Makes 4 main course servings

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped into ¼-inch dice
1 cup celery, peeled and chopped into ¼-inch dice
1 cup carrot, peeled and chopped into ¼-inch dice
1 cup fennel, tough outer leaves removed and chopped into ¼-inch dice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
2 anchovies, rinsed and chopped
3 cups thinly sliced kale (center rib removed)
1 cup farro (available in specialty food stores, Italian food stores and sometimes health-food stores)
4  cups vegetable stock, chicken stock or water
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon chopped lemon zest
¼ cup chopped green olives
½ cup chopped curly parsley
16 ounces Atlantic char or wild salmon, skin on, cut into 4 4-ounce filets
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup chopped pistachios, optional

Heat the 3 tablespoons olive oil in a dutch-oven over medium-high heat.  Add the onions, celery, carrots and fennel.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until tender and lightly browned.  Add the garlic, fennel seeds and anchovy and cook 1 minute.  Add the kale, farro, stock or water and bay leaves.  Season with salt and pepper.  Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the farro is tender, about 35 minutes, adding more liquid if necessary.  It should be quite creamy, like a loose risotto.  Remove the bay leaves.  Stir in the lemon zest, olives, and parsley.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Season the fish with salt and pepper.  When the pan is hot, add the fish, skin side down, reduce the heat to medium and cook 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fish and desired doneness.

To serve, put a spoonful of farro in the center of 4 warm plates.  Set a piece of fish on top.  Drizzle the fish with the remaining olive oil and the lemon juice. Sprinkle the pistachios over the top if desired.

Makes about 4 cups cooked farro.

According to celebrity chef Ming Tsai, shrimp fried rice was the first dish that he learned to cook as a child. Now, many years later, after training in France, Japan, and in restaurants around the country, the owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass., has updated the recipe to make it even more delicious and healthy. Ming created the recipe inspired by the Healthy Eating Pyramid. To learn more, go to NutritionSource.com at the Harvard School of Public Health website.

Ming is not only a member of the Nutrition Roundtable, but a national spokesperson for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), working to further education and research on food allergies. To learn more about Ming, his restaurant, books, and other activities, check out Ming.com.

Ming’s shrimp fried rice is a sumptuous meal-in-one dinner, and the leftovers are terrific for lunch or dinner the next day.

Enjoy!

Nina

Serves 4

1 pound baby shrimp
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 bunch scallions, white and green parts chopped and reserved separately
3 carrots, grated
4 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
6 cups shredded kale, 1/4-inch thick, stems and center ribs removed
5 cups leftover, cooked brown rice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat.  Add about 2 tablespoons of oil and swirl to coat the pan. When the oil shimmers, add shrimp, season with salt and pepper and stir-fry just until pink. Remove shrimp to a plate. Add a touch more oil and add the garlic, ginger, onion, scallion whites, carrots, celery and kale and stir-fry until softened, about 2-4 minutes. Add the rice and shrimp and toss thoroughly until heated through. Add the soy sauce and toss. Correct the seasonings and transfer to a platter and garnish with scallion greens. Serve immediately.

copyright 2008 Ming Tsai

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This is a transcript of “Pyramid on a Plate #3: Healthy Italian Food Exposed,” dated May 20, 2008.

Boy it’s hot back here.

Chef: You know what they say. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I’m out of here. I can’t stand it!

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds for Spices of Life. I’m thrilled to say we’re here for Gail and Walter Willett. We’re eating the pyramid, Italian style. We’ve ordered what are usually no-nos.

Walter Willett: Right. Ordinarily people are told to stay away from fried foods. But, frying isn’t really good or bad per se, it’s really what type of oil is used. We’ve checked this out with the kitchen, and the calamari is fried in non-hydrogenated canola oil. So this will be fun for us. I’m sure this will reduce your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease.

Nina: Very often, what we do with this is give tips. So I think one of the first tips is ‘Ask Questions,’ right?

Walter: Absolutely. And one of the first things that you want to know if you’re going to eat something that is prepared with any kind of oil, is what kind of oil they use. I’m pretty aggressive about it. If they don’t know, I go to the back of the kitchen and ask to see the labels.

Nina: You? Aggressive?

Gail: Walter will actually ask if he can go in the kitchen and look at their labels. And they will sometimes look at him like “I’m not sure.’ But he’ll stand up and go.

Walter: This is an educational opportunity for the restaurant staff too. Everybody learns, and I make sure I’m going to have a healthy meal that way.

Nina: Second tip, is that we’re going to eat according to your wonderful pyramid. So we’ve ordered lots of vegetables, a fish and some chicken. We ordered some grilled vegetables with balsalmic vinegar and fresh herbs, which will be delicious. One of the things we try to do at Spices of Life is to show people how eating healthy can be delicious.

Walter: You can’t go wrong here.

Nina: I think that’s the message we need to give people that “healthy” is not a four-letter or five-letter or six-letter word. It really can be as enjoyable an experience as eating the other way.

Walter: In fact, it’s usually better. The less healthy foods – fast-food, that kind of stuff – are usually monotonous in flavor, bland, quite salty. Here we’re going to have tremendous variety. Whole grains have more texture, more flavor. This is going to be a better meal, than you would get eating unhealthily.

Nina: Another tip that Eleanor, the manager, said, is to ask about the source of the food, which is a really great idea. At many good restaurants the chef will develop relationships with local growers, or with very good beef and chicken places. I think that is the sign of a really great restaurant, if they know where the food comes from.

Walter: And it’s almost sure to be fresher and more flavorful if that is the situation.

Nina: Look at that! Isn’t that gorgeous? It’s beautiful!

Walter: Do you know where your vegetables are from?

Eleanor (Vice President of Operations): Yes. Most of them come from Sid Waner, who is a provider here in Massachusetts, that has all natural, organic farmers that are co-oped into helping them out. Then we also have Eva, who is a wonderful woman, down in Darmouth, MA, that does all organic herbs and all sorts of fabulous things. So a lot of those are coming from there. And Equinox Farms, which is also does organic farming in Massachusetts.

Nina: Fabulous. It’s gorgeous.

Walter: We want to hear about the source of the chicken.

Steve Brown (Co-head Chef): We bring this up through Cambridge Meatpacking, they call it FreeBird now, it’s in Amish country. A lot of the farms down there are organically raising their chickens. We found this was the most flavorful. We’re going for – it’s prime, it’s flavor, it’s tenderness. There is so much going on. And people are happy. We’re happy. We did all of the blind taste-testing, you know.

Nina: Oh you did? Wow. Blind taste-testing. So you guys are serious!

Steve: Oh we’re serious. So now we’ve reached where we want to be and other people are coming – try this, try that.

Nina: Here we have our next extraordinarily beautiful dish. This is the grilled scallops with whole wheat pasta and garlic chives. It’s an amazingly plentiful portion. How many scallops would you say, Walter? Would you take half of this?

Walter: That’s a whole big meal in itself. Oftentimes we might order two appetizers and one entrée and share the entrée.

Nina: Another tip!

Gail: Another thing you could do is take half of this home and have it for lunch the next day.

Nina: Exactly! So you don’t have to cook. Gail and I think in the same direction! This is Nina Simonds from Spices of Life. Thank you to the Willetts for eating the pyramid Italian-style. I think we did it in grand style, wouldn’t you say?

Walter: I was going to say this was a huge sacrifice.

Nina: And how do you say bon a petit in Italian?

Walter: Ciao! Bon a petito!