Christine Cooks: organic

Friday, December 4, 2009

Air Popped Organic Popcorn With Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, Olive Oil And Nutritional Yeast

Let's see a show of hands, here. How many of you can walk into a movie theater and NOT succumb to the tantalizing smell of popcorn? Even at the outrageous prices they charge these days.

If you're anything like me, temptation usually wins out. That's when you would find me scrunched down in my seat hoarding my popcorn, eating it one kernel at a time so it would last for the whole movie.

It wasn't until Mr CC (back in the day when we were dating) showed me just how good home-popped popcorn could be, that I changed my movie popcorn-eating ways and became a popcorn connoisseur, leaving the over-salted, high fat and heaven-knows-what-else stuff you get at the movies alone.

Don't tell anyone, but we've been known to sneak our homemade air-popped popcorn into the theater; smugly snacking on our sumptuous treat with no one around us the wiser.

More often than not these days we're happy popping up a batch of Mr CC's gourmet popcorn, then snuggling down in the comfort of our own living room and putting on a Net Flix movie.

Which is just what we did the other night when friends brought a movie over to share: Made popcorn.

Air-Popped Organic Popcorn with Butter, Olive Oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese and Nutritional Yeast

Mr CC's original recipe
(print recipe)
Serves 2 generously
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups organic popping corn
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted or lightly salted butter
1/3 cup finely grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
Hot air popcorn maker
kosher salt or Spike to taste
Preparation:
Melt the butter in the olive oil over low heat. Keep warm.
Have the rest of the ingredients measured and ready to use.
Place a large bowl under the shoot of the popper, pour the popping corn into the machine and turn it on.
As the corn begins to pop and land in the bowl, turn to distribute the kernels evenly.
Once one third of the corn has popped, begin drizzling the olive oil-butter mixture on the hot kernels until all the corn is popped and all the oil has been distributed.
Turn off the machine and quickly toss the popcorn with the yeast and parmesan cheese.
Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.
Spread a tablecloth on the floor in front of the tv screen, provide pillows for sitting, plenty of paper towels for buttery, cheesey finger wiping, place the bowl of popcorn in the middle of the tablecloth, put on the dvd, and begin munching.
I think you just might smile.

Cook's Notes:
I buy our organic popcorn in bulk at my local co-op. Here is a source if you don't have access to organic bulk foods.
The amount of olive oil and butter that goes into the popcorn is entirely up to you. Sometimes we use more, sometimes less.
Soy sauce and Cholula hot sauce have been known to find their way into Mr CC's gourmet popcorn with great success. Although not at the same time.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Barley Chevre Pilaf With Basil And Tomatoes

Barley. Organically grown, hull-less, red winter barley. Grown about 12 miles from my kitchen, it cooks up into sturdy, fat, chewy (not gooey), delicious kernels of high-fiber goodness. I'm very excited about this. Due to the "gooey" factor, I'd not been overly fond of barley in the past. But that's all changed. These nutty, brown grains are highly addictive and I admit to being hooked. And then, of course, there's the fact that whole grains are really good for you and barley is a noted World's Healthiest Food.

So here is my barley offering, the first of many, made sometime during the past month when I was on hiatus. Do give yourself plenty of time to soak the grains before beginning the recipe.

Barley Chevre Pilaf with Basil and Tomatoes
Christine's original recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked hull-less, winter barley (preferrably organically grown)
water for soaking
2 1/2 cups water for cooking
2 tablespoons roasted walnut oil
1 tablespoon golden balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil (green and purple)
2 ounces good chevre
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper
Campari tomatoes

Preparation:

Put the uncooked barley into a large metal pot and cover with cold water. Give it a stir and skim off any hulls that float to the top. (It's called hull-less, but there will be a few strays that managed to stick around.)

Let the barley soak for about 8 hours then rinse well.

Return barley to the rinsed pot, cover with 2 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil on high heat.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the water has been absorbed and the barley is just tender and chewy, about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, stir to separate the grains and pour into a ceramic bowl or casserole dish.

While the grains are still warm, gently stir in the oil, vinegar, herbs and cheese. Adjust the seasonings with the fresh lemon juice and some freshly ground black pepper.

To serve: On a serving plate, make a ring of sliced tomatoes, slightly overlapping each other, leaving a space in the center of the plate. Mound the pilaf in the center of the plate and garnish with a sprig of basil.

Cook's Notes:

My friend Simona wrote an article about our local organic grain farmer, Kevin, and his grain CSA, which you can read here.

Pilafs I have known generally have more vegetables in them. I would encourage you to add vegetables of your choosing to this recipe, at will. As I will.