Paper Chef #14: Throwing the “baby” in with the quinoa
Paper Chef is a weekend food-blogging event, the brainchild of Owen at Tomatilla! On the first Friday of each month, a list of four ingredients is posted; bloggers post their recipes using said ingredients on the following Monday. For Paper Chef #14, hosted by the Washington food-blogging duo at Belly-Timber, the ingredients were: quinoa, yog(h)urt, cashews and “baby” food (either food for babies or something with baby in the name or…)
Update: Mrs. D and Chopper Dave at Belly-Timber have posted a beautiful Paper Chef round-up, including photos and descriptions of all twenty-three entries!
Until Saturday, I had never cooked quinoa. As far as I know, I had never eaten quinoa. Before mixing quinoa with anything else, I wanted to know what it was all on its own, so I cooked 1 cup of raw quinoa as plainly as possible:
Rinse the quinoa in several changes of water, rubbing the grains together, until the water stays clear. Cook quinoa in boiling water 10 minutes. Drain in a large sieve and rinse under cold running water. Set sieve of quinoa over a pot with an inch or two of boiling water (sieve should not touch water); cover with a tea towel and the pot lid. Steam until quinoa is fluffy and dry, 10 to 12 minutes.
The cup of tiny seeds quadrupled in size; I had four cups of something with a more interesting texture (light and soft, with a bit of chewiness) than flavor (extremely mild, vaguely nutty, dare I say bland?). The ideas that I’d had for the other three required ingredients - roasted baby squash and onions, a coriander-lime-yogurt sauce, cashews tossed with currants in the quinoa - seemed too heavy. I feared overpowering the light texture and taste of the quinoa, which I wanted instead to emphasize.
After a couple of false starts, I came up with a recipe that I like: Quinoa in Blueberry-Yog(h)urt Vinaigrette with Cashews and Three “Babies” (Spinach, Citrus and Pomegranates).
Here’s what you’ll need for two servings:
- Quinoa, cooked, 2 cups
- Yogurt, Greek, 1/2 cup (I like Fage, and used 2% for this)
- Blueberry vinegar, 1/4 cup (available from Canter-Berry Farms’ web site, or at Pike Place Market)
- Dijon mustard, 1 1/2 tsp.
- Red onion, finely chopped, 3 Tbsp.
- Black pepper, freshly ground, to taste
- Cashews, roasted, 1/3 cup
- Satsumas or clementines, 2, sectioned (a.k.a. “baby” citrus)
- Pomegranate seeds, 1/3 cup (a.k.a. “baby” pomegranates)
- Baby spinach, 2 cups
Whisk together the yogurt, blueberry vinegar, mustard and 2 Tbsp of the red onion. Coarsely chop 1/4 of the satsuma sections; add fruit and juice to dressing. Grind in black pepper to taste. Combine dressing with cooked quinoa; chill for a couple of hours so that flavors blend and permeate the quinoa.
Arrange baby spinach on 2 plates. Stir half of cashews and half of pomegranate seeds into quinoa. Mound half of quinoa mixture in center of each plate (or, for nice architectural lines, pack into ramekins and turn out onto spinach). Arrange satsuma sections around quinoa; sprinkle with remaining cashews, pomegranate seeds and red onion.
Techorati tag: Paper Chef
That looks delicious!
Egad, that’s stunning! In such a tight close-up, it looks like “Attack of the Pomegranate Pods.”
Nice food styling. And it sounds tasty.
Was it as good as it looks? Yummeeee!
It looks yummy, how did it taste?
BEAUTIFUL! I love the picture. Everything looks so fresh and tasty.
congrats on that. no matter how i tried, i never could make it taste like anything but dirt.
Hey - we have that exact same blueberry vinegar in our pantry. (Folks who arrive here from Seattle treat us right!)
The picture is just lovely, and I love the interpretation of pomegranate seeds=”baby pomegranate.”
Aren’t you just fabulous? Why yes, yes you are. I am indeed impressed with anyone who can make quinoa interesting. The blueberry vinegar is a stroke of genius!
That’s it. I’m on my way to LaGuardia. I should be at your front door in about seven hours.
Looks fantastic–between the pomegranates and blueberries, you’ve got your daily anti-oxidents covered
[…] […]
[…] First of all, a collection of whimsical and delicious Honorable Mention categories to whet your appetite for the grand finale: Festival of Enticing Ingredients: Honorable Mention, Quinoa Division: Kimberly at Music and Cats. for her Quinoa in Blueberry-Yog(h)urt Vinaigrette with Cashews and Three “Babies.” A lovely first outing with a new grain, with emphasis on quinoa as the center of her dish. Honorable Mention, Yog(h)urt Division: Lyn at Lex Culinaria for her Roasted Baby Beet, Labanya and Quinoa Salad. Another handsome, architectural dish with a scrumptious layer of labanya in the middle. Honorable Mention, Cashew Division: Lady X at Experiment in Writing. for her Cashew Praline Frozen Yogurt Pie. Mmm… praline. Need we say more? Honorable Mention, Baby Division: The Culinary Bookworm at Weekly Dish for her Quinoa King Cake with Orange-Yogurt Cashew Filling Okay, so you wouldn’t want to eat that particular baby, but…brilliant! Special “Maternity Ward” Honorable Mention for Best Multiple Babies: Katherine at ToastPoint, for her Baby Curry and Quinoa Fritters with Cashew Cream. Too much fun — remind us to never ever challenge her to a game of Scrabble! Honorable Mention, Overall Use of Ingredients: MagicTofu at Slurp and Burp for his full day of Paper Chef inspired meals. We especially liked the resourceful shift from breakfast crepes to lunch crepes. Nicely done! Fiesta of Thematic Excellence: Honorable Mention, Healthy Division: Cookiecrumb at I’m Mad and I Eat for her Quinoa Tabbouleh D’Brickashaw. Simple, elegant, and with all those fresh herbs, who needs multivitamins? Honorable Mention, Simplicity Division: Cyndi at Cookin’ with Cyndi for her Sweet Potato Quinoa Corn Bread. A comfort food classic with a Paper Chef twist. Honorable Mention, Renewal Division: The Culinary Bookworm at Weekly Dish for her Quinoa King Cake with Orange-Yogurt Cashew Filling Celebrating a great city’s rebirth. Fête of Culinary Goodness: Oooh, Pretty — Honorable Mention for Extreme Culinary Beauty: Rachael at Fresh Approach Cooking for her Broiled Perch with Quinoa-Cashew Crust and Pinapple-Kumquat Salsa. Simply exquisite. Yum Yum! — Honorable Mention for Immediate Desire for Culinary Consumption: Sylvie at Soul Fusion Kitchen, for her Baby Back Ribs with Quinoa and Cashews with Two Yogurt Sauces. It’s Chopper. He can’t help himself. He’s like a rib magnet. Zoinks, Whaa? — Honorable Mention for Extraordinary Innovation: Brendon at Something in Season. for his Spinach Sushi with Quinoa and Cashews . Ingenious, offbeat, and with only eight ingredients! Splort! — Honorable Mention for Fall-on-Floor Culinary Humor: MagicTofu at Slurp and Burp for his multigrain cashew nut loaf… in swaddling clothes. Hug it? Eat it? Hug it? Eat it? Hug it? Eat it? And…. The grand finale…. Paper Chef’s Best of Show: For outstanding use of ingredients, food we’d order again and again, and a fine dose of both healthy scrumptiousness and culinary whimsy: MagicTofu at Slurp and Burp! […]