Making it up as I go along: Moroccan Quinoa/Kale/Carrot Salad

Struggles has inspired me to go out of my comfort zone cooking-wise lately. He's got a big love for Moroccan, so most of our dishes lately have featured the flavors of pomegranate, apricot, cumin, coriander, etc. This salad we came up with based on random stuff we had lying around. I took to the internet for some guidance on the dressing, but it's all ad hoc. I'm pretty pleased with the result. The dressing has a little kick and the salad is healthy but hearty, thanks to the heft of the kale and quinoa.

1) For the salad, mix together, in a large bowl, the following:
4 cups fresh kale, hand shredded to bite sized pieces
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
3/4 cup dried apricots, diced to pom seed size

2) In a small frying pan, toss 1/3 sliced almonds with the following and cook over medium heat until the almonds are toasted.
     - 2 tablespoons olive oil
     - ground coriander
     - ground cumin
     - garlic powder
     - allspice
     - ground black pepper
     - salt

3) Spicy Moroccan Dressing*:
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons paprika
fresh ground black pepper
salt

4) Whisk it all together and toss the salad thoroughly.

* As with many things, spiciness is a personal preference, so be sure to taste the dressing before mixing it in. It's okay for it to be slightly spicier than you actually want since it'll be distributed over a lot of salad ingredients.

Moroccan Carrot & Chickpea Salad

I fully intended to make the recipe just like Heidi had it. I did! But I wrote down and purchased dried apricots instead. And I found already roasted ground cumin! And then there were the pomegranate seeds that jumped out at me! And I didn't have cayenne! So, yeah, this is another "based on" recipe. Still fucking fabulous though! Something I love is how you get heat from the dressing but it's instantly cooled by the mint and the carrots. Struggles and I enjoyed this with a simple roast chicken.

Dressing:
1 tablespoon roasted, ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1/2 a lemon, more or less)
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
sea salt to taste

10 ounces carrots, thinly sliced on a mandolin
2 cups cooked chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) (aka 1 15 ounce can, drained/rinsed)
2/3 cup dried apricots, quartered
1/3 cup fresh mint, roughly chopped
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds

To serve: toasted almond slices

1) Whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Taste it! Adjust to your preference. It's okay if it's a bit on the strong side, because it's going to be thin on those salad ingredients later.

2) Combine carrots, chickpeas, apricots, mint, and pomegranate seeds. I also threw in a few of the carrot tops, just for a bit of extra fancy greenery. Throw the almonds on right before serving.

3) Eat it!

Matt & Sasan's Cranberry-Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

So I love oatmeal cookies but detest raisins. Before heading to a (totally epic) holiday cookie party, I decided to crowdsource a cookie recipe on Twitter. I received a bunch of options, but was most intrigued by this recipe. It came in from a couple who make these regularly and had finely tuned them to maximize delicious. These smell *amazing* while baking. Original base recipe here.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups rolled oats (NOT instant)
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups semi sweet (or dark, in my case) chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line with parchment 2 cookie sheets.

2) In large bowl, beat butter until creamy then add sugars. Beat until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until thoroughly mixed. (Can I get a hell yeah for Kitchen Aid mixers?)

3) Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Stir into butter and sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Add in oats. (You're probably thinking "no way is that all going to fit in there!" But it will, trust me.)

4) Spoon these out by (more or less) rounded tablespoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, being sure to leave space between them. Don't do what I did the first time and make them too big. They're a dense, hearty cookie, after all.

5) Bake 10-12 minutes. Let them rest on the cookie sheets for a minute before moving them to the cooling rack as they'll be really soft until cool.

Pibil Mission Chili

Amusingly, this is based on a Meatless Mission Chili recipe out of the 15 Minute Gourmet Vegetarian book by Pauline Mitchell. The pibil pork was made by my companion, Struggles, a few days prior for tacos. He cites the recipe as being from Once Upon a Time in Mexico and offers this link. I will note that he didn't use habaneros, as called for, as we couldn't find those at the local supermarket, so he used several green ají dulce peppers instead. These little things are slightly lower in Scoville units so he used 5 or 6 instead of the 1-3 habs called for in that recipe. Also, there was no tequila to be had, so he omitted that.

1- 29 ounce can Goya black beans, drained and rinsed

1- 29 ounce can Goya red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1- 29 ounce can Goya cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1- 15 ounce can diced no salt added tomatoes, do NOT drain

1 quart low sodium chicken stock

7 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 orange bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 small/medium zucchini, roughly chopped

1 small/medium zucchini, grated

4(ish) green ají dulce peppers, finely chopped (borderline minced)

20-30 ounces of shredded pibil pork 

3 tablespoons oil (I was using canola)

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon rubbed (dried) sage

3-4 tablespoons ground cumin (fresh is best, of course)

1 cup roasted, unsalted whole cashews

1) In a *large* stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Dump in the onion, garlic and ají dulce peppers. Sauté until the peppers are translucent. I like to add in about half of all the spices here, both for their aromatic effect and so the spices added closer to serving time are more pungent. 

2) Dump in the pibil, tomatoes (with the juice,) the bell peppers and the chopped zucchini. Sauté until the bell peppers soften.

3) Pour in the drained and rinsed beans and the grated zucchini. Next in is the chicken stock. the liquid should cover the contents of the pan by about an inch. If it doesn't, add some water until it's right.

4) Bring it to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. This is where the rest of the spices go in and you can start playing with the flavor. Generally, I prefer my chili to have heat, but be really richly flavored. Simmer for at least an hour, or until it's a hearty thickness. Make sure to taste it at least five minutes after each spice adjustment, so you don't over spice, especially if you're kicking up the heat.

5) When doling out individual servings, throw a small handful of roasted cashews on top. Of course, serving with cornbread is highly recommended.