Quinoa and Kale “Winter” Salad

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Chelsea

Boo!Not really. Alas, the only Halloween-ish-ness I can attach here, for all my attempts to catch up with the impending holidays (and everything else), are the “scare” quotes in the title. (Haha? Maybe? I know; groan.)

Instead, let’s pretend I’m so caught up that I’m actually looking forward. Forget autumn; I’m already a season ahead. This is a winter kind of salad: no wimpy lettuce and out-of-season tomatoes here, but sturdy greens and the substantial base of quinoa. A good grain salad is a lovely thing – an entrée rather than a starter or a side, if you fill your plate enough – and this one is no exception. It is based on a bright incarnation from the Firestone Walker brewpub located near us, and it screams California, doesn’t it? As if just quinoa or kale on its own weren’t enough, this one offers the hipster bifecta in one brightly colored mound. If we completed the trio and added avocado, we’d probably all spontaneously sprout handlebar mustaches and skinny jeans (although seriously, avocado chunks would be a nice addition here). The aforementioned scare quotes in the title are because, although this is a winter salad, the place it really screams winter… is in California. The kale and cabbage are cold-weather vegetables everywhere, with kale really becoming sweet and crisp after exposure to frost, but the orange segments and the bright gemstones that are pomegranate seeds are also winter crops – spots of brightness in the chill that we can at least dream of in what constitutes a Southern California winter.

As a good salad should, this one has plenty of textures for your teeth to play with: the quinoa offers a toasty, chewy bite, the cabbage is raw so it provides a rough crunch, and the feta has that strange squeaky-soft chew. I like that pop of a pomegranate aril and the sudden crushing of the seed within; it’s a nice little metaphor for today, isn’t it? A sweet, plump, juicy treat, but the trick of an unexpected crunch hiding within.

Quinoa and Kale “Winter” Salad

Serves 4

About 30 minutes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 tablespoons white wine (optional)

2 cups chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water

2 cups red cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons, then halved or quartered into bite-size sticks (see photo)

4-5 ounces kale, thick stems removed, finely chopped (will be about 2 cups when chopped)

½ cup pomegranate seeds

2 large oranges: one cut into segments or supremes (see here for a clear photo tutorial by the kitchn), one reserved for juicing

½ cup crumbled feta cheese + 2 tablespoons

2 tablespoons finely sliced chives or green onions

¼ cup fresh orange juice

1 tablespoon champagne or white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons honey (optional)

¼ cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat until it is shimmering. Add the rinsed, drained quinoa and toast, stirring frequently, until the grains are dried and smell nutty. Add in the white wine, stirring while it steams and absorbs, then add the broth or water, stir, and clamp on a lid.
Let the liquid in the quinoa pot come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the little thread-y looking germ around the quinoa has loosened and separated (see photo above). Package directions usually say this takes 12-15 minutes; I find I like my quinoa a bit more cooked: 18-20 minutes. You do you. When the quinoa is finished cooking, remove the lid, fluff it up a bit, and set aside to cool.
While the quinoa cooks, prep the rest of your ingredients: thinly slice the cabbage and cut down the big slices into short, stumpy ribbons, chop the kale finely, and cut the chives or green onions into wispy circles. Make supremes from the orange, and add them along with the vegetables, the cheese, and the pomegranate seeds into a large bowl.
You can also use this time to make the dressing: in a 2-cup glass measuring cup, whisk the orange juice with the vinegar and the honey. You can squeeze out the core of the orange that you supremed earlier for some of this, but unless it’s very juicy you will likely need a bit more from the second orange. Stream in the olive oil, whisking constantly, to form a nicely emulsified dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste, whisk up once more, and set aside.
When the quinoa is finished and has cooled a bit, pour the dressing over it, stir and fluff to distribute evenly, then dump into the bowl containing the rest of your ingredients. Toss gently to combine.
To serve, either scoop out mounds onto individual plates, or just present in a large salad bowl or platter. Just before serving, top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of feta cheese.

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Tempura Fish Tacos with Wasabi Seaweed Slaw

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Chelsea

Wedding week has come and gone, and yes, it was as magical and as maniacal and just as much hard work and hard play and hard dancing as you might expect. I fully intended to keep an instagram record of food we made and food we ate, but as often happens when I return to the family fold, I clean forgot about the internet for – gasp – full days at a time, and thus no record was made. You’ll have to trust me when I say it was delicious.

But I’m back now, and treading water to catch up at work, while I allow myself to sink deeply back into my kitchen. For a few weeks before we left, I was drowning in recipe-writer’s-block, but on the plane on the way home I made my “meals for the week” list in about three minutes flat, and had already constructed the one for next week by the time we got home from the grocery store. It helps that Los Angeles has declared at least one week of autumnal weather, so all that roasting and winter veg I’ve been itching for is making its way into my fridge.

Although these tacos aren’t really all that autumnal, they were a product of my plunge back into post-wedding cooking. I had originally planned to sauté the fish very simply, but a bag of rice flour in my pantry whispered at me, and suddenly I was whisking flour with seltzer water and a touch of baking powder, and watching my simple tempura batter puff, crisp and light, around the frying filets.

I always make a cabbage slaw when we have fish tacos; usually it’s just a toss of green cabbage, cilantro, lime juice, and a bit of salt. But given the Asian direction of my frying method, I decided to play a bit with the flavorings. Instead of lime juice, I’m using rice vinegar here, and for a creamy, brightly spicy slaw, whisking in mayonnaise and wasabi sauce. For extra intrigue and a texture that shifts in a moment from crisp to chewy, strips of nori get tossed in at the last minute.

Other additions: I thought about nestling thin slices of radish in alongside the fish for a fresh crunch, and though at the last minute I forgot, I still think they would be a nice addition. If you really wanted to fancy things up from a texture perspective, topping each taco with a tangle of sliced, fried won ton wrappers would be fantastic. I like a slightly puffy flour tortilla for these, toasted (or slightly charred) over a gas flame, but corn tortillas, hard or soft, would be lovely as well.

Note: the downside of tempura is that time is an enemy. It doesn’t stay crisp for all that long, especially if what is lovingly encased inside is moist, and it doesn’t keep at all well. Plan to make only as much as you intend to eat at one sitting.

Tempura Fish Tacos with Seaweed Wasabi Slaw

45-60 minutes

Serves 3

For the slaw:

¼ cup mayonnaise

2-3 tablespoons wasabi sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar or mirin (rice wine)

3 cups shredded or very finely sliced cabbage – I used a mixture of green and red

½ cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves

1 ounce sheet of nori (sushi seaweed), cut into thin strips, to add at the last minute

For the tacos:

1 pound firm, meaty white fish like mahi mahi or halibut, cut into long, slim fingers as in the photo above.

1½ cups vegetable oil, for frying

1 cup rice flour or all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

8 ounces seltzer water

6 tortillas

45-60 minutes before dinner, start the slaw: whisk the mayo, the wasabi sauce, the rice vinegar, and the sugar in a small bowl. Combine the shredded cabbage with the cilantro in a large bowl, then drizzle over ⅔ – ¾ of the sauce and toss – you are looking for a light coating of sauce. Save the remainder to drizzle over the tacos last minute. Once the cabbage is dredged in sauce, set it aside until you are ready to serve – at least 30 minutes.
Heat the vegetable oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until it is around 350F.
While the oil warms, make the tempura batter: whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt in a medium bowl or right in a pie plate. Add the seltzer water a little at a time, whisking to combine, until you have a smooth batter. The seltzer will fizz considerably as you add it, making things hard to see, so be assiduous and make sure you have incorporated all of the dry pockets of flour.
When the oil is suitably hot, add the fish strips to the tempura batter and turn them over a few times to coat evenly. Lift each piece, let it drain briefly, then lay it into the skillet gently, letting it go away from you in case of a splash. The oil will bubble up rapidly with each addition.
Add as many of the fish pieces as you can in a single layer without touching each other, then let cook until puffed and brown, turning once, about 3-4 minutes per side.
If you absolutely must hold the fish for a bit while other components are finalized, place the cooked pieces on a wire rack positioned over a baking sheet and stow it in a 250F oven. Try to minimize how long it sits in the oven, though, as it will quickly overcook and lose its crispness.
During the last two minutes of cooking, toast the tortillas over a gas flame and add the nori strips to the slaw, tossing briefly. Alternatively, you could reserve the nori strips and just layer on a few atop the slaw to serve.
To make the tacos, stuff the tortillas with a piece of fish, a drizzle of the extra sauce if you wish, and a nice scoop of slaw. Serve immediately.

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It’s Wedding Week!

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Chelsea

No recipe today (again, I’m sorry, and none next week either), but I did want to write a little – it doesn’t do to fall out of the habit for too many weeks in a row.

It has been a busy few weeks, getting ready for this coming Saturday: at long last, it’s Wedding Week! My little sister, as I noted on my last post, is getting married, and tomorrow morning I fly out to Virginia to help with final prep and – mostly – to spend time with family right before the big day. This has meant, for me, working long days to get all of my work responsibilities – both teaching and departmental – set up and ready, clockwork-God style, for a week without me. Feverish grading, lesson planning, coordinating substitutes, ordering copies of handouts, all has led to a week of less-than-inspiring meals.

But now, with wheels and cogs and dog-sitters in motion, I can sit down for a few minutes, and let myself digest the importance of the week to come. Since about Thursday afternoon, I’ve been wildly excited (I mean, I’ve been excited since the engagement was announced, but it has ramped up in the last week). N. has said once or twice that I’m almost at Christmas-levels of elation. I’ve thought about that, and it makes sense. See, anymore, with geography and academic schedules paining wide swaths between us all, I now visit with my family only once or twice a year, usually at Christmas, and in the summer. This summer was taken up with teaching and with our annual pilgrimage to Oregon, which means aside from a week with my mother in the spring, I haven’t seen my family since Christmas. Here it is October, a few months early, but I’m about to see them again, and for a celebration. No wonder I feel like decking the halls.

As a result of all this, I’m ready to go. It’s time for sister time! I’ve been 80% packed since Saturday. I finished my toast last weekend. My meetings are over. The Welcome Dinner shopping list is almost complete – waiting on only a few RSVPs to confirm quantities. My mom made the trip to Virginia on Saturday, and is now happily ensconced with her younger daughter and her son-in-law-to-be, embroiled in planning, and I have to wait until tomorrow morning.

So now what?

This hubbub followed by silence, coupled with the turmoil of what’s happening out there in the world, has made for an odd weekend. I’m not cooking a big, blog-worthy dinner, because another trio of overly warm days has waved its way through, and because I don’t want a fridge full of leftovers, left behind. I’m not grading, because I want that stack of papers to wing across the country with me so I have “company” on the plane. I’m not lesson-planning, because everything is prepped.

I’m someone who likes to be ready to go ten minutes early, to arrive five minutes early, so you’d think I’d be feeling relaxed and on top of it, needing only to take that last walk before packing my sneakers, and that last morning tooth brushing before stowing my toiletries away. Everything, I told my sister on Friday evening, feels like a countdown. I have lists and folders and announcements in place. I’m crossing off the days in my mind the way one of my colleagues is crossing off the days till her retirement at the end of the year. But I also like to have a puppeteer’s control over the timeline, and now I have to sit and wait, with my stomach jumping like I have a job interview in an hour, and let taxi drivers and pilots and flight plans be in charge.

All this, these roller-coaster-ing paragraphs, as a way of saying, R., I CAN’T WAIT! I’m so excited to see you, and to see Ch., and to see our family, and to watch you enact those beautiful and weighty promises that make your life exactly the same and also so different at the same time, and to laugh and to cry and to carve those wrinkles at the corners of my eyes even deeper, because those are the physical proof of my moments of joy. And to cook with you, and to giggle over the games we’re going to play, and to do your make-up on the day of your wedding, and to stand beside you. And to dance. And to raise my glass. And to hold an umbrella over your head while I juggle both our bouquets just in case it rains. And to wish you, my sister, the happiest of marriages, as happy as mine has been and more, and welcome you into this new stage of partnership.

Hurry up, Tuesday. I’m ready to see my family; I’m ready to see my Rachel.