Scallops Provencal with Winter Squash Timbales

"Cooking is an art and patience a virtue... Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing - love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist - not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love."  - Keith Floyd, ‘A Feast of Floyd’

What a delicious, sumptuous meal - light, but very satisfying with lovely flavors, texture and color.

Scallops Provencal

My favorite way of cooking scallops. Thank you to Ina Garten for Barefoot in Paris - Easy French Food You Can Make at Home. I adapted her recipe to accommodate my black pepper-free, gluten-free diet.

Ingredients:

1 pound large sea scallops, rinsed, pat dry and sliced in half horizontally

Sea Salt

Cayenne Pepper

All-purpose Gluten-Free Flour, for dredging

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted Butter, divided into pats

1/2 cup Shallots (2 large)

1 clove Garlic, minced

1/4 flat-leaf Parsley, chopped

1/3 cup dry white Wine

1 Lemon, halved

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the scallops with salt and cayenne pepper, then toss with the flour. Shake off the excess flour and set aside on a plate.
2. Heat a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and place the scallops in a single layer in pan and lightly brown on one side, then lightly brown on the other side. This takes no more than a few minutes in all.
3. Melt the remaining butter in the pan along with the scallops, adding the shallots, garlic, parsley and sauté for another couple of minutes, tossing the seasonings with the scallops.
4. Add the wine, continue cooking for only another minute. Taste for seasoning.
5. Serve hot with a fresh squeeze of lemon on each serving.
6. Serves 2

Winter Squash Timbales (a dish formed in a mold or ramekin)

Thank you to my daughter for sharing this recipe, which she gleaned from The Vegan Table (page 236). A wonderful fall and wintertime side dish that is colorful, textured and nutritious!

Ingredients:

2 cups winter Squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2-1/2 cups Vegetable Stock (I use vegetarian bouillon and water)

1 cup Arborio Rice (do not rinse, and stir often)

1/4-1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt (depends how salty vegetable stock is)

1 tablespoon Olive Oil for sautéing 

1 large yellow Onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon minced Garlic

2 tablespoons fresh Parsley, finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh Thyme, finely chopped

2-3 tablespoons of sun-dried Tomatoes, finely chopped

Cayenne Pepper to taste (or Black Pepper)

1/4 cup Pine Nuts, toasted for garnish (optional)

Kale, washed, dried, chopped and steamed or sauteed

[Note: I used my food processor for the onion, then again to chop the garlic, parsley thyme, sun-dried tomato together. Worked nicely and saved time.]

Directions:

1. Lightly oil 4 ramekins, or oven-proof bowls or pans that can hold 1-1/4 cups.
2. Steam cubed squash until tender (10-12 minutes). Place in a medium to large mixing bowl.
3. In a large sauce pan, bring to a boil the rice in the vegetable stock. Add salt. Cover and reduce heat to low, cooking until the rice is tender, for about 20 minutes. Some liquid should remain. Stir often. Arborio rice becomes very thick.
4. In a large sauté pan, heat the oil on medium heat. Add the onion, sautéing until it starts to turn golden brown and translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the thyme, parsley and garlic and sun-dried tomato mixture, cooking another couple of minutes, then stir in the cooked squash. Remove mixture from heat.
5. To make the timbales, place 1/4 of the vegetable mixture in the bottom on each ramekin - pressing down gently to compact. Top with rice, once again pressing down to compact.
6. When ready to serve, run a knife along the inside edge of the ramekins and invert each one atop a bed of freshly steamed or sautéed kale on each dinner plate.
7. Garnish with the pine nuts and black pepper optional. I use Cayenne.
8. Serve as a side dish with Scallops Provencal. 

Bon Appetit!

Wild Mushroom Risotto

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but using a tab of butter and the last of the chanterelle mushrooms from our most recent local foraging excursion in nearby woods, I added oyster mushrooms from the market to the saute pan and folded them into the risotto just before serving.

Near the end of cooking the risotto as I was stirring in the vegetable stock by the ladle full, it dawned on me that I can actually video tape some of my cooking adventures... only after two months into blogging did I think of this. The "duh!" factor in my life can be stunning at times.

Here is a rather primitive first-attempt at recording myself as I 'm cookin' in the kitchen, quickly discovering how challenging it is to stir food and talk at the same time, followed by a list of the ingredients and the directions for making wild mushroom risotto:

Ingredients:

2 cups of wild mushrooms, sliced or coarsely chopped or 2 packages of dried mushrooms, hydrated
1 quart vegetable or chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped4 celery stalks finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped
1-3/4 cups Arborio rice (risotto)
1-1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. If the mushrooms are dry, put them in a glass or ceramic bowl and cover with 2 cups of hot water.
2. While the mushroom hydrate, pour the stock into a medium saucepan and warm on low heat.
3. When cleaning fresh mushrooms, wipe away any particles with a soft cloth or a soft bristle brush used for basting or painting.
   
4. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic, onion and celery until soft.
5. Turn up the heat and add the rice to toast for about 1-2 minutes.
   
6. Add the wine and stir the rice until the wine is nearly evaporated.
7. Add the stock by the ladle full (about 1/3 cup)
   
8. Continually stir the risotto; do not leave it alone to cook.
9. As you stir and the liquid and it evaporates, continue to add the stock until all is absorbed.
   
10. After 15-20 minutes, taste the risotto to see if it is completely cooked.
11. If the risotto needs more liquid and time, add more stock or water (use the water dry mushrooms soaked in).
12. When the risotto is fully cooked, it is slightly al dente. 
13. After you remove the risotto from the heat, you can stir in the raw or lightly sauteed mushrooms and butter.
14. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
15. Spoon into bowls or as a side dish on a dinner plate, garnished with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4-6

You can make an infinite variety of main entrees and side dishes with risotto, based on what ingredients are seasonally available and your choice of herbs and spices. For tips, listen to Taking The Risk Out Of Risotto by Susan Russo on NPR.

I received my Slow Food Eugene e-newsletter today. Tom Barkin writes, "We came across a delightful Thanksgiving piece, Back to the Land - The Pursuit Of Happiness Blog by Maira Kalman in the New York Times. Although we are already looking forward to the winter holiday season, it is worth taking a moment to read." Delightful read; great photos, too.

Cooking Gluten-Free Vegetarian with Donna Klein

 Tonight, I began the “Challenge”, cooking out of The Gluten-Free Vegetarian by Donna Klein. While my husband tackled paper work he brought home from the office, I cranked up the propane stove-top, first slow-cooking the Curried Pumpkin Risotto on page 117. In-between stirring in more of the simmering broth ¼ cup at a time, I made the dressing for the Spinach Salad with Orange-Raisin Dressing and Sunflower Seeds on page 58. As I was putting the finishing touches on our dinner, Cliff took a break and helped me out, creating the Orange-Marinated Strawberries on page 197, which we later poured over vanilla ice cream for dessert.

I’d never cooked with Arborio rice before. It's a short, round grain rice with a creamy, chewy texture. I’m delighted to discover it, because I can use Arborio in all my recipes that call for orzo pasta, which is made from semolina or wheat.

For those that go light on spices, you’ll want to cook with a mild curry and perhaps cut down on the amount of cumin and pepper. I can’t eat black pepper, so I used a pinch of finely ground cayenne instead. We ate the Pumpkin Risotto as the main entrée, but it would be fantastic as a side dish, especially during the fall and winter months. Count on needing an hour to make your risotto; you are reducing over a quart of liquid and pumpkin puree as your rice cooks uncovered on the stove-top.

While I was adding and stirring ingredients to the pot, my mother called to share some good news about my Uncle Kenny, who is in the hospital recovering from a stroke. Trying to listen and talk  on speaker phone while ladling broth, I managed to burn my hand picking up the handle of the scorching hot saucepan, which in turn caused me to bang my head into the corner of the cabinetry encasing the overhead fan. My mother said it first, “I better go so you can get back to your cooking!”

The salad recipe I selected from the book worked quite well as a lightly-sweetened complement to the spicy curry dish. The sunflower seeds added the nutty flavor and crunch that I missed by forgetting about the toasted pine nuts set aside to sprinkle on top of the risotto.

Cliff said our dessert tasted like a Creamsicle, which is not a bad thing, because the Creamsicle remains one of our favorites from childhood. However, this is a far healthier version loaded with fresh strawberries and ample marinade to make a slurry of goodness to drink like a smoothie. You know, this recipe might work really well for a gluten-free waffle topping. You could cook and thicken the marinade with cornstarch, use whipping cream or gluten-free vanilla ice cream and top with fresh berries.