If America really is a Melting Pot, combining a multitude of cultures into one big, satisfying stew, it’s most believably so in the kitchen. Nobody can convincingly argue this concept to my satisfaction as applied to a nation founded over the centuries by invasive species of the human variety in a bizarre and often violent series of waves, frequently waves that if they don’t actively seek to wipe out everything Other that made a beachhead on these shores before them, are still not very good at blending and assimilating and otherwise embracing each other. We’re fond of ‘talking the talk,’ so to speak, as long as the other guy is willing and able to do it not only in our preferred language but with the same point of view.
But when we get to the table, our omnivorous love of good things can at least fairly often override our worst instincts. It’s true that breaking bread together is one of the best ways of finding commonality and even, perhaps, community. So although it’s sometimes quite delightful to be thematic in our thinking and our tastes to the point of specificity, it’s also very possible to enjoy the bounty of whole parts of the world when one is hungry for ideas, culture and especially, for good food. One can easily find a north Indian restaurant or a Sicilian one or a New Orleans-style Cajun one, but it’s not unusual either to find eateries that have a wider-ranging reach: pan-Pacific, Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, or Mediterranean, perhaps. My own tastes are shaped not only by the foods and flavors I like, but of course by the versions of them with which I am familiar and those I adopt or adapt for my own purposes and interests.
So it’s quite common indeed to arrive at my table and find foods influenced by particular places’ or regions’ cuisines sitting side by side with foods from decidedly different ones, or even trying a little intermingling in one dish, just for fun. The other day the meal consisted of a warm quinoa dish with a bit of Persian inspiration, right along with a salad that had slight Japanese leanings. However incongruous they might be geographically, their flavors and textures seemed complementary enough to me, and I found the combination not only edible but pretty friendly after all. So here for your refreshment, and a table-top vignette of world peace, is a little lunch invention of the Persian-Asian persuasion.
Spiced Lamb Quinoa
Cook one cup of plain quinoa in water or (as I did) homemade broth until tender. While that’s cooking, brown 1/2 lb of ground lamb, seasoning it fairly liberally with salt, pepper, thyme and nutmeg. Set both of these elements aside while preparing and combining the following in a spacious bowl: about 1/2 cup each of crumbled feta cheese, sliced black olives of any variety on hand, chopped preserved lemon, diced dried apricots, and sliced almonds (plain or toasted), and about 1/4 cup each of chopped fresh mint leaves and sesame seeds (plain or toasted). Finally, mix the prepared quinoa with that bowl of flavor-boosters, and either layer on or stir in the ground lamb. Dress the dish with fresh lime juice, raw honey and olive oil (I used my favorite blood orange olive oil), and re-season the whole with salt or pepper or any of the other previously included seasonings to adjust to your taste.
Serve warm or hot–let your taste and the weather be your guide. This dish stores well in either refrigerator or freezer and can be reheated in the microwave once mixed. Vegetarians can certainly omit the meat, and those who don’t enjoy lamb might also like ground or diced chicken better in the dish.
Quick Green-&-Orange Salad
Assemble these ingredients and mix freely, or present separately for guests to mix: sweet orange sections, snap pea shoots and carrots are the ‘big three’ here. I put them in separate “stripes” in the serving dish to show off the alternating orange-green-orange of the simple ingredients, and topped the oranges and carrots with fresh lime zest and the pea shoots with fresh orange zest just to exaggerate the color effect.
I had some pre-shredded carrots handy and in retrospect would have preferred to shred my own with the coarse side of the blade rather than have the oversized bulk of store-bought shreds. The pea sprouts are easy to cut up once plated and look kind of pretty as a long-stemmed mini-bouquet, but I’m pretty pragmatic about my food (you may have noticed), so in future I’d probably chop those into 1″ lengths beforehand too. The orange (one large navel orange) was cut into about 1″ dice and was good and juicy.
The dressing for this bright fruit-and-veg combination was a simple blend of about 2 Tablespoons of minced pickled ginger (sushi gari), orange juice squeezed out of the peel I’d cut off the orange sections while dicing it, the juice of half a lime, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of ginger juice, and a hint of honey. The soy sauce makes the dressing a less than picturesque muddy color (maybe I should try white miso next time), so I served it separately so as not to spoil my little orange-green-orange picture before we chomped all of it into moot bits.
And if I am to make a statement about interculturalism or ecumenism or any such blending in the way of my household cuisine, it might just be that when we eat food it all gets turned into Us, respectively and eventually, kind of the same way that every one of us on the planet will all turn after living into the same dust (unless we get to be reincarnated), so why not simply embrace the differences that become one in us, eh? At least we’ll eat happily.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Cheers and bon appetit!
Thank you! To your health as well!
You are very welcome!
I love how we combine flavours from different countries nowadays, I do it all the time too. Love your quinoa dish with the preserved lemons. I discovered preserved lemons last year too and this is a nice way to use them. Yum!
Preserved lemons seem to me to do a wonderful job of bridging the sweet (i.e., dried apricots) and the savory/salty (feta). I’m finding more and more ways to love them!
You have a very creative thinking mind and you always see something related with philosophical thoughts in the life… So it is not only to share a recipe or food, you make it a great touches for beautiful mind voyage. This connection or the related point is amazing, I haven’t thought or looked on this way before… But how beautiful and how interesting and how true…I am wondering now the love that is passing through our stomach can bring us peace on this earth… Sorry dear Kathryn, I don’t want to bring negativity in your beautiful post, but in any way we can’t establish a real peace… Maybe today I am not thinking positive… I enjoyed so much to read you, I hope I didn’t read in wrong way… Thank you, with my love, nia
Of course I think you are right to wonder too, my dear Nia: how can this messy world learn to live and love together properly? I certainly don’t know. But if it can happen *any*-where on earth I think it might be most likely to happen at a shared meal. I certainly hope . . .
All my love,
Kathryn
I hope dear Kathryn… Art couldn’t make this… Sport too and music too… what remained to us these food culture in this globalism… š Thanks and Love, nia
I agree–embrace blending! Will be trying the quinoa recipe soon :-). Thanks for such a beautifully appetizing post.
I sometimes think I go overboard with the blending (especially when I photograph things I’ve made to eat and they all look too similar!)–hence the slightly *underdone* prep on the salad ingredients. Perhaps reaching for a happy medium, I will eventually learn better. But I still liked the taste of the stuff and didn’t go hungry, so all is not lost! š
xoxo
Oh thank god you do that too, often they say to me that does not GO.. well I think they GO together, and of course this collection of tastes on your table definitely GO just fine. You are a very good cook, this is lovely food.. and I am hungry and tired a bad combination.. c
If my personal cuisine had a name, it’d probably be something a little unflattering, like Mishmash or Chaotic Cookery, but I guess as long as nobody leaves the table starving we’re still doing okay! š
Have a nice one of your quickest fry-ups, my darling, and curl up in bed as soon as possible! xoxo
Tasty looking morsels there. The lamb one appeals to me the most. Eclectic Eatery!
Glad you like! š
this looks so good! i’ll be trying this out! thanks!
I hope you’ll enjoy it! Thanks for coming by, Ash! š
Goody, I am not the only one who mixes cuisines then – must be a great minds thing…
š Mandy
We’d better be careful that between the two of us we don’t implode anything with our vast communal greatness! š
Kathryn
Fabulous Foodie Tuesday array; recognize Corning Ware– Do you have the snap-on handle, interchangeable on all pieces?
No, I haven’t that handle goodie. Richard had the dandy six-piece Corning set (and grandparents who lived near Corning when he was little, too!) in the blue cornflower pattern, graduated sizes of casseroles with all of their lids intact, and we’ve still managed to keep them alive all this time. Classics!
I’m reading this at 11:28 a.m. and planned to read a few more blogs. I should have planned better. Your food posts make me hungry. Both dishes look scrumptious! And I enjoyed the commentary and connections you made to our great melting pot, or is that, potluck country.
I’m afraid I can’t do much about timing with hunger: I’m pretty much hungry all the time, myself, or at least my wishful thinking tells me I am.
You have provided is a figurative and a literal melting pot today in your kitchen! And I spy pickled ginger, love using preserved lemons, and I keep meaning to grow some pea shoots just for that purpose to have raw in salads, Claire
My reasoning is probably far more crass if I admit it would be kind of fun to grow them just so I could tell my visitors to feel free to go out in the garden and take a pea any time they like. š But I do love peas–shoots, snow peas, fairylike petit pois, mushy peas . . . ahhhh. Guess I *had* better plant some, and soon! š
I just have to get on the quinoa bandwagon. More importantly, I need to remember to buy some so that I can jump on the bandwagon. Having said that, I’m really intrigued by your orange-green-orange salad and its dressing. If our weather were anywhere near normal, this salad would bring Spring to the table in spite of the cold rain falling from gray colored skies outdoors.
I didn’t use quinoa in eons and suddenly just got the urge to give it a try again recently. Glad I did.
I can’t even begin to describe how delicious this all looks Kathryn! Mouth is watering!
Doesn’t stay usable forever, even in the freezer, but any time you show up at my table I’ll be happy to stop the mouth-watering for you with a fresh batch! š
I am not surprised to see you’ve blown away all the “boundaries” in cooking and have creatively combined flavors and cultures. This is just the sort of dinner I’d really enjoy tucking into! And what a pretty way to plate it!! xo Smidge
Whenever you come and visit me we’ll have some serious fun cooking together, I’m certain! š