Things have been pretty cerebral in Opera Girl land these days. I’ve spent much of the last week happily buried in an opera score, occasionally coming up for air to communicate with the outside world. What can I say, I’ve been thoroughly seduced by an amazing role — Aphrodite, Goddess of love (well, lust is more like it, but I’m keeping things PG here on the blog).

It’s a joy and a privilege to be involved in the premiere of Troilus and Achilles, a 1-hour opera/oratorio (operatorio?) by my former SFCM classmate, Elliott James Encarnación. The more I dig into the piece, the more things I find to love about it. With a carefully crafted libretto, lyrical, tonal vocal lines, and a chamber ensemble that includes french horn and harp . . . well, I’m pretty much in heaven.

We’ll be giving the first performance on May 14th, piano/vocal scores still in hand — with only three weeks to put the project together, there simply isn’t enough time for us mere mortals to manage a fully-realized production this time around. Happily, we’ll be performing the piece again come late summer, off-book and in much less of a hurry.

And so, as you might imagine, not much has been happening in the kitchen around here lately. Oh, and not only have I been occupied with all things rehearsal-related, I’m currently lacking an audience for my culinary endeavors — GF Boy is away on a business trip, leaving me to cook for one. I don’t know about you, but without anybody else to cook for, I tend toward convenience rather than creativity, throwing together simple and rather uninspired meals.

Today, I decided to get out of my culinary rut. I let my mind wander in a foodie reverie on the bus ride home from the gym this afternoon, thinking about what ingredients I had in the fridge. Not a whole lot, save some defrosting shrimp, along with a few corn tortillas. Shrimp tacos it would be. And so, I stopped by a bodega near my apartment, picking up an avocado, a mango, bunches of radishes, green onions and cilantro, and a bulb of garlic.

Ideal for a dinner and leftovers for one or a romantic meal for two, this recipe comes together in a cool 20 minutes. While your corn tortillas warm in the oven, thinly-sliced cloves of garlic infuse a couple tablespoons of olive oil with mellow sweetness. Meanwhile, a little bit of chopping makes short work of the sweet-and-savory mango salsa and garnishes of thinly-sliced radish and bell pepper. Next, it’s time to crank up the heat on your now garlic-infused olive oil, which is ready to poach the shrimp.

Finally, when the shrimp are just cooked through, corn tortillas emerge from the oven warm and pliant, ready to be topped with the shrimp, salsa, and crunchy garnishes. Et voila, dinner is served.

Shrimp Tacos with Mango Salsa

serves 2

4 corn tortillas, wrapped in aluminum foil

1/2 large mango, diced into 1/4″ pieces (about 1 cup)
1 medium avocado, diced into 1/4″ pieces (about 2/3 cup)
juice of a 1/2 lime (about 1 Tbsp)
4 sprigs cilantro, chiffonaded (set aside a few leaves for garnish)
1 green onion, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1/2 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 radish, halved and sliced thinly
1 mini bell pepper, halved and sliced thinly

1. Set your oven to its lowest setting (“keep warm” or 200F) and place the foil-wrapped tortillas on the middle rack.

2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the ingredients for the salsa. Set aside.

3. In a small (8″) skillet, heat the olive oil and sliced garlic over low heat for 10 minutes.

4. Turn the heat up to medium, and when the garlic just begins to bubble, add the shrimp in a single layer. Cover the skillet, letting the shrimp cook for five minutes.

5. Check the shrimp for doneness — they should be pink all the way through. If they are still slightly gray in the middle, cover and let cook for another minute or two.

6. When the shrimp are cooked through, remove the tortillas from the oven and place them on plates. Dish out 1/2 of the shrimp onto each plate in piles on top of the tortillas. Spoon about 1/4 C. of salsa onto each serving of shrimp.

7. Garnish with sliced radish, bell pepper, and cilantro leaves. Serve immediately.

Ceviche is one of my favorite foods to eat when the weather warms up. I recently discovered the house-made fish and shrimp version at a market near GF boy’s apartment — combined with a handful of tortilla chips and some sliced avocado, it made for a delicious dinner-for-one the other night.

This week, I came up with a vegan ceviche that’s just as delicious as the seafood-filled version. Sliced hearts of palm act as a great stand-in for fish, resembling it closely in both texture and saltiness. Thanks to this clever swap, you’ll never notice anything missing. Serve it as a refreshing and healthy first course, appetizer, or snack, along with some tortilla chips for scooping.

Vegan Ceviche (printer-friendly version)

Serves 4

3 hearts of palm, quartered and sliced 1/8″ thick
1 persian cucumber, diced
1 anaheim pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 C. grape tomatoes, quartered
2 green onions, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 large avocado, diced
5 sprigs cilantro, stems removed, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1. Place all ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

2. Let sit for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve with tortilla chips.

Right on cue, my wonderful, doting mother made me a giant pot of chicken soup. Her recipe is basic, time-tested, and far from unusual — I’m sure you’ve got one of your own in the family vault. If not, there are plenty of versions online.

What sets this soup apart are the gluten-free dumplings I added the following evening. Made from a mix of flours, they’re pleasantly chewy and dense, turning a basic bowl of soup into a filling meal. Whole-grain teff, buckwheat, and brown rice flours add lots of great flavor, and a handful of freshly chopped chives adds a little interest and color. The recipe makes about a dozen medium-sized dumplings, enough to serve four.

Gluten-Free Chicken Soup Dumplings (printer-friendly version)

serves 4

1/2 C. brown rice flour
2 Tbsp. buckwheat flour
2 Tbsp. teff flour
2 Tbsp. sweet rice flour
2 Tbsp. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1/2 C. buttermilk
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1/4 C. chopped fresh chives

1. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flours, tapioca starch, salt, and pepper until thoroughly combined. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

2. Add the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter to the well in the center of the dry ingredients. Use a whisk to beat the wet ingredients together, then gradually whisk in the dry ingredients from the sides of the bowl until everything is combined evenly.

3. Stir in the chopped chives.

4. Gently drop 2 Tbsp. spoonfuls of the dumpling batter into your pot of chicken soup. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

5. Ladle into bowls and serve.

With Passover coming up at the end of this week, I decided to forego the healthy recipes I usually come up with, and offer you a slightly-less-unhealthy version of one of my favorite holiday treats instead.

I made these coconut macaroons without the use of any flour, flavored extracts, or suspect ingredients. They contain only coconut, organic cane sugar, egg whites, and sea salt, which allows their pure coconut flavor to really shine through.

The trick here is using very finely shredded, unsweetened coconut — it produces macaroons with great texture without requiring the use of a food processor or any other special equipment. I got my coconut from Galloways Specialty Foods, and you can order it online directly from the source. Bob’s Red Mill also sells a version they refer to as “fine macaroon” coconut, which would work quite nicely and is more widely available.

Bake your macaroons just until they are light brown on top — you’ll have to watch them carefully during the last few minutes of cooking to accomplish this, as they quickly go from golden to overly browned. Once they’re done, you can let them cool right on the cookie sheets, transferring them to an airtight container once they’ve cooled completely. They’ll keep this way for at least a week, but they’ll no doubt be gone before then.

Coconut Macaroons (printer-friendly version)

makes about 3 dozen

400g. finely shredded unsweetened coconut
2/3 C. organic cane sugar
1/2 tsp. sea salt
4 large egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 325F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the coconut, sugar, and sea salt until thoroughly mixed.

3. Add the egg whites to the mixing bowl and stir into the dry ingredients until well-combined.

4. Use your hands to roll 1 1/2-inch macaroons, compacting it as you go. Press the macaroons gently onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, placing them 1 inch apart.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, until toasty brown on top. Remove from oven and let cool thoroughly on the baking sheets before handling.

Lately, I’ve been on a kick with oven-roasting. It’s a great, unfussy way to prepare dinner — after you chop up some vegetables and toss them with your seasoning of choice, they cook without any extra attention. Not only is it easy, roasting also imparts a concentrated sweetness that you can’t get from other cooking methods. As the dry heat intensifies the flavors of the vegetables, they become velvety-soft and thoroughly imbued with whatever you’ve chosen to season them with.

This week’s recipe is a vegan and gluten-free combo of eggplant, bell pepper, and mushrooms marinated with a sesame soy vinaigrette. And just like the ratatouille I posted last week, this recipe is of the set-it-and-forget-it variety. The roasting vegetables and brown basmati rice cook in tandem, so everything is ready at the same time.

To add a pop of freshness and crunch to the dish, I topped the rice bowls with a garnish of sliced raw cucumbers and yasai fumi furikake, a Japanese seasoning of seaweed, sesame seeds, and dehydrated vegetables. Furikake comes in many varieties, from a plain sesame/seaweed variety to those including dried salmon, egg, and shiso. You can find it at most Japanese grocery stores, and online.

Brown Basmati Rice Bowls with Roasted Sesame Ginger Vegetables (printer-friendly version)

serves 4

1 medium eggplant, cut into bite-size pieces
3 medium red bell peppers, cut into bite-size pieces
8 oz. assorted mushrooms (hon-shimeji, nameko, piopini)
1/2 C. sesame soy vinaigrette

1 1/2 C. brown basmati rice
2 2/3 C. water
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. kosher salt

furikake
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and sliced thinly

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Spread out the eggplant, bell peppers, and mushrooms on the lined baking sheet, then pour the vinaigrette evenly over the vegetables. Bake for 45 minutes.

3. While the vegetables are in the oven, prepare the brown rice. In a small (1 1/2-quart) saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the rice, water, olive oil, and salt. Bring up to a boil, turn down to low, and let simmer for 35 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand another 10 minutes.

4. Spoon the rice into your serving bowls, then top with the roasted vegetables. Garnish with sliced cucumbers and furikake.

Happy first week of Spring 2012, dear readers! It’s good to be back in the kitchen.

To welcome the windy-but-sunny weather we’re having in San Francisco this week, I offer you a pasta dish that’s hearty enough to chase away the last of the winter chill, but light enough to make well into spring. Roasted ratatouille provides a great starting point for a dish that’s not too heavy on starch — a sheet pan brimming with vegetables stretches a half-pound of pasta into four generous servings.

Traditionally, ratatouille is rather hands-on, a stove-top dish prepared in a large skillet. I prefer the convenience of roasting — once you chop up all the produce, you can forget about it for an hour. Furthermore, roasting gives the vegetables a caramelized, complex flavor that they can’t achieve by simmering on the stove.

Since we’re gluten-free around here, I used Trader Joe’s corn fusilli for the pasta portion of this dish. While there’s nothing quite like traditional semolina pasta, It’s one of the better gluten-free options I’ve tried thus far. You can use any noodles you prefer — just slice your vegetables to match the size and shape of the pasta for a more cohesive dish.

Roasted Ratatouille Pasta (printer-friendly version)

serves 4

1 medium eggplant
3 medium zucchini
1 large red bell pepper
1/2 lb. button mushrooms
1/2 lb. grape tomatoes

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
8 sprigs fresh thyme, stems removed
1 tsp. Garlic Gold Nuggets
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1/2 lb. corn fusilli (or other pasta of your choice)

1/2 C. grated Pecorino Romano cheese
2 sprigs flatleaf parsley, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. While the oven is preheating, cut the eggplant, zucchini, and bell pepper into 1.5″ by 1/2″ pieces, quarter the mushrooms, and leave the grape tomatoes whole.

3. Spread out all of the vegetables on the parchment-lined baking sheet, then sprinkle them with the olive oil, thyme, Garlic Gold Nuggets, salt, and pepper. Place in the oven and roast for 1 hour.

4. When the vegetables are half way through baking, put a 2 1/2-quart pot of water on to boil, then cook the pasta according to the package directions.

5. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Remove the vegetables from the oven and add them to the pot with the pasta. Stir to combine.

6. Garnish pasta with the grated pecorino romano and parsley.

Last week, I ventured east to visit my friend Katy in Berkeley. While I’m very familiar with the downtown and university parts of town, I’d never been to North Berkeley or the hills.

The long and winding drive to Katy’s house ended with a gorgeous hilltop-view of the Bay. From there, we took a beautiful, sunny walk down to the Gourmet Ghetto, poking our heads in at The Cheese Board and ogling the menu at Chez Panisse before walking to our ultimate lunch destination, Gather.

Housed in the David Brower Center, the restaurant is a paean to local, sustainable, organic cuisine — you can even ask your waiter for a copy of “The Source Book” to look up the provenance of every ingredient.

Katy and I both ordered soup and sandwiches — while there were lots of gluten-free options on the menu, the restaurant was still happy to accomodate my request to de-breadify the porchetta sandwich.

The soup was the best version of leek and potato I’ve ever had, hands down. It was creamy and velvety in texture, with delicious pops of flavor from the broccoli seeds scattered on top. I have no idea how they managed to make a vegan soup so tasty — the flavor was as complex and savory as any non-veg soup I’ve encountered. The porchetta “sandwich” was great too, the thinly-sliced pork served sans-bread under a pile of fresh mixed greens.

For dessert, we shared a slice of chocolate almond torte. I’m a sucker for anything chocolate, and it was wonderful to have a gluten-free dessert option on the menu besides sorbet or ice cream. The torte was dense and delicious, served with dollops of whipped cream and powerfully citrusy Seville orange marmelade.

Everything about our experience at Gather was lovely, as was the rest of our afternoon, which we spent hiking back up to Katy’s home at the top of the Berkeley hills. I look forward to heading back to the East Bay soon to check out more of the local food scene — I’m sure Berkeley has many more treasures that I have yet to discover!

I can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for nearly two years, and I haven’t yet given you a recipe for artichokes.

I guess it just seems like one of those things that’s too easy for a recipe. But then, I forget that not everyone grew up an hour north of Castroville, the self-proclaimed Artichoke Center of the World. And that as a fourth-generation Northern Californian, preparing artichokes is probably coded into my DNA.

When I was a little girl, my dad used to cook artichokes in a pressure cooker, one that’d been in the family for quite some time. It was an unreliable contraption, with a leaky rubber gasket that lead to wildly variable cooking times. My dad explained that it was perfectly safe to use, but my mother would never go near the thing, and so I followed suit. Whenever I heard the pressure cooker’s regulator ticking menacingly on top of the pot, I was sure to stay far, far away.

And so, I grew up thinking that cooking artichokes was an act of courage and blind faith. Not only did you have to cook them in a pot that might explode, you could never really know if they were exactly done. Sometimes they came out perfectly tender, and other times they’d end up mushy and overcooked. The worst was when they were undercooked, though, with leaves that clung stubbornly and a crunchy, unyielding center. That’s just how artichokes were, I thought. Capricious little thistles, with a thorny disposition to match their prickly leaves.

Little did I know.

It turns out that there are a few other methods for cooking artichokes that are neither life-threatening nor unpredictable. The most popular of these are boiling, microwaving, and my favorite, steaming. Boiled artichokes can end up water-logged and soggy, and microwaving doesn’t allow you to check on the artichokes as easily while they’re cooking. Steaming allows for the best control — simply remove the lid from your pot and prick the bottom of an artichoke with a paring knife. It should pierce the artichoke heart fairly easily, with just a little bit of resistance.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before you can cook the artichokes, they must be trimmed. Some people just lop off the tops and stems, but I like to use a kitchen shears to trim the prickly tops off of all the individual leaves. While this might seem overly dainty or precious, it really is nice not having to worry about getting poked with the thorns while eating. It only takes a couple minutes to cut off those prickly tips, and you’ll save yourself and your dining companions a lot of fuss in the end.

Once the artichokes are trimmed and steamed, they’re ready to serve. In addition to being tasty on their own, they make a great substrate for dipping sauce.  I like to pair mine with some homemade mayonnaise (the store-bought variety is fine too), tricked out with a little freshly-squeezed lemon juice and fresh, chopped dill.

Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Dill Sauce (printer-friendly version)

Serves 4

4 medium-sized globe artichokes

1. Trim off the artichoke stems, leaving about 1/2″. Use a pair of kitchen shears to trim the thorns off of the leaves.

2. Boil a few inches of water in a large pot outfitted with a steamer insert, over medium flame.

3. When the water comes to a boil, place the artichokes upside-down in the steamer. Cover and let steam for 20 minutes.

4. Check the artichokes for doneness by piercing the bottom of one with a sharp paring knife. If the knife slides in with just a little resistance, the artichokes are done. Check for doneness every two or three minutes.

5. When the artichokes are ready, remove the steamer insert from the pot and let them cool until you can comfortably transfer them to serving plates.

Lemon Dill Sauce

1/2 C. mayonnaise (homemade or store-bought)

2 Tbsp. fresh, finely-chopped dill

juice of 1/2 a large lemon

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.

Last month, I gave you one of my favorite kasha (a.k.a. porridge) recipes. In that post, I explained that when most people hear the word kasha, they think of the buckwheat variety, which is popular in Russia, Poland, and the Ukraine.

Buckwheat kasha is just as easy to prepare as a pot of oatmeal, but a good source of properly roasted whole-grain buckwheat can be hard to track down. Wolff’s is the most widely popular, high-quality brand, and they do make a whole-grain variety, but I’ve never seen it in a brick-and-mortar store. Usually, all that’s available is the cut variety, which cooks up as an unappealing gruel unless you fry it with beaten eggs to seal the grains before adding water.

The unbranded buckwheat I’ve bought in bulk at my local health food stores has never been up to snuff, either. Much of the buckwheat masquerading as kasha is bland in flavor and cooks up as a mushy mess.

I recommend going to your nearest Eastern European grocery store and buying some imported kasha (you can also order it online). Trust me, authentic kasha is a whole other animal from the bulk-bin stuff. WIth a deeply roasted flavor, the kernels retain their shape when simmered in lightly salted water, and they’re just as easy to prepare as a pot of rice. Top off your bowl of kasha with a small pat of butter, and you’ll have a simple breakfast that’s sustained Eastern Europeans since time immemorial (or at least for a few hundred years).

This recipe makes three servings, but it’s easily scaled up or down. Just use 1/2 C. of water for every quarter-cup of uncooked kasha.

Basic Buckwheat Kasha (Printer-Friendly Version) 

serves 3

3/4 C. (140 g.) whole buckwheat groats

1 1/2 C. (12 oz.) water

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a small (1 1/2-quart) saucepan over a medium flame.

2. Bring up to a boil, then turn down and let simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Turn off heat, and let stand, covered, for another five minutes.

4. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Nutrition information (per serving):

Calories: 170 Fat: 1g Sodium: 100mg Carbs: 35g Fiber: 2g Sugars: 0g Protein: 6g

Over the years, I’ve come up with a few recipes to make when you’re feeling under the weather: a basic miso soup and a heartier spicy peanut variation, as well as a Thai-inspired chicken soup with lemongrass and coconut milk. I’ve also given you my friend Katy’s cure-all SmugSmoothie, which contains a generous dose of vitamins and antioxidants from lacinato kale and frozen berries.

Since many of my friends are in the throes of the latest cold/flu/whatever it is that’s invading everyone’s sinuses this winter, I’m giving you one more recipe for the foods-to-make-when-you’re-sick file. Better yet, get someone else to make this for you. Significant others, if you’re reading — make this porridge for your ailing loved one, and they’ll be sure to return the favor when you inevitably catch the same thing a few days later.

Rice porridge is seriously comforting when you’re not feeling well, and it’s versatile and easily adaptable to whatever ails you. If you’ve got a tummy bug, it’s a great introduction to solid foods, as it’s mild and easy to stomach. When you’ve got a head cold, add a big ol’ squirt of sri racha, a squeeze of lime, and a handful of cilantro to wake up your sinuses.

Whether you call it juk, congee, okayu, or something else, rice porridge is a popular dish in the lexicon of just about every Asian cuisine. It ranges from peasant food to a prized delicacy, and can be made with just about any combination of broth and protein.

Today’s recipe is inspired by Vietnamese and Thai cuisines, though my version is far from a traditional cháo or chok. A pinch of five-spice powder adds background notes of anise and cinnamon, and freshly grated ginger gives the porridge a spicy kick, and also happens to aid in digestion. Beaten eggs are whisked in at the end of cooking, adding a dose of protein for a balanced, one-pot meal.

Five Spice Porridge (printer-friendly version)

serves 2

4 C. low-sodium chicken broth

4 ribs celery, leaves included, sliced thinly

2 large carrots, julienned

1 tsp. microplaned ginger

1/2 tsp. kosher salt (or to taste)

1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1/4 tsp. five spice powder

3 C. cooked jasmine rice

2 large eggs, beaten

5 sprigs cilantro, stems removed

1 lime, cut into wedges

sri racha sauce

1. In a medium (2.5-quart) saucepan over a medium flame, combine the chicken broth, celery, carrots, ginger, salt, salt, sesame oil, and five spice powder. Bring up to a boil, turn down to low, and let simmer for 15 minutes.

2. Add the cooked rice and simmer for another 15 minutes.

3. Pour in the beaten eggs, stirring quickly for a minute to incorporate them into the porridge.

4. Ladle the porridge into large soup bowls. Top with cilantro, lime wedges, and sri racha sauce.