The Accidental Vegetarian

Vegan Tofu Parm

2009-05-18T09:46:00.002-04:00

My husband, the Carnivore, turns 32 today, and of course, he's going to ask for his normal birthday meal - Chicken Parm. Now, he loves this stuff like white loves rice, so of course I'm going to make it for him.

Typically what we do is swing from the carnivore end of the spectrum in winter to the vegan end in summer. Spring and Fall are transitions. It keeps no one extremely happy all the time, and everyone very happy some of the time.

And it keeps me on my toes.

Honestly, after a winter of 'flexitaring' over to the meat side of the pond, I'm just kind of 'done' with meat - and I'm allergic to dairy - so I've developed this variation of his favorite meal for myself.

Tofu Parmesan is surprisingly easy to make, if you have a few basic ingredients preassembled. This vegan version omits the traditional egg dip in favor of Italian dressing, which adds a lot of flavor to the meat itself. You’ll want to ensure that the dressing is vegan.

The addition of seasoned breadcrumbs enhances the dish, so that every bite is packed with taste. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled and frozen. Simply freeze the dish after it has been assembled and before it has been baked the second time. To reheat, place - frozen - in a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes or until heated through.

1 14 oz package extra firm tofu, drained well

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp tumeric

1/4 c bottled Italian Dressing

1/2 c commercial vegan parmesan, hemp nuts, or almond parmesan

1/3 c Seasoned Bread Crumbs or Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

2 Tbsp oregano

1/2 t salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 jar commercial spaghetti sauce

8 oz vegan mozzarella cheese or 1 recipe dairy free mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Slice extra firm tofu into ‘patties’ - each 14 oz block of tofu should yield 4 patties.

Mix garlic powder, salt, pepper, and tumeric and sprinkle evenly over all sides of tofu patties.

Stack patties on top of one another and place into a freezer bag. Freeze at least 24 hours or up to 3 days. Thaw in the fridge overnight.

Very gently squeeze any remaining moisture from patties with a paper towel.

Brush Tofu Patties with Italian Dressing. Allow to marinate an hour.

In a medium bowl, combine vegan parmesan substitute, hemp nuts or almond parm; bread crumbs or flour, oregano, salt and pepper.

Shake excess dressing off of tofu patties and dip into ‘cheese’/bread crumb mixture, turning and pressing to coat well. Lay onto a rimmed, greased cookie sheet and allow to sit for 10 minutes, to allow coating to set. Spray with cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake breaded patties at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Place baked patties in a 2 quart casserole dish. Top patties with a generous amount of spaghetti sauce. Evenly divide the vegan mozzarella cheese or Non Dairy Shreddable Cheese between the patties.

(You may freeze extra servings at this point.)

Turn oven to 425 degrees. Place patties in oven and bake until cheese is melted, about 10-15 minutes. Serve with gf spaghetti (we like Tinkyada) and sauce.

2009-05-11T15:23:00.004-04:00

There's a lot of great information out there in the health food community. And a lot of weird, unscientific, hinky stuff, too. How do you figure out what to believe? Well, if you're smart, you do your research...

Let me preface this article by saying I love raw foods. I love the creativity of the cuisine. I love the fresh, local approach to diet. I love eating salads and nuts and all kinds of cool things. I am a raw foodie, a member of several raw food communities, and an active participant in recipe creation.

That said, I'm a big believer in doing things that make sense. And in the Raw Community, there's advice and recipes founded on food science, and then there's everything else, founded on food philosophy.

For the purposes of this article, I'm going to define science as

knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method... a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws.

Philosophy, on the other hand, I'm going to define as

a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means... an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs... a theory underlying or regarding a sphere of activity or thought... the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group.

Science seeks to answer the hows of the universe, while philosophy seeks to answer the whys.Science tells you that the average, mildly active adult human body needs .8-1.8 gm of protein per kg of body weight.You believe that getting this protein from animals is wrong or acceptable based on your... Philosophy.

So what does this have to do with raw food? In the raw food community - a great, grassroots community if there ever was one, there's often very little distinction made between science and philosophy.

There are great leaders within the RFC, who also follow scientific evidence in making suggestions about what to eat and when and how to best prepare it for assimilation into the body. But there are others who offer advice based on philosophy, and while philosophy's great in helping us determine why we do what we do, it can sometimes get a person into trouble nutritionally.

The idea of living a "100% Raw Lifestyle" is a philosophy. The philosophy says that since raw food is good for you, the more raw the better, and a completely raw diet is best.

The extension of this idea - cooked food is toxic, and raw food is health-giving - is a cornerstone of many raw food communities. But does this philosophy always hold up to scientific scrutiny? Below are some examples of what has been scientifically tested and determined regarding claims of

Nutrient Absorption

Philosophy: Since man's earliest diet was 100% raw and vegan, the raw food diet is sufficient to provide ALL nutrients necessary for health, in sufficient quantities.

Science: A strict, raw vegan diet provides insufficient levels of some nutrients, such as B-12 and lycopene.

The B-12 issue is a particularly serious one. Several recent studies have shown that the effects of a strictly raw, vegan diet leads to malabsorption of vitamin B-12 in roughly 80% of adherents.

B-12 - found mostly in animal sources such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, and cheese - is necessary for cell division and growth and for proper function of the immune system. A lack of B-12 can lead to low energy, dementia, even senility. The science is pretty clear: find ways to get B-12 into your diet, or suffer permanent neurological and physical damage.

Traditional vegan sources, popular among raw foodists - such as spirulina and other seaweed, are not assimilable in the human body.

When Doctor Gabriel Cousins followed the science and began recommending supplementation in this article he was seen, by some, as a sell-out for admitting that 80% of people cannot successfully consume a completely vegan diet without additional human-active B-12 supplementation.

The 100% Raw Food Philosophy insists that such a supplement - which is not live nor plant based- would be unacceptable. Adherence to the philosophy rather than the science, in this case would lead to serious and perhaps irreversible consequences for most people.

Philosophy: Since raw food is live and full of enzymes, the body absorbs the nutrients better.

Science:Blood Concentration levels of antioxidants such as vitamins C, E, Bta-Carotene, and Copper among raw-vegans was significantly higher than among omnivores.

In this case, claims of greater absorption of nutrients made by raw foodists are backed by science. However the explanation differs as to 'why' greater absorbtion occurs.

Bioavailability of nutrients was similar in both raw and cooked foods, where similar quantities of nutrients were consumed. Scientific studies indicated again and again that the reason behind this greater level of concentration in the blood of subjects was the greater consumption of quantity of antioxidant dense foods.

In some cases, the absorption of nutrients was better after cooking, when enzymes had been destroyed, then before. The Journal of Nutrition, in 2001, showed that some nutrients were better absorbed after cooking, and new, beneficial compounds were formed during the cooking process.

Carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers and tomatoes, among others supplied more antioxidants, such as carotenoids and ferulic acid, to the body when cooked than they did when raw. These nutrients are important in destroying precancerous cells and in antioxidant activity within the body.

For instance indole, an organic compound, was formed when cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, were cooked. According to research in the Journal, indole helped kill precancerous cells before they turned malignant. For someone using diet to treat or prevent cancer, it would appear that consuming some cooked vegetables would actually be preferable.

There are more examples, but I'm not trying to be exhaustive here... If you'd like to do that go here.

Many of us came to the raw food community in search of greater health. If science says that it's more life-giving to eat kale when it is cooked, then eat kale cooked. If science shows that you're probably going to need B-12 supplements, get some B-12 supplements.

There is nothing healthier or holier about ignoring scientific data for the sake of food philosophy.

My approach - one I recommend to all newcomers in the diet - do your research, learn your facts, and enjoy your food!

Earth Week: One Small Step, try gardening

2009-04-22T11:26:00.007-04:00

Wondering what you can do this week to save the world? Why not plant a veggie garden?

There are about a billion reasons to plant your veggies:

Read More...

Really Good DF Cheese, A Primer, with Cheddar Recipe

2009-02-28T22:10:00.007-05:00

Nopers, people, your eyes are not fooling you. What you are staring at is homemade vegan cheese, shredded for prettifulness. You may be wondering how on earth I did that...

Glad you asked!

In this blog post I'm going to clue you in on the wonders of dairy free cheese. Hopefully by the time you've read this article and tested out my sample recipe, you'll understand the 'why's of dairy free cheese making and will be able to use the knowledge to make your own tasty cheese alternative.

Okay, so normally I'd launch into the many, many reasons why people choose to use or make dairy free cheeses - you know the drill - veganism, dairy allergy, dietary restrictions due to religious preferences that can't quite silence the siren call of cheeseburgers at midnight.... But my guess is that if you're searching the internet for 'dairy free cheese' or 'vegan cheese' or what-have-you, you don't really need a primer on the 'why nots' of dairy and are looking for something simple to get down to business.

And chances are if you've searched for a vegan or dairy free cheese recipe, it's because you've:

a) just paid entirely too much for something that smelled like stinky feet and tasted like turpentine

b) tried a recipe that just frankly SUCKED monkey eyeballs. You know the recipes.

There are several reasons typical vegan cheeses don't taste good to regular folk - among them the fact that vegans typically don't remember what real cheese tastes like and therefore have nothing to use as a Constant, to steal a term from my beloved show Lost (Best. Show Ever!)....

Penny is Desmond's constant, you see, which means he can't get lost in time anymore and(ahem...). Oh yes, this is a post about cheese. Where where we????

Cheddar is my constant. And vegans generally don't have cheddar as a constant. They have some overpriced form of soy cheese or something else barely palatable. And therefore anything homemade is bound to be an improvement. Unless you're a newbie to the whole enterprise and therefore not willing to settle for cheeze whiz flavored every-kind-of-cheese.

Another reason is that most vegan cheeses are ALL WRONG when it comes to the proportions of ingredients. The fat, sodium, and calorie count are all crazy and therefore the mouth feel is usually odd at best and nasty or worse otherwise.

Why does this happen? Mostly because people don't think aboutthose things. Fat content and protein and mouth feel and sodium are hugely important, but when you're mostly thinking about things like making a cheese 'sharper' or 'more melty' you forget that the mouth relies upon these cues as heavily as taste.

Honestly, though, I've seen enough Jo Stepaniak rip-off recipes to think that people don't really go outside of the box in how they formulate a cheese recipe, even for taste. If tahini worked for Jo, tahini works for them. And they forget to specify which tahini (trust me, people, it does make a difference!) or, or, or... And so they end up with a cheese that's all wrong on mouth feel and even wronger on taste.

And Jo's recipes - some of which are quite good, in all fairness - are, in the end, created by a long-term vegan. Which sometimes leads to strange cheese, indeed.

Which is how you - one of the smart ones - ended up here, learning how to make a proper cheese.

Okay, so here's the Food Science Lite of cheese making. Follow these rules and you'll be able to make a cheese to your liking:

1. Learn the Macros of the Cheese you're trying to make

By macros, I mean Macronutrients: the calorie, fat, carb, protein and (in the case of cheese) sodium content of the particular cheese you're trying to make.

This is very important, because you're going to have to replicate as closely as possible this series of numbers. The closer you get to the real macros the more likely you are to reach a satisfactory recipe.

Most dairy cheeses are high on three counts: Fat, Sodium, and Protein. If your macro count is too low in these three areas, your cheese will taste and feel 'off' or 'flat'.

Dairy Cheeses also happen to generally be low in carbohydrate. If your count is too high in this area, you'll end up with a 'sweet' cheese that tastes too much like a processed cheese or a pudding. You see this mistake in a lot of cheeses that rely on oats as a binder.

2. Find acceptable substitutes for those macros

You absolutely must match each macro for the cheese to 'feel' right in your mouth and to satisfy you properly. The easiest way to do this is to plug your ingredients into an online software like fitday or The Daily Plate and see what your macros look like compared to the dairy cheese you're trying to replicate. Let's take each macro at a time and list some of the possibilities you could use, by way of example:

Calorie - Calories will generally take care of themselves. If your other macros are right, that is. If your calories are low and your macros are not right, look for ways to boost the calories using ONLY the macros that you need.

Fat - Dairy Cheeses utilize saturated fats. This is very important for the mouth feel and consistency of the cheese. If you want a shreddable cheese that melts under heat, you're going to need some form of solid fat. You could use any number - Crisco, Earth Balance sticks, Palm oil... but I think virgin coconut oil is perfect for this application and tastes best in the finished product.

Coconut oil is also a beneficial saturated fat - it boosts your metabolism, helps your nerve function, and does all kinds of friendly things to your system, so you don't have to feel quite so bad about chomping it up. It also gets really hard in the fridge, which will help when you're attempting to shred your finished dairy free cheese.

Other great sources of fat are nuts (which also add protein and body) and tahini, which also adds a 'bitter' or cultured taste for those who wish to avoid soy.

Carbs - Most dairy cheeses are low in carbs, so you're going to want to avoid high carb ingredients in many applications. Keep this in mind when formulating a recipe. There are a few exceptions, I've found, but in general adding grains or sugars to a cheese recipe is a big no-no.

Protein - Most dairy cheeses have about as many grams of protein as fat. This can get tricky. Vegan sources of protein also tend to be higher in carbohydrate, so you're going to have to carefully balance a few protein sources in a single recipe to ensure that the ratios stay in place. Great sources of vegan protein include: nutritional yeast (which also tastes cheesy), nuts, soy, tahini (ground sesame seeds), miso (fermented soy paste - which helps add a 'cultured' or aged taste to a cheese), and protein isolates, like pea protein isolate and soy protein isolate.

In general I avoid the isolates - you can usually get a good ratio of protein and fat from other nonspecialized sources and the texture tends to be better. Those with a nut or soy allergy, though, may need to utilize something like a pea protein isolate.

It's important here to add something that, while it doesn't actually add protein, does something that the casein protein in dairy cheeses usually does - this is agar. Agar is a dried seaweed/seaweed extract that can be used interchangeably as a substitute for gelatin. It comes in two forms - flakes and powder. The powder is about twice as strong as the flakes and dissolves more easily, meaning less time in the kitchen. Agar is pretty expensive, so once you find you'll be making a lot of cheese you should probably buy it online. Non vegan people could use gelatin instead of agar, in roughly the same amounts, and this will also add protein to the finished recipe, but I wouldn't recommend it. An advantage agar has over gelatin is that it sets at room temperature, so you can leave your finished cheese on the counter without it turning into a pile of goo. Agar seems to melt more easily, too, which makes it the preferred of the two, even for non vegans.

Sodium - Here you can use normal salt to increase the sodium to the proper levels. The reason dairy cheeses tend to be so high in sodium is that many of them are salted during the curing process. This helps leach out fluids, preserve the milk until it ages, and adds a pleasing taste dimension. This, next to fat, is one of the most important macros to check for correctness. Another less effective method of adding sodium is using celery juice in place of water.

3. Determine which taste components are needed

Every dairy cheese has a 'flavor profile' - sharp, sweet, bland, smoky. This flavor profile is very important to match, if you want the cheese to taste right, as well as feel right. Your homemade cheese will benefit from melding for at least 4 hours or overnight - this allows separate taste components to mellow and mesh and will give you the most authentic taste. It's important to note that some seasonings sharpen over time (like garlic) which others mellow, and what tastes 'right' when the cheese is fresh may be too strong or weak once it's set.

These are the flavor components of most cheeses:

Salty - Most aged cheeses are very salty. In general the sharper the cheese, the saltier the taste. Also, anything brined (like feta) will be sharper. Flavor enhancers for this include: salt, nutritional yeast, miso

Sweet - The fresh, unaged cheeses tend to be higher in carbohydrate content due to the higher lactose content (aging destroys or eats this sugar in aged cheeses). This includes cream cheeses and ricottas as well as some 'stretchy' cheeses like mozzarella. Flavor components that add to this are sugars, some nuts like macadamia or almond, some grains like rice or corn. In general unless you're creating an unaged cheese sub, you won't need a lot of additional sweetening.

Savory/Umami - This flavor profile comes from the aging process of cheeses. THe more aged a cheese, the more important this flavor profile becomes. You'll want to use things like miso, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, ume plum vinegar, and onion and garlic powders.

Bitter - Bitter taste in cheese is often so slight as to be unimportant, but the bitter taste profile can exchange to a degree with umami or savory taste. A good example of this is Tahini, which can sometimes substitute for the umami taste for those who do not want to use a soy miso.

Sour - Sour taste is a by product of aging or brining dairy cheeses and is an important compenent of taste as long as it doesn't overwhelm the palate. Flavor components here can be: vinegars, lemon juice, citric acid or cream of tartar, or lactic acid cultures (which can be vegan, if ordered specially). This is particularly important in cultured dairy subs like sour cream and cream cheese, where a lactic acid culture or probiotic is ideal for recreating the essential flavor of the item.

Others- taste components like annatto (common in orange cheeses), turmeric, tomato paste, liquid smoke, and others can all be part of the non dairy cook's arsenal. Used sparingly these flavor constituents can all play a part in bringing together a taste reminiscient of the real thing.

Some things to note about non dairy cheeses:

While you may be able to replicate the taste and mouth feel of a cheese, it is very hard to replicate EVERY aspect of dairy cheese.

A 'for instance': It is possible to get a melty cheese that stretches, for instance, but you must use gelatin in place of agar (and enough of it to make the room temperature cheese gagolicious) - certainly not an ideal situation for a vegan. Most vegan melty cheeses will not truly melt until direct high heat is applied (like a broiler) and then a gently spreading of the 'melted cheese' with a knife may help the process along. And then they will not stretch - you end up with more of a cheese sauce type thing, with a lovely skin. Not bad, but not 'stretchy'. Be warned.

Another 'for instance': A good vegan cheese is shreddable, but it doesn't usually hold up as well to rough handling as dairy cheese. The reason is that the casein, which forms strong webbed bonds in normal cheese, makes for a stronger support system than the agar. The solution is to only shred very cold non dairy cheese (allowing the fats to be as solid as possible and the agar to be as firm as possible) and to do so gently working in one direction as you glide the cheese along the shredder.

You're going to want to create your cheese to be ideal for the final presentation - will you be melting it on a pizza? shredding it for salad? putting it in a sandwich? Each of these options will require you to make some decisions about ratios of things like agar and flavor components, and you should keep that in mind when deciding how to tweak your recipe. For example, I tend to use less agar in my cheddar cheese when I'm using it for a baked mac and cheese (where I use it hot as a melted cheese sauce) than I do when I want to shred it for salads.

Moving on to the recipe....

Here's a basic recipe for a good block (shreddable, meltable) cheddar cheese. You'll need to let the cheese 'cure' in the fridge at least overnight, in order to allow it to set properly and to ensure best flavor. This cheese was created to replicate Helluvagood's sharp cheddar cheese and makes slighly more than a pound of cheese. Remember - you may prefer a sharper or milder cheddar cheese, so feel free to play with the flavor components until you get a taste you prefer, but don't forget to double check your macros!

I think you'll find this equal to or superior to the vegan cheddars available commercially or in recipe form on the web.

This is NOT a tweak on anyone else's version of vegan cheese and is original to me, so you'll need to notify me if you do share this recipe (feel free to share with everyone! If you want to post this recipe elsewhere, please feel free, but remember to link back to this post and my original recipe.) Thanks!

(Notes for tweaking to omit tomato produces, nuts or soy are below the recipe)

Naomi Poe's Vegan Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1 1/2-3 c water
1-2 Tbsp agar powder (or 5 tbsp agar flakes) - please note, brands of agar perform differently, and this amount needs to be altered to YOUR brand's strength
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 1/2 c blanched, slivered almonds *
1 c nutritional yeast
1/4 c white miso **
2 tbsp tomato paste ***
1 lemon -flesh and juice only (NO seeds or skin)
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp salt

Oil, spray or grease a small rectangular container or loaf pan.

In a small saucepan, mix the agar powder and 1 1/2 c water and let sit for a few minutes. Bring to a boil on medium heat, adding the coconut oil. Let boil, stirring occassionally, for abotu 3 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of your food processor, blend the almonds. At first they will turn into almond meal and then will begin to turn into almond paste. Add the miso and nutritional yeast and process until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl and turns a bit doughy. Add the tomato paste, lemon, onion powder and salt and blend until thoroughly combined.

At this point, the agar and coconut oil should be melted and bubbling like thick syrup or hot gelatin. Quickly pour into the food processor. Process the whole thing until smooth. This should be about the consistency of cake batter or smooth cheese sauce. Add a little water if necessary - up to 1 1/2 c, if you find your mixture is too thick, and blend again.

Scrape into the prepared container and let cool uncovered, at least 3 hours or overnight, in the fridge. You may cover it after 3 hours. This will continue to flavor-meld and is better if left overnight. May be shredded or used anywhere cheddar is called for.

* Those avoiding nuts can use plain whole fat soy milk instead of the water in the recipe (omit the nuts entirely) OR may substitute raw hulled sunflower seeds instead. You should also increase the agar by 1 tbsp ( 3 tbsp of flakes) to thicken the body. This will yield a smoother, softer cheese.
** Those avoiding soy can use tahini instead, and should also do one of the following:
-substitute 2 tbsp ume plum vinegar for half of the lemon
- increase the onion powder by 1-2 tsp
*** Pureed red pepper can be used instead of tomato products. Those avoiding nightshades can use 1-2 tsp ground annatto (american saffron) and a dash of turmeric instead

Rough MACROS

Real Dairy Cheese:
per ounce
114 Calories, 9g Fat, 176 mg Sodium, 0g Carbs, 7g Protein

Naomi Poe's Vegan Sharp Cheddar Cheese:
per ounce
119 Calories, 9g Fat, 208 mg Sodium, 6.5g Carbs, 5.4g Protein

Potato-Lentil Kachoris (Vegan)

2009-01-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

This week's Menu Swap ingredient is Dal (lentils), chosen by our beloved SeaMaiden. Not even sure if I'm in the swap, right now, since I'm still catching my breath from updating my company's website, but I thought I'd jump in anyway, and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday nights at our House, we try to expand the palate. Generally we stick to Indian food, in honor of our Worldvision Child, K* - I'd stuck with South Indian food (K*'s area of the country) predominately, until my poor 5 year old just couldn't handle the spiciness anymore. Now I try a wider range - my 7 year old still begs for hot, hot, hot food - and I also incorporate some non-Indian food, like Moroccan, Persian, or Japanese. Anything to broaden the cultural horizons.

This week, since dal was conveniently on the list, I decided to scrap the meal I was going to make and try my hand at Idli. Unfortunately, Idli takes a long presoak, which I frankly, couldn't be fussed enough to do last night, so I skipped it completely, and moved on to Kachori.

Quick Note To Self: If you can't be fussed to do something, it's probably not a good idea to embark on an Indian Food Recipe, since Indian Food is all about the fuss. Just Saying

Kachori are savory-sweet stuffed balls of whole wheat dough, deep fried and served with 'pickle', which as far as I've been able to ascertain is a more spiced and often sweeter version of our own, American lactic acid fermented pickles.

Now, obviously, if you're gluten free, like my family, there's going to have to be some adjustments to the recipe off the bat. I subbed in my trusty Better Batter Gluten Free Flour for the whole meal, and in order to replicate the taste, I also used a judicious amount of my favorite teff and sorghum flours. This created a 'whole wheat' that was perfect for the dough.

The original recipe as I received it was also a bit heavy and spicy for both Smurfling and The Carnivore, so I omitted the 'chilli powder' (cayenne) called for and added a subtle paprika. I also substituted potato for half of the lentil paste. This lightened the filling and made it more subtle. I thought it was a definite improvement, even though I'm typically a lentil lover. It does change the taste, making the overall impression much sweeter, but it was fantastic.

Feel free to oven bake these, but you won't get the same texture as the real deal, which must be fried.

Have fun! This recipe serves 4 as an entree. You'll want to serve it with some 'pickle' and - if you're like me, a refreshing green salad, to help balance the heaviness of the meal.

Potato-Lentil Kachoris

Filling:
2 c cooked dal (split lentils)
2 c cooked, mashed potato
1 tsp oil or df margarine
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/4 tsp cardomom, ground
1/4 tsp black pepper
pinch each of garlic and onion powder (you can use hing, but I didn't have any)
pinch ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika (or if you're daring, cayenne)

Dough:
1 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
2/3 c teff flour
1/3 c sorghum flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil
1 1/2 c hot water

Oil, for frying.

Instructions
In your food processor, blend the cooked lentils and potatoes until a paste forms. Add the oil or melted margarine, the salt and spices, and blend some more.

Heat a pan over medium high heat and turn the potato-lentil mixture into it. Stirring vigorously, cook the potato lentil mixture until it forms a ball and pulls away from the pan - this should take 5-6 minutes. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine Better Batter Flour, teff, sorghum, and salt. Stir in the oil and mix until the oil is evenly distributed. Add the hot water 1/2 c at a time and knead together - this should form a sticky dough. Set aside for 10 mintes.

The dough should have gotten less tacky at this point - more like pla-dough. Divide into 14 balls.

Faltten each ball into a disk, in the palm of your hand. The disks work best about 3- 4 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick.

One disk at a time, take a spoon and fill the center of the dough disk with the cooked potato-lentil paste. Form a ball around the paste, bringing the edges of the dough together and pinching to seal. Very slightly flatten the balls with your palms.

Heat enough oil to come halfway up the kachoris. Set the heat to medium. Place a few kachoris at a time in the oil, and fry until golden brown. Serve hot.

Vegan Cinnamon Streusal Pumpkin Muffins

2009-01-19T11:09:00.004-05:00

Baby, it's cold outside!

Frigid. Freezing. Subarctic, even.

And when it gets this cold, it's time to pull out the major comfort food. Cold mornings around here call for hot tea and something warm to nosh on, and this week, nothing sounded better than a plate of hot, soft, streusal topped muffins - the scent of spices filling the warming kitchen as the tea brews and the jam is warmed gently for spreading.

I have been trying to slowly wean my family off of its enormous appetite for eggs - eggs are all good and well, but when you're trying to do the green thing, they can get really pricey; and I've been trying to find ways to cut back from our four dozen a week habit.

A lot of baked goods can get by without the eggs. There are a lot of tricks one can use - pureed veggies and fruits as binders, chia gel, flaxseed 'egg'... the possibilities are there. Of course, you've got to be careful. Subbing in a banana in a standard muffin recipe works well, but it also makes the muffin into a banana muffin. In fact, any of the usual substitutes for eggs may change the recipe enough to make it a totally different beast.

That's not always a bad thing. These muffins started their lives as plain cinnamon streusal muffins. Sweet and warm, but really nothing more than glorified cinnamon toast, in my opinion. The decision to add pumpkin to the mix elevated these to another level of moist goodness, and allowed the streusal topping to enhance the muffin, rather than the muffin being there as the excuse to eat the streusal topping.

We chose to eat this muffin with Earth Balance and a lovely apricot-ginger-lemon marmalade that my grandmother gave me. A fantastic combination, but really gilding the lily. These muffins are fantastic as is.

Vegan Cinnamon Streusal Pumpkin Muffins

2 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour ( or a really good cfc flour, or normal flour for glutenoids)
2 c granulated sugar (we use unrefined)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 15oz can pumpkin
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c water

Streusal Topping - 2 Tbsp Better Batter flour, 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 1/2 tbsp margarine or Earth Balance Spread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease 15 normal muffin tins or 12 texas sized muffin tins.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of your mixer. Add pumpkin, oil, and water and blend until well mixed.

Spoon into muffin tins/liners, filling only 3/4 way full.

Mix streusal topping together until thoroughly combined. Sprinkly evenly over muffins.

Bake 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean.

Serve hot!

I'm Baaaack!

2009-01-18T15:03:00.002-05:00

Hello, all! After a very long Sabbatical, I'm happy to report that I'm back and ready to roll with new menu ideas and great new recipes.

Here's what I'm cooking up for this week:
As always, new recipes will be posted at betterbatter.org some time this week!

Monday (Meat and Potatoes)

B Cinnamon Streusal Muffins with Apricot-Lemon Marmalade

D Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans Almondine

Tuesday (Indian)

B GF Oatmeal and Raisins

D Cabbage with Coconut (Bund gobi aur narial) and Deep Fried Brown Bread (Poori)

Wednesday (Pasta)

B Knothole Eggs

D Vegan Baked Ziti, Crazy Bread Style Breadsticks, Green Salad

Thursday (Meat and Potatoes)

B Cream of Rice with sugar and almond cream

D Liver and Onions, Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Peas and Carrots

Dessert: Mixed Berry Cobbler

Friday (Chinese)

B Bread Puddings

D Chinese Potstickers,

Saturday (Mexican)

B Ginger-Lemon Pancakes

D Vegan Pumpkin Tamales

Sunday (Soup)

B Rice Cakes, Bananas, Peanut Butter

D Matzoh Ball Soup, Batter Bread Challah

So.... what's new with you?

Gluten Free Adopt a Blogger: Cajun Red Beans and Rice

2008-05-14T16:41:00.002-04:00

This month my adoptee was Shauna, from Gluten Free Girl.

Shauna's well known in the gluten free community for her stunning food photos and scintillating blog-skills. She's even gotten media coverage on the food network.

*This is me being jealous*

Anywhoodles, she's a really really good cook, and that's all you really need to know...

I was looking for a really great gf recipe from her wide, wide selection of gf offerings. The flourless chocolate torte tempted me....until we (the Carnivore and I) made a pact to go without refined sugar for a month. Drat. I decided, in light of my overwhelming sugar-temptation, to steer clear of anything remotely sweet and go for an entree instead.

There were so many choices that it was hard to narrow it down. Not entirely hard - Shauna's got a lot of meat/fish entrees, and while we spend the vast majority of the fall and winter meatifying ourselves, spring and summer are essentially vegetarian if not vegan affairs. I decided to go with her fantastic cajun red beans and rice recipe.

Now her recipe calls for sausage, and maybe ham, and... we're not eating meat, so I did have to do a bit of tweaking.

I calculated how much seasoning goes into 2 lbs of andouille sausage and added it to the recipe. This helps the general flavour of the meal to remain consistent to her recipe without sacrificing philosophy/budget.

Here's the link to her original recipe. At the risk of offending the adopter-goddesses, I'm including the vegan version here. My changes are marked in BLUE.

Tweaked Vegan Version of Cajun Red Beans and Rice

* 1 pound red kidney beans, dry
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 bell pepper, chopped
* 5 ribs celery, chopped
* As much garlic as you like, minced (I like lots, 5 or 6 cloves)
* I OMIT THE HAM HOCK she called for here
* Instead of sausage, use the extra seasonings I list:

1/2 tsp of Cayenne
1 1/2 tsp Paprika
2 cloves Chopped Fresh Garlic
pinch Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 tbsp Kosher Salt
2 Tsp Fresh Thyme leaves, chopped
1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper

* 1/2 to 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
* 1 or 2 bay leaves
* As many dashes Crystal hot sauce or Tabasco as you like, to taste
* Creole seasoning blend, to taste; OR,
* red pepper and black pepper to taste
* Salt to taste

Soak the beans overnight, if possible. The next day, drain and put fresh water in the pot. (This helps reduce the, um, flatulence factor.) Bring the beans to a rolling boil. Make sure the beans are always covered by water, or they will discolor and get hard. Boil the beans for about 45 - 60 minutes, until the beans are tender but not falling apart. Drain.

[Not having planned ahead, I only had canned beans. I used three cans of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed them, then threw them in a big stockpot with some water, sherry, creole seasoning, bay leaves, and garlic cloves. I let them boil away for about half an hour.] I just used the rinsed cans of beans, and added the bay leaves, sherry, and garlic cloves, without boiling again.

While the beans are boiling, sauté the Trinity (onions, celery, bell pepper) until the onions turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

[I'm pretty much thinking that the more garlic, the better.]

After the beans are boiled and drained, add the sautéed vegetables to the beans, then add the ham hock (or ham or pickle meat), smoked sausage, seasonings, and just enough water to cover. Here I jsut used the extra seasonings and omitted the meat.

[I skipped the ham hock, which I'm sure was a travesty. Intead, I just threw in the sausages, seasonings, a little water, more sherry, and the shrimp.]

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook for 2 hours at least, preferably 3, until the whole thing gets nice and creamy. Adjust seasonings as you go along. Stir occasionally, making sure that it doesn't burn and/or stick to the bottom of the pot. (If the beans are old -- say, older than six months to a year -- they won't get creamy. Make sure the beans are reasonably fresh. If it's still not getting creamy, take 1 or 2 cups of beans out and mash them, then return them to the pot and stir.)

[As I wrote, when the concoction had boiled down to as much liquid as I wanted, I threw it into the crockpot and let it bubble on high for nearly three hours.]

If you can ... let the beans cool, stick them in the fridge, and reheat and serve for dinner the next day. They'll taste a LOT better. When you do this, you'll need to add a little water to get them to the right consistency.

Serve generous ladles-ful over hot white long-grain rice.

RAW, vegan Girl-Scout Style Samoas

2008-05-04T16:17:00.000-04:00

Girl-Scout Style Samoas

(click on image to enlarge)

Makes A LOT

These were my favourite cookie growing up – I always took off with the box as soon as my mom brought them into the house. Eventually she gave up and let me have my own box. Then she got smart and made me buy them…

Now, I make my own. This recipe passed with a good girlfriend of mine, who said they tasted like the real deal.

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour from making almond milk, dehydrated and ground
1 cup coconut, ground into powder, (I use my coffee grinder)
4 medjool dates, pitted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or use vanilla seeds)
⅛ teaspoon sea salt
*COCONUT FILLING*
1 RECIPE Condensed Milk, from my profile page
1 or 2 c dehydrated coconut
*CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE*
1 RECIPE Chocolate Ganache, from my profile page

Preparation

In the bowl of your food processor, grind the almond flour and coconut until very fine and homogeneous, Add the dates, vanilla, and salt and blend until mixture comes together in a smooth mass – you may want to add the smallest amount of water to achieve this- no more than 2 tbsp!

Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness on a silicone liner or parchment paper and cut into small circles – I use a small 2 inch cookie cutter (an ‘o’ shaped one from my alphabet collection).

Place in the dehydrator and dehydrate at 110 degrees for at least 4 hours or until crisp (I usually dehydrate about 6 hours).

Mix the condensed milk and enough coconut to make a thick filling – it should be like really sticky macaroon batter. Place a small amount of this on top of the cookie, pressing lightly to stick the filling to the cookie. Place back into the dehydrator and dehydrate for about another 2-3 hours, or until the topping is set and thickened.

Make the Ganache, following the instructions on that recipe, cooling until the mixture is thick but still flowing. Dip the bottom of the cookies in the ganache and place on a parchment paper. Drizzle with ganache and place in the fridge to set. Store in a container in the fridge.

RAW, vegan 'Condensed Milk'

2008-05-04T15:48:00.001-04:00

You'll need this recipe to make my famous girl-scout style Raw Samoas, but it's also a great alternative for condensed milk for those of us who can't or don't do dairy.

This is a fantastic replacement for condensed milk for recipes like Girl-Scout Style Samoa Cookies and Magical Seven Layer Bars (recipes coming soon). It will thicken and ‘caramelize’ in the dehydrator, and is surprisingly authentic in flavour. Don’t let the coconut scare you – this isn’t a ‘coconut’ flavoured condensed milk sub.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons golden flaxseed
6 tablespoons water
1 cup agave nectar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup coconut, ground into powder, (I use my coffee grinder)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or use vanilla seeds)

Preparation

Soak the flaxseed in the water overnight.

Blend at high speed in the blender until the mixture is ‘fluffy’ and frothy. Very, very slowly add the agave nectar. Add the sea salt, coconut, and vanilla and continue to blend until mixture is very smooth and creamy looking.

Pour mixture into a shallow dish and place in the dehydrator.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees for at least three hours, or until desired consistency is reached.

Use in recipes or continue to dehydrate to make ‘dulce de leche’

Girl-Scout Style Thin Mints (Vegan and Raw Versions)

2008-05-04T15:31:00.004-04:00

There is nothing better than a girl scout cookie fresh out of the freezer. Of course, they're terrible for you. But they're so darn good.

I've had cravings for them for as long as I can remember. Naturally, when we went gluten free about 4 years ago the cravings increased. Of course they would. There's a principle called 'forbidden fruit..."

Anywhoodles, I finally decided to do something about it. Here are two variations of girl scout cookies. They both taste pretty darn real, and they're both easy. If you don't mind a non-vegan version of the baked ones, feel free to save yourself some time and use Hershey's Mint Chocolate Chips for the dipping chocolate.

Vegan Girl-Scout Style Thin Mints

Makes A LOT

The chocolate wafers that make up the base of these cookies go incredibly well for other applications (fake oreos or ice cream sandwiches, for two), but I think they're best here - robed in luscious mint-chocolate and begging to be scarfed. I made several tins of these for my family, and true to tradition, hid a few tins in the far reaches of the freezer, for myself.

Ingredients

8 ounces organic palm shortening (you can use crisco if you prefer)
4 drops peppermint oil
1 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c cocoa powder
3/4 tsp sea salt (or 1 tsp salt)
1 1/2 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

12 ounces milk-free chocolate (we like a good dark chocolate chip)
1/4 c organic palm shortening
4 or more drops peppermint oil to add to the chocolate

Preparation

In the bowl of your Mixer, combine the shortening, sugar, peppermint oil, cocoa, sea salt, and flour. Beat until smooth. Place in the freezer to chill for about twenty minutes.

Lightly flour a silpat or parchment paper and place the dough on the surface. Flour the dough and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.

Cut into 1 1/2 inch circles with a small cutter. Place on parchment or silpat lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Slip the liners onto cookie racks or cake racks and allow to cool completely. Peel from the sheet.

In a double boiler or bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and palm shortening, stirring in enough peppermint essential oil to make the chocolate mint-chocolatey—be VERY careful! Too much peppermint will give you a ‘toothpaste’ taste. I like about 4 drops. Let the ganache chill until thickening, but still flowing (about 10 minutes in the fridge, stirring every so often)

Using a Fork, Dip each chocolate wafer into the peppermint ganache, hitting the fork gently against the side of the bowl to shake excess off. Place on a clean parchment paper and transfer to the fridge or freezer to set. Place in a container and keep in the fridge or freezer.

RAW (vegan) Girl-Scout Style Thin Mints

Makes A LOT

I fed these to a SADdie, without comment, and she said – ‘What did you make…gluten free girl scout cookies?”

Jst saying… these are as close to the real deal as you’re going to get in this life (without selling out). Thin wafers of mint-chocolate cookie are encased in a chocolate ganache.

These are best out of the freezer – of course that could be years of training speaking.

Ingredients

2 cups almonds flour from making almond milk, dehydrated and ground
3 drops peppermint oil
½ cup coconut, ground into powder, (I use my coffee grinder)
½ cup cacao powder, (use a really high quality)
8 medjool dates, pitted
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 RECIPE Chocolate Ganache
4 drops or more peppermint oil, to add to the ganache

Preparation

In the bowl of your Food Processor, combine the almond flour, peppermint oil, coconut, and cacao powder. Grind till fine and homogeneous. Add the dates, water, and salt and process until the mixture comes together in a smooth ball, like cookie dough.

Heavily ‘flour’ a silpat or parchment paper with cacao powder and place the dough on the surface. ‘Flour’ the dough with cacao powder and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.

Cut into 1 1/2 inch circles with a small cutter. Place on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 110 degrees for at least 10 hours, or until very crisp.

Follow directions for making Ganache, stirring in enough peppermint essential oil to make the ganache mint-chocolatey—be VERY careful! Too much peppermint will give you a ‘toothpaste’ taste. I like about 4 drops. Let the ganache chill until thickening, but still flowing (about 10 minutes in the fridge, stirring every so often)

COMING SOON: Vegan, Raw Girl Scout Cookies

2008-04-29T22:14:00.003-04:00

like I said... coming soon. Hubby's calling me to bed *eyebrows*

Vegetarian Paella

2008-04-29T20:14:00.003-04:00

Rice commodities are rising, and are expected to continue to rise, so I thought I'd take a moment and make this classic dish before prices went into the stratosphere.

Paella comes from Spain, originally, taking its name from the Valencian word for 'frying pan' - it's usually made from vegetables, seafood, and meat, and liberally dosed with saffron and olive oil.

I was short on saffron tonight, so as you can see... I left it out.

It's usually cooked so that all the liquid is absorbed and the bottom forms this fantastic crust - my favourite part - but I was also short on time, and I thought that The Carnivore would react better to a 'stoup' - as Rachael Ray calls it - than a dryer consistency (which he usually refers to as 'a side dish').

Turns out he prefers to add a little ground beef to his paella - guess it's still a side dish - but the kids and I were loving it.

Here's the recipe for your perusal. Feel free to add saffron. Oh, and if you have time, let the rice completely absorb and form that crust. You won't regret it.

Vegetarian Paella

1/4 cup of olive oil

5 cloves minced garlic

1 large yellow onion, chopped

4 cups vegetable broth

2 cups rice

1 can crushed tomatoes 9or 4 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped and a generous 2-3 threads of saffron)

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips

1 small green bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips

2 c asparagus, cut into small pieces

1 cup green peas

1 lemon

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic until the onion is tender and translucent. At the same time, heat the broth in a separate pan until simmering.

Pour the rice into the pan and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers and tomatoes and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add the simmering vegetable broth and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes or until almost tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the peas and asparagus.

Squeeze the lemon over the rice. Continue cooking until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender.

Serve the paella straight from the pan, garnished with lemon wedges.

It's Truly Vegan! Asparagus Linguini Alfredo

2008-04-29T18:29:00.005-04:00

After four long years of waiting, our first crop of asparagus was finally ready to harvest - asparagus, you may not know, takes so many years to establish that it almost makes one wonder if it's worth it to plant in the first place.

Trust me - it is.

After four long... (did I say long? I meant loooooooooonnnnnnnng) years of cultivating the plants, you'll begin to harvest asparagus - lots of it. And you'll keep harvesting this (free!) veggie for the next twenty years. More if you're willing to do the back-breaking labour of splitting the roots.

I love asparagus. Every which way. In lemon sauce, steamed, boiled, baked, fried in tempura - I don't care how it's done. I love it.

I sat there wondering what on earth to do with this first harvest, and it hit me -- alfredo!
Rich and creamy, ultra dreamy loaded with fat and calories - who doesn't love the buttery, cheesy goodness of a real alfredo sauce?

Well, vegans for one.

Or those with dairy intolerances. What's a gal to do?

I came up with this lovely alternative for alfredo, and it passed with everyone - even The Carnivore. Everyone assumed it was the normal dairy version.

Traditional alfredo is pretty straightforward. Extremely high-fat-content butter (European style) is warmed and melted with plenty of high-quality Parmesan, that's thinned with just a bit of pasta cooking water. The starch in the pasta water gives a certain body to the sauce that would otherwise be lacking.

In the United States, things get a little more complicated. The lack of high quality butter (most of our butter has too high a water content to work) and parm makes it difficult for the average homemaker to make a good sauce. Also problematic - people tend to use too high of a heat or the wrong proportion of ingredients - and they end up with a gloppy-oily mess or something tasteless.

Because of this, most restaurants (and home recipes) use a flour-thickened cream or milk-based white sauce into which plenty of parmesean has been melted. Garlic and cayenne pepper are the secret ingredients of the most popular restaurants' alfredos.

People tend to crave what they know, and assuming people have rarely if ever had a traditional alfredo (I have...wow! Amazing), I went for the more commonly available taste and texture.

Macadamia nuts are the secret here for texture - They're superstars in the vegan world and great for subbing for dairy cream.

A combination of vegan 'cheeze' fave nutritional yeast, sunflower seeds, salt and garlic (and a tiny pinch of cayenne) takes care of the taste. One thing I advise - I've gone a little light on the salt. Traditionally Parmesan adds a very salty dimension to food, and your taste buds may insist on more salt. Feel free to add it at the end, by sprinkling over the plate.

Better Batter Flour adds body, and olive oil adds the final touch of fattiness to the dish and helps round out the flavour.

Asparagus Linguini Alfredo

1 pound Thai Kitchen Linguini style Rice Noodles
2 pounds fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into small pieces
3 tbsp olive oil

2 c water
1/4 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour (optional, for thinner sauce, omit)
1 1/2 c macadamia nuts
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/3 c nutritional yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp sea salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/16-1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 c olive oil

Cook noodles according to package directions.

Meanwhile in a blender, combine water, flour, mac nuts, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, sea salt, garlic, and cayenne pepper. Blend until completely smooth.

In a saucepan saute asparagus with 1/4 c olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add alfredo sauce and heat through. Stir in olive oil. Stir in hot noodles and serve.

Bengali Inspired Spinach Curry

2008-04-29T18:03:00.003-04:00

I love Indian food - the blend of spices, the comfort-food textures - it's my idea of heaven. Unfortunately The Carnivore disagrees. To him Indian food is just so much weirdness rolled into one - and the fact that there's about zero chance of getting any kind of meat with the meal tends to put him in a 'lovely' frame of mind.

Because of that, I rarely make Indian food -- it's not worth the dirty looks.

So you can imagine my utter joy when my oldest son (whose turn it was to pick dinner) asked for ingredients that really and truly couldn't combine into anything other than... INDIAN FOOD!

This meal is really more of a fusion food than truly authentic Indian Food - I've been having massive cravings for black beans and spinach in some sort of combination (don't ask), so I had to tweak the original Bengali recipe a bit to make flavours mesh.

Contrary to popular belief, curries don't have to have loads of tumeric or (gasp) curry powder to work. Curry, according to a childhood friend of mine, is essentially any kind of a vegetable stew.

This particular curry is sweet and spicy, creamy and fresh, and blends well with the tumeric scented pilaf that I made as a side dish, using none other than our beloved Seamaiden's rice recipe as inspiration. It also happens to be super high in protein and fiber.

Enjoy!

Bengali Inspired Spinach Curry

1/4 c olive oil
1/3 c raw sugar
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp tomato paste

4 oz diced green chilis
1 onion, diced
2 pounds frozen spinach, thawed
2/3 c slivered almonds
1 c dehydrated coconut
4 c cooked black beans (1 can)
1/4 c water

In a large pan, saute the oil, sugar, mustard seeds, cumin, sea salt , and tomato paste until the sugar and tomato paste begin to caramelize.

Add the chilis and stir well. add the onions and saute till soft. Add the spinach, almonds, coconut, beans, and water, and simmer until heated through.

Serve with pilaf and naan.

Chinese Spring Rolls and Dulse Rangoons

2008-04-18T09:49:00.008-04:00

I've always been a sucker for things wrapped in wontons and deep fried - really doesn't matter that I'd be in pain for several days afterward - I have never been able to resist the siren call of the egg roll, the spring roll, and the infamous crab rangoon.

Of course, finding out that the misery was due to a genetic disorder really put a damper on m love relationship with these delicacies - the specter of cancer doesn't really make them as appetizing... and my decision to stop eating pork and shellfish sealed the deal.

Did you know that most egg rolls/spring rolls have pork in them? And most crab rangoons contain... you guessed it - actual crab. Shocker, eh? And the rangoons that don't??? Well they contain fake crab, aka GLUTEN....

So I've been rangunless for a while now, and I just couldn't take it any more.

I decided to make a go of it and came up with these recipes. Dulse adds a seafood dimension to both the spring roll and the rangoon. Have fun!

WONTON WRAPPERS
If you're going to make your own dim sum, you need wonton wrappers. These are relatively easy and very quick to make, and they can be used anywhere traditional wontons are called for. This makes 16 wonton wrappers.

1 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 egg
2 Tbsp water (up to 4tbsp total - save 2)

In the bowl of your mixer, beat the egg and flour together, adding 2 tbsp of water. The mixture should stick together when pressed - like a stiff pasta dough. If it's too dry add up to 2 tbsp of water.

You'll want to heavily flour your rolling surface. Split the dough into four parts and flatten each into a square. Sprinkle the top of the dough heavily with flour and roll out until the square is 8 inches by 8 inches - it will be thin.

Take a knife or pizza cutter and cut the square into four smaller squares.

Now you can leave these squares as they are, but I think it's better to make the squares really, really thin. To do this you'll want to flour the rolling surface again, as well as the surface of the wrappers - don't worry that this will make them too dry - it will help combat the moisture of the filling. Roll them out until you can see through them - each square will be about 5 to 6 inches wide. I've included a rather ghetto picture of one of my wrappers on top of my ecover dishwashing tabs box, so you can see how thin the squares will be.

Use these anywhere you would use wonton wrappers.

Chinese Spring Rolls
It's a common misconception that spring rolls= rice wrappers with lettuce. Chinese Spring rolls differ very little from Chinese Egg Rolls - they're both fried parcels of cabbage wrapped in egg-dough wrappers. Not exactly what comes to mind when one thinks spring, I know. Still, these manage to taste fresh and light, which is a miracle in itself when you're dealing with anything deep fried. They're also extremely simple and require only easily available ingredients. Serve these as a meal in themselves, or as an accompaniment to any meal. This recipe makes 16 spring rolls.

2 c cabbage
1 c shredded carrots
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 c rice vinegar
1/2 c water
2 Tbsp dulse
1 clove garlic, grated or crushed
1/2 inch ginger, grated
2 Tbsp gf Tamari
dash hot chili pepper sauce

1 recipe Won Ton Wrappers

Mix the cabbage, carrots, onion, vinegar, water, dulse, ginger, garlic, tamari, and hot sauce in a bowl and let marinate overnight - you can let this soak for up to three weeks, and honestly I think it's better and tastes 'fresher' the longer it sits. Drain the mixture, squeezing it dry and reserve the liquid to make a dipping sauce.

Place a wonton wrapper on a floured surface. Working quickly, place about 3 Tbsp of the mixture on the wrapper, starting about 1/2 inch from the top and sides. Fold the sides of the wrapper in and quickly roll the wrapper into a sausage shape, enclosing the filling. Quickly dampen the edge of the wrapper with a wet finger and finish rolling the spring roll. Press lightly to seal and set aside. Repeat this process until you've used all of the wrappers and filling.

Heat at least 2 inches of oil in a wok or deep fryer. Fry up to three spring rolls at a time, until golden brown and crispy.

Meanwhile take the reserved liquid and add 1 tsp of either tapioca starch or cornstarch, and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Let thicken and remove from heat - add salt to taste.

Serve the wrappers with dipping sauce.

Dulse Rang00ns
I couldn't take it anymore - I had to make some of those wickedly junk-food concoctions that I'm sure are pure Chinese-American junk food. Ranguns. Dulse gives a distinctly sea flavour to the cream cheese filling and deep frying makes these treats just like their restaurant counterparts. Don't be shocked by the inclusion of Worchestershire here - the basic ingredients of the stuff are staples in the asian kitchen. This recipe makes 16 ranguns.

4 oz cream cheese
1/4 c green onions, minced
1/4 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/4 tsp gf tamari
1 very small clove garlic, minced (about 1 tsp)
2 Tbsp Dulse

1 recipe Won Ton Wrappers

Beat the cream cheese, onions, sauce, tamari, garlic, and dulse together. Take 1 1/2 tsp of the filling and place in the center of each wonton wrapper. moisten the straight edges of the wrapper and,placing your fingers on each straight edge, press them together in the center, so that the corners form little pockets, or petals. This will take a few times to get exactly right.

Heat ta least 2 inches of oil in a wok or deep fryer and fry the rangoons a few at a time. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Adopt a Blogger: Tapioca Pudding

2008-04-18T09:29:00.003-04:00

My adoptee of the month was Kate of Gluten Free Gobsmacked!

Now, apparently I'm supposed to tell you a little about her - last month I neglected to do this (*sorry, Sea!) because.... well, frankly because I'm notoriously fuzzy with details. So here's my take on Kate:

Kate's a long time celiac (2000, right, Kate??) who's famous for her beautiful photography and creative recipes. One thing I've come to appreciate about Kate is her ability to weave a tale. Usually a food blog (especially mine) runs something like this: "Blahblahblahrecipedescription, recipe, pic" Not the most scintillating to read... Kate manages to bring a background into her tale, and I find myself reading her entire post, instead of skimming through and looking at the pretty pictures.

In fact it was her warm and personal style that led me to adopt her this month. Many of you who follow my blog -- when I'm posting regularly - know that I have my own gf flour blend, and so Kate's recipes, which rely heavily on her own mixes and a more traditional approach, might seem a little strange. At fist I thought it was a little strange, too...

But Kate always has options available! I pulled a fantastic Tapioca recipe from her blog, and let the magic roll. Now my pic looks nothing like her pretty pic, so I'll let you wander over there and peek - I'm sure it tasted every bit as good.

Kate's recipe varies from the traditional recipes in a few ways -- most appreciated on my list, the cinnamon sticks, which lent a spicy, clean taste to the tapioca without muddying it, like ground cinnamon would have. I'd never thought to add cinnamon to tapioca pudding, but I don't think I'll ever want to make it otherwise, now that I've been enlightened!

The other major difference: This tapioca is baked. I honestly had never heard of a baked tapioca pudding before - baked bread pudding, baked rice pudding... but never baked tapioca pudding. This made the pudding a little more custardy, which is perhaps why she recommends adding whipped cream to the pudding afterward. We didn't, which is perhaps why our pudding isn't prettiful like Kate's.

I never thought it would be possible to call a tapioca pudding decadent, but Kate proved me wrong. Way to go!

Buckwheat Crepes! My adoptee: Seamaiden

2008-03-11T16:36:00.002-04:00

My adoptee for the Gluten Free Blog event is none other than our beloved Seamaiden! I chose to make her fabulous buckwheat crepes as my 'project.'

She recommended making a fantastic-sounding mushroom filling, but my husband wouldn't touch a mushroom to save his life, so I decided instead to make my family's version of Bananas Foster, recipe follows.

The crepes were delicious and very mild, compared to what I was expecting. I found that using two pans and staggering the whole 'pour, swirl, flip' method gave me exactly the perfect timing, and it cut down on the total time needed for the preparation. Brenda's method of blending everything in a blender was genius and made for a very silky, smooth batter. These crepes were really delicious.

Of course I used the Better Batter flour where she calls for 'your favourite gf flour mix' and I ground the buckwheat myself in a coffee mill, which to me makes for a lighter flavoured flour than stuff you can usually buy. It also makes for a lighter looking pancake, which was really nice. Expect if you make this using a commercial buckwheat flour that it will be darker.

Here's Sea's blog recipe: Buckwheat Crepes

And here is our version of Bananas Foster.... you'll find this one is more buttery and fresher tasting than the famous version.

Bananas Poe
1/4 c salted butter
1/2 c raw or demerrara sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 c golden rum
5 large bananas, sliced

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the sugar and stir till dissolved. Add the nutmeg and allspice and stir. Stir in the rum, and heat until the sugar dissolves and the syrup bubbles. Stir in the bananas and heat until just warmed through.

Place the bananas in crepes or over pancakes and serve immediately.

THE Definitive GF Croissant

2008-02-06T12:21:00.000-05:00

The internet is a wonderful thing! A few months back I posted a great, super easy crescent roll recipe on my website. The ladies over at the Delphi Forum took it and improved upon it. Of course, I had to have another go at the thing, so I tweaked their version of it... The result was a delicious crescent roll, indeed.

One thing that bothered me about the recipe was the loss of the yeast, which lends itself to the flavour of the pastry. I detected a distinct 'baking powder' taste in the Delphi versions of the roll, which -although not at all objectionable - stopped short of a true croissant flavour.

The fact that the crescent roll wasn't going to rise, becuase of lack of yeast, bothered me to no end as well.
So of course, you know me...

Several tweaks later, I am proud to announce the absolutely, incontrovertably, most flaky, tender, buttery croissant you will ever eat, bar none. It also makes insanely great pain au chocolat and pigs-in-a-blanket.

I'd made my own version of Kate's 'army of crescent rolls' ... but they were literally all eaten before I could get the camera and snap a shot. Alas.

Mr. Picky... aka the hubby, says these are the real deal, and a woman at a local celiac conference (who's NOT a celiac and eats gluten as a religion, lol) wasn't aware that they were gf when she was eating one (she thought my stuff was just normal stuff for the regular vendors to eat, since it was separated from all the other samples) and was literally shocked that it wasn't a 'real' croissant.

I'll leave it to you to be the judge.

Here's my recipe. It makes 16 normal/Large sized croissants. Have fun!

The Definitive GF Croissant

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, (8 Tablespoons) frozen

1 package rapid rise yeast
1/4 c warm water
1/4 c sugar
2 sticks of butter, cold
3/4 c Full Fat Sour Cream
3/4 c Full Fat Ricotta Cheese
1 egg

2 1/2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda

AT LEAST 3 cups of Better Batter flour for rollign

2 egg whites, beaten with 1/4 c water, till slightly foamy, for makign the croissants beautiful

Directions:

Place yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set in a warm place to proof for 10 minutes, or until creamy and foamy. (This is important!)
Cream together cold butter, sour cream, ricotta cheese, and egg until whipped, creamy and semi-yellow in color (about 3-4 minutes) - the butter should resemble cottage cheese
Add Better Batter Flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Mix together until the dough comes together - mostly away from the sides and begins to form a ball or lump in the middle of the mixer (about 3-4 minutes). It will still be sort of sticky!
Divide into two portions. Shape each one into a rectangular patty about 4x6x1.5
Place into a Ziploc bag. Refrigerate at least two hours, overnight preferred. This is important! If you're impatient like me, you can freeze it for an hour.
Grate the frozen butter (I used my food processor) and put it into a freezer-safe storage container/bag. Return grated butter to the freezer until you are ready to use. (By the way, it will store indefinitely like this.) You can divide it at this time to make it easier.
Work in a cool place, lay down a parchment paper or Silpat and flour heavily with about a cup of flour. You'll need a rolling pin for the next step!
Remove one of the rectangles of dough from the fridge, and the butter from the freezer.
Generously dust the top of the dough rectangle and roll the dough as to about 1/8 inch thickness. You should be able to see through the dough partially. I was able to roll the dough about 27” long and about 15” wide.
Turn the dough lengthwise. Generously sprinkle the middle 1/3 of the dough with about 2-3 tbsp of the the grated, still-frozen butter. Fold up the bottom third of the pastry over the top of the middle third. Sprinkle two more tbsp or so of the grated, still-frozen butter over the top of the part you just folded on top. Fold down the top third of the dough to cover the center/butter again. If your dough is getting warm, please put it in the fridge for at least an hour (I work fast, so I don't do this).
Generously flour the top, sides, and bottom (lift the dough gently to push flour underneath) of the dough. Repeat the rolling out thin and butter sprinkling one more time. You will sprinkle the butter on twice and roll out three times. You'll need a lot of flour, and you should be able to see the flecks of butter through the dough.
After the round of of butter sprinkling and folding, turn the dough again and roll the dough out for it’s final time,rolling it to about 1/4 inch thick (not thicker!). Work quickly at this point as the dough is beginning to warm up again.
Leave the dough lying flat along the parchment paper.
Divide into long triangles with the pizza cutter (each triangle should be the full length of the long end dough - about 15 inches, with a wide end of about 4 inches. You will end up with 8 large triangles for each 1/2 of the dough. At this point you may want to fill your croissants with all kinds of goodies by placing your filling on the wide end of the triangle.
Roll the croissant up from the wide end carefully (as the layers are thin). Seal the end (to keep it together during baking) by brushing the beaten egg white onto top ½ inch before finishing the roll. Shape into a crescent moon shape.
Brush the completed croissants with beaten egg white (this makes them shiny and pretty).
Lay the complete croissants on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and Let rest in a warm place for 30 minutes or so. Repeat steps 7 through 16 with the remaining dough.
Bake the croissants at 425F for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.

You'll have blistery, puffy, buttery, yeasty croissants. The real deal. YUM.

Raw Fried Rice (cauliflower for people who hate cauliflower)

2008-01-30T22:15:00.000-05:00

I'm not doing the RAW thing, perse... as far as counting percentages and obsessing. But I find that my brief foray into obsession opened up an enormous world to me - one that tastes better, most of the time, frankly. So I do find myself eating very High Raw most of the time.

This recipe is a super quick, super easy way to make a family favourite of mine - fried rice - without actually having to have any cooked rice on hand. Without actually having to cook, for that matter. If you're weirded out by the whole cauliflower thing, don't be. I hate raw cauli... but I love this dish.

Fried Rice

(click on image to enlarge)

Makes 6+ cups

This rice is as close as you’ll come to real fried rice. It’s got the right balance of mouth feel and taste, and it was a winner here at the house, even with Mr. Picky. You’ll find this serves 3 VERY generously, or four, with a side dish. Feel free to serve it very cold as a salad, or slightly warm, as I’ve suggested, for an authentic Fried Rice.

Ingredients

1 Head of Cauliflower
1 ten ounce package peas, thawed, or fresh peas
2 tablespoons onion
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup cilantro or flat leafed parsley
1 inch of lemongrass
3 tablespoons olive oil
a drizzle of sesame oil, optional
2 teaspoons ginger, grated
Braggs, or gf tamari
1 cup hulled sunflower seeds

Preparation

In the bowl of your food processor, pulse cauliflower into ‘rice’ and place in a bowl.

In the FP, pulse the onion, garlic, lemongrass, and cilantro or parsley until finely minced. Place in bowl.

Place peas in bowl. Stir all ingredients together.

Drizzle with oils and gf tamari or Bragg's. Stir in sunflower seeds.

Optional but AWESWOME: Heat on very low heat in a saucepan, stirring contstantly until just warm to the touch, or place in dehydrator for 30 minutes.

Absolutely Authentic Tasting Vegan Caesar Salads

2008-01-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

It's almost impossible to make Caesar Dressing properly without animal ingredients. I mean, the classic Caesar recipe calls for plenty of egg yolks and anchovy paste, and swapping out ingredients tends to make something that's 'not quite' Caesar Dressing.

I wasn't satisfied with that, so I put my little brain to work and came up with this substitute. I guarantee you won't be able to tell it's vegan.

In order for you to get it to work, you'll have to do a first stage recipe. First Stage recipes are where you have to make one thing in advance, in order to use that thing later. The First Stage recipe I use to make this is cultured nut-cheese. It's a brilliant sub for cream cheese (the best I've ever found) and the base for all kinds of things (like vegan feta, vegan yoghurt, vegan sour cream, etc). You can find it at my Raw Food page, but I'm including it here, for ease's sake, below the Caesar Dressing Recipe:

Creamy Caesar Dressing

Makes about 2 cups dressing

You won’t taste a more authentic Caesar dressing. This reminds me almost exactly of the creamy Caesar dressing served at Red Lobster.

The secret is in the dulse flakes, which give the secret ‘anchovy’ taste; and in the hempseed, which works perfectly here in place of Parmesan. Your tastebuds will feel guilty.

You can choose to use either water or oil. Oil will give a creamier, richer dressing, but water makes it considerably lower in fat.

To make a Salad, toss Romaine or Spinach (I used spinach in the picture above) with the dressing and top with lots of hempseed. If you’re really ambitious, make some homemade croutons and toss them in, too.

Ingredients

1 cup cultured Real Cream Cheese (recipe below)
1 lemon (juice of)
2 teaspoons dulse flakes
2 tablespoons hempseeds
1 teaspoon dijon mustard (homemade or otherwise)
1½ teaspoons sea salt
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons onion, minced
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 cup either water or oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, optional
hempseed for sprinkling

Preparation

Whir everything but the last set of hempseeds together in a blender until absolutely smooth. Let sit at least 1/2 hour or overnight for best flavour.

Toss with Romaine or Spinach, the extra hempseed, and homemade croutons, if desired.

Real Cream Cheese

Makes 4 c

This cream cheese actually tastes like cream cheese, feels like it, and looks like it. The secret is in the probiotics. Use it for awesome cream cheese, or serve with Bagels and Lox (see my other recipes).

Ingredients

4 cups Macadamia Nuts
water to cover
¼ cup probiotic powder, any brand

Preparation

Place mac nuts in blender. Cover with juuuuuuuust enough water to come up to level with the nuts. Add the probiotic powder. Whir in the blender until absolutely smooth (this may take about 10 minutes, so make sure your blender doesn’t get too hot). THe consistency should be like cold cream.

Place in a mesh bag/cloth napkin and Twist until the bag is sealed. Place in a collander and put a weight on the top (I use a plate with a can of something) and put in a very warm place (Like your dehydrator or the radiator) for at least 48 hours. Refrigerate.

And now back to our regularly scheduled inanity...

No, I'm not dead!

2008-01-30T11:23:00.000-05:00

I've been backlogged with work, getting this business off the ground. I'll be posting again soo, though, so have no fear.

Here's a few pics to keep you interested (I'll post the recipes later!):

Batter Fried Fish-nChips

Pain au Chocolate with incredible croissant crust

Auntie Anne's clones

Gran Marnier Angel Food Cake with Craberry Swirl

Unfried "rice" (cauliflower for those who hate cauliflower)

Sufiganiot (Jelly Donut Heaven)

2007-12-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

I was in the mood for Jelly Donuts. Really in the mood: so that's what we ate for dinner. *shrugs* If you don't mind putting on a thousand pounds it's really the best dinner on earth. Really... ask my children!

So anyway, I made several variations in powdered sugar and plain sugar, both traditional and yeast-free:
Filled with strawberry jam,
Filled with homemade cran-rasp-blueberry jam
Filled with Nutella, which is totally not jelly, but you'll of course forgive me.

Tomorrow I'm planning on making strawberry-filled banana ones, strawberry filled chocolate ones, cran-apple filled nutmeg-scented ones, and perhaps a few others. Not sure yet.

Here's the basic recipes. Filling recipes are below that:

Sufiganiot (Traditional Hanukkah raised jelly donuts)

1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

3 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1/4 c butter or margerine, melted
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 c water

Flour, for rolling

jelly
oil for frying
powdered or granulated sugar

1. Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl, and let them sit for abotu 5 minutes. Add the flour, salt, and sugar and stir well.

2. Crack the eggs into the water. Stir this into the flour mixture, until the mixture is relatively smooth. Beat in the melted butter or margerine and let sit in a warm place to rise.

3. Flour a parchent paper or silpat lightly. flour your hands. Dump the dough onto the floured surface and dust the top with flour. Press out to about 1/4 inch to slightly less than 1/2 inch thick. This will still be very sticky inside! Meanwhile heat oil, at least 2 inches, in a skillet or fryer to about 400 degrees.

4. With a small biscuit cutter (about 2 inches), cut circles out of the dough. Place a tsp. of jelly on half of the circles. Dampen hands and wet the rims of the other half of the circles. Press one empty circle on top of a filled circle, and gently pat around the sides to make a nice jelly donut shaped donut.

5. Fry in hot oil until golden brown on one side, then flip and fry on the other side. Remove with a slotted spoon, and roll in sugar. Serve very fresh.

Yeastless Jelly Donuts

5 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 c water or milk

1. Mix the Four, baking powder, and salt.

2. Stir in the water, until mixture is well combined.

3. Flour a parchent paper or silpat lightly. flour your hands. Dump the dough onto the floured surface and dust the top with flour. Press out to about 1/4 inch to slightly less than 1/2 inch thick. This will still be very sticky inside! Meanwhile heat oil, at least 2 inches, in a skillet or fryer to about 400 degrees.

4. With a small biscuit cutter (about 2 inches), cut circles out of the dough. Place a tsp. of jelly on half of the circles. Dampen hands and wet the rims of the other half of the circles. Press one empty circle on top of a filled circle, and gently pat around the sides to make a nice jelly donut shaped donut.

5. Fry in hot oil until golden brown on one side, then flip and fry on the other side. Remove with a slotted spoon, and roll in sugar. Serve very fresh.

Cran-rasp-blueberry jam:
In a blender, combine...
1 c cranberries
1/2 c water
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c dried blueberries
1/4 c dried raspberries

Cook over high heat for 5 minutes, or until it boils for a few minutes. Let cool.

Vegan Stuffed Shells For Everyone

2007-11-14T10:56:00.001-05:00

I wish I had a beautiful photo to show you... but hubby grabbed the plate of shells and took off with it to the bedroom... apologies to all, lol.

I've been having problems with most dairy for about 4 months now - I finally tracked down another source of migraines. Dairy. Drat. Mozzarella seems to be okay, strangely enough. In talking with others who have dietary induced migraines, I've heard the same thing. If anyone would like to explain to me why mozzarella is fine but, say Cream Cheese (which is another fresh cheese) isn't, I'd love to hear it. Occasionally I'll give into temptation and still have some kind of cheese - because I just love cheese - but generally speaking I am trying to avoid dairy altogether.

Anywhoodles... This stuffed shells recipe is delicious enough to please even the most picky eater. It really tastes like traditional stuffed shells.

If you don't have any objections to dairy, forego the vegan angle and top the shells with a lot of really nice mozzarella. Do that and no-one will even know that the filling isn't dairy.

This is a great way to use up all that pulp left over from making nutmilk.

Stuffed Shells

1 1/2 c nut-pulp (instructions below)
1 c sesame seeds
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 c water
2 Tbsp parsley
1 clove garlic, crushed and minced to smithereens

1 package Tinkyada large shells

6-8 cups Chunky Tomato sauce (We like Ragu Organic or Muir Glen Chunky Tomato Sauce)

Optional- 8 oz. Whole Milk Shredded Mozzarella

1. You'll need to start this meal the night before you want to eat it, by making nut-pulp.

Start by taking 2 c almonds (I reccommend blanched almonds for the cleanest, whitest look) and placing them in a large mixing bowl. Boil 2 c water and pour over the almonds. Let soak for about 1/2 hour, or until the liquid looks milky.

Pour this mixture into your blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Wet a towel or nutmilk bag and pour the liquid into it, over a bowl) squeeze out the liquid.

Add 2 more cups COLD water to the blender and return the nutpulp to the blender. Blend for another minute or so. Strain this liquid.

Repeat the cold water step until the liquid being squeezed from the nutpulp looks like whey (milky water). Set the nutmilk aside to use for something else.

Take the nutpulp, sesame seeds, lemon juice, and water, and combine them. Let soak overnight, in the fridge.

The next day, whir this mixture in the blender until it's smooth. Add the parsley and garlic and whir again, until the parsley's chopped fine.

2. Boil the shell pasta until they're al-dente. Drain.

3. Put about 3 or 4 cups of pasta sauce in the bottom of a casserole.

4. Fill the shells with the 'ricotta' mixture and place into the sauce. Top with more sauce. (if you'd like add cheese now)

5. Tope with remaining sauce and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until hot.

YUM!

Vegetarian Potstickers

2007-11-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

Potstickers are tasty dumplings, filled with vegetables, that can be steamed or pan fried. The secret to a good potsticker is to roll the dough very thin. This recipe makes about 60 potstickers. Feel free to half the recipe, and make other fillings, for a variety.

1 tbsp oil

2 c finely minced green cabbage

1/2 c finely shredded carrot

1/2 c chopped water chestnuts

1/2 c bamboo shoots, minced

10 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste

2 Tbsp ginger, minced (available at the grocery or mince your own)

1/4 c minced green onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dark sesame oil

1 recipe Base for stuffed Pastas

Flour, for rolling, as well as a 3 inch round cookie cutterand potsticker press (optional)

water or egg white

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the cabbage and cook until wilted, about 9 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Add the carrot, chestnuts.bamboo shoots, garlic, ginger, green onion, salt, and sesame oil and stir well to mix.

Split the pasta in half, and roll out one half at a time. Place the dough on a floured surface (I like to use a silpat) and sprinkle generously with flour. Roll out until the dough is 1/8-1/4 inch thick.

Gently fold the dough in half to mark the center crease and unfold.

Using the cookie cutter, lightly mark circles on half the dough (do not cut through the dough!

Working quickly coat the marked side of the dough with water or egg white and place a large teaspoon (up to a tablespoon) of filling in the center of each circle.

Fold the dough over and press lightly to seal around the pockets of filling.

Using the cookie cutter, cut out the circles of dough. Gather and reroll the scraps, continuing to mark and fill the dough as instructed. Set aside to dry while you make the second half of the pasta.

Alternately, cut three inch circles and use a potsticker press to fill and seal the potstickers. Use a little egg white on the edges before sealing.

Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place half of pot stickers in bottom of skillet; cook 3 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Add 1/2 cup water to skillet; cover and cook 3 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Place pot stickers on a serving platter; set aside, and keep warm.

Wipe skillet with a paper towel. Repeat procedure with remaining vegetable oil, remaining pot stickers, and remaining water.

Serve with Dipping Sauce (Below):

Dipping Sauce

6 Tbsp GF Tamari Sauce

3 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp hot chili oil OR sesame oil

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

Combine all ingredients and let sit for about an hour before serving.

Cincinnati-Style, 4 1/2 Alarm Chili

2007-11-12T18:42:00.001-05:00

According to legend, Cincinnati Chili was created by a Middle-Eastern immigrant who combined his favourite spices with meat sauce, put the conglomeration on top of pasta, added traditional 'chili' accompaniments, and marketed it well.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Cincinnati Chili is a unique and fabulously delicious meal - a filling combination of sweet and savoury with a tiny 'kick' of spice.

Real 5 alarm chili is made with a copious amount of ground beef, which is cooked in the highly spiced tomato sauce, producing a thick, very fine texture. Obviously, any vegetarian recipe is going to omit the beef. I've seen plenty of recipes which skirt this difficulty by using ground soy crumbles. Since we don't do soy in almost any form (except fermented wheat free soy sauce), this presented a problem.

I decided against using my favourite eggplant/walnut 'meat' combination, because I feared the combination of the eggplant with the spices, which truly are middle-eastern (in part) would make the dish taste too much like mousakka.

I experiemented with a number of options, but in the end, I settled for making a nice 'bean-paste roux' and using it to thicken the sauce. This allowed the flavour of the spices to shine through while giving the sauce a little more 'body' and stick-to-your-ribs protein.

My family adored it, and no-one complained about the meat. If you're not opposed, feel free to stir in soy crumbles, or heck! Use Ground beef. Either way, this is the best Cincinnati chili you'll find outside of the state.

FYI: The 'alarms' in a 5 alarm chili are the following. I have it on good authority that for an authentic 5 alarm chili (or in this case 4 1/2 alarm) , one simply 'must' add the toppings in the order listed. Of course, I ignore all of this, but hey...:

2 Alarm Pasta topped with Cincinnati style chili

3 Alarm Pasta, Chili, Sharp Cheddar Cheese (and don't skimp on the cheese!)

4 Alarm Pasta, Chili, Cheese, Chopped Onions

5 Alarm Pasta, Chili, Cheese, Onions, Kidney Beans

And now, here's the recipe:

Cincinnati-Style 4 1/2 Alarm Chili

2c cooked kidney beans, divided
1 c oil
2/3 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 1/2 c minced onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa
1 15oz can diced tomatoes with chilis
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 c water

Cooked pasta
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
onions
kidney beans

In a blender, combine the 2c kidney beans and flour and blend til smooth.

In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the bean paste and cook, stirring, until the bean paste absorbs most of the liquid and begins to thicken. You'll need to scrape the bottom of the pan continuously.

Add the rest of the seasonings, ending with the water. Simmer, uncovered, for at least an hour or up to three hours.

Serve on top of pasta, with toppings, if desired.

I have been sooooooo sick

2007-11-05T14:00:00.000-05:00

Oh my word.

I've been down and out for at least three weeks now, so I'm biting the bullet and going to the doctor.

No idea what's wrong with me.

I'll keep you posted.

Gluten Free Menu Swap... a spiffing idea!

2007-10-20T14:10:00.000-04:00

I'm posting my first menu for the Gluten Free Menu Swap. Hope I don't screw it up, lol.
I'll post my veggie meals here and all my other recipes over at Better Batter.
Okay, here goes:

Week of October 22, I'm making...

M Garlic-Basil Dinner Loaves with Artichoke heart and Fontinella Cheese Filling

T A Super-Easy Dal (with apple! You heard right....apple) with Naan

W Black-Bean and Pumpkin Soup

T Hot Mess (Aka Hunter's Breakfast)

F Mexican Stuffed Peppers

S I'm leaving Free to Try Your Recipes!
S I'm leaving free to Try Your Recipes!

This week's menu swap is hosted by Mrs. G.F.
Stop in and give her your love!

Why did I Drop the Raw Foods Thing?

2007-10-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

Raw foods! Ahhhhhh raw foods. Delicious, healthy, light and easy recipes for a busy lifestyle. So why, oh why, dearest reader, did I drop the raw foods thing?

Because, in a nutshell, it was very bad for me.

Not the raw foods themselves. The lifestyle.

Okay,

A) Hunny wasn't buying 100% raw. So essentially, though we could survive through breakfast and lunch together, I always had to make separate dinners. Which meant I spent 1/2 of my day in the kitchen. 3/4 for a really gourmet 'uncooked' food.

B) It was too easy to slide into my old eating disorder. Maybe this isn't true for anyone else, or everyone else, or...whatever. But for me, the push to 'go 100% raw' was really too obsessive. I found myself counting percentages instead of calories, and worrying about every little thing I put into my mouth. I started getting aversions to foods that I know scientifically are healthier for you if cooked. I... it wasn't good, and it wasn't going to be healthy if I kept on keeping on.

C) It was hard to get certain vitamins and minerals (like the B vitamins) into my diet. And I feel vitamin deficiency terribly fast -- keep in mind, I've had to be dairy free for a while now, so with no animal based form of nutrition at all, I slid into deficiency hard-core. This is, I suppose, why so many people choose to do a little dairy or eggs with their veggie lifestyle. "Why not take a supplement?"... because the supplements are animal-based (see B above). "why not try masive quantities of sea vegetables?"... I did. It didn't help -- the B vitamins in seas veggies didn't absorb well. ugh. ANd yes, we do eat sea veggies all the time, so there was no aversion.

D) Did I mention that it's getting cold where I live? Really cold. Like dark, dark days of autumn, sliding into the eternal night of winter cold... The only fresh, local, organic, raw produce available here right now is kole veggies (which are fine fermented) and squashes (which get a little rough to take raw). I'm really into local, sustainable Community supported agriculture. (Isn't everybody). So we've got a war of philosophies going. And even if I give in and buy the imported organic-goods (and admitedly I do every so often, especially come winter when my garden's not producing and neither is my local farm), I'm not a Hollywood celebrity,and there's no eternal summer here in the mountains, so unless I want to mortgage my house, 100% raw was not going to happen. Period.

E) One last thing. I'm a research gal. There's a lot of misinformation going on in the Raw community right now. A lot of good, but a lot of missed. For instance, the whole nuts thing. For a while, the only truly RAW nut you could find was almonds, if you wanted to split hairs, and now, even that's hard to find unless you live in CA. Did I mention I can get a tad obsessive?

Anwhoodles.... point being:

I eat a lot of Raw anyway. I'm not going to worry about exactly HOW raw I am. I'm going to enjoy cooked foods and supplement heavily with fresh seasonal veggies, raw or gently cooked, and loads of fresh seasonal fruits (my strawberries and raspberries are just coming on heavily!). I eat well. I eat sustainably. I like to bake. I don't want to make myself starve again.

I'll still use raw recipes. I'll still eat raw. But it's a part of my lifestyle... not my identity.

Cool? Cool.

Because I'm in a Baking Mood...Bagels

2007-10-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I usually post actual entrees. But I'm in a baking mood and totally off the raw food wagon (or kind of, anyway)... so I'm posting what I've been gorging myself on the last two days - bagels!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the recipes for those who are interested.

I get a lot of questions when I post a recipe calling for Better Batter Gluten Free Flour, so I'm providing a link to the website. Knock yerself out.

Meanwhile... Here's the recipes:

Everything Bagels

These are a near clone of the Everything Bagels you can buy at the Einstein Brothers bagel shops. These bagels fill the house with the smell of a bagel shop. They taste awesome toasted with butter. For a treat, make them into Breakfast Sandwiches.

I'm including photos of each step to try and make it easier to visualize. Follow the directions carefully and you'll have real bagels in no time! This recipe makes 24 large bagels.

8 cups all purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c molasses
2 Tbsp salt
2 packages active dry yeast
6 cups warm water

2 egg whites, beaten with 2 tbsp cold water
1 tablespoon dry minced onion
1 tablespoon dry minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Flour, for rolling
Water plus sugar for the water bath (1 Tbsp per 2 quarts)
cornmeal for dusting the pans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line three or four baking sheets with parchment paper and sprinkle with cornmeal.

1. Mix all Dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the water and molasses and knead with your hands until the mixture resembles very sticky play-doh.

2. Lightly flour a silpat or plastic wrap (it should barely be covered with a fine film of flour). Divide the dough into softball sized portions (you can make them smaller for a mini bagel, or larger for a deli-sized bagel)

3. Gently roll the dough balls on the floured surface of the silpat until they're smooth. Flatten each ball ito a disk, about 4 inches by 1 1/2 inches thick.

4. Verygently, with floured hands, poke a hole into the center of the dough an work it until the hole is about 1 1/2 inch in diameter. Repeat with all the dough. Let the bagels rise for 30 minutes.

5. Heat a pan full of water, at least 3 inches deep to boiling. Add about a tablespoon of sugar per 2 quarts of water. Drop no more than 3 bagels in at a time (they swell as they cook)!

6. Simmer for 3 minutes, gently turn over and simmer for another 4 minutes.

7. Place back on parchment paper. When the tray is full, place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile combine all of the onion, garlic, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, sesame seeds and salt.Remove from oven and brush all over with egg white mixture and sprinkle equally with the seed mixture.

Return to oven and bake for 20-30 minutes more, or until deep golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing.

Variation: Substitute all poppy seeds or all sesame seeds for the seed mixture.

New York Style Water Bagels

These really and truly taste, look and have the mouth feel of a great bagel. Serve with cream cheese and, if you're so inspired, lox. They freeze beautifully and reheat well. For a treat, make them into Breakfast Sandwiches.

8 cups all purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
2 Tbsp salt
2 packages active dry yeast
6 cups warm water

2 egg whites, beaten with 2 tbsp cold water

Flour, for rolling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line three or four baking sheets with parchment paper.
1. Mix all Dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the water and knead with your hands until the mixture resembles very sticky play-doh.

2. Lightly flour a silpat or plastic wrap (it should barely be covered with a fine film of flour). Divide the dough into softball sized portions (you can make them smaller for a mini bagel, or larger for a deli-sized bagel)

3. Gently roll the dough balls on the floured surface of the silpat until they're smooth. Flatten each ball ito a disk, about 4 inches by 1 1/2 inches thick.

4. Verygently, with floured hands, poke a hole into the center of the dough an work it until the hole is about 1/2 inch in diameter. Repeat with all the dough. Let the bagels rise for 30 minutes.

5. Heat a pan full of water, at least 3 inches deep to boiling. Drop no more than 3 bagels in at a time (they swell as they cook)!

6. Simmer for 3 minutes, gently turn over and simmer for another 4 minutes.

7. Place back on parchment paper. When the tray is full, place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush all over with egg white mixture.

Return to oven and bake for 20-30 minutes more, or until deep golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing.

What HAVE I been up to??? Pretzels!

2007-10-09T21:05:00.001-04:00

Suprepretzels Clone
Many thanks to Sande Guetthoff for asking me to develop this recipe for her. This makes individual sized soft pretzels that taste remarkably (scarily!) close to the real thing. They freeze beautifully and reheat well. For a treat, try the Bavarian Pretzel Sandwich Rolls Variation.

I'm including photos of each step to try and make it easier to visualize. Follow the directions carefully and you'll have real soft pretzels in no time!

2 Tbsp active dry yeast
4 c cold water
6 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1/2 c light corn syrup or agave nectar
1/4 c butter, margerine, or butter-flavoured shortening
2 tsp salt

Flour, for rolling

Beaten egg whites (about 3)

10 c hot water
2/3 c baking soda
coarse pretzel salt, if desired.

Line three or four baking sheets with parchment paper.

1. Put the yeast in the warm water and let sit for five minutes. Add 4 cups of the flour, corn syrup or agave, butter/margerine/shortening, and salt to the yeast mixture and beat well, on high speed, for three minutes. The mixture should resemble very, very sticky cookie dough (or even a bit wetter).

2. Put a cup of flour thickly over a silpat or plastic wrap and place the dough mixture on this. Sprinkle with another cup of the flour. Now very carefully incorporate the flour (knead it by folding the batter in half, patting it out, and folding gently again) until all the flour is absorbed. This should feel like sticky play-doh.

3. Separate the dough into balls slightly larger than baseballs but slightly smaller than tennis balls.

The outside of the ball will get slightly dry to the touch, but the inside will be really tacky and sticky (click pic for a closer look).

4. Very, very lightly flour your rolling surface. Taking one ball at a time, with floured hands, roll the ball between your hands until it is about four inches long. Lay onto the rolling surface.

Roll the dough very gently until it is about 9 inches long. At this point, it will be really delicate. Begin to VERY gently pinch the width of the dough to make it longer, and alternate this with patting the dough gently down to make it flatter. Keep doing this until the dough is about 14 inches long.

5. Take the rope and quickly form it, on the parchment sheets, into a pretzel shape. Brush a little egg white or water under the surface of each 'foot' and onto the base of the pretzel to adhere the 'arms' to the 'body'.

Let rise for 30-45 minutes.

6. Prepare the soda bath: Mix the 10 cups of water with the baking soda and (10 minutes before you're ready to dip the pretzels) heat to a boil. This will be cloudy in appearance. This should be ready just as the pretzels are done rising.

7. VERY CAREFULLY, using as wide a spatula as you can (use two-- one to life and one to slide under and support!) lift the pretzel from the parchment paper into the boiling soda bath. This will boil up into froth, so it's really important not to do more than two pretzels at a time at most! Cover with a lid and time for 1 minute.

This solution will get stronger smelling with each pretzel and may even turn a weird bright golden yellow as the batches progress. That's okay!!

8. VERY carefully remove the pretzel(s) from the water and place back on the parchment paper. Continue to do this with the rest of the pretzels.

Meanwhile heat the oven to 350 degrees.

9. Brush beaten egg white over the pretzels and bake for about 15 minutes, or until deep golden brown. If you are going to eat them hot, sprinkle the salt on before baking. If you are going to freeze them, wait until you are ready to heat them to put the salt on.

Vegetarian Stroganoff

2007-10-09T19:47:00.000-04:00

Vegetarian Stroganoff

This meal has all the great taste of beef stroganoff, but Utilizes my favorite lentil "meat" instead of ground beef. Feel free to use fat-free yogurt instead of sour cream, if you're watching your waistline.

8 oz lentils, soaked overnight in 6 cups of water, then drained.
1 cup-2 c water
1 tsp garlic powder or one clove garlic
1 tsp salt
oil, about a cup.

1 onion, finely diced

8 oz mushrooms, finely sliced

1 16oz carton sour cream

2 Tbsp Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

1/8 tsp pepper

salt to taste

1 recipe Pasta, prepared as noodles or store bought gf noodles (we like glutano tagliatelli)

Grind the lentils and seasonings in a blender using just enough water to keep the machine from burning up. The mixture should be thick, like cold cream or pudding.

Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Add the ground lentil paste and fry, stirring constantly. There should form a skin on the bottom of the pan, scrape this (this is the part of the mixture that will come to resemble ground beef). Keep frying and scraping (you can leave the mixture for several minutes to allow a crust to build up) until the mixture begins to look 'dry' and resembles cooked ground beef -- remember that this will firm up even a bit more as it cools, so leave it just slightly moist.
This took me 30 minutes on high heat.

Meanwhile, boil pasta water.

Cook the pasta.

At the last minute, stir the sour cream, salt, and pepper into the stroganoff. Put on top of pasta and serve.

Finally! The pierogies

2007-10-09T19:32:00.000-04:00

No, I haven't left you. Yes I'm very busy.

LOL!

To make these, you'll need to start by making a base for stuffed pastas. This is really very easy:

Base For Stuffed Pastas

This is a great pasta recipe, especially for making homemade ravioli, pierogis, or kreplach. This can be rolled by hand or through a machine, and is very adaptable. Make sure to follow the instructions exactly as written.

4 cups Better Batter All Purpose Flour

1 generous tsp salt

2 large eggs

2 tbsp butter or shortening

2-3 c warm water

Put flour, salt, eggs, and butter or shortening in the bowl of a food processor. Put the lid on and turn the machine to 'on.' Pour just enough water through the feeder spout, in a constant thin stream, until the dough begins to resemble a very thick paste and sticks to the side of the machine. Take out of machine and let sit about 20 minutes. (Alternately: put all ingredients into the bowl of a kitchenaid mixer and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add the water, slowly in a thin stream until the pastelike texture is achieved, then beat for a minute or two more. Let sit)

Proceed with stuffed pasta directions.

Potato And Cheddar Pierogies

Pierogis are stuffed pasta - reminiscient of ravioli, but filled with potato, cabbage, or meat. Originally of slovak and Polish origin, these delicious dumplings are a major part of central Pennsylvanian cuisine. Traditionally, pierogi are boiled and then fried in melted butter. Sheer heaven. These taste like clones of the popular commercial variety available in supermarkets. This is work intensive, so make a lot and freeze them.

5 pounds potatoes

1 onion, finely minced

1 pound extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1 recipe Base for stuffed Pastas

Flour, for rolling, as well as a 3 inch round cookie cutter

water or egg white

Optional: butter for frying

Peel potatoes and cube. Boil a pot full of water and cook potatoes until soft, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and mash.

Stir the onion and cheese into the potato mixture and set aside to cool.

Gently fold the dough in half to mark the center crease and unfold.

Using the cookie cutter, lightly mark circles on half the dough (do not cut through the dough!

Working quickly coat the marked side of the dough with water or egg white and place a large teaspoon (up to a tablespoon) of potato/cheese filling in the center of each circle.

Fold the dough over and press lightly to seal around the pockets of filling.

Using the cookie cutter, cut out the circles of dough. Gather and reroll the scraps, continuing to mark and fill the dough as instructed. Set aside to dry while you make the second half of the pasta.

Boil fresh water for the pasta (about a gallon for each two dozen).

Put the pierogis in the water and cook until they float, about 30 seconds.

Either serve, or fry in melted butter until lightly browned, then serve.

Pumpkin Pierogies

These pierogies are a sophisticated, 'grown-up' take on traditional Polish comfort food. The mellow winter squash is counterbalanced by warm undertones from spices and given a surprisingly delicious kick with the addition of fresh sage. A perfect dish for autumn.

2 pounds potatoes

2 pounds pumpkin, butternut squash, or other winter squash

1 large carrots, minced

1 onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cardamom

2 eggs

1 recipe Base for stuffed Pastas

Flour, for rolling, as well as a 3 inch round cookie cutter

water or egg white

Bbutter for frying

1 bunch fresh sage

Peel potatoes and squash and cube. Boil in just enough water to cover until soft, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and mash.

Stir the carrots, onion, garlic, spices, and eggs and set aside to cool.

Gently fold the dough in half to mark the center crease and unfold.

Using the cookie cutter, lightly mark circles on half the dough (do not cut through the dough!

Working quickly coat the marked side of the dough with water or egg white and place a large teaspoon (up to a tablespoon) of filling in the center of each circle.

Fold the dough over and press lightly to seal around the pockets of filling.

Using the cookie cutter, cut out the circles of dough. Gather and reroll the scraps, continuing to mark and fill the dough as instructed. Set aside to dry while you make the second half of the pasta.

Boil fresh water for the pasta (about a gallon for each two dozen).

Put the pierogis in the water and cook until they float, about 30 seconds.

Slice the sage leaves into thin julienne slices and quickly fry in the butter. Add the pierogies, fry in melted butter until lightly browned, then serve.

So tired...

2007-09-20T12:40:00.000-04:00

Jiwa Music

I haven't been posting much lately.

It's because my schedule hasn't really permitted it. I remember a time when I could spend hours typing fanfiction and blog updates and not even blink. The past two weeks haven't been anything like that.

My apologies.

I've got tons of great recipes languishing in my camera's eye, waiting to be blogged about. But for now, I'm sitting tight and trying to hang on even tighter. My guess is that tomorrow I'll be able to navigate to a shoal on the rapids of paperwork long enough to actually post something.

Thanks for your patience!
naomi

Burrichaladas (When Enchiladas and Burritos collide)

2007-09-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

Pretty?

Maybe not.

Tasty?

ZOMG!

This recipe was super good, and relatively quick and easy to make (I always make extra beans to store for make-over meals like this)

Warm, homemade corn tortillas (use storebought if you don't want to make them) are topped with a really savoury bean and eggplant-meat filling (there's that pesky eggplant, again!), loads of cheese, and a nice GF enchilada sauce.

This is really a cheater meal for me... so I didn't bother making homemade enchilada sauce.

The Carnivore liked it...said it needed more cheese (and come to think of it- note to self- probably lettuce!) The boys scarfed it down.

Burrichaladas
1 can gf enchilada sauce or homemade

8 corn tortillas (we made them, using masa, water, and a hot griddle, but you can buy them)

1 pound colby-jack cheese

1/2 pound/4 c cooked, mashed beans (we used canary beans)
1/2 pound eggplant 'meat from the marinara recipe, mixed with a healthy few tbsp of Goya Adobo -- essentially salt, garlic powder, and dried oregano

optional: guac, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes-chopped

Not in the mood for that?
I also made a fun raw loaded-nacho that was pretty good.

Spaghetti Squash With "meaty' Marinara

2007-09-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

Beautiful, isn't it?

I fell in love with the raw vegan way of preparing 'meat' out of nuts and eggplant, and began to experiment with cooked versions of the same thing.

I've made this meat sauce several times, with the same reviews -- it looks and tastes very, very, VERY close to the real deal. Which is a good thing if you've got a Carnivore in the family.

THe spaghetti quash on the other hand... well, that was at the request of my six year old, and the Carnivore wasn't too happy with that.

Tonight I altered my usual 'meat' sauce, by using almonds instead of walnuts, and adding two green peppers to the food processor. It was a more subtle sauce -- less meat, more marinara -- and it was soooo good.

We served this with imported, grated Parmeseano-Reggiano, but shaky cheese or a nice vegan nurtitional yeast/almond cheeze will do nicely.

Meaty Marinara
1 pound eggplant
about 2 c walnuts or almonds
2 green peppers (optional)
2 tbsp gf soy sauce (I hear that all soy sauces made by the traditional method are actually GF, but if you're nervous, stick with a safe one)

Chop all of these on the pulse section of your food processor, or grate/chop finely. Stir into a nice organic marinara sauce (we bought one...Ragu Organic).

Serve on top of cooked spaghetti or spaghetti sauce.

Naomi's Take on Taku: Peruvian Comfort Food Reconstructed

2007-09-04T20:22:00.001-04:00

New Englanders have hash, The English have Bubble and Squeak. Peruvians... well, Peruvians take comfort food to a whole nother level. Taku Taku, which is a sort of leftovers-done-over was originally a Creolle food (read:slave) but it's been adopted by the richest, smarmiest restaurants in the United States (granted, they serve it with foi gras or some other ridiculous accompaniment).

Essentially taku taku in its original glory, is mashed beans and rice, seasoned with all kinds of oniony/saffrony goodness, fried until it has a crisp crust, and topped with a fried egg and plantains. If you're into over easy or 'up' eggs, it's a textural mouth-orgy waiting to happen.

I happen to think that the original presentation of taku taku is ugly as sin, and the preparation is ridiculously long and exhausting; so I took it upon myself to reconstruct the recipe for a friendlier, more attractive approach.

For those of you familiar with Puerto Rican Quisine, this has a similar feel and taste to Mofongo (but without the intense garlic overkill). Which means that it's notoriously heavy and filling.

A few notes on AUTHENTICITY:
CANARY beans are an absolute must for this recipe, at least if you want to be authentic. I dunno, after cooking, it seemed like they were terribly close to Great Northern Beans or even Limas; but I don't want to offend any purists more than I already am, so... use Canary Beans. :)

Naturally I didn't use the authentic pork fat and bits because a) pork is nasty and b) this IS a vegetarian blog. You can find plenty of real, pork-happy taku taku recipes on the net, if you want. Knock yourself out.

Aji Amarillo (which, to the best of my knowledge is a peruvian yellow pepper sauce) is hard to obtain here, so we used a regular yellow pepper, sauted and pureed, instead.

Here's my recipe, in any case:

Taku Taku Reconstructed
1 pound canary beans, soaked overnight and cooked till soft.
3 c cooked rice

4 tbsp olive oil
1 very large onion, minced into very fince fragments (we used a food processor)
3 cloves garlic minced
salt
pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp American saffron (annato)

1 yellow pepper, sauteed in olive oil till very soft and pureed in a blender till smooth
more olive oil

very ripe, sliced Plantains
eggs

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare four oven safe soup bowls or casseroles on a cookie sheet.

In a small saucepan saute the minced onion and garlic in the olive oil, and add the annato, oregano, salt and pepper to taste, until soft. Remove half of the mixture and set aside.

Add the yellow pepper puree to the mixture that remains in the pan, along with enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Turn up the heat to medium high.

In the food processor, or by hand, mash the beans until they're a chunky paste. add to the mixture in the pan and stir for several minutes, until the paste begins to thicken. Add the rice, and stir some more. When the mixture looks like it's starting to brown/stick to the bottom of the pan, carefully spoon the mixture into the bowls and set them in the oven. Bake for at least 30 minutes, or until a golden crust forms. (this took me 45 minutes).

Meanwhile, fry plantains in butter or oil until caremelized.
About 3-5 minutes before taku is done, fry your eggs.

Slip the taku taku onto a plate, cover with an egg and some of the reserved onion sauce. Add plantains to the dish, and serve.

Vegetarian Not-Quite Gumbo

2007-09-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

So we had an abundance of squash. An abundance of tomatoes. And a friggin motherload of okra. Didn't really know what to do with it, so I created a recipe that is a melange of influences, from Puerto Rican rice and beans and Louisiana Gumbo.

We're not really doing fish anymore... price and mercury levels not really permitting... so I used dulse flakes to give the not-quite gumbo a sea taste without the sea-meat.

Pinto beans provided protein and body.

We used a large no-idea-what-it-is squash, which looked rather like a pumpkin. Feel free to sub in any firm fleshed winter squash you choose.

Everyone liked this dish, and it was even better the next day.

Not-Quite Gumbo
1 pound of pinto beans, cooked in water

1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c Better Batter Gluten Free flour, or really good cup-for-cup substitute
2 c diced onion
2 c diced green peppers
1 c diced celery
3 cloves minced garlic
4-6 cups chopped tomatoes
4 quarts vegetable stock or water
1 tbsp dulse flakes
1/8 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp celery salt
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp basil
1 large winter squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 pound okra, with the stems cut off

1 large pan warm cooked rice.

Keep pinto beans aside.

Saute the olive oil and flour, until the flour thickens. Add the onion, green peppers, celery, and garlic and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, water, and seasonings and saute for another 5 minutes. Add the winter squash, okra, and beans, and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Or until okra is tender and squash is beginning to soften.

Serve over rice.

Vegetarian Dirty Rice

2007-09-01T22:33:00.000-04:00

Vegetarian Dirty Rice

Dirty Rice was one of my favourite things to order at the Bojangles Restaurant growing up. Eggplant and sunflower seeds replace chicken livers for a seamless trasition to vegetarian. This is a great meal, especially if enhanced with some GF chile beans.

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cus Better Batter Gluten Free Flo, or a really good cup-for-cup gf flourur

1 cup minced onions

1 pound eggplant AND 1/2 pound hulled sunflower seeds, chopped into a very slightly chunky paste (use a food processor)

1/3 c celery, minced

1/2 c finely minced parsley

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1 clove garlic, minced or crushed

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

4 1/2 c vegetable stock

2 c long grained rice

Cook the rice in the stock.

IN a large pot, heat the oil and simmer the flour in it till the flour thickens. Add the onions and saute for several minutes. Add the eggplant pate and saute for several minutes. Add the celery, parsley, and garlic and saute for a minute or two, then add the salt, pepper, and cayenne and cook for another 3 minutes. Mix the cooked eggplant mixture into the cooked rice. Put in a 350 degree oven and allow flavours to meld for 20 minutes, then serve warm.

Optional, add 2 cans of GF chile beans for a full meal.

Watermelon Sorbet And Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

2007-09-01T22:14:00.000-04:00

The weather's finally starting to fluctuate between cool and abysmally hot, which means at any given point in time I've got hot tea brewing and ice cream churning at the same time. Not a bad thing, mind you, but slightly schizo, if you ask me. I made these two delicous cold treats on the same day, and we ate ourselves into an ice-cream headache. Totally worth it. I don't have pics for the chocolate mint ice cream (it was scarfed too quickly). Sorry!
By now you should realize how ridiculously easy it is to make ice cream, if you have one of the new, handy-dandy ice cream makers that don't need salt and ice.

Watermelon Sorbet
1 large seedless watermelon
3/4 c agave nectar or, if you must, sugar

Blend watermelon and agave in blender till smooth. Freeze according to directions (about 25 minutes). Put in a separate bowl and let 'cure' in the freezer for another 2-3 hours, if desired.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream
2 c coconut milk
1 c nutmilk
3/4 c agave nectar
1/4 c raw cacao (or 1/4 c chocolate chips)
several sprigs fresh mint (I like chocolate mint for this, but peppermint is dandy) or a few drops mint extract.

Blend all ingredients in your blender. Freeze in your ice cream freezer. Let cure for several hours in the freezer and top with magic shell, LOL.

So I had a Day Off Today

2007-08-28T17:23:00.000-04:00

So today was my day off.

HAHAHAHHHAHHHA

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. People who are stupid enough to own businesses don't get days off in the middle of the week. Silly me.

I looked at locations from which to launch a smallish factory. Found one, for a lovely price. Needs a bit of work, but what doesn't?

Also heard from several distributors and a university who are going to carry my product.

(Dear me mother, I've officially gone into Trade! What would Fitzwilliam think of me????)

Which of course means I'm going to rule the world.

You may not know this, but secret messages (written backward in latin, no less) are encoded my blog. World taking-type messages. I'd tell you, but then they wouldn't be a secret.

Okay... I'll tell you one: It says.... never mind.

So where was I? Oh yes, I worked 10 hours. And not 10 hours-but-I'm-secretly-surfing-the-net-and-chatting kind of hours either.

Good thing it was my day off.

Oh and had a huge order come in right as I was finishing and starting to make dinner.

Which means several more hours of work in addition to the ones I already had planned for tomorrow.

I've had a few weeks of this, btw.

So now you know where I've been and why there's been no updates.

Anyone want to buy a small manufacturing firm for several million dollars?

Fun with Raw Foods: Berry Sorbet and Lime Daquari Sherbert

2007-08-14T15:37:00.001-04:00

Have I mentioned lately how hot it is?? So hot. Soooo hot. Too hot to do anything hot. Well, to do anything but make lots and lots of frozen goodies. I've come up with two more icy treats to tempt your tastebuds... Berry Sorbet and Daquari Ice Lime Sherbet. Take a moment, wipe your mouth, and print out these recipes to try:

Mixed Berry Sorbet
2 quarts assorted mixed berries
3/4 c agave OR 1 Tbsp Stevia w/Inulin
Water

Blend Berries and Agave or stevia. Add enough water to make 1 1/2 quarts.

Pour into Ice Cream Maker and Freeze.

Daquari Ice Lime Sherbet
Zest of two limes
1 cup agave nectar
2/3 c freshly squeezed lime juice
1 1/2 c water
1c fresh nutmilk
3 Tbsp Rum OR 1 tsp rum extract

Blend all ingredients together and freeze in Ice cream maker.

Pizza Night at the Poes

2007-08-07T21:20:00.000-04:00

We have a semi-regular pizza night (semi, because in the summer it's usually too danged hot to cook), where I set out all kinds of colourful veggies and toppings and just let the kids go wild building the pizza of their dreams. Usually I have to yell at them to stop hogging up all the toppings, because they like to pile theirs somewhere in the 2-3 inch category, leaving cheese for the rest of us. Fortunately for me, mozzarella still does okay for me. Unfortunately for them... I want my stinkin' toppings!

Something I like to do, to make things easier, is to make pizza crusts in individual sizes and freeze them in a stack. Then I can just thaw out what I want, build my pizza, and pop it into the oven. If I'm feeling really rushed, I'll pull out a pre-built pizza and cook it from frozen. My recipes for pizza crust (BOTH normal GF pizza crusts and Better Batter Flour Pizza Crusts) and full techniques and instructions for making pizza and crusts ahead, with every variation you can think of is on my regular GF, sadly neglected, blog.

This particular night, I was also experiementing with RAW food, and I tried a dehydrated pizza recipe from one of my favorite raw foods cookbooks, the Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine Book.

Okay, Let me just say... this was possibly the worst pizza I've had in my life. Bad enough not to give you the recipe... The toppings were pretty good (I picked them off and ate them), but the crust was like a huge, thick slab of pesto-flavoured nut-butter. It was rough, I tell you. ROugh Rough. Make-something-else-to-eat rough.

Fortunately, I'd grabbed a bunch of toppings from my sons (eggplant, onion, green pepper, tomato, chantarelle mushrooms, shaved brazil nuts, black olives, basil) and was able to peg together a Pizza Salad.

Pizza salad is essentially all those ingredients in a nice italian vinagarette, especially heavy on the fresh oregano. Even better after it's marinated for several hours. I ate this for two days.

As for the rest of the family, they had a really great time chowing down on real, cooked, hot pizza.

If you're inclined to make pizza, feel free to follow my basic directions on my blog.

Add whatever toppings you desire, and it's pizza heaven! The pictured pizza below had artichoke hearts, fresh bufaletta mozzarella, black olives, green peppers, chantarelle mushrooms, thinly sliced fresh heirloom tomatoes, and minced onions-n-garlic, oregano, and basil. Like Pizza Hut, only scads better for you!

Fun with Raw Foods: Mock Fish Sticks...Because I'm on a Nori kick

2007-08-07T15:39:00.001-04:00

I'm trying all kinds of fun and exciting ways of using (read: hiding) everyone's favorite (or least favorite), ubiquitous summer veggie.... and this one is , to say the least, a very original idea.

I got the original idea, for mock fish sticks from a fabulous forum that I've been lurking in ... The Raw Freedom Community.

There was a great looking recipe for mock fish stick, but of course, me being me, I couldn't leave it alone, and this is the result. Be warned: This recipe take a good bit of work, and a loooooong time to dehydrate, but I have to say, it was pretty good, even by the Carnivore's standards. Which means, he'd eat them.

They're also pretty cheap.

Don't be alarmed by the amount of cayenne pepper in the receipe. It's necessary in order for your mouth to perceive 'heat' but not "hot" in the OMG I've got to have a gallon of water NOW kinda way. Even the Carnivore, who hates spicy, didn't get overheated. But, erm... if you don't believe me, feel free to halve the amount.

Mock Fish Sticks

2 cups Eggplant
4-5 cups zucchini
2 tsp finely minced onion

Raw nori sheets

Marinade:
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 sheet nori, torn up
1 tsp sea salt

Batter:
2 cups raw sunflower seeds
1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup golden flaxseeds

Cut eggplant and zucchini lengthwise into fillets about 1/3 inch thickness and soak them for at least 24 hours.

Press excess water out with a paper towel.

IN the bowl of your food processor, combine eggplant with the onion and marinade ingredients and process till smooth.

Remove to a mixing bowl. IN the food processor, chop the zuchinni until it resembles fish flakes (slightly coarse but very small.)

Mix the ingredients the eggplant mixture and the zucchini. This is your "fish" mixture.

Cut each nori sheet into quarters. Fill the nori strip with about a Tbsp of the mixture, in a long strip. Roll the nori into a cigarette shape (it will be like a 4 inch long cigarillo, actually!), and gently press the sides down.

Place the fish cigarillos on food dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 145 for 2 hours.

Remove from the dehydrator. Flatten gently with your fingers until the cigarillos turn into little rectangles that resemble....fish sticks!

In the bowl of your food processor, grind the Sunflower seeds and salt until smooth, adding water if necessary, to make a 'pancake batter' consistency.

Grind the flaxseed until it resembles a meal.

Dip the marinated, nori cigarillos in the batter and cover completely on both sides, then roll in the flaxseed, pressing to adhere.

Place on the dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 2 hours and then flip it over and dehydrate for another hour.

Extreme PB&J (peanut free)

2007-08-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

It's hot. It's too dang hot. It's too dang, dang hot to cook. So I made an ice cream we could eat for lunch. If you really wanted to round this out, you could slather this between two slices of GF bread and freeze, or if you wanted to be eeeeeeviilllllll you could make GF cookie bars and slap it between those, and freeze.

We just eat it in a bowl because, like I said... it's too dang hot.

This ice cream is (of course *eye roll*) dairy free, boys and girls, and tastes almost exactly like peanut butter and jelly (which is weird because there's not a peanut or grape in sight... didja know grapes give me migraines, too??). It's also raw (whaddayaknow!)

Extreme PB and J Ice Cream

1 c raw cashew butter (you can make your own by processing cashews with just enough oil to flow)
1 c brazil nuts
4 c very ripe blackberries
1/2 c raw agave nectar

Optional: Keep 1 c of the berries reserved, blend into the agave nectar, and stir into the ice cream AFTER it's done, then let cure. Otherwise...

IN a blender, blend the cashew butter, brazil nuts, and blackberries till smooth. Stir in the agave nectar. Freeze per your manufacturers directions, or put in a bowl and stir every 10 minutes for 2 hours.

Fun with Raw Foods: Mock Tuna Salad

2007-08-07T15:15:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get around to posting the huge array of recipes I promised, But first...

You're not going to believe how good this is, and how close it tastes to real tuna fish (can anyone out there remember real tuna fish?) I mean, even if you're not a vegetarian, the thought of all that mercury and overfishing... and the cost of 'safe' tuna? *shudders* Here's a tuna salad you'll love. Don't be weirded out by all the ingredients... they all combine to make the best mock tuna ever.

Mock Tuna Salad
1 Cup Almonds (with skins, soaked and air dried)
1 Cup Raw Walnuts (soaked)
1/4 fresh lemon (and I mean ALL parts)
1/2 Tsp. Garlic (minced)
1/2 sheet Nori (NOT toasted, obviously!lol)
2 Tbs. GF Tamari or dark miso
1/4-1/2 c water
*******************************
In FP blend seeds, nuts, garlic, nori & Tamari, until the mixture resembles very dry tuna fish (I use the pulse button about 12 times. It may take more). Remove 2/3 of it and transfer to bowl. Add the lemon and water to remaining 1/3 and process until it's very smooth. Mix this into the coarser mixture.

Add:

1 pickle chopped (Bubbies pickle)
1 Tsp. Ume Plum vinegar
1/4 c Bubbies pickle juice
1 tsp. fresh Dill Weed (chopped)
1Tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)
1/4 Cup Onion (chopped)
1/4 Cup chopped Celery

Stir until mixed!

All Right.... hang on tight!

2007-08-04T16:47:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be posting a lot of recipes tomorrow:

Vegan, Raw cheesecake (tastes like girl scout samoas, yum! at least to me)

A Pizza Recipe.

A Raw, vegan Pizza recipe review. And the really good supreme pizza salad that came out of that disaster.

A nice pepper slaw

a recipe for Extreme PB&J (you'll have to wait and see what that one is)

Chips Ideas

I've decided to make several kinds of the same dish (regular vegetarian and raw vegan) at the same time, mostly to see if it can be done (to have similar tastes with different techniques), but also because I DEFINITELY cannot have dairy (MIGRAINES!!!) ugh...the mouring ove rthe lost cheese is unbelievable.

Granted, I can have mozarella...but might as well try new things, while I can, right?

I'm also trying a new, raw, vegan Fruity Pebbles recipe, and I'll let you knwo how it goes, once it's finished dehydrating.

Dunno how long I'll be in the mood to cook this much (raw food has crazy prep times attached, in general... like 4 hours for a single pizza, ugh)

I'd post tonight, but really.... I'm toast. Too much dehydrating and cooking for one day. Seriously.
*kisses*

Fun with Raw Foods: Spaghetti Bolognese and Blackberry Sorbet

2007-08-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

I've been so fascinated by raw foods that I've decided that I'm going to 'go raw' at least one day a week, if for no other reason than to learn new 'un'cooking techniques.

This morning I started my day with a large, beautiful bowl of summer fruit salad and a large glass of nutmilk. Somewhere in the middle of the meal I decided to dip my plums into the vanilla nutmilk -- Holy Mother of Yum! Vanilla and Plums is a great combination.

On another note: Vanilla and Mangos...not so good. *shudders at the memory of curdled nutmilk*

For lunch we went to our usual Chinese restaurant, where I feasted on watermelon and Kimchi. For those of you who don't know, Kimchi is a fermented cabbage slaw with a lot of kick (from crushed red pepper and garlic).

Of course somewhere along the line something went terribly wrong...and I got glutened (suspecting hidden soy sauce?)...I dunno. When I make kimchi I don't use soy sauce, so... it's all speculation.

For Dinner I was really in the mood for some pasta. I've read over and over again that summer squash, zucchini, and young coconut are really great for pasta, so I took one of my handy-dandy summer squashes, peeled it and then used the peeler to shave linguini noodles from the squash. This yielded about a pound of 'pasta' -- I'd probably make twice as much in the future, because you get huuuuuuungry very quickly with this kind of food.

For the sauce I used: 2 ripe tomatoes; 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, pureed;
2 cloves garlic; several tbsp fresh oregano, several tbsp fresh chocolate mint; 1/2 c fresh basil; 1/2 c fresh parsley; 1 tsp sea salt; 1 small carrot; and 2/3 c nutmilk. I blended all this up.

Now you might be wondering about the mint: It adds a complexity to the dish that is welcome and makes up for the subtle 'meat' flavour you'd expect from the sauce.

Now I had a great tasting 'Bolognase'... but it was ice cold.

This is where thinking outside the box paid off for me. The theory behind raw cooking is that you really don't want to cook anything over 110 degrees (120 degrees is the max). I figured that most people don't want truly 'hot' food -- they usually wait for it to come to a comfortable temperature. All I needed to do was to get this food to a comfortable (read: warm) temperature, and it would be golden!

To do this I set my oven to 110 degrees, made up my plates, and put them in the oven till the food was warm (this took me all of 7 minutes). Bam! Instant, palatable raw food.

Another trick: add some crushed red pepper instead of 'parm.' the heat of the pepper really does fool the mouth (in the aftertaste) into thinking it's had a 'hot' meal.

Of course when you're eating this way you can really afford to do the dessert thing, so I cranked out some sorbet made from fresh, wild Blackberries that my children picked.

To Make:
1 quart fresh blackberries
1 1/2 c agave nectar

Blend the agave nectar and blackberries. Sieve out the seeds. Freeze in your ice cream freezer or, alternatively, whisk every 15 minutes for 2-3 hours in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or some airtight seal and let 'cure' at least 3 hours.

Kids love it.

Big Mouth Veggie Burgers

2007-07-28T21:13:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I'm really, reaaallly excited about this one for so many reasons.

For one: I've found a way to hide eggplant and zucchinis (which are cloning themselves in my backyard, and apparently are the same thing in my CSA farm, which means there's entirely too much to go around. *le sigh* It's kale month all over again...).

For another: This thing tastes pretty darn close to real, and it looks pretty darn close to real, and... The Carnivore liked it. 'Nough said.

I picked up a lot of tips and tricks from my raw-foody friends and decided to use them in the making of these burgers. The whole dehydrating thing solves a lot of the problems we Martha-Stewarts tend to have with homemade veggie burgers-- you know, too wet, too crumbly, won't stay together, gets soggy... whatever.

If you wanted to make the burger vegan, you could easily sub in flax-egg for the eggs. And, I suppose you could make this raw by simply dehydrating the things for an extra couple of hours.

Also, feel free to sub in soaked, chopped walnuts for the soy protein. (we're using up what we've got left before dropping soy)

As for me and mine, we chose to go all the way and ate these, cooked, on nice fluffy fresh GF white hamburger buns with lots of crinkle fries and some cucumbers.

One note -- the last minute frying/sauteeing in oil of these is really really key to making the mouth feel of a real burger. If you're not against cooking, please try this! Recipe instructions below:

Big Mouth Veggie Burgers

5 cups eggplant, with skins, cubed
1 large zuchinni, cubed
1 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic
1 healthy tsp black pepper
1tsp DRIED oregano
3 eggs
1/2 cup (generous) Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups almond-Parmesan mixture (from my other recipe)
1 cup Better Batter Gluten Free Flour (or really good GF flour with xanthan gum in it)
2 cups tvp, reconstituted with hot water

1. IN blender, grind 3 cups of the eggplant, the zuchinni, the onion, garlic, black pepepr, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce, until smooth.

2. Add the rest of the eggplant and blend until chunks the size of peas remain.

3. Add the almond parmesean mixture, flour, and tvp. Let sit for 10-30 minutes.

4. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a spoon and your hands, form the mush into burgers on the paper (this will be soupy, like soupy oatmeal).

5. Dehydrate in the oven at 110 degrees for 6-8 hours, flipping after three hours (carefully!) to ensure both sides get done.

6. Fry in oil right before serving (we like coconut oil!). Assemble burgers and eat.

Delish.

How to Do Really Good Fried Rice

2007-07-28T20:27:00.000-04:00

Fried Rice is pretty straightforward-- take leftover rice, fry it with other leftover tidbits, and serve.

But there's a difference between fried rice you'd serve along side of a dish and fried rice you'd serve AS a dish.

This is one thing I've got down to a science. Even the Carnivore actually REQUESTS this as a main meal.

There are a few secrets to really good fried rice, and being the generous gal I am, I'll share them with you.

First, make sure you sprout your rice. This will, of course, make the rice stickier when you fry it...but it will also stick to your ribs and satisfy you. To sprout rice, just soak it in water for at least 24 hours (this is only going to work if you use a fresh, nice brown rice, not that white stuff).

Second: Make sure your rice is really stale. It helps to keep it in the fridge, uncovered, for a day or so.

Third: Essential... sesame oil (abou t1/4 tsp in your cooking oil), ginger (not powder), garlic, soy sauce/tamari (gluten free, of course!).

Fourth: Not essential, but great...1/4 tsp of saffron or american saffron added to the cooking oil.

Fifth: If you're going to add eggs, make them separately, in OIL (NOT butter)

Sixth: Peas and Carrots. Dunno why, but peas and carrots make the best fried rice. Oh...add a really finely diced onion.

Here's the basic ratios:

2 quarts stale brown rice
1/2 c coconut oil (or other oil)
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp saffron (yellow colour)
1/2 tsp ginger paste or grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
pinch salt
1 onion, minced
2-3 c mixed frozen peas and carrots
2-3 eggs, scrambled separately

sesame seeds for topping.

Fry everything and mix together. YURM

Because it's hot... Bananas Foster Ice Cream

2007-07-28T20:07:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so that's a really zoom up of the picture. But Good Golly Miss Molly, do you see how luscious that ice cream is? And it's dairy free. I have to crow a bit because the Carnivore took a single bite and exclaimed (exclaimed, mind you!!!) "That's good!"

High praise, indeed, from the man who might possibly say "That's decent" for something utterly divine. If the Carnivore calls it good, it's really good. Company good. Forget-company-and-shag-your-wife good.

Anyway, I think you'll like this one: it's easy, quick, and as I said before, DAIRY FREE!!!! (Having such a happy summer, I am). That 50.00 ice-cream maker was soooo worth it.

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

1 Cup Nut Milk (feel free to use rice milk)
2 Cups Coconut Milk, full fat
3/4 cup agave nectar
2 tsp vanilla
3 large bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c golden rum

In your blender, mix the milks, agave nectar, and vanilla. Freeze according to your manufacturer's instructions (mine takes 30 minutes), or pour into a bowl and freeze, beating every 15 minutes for three or so hours.

Clean your blender.

Place two bananas and the cinnamon and rum in the blender and blend til smooth.

Cut up the remaining banana into small dice and mix into the smooth sauce.

Remove the ice cream from the mixer and fold the banana sauce into the soft ice cream. Place in the freezer (top with an airtight seal or plastic wrap) and freeze til firm.

Homemade Magic Shell

2007-07-27T20:59:00.000-04:00

See the incredibly guilty looking dessert on the left? That's health food, ladies and gents! I kid you not.

When I was growing up I was literally addicted to Magic Shell Topping. You remember Magic Shell, right? It was a really sweet, watery chocolate syrup that miraculously hardened on ice cream to produce a coating that was strangely reminiscent of Klondike Bars.

The taste was weird... kind of like really bad Easter candy. And that's what made it so good.

As a kid I remember sneaking into the kitchen to add extra Magic Shell to my ice cream. This degenerated into pouring Magic Shell into a spoon and freezing the spoon. Things only continued to spiral downhill from there. Somewhere along the journey, I found myself drinking the stuff from the bottle, warm... I told you I was addicted.

Anyway, since going healthy, I've religiously avoided the stuff. Avoided and missed it terribly.

Tonight the craving got too bad, so I decided to make some for my family. How hard could it be, I mused...

Magic Shell's main ingredient seems to be oil -- all kinds of scary, hydrogentated oil. Scary, hydrogenated COCONUT oil.... I wondered if I could use coconut oil (the real, unrefined, beautiful kind that I could literally eat plain) and real chocolate and achieve the same results.

Obviously you can guess from my pics that................I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!! And the best part? It's good for you. Coconut oil is a great thing to take for metabolism and general health, and darker chocolates are also supposed to be good for you... so I can rationalize this one into eternity.

The weirdest part? It tastes 'right'... guess that taste was the coconut oil all along. For those of you who are wondering, 'right' is weird at room temperature, and divine frozen.

This shell goes only satiny smooth and very thin, and freezes to a perfect shell-like finish.

Now, if only someone would stop me from drinking it from the canning jar (old habits die hard, I suppose).

Homemade Magic Shell Topping

1 cup coconut oil

about 1-2 cups semi-sweet, bittersweet, or dark chocolate chips or chunks

1. Melt the coconut oil over very low heat in a small saucepan.

2. A little at a time, whisk in the chocolate chips, until the mixture resembles very thin, chocolate syrup (those of you who've had Magic Shell know exactly what this looks like). We needed about 1 1/2 cups.

That's it! This stuff stores at room temperature. IN a cold room, make sure to heat over very low heat on the stove.

Oven Baked Chiles Rellenos

2007-07-27T19:59:00.000-04:00

Of course pepper season is upon us, and I was really excited (and in the mood for) some serious mexicano fixin's. Chiles Rellenos is something I always order when out.... and usually find disappointing. Most of the time I get a slimy, soggy, greasy sodden mass of cheese and egg on a mush-thats-supposed-to-be-peppers.

There are exceptions. One night, coming home on a winding, mountain back road from a celiac support group that was several hours from my house, I stumbled on a little diner. I walked in, expecting to order my traditional "salad, no croutons PLEASE with a side of fries, but only if they've been in a dedicated fryer and by the way can I see the seasoning on them?" and found instead Rellenos Nirvana. I highlight the words because the food was that good.

Turns out this hole in the wall is the property of a native Mexicana and OH MY GOSH could that woman cook. Real mexican food (and gluten free???) in Pennsylvania? There is a God.

I'd try to describe the dish, but really I was in a haze of food ecstasy and only remember flashes of brilliance -- it is those flashes that I tried to recreate here.

Anywhoodles, what you need to know is that this meal was so delicious and easy that it deserves a special place in my recipe collection. Slightly softened Poblano chiles highlight fresh bean puree, seasoned with fresh herbs. Coriander provides a hidden, special flavour accent. A light batter poured on top of the chiles and baked helps lighten the dish, somewhat, before cheese and sour cream weigh it down.(Hey, they help take the heat...and the migraine...was totally worth it).

For a special flavour, try using a good Gouda cheese (like Vincent). The nutty flavour brings out the taste of the batter.

One note about chiles: Poblano, the most commonly used chiles for Rellenos
vary widely from pepper to pepper in heat. For this reason, I don't reccomend adding additional cayenne or other spicy seasonings to the dish. If you find the dish too milk for your taste, load on some hot sauce and go to town!

Feel free to use dried herbs, but remember to reduce the amount by at LEAST half.

Here's the Recipe:

Chiles Rellenos

4 Poblano Peppers (use large chiles), green peppers will do, but won't be as good
2 tbsp coconut oil
cumin

2 1/2 cups cooked or canned abichuelas rosadas (pink kidney beans)-- feel free to use any bean
Several teaspoons fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon fresh coriander ( you can use 1/4 tsp dried)
several teaspoons fresh oregano
several teaspoons fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt ( we use sea salt)

3 eggs
3 tbsp Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

4 ounces Gouda Cheese, or feel free to use any mild, white cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
salsa

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Heat the coconut oil in a heavy saucepan. Cut the peppers in half and seed and de-vein them. Fry the peppers in the oil ONLY until the peppers blister. Sprinkle with cumin, remove from heat, and place in a casserole dish.

2. In your blender mix the beans, herbs, and salt.

3. Spoon this mixture into the peppers, filling completely.

4. Mix together the egg and flour and pour over the peppers. This will be thick. Feel free to thin it with a bit of water to preference.

5. Place casserole in the oven and cook for 15-30 minutes, or until batter sets and peppers are softened to your preference (we like them still firm...al dente).

6. Remove from oven, top with cheese, sour cream, and salsa, and serve.

Fun with Raw Foods: Nut Milk, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Ice Cream!

2007-07-26T09:08:00.001-04:00

I've been intrigued by the whole 'raw foods' thing for a few weeks now... perhaps in direct response to the joy of eating lots of char-grilled meat. Although I don't think eating a raw-food-lifestyle will ever be for me, there are a lot of really cool recipes out there.

We've been thinking of dropping dairy for some time, now, and reading about soy recently has scared me off of soy-milk, especially for my boys. I'd decided to start subbing in non-soy alternatives when I came across some great raw-food books that had tons of recipes for nut milks.

Of course that got me thinking (the recipes seemed pretty consistent and very flexible), so I decided to try my hand at it.

Nuts, of course, can be prohibitively expensive (especially the raw organic), so I decided to sub in an equal measure of sunflower seeds for half the nuts in my nut milk recipe. The results were fabulous! This is a milk I could happily drink every day, and at 2.50 a gallon, it's really affordable. I even made chai tea with it this morning, and lurved it.

I took the nutmilk and used it (with coconut milk) to make homemade strawberry ice cream. If I dare say so, it tastes VERY close to Breyer's 'natural' strawberry ice cream, and the best part was it only took twenty minutes from top to tail! (I lurve my new ice cream maker, which requires no rock salt or ice). When I priced it out, it was WAY cheaper than the premium, organic ice cream I'd been buying (about 1/3 of the price), and (even better) it was dairy free!

I still had a ton (well, two cups) of nut fiber paste left over from making the nutmilk, so I decided to try my hand at making raw cookies, and see if it was really true that they tasted like real cookies. Instead of reading a bunch of recipes from people who, possibly, couldn't remember what a real cookie tasted like, I decided to develop my own recipe.

According to the kiddos, the flavour is great. The texture is slightly different, which is to be expected (and we probably will continue to make toll house cookies forever), but this IS a fabulous way to use up that nut fiber.

I'm including the recipes below:

Frugal Homemade Nut Milk

1 cup raw, shelled sunflower seeds
1 cup raw nuts (I used brazil nuts)
1 gallon water
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt (more or less to taste)

1. Soak the seeds and nuts in the water for 4-8 hours, or overnight.
2. Pour half of the water into a bowl, reserving it.
3. Place the remaining water and nuts into your blender, and blend on high speed for several minutes or until liquified.
4. Line a strainer with a very large nut bag (or, if you don't have one, a very large clean cloth napkin that doesn't have any kind of fabric scent or softener in it), and place over the reserved bowl of water then slowly pour the nutmilk slurry into the napkin. You may have to do this in batches. Squeeze the bag/napkin until all the liquid squeezes out. Reserve the nut fiber for recipes.
5. Season the milk with the agave nectar and vanilla, adding the salt a little at a time until the flavour you like is reached. Refrigerate up to a week. Shake well before using.

Dairy Free Strawberry Ice Cream

1 cup nutmilk
2 cups coconut milk (full fat version)
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 pint strawberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt

Blend all of this together, then freeze in your ice cream maker, as per directions, or place into a large metal or glass bowl and freeze, whisking every fifteen minutes (you'll want to whisk it hard), for about 3 hours or until creamy and fozen. Transfer into a air-tight container and freeze til firm.

Raw Toll-House Cookies

2 cups nut fiber (from nutmilk)
1/2 cup nutmilk
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/2 c walnuts

Mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Shae dough into cookies and place on a dehydrator. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 6-10 hours, or until 'cooked'. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Almond Crusted Zuchinni with Pasta and swiss chard

2007-07-26T08:38:00.000-04:00

We're back from vacation, otherwise known as meat-paradise. The family came to visit, and they're on a diet which consists mostly of grilled meats and veggies, so we really indulged. It was a great vacation, but I have to admit, I think I've lost my taste for meat and potato type meals.

I was actually relieved to plan a low-meat week.

Zion, my newly six-year-old crumb-cruncher got, of course, first pick (everyone gets to eat EXACTLY what they want to eat for their birthday) of the menu. He chose:

Almond Crusted Zuchinni, using a trick I took from Seamaiden's Book of Yum

Salad
Spinach, sauteed with garlic and maple syrup (Sounds weird but it's FABULOUS. We subbed in swiss chard, because it was available)
Spaghetti with Red Sauce

Dessert: Berries with Chocolate-Amaretto Whipped cream

Surprisingly the zucchini coating, once fried, tasted exactly (to me) like fried chicken, which was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. I made sure not to overdo the zucchini, as I like a little more bite and a little less slime to my squash.

The swiss chard wilted into a lovely broth, made from the juices of the chard, some fresh garlic, and a judicious addition of maple syrup. The flavour was complex and satisfying, slightly salty, and altogether fabulous accompanying the meal.

The spaghetti (I chose to use Tinkyada) and sauce (Martin's store brand of organic marinara) was good, if typical, and was helped with a little sprinkling of the almond-yeast mixture, which tasted exactly like parmesean cheese (but was way cheaper than the parm I usually shill out for).

I'm posting the recipes below:

Almond Crusted Zucchini

Several Zucchini, cut into medallions (we used about a half a zucchini per person)
3 cups slivered almonds
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1 egg
olive oil and coconut oil

1. Beat the egg in a bowl. Set aside
2. In a blender, grind the almond slivers, salt, garlic powder, and nutritional yeast, until the mixture resembles parmesean cheese. Place in another bowl.
3. Heat equal measures of olive oil and coconut oil on medium high heat (about 300 degrees) in a very heavy saucepan.
4. Dip the zuchinni in the egg, then the almond crumbs pressing to make sure the coating adheres.
5. Fry in the oil, turning once, until each side is golden brown. MAKE SURE that your oil doesn't get too hot or you'll scorch your nuts!!
6. Transfer to a baking dish and cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile cook your pasta, heat your sauce, and make the chard.

Maple-Garlic Swiss Chard

2 pounds swiss chard or spinach, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
2 small cloves fresh garlic
2 Tbsp maple syrup
sprinkle of sea salt

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan, adding the chard and garlic. Cook for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the leaves begin to wilt. Add the salt and maple syrup and cook for a few more minutes. Serve immediately.

Mixed Red Berries with Chocolate-Amaretto Whipped Cream

2 pints raspberries
1 pint strawberries
1 cup whipping cream, chilled
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate
1 Tbsp amaretto liquor

1. IN a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with the amaretto and 1/4 cup of the whipping cream. whisk well, and allow to come to room temperature.
2. Meanwhile, pour 3/4 cup of whipping cream into a mixing bowl and put in the freezer for 30 minutes, along with the beater(s)
3. Beat at high speed until soft peaks form.
4. Slice berries and place in a bowl. Top with the cream and serve immediately.

Tacos Even a Carnivore will Eat

2007-07-02T23:22:00.000-04:00

We've tried various veggie-taco-meats over the years. The best ones were made of wheat gluten, which is a complete no-no, now, in our family. The rest were so-so or so highly seasoned that we might as well have placed whole cloves of garlic in the shell and been done with it. This is particularly problematic, since tacos is a fan favorite with the Carnivore.

A few nights ago, I randomly observed that lentils, soaked and ground, cooked into something that looked and felt remarkably like hamburger, so I decided to experiment tonight and see if I couldn't really pass them off as hamburger in taco-meat form.

I took soaked lentils, ground them in the blender with taco seasoning and garlic powder (and some salt), then fried them in oil, stirring-stirring-stirring, until they formed into 'taco meat' -- this I seasoned with the normal amount of taco seasoning, and served it without saying a word.

The Carnivore's fist question: "Why does this meat look a little different than usual?" -- He likes very fine ground beef in his tacos, and I usually make bigger chunk-style. This was finely ground. "Because it's not meat," I answered.

Now, I expected rejection immediately, so I informed the Carnivore that he had a whole pan of meat waiting (I mean, this IS his favorite meal), in case he didn't like the 'meat' -- to which he replied that he'd already tried it, and it was fine.

The Carnivore then proceeded to eat the lentil-meat, as did the little sillies, and the ground beef was picked at.

SCORE!

Here's a pic of the ground beef next to the lentil-meat: Can you tell which one is which?

This tasted wonderful, not beany at all, and it was a cinch to make. I'll have to try this technique for other dishes. Here's the recipe:

LENTIL "GROUND BEEF"

8 oz lentils, soaked overnight in 6 cups of water, then drained.
1 cup-2 c water
1 tsp garlic powder or one clove garlic
1 tsp salt
(if using for taco meat) -- 1/2 c gf taco seasoning
oil, about a cup.

Grind the lentils and seasonings in a blender using just enough water to keep the machine from burning up. The mixture should be thick, like cold cream or pudding.

Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Add the ground lentil paste and fry, stirring constantly. There should form a skin on the bottom of the pan, scrape this (this is the part of the mixture that will come to resemble ground beef). Keep frying and scraping (you can leave the mixture for several minutes to allow a crust to build up) until the mixture begins to look 'dry' and resembles cooked ground beef -- remember that this will firm up even a bit more as it cools, so leave it just slightly moist.
This took me 30 minutes on high heat.

At this point you can use it for anything calling for pre-cooked ground beef. YUM

Dhokkar dalna (Fried Lentil Cake Curry)

2007-06-29T23:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight I again braved the world of Indian Cookery. Most Americans in my part of the country are put off by the turmeric-dependency of most "Indian" curry recipes. Growing up my image of curry was of lumps of greyish chicken drowning in a bright yellow, pasty sauce that smelled vaguely of French's Mustard.

This was die in large part to the exuberant use of commercial curry powder. Frankly, while commercial 'curry powder' may make lovely chicken salad (in tiny doses) it's really nasty for main dishes.

We've been attempting to eat more beans, and I'm assiduously avoiding simply serving them, bean-style every third day. The prior foray into Indian-inspired cooking, the chickpea-zuchinni blossom fritters, were a success, so I thought I'd try again.

This particular recipe was adapted from a traditional Indian curry, Dhokkar dalna. I altered the spices slightly to suit the Carnivore's admittedly less adventurous palate -- omitting some of the turmeric, substituting a milder paprika for the hot chilli powder called for, and reducing the amount of spices.

One thing that completely surprised me about this dish was the beautiful presentation it made on the plate. The curry in the original cookbook looked exactly like the nightmare curries of my late childhood, but this dish emerged closer in texture and colour to a stew.

This was very helpful, of course, in getting the Carnivore to eat it.

A nice side note: I've found that the practice of frying bean paste, letting it cool, and then shaping and refrying it creates a fabulous texture and appearance, similar to stew meat, and I plan to do some experimenting with more American seasonings. Another observation: the lentil paste, when fried in small pieces, resembled ground beef exceptionally well. We'll be playing with that concept later this week.

Here's the recipe. It's not a quick-cook meal, so plan to make it when you have plenty of time to devote to the kitchen. However, the taste is worth making it at least once.

Trust me, this is curry for those who hate curry:

Dhakkar dalna
(Fried Lentil-Cake Curry)

1 pound lentils, soaked overnight in 7 cups water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp grated gingerroot (or boughten ginger paste)
6 tbsp coconut
1/4 c diced green peppers
1 1/2 c water

1 1/2 c oil, divided

5 potatoes cut into dice (about 1/2 inch dice)
2 tsp cumin
2 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp butter
1 tsp Garam Masala (make sure you're buying a GF version!)

Brown short-grained rice)

Instructions

Drain the extra water out of the soaked lentils and place them into a blender. Add the salt, turmeric, gingerroot, coconut, peppers, and water, and blend until absolutely smooth.

Meanwhile heat 3/4 of a cup of the oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, pour the lentil mixture into the oil and fry, stirring, until the mixture thickens considerably and becomes somewhat cohesive.

Pour the mixture and oil into a baking sheet, smooth to an even thickness, and let cool completely.

When you are ready to eat:
Begin cooking your rice, as per package instructions.

Meanwhile heat the rest of the oil over medium-high heat in a very heavy skillet or saucepan.

Cut the lentil-paste cake into one inch squares and fry in the oil in a single layer (you'll need to do several batches), turning carefully until all sides are deeply browned. Set aside.

Place the potatoes in the same oil and fry until light golden brown and set aside.

Working quickly, in the same oil, sprinkle the bay leaves, cumin, paprika, and coriander. Add the salt and tomatoes and cook for two minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil.

Place the potatoes back into the spice mixture and cook for 5-10 minutes or until tender, then very gently add back in the fried lentil-cake cubes and heat through.

At the last minute add the butter and stir very gently. Sprinkle Garam Masala over the dish.

Serve with the rice.

Kale-Spinach Strombolli Infused with Lemon and Nutmeg

2007-06-29T22:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, now seriously this might sound really weird to those of you who've never had to deal with five thousand pounds of kale.

But when the fresh, seasonal produce gods are attacking you, the only options are flee or adapt.

So we adapted.

And actually I think I might have found nirvana. Well, at least momentarily -- then I got indigestion from overeating and was sucked right back into the land of the living.

The Carnivore liked it. The kids overate it, too. So I'm guessing this one is a go.

This recipe is a direct homage to great Italian cooking. The classic combination of fresh lemon and nutmeg underscore the nutty Parmesan cheese, and the mildness of fresh mozzarella tempers the bite of the garlic and kale. Serve this with plenty of great pizza sauce.

Kale-Spinach Strombolli infused with Lemon and Nutmeg

Filling
1 lemon, very, very finely sliced (paper thin)
1 tsp nutmeg (or appx grated from a 1/4 fresh nutmeg)

1 Tbsp sea salt
freshly ground pepper (we use papaya seeds)
6 cups kale, chopped into small pieces
2 cups fresh spinach
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp fresh basil, sliced into thin strips
1 tbsp fresh oregano
pinch crushed red pepper

8 oz Part Skim or Fresh whole-milk mozzarella
8 oz really good parmesean cheese (we like block parmesean, freshly grated)

Gluten-Free Strombolli Dough
1.5 c warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups Better Batter All Purpose flour or a really good cup-for-cup substitute
1 teaspoon salt
extra flour

Instructions
IN a heavy skillet, saute the filling ingredients. Meanwhile mix up the strombolli dough.

IN the bowl of your mixer, combine the water, yeast, sugar, oil, flour, and salt, and beat on high for three minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

On a baking sheet, lay out a sheet of parchment paper, and coat it with a layer of flour -- about 1/8 inch thick or a little thicker. Wet your hands and spread the dough batter out until it covers about a 9x13 inch area.

Top with 1/2 of the cheeses, then spread the filling mixture over the cheese, leaving an inch margin on all sides. Top with remaining 8 oz cheeses.

Take the edge of the parchment paper and flip it up so that the dough rolls over to touch the other side. You may want to be gentle doing this, so that your filling doesn't fly everywhere and your dough doesn't stick.

Wet your hands again and mush the edges of the strombolli together to seal, rolling up slightly.

Let rise on baking sheet about 30-45 minutes.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until golden brown. Let sit for five minutes before slicing open.

Variations on a Theme: Kale Spinakka

2007-06-29T22:32:00.000-04:00

I come from a Sephardic Jewish Family on my dad's side, which means that I grew up eating some pretty amazing food. Sephardic Jewish Cookery is different than what most Americans think of as "Jewish" food -- much closer to Greek food, in some regards, or Spanish food. One of my favorite dishes, my grandmother's legacy, is a dish called spinakka.
Spinakka is essentially a spinach and cheese casserole, heavy on the cheese. Since I was overrun by Kale, I wondered if I could get away with slipping some well sauteed Kale into the dish without being caught out.

The Carnivore thought the dish was acceptable, though he's still of the mind that it's more properly a side-dish than a main course, but I thought it was hearty enough to stand on its own.

A side benefit? It's ridiculously easy to throw together.

Kale Spinakka

12 cups fresh kale, ribs cut out and cut into small pieces (about 2 pounds)
8 eggs, beaten
16 oz. grated/crumbled cheese (for best flavour used mixed cheeses: we like the combination of cheddar, parmesean, and feta cheeses)

2 tsp salt
1/2 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour or a really good GF cup-for-cup substitute

Mix the kale, eggs, flour, cheeses, and salt in a large bowl.

Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan and add the kale mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour, or until slightly golden brown on top. Let cool for five minutes and cut into squares.

Really Fresh Lasagne or: Hiding Beet Greens

2007-06-29T22:10:00.000-04:00

So we're a part of a local organic CSA (community supported agriculture) coop, and we get all kinds of great veggies with our weekly share.

Sometimes great also is rather weird.

This week I received a ton of beet greens, thanks to thinning-the-rows. I know this is the reason because I've been thinning-the-rows of beets in my own garden...

As you can imagine we had a TON of beet greens. The Carnivore hates beet greens.

Lasagne to the rescue!

I was really nervous about this lasagne because it was the first lasagne that I've ever done completely vegetarian, and, frankly, the first one I'd made completely from scratch with really fresh ingredients. (our basil plants and herbs are misbehaving in a good way).

I'm glad I took the plunge because this lasagne was fabulous in a shoot-it-in-your-veins way. There was only a teeny bit left for lunch the next day, and we fought over that.

I'm posting the recipe. Feel free to substitute pre-made pasta noodles or sauce in your own, and be warned: Beet greens DO tend to bleed a bit into the ricotta and pasta... so a thicker sauce would help hide that.

REALLY Fresh Lasagne

1 pound pasta, preferably homemade
Leafy Layer
1 pound beet greens, or other leafy greens (spinach is great)
1 clove garlic finely minced
Extra Virgin Olive oil
pinch Nutmeg
Quick Tomato Sauce
six vine-ripe tomatoes
1/4 c fresh basil
2 tbsp fresh oregano
1 clove garlic
1 small spring onion (or one small onion)
3 fennel seeds (optional)
2 tsp salt (we use sea salt)
26 oz Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese (get one without fillers.)
16 oz Fresh, water-packed whole milk Mozzarella, grated. (It is really worth it.)

Instructions:
If making fresh pasta, cut the pasta into strips (at least 1/8th and no more than 3/8ths inch thick)

In a heavy skillet saute the beet greens, garlic, olive oil, and nutmeg until wilted. Set aside.

In your blender, blend the tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic, onion, fennel seeds, and salt.

Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. put 1/2 of the tomato sauce. Add a layer of lasagne noodles, and top with 8 oz. mozzarella. Top with the sauteed beet greens. Spread the ricotta cheese over the greens. Add another layer of pasta. Pour the rest of the tomato sauce mixture and top with the remaining 8 oz. of cheese.

Cover very lightly with a greased sheet of foil (the idea is not to touch the top of the lasagne -- you're creating a tent) or parchment paper.

Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, removing the foil or paper the last 10 minutes.

Serve with salad and a nice crusty french-style bread.

Kale and Cannelinni Bean Pasta

2007-06-29T21:53:00.000-04:00

There's something extremely satisfying about Italian cooking.

It seems sometimes that Italians know how to make practically everything into a great pasta dish or casserole.

The Carnivore and I were blessed enough to spend a great deal of time in Italy, where his best friend lives, and picked up several tips and tricks from our friend's Italian wife and family.

One great tip: greens go well with beans.

Seriously... the smooth flavour of beans compliments and tempers the bitterness of the greens in a special way and makes two essentially unpalatable foods into ambrosia. And pasta only sweetens the deal.

The carnivore liked it, and the kids begged for leftovers for two days.

This pasta was inspired by our time in Italy (and the ridiculous amount of kale that came with this month's weekly farm shares) and is ridiculously cheap, easy, and...best of all...FAST to make. You can feel free to use any really sturdy leafy green.

Serve this with a really, really sharp parmesean cheese (in thin shavings, not grated!) for best flavour.

Kale and Cannelinni Bean Pasta

6 cups Kale, washed and chopped into bite sized pieces (I never remove the ribs, but you can)
2 cans Cannellini Beans (or 4 cups homemade cooked northern beans)
1 small onion (or one spring onion, green parts included) minced
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt (we use sea salt)
pepper (we use ground papaya seeds)
a pinch of crushed red pepper
1 pound GF pasta, store bought, asian, or homemade

Boil a large pot of water and cook the pasta pasta. (remember you'll need to adjust cooking times for fresh pasta -- it only takes about 2 minutes to boil fresh as opposed to eight for dried)

In a heavy skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the kale, onions, and garlic and cook til wilted (about 8 minutes). Add a large pinch of salt and a generous grinding of pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper: stir. Dump the two cans of beans into this mixture and cook for another two minutes or until beans are heated through.

Mix with the freshly cooked pasta and top with sharp, shaved parm cheese.

I'm playing Catch Up Tonight...and the accidental vegan??

2007-06-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

and posting all the lurvely recipes that have been milling about in my head (and our kitchen).

We've had an abominably busy few weeks, which explains the blog-negligence.

However, there is some interesting news on the home front:

We've decided to call June "National what-the-heck-do-you-do-with-kale??? Month"... because my farm share of kale this last month was ridiculously generous. Hence all of the million and one kale-containing-or-based recipes I'll be posting tonight.

The Carnivore's gone Vegetarian...let me amplify and modify that.
The Carnivore had decided to stop buying beef (the price was too high), we'd already stopped eating pork, and suddenly he announced this week that he doesn't like chicken (except in a great while) and could we please stop buying it often...
So right now we're down to meat once a week -- fish and lamb and a once every blue moon chicken.

Amazing what frugality can do for ya.

For instance, tonight he ate a lentil-cake curry. Amazing.

I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

But that's probably jsut from all the cheese I've consumed this month.

Speaking of which: We've reduced our egg consumption from 5 dozen per week to 1 dozen and begun using flaxseed. (organic eggs can bankrupt you at that rate).

We've dropped dairy milk (at least for now) because I won't pay 7$ a gallon for raw, local, organic. The last month we've been on soy.

And we're doing other changes

Childhood-Favorite Sandwiches for Grown Ups

2007-06-22T21:06:00.000-04:00

Tonight, having eaten a very heavy lunch (on our day off we usually go out to eat), I decided to have something light, like sandwiches.

Grilled (sometimes called toasted) Cheese and Pb&J Sandwiches have always been big hits in the house, so I decided to make them a bit more sophisticated:

Grilled Cheese For Grownups
I substituted the ubiquitous white bread for a nice, Sunflower Seed-Caraway Bread and used San Juaquin Cheese instead of the vile and often-glutened processed American Cheese. Of course I used real butter.

A big surprise was that San Juaquin, which tastes like a cross between extra-sharp cheddar and parmesean when cold, turns into a soft, stringy, brie-flavoured delight when toasted.

Peanut-Free Pb&J
We've dropped all peanut products from our house, so I substituted natural, unsweetened cashew butter for the peanut butter, and Faux Wheat Toast for the white bread, which made this sandwich a little smokier and hearty.

And then there was Salad...
I wanted a very light salad, so I used butter crunch lettuce and spring onions with a very light dressing -- nothing more, really, than some Ume Plum Vinegar, diluted with water, a few shakes of sesame oil, and some gingerroot. This was an amazing contrast to the smoky flavours of the sanwiches.
Everyone was rather pleased, might I say.

Pasta Pepperoni (Pasta with Peppers and Ricotta)

2007-06-18T13:36:00.000-04:00

This was an especially nice dinner -- we learned how to make it in Trieste, Italy, where the Carnivore's best friend lives. It's a super quick, super easy dinner that lends itself well to any kind of pasta.

We're running a bit tight on budget, so we used the same asian noodles that you buy for Pho. Simply shove them in boiling water, turn the heat off and wait 8 minutes. Perfect Gluten Free noodles, and very cheap.

Here's some food porn and the recipe:

Pasta Pepperoni

1 each red, yellow, and orange pepper

1 clove garlic

1 medium onion

1 tbsp salt

1 pinch crushed red pepper

olive oil

16 oz ricotta cheese (we like whole milk)

16 oz GF pasta

Boil the pasta, meanwhile saute the onion, peppers, garlic, salt, and crushed red pepper in the olive oil til tender.

Mix the sauteed veggies with the cooked pasta, and stir in the ricotta cheese.

Serve warm.

Chickpea-Zuchinni Blossom Fritters with Manchego Cheese

2007-06-15T16:47:00.001-04:00

The Carnivore, if you'll remember absolutely hates chickpeas, or so he claims. But of course I've got tons of them lying around, so I had to come up with a tasty camophlage. I've been doing a lot of reading about indian foods, in an attempt to find new ways to cook things, and I've found a lot of recipes using gram (chickpea) flour.

One idea led to the other, and I was inspired to combine a little Indian cookery with another, equally loved cuisine... Italian. A dish I fell in love with in Italy was the fried zuchinni blossom fritters.

This dish is the marriage of the two, and fabulous, if I do say so myself. The fritters are light as air, crunchy and fluffy, and savory. Even the Carnivore approved. We served this with a big green salad.

Chickpea-Zuchinni Blossom Fritters with Manchego Cheese

1 can Chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 c water

2 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp oregano

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp onion powder

6-10 zuchinni blossoms, torn into pieces

3/4 c green onion, chopped

3 oz Manchego cheese, shredded

1/2 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

oil

Puree the chickpeas, water, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and onion powder in a blender till smooth. Add the zuchinni blossoms, green onion, and cheese and stir well. Add the flour and baking powder and stir. Beat in the eggs.

Fry in hot oil, flipping once. Serve hot with additional cheese, if desired.

Last Night: Cheddar Crust Cornish Pasties

2007-06-15T16:17:00.001-04:00

Last Night's meal was one of those serendipitous things that happen when you try to use the last of your produce before the new batch is ready at the farm.

I made a fabulous cheddar cheese pastry crust, and filled it to the brim with chopped veggies and herbs, diced cooked potatoes, peas and (in place of ground beef) highly seasoned mushrooms. I included nutritional yeast for a meatier taste and added health benefits. Everyone simply devoured these hand-pies, and I have to say, I didn't miss the meat at ALL.

Yeasted Cheddar Pastry Crust

1 c warm water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp yeast

2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese

1. Mix the warm water, salt, sugar and yeast and let sit for five minutes.

2. Stir in the flour and cheddar cheese and knead well, until a smooth dough is formed. Proceed with your recipe.

Pastie Pie Filling

1 cup finely minced mushrooms

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 clove minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped green onion

1/2 cup chopped spinach

1 1/2 c diced cooked potato

1 c diced carrots and peas (fresh or frozen)

1/2 c warm water

1/4 c Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

1/2 c mixed chopped fresh herbs (I used sage, oregano, thyme, and rosemary)

1 tsp salt

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the mushrooms, nutritional yeast, garlic, green onion, spinach, potato, and carrots and peas.

2. In a small saucepan cook the warm water, flour, and fresh herbs together until thickened, and stir into the other mixture.

To assemble: Divide the pastry into four pieces. Roll each out, on a floured board, into an 8 inch circle. Fill with 1/4 of the vegetable mixture, and (wetting the edges) fold over to make a half-circle. Seal the edges and place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Pad Thai-style, Cashew Noodles with Fresh Cilantro and Green Onions

2007-06-11T18:49:00.000-04:00

Tonight was one of my favorites. Admittedly I did use a tin of anchovies, so technically this wouldn't be considered a full-on vegetarian meal, but it was darn close. And I'm assuming most people reading this are, like us, 'flexitarian.'

There were a number of alterations I made to a basic Pad Thai dish. I omited tamarind paste, because it's not exactly available in my part of Podunk. I also subbed in cashew butter for the peanuts and coconut and flaxseed oils for the peanut oil(we're peanut free), a tin of anchovies for the fish paste (I haven't found a good GF fish paste yet), and the typical tree-hugger healthy options wherever terrible stuff like white sugar was called for. Here's the recipe:

GF PAD THAI-Style Noodles

1/2 c evaporated cane juice

1/2 c rice wine vinegar

1/4 c GF soy sauce (we use Bragg's aminos)

2 tbsp ketchup (don't ask)

1 tin anchovies

2 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp paprika

1 full cup cashew butter

1 pound package asian rice noodles.

1/2 c cocounut oil (or mixture coconut oil and flaxseed oil)

4 eggs

one bunch green/spring onions, sliced thin (save the green parts for the garnish)

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped.

Boil a pot of water. Set noodles in boiling water, cover, turn the heat off, and let sit for 8 minutes. Drain.

While noodles are cooking, in a small saucepan heat all ingredients down to the cashew butter, making sure to whisk them til smooth.

Meanwhile heat the oil and saute the white parts of the spring onions. Add 4 eggs (beaten) and scramble thoroughly.

Dump the egg mixture in the drained noodles and mix. POur the sauce over the noodles and distribute into bowls. Top with a little fresh green onion and cilantro and serve.

sooo good.

Yesterday: Pasta Pesto with Crusty GF whole-grain French Bread and a Big Salad

2007-06-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

This one is, of course, fabulous. The Carnivore's not huge on pesto, but the rest of us are, so he had to make due.

This pesto was bursting with home-grown basil and garlic, EVOO, some nice sea salt, and freshly grated parm cheese. Rather than destroy my piggy-bank, I opted to use walnuts instead of the traditional pine nuts.

The French bread was made with a teff-sorghum gf flour mix, from Better Batter Gluten Free Flour, and my Fanny Farmer baking book. It had a nice crusty exterior and a fabulously soft crumb. I mixed dehydrated garlic into the batter for 'instant' gralic bread.

Terrrific!

Cilantro-Lime Chili with Brown Rice, topped with Cheddar

2007-06-06T22:11:00.000-04:00

Tonight was at least acceptable to everyone. I'd decided to make chili, without realizing that the Carnivore had ordered chili for lunch; so there was a bit of ho-humness to the response.

I was inspired by our recent trip to Puerto Rico. The beans in PR are to die for.

Unfortunately, they're stock-loaded with sodium and msg in the form of Sazzon, which is a little, fabulous seasoning packet that tastes good, but does nothing for you.

Also they usually add pork to the beans, which is a no-no for us.

Oh, and did I mention that they use something called recao, which is like really strong cilantro (and improssible to get in PA)?? in addition to something called recaito (once again, filled with more ingredients that are hard to get, including more recao)???

So.....

Inspired is definitely the word.

Here's more pics of Dinner

(I'll explain what I did after):

Okay, beyond soaking the beans (pinto, this time)...

In my mortar bowl, I made a recaito by mashing together 2 cloves of garlic, a 1/4 cup packed fresh oregano, a 1/2 c packed fresh cilantro, stems intact, a 1/4 c fresh chives, a tsp of annato (american saffron), and a tsp of sea salt. I let this macerate overnight in the fridge.

The next day I reconstituted a cup of texturized soy protein in beef-flavoured bouillion ( I usually use brown miso, but I was out), with a splash of Bragg's liquid aminos and a dash of worchestershire sauce.

I cooked the beans and then added 1 1/2 c left-over marinara sauce (bottom of the jar -- waste not, want not!), the homemade recaito, and the tvp.

I cooked brown rice, Puerto Rican style (this means adding salt and oil before boiling).

I sliced several limes. When I assembled the chili bowls, I laid a layer of rice, then one of chili, squeezing a lime wedge over the entire thing, then topping with CHeddar CHeese. I then placed lime wedges for a garnish and served the meal with a nice, dry peach-kombucha.

Yurm.

Fabulous Fresh Herb Pizza

2007-06-04T22:52:00.000-04:00

Well, tonight was a real hit!

We had Individual Pizzas made with fresh buffaletta mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, home-grown basil, and a great marinara sauce on a fresh-oregano spiked crust, with spring greens salad.

The carnivore was happy.

I'm including some food porn for your discerning eyes and the recipe. If you're not eating gluten free, then you'll need to alter the crust recipe by halving the water and kneading the dough instead of beating it. You'll also benefit from allowing it to rise a bit.:

Basil and Tomato Pizza

With Fresh Oregano-Seasoned Crust

This pizza is really fresh and delicious, and a great way to use fresh herbs. This pizza makes growing your own herbs worth it! Fresh herbs, real mozarella cheese, and ripe, sliced tomatoes bring new authenticity and flavour to an old favourite. For a real taste sensation, move the pizza to a hot grill after the initial cooking of the crust.

2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp yeast (or 1 package)

1 Tbsp sugar

2 ½ cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

½ cup cornmeal

½ tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup each finely chopped fresh oregano and grated parmesean cheese

12 oz fresh whole milk mozzarella (the fresher the
better, water packed is best)

1 handful fresh basil leaves

3 small italian tomatoes, very ripe

1 or 2 cups of marinara, pizza, or tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets/baking stones with parchment paper or oil a stonewear pizza pan.

In a bowl, combine the water, yeast and sugar, stirring to dissolve. Let sit 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat at high speed for 3 minutes.

Spread batter onto prepared pans to make 6 inch pizza rounds.

Bake for ten to fifteen minutes, or until crust is slightly puffed and light brown.

Top crusts with 1/4 to 1/2 cup marinara sauce, then scatter 3 oz cheese over the top of each pizza. Top with tomatoes and basil and either bake or grill over medium high heat for another 5-6 minutes.

Back from Puerto Rico

2007-06-03T23:02:00.001-04:00

Well, the family and I just spent two weeks cavorting in the beautiful islands of Puerto Rico (bet you didn't know there were more than one island, eh???)

Which meant lots of meat, meat, glorious meat.

And rice and beans.

My oh my how I loved those rice and beans.

The Carnivore has agreed to add a few of them to the menu, at least as a side dish (and reduce the portion of meat at the meals). Yippee! Puerto Rican Bean-fest is coming soon.

But not too soon.

I think we beans-and-riced ourselves a bit much this trip.

I know we chicken-ed out ourselves. We must have eaten chicken five out of seven days there. I doubt that will be on the menu for the next month.

The beans on the other hand....

beansbeansbeansbeansbeans!

My how I loevd those beans.

And on another note... I found the camera, so expect pictures in the near future!

Day 2: Chinese Food

2007-05-17T15:40:00.000-04:00

Today is the Carnivore's day off, which means we go out, as a family, for lunch.

Naturally, there are very few gluten-free-friendly places we can go, so we usually settle for our usual, which happens to be the local chinese restaurant.

Baby Smurf and I had sushi -- mostly the vegetarian options (seaweeds of different sorts and tofu variations), though we each ate our favorite sashimi, in the end, because it was there, and we'd already paid for it. We finished off the meal with some lichies in a little ice-cream.

The Carnivore had chicken, chicken, chicken with some kind of sauce on it, chicken and pineapple, and some tapioca pudding. I guess he's making up for the Cauliflower Fiasco.

Day 1: Making a Cauliflower and Chickpea casserole

2007-05-16T12:58:00.000-04:00

If you'd like to read about how I ended up here, feel free to pop over to my livejournal. Fascinating reading.

Moving on...

Today I decided to start our Flexitarian adventure with a cauliflower and chickpea casserole.

I'd take a picture, but The Smurflings have run off with my digital camera, so you're out of luck.

Cauliflower and Chickpea Casserole
2 quarts cooked brown rice
1 head cauliflower, steamed, and cut up into bite sized pieces
1/2 onion chopped.
1 can chickpeas
1 clove garlic
1 tsp sea salt (In a strange, fetishist way, I decided to use Marmite. FABULOUS!)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 c plain yoghurt (we subbed in a block of vegan mozzarella cheese for this)
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese

Layer the rice, cauliflower, and onion in a 9x13 baking dish.

Puree the chickpeas with the garlic, sea salt, pepper, curry powder, and yoghurt. Pour over the casserole.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Top with cheese and bake for another 15 minutes.

We'll see how it goes over with Carnivore and The Smurflings. I ate a huge dose just getting it into the pan, so I'm hoping it will go over well.

UPDATE: The Carnivore came home...

"What's that?"

"Caulflower casserole."

"is that a side dish or a main dish?"

"A main dish."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

*insert ugly face and general bad attitude*

STATUS: BUST

Yeah, this one bit it, big time. The Carnivore specifically requested that we DON'T EVER make this again.

I thought it was fabulous. It tasted exactly like I remember chicken divan tasting, without the chicken bits. I couldn't eat enough.

Which is probably good, considering I'm stuck with 3/4 of a 9x13 pan.