Tip of the Month - Quinoa

Quinoa seems to be one of the current "super foods" - it's a healthy grain that's conveniently packed with protein. It isn't super hard to make but I experimented with cooking it in my rice cooker anyway. The result was better than my stovetop efforts.

I used the same water to grain ratio for quinoa as I do for long grain white rice. I forgot to time it but it didn't seem to take to0 long, about 15-20 minutes.

Remember to thoroughly rinse quinoa before cooking regardless of what method you use, this will prevent a bitter final product.

Toad in the Hole

An English standard that I grew up with. It's definitely comfort food, not health food, but it's super yummy!

Toad in the Hole by Robert Gibert CC Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative works.

Ingredients
"Toad"
6-8 sausages

"Hole" (a.k.a. Yorkshire Pudding)
7/8 cup of flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup mile
1 tbsp melted butter

Fry sausages until cooked - put on papertowel/dishtowel to absorb fat.

Preheat oven to 450F

Sift salt and flour into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat eggs until thick. Combine with milk. Gradually stir milk & egg mixture into the flour. Add melted butter. Beat for at least one minute using a rotary egg beater or whisk. Put some oil, butter or fat into a flat bottomed glass dish (8x10 or 9x9) and heat into the oven. When fat is melted place sausages in the pan and put back in the oven to heat up sausages. When pan and sausages are hot remove pan from oven and pour batter over them. Cook for 20 minutes.

Tips for successful Yorkshire Pudding
Because I could make super fluffy Yorkshire Pud as a kid it became my job to make it whenever we had toad in the hole or roast beef. The picture above isn't my cooking, it is however a darned fine example of fluffy Yorkshire Pud. Here are some of my secrets:

• Beat the mixture with a rotary egg beater or a whisk - electric blenders just don't get enough air in (I was a lazy kid - if I used the manual method it was because it worked!).
• For super fluffy pud let the mix sit for 5-10 minutes then beat again for a minute. No idea why but this makes for a fluffier final product.
• Get your pan super hot before you add the batter.