Quinoa Paella

You guessed it. Paella made with Quinoa instead of rice, courtesy of my friend Alex. Check it!

1 1/2 cups quinoa
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in 1/4 inch strips
1 can mixed vegetables, drained and rinsed (corn, green beans, peas)
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. smoked paprika
pinch saffron threads
1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Soak and rinse the Quinoa to get rid of the bitter taste it can sometimes have. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a large pot and throw in the onions and garlic for about a minute. Then add the chicken strips. It should take just a few minutes for them to cook. When chicken is done, pour in the broth, quinoa, saffron, and another half cup of water.

Stir and cover. Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat and add the remaining ingredients. Continue cooking on low heat, stirring occasionally, until quinoa is cooked and water is absorbed (15-20 minutes). Squeeze lemon juice on top.

serves 4-ish people

White Bean and Cilantro Hummus

Yeah yeah, Hummus. Whatever, right? Well for your information I've been craving Trader Joe's wonderful White Bean Hummus quite a bit lately, and while the Kebab shops that are so thick on the ground here always have the regular chickpea stuff on the menu, it just wasn't quite as satisfying as making it myself from the lovely white bean (alubia blanca here in España).

I bought some Tahini the other day to make Baba Ganoush (didn't make that a post because it wasn't very pretty...) and had some dried white beans around already, so I figured it was meant to be. The only thing I didn't have that I think is pretty necessary for a good hummus was parsley. I could have gone out and bought some, but I already had some cilantro lying around, and while I'm well aware that they're completely different it just seemed silly to go out and buy another green leafy garnish, especially since cilantro is so darned delicious.

Thus, white bean hummus with cilantro was born. I hope you enjoy this tasty kitchen baby.

-1 can of white beans or dried white beans, soaked overnight.
-1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed butter)
-juice from 1 lemon or about 4 tablespoons
-2 garlic cloves
-cilantro leaves
-dash of cumin
-salt to taste
-a good quality extra virgin olive oil. It should be a little bit green.

If using dried beans, drain the water from soaking, then refill with enough water to cover them by about 1.5 inches. Bring to a boil and then simmer covered about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until soft. drain water and sprinkle with salt.

combine all ingredients except olive oil and a few cilantro leaves and blend until smooth. Drizzle with olive oil and top with cilantro leaves. Enjoy with pita or crusty whole wheat bread (if you're a whole wheat sucker like me).

Panettone French Toast

Mmmm....I always loved Panettone as a kid. We ate it at breakfast, toasted with cream cheese on top. I remember one Christmas I gave a box to my teacher and she said "Is this from your Italian grandma?" I made sure to tell her it was actually my grandpa who is Italian.

I didn't know until I bought this particular loaf at a small shop here in Madrid that they also eat it in Perú. It's exactly the same, except that it's spelled "Panetón" and it's normally eaten dipped in hot chocolate.

This was an eye-opening and amazing discovery, but with it came an even more delicious discovery: Panetón makes excellent French Toast.

-6 thick slices of Panettone (or Panetón, depending on where you buy it from)
-3 eggs
-3/4 cup milk
-Cinnamon
-Butter
-Pinch salt

Beat eggs, milk, cinnamon and salt in a wide, shallow bowl. Melt butter in a frying pan. Let the Panettone slices soak in the egg mixture longer than you normally would for french toast, especially if the slices are very thick. You don't want them dry inside, or do you? It's best to let some slices soak while others are cooking, first coating on both sides and then flipping them as you flip the slices in the pan.
Cook until golden brown on each side, and then serve with maple syrup (hard to find here...boo!) and strawberries.

Cocido Madrileño

Cocido is a chickpea stew made from a collection of different meats. It's one of my favorite Spanish dishes. I can't think of anything more perfect that a hot plate of Cocido with some crusty bread on a rainy winter's day.
This is going to be a difficult recipe to write since the amounts of everything are all to taste. Apologies in advance if it's hard to follow, because I'm not going to write exact amounts at all. Basically, meat + stew vegetables + chickpeas=cocido. I hope you're good at math because that formula is key here.

you will need:

-cooked chickpeas
-chorizo
-chicken
-morcilla (blood sausage)
-fatty, streaked bacon in a block, or lard
-cured ham bones with some meat still attached
-sliced cabbage
-cubed potatoes
-cut carrots
-onion
-garlic
-salt
-pepper

cover meat in water in a large pot and cook slowly for about an hour. remove ham from bones.

add chickpeas, onions, and garlic. simmer for about 30 minutes and add vegetables. continue cooking until vegetables are done.

drain off all the broth. Save the broth or cook noodles in it to be served as the first course (as they do in restaurants here).

Open-faced Sausage and Fried Egg Sandwich with Veggies

This is almost too simple to post a recipe for, but it was so good and so pretty that I just had to share it. For the sausage I used Spanish Chorizo, but you can use any kind you want!

-6 inch long piece of crusty bread
-1 sausage cut lengthwise
-1 egg
-Your favorite white cheese
-1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
-1/2 of a medium sized onion, sliced
-1/2 of a medium-sized zucchini, sliced
-salt and pepper

cook sausage in a frying pan with some oil, add a splash of water if it starts to stick. when cooked, remove the sausage and cook the vegetables in the same pan, adding salt and pepper to taste. Remove the veggies from the pan and fry the egg without letting the yolk cook all the way through (unless you like it that way).
Cut the bread lengthwise into 2 pieces and top one piece with the egg first, then the cheese, sausage, and veggies. Drizzle some olive oil on top.

Pomegranate White Chocolate Oatmeal

Before the start of winter break, I decided to make some pretty, Christmas-y-looking pomegranate white chocolate cookies for my co-workers (eeew...i hate using that word. makes me sound so grown up). Everyone loved them and I ended up having a whole pomegranate left over, as well as a whole bar of white chocolate.

I'm living in Spain right now and haven't yet figured out where to find chocolate or white chocolate chips, so I always end up buying a chocolate bar and smashing it up. Is this how cavemen made chocolate chip cookies? I hope so.


The cookie recipe is great and all, but it's been done, and that's not what MadSpatch is about. MadSpatch is about eating pomegranates and white chocolate for breakfast! This one's for all you oatmeal lovers, because the more oatmeal I eat, the more fun things I find to do with it. See my previous Baked Oatmeal post for more fun with oats.

-1 cup oats
-1 1/2 cup water
-1 1/4 cup milk
-At least 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
-1/4 cup white chocolate chips, or a smashed-up white chocolate bar if you're me
-Pinch salt

Bring water to a boil, add oats and salt. Turn down the heat and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the milk and cook for another 5. I haven't tried this, but I've heard great things about microwaving oatmeal with just milk (no water). I prefer to just use milk but I include the water in this recipe because milk tends to burn the pot.

Remove oatmeal from heat and stir in white chocolate until melted. Serve topped with pomegranate seeds and shaved white chocolate if you have a bar.

(Your very own) Miso Soup

Ahh...Miso soup. That delicious, salty, mostly broth concoction that's (usually, and should be) free at every sushi bar. Seems like it would be a challenge to make it taste exactly the way your favorite restaurant makes it at home, right? Wrong, but just because you can doesn't mean you should. The best part about making Miso Soup at home is that you can make it more of a soup and less of a broth by adding whatever the heck ingredients you want, if that's your cup of tea (it's mine). I like to add a lot more "chunky stuff" to my miso than you would typically find at a restaurant. The soup pictured here contains mushrooms, yams, and tofu cut into my usual favorite right triangle shape.

The most satisfying part of what I'm about to post is the Dashi stock recipe. You can buy the stock pre-made, but it's so much more satisfying to make your own! Plus, it's not even that hard. If you don't count the water, my basic Miso soup is just 4 ingredients!

For the Dashi stock:
5 cups water
1 large piece of Kombu (4 inches or so), see below
1/2 cup Bonito Flakes, see below

To Make the stock into Miso Soup:
1/4 Cup Miso Paste
Soy Sauce

Bring water and kombu to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Add the Bonito flakes and simmer 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally to re-immerse the Bonito flakes if they float to the top. Turn off heat and let sit for 5-10. Strain out the Bonito and Kombu. I'm sure you can freeze the stock at this point if you want to save it for later, but mine is always eaten immediately =]

Return the pot of Dashi to a low flame and stir in the miso paste until dissolved. This is your Miso soup! Taste it and add small splashes of soy sauce, depending on how salty you want it. Be careful; soy sauce can quickly overwhelm the delicate Dashi and ruin your soup, but in my opinion it's this tiny amount of soy sauce that makes all the difference.

Now you can add whatever you want to it and make it "your" soup. remember, we're still mad scientists here! In case you're wondering, here's how I made mine.

Add 1 chopped yam and 1/2 block chopped tofu immediately, since the yam will take the longest to cook and we want to give the tofu time to soak up the flavors. Meanwhile, saute 3-4 sliced mushrooms in sesame oil about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and 1 tsp. sesame seeds to soup, simmer until yams can be easily stuck all the way through with a fork.

ON BONITO AND KOMBU:

Bonito flakes are dried fish flakes. You can get them at health food stores, but if there's a Japanese market nearby you should definitely get them there, it's much cheaper!

Kombu is a kelp-like seaweed that smells very strong. Again, you can get it at a health food store if you live in a place like Santa Cruz that doesn't have a Japanese market.