Farro Risotto with MORELS!

Morels! It's still early in their short season up here in Minnesota, but today I went with my friend Anna to her parents' woods to hunt for morels, and we found some! Not a lot, but enough to make some amazing farro risotto. It was so good. This was actually the first time I've eaten a morel, and it kind of blew my mind.

Farro Risotto with Morels

- 1 C farro
- 1 onion, diced (we used half a red and half a yellow - shallots might have been even better)
- Several cloves garlic, minced
- 2/3 C dry red wine
- A few tablespoons olive oil and/or earth balance, divided between two 10" or so saute pans
- 1/2 C - 1 C morel mushrooms, rinsed and chopped
- 1/3 C oyster mushrooms (I just had some I really needed to use up)
- 2 C vegetable broth
- Fresh or dried thyme, oregano, chives, or other herbs to taste - we used dried thyme and fresh chives and oregano, because that's what we had
- A little bit of dried chopped chanterelle or other mushrooms dissolved in your hot vegetable broth (I just had these from some fall picking, and thought why not make it as wild-mushroomy as possible. They added a lot.)
- 8 or so kale leaves, chopped with tough stems saved for later
- 2 T or so nutritional yeast
- Truffle oil

Here's a not very good picture of farro:


1. Soak the farro in water for 20 min, then drain and rinse
2. Simmer the farro in water with a bit of olive oil for 20 min, then drain and rinse
3. Heat a couple T of the olive oil/earth balance (I recommend a mixture) in one nonstick wide, shallow pan
4. Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the pan, stir on medium-low for a few minutes with a little salt and pepper
5. If using dried mushrooms, heat veggie broth and add them to rehydrate
6. In second pan, heat another T or so of oil/EB and when hot, add chopped morels (and oysters, if using) and season with salt and pepper
7. Cook the mushrooms on medium or so heat until they're a little browned and smell amazing
8. When the onions are cooked, add the farro and wine, cooking and stirring on medium until almost all the liquid is gone.
9. Add the broth one cup at a time when the liquid is almost gone, stirring frequently. Add the kale at this point too.
10. When the mushrooms are cooked, add them to the risotto as soon as possible so their flavor is infused into the whole dish.
11. When the second cup of broth is almost absorbed, add the nutritional yeast and take it off the heat.
12. Drizzle with truffle oil to make it an over the top intense four-mushroom experience.



This isn't like a traditional arborio rice risotto - the farro doesn't make a creamy starchy sauce while you stir it, but it does get tender and delicious. It's a chewy, hearty grain that goes incredibly well with earthy, rich mushrooms, red wine, and kale. It was like eating a forest (in a good way).

One more unnecessary mushroom shot. Cute, right?



We ate this with a mixed green salad with carrots, oregano, and a pumpkin seed oil/red wine vinaigrette. Also really good.



I'm already so excited to go morel hunting again next weekend - I want enough to cook some and dry a lot. We'll see!

Nettle Curry

I used most of the nettles I picked last week in a quick cauliflower curry.



- Saute chopped onions and garlic in a little olive oil until soft
- Add turmeric, mustard seed, coriander, cumin, and salt and saute a few more minutes
- Add chopped cauliflower and tomatoes or tomato sauce (I used some that I'd frozen from last Summer) and cook until the cauliflower is tender - might need to add a little water
- Add chopped nettles, spinach, or other greens, and cook another couple minutes
- Taste for seasoning

I ate this with chickpea crepes - also really quick and easy. It would have been good with potatoes and/or chickpeas in it, but I didn't have any on hand.

I was hoping to have some morels to post about this weekend, but it looks like they need a little more rain and a little more time. Maybe next week!

Down by the river

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so I went to the hardware store down the street to buy some decently protective work gloves. Then I went down to the woods on the river bank, just a few blocks from my house, to look for nettles. And I found some!

I also picked some dandelion greens, violets, and mint, just because it was there and off the beaten path enough that I think it's all pretty clean. I saw a lot of yarrow, but since I'm not sure what to do with it other than make some tea I doubt I'd like, I left it alone.



The dandelion greens will probably end up in a salad with the violets, and the mint will end up in tea and/or mint juleps, depending on where the weekend goes. The nettles might be made into pesto, or maybe just braised, put in soup, or sauteed like spinach. I blanched them for a couple minutes to take the sting off and make them friendlier to handle when I'm cooking them.



Most people treat this stuff as weeds, but I love eating foods I know weren't cultivated for size, color, shelf life...pretty much anything but taste and nutrient value. Wild foods are good for you! I mean, so long as you're sure about what you're picking.

I was hoping to find some fiddleheads or ramps, but no such luck. I'll try someplace a little less disturbed in the next couple weeks.

Brunch off! (Part 2)

Time for brunch reviews from a little closer to home, and I even managed to fit in a third spot. It wouldn't have been right to do a Minneapolis brunch review without including the Seward Cafe, particularly since I get free coffee there forever.

So here's the run down: Hard Times Cafe, Birchwood Cafe, and the Seward Cafe.

Hard Times and the Seward are really similar, and both cater to old hippies and punk kids. Seward has a better ambiance, and Hard Times has longer hours, wireless, and a full menu all the time, so which one I go to depends on what I need to do there. Seward uses way more local and organic ingredients, gets a CSA share in summer, and has its own community garden in back, so that tips the scale quite a bit for me. Both are collectively owned and run, which is rad if you're not into table service.

The Birchwood is pretty different - the food is significantly more expensive (but not crazy expensive), they put more effort into plating and presentation, and there are far fewer vegan options. They also emphasize local and organic ingredients though, and they're only a few blocks from my house, so I still make my way there on occasion.

Hard Times

Vegan Helter Skelter (a bunch of veggies and potatoes and tofu and toast)



I don't remember what this was called - but it was corn tortillas, tofu, veggies, and salsa. It was kind of bland, really, and I wasn't wild about their salsa. I prefer their non-brunch stuff I think. Good falafel.



I don't recommend Hard Times if you're, say, looking for somewhere to take your grandparents.

Birchwood Cafe

Tofu scramble with toast and potatoes



Sometimes the one vegan brunch option (pretty much always a tofu scramble) comes with organic greens instead of toast, and I prefer that. The thin roasted potatoes are great, and the tofu is seasoned nicely though never browned. Usually it involves a combination of seasonal/local veggies. Once at the Birchwood I was sitting right next to Scarlet Johansen (sp?) and Josh Hartnett, and didn't even notice.

Seward Cafe

"Tofu scramble"



I like the tofu/tempeh stir fries (basically broccoli and carrots) at the Seward, even though they don't really put any kind of sauce on them. Just tamari. But I wish they wouldn't call them scrambles. It's not true, and it's confusing. They do come with tahini toast though, and you can dump on all the nutritional yeast you like.

Beans and Rice



Beans and rice at the Seward are only $3.00! Both are organic, you can choose between black beans and pinto, and it's always brown rice. They also have a huge list of sides you can add to your dishes, so beans and rice with kale, onions, rancheros sauce, or whatever you want is still really cheap. Caveat: they're supposed to come with sprouts, but every cook in the place seems to have a chronic sprout-forgetting problem.

I wish I had some Seward hash browns to post - they're made fresh from yukon gold potatoes, and they're usually great. Definitely a nice change of pace from oven roasted potatoes and immeasurably better than any frozen hash brown nonsense you find at most breakfast places. It's also a great spot for gluten free/wheat free options.

The verdict?

Vegan options: Portland
Righteousness and rejection of hierarchy in the workplace: Minneapolis
Creativity: Portland
Free coffee for me: Minneapolis
Brunch spots with full bars: Portland
Cheap options: Minneapolis
Most bikes outside the cafe: anyone's guess

Brunch off! (Part 1)

I've been promising this for a long time, so I hope it doesn't disappoint. To start out, it's not a fair fight, since I have 4 Oregon brunches (3 Portland, 1 Eugene) and only 2 Minneapolis to compare. But either way, we all know brunch is the most important meal of the day, and whenever you go out to brunch, everyone wins. So I'll stop pretending this is a real competition.

When I was in Portland last month I went with friends to Cricket Cafe, Vita Cafe, and Blossoming Lotus. Partly to have a real basis for comparison, and partly because I'm kind of boring this way, I got tofu scrambles at all three. And then I had yet more tofu at Morning Glory in Eugene. (When I got back from my trip I took a serious hiatus from soy, don't worry.)

Verdict? I love brunch! And Portland is an amazing place for vegan brunch, if you know where to go. There's a tofu scramble option almost everywhere, but a lot of places really phone it in. They don't brown the tofu, they don't season anything, and it's just sort of a mess. Example: JAM ON HAWTHORNE. Example 2: GENIE'S. I do not recommend them. Jam's tofu scramble on my birthday was so bad that if I were that kind of person, it could actually have ruined my birthday. Think raw onions + plain tofu. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

Anyways, I learned my lesson and hit up some good spots:

Scramble at Cricket with spinach, tomatoes, and avocado. I love that they have hash browns, not just home fries. The tofu was nice and brown, and the seasoning was great.



This one with spinach, onions, and I don't remember what else, wasn't mine (and was vegan except for the sour cream on top), but also got good reviews:



Scramble with veggies at Vita Cafe - a little bland, they should season their tofu more, but at least it was browned and the potatoes and onion dill bread were really good.



Florentine Scramble at Blossoming Lotus - pesto, arugula, and a side of house-made seitan. Best un-browned tofu scramble I've ever had, I think. And their scrambles come with steamed kale! The all-vegan menu was so amazing that I think it took us almost an hour to order. Thankfully, the coffee was great and they served it with soy cream, not just soy milk. Mmm.



Here are their grits - also super good:



And their walnut chorizo salad - good, but not what I would have ordered for brunch. Some people are just so healthy...



The Fusion - Morning Glory in Eugene. It's not a scramble! But it sort of is a scramble inside of hash browns. Lots of veggies, and nicely seasoned. I should have remembered to ask for no mushrooms.



We also got a delicious vegan tempeh caesar for the table. Oh ladies how I miss hanging out with you. Not just everyone wants to split a salad for a brunch appetizer. Not so much like a real caesar, lots of dill in the dressing, but we weren't complaining.



This is only part 1 - Minneapolis brunch pics will be along shortly, once I finish transferring my photos and other files to my new computer. Sorry to see the old one go, but after 5 years and many close calls, it gave me no choice.