A Stack of Dishes

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gluten free

Sorghum Salad

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Healthy Sorghum Salad~ A Stack of Dishes.com

 After a week in Seattle followed by a long weekend in NYC, I am now focused and determined to get down to some clean and healthy eating. This Sorghum Salad is a good start as it is a nutritional powerhouse and quite delicious.

Sorghum is an old grain that has great importance in poor countries in places like Africa, but it’s not thought of as something that would make it onto the average American table- until now. I had always thought of sorghum as something they only made molasses with.

This gluten free grain has a chewy texture similar to wheat berries, but to my taste it’s a little milder. It’s versatile enough to use in a cold salad like this one, or exchange it for rice or couscous in warm dishes, even soups. The pearls are about the same size as Israeli couscous, but you get a whole lot of nutritional value for the same texture and feel. They’re also gluten free for those looking for an alternative grain.

Sorghum may also be popped like popcorn, and it’s wonderful!! The kernels are smaller and so make petite little puffs. As a result you can’t eat them one by one with corn, but rather scoop them up by the handful. Fun! Since many folks can be sensitive to corn, this is a fantastic alternative.

sorghum salad~A Stack of Dishes.com

I was generously given some sorghum by Bob’s Red Mill at the International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC) and was really looking forward to trying it. I really didn’t know what to expect at first and I was delighted by how easy and yummy these are. [Read more…] about Sorghum Salad

Roasted Blue Pear Salad

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The new year is starting off to be the most hectic yet. Happily I can say that I am experiencing an embarrassment of riches.

I have now commenced my final semester of studies, which means I am feverishly working on my Master’s Thesis. I had been dreading this project, but now that I’ve sunk my teeth into it I am finding it to be extremely soul satisfying. As I work through the research I can feel the hours, months and years of my education coming to fruition. It’s like moving to a foreign land and suddenly you realize that you are a fluent speaker and you can get around with ease. I KNOW this stuff! Even better is I have come to appreciate that the mind- my mind– has the capacity to learn and expand in ways I never thought possible.

At the beginning of the year I also started my field work with Toby Amidor, RD. She is a practicing dietitian who also writes for The TV Food Network’s Healthy Eating Blog, Sear’s Fit Studio, and countless other publications. She is monster in the amount that she juggles, which she does with incredible grace and intensity. I met Toby back in December at a lecture that she was giving on social media for dietitians. I knew immediately that I wanted to work with her, and I am delighted that she agreed to take me on.

With Toby I am learning to be a more technical writer, and she is introducing me to the world of the entrepreneurial dietitian. It’s been a staggering departure from the writing I do here and I am loving it.

I am also gearing up for The Cookbook Conference next week at Hotel Roger Smith. I attended last year and was blown away. The venue is intimate, which enabled me to meet and chat with some of the heavy hitters in the cookbook world. It was there that I also met some of my dearest foodie friends to date, Gail Dosik, Maggie Battista, Cathy Wheelbarrow– to name just a few.

So, my dear ones, I haven’t had the time to develop new recipes at all. Most of my day is spent chained to my desk digging into pages and pages of research analysis. I haven’t had much time to shop either, so for fun I decided to give myself a little challenge and not shop at all this week.

The goal was to see if I could prepare a week’s worth of elegant, albeit simple, meals with just the things I had on hand. Surprisingly this has been a fun little experiment and not nearly as tough as I thought it would be. This may however be more of a statement to my stocking treasures {read TOO many treasures} that I don’t get around to consuming.

I’ve used spices I brought back from Thailand to make green curry over scented rice. I handmade tortillas with masa, and filled them with shrimp out of the freezer and accented it with homemade sriracha. I’ve eaten frozen yogurt with some dulce de leche leftover from the holidays, and I’ve made pizza dough, which I piled with the odds and ends of the vegetable bin and the cheese drawer.  It’s been so much fun I may keep on going until I am forced to stop. Once I started getting creative with what’s on hand, I got myself on a roll. {next is whole grain waffles with warm fruit compote using frozen fruits, and I’ve got polenta, ricotta cheese and spinach which will become something…}

This pear salad happened earlier this week. One of my treasures was a fresh wedge of my favorite blue cheese {Rogue Creamery Smoked Blue}. I had only 2 strips of applewood smoked bacon, so this plus that became the other.

I have a hard time eating salads in the winter. Once an Ayurvedic practitioner told me I was a something-or-other, (hatha? pitta?), which explained that I preferred warm foods during the cold days and vice versa. It’s not like I needed telling, I tend to shy away from the thought of crispy salads in the darker days of the year. Roasting the pears though takes the edge off. It also adds the best flavor in the world, caramelization, which is really the only excuse I need.

Roasted Blue Pear Salad
serves 4
 
2 strips of thick apple smoked bacon
1T unsalted butter
1t sugar
2 bosc pears
juice of one small lemon
.25 t dijon mustard
.5 clove garlic, minced
~5T olive oil- to taste
S & P
4 handfuls baby arugula, washed
.25c red onion, thinly sliced
2 oz Rogue Creamery Smoked Blue Cheese
 
Preheat the oven to 350˚
 
In a small, oven proof sauté pan over medium heat,  fry the bacon until crisp. Drain the bacon on paper towels, reserving the fat.
 
Pour off all but 1T of bacon grease and add butter and sugar. Melt over medium heat.
 
Cut pears in half and using a teaspoon gauge out the centers creating a delicate cup.
 
Place pears face down in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until a nice caramelization develops of the edges of the pears. Then place the entire pan in the oven.
 
Meanwhile, in a large bowl place the lemon juice, mustard and garlic and whisk to combine. While continuing to whisk, slowly add the oil until emulsified. Taste for acid balance, adding more oil if needed. Then salt and pepper to taste.
 
Toss in arugula and onions and turn over with tongs to cover in dressing. Divide greens amongst 4 plates.
 
When the pears turn a brownish color and start to show translucency around the edges, remove from the oven.
 
Place a pear on each place and stuff center with cheese. Sprinkle with chopped bacon and serve warm.
 
A little extra salt and a fresh grind of pepper is a nice finish.

 

Citrus Fruit Salad & A Field Trip to Haven’s Kitchen

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This past week I had the extreme pleasure, along with 7 other bloggers, to be invited to the beautiful Haven’s Kitchen. Now just coming up on its 1 Year Anniversary, Alison Schneider created a stunning cooking school, specialty food shop and event space not far from Union Square on W17th Street, just off of 6th Ave. She filled the space with a stunning aesthetic and surrounded herself with a talented and winning crew.

Her mission was to create a space that promoted a better relationship to the food that we eat, and our connection to the planet. The result is a healthier you and a healthier planet. Respect is given to the farmers that grow the food, how food is to be handled and prepared, and how to eliminate waste. There is a tremendous risk of this message coming off like a finger wagging lecture, but instead all this done with a beauty and grace that makes you want to move right in and never leave.

After a brief introduction by Alison on the genesis of her idea, we were introduced to David Mawhinney, her Executive Chef, who talked us through a short cooking lesson that included how to make homemade ricotta and a simple Jerusalem Artichoke soup using only 5 ingredients.

Before heading upstairs to get the full tour of the three story town house, we got to nibble on some of the ricotta on crostini with squash and sizzled sage leaves. Just a tease of what was to come and an insight into what some of their cooking classes might be like.

We climbed a spiraling marble staircase to two floors of event spaces. On the second floor is a large expansive dining room set with a rustic table and a miss match of chairs. The space is open and simple, but the rough repurposed wooden sub flooring Alison brought back to life, and the long row of linen curtains, give the room an ease and coziness. The space is perfect for an intimate wedding or a sumptuous rehearsal dinner.

At the other end of the floor is a sitting area with couches that surround a fireplace and a pretty bar where guests can relax and mingle before sitting down to dine.

The third floor is an austere space with an additional kitchen that is well suited for private events and their popular mixology classes.

After getting the full tour we returned downstairs the the kitchen to sparkling wine cocktails and our pretty flower and candle set table. Over petite cups of soup, plates of Kale salad and hearty servings of cauliflower tartines, we bloggers chatted and laughed and enjoyed the afternoon.

Alison and her crew were full of great stories fueled with such warmth and enthusiasm. It was hard to leave and head back out into the cold. If you find yourself in the neighborhood, stop in for a tea or a latte and peruse the shelves of food gems in the store- or go sign up for a class! And please tell Alison I said hello.

Inspired by simple grace with cooking, I returned to my kitchen after purchasing a smattering of different citrus to make this pretty salad. Opting for an array of colors and sweetness, I sliced up Ruby Grapefruit, Minneola orange, Navel Orange, Blood Orange, and Tangelo. I chopped up some pistachios for some crunch and drizzled a little honey that Lauren brought me back from Provence that she picked up during her Honeymoon. Along with I had some seeded crackers with dried apricots- the recipe for which you can find here.