Home & Design

Come Back to Cast-Iron Cookware

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:00 -0700

Cast-iron is a classic due for a comeback. Even a 10" skillet like this is heavy but worth its weight – lifting it will make you strong, and cooking in it will literally add iron to your diet. Sizes range from 6 to 12" diameter, as well as reversible griddle versions for one or two burners.

You may have a cast-iron pan. And it may be a cast-off – inherited from some older relative and forgotten about as you've added to your collection of pristine, gourmet-worthy cooking implements over the years. But the cast-iron pan deserves to be brought back to the front burner. It's healthy, economical (read: inexpensive and durable), and generally an old-fashioned, no frills high-performer.

Cast-iron is also heavy enough that you might use cooking with it as a replacement for reps at the gym, though we don't recommend that. But you do get used to the weight-lifting aspect of cast-iron cooking, and it's one of the many side benefits you'll realize as soon as a cast-iron skillet becomes your go-to pan. Leaving it on the stove or a highly accessible shelf (instead of shoving it to the back of the cupboard like mine was for years) makes it a lot easier to use (I say this from firsthand experience).

Benefits of cast-iron:

Conducts and retains heat well.
Is the original, natural non-stick surface.
Can go in the oven.
Super durable.
Adds healthy iron to the food cooked in it (especially important for anyone anemic or low-iron). Literally, your cast-iron cooking vessel is an iron supplement. Depending on the food and cooking time, cooking in a cast-iron pan can add significant iron content. Example: iron in a serving of spaghetti sauce cooked in cast-iron increased 7 mg (from .35 mg/100g to 7.4 mg/100g). For many of us, this is nearly the entire RDA for iron: 8 mg/day for men and post-menopausal women (18 mg/day for pre-menopausal women). And it's more than twice the iron in a 1 cup serving of quinoa (which is a not-too shabby 2.8 mg).

WHAT TASTES SUPER GOOD COOKED IN CAST-IRON – just about anything, but especially seared or fried foods; the cast-iron lets you get that perfect blend of tender yet browned and crispy, and the seasoned pan means you don't have to use much oil to cook in.

Pancakes (including oven baked Dutch babies or Austrian pancakes), cornbread and biscuits
Grilled cheese
Pizza
Burgers
Eggs
Asparagus, greens and other quick-cooking vegetables

How to care for cast-iron – It might seem mysterious – all that talk about seasoning your pan, as if it's a religious ritual. (We'll get further into that in a moment.) But it's really not that hard. Just develop a couple easy habits:

Clean (by hand) soon after you’ve used it.
Don’t let it sit in water.
Use soap or not – either way seems to be OK; just don’t overscrub (or you’ll wear away the magical “seasoned” coating that comes with proper, frequent use.
Dry thoroughly soon after washing – towel dry and then put it on a low-heat burner for a couple minutes to eek out all the moisture and completely avoid rusting!
Optional: rub with a touch of oil (about a quarter-sized dab rubbed in with a paper towel) if you want to seal in the seasoning, and heat another minute on the low burner.

Where to get cast-iron in Portland:

Thrift stores are a good source, though your find might take some refinement and seasoning before you can use it.
Lodge Manufacturing is the only company in the U.S. still making cast-iron; they're sold at Fred Meyer, Kitchen Kaboodle, Williams-Sonoma, Mirador Community Store and others. Prices tend to be about $13 (6" skillet) to about $40 (12" skillet).
Williams-Sonoma also carries a lightweight, sleekly styled Japanese import – Komin Fry Pan, about $80 in the 2 lbs, 9 1/2 inch size.) Antique dealers sometimes have Griswold or Wagner Ware, which were high-quality brands popular in the first half of the 20th century, before cast-iron fell out of favor and was supplanted by teflon and newer non-stick pans.

ABOUT SEASONING YOUR PAN – If you buy a new pan, it will likely be from Lodge, and will be "pre-seasoned" because that's all they sell. If you buy an old pan, you'll probably need to refurbish it. Either way, it's good to know that seasoning, or "curing," a cast-iron pan just means coating or sealing it by "baking on multiple thin coats of oil" to create the natural non-stick surface.

All it takes is to rub a thin layer of neutral, food-grade oil or shortening into the pan, then bake the empty pan at about 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. The more times you do this process, the better the surface coating will be – glossier, sleeker, and more non-stick. Which is why cooking in a cast-iron pan makes the pan better and better: each use, especially with fatty foods, adds to the coating. (What's Cooking America has a detailed and helpful article online.)

Mirador Community Store
2106 SE Division Street
Portland, OR 97202
503-396-5090

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Rare Plant Open House—and More Garden Inspiration

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:00:00 -0700

Image: Rare Plant Research

Alicanterea imperialis, a tropical bromeliad that is rarely seen in flower outside the tropics. See it at Rare Plant Research's Open House this weekend!

Garden tours, events and plant sales are ramping up in the Portland area as spring begins its slow, sweet unraveling. Take some time this weekend to enjoy the perfect planting weather and draw inspiration from some gardens that are rarely open to the public.

Rare Plant Research Annual Open House

Rare Plant Research is one of the Willamette Valley’s most tantalizing ornamental plant nurseries, with all variety of tropical and tender plants including succulents, perennials, unusual bulbs, bananas, and more.

There’s an added incentive to visit this year’s RPR Open House: one of the world’s largest bromeliads (pineapple relative) will be flowering—a rare event outside the tropics. Alcanterea imperialis, a native to the mountains around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be on display in its full glory. The plant grows five to six feet wide and, after growing for about 20 years, sends up an eight to 10-foot tall flower stalk. After flowering, the plant dies. See this spectacular plant in bloom this weekend only!

WHAT: Rare Plant Research’s Annual Open House
WHEN: Saturday May 18 and Sunday May 19, 2013, 10 am to 4 pm
WHERE: 11900 S. Criteser Rd, Oregon City, OR 97045
COST: free event but bring your checkbook - for plants, wine and food

Sundrops Eastside Garden Tour

This tour includes a scenic drive along the historic Columbia River Gorge Highway and a series of beautiful, established gardens including the Hutson, Shelman and Fortune gardens; Dancing Roots organic farm; a peaceful Franciscan convent set in front of a waterfall; McMenamin’s Edgefield garden; and more.

WHAT: “Sundrops” Eastside Garden Tour
WHEN: Saturday May 18 and Sunday May 19, 2013, 10 am to 4 pm
WHERE: Troutdale, Oregon 97060
COST: $20 (children free). Purchase tickets on line on pick them up in advance – see website for locations. Purchase tickets and pick up tour maps the day of the tour at the Harlow House – 726 East Historic Columbia River Highway, Troutdale

Tomatomania at Dennis' 7 Dees

Learn all about tomatoes, particularly those luscious heirloom tomatoes that we all crave, from heirloom tomato expert Steve Goto. In addition to talking about the cultivation and care of tomatoes in our tomato-challenged climate, he’ll answer questions. A large selection of heirloom tomato varieties will also be available. And while the weather is still marginal for planting tomatoes outdoors, Goto will offer tips on how to know when to plant them out and how to maximize the tomato growing season.

WHAT: Tomatomania
WHEN: Saturday May 18, 2013 (see times below)
WHERE: Dennis’ 7 Dees SE Portland (10 am to 12 noon) and Lake Oswego (2 to 4 pm)
COST: free

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Movie: The Greenest Building

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:15:00 -0700

Image: Architectural Heritage Center

Preservation of old buildings always has a long history: the Portland Telegram Building, built in 1922, was put on the National Register of Historic Places in the early 1990s, then preserved and renovated by the Nathan Family, with help from the late Art DeMuro, and creative financing from the Portland Development Commission.

May is National Historic Preservation Month, and a fitting time to consider the state of our building stock and "historical capital" in the relatively young city of Portland and state of Oregon. There are many ways to evaluate and/or appreciate our old buildings. You could take the Historic Irvington Homes Tour Saturday, May 19, 2013. You could also attend the free screening of The Greenest Building, an award-winning, thought provoking 2011 documentary by local filmmaker Jane Turville.

The hour-long film screens Wednesday, May 22, 2013. In it, Turville interviews industry experts and looks at example building projects (many in Portland). She tackles some of the hardest questions related to historic preservation and the environmental impact of what, how and where we build.

The Greenest Building addresses the intersection of historic preservation and environmentalism – and it's not a simple T-intersection. New building techniques tout "green" cred, with LEED, Passive House, Enrgy Star and other certification systems being developed and marketed for their energy efficiency and almost moral benefits. The Greenest Building, however, considers the structures that are already built among us, and that we have to deal with one way or another. Do we keep old buildings? Maintain them? Preserve them? Or destroy them?

Turville's film interviews experts who get us to think about a wide range of topics related to preservation and green building.

Jean Carroon of Goody/Clancy Architects discusses the environmental impact of demolishing an existing building. Why, she wonders, don’t we apply the mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle” to buildings right from the start? We seem to forget that “buildings are huge handmade objects – they are a composite of millions and millions and millions of things, and every thing – each piece of our world that is a manufactured piece, or a moved piece, or a cut piece of stone – has tremendous environmental repercussions along the way.”
Preservationist/economist Donovan Rypkema discusses "sense of place" – a phrase we've been thinking about since the middle of the 20th century, at least, but which has never been examined in a scholarly way until the past 20 years or so. "Sense of place" is a "non-quantifiable feeling" but he suggests we ask, "a) what is it? b) is it important, and c) how does it affect us?"
Ralph DiNola, a green building consultant based in Portland, considers the tricky question of how we decide what to save, since most of our existing buildings are relatively new, built in a "time of cheap energy" (i.e., huge energy-losing "curtain walls") but "not built to last." He asks, "Which buildings should we save? Which should go?"

Film Night at the Architectural Heritage Center:
The Greenest Building
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
6 pm – 7 pm (Doors open at 5:45 pm; first come, first serve)
Free Admission
701 SE Grand Avenue
Portland, OR 97214
503-231-7264

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The Spicy Life

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:00 -0700

Image: Kristin Belz

Big jars, small jars, and jars that are open for tasting – sprinkle some before you buy so that you really know what you're getting into.

Given its location on SE 13th Street across from the Sellwood Library, it's tempting to imagine the Savory Spice Shop as an annex to the public library: a walk-in, fully fragrant reference room of spices, a place where learning delights the mind and the senses. And though the Spice Shop doesn't lend out its offerings, they do let you taste samples to your heart's delight (or 'til your tongue is exhausted).

Anne and Jim Brown are the owner-operators of the shop, which opened in September 2012 but feels like it's always been there, in the best possible way. They cultivate a small town general store atmosphere, and share a pharmacist's careful knowledge of the nuanced uses of their wares. While spices aren't exactly over the counter drugs (and nothing in the shop is illegal), but they are an exotic world about which most of us know very little.

The Savory Spice Shop is a perfect place to go learn about life beyond salt, pepper, or "Italian" seasonings. Even BBQ rubs have their own section in the store. Walk in and you'll get a quick introduction from Anne, Jim or any staff on hand, asking if you've been there before and orienting you if you haven't. The shelves and displays are organized by region and type of cooking: the aforementioned BBQ is joined by sections on curries, herbs, chilis, baking spices, and more.

Image: Kristin Belz

A country store look at the Savory Spice Shop in Sellwood.

Hard to find and little known spices are in the "exotic" section – including Asafetida, a garlic substitute often called for in Ayurvedic cooking and that I'd been searching for in vain at Portland groceries and co-ops for ages. Most of what is in the store is also available online.

Specialty gift boxes span many genres – kits for better baking, curry lovers, and even Bloody Mary connoisseurs. You can also make your own gift kit of whatever pleases your palette.

The best thing is being able to taste each spice; displays are informative about ingredients, origins and uses for each spice or spice blend, but nothing beats sprinkling a bit on your hand and testing it out. I'll admit, though, that I steered clear of the chili samples, except the "family friendly fajita" blend, which I tried and liked enough to buy some of. The hottest chilis were on the top shelf, safely out of reach of children!

All spices are available in various sizes, pre-packaged or not, and even in 1/2 ounce packets that are perfect for taking home and experimenting with. The smallest packets usually cost $1-$1.50, so spice experiments are all the more enticing.

Savory Spice Shop
7857 SE 13th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97202
503-928-3099
Monday-Saturday: 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday: Noon – 5pm

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Jane Platt Garden Tour

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:20:00 -0700

What better way to spend a perfect spring evening than to mosey the sloping pathways and savor the vistas of the idyllic Jane Platt Garden in Portland's Southwest hills? The garden is the backyard to the home of the Platt family, but what a backyard. The house itself is not too shabby: designed and built in 1942 by preeminent Northwest regional modernist architect Pietro Belluschi, it's a gem. But the garden is the star, as owners and architect alike intended.

John and Jane Kerr Platt created the garden from scratch starting in the early 1940s, eventually handing it over to their son David. The whole family – and many gardeners – have tended to its evolution through the decades. Both John and Jane have passed on (Jane a number of years ago, John in January 2013, at the age of 100). Now David and his family live in the modest main house and carry on the family traditions (including shooting woodpeckers who love a particular tree).

On a recent spring evening, a few of us amateur Portland gardeners were lucky enough to get a guided tour from gardener John Borowczak through the private garden. He's lovingly tended the 2 1/2 acres for the Platt family for “a long time.” (Nearing retirement age, he coyly declined to be more specific!)

John Platt was a young bachelor in 1937 when he bought the property, which had been an apple and cherry orchard since the 1880s. He planned to build a home and garden. Platt met and married Jane Kerr, who happened to know a bit about gardening herself. A daughter of Peter Kerr, a successful wheat exporter who was also a gardener, she grew up at what is now one of Portland's most incredible gardens, Elk Rock Garden at Bishop's Close. She (and her sister Anne) got the green gene from her father, who made sure that the ships he sent to the Orient, loaded up with his wheat harvest, would come back filled with Rhododendron and other exotic plants.

Like her father, she was interested in "specimen" plants – that is, unusual and unique plants. She never was a big traveler, but friends who traveled widely would ask her, "what should I bring back for you?" Now, people travel far and wide to see her garden. It is private, but open for occasional tours and special events.

Feel free to walk through the garden in our slide show (click at photo above); photos by Kristin Belz.

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Legendary Heronswood Garden Reopens

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:21:00 -0700

Longtime West Coast gardeners remember the erudite, witty and encyclopedic plant catalogs written by plant explorer, nurseryman, naturalist and garden designer Dan Hinkley in the late 80s/early 90s. (Some of us still treasure those original catalogs.) Hinkley and his partner Robert Jones' now-legendary Kingston, Washington nursery, Heronswood (no longer operating) and the display gardens that surrounded it comprised a true horticultural mecca for plantspeople world-wide.

To the delight of plant lovers all over, there will be a plant sale and open garden on May 18, 2013 featuring free talks, rare plant sales and garden tours. Garden tours occur throughout the day and cost $10, with all proceeds going towards the restoration and maintenance of the garden - a process that will likely take years.

The nursery went through difficult times in the past 12 years after being sold to seed giant, Burpee in 2000. Burpee struggled unsuccessfully to make this regional specialty nursery profitable by paring down its offerings, turning the idiosyncratic, text-rich and picture-poor plant list into a glossy catalog and going nation-wide. Burpee closed Heronswood in 2006 and the garden has been languishing ever since while Burpee tried to sell it. Fortunately, its acquisition last summer by a Native American tribe - the Port Gamble S'Kalallam - with a record of responsible land stewardship - bodes well for its future. The 15-acre garden also sits on historic S'Kalallam tribal land.

The Plant Sale and Garden Open on May 18, 2013 runs from 10 am to 5 pm. The last garden tour starts at 4 pm.

It may seem like a long trip to take just to visit a garden. But it's a mighty special garden! And if you're looking for garden inspiration or fascinating plants that can't be found just anywhere, this event shouldn't be missed. While trip could be done in one very long day (maybe 3.5 hours' drive each way), it would be a more relaxing overnight journey.

Scheduled events that day begin with Dan Hinkley's 11:30 am talk titled "Heronswood: Past, Present and Future" about the early days at Heronswood and the work being done today to restore the gardens. At 1 pm, Dodson and Milliken from Far Reaches Farms present "Plants Outside the Mainstream". And at 2 pm, Hinkley gives a second talk on foliage in the garden ("Foliage First"). Talks are first come, first served - arrive early.

Hinkley will have plants for sale from his current garden, Windcliff. There will also be plants from Dodson and Milliken's Far Reaches Farm,The Desert Northwest, Colvos Creek and many more superb regional nurseries.

The S'Klallam Singers will perform throughout the day and local vendors will sell food.

The garden is scheduled to be open a few more times this summer, including on May 18th, July 6th, and September 2, 2013.

To learn more about the garden, visit Heronswood's website or Heronswood's Facebook page. If you never had a chance to visit the garden in its prime - or even if you did, and want to see what is happening - do visit on Saturday May 18, 2013. It's a beautiful area, and there are plenty of other nurseries and gardens to visit while you're up there. Questions? Call 360-297-7410 or email them via their website. Address: 7530 NE 288th, Kingston WA 98346.

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Parking Strip-Perfect: Scilla Peruviana

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:41:00 -0700

Image: Kate Bryant

Scilla peruviana

Drought-tolerant plants are more and more important in Pacific Northwest gardens. Our climate is warming and natural resources like water are becoming increasingly precious. It's time to start planting trees – and gardens - with an eye towards the future.

Drought-tolerant gardens can make an aesthetic as well as a political statement. There's a trick to creating a garden that is climate-adapted but still lush with flowers and foliage. When it works, it's dazzling, with hallmark bright spring color, resinous-scented summer foliage and refreshed fall growth as the autumn rains arrive. Many drought-tolerant plants are evergreen, too, producing flowers or fresh new growth at the end of the wet season: drought-tolerant gardens can really shine in winter.

To create such an evocative, climate-appropriate garden, include drought-tolerant plants from a variety of categories: trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, annuals and bulbs.

Scilla peruviana is one example of such a perfect climate-adapted bulb for a dry garden in our region. Growing from a fleshy white bulb, Scilla peruviana offers gorgeous, deep indigo blue buds opening to fireworks-like sprays of starry, cobalt blue florets with long, yellow anthers in mid-May. The flowers reach about 8-12" in height and the plant forms a hefty clump over time that works well beneath trees (half-shade is fine) or full sun, alongside perennials or beneath limbed-up shrubs.

When open, the flowers are cobalt blue, like our native camass (read more about our local camass preserves here). But unlike camass, which is found in damp meadows, Scilla peruviana thrives in baking hot, unirrigated spots like parking strips and dry gardens. They grow in winter and spring, so they don't do so well under conifers with long, sweeping branches and roots that suck up all the winter moisture. Instead, plant them in well-drained soil that still receives winter moisture.

Image: Kate Bryant

Scilla peruviana

The foliage is a bit floppy, appearing in winter and persisting through the flowering period until about July, when it dries up and withers away. It’s therefore great for suppressing those pesky winter-growing weeds like bitter cress, chickweed and oxalis.

Notwithstanding the species name, Scilla peruviana is actually native to Spain, Portugal and southern Italy – not Peru. Since it requires absolutely no water in summer, it should be paired with other drought-tolerant plants. In my parking strip, it grows beneath a Catalina ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. aspleniifolius) alongside Warren Roberts Manzanita (Arctostaphylos pajaroensis ‘Warren Roberts’), Salvia greggii, Stachys byzantium ‘Primrose Heron’, and Teucrium marum.

Drought-tolerant Scilla peruviana makes an invaluable contribution to the parking strip – a part of the yard that most people find hard to keep looking good year-round. Buy it in flower, in pots, in May, or buy the bulbs in early fall, while they are dormant.

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Fun Free Tools for Map Geeks

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:30:00 -0700

In personal terms, the adage “compare and despair” makes a lot of sense – happiness is at least partly relative, and as long as you compare yourself to the Joneses, you’ll be trying to keep up, not enjoying what you have.

But in the spatial realm of architecture, cities and planning, comparison is extremely helpful and even necessary. How can we avoid making the same mistakes other cities have made if we’re not aware of what others have done? Measurable, scalable physical comparisons are key. Of course, size isn't everything, but it's a fascinating comparison to see one place laid atop another.

A new online computer tool makes physical mapping comparisons a lot easier than they’ve ever been. You don’t need special software or GIS training, just the link to the MapFrappe website and a decent computer to play around on. Henry Grabar in Atlantic Cities online alerts us to this free mapping tool.

The tool is especially cool because:

It can be used at whatever scale you want
You can travel to whatever part of the world Google has bothered to digitally document
North is always north
The interface is so smooth that navigating the maps is a pleasure (at least on the desktop computer we used in our test)
You can see aerial satellite views, or overlay the terrain onto the map view
You can save and share comparisons (see below)

How it works: outline whatever area you want to use as a comparison – I did a quick and dirty outline of Portland city boundaries, for instance. That base map magically appears right in the middle of a second, comparison map on the lower half of your screen, showing the entire United States (in the case of Portland, it's a tiny blue dot). You scale up or down with the slider on the left side of the screen, just as you would on a typical Google Map application. The whole time, your base map outline – Portland's city boundaries – stays in the center of the map. You can move the map so that Portland appears anywhere in the world.

Save and Share: When you make an comparison you want to keep, simply click the button that says "Make URL" and it'll save the URL as a live link. I compared the South Park Blocks to the National Mall in Washington, DC. It turns out the green space of the South Park Blocks – where our farmers market spreads out, for instance – is barely bigger than the Reflecting Pool of the Mall alone. Our capital city is indeed built at a grander scale than Stumptown is.

Play around on the site and answer the questions you’ve always wondered about, like:

How do Portland and Brooklyn (NY) really stack up against each other?
Is Portland a small city, physically, or is it just easy to get around, so it feels that way?
Are Austin’s city streets really as gigantically wide as they feel? What about Lake Oswego's?

Compare great spaces of the great cities: Central Park, Portland’s Park Blocks, the Champs Elysees, the Ramblas in Barcelona – whichever are your favorites, or wherever you've always wanted to go.

The list of examples on the website is interesting too, and shows us some match-ups we may have wondered about, like Texas vs. France (I’d love to see those two teams suited up against each other), and some we may not but that sound intriguing: Devils Tower vs. White House, Golden Gate Bridge vs. Brooklyn, and the Washington Mall vs. the Tuileries in Paris.

Of course, I couldn't resist comparing Portland and Brooklyn (NY), also. And Portland and Paris!

The site is copyrighted by Kelvin Thompson, who wisely notes: “This page may not be accurate. Don’t depend on it for anything important.” But it’s certainly a fun tool for map geeks – and there must be a lot of us in Portland; why else would that sticker of the map of Oregon with the heart logo be seen on every car and bike in town?

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Knotty 'n' Nice Macrame

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:45:00 -0700

Image: Shanita Sims

A good starter project if you're new to macrame: the super simple hanging plant holder.

It sounds odd, but tying a few knots can channel the 1970s and get you into a sundazed groove.

Soon you’ll be hanging out in Laurel Canyon with folk rock guitar chords wafting over you. Of course, today the tunes could be streaming from some sort of iDevice, and might as well be something new as old (Beachwood Sparks, Best Coast, or the Sadies will do it).

Image: Kristin Belz

Some of the circa 1976 "Macrame Elegance" creations, Michelle and Empress.

We’re speaking not just of music but of macramé, which has the power to warp time and space as well as rope. Just looking at a macrame creation will bring you back (regardless of whether you were alive in the '70s), but doing a project will immerse you.

Macrame DIY is a pretty easy and inexpensive way to time travel. Four knots is all you need to know to make Jonathan Adler's macramé owl wall hanging. It’s in his latest book, 100 Ways to Happy Chic Your Life.

The supplies for the hanging owl are simple too:

Several lengths of cotton cord (12 x 8’ long, 4 x 30” long)
2 large-holed light wooden beads
2 twigs or wooden dowels (10”-12” each in length)

Image: Kristin Belz
In 1976, in Provo, Utah, macrame was a knotty family affair; here, "Macrame Elegance" authors Glenn and wife Denni Simmons, and her siblings Doreene and Clint Clement.
Scissors
Heavy tape (blue masking tape, etc.)
Stiff board (pegboard, cardboard) on which to keep the project flat while you work

To make an ultra easy hanging plant holder, check out this one on Refinery 29 by Lisa Eppich and Christy Kurtz. All you need is some thin cotton rope and scissors, plus a bowl and plant to hang. Photos by Shanita Sims guide you step by step through the process.

Go wild with bright colors, or natural for the hempy hippie style. Either way, crafts stores or hardware stores will have a cotton cord that will work.

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The Perfect Easy Spring Salad

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:40:00 -0700

Image: Henk Vrieselaar

Quinoa is commonly used as a whole grain, but is actually technically a seed, botanically related to Swiss chard, spinach and beets.

Spring is the perfect time to start experimenting with salads. The weather warms up, the farmers markets open up, and the taste buds beg for something beyond the comforting hot casseroles and soups we’ve been warming to throughout the winter.

As part two of our ongoing guide to whole grains, we’ve got a starter salad that can easily be adapted to whatever vegetables call your name at the farmers market this week. It calls for asparagus, quinoa, and shiitake mushrooms, but you can substitute just about any combination of veggies and other whole grain you might have picked up instead.

Brown or wild rice, bulgur, wheat berries, and amaranth would all work well; each will give a slightly different effect depending on its texture, color and flavor – which is half the fun of experimenting with variations once you’ve got the basic recipe down.

This salad also is a place to start because it stretches beyond the typical oil and vinegar combination many of us gravitate toward in American, European-based cooking. The “dressing” or liquid that adds flavor is an Asian-inspired mixture using rice vinegar, soy sauce and mirin.

In recent years, quinoa has gone from being an exotic and intimidating food (most people wouldn’t dare try to pronounce it, let alone cook it) to being an intriguing and even popular grain even elementary schoolers are likely to know about (and eat). And so it's ironic to hear that, in scientific, botanical terms, quinoa isn’t actually a grain at all. It is the fruit of an herb in the goosefoot family, related to Swiss chard, spinach, and beets.

No matter what you call it, quinoa is well documented as a nutritional superfood – especially because, unlike most grains, it is a complete protein (which makes it especially valuable as a go-to for vegetarians and vegans). And quinoa has staying power: it'll soak in the flavors around it, tasting even better the second day (and lasting about four days in the fridge).

This recipe comes from the very thorough and inspiring new book, Grain Mains, by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough.

Quinoa with Asparagus and Shiitakes

1 cup white or red quinoa
1 pound asparagus spears
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ pound shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce (regular or reduced-sodium)
1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice

Fill a large saucepan about two-thirds full with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Stir in the quinoa, reduce the heat to low, and cook until the grains have developed their halos and are tender, about 12 minutes. Drain in a fine-mesh sieve or a lined colander set in the sink.
Heat a grill pan over medium heat or fire up the grill for direct, high-heat cooking. Coat the asparagus spears with the oil, then grill until browned, marked and tender, about 8 minutes, turning occasionally. Maintain the heat under the pan or on the grill. Transfer the spears to a cutting board and slice them into 1-inch segments.
Set the shiitake mushroom caps in the pan or on the grill grate over direct heat. Set a heavy flameproof lid – like the lid to a cast iron Dutch oven or even a panini or sandwich press – on top of them to weight them down. Cook for 1 minute. Transfer to the cutting board and slice into thin strips.
Pour the asparagus bits and mushroom slices into a serving bowl. Fluff the quinoa and dump it in as well, Stir in the remaining ingredients: the soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, orange zest, and orange juice.

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