Recipe: Carrot and Zucchini Quinoa Patties

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a good option if you are looking for protein alternatives. It is also gluten-free which is great for the celiac disease sufferers out there. In addition to it being high in protein, quinoa is a good source of fiber, magnesium and iron.

One way to eat quinoa is in burger form. Adding grated carrot and zucchini adds moisture to the patties, and the touch of cinnamon and cayenne is the secret to why these patties taste so good. If you're looking for a sauce to go with these, a spicy salsa will pair nicely.

This recipes makes 16 patties.

Carrot and Zucchini Quinoa Patties
- 6 cups of cooked quinoa (approx 1 3/4 - 2 cups of uncooked quinoa makes 6 cups cooked)
- 3 scallions, finely chopped
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
- 1 medium zucchini, grated
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 3/4 cup of cheese (any kind you like)
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
- 1/8 tsp of cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
- 1/2 + 1/8 tsp of salt
- extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Cook the quinoa as per package instructions. Mix all of the ingredients except for the eggs until evenly distributed. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then add it to the quinoa mixture. Mix well.

2. With your hands make 2 inch patties, making sure the quinoa is tightly packed. In an oiled pan over medium-high heat, pan fry each side for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown.

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The Persian Banh Mi

I'd like to introduce you to the kookoo sabzi sandwich, AKA 'The Persian Banh Mi'.

A banh mi sandwich is a Vietnamese sub that is served in a French baguette and filled with meats, fresh veggies, pickled veggies and different spreads like butter, mayo and pork pate.

Although very little similarities between a Vietnamese banh mi and the kookoo sabzi sandwich, this sandwich totally screams Persian Banh Mi. Mainly because it is served in an elongated shaped bread with a standard set of condiments.

This really is a delicious sandwich and healthy too! Here is how you put it together.

1. Make the kookoo sabzi.

2. Grab a hoagie bun and slice it down the middle.

3. Spread labneh on the bun, put kookoo sabzi in between and add condiments like tomatoes, pickles and hot peppers.

Noosh-e-jan!

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Kookoo Sabzi (Persian Green Herb Omelet)

Ok, so this is not a freaky Halloween post. This is a really healthy Persian omelet that is packed with tons of good stuff, and also fun to say! Kookoo. Kookoo. Kookoo.

When in need of something healthy and substantial, this is a great dish that can be eaten throughout the week. It is good as lunch or dinner. Although not very Persian, you can also mix up the greens and use whatever is in the fridge. In the summer, go ahead and add the fresh mint leaves from your garden. If you're in a spinach mood, throw that in. Even if you have salad mix that is about to expire, feel free to throw that in too.

The original Persian style kookoo sabzi is definitely the tastiest. Fenugreek is listed as optional in this recipe because it is both an acquired taste and hard to find in some parts of the world. Some recipes also call for barberries or walnuts to add more taste and variety to this dish.

This recipe yields 8 servings.

Kookoo Sabzi
- 5 large eggs
- 2 cups of coriander, roughly chopped
- 2 cups of green onion, roughly chopped
- 1 cup of curly parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 cup of Italian parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 cup of dill, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbsp of dried Fenugreek (optional)
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour.
- extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C. In a food processor, combine the eggs and all of the herbs and pulse until all of the vegetables have been finely chopped (approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute). If you prefer the herbs to be chunkier, skip the food processor and leave the herbs roughly chopped and just mix the herbs with the eggs in a bowl with a fork.

2. Pour the egg mixture into a bowl. Add salt, pepper and flour and mix well. The flour will bind the omelet.

3. Generously oil an 8"x8" baking dish and bake for 10 minutes. Take the dish out of the oven and pour the egg mixture into the baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Take it out and lightly brush the surface with olive oil. Bake for another 10 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and allow the kookoo (omelet) to cool. Remove from the baking dish (simply flip it upside down) and cut into wedges. Serve cool or warm.

Kookoo is normally baked in a round dish or pan fried in a round pan and then cut into triangular slices like a pizza. However, if you want to make a kookoo sabzi sandwich, then rectangular wedges are much easier to work with in a sandwich.

If you don't feel like a sandwich, you can simply dip this in a yogurt sauce and have it with pita bread, rice, or eat it plain. There really are no rules. You can eat this however you want.

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Egg Avocado Salad

This is a healthy spin on regular egg salad, and is great to serve in a sandwich. What's great about this egg salad is that it is really filling, and it keeps you full for a long time. I find too much avocado is overpowering sometimes, but the lemon juice really lightens it up. I added paprika to this for a bit more flavor, but it makes the avocado mix a brownish greyish color. If you are put off by the color, just leave it out!

This recipe yields 4-6 servings.

Egg Avocado Salad
- 2 small ripe avocadoes
- 6 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup of cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup of red onion, finely chopped
- 1 lemon, juice
- 1/4 tsp of paprika (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. In a bowl, mix the avocado, cilantro and red onion with a fork. The fork will break the avocado as you mix.

2. Add paprika, eggs, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Continue to mix until even. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve cold with bread.

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Spinach Egg Drop Soup

Soup season is officially here! Whenever the weather starts to get cold outside, I default to soup. I have it almost every day until it starts to warm up again. There is something so comforting about a hot brothy soup, full of veggies and goodness, warming up the body when it's cold outside. Kinda like a big warm fuzzy sweater for the soul.

This spinach egg drop soup is an easy soup to whip up if you don't have a lot of time. It is very similar to the Italian stracciatella, but minus the cheese. CK is not a fan of soups, but he says yes to a bowl of this everytime! Now that says a lot.

Spinach Egg Drop Soup
- 300g of baby spinach
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 4 cups of vegetable broth
- 2 cups of water
- 3 eggs
- 1 can (19 fl. oz, 540 mL) of white kidney beans
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt + pepper

Method
1. In a pan, saute the garlic until slightly translucent. Add the spinach and some salt, and continue to saute until the spinach has wilted.

2. In a large pot, combine the broth and water and bring to a boil. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and set aside. When the broth comes to a boil, turn the heat down slightly and add the spinach.

3. While the soup is still hot and slightly boiling, pour the egg very slowly into the middle of the pot. With a fork immersed in the soup, beat the egg as you are pouring it into the soup. This will break up the egg while it is cooking and create a cloud like look. Add the beans. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

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Chinese Corn Soup

Soup season has officially started. With the cold weather, all I want to do is make soup. Warm, thick, hearty, make your heart feel good soups.

I try to make a different soup each week so that I don't get sick of my own cooking. This week, I made a Chinese corn soup. I used to have this as a kid when I used to visit my aunt. Years later, I finally got the recipe.

This soup is ridiculously easy to make. I love how it is both sweet and salty, and I also really like the crunchy bits of corn you get in every spoonful. This recipe uses shrimp, but you can easily substitute it for chicken or pork.

This soup is usually eaten as an appetizer, so the the serving size is smaller than normal.

This recipe yields 8-10 servings (depending on serving size)

Chinese Corn Soup
- 250g shrimp, de-veined and shells removed
- 2 cans (14 fl. oz, 398mL each) cream style corn
- 1 can (12 fl. oz, 341mL) whole corn kernels
- 3 cups of liquid chicken broth
- 3 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp powdered chicken broth
- 1/8 tsp sesame oil
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
- salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Cut the shrimp in 1/2 inch pieces. In a bowl, mix the shrimp, 2 tsp of cornstarch, powdered chicken broth, white pepper, sesame oil, and sugar until the shrimp pieces are evenly coated. Set aside to marinate. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tsp of corn starch with 1 tablespoon of cold water and stir until corn starch has dissolved.

2. In a pot over medium heat, combine the liquid chicken broth, cream style corn, and whole corn kernels until it just starts to boil. Stir occasionally. Add the shrimp and corn starch water, and stir frequently in one direction for 5 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked. Stirring frequently in one direction will prevent the corn starch from clumping. Turn off the heat.

3. Pour the egg white very slowly into the middle of the pot. With a fork immersed in the soup, beat the egg white as you are pouring it into the soup. This will break up the egg white and create a cloud like look. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

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Salade Olivier

My food journey started with this dish. I never used to cook much, and frankly, I didn't really enjoy it. It was about 5 years ago, at my in-laws' house, when I first tried Salade Olivier. I instantly fell in love, and felt compelled to learn how to make it. My mother-in-law did not make this salad much, and I couldn't fathom the fact that it would be months before I would taste it again. I wanted to eat this salad when I wanted, and as much as I wanted. What did I do? I asked my mother-in-law to teach me how to make it. I didn't care how labor intensive it was, I just wanted to learn how to make it.

My mother-in-law was such a joy to cook with that our so-called 'cooking classes' became a regular thing. Through the process, I learned to cook many traditional Persian dishes that utilized unfamiliar techniques and ingredients. This excited me. My time with my mother-in-law opened my eyes to their beautiful culture. More importantly, it was my husband's culture. I am so thankful that I got to spend that time with his mom because I finally understood him in a very personal and unspoken way.
From there, I not only saw food and cooking in a whole different light, but I began to appreciate different cultures for their traditional beauty.

Salade Olivier, also called Russian salad, was invented in the late 1800's by Lucien Olivier, then owner and chef of Moscow's popular Hermitage restaurant. Salade Olivier was considered a signature dish at the Hermitage restaurant, and the complexity of my recipe comes no where close to the original. I read on wiki that the original salad contained ingredients such as veal tongue, crayfish tails, and grouse.

Although this salad originated from Russia, it has become a traditional dish in other parts of the world such as Iran and the Ukraine.

This recipe yields 6-8 servings.

Salade Olivier
- 5 white potatoes
- 3 dill pickles
- 1 onion, halved
- 1 1/2 cup of green peas, frozen
- 3 carrots, peeled
- 1 chicken breast
- 3 eggs
- 4 Tbsp of white vinegar
- 4 Tbsp of light mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp of turmeric
- salt and pepper

Method
1. In a small pot, simmer 2 cups of water with the chicken breast, onion, carrots, turmeric, and some salt for 45 minutes. Allow to cool, and discard the onion. Shred the chicken breast into small pieces with your hands. Cut the carrots into small cubes.

2. In another pot, boil the potatoes and eggs. Remove the eggs after 12 minutes. Remove the potatoes when tender. Crack the eggs, peel them, and cut into small pieces. Peel the potatoes when they have cooled. Cut the potatoes into small pieces.

3. In a small pot, cook the frozen peas according to package instructions. Cut the pickles into small cubes. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, chicken, carrots, pickles, peas, and eggs.

4. In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing by whisking the mayonnaise and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the dressing to the potato salad, and mix well. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

It may not seem as though there is enough dressing at first, but this salad does not need a lot of it. You can eat this salad plain or with bread. My choice is pita bread.

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Bill Granger's Pastel De Nata Recipe

CK has been back in Sydney for less than a week, and already, we have a long list of new places to eat the next time I visit. Ever since I started my blog, he has been more aware of the food surrounding him, and he calls me up daily telling me of cool new restaurants/markets that he saw or passed by. I'm definitely looking forward to my next trip there.

One thing we recently talked about was the pastel de nata, a Portuguese custard tart. Ever since our first experience with pasteis de nata 2 months ago, CK has been noticing them everywhere, and most recently in Sydney.

A few Aussie blogs have posted Bill Granger's version of this sweet Portuguese pastry, and with Bill being one of my favorite Syndey chefs, I had to try out his recipe for myself. If you ever get a chance to visit Sydney, you must check out Bills for their creamy, delicate scrambled eggs for breakfast. They are to die for, and are totally worth the money. You'll know what I mean when you try them.

A pastel de nata made well will have burn spots on the surface of the custard. This is not easy to achieve at home, and these pastries are generally tricky to make because custard is best cooked at low temperatures while puff pastry is best cooked at high temperatures. The trick is to find the right balance, and you need to play around with your oven settings to find that perfect temperature.

There is one ultimate place in the world to go for these sweet delights, and that is at Antiga Confeitaria de Belem in Portugal. They even have their own name for the pastries: pasteis de belém. Everyone in Portugal will know of this Confeitaria, and apparently, their recipe is kept top secret.

The recipe below, however, is not a secret, and I invite you to try it for yourself.
This recipe makes 12 pastries.

Pastéis de Nata
Adapted from Bill Granger and Not Quite Nigella
- 3 egg yolks
- 115g caster sugar
- 230ml Cream (I used 35% whipping cream)
- 170ml milk
- 2 Tbsp cornflour
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- one sheet of puff pastry

Method
1. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a pot. Gradually whisk in the cream and milk until smooth.

2. Place the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Transfer the custard to a bowl, and cover the bowl with saran wrap to prevent a skin from forming and leave to cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

4. Cut the pastry dough sheet in half, put one half on top of the other and set aside for 5 minutes. Roll up the pastry tightly from the short end and cut the pastry log into 12 x 1cm rounds. Lay each pastry round on a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out until each is about 3 inches in diameter.

5. Press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard are golden. Leave the tarts in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Post Mortem:
- I know my pasteis de nata are not the prettiest, but the taste was excellent. I think the custard was a bit overcooked, and I'm now determined to keep trying until those burn marks appear on the surface. The custard was soft and gooey when it first came out of the oven, but as soon as it cooled, the custard hardened and wasn't as good as when they first came out of the oven. That, unfortunately, did not stop me from eating all of them.

- I baked the pastries for 25 minutes because I thought the pasteis de nata would naturally develop that torched creme brulee look if you baked it for long enough. Silly me. I should have probably baked them for only 20 minutes.

- The original recipe calls for a bit more puff pastry than one sheet, so if you like more tart in your pasteis de nata, use more puff pastry.

***[Updated April 8 '09] I finally was able to get a burn spot on the surface of the custard (see pic below). It's a small little spot, but hey, it's still a burn spot! I baked my pastries at 450F for 18 minutes and then grilled them for 2 minutes. The heat was just a tad too high because the edges of the puff pastry burned. I also did not whisk the custard too hard because I read somewhere that it causes the custard to rise high during baking, and then sink low when cooling. I think it did make a difference. I will keep trying and post my improvements.***

Small burn spot on pastel de nata - April 8 '09

Hungry for more sweets, check out these other delicious recipes:
Alfajores: shortbread with dulce de leche
Lazy lemon cookies
Healthy orange and nut date cups

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