Colorful Quinoa Concoction

I am quite pleased with myself.

I made for dinner something completely out of the ordinary, and it was quite successful, so I am extra pleased to have concocted something tasty that was out of my comfort zone. I mentioned before that I have accidentally bought fresh Mexican-style chorizo instead of the Spanish-style that I prefer. This time I intentionally bought the Mexican style because it was on super-sale and I figured I could doctor it up to my (Spanish-style) liking.
I succeeded by barraging it with spices and garlic.
Lots of garlic.

Before starting on the meat or veg, measure out 1 cup of quinoa and rinse it well in a sieve. Add it to a pot with 2 cups of water, set to boil, and then bring down to a simmer. Cook until all the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Mexican chorizo is raw. Spanish chorizo comes fully cooked.

Step one: remove the thin casings from the fresh chorizo and chop it into bite-sized pieces.

Add the chopped chorizo to a hot non-stick pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil.

As the sausage browns and cooks, add the following to taste: 

Smoked Spanish Paprika (at LEAST 1 TBSP if not more)

Cayenne Pepper (I only used 1/2 tsp as we don't usually do spicy. Just enough for a little heat in the back of the throat.)

Cinnamon (also about 1/2 tsp)

3-4 cloves of garlic, grated

Salt to taste

While that is becoming delicious, remove the stems from 1 bunch of swiss chard (I used green, but use whatever dark leafy green makes your palate happy)

Give the leaves a rough chop  (until it is almost the size of a mix of baby lettuces) and the stems a finer dice. Give the stems an extra couple of minutes to cook before adding the leaves.

By the time the meat was done cooking my quinoa was cooked as well, so I strained the meat from its oil and placed it in the pot with the hot quinoa. (leave the seasoned oil in the pan)

If desired, you can sprinkle 1 TBSP of olive oil and a pinch of salt in the pot of quinoa before adding the seasoned sausage. I skipped this step as there was a bit of oil left in the pan for the greens.

Place the chopped greens into the pan with the colorful and flavorful oil, season with salt, and cook until wilted. (Remember, stems first.) 

It really wilts down dramatically.

While the greens were wilting, I was grating about a cup of ricotta salata to throw in the dish.

I had a lot of trouble deciding what cheese would work best in this dish. I could not find any queso fresco, which seemed like the logical topping for this, so I chose the subtle salt and tang of ricotta salata, and I was quite pleased with how it all came out. 

I threw most of the grated cheese and all of the wilted greens in the pot with the quinoa and sausage to mix it all thoroughly before spooning it into bowls for devouring.

Topped with a little extra cheese, it really was a very satisfying meal, and an excellent use of quinoa. 

(Something I am always trying to find!)

Try this as a hearty Fall supper, or even a side dish for the holidays!

Vampire-Proof

Unless of course the Vampire happens to be Angel or Spike... but only season 6-onward Spike.

Um, what?
Right.
Dinner.

Tonight is Parent-Teacher conferences, so Mike probably won't get home before 9PM. On nights like this, I make a fabulous and super-fast dinner: Fettuccine Aglio e Olio, which just means Garlic & Oil. Not only is it delicious and fast-cooking, but it will ward off BOTH vampires and colds. (Fact - garlic is very good for the immune system. Next time you're feeling a cold come on, use it as an excuse to eat this or an entire loaf of garlic bread :)

Ingredients:
evoo
3 garlic cloves
red pepper flakes
anchovy paste
*dried oregano
**parmigiano or romano cheese, grated
toasted pine nuts
you do not need any salt because of the anchovy and cheese

*Most recipes call for parsley, but as I really dislike parsley, I swap for dried oregano.


**I know you're not supposed to put cheese with seafood, but I do not consider anchovy paste that has melted into oil as still being legitimate seafood...

So the easy rundown of MY version of this dish:
Set your water to boil, and heavily salt it before dropping your pasta.

The sauce:

Heat some evoo on medium low (I have never measured this out... depending on how much you are making you want just enough to coat all the noodles in the end. Maybe 1/4 cup for 2 people? Eyeball it.) and squirt about an inch to an inch and a half long line of *Anchovy Paste.

*No really, you should have a tube of this in your crisper drawer, as well as a tube of tomato paste. They will help to enrich lots of sauces you make, without having annoying jars or cans of the stuff that you can't use up all at once. Very useful.
Also, if you think you don't like anchovies, you're wrong. (Unless you have an allergy. Then you're right.) Even I won't eat an anchovy straight, but when it simmers in oil it has only the faintest fishy note and mostly just a nutty depth of flavor. Trust me and try it. Even Mike likes this dish, anchovy paste and all.

That was a very long side note...

Continuing the sauce, you then drop a pinch or two of red pepper flakes into the oil to simmer while the anchovy paste heats up.

Then, you want to use your finest-gauge Microplane and grate about 3 cloves of garlic into a fine paste. Once the anchovy paste has melted into your evoo, add the garlic and stir until it is well incorporated.
It is very important that you do not rush this sauce, and keep it on a very very low setting. Otherwise your garlic will brown and start to turn bitter, and then the whole sauce is ruined. But since fettuccine only takes 8 minutes to cook, if you start the anchovy paste right when you salt and drop the pasta, it should all work out fine.

Once the garlic is stirred in and on a slow simmer, I toss about a tablespoon or so of dried oregano in, because I feel like there needs to be an herb in here somewhere.
When your pasta is about 2 minutes from done, I ladle about 1/4 cup of the pasta water into the sauce as well and let that incorporate.

Take your fettuccine directly from the boiling water and put it in the pan with your garlic & oil to let it coat completely. Then toss in a handful or two of whichever grated cheese you have on hand and toss to combine. Finally, I throw in some toasted pine nuts (which I keep ready to go in the fridge in a mini tupperware) just to add another texture and layer of flavor.

Divide into bowls, top with another pinch of grated cheese, and devour while hot. If you're a parsley person, then this would be the time you to garnish with chopped fresh parsley. But as I have never understood why anyone would want to use an herb that tastes like grass, I simply omit it from any recipe that calls for it. I would not, however, substitute fresh basil, because that has a distinctly different and strong flavor, and is not really the point of this meal. Dried oregano is much more mellow a choice for substitution.
This dinner should only take you 15 minutes, start to finish, and is really just an excuse to eat a ton of garlic in one sitting. And you can grate the garlic cloves while you're waiting for the water to come up to a boil so you're ready to drop it in the oil at the right time. It's very tasty and very satisfying.

Just don't make it right before going out for a night of karaoke. Not only will no one want to talk to you, but you will make the microphone reek, which is just bad karaoke etiquette.