stacey . smoore . the staceyfish . 
Life in a Northern Town: the exploits of an ecstatic Alaskan
Lens: the adventures of a girl and her camera
I've never been a big fan of rice. The way Americans do it is just so... blah. Brown rice suffers even more than the typical white rice. Some inspiration is needed, and fast!
We're not going to even talk about boxed products like Rice A Roni - all I can taste is chemicals, and if you're daring enough to face the three-inch list of ingredients, you'll find MSG or its precursors. Yuck! Many people have tried to liven up rice by adding chicken broth or stock, but this too is problematic. If you use commercial broth, you're left with something unpalatably salty. If you use homemade stock, the gelatin interacts with the grains somehow, leaving a gross, sticky mess that is incapable of absorbing all of its cooking liquid. I have tried many, many times to find a good water-to-stock ratio that will flavor the rice but won't leave it gummy and waterlogged but have failed every time. Clearly, another approach is in order.
First off, I gave up any hope in making plain brown rice interesting. I needed to infuse some other flavors, and fast. So one day at a local health food store, I parked myself in front of the bulk bins and started picking and choosing some different grains to make my rice more interesting and more textured. I was very happy with my chosen blend - brown rice, wild rice, wheat berries, and rye berries - because it definitely had more flavor and it had a marvelous toothiness to it, but I still wanted more.
To find something suitable, I took my cue from a land where rice is actually a staple grain, figuring that they, of all people, would know how to make it interesting. I settled upon some inspiration from spiced Indian rice dishes that I love so well and opted for a pilaf that begins with whole spices. This, too, was better, but it still needed something more. Little by little, I whittled my way down to the solution, adding and subtracting things, until last night, I finally hit upon a solution I loved. Even The Hubs liked it! At long last, rice - and most especially, healthy brown rice - has been delivered from tasteless purgatory.
You may be sad because summer has come to an end, taking with it delightful foods like nectarines, plums, berries, and locally grown vegetables like greens, cauliflower, chard, beets, and carrots.
But don't fret! Fall has its place in a foodie's heart because it brings delights like root vegetables, butternut squash, pumpkins, an untold number of apple varieties, Bartlett pears, and pomegranates.
I recently celebrated fall by having a harvest dinner (suggested by my most wise and venerable husband). On the menu was a roasted pear salad with candied walnuts, blue cheese, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette, cabernet-glazed shallots, butternut squash risotto with wilted spinach and toasted pine nuts, sauteed pork tenderloin with an apple-sage sauce, and stuffed baked Jonagold apples with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. I love this menu -- it's so autumn-y with its warm, subtle flavors and unifying themes. Sage and apple are present in many of the dishes but are different and subtle enough to not get old or tiring. And as my guests pointed out last night, there's plenty of booze in every dish! So dig in and get to love autumn as much as I do, and share it with some good friends too.
I love orzo. It's such a hybrid - it looks like it wants to be rice, but it's got the taste and texture of pasta, and because of its small shape it's perfect in side dishes and salads. This dish that I'm about to share with you is my favorite orzo dish. There's really nothing not to love about it - it has lots of highly flavored elements that manage to not compete with each other, a couple of highly nutritious veggies, and a wonderfully textured sauce that tastes rich and creamy without actually being either of those things.
This recipe also has the bonus factor of minimal stove use, which is key in the summer. You use a stove but it's much more about mixing things together at the end than it is about simmering for hours. I love taking this dish to dinner parties because people tend to expect a typical pasta salad dish - made with mayonnaise and flat-tasting - until they actually try it and realize how much complex and fresh tasting it is than what they were expecting. So give it a try and let it change your ideas of a pasta salad.
Click here for the recipe for "Orzo with cherry tomatoes, capers, and lemon" »
Last fall, out on my own, looking for yummy things to eat, and cursing the lack-of-vegetable-repertoire that extended beyond steamed broccoli, I starting looking for new vegetables to titillate my palate and nourish my body. I tried just about every fall vegetable I could find like brussels spouts, parsnips, or spaghetti squash. I wasn't too impressed with the stuff I was trying but was more than willing to try again since a) winter produce in Alaska is, well, yeah.... and b) who could tell if my recipes were any good to begin with! I needed to give the veggies a fair shot to find a permanent place on my plate before I can in good conscience dismiss them.
But two veggies that I found were definite winners: butternut squash is a wonderful surprise, more like pumpkin than anything else, and who doesn't like pumpkin? Plus the stuff is super-versatile. You can roast it, put it in a risotto, make soup out of it, the list goes on and on. The other winner I found was shallots. Have you tried these things? They're freakin' fantastic! If you mated butter, garlic, and an onion, you would get a shallot. They are wonderfully mild yet still very flavorful and will literally melt into a dish the way its more pungent cousins never will. Plus, they melt in your mouth. What an amazing little vegetable...
So you can imagine my joy when, while looking for butternut squash recipes because I had bought too much (again), I ran across this gem. You mean it has butternut squash AND tons of shallots??? AND one of the best roasting herbs, thyme??? AND it is super easy, cooks quickly, and is amazingly delicious? Where do I sign up???
So seriously, do yourself a favor and try this recipe. It would fit wonderfully into a Thanksgiving menu too. You'll find it on my own table come Thursday, the 22nd of November.
Click here for the recipe for "Roasted butternut squash with shallots and thyme" »
Growing up, one of my family's favorite accompaniments to meat dishes was steamed red potatoes and green beans. For some reason, the flavors go together quite well, especially when paired with a meat dish. I brought this idea along with me when I moved out, but as I learned more about cooking I couldn't help but modify it.
My experimentation all started with a recipe I found for a Salade Niçoise. It called for roasted potatoes, green beans (good so far) but then added in all this other stuff like chopped kalamatas, onions, anchovies, capers, and lemon and was served along unadorned flavorless grilled tuna steaks. Something had gone terribly wrong. I like a lot of those things, but the combination was simply too much. This recipe was trying way too hard. Instead of being warm, inviting, savory, simple, and satisfying, it was bitter, salty, and, well, gross.
Nevertheless, it did introduce me to roasting, and I knew that I was on to something good here. Knowing that the basic premise of red potatoes and green beans was pure and solid, I made it several more times over the coming months, but omitted the offending ingredients and added an aromatic or two.
Of course, the potatoes are heavenly on their own without the green beans. Last Christmas, my mother-in-law was roasting those red potatoes I love so well, and was of course adding in the requisite rosemary. This caused her father to protest loudly "Don't add so much rosemary! You'll ruin the flavor!" I couldn't help but laugh at this well-meaning but misguided advice, given that the potatoes have practically no flavor on their own. Potatoes and rosemary go together like tomatoes and basil: a match made in heaven. What would be the point of roasting them without it?
Click here for the recipe for "Roasted rosemary red potatoes with green beans" »
Growing up, while probably no different than most other American households, I was familiar with startlingly few grains. I knew of wheat, oats, rice, and.... that's about it. Since I've struck out of my parents' house own and have had a kitchen -- and some cookbooks! -- to call my own, I've been making a conscious effort to branch out.
This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks. It's odd that it's one of my favorites, give that I'm usually somewhat dissatisfied with the way the recipes turn out. Luckily, the recipes are usually a good 70% solution and I find it very easy to take their recipes and solve dissatisfaction with a few simple -- and still healthy -- substitutions. The original recipe for this dish called for (perfectly revolting) mushrooms but still lacked a thing or two in terms of taste and color. So I varied the cooking method a little bit, added in some much needed flavor, and here is the result!
Click here for the recipe for "Quinoa Pilaf With Arugula and Sun-dried Tomatoes" »