Asian Invasion

Organic Salmon Steak with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce and Fried Brown Rice with Kale and Peas

It's Gumbo Time Y'all

For my spin on the traditional Creole dish gumbo, I concocted a roux made with whole wheat flour and canola oil rather than white flour and butter. A roux is used as a base to thicken sauces and stews and is composed of a fat and flour.  The more you cook a roux, the darker and more nutty and flavorful it becomes. I started with a golden roux for the gumbo and built the dish with a mirepoix, low sodium chicken stock, casing free andouille style chicken sausage, skinless boneless chicken thighs, some additional flavor enhancers, and topped it off with some jumbo shrimp. The other spin I took was an abridged and boosted version of red beans and rice. I used farro and kidney beans and threw in some peas for added contrast. The farro sub provided many more nutrients than traditional white rice and added a little more sophistication.

Gumbo with Red Beans and “Rice”

Adapted from John Besh’s recipe in the Nov. 2011 Food and Wine

Serves 8

½ cup canola oil

½ cup whole-wheat flour

1 large onion finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

2 green bell peppers, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup tomato paste

2 ½ quarts low sodium chicken broth

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 ½ pounds casing free all natural andouille chicken sausage

2 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

8 jumbo shrimp, cleaned 

Cooked farro

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup organic frozen peas, defrosted

Toppings

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Pickled jalapeño

Hot sauce

1.     Brown chicken thighs in 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot. They should not be fully cooked, but nicely colored. Removed from pan and set aside.

2.     Combine oil and flour and cook over moderately high heat, stirring continually until flour mixture is golden and smooth, around 5 minutes.

3.     Mix in onions, garlic, celery, bell peppers, and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently for around 10 minutes until vegetables are tender. Stir in tomato paste and cook for a minute. Add stock, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, thyme, and bay leaf. Cut the chicken into cubes and add it back into the pot with the sausage. Simmer for 2 hours; discard the bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper. Throw the shrimp in 3 minutes prior to eating and allow to pinken and curl.

4.     While the gumbo simmers, cook the farro and add the frozen peas into the pot for the last minute to heat. Drain, toss with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and combine with kidney beans.

5.     Serve Gumbo along side the red beans and “rice” and garnish as you please.

The roux and sausage added a great smoky component to the gumbo. All of the flavors melded together nicely, and the farro was a delectable nutty and chewy addition to soak up the sauce. I looked over a lot of different variations of gumbo recipes while concocting this dish, and it is apparent that there are a plethora of variations on a common Creole theme.

This dish was nutrient rich and provided a great balance of:

Lean protein from the beans, chicken, and shrimp

Fiber, iron, and complex carbohydrates from the farro, peas, and kidney beans

Monounsaturated fat from the olive oil and canola oil

As usual, the gumbo got better with age and provided plenty of leftovers to fuel me through my rigorous study sessions leading up to finals.

On another note…I just found out I will be completing my internship at New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope! So excited to be starting my 27 weeks of clinical rotations and be one step closer to becoming an RD!

Happy Eating Radish Heads!

 

Soup's On

Farro Study Break

Whole faro with sun dried tomato anchovy pesto, broccoli, peas, boston lettuce, red onion with an apple rhubarb spritzer

Let the studying beginning…..but I couldn’t continue without refueling with my favorite grain…FARRO!

Farro is a whole grain and contains, fiber, protein, and iron and when paired with legumes create a complete protein. 

I can not seem to get enough of these nutty chewy Italian morsels!

Easy Peasy Pesto

Buckwheat pasta with spinach basil pesto, oven roasted tomatoes, broccoli and peas

Gazpacho

After consulting with the family chef about proper tomato usage for this summery soup, San Marzano puree was used over fresh tomatoes or tomato juice. Unless the tomatoes are extremely ripe, high quality canned is recommended. At first, I felt like I was cheating, since this soup was intended to encapsulate summer, but once chilled, the gazpacho was the pure essence of tomatoey, cucumbery, and garlicky peppery goodness.

Besides swapping the tomato juice for canned, I relied on my trusty Moosewood Cookbook for guidance for the Gazpacho. A cucumber, red bell pepper, small yellow onion, garlic, parsley, scallions, lemon and lime juice, basil, cumin, and cayenne pepper were gently pureed with the tomatoes, white vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and chilled.

For a spin on another summery favorite, I pulverized a box of organic spinach, basil, parsley, four garlic cloves, two tablespoons toasted walnuts and a little drizzling of olive oil to create a pesto. I found that spinach has a high level of water content, so you really only need a little olive oil to meld the sauce together. I mixed in parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to finish. To bolster up the buckwheat pasta, I added roasted cherry tomatoes and organic broccoli and peas (both frozen). The cherry tomatoes were oven roasted with oregano, basil, canola oil, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper. This created a nice slightly charred and sweet tomato that burst with flavor.

The buckwheat pasta not only had a lovely hue, but also added a nutty quality and provided added fiber. The pasta was also loaded with vegetables from the spinach; which is packed with folate, beta-carotene, vitamin K, fiber, magnesium and calcium, the broccoli; which also has beta-carotene, fiber and calcium, along with iron and vitamins A, C and D, and peas, which are a good source of protein. Walnuts provided omega-3 and antioxidants.

This was a lovely summery meal that left plenty of leftovers…. too bad my fridge is broken.

Who Wouldn't Want to Eat Spring?

Pea and Ramp Soup with Kefir

Spring has miraculously emerged over the past few weeks and to celebrate its arrival I made a soup to capture its essence. Even though peas are starting to pop up at the markets, I used frozen organic petite peas. Although I am not immensely proud of my usage of frozen peas, they are packaged at their peek, are simpler to use, more accessible than fresh and provide nice flavor.

Ramps, garlic and celery were sautéed in olive oil until lightly browned. A bag and a 1/2 of frozen peas were added and the pan was deglazed with a little north fork Pinot Blanc. Once warmed through, a container of organic low sodium vegetable stock was added and the soup was brought to a boil. The pot was removed from the heat and allowed to cool slightly. The soup was pureed using an immersion  blender,  (a regular blender can be used as well) until it reached the desired texture. The soup  was brought back to a simmer and served.

Garnished with kefir for texture and flavor and topped with some warmed whole peas.  

This soup is very simple, flavorful and low calorie. Peas provide more than 3 grams of fiber per 1/2 cup, are a plant-based protein and have iron. So… Pass the pea soup please!