Orzotto, quasi come un risotto – Orzo allo zafferano e calamari

It looks like I am on some seafood addiction lately, I understand it can get boring for people not fond of seafood. I bought extra calamari when I made the stew to be able to use in some other dish.

That wonderful little cereal used here, barley is one of my favorites. What I love about barely is that it always remains firm, so you always get that crunchy and a very pleasant little chewy bite. I used pearl barley whose bran layer has been removed (vs. bran barley) its size doubles volume when cooked due to its high content in fibers. It contains a lot of minerals and vitamins therefore makes it a perfect nutritious and healthy grain with low glycemic index. Orzo in Italian means barely and not “orzo pasta”.

The consumption of barley goes back to Greek and Roman civilizations due to its nutritious properties, the easiness of its transportation and long preservation, it’s supposed to be one of the most ancient grain that can be retraced back to the Egyptians.

In Italy, Orzo is also used in making a drink mixture called “caffè d’orzo“, basically it’s a powder like coffee (you can either dissolve it in hot water like instant coffee or preapre it in a moka maker) and used like coffee with milk to be served for breakfast. Its consumption as a drink started in the XVIII e century among peasants and continued throughout the years. It was mostly a drink consumed by elderly and kids for its healing properties, it’s nowadays served “al bar” (coffee shop) like espresso and is even more expensive. I love my bowl of caffè d’orzo, sometimes that’s my dinner!

I love saffron barley as much as I love saffron risotto, sometimes I just like something that has a less creamy texture than risotto, more chewy and fluffy, so barley or farro are my first choices. You can make this dish with farro too, it has equally lots of great nutrients. This barley dish has tons of character with the presence of saffron and gives it a distinct Mediterranean flair. A simple and flavorful dish very easy to prepare, un ottimo primo piatto molto gustoso ma veloce da preparare!

Ingredients for 2

• 6.34 oz (or 180 g) barley
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 dose saffron
• vegetable broth
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/3 tsp paprika
• 5.20 oz (or 150 g) calamari, (either already cleaned or not)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Start preparing the barley like a risotto. In a pot, heat 1 tbs olive oil, then add shallot and brown. Infuse saffron in lukewarm broth. Add barley, coat with olive oil and progressively add broth, adjust with salt and pepper (I did not use white wine like in a traditional risotto nor parmesan) and proceed until barley is cooked. You want the barley to have absorbed all the liquid unlike in a risotto, the barley needs to be somehow “dry”.

In a pan, heat 1 tbs olive oil, add garlic and stir. Add calamari, paprika, salt and pepper and sauté at high heat until calamari are cooked but not rubbery and still tender. Reduce a little of the liquid, but keep some.

When barley is cooked, add to the calamari pan, and mix well until the juice has been absorbed by barley. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot.

Fish/Seafood, Grains barley, calamari, orzo, saffron, squid

Est-ce vraiment Israélien? – Matfoul aux légumes et curry

I discovered this type of couscous in the US. I had never seen it before, so I started experimenting with it when I had some Israeli clients. I was so happy I found something “Israeli” to cook for them, but when they told me it was not Israeli, I was somehow confused and disappointed. I had no idea about what Israeli cuisine tasted like, I thought due to their geographical location it would have some Middle Eastern flair. In Paris, in the Marais quarter, the historic Jewish area has one of the most popular Felafel joint, called “L’As du Felafel”, so I my mind Felafel and spicy food was common in Israel and I figured that something called “Israeli” should at least be coming from Israel. Apparently not. It’s like the French manicure of French cleaner, not sure why they call it French but we are no specialists in nails nor cleaning!

So Israeli or not Israeli, I like this couscous variety, it’s fun to prepare and great to eat. Couscous is consumed in all Middle East, so I guess it must be coming from that side of the continent. In France it’s called Matfoul which I think is its original Arabic name. I am not Jewish and obviously not kosher but maybe in my previous life I was. I started cooking by not mixing dairy and meat and I have to say that I like it.

This is a great side dish that can be an alternative to rice, or some other carbohydrate dishes. I like to spice it up a little with curry and spices and add vegetables to it, to make it a little more exciting. I have a few cookbooks about Jewish cuisine and I like the simplicity of the recipes and influences coming from so many different countries.

I certainly know that this blog lacks meat recipes but I think the most important thing is to enjoy and take pleasure in whatever you do, cook or eat, no matter what it is. Otherwise there is no point in posting something just for the sake of posting it. I usually serve this couscous with sumac chicken tenders, that has been one of my most requested dish in the “Middle Eastern” category.

Ingredients for 3-4 as a side dish

• 4.2 oz (or 120 g) Israeli couscous
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 small eggplant, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 tbs cherry tomatoes, cut in quarters
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1/2 cup cooked chick peas
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbs mint, chopped

Preparation

First start cooking couscous. Heat olive oil in a pot, add couscous and let it brown and get coated by olive oil like you would proceed for a risotto. Add broth and cook until couscous is tender but not too soft. Drain and set aside.

In a pan, brown shallots, then add the rest of the vegetables except for the chick peas. Add salt and pepper and let it cook until vegetables tender. Add chick peas. Add curry powder. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes, then add tomatoes. Add couscous and mix well all ingredients together. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add mint and cilantro and serve hot.

Grains, Side Dish, Vegan carrots, chick peas, curry, eggplant, israeli couscous, Side Dish, Vegan

La Fregola è gelosa del risotto – Fregola allo zafferano con zucchine e funghi

I adore Fregola’s texture…those little round balls that are similar to couscous but are really not…It’s a pasta specialty from Sardinia and when cooked they remain somehow chewy and al dente at the same time.

This fregola has been prepared like risotto with a saffron broth then enhanced at the end with grilled vegetables and parmesan. I think you can find Fregola at any Italian grocery store or specialty store. We have a Sardinian restaurant in San Francisco called La Ciccia, they serve traditional Sardinian cuisine, which is really good (you can find fregola dishes, octopus in umido, pane carasau, etc… lots of traditional Sardinian products) and not really the typical Italian-American you see very often in many Italian restaurants, which I think is a mixture of different cuisines and influences. It might have been traditional 150 years ago, then with time, it became a modified cuisine mixed with local influences and ingredients.

Fregola is an authentic Sardinian pasta product and I have never seen it served in any other Italian restaurant other than at La Ciccia. As a matter of fact, I have never seen it in other parts of Italy either because it is a very regional product mainly consumed in Sardinia. So if you can find it, try it out.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Italian-American is not good food, I’m just saying it’s just not real traditional Italian cuisine. For example Cioppino, that tomato seafood stew you can find in many restaurants in San Francisco, even though it sounds Italian, it is not. It’s something that was created in San Francisco. Isn’t that funny? A well-made cioppino is excellent, but it’s not really Italian even though you can find some similar dishes in Italy, I have never seen Cioppino.

I would be very curious to see the cuisine in Australia, if it went through the same trends and if it evolved like cuisine in the US did. Australia being also a new country, it might have had a similar phenomenon. A friend of mine gave me an Australian cook book she bought over there, and I have to say that the cuisine is very interesting with lots of influences too but put together differently.

Anyway, going back to Fregola, which is somehow the topic of this post, it can be cooked like risotto, or like pasta, or used in soups, or like couscous. It is a very versatile little ball and really delicious.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 1 cup fregola
• 2 zucchini, sliced crosswise
• 10 medium size mushrooms
• 1 shallot
• 1 saffron dose
• 2 cups or more vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Fresh parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Infuse broth with saffron for about 20 minutes.

In a medium pot, heat olive oil, add shallots and brown them. Add fregola and coat it with olive oil as you would do for risotto. Add saffron broth and wine gradually. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Grill zucchini in a grill pan and cut in smaller pieces. Set aside. Saute mushrooms in 1 tsp olive oil, and cook until the water evaporates.  Mix with zucchini.

When fregola is cooked. Add vegetables, and stir well. Add parmiggiano and serve hot.

Grains, Side Dish, Vegetarian - dairy fregola, mushrooms, risotto, saffron, Side Dish, zucchini

Un cugino è appena arrivato – Risoni integrali con gamberi, cappesante, finocchio, radicchio ed erbette

Orzo in the US, is that tiny pasta shape like a bird’s tongue, orzo in Italian means barley, so when I just arrived to the US, I got confused. Now since I am in the US, I will try to use american names so that people don’t get confused either. I have known orzo to be a cereal whole my life, in Italy they use it even as a drink, caffè d’orzo, it’s basically a powder like the instant coffee, you add hot water, dilute it and you get a cup of dark drink that somehow tastes like coffee and has no caffeine. It’s an alternative to coffee.

My mom used to make me soups with this pasta when I was a child and called it “bicca” meaning “seed” in her local dialect, they’re called Risoni in Italian (riso = rice, big rice grain).

Anyway going back to the other orzo, the pasta-orzo, in this dish I cooked it like risotto, coating it with olive oil, then adding broth and white wine gradually. You can also cook pasta this way. The water is absorbed gradually and pasta gets all the flavors of the stock.

I love this dish, it’s healthy, flavorful and very delicate and an alternative to risotto, if you want once in a while get some whole wheat grain in your diet and still be fully satisfied with your meal, this would be be perfect. I love risotto, a well-made risotto is heavenly but sometime I just want some whole wheat grains.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 1 cup whole wheat orzo
• 12 shrimps with shell and heads on
• 2/3 cups small sea scallops
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 3 cloves
• celery stick
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbs fresh tarragon
• 12 mint leaves
• 6 large basil leaves
• 2 tbs parlsey
• 1 tbs fresh oregano
• 1/2 fennel, finely diced
• 1 cup shredded radicchio
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Start making the stock. Place 3 cups of water to a boil and add all the herbs, the fennel, the radicchio, let cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the water and drain. Chop the herbs finely and set aside.

Add carrot, celeri stick, stick cloves inside the onion, and add to the stock. Peel the shrimps, head and shell and add to the stock, reduce until you have about 2 cups of stock. Let it simmer for about 30-40 minutes, adding a little water if the water evaporates.

When the stock is ready, drain and keep the liquid.

In a pot, heat olive oil, add shallot and let it brown. Add risoni, coat them with olive like you would for a risotto. Add a little stock and wine, stir until the liquid has evaporated, and add continue stiring and adding stock and wine.

10 minutes before the orzo is almost cooked, add sea scallops and 9 shrimps cut in pieces, leave 3 or 4 for decoration. Stir well and cook until the seafood is cooked all the way through. Add the herbs, radicchio, fennel mixture. Stir well and let rest for about 5-7 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil and serve very hot.

Fish/Seafood, Grains herbs, orzo, radicchio, Recipes, risoni, shrimps, whole wheat

Mi dai un pò di polenta per favore? – Crostoni di polenta al rosmarino e parmigiano con ragu piccante di funghi e pancetta – cavolo in padella

I have been wanting to make polenta for months now, I had this bag of polenta in my pantry, but did not have the other ingredients I needed to make what I had in mind, so I kept waiting.

Polenta has been a big part of my life, my mom used to make a huge quantity of polenta, spread it on a large wooden surface and served it with a rabbit and tomato sauce. Everyone would take a spoon and eat it from the wooden board.

Polenta prepared in Northern Italy like Lombardia or Friuli is white, it’s served sliced with prosciutto and radicchio. Basically, it replaces the bread in some households. Actually, In Milano, they cook it with milk, and top it with a mushroom sauce, more like a gravy. That is the way I ate it at my childhood friend whose parents were from Milano. I was used to the yellow polenta served with a mushroom, or rabbit tomato sauce. Two different way to prepare it.

Anyway, I found the most interesting mushrooms at the Berkeley Bowl yesterday, and I was so curious about those tiny but still chunky-legged mushrooms, that I just had to buy them. Trying new ingredients gives me some adrenaline rush, and for the particular purpose, that store is perfect.

To be really honest, I am unable to tell you the exact name of those mushrooms, the hand-written sign was unreadable, and I did some research on the web to try to find out their names and I am uncertain of what they’re called. I believe they’re shimeji. Some kind of Japanese mushroom, that has the shape of porcini mushroom but a smaller size. A Heavy stem and a small cap. It has a great flavor and I really liked the mixed flavors of those three different mushrooms.

Going back to polenta, you can buy the pre-cooked or the regular polenta that needs to cook slowly for an hour on medium or even slow heat, so if your wrist is not trained, since you have to stir for the entire hour, you will get a sore wrist and arm. If you are new to polenta and don’t have too much time for preparation and cooking, the pre-cooked kind would work fine. Unfortunately, I only had the regular one, so I had no choice than go the traditional way.

Big polenta eaters like in Friuli, have a special pot with a mechanical arm that stirs the polenta, so you just have to sit and wait.

You might not see it on the picture, but those crostoni have been carved in the middle so you can stuff them with the mushroom sauce.

Ingredients for 4

For the polenta

• about 4 oz. pre cooked or regular polenta
• 1 tbs rosemary, chopped
• 1 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 3 cups broth
• salt

For the mushroom sauce

• 4 slices pancetta, chopped + 4 slices whole (for decoration)
• 5 well riped tomatoes, chopped seedless
• 1 cup small shitakee, some sliced, some whole
• 1 cup oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup shimeji mushrooms
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs parsley
• chili flakes to your taste
• 2 tbs olive oil

For the cabbage

• 1/2 cabbage, shredded
• 1/4 yellow onion chopped
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

First start preparing the polenta. Bring broth to a boil, add salt. Add rosemary, then pour polenta. Stir non stop and cook at very low heat, add water if necessary. If using regular polenta, it needs to cook for at least 40 minutes, always stirring. If using pre-cooked polenta, cook for about 7-10 minutes, and keep stirring. Add Parmesan.

When the polenta is cooked pour in a small deep dish so that the polenta has a thickness of about 1.5 inch. Let it cool. When cooled, with cut circles of about 2.5 inches in diameter. With a teaspoon, remove some of the center of each polenta circle. Drizzle with some olive oil, and brown under broiler for about 5 minutes or until the top of the polenta is golden brown. This broiling part needs to be done at the end, when the tomato sauce and cabbage are almost cooked, or the polenta will get cold.

For the mushroom sauce

Heat olive oil in a pan, add mushrooms. Cook at medium heat, until the water has evaporated, add salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, add olive oil, add shallot, let it brown. Add chopped pancetta, and brown the mixture. Add garlic and parsley, stir well to get the flavors out, add tomatoes and chili flakes. Cook until the sauce has reduced but do not reduce too much, there needs to be some tomato juice left. Add mushrooms and adjust with salt and pepper.

For the cabbage

Heat olive oil in a deep pot, add onion, and brown it, add cabbage, stir and add wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook at medium heat until the cabbage is cooked.

Grill whole pancetta slices in a non stick pan.

Serve in a plate with 2 tbs of cabbage on bottom, add polenta crostoni on top. Fill the center of polenta with mushroom sauce. Add 1 grilled pancetta slice on top. Decorate with whole shitakee around the plate.

Grains, Vegetarian - dairy cabbage, oyster mushrooms, polenta, shimeji, shitakee, wild mushrooms

C’est tiède, c’est plein de saveur, c’est une salade – Salade tiède de quinoa aux carottes, cocos, chou fleur et salsa aux quatres herbes

Today I said goodbye to my long time and faithful friend, my VW Golf I had for over 10 years, and that over the years turned into an old lady. I gave it to a charity and I have to admit that when the tow-truck came pick it up, I was somehow sad. I know it’s just a thing, and I should not get attached to material, but still, it was the first car I got in the US and I was somehow attached to it.  We went through some good and bad times together. I did not feel comfortable selling it, since the steering wheel was really hard to manoeuvre and I stopped driving it for a month, fearing it would break down in the middle of the street…and many other things were wrong with it, so I figured I would give it to charity.  C’est la vie, nothing lasts and things like people sooner or later quietly go. 

OK, let’s not dwell on this, it’s just a car after all! 

Let’s go back to the fun world of cooking, I love to play with quinoa, it’s delicious in soups, salads, taboule and any kind of side dishes. The great flavor comes from the herb salsa I made, which enhanced this whole salad.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cauliflower
• 2 carrots
• 1 cup  cooked cannelli beans
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 celeri stick
• 3 cloves

For the salsa

• 2 scallions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 bunch parsley
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1/3 bunch mint
• 5 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• a pinch chili powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

If you are using dried cannelli beans, they need to be soaked overnight in water, if you didn’t have any and don’t have time, you can use canned beans, but they don’t taste as good as the dried ones.

Cook quinoa by steaming it, like you would make steamed rice. Add double its volume of water, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a minimum and cover with lid. Cook for about 20 minutes.

If used, dried cannelli beans, cook them in water for about 30 minutes with 1/2 onion, 3 cloves, 1 celery stick, and 2 bay leaves. When cooked remove onion, cloves, celery, bay leaves, and drain beans.

Cut cauliflower in small florets, cut carrots in slices, then cut in half. Steam for about 10 minutes and set aside.

Mix the salsa ingredients in a mixer to make it into a smooth mixture.

When quinoa is cooked, place in a mixing bowl, add vegetables. Spoon salsa at the end and mix well.

Grains, Side Dish, Vegan carrots, cauliflower, cilantro, garlic, herbs, parlsey, quinoa, Recipes, scallion, Vegan

Comme un petit bateau – Courgettes farcies au millet, épinards, parmesan et herbes

I don’t know why I am not a fan of stuffed vegetables, it is something I quite never had a great pleasure eating and I really cannot understand why. Maybe because they remind me of my childhood: the stuffed vegetables my aunt was preparing in Italy, they were so greasy and floating on oil, that I could not eat them…and of course, I had absolutely no other option than eat them, because she would not let me go. I would elbow my mom so she could take them discreetly in her plate, but of course, that was not an option either since zia Flora was scrutinizing us. Now, zia Flora has no internet and does not speak English, so she will never know I hate her stuffed eggplants!

In France we have an expression that says “marche ou crève” meaning “walk or die”, in Italy it would be more like “mange ou crève” which means “eat or die”!!

Anytime I make stuffed vegetables, I just cannot avoid thinking about those beautiful purple eggplant soaked in oil. Not sure why some of the older generation of people think that if there is little fat, there is no taste, that somehow fat and taste are related. Where does this come from? Obviously you need fat, I don’t like anything “fat-free”, and never buy those fat-free products but you just cannot use half liter of oil anytime you make a meal.

Those zucchini are different, they are fulfilling but light and certainly not greasy. I used little millet and actually I was quite happy about the result, so I figured I would post it, for those of you who want an idea for stuffing veggies.

I know millet is mainly a bird seed but I somehow like its taste and nutritious values, since they are filled with proteins.

Ingredients for 6

• 3 medium size zucchini
• 1/3 cup millet
• 1 tomato, seedless, peeled and diced
• 1 tbs parsley, chopped
• 1 tbs basil, chopped
• 2 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 1/2 cup cooked spinach
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 shallot

Preparation

First start cooking millet. You can either use a rice cooker, or steam millet in twice its quantity of water until it’s soft and the seed has popped out.

Cut the zucchini lenghtwise, scoop the flesh with a teaspoon, cut in small pieces. Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots, and cook until soft, then add garlic and cook for another minute or less. Add the diced zucchini flesh and cook until soft.

In a container, mix zucchini, shallot mixture, add tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients and the cooked millet. Mix well and stuff the zucchini with the mixture.

Cover with aluminum foil and cook in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes, then remove foil and cook for additional 10 minutes to brown the top.

Grains, Side Dish, Vegetables millet, Recipes, spinach, stuffed vegetables, zucchini

Une petite envie de quinoa – Quinoa épicé aux asperges, pois et carottes

A little quinoa bowl is enough for a light dinner with a salad. Especially that today I did not have any energy whatsoever. Muggy and awfully grey weather, friends moving out of the Bay Area, is not helping with the blues.

It felt like the sky was falling on my head. That is a feeling I am very familiar with, since I grew up in the Eastern part of France, where everything is sooo green (soooo green, is what people say), obviously it’s so green because of the rain.

Gray weather +  not wanting to spend to much time in the kitchen = quinoa

I mixed many vegetables to this quinoa so that one bowl would be nutritious enough as a meal. The spices gave it a nice kick, a little exotic flavor to it.

Ingredients for 4 as side dish

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1/3 cup peas
• 1 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs mustard seeds
• 1 tbs cumin seeds
• 1 tbs coriander powder
• 4 cardamom pods
• 3 curry leaves
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Chop the onions and brown in olive oil, add garlic, stir for a few minutes at low heat. Add the spices, mix well for a few minutes, then the carrot and the peas. Stir the mixture. Add quinoa, and cook for a few minutes with the mixture. Add broth, curry leaves, salt and pepper.

Cut the asparagus in one inch chunk and cook them the in salted boiling water, for 5 minutes or more, until cooked but still firm.

Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low, and cook for about 20 minutes until the quinoa has absorbed the water.

When quinoa is cooked, add asparagus and mix well. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve hot.

Grains, Side Dish, Vegan asparagus, carrots, grain, quinoa, Recipes, Side Dish, spices

Carciofino, come mi sei mancato!…insalata di carciofi, gamberi, farro e rucola

Beautiful artichokes are one of my favorite vegetables, especially the baby ones…they’re small, tender, and make beautiful and delicious dishes. The only draw back is the preparation, and trimming, since it can take some time to remove the hard leaves and trim them, some people prefer to use easier to prepare vegetables. In French we say, quand on aime on ne compte pas, when you love, you don’t count, which is somehow the way I go along withe life and cuisine in general. What count is the result, not really the time spent in the kitchen (obviously when you have time).

The great thing about California, is that you get many fruits and vegetable locally grown so that availability of fresh and organic produces is huge. 

In France we have similar baby artichokes but they’re purple and are called artichauts poivrade, very popular in the South of France, Italy and Spain.

My mom always brings form Italy cases of artichokes from my uncle’s garden, she keeps them half-cooked in jars, filled with olive oil, garlic and herbs and uses them to put on top of pizza or to eat as is as antipasto, with prosciutto. Those can be preserved that way for over 6 months and are delicious, crunchy, full of flavors since they’re infused in olive oil and herbs.

The other wonderful ingredient in this recipe is the Farro (or spelt), it’s the Italian name of the grain, also used in English. In France it’s called épeautre and is one of the oldest grain, very rich in protein and cultivated in Italy at the foot of the Alps in a region called Garfagnana. It is a very robust plant that grows in tough climate and is resistant to cold, therefore, its culture does not need pesticides and other chemical such as wheat does, that’s why Italian farro is a part of organic agriculture.

Ingredients for 2

• 10 large uncooked shrimps
• 1/2 lb farro
• 2 hanful rucola
• 10 small baby artichokes
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 3 tbs dry white wine
• salt and pepper

For the vinaigrette

• 2 tbs avocado oil
• 1 tbs orange-champagne vinegar (or any other citrus vinegar)
• 1 tbs chopped basil
• 1 garlic crushed

Preparation

Cook farro in 3 times its quantity of water for about 20-25 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Trim the artichokes removing the outside leaves and cutting the tip of the heart to keep just the tender and yellowish heart. Cut in quarters and place in a bowled filled with water and lemon juice to prevent the artichokes from darkening.

Saute artichokes with garlic in olive oil, stir and add white wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until the artichokes are tender. 

Saute shrimps in olive oil salt and pepper.

In a salad bowl, mix farro, artichokes, shrimps, let it cool a little, then add tomatoes and rucola.

For the vinaigrette, mix all ingredients together, mix well and add to the salad. Toss and serve.

Appetizers, Fish/Seafood, Grains, Salads artichokes, farro, Recipes, rucola, salad, shrimps

Pas si nature que ca – Taboule aux pistaches, airelles et menthe sur portobello grillé

I made this taboule as an accompaniment to a Tagine, so why not stuff some portobello with it. 

I used portobellos just because I bought  five of them for a dinner party, and I ended up not preparing them, so this bag of portobellos was taking up all the space in the refrigerator  for too long and I needed to find a way to use them. One thing is that I hate to throw away food so I always try to find a way to prepare something with what is left in the kitchen pantry and refrigerator. 

Those mushrooms are quite impressive, and as I explained in another post, where I used portobellos, they’re just grown ups cremini…Americans are so great at marketing that they gave them some Italian sounding name, and here we are…we have a new product!

Portobellos have been very successful with my mom and her girlfriends who came to the US on a tour, they came over for dinner and I placed a huge stuffed mushroom in front of each guest…since they had never seen this mushroom before, they were so excited to taste an exotic American mushroom. Some day, I will have to tell them the truth and that there is nothing exotic about it. 

Toasted almonds are a nice substitute to pistachios and taste good with the cranberries. This is an express dish, quite perfect with a green salad if you want to keep it light.

Ingredients for 4

• 4 portobellos
• 1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
• 2 tbs pistachios or toasted almonds
• 2 tbs dried cranberries
• 2 tbs mint, chopped
• olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• cider vinegar
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Peel the mushrooms if the skin is too thick. Add salt and pepper, drizzle olive oil and vinegar on both sides and broil under broiler or on a grill.

Start preparing the taboule. Cover couscous with boiling water, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Add all other ingredients, mix well and top the mushroom with it.

I don’t think there’s anything simpler than that!

Express - Less than 30 minutes, Grains, Side Dish, Vegan Recipes