FROM GARDEN TO TABLE, cont.

 

From the garden to my table.

The winter-to-spring garden—a plot of not much more than 125 square feet, fenced against wild boar intrusion—continues to produce. I am now picking small broccoli florets that the plants produce after the large, center heads have been cut. These cook in about 3 minutes. The cute “baby” cauliflowers and cabbages are a perfect size for a small household. 

The chard goes on and on. The favas and peas are nearly finished. A second round of lettuce arrived to remind me that I won’t be eating soup forever. Here are some of the dishes that have been on my table this week. 

On a sunny spring day, my favorite lunch salad, straight from the garden: lettuce, raw cauliflower, and peas embellished with sliced cooked potato, egg and canned tuna. A sprinkling of (garden) green onions. Dressing is simply extra virgin olive oil and Sherry vinegar. (There soon will be new potatoes from the garden plot.) Another cauliflower recipe: Moroccan Cauliflower Salad with Olives. And a recipe with broccoli Fettucine with Broccoli and Blue Cheese.

Oven-baked brown rice casserole with broccoli and cauliflower. I learned this technique of cooking rice years ago when experimenting with Macrobiotic cooking. The rice grains are toasted before baking. It remains one of my favorite ways to cook brown rice (arroz integral), although I have varied the ingredients considerably. The dish makes an excellent vegetarian main dish or a side with meat, chicken or fish. (Recipe is below.)

Broccoli and cauliflower al ajo arriero, or "muledrivers' style. Different from the typical muledrivers' preparation, these vegetables are cooked crisp-tender.

1 ½ cups cauliflower florets

2 ½ cup broccoli florets

¼ cup olive oil

Bacon slivers (optional)

1-2 cloves garlic, sliced

Red pepper flakes, to taste

¼ teaspoon cumin seeds

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pimentón (paprika) to garnish

Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Add the cauliflower and cook 1 minute. Add the broccoli and cook 3 minutes. Drain the vegetables and refresh them in cold water. Place in a serving bowl.

In a small skillet heat the oil. Add bacon strips, if using, garlic, red pepper and cumin. Fry until the garlic turns golden. Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Immediately before serving pour the dressing over the broccoli and cauliflower. (Lemon juice will darken the broccoli if allowed to macerate in the dressing.) Sprinkle with pimentón. 

The cabbages are small but they go a long way. A quarter of a head is perfect for a stir-fry for two with strips of pork. I've made potaje de coles, a sturdy Andalusian stew with chickpeas and sausages (recipe is here). This week, with prayers for peace in Ukraine, I am making borscht, a Ukrainian soup with beef chuck, carrots, celery, turnips, potatoes, beets and cabbage. (Only the cabbage is from the garden, although there are carrots yet to come.) I finished the soup with a squeeze of sour-orange juice instead of usual cider vinegar. More soups with cabbage: Pork and Vegetable Soup (Garbure Navarro) and Mallorcan "Dry" Soup with Cabbage (Sopas Mallorquinas)

Cabbage from the garden is both tender and crisp, a delight to eat raw. So, coleslaw. My version with grated carrots and onions as well as cabbage has a dressing of olive oil, Greek yogurt, jarred mayonnaise, and Sherry vinegar. 

Only a handful of fava beans and peas. I made a small tortilla with them plus a diced cooked potato and diced serrano ham. More recipes with favas Fava Beans with Ham (Habas con Jamón), Fava Bean Puree (Porra), Chopped Salad with Favas (Machacao), Cuttlefish with Fava Beans (Chocos con Habas), 

Baked Rice with Vegetables

Arroz al Horno con Verduras

Use either medium-short grain (Spanish) or long grain brown rice for this recipe. The vegetables can be varied according to what are available in the garden or farmers’ market. Miso (fermented soybean paste, white or black) adds meaty umami to the dish, but if not available, just omit it. Neither pepper nor herbs were included in the original version of baked rice, but they are fine additions, to taste. 

Serves 4 as a main dish or 8 as a side.

1 ½ cup brown rice

Boiling water or vegetable stock

4 cups broccoli and cauliflower florets

Salt

1 tablespoon miso (optional)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup diced carrot

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1 cup chopped chard

Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Chopped herbs such as oregano or thyme (optional)

Toast rice without oil.

Place a heavy skillet on medium-high heat and add the rice. Do not add any oil. Toast the rice grains, stirring frequently, until they are golden and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the rice into an oven-safe casserole. Add ¾ cup of boiling water or stock and stir well. Leave the rice to soak.

In a small bowl combine the miso, if using, with ¼ cup boiling water or stock and stir to dissolve the miso.

Mix vegetables with rice and bake the casserole.

Add the broccoli and cauliflower to a pan of boiling salted water. When the water returns to a boil (30 seconds) remove the pan from the heat, drain, and refresh the vegetables under cold water. Stir the broccoli and cauliflower into the rice in the casserole.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium and sauté the onion, carrot, mushrooms, and chard until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the miso-water. Add the sautéed vegetables to the casserole with 3 cups boiling stock or water. Season as desired with salt, pepper, and herbs. 

Cover the casserole with a lid or foil and place in the oven. Lower oven temperature to 375ºF. Bake the rice until tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the rice sit, covered, 5 minutes. Serve hot or room temperature. 

Brown rice baked with vegetables.

PAELLA FOR MEATLESS SUNDAYS

Brown rice and vegetable paella.

I’ve been trying to cut down on consumption of meat and seafood (for both health and environmental reasons). But I am discovering that it is ever so hard to be vegetarian and still cook Spanish.

The traditional Spanish kitchen uses meat sparingly--a quarter of a stewing hen cooked in a cocido with garbanzos and vegetables feeds a family of six. But ham bone or sausage inevitably turn up even in vegetable, legume and grain dishes, if just for flavor. And, bacalao, salt cod, is a favored addition to vegetable stews for church abstinence days.

So, I have had to do some adapting to turn my favorite recipes into vegetarian fare. Here’s one that has been a great success—vegetarian paella made with brown rice. It’s full of flavor, ever so satisfying. Just right for a (meatless) Sunday lunch. Lunch, because the Valencianos, inventors of paella, say you never, ever eat paella at night! But, that’s your call.

Brown Rice Paella with Vegetables

Flavoring the rice: stock. If you are not a strict vegetarian, you might use a chicken or shellfish broth to cook the rice in. But, I wanted to avoid them. To suggest the flavor of the sea, I used kelp in the water for cooking the rice. I think kombu or wakame would work best, but all I had was nori.

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil with 1 teaspoon salt, 1 bay leaf and a slice of onion. Add 2 sheets of nori or a few strips of kombu. Return to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to set 5 minutes. Strain the water, discarding the kelp.

Medium, short-grained rice for paella, white and brown.

Brown rice: Use medium-short whole grain—“round”—rice for paella. It will take about twice as long to cook as white rice. I decided to parboil the rice before adding it to the paella pan.

Bring the flavored water to a boil. Add 2 cups of brown rice. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to stand 15 minutes. Drain the rice. Leave it in a colander to dry.

The vegetables. An authentic Valencian paella usually contains big butter beans called garrafón, as well as flat romano green beans, artichoke and peas and the usual green pepper and tomato. Other vegetables that would work well are asparagus, fava beans, lima beans, cauliflower, pumpkin, zucchini.

Trim 8 ounces romano beans and cut into short lengths. Cook in 5 cups boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. Drain, saving the cooking water. Refresh the beans in cold water and drain them.

Have ready ½ cup fresh or frozen shelled peas, 1 whole artichoke, 1 cup cooked butter beans, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 1 chopped green pepper and 1 cup peeled and chopped tomato.

The pan: I use a non-stick paella pan instead of the traditional rolled steel pan. No, you won’t get that (desirable) crunchy soccarat on the bottom of the rice. But neither do you have to worry about the pan rusting. A 14-inch pan fits about right on a stove burner and will serve 4 to 6 persons. No paella pan? Use a large skillet or a flat-bottomed wok.

Creating flavor: the sofrito: The sofrito is the mixture of sautéed ingredients that flavors the rice. Olive oil is the essential starting point of a good sofrito.

Heat 5 tablespoons olive oil in the paella pan. Add the chopped peppers and garlic. Snap off a few outer leaves of the artichoke and cut it into quarters, if small, or eighths if very large. Nip out the fuzzy choke with a knife point. Add the artichoke directly to the oil. (It does not need to be rubbed with lemon.)

Add the chopped tomato and continue frying on a medium heat. Heat the reserved bean liquid.

Crush saffron and steep in hot water.

Seasoning and coloring: Use real saffron, if possible, for inimitable aroma and color. But, if not available, use yellow coloring and/or additional pimentón (paprika). Use a sprig of rosemary to mimic the herbal bouquet of snails in the authentic version of paella. Be sure to taste the cooking liquid for salt. Add more if needed. Salt brings out the flavors.

Crush ½ teaspoon saffron in a mortar. Add ¼ cup hot water and let it infuse 10 minutes. Crush 10 peppercorns in the mortar with coarse salt. Add 1 teaspoon sweet pimentón (paprika, not smoked).

Stir the partially cooked rice into the pan. Sauté the rice 2 minutes. Add the saffron water and ground pepper and paprika. Stir in the peas, cooked butter beans and a sprig of rosemary. Add 3 cups of the hot bean liquid. Stir to combine all the ingredients.

Bring the rice to a boil. Cook, uncovered, on a medium heat for 12 minutes. Stir in the reserved cooked green beans. Add 1 cup more of the cooking liquid. Bring again to a boil, then reduce heat to low.

Cook 10 minutes more, without stirring. Rotate the pan over the heat occasionally. Remove from heat. Cover with foil or a cloth and allow to set 10 minutes before serving. If desired, garnish the top of the paella with strips of roasted red peppers and lemon wedges. Serves 4 to 6.

Vegetarian paella with brown rice.