Couscous for Breakfast? Pasta and Potatoes?

So when you’ve forbidden yourself from buying packaged cereals, granola, English muffins and bagels, what do you eat for breakfast? Mark Bittman has some unusual suggestions in his book Food Matters. Today I tried one of them: couscous. Why not? It’s a cereal, and it’s fast and easy to prepare. I dressed it up like I would oatmeal. Bittman also suggests treating bulgur or leftover cooked grains like rice the same way. Polenta would be good too, I’d bet.

Speaking of Bittman, I tried an unusual but very tasty recipe of his from How to Cook Everything last night. It combines pasta with potatoes. I wouldn’t normally build a meal based on two starches, but the resulting dish is very hearty and satisfying. It starts with a little minced bacon crisping in olive oil. Add some garlic and red pepper flakes for flavor; then add diced potatoes and let brown. Next, throw in a can of diced tomatoes, a can of water and about half a box of cut pasta. Let simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or so, adding more water if necessary, until the potatoes are cooked and the pasta is tender. The resulting mixture should be a little soupy. This was definitely a “go back for seconds” type of dish.

How to Make Granola

Granola is not something I ever thought of making for myself, even though I eat it with yogurt almost every morning. It just seemed like something you buy, rather than something you make. But when you think about it, there are several advantages to making your own granola. First, it’s cheaper to buy the basic components of granola in bulk. Second, you can put whatever you like in there. And you can also cut down the amount of sweeteners typically used in processed granola. Finally, it keeps pretty much indefinitely in the refrigerator, or it can be frozen, so you can make up a big batch and snack on it for a while.

For my first attempt, I used Mark Bittman‘s recipe from Food Matters. Making granola is much easier than I thought it would be. Bittman’s recipe does make a huge amount — it calls for 5 cups of rolled oats — but I think you can safely cut down the amounts as long as you maintain the proportions (and it might fit better in your baking pan). I also thought the cooking time of 30 minutes was a bit too long, and resulted in a more toasted granola than I normally like, so I would reduce the cooking time to 20 minutes or so. Keep a good eye on it as it cooks and take it out of the oven when it looks and smells done to you.

Now that I have successfully made a batch of granola, I think I will be experimenting with different grains, nuts and seasonings. I definitely won’t go back to buying my own granola!

Basic Granola

Time to make: ~30 minutes
Yields: 9 cups

• 5 cups rolled oats or other rolled grains
• 3 cups mixed chopped nuts and seeds — I used sunflower seeds
• 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 1 tsp. cinnamon or baking spices
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ½ cup honey, or to taste
• 1½ cups dried fruit of your choice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Combine all of the ingredients but the honey and dried fruit in a large bowl and toss well. Spread the mixture over the baking sheet. Drizzle the honey over and toss again. (I found it much easier to mix in the honey this way than in the bowl, as the original recipe calls for.)

Bake 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is browned and toasted to your liking. The darker it gets, the deeper the toasted flavor and the crunchier the granola.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack to room temperature. Put the granola in an airtight container or plastic bag and mix in the dried fruit. Store in the refrigerator or freeze any extra amounts. Snack on it as is or mix with yogurt and fresh fruit for a yummy, healthy breakfast.

Recipe adapted from Food Matters by Mark Bittman.

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• Review: Food Matters (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

Tabbouleh, a Required Recipe

Image via Wikipedia

Everybody needs a recipe for tabbouleh, the Middle Eastern bulgur and parsley salad that is part of any good mezze. (Bulgur: tiny, parboiled wheat that usually only needs to be soaked in hot water for a few minutes to prepare. Mezze: a spread of small dishes or appetizers that is a lot of fun to make and eat.)

Tabbouleh

Yields: 4 servings or so
Time to make: ~30 minutes

• 1 ¼ cup water
• 1 cup bulgur
• ½ cup parsley, minced
• 1 ½ tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 scallions, minced
• 2 tbsp. mint (optional)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cucumber, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring the water to a boil. Stir in the bulgur. Let the water return to a boil, then remove from the heat and cover. Let sit for 30 minutes without removing the lid. Drain. Toss with the remaining ingredients.

How to Make Rice Pilaf

Did you know that some parts of the world are currently experiencing food crises? A perfect storm of high energy prices, drought (possibly caused by climate change), increasing demand in countries like China and India, and usage of grains for biofuels instead of food is contributing to shortages of key staples like wheat, corn and rice. This has led to food riots in Haiti and Egypt. But food shortages also hit us close to home, as we see higher prices in the grocery store and some stores like Costco are even limiting how much rice customers can buy.

If rice is a staple in your diet, as it is for billions of people, this all adds up to some very bad news. In our household, we don’t eat rice very much, for the very specific reason that there are only two of us and I always have to make at least 5 servings of rice. It is very difficult to cut down the proportions of rice and water and still end up with well-cooked rice. So if we have to cut it out, we probably won’t miss it as much as we would bread or pasta, but wheat products are also getting more expensive. I guess we can always eat potatoes.

When I do make rice, however, I prefer making it pilaf-style. Rice pilaf originated in the Middle East but is the standard way to cook rice in Mediterranean and Latin American cuisines as well. Once learned, the pilaf method is a fairly foolproof way of achieving fluffy, moist rice, which is how I like it. Also, rice pilaf is a versatile recipe that can be augmented with all kinds of add-ins.

Rice pilaf with roasted zucchini and red peppers.

The important thing when cooking pilaf is to achieve the right proportion of rice and cooking liquid, usually water or chicken stock. I have tried many pilaf recipes, and I have had the best results with using 1½ cups of liquid per 1 cup of rice. This is not the same as the directions on the box, by the way. Technically, this makes 5 servings, although as a side dish, you can probably serve 6-8, depending on how much your guests like rice.

Here is the method:

Rice Pilaf

Time to make: ~30 minutes for white rice; 1 hour for brown rice
Yields: 5-6 servings

What you need:

• 2 tbsp. butter or olive oil
• 1 sm. onion, diced
• 1½ cups water, chicken stock or other cooking liquid
• 1 cup rice

1. Heat the oil or butter over medium.
2. Saute the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the rice and saute until coated in the fat and translucent, 1 minute.
4. Add the liquid, stir and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce the heat to low and cover tightly.
6. Simmer until the liquid has evaporated, 15-18 minutes for white rice; brown rice takes quite a bit longer to cook, up to 45 minutes.
7. Remove the pot from the heat and fluff the rice with a fork; let the pot stand, covered, another 10 minutes.

Notes: Make pilaf more interesting. Here are some ideas. Add ground spices with the rice and stir to coat the grains. Add canned tomatoes and cook with the tomato liquid or use other liquids to vary the flavors. Stir in fresh herbs, grated cheese or cooked vegetables during the standing time. Make it a meal by mixing with cooked meat.

What do you do with leftover rice? I like to make fried rice for breakfast or lunch the next day.