Once fun with Farro: cauliflower and Cara Cara Oranges, Parmesan and smoked trout
March 24, 2014 .By | Comments
They say that you have I have to know the rules before you break the rules and I think that it is true so far as it is true art or writing or any other discipline of cooking. Before you take deconstructed spaghetti and meatballs with foam and fruit leather and the essence of dried beef, you should probably learn how to make the simple version. (More: the simple version is generally better.) Let's say you want to be creative, however, and want to flex your artistic cooking muscles. So my advice is to master the art of white foods; the types of foods you can dress but you want once you have the idea base down. For me, food white canvas used to be pasta. but lately, on a whim of health summer-is-coming from California, I've been playing around with farro.
Farro is quite easy to cook. Just follow the instructions on the package, but, essentially, you're boiling water, season with salt, place in the farro and depending on what type you buy (that of Trader Joe cooks quickly, that of Whole Foods does not) you will have cooked farro in 20 to 30 minutes. Drain the water and let the games begin.
My first tip is to hit this warm farro, just boiled with fat and acid materials immediately. In the case of my cauliflower and Cara Cara orange farro (which I did after a trip to the farmer's market), I drizzled with olive oil and then pressed the cara cara orange juice in and waving all around (Orange navel works well also). As for cauliflower, I've "marinated" in putting the florets of cauliflower believed in a dish with olive oil, more orange juice and crushed coriander seeds. Then I threw with Cara Cara oranges with segmented spelt and lots of chopped herbs (parsley and dill, I think) and some chopped onion marinated:
It was a spring-time bright, festive and healthy dish.
But my greatest work came a week later, when I spotted trout smoked at Trader Joe and I had picked up asparagus to the farmer's market. Firstly, I grilled the asparagus with the 425 oven by putting it on a plate baking with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook until the asparagus had little color (about 10 minutes):
With regard to the farro, I decided that I was going to do some sort of smoked trout, Caesar salad (something that you can find in my cookbook), but in the form of farro. Listen to me. Here is what I had on my cutting board:
After cooking the spelt, I treated with olive oil and lemon juice and a tablespoon of mustard soup, salt and pepper:
Then, I crumbled in smoked trout:
Add the asparagus, cut into pieces and lots of Parmesan cheese:
Hey, it may seem strange to you, but it was quite successful, rough-hewn dinner (this crowd me and Craig):
Who knew farro was so versatile, such a prompt for the creative Cook? I did and now do you it too. What will you come up with? The sky is the limit.