spinach – Goboroot.com

Quinoa and Poached Egg Salad

One of things that I make sure that I keep well stocked in my pantry is quinoa: red and white to be precise. On lazy weekend mornings, I often fail to plan to have a good loaf of bread available. So, with a well-stocked pantry, I can come up with something else good and hearty; best of all, it’s healthier!

With a few steps into the garden, I created this always perfect, cozy breakfast. Oh, I’m so in awe of these little arugula and spinach leaves that have been doing so much on our plates everyday. Now that they are about to end their season, this dish became a great homage to these little but powerful garden gems. I also used baby beets that had to be thinned. Can’t wait for summer vegetables to come!

If you thought from the photos that we were having a gorgeous sunny morning, ha, I managed to trick you with the artificial light. It was actually so extremely dark and crazily pouring rain outside that I had to turn the fireplace on, LOL!

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Quinoa and Poached Egg Salad

I used what’s growing in my garden, but any salad leaves should work. Feel free to experiment with it. As for the cheese, I had only the goat variety, but would’ve loved to use something stronger, like good quality cheddar. For best results, make sure you toast the sunflower seeds. Don’t skimp on this step because it completes this dish nicely. If you don’t know how to poach eggs, I found a dedicated article here.

Serves 3 to 4

1 cup quinoa (red, white or a mixture of both, like I did in this recipe)

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons butter

Lots of mushrooms, sliced

2 scallions, roughly chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 cup mixture of baby spinach, beets and arugula leaves, rinsed and drained well

2/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled

2/3 cup or more sunflower seeds, lightly toasted

Poached eggs; use desired amount

Rinse the quinoa under running water while rubbing it together in a sieve.

Place the quinoa in a small saucepan or pot with the stock and salt, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer until the stock is no longer visible, for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, sauté the mushrooms and scallions with the butter in a small pan over medium high heat until softened. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Combine the quinoa and the mushroom mixture in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Poach eggs and set aside. When eggs are ready, add the salad leaves, goat cheese and sunflower seeds to the quinoa mixture and stir to combine. In this way, baby greens will wilt nicely but not overly.

Serve the quinoa in individual bowls and top with the poached eggs. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper.

Coffee Marinated Pork Tenderloin and Coffee Ice Cream

While visiting Japan, I was reminded of some of my favourites from our family recipes as much as I got inspirations for new recipes. Before I began to forget all the foodie excitement, I quickly started trying to recreate and adjust the Japanese recipes back in Canada. Today, I posted this tenderloin recipe that my twin sister always prepared for our family and friends at her BBQ / garden party along with other amazing dishes. This is the one of the easiest yet tastiest dishes when you crave good protein for dinner.

Inspired by this recipe, I thought I would group together all the coffee influenced recipes from my travel journal. It took me a couple of attempts to achieve the texture and taste that I desired for this. Although I NEVER drink instant coffee due to its inky taste, for this recipe I used good quality organic freeze dried ones, made by Mount Hagen Organic Café, that I had picked up from a local organic store. As a result, the recipe was easier to execute and I loved the result!

I’m planning to introduce matcha (Japanese finely ground green tea) influenced recipes as a counterpoint to today’s coffee recipes sometime soon, so stay tuned!

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Coffee Marinated Pork Tenderloin

I really liked the pork, marinated for only 2 hours, since the smoky roasted coffee flavour enhanced the taste of the pork. I also experimented with marinating pork overnight, but the coffee tasted a little acidic after many hours of oxidation while being marinated. Nevertheless, it’s important to grind the coffee beans with a spice grinder just before making the rub for the best result. So I’d stick to the 2 hour marinating method, as it gave me plenty of time to do other chores in the kitchen and to prepare the best matching salad (recipe below) to accompany this dish. The grainy texture and saltiness from the rub don’t require any other sauce aside from a citrus note from the following salad to help balance everything out. Oh, you’ll love this combination!

Serves 3 to 4

1.5 lb pork tenderloin

For rub

1 tablespoon freshly ground coffee

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Make the rub by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Rinse the pork and pat dry. Rub the pork all over and marinate it covered for 2 hours in a refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 390F. Roast the pork on a rack in a baking pan until the thermometer inserted into the centre reaches 142F, for about 20 to 25 minutes. Cover the pork with a piece of tin foil and rest it on a cutting board for 5 minutes. At this point, the temperature rises about 5 degrees. If you desire the meat with a slight pink tint when you slice it, watch the timing of carving closely. But make sure the meat reaches 145F to ensure safe consumption.

Slice the pork and serve warm along with the following spinach salad.

Lemony Spinach Salad

Serves 3 to 4

If you plan to serve this salad with the above pork dish (as I strongly recommend!), you can start preparing it when the pork is 10 minutes away from being done. The key to this salad is to take time to infuse the flavour of the pancetta into the onions and mushrooms over low heat. Also be sure to combine the hot onion mixture into the spinach to lightly wilt the leaves. No salt is added to the dressing due to the amount of saltiness derived from the pancetta.

1 teaspoon butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

100g thinly sliced pancetta, cut into strips

½ onion, thinly sliced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

A lump of goat cheese

150g baby spinach, washed and drained well

Big handful of pecans

Dressing

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

In a large skillet, melt the butter and add the olive oil over low heat. Sauté the pancetta, onion and mushrooms until the onion becomes very tender. In the meantime, make the lemon dressing. Combine the lemon juice, olive oil and black pepper in a small empty glass jar with a lid on, and shake until emulsified.

Roast the pecans until they give off a nice roasted scent, for about 5 minutes. I use the heat that is left after I take the above pork dish from the oven.

Combine the spinach, the hot onion mixture, pecans and lemon dressing in a large bowl. Crumble the goat cheese over the salad and toss well.

Serve with the pork tenderloin.

Coffee Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

1 ¾ cups whole milk

2/3 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

2 ½ tablespoons good quality instant coffee

1 ½ cups whipping cream (Avalon for the best flavour if you are local)

¼ cup Kahlua (coffee liqueur)

For serving

½ cup Kahlua

A bar of white chocolate

In a saucepan, heat 1 cup of milk over medium heat. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, add the sugar, and mix well.

While stirring the egg mixture, add the hot milk in a few instalments. Return the mixture to the saucepan and add the coffee. Stir well and continue cooking until the mixture thickens, about 12 minutes.

Remove from the heat, strain to another large bowl and let the temperature drop a little bit. Add the remaining milk, cream and the coffee liqueur, and whisk well. Cover the mixture and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Churn the ice cream mixture according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze in a sealed container overnight.

When serving, simmer down the coffee liqueur to about half of the amount or until thickened. When it cools down, it gets thicker. Transfer to a small jar for serving. Leave the chocolate in a warm place to let it slightly soften. For the topping, shred the chocolate using a vegetable peeler.

Serve ice cream in an individual chilled glass. Pour a generous amount of coffee syrup over top, and sprinkle with the shredded chocolate.

Spinach Soufflé

After years of living on the West Coast, I came to the conclusion that we have three choices when the rain doesn’t stop. A. Do exactly what we normally do regardless of the rain, B. Go south where we can feel the heat on our skin under the scorching sun, C. Create our own sunshine. While my friends choose B, I choose C. So here is the brightest sunshine in the kitchen for you. What’s your take?

Spinach Soufflé

Fills 6 inch soufflé mould

2 cups firmly packed spinach, rinsed, pat dried and chopped

3 tablespoons salted butter

¼ cup unbleached white flour

1 cup 2% milk

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

½ teaspoon sea salt

3 egg yolks, beaten

4 egg whites

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese such as Grana Padano

Extra butter for greasing a mould

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a soufflé mould with butter.

Make roux. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over low heat. Then, gradually add the flour and, while constantly moving a spatula, fully integrate until it bubbles, then continue for a couple more minutes.

Add the milk, a small amount at a time, and stir well to combine. Boil for a couple of minutes. Add the thyme and salt. When it becomes smooth, remove from the heat.

Add the spinach to the roux, stir well and add the egg yolks gradually. Continue stirring till well combined. Set aside and cool.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a mixer with a whisk attached. Beat until stiff peaks are formed. The peaks should fall over when the whisk is withdrawn. That’s the right texture.

Add half of the egg whites to the spinach mixture, and gently combine in a circular motion. Then, fold in the rest of the egg whites, being careful not to over stir. Be very gentle.

Pour the spinach mixture into the mould, sprinkle the cheese over top and bake for about 40 minutes. If you are using small moulds, bake for about 20 minutes or until tops become nicely golden.

Serve while warm.

Adapted from basic-recipes.com.