Here in California, you could easily assemble a meal from prepacked components almost every night of the week. There are pre-formed hamburger patties, sure to please our six-year-old; par-baked loaves of artisanal bread, even packages of coleslaw with squeezable pouches of dressing to toss together. While we haven’t used too many of these shortcuts, knowing they’re out there is reassuring. Sure it’s cheaper to buy a bunch of green beans and top and tail them yourself, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day and you can throw together some pretty impressive meals in a short time using pre-prepared ingredients.

Case in point: this salad. Trader Joe’s sells steamed beets and pre-cut butternut squash right next to its bags of salad mix. A little farther down the aisle are the cheeses, I grabbed smoked mozzarella because the kids love it. Nab some bread (oh, and maybe some of the chocolate-covered almonds, them’s healthy fats) and head home to your new favorite salad.

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Arugula salad with roasted squash and beets

adapted from Five and Spice

 

If you are using pre-cooked beets, you only need to roast them for 5-10 minutes at the end of the squash’s cooking time.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

• 3 medium beets
• 1 medium (1-2 lb.) butternut squash, or one package of pre-cut squash
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4 ounces (115 grams) smoked mozzarella cheese, diced
• 6 ounces (170 grams) arugula, three or four big handfuls
• salt and pepper

For the dressing:

• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp good-quality olive oil
• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp whole-grain Dijon mustard
• ½ clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• salt to taste

Method

• Prepare a pot with a steamer insert. Remove the tops and scrub the beets so they’re nice and clean, then chop them into about ½-inch cubes, and steam for 10-12 minutes or until they are just beginning to get tender (stick a fork one in to check).
• Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C) and lightly coat/spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil. While the beets are cooking, prepare your squash: if you have a whole squash, cut off the “neck”, peel it and dice it into ½-inch cubes. (You can also peel and cut up the bulbous part and clean out the seeds, but I usually save that for another time.) If you’re using pre-cut squash, just make sure the pieces are all about the same size as the beets. Toss with the teaspoon of olive oil to coat, and spread on the prepared baking sheet.
• When the beets have steamed, put them on the baking sheet with the squash. They’ll color the squash where they touch, but I consider that a feature, not a bug. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper, and slide into the oven to bake for about 20 minutes, tossing once halfway through.
• While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dressing: whisk together the mustard and oil, and stir in the garlic. Add the maple syrup, and then the vinegar, tasting to see that the proportions are as you like. Add salt as needed.
• Rinse and dry the arugula.
• When the vegetables are tender and starting to brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes.
• In the biggest bowl you have, toss the vegetables, arugula, and mozzarella with the dressing and serve.

When I hear “banana bread”, what comes to mind is the bake-sale staple, a quick bread that is more like a cake, really. So when I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and thumbing through a Jamie Oliver cookbook while the kids selected their easy readers, I was intrigued by a recipe for a standard white bread made with banana puree.

Not, you understand, intrigued enough to actually check out the book (we were walking home and why are cookbooks always so HEAVY?) or even photocopy the page, but I did scribble down some notes. When I first made the dough, I was somewhat alarmed by the morbid purplish-gray color; maybe this is a recipe best enjoyed in low light. But you will enjoy it, because it’s wonderfully chewy, with a little extra sticky-sweet top from a brush with honey. The banana flavor asserts itself without being overpowering, and if you just happen to put a little pat of butter on one of the rolls that’s still warm from the oven? Well, no one would blame you for closing your eyes and just sighing happily.

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Banana bread rolls

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Since I halved the original recipe, I had to tinker with the measurements a bit. Don’t worry if you have a bit more or less banana puree, just add the flour gradually when you get to that stage and stop adding when the dough firms up and is just a bit sticky.

Ingredients

Makes 14 rolls

• 3 bananas
• 1½ tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp salt
•  3 Tbs honey
• 2½ cups flour
• about 1 Tbs honey for the glaze

Method

• Peel and puree the bananas in a blender or with an immersion mixer. You should have about 1½ cups of goo.
• In a large bowl, stir together the bananas, yeast and one cup of flour. Let it sit for about 15 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble a bit (it may be hard to tell since the mixture is quite thick).
• Stir in the salt and honey, then begin to add the flour half a cup at a time until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Knead it for about 6-8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until it becomes smooth and just a bit sticky – you may need to knead in more flour as you go, depending on how large your bananas were.
• Form the dough into a ball and put it in a clean, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm spot to rise for two hours or until doubled. You can also put it in the fridge overnight at this stage.
• Grease a baking pan (I used a 9″ round cake pan which wasn’t quite big enough).
• Form the  dough into about 14 balls of equal size and place them in the pan with enough space between them to expand a bit. Cover and set aside for the second rise, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the rolls look a little puffy.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and in a small bowl, mix about a tablespoon of honey with a splash of hot water to thin it out.
• Once they’ve risen, brush the rolls with the honey glaze and bake for ten minutes; brush the tops with the glaze again and continue to bake for ten more minutes. Bake a total of about 20-22 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned.

This isn’t my first waltz with gluten-free baking, but almost. I made some gluten-free cupcakes for a birthday party this summer, and let’s just say that even before I burned them they weren’t exactly winners. It’s a pretty different ball game, this gluten-free stuff. (What, how long do you expect me to sustain a single metaphor?)

We have friends who can’t have gluten, which has given me a bit of a push towards trying some of the rapidly-multiplying gluten-free recipes out there. And really, we have dinners that don’t include gluten fairly often without even trying. But baking, not so much. There are so many interesting flours available right now, though, that it’s fun to incorporate them even where health concerns aren’t an issue. They have interesting flavors and textures of their own that may not be exactly like the usual wheat flour-based ones, but are delicious in their own right.

I realize that if you are a Central European reader, you may not have access to as many of these ingredients, at least not easily. But even before we moved, I was amazed to see that bigger “bio” stores were stocking a much wider range of grains, flours and other staples than I’d seen before, not to mention the number of packaged gluten-free products. So take a look around, you may strike it rich – it’s a good time to be gluten free!

This particular recipe is adapted from an applesauce cake on the Healthy Seasonal Recipes blog. My ears pricked up at the words “snack cake”, because, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of all kinds of muffins, quick breads and their ilk. This one didn’t disappoint – it’s not too sweet, moist, and has an almost puddingy texture. What with autumn arriving, I thought the apple original might lend itself to a pumpkin version, so I set about tweaking the recipe for an October weekend, swapping pumpkin for apple, using maple syrup rather than honey, adding some cornmeal, and to reassure the kids that it really is cake, some mini chocolate chips. The result: excellent. Just what’s called for on an afternoon where the wind is picking up, the clouds are moving in, and you’re ready for a cozy and easy baking project. To return to my original metaphor, you’ll want to add it to your dance card.

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Gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cake
Adapted from Healthy Seasonal Recipes

The chocolate chips here are optional, but awfully nice. Mini ones work best, since the cake has a fine crumb that might not hold together so well with larger chunks of chocolate. Make sure you use a more fine-ground cornmeal, polenta for example is too gritty in this context.

Ingredients

Makes about 8-10 generous slices of cake

• 2 cups cooked pumpkin, canned or fresh
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1½ cups brown rice flour
• ½ cup fine-ground cornmeal
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ¾ tsp salt
• generous ½ cup mini chocolate chips

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and grease a Bundt pan.
• In a blender or tall measuring cup, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, maple syrup, and brown sugar. Use an immersion blender or, you know, a blender to thoroughly combine.
• In a large bowl, whisk together rice flour, cornmeal, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
• Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined; stir in chocolate chips.
• Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched.
• Cool in the pan for five minutes before turning cake out onto a rack to cool. Allow it to cool completely (or as long as you can wait) before slicing.

 

So, a few months ago it was pancakes. Apparently now it’s eggplant sauce/spreads. But this recipe is actually one of my go-to dinners, even when eggplant and tomatoes aren’t busting out all over the farmers’ markets. When something is good, it’s good! And I’m one of those people who find it comforting to return to the same meal, rather than boring. When I was in graduate school in NYC, living on my own and not really much of a cook, I ate one of two things for dinner about 5 days a week: either broccoli and rice, or tomato soup with couscous. Seriously. It may not come as a surprise that my dad has eaten the same breakfast for 45 years or so. How about you? Do you go back to certain recipes again and again, or are you a change-it-up chef? With young kids, you may not have much choice, although my children will declare a particular food their favorite, eat it non-stop, then just as abruptly decide they don’t want it any more, ever.  Shades of Bread and Jam for Frances.

I first found this recipe in a Jamie Oliver magazine. You probably know him from “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” series, but he’s got a Martha Stewart-like empire in the UK. He still seems pretty down-to-earth and he has a bunch of kids with silly names, so he should appreciate the pitfalls of child-friendly cuisine. Even my eggplant-phobic Mr. B (6) eats this sauce happily, albeit without knowing what’s in it. Less said, better fed!

I’ve made this sauce many times, and about half the time I realize I only have a sliver of Parmesan left, or no fresh basil or something. I wonder, is it the hallmark of a good recipe that if you leave out one of the (few) ingredients it’s still good, or is that a bad sign? Well, either way this one is a keeper in our house, and I bet you’ll be going back to it over and over too.

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Eggplant tomato pasta sauce
Adapted from Jamie Oliver Magazine

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, enough to coat one package of pasta and fill all four of us up and still leave enough for another pound of pasta somewhere down the line. Any pasta shape will do; the original recipe calls for linguine but I like tubular pastas just as much with it. Don’t forget to reserve some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce – any saucy leftovers also make a great spread with crackers.

Ingredients

Makes enough sauce for about 2 pounds (1 kg!) of pasta.

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small (14 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• a handful of basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (about 3 oz)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Peel the eggplant and if it’s very seedy, take out the fluffy seedy parts as best you can. Cut into half-inch cubes.
• In a large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat and add eggplant. Cook until it’s starting to get some nice brown color, then add the garlic.
• Put the pasta water on to boil at this point.
• Add the can of tomatoes and the basil to the eggplant; swish a little water around the tomato can and splash it in as well. Then add the balsamic vinegar and let everything simmer for 5 minutes or so.
• In a food processor or with an immersion blender, puree the sauce until it’s just short of smooth. Stir in the grated Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• To serve, reserve some of the cooking water from the pasta to thin out the sauce to your preferred consistency, and grate some more cheese over the top to make it extra fancy.

 

I sure am sorry I didn’t think to post this recipe for International Talk Like a Pirate Day – I just missed it, on September 19. Ajvar is pronounced aye-var, and it’s awfully fun to say it with a little nautical sneer and swagger. Arrrr!

This is still an apt time of year to talk about this recipe, when the last of the eggplants and tomatoes are ripening. Somewhere between a spread and a condiment, ajvar is a Balkan staple and was at least partly responsible for my substantial weight gain in the years we were living in the former Yugoslavia. You can buy ajvar at almost any grocery store there, and we discovered that the uglier the packaging, the better the product. My personal favorites generally came from Macedonia, but homemade is really the gold standard. It’s not hard to make, I discovered, but messy. The smell of peppers roasting (often just cooked directly on the stove burners) is for me one of the characteristic aromas of the Balkans, just a whiff and you’re there.

As for the eating, my personal favorite is to use it rather like ketchup, on sandwiches. When Valerian and I were first living together, we bought a little sandwich press, and I proceeded to toast up many, many grilled cheese sandwiches with ajvar, to the point where it was getting hard to button my pants. Oof. I recommend a little more moderation, but ajvar really does perk up a sandwich, makes a great topping for crackers, and could easily work as a pasta sauce rather like pesto if you’re so inclined. The sweet peppers contrast with the very slight bitterness of the eggplant, all playing against a smoky backdrop – it’s a savory trip to Southeastern Europe, right there.

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Ajvar

The usual red bell peppers in the US are not quite the same as the peppers you’ll get in Europe, but they work fine in this recipe; if you can find a more typical European pepper, like Pritamin or the others mentioned in Valerian’s pepper guide, use those. Ajvar is often made with hot peppers, too, if you like things a little spicy.

Ingredients

Makes about 2 cups of ajvar

• 4 large red peppers
• 2 medium eggplants
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt & pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to 450° F (230° C) and line a large baking sheet with foil.
• Pierce the eggplants’ skins a few times with a fork or tip of a knife. Place them and the peppers on the baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes or until the skins are blackened in spots and starting to shrivel. Be bold and let them get well cooked, the smokey flavor will be your payoff.
• Put the peppers in a large bowl and cover with a plate, then set them aside.
• Allow the eggplants to cool, then peel back the skins and scoop out the flesh into a medium bowl or the bowl of a food processor. Try to leave out the seeds, although this is very messy and difficult.
• When the peppers have cooled, peel off the skins and discard. Also toss out the seeds, core and stem. Roughly chop the peppers and add them to the bowl with the eggplant.
• Grate or finely mince the garlic, and add about half to start – since it’s raw, go easy at first and taste to see how you like it.
• Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the mixture to a thick, still somewhat chunky consistency. Season to taste with more garlic and the salt and pepper, and stir it all together.
• Keeps in the fridge for at least a week; this is best a day or two after it’s made.

 

Some of you have been concerned that recent recipes have been too healthy and light. Well, fret no more, friends. This one suffers from no such delusions: it’s rich and oh my, it’s good.

Both kids are back in school as of this week, and we’re still working out the schedule in its various daily permutations. (Is there some school rule that says that no day can be like another?) One thing that has made things dramatically easier is getting lunches together the night before, especially by cooking a little extra at dinner to tuck into the lunchbox for the next day.

This recipe is so good, though, we were lucky to have any leftovers at all – you’ll catch yourself swiping bites that were meant to get packed away. And while it’s true that this dish, which is essentially macaroni and cheese with a kick, isn’t going to get on anyone’s low-calorie list, it will surprise you how rich and creamy it tastes with a pretty small application of cheese.  Bet your kids will gobble it up, and you will too!

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Daddy’s special mac & cheese

You can serve this pasta dish two ways – just noodles and sauce, à la Kraft, or give it an extra sprinkle of cheese and slip it under the broiler to get a crunchy top. Equally good, just take your pick!

Ingredients

Makes enough for two kids’ dinners with enough for their lunches the next day

• 5 oz (140 g) pasta, any shape
• 2 strips bacon or turkey bacon
• 2 oz (55 g) firm cheese such as cheddar, grated, plus more for topping

Method

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions (time depends on the shape of your pasta).
• Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large skillet until crisp; if you use especially fatty bacon, you may want to pour off some of the grease.
• When the pasta has finished cooking, drain it, reserving one cup of the cooking water. Dump the pasta into the pan with the bacon; add the cheese and toss to coat.
• Add the pasta water, a little at a time, until you get the saucy consistency that looks right to you. We used the whole cup.
• You can serve it as is, or, if you prefer a crispy crust, slide the pasta into an ovenproof dish, top with more cheese and broil until the top is toasted and bubbly. Yum!

 

Being totally honest, I’ve never liked raw tomatoes all that much. I put them in salads and sandwiches but I often eat them without much enjoyment, more a sense of duty. Duty? To a fruit? Anyway. I always supposed that California is a perfect tomato-growing climate, but particularly after these past two cool summers, that’s clearly not the case. And it’s not just our shady backyard (where we have yet to get a flower on our little stunted tomato plants this year), all the local tomatoes leave something to be desired. I remember eating a tomato in Sarajevo in the summer of 1996; it was hardly the most auspicious place for fresh produce, what with the war just ended and all, but that tomato was a revelation, so sweet and juicy. And while we had hard times with the tomatoes in Slovakia, so many of which split and cracked and fell prey to Colorado beetles, I miss being able to gather a nice bowlful for supper on a hot summer evening.

On the other hand, the firm, bland little cherry tomatoes we’ve been getting at the store are perfect for pickling. It seems a shame to fuss about with a lovely ripe tomato (or peach, or plum), but when they’re this unremarkable, a shot of vinegar does wonders.

My mother taught me how to make these when I was a teenager, and I had forgotten about them for years before this summer. Now I can’t get enough – as soon as we eat through one batch, I am nicking the skins for the next round. It is a little tedious to peel cherry tomatoes, and in fact you can just as well just slice up a large tomato and let it soak in the oil and vinegar; the pulpy insides may spill out, but that’s only an aesthetic issue. I find it relaxing to slip the little ones from their skins, it’s the perfect thing to do while listening to the radio on a sultry afternoon.

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“Pickled” tomatoes

The quotation marks in the title here are because these aren’t true pickles (you need to follow proper canning procedures for those). I just keep them in the fridge, where they last about a week in the unlikely event they’re not gobbled up. I sometimes toss in halved artichoke hearts, which take up the vinegar nicely themselves.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (about ½ kilo) cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup Sherry vinegar
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 scallions, sliced

Method

• First, blanch the tomatoes to make them easier to peel. Bring a large pot half-full of water to a boil. In the meantime, make a small nick or x at the stem end of the tomatoes. Prepare a large bowl of ice water and a slotted spoon. When the pot of water boils, carefully add the tomatoes and let them cook for about one minute; if the skins start to split or peel, take them out with the slotted spoon, and drop them in the ice water. Drain them off and then peel each tomato, discarding the skins.
• Whisk together the vinegar, oil, and oregano in a small measuring cup.
• Put the tomatoes, scallions, and garlic in a sealable container, the smallest they’ll fit into. Pour the vinegar mixture over the top, and gently tip the container to mix.
• Tightly seal and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

This is another grain salad, one called “farrotto” in the original recipe, but that’s entirely misleading. Farro is a kind of wheat, an ancient and therefore apparently expensive one, but we have successfully subbed in other grains and things for this salad and it’s still delicious; you do want something a bit toothsome, so I’d go with brown rice or bulgur over quinoa or couscous.

before and after: farro on a bodybuilding regimen

Yeah, there are a lot of steps here, yet another reason I didn’t get around to posting this earlier. It is slightly streamlined, in fact! And it doesn’t seem that complicated when you actually do it, I swear. You make the dressing ahead of time so the cumin gets a chance to really infuse the yogurt, and if you use the prepackaged cubes of butternut squash, the rest of the prep is a total breeze.

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Farro salad with yogurt-cumin dressing
Adapted from Bon Appetit

This salad (nothing like a risotto, original name notwithstanding) is light yet filling meal; I think of butternut squash as an autumn feature, but since they’re available year-round now, this makes a great potluck dish in the summertime too. I have no compunction about tossing the dressing in with the salad rather than drizzling it over the top and then packing it up to go.
Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 Tbs ground cumin
• 1 small tub (5.3 oz) plain Greek yogurt (fat-free is fine)
• juice of one lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• one medium butternut squash, cut into ½-inch dice (about 4 cups)
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 2 cups uncooked farro
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
• 1 medium red onion, quartered and sliced thin
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• ½ cup fresh cilantro

Method

• In a small pan over medium heat, toast the ground cumin until fragrant. Set aside to cool, them stir into the yogurt with one of the minced garlic cloves. Squeeze half a lemon into the sauce and then refrigerate the sauce, reserving the other lemon half for serving.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the farro, lower temperature to keep the pot at a vigorous simmer and cook until the farro is tender, 18-20 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• Meanwhile, preheat the over to 400°F. In a large bowl, toss the squash cubes with 1 tablespoon oil and the red pepper flakes, then spread on a baking sheet in a single layer. Roast until tender, about 20 minutes.
• In a large pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and saute all but a small handful of the onion and two cloves minced garlic over medium heat. Add the chickpeas and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cooked farro and squash and toss together, cooking for another minute or two.
• To serve, tip the farro-squash mixture into a bowl or platter. Squeeze the remaining half a lemon over the salad, then spoon the yogurt sauce artistically across the top. Finally, scatter the remaining onion and cilantro over everthing.

 

I just realized I’ve been making this salad for six or seven years, and every time I make it I seem to add something more, to the point where by now it’s less of a bulgur salad than a salad with some bulgur in it.

Are you sitting there wondering what bulgur is? It’s sometimes (incorrectly) called cracked wheat; I was able to find it in our regular supermarket in Slovakia, and here in California it’s a bulk-bin staple. No longer an obscure health food item, it’s a bit heartier than couscous but occupies a similar niche. And it’s extremely easy to prepare, which endeared it to me from day one.

The first time I remember eating bulgur was in Bulgaria – no, really! I was in Sofia for a meeting and my colleague took me to a Lebanese restaurant where I nibbled my way through a rather vast array of hummus, toasts, and tabbouleh, which of course is a kind of herb salad with bulgur. It takes a lot to tear me away from Bulgarian food, especially in situ, but that was a really memorable meal. This salad is another category entirely, but I think you’ll find it’s a tasty place to be.

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Bulgur salad with chickpeas, feta and lots of other things
adapted from epicurious

I just keep adding stuff to this salad, and this recipe reflects the most recent iteration. You can definitely change the ingredients around as you like; you could probably even swap the bulgur for quinoa or something else. Grain salads are like that, which is one of the reasons I love them.

Ingredients

Serves four as a substantial side dish

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs water
• 1 cup bulgur
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup frozen peas
• 1 can chickpeas
• 3 medium tomatoes (about 1 cup), diced
• 3 scallions, sliced thin
• 1 small carrot, sliced into thin coins
• ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley (a good handful)
• 1½ cups baby arugula
• zest from one lemon
• 3 Tbs lemon juice
• ½ cup crumbled feta cheese

Method

• In a small pot, bring the water to a boil, add the salt, bulgur, and peas and stir. Cover and remove from heat; allow to stand for 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
• Dump out the bulgur and peas into a large bowl, fluff with a fork and allow to cool.
• Toss with the remaining ingredients and serve.

So, I have become kind of obsessed with this corn “relish” recipe from the most recent Everyday Food. It’s about as simple as it gets, there’s no cooking involved. None! As we were chowing down tonight, Valerian asked “why do we even cook corn?” because it is so so tasty hacked right off the cob. And I’m not talking about any pampered organic superstar corn from the farmers market; I think it’s way too early for that anyway, especially since California apparently took a holiday in Oregon this spring and we’ve had weeks of unseasonal rain. No, this corn came from the grocery store, 33 cents an ear, and delicious as all get-out.

Although I’ve managed to make a meal of the relish several times (leaving guests whimpering as I greedily cleaned out the serving bowl), I wanted to bulk it up a little to make a more substantial dinner. I tossed in some black beans and for the omnivores among us, topped it off with some chicken cooked on the panini press my mother handed off to us when we moved. For myself, a little feta added some salty goodness but that’s optional, I’d say.

This was such a satisfying meal and so simple, it’s a good one to throw together for these weeknights when the sun stays up so long it’s easy to forget how late it is. Gluten free, too! It’s a delicious taste of the summer to come, just look at these gorgeous tomatoes:

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Fresh corn salad with grilled chicken
Adapted from Everyday Food

To keep the salad snappy and fresh, dress it last; I’d recommend cooking the chicken first, then assembling the salad; the chicken could easily be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.

Ingredients

for the chicken

• 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts or thighs
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 3 ears fresh corn
  • 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 scallions, sliced thin
  • 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, about 1½ cups, drained
  • juice of one lime
  • 12 ounces baby spinach
  • feta for serving (optional)
  • About an hour and a half before you want to eat, trim any excess fat from the chicken, season it with salt and pepper and place it in a sealable container or bag. Stir together the buttermilk and cumin in a cup, then pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover/seal and refrigerate for an hour.
  • To cook the chicken, preheat a panini press or grill to medium heat. Place the chicken parts on the grill (discard any remaining marinade) and cook for about 10 minutes, until there are nice grill marks on the pieces and the juices run clear.
  • While the chicken is cooking, cut the kernels off the ears of corn.
  • Toss the corn, tomatoes, scallions and beans in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the lime juice over and toss again.
  • Serve on a bed of baby spinach, with the chicken or feta on top.

  Serves three to four as a light meal.

Last weekend I came across a competition on Chow for the best original muffin recipe. Now, I love muffins, quickbreads, that whole kind of snack/brunch category is right up my alley. (Remember pancakes, anyone?) But I don’t have a favorite recipe, I usually just throw together what’s at hand along the lines of a basic muffin recipe and enjoy the results, so I don’t know why I was seized with the competitive spirit and determined to enter the contest.

We buy a loaf of Struan bread almost every week – it’s just a prepacked sliced loaf made by Brother Juniper’s Bakery, perfect for morning toast or lunchbox sandwiches. A couple of times I’ve made my own, following Peter Reinhardt’s version in Artisan Breads Every Day, and it’s delicious, but it’s hard to make the timing work to end up with a nice fresh loaf at breakfast, which is when I would like it most. But muffins, those can be whipped up in a few minutes and out of the oven in just a few more, and aha! I had my original muffin recipe.

Granted, dashing off a new combination the day before the contest closed doesn’t quite live up to the “favorite muffin recipe” challenge, so maybe it’s no surprise it didn’t make the finals. I have to say, though, this is a sleeper. On its own, it’s basic without being plain: the texture from the oats, cornmeal and rice give it a fabulous crumb, and there’s something almost savory about it, past the sweetness of the honey and brown sugar. With a jam center, though, you have a surprise finale, and I think you wouldn’t go wrong tossing in some fruit or nuts as well. I may not have gotten to the second round of the contest, but a new and delicious recipe is no loss!

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Struan Muffins

Yes, this recipe calls for cooked brown rice. White rice is fine! Next time you make rice (or even get some with your takeout), just put a couple of spoonfuls in a bag and freeze it, then you’re ready to bake any time.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 1¼ cups flour
• cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons cooked brown rice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• ¼ cup jam (optional)

Method

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
• Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cornmeal, cooked rice, and brown sugar in a medium bowl.
• In a large measuring cup, beat together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and honey until well mixed. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and allow to sit for about 1 minute for ingredients to hydrate.
• Spoon into prepared muffin pan. For jam centers, spoon about 1 tablespoon of the batter into each muffin cup and drop a teaspoon of jam on top, then cover with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the tops with poppy seeds.
• Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

Since the kids (mysteriously) don’t love the oatmeal pancakes as much as I do, I thought I’d try using the same method but with a smaller proportion of barley flakes than in the original oatmeal version. “I like regular pancakes better” was still the refrain at the breakfast table this morning, but I was really happy with how these turned out — and, it should be noted, no one left any behind for the freezer.

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Barley pancakes, adapted from Orangette (in turn adapted from the Inn at Fordhook Farm)

So you do have to plan ahead for these pancakes again, since the barley flakes soak in buttermilk overnight, but the result is fluffy, tender and has just enough bite to be interesting without being heavy.

Ingredients

Makes about 10 medium pancakes

• 1½ cups buttermilk, divided
• ¾ cup barley flakes
• ¾ cup flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tbs butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for greasing the pan

Method

• The night before, stir together one cup of the buttermilk with the barley flakes in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate.
• When you are ready to cook, stir together the flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs together with the remaining half-cup buttermilk and melted butter (don’t worry if the butter forms lumps), then stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Fold in the soaked barley and mix until everything is combined.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Once it warms up, coat the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of butter or oil.
• Using a ladle or muffin scoop, drop about ¼ cup of batter onto the pan. If it’s very thick and doesn’t spread a bit, stir in a little more buttermilk to the batter.
• Cook each pancake about three minutes on the first side, turning when bubbles form on the surface and the edges start to look cooked/dry. Cook about three more minutes, then regrease the pan and ladle out more batter.
• Serve warm with maple syrup, or eat hot from the pan with your fingers!

I have been reading about Kim Boyce’s cookbook Good to the Grain for a few months now, and lo and behold, I got my very own copy for my birthday this past week. The concept behind these recipes is baking with whole grain flours not (only) for health reasons, but to enjoy the specific flavors each grain brings. I’m sold!

The first recipe I aimed to try was the one for scones with a layer of jam in them — perfect Saturday breakfast fare. Alas, my stop at the grocery store yesterday didn’t yield barley flour, only flakes, but if there’s anything I learned from living outside the US, it’s not to let a pesky lack of ingredients stop me from making something delicious. I bought the flakes with the intention to process them to a flour at home.

I made a few other changes to the recipe as written, mainly because, well, frankly I am lazy. Boyce directs you to cut up cold butter into small cubes and work them into the dry ingredients with your fingers. I grated the butter straight from the fridge into the dry ingredients and then rubbed it into the flours. I didn’t feel like opening two sticks of butter, so I just used 6 tablespoons in the scone dough itself, and reserved two to melt for the topping. I was perfectly satisfied with the richness so I don’t think you’ll miss the tiny bit of extra butter.

However, the scones did spread rather more than would be ideal and ended up rather thin, and I suspect that the coarseness of the ground barley flakes was an issue. Pulsing the flakes in our little food processor didn’t make a uniform, fine flour, and probably I should have compensated by adding a little extra measure. The scones were light and tender in any case, and I really liked the little extra texture the uneven grind of the barley added. Boyce says the dough will be sticky, and it was; I struggled a bit to get the unbaked scones onto the baking sheet. However, with a sheet of baking parchment under them, after baking they lifted off without a crumb left behind, even where the jam oozed out and made some tempting caramelized puddles. With a cup of coffee, these really were the ideal weekend breakfast.

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Strawberry Barley Scones, adapted from Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain

I used low-sugar strawberry jam from (where else) Trader Joe’s; Boyce includes a recipe for making your own jam, but that’s for another time.

Ingredients

Makes 8 scones

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs/150 g barley flour (add an extra tablespoonful if you grind your own flour from barley flakes)
• 1 cup/100 g all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup/50 g brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1¼ tsp kosher salt
• 8 Tbs (113 grams) cold butter, divided
• ½ cup/235 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• ½ cup/8 Tbs strawberry jam
• 1 Tbs granulated sugar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/190° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt, breaking up any lumps.
• Grate about 6 tbs of butter into the dry ingredients; melt the remaining 2 tbs and set aside to cool.
• Working quickly with your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a mixture of small to medium lumps of butter well-coated with the flour. Do not overwork the mixture, you don’t want the butter to get too warm.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Pour this mixture into the dry mixture and mix until just combined. The dough will be sticky.
• Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface. Divide the dough in half, and pat one half into a circle about ¾” thick and 7″ across. Spread the jam across the top. Pat out the other half of the dough into a circle the same size (make sure there is plenty of flour on the work surface) and place it on top of the jam layer, pressing down slightly.
• Cut the dough into 8 wedges using a knife or bench scraper, and (very) carefully place them onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a good inch or so of space between them.
• Brush each wedge with the melted butter, and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are starting to brown.

First he developed an idea for an elaborate dessert featuring cupcakes and ice-cream cones (we have yet to give that one a try). His next project was a litle more straightforward, and we feature it here: popcorn with seaweed.

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Popcorn with seaweed

Our kids are not the kind that gobble up veggies without significant prompting, so it was a surprise to me that seaweed is one of the most popular snacks at the kindergarten. Well, if you taste the “roasted seaweed snack” from Trader Joe’s, you’ll see why, though; it’s salty and crispy and a lot like a green potato chip. If you don’t have a TJ’s near you, many stores carry a similar product, or if you can find nori sheets, toast them briefly in the oven to make them more brittle and shattery.

Ingredients

Makes about 5 cups of popcorn

• ⅓ C popcorn kernels or one package of unflavored microwave popcorn
• 5 pieces of “seaweed snack”, or one sheet of nori
• olive or vegetable oil (optional), if you have the kind in a spray can, that’s ideal
• salt to taste

Method

• Pop the popcorn.
• Place the popped corn in a large bowl. If desired, spray or drizzle the popcorn lightly with oil–this is only really necessary if you are using plain nori, the snack seaweed is already quite oily.
• Crumble the seaweed snack over the top, then toss with your hands.
• Salt to taste.
• Enjoy!

Here’s a weeknight special from the menu plan. Paraj (“pa-rye”) is a Hungarian comfort food classic. It’s something you can get from one of the fast-food főzelék places around Budapest, or even pick up in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. But it’s ridiculously quick and easy to make yourself, and you can make it lighter or creamier to suit your taste (or suit your suits, if you’re dieting). The addition of an egg on top makes it a filling and nutritious meal, but you might also toss in chunks of potato, croutons or cheese. With its vivid green color and soothing flavor, this is a favorite bright spot for a grim chilly day.

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Paraj – creamy spinach soup

We always use frozen spinach because we inevitably have some in the freezer, but there’s no reason an equal weight of fresh spinach wouldn’t work just as well. Don’t overcook it; you want to just soften the leaves enough to make a smooth puree. We use whatever milk we have on hand, usually 1 or 2%, but for a creamier soup, use whole milk.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 pound frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
• 1 Tbs good-quality olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups milk
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 4 eggs (for serving)

Method

• Warm your olive oil gently in the bottom of a medium stock pot and add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about a minute, watching carefully that it doesn’t brown.
• Add the spinach and saute for 3-4 minutes over medium-low heat, until most of the liquid has cooked off. Add the milk and salt and bring to a simmer.
• Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture until you have a fine, bright green puree. Taste for seasoning and then simmer over low heat for another 5 or so minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook the eggs to your liking (fried, poached, or hard-boiled are all delicious and worth a try).
• Ladle the soup into bowls, topping each a cooked egg.