China's Plate has Moved!

Things in my life are changing a bit... and my blog is coming with me. The new site link for China's Plate is: chinasplate.wordpress.com.

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Slide Ranch

I spent my morning on a real life farm! Well, sort of. It's an educational ranch near Stinson Beach, and part of the Golden Gate National Park system. It's the most picturesque setting...

And they have goats!

I was the only volunteer, aside from 72 kindergartners vising the farm, so I got to pick the brain of the garden director while we pulled weeds and transplanted strawberry plants. Fun farm fact: those delicious eggs with bright orange yolks comes from feeding the chickens greens and bugs, alternative to the typical grain pellets in commercial farms. The aminos in the food yield the bright color, and extra nutrients.

After reading Dan Barber's The Third Plate, I've had a fascination with farming. In particular organic, sustainable farming, and why it's important for the future of farming. I had an itch to get out there, so I took matters into my own hands and googled "organic farms in the Bay Area where you can volunteer." Success.

Honestly, it felt pretty satisfying digging my hands (in gloves, obv) into the dirt and pull the crap out of some weeds. My fingers are SORE and I may have ruined another pair of sneakers, but it was a huge breath of fresh air to spend some time with the vegetables I eat all of the time, in their natural habitat. I rescued over 20 strawberry plants from a potentially chilly winter in the ground.

I topped off this amazing mini-getaway with a taco salad from one of Mill Valley's incredible organic grocery store, Good Earth Natural Foods. 'Twas a delightful nachos / salad hybrid. 

The half day of blissful, cellphone service-less, manual labor was totally worth the onslaught of emails when I got back to civilization. I'll definitely be doing that again!

Beet & Heirloom Tomato Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

My first box from Imperfect Produce showed up today! Fortuitously, I was already planning to work from home (read: mess around in my kitchen all day). The beets went straight from box to cutting board to oven in the span of 7 minutes after I brought the box inside.

Followed very closely by a beautiful yellow tomato, half of which went in this salad and the other half on my toast for breakfast. Underneath those tomato slices is a mixture of tahini, miso, garlic, soy sauce and green onions that I've been putting on almost everything.

This salad is ridiculously healthy, simple and delicious (if you like beets, unlike my boyfriend), but it takes a little planning. The beets and chickpeas take almost an hour to roast but that can be done hours or a couple days earlier.

Beet & Heirloom Tomato Salad with Roasted Chickpeas
(2-3 servings)
3 beets, scrubbed and halved
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and dried
1 tablespoon olive oil

1-2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 heirloom tomato, sliced
salt and pepper
feta cheese
arugula

Preheat oven to 375. Toss beets in olive oil and roast on parchment paper or tin foil for 45-60 minutes, until easy to cut into. Coat chickpeas in olive oil and spread out onto sheet pan covered with parchment paper or tin foil. Roast 35-45 minutes, shaking every 10 minutes. (This can be done at the same time as the beets). When chickpeas are done, toss them in combination of cumin, salt, chili powder, and a pinch of cayenne.

When beets have cooled, slice thinly and place in a mixing bowl. Add vinegar, parsley, green onion, lemon, salt and pepper. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Toss in tomato, feta and arugula, top with chickpeas to serve.

Sweet Potato & Apple Muffins

Here's a question: why work from the office, when you can work from home and take conference calls in leggings while mixing up a batch of fall-tastic muffins? The answer is obvious. In other news, I've been spending a lot of time reading my new nutritious cookbook and Dan Barber's anecdotes about organic, sustainable farming. This has me googling permacultural farm tours and putting things like goji berries on my grocery list. I'm pretty jazzed about it all!

I've also been reading about the opportunities to substitute ingredients in our everyday cooking that jack up the nutrition content of what we're making. In the case of these muffins, swapping whole wheat flour for whole wheat spelt flour. The end result is a tender, (almost identical to the original) protein and fiber packed muffin. Spelt also contains significant amounts of iron, copper, magnesium...the list goes on. Plus, it's everything you want in a muffin: moist from the apple and sweet potato, spicy from the cinnamon and ginger, crunchy from walnuts and sweet from raisins. At least I felt less bad about cleaning the batter off of the bowl with my finger.

The original recipe I adopted was The Kitchn's Morning Glory Sweet Potato Muffins. 

Sweet Potato & Apple Muffins

Makes 12-15 muffins

1/2 cup raisins

1/3 cup apple juice

1 medium sweet potato, about 6 ounces (I didn't peel mine because there are so many nutrients in the skin if you buy organic!)

1 medium tart apple, 1/4" diced (I used Fuji)

2 cups whole-wheat spelt flour

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda (I used 6 teaspoons baking powder and worked fine)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

3 large eggs, beaten

3/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut

1/4 cup rolled oats, for topping (optional)

Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 375°F. Grease or line a 12-well muffin tin with paper liners.

Place the raisins and juice in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high power for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and set aside.

Grate the sweet potato using the largest holes on a box grater. Transfer to a bowl with the apple and set aside.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the eggs, oil, vanilla, and raisins and juice, and stir until just combined. Fold in the sweet potato, apple, walnuts, and coconut.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each just about to the top of the pan. Sprinkle the oats over the batter, if using.

Bake until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan until cool enough to handle, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the muffins to a cooling rack and cool completely. 

Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese Ravioli in Browned Butter with Crispy Sage

I've said it before, pasta making is the labor of love. Bruce was sweet enough to offer to help me make ravioli this Sunday. He had greatly underestimated the amount of time and effort he had signed up for. 2.5-3 hours later we had a (mostly) beautiful batch of tender, delicious ravioli piled into a Tupperware for my Monday night dinner party.

You learn countless lessons when you attempt to make pasta. First lesson is you literally can't use too much flour. Second, you shouldn't cut pasta with a chef's knife on a veneer dining room table. Third, and probably most significant lesson, do not put fresh pasta in Tupperware and store in refrigerator - eat it the day you make it. The pasta gets damp and fuses together. You'll need to perform surgery to pull it apart. My once cute, almost professional looking ravioli turned into mangled versions of themselves. Whomp whomp. 

Did I throw it away and make boxed spaghetti? Almost, but no. I tried frying them up in a pan with a little butter and sage, and it was delicious! 

These ravioli were the main course of my "fall" themed dinner party I threw in honor of leaving my studio apartment. Everything is more fun when it has a theme - I learned that in college. The rest of the fall menu included:

grapes / Brussels sprout chips / roasted almonds

arugula salad with figs, toasted walnuts and shaved Parmesan

maple apple crisp with walnuts / vanilla maple ice cream

I found the recipe for the butternut squash and goat cheese ravioli on Xoxo Create, the only difference was that I fried mine up in a skillet with the browning butter instead of boiling it beforehand. Click link for full recipe.  

Shrimp in Marinara over Pearled Barley

The purpose of tonight's post is educational. I just wanted to cover a few bases. First, marinara: not just for pizza or pasta. Put it on shrimp for the healthiest way to satisfy Italian food cravings while using stuff you probably have in the freezer and pantry. Second, barley: not just in beer. Pearled barley (especially the Trader Joe's 10 minute barley) is the most hearty and healthy pasta substitute. FYI - Barley is a good source of manganese (supporting blood, bones and sex hormones), dietary fiber and literally 80 other nutrients. Who knew?

Shrimp in marinara over pearled barley was the perfect home late from a meeting, healthy but ready in 15 minutes dinner. And a glass of wine, because of aforementioned late meeting.

Shrimp in Marinara over Pearled Barley

(Serves 2)

1 cup pearled barley (recommend TJ's 10 minute barley)

1 pound shrimp, frozen or fresh

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 cup favorite marinara sauce

2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

dash red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

2 handfuls of arugula

freshly grated Parmesan cheese 

In a medium pot, cook barley per instructions. In a large skillet, heat olive oil before adding in shrimp. Cook 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip the shrimp and add lemon juice, marinara, basil and red pepper flakes. Cook shrimp through 1-2 minutes then finish with salt and pepper.

Stir arugula and Parmesan into cooked barley. Serve barley in bottom of bowl and top with shrimp and marinara. Finish with more grated Parmesan and freshly ground pepper.

Sweet Corn Soup with Balsamic Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

Summer is wrapping up. When I was younger I associated that with the end of Fun. Now I couldn't be more excited - I get to put away my puffy jacket, bring out the skirts and tank tops, and buy myself some pumpkin flavored groceries. So soon!

In the meantime, I will eat this soup because it is good. Summery, and good.

Sweet Corn Soup with Balsamic Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

(2 servings)

2 ears corn, kernels cut from cob

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1 tablespoon bacon fat (or olive oil)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 cup milk (or almond milk)

salt and pepper
red pepper flakes

8 cherry tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar
1 ounce goat cheese, crumbled

In a large pot, heat bacon fat (or let a slice of bacon cook in the pan for a minute or two then remove). Add onion and garlic to the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add in corn, setting aside 2 tablespoons worth of kernels to add in later, and cook another couple minutes. Pour broth and milk into the pot and bring to a simmer, 5-7 more minutes.

Put diced tomatoes and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and chill in the refrigerator until serving.

In a blender (or use immersion blender) puree the ingredients for 2-3 minutes or until very smooth. Pour into bowls and serve with remaining corn kernels, tomatoes, and goat cheese. Finish with salt and pepper to taste. Fresh basil would be a nice addition, if you have it on hand.