I am intrigued by recipes that use one ingredient in different ways creating a dish that is diverse in flavors and textures. One example is eggs benedict. It uses eggs in two ways: poached on a muffin or toast as the star topped with Hollandaise sauce, made with egg yolks and butter. Astonishing how different the egg is in this dish. Another example is deviled egg that uses mayonnaise to devil the egg yolk. Again, mayonnaise traditionally uses egg yolks as an emulsifier of oil.
Today, I was contemplating lunch and searching online for inspiration. I found recipes using traditional ingredient combinations, like the three sisters (corn, squash, and beans). One recipe, “Oaxaca squash vine soup with corn dumplings” uses just about all parts of the squash plant: the leaves, the vine, blossoms, and the squash itself. I knew you could eat the young leaves of the squash plant. I had even tried it, but wasn’t convinced it was worth the effort to harvest young squash leaves when I had plenty of New Zealand spinach growing in my garden. I may give squash leaves another try —alas not today, as I don’t have squash because I started with it late this year. My plants are still too small to spare any tender leaves.
The recipe helped me decide on today’s lunch. I used seasonal ingredients, about half from my garden: Corn dumplings in a light broth with roasted green beans, sweet corn and cherry tomatoes. Because it is an overcast day, I didn’t mind the broth or soup character of the meal. And I love dumplings, so how could I pass on it? The corn dumplings were the star, almost like a gnocchi, made with corn flour and sourdough starter discard. For Carlos’ sake I used millet sourdough and a bit of cornstarch to keep everything together. Just a bit of the broth, I used to cook the dumplings in, is served here.
As a quick appetizer, we had toasted sourdough bread (Millet Sourdough and Spelt Buckwheat) with homemade tapenade. Amazing!