Week 3, orzo and peas

This week I had friends over so I didn't take many pictures as I was trying to cook fast and cleanup at the same time. The post is also a week delayed.

I know one of my friends who were coming don't like very exotic food so I tried to pick recipes with known flavors. This week's salad was the "Fancy Coleslaw" (pg. 8), with a side of "Peas with Sorrel and Mustard" (pg. 70) and "Baked Orzo with Mozzarella and Oregano" as the main dish. As usual, a few adjustments and replacements were made (some by mistake this time).

Starting with the salad. I forgot to buy the cabbage and this is just the main ingredient of the coleslaw. Luckily, I had a fresh romaine at home and use that instead. I know the flavors are different but the texture and color is pretty much the same. Since there were so many strong flavors in this salad, I would say it didn't make that much of a difference. I also didn't use bell pepper, as I said before, I can't digest it so I avoid eating it as much as possible. This salad takes spiced cashews that are delicious. Mixed with the Dijon, honey, yogurt dressing that wasn't really a chance to miss the cabbage. That salad is really good and has really strong flavors. However, everyone agreed that the tarragon could be removed as it adds a very perfumy flavor that just don't go well with the other flavors.

The peas were the easiest recipe from the book so far. Ok, I didn't prepare the sorrel, I never head about this ingredient before and didn't find it anywhere. I actually got spinach as a replacement but decided not to use it in the end. I love peas but I never get to eat it as my husband hates it and I found out that one of my friend also didn't like it. Well, I was very surprised that this was everyone's favorite dish. The recipe takes a stir fry of green onions and mustard seeds with a Greek yogurt dressing with mustard powder and dijon mustard (I removed the mustard powder). That recipe will be included in my everyday side dish as it's so easy, delicious and the only fresh ingredient required are the green onions.

Finally, the orzo. Orzo is a type of pasta shaped like rice. I had it before but never cooked it before. The recipe is a stir fry with many vegetables that goes to the oven with the orzo, mozzarella, fresh herbs and tomato slices with parmesan on top. It's delicious and one of those recipes that can't go wrong (as any pasta dish). Everybody liked it but there wasn't anything surprising about it, it was mostly pasta with vegetables.

And that's the final plate (no, I didn't really work on the presentation):

Closer to comfort food

After spending a week a little bit under the weather, I needed comfort food during the weekend so I decided to chose recipes with flavors that were known to me. I also had some fresh herbs and organic rainbow carrots from last week that I wanted to reuse.

This weekend's choice were "Watercress Salad with Quail Eggs" (pg. 12), "Curry-Roasted Root Vegetables with Lime Leaves and Juice" (pg. 177) and "Tomato and Almond Tart" (pg. 272). Or I must say... a version of those recipes as many ingredients were changed.

I found all vegetables and main fresh ingredients and the local store and on the next day it was cold and raining, I woke up late and didn't really feel like going on a quest for Kaffir lime leaves and Nigella seed so I had to improvise. 

I started earlier this week and started with the prep (lesson learned). I cleaned, washed, peeled and cut most ingredients before starting. It took me over 2h this week, but I had an incident in the kitchen where some kind of oil/fat dripped on the bottom of the stove and in the middle of the baking, it created a smoke that triggered all fire alarms in the house several times. I had to turn everything off, clean up and start over.

Starting from the salad, the steps were easier comparing to last week, the only real prep was boiling eggs and heating the seeds. Oh, and I didn't find quail eggs. I thought it would be easy since it's a super common ingredient in Brazil and you can find it pretty much everywhere. Not in California. I also forgot to buy basil and couldn't find Nigella seeds so I used more sesame and mint as a replacement.

The prep is also simple, arrange the watercress and herbs with the eggs and ricotta; toss the olive oil and lime dressing on top. That was the easiest recipe.

The curry-roasted vegetables are delicious and my husband's favorite dish from the project so far. I tasted Rutabaga for the first time, an ingredient I never even heard of before reading this recipe. I forgot to take a picture of it alone but it's the round thing inside a bag next to the parsnip and dill on the pic below.

I couldn't find the Kaffir lime leaves and I know this is a very unique ingredient that is hard to replace. I also thought I had curry leaves at home but I actually had bay leaves. So I used bay leaves instead of curry leaves and 1 tsp of lemon extract + 1 tsp of orange blossom water to replace the Kaffir lime leaves. It worked, probably tasted very different from the original recipe but was delicious.

Last recipe was the one I was most excited about since it requires puff pastry. Few ingredients say "comfort food" as much as a buttery, flaky, delicious puff pastry. And it gets better, the first step is mixing butter, eggs, ricotta, spices and almonds for the filling. 

The fire alarm episode happened right during the preparation of the tart so I didn't take any more pictures from now on since I needed to speed up the process as I didn't want to mess up the baking time. 

If it wasn't for the use of the mixer, this would have been the easiest recipe. You just spread the the butter, ricotta and almond paste on top of the pastry, cover with tomatos and olives and bake. The results are just as amazing as it sounds like.

And here is the final dish:

I think that was a great combination. The salad was herbal and bitter with toasted notes. The texture is also great with the eggs, seeds and different greens. The dressing is simple, but it's supposed to be as there are many flavors already. Vegetables were also amazing, spicy as the curry power is the strongest flavor in the mix. The texture of the carrots are softer, parsnip is more consistent and the rutabaga is a bit fibrous but overall there isn't a major difference on the vegetables after they are roasted and seasoned. Finally, the tart is everything it's supposed to be: delicious and comforting.

First Day, 10 step salad and surprising new flavors

I had a beautiful pomelo at home. I love pomelos, they smell amazing and are one of my favorite fruits. I never heard about pomelos until 2 years ago when I moved to California. They look like giant lemons but are sweet and a mix of grapefruit, orange, grape that is hard to describe.

There is a recipe in the book called "Pomelo Salad" (pg. 19) and the picture looked amazing so I decided to start with that one. I wanted to prepare it for our Sunday lunch so I a main carb dish, "Quinoa Porridge with Grilled Tomatoes and Garlic" (pg. 101) and a side of "Honey-roasted Carrots with Tahini Yogurt" (pg. 163).

I will start right away telling you I adapted the recipes and changed a few things I will describe on the way. First, believe or not but I couldn't find green or red chile peppers so I used dry flakes instead. I also removed cinnamon from the salad and carrots since I don't like cinnamon.

I got all ingredients in the local Safeway a day before and the remaining at Whole Foods in the morning. Then I prepared the workplace, turned on the music on, prepared myself a  Mojito and I was ready!

My strategy to cook all three dishes was: making the marinade for the salad (pomelos need to marinate for 30+ min), carrots (40+ in the oven) and quinoa (25m cooking). I imagined it would take me about 1h even considering I didn't spend time on the mise en place (preparing, cutting, peeling all the ingredients ahead) since the marinating/oven/cook time overlapped. 

I was wrong. It took me about 2h, the dishes are complex and required specific steps and techniques I didn't master yet. Let's start with the Pomelo Salad marinade.

There is a lot of prep and cutting for the vinager, spicy marinade and I was able to use one of the prettiest spices ever: Star Anise!

The marinade smells amazing and it's impressive how it well it goes with the pomelo. The recipe includes cinnamon, but I removed it from the recipe as I don't like it.

As I mentioned, I didn't grow up eating Pomelos and didn't  research any techniques to peel it. This fruit has a super thick skin and a very bitter membrane attached to the segments of the fruit so you must peel it carefully. I developed my own technique that involves my bare hands and determination. A good pairing knife helps too but it took me about 10 minutes just to peel  the fruit.

Then I let the Pomelo sit there while I cooked the rest of the meal.

Next I prepared the carrots, the honey glaze has a lot of spices, including one of my favorites: coriander seeds. They have an amazing perfume and go really well with vegetables. I picked rainbow carrots just because they look pretty. I tried to move fast for this since it required more time in the oven and I had already spent too long with the Pomelo.

The carrots go with a yogurt-tahine dip that is absolutely amazing. I love garlic so I selected the largest garlic clove for the dip. The garlic will be raw so next time I will select the smallest one instead...

Then I decided to add lemon zest (it wasn't on the original recipe). Because... why not?

I then moved to the quinoa but all the pictures were really bad so you will only see the quinoa in the final picture. There is no secrets on this one, you just have to cook it slow with more liquid for about 25 minutes. You add feta and herbs and cover with a herb oil I blended myself. Then you grill small tomatoes with garlic. I got tomatoes in the vine and thought it would be a good idea to keep them in the vine to grill them. It's not since I wasn't serving them like that. 

The most exciting part was mixing the salad. The pomelo joins herbs, watercress and mango with other colorful and tasty ingredients and look how beautiful it is (recipe ask for black sesame, I had regular so I just used that instead):

And this is the final result:

I was super excited about the recipes but was surprised about how much the flavors exceeded all my expectations. 

The salad is very refreshing and there are so many complex flavors. The texture is also great as you have the pomelo, mangos, herbs and the crunch from peanuts. I never spent so long preparing a salad, but it's worth it.

Honey glazed carrots are also amazing, very sweet and perfumed. The yogurt-tahini sauce breaks the sweetness a little bit but the raw garlic overpowered a little bit. I also used mid size carrots so I have a lot of leftover sauce. I will probably add more yogurt and tahini to lower the garlic power and reuse it during the week.

Finally, the quinoa is also a great and healthy alternative for the main starch of your meal. It can also be a single dish meal as the the herb oil and tomatos add a lot. I would just add more tomatos next time.

An year ago my brother gave me the book Plenty More from the British chef Yotam Ottolenghi. I knew nothing about the chef and never been to any of his establishments but this book is the most beautiful cookbook I have. I love cookbooks but just like anyone else (I guess) I mostly look at the pictures and keep dreaming about how that dish would taste like. I almost never make any of the recipes. 

I decided to change that and started a project to cook all the 150+ recipes from this book. In order to keep me motivated and share the experience with my friends and family I decided to start a blog to register my journey.

I don't have a deadline and timeframe but I will try to do at least one recipe a week. The posts will follow the format: intro, explaining why I chose the recipe; planning, describing how easy or hard it was to find the ingredients; prep, going through the challenges of preparing the recipe; taste, finally telling how it turned out.

There are huge disclaimers here. First, I am not a professional chef or cook. I enjoy cooking at home and I hope that will be enough to accomplish this challenge. Second, one of the main reasons my brother gave me this book is because all recipes are vegetarian. Yes, I am a vegetarian. The chef is not a vegetarian but he became famous by his vegetarian recipes and the way he prepared and celebrated vegetables and grains. My husband and friends are not vegetarians so if may mention if there is a non-vegetarian side in the meal but it won't be prepared by me or described here. Then, I am not going to list the recipe here, that's not the point and this is not my recipe. If the recipe is available on Ottolenghi's website, I will link it, otherwise you will have to buy the book (it's worth it).

Finally, as I mentioned before, this blog is personal. I want to register my experience and share with friends and family. If you found this somewhere on the internet you are welcome to join and I will do my best to answer comments but can't promise to do that in a timely manner.