Clean the Pantry Salad

First things first: I have a wee bit of virtual housekeeping to take care of. If you look to the right of this post, you'll see a whole bunch of fun stuff, some of which could use a little explaining. As you might notice, Red Ramekin is now a featured publisher on Foodbuzz. Honestly, I have no idea a) how we became a "featured publisher," or b) what a "featured publisher" actually is. But it seems cool, and Foodbuzz itself is a pretty cool website. Think Facebook, but yummier. The site connects a whole bunch of foodies from around the world, and bloggers can submit recipes, photos, restaurant reviews, and blog posts to the site. You can "vote" for your favorite items to give them more "buzz" ... or something like that. If you want to "vote" for me, click the button!

Next, of course, is the Daring Bakers stuff, which I've already explained. If you want to see other Daring Bakers, though, click on the Daring Bakers Blogroll. Then comes the newest addition to the extraneous stuff: Food Blog Search. Food Blog Search is actually a really great search engine that runs through Google. You can search over 2000 blogs (Red Ramekin is one of them!) for recipes, ideas, or whatever. And to think...you thought Epicurious was nifty! So last year.

Way down below is the Foodie Blogroll, which is being continually updated with new food blogs. Tasty!

Ok, so now that the virtual housekeeping is out of the way, how about some real housekeeping? And by housekeeping, I of course mean pantry cleaning. Jonathan and I are moving in a few weeks, which has inspired me to go on a pantry-emptying rampage. I don't mean tossing things in the trash, either. We're talking about ways to make dinner out of that handful of lentils in the back of the cabinet, or how to bake a cake using a half-cup of blue cornmeal, a forgotten bag of dried apricots, and a baggie-full of anise seeds (all things that happen to be in the cabinet at this very moment).


I hate throwing away food, but I'm not psyched about transporting all of those dried grains and other foodstuffs to the new apartment, even if it is only a few miles away from 20 Ellery. As a result, we have officially entered the pantry cleaning days, during which I plan to use up as much stuff and purchase as little stuff as is humanly possible. This may be as close as I get to Top Chef, so I plan to enjoy the challenge.

In fact, I enjoyed the challenge very much the other night, when I came up with a surprisingly tasty kamut salad. Before I go into the joys of pronouncing the word "kamut," I will say that the nature of this challenge is such that it becomes harder with time. This salad benefited from a rather healthy variety of pantry-stuffs, including a jar of artichoke hearts, some rogue pine nuts, a chunk of feta, and a gaggle of capers. I'm not sure I want to think about what my options will be come May 20, but for now they aren't so bad.


But back to the kamut - pronounced kuh-MOOT. Kamut is an heirloom variety of wheat, characterized by having significantly larger grains (berries) and being higher in protein than traditional hard or soft wheat. We can discuss my bulk bin addiction at some other time, but for now suffice it say that we have lots of baggies with lots of nearly indistinguishable whole grains to keep us occupied for a while. One of these was full of whole kamut grains, so I decided to give them a soak and make something with them.

I'm pretty proud of myself for having used up so many ingredients, and for making something that was so tasty, to boot. The pine nuts in this salad were an unenthusiastic add-in, but were actually the perfect savory touch to this slightly acid-heavy salad. The roasted tomatoes and artichoke hearts added some great color, texture, and vegetable-ness to the mix, and the feta tied it all together. To top it all off, there was a suspicious-looking half onion hanging out in the fridge, so I diced that up, roasted it with the tomatoes, and tossed it in for some flavor. And what else? The capers were...capers. No complaints on that front. A little vinegar, olive oil, and seasoning, and this clean-the-pantry salad was born.


I'll include a (loose) recipe for the salad here, but the spirit of the dish is really using things that are taking up space in the cupboard. To follow this recipe, then, you may actually have to not follow it all....it's pretty meta.

A note about kamut, and other non-polished whole grains: these are not the things of 30-minute meals. They require a leisurely soak (I soaked the kamut for about 24 hours), and then a leisurely simmer (1 1/2 - 2 hours). I cooked the kamut in an excess of liquid so that I could let it simmer all afternoon without my having to worry about my liquid evaporating. Even after all of that cooking though, the grains still had a nice bite to them. I'm pretty sure you could cook them forever and they'd still be "al dente." But just think of all of the fiber you'll be eating! So here's my loose recipe. Use it for ideas or inspiration, or, if you aren't planning a move in the next month, use it to make this tasty salad.

Clean the Pantry Kamut Salad

1 c. kamut grains, soaked for a day
about 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
half a medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, smashed with the back of a knife
handful of capers
1 small jar of artichoke hearts (drained and rinsed if they are "marinated")
large handful of toasted pine nuts
small chunk of feta cheese, crumbled
about 2 tbs. olive oil
splash of balsamic vinegar
generous salt, pepper, and seasonings
additional olive oil, salt, and pepper for roasting onion and tomatoes

Directions:
Soak kamut for a long, long time. Once soaked, cook kamut for a long, long time, in about 6 c. of salted water or broth. After about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, kamut should be toothsome, but not hard. Drain kamut and remove to a large bowl. Meanwhile, roast the tomatoes, onion, and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast or broil until tomatoes and garlic are just starting to blister, about 10 minutes under the broiler. Add vegetables to the kamut, and then add the artichokes, capers, pine nuts, and feta. Stir to combine, and then season with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and spices to taste.

Today's Favorite Salad

I've decided to institute a new rhetorical policy in my life. Since I'm chronically indecisive, and since I'm always trying out new foods and new recipes, from now on any "favorite" dishes of mine will have to be the favorite of the day. Otherwise, everything would be my favorite.

When I first started making my chickpea salad, it was definitely my favorite salad. Such texture! So lemon-minty! So fresh! And then came this delicious little number, my carrot and fennel salad. A new favorite, for sure. There is something special about the success of a new dish, especially one that you've created yourself. Just eating something that you've never had before, whether it's one special ingredient or a bold, new combination of flavors, is exhilarating in and of itself. So I guess that's why every dish I try is soon proclaimed "the best soup I've ever had," or "the yummiest salad ever," or "the ooiest-gooiest, freaking best pumpkin-cranberry cookies ever to have graced the universe with their presence" (Whole Foods pumpkin-cranberry cookies, October 2007).

In any case, favorites will now be favorites, but for their designated time. Perhaps I'll allow for some truly great dishes to be forever favorites, but for now I'll work with favorites of the day. Today's is an amazingly simple spinach salad with a tahini dressing. The dressing was actually a sauce I made to accompany some sesame-crusted chicken breasts a few nights ago, but I had a bit left over, was craving something green, and a new favorite was born.

When it comes to salad, I often try to pack as much vegetable as I can into the thing, but it's easy to forget how delicious fresh baby spinach is, all on its own. Really, try it sometime - straight from the bag (or in my case, obscenely awkward and large Olivia's Organics plastic container). It's really good. This salad has only three components: spinach, chopped kalamata olives, and dressing. I like to slice my baby spinach roughly into ribbons, because I like how it sits on the plate that way. I find that the whole leaves can be a bit unwieldy.


I also like to have this salad slightly warm, which softens the leaves just a tiny bit without actually cooking them. I just toss my greens in a bowl, cover with a plate, and microwave for 30 seconds or so. It makes such a simple salad seem a bit more elegant.

The key, of course, is the tahini dressing. It has a nice lemony bite and a subtle, pleasant bitterness from the tahini. The olives give it an extra boost of Mediterranean-ness, but this salad would go perfectly with just about any meal. Yum!

Warm Spinach Salad with Tahini Dressing (serves 2)

Salad:
3-4 c. loosely packed baby spinach
8-10 pitted kalamata olives

Dressing:
2-3 tbs. freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 tbs. tahini
1 tbs. coarse-grained mustard
1 tsp. (or to taste) honey
splash of olive oil
salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

Directions:
Make dressing: Mix first four ingredients and whisk to combine. Add a splash of oil and whisk again. Season to taste, adding more honey if necessary. For a thinner consistency, add a splash of water. For salad, roughly chop spinach and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave just until warm, about 30 seconds. Chop kalamata olives and add to warm spinach. Dress each salad with a few tablespoons of dressing, and toss (or cover with a plate and shake!) to combine. Serve immediately.

Waiter, There's Something in My....Salad

So the time has finally come for us green redramekin-ers to take the plunge and participate....yes, you guessed it...in a food blogging event. For those uninitiated into the ways of the professional food blogger, suffice it to say that there are lots of food blogging events. The premise is this: a blogger "hosts" an event by challenging other bloggers to create a special dish/photograph/recipe/etc. Many events are regular affairs that happen once a month or once a week.

This post is a submission for the "Waiter, There's Something in My..." event, which happens each month and features a new twist on a standard dish. This month's standard dish was salad, so we were in luck. Last month, the dish was terrine. Yikes. Glad we didn't attempt that one.

For more information on the event, head over to Spittoon Extra.

But back to our submission. I sure do love a good salad, and I was happy to have the chance to test out this new recipe idea. The salad is a carrot and fennel slaw type of deal, with a dressing that is bursting with all sorts of crazy Middle Eastern flavors. It is inspired by a more traditional carrot and raisin salad, but instead of chunks of raisins, this baby blends them up in the dressing, so the sweetness is a bit more even and subtle in each lovely, lovely bite.

Have I mentioned that I'm completely in love with fennel? Well, I am. Fennel is my valentine. And I really love these crispy, slaw-y types of salads with a hearty meal. We had this one with a chicken, squash, and apricot tagine (recipe coming soon, I hope), and the salad was the perfect crunchy counter to all of that deliciously stew-like goodness.

We happened to not have any fresh herbs on hand (mint or parsley would have been ideal), so I tossed a handful of arugula into the processor along with the other dressing ingredients. Arugula is spicy and herby enough to do the trick, although next time I'll be sure to try it with parsley. Also, make sure to make enough for leftovers...after sitting for a day, the carrot and fennel really soak up the flavors of the dressing.

Carrot and Fennel Salad with Lemony Raisin Dressing

3 carrots
1 large bulb fennel
1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. freshly-squeezed lemon juice
small handful fresh herb - mint, parsley, or baby arugula
1 tsp. honey
1 tbs. olive oil
salt, pepper, cumin, and cinnamon to taste

To make the dressing: soak raisins in hot water until plump and soft, about 30min. Drain and put into the bowl of a food processor. Add lemon juice, honey, and oil, and process until smooth. Add a handful of fresh herbs and process again. Pour mixture into another bowl, and season with salt, pepper, cumin, and cinnamon to taste. Add more honey if necessary. For the vegetables: peel and trim carrots and trim fennel (I suppose you could use the fronds for the dressing...). Grate carrots using the grating blade of the food processor, and slice fennel as thinly as possible, using the slicing blade. Toss vegetables and dressing together in a big bowl and serve either on a bed of greens or on its own.

Perfect, Simple Salad

I'm not going to be modest tonight - I have really been in a cooking groove lately. From delightful goat's milk-cardamom ice cream to a white bean stew (which served as the base for some incredible baked eggs this morning) to the minty-lemon lamb kebabs we had tonight, everything has been going my way. Culinarily, at least.

I am already planning some exciting posts to share those new recipes, but for tonight, I thought I'd share a simple and tasty salad recipe that has become one of my stand-bys. Not surprisingly, this is a Middle-Eastern inspired dish, which is adapted from Paula Wolfert's invaluable book Mediterranean Cooking. I highly recommend the book which, upon purchasing, I immediately read cover-to-cover.

At the very least though, you should try this salad recipe. I served it tonight with those luscious lamb kebabs and some homemade pita (so, so good), but it goes well with anything grilled or roasted. I won't pretend that this salad isn't best in the summer, when you can get delicious cucumbers and tomatoes, but it's still good at any time of the year.

Chickpea, Tomato, and Cucumber Salad

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3-4 green onions, sliced
small handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Mix tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, and green onions. Just prior to serving, chop mint and add to the salad. Top with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine.