OMG a Recipe: Konquering Kiwi

Food Confessional: I'm just not that into kiwi anymore. It's important to say "anymore," because as a kid, I LOVED kiwi. The first time I had it, I felt so proud of myself for eating something so strange and exotic, and really enjoying the tart/sweet fruit with its edible fuzzy skin and inner ring of crunchy seeds. But these days....? Meh. If it's already in a dish, I'm happy to eat it, but I just don't get a hearty yen for this funky fruit, especially when our Full Circle produce delivery bag is full of the little buggers. It was the one fruit I'd either give away, or make sure I sliced up and served at brunch with friends, to get rid of it, ASAP. But I managed to conquer (konquer?) my lack of enthusiasm for kiwi in the form of salsa, specifically served atop quinoa crab cakes!

Konquering Mt. Kiwi-Crab Cake - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Medite-grainian Salad and All Things Green

I get a little bit of culture shock when warmer weather hits and I have to change my cooking habits. It's hard for me to transition from months of slow-cooked stews, hearty soups and spicy stir frys to meals where I should probably limit the use of the stove, just to keep the house from any additional heat. Salads are an obvious choice, but I need a transitional dish, something that could be eaten warm or cold, with a lot of the flavors that transport my palate to a summery state of mind. Mediterranean style dishes always work for me -- perfectly fresh and summery, but a hearty enough meal that doesn't leave you feeling hungry later. 

Grains, vegetables and beans, with a Mediterranean flavor - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: It's Gettin' Real With the KEEN-wah

Quinoa. It's one of those words where you look at it for a long time and wonder how the hell its pronunciation ever came to be. If you currently live or have ever lived in Washington State, you'll be familiar with this stare-too-long-and-the-word-is-just-wrong phenomena, given our wealth of pronunciation-conundrums like Puyallup (pew-allup), Sequim (squim), and Issaquah (issa-quah, but say it fast, the emphasis is on the first syllable). I actually think the pronunciation of quinoa would make for a great rap name, because Keen-Wah, would sound pretty cool and about as superstar as the actual whole grain itself. Kanye, introducing Keen-Wah, throw your hands in the air and say YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Fried rice made with quinoa and brown rice - SUPAHSTAAAAAAAAH - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Deck the Halls with Leftover (Meat)Balls

One of the best thing about the holidays, from Thanksgiving through New Years is the food, food, FOOD! It's everywhere. The roasted turkey, the whole ham, crown roasts of pork or lamb, prime rib, feasts of several fishes -- it's no wonder we promise ourselves diet resolutions in the new year from the ample feasting that goes for a steady two months. But even when our well-intentioned resolutions fade, we're all left with the same thing: leftovers. Don't roll your eyes and groan -- leftovers are a wonderful, beautiful thing. They are brand-spankin' new meals waiting to happen!

Christmas dinner, all rolled up into a bite-sized piece! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

When I say "leftovers," I'm not talking about the good leftovers, the marvelous whole pieces of ham and turkey that can get layered into Dagwood Bumstead-sized sandwiches, I'm talking about the dribs and drabs of this and that, stuff that most would probably just throw out. Miscellany that fits the smallest of your tupperware containers. Barely a full meal, just a buffet of small bites. It's the most maddening of leftovers -- you hate to waste food, but what do you do with such a shotgun blast of random crap?? I can credit my father for being a compulsive food/leftover hoarder -- he never lets a thing go to waste, even to my mother's irritation for finding a container with barely a bite of food being kept for some rainy day. Thanks to him, I was introduced to croquettes -- traditionally a French fritter made with potato and other chopped vegetables and meats, but it's been co-opted by many cultures who all face the universal quandry of leftover food and refuse to give in to waste. After only scraps of a holiday meal remained, my dad would refuse to throw it all out and my mom would make what could only be described as Leftover Spam -- chopped up bits of everything mixed together, bound with egg, battered and fried. Croquettes are just a prettier, Frenchier way of saying: crap we don't know what to do with, so we make a fritter out of it. See, everything sounds better in French.

Holiday ham and the many secondhand meals it provides - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I took a cue from Wasabi Dad's post-holiday meal game plan and made a couple of batches of croquettes from our sizeable supply of leftovers. We had a banner season of festive meals: Christmas Eve I cooked a whole ham, basting this hoggy mountain of meat with a whiskey honey glaze, serving it alongside a creamy cauliflower gratin. Don't ask why, but the ham wound up looking like a meaty rosebud when it cooked. Christmas Dinner, I cooked my first duck (I know, weird that I'd never cooked waterfowl before, but there's a first time for everything). Served alongside the duck were potatoes that were roasted in the fat that came off the duck as it cooked, and a dressing made with quinoa, walnuts and dried fruit. The Mister loves cranberry sauce, so even though it wasn't Thanksgiving, I made another batch of  it to go with the ham and duck. Leftover ham is good for every meal -- it got whittled down with several breakfasts, and I was inspired by a friend's "French" toast stamp and made ham and cheese paninis in our waffle iron for several mornings. I don't have a sandwich press, but I have to say, a waffle iron makes for a great ghetto panini press, as long as you have thick slices of bread.

Falafel that inspired Christmas duck croquettes with jam a week later. - Photos by Wasabi Prime

But back to the B-Team Leftovers, as in, a few handfuls of quinoa dressing, scraps of duck meat and mostly duck skin... and more quinoa. I know -- what's with the quinoa? It's been my new favorite side dish and it ends up being a great component for croquettes or, in an earlier meal of spherical leftovers, falafel. I mashed drained/rinsed chickpeas into a paste, added finely minced garlic and parsley, and leftover plain quinoa. One egg was mixed in to help bind, and I throw in a little cornmeal, just to help soak up any excess moisture. They're formed into little balls and pan-fried. I made a batch of these that stretched scraps into a couple of meals. They were such a nice treat, that idea stuck with me through Christmas when I made croquettes with finely minced duck, the dried fruit/quinoa mix, and gave each little leftover ball a cheesy center of melty havarti.

A feast of beasts... and yes, Indy got to sample some of the duck and ham - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The duck croquettes truly made leftovers magical. These little spheres were like something a wizard made, they were so good. The duck meat was from random scraps and the little wings, which is more skin than meat, really. I removed the bone and minced everything super-fine. I put the bits into a hot skillet to further render the fat and make crispy whatever was there, skin and all -- I wanted crunch, not rubbery, overly fatty bits. I put that crisped duck into the leftover quinoa dressing, which had an egg added to help bind. I formed balls around small bite sized pieces of havarti cheese. The croquettes were still sticky, so I rolled them in some breadcrumbs before frying them up in the same skillet that had the duck fat because... well why wouldn't you? The cheesy center got melty from the heat, the outer crumb coating made a strong enough shell to keep the center from oozing out. The croquettes were perfectly browned, savory bites, but with a little sweetness from the dried fruit. Eating them with a berry jam or the cranberry sauce was a perfect pairing -- duck goes nicely with fruit. It was one of those things where you create the dish in your mind, it comes together well during execution phase, and it tastes exactly as how you anticipated. In that sense, leftovers are perfection.

Never throw out leftovers - there's still good meals to be had! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Literally nothing went to waste over the holidays, which is great -- I hate when food goes to waste. Christmas Eve's ham bone was made into Portuguese bean soup for New Year's Eve and the duck croquettes went well with salads, which were a welcome change from all the super-rich food. It was nice to skip going to the grocery store and fret about what to cook. And the benefit of playing with one's food yields new meals and keeps the boredom away at the thought of having dreaded leftovers again. So cheers to recycled holiday food!

UnRecipe: The Comfort Food Zone

Submitted for your approval... you are traveling to another dimension... a dimension of not only sight and sound but of humble, simple foods. You have entered the Comfort Food Zone. So maybe that's not what Rod Serling intended for his historic (and one of my favorite) anthology series, the Twilight Zone, but lately, I've gotten into the habit of doing a lot of cooking on Fridays, often doing multiple dishes not even meant to be eaten together, but it turns the whole kitchen into an edible zone, with things bubbling on the stove or baking in the oven. Normally I'd consider it a Test Kitchen Friday, but recently with the change of weather, it's not new things I'm trying, but a return to familiar dishes and flavors that really strike the autumnal mood. Submitted for your approval: andouille sausage mystery beer chili and a leek and pesto Italian soup with quinoa.

Hey there, hot stuff - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Chili is a notorious UnRecipe for me because I never measure or keep track of how it's made. In all likelihood, each pot of chili I've made has been like some rare, genetic singularity fang-toothed dodo bird/platypus hybrid, anomalous and extinguished before proper documentation could occur. But delicious all the same. This batch of chili used up some leftover andouille sausage we had languishing in the fridge and Brock found an unmarked bottle of beer from one of our homebrewing friends where the top had lost its seal. No longer carbonated, it would still make for a tasty cooking liquid, despite its mysterious origin. Honestly, any beer would do. You could throw in a PBR into your chili recipe and it would taste fine, and you could have the smug knowledge that your chili was a blue ribbon special.

Deconstructed chili - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I threw in chopped bell peppers, an onion, garlic, and browned some ground turkey as an additional protein punch. I've been leaning more towards the use of black beans over kidney beans for the legume component; the smaller beans make for a less chunky chili, plus if you feel so inclined, the more uniform consistency makes for a boss add-on to fries or tortilla chips. As for the main flavoring, I use two or three adobo chiles with a bit of the sauce, and then a disorganized, unmeasured mix of chili, mustard, cumin and garlic powders, plus a hefty shake of Hawaiian seasoned rocksalt. I realize this must sound really frustrating to those wanting measured amounts, but I don't name these posts UnRecipe for nothing.

Blog-inspired, Wasabi-meddled soup - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Another burner was busy bubbling away with an Italian-themed soup. This was inspired by personal chef and blogger, Silvia de Gregori's Citron et Vanille. Her beautiful Sardinian spinach, chickpea and fregola soup inspired an Italian turn, taking a big liberty with the seasoning and adding a spoonful of the homemade pesto we still have in the fridge. I also substituted the couscous-like fregola pasta with quinoa, which was also a pantry leftover awaiting its destiny in some meal. Not meant as an insult to Silvia and her amazing blog; she writes several new posts every week with beautiful, colorful photos and her dishes are always a constant source of healthy inspiration for me to incorporate vegetables in new and interesting ways. I liked the idea of her Sardinian soup and modified it to fit the needs of what the pantry and refrigerator already had, because we have a terrible habit of just letting ingredients pile up. Definitely give Citron et Vanille a look and if you're lucky to live in the Bay Area, her personal chef services would be a treat to experience.

Tasty bulbs and the last of the quinoa - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I appreciate your coming along for this visit into the Comfort Food Zone. Certainly not as exciting as William Shatner freaking out over the fact that THERE'S... SOMETHING... ON THE WING! but really, what else can beat that? There's at least a creature comfort in having a few simple meals cooked up ahead of time that can be spooned into plastic containers and brought to work, or easily microwaved for dinner after a long day. That makes venturing into the CF-Zone on Fridays a worthy trip indeed.