Simple, fast and healthy: Avocado & Quinoa

Avocado has become a staple in many sushi rolls.  Part of this has to do with the combination of rice, soy sauce and avocado–together, the three form a very complementary palette:  the soy sauce enhances the savory and rich avocado, and the rice makes it seem more dense.

Yet you can enjoy this combination with grains other than rice, and sauces other than soy.  I have been forgoing soy sauce lately in favor of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, an equally salty yet soy-free (and gluten-free) alternative.  Bragg’s is a bunch of Lysine and Arginine and other amino acids, and while I don’t believe the hype that eating amino acids constitutes some kind of miracle food (they can’t cross the blood-brain barrier), they certainly aren’t harmful, and they do have more nutritive value than soy sauce.

Rice, Bragg’s and avocado don’t make for an excellent meal, however, simply because this is mostly carbohydrates with little protein.  I have found, however, that quinoa works almost as well in combination (which is a complete protein).

Ingredients

• Quinoa, 2 cups cooked
• 1 avocado, just ripe (slightly squishy to the touch)
• Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, soy sauce or Tamari depending on your preference.

Prepare the quinoa first.  There is an art to preparing quinoa well, which can be easily googled, though I often opt for the pre-cooked stuff that just needs to be reheated.  Cut a just-soft avocado in half; then, removing the pit, cut through the avocado’s flesh in long strips, lengthwise first and then laterally, without cutting through the skin.  Use a spoon to remove these “cubes” of avocado and drop them in the hot quinoa.  Mix well.  Add the sauce (Braggs/soy/Tamari etc)  to taste.  Enjoy while hot!

Apple Gnocchi with Apple Reduction sauce

Can you make a gnocchi with a starch other than potato?  Sweet potato (orange gnocchi!) and Incan purple potato (lavender gnocchi!) I’ve tried in the past, often mixed with sauteed garlic for taste, but I wondered if it would be possible to make gnocchi with another starchy plant, the apple.  The look and consistency of potatoes and apples are similar, albeit apples are less dense–they float in water while potatoes sink.  This fact ended up nearly being the downfall of the recipe: with traditional gnocchi, you can tell when each gnoccho is done because it floats with the top; with apple gnocchi, this is not a sure indicator.  Still, you can still make a successful apple-based gnocchi if you time things well.

This was originally cooked for Oberlin’s Iron Chef Co-op competition in 2009, in which the Iron Chef ingredient was, appropriately, apples; and our co-op’s menu won first place!

Ingredients (serves about 4 — scale for your crowd)

For the gnocchi:

• 3 apples, peeled, cored and diced (pie apples work best)
• 7 medium potatoes, diced (Yukon golds preferred)
• unbleached white flour
• 2 cups cloudy apple cider
• an egg beater, potato masher, whisk, or industrial-strength dough mixer.
• cinnamon

ALLERGY NOTE: Gnocchi is traditionally made with flour, a very unfriendly substance to those with Celiac or other wheat allergies. However, it should be noted that this is the ONLY glutenous ingredient!  Though I have not tried it, I have read of others preparing gnocchi with arrowhead or brown rice flour.  I would suggest, based on my own experience, adding a pinch of xantham gum if you go this route; and, if you are not vegan, an egg as well.  This will help give the gnocchi its consistency.  Don’t forgo this most delicious and springy of pastas just because you’re wheat-free!  Please let me know if you’ve tried this.

For the sauce:

• 2 cups cloudy apple cider
• butter or olive oil (or both)
• light cream, whole milk or cream substitute (soy milk works fine)
• garlic, minced
• 1 apple, grated with cheese grater–heavier, fall apples work better
• 1 apple, diced
• flour
• cinnamon

Gnocchi instructions:

Bring 1 medium and 1 large pots of water to a rolling boil.   Boil the potatoes (large pot) and the apples (small pot) until they are soft; it actually doesn’t matter how small the pieces are, though the smaller they are the faster this will cook.  Add one cup of apple cider to the boiling apple water.

When they are soft, drain both pots and put the potatoes and apples in a mixing bowl.  Mash them with a potato masher or other implement until they are well-mashed with no lumps, and the apple mass is indistinguishable from the potatoes.  As you are doing this, bring another pot of water to rolling boil, adding a dash of salt to the water.

When the mixture of potato and apple is steaming and no longer wet, add 1/2 cup of cider and a tablespoon of cinnamon and keep mixing.  Start adding flour to the mixture, several handfuls at a time, mashing the mixture to keep it homogeneous.  Eventually, when the ratio of flour to apple/potato is about 1:1, the dough should be a sticky, smooth mixture, much like a bread dough.  Rip off a small piece of dough and throw it in the water; if it doesn’t sink, add more flour and mix again.

Some people are very meticulous about the way their gnocchi looks, going so far as to use special gnocchi shaping tools.  You can do this if you wish, but personally I don’t mind having odd shapes for my gnocchi, though I do try to keep them a regular size–balls of about a 1cm diameter.  To make your gnocchi balls, first you have to make snakes:  covering your hands with flour, remove balls of dough and roll them into snakes on a cutting board, with a diameter of 1cm or so.  Be liberal with the flour.  Cut the snakes into pieces of about 1cm width.

Now, here is the tricky part with the timing.  Traditional gnocchi sinks in the boiling water and rises when it is cooked.  You want your apple-gnocchi dough to sink at first and then rise–but rather than remove immediately, keep it in for about 60 additional seconds after it rises, then remove the gnoccho ball with a strainer.  Set them on a plate to steam and dry.

Sauce Instructions:

You can cook gnocchi with all kinds of different traditional Italian sauces, but for apple gnocchi you’re pretty much required to make an apple reduction sauce.  Sautee the minced garlic in liberal amounts of olive oil or butter (or both) on medium-low heat.  Before the garlic browns, add the diced apple.  As they cook a bit and soak up the oil, add the shredded apple pieces.  After those cook for a minute, add about half a cup of apple cider.  Depending on how sweet the cider is, you’ll want to adjust how much you use–if it’s very sweet, you’ll want to use less.  At this point you should also add your milk or cream, though this is optional–however, it will change the consistency of the sauce and make it more creamy (obviously).  If you use soy milk, opt for a thick, unsweetened and plain variety.  Let the apple cider and cream reduce in the pan on low heat.  To increase thickness, add a few pinches of flour.   When the sauce is appropriately thick add a dash of salt and sprinkle with cinnamon.

This was served with a host of other apple-themed dishes including apple-gorgonzola pizza, apple-cinnamon ice cream and a lovely apple-walnut salad.  I was only in charge of the apple gnocchi, however, though all the other dishes were equally delicious.

English Orange-Plantain Scramble

On a whim, I mixed a bunch of ingredients in my kitchen to come up with this recipe and was amazed at how delicious it was, despite having very little in the way of spices.  I have cooked it twice now and while I’m really not sure what to call it, though I figure that since it has some nice traditional European ingredient–potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots–in addition to tropical ones–plantains, oranges–I would just call it an English Plantain Scramble.  I used the San Francisco weather-resistant navel oranges from my backyard when I cooked it (and a few tangerines), but any sweet citrus will probably work, including tangelos or blood oranges. I also tried adding some lemon the first time, though I didn’t think it was as good; use at the discretion of your own palette.  As usual, scale the recipe to the number of people being served.

Ingredients (per person)

• coconut oil (or other savory cooking oil like olive or grapeseed)
• 1 potato, cut into small cubes (1 small potato per person being fed; I used Incan purples, which are small, but if you were using Russets, probably 1 for three people would do)
• 1 large carrot, cut into coins
• 1 small onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 plantain, cut into cubes (always cut plantains lengthwise first, splitting into halves then quarters, then dice.)
• white “meat”–tofu, chicken, etc.
• 6 oranges, tangerines or other sweet citrus, cut into quarters or eighths.
• salt to taste

Heat the coconut oil in a large pan.  When the oil is hot, sautee the potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic on medium heat until the onions just start to caramelize.  When they do, add the protein source–cubed chicken or tofu or whatever you choose.  As it cooks, squeeze all the citrus over the pan.  The orange juice should dissolve and soak into the dish.  At this point sprinkle a small amount of salt over the pan.  Add the plantain cubes and let them cook till they are soft.  Serve immediately.

Welcome

I started this blog to promote recipes and tips on cooking co-op style food.  I believe that co-op food has become common enough to warrant its own recipe book as a new style of cuisine.

So what the heck is co-op food?

Co-op food is a style of food that is cooked, obviously, in co-ops.  By co-ops I mean living and dining co-ops: the cooperative houses and living situations that abound in the crunchier cities and towns of America (e.g. Madison, Asheville, Arcata, Olympia, etc.)  as well as food cooked in board co-ops on college campuses.

The style and range of co-op cuisine has become so different from any other cuisine that it deserves its own recipe blog, I believe.

What else defines co-op food?

Co-op style food usually entails cuisine that is savory, filling, and cooked in large quantities for large groups of people with varying dietary restrictions or preferences.   Co-op food is cooked frequently with healthy, fresh produce, with one goal to make the meal as complete as possible in terms of nutrients and protein.  Common dishes served in co-ops encompass a range of ethnic cuisines; stir-fries, cooked on large woks, are common.  Often co-op food utilizes a range of healthy greens including so-called “superfoods” like kale; another commonality is the use of local or in-season vegetables, even less-liked ones (like cabbage and radishes). Healthier options are usually opted for over less healthy ones–whole grains or complete proteins rather than white rices, for instance.

When it comes to cooking for crowds, in addition to stir-fries, “mushes” are common–usually porridges consisting of a savory grain (barley, quinoa) and well-seasoned veggies.

Co-op food isn’t strictly vegan; though usually it is cooked with vegan ingredients unless absolutely impossible, otherwise a vegan alternative is provided in addition to a main dish.  The same goes for gluten-free, dairy-free, and other food allergies.  The most successful co-op meals are those which are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and yet these elements do not define the meal whatsoever; a vicious carnivore would be able to devour a co-op meal without skepticism that he or she is eating something unusual.  In other words, the restrictions of cooking for a large, varied crowd exist, though the goal is to minimize the visibility of “substitutions.”  And speaking of substitutions, a large part of co-op cooking involves knowing how to take a traditional recipe and extend it to feed 20-100 people with various food allergies.

In my opinion, the perfect co-op meal would contain whole grains like quinoa, a full range of spices, vegan and vegetarian options, a wide range of colorful fruits, nuts and vegetables and encompass one or more world regions in its tastes.  It would be savory, filling, and able to be served to a large and diverse crowd with minimal or no dietary objections.

But I can only talk so much about what defines co-op food before you actually try it yourself!   This blog is devoted to my own recipes as well as variations on recipes I’ve tasted in co-op settings.  For two years I was a head chef in a vegetarian co-op of more than 50 people, which is where I cut my teeth on the production of the co-op style.  Now I cook mostly for myself and friends, and I hope this blog will be a great introduction to a burgeoning style of food for which there are few (if any) true “restaurants!”