hazelnuts

Welcome Spring with Grilled Leeks & Calçotada Romesco

21 Mar 2011
grilled leeks with romesco

I feel like welcoming the spring in a big way this year. We had a wet, cool winter here in Los Angeles. I am ready for the resurrection of the season. Maypoles and Easter bonnets are swell, but they are not going to be enough this year. I need to welcome spring with something edible.

In Spain, springtime is welcomed with a calçotada, the annual flame-licked ritual of grilling calçots, a sort of sweet, tender spring onion, over an open fire. It’s a very special food event in Catalonia and whole towns gather in the public square to devour these sweet alliums. They are similar to leeks or spring onions and are served blackened from the ashes of vine fed flames. The revelers pluck the hot charred onions from the ashes and slide off the sooty outside layers before slipping the silken centers, and smoke tinged leaves down their throats. Watch this video from InfoCatalan to see an authentic calçotada.

If you are ever offered the opportunity to join in on a calçotada, my advice is– jump at the chance. Get on a plane, drive like a lunatic, or walk if you have to. Because a true calçot is as sweet as a Maui onion, with an herbal flavor similar to ramps. But what makes them so special is the slightly bitter earthiness from the smoke and char of a wood burning fire.

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Grilled Leeks with Romesco (Calçotada)

Grilled Leeks with Romesco (Calçotada)
By jgreghenry Published March 21, 2011
Prep time: 120
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 32 clv garlic, peeled and left whole
  • 0.5 lb plum tomatoes, left whole
  • 1 c plus 6 t olive oil, plus more as needed
  • 0.25 c red wine vinegar
  • 2 dried nora chilis– cores, stems and seeds removed
  • 24 blanched alomonds
  • 24 blanched hazelnuts
  • 1 t sea salt
  • 1 hard-boiled egg, roughly chopped
  • 1 pn cayenne pepper, to taste
  • 1 t spanish pimenton powder
  • 12 baby leeks
  • 0 kosher salt as needed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the garlic and tomatoes in a roasting pan, then roast in the oven 30 minutes, until the garlic is softened and lightly brown. Transfer the garlic and tomatoes to a saucepan and add the oil, vinegar, and noras. Simmer on very, very low heat, stirring occasionally. The oil should barely bubble and form a clear ring around the vegetables. Simmer this way about 1 1/2 hours. Raise the heat in the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the almond and hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast them slightly, about 4 minutes. Transfer the warm nuts to a food processor and grind to a sandy consistency. Add the nuts and salt to the garlic and tomatoes and let them cook with the vegetables for the last half hour of their total cooking time. Let the tomato mixture cool slightly, and then scrape it along with the hard-boiled egg, cayenne and pimento into the food processor. Process until very smooth. Adjust consistency with more olive oil drizzled in as the machine whirls as needed. Prepare a moderate charcoal fire for indirect grilling. Slice the leeks in half (quarters if they are very large). Do not trim the root end so that they stay intact during grilling. Carefully rinse the leeks of any grit between the layers. Dry thoroughly. Pour the remaining 6 tablespoons of olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet. Roll the leeks in the oil, getting them well coated; season with kosher salt. Place the leeks over indirect heat; cover the grill and cook, turning occasionally for good coloring until soft and nicely charred. You may need to move them to direct heat in the last few minutes to get the amount of char you like. Serve hot with the romesco sauce on the side, or drizzled on top.

Notes:

serves 6 Dried nora chiles may be order online at www.latienda.com or you may substitute dried New Mexican chilis. Source: Adapted from Penelope Casas

Super Healthy Spaghetti Squash- Easy to Make Easy to Eat

25 Jan 2011
easy to make spaghetti squash with herbs

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Peas and Herbs is a winner because spaghetti squash really is an amazing vegetable.

Now I don't usually go for cute foods, or foods that appear to be one thing but are really another. It's why I could never be a vegan or probably even a vegetarian. Too many cute foods designed to fool you into thinking you are eating meat.

But I'll make an exception for spaghetti squash. Because spaghetti squash, with its natural tendency to form itself into long strands after cooking, is pretty darn cute!  But it’s also delicious and healthy as heck.

Spaghetti squash is a member of the winter squash family and includes the ever popular pumpkin, butternut and acorn varieties. You can cook it as you do most any of the winter squash.

You can prepare the football shaped squash whole in the oven, wrapped in foil on the grill, micro-waved, steamed or even placed in the crock pot and cooked on low all day. Prick the whole specimens with a fork prior to cooking to allow them to breathe and release steam, if you choose these methods.

These certainly are easy ways to go when cooking this squash. But I prefer to put a bit more effort into the procedure because I can coax out more flavor. So I like to cut mine lengthwise and roast them, cut side down. It also has the advantage of cutting the cooking time down somewhat when the vegetable is halved. Which is one feature to love about this cooking method. But I also like it because it allows me to season the squash before cooking.

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Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Peas and Herbs

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Peas and Herbs
By jgreghenry Published January 25, 2011
Prep time: 60
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 1 spaghetti squash (about 4 lbs) halved lengthwise
  • 1 T extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 T light brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 0 salt and pepper, as needed
  • 0.5 c parmesan cheese, finely grated, plus more for garnish
  • 0.5 c flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 0.5 c cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
  • 1 c frozen peas, thawed or fresh peas blanched
  • 0.25 c blanched hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush cut sides and cavities of squash with oil, and sprinkle with brown sugar, salt and pepper. Place squash, cut sides down, on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment. Roast until tender, about 50 minutes. Let cool slightly on the sheet set on a wire rack. Use a fork to scrape the flesh into long strands. Place in a large bowl. Add oil, Parmesan, parsley, cilantro, peas and hazelnuts. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, and a good grinding of black pepper to taste. Toss and serve immediately with more cheese as garnish.

Notes:

serves 4 Source: Adapted from Martha Stewart

For The Love of Chocolate Beet Pound Cake

08 Mar 2010
Chocolate Beet Pound Cake

So you wanna eat more veggies? You keep saying you do. But I am starting to doubt your strength of commitment in this area.

Take my personal favorite veggie. The beet. Both beetroot and beet greens are very powerful cleansers and builders of the blood. Beets are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. The greens have a higher content of iron compared to spinach. They are also an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium and iron. So they are very very good for you. Yet you resist eating them.

I am not your mother however, and this is not a nutrition blog. It’s an “I am crazy in love with food and you should be too blog” But who says love can’t be good for you?

And because I have a healthy love/love relationship with beets I come here and push them on you whenever I can.

I have used them in a salad, an interesting, spicy salad that even included the beet greens. You looked the other way.

I tried to cajole you with the prettiest pasta you’ve ever seen. I even steeped beets in rum hoping to get you to enjoy them at cocktail hour. But still you beat back my beets!

Harrumph… is all I have to say.

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