Quinoa.....The experiment

[Joefnh]

Well thanks to Gloria's post about a good website for preparing quinoa I decided to experiment today

Website:

http://www.quinoa.net/4609.html


As a bit of background information, I tested as intolerant to rice with the MRT testing. While I have noticed no symptoms from eating rice over the past 10 months, I have decided that I would try some of the alternatives to white rice for a few meals during the week. It seems that a large number of us do not react to quinoa, and this did show to be one of my lowest reactive foods, so today I decided to try a recipe from the website that Gloria pointed out.

There was a recipe for Quinoa Tabouli which sounded good and after reviewing it I decided to modify the recipe with the addition to some sauteed shrimp. I followed the recipe but added 1 pound of medium shrimp that I sauteed in a roasted garlic and white wine reduction with ghee and sea salt added for flavor.

The base recipe is:

Quinoa Tabouli
Submitted 9/19/04 by: Mimi Clark, vegan cooking instructor, Fairfax Station, VA

1 cup Ancient Harvest Organic Quinoa
2 cups water
1 Tablespoon organic lemon juice
2 Tablespoons umeboshi vinegar
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 Scallion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh organic parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh organic mint
1/2 cup chopped organic tomato

Bring water to a boil, add quinoa, bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook 10-15 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. Set aside to cool and fluff. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, and oil. Shake well. Transfer quinoa to a large bowl. Pour marinade on top of quinoa. Add remaining vegetables. Mix well to coat.


For the shrimp I used a pound of medium sized shrimp that were sauteed in a pan with 1/2 cup of white wine, 2 cloves of finely minced garlic (pan fry the garlic with olive oil and a splash of white wine first), 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or any tolerated oil), 1 tablespoon of ghee (clarified butter) and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. These were sauteed over medium heat for 10 minutes.

After the main recipe and the shrimp were ready it looked like this:





To say the least it was delicious.. I was in heaven to have what is hopefully another safe good tasting meal. So far it has settled great!

As a side note this would go great with chicken or really any white meat as well.

Thanks again everyone for all of the encouragement.... Who knows one of these days I might actually know how to cook.

--Joe

[TooManyHats]

It looks DELICIOUS!! I hope all goes well with this experiment.

BTW, I'll be right over to "clean up" any leftovers for you.

[starfire]

My Dear Man,

Attractive presentation, delicious tasting, Obviously made with a caring heart.

You ARE a cook.

Love, Shirley

[nancyl]

Hmmm, it does look does look very good, but I live closer and can get there and clean up the leftovers before you, Arlene. LOL


Nancy

[JLH]

That looks wonderful.

I like quinoa. Never tasted it before LC. I am going to try it with some sauteed mushrooms and onions and use low sodium chicken broth instead of water. It would take the place of barley pilaf, I guess.

[Gloria]

It looks delicious, Joe! I'm so happy that you are learning to cook with quinoa. You will probably be teaching the rest of us how to use it.

The bonus is that you haven't reacted to it. Yeah! Another food to add to the acceptable list!

Gloria

[Joefnh]

Thanks everyone...

Arlene & Nancy who said there were leftovers?

Joan I used 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of water when cooking the quinoa. That's usually what I do for rice and figured that would work well here. Mushrooms would be good here, but I did not want to put ingredients in this that I have not successfully tested before.

Gloria thanks again for all the pointers

--Joe

[sarkin]

Joe - it's gorgeous! I applaud you for taking this experiment into such a glorious zone. We can approach food like "will it hurt me?" or more like "will it be great!" As MC'ers, both considerations are in play, but it's very inspiring to be looking at your beautiful, delicious dish, and thinking more like "what can I do..." instead of "what can't I have."

Bravo, you quinoa-gourmet chef!

Sara

[Gabes-Apg]

Joe
are you sure your story about moving to australia is not a cover up story because you are going to be on the next series of Top Chef or Hells Kitchen???

I think i still have the emails from about about 11months ago when you were first learning! look at chef joe now! well done mate.

[Joefnh]

Gabes how did you figure that out?? ...... I wish...Although chef Ramsey can be a real pain!


Thanks for the compliment Gabes. I am getting better at cooking. The good thing about the hobby of cooking, you have lots of motivation to keep trying. Although if I am getting good at it why am I still getting hungry 3 times a day??....More work to do I guess

I will have to admit this came out very good and will be one of my favorites

Gabes I was just looking back at those emails and posts... Truthfully it was not until your Paging Joe... Gabes Cooking Corner post that I actually tried real cooking in the kitchen with an actual recipe. So it would seem you might be to 'blame'

Thank you


--Joe

[Polly]

Well done, my friend!

It looks like something in a gourmet restaurant. You have certainly come a long way since Gabes originally motivated you to try real cooking. And I love the presentation - it is important, especially with our limited diets, to be creative, not just with the recipe, but with the presentation. We need to treat ourselves well whenever we can.

Who knows, maybe you have a second career as a chef looming on the horizon.

Love,

Polly

[Mags]

Hey Joe-

I might forgive you for that comment about Gordon Ramsey--because you have given my my tabouleh back!!!! Middle Eastern food is what I learned to prepare most recently, and I haven't learned to think outside the box yet, probably because I learned from very traditional cooks. They didn't even like it when I used my chef's knife! I used to eat it almost every day, and now I can again.

THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU

P.S. Anyone have any ideas about yogurt substitutes for baba ghanoush?

Mags

[sarkin]

Mags,

My traditional middle-eastern relatives didn't eat yogurt with baba ghanouj - it was roast/smoked eggplant, sesame tahini, and garlic/oil/lemon... I realize they may not all be safe! I think you could make a tahini substitute with soaked cashews (if you tolerate them better than sesame), blended with water to a tahini-ish consistency. That's a useful 'goo' for nut-eaters, because it operates sort of like non-dairy sour cream both for texture and 'mouth feel.' We've used it for DF cream soups, dips, etc...

I've made a similar not-cream with other nuts. Pistachio is pleasantly green, walnut is flavorful, almond I adore in every format. I am not sure when I'll re-attempt nuts, but this kind of cream will definitely be the way I start, I think!

Sara

[Bifcus16]

Looks and sounds great, Joe.

Instead of boiling my qunioa, I put it in the saucepan with the water, bring to boil then take it off the heat and let it sit covered in a warm place until it has absorbed the water - about 15-20 minutes. I find it avoids it boiling dry or sticking and it tends to be a bit 'fluffier'.

Lyn

[MaggieRedwings]

Looks absolutely great Joe and you have come so far in the cooking world.

Quiona is something I still react to and cannot figure out why.

Love, Maggie