Soaked Oatmeal with Molasses, Nutritional Yeast and Dried Blueberries

This oatmeal was an exercise in making breakfast as nutritious as humanly possible.  First we soaked the oats, Weston Price style, then added iron-rich molasses, B-vitamin packed nutritional yeast and antioxidant-loaded blueberries.  Also, it was delicious.

Ezra is enjoying his cooking education so much that he's started requesting to "do a recipe".  He participated in making this oatmeal at almost every level, from stirring the oats and water with his hands to carefully arranging the blueberries in each bowl.  (He wasn't involved in the actual cooking, though.)


   Soaked Oatmeal with Molasses, Nutritional Yeast and Dried Blueberries

1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
1 cup milk
salt
butter
blackstrap molasses
nutritional yeast
dried blueberries
chopped walnuts

Combine the oats, water and yogurt in a small saucepan and soak, at room temperature, overnight.  Add the milk and a pinch of salt, then simmer a until the oats are fully softened.

Top with a pat of butter, small drizzle of molasses, sprinkle of nutritional yeast, dried blueberries and chopped walnuts.

Tortillas in Black Bean Sauce

We love many things at Picante, but our favorite brunch item hands-down is the enfrijoladas, a homey dish made of their handmade tortillas smothered in black bean sauce and drizzled with crema. We decided to attempt enfrijoladas using our new favorite Cook's Illustrated method for cooking beans: brining them overnight in salt water. The brining allows salt flavor to fully penetrate the beans, leaving them tender and delicious. Throwing the beans into the slow-cooker once they've been brined saves active cooking time and develops a rich sauce.

3 tablespoons table salt
2 cups dried black beans, picked over and washed
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
3 cups vegetable stock
10 corn tortillas

For toppings:
wedges of lime
chopped cilantro
fire-roasted chiles or salsa
crumbled queso fresco or cotija

First, stir the salt in 4 quarts (16 cups) cold water in the slow-cooker vessel and add the beans. Let the beans soak overnight, at least 8 hours. In the morning, drain beans, rinse well, and return to the slow-cooker with the cumin, butter, garlic, stock and 5 cups water. Cook on low heat for 8 hours.

Puree the beans and their liquid in small batches in a blender. Warm the tortillas in a dry skillet or in the microwave. Douse the tortillas well with black bean sauce and fold into quarters. Serve immediately, topped with lime, cilantro, spicy stuff, and cheese.

If you're saving any to eat later, wait to add the sauce until just before serving.

Nettle Frittata (not to be confused with Nelly Furtado)

Our outdoorsy friend Tanya makes an annual pilgrimage into the wilds to pick nettles. Then she makes some of them into a savory pie for her yearly Pi Day party. This year, we went along for the nettle harvest and made a frittata variation on her delicious pie. If you would like to try Tanya's version, she uses a mashed potato crust from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and a spinach pie recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Why nettles? They're full of iron, calcium and antioxidants. They taste like sort of like spinach, but with more integrity and less sliminess. You can substitute spinach if nettles are inaccessible in your area. If you do get your hands on some nettles, make sure those hands are gloved--nettles, when raw, are covered in stinging hairs.

A big bunch of nettles (two cups, once steamed and chopped)
1 tablespoon ghee (or butter or oil)
1/2 an onion, chopped fine
3 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped dill
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sour cream
2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put on some heavy gardening gloves and remove the stems from the nettles. Steam the leaves until wilted. (This will kill their stingers.) Rinse and drain well, then chop.

Meanwhile, melt the ghee in a 10-inch cast-iron pan on medium heat. Saute the onion until softened, then add the scallions and saute for two more minutes. Remove from heat; stir in the nettles and dill.

Combine the eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, salt, pepper and lemon zest in a separate bowl. Once the cast-iron pan has cooled for a few minutes (enough to keep the eggs from cooking on contact), fold the egg mixture into the nettle mixture. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan.

Bake at 350 until the eggs are set and the top is browned (about 30 minutes).

Syrian Orange Salad

It's still citrus season in Berkeley, which means we can't get enough of the mandarins, pomelos and sweet limes overflowing at the farmers' market. Alongside these more exotic offerings, we're adoring the navel oranges and wanted to share this simple preparation we've been enjoying for years. It can be breakfast, dessert, a snack or a palate cleanser. What we love about this dish is how easily it transforms a plain old fruit snack into something special; we even used to make this in our dining hall in college with nothing but an orange, a knife, a bowl and some honey. But if you have or can seek out the orange blossom water (you can find it in Middle Eastern grocery stores), the extra citrus perfume elevates the entire experience to something pretty heavenly.

We've blathered about the elegant potential of supreming citrus before, and once again refer you to this helpful tutorial if you need a visual to go with our instructions.

Per person:
1 navel orange (the slightly reddish one pictured above is a cara cara)
Honey or agave nectar to taste, depending on how sweet the orange is
A pinch of cinnamon
A few drops of orange blossom water (optional)

Slice off the top and bottom of each orange. Carve off the peel from the sides and then cut out the orange sections over a bowl, leaving the membranes behind. Squeeze the extra juice from the membranes into the bowl with the oranges. Stir in honey or agave, cinnamon and optional orange blossom water.

Persimmon, Pomegranate and Pistachio Parfait

This is our version of an Indian dessert called shrikhand, a fruit parfait with cardamom-spiced yogurt. This is frequently done with mangoes, but persimmons and pomegranates are abundant in California this time of year and go very well together. The tart, crunchy pomegranate seeds are a lovely contrast to the simple sweetness of the persimmon. Try this as a light dessert or a twist on your usual morning yogurt.

This is traditionally made with strained yogurt, but if you're using cream top yogurt or Greek yogurt there's no need to strain it.

1 cup yogurt
2 teaspoons agave nectar (or other sweetener)
1 teaspoon cardamom
2 Fuyu persimmons, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 pomegranate, seeded
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped

Mix together the yogurt, agave and cardamom. Divide the ingredients into 4 eight-ounce glasses or bowls in the following order: persimmons on the bottom, then the pomegranate seeds, then the yogurt mixture, and finish by sprinkling pistachios on top.

Mashed Potato Pancakes

Mashed potato pancakes are an excellent way to turn leftover mashed potatoes into a whole new meal with minimal effort. If you're truly lazy and can't even work up enough energy to fry your potato pancakes, we've discovered that baking works just as well.

2 scallions
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
2 eggs
4 cups leftover mashed potatoes
Canola oil

Mix together all of the ingredients except the canola oil.

Choose your cooking method: baking or frying.

The Easy Way: Grease a cookie sheet and dot with tablespoons of batter, pressing each mound down to flatten it. Bake at 450 until the bottoms of the pancakes are golden and crispy. Flip the pancakes over, return the tray to the oven and bake until the undersides are golden. It should take about 10 minutes on each side.

The Hard But Deliciously Fatty Way: Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet, medium-high. Drop 1 tablespoon of the batter into the pan. Flatten the mound of batter slightly with the back of a spoon. Add as several more mounds, then fry for about 5 minutes on each side, until the bottom is golden and crispy. Transfer to paper towels to blot the oil.

Serve with ketchup.

Egg Masala

On our last night in Kerala, we slept on a houseboat stationed near a rice paddy. When we awoke, our personal chef had prepared a rich egg masala and fluffy upma for breakfast. We floated along the backwaters, stuffing ourselves with spicy eggs, and we were in heaven.

Somehow, our homemade re-creation, while delicious, doesn't conjure the same kind of bliss. Maybe we missed some key ingredient that unlocks the secret of the masala. More likely? Nothing else tastes as good as what you eat while lounging in wicker furniture. Maybe you can convince someone else to make this and bring it out to you on the porch with a nice gin and tonic.

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal
4 sprigs curry leaves
2 cups of shallots, sliced into rings
1 green chile, sliced in half lengthwise
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned okay)
1/2 cup coconut milk
5 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
cayenne to taste

Heat the coconut oil in a wok over medium-high heat. When the oil is very hot, but not smoking, add the mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds have popped, add the curry leaves and fry for about 30 seconds. Add the shallots and keep stirring continuously until they are nicely browned. Add the garlic, chili, coriander, cumin and tumeric and stir to coat. When the garlic and spices have lost their raw smell, add the tomatoes.

Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down considerably, then add the coconut milk, eggs and 3/4 cup water. Continue simmering for another 15 minutes, then taste for spiciness. Add as much cayenne as you can handle, and serve over rice, upma or bread.

Simple Skillet Zucchini

We've said it before and now we'll say it again: well-loved zucchini is zucchini cooked on high heat until all the gross wateriness is obliterated. This is our latest breakfast dish, delicious with a side of scrambled eggs.



1 zucchini, sliced into 1/8 to 1/4-inch rounds
1 clove garlic, chopped roughly
a few sprigs of dill, minced
oil or butter
salt

Heat a cast-iron skillet with a little bit of oil or butter. When hot, add the chopped garlic and stir a few times, then add the zucchini. Shake some salt over the zucchini. Fry the zucchini on medium-high until the bottom sides are golden brown with a few darker spots. Flip the zucchini over and fry until the other side is equally brown. If you have more zucchini than will fit in the bottom of the pan at once, you'll need to do a juggling act to get all of the zucchini browned. Don't worry if some of the zucchini get very dark -- our friend Denise leaves her zucchini in the pan until it's verifiably charred and it's delicious!

Serve immediately -- the zucchini will revert to a soggy state if you leave it sitting around for too long.

Whole Grain Strata with Oregano and Myzithra

Strata is delicious for brunch or dinner, a really filling rustic concept: an egg custard, cubes of bread, and whatever cheeses and vegetables you want. This variation has a Greek flair, with a generous amount of fresh oregano and some crumbles of aged myzithra. Myzithra is a hard, salty Greek cheese; if you can't find it, feel free to use feta instead, or just skip it.

We used Alvarado Street sprouted wheat bread, but if you have something more normal around, go crazy. Also, this would probably work with rice bread for you gluten-free folks; let us know if you try it!

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
5 slices of bread, cut into 1-inch squares
1 1/2 cups milk (we used rice milk, but you could use whatever you want)
6 large eggs
1/2 cup crumbled myzithra cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Heat butter or olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute 5-7 minutes, until translucent, then add garlic and stir for 2 more minutes. Add bread and continue to stir until evenly coated and just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Stir in oregano, pepper and myzithra.

Take skillet off heat, fold in egg mixture and mix until well-combined. Bake for about 15 minutes on middle rack, until strata is puffed up and eggs look set. Cut into wedges and serve.

Swiss Chard Fritters with Creamy Mint Dipping Sauce

These fritters, called krefsiyeh, are from Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck. This encyclopedic guide is full of childhood favorites (including a mouthwatering full-page photo of mjeddra), but also includes a lot of interesting dishes that are totally new to me, such as this recipe. (Also, the one for calf brains, which is interesting on a completely different, thanks-for-not-making-that-Grandma level). The classic Syrian flavorings of allspice, cinnamon and fried onions are delicious with the sweet chard, and we didn't modify the seasonings for these fritters at all. We did dairy it up with a sour cream-based dipping sauce that's totally optional for the lactose-intolerant reader, but a smashing addition if you want to throw these on your Shavuot menu.

Recipe notes: we used peanut oil (best for high-heat frying), and you'll want to drain the chard really well so your batter doesn't end up watery--try pushing down on the chard in a mesh strainer over the sink.


Original Recipe from Aromas of Aleppo:

2 bunches Swiss chard, stems removed
4 eggs, beaten
1 onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup vegetable oil

In a medium stockpot, bring 1 inch of water to boil. Add the Swiss chard, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Drain the Swiss chard thoroughly and chop it.

Combine the eggs, onion, allspice, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Mix well and stir in the Swiss chard.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil sizzles upon contact with a droplet of water, drop 1 tablespoon of the egg batter into the pan. Flatten the mound of batter slightly with the back of a spoon. Continue adding as many mounds of the batter mixture as the skillet will allow. Fry for 3 minutes, or until golden, turning once. Drain the fritters on paper towels. Repeat this process with the remaining batter, and if necessary, add more oil.

Optional Dipping Sauce from Aromas of Kale-eppo

1 cup sour cream
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint

Stir together and dollop on fritters!

Avocado, Cilantro and Green Garlic Frittata

Throwing avocado in everything is one of the joys of living in California. So when we had out-of-town guests, we decided to throw it in a frittata. The resulting dish was delicious, quick and memorable, served with a side of stir-fried asparagus.

Everything comes together very quickly, so have all your ingredients prepped before you turn on the heat.

8 eggs
salt
pepper
1 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 stalks green garlic, roughly chopped
1 ripe avocado, diced

Beat eggs in a large bowl with salt, pepper and cilantro. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and saute green garlic for 3-5 minutes, until just starting to brown. Pour in eggs and add avocado chunks, then cook on the stovetop for a few minutes, until the bottom is set, then transfer the skillet to the broiler and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the top is golden. Cut into wedges and serve.

Parsnip, Carrot and Kale Frittata

This frittata is quick and packed with vegetables--perfect for a spring evening, since you can have dinner in no time and still go for a bike ride before it gets dark out. Grated carrots and parsnips cook up speedily and sweetly, tempered by the kale and enveloped in a savory custard of eggs, fresh herbs and sour cream.

2 tablespoons butter
1 carrot, grated
1 parsnip, grated
10 leaves lacinato kale, slivered into fine ribbons
6 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon fresh, if you have it)
Salt
Pepper

Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large cast-iron skillet. Add the parsnips, carrots and kale and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until the kale is totally wilted. Beat the eggs, sour cream, parsley, dill, salt and pepper in a bowl and pour over the vegetables. Cook on the stovetop for a minute, then transfer the skillet to the broiler and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until eggs are set and the top is golden. Cut into wedges and serve.

Rachel's Masala Potatoes

It's the international year of the potato, and here's one more potato dish to get you through the winter! This one is from my sister; serve with curries in lieu of rice, or under some sauteed dark greens. It's also delicious reheated for breakfast the next day.

6 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece of ginger, minced
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Toss potatoes with olive oil and seasonings in a 9 X 13 inch pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until potatoes are soft.

Sierra's Raw Kale Smoothie

*Note to you Bloglines subscribers: we're reposting this recipe to enter into Ingrid's Green Leafy Recipe Contest in hopes of scoring a free juicer!*

Our niece Sierra is only one year old and she already hearts kale, especially in the form of this smoothie recipe from her mama. But this green concoction isn't just for babies--it's a great morning pick-me-up or post-workout snack for fully grown people, too.

Apple juice, peach and banana are sweet enough to balance out the bitterness of raw kale--you should try to get a sweet purple or red kale (like Red Russian or karinata). The original recipe made enough for a hungry baby, so we scaled this up to feed a grown-up. If you're making this for a baby, use 4 ounces apple juice, 2 slices peach, 1.5 leaves raw kale and 2 tablespoons of banana.

6 ounces apple juice
4 slices fresh or frozen peach
2 large leaves raw kale, stems removed and chopped finely
1 ripe banana, sliced

Blend. Drink. Eat some solid food afterwards if you're ready for that kind of thing.

Shiitake-Buckwheat Breakfast Pilaf

Mushroom-barley soup is great for breakfast on cold mornings, but sometimes soup is more of a sit-down meal than I can swing before 7 a.m.--I need something that can be gobbled down quickly if I'm running late. Enter this liquid-less, savory mixture, which is essentially kasha varnishkes without the bowtie pasta. I made a big batch tonight and will be gleefully chipping away at it all week.

Roasted buckwheat, or kasha, is actually both wheat-free and gluten-free. Kasha is usually found in the "international" aisle (ha!) with the kosher food; you can usually locate a box of Wolff's kasha adjacent to those disturbing jars of jelly-coated gefilte fish, but Bob's Red Mill apparently caught wind of the hippie kasha market and has started selling it alongside their other grains and flours. This particular batch was made with whole kasha; some packaged kasha is fine-grain, in which case the proportions are the same but it will need less simmering time, probably about 3-5 minutes.

Go Ahead, Hum the Morning Edition Theme Music

2 tablespoons butter, Earth Balance or olive oil
10 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 cups water (or vegetable stock, if you have some)
1 cup kasha
1 egg, slightly beaten
Bragg's or tamari, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

And I'm Renee Montagne

Heat butter, oil or Earth Balance on high in a saucepan. Add mushrooms and stir frequently, until browned. Pour in water or stock and bring to a boil.

While you're waiting for the liquid to boil, combine kasha with egg, stirring to coat all the kernels. In a heavy cast-iron skillet, toast the egg-coated kasha over high heat for 2-3 minutes, until kernels are separated. Pour in liquid and mushrooms, cover tightly and simmer for 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. Season with Bragg's or tamari and pepper to taste.