Pasta in Garlic Oil

I guess I haven't updated this thing for a bit. It's partly because I haven't been doing many new recipes of note for a while (not successfully, anyway). But I've developed a couple of good dishes in the past couple of weeks that are in queue for posting. In the meantime, here's a simple side dish.

Sometimes I really don't feel like spending any more than 30 to 45 minutes making dinner. But you don't see me cranking out some nasty Rachel Ray recipe. No.

God, no.

I prefer to get some quick-cooking fish, prepared simply, with some fresh vegetables and another easy item on the side. Most of the time, I'll make rice with my meal; but to mix it up, pasta with a basil- or garlic-flavored olive oil. The most important things to making the flavored oil are:

1. Use GOOD extra virgin olive oil. It doesn't have to be a $50 bottle, or anything that fancy. But just don't use your regular old Local Supermarket Brand oil, claiming to be straight from Tuscany, but actually being the dregs of the process from some less-than-stellar oil producer. Quality is essential.

2. Don't overheat your pan! Olive oil has a low smoke-point; so if you get your pan too hot, the oil will start to vaporize and ruin the flavor. Also, burning garlic makes any dish have a nasty, bitter, charred taste. Keep the heat low, or medium-low, just enough to barely sizzle the garlic in the oil and release the flavor.

So Simple!

Cranberry Almond Quinoa

Recipe Source: Experimenting

Recipe Result: Tasty side dish, would make it again

My mom's really into health food. When I was in high school, she used to buy books by Dr. Andrew Weil all about natural healing foods and whole foods and such. That being said, she can get kind of obnoxious about eating only organic meat and produce. For example:

The scene, Downtown Whole Foods market, produce aisle.

Mom: "I want to buy some strawberries... can't find any."

Me: "There's a huge display of them right here. You're holding a box of them."

Mom: "They're not organic."

Me: "Mom... this is Whole Foods. Pretty much anything they sell comes from a reputable grower. It doesn't have to be organic to be good."

Mom: "Still... I want organic only."

Me: "But..."

Mom: "Do you want to eat pesticides?"

But she is kind of ahead of the curve when it comes to the new "trendy" health foods. When I home in 2006, she introduced me to quinoa. It cooks a lot like rice, and it has a considerable amount of protein for a plant. Buuuut, by itself it's kind of bitter and unexciting. So I did a little googling to see what else people have been doing with quinoa, and I decided to experiment with sweeter flavor additives: dried cranberries and sliced roasted almonds.

Ingredients:

- 1.5 Tbsp olive oil

- 1/4 cup finely diced sweet yellow onion

- 3 Tbsp dried cranberries (unsweetened)

- 3 Tbsp sliced roasted almonds

- 1 cup dry plain quinoa

- 2 cups water

- 1 dash garlic powder

- Salt & pepper, to taste.

Procedure:

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat (but not so hot that it makes the oil shimmer and smoke). Saute the onions until they start to go translucent, but not brown.

2. Add the cranberries and almonds, stir, and let it heat up for a minute or 2. Then add the dry quinoa, and stir to coat all the grains in the oil. Let it heat up for a minute.

3. Add the water, turn the heat to high and bring the pot to a boil. Add the garlic powder, salt and pepper, and stir well. It's a good idea to taste the liquid, because that's how the quinoa will ultimately taste like. Once it's up to a good boil, turn the heat as low as possible, cover the pot, and let it sit for 8-10 minutes.

4. After about 8-10 minutes, lift the lid and give it a stir to make sure it's all cooked through. A good indicator that it's done is that the little thread-like things are separated from the grains. When you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about.