Grilled Curry Yogurt Chicken

This recipe is simple enough for a midweek dinner and delicious enough for a dinner party; it works well as leftovers to top a salad for tomorrow's lunch or it can scale up easily to serve 8 or 16. Magic? Perhaps. Accio dinner.

Ingredients
Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp curry powder
2/3 tbsp garam masala
Squeeze or two of a lemon or lime
1 clove garlic, pressed
Sprinkle of salt

Pound 4 chicken breasts flat in a gallon-sized ziplock bag. Add all the other ingredients, smush around, and let marinate in the fridge overnight.

Preheat grill to medium-high. Brush grill with oil. Grill chicken breasts 4 minutes on the first side, then turn. Grill 4 1/2 minutes more. Serve hot.

Dinner suggestions: Serve over rice, quinoa, or farro tossed with lime, lemon, and/or orange zest, chopped cilantro, and a pat of butter.

Leftovers for lunch: Toss leftover rice, quinoa, or farro with a little olive oil and some lemon or lime juice. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and layer on top of the grains. Top with baby greens tossed with olive oil, lime juice, and very coarsely chopped fresh cilantro.

Serves 4.

Farro with Meatballs

Here's a delectable twist on spaghetti and meatballs that's simple, hearty, and full of delicious. The perfect meal for a cozy winter evening.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 shallot, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 1/2 cups semi-pearled or unpearled farro

3 cups chicken broth

Meatballs for 3 servings (about 1 lb)*

1 can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes

3-4 oz fresh basil, chiffonade

Big handful baby greens (e.g., arugula, spinach, red mustard frisée)

1-2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

Slosh or three of the Zinfandel you're having for dinner

Kosher salt

Sauté the shallot and all but one of the garlic cloves in a glug of olive oil over medium-low heat for a couple minutes until they soften. Add the farro and stir to coat. Cook for a minute or two, stirring occasionally, then add the broth (check the package to see how long your farro takes to cook...semi-pearled usually takes 20 minutes; unpearled takes 30. If it's unpearled, you might want to add an extra cup of water at this point because it will absorb more liquid). Drain the can of tomatoes (the juice, without the tomatoes themselves) into the pot, then cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until farro is tender (20-30 minutes or according to package directions). Drain excess liquid and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a wide sauté pan over medium heat. Drizzle with olive oil, then add the meatballs and cook, turning occasionally, until nicely browned on all sides. Add the remaining smashed garlic clove and press into the oil, then add the tomatoes and wine and stir well. Sprinkle with salt and let some of the wine evaporate for a minute, then cover and turn the heat down to low. Simmer until the meatballs are as cooked through as you want them to be (the time will depend on how big they are...mine were giant and they took about 15 minutes).

When the meatballs are done, add the farro to the pan and stir well. Add half the parmesan, most but not all of the basil, and the arugula. Toss together. Adjust salt to taste. Serve hot in soup plates or bowls: Farro mixture on the bottom, then sprinkle with parmesan, top with a meatball or three, sprinkle with basil chiffonade. Clink glasses. Consume merrily.

Serves 2-3.

*My co-op has house-made meatballs from pastured beef that they call Best House Made Meatballs. It's the sort of name that makes you suspicious. Best? Really? Best ever? You sure? But then you buy them, and cook them, and eat them, and murmur dreamily about how very best they are. Anyway, that's not the point (unless you live near the Sacramento Co-op, in which case, this information is very pertinent for what I assume is your life goal of achieving everlasting meatball happiness.). The point is, get some high quality ground beef and make some particularly delicious meatballs, or take advantage of your meat counter if they're good at providing them ready-made.

Farro Salad with Tomatoes and Feta

Quick. Before the last of the summertime sunshine and summertime tomatoes fade into foggy memory under the cool crisp footsteps of fall. Get thee to a picnic.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups semi-pearled farro

2 cups chicken broth + 1 cup water

2 medium shallots, diced

1 large clove garlic, pressed

1 medium to large zucchini or other summer squash, diced

3/4 can chickpeas, rinsed

1 heaping basket fragrant cherry tomatoes, halved and sprinkled lightly with salt

Olive oil

1 lemon, zested and then juiced

6-8 oz feta, cubed

2-3 tbsp chopped fresh oregano

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring the broth and water to a boil in a covered pot. Stir in the farro, replace the cover, and return to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer according to package directions (probably about 20 minutes, or longer if unpearled) until tender. Drain well, toss with a drizzle of olive oil, and set aside.

While the farro is cooking, heat a wide nonstick pan over medium-low heat. Add a generous glug of olive oil and the shallot and sauté for a minute, then add the garlic and sauté a minute more. Add the zucchini and a sprinkling of salt and toss to coat evenly. Cover the pan and cook for about 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. When the zucchini is cooked through, stir in the chickpeas, cover the pan again, and turn off the heat.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients. When everything is ready to go, drizzle the farro with a little more olive oil and toss with the arugula so that it wilts a little. Add half the oregano, half the lemon juice, and all of the lemon zest, then stir in the zucchini mixture, tomatoes, and feta. Adjust oregano, lemon juice, and salt to taste (you’ll probably want half the remaining oregano and half the remaining lemon juice, but play with the amount until the zip of each one adds a clear bright note to the taste without being overpowering). Sprinkle with black pepper and chill until you’re ready to eat.

Serves 4-8 as a main course or side salad. Works well for potlucks, picnics, road trips, or just a stash of something delicious and ready to eat for a busy work week.

Mostly Plants for Breakfast: Farro with Fruit and Greek Yogurt

You may have noticed that I have a thing about conquering new foods.

First it was kale, I think. Then fish. Cauliflower went from dubiously tolerated to deeply beloved, and brussels sprouts followed suit. At some point, I confessed to a sudden, irreversible, life-altering change in my relationship with tomatoes.

It became a thing. Find a food I think I don't like, and then find a way to prepare it that makes me change my mind. It was true of anything, I declared loudly. There IS no food I don't like, and if I think there is, I just haven't come across the right version yet.

Except yogurt.

 

 

Yogurt, it seemed, was the last holdout. The final frontier. The unbeatable edible. The...you get the idea.

People thought they could solve this one easily for me. Just try Greek yogurt, they said. Make sure it's the such and such brand. Try French style. Try it with strawberries. Try the parsnip yogurt, because seriously, parsnips! (Verdict, on all: Ew.)

Until quite recently, when my mom intervened.* And this is what she suggested.

And the yogurt?

Delightful. Necessary. A perfect complement in both flavor and texture. And most importantly? Vanquished.


Ingredients
1 cup farro, cooked according to package directions
10 oz or so plain Greek yogurt (my favorites, texture-wise, are Fage and Voskos)
Local honey**
1 lemon (preferably Meyer), zested
1/2 - 1 tsp grated ginger
Plentiful fruit (sliced strawberries, blueberries, diced kiwi, sliced kumquats, you name it)

Mix the yogurt with the lemon zest, ginger, and a spoonful or two of honey. Serve in layers: a scoop or two of farro, a scoop of yogurt, a heap of fruit. Eat blissfully. Repeat as needed.


Serves about 4, and saves easily in the fridge, separately, for breakfasts throughout the week (just reheat the farro and serve).

*You may remember my mom as the well-intentioned radish foister.
**Turns out honey is one of the most adulterated food products in the U.S. (along with olive oil), so it's worth splurging a little on a source you trust.

Maui, Day 5: Wild Boar Meatballs over Farro

Apparently, wild boar wreak all kinds of havoc on indigenous plants in Hawaii—this from Keith Robinson, whose family owns Ni'ihau and a large portion of the land on Kaua'i and whose careful conservation work has saved numerous Hawaiian plants from extinction...and who we had the pleasure of meeting in the midst of our helicopter trip on Kaua'i.

Chatting with him was a clear highlight of the trip—his obvious love for his work and the plants and the soil, the view across the canyon, the sight of bees crowded around the first flower on a severely endangered Hawaiian fan palm that he miraculously cultivated in the unfriendly dirt of a dry red mountain near Waimea Canyon.

I will remember that canyon, and those bees, and that palm. And I will remember that wild boar wreak havoc on indigenous plants, which I have taken to mean that eating wild boar is environmentalism at its finest.

We happened upon some at Mana Foods, so we thought we had better exercise our inner conservationists right then and there.

Ingredients
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic, 2 smashed and 1 slivered
2 shallots, halved lengthwise and sliced, divided
1 cup farro, preferably unpearled
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, plus a little extra
(adjust if the package directions on the farro call for a different amount of liquid)
1/2 bunch green kale, sliced crosswise into thinnish ribbons
About .6 lbs ground wild boar (or sub ground beef), formed into meatballs
1/2 - 1 basket cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
2 big handfuls sweet basil, chopped
1 oz grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a glug of olive oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add the smashed garlic cloves (reserving the slivered one) and half the shallot and sauté until they soften, then toss in the farro and stir to coat. Add the broth, cover, and bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and cook 23 minutes or according to package directions, until farro is tender. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a wide nonstick pan over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and then the rest of the shallot. Sauté for a minute until it just starts to soften, then add the kale and toss well. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale wilts, then cover the pan and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes more. Add a slosh of broth, replace the cover, and turn the heat down to low. Cook another 6-7 minutes or so until the kale is tender. Decant into a bowl and set aside.

Return the pan to the stove and turn the heat up to medium-high. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, wait a moment to heat, and add the meatballs. Brown on all sides.

Push the meatballs to the side of the pan and turn the heat down to medium-low. In the other side, add a glug of olive oil, the garlic, and a third to half of the tomatoes. Sauté for a minute, then stir together with the meatballs. Cover the pan and let simmer until the meatballs are just barely cooked through. Toss in the tomatoes, basil, kale, and salt to taste. Cook for another minute to let everything warm up, then remove from the heat.

Drizzle the farro with a little olive oil and toss to lightly coat the grains, then serve into soup plates. Scatter with grated parmesan, then top with meatballs and sauce. Sprinkle liberally with freshly ground black pepper, and serve.

Serves 2-3.

Smoked Bacon and Apple Farro

This post brought to you by our formerly far-flung, recently returned Kansas correspondent.

Ingredients
1 cup farro (preferably not pearled)
2 slices Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, diced
Olive oil
1-2 medium Granny Smith apples, flat-diced
1-2 leeks, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, rinsed well, and sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large carrots, coarsely grated
1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Prepare farro according to package directions.

In a large, nonstick skillet, cook the bacon until crisp over medium heat. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Drain half the bacon grease and replace the volume with olive oil, then sauté the leek and apples until tender and translucent.

Add the garlic and carrot and sauteé another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure the garlic doesn't burn. Stir in the Aleppo pepper, then fold in the cooked farro. Add salt and pepper to taste, then stir in the bacon and serve immediately.

Serves 2-3.

Farroto with Roasted Kabocha Squash and Arugula

As promised, a roasted kabocha farroto from our Kansas correspondent.

If you have not tried kabocha yet, get thee to a grocery store. Unless you live in Sacramento. In which case, stay away from my squash.

Ingredients

Olive oil

A one-pound(ish) kabocha squash (a.k.a. Japanese pumpkin)

1 cup farro, rinsed and soaked for several hours

(soaking decreases the cooking time a bit)

3-4 cups veggie and/or chicken broth

1 large shallot, halved lengthwise and sliced into half rings

1.5 strip applewood smoked bacon, sliced

½ cup dry white wine

4 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped

2-3 handfuls baby arugula

4-6 tbsp chopped fresh sage

2-3 tbsp pine nuts

¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated over a microplane

Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Rinse the kabocha squash and pat dry. Cut the top out as you would when carving a pumpkin, then slice in half from top to bottom. Scoop out the seeds, then slice both halves into even wedges (roughly 3/4" wide at the thickest part).

Drizzle a cookie sheet with olive oil, and arrange the squash wedges on the sheet, turning them over as you go so that both sides are lightly coated with olive oil. (Note that if you overcrowd, they won't brown well, so try to leave a little space between them.) Roast for 15 minutes, flip, and roast 10-12 minutes more or until lightly browned and tender without being squishy. Set aside to cool, then slice from the skins if desired (we like to leave the skin on about half the pieces—just make sure the skin you leave is smooth and unblemished) and cut into half-inch cubes.

Bring the broth to a boil in a smallish, covered pot, then turn down heat to low to keep warm.

Place a dutch oven over medium heat. Drizzle with olive oil, then add the bacon. Once these have browned some, remove from the pot and set aside. (You can also discard a bit of the grease from the pan if you wish and replace with olive oil.)

Add the shallot and cook 2-3 minutes until translucent, then add half of the garlic and sauté for a minute more so that it softens without browning. Next, stir in the farro and sauté for several minutes. Once dry, add the white wine and cook until the liquid is absorbed. Then begin adding the broth by the ladleful as the liquid continues to be absorbed. Cook the farro in this way for about 30 minutes, or until the farro is not crunchy and the grains begin to open slightly.

Meanwhile, place a separate pan over medium heat. Toast the pine nuts till golden, shaking the pan frequently, then remove to a side dish. Add a glug of olive oil to the same pan and add the other half of the garlic. Sauté for a minute, just until soft, then add the sage and sauté for a few minutes more until the sage is very fragrant. Set aside with the pine nuts and bacon.

When the farro is cooked, stir in the arugula, then add the bacon, sage, and pine nuts. Microplane a small amount of Parmesan over the top. Last, add the kabocha and fold gently into the farroto, trying not to smoosh the squash completely so that some of the chunks are left intact. Turn off the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve warm.

Serves 2-4.

Farro with Caramelized Carrot and Feta

The husband cooked this one up in Kansas, loosely adapting a recipe from his produce box. I have now had it twice for dinner, and once as leftovers on the plane back to Sacramento after shamelessly employing my best mournful puppy dog eye routine to steal enough from (his) dinner for lunch the next day. (I couldn't help myself. It's addictive.)

It should be patently obvious that I deserve zero credit for this one, other than in my role as Selfless Taster of New Recipes.

It's a job I could get used to.

Ingredients
1 cup farro, cooked (follow package directions, but use chicken or veggie broth instead of water)*
Olive oil
2 medium shallots, diced
1 bunch carrots, peeled chopped into ¼ inch cubes (rainbow carrots are perfect for this dish, if you find them)
1-2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Juice of 1 Meyer lemon
5 oz feta cheese, cut into small cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

While the farro is cooking, prepare the other ingredients.

Sauté the shallot with a glug of olive oil in a wide, nonstick pan for about 2 minutes, until they soften slightly. Add the carrots and saute in the pan with the shallot, stirring only occasionally, until they brown. When the carrots are golden in places, sprinkle in the Aleppo pepper, and cook for a minute or two more.

When the carrots are browned, add the cooked farro to the pan and fold together. When the farro is warmed through, add the parsley, feta, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

Serves 2.

 *Look for whole grain rather than semi-pearled or pearled—often, the only way to tell is that the whole grains have a longer cooking time (30-40 minutes instead of 15-20). The whole grains have more texture and more nutrition. The semi-pearled variety does cook more quickly, if you're in a rush. Our co-op only has semi-pearled, whereas Whole Foods carries the whole grain version (from Bob's Red Mill).