Saffron Rice with Curried Apricot Dressing

I miss posting my recipes.  Since April I have been enrolled in the American College of Education, a online masters degree program for instructional leadership.  There has been a lot said about online colleges, but I have to tell you that comparing my masters or Phd classes at UIC to this program, this is a lot more work.  Each week I have a paper (last week 17 pgs this week 13), 2 quizzes, 1 test, 3 discussion posts averaging 1 page each and around 75 pages to read.  Totally overwhelmed.  Plus I am doing my internship as a school administrator, working and coaching Special Olympics soccer.  My brain is about to explode and I spent 7 hours working on stuff for work today and needed a break.  Something that wasn't related to education.

This summer I didn't do much cooking.  I have been so wrapped up in this program that there really was not any time for it.  I was also dealing with switching doctors for my gastroparesis.  The best thing happened though, turns out that I do not have GP and am now on a medicine that is making my symptoms so much better.  I even ate ribs the other day without being in extreme pain for 2 days.  Woo hoo!   That does not mean that I am leaving vegetarianism behind.  Going back to meat, I find that eating well-made vegetarian meals is more flavorful.  However, now I will be able to have much more options when eating out (especially on vacation which was soooo hard for the past 4 years)

This has been my favorite recipe that I have made since April.  It is also a perfect fit for fall.  It has pine nuts and sweet potatoes but the apricot dressing gives it a great tartness.  The dressing also works awesome on salads.  

Saffron Rice With Curried Apricot Dressing

Adapted from Color Me Vegan 

Ingredients for Rice

3 Tbs olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups uncooked basmati rice

1/2 tsp saffron steeped in 1/4 cup warm water

3 1/2 cups vegetable stock

2 cups of cubed roasted sweet potatoes

1 tart apple, diced and tossed with lemon juice

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1/2 toasted pine nuts

Ingredients for Apricot Dressing

1/4 cup apricot preserves

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1 Tbs curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup oil

Salt to taste

In a saucepan, add 1 Tbs olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until softened.  Then add the cumin, pepper, and salt.  Saute for 1 min.  Add the rice and stir constantly for 2 min.  Add saffron in water and vegetable stock.  Bring to boil, cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 40 - 25 min until rice is cooked.  Toss peeled cubed sweet potatoes with 2 Tbs olive oil and roast on baking sheet at 450 degrees until slightly browned (around 30 min).  Also toast pine nuts.  

When rice is cooked, put in a bowl and add sweet potatoes, apples, scallions and pine nuts.  

To make dressing, combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until emulsified.  Add more spices to taste if you feel it is needed.  Combine most of the dressing with the rice and taste.  If you think it needs more dressing, add more.  Serve and enjoy!

Savory Stuffed Apples

This is one of my favorite recipes. I really like the Vegetarian Times "stuffed" recipes. My first true vegetarian dish in this "vegetarian diet exploration" was their stuffed peppers and they were so awesome that I didn't mind just eating vegetables. I made this before with apples that I got from the apple orchard (They had fallen apart so I wasn't able to take pictures) and they were much better than the apples that I just got from the grocery store out of season. Again, I wish there was an apple orchard around here. The one I went to in October was a good 100+ miles away but I so missed the smell that you savor when you walk into a apple orchard store along with apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. They also had the most amazing vidalia onion tomato salad dressing. I really wish I remembered when kind it was so I could try to find my own recipe.

Savory Stuffed Apples

Adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients

1 cup of vegetable broth

2 cups of water

1/2 cup of wild rice

1/4 cup of quinoa

2 Tbs olive oil

1 cup of shiitake mushrooms (finely chopped)

1/4 cup of red onion (finely chopped)

2 tsp of dried sage

1/4 cup cranberries (chopped)

4 medium apples (I used red delicious)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring 1 cup of water and vegetable broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add wild rice and reduce to medium low. Cover and cook for 50 minutes. Then stir in the quinoa and cook for 20 minutes more or until most of the water is absorbed.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and saute mushrooms for around 7 minutes. Stir in the sage and wild rice and turn the heat to medium high heat. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes to meld flavors. Then remove from heat and fold in cranberries.

Cut the apples in half through the stem and scoop out the core and seeds with a spoon, leaving a 1/4 in thick wall around the sides. Fill the apple halves with the rice mixture. Place it in a large baking dish and fill the baking dish with 1 cup of water (or 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup apple cider). Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 min - 1 hour (until apples are soft)

Apple Jellies

More apples you say? Yes, 8 more pounds of apples from our 2 apple trees at my parents house. By now we are sick of apple sauce, and our freezers are full of it, so I turned to a recipe that I tried once before...with dismal results.

This recipe and I have a love/hate relationship. On the love side, the apple jellies taste great (even when they haven't firmed up) and are a great alternative to more apple sauce for someone with 8 pounds of apples (this year, since I am not up to making gluten free bread each week, I am not making apple butter). On the hate side... they are horrible, horrible to make! Although the recipe (which I am going to send a link to below because both people somehow made it successfully) says that you only have to simmer over low heat for an hour. I did 6 hours with drops of hot apple napalm spiriting out of my pots. Then I put it in the oven for 4 hours. Did I also mention I put in two packets of pectin and separated the liquid into three different pots and later pans to try to reduce the amount of sauce I was trying to firm up. Wow. One small pan did firm up... AFTER 10 HOURS... but the other was still too liquid to cut. However, I ate it all (well I did send home a bit to my dad) and am trying to talk myself out of doing this again next year.

If you choose to attempt this recipe, I think one of the main things is the type of apples. I used red and golden delicious. Maybe their pectin content is too low because I followed the recipe step by step. Good luck and let me know if anyone actually makes it (in under 10 hours!)

Apple Jellies

Recipes at Lottie and Doof and at Supper In Stereo