Quinoa With Corn, Mint, And Scallions, Or, Think of The Peasants Linda!
I pride myself on how cleanly I can eat corn on the cob. In one miraculous maneuver (if I do say so myself), my head moving left to right like a typewriter, I consume the entire thing without leaving a single kernel behind. They are so detached so neatly that all that remains are long, empty furrows.
It’s a strange thing to be proud of, no? I learned this skill from my mom, the Queen of Economy, who never wasted so much as a single kernel of corn. She instilled this mindset in my sister and me to an almost obsessive degree. Case in point: at the end of dinner, a quick examination of the bowls would reveal three—mine, my mom’s, and my sister’s—to be completely spotless. Not a single grain of rice, a single grain of rice, left to speak of. My dad’s, on the other hand, is usually coated with a thin layer of the stuff, stained with residue from the meal. Oh Dad.
Like the children in Africa, us Chinese have our nongming, peasant class, to think of: every grain of rice left behind represents wasted toil on the part of the rice farmer. Of course, my dad comes from a family of rice farmers and he clearly isn’t heartbroken over the squandered rice. My mom has a retort to that though—his family had pigs to feed.
Anyway, whenever I use corn in recipes, I think about how my mom would have a fit seeing how much of the cob I waste when sawing off the kernels. All that wasted sustenance, Linda!
It’s a good thing I keep my cooking to a minimum when I’m visiting.
Today’s recipe is healthy and delicious, and comes with a huge serving of corn, which, when in season, glows, lovely and diffuse. I love eating it raw, and I think you will too, especially if you can get it fresh. While quinoa isn’t the most dazzling base for a summer side, this quinoa is light and fluffy, effervescent even, AND comes dressed in lemony butter. I’m sure you can imagine just what an effect lemony butter can have. Finally, the fresh mint and fresh scallion insert themselves—in their own unique ways—quite winningly, adding refreshing and ever-so-pungent notes (respectively) to the dish. All in all, I highly recommend making this as a counterbalance to a hefty platterful of meat.
QUINOA WITH CORN, MINT, AND SCALLIONS
Adapted from Gourmet
Serves 8
Ingredients:
4 ears corn, shucked
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup), melted
1 Tbsp mild honey
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cups quinoa
4 scallions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
Directions:
Since it’s the season, simply cut the corn kernels off the cob with a heavy knife. Otherwise, put corn in a 5- to 6-quart wide pot, add water to cover, and bring to a boil, covered. Remove from heat and let stand, still covered, for 5 minutes. Transfer corn with tongs to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, cut kernels off cobs with a knife.
In a (very) large bowl, whisk the lemon juice and zest, butter, honey, and salt/pepper until combined.
Cook the quinoa in a 4- to 5-quart pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Drain in sieve, then set sieve over same pot with 1 inch of simmering water (water should not touch bottom of sieve). Cover quinoa with a folded kitchen towel, then cover sieve with a lid and steam until quinoa is tender, fluffy, and dry, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand (still covered) 5 minutes.
Add quinoa to dressing and toss until dressing is absorbed. Then toss in scallions, mint, and more salt and pepper if needed.
Note: Unless you’re planning on feeding a crowd, I would highly recommend halving this recipe. It makes a lot more than you’d think.
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Reindeer Gingerbread Cookies
One of my new neighbors sent me a photo of reindeer cookies she found on Pinterest, using an upside down gingerbread man cookie. So of course, I had to try it out. I looked through a lot of images online and came up with a design that was a combination of several cookies I saw. Baking the cookies was the easy part, it’s the decorating that took forever because I am detail oriented and wanted things just right. I like how they came out and my daughter told me they were cute. It worth the effort.
I did not have a go-to recipe for cut out gingerbread men cookies, so I use Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe. It made 30 cookies. I even used the same plastic cookie cutter from the Wilton 101 Cookie Cutter set. But you can use the Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookie mix. I have used it before and it is very good.
For the outline I used the Wilton Gingerbread Candy Melt I had leftover from my Eggnog Cheesecake Truffles and also some Dark Cocoa candy melt. If you add a little vegetable shortening to the melted candy it is easier to use in a piping bag. I did use a #3 tip to do the piping, but if you cut a small enough hole in the piping bag you won’t need a tip. I used a toothpick dipped in candy melt to do the eyebrows.
Wilton has so many fun products like these candy eyes. I found them at Walmart, but I have also seen them in craft stores. They just makes this project easier.
For the noses, I ended up using red and brown Gingerbread M&Ms because they were larger and made for a funnier nose, but you can use regular M&Ms also.
To decorate the antlers with “ornaments” I used holiday sequin sprinkles. And for the “mistletoe” I used green maple leaves from my autumn sprinkle mix. I used Betty Crocker Cookie Icing in white as my glue for the sprinkles, M&Ms, and eyes. Toothpicks were also handy here to place the little sprinkles.
I also used the cookie icing to add “snow” to the antlers. After the icing dried I brush on some Wilton Silver Pearl Dust to make the “snow” shimmer.
I made a few slight variations on some of the cookies, like switching the dark cocoa candy melt for the gingerbread candy melt, using red maple leaves instead of the green ones, and changing the shapes of the mouths. You can make them any way you want. It’s about having fun!
Reindeer Gingerbread Cookies
by The Sweet Chick
Prep Time: 1 hour
Keywords: dessert snack gingerbread candy melt gingerbread m dark chocolate cookie icing Christmas cookie American winter
Ingredients (30 cookies)
- 30 gingerbread men cookies
- 1 cup Wilton’s dark cocoa candy melt wafers
- 1 cup Wilton’s gingerbread candy melt wafers
- 30 red or brown Gingerbread M&Ms (or regular m&ms)
- 1 package (7 oz.) Betty Crocker Cookie Icing in white
- 60 Wilton’s candy eyeballs
- 60 green candy leaves
- 1 container (1.3 oz.) Cake Mate Sequins holiday mix
Tools needed
- 2 Wilton’s Candy decorating bags
- several toothpicks
Optional
- Wilton tip #3
- Wilton’s Silver Pearl dust
Instructions
Place gingerbread men upside down (heads facing down) on wax paper or parchment paper.
Starting with one color at a time, melt candy melt as per instructions on the back of the package. Then place in candy decorating bag and snip off the tip.
Begin outlining the face and ears of the reindeer. If you are using the light brown candy melt for this, then prepare another decorating bag with the dark brown candy melt and add your antler design, inner ears, and mouth. Use a toothpick dipped in the dark brown candy melt to add the eyebrows.
If you used dark brown as your face outline use the light brown to add the antlers and inner ear. Then let candy melt harden.
Once candy melt has harden, dab a little cookie icing on the back of the M&Ms and place them on the cookie, above the mouth.
Next, dab some cookie icing on the candy eyes and add them to the face above the M&M noses.
Dab the backs of the green leaves with cookie icing and add them at the top of the reindeer head, between the antlers. Then dab a red sequin and add in to the center of the greens leaves to make the mistletoe.
Using cookie icing again as your glue, add different colored sequins to the antlers to look like ornaments. Use a toothpick to help you place them neatly.
Finally, dab some cookie icing on the antlers and the top of the head for some snow effect.
If you have Pearl Dust, brush some on the “snow” for some extra shimmer and a little bit on the M&M nose.
Let everything dry before moving the cookies to an airtight container.
note
If you do use a metal cake decorating tip for the piping, you have to work fast because the candy melt may harden in the tip and you won’t be able to place the bag with the tip in the microwave to re-melt it.
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