especially yummy with beans and or this barley.

Today I made these rockin bean burgers with French Green Lentils and pearl barley. I had quite a bit of the barley left over so I made this salad. Its real simple but quite tastey.

Minted Barley with Dukkha

2 cups cooked pearl barley
1 red onion, minced
1/2 T of dukkha
20 mint leaves, chiffonade
1 T of canola oil
1 t kosher salt
1 clove garlic minced

Combine all ingredients and serve cold or at room temperature. (Incidentally dukkha sounds an awful lot like a not so nice polish word). My kids are giggling when I say it.

The bean burgers will be made some time later this week. I will post a picture then.

Mediterranean Bean Burgers

20 mint leaves, chiffonade
2 cups French Green Lentils
2 cups pearl barley
1 small onion
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 T dukkah
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs

You can cook the lentils and the barley together. Cook until tender and drain.
Saute onions in butter and olive oil until carmelized. Combine all ingredients together and let sit for about 30 minutes. Form into balls and flatten into hamburger shapes.

These freeze real well! It's such a handy "convenience" food. I serve mine on a bun with light ranch dressing, tomato, lettuce and avocado slices.

Enjoy!

CHICKEN IS AN EMPTY CANVAS

I get so excited when I pull out chicken from my freezer. I think there are so many possibilities, what will I choose. I tell my friends who definitely are not foodies this and they think I am crazy. They are thinking oh what will I make today with a decidedly different tone.




I decided to use some mint that I just bought from the Asian store we have here locally. I have gone in this store a million times and have just found the fresh herb section. Its a big warehouse of a store so it isnt exactly laid out for marketing. I decided to go Greek.




I was inspired by familystylefood's website Meditteranean Barley. Wow, what an outstanding recipe. I did not have eggplants or cherry tomatoes available. I substituted sun dried tomatoes and roasted acorn squash. I also found that I needed to add a lot more liquid to my barley. As a finishing touch I sprinkled some pine nuts on top.

Greek Style Chicken Marinade

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup chopped mint, aka chiffonade
4 cloves garlic. minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon oregano

Make little slices in the chicken to allow marinade to penetrate. Marinate from 1 hour to 24 hours in advance.

Mediterranean Barley Salad (see original post on Epicurious or familystylefood)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 c red onion, soaked in cold water for ten minutes
1/2 cup fresh mint, chiffonade
2 oz feta cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1 acorn squash, diced and roasted
3/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 1/4 cup pearl barley
4 cups plus broth and or water
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon coriander

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy bottom pot. Toast barley until fragrant three to five minutes. Add spices and heat until fragrant, about one more minute. Add 4 cups broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Check periodically to see if it needs more water.

While barley is cooking roast vegetables and chop remaining ingredients. Combine reserved olive oil, lemon juice, chopped mint, pepper, sugar, garlic and red onion.

Finally, add four cups of the cooked barley to the mixture. Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.

The amazingly great thing about this recipe is that you can add so many things.

Thank you to familystylefood for getting me into pearl barley. I had mainly used it for soup but now I have a new venue.