by Sam Tackeff | Aug 6, 2009 | Ingredients, Italian, Pantry Staples, Quick and Easy
Farro is an interesting grain with a nice bite, that is well suited to easy summer salads. I use it in recipes that call for wheatberries, green lentils, bulgur or even barley occasionally as a replacement, but I find that I love it best in this salad with tomato, basil, feta, and a balsamic vinaigrette. I’m lucky to find farro at Rainbow Foods in San Francisco, but in some places, farro can be pricey – try shopping for it in stores with bulk bins, at trader joe’s, or even online.
Farro is an Italian word, and when I eat this grain, I find myself transported to Tuscany, sitting in the garden of my imaginary apartment, eating blissfully, drinking a glass of wine, and contemplating nothing but relaxation.
As usual, I use Mark Bittman’s pretty foolproof way of cooking most grains – put one cup of the grain in a small pot, and cover by at least an inch of liquid – bring to a boil, and turn down, cover, and simmer for 30-35 minutes without touching it. Then you can test it – if it’s not done, just add a few more tablespoons of liquid, and leave on the heat for ten more minutes. Unlike rice, don’t worry if there is extra liquid after the cooking time, just drain it.
MASTER RECIPE! Variations: This salad is also a great vehicle for crunchy vegetables – feel free to add fresh corn kernels (you don’t need to cook them!), black beans, bits of chopped red pepper, cucumber, shavings of carrot, chick peas, or even little cubes of summer squash to name just a few! Also, you can punch up the herbs with some fresh parsley or fresh mint (or both) to give it some extra green. No balsamic on hand? Just make a simple lemon vinaigrette with the same proportions of lemon to olive oil.
Farro Salad with Tomatoes, Basil, and Feta
serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side
Ingredients:
– 1 cup farro
– enough salted water or chicken broth to cover farro by one inch in pot (about 2.5 cups)
– 1 large heirloom tomato, chopped (ripe! uglier the better!)
– about ten leaves of basil, rolled into a cigar shape and chopped
– salt and pepper
– 2 ounces feta cheese
– 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
– 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Method:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine the farro and enough water (or chicken stock) to cover farro by an inch. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the farro is tender, about 35 minutes. Drain, and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, add the chopped tomatoes, basil, and feta, and cover with the slightly cooled farro. In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and olive oil to make a vinaigrette. Pour into the farro salad, and toss to coat. You can eat this warm, or it can be made in advance and popped in the refrigerator. Just let it come back to room temperature when you want to eat it, and make sure to re-toss it!
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 30, 2009 | Random
Mashable just posted their 15 top social media resources for foodies and I thought I’d weigh in on the subject. Some of them are crossover – that probably just means that they are really the best.
Note: I think that the best resources are often looking at the links pages and blogrolls of your favorite food bloggers. When I’m not exploring new sites that I find through the blogs, these are my go to resources:
Food bloggers:
*Foodbuzz : This is one of the best and fastest growing food sites on the web which brings together food bloggers from all over the world, and hosts the most excellent 24,24,24 every month, where 24 food bloggers from all over the globe are generously provided a hefty sum to enjoy their dream meals. Foodbuzz also works with sponsors to provide food lovers with a tastemakers program that has great perks of free food that comes to you in the mail. I’m looking forward to their food bloggers conference in San Francisco in the fall – keep an eye out for it! – and I’m a very happy participant (they aren’t paying me to say this!) and am excited to see what they have planned in the next few months to come.
*Alltop : You can use Alltop to catch up on the recent posts of the best of the best food blogs all in one place. Alltop is a web aggregator that allows you to keep up on your favorite topics. I also check out other aggregators such as StumbleUpon and Digg regularly to find new food related sites and keep up with food news.
*Epicurious: This website hosts recipes from several of the Conde Nast magazines including Bon Appetit and Gourmet. I use this, the Food Network, and Martha Stewart for the majority of my basic recipe searches.
*Goodbites: A collective efforts from some of the top food bloggers to create a network of recipes and food videos sure to please and entertain! Organizers include Jaden from Steamy Kitchen, David Lebovitz, and Deb from Smitten Kitchen just to name a few!
*Tasty Kitchen: The Pioneer Woman’s newest project – a networking site for recipes organized by Ree Drummond, one of the queens of blogging.
Restaurant Reviews/ Food Chatter
*Zagat was the original guide to good eats in cities across the country, and I’m always sure to get their city guide whenever I’m moving to a new place or exporing a new city. They have a good website now, but some of the features require a membership to access them. I think it’s worth it.
*Yelp – Yelp is my go to for plotting out my neigborhood – sometimes you have to take the reviews with a grain of salt, but it’s the first spot for figuring out where to go to dinner on any particular evening. Other similar sites include UrbanSpoon and Chow which both feature restaurant reviews. Chow also is a growing food community and hosts a great deal of food conversations and chatter as well. And don’t forget to make restaurant reseverations on OpenTable!
*Chefsblade: Chefsblade is a new community website for chefs, food lovers and anyone interested in the food business in general. They also post great articles about food and food trends, and are a growing social networking site for the industry and those intrigued by it.
Food Porn
*Tastespotting and Foodgawker: Two sites which aggregate beautiful photos from hundreds of different food blogs – it’s really what I’d have to call foodporn – I could click through these sites all day long.
What are your favorite food sites? Anything fantastic that I’m missing out on?
“Apple Pie” image via EvilMadScientist
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 24, 2009 | Mexican, Pantry Staples, Soups
I’ve been working all week long in the bookstore (Omnivore Books on Food), while Celia, the owner is away in Paris (so jealous!), and find myself spending the entire day pouring through cookbooks and food memoirs, only to find myself hungry and a little exhausted by the time I get home for dinner.
While I don’t subscribe to the 30 minute meal mentality, I am enamored by recipes that take no more than 15 minutes to put together, and then cook on the stove for an hour or more with little to no fuss – enough time for really rich flavors to develop, and delicious aromas to perfume the house. I’ve been on a bit of a Mexican kick for the past few weeks, reading through our selection here in the shop, and came up with this Pozole – drawn from many sources and adapted for my own kitchen.
This is one of those great recipes where you need a big pot and a cutting board and really nothing else. It’s really a pantry recipe, and it’s basis is the hominy, which is made from maize but almost has the consistency of potato. Add the growers trinity (three sisters): beans, corn, and squash, and you have a delicious stew. They say what grows together goes together, and its certainly evident in this dish.
I get this started the moment I walk in the door, and then have a good amount of time to wind down, organize myself, read my email, and check in with my friends and family before dinner.
An Easy Pozole
serves 4
Ingredients
– 1 29 oz can white hominy
– 1 15 oz can white kidney beans (cannellini beans)
– A corn cob, kernels stripped, cob in the pot as well
– a 1/2 pound of green beans or romano beans, cut into 1 inch strips
– 4 or 5 pattypan squash, cubed
– Ham steak, cubed (the 1 inch thick prepackaged variety works fine)
– 1 onion, chopped
– 2 garlic cloves, smushed with your hand, or the flat of a heavy knife
– 1/2 teaspoon of dry marjoram (or a large sprig of fresh)
– 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano (or a large sprig of fresh)
– a teaspoon of chopped chile (or red pepper flakes)
– 3/4-1 Tbs. Cumin
– salt and pepper to season
Method
Add everything to a big pot, cover with water, to about an inch over everything, gently bring to a boil on medium high heat, and then turn heat down to medium low, cover loosely leaving the lid just a tiny bit ajar, and simmer an hour or more, stirring every once in a while, until you are too hungry to wait any longer. Take out the corn cob, and serve.
Serve with Lime and Cilantro, for garnish, and some warm tortillas for dipping.
Variations: Consider this a recipe that you can easily adjust based on what you have in the kitchen or on hand. I’d keep the onion and spices the same, but feel free to vary the amount of squash (any type of summer squash would do), and the types of beans, etc. You can pop in more vegetables if you’d like, such as chopped red pepper, tomato, or even leafy greens. You can also kick up the heat by adding more pepper – it’s really good hot!
