Roasted Chicken Legs with Smoked Paprika, Blood Orange, and Ginger AND Bulgur "Pilaf" with Swiss Chard and Dried Apricots

I was sold on this chicken recipe from Cook This Now.  Orange, cilantro, jalapeno, smoked paprika.  I opted to bake boneless skinless thighs with the marinade and chose a side suggested in the recipe notes, a fragrant bulgur pilaf.  Both came together quickly and with a little advance prep, would be a perfect weeknight meal.  (I would recommend marinating the chicken ahead of time.)

A few little notes... I took the seeds out of the jalapeno and found the spice level to be good that way.  We baked the chicken for about 20 minutes and it was perfectly moist and tender.  The pilaf was an excellent accompaniment, though next time I will chop the chard more (instead of ribbons like I did this time).  I took the suggestion to drizzle pomegranate molasses on at the end and I highly recommend this.  I definitely intend to make both of these dishes again - the chicken especially, since it was super easy and I think would be great cooked on the grill as well as in the oven.

Ottolenghi Granola

Well, it's been a while!  I had a terrible cold for the entire month of February up to this point and I am now ready to get back to my life.  I don't have many posts to catch up on, because I didn't do any cooking while I was sick - it's been a takeout-heavy month.

I made this granola, from the Ottolenghi cookbook, before I got sick.  I don't typically like to put dried fruit in my granola, but I wanted to follow the directions as closely as possible and so I decided to give it a try.  It's actually grown on me quite well - I've been eating it with plain yogurt.  The one thing I don't love about it is that it sticks together in the jar, but on the plus side, it's a little clumpy.

This granola is quite different from my usual one - in addition to the dried fruit, there are sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, which make it even more colorful, and many different nuts (cashews, brazil nuts, almonds).

This recipe called for maple syrup - a lot of it - and I had only about a tablespoon left, so I added in agave nectar instead.  I also don't have dried blueberries, so I used extra cranberries instead.  The recipe called for 3 Tbsp water to be added to the wet ingredients, which I did, but probably wouldn't do it again - it was a little too watery and I had a bit of extra liquid left over.

Chewy Almond Butter Bars

I've been making the Chewy Almond Butter Bars from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals over and over and over.  They are so good.  In fact, I made it a bunch of times and never took a picture - that's the reason I haven't posted about it yet.  Oats, puffed kamut, sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, apricots, currants, and golden raisins, held together with a glue of almond butter and honey, with just a hint of vanilla and salt in the mix.  The recipe calls for additional sugar, but I've been leaving it out as the notes suggest to lighten it up.  I can't imagine it with more sweetness - it's perfect just the way it is.  I'm on the verge of not needing the recipe for this one anymore.  It's quickly become a favorite.  I'm looking forward to some variations - chocolate and peanut butter, a hazelnut version, an apricot/pistachio combo... the possibilities are endless.

Fruit and Nut Filling for Baked Zucchini

This is the second recipe I tried from Tender, and it was so much better than the first.  I did run into several issues - my zucchini didn't cook through, for one, even though I was cooking much less of it than the recipe called for - but I was able to overcome them pretty well.  One note for myself for next time is to omit the breadcrumbs.  If this amount of filling is needed, double the couscous instead.  The breadcrumbs, though I had to improvise them using lavash which may have affected their success, did not really add anything to the dish.  The yogurt-dill sauce was delicious and compensated for the slight dryness of the couscous filling.  I would also love to try this with the fat round zucchini that you can actually hollow out and stuff.  Quinoa could make a nice substitute for the couscous and would add protein to the meal.  I could also see turning this into a kind of grain salad... chop up the zucchini (maybe grill it first?) and mix it all together.

Bran Muffins with Molasses and Apricots

You'll notice if you look at the linked recipe for these muffins that they are called Molasses Bran Muffins.  Well, the name sounded very familiar to me, so I looked back and saw that I had already made Molasses Bran Muffins from Good to the Grain.  These are different, so I decided they needed a different name as well.

These bran muffins are soft and nice and flavorful.  I like biting into the sweet dried apricots.  Next time I might try to break up the flax seeds to get more of the nutrition out of them.  I think it may also be interesting if I make these, or an adaptation of these, with the pomegranate molasses I got at the market around the corner.

Ottolenghi Red Rice and Quinoa

Recently I picked up a LOT of grains at Whole Foods and I like to pick up interesting looking stuff to try out, even if I don't have something exactly in mind for it at the time. One of my acquisitions was Bhutanese red rice, and I remembered a recipe a few days later from my favorite recipe site. The recipe comes from a cookbook by the owners of a restaurant in the UK called Ottolenghi. It is something like a grain salad, served at room temperature. The dish is called Ottolenghi Red Rice and Quinoa, but the name doesn't even express the deliciousness!

At first when I was making this, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. You cook the red rice and quinoa in two separate pots, then spread them (separately) on a sheet pan to cool to room temperature. At the same time, you slice and sautee white onion in olive oil. At the same time, you toast pistachios in the oven before chopping them up. And at the same time, you have to slice and dice and zest and juice and more with all the other ingredients. That is a lot to do all at once. I don't think it would be too much of a problem if you had the quinoa and red rice already made and let them warm to room temperature, or toasted and chopped the pistachios in advance, or did a lot of the chopping and zesting in advance. This would probably be another good picnic salad since it is intended to be served at room temperature. In smaller portions, it would also be a great salad course.

I halved the amount of grains knowing that the recipes on 101 Cookbooks usually produce way too much food for us as two people, and I estimated how much I would need for the other ingredients, whether using the quantities for the full recipe or halving them. This is really a matter of personal taste. I used the juice of a whole lemon and a whole Valencia orange because I like the citrus taste. I also love the orange zest - I like how zest kind of melts or dissolves into whatever the dish is, so I really love using it in almost anything. I also used a little more pistachios and apricots than the recipe calls for. The chopped dried apricots are so great in this dish - they add a fantastic sweetness against the arugula and grains, and they really complement the citrus flavor too.

In the end everything turned out all right. I ended up cooking the rice a little longer than the suggested time and having to add more water. The quinoa is easy to get right - when their little tails come out they are all done! You can always strain off any extra water if you overestimated or measured wrong. I got everything chopped and mixed together. Rather than putting a small bit of arugula on top as the picture shows, I served the grain mix on top of it and used quite a bit more. I think the peppery bite of the arugula goes really well with the citrusy grain mix. I am finding that I love citrus-dressed grains so I will probably be looking for more recipes that incorporate that, especially now that I have a huge stock of whole grains!