Farro cakes on a bed of kale

I've been wanting to make a farro-based main dish for a while, but usually I just use it in salad, and it's been too chilly for me to get excited about a cold dinner. I played around with the idea of this farro cake for a while before going for it. I've made grain cakes before, and I just kind of made this one up. It's awesome, if I do say so myself. The farro is nice and chewy, and the liberal use of parmesan gives them a really nice deep cheesy flavor. It took me a little fiddling to get them to hold together. First, I just added one egg, but it was kind of just a dry-ish mash. I added a second egg, and it was too wet, but then I threw in some Panko crumbs, which absorbed just enough egg to get the cakes to hold together well. The kale complements the cakes nicely, but I have a pro-kale bias.

Farro cakes on a bed of kale

Makes about 10 cakes. I had 2 at dinner, and Jon had 5. So it serves 2-5 people, I guess.

1 cup farro (or a little less; you want 2 cups cooked in the end)

2 cups vegetable stock

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

8 grape tomatoes, quartered

1/2 tsp ground marjoram

1/2 tsp dried thyme

.65 oz grated parmesan or asiago cheese (I just got an electronic kitchen scale! If you don't have one, it's probably 1/3 cup grated by a microplane.)

2 eggs, well beaten

1/4 cup Panko or bread crumbs

4 kale leaves

Cook farro by combining farro with broth in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, and cook for about 25 minutes, or until water is absorbed and farro is tender. Set aside.

Heat oil in a medium frying pan. Add onion, then a few minutes later, garlic, tomatoes, marjoram, and thyme. Saute until everything is soft. Set aside.

Place 2 cups farro in a medium mixing bowl. Add vegetable mixture and cheese. Stir in eggs and Panko or bread crumbs.

To cook the cakes, heat a crepe or nonstick pan over medium heat until it is very hot. (Add a little oil if your pan needs it; ours doesn't.) Take a big spoonful of farro mixture, plop it on the pan, and mash it down with the back of the spoon so it's even and fairly flat. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the bottom is golden brown. Carefully flip it and cook on the other side until that side is done as well. The cakes didn't seem very liable to burn, so you don't need to be too worried about them getting overcooked.

In the leftover oil from the vegetable pan, saute the kale. Serve farro cakes on top of a bed of kale.

Tea eggs

I've made these tea eggs a few times over the past few years. They're a traditional Chinese snack, or so the internet tells me. The flavoring is mostly from soy sauce, but the spices and tea give the eggs a very complex flavor. I don't remember where I got the recipe; I have it written on a piece of paper and stuck to the fridge.

The marbled surface of the eggs comes from partially hardboiling them, then cracking the shells all over before cooking the rest of the way and and steeping them for a few hours or overnight. You have to crack the eggs pretty well to get the marbling. Here's one example of how mine looked before steeping.

Tea eggs

6 eggs

3/4 cups soy sauce

2 star anise

2 tbsp black or oolong tea

1 tsp sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 tbsp peppercorns

Some tangerine or orange peel

Place eggs in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 3 minutes.

Run eggs under cold water and, when cool enough to touch, crack all over with a spoon. Return to saucepan with still-hot water.

Add soy sauce, star anise, tea, sugar, cinnamon, peppercorns, and citrus peel. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, and simmer for 40 minutes. Turn off heat and let steep for a few hours or overnight.

Brussels sprout scramble

I pulled this together one morning to use up some excess Brussels sprouts that we had blanched and then not needed all of for a different dish. I was worried about them going bad, and figured that if broccoli is good in a breakfast scramble, why not Brussels sprouts? If we had had any onion, I would have used that as well, since onion is awesome in scrambles. I used powdered tomato to give some depth to this; I found it at a spice store near me, but I've never seen it anywhere else. It's just dehydrated tomato, so tomato paste would work in its place. I liked what the tiny bit of tomato did for the flavor. I also liked the Kerrygold reserve cheddar I stirred into it at the end. That's a nice cheese. I didn't have high expectations for this scramble, but it was actually pretty good, and I was definitely pleased to use up some leftovers.

Brussels sprout scramble

Serves 2.

Butter for the pan

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup thinly sliced Brussels sprouts (mine were blanched, but raw would work too)

4 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp powdered tomato, or a little tomato paste

1/4 cup good cheddar cheese

Put some buttter in a pan (I used nonstick) over medium heat. Add garlic and Brussels sprouts. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and softened. In the meantime, whisk eggs, milk, and tomato paste in a medium bowl. When the veggies are ready, pour egg mixture in and scramble. After the eggs are cooked, stir in cheddar cheese.

Corn and red pepper quiche

We bought a couple ears of corn last week but didn't get around to using them for a while. Quiche was on the menu for the week. We were thinking about going with broccoli, but I thought a corn and red pepper quiche might be just crazy enough to work. I was thinking of the texture of corn pudding or very soft cornbread with whole-kernel corn in it, and what we ended up with was similar to that. The contrast between the crunchy kernels and the soft egg is a little strange, but we liked it. Fresh basil would be great in this, but we only had dried.

Corn and red pepper quiche

1 quiche shell

1/2 tbsp butter
2 ears corn, kernels cut off the cob
1 red pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, cut into thin slices
1/2 tsp dried basil

3 eggs
1 cup half-and-half or 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup cream
1/3 cup cheese (we used a combination of Gruyere and another Swiss we had), grated or finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt

Prebake the quiche shell in a 375 oven for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, melt the butter in a saute pan and saute the corn and red pepper, stirring occasionally, until they have some nice browning action going on. Let cool.

Combine the eggs, half-and-half, cheese, and salt in a mixing bowl. When the corn mixture has cooled, add it to the egg mixture and pour into the quiche shell. Bake at 375 until the quiche has set, about 30-40 minutes.

The best ever asparagus tart

My mom has made this tart (I would call it a quiche, but what do I know?) several times, most recently yesterday for lunch with some of her church lady friends and today for lunch with my grandparents. It's delicious and makes a great meal with fruit or a green salad. It comes from a cookbook written by former First Lady of Alabama Patsy Riley. One of my second cousins was the social secretary for the governor, Bob Riley, and one year she gave us the cookbook for Christmas. Her husband was the head of security for the governor, and he is even mentioned in the book on page 47! The cookbook has a more varied selection than you might expect. It has a lot of standard Southern recipes, but she also included a section with a recipe from the first family of every state (the Palins sent a salmon recipe and a black cod recipe, both of which look pretty good) and a section of recipes from a few of the first ladies of the nation. The one for Abigail Adams involves larding a salmon with a skinned eel. I don't think I'll be attempting that. My mom has had fun trying some of the recipes, and this one is definitely a keeper!

Best Ever Asparagus Tart
(from When the Dinner Bells Rings at the Governor's Mansion by Patsy Riley)

1 pie crust, store-bought or homemade
1 lb asparagus spears
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup half and half
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 eggs
2 cups (about 8 oz) shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup (about 4 oz) grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Place the pie crust in a lightly greased 9-inch pie or tart pan and bake for 12 minutes. Let stand until cool, and leave the oven on.

Snap or cut off the bottom of the asparagus spears. Cut the spears into 3-inch pieces. Steam or blanch the asparagus, drain, and set aside.

Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and saute until tender, about 7 minutes.

Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, half and half, flour, and eggs in a mixing bowl and beat until blended. Stir in the onion mixture and Swiss cheese. Arrange the asparagus in the pie shell and pour the cream cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Job application food

I am in my final year of my Ph.D. program, so I am applying for jobs right now. It is somehow difficult, tedious, and scary all at the same time. That, combined with the fact that Jon is not here most of the time, means that I haven't been cooking a lot of blog-worthy meals. I noticed that I've been going to the egg+grain+green formula quite a bit on busy days. I find it very comforting. Here are two incarnations, both of which I found very good. By the way, if you're thinking about hiring a mathematician, let me know!

Egg and kale sandwich

Butter for frying an egg

1 egg

2 slices of bread

A few shaves of parmesan cheese

Za'atar

2 leaves of kale, thick stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped

Heat butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. When it's hot, crack the egg into it and fry it. (I cook it for a while on one side and then flip it and cook for just a little bit on the other side.) While you're doing this, you can toast your bread. Place the egg on one slice of bread with some shaves of parmesan and a healthy helping of za'atar. In the remaining butter, saute the kale until it's wilted. Put it on the sandwich and close it up.

Bulgar and mustard greens with poached eggs

This will make extra bulgar. I got a total of three meals out of it.

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup bulgur

Vegetable oil for sauteeing

1/2 small onion, diced

1 bunch mustard greens, thick stems removed, leaves chopped

1 egg

1 lemon slice

Za'atar

Heat 1 1/2 cups water and salt to boiling. Stir in bulgur, turn off heat, cover, and let cook for about 30 minutes. It's no big deal if the bulgur is a little wet, as long as it's tender enough. In a saute pan, heat the oil over medium. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the mustard greens and cook just until wilted. It's OK if they're not all the way wilted because the bulgur will wilt them the rest of the way.

Combine bulgur and greens in a large bowl. Put a blob of it on a plate.

Poach egg. I'm not an expert egg-poacher, so you should probably just do it your own way, but here's how I poach an egg. Fill up a medium saucepan with water. Heat it until it's close to boiling but not quite there, and try to somehow keep the temperature there. There should be little bubbles coming up and the water should look active. (Good luck.) Crack the egg into a small bowl and dump into water. Don't touch it for a while. After about 3 minutes, loosen it from the bottom and see if the white seems to be all the way cooked. Once it is, remove it with a slotted spoon and put it on top of the bulgur.

Squeeze some lemon juice and sprinkle some za'atar over the bulgur and egg.

Chocolate sweet potato torte

This is the third dessert we served at our pre-wedding dessert party. I got the recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I modified it a little. The biggest change I made was reducing the sugar by 1/3. Everyone agreed that it was sweet enough this way. The sweet potato flavor is pretty subtle, and you won't be able to taste it in a bite containing any of the chocolate topping, but it definitely makes a difference in the texture. As far as I can tell, this lasts indefinitely in the fridge. And it's gluten-free.

Chocolate sweet potato torte

1 cup sugar, divided
1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 large eggs (three separated)
2 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used one square of unsweetened baker's chocolate and one square of semi-sweet)
2 tbsp milk or soy milk

Spray nonstick cooking spray on a 9-inch pie dish and preheat the oven to 375.

Blend sweet potato, 1/2 cup sugar, almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor until smooth. Add three egg yolks and one whole egg and pulse to combine. Transfer to mixing bowl.

Beat three egg whites in electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until it holds stiff peaks.

Fold 1/3 of egg whites into sweet potato mixture with spatula. Gently fold in remaining egg whites. Pour batter into pie dish and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool, completely.

Fill a small saucepan about 1/3 with water. Place a glass mixing bowl on top and turn heat to medium. (Note: this is my version of a double boiler. It might be terribly unsafe, but it works for me.) Put the chocolate into the bowl. Stir as it melts. You might have to adjust the heat if the boiling gets vigorous. When the chocolate has melted, stir in the milk or soy milk. Spread chocolate over top of torte. Let stand until chocolate sets.

Carrot flan

I got Vegetable Heaven by Mollie Katzen as a wedding shower present, and it seems to be full of really inventive recipes. This is the first one I tried, and while it didn't come out exactly the way I expected, it tasted really good. The thyme and sage flavors are present and harmonize beautifully with the carrot flavor. This was also my first flan attempt, and I'm pretty pleased with how well they set. And I didn't spill boiling water on myself or an innocent bystander. Victory!
The description of the dish in the book is as follows: As these fragrant custards bake, they turn a creamy shade of yellow on the outside and a beautiful deep rust color on the inside. It's like magic. As you can see, that didn't happen to me at all. I don't know if the carrot juice I used was too pulpy or something, but instead of that color explosion, the solids in the carrot juice, along with most of the color, aggregated, and the rest of the flan was beige. The taste was fine, and the texture of the carrot solids was not objectionable in the least, but I was kind of looking forward to the rich orange inside I was promised. I did, however, get a bonus color explosion during baking: the blue dish towel I used under the ramekins leached dye into the water. I found that disconcerting until I realized that towels aren't meant to be color-fast at 350 F.

The carrots I am growing in my garden have been a great success, despite my wimpy thinning. It's hard to tell how big they are from above, but I picked a few nice ones for the garnish for this dish. They're a nice special treat. I eat them with the greens still attached, although at this point the greens are getting a little fibrous.
Carrot flan

Nonstick spray for the ramekins
1 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups minced onion
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried rubbed sage
4 cups fresh carrot juice
6 large eggs
1 cup milk, any fat content, non-dairy OK
Homegrown baby carrots, greens still attached, for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place a folded kitchen towel neatly in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan. Spray 4 12-oz, 5 10-oz, or 6 8-oz ramekins with nonstick cooking spray and place them on top of the towel. (The towel will help distribute moist heat during baking.)

Melt the butter in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and saute for 8-10 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Stir in the garlic and herbs and saute for about 2 more minutes. Add the carrot juice, bring to a boil, then turn the heat way down. Simmer uncovered until the carrot juice is reduced by about half, 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine the eggs and milk in a medium-large bowl, and beat slowly with a fork. Place a strainer over the bowl and strain the carrot juice mixture into the eggs and milk, pressing out as much liquid as you can. Discard the solids. Gently stir until thoroughly blended. Immediately ladle into prepared ramekins. Pour hot water into the baking pan until it reaches halfway up the sides. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the custards are just set.

Serve straight from ramekins or invert onto plates. To invert, let cool for five minutes, loosed sides with a knife, put a plate on top of the ramekin, say a little prayer, and turn over. Garnish with baby carrots if desired.

Sweet and sour cabbage salad

When Jon said he was making sweet and sour cabbage for dinner one night, I naturally thought Asia and suggested we serve it with sesame oil-seasoned rice noodles and bok choy. It turns out this cabbage recipe is much more German than Asian, so that was kind of a weird meal. Contemplating the cabbage during dinner, I came up with this rice salad recipe with a hard-boiled egg. It's a good simple lunch. We used this recipe from Bon Appetit for the cabbage, modifying it slightly to be vegetarian and subsituting cider vinegar for balsamic because we thought it made more sense. To have a vegan lunch salad, you might try substituting some tempeh for the egg. I wouldn't recommend just the rice and cabbage unless you want to be hungry 45 minutes later. FYI, one red cabbage made at least four batches of sweet and sour cabbage, and it also lasted in the fridge for a couple weeks, even after being cut.

Sweet and sour cabbage salad

Sweet and sour cabbage (see next recipe)
Cooked brown rice or bulgur
One hard-boiled egg

Put some rice in a bowl. Put some cabbage on top of it. Heat for about 45 seconds in the microwave so it's warm. Cut hard-boiled egg in eighths and arrange artfully on top of cabbage. Warning: the cabbage will discolor the eggs somewhat, so be prepared for some unnatural-looking blue egg whites.

Isn't it beautiful?

Sweet and sour cabbage

Vegetable oil for sauteeing
3 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1/3 cup thinly sliced onion
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar

Heat oil over medium in a large saute pan. Add everything else. Cook until cabbage is the texture you want and sauce is slightly reduced, about 10 minutes.

Easy bean and egg breakfast

I made this for dinner one night when we had just gotten back from a trip and had very little in the house. It was a very dump-and-stir dish, and it was even better for breakfast the next day. I usually don't use canned beans in my cooking, but when I find some dented cans for cheap in the clearance bin at the grocery store, I buy them for occasions like this when I want something fast and easy. Most of my tomatoes are also dented discount bin specials, but I recently had one of those cans explode in my pantry, so now I'm a little concerned about botulism. I know the bulging ones are bad, but are dented ones also suspect? I would feel a little silly if I got food poisoning because I wanted to save 40 cents on tomatoes.

Beany breakfast
I used tomatoes with chilies in them. If you have regular canned tomatoes, try using chili powder in place of the cumin and oregano or adding some canned or fresh chilies. There will be some leftover bean-and-tomato sauce here. It will keep in the fridge for a while.

1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dry oregano
1 14-oz can pinto beans, drained
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies

2 eggs plus a little butter for frying
2 tortillas (corn would be better, but we had flour tortillas in the fridge)
A few thin slices of cheddar cheese

Saute the onion and garlic in the vegetable oil over medium heat until the onion is soft. Add the cumin and oregano and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the beans and tomatoes and cook uncovered until most of the liquid has evaporated.
In the meantime, fry two eggs in butter. After you've removed them from the pan, throw the tortillas on the pan to get a little warm and buttery. Place tortillas on a plate, top with some cheddar, and add one egg and a nice scoop of tomato-bean mixture to each.

Mushroom quiche

I have been on a bit of a quiche kick lately. Some have turned out well and others a little less so. For instance the asparagus quiche I made was fine, but I would rather have some asparagus with an egg. However, my latest quiche turned out well. Next time I may try a different cheese (blue and emmentaler both sound good).

3 small portobello mushrooms thinly sliced
6 white mushrooms thinly sliced
1 Tsp dried rosemary
some salt
oil for sauteing

Heat oil in pan. Add sliced mushrooms and liberally salt them. Cook until the mushrooms start to give up their juices. Add rosemary and continue sauteing until the liquid has cooked off and they are done.

1/2 small onion finely diced

Saute.

3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
3 0z. Fontina cheese thinly sliced then cubed
1 oz. grated Romano
1 Tsp fresh rosemary

Break and beat eggs. Add cream, milk and rosemary. Beat together. Add cheese, mushrooms and onions. Pour into prepared quiche crust (the crust I used was baked 8 min with aluminum foil and pie weights, then 3-5 minutes with no foil or weights, all on 375) and bake for 25 minutes at 375. Let cool a bit and serve.

Like most (all?) quiche, this is good with a nice salad!