bambucha

Rainy season started Wednesday and it rained all.day.long.

Tuesday night though, we had this...globe zucchini stuffed with pearl barley, quinoa, parmesan and a tomato meat sauce.

I had seen others cooking with this type of zucchini online but this was my first time to actually find it at the market and try cooking with this.

I wasn't too sure if the ones I found were large or small...but think it was quite large.

This year, we sure have had been lucky with bambucha (huge) produce...here, here and here.

I hope to come across these again at the market...

Have you cooked with this type of zucchini before? How did you cook them?

preserved lemon chicken

A couple of weeks back, I preserved a lemon in salt because I wasn't planning to use it any time soon and I didn't want it to rot before I had a chance to use it.

Actually preserved lemon is trending here. Growing up, my mom used have a huge jar of preserved lemons outside, she never cooked with it, instead we used to eat a little of it whenever our throats were sore.

I found a recipe to use the preserved lemons and adapted on it.

Preserved Lemon Chicken adapted from Dancyu makes 6 servings

2 huge chicken thighs (with skin, no bones), cut each thigh into 3 pieces
3 prunes
3 apricots
6 olives
6 wedges of preserved lemon
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of the preserved lemon juice
4 tablespoons whiskey
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
olive oil

Put the first 8 ingredients together and marinate for at least half a day.
Put the thinly slice onions and mushrooms in a baking dish
Lay the chicken, fruit and olives on top of the onions and mushrooms
Drizzle some olive oil over the chicken
Bake the chicken (uncovered) in a 180C(350F) for 30 minutes. And then under the broiler for 7 minutes.

NOTES: this was good, I would use slices of preserved lemon rather than wedges. I flipped the chicken around every time I opened the refrigerator door. The original recipe directs you to sear the chicken in a pan then bake-off. Next time, I would cook everything in a frying pan. I served this with quinoa and broccoli. I have a little more preserved lemon and will make this again.

quinoa fritters

Sunday, the market was crazy! Apparently there was a huge ad and everyone and their uncle was shopping at the market. It took us about half an hour to check out.

I was amazed at how many couples were "tag team" shopping...one would stand in line while the other ran around the store to grab items.

There were also couples who stood in separate lines to see which one would get to the register first...

Anyway, Sunday we had gone to the market to re-stock our empty refrig. I bought lots of veggies and incorporated them into these quinoa fritters.

I used the base of my zucchini fritters and added a little more veggies and the quinoa.

Quinoa Fritters: makes about 6
About 2 tablespoons of cooked quinoa
1/4 zucchini, diced
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
1/8 onion, diced
1 egg
6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
oil to fry

When I made zucchini fritters, I added water, but this time, I forgot and didn't add any.
The batter was a little thick but I came out with 6 3-inch roundish "patties".
I mixed some sriracha sauce with some mayo and drizzled them on the fritters.

NOTES: I liked this. It was more like a savory "pancake". I think the next time I make this I'll add more quinoa.

aunty m's quinoa salad

After posting about quinoa, my Aunty M sent me her favorite quinoa salad recipe.

She subbed some ingredients which are noted in the parentheses.

QUINOA – PARSLEY SALAD

3 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 cup craisins
2 cups edamame (peas, instead)
1/2 cup chopped almonds
2 cups chopped parsley
1/4 large red onion

Dressing:
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon (Used 2 lemons)
garlic (couple cloves, finely chopped)
1/2 tsp red pepper
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 salt to taste

1. Rinse quinoa until the water is clear. Add water, bring to boil, reduce to a low simmer for 10 -15 minutes*. (If you want cranberries soft and plump cook with quinoa.) When done, fluff with fork and cool. (I put the cranberries while cooling the quinoa.)

2. Finely chop the parsley, onion, and garlic (couple cloves- finely chopped) and zest the lemon. Make sure edamame is not frozen. (cook peas as usual)

3. In a separate bowl, mix the garlic, lemon juice and zest, pepper, salt and olive oil. Add to cooled quinoa. Mix well.

4. When cooled completely, mix in cranberries, edamame, almonds, and onions. Lastly, add parsley and mix it all together.

*Pkg directions said 2 c. water to 1 c. quinoa

NOTES: I cooked 1/4 cup of quinoa and added a handful of dried cherries. Since I had leftover cooked edamame, I took off the shells and put the beans into the salad. I also added 1 carrot and 3 okra.
Instead of a red onion, I used part of a yellow one.
The nuts, I added just before eating. I didn't have parsley, so I left it out.
I used the zest and juice of 1 lemon but found it too puckery, so I added 1 teaspoon of honey.
I also left out the salt.

Super refreshing salad, I hope to make this one again! Thanks for sharing your recipe Aunty.

p.s. Satoshi wanted to know what we were eating and I told him "keen-wah" and he says..."gold ring"...in Japanese "kin" means gold and "wa" means ring...sigh.

couscous salad

Here is one of the salads that we've been eating...a pasta type salad made with Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend.

The blend has couscous, orzo, quinoa & lentils.

I have only been to Trader Joe's once, on a trip to Las Vegas and loved their selection of chocolates and dried fruits.

My mom received this blend from our neighbor. Since she didn't know how to cook or serve this, she let my Aunty and me split it up.

I made some macadamia basil pesto then tossed it with the cooked grains, tomatoes, cucumber, some parsley, pepper and some parmesan cheese.

Chilled, it was delicious.

bagels (part 3) and grains, grains, grains

I tried making bagels again today. This time with a little more success. I increased the amount of flour, yeast, sugar and water and also increased the amount of time to let the dough rise. The dough got bigger, though it was hard to roll to form the bagel, which resulted in all of them falling apart as I "kettled" the bagels in hot water. Still, it was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside (I had one, fresh out of the oven with dinner--a veggie soup).

On another note--I don't know about you, but I love grains, in breads and in my rice. I wanted to show you what I add to my rice before cooking it. In Japan, there are all sorts of grains called zakkoku to add to your rice like corn, amaranth, quinoa, sesame seeds, barley, adzuki beans, black soy beans and assorted millet.

This is the 16-grain mixture by a company called HakuBaku. By adding grains to your rice, you can add more fiber and minerals to it. They also have a 5-grain mixture which I've also tried.

I put about a tablespoon or two of the grains into a fine sieve and run water over it, to rinse it. Caution: If you wash the grains with your regular rice, you will lose most of the millet, since they are VERY tiny. Then I add the grains to the rice, add the water and cook.