Paper Chef #14

Keen What?



This past weekend, cooks all around the world were asking themselves, "What the hell is quinoa and is it contagious?"

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wa) is a South American grain that the Incas called the "mother grain," and the reason cooks were asking about it is that it was a featured ingredient in the January Paper Chef competition. Quinoa has the appearance of oversized mustard seeds and reportedly has more protein than any other grain at 16.2 percent. Its proponents offer other healthful reasons for eating it, but, as a cook, my main interest is how to fix it and what does it taste like? As I discovered the respective answers are "like rice" and "not much."

The other ingredients in this month's Paper Chef were cashews, yogurt, and something "baby" such as baby vegetables, baby food, or baby rice. I decided to do a pilaf and serve it as a side dish with lemon pork scaloppini.

I began by roasting some cashews. Then I sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil in a small sauce pan, added the quinoa and sauteed it for a couple of minutes, and finally added water, salt, and (for some unknown reason) ground allspice.

While the quinoa was cooking I finely minced some dried apricots in my food processor and then stirred them into some yogurt with another dusting of allspice. I also took the opportunity to sauté baby zucchini in brown butter.

How'd it turn out? The quinoa had a hint of bitterness but, beyond that, almost no flavor of its own -- the overall flavor was of cashews, zucchini, onion, and garlic. Furthermore, I found the texture (all those little seeds) irritating. The saving grace for the dish was the apricot yogurt. That was seriously good and would make a great spread on a bagel or muffin.

Quinoa Pilaf

1/2 c quinoa
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 ea onion -- chopped
1 clove garlic -- sliced
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 c chicken stock
salt to taste
6 oz baby zucchini -- stem end removed
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 c yogurt
1/2 c dried apricots -- finely minced
1 pinch ground allspice
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add garlic and cook another minute. Stir in quinoa and cook, stirring frequently, for another minute or two. Add cashews, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and a healthy pinch of salt. Stir in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until stock is absorbed.

In the meantime, melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini and brown. Remove from heat and salt lightly.

Process apricots in a food processor until finely minced, stir into yogurt with a pinch of allspice and lemon juice.

Serve quinoa with zucchini and topped with apricot yogurt. Serves 2.

Technorati: Food | recipe | Paper Chef | side dishes | pilaf | quinoa | apricot and yogurt