Culinary Adventures with Camilla

These grain bowl salads are the perfect Autumn side dish or main dish. And I love that they are so, so simple to assemble! Here are six variations using three different grains - farro, barley, and quinoa. But use whatever grains you have. These would be just as tasty with rice, freekah, or even buckwheat! You can watch the process on the CulinaryCam YouTube channel ...or right here! Ingredients are listed below for each bowl. But, as always,  I urge you to just be creative and use what you have. I love how easy these are to customize with whatever ingredients I have on-hand. They are colorful, toothy, and tasty. If you are local to me, I picked up all of the pantry items at The Quail & Olive in Carmel Valley. Anni always has great pantry items whose producers have great stories and make quality items. It's always a treat to go there and get inspired. Simple Crunch Quinoa Bowl 2 cups cooked quinoa 1/2 cup sliced purple cabbage 1/4 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper...

I know, I know. Risotto is made with arborio rice. But I had barley...and I really wanted to make a citrus-y 'risotto' to go underneath my seared scallops for this week's project. So, this isn't really risotto, but I didn't want to invent a word for barley done risotto-style. Here we are moving into the second half of November.  That means that the Kitchen Matrix Cooking Project - really Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm , Karen of  Karen's Kitchen Stories , and I - have been doing this for ten months already. You can read more about our project  here . And this month, Wendy picked the recipes. This week, she selected Scallops  + 12 Ways. Bittman offers a dozen preparations with scallops including six grilled and six raw. I will definitely be trying his Miso-Glazed Scallops and Panzanella Scallops on the cooked side. For the raw scallops, the Salsa Cruda and Tartare were intriguing. I love scallops, but it's not the preferred seafood at my ho...

Wine Pairing Weekend - #winePW - happens on the second Saturday of the month. And this month - February - Christy of  Confessions of a Culinary Diva  is hosting. Since it's Valentines' Day, we're talking about Valentine pairings. Click to read her invitation:  here . Then I was approached to create some Valentine wine pairings* and I decided to post recipes for the entire week. I opted to elevate my usual stuffed squash by topping it with some "love bugs" - also known as boiled crayfish. All three of my Valentines got a chuckle with how I plated them. In the Glass... Landmark Vineyards' history includes a Hatfield-McCoy type feud which is very intriguing to this history buff. On one side, a group of investors that includes Damaries Deere Ford, of the John Deere tractor/plow legacy, is credited with starting the vineyards in 1974. When First Lady Michelle Obama opted to pour Landmark's Chardonnay at the White House holiday party one year, she c...

Yesterday we celebrated Easter with a fabulous feast of Spring flavors. My Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf made a delicious herbed barley salad to go alongside the Nonni's baked ham. He was excited to use herbs from his garden. He brought in purple sage, golden sage, and mint to go with the green garlic from our High Ground Organics CSA and other herbs I had. Ingredients 2 C uncooked barley water 4 T minced herbs (I used a mixture of purple sage, golden sage, parsley, mint, and green garlic) 3 carrots, thinly sliced (I used 1 yellow, 1 orange, and 1 purple carrot) zest from 1 organic lemon juice from 1 organic lemon olive oil smoked sea salt Procedure Cook barley in water until done. Drain and place barley in a large mixing bowl. Toss with carrots, herbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, and enough olive oil to make it glossy. Season to taste with smoked sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

D and I have been watching A Mind of a Chef . On one hand, I love that he enjoys the creative side of cooking - it's definitely not drudgery - but I'm torn between whether or not I appreciate his ardent insistence on his ingredients. But I do know where he gets it. Here's the Mind of the Wom... It began with some extra pumpkins from our High Ground Organics CSA . I had ordered them for myself. But D saw them the same day that the request came for his class Thanksgiving feast sign-up.  "I'll bring those...stuffed with barley and kale," he announced, pointing at my pumpkins.  What? You'll bring what?!  "Those pumpkins, Mommy. I'm going to cook them for my class."  I bit my lip, silently bid my visions of pumpkin puree goodbye, and encouraged him, That's a great idea, Wom. I know it will be delicious.  I especially appreciated the ' I'm going to cook them' part as we are in the middle of moving. I h...

After seeing 'wheat pie' mentioned on Cake Boss , the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf wanted to give it a try. I read a few different recipes and came up with this. We didn't have whole wheat berries, so I subbed in barley. The verdict: it's a little dry. But I'm not calling it a flop because the flavors were great! We'll try again. For the  Pâte Brisée This should make enough for the top and bottom of a 10" tart. Ingredients 2-1/2 C all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling 1/2 C finely ground almond flour 1/2 C organic powdered sugar 1 C butter, very cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 5 T freshly squeezed orange juice Procedure I don't have a food processor, so I use a pastry blender and do it all by hand. Or the kitchen elves do it!  Place the flour, ground almonds, powdered sugar, and cold butter in a large bowl. Use the pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add orange juice in 1 T...

I've been remiss at reviewing this cookbook from Quirk Books - Breakfast for Dinner by Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth.* They are the culinary duo behind the blog Love & Olive Oil ; it's a blog I already read regularly. It's not that I was unenthused; on the contrary, I was overly excited about the choices. I wanted to make so many of the recipes! But today, I decided to finally select a few recipes and see how it went. Breakfast for dinner. That's not a foreign concept in my household. When I'm in a rush, I will often whip up omelettes or use all my leftover veggies for a frittata. My husband's family used to eat pancakes for Sunday dinner when he was a kid. So, again, breakfast for dinner is a real thing for us, albeit a bit boring one. However, Lindsay and Taylor take that concept, tweak it, turn it on its head, and offer some truly innovative ideas in this cookbook. It's, as they write, 'classic recipes with a twist' or using s...

This is an easy side dish for a busy school night. And, best of all, you can cook the barley ahead of time and just assemble the salad the evening you plan to serve it. 2 C cooked barley 1/4 C capers 1/2 C sliced almonds 1 handful of rough chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley and mint) lemon vinaigrette* to moisten washed and dried lettuce leaves *vinaigrette =  white ambrosia vinegar, Meyer lemon juice and zest, olive oil, freshly ground sea salt and pepper If you know nothing else about vinaigrettes, remember this: the magic ratio of oil to vinegar/acid is 3 to 1. As long as you know that, you won't need to consult a vinaigrette recipe ever again. Just remember three parts oil to one part vinegar/acid and you'll be all right. If you get them backwards and do three parts vinegar to one part oil, your puckered mouth will ensure you don't make that mistake a second time!  So, I did 3 parts olive oil, 2/3 part white ambrosia vinegar, 1/3 part lemon juice.  I p...

We've come full circle and I am thrilled to be hosting The Food Matters Project  once again. Back in April I selected a recipe full of Springtime flavors: Fish Braised in Rhubarb Sauce. My first attempt was rhubarb-less ; my second attempt was successful . And I will definitely be making that again when rhubarb appears on market shelves next Spring. So, in keeping with this season, I wanted to make a hearty, Autumn-appropriate stew. I picked Bittman's Wheat Berries with Braised Beef and Parsnips as my inspiration. Admittedly, I made a few adjustments based on what I had in my cupboard. I subbed beer for the wine, skipped the garlic, added pumpkin, quince, and chestnuts, swapped watermelon radishes for the parsnips because I had some leftover from my CSA box, and ended up having to change out barley for farro . This recipe is definitely not for when you are in a rush. But if you have multiple hours - and I did because I was cranking on an article deadline - do it! Y...

For one of two entrees for Ulla's 'Nuts For You' brunch, I picked a balsamic-glazed potato tart. The flaky crust is made with olive oil, two different kinds of flour, and studded with raw pecan pieces. 2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C barley flour 2 T chopped fresh thyme 3/4 t salt 3/4 t freshly ground pepper 1/2 C olive oil 8 T ice-cold water balsamic-glazed roasted sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, and new potatoes 1 C shredded fontina cheese 1 t chopped fresh thyme raw pecan pieces Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large bowl combine  white whole wheat flour, barley flour, thyme, salt and pepper. Make a well in the center and add 1/2 cup oil and water. Gradually stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to form a soft dough. Knead in the bowl just until the dough comes together. Pat it into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or up to 3 days. Line a work surface with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, lightly dust with flour an...