CURRIED CALABACITAS WITH ORZO

This is a simple spring dish marrying together a family staple of calabacitas (summer squash with onions, garlic, chiles, etc.) with aromatic Indian spices.  It comes together relatively quickly so long as you have some yellow curry powder (store-bought or homemade) and summer squash on hand. If you cannot find orzo in your grocery store, you can easily substitute it with any small pasta, Israeli couscous, or even quinoa.  I think it's perfect for a picnic. Do people still do that?

Yellow curry powder gets its beautiful golden color from turmeric - which is full of potent antioxidants! If you feel like making your own, here is a recipe for my Jamaican Dry Curry Blend.  

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INGREDIENTS

SERVES 6 AS A SIDE DISH

3 T. olive oil plus more for drizzling at the end 

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1/2 white onion, thinly sliced

2 medium summer squash (such as yellow squash, patty-pan, Mexican grey squash, or zucchini), trimmed, cut into 1" pieces

1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced 

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. orzo, cooked according to package directions, drained, set aside

2 T. piñon (pine nuts) 

2 T. yellow curry powder (Indian, Jamaican, Trinidadian) 

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. red chile flakes

sea salt

fresh herbs for garnish (cilantro, mint, parsley, tarragon)

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat a very small pan on medium heat.  Add piñon, stir constantly until toasted and fragrant.  This only takes a minute or two. Transfer piñon to a plate to cool. 

In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add 3 T. olive oil.  Place onions in the pan and stir until translucent.  About two minutes.  Add squash, tomatoes, red bell peppers, garlic, curry powder, garlic powder, and red chile flakes.  Stir until the tomatoes begin to break down and the squash is cooked through.  Add the toasted pine nuts.  

To the sauté pan, add the cooked orzo and gently stir to combine the ingredients.  Drizzle with a little more olive oil.  Season with sea salt, stir.  Garnish with fresh herbs.  

This dish tastes great warm or cold, but I prefer it best at room temperature.  

 

 

 

JAMAICAN DRY CURRY BLEND

I first dabbled in creating a Jamaican curry blend during high school, working with very minimal spices from my mom's pantry, which basically meant my Jamaican curry blend tasted more like menudo seasoning with lots of ginger.  I've since fine tuned my ratios, and now it's one of my favorite blends to use on roasted vegetables, blended into yogurt as a sauce, or used in coconut curries with jackfruit and sweet potatoes.  It's a great digestive and anti-inflammatory and it's uses are endless!  After making more, I ended up using it with some steamed Romanesco broccoli from the farmers market, serving it up with rice and peas.  My goldendoodle was very curious about the tray of market produce!  

I chose to not write out a formal recipe for this, but rather show you how I did, which is the best way for me to learn: watching someone else do it.  

However, here are some tips:

- Toast whole spices gently in a pan for a minute or so before grinding them.  This freshens them up and brings out their natural oils.  After I was done grinding the whole spices, I simply added the turmeric etc. and mixed it all together in my molcajete.  See next tip. 

- I used my molcajete (volcanic rock mortar and pestle) to grind the whole spices, but you could easily use a coffee grinder used solely for spices.  

- Use a paper bag to dump your spice blend onto after combining it.  You can funnel it easily into a small jar this way unless you have a wide mouth funnel.  But I like to use the paper bag :)

 

TRUE WILD RICE WITH DANDELION PESTO

I love bitter greens, and unfortunately, bitter flavors have not been embraced by many because so many of us have been bombarded with sweet and salty flavors.  Endive, radicchio, arugula, dandelion greens...they are such great blood builders!  I decided to share a simple pesto recipe using fresh dandelion greens (which can easily be found at many grocers now), and pretty much plopped it on some earthy wild rice cooked with mushrooms I purchased from my local farmer's market.  My only suggestion with this recipe is that you use true wild rice (manoomin) grown and gathered from ancestral lakes.  Not wild rice grown in California, which seems to me to be more like wild rice on vacation.  

At the bottom of this recipe, I have shared a link to one of the many places you can purchase true wild rice, hand-harvested by Native Peoples in the traditional way, grown in ancestral lakes.  

True Wild Rice

1 T. olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 1/2 C. *wild rice 

3 oz. oyster mushrooms, or mushrooms of your choice 

3 C. water 

Dandelion Pesto 

1 small bunch dandelion greens, trimmed

1 oz. fresh basil

1/4 C. pine nuts

zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

sea salt

In a medium/large saucepan, heat olive oil until warm, add minced shallots (which always make my eyes tear up) and stir for one minute.  Add mushrooms and wild rice, stir for one minute.  Add water, allow to come to a boil, then turn down to simmer.  Cook until all of the water is absorbed, about 40 - 45 minutes.  Rice should be tender, yet firm. 

While the rice is cooking, start the pesto.  Using a food processor, add all of the pesto ingredients to the machine, then pulse until well combined.  Taste for seasoning.  Add sea salt to taste. 

Serve a dollop of pesto with each serving of cooked wild rice, or combine the pesto with the wild rice and serve family style.  

 

 *You can purchase Native American hand-harvested wild rice from the White Earth Nation here. 

As always, thank you Barbara for letting me cook in your sunlit kitchen.