Eating Locally in the Pacific Northwest

Farro All Dressed Up In Fresh Herbs

Herbs in the garden, a kind of culinary magic.
When I planted an herb garden just outside the back door ten years ago, I had no idea how much it would simplify and influence our cooking, the ability to have what is needed to brighten the flavor of almost anything. Like this farro salad for example, it was a step out the back door, snip a few pieces of this and that. Voilà. Well, almost.

This isn’t a precious garden, it gets some attention in the spring, cleaning up and rearranging, after that not much of anything. That’s the way with herbs, they like to rough it. They’d be good on a camping trip – hike for miles without water and then bed down for the night without any fuss. The Mediterranean landscape is in their genes and rocky scruffy soil and dry conditions make them feel right at home. Sure, they respond to a little TLC, but the point is they don’t want or need a lot of attention. Not at all like roses who will throw a temper tantrum on a whim, herbs are the least spoiled child in the garden. Leave them alone, they’re happy campers.

The convenience of having fresh herbs at hand is still such serendipity when I find that I have just what’s needed to make something delicious. I wanted to marinate a flank steak and realized that most of the ingredients were growing in the backyard: mint, oregano, marjoram, garlic, parsley; olive oil and red wine vinegar in the pantry. This happens a lot. The Roasted Tomato Salsa in The Herbfarm Cookbook goes with the steak and calls for, but of course, tomatoes which are not yet available locally. So, I made the ‘salsa’ minus its main ingredient and used it as a dressing for the cooked farro. With thinly sliced pieces of the grilled flank steak the whole thing was exceptional.

Fresh Herbs & Farro Salad: Plan on about an hour to cook the farro, less if soaked overnight. Measure five parts liquid to one part farro, boil gently for 50-60 minutes in salted water or stock. Farro is done when it’s tender, but still has a slight bite similar to al dente pasta. It doesn’t soak up the liquid as rice does, but expands and cooks in the ample liquid. Drain off excess when the farro is done. I made the dressing as it cooked and tossed it all together while farro was piping hot.

Farro is the term we’ve borrowed from the Italians to refer to emmer wheat which is now grown locally by Bluebird Grain Farms. (Check out Poppy’s previous post, Rice is Nice, but Farro is Local.)

Ingredients:

1 C faro w/ 5 C salted water. Lightly simmer together for about 1 hour. Drain. Yields 2 1/2 C cooked.

Herbed Dressing: (This is an altered version, without tomatoes, from Jerry Traunfeld’s Roasted Tomato and Herb Salsa, The Herbfarm Cookbook.)

Finely chop the onion, garlic and fresh herbs, set aside: 1/3 C red &/or spring onions, 1/3 C oregano, 1/3 C marjoram, 1 T each mint, parsley and chives, 1 T spring garlic or 1 garlic clove and 1 t jalapeno.

Mix together in a bowl: 2 T olive oil, 3 T red wine vinegar, 1 t honey, a pinch of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Add onions and garlic to olive oil and vinegar mix while farro cooks. When farro is done, drain and mix thoroughly with dressing and all of the freshly chopped herbs. An assortment of embellishments would complement this salad: a pinch of cumin, golden raisins, dried cherries, chopped nuts, or enjoy it simply with the herbed dressing. It can be made with rice, but the farro makes it local.

Serve Fresh Herbs and Farro Salad at room temperature along with anything you like or on its own. Add a handful of dried cherries or golden raisins to the recipe and it would partner beautifully with pork or chicken.

Wikipedia, Farro

Posted under: Eat Local, Grains, In The Garden