Month: July 2008

I bought some Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted wheat penne, whilst in the throes of having read an article about the increased nutrition in sprouted grains. I’m also trying to figure out what changes I can make to my foodwhore diet to drop some of the extra 20 pounds I’m lugging around. I figured I’d at least try it.
It’s nasty.
It tastes like pasta made of beans, which isn’t surprising since there are two types of beans in it. If you overcook it even a little bit, it gets mushy and falls apart, and the difference between hard in the middle and mushy is about 30 seconds in the pot. It’s pasty and grainy.
I first served it with sauteed kale and garlic and broad beans, which wasn’t atrocious, since the kale and beans were in the same nutty flavor universe as the pasta, but when we tried it with some tomato sauce it was just yucky.
Armed with this knowledge and the hope that a nutty tasting pasta might taste better with actual nuts, today I cooked the rest and put it together with some well-salted zucchini and vidalia onion, chopped walnuts, a sprinkle of salt & pepper and some walnut oil. This was actually something I might consider food. It was reasonably tasty, with the salt and bright squash and nutty oil working their magic, and though the pasta has a tendency to stick to your teeth, it was at least cooked the right amount this time. I won’t, however, be buying this product again — life is just too short.

I LOVE chicken salad. And I almost never get it, because I don’t trust restaurants not to put 8 pounds of mayo and huge chunks of celery in it.
But whenever I get some extra cooked chicken — specifically when i have some extra pulled off the bones from making soup — I like to make some chicken salad. The most recent version had nothing but mayo, celery leaves (LEAVES, you will note, not gross crunchy blocks), dill and salt & pepper.
And as always, I am struck by how mindbendingly delicious just-plain-chicken can be when in close quarters with mayonnaise. I eat it extra slowly so as not to miss any of it, because it never lasts long. Yums.

I have jars of pickled everything still left from last year — I might have gotten a little carried away. So I’m trying really hard to use stuff up, so I can reclaim a few scraps of fridge space… which means that today I made potato salad with two whole pickled onions, chopped up and added to the hot diced potatoes so the vinegar would absorb (this being the Cook’s Illustrated tip: boil taters in salted water, then sprinkle with vinegar while hot before adding the mayo dressing). The dressing was mayo and sweet Swedish mustard in about equal parts, plus a big handful of chopped dill.
It’s pretty awesome just licked off the mixing spoon, and I have high hopes for it alongside some smoked salmon for dinner tonight.

I love pasta salad, or at least the idea of pasta salad — cool pasta, tasty accessories, simple and fresh and filling. But it’s never like that — it’s either too full of stuff, or too oily, or too bland, or too something. So I rarely make it, other than to casually toss a few selected leftovers into a bowl of cold pasta for lunch on a hot day.
But my coworker made some for our office potluck last week, with basil, mozzarella and grape tomatoes, and it was awesome. I had some more for breakfast the next day, and was again struck by the yumminess. I asked her for the recipe, and it turned out to be just as simple as it seemed to be, but somehow the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I made some last night and took it to a July 4th fireworks party, and at least 5 strangers came up to me and told me how awesome it was, so i know it’s not just me nerding out about this.
Here’s how to make it:
Boil a pound of orzo in heavily salted water. Drain and rinse and drain again. Add just enough olive oil to coat the orzo. Cut up fresh water-packed mozzarella into bite size dice (1/2″ or so) — I cut ciliegine into 4 bits each. Cut grape or cherry tomatoes in half, or in quarters if you feel like the halves are too big. Rip up a big pile of basil leaves. Mix it all into the pasta and add ground black pepper, and extra salt if it needs any (it will probably want at least a little bit). Let it sit for a while before serving for best flavors.
I think that I added a shade too much oil, so i splashed in just a little bit of rice vinegar, and i think that was a good addition, even though it wasn’t part of the original recipe. I also think that the trick is to get the flavorings in the pasta while it is warm enough to infuse the flavors, but cool enough not to cook the tomatoes or melt the cheese at all. The taste is quiet, but not bland — it’s somehow refreshing: creamy and spoonable from the orzo, basil-y throughout, and fresh from the tomatoes.
Happy Independence Day!