RECIPE: Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

I love casseroles.  Take the simplest, humblest ingredients--leftovers, even!--and throw them in a baking dish with cheese and some cream, and you're set!  I call this the Law of Excellent Dinners, wherein the prime tenets are simplicity, cheesiness, and toothy delight. 

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole 

INGREDIENTS

3 cups cooked sprouted brown rice
1 cup cooked sprouted wild rice
6 tablespoons butter
8 oz sliced fresh portobello mushrooms (about 3 cups, or 1 package)
1/2 sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups milk
1 cup sharp cheese, shredded (I used Parmesan & Gorgonzola)
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken*
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup slivered, sliced, or crushed almonds, toasted
salt & pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 9" by 9" glass baking dish with butter or cooking spray.  Cook rice as directed on package(s), using 2 tablespoons of the butter and a pinch of salt.

Meanwhile, in an extra-large skillet, melt the remaining 1/4 cup of your butter over medium-high heat.  Cook mushrooms, onion, and garlic in butter and white wine for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bellas are tender and the onions are translucent.

Reduce the heat to medium and stir in cornstarch.  Gradually add milk and heat to boiling; cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in half of the cheese.

In a large bowl, mix your cooked rice, milk mixture, chicken, broth, and seasonings until blended.  Scrape into baking dish with a spatula and sprinkle with almonds and remaining cheese.  Bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.

VERDICT?  This dish is so, so good.  It is complex.  It is rich.  It has cheese, chicken, bella mushrooms, and wild rice.  Can I hear three cheers for texture?  Amen.


* For this recipe, I used the leftover chicken from my honey & molasses-glazed chicken, which added a pleasant rich sweetness to the already complex pastiche of flavors in this casserole.

RECIPE: Salmon-Stuffed Softbreads with Dill Aioli

I'm really lucky to live in relative proximity to a whole foods store (that is, around 45 minutes away).  We have this lovely big whole foods grocery out this direction that stocks a wide variety of fresh-baked sprouted grain breads, and they also carry a few other sprouted grain options (pasta, tortillas, and the like).  Last time I was there, I found these lovely sprouted-grain softbreads that are somewhere between naan and pita, but open up in the middle to allow for all sorts of options.

I adapted this recipe from a much more bold variant I found online (it went in for tomatoes and suchlike), but I made some significant changes.  I wanted the dill and the lime to speak loudest, making a cool and slightly sharp contrast to the salmon.  I cut back on the oil and I switched out yogurt for mayonnaise like I always do, and the end result tastes about as healthy as pan-fried foods can.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 to 1 cup oil (I used half vegetable and half olive oil)
2 halibut fillets
1 teaspoon cumin
5 teaspoons lime juice    
1 egg
2 teaspoons icewater
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 & 1/2 cups rolled oats, crumbled    
4-6 soft flatbread rounds (or corn tortillas)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon lime zest
5 teaspoons lime juice
3 teaspoons fresh dill, minced
1 small sweet onion, chopped
1 avocado, sliced

DIRECTIONS   

To make the dill aioli, mix the yogurt, lime zest, 2 teaspoons lime juice, chopped dill, and garlic together.  Keep this refrigerated while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Heat oil in saucepan to medium (or just slightly under) heat.  Cut salmon filets into strips and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle cumin and your remaining 3 teaspoons of lime juice over fish.

In a separate bowl, mix your egg and icewater with your cornstarch to make a kind of tempura.  Dredge the fish strips in the batter and then in the crumbled oats (you could use Panko here if you prefer, but the oats complement the salmon perfectly).  Roll the fish in the oats to make sure your strips are completely coated.

Fry fish in the preheated oil a few pieces at a time, making sure to give them enough room, for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown on all sides.  Place fried fish strips on paper towel to drain.  Once your fish are finished cooking, drain all but a little oil and use the remainder to caramelize your onions.

To assemble the final product, slice your softbreads in half and fill with fish strips, topping with avacado, caramelized onion, and your dill aioli sauce.

VERDICT: I really, really enjoyed this meal.  It was a bit fiddly to make, sure, but it didn't take overly long and the final product was absolutely scrumptuous.  I love finding new uses for salmon, and this one was excellent!

Grinding Sprouted Wheat - an actual near disaster

As I mentioned a few blogs ago, I have undertaken the sprouting & grinding of my own wheat for flour, to meet the requirements of the Body Chemistry Diet that I am undertaking with my housemate.  There are three major steps to the process: sprouting, dehydrating, and grinding.  The sprouting element is the most lengthy one, and after that the dehydrating adds another day to the process--as, to grind the wheat berries they have to be completely dried out--while the grinding itself is fairly simple but potentially difficult.

The first time I undertook this sprouting-drying-grinding adventure, the flour turned out coarse but usable enough.  Drama arose when the cookies all melded into one giant pan-sized cookie.  The problem was that, in order to make the peanut butter cookie recipe we were after, we had to substitute honey for sugar--and in so doing, we doomed our cookies to excessive runny-ness.  We couldn't add more sprouted-grain flour ... because we didn't have any more.  The cookies tasted fine, but I won't be posting the recipe until I can find a way to make them look palatable (and cookie-ish).  We enjoyed them with full glasses of milk and a few episodes of Castle, our current TV-show obsession.  (I mean, come on!  A writer and a cop team up to tackle crazy crimes?  It's like NCIS, but with a literary nerd bent!)

Tonight we ground some more flour, about a cup worth.  Actually, we quadruple-ground the berries this time, producing a much, much finer texture.  I'm eying the potential of a small cinnamon-roll bake thing.  We'll see if I end up going that direction-or end up making muffins.

Seeds that grow - like magic!

I'm continually amazed by how absurdly easy it is to do self-empowering things like growing my own food or cooking experimentally (read: with limited ingredients).  You can have your cake and eat it to ... or at least, I intend to, once I develop my wheat-grinding skills.

See, I invested in three things this last weekend: 1) whole grains from Ozark Natural, 2) a dehydrator, and 3) a wheat grinder.  So far, the wheat berries and the dehydrator have proven themselves as up to the task as I am.  I don't yet know about the wheat grinder, since it hasn't been delivered yet.  Don't worry, I just got the cheapo version.  If I can't stand it, or if it breaks, it's not much of a loss.  It's just a thing, in the end.

Remember how I mentioned I was going on this new diet with my housemate?  Well, the Body Chemistry Diet stipulates only one absolute no-no.  No processed grains or sugars.  Sprouted grains are acceptable, but unless you happen to have some sprouted grain bread handy, you're out of luck for the standard carbohydrates.  Luckily, Ozark Natural is only forty or so minutes away, and they stock their own fresh sprouted wheat breads and sprouted grain pasta.  That gives us two "normal" options for carbs, which I appreciate.

But what about the fun stuff?  What about baking and such?

Thus, the grain-sprouting experience.

THE PROCESS

Sprouting grain is relatively easy, even in the confines of a suburban kitchen.

The first and most important part of the process is in making the right selection for your grain.  Theoretically, you can sprout pretty much anything--so long as it hasn't been processed.  You don't want grouts, or bleached grains, or any grain where the original seed has been in any way treated or compromised.  You want the whole seed.  In my case, I selected wheat berries, wild rice, and chickpeas.  Any half-decent whole bulk foods store will stock wheat berries, I should think.

Once you've purchased your viable grain, the rest of the sprouting process is dead easy.  You soak your grain overnight in several inches of water (or more, depending on the type of grain--some of this has to be discovered by trial and error), then drain it in the morning.  This soaking process activates the growth cycle.  You want to let the grains breathe while remaining moist.  A jar sealed with loosely meshed cotton or some sort of sieve will work just fine, so long as the jar is tilted so that the grain isn't sitting in the water.

Over the course of the next day, rinse and drain the seeds regularly.  You should see your seeds beginning to sprout by the second morning, and if you're going to dehydrate them and grind them into flour, you should stop the cycle right there.  The chemical changes that make sprouted grains so much better for you than unsprouted grains has already taken place.  You can eat sprouted grains raw (although, I will warn you, sprouted wheat tastes exactly like those wheat grass shots you can get at juice stands ... it's wonderful for you, I'm sure, but a bit ... well ... green), or you can cook them up like you would oatmeal.

And there you go!  I promise you, if your grain is good, sprouting it should be as easy as it sounds.

I will update my blog as I complete the other steps towards grinding my own flour.

BEFORE:

 

AFTER: