Quinoa Cakes With A Farmer's Market Riot - Recipe

On the way home from the farmer's market, Sarina and I joked that I wouldn't be able to resist playing with the molecular gastronomy toys, turning the zucchini into gel, the tomatoes into powder, spherifying the cukes and making the corn into a tableside sorbet with liquid nitrogen. But it was just a joke. With ingredients this good, and the weather this hot, it would be a crime to do much more than tie them all together with some big, bright flavors and a good beer.

So we have: quinoa cakes, spicy roasted corn relish, pan-fried zucchini, beefsteak tomato and cucumber salad, and a simple chimichurri sauce to marry them all up. The components are summer dynamite together, but any one of them could be a good side dish in a different meal, so feel feel free to mix and match.

By the way, can I mention that apparently almost no-one realizes how good zucchini is when pan-fried in a single layer? I like zucchini lots of ways - sauteed, lightly steamed, grated even... but when allowed a lot of surface area and a hot flame, it develops this completely different nutty / caramelized flavor that is addictive.

I hate to be cruel, but I have to tell you that for dessert we had strawberry shortcake, with two quarts of berries also from the market, fresh baked biscuits, and Sea Breeze Farm cream.

Quinoa Cakes with a Farmer's Market Riot
Serves 4
Vegetarian and gluten-free; vegan if you use an egg-replacer in the cakes

For the chimichurri (or see this other, slightly embellished version):

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped fine or pressed
  
• 1 cup well-rinsed flat-leaf parsley leaves, lightly packed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1.5 teaspoons sherry vinegar or lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a mini food processor and process until it forms a thin sauce, kind of like a pesto without the nuts or cheese to hold it together. You might need more oil to get it pureed. Taste and adjust seasonings and allow to rest so the flavor can develop.

For the quinoa cakes:

• 2 cups leftover quinoa, or 1 cup rinsed, cooked normally, and allowed to cool
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or leaves from a couple stems of fresh oregano, minced
• 2 eggs
• canola oil

Combine all ingredients except the oil. You should have a "dough" that you can form a wet ball with. If it is still dry and fluffy, add another egg. Bring your largest skillet, or better a flat griddle pan up to medium high heat. Add a thin layer of oil. Using about 1/4 cup each time, form pancakes and flatten on to the pan. They should only be about 1/4" thick. Cook on one side until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes, then flip and finish other side. Remove and season with salt and pepper.

For the cucumber and tomato salad:

• 1 medium cucumber, seeded and cut into medium dice
• 1 ripe beefsteak tomato, medium dice
• salt to taste

Combine all ingredients. You wanna put a little minced red onion in there, it is ok with me.

For the spicy corn relish:

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 2 teaspoons (or more, to your taste) red chili flakes
• 2 ears corn, shucked and kernels removed from stem
• 1 teaspoon salt
• zest of one lemon and 1 tablespoon of the juice

Heat a saute pan over a high flame. Add the oil, onion and chili flakes and cook about 1 minute, until the onion starts to color a little. Add the corn and salt and saute for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice. Taste and adjust seasonings.

For the pan-fried zucchini:

• 4 small zucchini, cut into 1/4" thick slabs, patted dry
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• sea salt
• pepper

Heat oil in a large frying pan over a high flame. Lay in the zucchini in a single layer and don't crowd the pan. (You can do a couple batches if necessary). Cook until quite a lot of brown spots are forming on the first side, then flip and do the same. Remove and season with sea salt and black pepper. You may wish to cut the slabs smaller at this point.

To serve:

In each bowl, spoon in a couple tablespoons of sauce or more. Top with two of the quinoa cakes, and nice piles of the zucchini, corn relish and salad. Garnish with a bit more of the sauce, or parsley or cilantro leaves.

Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate

The second annual Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon is coming up again on July 12. I was a judge last year and was impressed with the wide range of chocolatiers that showed up to sample their wares, and at $20 for an adult advance ticket I thought it was a darn good deal.

I won't be able to attend this year, but somehow I still had the good fortune to receive a few advance samples from two of my favorite places: Theo Chocolates and Chocolopolis. Sometimes it is good to be a blogger!

Theo sent along a 91% Costa Rica bar that was amazingly smooth for such a high percentage, and a 45% milk chocolate that completely redefined my understanding of the light stuff. It has a complex, caramelized flavor that I could go back to over and over. Also included was a coffee & dark chocolate bar done in concert with Caffe Vita, and these incredible ghost chile & sea salt caramels.

I had the opportunity to tour Theo a couple months ago with a group organized by Keren Brown (aka the Frantic Foodie). I was amazed at what a small, committed group of people can do. How many chocolate companies do you know that have two Ph.D.'s on staff, one who specializes in the anthropology of cacao and another who is helping growers around the world improve the quality of their beans and processing? Or that have already been featured on Oprah? Or that partner with Jane Goodall? Or that uses only organic, fair trade beans? Amazing stuff. I can't even begin to tell you their whole story, you should just go visit them and take the factory tour, or if you live far away, peruse their site and buy some bars.

Chocolopolis also deserves lots of love. Chief Chocophile Lauren Adler curates ultra-high quality bars and confections from around the world, gathering them all at her small Queen Anne shop. It is a terrific place to taste, learn about chocolate, and come home with goodies you can't find anywhere else. They also make some awesome stuff on-site. The fig filled with anise ganache and dipped in 72% chocolate was one of the best bites I've put in my mouth in a long time.

Speaking of local Seattle companies, take a minute to sign up for the ChefShop.com newsletter and you have the chance to win $500 worth of their products. Their products are awesome.

Fresh Fettuccine with Ricotta, Spring Onions and Fried Duck Egg - Recipe

Fresh Fettuccine with Ricotta, Spring Onions and Fried Duck Egg

This is just pure decadence. Fresh basil fettuccine creamy ricotta, crispy fried spring onions and a fried duck egg on top. The egg yolk creates a rich sauce for the noodles.. The only thing that would have made it more over-the-top is if I had some black truffle to shave on it.

This dish came about serendipitously. I was visiting a customer in downtown Seattle on Thursday, and finished with just enough time to run into DeLaurenti's at Pike Place Market. There are gastronomical gravitational wells throughout the city that are prone to capture me whenever I wander too close. DeLaurenti's has an intense field that will lure me in from a mile away - especially if I've already found parking!

Whenever I go there, I always come away with fresh ricotta, and a pound of fresh pasta, which they cut to order from large sheets. The noodles have that wonderful elasticity you don't find in the dried, eggless varieties. This week they happened to have a basil flavored option, which was quite tasty. (Don't even get me started about the oak-smoked cheddar I also scored there.)

Then on Friday, our neighborhood farmer's market just reopened, and we made our first pilgrimage of the year. Nearly every stall had big bunches of spring onions, which are simply immature bulbs of any variety of onion. They look like enormous scallions. These particular ones were Vidalias, which are sweet and mild.

And then there was the duck egg. I've been toying with the idea of buying these for years, but never got up the gumption. It is kind of a funny thing, I'm resolutely lacto-ovo vegetarian, and there is no reason a duck egg shouldn't be just as good for me to eat a chicken egg. Still, the idea made me a bit uneasy. Just fear of the unknown I guess. Seeing them at the market, and chatting directly with the farmer who could look me in the eye and tell me that the duck's were happy and wandering about the yard made me feel willing to go for it.

The duck eggs look huge, and weigh about 50% more than a chicken egg. The water content is different so they behave a little differently when scrambled. The whites look a little clearer when raw, but about the same cooked.I didn't detect any really noticeable difference in flavor or richness. My daughter thought that it was hilarious that she could "quack" them. Overall verdict: kind of a non-event. I guess cooking a custard in the shell would be pretty impressive, but otherwise I don't see a whole lot of reason I'd go out of my way to get them again. Anyone want to offer a perspective on what I'm missing?

This dish is totally ingredient driven which is my favorite way to cook. If I ever own a restaurant, I'd like the menu to be mainly daily specials for exactly this reason, so that I can make the most of the best ingredient I can find.

Fresh Fettuccine with Ricotta, Spring Onions and Duck Egg
Vegetarian; not vegan nor gluten-free
Serves 4 as a main course

• 1 pound fresh pasta (basil if you can find it, plain is just fine too)
• 1 bunch spring onions (about 4), trimmed, halved lengthwise, cut into 1/4" thick half moons
• 1 pound fresh ricotta (Calabro is a fine brand) - remove from refrigerator when you start cooking
• 4 duck eggs (or chicken eggs)
• butter
• salt
• pepper
• optional: shaved black truffle, or truffle oil, or truffle salt

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Saute the onions in 2 tablespoons of butter with 1/4 teaspoon of salt over medium heat until the moisture evaporates and they begin to get brown and crispy, about 15 minutes.
3. Fry the duck eggs in butter, just like you would a chicken egg. Cover the pan so that some heat reaches the yolk as well. Ideally you get some lacy crispy bits on the edge of the whites. Cook until the white is completely set. (Note well: I like this with a still runny yolk. That is considered risky by food safety experts. You willl have to use your own judgement.)
4. Boil the pasta until al dente. Drain and toss with butter to coat.
5. Divide the pasta among four pre-heated bowls. Top with the ricotta, onions, and the duck egg. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. And that truffle, if using.