Midweek dinner
Dec. 5th, 2006 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI left work later than planned, so this isn't the dish I orginally thought it would be. I cooked a pound of bowtie pasta while microwaving a largish sweet potato in medium dice. When the pasta was done, I drained it and added a can of chickpeas, the sweet potatoes, olive oil, a lot of black pepper, powdered sage, and four Morningstar Farms 'breakfast links' crumbled up. It's pretty good, but my brain mouth still wanted the original version I'd dreamed up at work, which included cubes of roasted butternut squash (with the onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper I roast pretty much everything with) instead of the plain sweet potato, and a bunch of arugula tossed in at the last minute to wilt in the heat of the pasta. I also debated putting some hummus in.
Since I hadn't stopped to get arugula for the pasta, I needed something green (and red, as well) to have enough colors. And I needed to start using the salad greens from the farm share. So, some green leaf lettuce joined some mesclun. I added some shredded radicchio and a bunch of pomegranate seeds, perhaps a quarter of the fruit. I crumbled in a bunch of Israeli feta, then sprinkled pecan bits over that (it was supposed to have been walnut bits, and toasted first, but I'm apparently out of walnut pieces, and I decided against using another pot). All that got tossed together with some black pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. I was nervous about the pomegranate seed texture, since I always spit out the middles when eating them plain, but in the salad it wasn't an issue.
I was trying to make this a pantry meal, and I had a bunch of jasmine rice and more than a dozen eggs, which said Greek lemon rice pudding to me. Except that I had no lemons, though I did have a bunch of aging oranges. So I made a variation, Greek orange-vanilla pudding. It's an easy dessert (if one likes rice pudding, of course; those for whom it is anathema won't like this version any more than any other), and pareve, though not vegan.
The template: cook the rice as you usually would (I always use a white rice for this, though I could see brown working. I'd sweeten it differently, though.). Once it's done, immediately stir in eggs that have been mixed up already, and they'll cook in the heat of the rice. Flavor and sweeten to taste. Or don't sweeten, and make a savory version with vegetables, chickpeas, what have you.
In this case, I used 1.6 cups of rice (and slivered bits of orange zest) with twice as much water. When it was done, I stirred in 4 eggs mixed with the juice of three oranges and a healthy jot of triple-fold vanilla. Once it had cooked, I stirred in some brown sugar until it melted. I think it would've been better (read: more orange-y) had I not put the zest into the rice until the end, but it was convenient to do it this way. It's not as distinctive as I would've liked. It's gotten me in the mood to make it again soon, though, perhaps with maple syrup this time.
Since I hadn't stopped to get arugula for the pasta, I needed something green (and red, as well) to have enough colors. And I needed to start using the salad greens from the farm share. So, some green leaf lettuce joined some mesclun. I added some shredded radicchio and a bunch of pomegranate seeds, perhaps a quarter of the fruit. I crumbled in a bunch of Israeli feta, then sprinkled pecan bits over that (it was supposed to have been walnut bits, and toasted first, but I'm apparently out of walnut pieces, and I decided against using another pot). All that got tossed together with some black pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. I was nervous about the pomegranate seed texture, since I always spit out the middles when eating them plain, but in the salad it wasn't an issue.
I was trying to make this a pantry meal, and I had a bunch of jasmine rice and more than a dozen eggs, which said Greek lemon rice pudding to me. Except that I had no lemons, though I did have a bunch of aging oranges. So I made a variation, Greek orange-vanilla pudding. It's an easy dessert (if one likes rice pudding, of course; those for whom it is anathema won't like this version any more than any other), and pareve, though not vegan.
The template: cook the rice as you usually would (I always use a white rice for this, though I could see brown working. I'd sweeten it differently, though.). Once it's done, immediately stir in eggs that have been mixed up already, and they'll cook in the heat of the rice. Flavor and sweeten to taste. Or don't sweeten, and make a savory version with vegetables, chickpeas, what have you.
In this case, I used 1.6 cups of rice (and slivered bits of orange zest) with twice as much water. When it was done, I stirred in 4 eggs mixed with the juice of three oranges and a healthy jot of triple-fold vanilla. Once it had cooked, I stirred in some brown sugar until it melted. I think it would've been better (read: more orange-y) had I not put the zest into the rice until the end, but it was convenient to do it this way. It's not as distinctive as I would've liked. It's gotten me in the mood to make it again soon, though, perhaps with maple syrup this time.