Beet Green Gomae

Recently my husband and I indulged in a rare adults only evening out. We enjoyed the neighborhood tavern feel of Izakaya Meiji, where we sampled an addictively delicious spinach gomae, a dish of steamed spinach with a salty and sweet sesame sauce. I wanted to try making this at home and attempted to puree toasted white sesame seeds in a mini food processor, but was thwarted when they stealthily slipped beneath the blade and remained defiantly intact. The resulting dish was light and refreshing, speckled with toasted sesame seeds, but it didn't capture the rich nuttiness I was trying to recreate.

For my next attempt, I procured some roasted black sesame seeds from Sunrise Asian Food Market. This time I took the seed grinding into my own hands and smashed them in a molcajete, which produced a satisfying paste. The only problem was that in my excitement about the black sesame seeds (an 8 ounce jar for under five dollars!), I had forgot to pick up any spinach.

Luckily, this gardening assistant was helping pull up overwintered beets, which provided an abundance of fresh beet greens for me. I blanched them, like spinach leaves, in boiling water and then quickly transferred them to an ice water bath to halt the cooking process. 

After squeezing out the water and chopping them, I tossed them in the inky, grainy paste that resembled the black dirt from which they had so recently been plucked. As if by magic, the flavors were just what I had been dreaming about. I may even prefer the beet greens to spinach with their extra bitterness as a foil for the sweet nuttiness of the sauce.

Beet Green Gomae
makes two appetizer-sized servings

I bunch beet greens or spinach leaves
2 Tbsp roasted black sesame seeds (or toast some sesame seeds yourself)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp rice wine
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

1. Smash the sesame seeds into a paste using a coarse mortar and pestle (a Mexican molcajete works well for this) or a spice grinder. Mix in the sugar, rice wine, and soy sauce.

2. Boil a pot of salted water and prepare a bath of ice water. Rinse the greens. If using spinach bunches, you can keep them intact during the blanching process and trim off the stems and roots afterwards. When the water is boiling, submerge the greens into the water for just under a minute and then quickly drain and toss into the ice water bath. 

3. Wait a minute and then drain the cooled greens, wringing out excess water. Lay the greens on a cutting board. Trim off the roots of the spinach if necessary and chop the greens into 1 inch strips. Toss with the sesame sauce and serve.

Teff Grain, Flax Seed and Oatmeal Breakfast

After I started experimenting with cooking Scottish oats for weekday breakfasts and combining them with flax seeds in granola, it was a natural extension to explore mixing other ingredients into my oatmeal. Here is an especially tasty combination with fine teff grain to add body to the porridge and flax seeds to add a little texture. Dried apricots, hazelnuts, and maple syrup finish it off with sweetness and crunch. Will including the nutritional powerhouse of teff grain and superfood of flax seeds in your daily breakfast bring you health and superhuman powers? Maybe not. But taking the extra few minutes in the evening to start a warm bowl of oatmeal for the following morning, and infusing your house with the fragrance of buttery, toasted grains in the process, will make you feel cared for, which apparently accounts for a great deal of the healing power of placebos. A good breakfast when you'd like a little extra insurance for getting through a demanding day.

Teff Grain, Flax Seed and Oatmeal Breakfast

1 serving

porridge
1/4 cup Scottish oats (or use rolled oats, or a mixture of rolled and steel cut oats)
1 scant Tbsp teff grain (or substitute chia seeds)
1 scant Tbsp flax seeds
1 tsp butter
small pinch salt
1 cup boiling water (divided)

toppings
dried apricots
hazel nuts
maple syrup
splash of milk

1. The evening before, heat a small saucepan and set a kettle with 2/3 cups water. When the pan is warm, melt the butter. Then add the grains, and cook, stirring, for about five minutes, until they are toasted and very fragrant. Turn off the heat. Carefully add 2/3 cups boiling water (it will splatter), stir, and cover.

2. The next morning, add 1/3 cup water to the pan and reheat (for a richer porridge, use 1/3 cup milk). Let the oatmeal and teff mixture simmer for about five to eight minutes until it is the desired tenderness and thickness. Serve warm, sprinkled with the toppings and a splash of cold milk.

For a family of two adults and two kids, I triple the recipe:
3/4 cups oats
1/8 cup teff grain
1/8 cup flax seeds
1 Tbsp butter
pinch salt
3 cups boiling water

You can of course cook this all at once if you have more time in the morning. Simply add all of the boiling water to the toasted grains and cook for about 15 minutes.


Other whole grain breakfast recipes
Buttery Five Minute Oatmeal Breakfast
Homemade Granola
Rye Waffles with Clementine Syrup
Swedish Oatmeal Pancakes
Gluten-free Waffles
Buckwheat Blini
Buckwheat Crepe

Lentils with Butter and Parsley

Not unlike the trajectory of an obstinate, dawdling toddler who needs to be coaxed out of every puddle on the endless walk home, springtime's arrival seems to be stalled by intermittent stormy tantrums. Still there are signs of progress, such as the longer evenings and the increasing diversity of fresh green offerings through Eugene Local Foods. These signs inspired me to turn to the Spring section of Elin England's treasure trove of seasonal recipes in Eating Close to Home: A Guide to Local Seasonal Sustenance in the Pacific Northwest. Here I discovered her lentils with butter and parsley, which make an especially bright and refreshing springtime dish.

The recipe has you simmer lentils with garlic cloves, a bay leaf, and parsley stems, reserving the leaves for a parsley butter to mix in at the end, along with a dash of lemon juice. As opposed to deliciously enveloping lentils in rendered bacon fat, this gentle tossing with uncooked butter lets the legumes' distinctive flavor shine. I first made this dish with red chief lentils from Camas Country Mill, which made a soft and tangy accompaniment to seared salmon.

The next time I used Camas Country Mill's small brown lentils, similar to French or puy lentils. They gave a nice texture and heft to an after-Easter salad with hard boiled eggs and strips of ham on top and a bed of garlicy sauteed mixed greens from Sweetwater Farm below. These little legumes provide the heart of a satisfying meal and the satisfaction of supporting a local solution to feeding our community through partnerships between local growers and Food for Lane County. 

Lentils with Butter and Parsley

slightly adapted from Eating Close to Home by Elin England

1 cup (~1/2 lb) lentils rinsed and drained
1 large bay leaf
1 small bunch of parsley stems, tied together
3 large garlic cloves, pealed and cut in half
2 Tbsp butter, softened
juice and zest from 1 small or 1/2 large lemon 
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
salt and pepper to taste


1. Place the lentils in a pan with with 4 cups water, the bay leaf, parsley stems, garlic, and a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer on medium low heat until the lentils are tender but not falling apart, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaf, parsley stem bunch, and garlic, and drain the lentils or transfer them to a bowl with a slotted spoon.


2. Meanwhile, prepare the parsley butter. You could use a small food processor to mix together the parsley leaves, lemon zest and juice, and butter, or do this by hand in a bowl, first snipping the parsley finely with kitchen shears.


3. When the lentils are done, mix in the parsley butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Easter Egg Aebleskiver

When planning an Easter breakfast to be devoured while eagerly anticipating the egg hunt to follow, I thought of aebleskiver, these delicious pancake balls that rather resemble little eggs.  

Inspired by this analogy, I prepared some apricot yokes (softened in a little vanilla syrup), coated with cream cheese whites,

which we cooked into pancake batter shells and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. The eggs, with their tangy, runny whites surrounding sweet and chewy yokes, were as delicious as any of the treats left by the Easter bunny. 

Easter Egg Aebleskiver

makes about 21 aebleskiver

batter

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg, separated

1 tablespoon melted butter for the batter, plus more for the pan

1 cup flour (I used a combination of pastry flour and hard white wheat spring flour, both from Camas Country Mill)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

filling

21 dried apricot halves

¼ cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp sugar (divide use)

½ cup cream cheese

powdered sugar for garnish

1. In a small sauce pan, combine ¼ cup water, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Warm over medium heat for a minute to dissolve the sugar, then add the apricot halves and simmer for about five minutes until the apricots are tender and have absorbed the vanilla syrup. Allow the apricots to cool.

2. Prepare the batter. Whisk together the buttermilk, egg yoke, and melted butter. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whip the egg white. Now gentle stir in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until they are just combined and fold in the whipped egg white.

3. Combine the cream cheese with the remaining 2 tsp of sugar. Use your fingers to coat each apricot with cream cheese and reserve on a plate.

4. Heat an aebleskiver pan and butter well. Fill each of the cavities to about 1/2 the height with batter. Then place a cream cheese coated apricot into the middle of each dollop of batter and top with a little more batter to cover and fill the well. Cook for about a minute. With a skewer tip the dumpling to one side so that the cooked half dome is perpendicular to the pan and cook for another minute. Now catch each dumpling on the corner between the first half dome and the second half dome and rotate this to the top, so that the least cooked face of the dumpling points downwards. Keep rotating the dumplings for a few more minutes until they are golden brown on all sides and cooked through.

5. Transfer to a warmed plate, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy at once while you start the next batch cooking.

Chanterelle and Arugula Pasta

With the end of our winter CSA from Open Oak Farm and the start of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market still on the horizon, I was happy to rediscover Eugene Local Foods. This convenient online shopping site lets you choose from a wide selection of local food offerings. You can place your order from the comfort of your sofa, as the rain drizzles outside, and then you pick up your goods on Tuesday evenings behind Hideaway Bakery. 

From this week's haul we prepared a local feast of fresh pasta with chanterelle and arugula. I experimented with making the pasta with hard white wheat spring flour from Camas Country Mill. The dough was tougher than with all purpose white flour, and required a little more patience rolling out, but the final pasta had a pleasantly hearty flavor that paired well with the mushrooms and bitter greens, and a generous dollop of creme fraiche. This was a perfect meal to celebrate the coming of spring.

Chanterelle and Arugula Pasta

for the pasta
3 cups flour (I used hard white wheat spring flour from Camas Country Mill)
4 eggs


for the toppings
1/2 lb chanterelle
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 bunch arugula leaves, washed and thick stems removed
1/4 cup creme fraiche
salt and freshly ground pepper
freshly grated parmesan cheese for serving


1. Set a large pot of salted pasta water boiling.


2. In a food processor, combine the flour and eggs until the dough just starts to come together in a ball. You may need to drizzle in a little water or add a touch more flour to get the right consistency. Form the dough into a log and cut into slices. Roll the slices out with a pasta machine according to the directions and cut into fettucini.


3. Meanwhile brush the chanterelle to clean them and slice them coarsely. Heat a saute pan over medium heat, melt the butter with the olive oil, and saute the mushrooms until cooked through and fragrant.


4. When the pasta water comes to a boil,add the pasta. When the water returns to a boil, taste a strand. It may be done or may need another minute, but be prepared to work quickly. Reserve a cup of the pasta water before you drain the pasta into a colander.


5. Dump the cooked pasta into a large serving bowl and toss with the creme fraiche, the sauteed mushrooms, and the washed arugula leaves. If the pasta seems a little dry, you can add a splash of the reserved pasta water. Grind over a generous amount of pepper and sprinkle on a pinch of salt. Serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Homemade Granola

I spent part of spring break visiting my twin sister in Chicago. We've always been co-conspirators in the kitchen, and she's always inspired me with her culinary vision. As a kindergardener, thanks to a teacher with communist enthusiasms, she developed a taste for borscht, and insisted on perfecting the recipe at home. One Christmas in high school, after reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, she recreating a magnificent version of Mrs. Ramsay's boeuf en daube. And her various sojourns in Germany during her studies have been a source of cooking inspiration.

Now that she's in the midst of the great adventure of toddler parenthood, overly-ambitious cooking projects have to take a back burner. We cooked some family favorites like crepes, both savory and sweet, and tried this delicious pasta with sardines. But mostly what we wanted to do with our precious time together was talk. Granola-making is perfectly conducive for chatting, and with this in mind, I had brought her some Eugene Scottish oats. 

We tested out a simplified version of this granola recipe, with Scottish oats, flaxseeds, pecans, maple syrup, and olive oil. As we sat around admiring her son's confident new steps, a toasty fragrance enveloped the apartment. The final granola was delicious over yogurt as a German ex-pat breakfast. And it's so easy to cook that we both plan to make it on a regular basis. Maybe while chatting on the phone.

Granola

1 cup Scottish oats (or use rolled oats)

1/3 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup pecans (or slivered almonds)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup olive oil 
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Mix together all of the ingredients. Use parchment paper to cover a baking sheet with a rim. Spread out the oat mixture on the baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for a total of 30 to 35 minutes, stirring the oats about every 10 minutes, until they are nicely toasted. Cool and store in a glass container.

Salmon and Barley Cakes

This golden hulless barley from our Lonesome Whistle Farm bean and grain CSA has a nutty flavor and enough virtuous, whole grain appeal to justify a rich and cheesy accompaniment. Growing up, one of my mother's weeknight pantry meals was Julia Child's salmon gratin (from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 1). It consists of a rich, creamy roux, laced with white vermouth, into which you fold canned salmon and sauteed mushrooms, followed by a heavy sprinkling of gruyere cheese. My mother always served her salmon gratin with white rice, but my sister later made the improvement of using nutty brown rice. Julie Powell's Julie/Julia Project (no longer on line) derided this dish as grey and sludgy, but I feel that she entirely missed the point. Here's a dish that transforms a lowly tin of salmon into exquisite haute cuisine. It may not be pretty, but it tastes delicious.

Unfortunately, when I made this salmon gratin for my kids, they, like Julie Powell, could not get beyond the sludginess. This got me thinking about how I could repackage it, and my golden barley offered the inspiration. Barley, I realized, could provide the same nuttiness of brown rice, and also a sticky heft to bind together the salmon into a crispy cake. To recreate the decadent cream and mushroom flavor of the original dish, I made a sauteed mushroom, vermouth-infused, creme fraiche garnish. And to keep the dish from being too rich, I served the cakes on a bed of lemony greens. Biting into one of these Julia-inspired cakes brought back a flood of childhood memories, but with a satisfying crunch.

Salmon and Barley Cakes a la Julia

Makes 12 cakes

for the salmon and barley cakes

1 cup barley (best is golden hulless, or use pearled barley) 

2 cups water
1 medium shallot
1 Tbsp butter
1 egg
2 ounces of gruyere cheese, grated
4 sprigs fresh oregano
6 ounce can of skinless, boneless salmon
plenty of pepper
1 cup panko (divided use)
olive oil for frying

for the mushroom cream garnish

8 ounces cremi mushroom

1 Tbsp butter

salt and pepper

¼ cup white vermouth

¼ cup crème fraiche

salad greens

fresh lemon juice

1. The evening before cover the barley with cold water and soak overnight. The next day, remove any loose hulls that have floated to the top and drain off the water. Add 2 cups fresh water and a generous pinch of salt, bring the barley to a simmer, and cook, covered, for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check the barley for doneness. It will probably still need another 5 to 10 minutes to cook, but if it is still quite watery, you can remove the lid at this point and finish cooking while letting more of the liquid evaporate. When the barley is tender but still has a firm bite, turn it off. You will have more that you need for this recipe, so save some for salads or as a side dish or freeze for another batch of salmon cakes.  Measure out one cup of cooked barley for this recipe and transfer to a large bowl and allow it to cool.

2. Peel and chop the shallot in a small dice. Heat a skillet over medium heat, melt 1 Tbsp of butter, and sauté the shallots, with a pinch of salt, until very soft, but do not let them brown. Add these to the bowl with the barley.

3. Clean and slice the mushrooms. In the same pan that you cooked the shallots, melt another Tbsp of butter and now sauté the mushrooms over medium heat, with a pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Let the mushrooms release their own juices and keep cooking them until the liquid cooks down. Now add the white vermouth and cook the mushrooms until this has cooked down. Turn off the mushrooms and let them cool. When the mushrooms have cooled, put them in a food processor with the crème fraiche and pulse a few times to create a textured paste. Reserve the mushroom cream for serving.

4. Now your barley should be cooled down enough to mix in an egg. Then mix in the grated gruyere cheese, oregano leaves, salt and freshly ground pepper. Break the salmon into flakes with a fork and gently mix this into the batter, along with the juices. Now use your hands to gently mix in about ½ cup panko, or more if the batter feels too moist. Form the batter into 12 patties, about two inches wide. Gently roll these in more panko and place them on a parchment paper or silpat covered cookie sheet and chill them in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This will help them firm up and make frying them more manageable.

5. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add about 4 Tbsp of olive oil to generously cover the bottom of the pan. When the oil is shimmering, place half of the cakes into the pan. Now leave them alone for a good 5-8 minutes until they are nicely browned (don’t be tempted to flip them too soon). Flip and cook until the second side is nicely browned as well.

6. While the salmon bakes are cooking, toss the salad greens with lemon juice and a small pinch of salt, and arrange on plates. When the salmon cakes are done cooking, place on the bed of greens and top each cake with a large dollop of the mushroom cream.

Buttery Five Minute Oatmeal Breakfast

A warm bowl of oatmeal is a fitting breakfast for St. Patrick's Day. We've been savoring the whole grain, traditionally milled oats from our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA, which are wonderful for leisurely weekend breakfasts of porridge and pancakes.

But I've wanted to find a way to enjoy these oats for a quick weekday breakfast. They aren't quite substantial enough for overnight oatmeal in a slow cooker, but they require about 20 minutes of stove top cooking to become tender. I was in luck when I came across this recipe from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks. First, she toasts her grains in butter and then soaks them overnight and cooks them in the morning.

The butter treatment gave these oats a lovely toasty richness. I next tried soaking them in boiling water to jumpstart their morning cooking, and this worked well. The oatmeal was done in just the time it took to prepare a well-brewed pot of tea. All that was left was choosing toppings. I'm partial to pecans, dried cranberries, and brown sugar.

Buttery Five Minute Oatmeal

serves one

scant 1/3 cup Scottish oats
1 tsp butter
1 cup water (divided)
pinch of salt

toppings such as nuts, dried fruit, and brown sugar

1. The evening before, heat a small saucepan and set a kettle with 2/3 cup water. When the pan is warm, melt the butter. Then add the oatmeal and cook the grains, stirring, for about five minutes, until they have toasted to a darker beige and are very fragrant. Turn off the heat. Carefully add 2/3 cup boiling water (it will splatter), stir, and cover.

2. The next morning, add 1/3 cup water to the pan and reheat (for a richer porridge, use 1/3 cup milk). Let the oatmeal simmer for about five to eight minutes until it is the desired tenderness and thickness. Serve warm, sprinkled with your favorite toppings and a splash of cold milk.

Salmon on the Rocks

If you are wondering what to serve at your next dinner party, I have a recommendation: salmon roasted on a bed of rock salt. This recipe, which I adapted from Corey Schreiber's Wildwood: Cooking from the Source in the Pacific Northwest, is a surefire way to prepare a succulent, crowd-pleasing fillet of fish. The salt magically distributes the heat so that the fish is moist and evenly cooked, with a pleasant but not aggressive saltiness infused through the skin. Here was the menu for a successful Friday night dinner party, much of which I cooked ahead on Thursday evening:

first course
Red lentil soup (this recipe, made the day before)

main course

Herbed salmon roasted on rock salt (below)

Golden hulless barley risotto with fennel, leeks, and celeriac (similar to this, partially cooked the day before, then finished with more broth and grated parmasan)

Kale salad with roasted squash, almonds, and cheddar (similar to this and this, all the components prepped the day before)

dessert

Chocolate espresso cheesecake from Eugene City Bakery

Herbed Salmon Roasted on Rock Salt

adapted from Corey Schreiber

1 or several large salmon fillet(s) (calculate about 6 ounces per person)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

rock salt (also sold as ice cream salt) for baking

for each salmon fillet, prepare an herb mixture with:
zest from 1 large lemon (use a microplane grater to zest)
1 handful fennel fronds
1 handful Italian parsley leaves

Before your guests arrive, take your salmon out of the refrigerator. Find a baking dish large enough to hold the salmon and cover the bottom of the dish completely with rock salt. Place the salmon, skin side down, on the bed of rock salt. Lightly salt and generously pepper the flesh side of the salmon fillet. Chop the fennel fronts and parsley leaves and combine with the lemon zest. Spread the herb mixture over the fish, cover the pan with plastic wrap, and set aside.

When your guests have all arrived, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Just before you serve the first course, put the salmon in the oven. Bake for about 35 minutes until the fish is opaque on the top, but still slightly translucent inside. Remove the fish from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes or so (it will continue cooking). Bring the whole fish on the rock salt bed to the table and serve.

Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Seeds

Just a couple days after our snow dusting, spring is suddenly here. In Hendricks Park, early rhododendrons were in full bloom behind the winter hellebores. 

But it always takes a little longer for the local spring vegetables to catch up with the spring flowers. In the meantime, to satisfy one's craving for bright, fresh flavors after the long, comforting braises of winter, one needs to be creative with winter gems like these delicate purple and green brussels sprouts from Open Oak Farm.

Inspiration came from a delicious Madhur Jaffrey recipe I recently discovered for cabbage stir fried with fennel seeds and Indian spices. I love cabbage braised with mustard seeds, but Jaffrey's stir fry keeps the seeds crisp and bursting with flavor. I tried a version with these brussels sprouts and the resulting dish, full of fennel flares and bright lemon, was as fresh and fragrant as a springtime stroll through the park.

Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Seeds

inspired by Madhur Jaffrey

1 pound brussels sprouts
1 small onion
2 Tbsp neutral oil such as grape seed
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt to taste
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1. Rinse the brussels sprouts, trip off their stems, and slice into disks. Peel and dice the onion.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the oil. When it is hot, add all the seeds and cook for about 30 seconds until the sesame seeds start to pop. Immediately add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes until they are soft and glassy. Add the brussels sprouts and stir fry, turning frequently, for about 10 minutes until they are cooked through and a little charred but not soggy. Season with salt and cayenne to taste. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Enjoy.

Rye Waffles with Clementine Syrup

Waking up last Saturday to an unexpected dusting of snow on top of the tulips called for a cozy waffle breakfast. And with plenty of rye flour from our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA, I thought I would experiment with rye waffles, along with the trick of using corn starch in the batter for an extra crispy outside.

We often turn to our freezer chest of summer berries and peaches for waffle topping, but on this wintery morning, I thought I would use some seasonal clementines quickly warmed in maple syrup.

The rye flour gave the waffles a pleasant tartness, whipped egg whites kept them etherial, and the corn starch trick worked for crispiness. The clementine syrup, drizzled over a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of toasted almonds, had the taste of sunshine. And the smell of waffles lingered in the kitchen all morning, outlasting the snow.

Rye Waffles with Clementine Syrup
(makes about 6 waffles)

waffle batter 
3/4 cup soft white winter wheat flour
3/4 cup rye flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


for topping
plain yogurt
slivered almonds, toasted
clementines (about 1 per person)
maple syrup (about 2 Tbsp per person)


1. Combine the dry ingredients (flours, cornstarch, leaveners, and salt). Whisk together the buttermilk, egg yokes, vegetable oil, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, but do not over mix. At this point you should let the batter sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the cornstarch to cross link gluten in the flour, which will give the crispiness to the waffles.


2. Prepare the clementine syrup. Peal the clementines, slice them to bifurcate the sections, and separate them. In a small saucepan, combine the clementine pieces and the maple syrup and heat just until small bubbles start to form on the edge of the pan. Turn off and reserve for serving. Toast the almond slivers and reserve.


3. To finish the waffle batter, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold these into the batter. 


4. Heat a waffle iron and cook the waffles. Store them in a 200 degree oven or eat them immediately as the come off the waffle iron, topped with a dollop of yogurt, a sprinkle of toasted almond slivers, and the clementine syrup.

Other recipes for locally grown grains

Creamy Barley Risotto with Dandelion Greens

Barley Risotto with Grilled Vegetables

Barley Stuffed Cabbage

Barley and Cranberry Bean Soup with Kale

Barley and Root Vegetable Salad

Barley and Braised Cabbage with a Fried Egg

Buckwheat Blini

Buckwheat Crepes

Gluten-Free Waffles

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets and Kale

Swedish Rye Cookies

Swedish Rye Knäckebröt

Teff Grain and Ricotta Pancakes with Apple Topping

Wheatberry Tabbouleh with Green Beans and Feta

Wheatberries with Snap Peas