Sesame-ginger granola

I've been on a granola making kick lately. Fairly often I find I'm not in the mood for breakfast cereal. Besides the fact that they're super expensive for the ingredients that are actually in them, I just find them very boring. The main advantage I see to making your own granola are that you can control what goes into it, thus you can make a breakfast food that you are totally psyched about eating in the morning. A basic granola recipe is 6 cups rolled oats ("old-fashioned," not quick or instant) plus 2 c. seeds, nuts, and/or other grains, spices, and half a cup to a whole cup of honey or other sweetener, and up to a half a cup of oil or nut butter. I don't really like dried fruit in my granola so much, but you can add as much of that as you want to - just add it after baking so the raisins don't turn into tooth-destroying little rocks.

I love anything with sesame in it, so I was looking to make a sesame heavy granola. I think this one worked out really well. The texture is interesting and perhaps not very typical - somehow it ended up containing lots of chewy bites of oats, sesame seeds tahini and honey. The tahini I used was kind of old and thus very seperated into the solids and the oils; even heating didn't not homogenize it well. The chewy bites contrasted nicely with an overall crunch. It's almost like having sesame candy for breakfast. If you prefer a thoroughly crunchy granola I think you could just bake it longer and/or hotter.



The granola below is less than 2/3 the price (per ounce) of Bear Naked granola, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or even Cheerios, and it is way more interesting. The main cost is actually the tahini, so you can see how making a more basic granola (with just nuts and raisins, for example) would be even cheaper. I've listed the costs of the ingredients for illustration - I just grabbed prices off of online listings pretty quickly - the honey seems too expensive, I think if you buy the 1/2 gallon containers like I do it's a lot cheaper. It's also super easy - the active working time is just a few minutes. The only tricky part is making sure it doesn't burn. At only 300, burning is much less likely, but you should still check on it and stir. Most recipes I've seen call for 325 or 350 but using tahini (or peanut butter) makes it easier to burn, so I think 300 is best.

Ingredients
6 c. oats ($1.52)
1/2 c. sesame seeds ($1.04)
1/2 c. wheat germ ($0.30)
3 T. ground ginger ($0.67)
1/2 t. salt (negligible)
1/2 c. honey ($1.49)
1/2 c. tahini ($1.61)
1 T. canola (or other neutral) oil (negligible)
2 T. orange juice (negligible)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300.
2. In your largest mixing bowl, stir together oats, sesame seeds, wheat germ, and salt.
3. Over medium-low heat, stir together honey, tahini, oil, and orange juice until smooth (if possible).
4. Pour the hot liquids over the oat mixture and toss till well coated.
5. Spread the mixture onto two jelly roll pans (cookie sheets with sides).
6. Put in the oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring about every 5-8 minutes, and switch oven positions halfway through. Keep an eye out for any burning.

Total price: $6.63
Total weight: 32.1 ounces
Price per ounce: $0.21
Price per serving (8 servings): $0.81

Variations
They are infinite. But one of my other favorites has pumpkin seeds, pecans, a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, and 1/2 c. peanut butter instead of the tahini.

Sardines! Sardine-jicama-orange-avocado salad

On Saturday I woke Andy up in the middle of the night saying that I needed to give Alton Brown the salad. I don't remember any of this, but I started writing this blog posting that day, so I must have been dreaming about it. I wonder if I meant I had to give him the recipe or the salad itself?! The title of this recipe may give you pause; sardines have a bad rap as a smelly, oily fish. But I encourage you to read on and then give them a chance (except Matt, you're exempt).

Let's discuss sardines first. I bought some canned brisling 2-row sardines packed in olive oil at King Soopers the other day after being inspired by, who else, Alton Brown (I realize this is the third post in a row where I mention him...) On a recent show, he extolled the virtues of sardines as a healthy and tasty food, and made open faced sandwiches that I made the other day - they were great! The health benefits and tastiness are definitely true, but more importantly in my mind is that sardines are a sustainable fishery. They are abundant and very low on the food chain. Because they are low on the food chain, they don't require a lot of inputs and don't create much waste - essentially the oceans can support a lot of them. Compare sardines to, say, canned tuna. Tuna are high on the food chain, thus they require more inputs and the ocean can support fewer of them...making them prone to overfishing especially when they are a super popular fish. Another outcome of being high on the food chain is that they bioaccumulate toxins as they consume the fish that are below them on the food web; most notably mercury and PCBs. I've made a table to compare canned tuna and canned sardines. All the nutritional information is for equal serving sizes (by mass) of the fish, canned in oil. The cells highlighted in green show which fish shines in that category. Yellow and red highlights where you might want to be cautious. You can see sardines are higher than tuna in a number of beneficial nutritional measurements: calcium, fatty acids, vitamin D, among others.



Sources of data:
Sardine nutritional data
Tuna nutritional data

Monterey Bay Aquarium factsheet for sardines
Monterey Bay Aquarium factsheet for canned tuna
Mercury measurements

So, having made the case for sardines, here's the recipe. I think that the citrus helps moderate the oilness of the sardines.

Ingredients
2 cans of 2-row brisling sardines packed in olive oil
Juice and zest of 2 limes
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
1/4 t. chili powder
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 of a medium-large jicama or 1 small jicama - the equivalent of about a grapefruit sized volume
3 oranges
2 avocados

1. Drain the sardines reserving the olive oil.
2. Whisk together 1 T. of the sardine oil, the juice and zest of the limes, the cilantro and chili powder. Add some pepper.
3. Add the sardines to the dressing, lightly break up the sardines with a fork into bite sized pieces. Marinate the sardines in this dressing for 30-60 minutes.
4. Cut up the jicama into bite sized pieces... I like it in fat matchstick shapes. Cut up the orange and avocado into small bite sized pieces. Remove most of the oranges' pith if you're picky.
5. Toss everything together, let the flavors coalesce for 15-30 minutes or so, and serve.

This is best served the same day it's made.

Variations
I think this could be made with a variety of fruits or even vegetables. I can see sardine-watermelon-banana salad, sardine-jicama-grapefruit (with honey!), sardine-potato-raisin (with vinagrette, a potato salad variation)...

My favorite veggie chili (just in time for the Super Bowl)

Chili is all about chiles. With an "i," chili is the spicy bean and tomato stew. With an "e," chiles are the fruit (yes, fruit, seeds are inside and they can grown into new plants!) that make chili spicy. Now that that clarification is out of the way, here's the bottom line: the chili powder makes all the difference. It is SOOO much better if it's homemade. Why? Not sure, but my guess is that 1) the chiles you put into it are fresher... and once ground and sitting on a Safeway shelf for months, a chili powder loses freshness quickly. 2) you can use any variety of chiles you want. My guess is that most commercial chili powders are the cheapest chiles available.

You can make your own chili powder a million different ways, but here's one incredible recipe from Alton Brown, my favorite TV chef. I've made mass quantities of AB's chili powder and given it as Christmas gifts before. AB's chili powder recipe takes care of all the spicing requirements. The only additional spices I add are fresh garlic (cause garlic makes everything better) and cinnamon, which kind of magically melds the flavors together. I try to add just enough to accomplish this, but not overwhelm the chiles. It's easy to add too much, so be light with the shaker.

Since I'm not a meat fan, I like to add some bulgar wheat to chili. Not as a meat substitute, but to give the chili some extra al dente appeal. I make it with quinoa instead sometimes but bulgar is better. Also, a writer at Serious Eats has done a much more scientific analysis of his chili recipe, it's a very good article. The part about the meat is especially interesting for you meat-eaters.

And for serving, be sure to provide all the fixins (listed below the recipe), along with some cornbread.


Ingredients
0.75 cup bulgar wheat
1.5 cups water or tomato juice
2-3 T. oil
salt
at least 3 T. homemade chili powder
3 onions
lots of garlic (6-10 cloves)
2-3 carrots
2-3 green bell peppers
2-3 jalapenos
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
0.25 to 0.5 t. ground cinnamon
1 bag soaked and cooked black beans, or any mix of black, red, kidney, pinto, black-eyed peas. Cans are fine too, use 3 or 4.
molasses, to taste (I maybe use 0.25 c.)
soy sauce, to taste (just a few dashes)
optional add-ins: frozen or fresh corn, spinach


1. Cook bulgur according to package directions (in the water or juice, usually a 1:2 ratio). Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a big pot over medium. Cook the onions, carrot, salt, and chili powder till the crunch is just barely taken off. Stir often.
3. Add the garlic and peppers. Saute till the crunch is barely taken off the peppers. Stir often.
4. Add the tomatoes and cinnamon. Turn the heat to low, and cook for at least half an hour (an hour is better), stirring occasionally. The tomatoes should lose some acidity and turn a more orangey shade of red.
5. Add the beans, bulgar, molasses, soy sauce and corn and spinach (if using), and cook another half hour more. Add additional water or tomato juice if it is too thick for your liking.
6. As you are going, adjust seasonings. I usually end up adding a LOT of chili powder. The cinnamon shouldn’t really be tasteable, but somehow it tends to bring all the flavors together.

Serve with grated cheddar cheese, sliced avocados, plain greek style yogurt (I can't get enough of Mountain High plain lowfat) or sour cream, shredded green cabbage or lettuce.

Quick "roasted" squash side dish

I think squash is best roasted, but sometimes, I'm just too hungry to wait that long. This was the case last night after a long day in the lab. The point of roasting a vegetable (or meat for that matter) is to get some browning reactions going. Browning reactions convert simple sugars and proteins into more complex flavors. This 1953 article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by John Hodge, one of the great food chemists, identified and integrated some of the early postulated reactions into a unified theory. Quite remarkable considering how much is still not understood about the mechanisms that make grilled steak or roasted veggies so delicious.



But back to the squash at hand... I decided to try to shortcut the research presented above; by first boiling the squash, then dehydrating it a bit, and then broiling, and making up for the lack of browning reactions with peripheral savory, sweet, complex flavors. I had one small, sad acorn squash that had been in the fridge for quite some time, and about 1/4 of a very large butternut, about 1/2 lb in all. Any firm winter squash would work. I left the skin on, cause again, I was hungry! I had picked up some thyme at the store the other day, having remembered how much I like it because Mary and Erin cooked with some at our Estes Park/RMNP mini-vacation last weekend. That along with some smoked sea salt takes care of the savory flavors; brown sugar is a shortcut to the sweet caramelized flavor roasting usually imparts, and the butter brings it all together. The bread crumbs are for a little crunch and visually, for some browning.



Ingredients
~1/2 lb. firm winter squash, sliced into fairly large chunks (peeling is optional)
1 T. butter
1 T. fresh thyme (leaves removed from twigs)
2 T. brown sugar
large pinch smoked sea salt
ground pepper to taste
bread crumbs (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and boil some water.
2. Cook the squash in the boiling water, till just tender, about 10 minutes.
3. In a casserole or baking dish, toss the squash with the butter, thyme, 1 T. of the brown sugar, and the salt and pepper.
4. Sprinkle the remaining 1 T. of brown sugar, and some bread crumbs on top.
5. Cook for about 10 minutes in the oven (to dehydrate), and then switch to broil. Broil for a few minutes till the bread crumbs and squash are starting to brown.

Variations
I think it would also be great with some parmesan cheese in addition or instead of the bread crumbs. I used some homemade wheat bread crumbs I have stashed in the freezer, but I think the crunch factor would be improved with crunchy Japanese style bread crumbs (panko), which are available in most supermarkets.

BBQ'ed tofu

Not to toot my own horn, but I've heard more than one person say this is the best tofu they've ever had. Only 3 people, but I think that's significant, and I'm posting at the request of Tien. It's roughly based off a recipe from Lorna Sass's the New Soy Cookbook, which my mom gave me. The recipe says to cook under the broiler, I've only done it on the grill. Also, I never measure the ingredients for this. You'll notice that all the measurements are 2 T. or 1 T. So when I'm making it, I say it's 2 parts ketchup and mustard to 1 part everything else, and just make it by eye. The 2 cloves garlic is about 1 T. too.

Serves 2 as a main course.

1 12 oz. block of extra firm tofu, drained and press (see here for more on how (and why) to press tofu)
2 T. dijon mustard
2 T. ketchup
1 T. tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press (it's important to get the pieces small)
1 T. molasses
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. minced, canned chipotle pepper in adobo (with the sauce from the can)

1. Drain and press the tofu as described previously.
2. Mix all the other ingredients together.
3. Slice the tofu into about 6 slices. Combine with BBQ sauce, and make sure all sides are sauced. Let marinate for a while, if desired. The longer the marinade time, the longer the flavors will have to permeate the tofu.
4. Oil the grill grates. The tofu definitely wants to stick to the grill, so this is key.
5. Cook on the grill for about 5 minutes/side, but keep a close eye out for burnage, cause of course grill temps can vary. If it's a gas grill, I would recommend medium.
6. Serve! I usually serve with a bunch of grilled veggies and a nice loaf of bread and salad.

Leftovers make awesome sandwiches, but there usually aren't any. When I'm cooking this for just me and Andy, I usually double it so there at least some leftovers. I've definitely tripled and quadrupled it for when we have BBQs at our house.

Spaghetti (squash) with smoked salmon and creamy tomato sauce

This is a quick and really tasty dinner. The sauce could be served over pasta instead of spaghetti squash. This is a little (okay a lot) like the recipe I wrote about here, but I think I like it better cause it's more filling due to the cream and fish. You might think smoked salmon in a sauce is weird, but the texture changes when heated. It goes from kind of slimy, salty, and soft to firm and flaky, like cooked fish; and the salty, smoky flavor is imparted on the rest of the sauce. It makes sense, since smoked salmon is essentially preserved, uncooked fish: if you heat it, it cooks and loses some of its juice.

I used a jar of tomatoes from MM Local, a small company in Boulder that cans local Colorado fruits (yes, tomatoes are fruits) in the height of the season and sells them all year long. They were awesome!

P.S. - I am very excited to have 6 followers - thanks guys! I apologize for the lack of pictures lately, I keep forgetting to pull out the camera. Usually, it's cause I'm hungry :)

Serve about 3

2 T. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
a little bit of salt
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
16 oz. jar tomatoes, preferably MM Local tomatoes with basil (you could also use two small cans or 1 large can, it'll still taste good, maybe add a little more cream and/or double the salmon.)
3 oz. (one package) smoked salmon, roughly chopped
about 1/4 c. heavy cream, or to taste (could substitute half and half)
lots of freshly ground pepper
about 1/3 c. chopped fresh herbs, I used mostly parsley with some mint. Basil, rosemary, tarragon, thyme would all be nice. Maybe sage.
1 small package goat cheese for serving at the table

1 medium spaghetti squash (or in my case, 1/2 of an ENORMOUS spaghetti squash, yes, from the CSA)
1.5 T. butter

1. Heat oil in a non-reactive skillet over medium and cook onions with a pinch of salt (remember, a lot of salt will get into the sauce from the fish, so don't put in as much as you usually might), stirring occasionally.
2. Once the onions are starting to caramelize, add in the garlic. Stir for a minute, then add the tomatoes. If using whole tomatoes (like MM Local), break apart with your wooden spoon. Simmer over low heat for a while, about 15 minutes, or till tomatoes have lost some of their acidity.
3. Add in the salmon, cream, pepper (to taste) and a bit more than half of the chopped herbs. Stir for a minute, then kill the heat.

Meanwhile, while the tomatoes are cooking
4. If using spaghetti squash, slice in half, scoop out seeds and place cut sides down in a microwave safe casserole with 1/4 inch water. Microwave for at least 6 minutes, probably more. It's done when you pretty easily dig in with a fork to separate and pull out the strands. If using pasta, just cook according to the direction on the box.
5. Toss the spaghetti squash with the butter and the remaining chopped herbs. Butter is probably not necessary if using pasta.

6. Serve the sauce over the squash, and mix in some goat cheese at the table.

Brown rice and portobello risotto

This is a very non-traditional take on risotto. It happened because I really wanted risotto for dinner tonight, but I only had short grain brown rice on hand. Typically, risotto is made with Arborio rice, a short grain white rice. But it's also a bit non-traditional in the preparation. I intentionally did not stir it as much as is called for in traditional risotto recipes to see if it would still work. One caveat on all the hypotheses postulated below; they may not be at all correct, but I think they probably are.

Risotto 101 - basic techniques and science
Risotto is essentially (in order of decreasing volumes used) liquid, rice, bits & pieces (chopped veggies, meat, seafood), and seasonings (usually including freshly grated parmesan cheese). What makes it special is the preparation. When you make most non-risotto rice dishes, you are going for fluffy, separated grains that are cooked till tender. In contrast, with risotto, you are going for a creamy, heavier texture and an al dente bite to the grains themselves. To accomplish the non-risotto texture, you boil/steam the rice with the lid on, without any perturbations to the system. To accomplish risotto-texture, it is exactly the opposite: lid off, adding in liquid a half cup at a time all the while vigorously stirring. What happens is that while the rice is cooking all that stirring-induced agitation causes starch molecules to leave the rice grain, and get cooked in the liquid. Since the starch molecules are released slowly, and you're stirring constantly, it's similar to a roux, but better. Lumps and burning cannot occur (whereas it's quite easy to make lumps and burnage while combining starch and liquid at a more macro-scale - think gravy). Alton Brown had an excellent Good Eats episode explaining most of this with a few more details, if you're interested.

Risotto 201 - brown rice risotto, mechanisms for desired outcome
Everyone knows brown rice is better for you. Less processed, more good fiber, etc... My thoughts on using brown rice for risotto were that:
a. it would take longer, because brown rice takes longer to cook in general.
b. otherwise it should work just as well.
Point a. is fairly obvious but point b. is more complicated. See, what makes brown rice brown is that the bran and germ are intact. White rice, at a point in its life after harvest and before the conclusion of processing, was brown. The bran and germ were removed, leaving only the endosperm. So when making risotto, I was somewhat concerned of the ability of water to pass through the bran, dissolve some starch molecules, and for those starches to leave the grain to return back to the cooking liquid to make that sought-after creaminess. Furthermore, since brown rice takes longer to cook, I was concerned about my arm having to stir the pot for 45-50 minutes. Luckily, and logically, I didn't have too. I probably stirred the pot for 15 of the 50 minutes of cook time. This makes sense, if the water can enter the grain, logically starch can leave it. Yes, starch molecules are larger than water molecules, but once the rice is cooking for a while, the bran splits, exposing the endosperm and allowing for free passage of starch molecules.

So these hypotheses/observations can give us a road map for successfully making risotto out of brown rice. The basic plan: make it in a similar fashion to traditional risotto, but there's no need to stir it for the first 10 minutes or so of cooking, since it is the heat and expanding endosperm that ruptures the grains, not the stirring. Once you see the grains opening to any degree, or swelling substantially, stir to your heart's content. I'm still a bit impatient, so I didn't stir constantly after that. The more stirring the better, but with white or brown rice I'm too lazy/disorganized to stir the whole time.

Another thing that's nice about this, is that since it takes longer to cook, but my above observations relieve me from constant stirring, you can start cooking the rice before prepping the other ingredients (chopping garlic, mushrooms, sage, grating the parm in the food processor). You can even use the down time to make side dishes, and depending on your sides, everything can be ready in an hour. I served it with a spinach, apple, and red pepper salad, and a Brussels sprouts and apple dish very loosely based off of this one. So in the end, this shouldn't take much more total time than Arborio rice risotto.

The end product was very tasty. The characteristic nuttiness of brown rice pairs nicely with mushrooms and sage, and though it maybe could have used a bit more stirring, there was ample creaminess. Like most risottos, especially those made with red wine, it's not much to look at:



A few notes on ingredients:
Using red wine as a cooking liquid is also a bit unusual, but according to the Gourmet Cookbook, it is traditional in the Piedmont region of Italy. With these ratios, the flavor is not at all overwhelming, it just imparts a nice, deep flavor (as well as a slightly funny color).
For the rice, make sure it's short grain. Long grain simply won't give off as much starch. I use a brand called Lundberg that I think is excellent. It also happens to be the only kind I can find out here, and it's only at the King Sooper's, not the Safeway, in Golden.
For the veggies, I probably would have gone with 1/2 an onion and 3 mushrooms, but I didn't have any onions.

4 c. water plus more for deglazing your pan and as needed
1 c. red wine
2 T. olive oil, separated
1 T. butter
5 cloves garlic, minced and separated
2 c. short grain brown rice (don't rinse)
4 portobello mushrooms, sliced thinly (~1/4-1/3") then chopped into chunks
salt and pepper
2 T. fresh sage, thinly sliced
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese (plus more for serving)
optional, a touch of cream or milk

Start the rice
1. Combine the wine and 4 c. of water in a 2.5 qt. saucepan over high heat. When it comes to a simmer, reduce heat to low.
2. Heat 1 T. of the oil and the butter in a 3.5 qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add half the minced garlic and stir till fragrant. Add in the raw rice and stir for 3 minutes.
3. Add enough of the simmering wine/water mixture to cover the rice by less than half an inch (maybe a quarter inch). Reduce heat to low, cover loosely, and let it cook for 10 minutes.
4. After the initial 10 minutes, or once you see some grain rupture, add 1/2 c. of the liquid at a time, stirring frequently. I like to think if I stir extra vigorously, I'm releasing as much starch if I stirred more frequently and less vigorously. Add another 1/2 c. when the last 1/2 c. is absorbed. Continue like this till the rice is tender and al dente, about 45-50 minutes including the initial 10.

In the meantime... prep and cook the veggies

4. Heat 1 T. oil in a skillet, add the other half of the garlic, stir till fragrant, and then add the mushrooms and some salt. Cook till the mushrooms are done, about 6 minutes.
5. Move the veggies to a serving bowl and add the sage.
6. Pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup of boiling water into the skillet to deglaze all of those tasty mushroom flavors. Use this hot water as your next addition to the rice pot.

Combine it all

7. Once the rice is done, add it to the veggies. Stir in some salt and pepper to taste, the parmesan, and the cream or milk if desired. Serve immediately with extra parmesan at the table.