The inspiration for this dish came from Heidi Swanson, the author of Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen , and the great food blog 101 Cookbooks. Heidi has a dish on her site that is a wheat berry version of this to which she adds tofu or seitan. Due to my wife’s gluten intolerance, I decided to whip up a quinoa version of this salad, and because I generally loathe tofu and seitan, I left it out.
Archives for August 2011
Sloppy Joes
It takes a while, but every summer by about this time we all start suffering from burger fatigue. I don’t know about you, but we definitely get our fill of burgers and dogs around here during grilling season, so much so that by mid-August I start thinking about how to take the idea of a burger in new directions.
One of our favorite alternatives is this Sloppy Joe.
Please don’t tell me you reach for a can of Manwich, or just dump a jar of Ragu in ground beef when you fell the urge, you don’t do you? For years the Sloppy Joe has been sold as just that kind of meal, much like that old chestnut, Tuna Helper, a desperation meal in a can that you keep hidden in the back of the pantry. If that IS the only kind of Joe you’ve ever had, then please keep reading, as you are in for a treat.
Cooking Matters!
As many of you know, for the past couple of years I've been volunteering some time as a chef instructor of Share Our Strength's "Cooking Matters" classes in and around Boston. Over the years I've told you a little about what this organization means to me, but today I thought I'd dedicate an entire post to the incredible people who make Cooking Matters (CM) work, and to perhaps encourage a few of you out there to think about volunteering with CM yourselves.
I'm particularly excited to tell you more about CM today because I had the good fortune a few months back to be one of the instructors that were featured in eight new vidoes created as training resources for new recruits and existing volunteer instructors. Each video highlights a facet of the teaching philosophy espoused by the organization, and shows real volunteers demonstrating "best practices" in a classroom setting. For all of the times I've thought of adding videos to this blog, this was my first time in front of a camera. Please try not to laugh.
Passion Fruit – Basil Ice Pops
Ice pops are among the easiest things you can make with your kids, and are a perfect treat to enjoy during these dog days of summer. They are also incredibly versatile, offering those with a creative bent ample opportunity to design a custom pop of just about any flavor combination you can imagine. Muppet and I had fun the other night making these pops with ingredients we had on-hand, but all the while she was dreaming up a kiwi-strawberry combo that we'll be making next.
Chocolate Ice Cream
Those of you who have been hanging around here for a while know I am loathe to call any recipe "the best". There are plenty of great recipes out there, and certainly lots of lousy ones too. Here at Oui, Chef we try to bring you tons of the former and none of the latter, but the best of anything? You've never heard me say that a recipe you find here is the best that you'll find anywhere, and you never will. That's because as much as I love all the dishes we share with you, there is always room for improvement and reinterpretation, and in fact, one of the things I like most about writing this blog is hearing from all of you and learning how you've made our recipes work better for your tastes.
Sweet Corn Soup
This dish is one that Grid and I worked on the other day for submission to a Food52 contest for their best "Corn Off the Cob" recipe. At first, I thought of submitting a succotash, which is a favorite summer dish of mine, but I've always wanted to work up a recipe for a creamy sweet corn soup, and this contest provided a perfect excuse to do just that.
Peach and Blueberry Crumble with Tarragon
I found some delicious, locally grown peaches at the market the other day, and they looked so good in their cute little wooden box that I had to buy them. There were about 12 of them in the crate and were still a bit hard when I bought them so I left them on the counter to continue ripening for a couple of days. When they seemed to have softened enough, my wife and I cut into one for a lunchtime dessert and were thrilled with how great they were, so juicy and very sweet.
Of course, the problem with peaches (and most fresh fruit for that matter) is that once they attain their peak of freshness, they begin a quick downhill sprint to the land of rot. If we only had one or two to snarf down in a hurry I wouldn't have worried much, but with a ten or so peaches left, and most of our clan off at various camps this week, I was afraid we'd lose all the lovelies to our ever present summer battalion of fruit flies, before we had a chance to enjoy them.
Vanilla Brined Pork Chops
With grilling season in full swing, I wanted to toss out a quick-brine, dry rub combo to keep you and your grill on your toes. This dish was inspired by a recipe I saw recently in Fine Cooking magazine, and with just a few tweaks to the brine and rub, we've come up with a dish that we've made twice already in the last few weeks.
Cod with Roasted Tomatoes, Beans and Green Olive Broth
This meal came together on the fly the other night in an effort to rid our fridge of some produce before we left town for a week. We had some purple romano beans (did you know they turn green when you cook them?…neither did I), some baby potatoes, half a box of organic chicken stock, and a green olive pesto that had been in residence so long that it was practically part of the family.
