Autumn Farro Pilaf

Even though I like meat too much to consider ever becoming a vegetarian, I do my best to plan at least a couple of meatless meals every week.  That can be a little more challenging than simply recycling the same formula of meat-starch-veg night after night, but ultimately this commitment forces me to be more creative, I think.  In part that is because, even without animal protein, I still crave the same rich kinds of flavor that roasting or browning meat imparts to a dish.

Last night I created that same experience in a farro pilaf that we had with a roasted beet and spinach salad.  Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
1 cup farro
8 oz. mushrooms (cremini or an assortment with some wild), quartered
8 oz. Brussels sprouts, halved
1 onion, cut in strips
olive oil
salt and pepper
crumbled goat cheese

Bring 5 cups of salted water to a boil.  Add the farro, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes or so, until tender.  Drain.  Meanwhile, toss the mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, and onion with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast in a 400 degree oven for around 25 minutes, until they are starting to brown.  Toss the vegetables and the warm farro together, dress with a little additional olive oil, and correct seasoning.  Garnish with goat cheese.

I also made a pumpkin, kale, and lentil stew the other day in the slow cooker; I'll post that recipe when I have a chance.

Using Every Bit of Flavor

Glen and I recently had dinner at Ardeo, a restaurant in Cleveland Park, which we had never tried before. I enjoyed my dinner quite a lot, especially the celery root and winter squash hash that they served along with roasted salmon, olive puree, and pine nut foam. I just happened to have a celery root in the refrigerator that I hadn't used the week before, as well as half of a butternut squash, so I decided to see if I could make a reasonable facsimile.

I also wanted to try a recipe from the November issue of Fine Cooking, for a turkey breast "porchetta." As the name suggests, this dish is typically made from a small pig, but in this version a deboned turkey breast is marinated with a spice rub, trussed up, browned in a skillet and then roasted under a canopy of pancetta. This is where the extra flavor comes in. After I browned the turkey in a trusty cast-iron skillet, I realized that I should just make the hash in that pan, to squeeze out every bit of flavor, as well as to save a bit on the dish-washing.

So, I cubed my celery root and squash, diced some onion, and sauteed everything in the skillet with some additional olive oil and a bay leaf. No other herbs or spices were needed, because the pan already contained a fair amount of the spice rub, which included fennel, coriander, sage, rosemary, and garlic. After sauteeing for ten minutes or so, I began to add water in quarter-cup increments, until the vegetables were tender but still held their shape. The end result was not exactly like Ardeo's, but it was still pretty delicious, along with the meat and some mashed potatoes.

Ramona the Pest

Anyone who lives with a cat knows that it is very difficult to prevent them from doing exactly what they want to do, especially jumping up on countertops. I know that we should more diligently apply the spray bottle method, but I'm not sure it would work on either Rupu or, especially, Ramona, who is very persistent and curious. Why on earth would she want to investigate a bunch of kale? Who knows? It really doesn't matter, because she's going to do it.

I needed the kale for a vegetable casserole called panade. The recipe was in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago. It involved layering sauteed leeks, slices of butternut squash, kale, cauliflower, and stale bread in a Dutch oven, and then baking the whole thing with milk and fontina cheese. I added some nutmeg to the recipe; it seemed to need some additional spice. I thought it was a little too wet, so I will need to make some adjustments next time.

Along with the panade, I made an impromptu mushroom-barley soup. I sauteed some onion, carrot, and celery with a bay leaf and some thyme, and then added about twelve ounces of sliced mushrooms, half cremini and half shitake. After they were cooked, I added 2 cups of beef broth I had frozen, about 3 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and a third of a cup of barley. The soup made a very satisfying starter.

Along with dinner we drank an Austrian red wine, a 2008 Schiefer Königsberg Blaufränkisch that paired well with the food. It is a fairly light red, but with some nice spiciness that complemented the rustic rood very well.