Black Bean Brownie Cake

Beans. Oh, the versatility.

If my two-month educational foray into the jungles of Costa Rica taught me nothing else, at least I walked away with this recipe. Thank you, Robin. Thank you, Rancho Mastatal. I already miss birthdays, all of us gathered around the community table... enjoying a hunk o' chocolate goodness.

It's chocolate cake, but it's... healthy. It's mostly eggs and beans, with a little coffee and some other stuff (like chocolate). You know, breakfast food. *shifty eyes*


BLACK BEAN BROWNIE CAKE
courtesy of Rancho Mastatal

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
6 oz bittersweet chocolate (75% cocoa content is good)
4 oz (1 stick) butter
1 tbsp finely ground coffee
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp powdered chili
2 cups cooked black beans, drained and rinsed
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2-1 cup cacao nibs

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9x13" cake pan. Then make a sugar syrup. I do this because in Costa Rica, the sugar we had was liquid (it was called "tapa dulce"). Basically, it was unrefined sugar that had not been evaporated. To simulate that... just mix the brown sugar, regular sugar, and water and simmer over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. That should do it.

2. Chop up the chocolate and butter, and melt in the top of a double boiler. Add coffee, salt, and chili, mixing until smooth and melty. You can also use oil with fine results. I like butter because... it's so wholesome.



3. Make sure your beans are well-rinsed and drained, particularly if they come from a can. *gasp* I know you wouldn't do that, though. Black beans are great, but I've also used red beans with equally great results. You could probably use almost any kind of bean, really... Stick them in the food processor with the eggs and vanilla, and whir away. Within a minute or two, it should get nice and frothy and the beans should be totally obliterated. You might see skin specs. But that's it. Transfer to a large bowl.



4. Combine melted chocolate/butter with the sugar syrup, and pour a little into the bean mixture. Fold to incorporate and temper the eggs, if the chocolate and sugar is still hot. Gradually add the rest, folding the batter until mostly combined (a few light and dark streaks are fine.



5. Fold in the cacao nibs until evenly distributed. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and it begins to recede from the sides of the pan. Cool in pan to room temperature. Enjoy as brownies with powdered sugar, or crumbled over ice cream, or however you want.





PROS: rich, moist, chocolatey, full of protein, flourless
CONS: a bit strong for some people, incredibly crumbly

And there you have it... my first update in a month. Hopefully I'll do the next one sooner rather than later.

Finally!

An update! Apologies for not updating sooner. I haven't stopped eating, though. In lieu of a recipe, I'll just offer pictures of some of the things I've been enjoying in the past month.

First, though, some updates on what I've been up to:
> moved
> back on wheat, as of this month. I can't tell you how nice it is to eat a donut. or flatbread. O wow. Gluten. And no adverse effects so far, though I haven't eaten much of it yet.
> heading to Costa Rica at the end of the month, and I won't be back until June
> grueling winter quarter of writing, working, and being exhausted

As much as I know you all want to hear about my daily adventures, I know you'd probably rather look at tasty-looking food. So here you go:



Cremini mushrooms stuffed with creamed spinach, walnuts, herbs and an assortment of other wonderful things

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Individual spinach souffle

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Tuna melt on Whole Foods' gluten-free Prairie Bread with roasted red pepper tomato soup

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Linzer Torte Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

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Delicious grilled veggies: zucchini, mushrooms, bell pepper, fennel, onion, and a purple carrot

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Pacific Northwest clams and mussels on a bed of spaghetti, dressed with fire roasted tomatoes and olive oil

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Cheesecake! With raspberries, blueberries, orange and lemon zest in a buttery almond crust.

I'm way too tired to post anything else right now. It will have to do, at least for now. But I'll be back! With something new. And with any luck, tasty. Although you never know just what might come out of my kitchen next :-S

Learning Experience #3: Chocolate Crinkles

I've done it again. Except this time, instead of cyclooctane rings of overspread cookies a milimeter high, I had the opposite problem. The cookies didn't really budge...

I blame two things: too much flour, and too much xanthan gum.

The failed. spreading cookies that I've made in the past contained very little xanthan gum, and acted as though they didn't have enough flour (very thin and brittle, more sugary than soft). So I compensated. Overly so, evidently... now I have cakey, gauzey cookies with nearly no spread whatsoever. At least they taste good.

I did make one batch of drop cookies that came out PERFECTLY... some chocolate chip cookies a couple of months ago. They spread like charms, stopped at just the right spot, were soft and chewy and melty and tasted exactly like a chocolate chip cookie should taste. I didn't blog about it because I forgot to take pictures.

Maybe that's the key, here...

Anyway, these aren't all that bad. I will make them again with the aforementioned changes to see what might happen.


CHOCOLATE CRINKLES
from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick Goudreau, adapted slightly

3 tsp egg replacer powder (I used my own blend of soy flour, potato starch, baking powder, and xanthan gum)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup hemp milk (or whatever - I can't have soy milk and rice milk is too thin)
1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine or other trans-fat-free nondairy butter
3 1/2 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend 1:2:3:3 tapioca:potato starch:sorghum:brown rice (I kind of... packed it in... don't do this)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. Whisk together egg replacer powder and water for about a minute, until thick and creamy. I'm guessing Ener-G powder gets thick and creamy, mine doesn't really. I'm so homemade it makes me ill. Toss in the sugar, vanilla, and hemp milk and beat another minute or so.

2. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter and chocolate completely. Remove immediately from stove and stir into the milk mixture.

3. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt and baking powder. Add the wet ingredients and mix slowly until all is combined. You'll get kind of a loose batter at this point because everything is still melted, but it will start to firm up soon. Plop in the center of a large rectangle of waxed paper and wrap up. Refrigerate one hour to overnight.



4. When dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 325°F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.



5. Sift confectioners' sugar into a small-medium bowl. Divide dough into 36 round, 1-inch balls. Round each one in your hands and toss it in the powdered sugar to coat, jiggling off the excess.



6. Line prepared dough balls on cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake for 18 minutes or until... you know, they're done. They won't look much different. Only a little cracked. Let cool on pans for 2 minutes, then remove to cool on racks.





PROS: chocolatey, crunchy exterior and chewy, soft interior, attractive
CONS: unspread, the *littlest* bit gummy

Two-Bean Enchiladas

My favorite part about cooking as a poor student is making wonderful, family-size dishes and freezing them in individual portions to eat later. It saves time. It saves money. It's homemade. I only really cook about once a week. I'd cook more if I had the time, and the money for ingredients, but right now I don't. So I eat a lot of beans. And rice.

Ahem. I wanted to make enchiladas. I don't know why, I just did. So I poked around and came up with a recipe that I thought would be good. I made it tonight. It made me want to ride a horse on the beach. Or whatever they do in Mexico.
Probably not that.


TWO-BEAN ENCHILADAS

Cooking oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 fresh jalapeños, seeded and chopped (do your mucous membranes a favor and wear gloves while handling the peppers)
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
3 tbsp powdered ancho chili
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp oregano (crumbled, not ground)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
28 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (get Muir Glen... they are GOOD)
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, drained
1 cup cooked Anasazi or pinto beans, drained
1 cup fresh (or thawed frozen) corn kernels
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, packed
Salt to taste
12 corn tortillas
2/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When shimmering, add onions and jalapeños, and cook until onions begin to brown. This should take 3-4 minutes.

2. Add garlic, spices, sugar and salt, and continue to cook until fragrant, stirring constantly for about 1 minute. Don't burn it.



3. Stir in diced tomatoes and simmer about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature or a little above.



4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F. In a food processor or blender, process the mixture until smooth but chunky. Kind of like a fat baby. Transfer 1 cup sauce to a medium bowl, and toss with the beans, corn, cilantro, and 1 cup Jack cheese. Season bean mixture with salt and reserve the rest of the sauce.



5. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Drizzle about 2 tbsp oil into a pie pan or similar sized dish and briefly coat both sides of each tortilla. Use more oil if you need to. Spread them out on the baking sheet, overlapping as little as possible. Cover with another layer of foil and bake in the oven for 4 minutes or until pliable and soft.



6. Spread 3/4 cup sauce in the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish. Spoon 1/3 cup bean mixture into the center of a tortilla, roll up, and place in baking dish seam-side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, lining them side-by-side. You may have to smoosh them up against one another, but don't worry. They're social. If you end up with a little extra filling, just stick it in that 13th tortilla that sometimes finds its way into the the 12-pack, and eat it. Right now.



7. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, spreading it to coat the tortillas completely. If you miss a spot, it will get all hard and impossibly chewy, which is a bummer. Combine cheddar and remaining Jack cheese, and sprinkle over the top of the enchiladas (either to cover, or down the center in a line).

8. Cover baking dish with foil, leaving one corner loose for steam escape. Bake in the lower half of the oven for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.



9. Garnish with cilantro and serve piping hot with sour cream, guacamole, and lime wedges. Because I'm cheap and poor, I had neither avocados to make guacamole, or limes. But believe me when I say it would have been killer.

PROS: warm and gooey, proteiny, filling and low cholesterol
CONS: are you kidding me?!

This dish could easily be made vegan by omitting the cheese and dressing it with some sort of vegan cream sauce. And avocados. Please, don't skimp on the avocados.

Buckwheat Bran Muffins

These muffins are like those sensuous big women with the low, smoky voices and a wink for you if you're lucky.

I have really developed a taste for buckwheat! I have buckwheat hot cereal for breakfast on my coffee days, I keep experimenting with buckwheat pancakes and waffles, and I've been making these muffins... they're quite tasty, really.

Originally I was going for a maple-flavored muffin, so I used maple syrup for sweetener. The maple didn't really stand out in the finished muffin, but I liked it anyway. I didn't want to bother adding something like maple extract that not many people have just lying around or are likely to ever use again. But I kept the maple syrup, because it adds a certain sultry va-va-voom. I also wanted a breakfast-type muffin (you know, fiber and protein and all that), hence the rice bran and buckwheat flour and brown rice flour, nuts and kasha and the like. Voila... it worked out.

These muffins, like most muffins, are pretty versatile. By that, I mean you can add things if you want. Nuts and chopped fruit (diced apple or pear might be good), seeds and such... go for it. Let me know how it is.


BUCKWHEAT BRAN MUFFINS

2/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
2 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp soy flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp salt
Grated zest from 1 medium orange
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup maple syrup, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup rice bran
3/4 cup kasha
3/4 cup sliced almonds, crushed lightly

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and prepare sixteen muffin cups by lining or greasing. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add zest and whisk to combine. Set aside.

2. Beat eggs until frothy in a large bowl. Drizzle in melted butter, mixing well to emulsify. Add maple syrup and vanilla and stir to combine.

3. In a smaller bowl or liquid measure, whisk the buttermilk and sour cream together until no longer lumpy. Add to the bowl with the maple syrup and mix well.

4. Add flour mixture, folding gently until barely mixed but still lumpy. Fold in rice bran, kasha, and almonds until no streaks of flour remain and ingredients are moistened, but do not overmix.



5. Fill cups 3/4 full with batter, and smooth the tops with a spatula as best you can. Taste some.



6. Bake on the lower-middle rack for 23-25 minutes, or until they turn deliciously brown around the edges and just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan (if you're using liners, just use the toothpick method). Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to eat warm or cool or whatever. Toast them later, whatever.





PROS: warm and husky, exotically spiced yet delicate earthy flavor, delicious crunchy bits, not overly sweet
CONS: a little dense (is that a con?), flavor is mild

Pasta e Fagioli

You know, I get a certain satisfaction out of trying something new. Food-wise, anyway. For the longest time I couldn't really stand to eat pasta without some kind of tomatoes or tomato sauce... but I'm expanding my horizons. Slowly. I still can't eat it with just plain olive oil. Too... pasty.

But I like pasta, and I like beans, so I thought I'd try this one out. Apparently it's an Italian classic... but not being Italian, or a foodie, I wouldn't know. Hits the spot on an icy January evening, though.

I got this recipe from the Joy of Cooking - 75th Anniversary Edition, but I made a few modifications to suit my diet. This is the version I made.


PASTA E FAGIOLI

1/2 lb dry cannellini beans
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
(2 tbsp minced parsley - didn't have this, but it would have been awfully pretty)
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 cups vegetable broth or stock, or more as needed
1 cup gluten-free quinoa-corn elbow macaroni
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, or more as needed

1. Rinse beans and pick over for shriveled or broken beans and little pebbles. My dad always used to bite into really hard things in his food at dinnertime and then frown and try to figure out what it was. I wonder if they were pebbles.

2. Cover with an inch of water and let soak for up to 8 hours. It's supposed to improve digestibility for those with bean-sensitive guts. My gut is quite accustomed to beans and it makes no difference, so I just soaked them for three hours to see what would happen. They just got wrinkly.



3. Discard soaking water and cover again with an inch of water. Bring to a full boil, then reduce heat to medium-low or low, partially cover, and let simmer for an hour and a half. Test them after about 70 minutes for doneness (ie: you can mash them easily and they're not crunchy). Drain and let cool.



4. Heat oil in a stockpot over medium or medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add onion, carrot, celery, and parsley (if you're using it). I wish I had parsley :-(

5. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion is golden-brown. Well. My onion never turned golden brown, even after 15 minutes. So when it started to get soft I just proceeded. Sigh.



6. Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Stir and add beans, mashing lightly and stirring to incorporate. It should look all soft and mashy. Yum.



7. After about a minute, pour in the broth and increase heat to high. Bring just to a simmer, then turn heat to medium-low. Partially cover, and let cook for five minutes.

8. Add macaroni and salt to taste, and stir lightly to incorporate. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes, or until the macaroni is al dente (cooked through, but gives some resistance to the teeth). Add about a cup more broth, or however much you need to get the consistency you want.

9. Lighly stir in black pepper and cheese, and serve with a little more cheese on top. Oh, it would look so much prettier with parsley. But you know what? It tasted good anyway.



PROS: Warm, chunky, thick, healthy, filling
CONS: very yellow... and a little bland

I apologize for not updating very often. I have a very busy schedule. I'm going to try to get in at least one blog per week though, at least for the quarter. I've penciled it in :-)

Of course, I am not sure if anybody is reading this because nobody comments. Fortunately, my plight is an easy one for you to remedy. So go ahead... make my day.

Buckwheat-Corn Pancakes, part II

I've been working on this recipe for the past few months and I'm pretty happy with it so far. Better than the first version, certainly. The only catch is that I don't ever seem to have buttermilk on hand when I'm making it, so I've been using various combination of sour cream, milk, and/or lemon juice instead. I think buttermilk would be better. But I don't know until someone tries it and tells me.

These substantial, down-on-the-farm pancakes develop a sweet, crispy exterior while maintaining a moist and fluffy interior. The molasses adds a layer of earthy sweetness that is well-balanced by the more delicate flavor of honey.


BUCKWHEAT-CORN PANCAKES (part II)

2/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup corn flour
2 tbsp cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, separated
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp full-flavored molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh corn kernels, or other topping/filling of your choice

1. Whisk or sift together the dry ingredients (flours, leavening and salt) in a large bowl. It's helpful to sift if you have clumpy baking powder, because then, you know... it gets distributed and all. Just a thought.

2. Whisk egg white with buttermilk in a 2-cup liquid measure and bring to room temperature by partially submerging in a bowl of warm water and stirring periodically. If you have cold ingredients, it will coagulate the melted butter, which sucks a lot. You don't want clumps of butter here. It's not a pie crust, you know.

3. Reserve yolk in a small bowl while melting butter in a small saucepan or double boiler. Add honey as butter is nearly melted. Slowly drizzle melted butter and honey over the yolk, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the yolk. Stir in the molasses.

4. Add yolk mixture to buttermilk and whisk to combine well. Pour into large bowl with dry ingredients, and whisk until most of the flour is moistened but it's still a little lumpy. If you over-mix it, the bubbles created by the baking soda and powder will collapse and die like the fragile little creatures they are. Then you'll get really flat, dense pancakes. So be gentle.

5. Let batter rest for a few minutes while you preheat a heavy skillet over medium heat. I love cast iron for pancakes, it creates an unbeatable crust. Stainless doesn't really cut it, and I never recommend cooking in a nonstick pan, but that's just me. Use what you have.

6. Test the heat of your skillet by adding a pat of butter. If it foams but does not readily brown, the skillet is the proper temperature. If it browns quickly, it's too hot. If it slowly melts, it's not hot enough. Adjust! When it's just right, ladle or scrape some batter (it will be nice and thiiiick) onto the hot, buttered skillet. Spread it out some, or you'll get a lump rather than a pancake. Sprinkle your blueberries or corn on top. Whatever you want, really.



7. After the edges start to set and large bubbles appear in the middle of the batter, it's ready for flipping. This is fun. Flip it now. But try not to mess it up. Because half-cooked pancakes are very sensitive to this sort of activity and are prone to folding up on themselves, adhering to the sloped sides of your skillet (rather than the more desirable flat surface), or missing the pan altogether. This is not good.

8. Cook until bottom is crispy and brown, and then set aside on a rack to cool or keep warm in a 200°F oven while you cook the other pancakes. Add butter to the skillet before cooking each pancake, or they'll stick and won't get as crusty and beautiful. Don't stack them until they're ready to eat, or they'll get all soggy. Ew. Serve with butter, maple syrup, extra blueberries, or whatever you have that you think goes well with buckwheat pancakes.





PROS: sooo fluffy and delicious. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Hearty yet light.
CONS: batter is so thick it can be difficult to work with. I don't really care, though.

PS: I got a new camera for Christmas! Woohoo! This is my first blog using my new Sony Cybershot DSC-W80. YAY!

Christmas Quiche

What's a vegetarian to do for Christmas dinner when her family is eating ham and turkey? Well, bring something even better. Better and more colorful.

OK, so this quiche probably wouldn't win any awards. I've never made quiche before and although it's not difficult, I wasn't really sure what I was going for. So I blindly groped my way around a recipe that I concocted (inspired by Mollie Katzen and Cook's Illustrated) encrusted in a recipe from Gluten-Free Girl. I got something tasty. Tasty enough to try again... some day. It certainly was pretty, anyway.


CHRISTMAS QUICHE

1 single-crust recipe from Gluten-Free Girl (but replace cinnamon with half as much dry mustard powder)
olive oil
2 cups sliced red onion
4 cloves roasted garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp salt
2 sprigs fresh thume
3 leaves fresh sage
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup thinly sliced green pepper
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
2 cups chopped Christmasy-looking red-green chard, separated stems and leaves
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add oil and onion, and saute about 4 minutes or until the onions start to sweat.

2. Toss salt, herbs, and mustard into pan with onions. Cover the pan and turn the heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

3. Place your pie crust on a baking tray or cookie sheet. Uncover pan on stove and add vinegar, bell pepper, and chard stems. Return heat to medium and cool another 4 minutes.

4. Add chard leaves, stir and cook one more minute and remove from heat.

5. Sprinkle goat cheese onto crust. Top with sauteed vegetables.



6. Whisk eggs and milk in a 4-cup liquid measure and season with black pepper. Pour into crust with vegetables and cheese.



7. Bake in lower section of oven for 45-50 minutes, or until custard is set. Cool 10 minutes or to room tempurature, slice, and serve!



PROS: colorful, tasty, relatively healthy
CONS: crust underbaked, custard not firm enough

What I would change about this recipe: Definitely prebake the pie shell. It's a thick shell and although it's very tasty, a good 1/6th of an inch was uncooked. Also use whole milk instead of lowfat. It would probably make a difference in how much the custard sets. Add one more egg, perhaps....

Carrot Cake

Every time someone has a birthday, I jump at the chance to bake a cake. I love cake. I love baking cake. I think it's because I love licking the mixing bowl afterward...

...but that's another story. My dad's birthday was yesterday, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to make another cake. I made it gluten-free, just because I felt confident enough with my experience to turn it out well. I secretly bought enough ingredients for two cakes in the instance that the gluten-free version was a flop.

But oh. Oh. This was no flop! Whoever says gluten-free baking is inferior obviously hasn't eaten this.

And again, I must credit Cook's Illustrated for the recipe on which my version is based. I know that when I need to bake something for the first time, I will always check to see if they have a recipe for it first. That way, if my adaptation doesn't turn out... I know that it's my fault and not the base recipe's. Oh, what a blessing America's Test Kitchen is. But I've changed this recipe enough to be considered different from the original. Well, duh.


CARROT CAKE

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sorghum flour
3/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup soy flour
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb fresh carrots, peeled
1 cup golden (Sultana) raisins
1 can crushed pineapple, drained very well
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (I used sunflower)

12 oz neufchatel or cream cheese
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened but still cool
1 tbsp sour cream
3/4 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9"x2" round cake pans, and line with parchment paper or waxed paper. Grease the parchment as well.

2. Whisk the dry ingredients - flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder and soda, spices, and salt - thoroughly in a medium bowl.

3. Using your food processor, shred the carrots (make sure you shred them, not pulverize them). If you're ambitious and/or don't have a food processor - and I used to do this - you can grate them by hand. If you do this, you can probably do most of the rest of the steps in a mixing bowl rather than a food processor.

4. Add the shredded carrots and raisins to the dry ingredients, and wipe out your food processor. Add sugars and eggs to the food processor, and process with the metal blade until frothy and well-mixed.

5. Keep the processor running, and slowly drizzle the oil through the feed tube. Process until well-emulsified and light in color.

6. Transfer wet ingredients to a large bowl and stir in the crushed (drained) pineapple. Fold in the dry ingredients, along with carrots and raisins, until all flour is mixed in. But don't mix it longer than you have to. You'll kill the leavining.

7. Pour batter into your prepared cake pans and stick on a middle oven rack. Bake for 40 minutes or until cake starts to pull away from edges of pan and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. And it's golden brown. Or poke the top of the cake with your finger. If it springs back, it's done.



8. Cool on wire racks, in the pans, to room temperature before frosting. And let me tell you - you don't want to frost this cake warm. Disaster will ensue.



9. Clean out your food processor. This is a good time to lick the bowl, if you're into that sort of thing. I know I am. But for the sake of whomever's going to be eating your cake, please wash it after you lick it. And then dump in the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla. Process until well-mixed. If it starts sticking to the sides, then you know what to do. Get out that rubber spatula.

10. Add powdered sugar and process some more until it's nice and smooth. Scrape it all out, put it in a bowl, and stick it in the fridge to chill for oh, 20 minutes or so.

11. Take your cakes out of their pans when they're cool, and put them on the wire racks directly. Face up, of course. When you're ready to decorate, transfer one cake round to whatever it is you like to decorate on. I used a cardboard round sitting on top of an inverted cake pan - it spins easily, and is slightly elevated.



12. Take your frosting out of the fridge, and if you want to reserve some for piping later (letters, little carrots, whatever), save 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup and set aside. Plop some frosting - 1/2 cup, maybe - on the cake and spread to the edges (a large offset spatula works wonders here). Carefully set the second cake on top, and repeat the process. Use the remaining frosting to frost the sides. Try not to get crumbs in the icing, because that looks kinda tacky.

13. Press handfuls of sliced almonds into the sides - you can tilt the cake for this - until the sides are covered all the way around. Put a few in the center of the cake, on the top. It looks cute. And if you want to pipe decorations, color your reserved frosting however you want (I use natural coloring with annatto for the orange letters). And pipe away. For a makeshift pastry bag, you can use either a plastic bag with the corner cut out, or waxed paper folded in a cone. That's what I did. And sit back and admire your cake. Then eat it. Because, let's face it, carrot cake is awesome.


PROS: moist, perfectly balanced spice, great ratio of cake:frosting, delicious but not too nutritious
CONS: frosting is a little wet, and sweetness of cake is difficult to detect through sweetness of frosting (but trust me. it's minor.)

Maybe I should stop posting all my recipes and just right a durn tootin cookbook. I hear that's what all the cool kids are doing these days...

Thanksgiving Stuffed Squash

Happy holidays, everyone.

And down in history goes my first Thanksgiving: at least, my first Thanksgiving making a significant contribution to the dinner table.

It was my year at my dad's this time. Aside from the small ham for the omnivores, the whole feast was vegetarian... and boy, it was good! At least, I think so. But hey, I'm a big fan of food. Especially when I can eat it.

Gracing our table (besides the ham) was many a good food. The appetizers consisted of cheese, my Grandma's deviled eggs, an olive/pickle/pepper tray, and Barb's stuffed mushrooms and cheese-pecan sandwich bites... I could make a meal of those alone. Easily. And when we sat down, we were greeted by the smells and sights of stuffed acorn squash, potatoes au gratin, harvest shepherd's pie with mashed yams, fresh green salad, and Grandma's legendary cranberry chutney that is, in my opinion, the highlight of every Thanksgiving. For dessert, pumpkin cheesecake and mince pie. Who could want a single thing more?

I debated which dish to blog about - I made the squash, shepherd's pie, and mince pie - and I finally settled on the squash. I'm particularly proud of it because I came up with the recipe. OK, no big deal, but I'm proud anyway. Probably because I was afraid it would taste bad. Or bland. Or just stupid. And it didn't :)

The shepherd's pie was very tasty. I got the recipe from the Whole Foods Cookbook - you can also find the recipe on the Whole Foods website. Instead of ground beef, it gets its protein and texture from crumbled tempeh. I chose "garden vegetable" tempeh instead of plain tempeh because... well, it can't hurt. It's a vegetable dish. This was my first experience with tempeh (at least, that I can remember) and wow. I found a new tofu substitute. I'm impressed! And it's gluten-free, to boot. Instead of mashed potatoes on top, this dish has these delicious orange yams and sliced almonds... oh boy. It tasted like yumm. The yams were seasoned by a mixture of butter, orange juice and zest, and brown rice syrup simmered into a viscous liquid. It gave it character. It tasted like Thanksgiving.

And mince pie? The recipe is from my book Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine. The first mincemeat mixture I simmered up was scorched black. 6 organic apples, 2 cups of apple cider, a stick of organic butter, a cup each of organic raisins and currants, an organic lemon and organic orange, a selection of organic spices and some amount I don't remember of organic dark brown sugar - all ruined. *facepalm*

But it was OK - mum came to the rescue, new ingredients were bought, apples were re-peeled and diced, and mincemeat was back on the stove in no time. This time, I stood there for three hours, stirring it every five minutes. As a result, the mincemeat was a little... well, resembling of apple butter, but it sure tasted good. And it wasn't scorched. Stick it in a gluten-free crust with a lattice top (don't even go there... no easy task, that), and voila. Easy as pie.

From this experience, I learned (as I have learned in the past) that the settings on an electric stove are not the same as those on a gas stove, and Cook's Illustrated writes for a gas stove. But I have electric. *sigh* Such is the life of a over-ambitious hungry person.

And my squash - oh, how proud I am. I wanted a gluten-free stuffing, so I thought hey! Rice. Wild rice is native to the states... perfect. And what goes with rice?

Beans!

Which brought me to this "Three Sisters" idea I keep running across that combines beans, squash, and corn. And I seized ahold of that like a jack russell terrier sizes a rope toy with a labrador at the other end, and hell if I was gonna let go...

Ahem.

To make a long story short, I chose Anasazi beans because of their relative close proximity to the Great Lakes area (home of wild rice) - within trading distance, anyway. And acorn squash, because it's so darn cute and easy to stuff. Sage to season, because it grows wild here in the US. And frozen corn, because... well, fresh isn't in season anymore, and canned has added salt. Ha.




ACORN SQUASH WITH WILD RICE STUFFING
1/2 cup dry Anasazi beans, picked over
1 tsp salt
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup wild rice
4 medium acorn squash
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup frozen (or fresh) corn kernels, thawed
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp finely minced fresh sage leaves
6 cloves (or one medium head) roasted garlic, mashed
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tsp dry yellow mustard powder
2 tsp salt


1. To soak the beans, add beans to a heavy pot and cover with water by two inches. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil five minutes and remove from heat. Cover and let stand for one hour.

2. Drain the soaking liquid from the beans. Cover again with water by two inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover, with lid slightly ajar, and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes. When you can squish a bean with your fingers, add salt and continue to simmer until desired tenderness (about 10 minutes more). Remove from heat, drain, and smell them. Kinda smokey... kinda salty... kinda like bacon. Except better, because nobody had to die. And beanier.

3. Bring vegetable stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add rice. Return to a boil and turn heat down to low. Cover and simmer 40-45 minutes, or until rice is fully cooked (it may pop a little, but it should be a little toothsome and nutty still). Transfer to a separate bowl and fluff with a fork. Reserve.

4. Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut each acorn squash in half, from the stem down. Remove seeds and discard (or reserve to toast later, if you want). Prick cavities with a fork, and rub each cut side with butter to coat.

5. Place squash halves cut-side up in a large baking dish with 1 inch water. Roast for about 35 minutes, or until just fork-tender.

6. Remove squash from oven and rest until cool enough to handle.

7. Sauté onions in butter over medium heat 2-3 minutes. Add corn, drained beans, and sage, cooking an additional minute or two. Remove from heat.

8. Scoop flesh from the squash halves, leaving a 1/2-inch shell. Mix flesh with roasted garlic and season with salt and pepper. Gently fold into rice, bean, and corn mixture, carefully not smashing the beans.

9. Rub mustard powder and remaining salt into squash shells. Stuff with stuffing and return to oven in the same baking dish. Bake an additional 25 minutes or until squash is tender and stuffing is heated through.


PROS: very Thanksgivingy, hearty yet vegetarian, nutritious and delicous
CONS: could use some tweaking as far as ratios go, and cooking times, but I lurrved it anyway


So there we have it.

Holiday Cut-Out Cookies

Just getting caught up here... I've made so much stuff and hardly had time to post. Seems a little bit ironic.

Anyway, these cookies turned out pretty well, given my previous experiences with gluten-free cookies. I used a recipe, too, from Land O'Lakes. But I made a few changes. Since I don't pre-mix a gluten-free flour blend, I just use specific amounts of each kind of flour.

These are cookies you should probably eat within a few days, because they will dry out quickly after that and are prone to crumbling into little pieces... but hey. They're delicious. If you like soft, sweet, frosted cut-out cookies, that is... and I know I do.


HOLIDAY CUT-OUT COOKIES
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups white rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt


1. Combine flours, xanthan gum, and salt in a medium bowl or on a piece of waxed paper and set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl at medium speed, scraping often (I ran out of butter so I used half butter, half non-hydrogenated shortening) until light and fluffy and beautiful. Add egg yolks and vanilla, and continue beating until well-mixed, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

3. Reduce speed to low and add flour mix, beating until incorporated. Divide dough in half, flatten into 4-inch disks, wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously rice-flour a work surface (if you don't have enough, the cookies will stick). Roll out one disk of dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch cookie cutters of your choice, cut out pieces of dough and transfer them to an ungreased cookie sheet (add sprinkles now if you want). Place them at least 1 inch apart. This is where I goofed, and the cookies I put too close together started kissing in the oven. Sigh.

5. Bake 8-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned (this took me 16-17 minutes in an accurate oven). Let rest 2 minutes on cookie sheets, then transfer with a metal spatula onto cooling racks. Cool completely before frosting.

6. I'd tell you what the frosting is made of... but I didn't write it down. Heavy cream, shortening, and powdered sugar... for the pumpkins I added some pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, and for the chocolate I added melted bittersweet chocolate... But the ratios? Heck if I know. Anyway, pick a nice frosting recipe that you like (butter really is better for this, but I ran out). Frost those cookies. Decorate away. Buy one of those tubs of frosting if you really want to sacrifice all your hard work only to use canned frosting. They're your cookies... No pressure :)

PROS: so soft... and they actually hold their shape in the oven! As long as they're rolled thin enough, anyway. GREAT with frosting. If you hand them out, you'll have no trouble finishing off a batch in a couple of days.
CONS: A bit crumbly... and difficult to brown. The shape kinda gets a little muddled, but you can still tell what it is, especially if you use something like a pumpkin or a Christmas tree. Not so good for little details, though.




I made pumpkins (with pumpkin frosting), ghosts (with vanilla frosting), bats, and cats (with chocolate frosting). Sense a theme here? :)

I'll probably make a few changes next time. Like use Cook's Illustrated's "reverse creaming" method they recommend for holiday cut-out cookies. Definitely use all butter instead of half-shortening. Use a real recipe for frosting... like the vanilla and chocolate buttercream recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Put them further apart on the baking sheet.

I'm so silly...

Apple Pie

Wow, was this a hit. Deeeelicious. :D Not really my recipes, though... I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the filling (making one slight modification for gluten-freedom), and scaled up (and slightly modified) a recipe from Gluten-Free Girl for the crust. It turned out well. Really well. Aromatic and appley, and the crust resembled a wheat crust in all ways. YAY!


APPLE PIE
For the crust (mostly courtesy of Gluten-Free Girl):
1 cup plus 2 tbsp white rice flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp potato starch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
3 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
8 tbsp butter, chilled
4 tbsp non-hydrogenated shortening, chilled
1 large egg
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 - 1/3 cup ice water (or enough to make the dough just stick together)

For the pie filling (mostly courtesy Cook's Illustrated):
1 1/2 lb Granny Smith apples (about 3)
2 lbs ripe McIntosh apples (about 4)
1 tbsp juice and 1 tsp zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1/4 tsp freshly grated (or ground) nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tbsp sugar

Crust:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Cut butter and shortening into dry ingredients using a fork, pastry cutter, or food processor. Crumble together until butter is the size of large peas (or lima beans, even).

2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add egg and vinegar, and incorporate gently. If using a fork, stir from the center outward.

3. Slowly add ice water, 2 tbsp at a time, into the crust mixture, stirring or processing until it begins to stick together. As soon as it forms a cohesive dough, stop adding water.

4. Divide the dough in two. Compress each into 4-inch disks and refrigerate in parchment paper overnight.

Pie Filling:
1. Take one half of your dough out of the fridge and set on the counter. Let it rest for twenty minutes while you prepare the pie. Place a rimmed baking sheet on the bottom rack in your oven, and preheat it to 500°F.

2. Peel and core your apples. Quarter them and cut each quarter into 1/4-inch slices (if they are too thick or thin, they will cook unevenly). Toss apples in a large bowl with the lemon juice and zest. If you have a microplane grater, use it. It makes zest like magic.

3. Take your second disk of dough out to rest for 20 minutes. Roll out your first disk to a 12-inch circle between two sheets of parchment. You may have to keep flipping it over, because the bottom side tends to get a little wrinkled. Carefully peel off the top layer (make sure there are no wrinkles, as this will make it difficult to get off cleanly). Center an upside-down 9" glass pie plate over the dough, and quickly invert. Use the parchment to help you press the dough into the corner of the pan, and peel off the parchment. Do any quick patchwork you need to before moving on.

4. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, spices, and salt. Toss with the apples. Dump it all (including the juices) into the pie pan - don't be alarmed, it will make a HUGE heap - and arrange so that the pile is as compact and rounded as possible.

5. Roll out the second piece of dough to a 12-inch circle between parchment - same as before. Peel off the top and ever so carefully invert it on the giant mound of apples. Tuck the overhang from the top dough underneath the overhang from the bottom dough so that it sticks out a bit from the rim, and flute the edges however you like. If you don't know how, then google it. Not too hard!

6. Cut 4 slits in the top of the pie - if the dough is super soft, freeze it for a few minutes (no longer than 10, though, or the glass plate may break when it enters the oven). Brush the beaten egg white all over the top crust and sprinkle with sugar.

7. Place the pie on the baking sheet in the oven. Lower the temperature to 425°F and bake for 25 minutes (or until the crust is a nice golden color. Rotate it 180°, turn the temperature down once more to 375°F, and continue baking for another 30-35 minutes. The juices should be really bubbly and the crust a deep golden brown. Put pie on a cooling rack and cool to room temperature. If you CAN'T WAIT, just eat a piece. But it will be hot and it will fall apart. But sometimes that's not so bad.

PROS: Very fragrant, sweet and tart and spiced at the same time. The texture is wonderful - the Macs fall apart when they cook, and the Grannies stay al dente - the perfect combination. Go CI! It tastes of autumn and good times. Crust bakes up just like a standard wheat crust.
CONS: Crust is difficult to handle when rolling and transferring. Not *quite* as flaky as some (though nobody will complain), but with some tweaking I'm sure it could be.

Banana Bread

I never expected this to be successful. After my cookie experiences, I was on the verge of being convinced that baking without gluten would never yield a product as tasty as one with. Boy, did this prove me wrong! I love banana bread. You should too.

So I did some research on different flours - Gluten Free, Not Gluten-Freaky has a great rundown of different flour properties and ratios and things. Very helpful. So I just fiddled with my normal banana bread recipe - one used by Cook's Illustrated - and voila! Tender, moist, melt-in-your-mouth (which, OK, is weird for something that doesn't typically melt at all) banana bread. Here goes...

(don't be weirded out by the lengthy ingredient list... you could probably use just butter and the traditional 3-flour blend instead of 5)


BANANA BREAD
1 1/4 cups walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large extra-ripe, spotty bananas, mashed well
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup shortening, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Liberally grease and flour (with rice flour) the inside of a 9"x5" loaf pan (or similar - it's actually pretty flexible). Cover the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until you start to smell them. They should smell good. Not burnt.

3. Whisk together the rice flour through salt in a large bowl, then add walnuts and mix to evenly distribute.

4. Mix together the bananas through vanilla in another bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon. This is fun. Oh, trust me. And it works way better when all your ingredients are at room temperature, so there is nothing to clump the butter and shortening. Because you don't want little pieces of butter and shortening wandering around, do you?

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together to incorporate. It should look a little chunky. This is normal. This is good.

6. Transfer batter ASAP to your loaf pan. Stick it on the lower-middle shelf in the oven and bake for 55 minutes - or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean - and it looks ready.

7. Remove bread from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack. Serve whenever you want to eat it - it is divine when warm and a wonderful breakfast. I didn't try toasting it, but I'm sure it would be great. And oh yeah. It's great with honey.






PROS: melt-in-your-mouth, soft, banana-y, sweet but in a good way
CONS: are you kidding me? There's nothing wrong with it...


So there you go. I've only made it once, so I'm sure some improvements/simplifications can be made to the recipe, so feel free to try it out with your own variations... no recipe is final, you know?

Learning Experience #2: Snickerdoodles

Apparently gluten-free cookies are no easy accomplishment. Not for me, anyway.

OK, so they turned out a little better than the last ones. Definitely tastier. But woah. Flat much? Very breakable, hardly workable dough, and they just plain look sad. But they are killer on ice cream...

I'm still wondering how I managed to fit them in the cookie jar.

Because when I tried to take them out, the cookies were about an inch wider than the opening. Creepy.

Let's get down to business, though, shall we? How exactly did I concoct such a... concoction?

Well, I wish I could tell you - but I wrote over my test recipe (darn) with a second version that I have yet to try. Instead, I'll walk you through the basic procedure.

You start by creaming your fat and sugar together. It should look beautiful and white and fluffy (full of air, you know). Add your wet ingredients like eggs and vanilla and such, beat it, and add your flours and chemical leavening and salt and stuff.

So it should be all stiff and cookie-doughish, right? But it wasn't. It was sticky and soft, like butter that's been out of the refrigerator way too long.

So I froze it for like, 10 minutes. I took it out and rolled it into little balls, tossed them in sugar-spice mixture that I'd made earlier, and set them on parchment paper on my cookie sheet. About 2 inches apart. Should be pleeennnty of space. This, my friends, is where everything goes wrong, so wrong.

Suffice to say that 2 inches was not enough room. These guys like to really expand. And by expand, I mean out. Not up. What I got ended up looking like crispy cyclooctane rings all strung together with their little shared carbons and their lack of personal space.



One thing I can say is that they look a lot better on screen than in person. Not that I didn't see them fit to eat, obviously. They're long since digested, actually...

For the record, I make pretty delicious "normal" snickerdoodles. I'm not just doodle-deficient or anything. But there's more to wheatlessness than meets the eye. I obviously haven't conquered the gluten-free cookie yet. But I will.

You just wait.

Buckwheat and Corn Pancakes

This was a fun one.

I haven't experimented much (read: at all) with buckwheat before, but it's right up my alley. And yes, buckwheat is gluten-free - it's not wheat at all. It's not even a grass. It's a knotweed with wickedly awesome seeds.

It tastes very earthy, mild yet powerful. The pancakes were dense and filling, but not uncomfortably so. Just buckwheaty and beautiful.

I think next time I'd like to add more corn, though - the flavors really go well together, and with the ratios I tried, the buckwheat flavor all but ate up the corn flavor. I might also add more leavening (baking soda, maybe, with buttermilk instead of milk) to see if it helps the pancakes rise at all.

BUCKWHEAT AND CORN PANCAKES
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup corn flour
2 tbsp cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
2 tbsp honey (molasses is good too; just not blackstrap)
1 cup mixed fresh sweet corn and blueberries (or whatever you wanna stick in there)
butter for the pan
topping of your choice!

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium-large mixing bowl. Play with the ratios some (of the flours, anyway), if you like. Even a failed pancake is a good pancake (well, in most cases).

2. Warm your ingredients to room temperature. Put the egg in some warm water (not hot - it will cook), sit a measuring glass of milk in some warm water and stir it, whatever. Honey and molasses are hard to mix into cold things.

3. In small bowl (I like to use a 2-cup liquid measure to save dishes), measure out the milk and the egg, and beat until the egg is nicely broken up and no longer globby. Nobody likes a globby egg; you get big white patches in your pancakes that way.

4. Add the oil to the dry mix and whisk together until it looks good and well-coated, then pour the egg-milk in. Drizzle in the honey and whisk the batter until it looks well-incorporated. Don't overmix it though, or the baking powder will be rendered useless.

5. Let the batter rest while you heat up your skillet. I love a heavy cast-iron pan for pancakes - it gives them a nice, brown exterior. Heat to medium heat and drop in a pat of butter and spread it around to coat. It's good and ready when it bubbles and foams right away but doesn't burn and smoke.

6. Ladle, spoon, or pour some amount of batter (whatever looks good to you) on the skillet. Immediately sprinkle a small handful of corn/blueberries over the top. They'll sink right in.

7. When the edges of the pancake are set and the middle has bubbles, flip it. Do the other side until it's done. It's up to you when it's done - it takes about 2 minutes, depending on the size of your pancakes. I like 'em big.

8. Transfer to a cooling rack or the oven to keep warm, but don't stack them or they'll steam each other. Then they'll be all floppy and moist. Not crispy and wonderful.

9. Serve with butter, maple syrup, or blueberry jam... Yummmmmy!




PROS: homey, hearty, filling, healthy, tasty, great combination
CONS: not very sweet, buckwheat can be is an acquired taste, not enough corn, a little dense

This is based on the recipe from Bob's Red Mill - Down Home Buckwheat Pancakes - with several additions/substitutions. I would make these again. Maybe with some changes, but it's definitely going down in the book.

stuck in the wormhole

I'm still cooking, I swear! But hot dang, I have no spare time to blog. In the coming posts, you can look forward to:

- buckwheat pancakes
- banana bread
- snickerdoodles (another learning experience)
- apple pie
- pumpkin filling cookies
- Araya's Vegetarian Place

Comment if you wanna see any of those more than the others, so I can post that first.

Well, I'm now a month gluten-free, and doing fine. Although, my eczema is still here. In fact, it hasn't changed a bit. *sigh* I'm a little bit addicted to the challenge of a gluten-free existence, though, and feel a heap healthier. Learning to bake again is a ball. I wish I had one of those commercial kitchens with the big mixing equipment and the calibrated oven and huge sinks for washing dishes with one of those sprayer things... and large bags of gluten-free flours and such. And fresh fruit up the yin-yang... Really, though, I'd settle for a nice KitchenAid.

I'm discovering all sorts of cool grains... Quinoa I've got down. Millet I'm currently conquering... next is amaranth.

I'm trying to like millet. But right now, I think it smells like budgies... :-S

Bananas, Almonds, and Hot Fudge

Bananas are fun. You can whirl them in the blender for a smoothie. You can eat them like a monkey. You can chop them for fruit salad. My latest favorite? Fryyyyy them :D

So, OK, fried banana. I thought it would make a good dessert because... you know, bananas are healthy. *grin* Oh, but you know what would be good with it? Hot fudge. Oooh! And toasted almonds! Man, I was so excited when I thought of all this and realized the ingredients were on hand. Stoked. So I got everything together, Robert fried up the bananas (he being the master of anything that's heated in a pan with fat), and put them all together. It needed a mint leaf. Which we didn't have.

So I used a basil leaf. Shh, don't tell anyone. Basil actually tastes good with chocolate... *shifty eyes*

BANANAS, ALMONDS, AND HOT FUDGE
1-2 tbsp butter
2 large bananas, ripe but not TOO ripe, peeled
4oz dark chocolate
3 tbsp milk or cream (we used lowfat lactose-free, since that's what was on hand)
2 tbsp butter
2-3 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
mint sprig(s) for garnish

1. Heat butter in a 10" skillet over medium-low heat. Slice bananas in half lengthwise.

2. When butter begins to foam, add bananas to pan, cut side down.

3. Meanwhile, place chocolate, milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a glass bowl or top half of a double boiler. Place over a pan containing about an inch of gently simmering water.

4. When bananas are lightly golden brown on one side, gently (and quickly) flip them over to brown the second side.

5. Stir chocolate with a spatula until it melts and mixture looks homogenous. Dip your finger in it and taste it. Add whatever you think you need (sugar, milk, butter). Repeat once with all 9 other digits. Add vanilla at the very end and stir to incorporate, then take off the heat.

6. Remove banana halves from pan when browned to your liking and put on a serving plate. Drizzle some fudge sauce over the top, sprinkle on your toasted almonds, drizzle some more fudge sauce over them, and garnish with mint. Oh, boy.

PROS: Hard to go wrong with this one, unless you over-toast your almonds or something... versatile, you can make your chocolate how you like it, and put as much or as little on as possible. Bananas are healthy!

CONS: uh... not good if you don't like chocolate. Or bananas. Or nuts.

Pan-Seared Sea Scallops

I am not a true vegetarian. I don't eat beef, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb, goat, duck, rabbit, lizards, or most other vertebrates. But I do eat seafood (so that would make me... a piscetarian?). And I love me some mollusks.

Friday night, we cooked. Delicious scallops, salad, and dessert was had - more about the latter two in future posts - and all was devoured devilishly. Good times. Of course, a large (nearly full) bottle of extra-virgin olive oil was shattered all over the floor... but lucky for us, we'd already made salad dressing. *wipes brow* Anyway, onto the main course.

Sweet, succulent scallops are excellent served as an appetizer or as the main feature of a meal. High heat and a short cooking time ensure they will form a golden, flavorful exterior and remain tender inside (I sound like a cookbook in a good way, right?).

PAN-SEARED SEA SCALLOPS
12 large sea scallops
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp capers
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Heat a 10"-12" heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Pat scallops dry on paper towels. Coat well with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

3. When pan is hot, add scallops as quickly as possible. Do not move scallops once they've been placed in the pan. Sear two minutes or until golden brown on bottom.

4. Turn scallops with spatula. Again, do not move scallops once they've been turned. Cook approximately two more minutes. To test for doneness, press the top of a scallop with your finger: when you begin to feel resistance, remove from heat immediately and transfer scallops to a serving dish.

5. Deglaze the pan by adding butter, lemon juice, capers, and parsley. Stir to mix and remove stuck-on bits (the fond) from pan. Spoon over scallops and serve hot, seasoning to taste with pepper.







Did I mention that we ate them all up?



PROS: exquisite, versatile dish, flavors compliment each other well
CONS: very easy to overcook scallops; scallops tend to stick to the pan, scallops are expensive

Autumn Apple Smoothie

Ohhh, this one's a keeper. To boot, it has nuttin' but fruits and veggies. No sugar, no powder, no milk... just the orchard in a glass. This is one silky smooth way to drink to your health.

You can make it totally raw by using unpasturized or fresh apple juice and freshly squeezed lemon.

AUTUMN APPLE SMOOTHIE
1/2 ripe avocado, skinned and pitted
1 McIntosh apple, cored
1-2 cups (depending on your desired consistency) 100% apple juice, not from concentrate with no additives
1-2 tsp lemon juice
1 ripe, spotty banana, peeled

1. Toss the avocado half in the blender. Chunk up the apple and add that too. Give it a whir with a little bit of liquid.

2. Add banana in pieces and blend until smooth and consistent with no chunks. Add more apple juice and blend as desired. Drink up, my friend!




PROS: silky smooth, nutritious, delicious, green, vegan, back-to-the-basics yumminess
CONS: can't completely obliterate apple skin bits. but they don't really get in the way...

Black Bean Chili and Cornbread

I had a hankerin'. From the moment my mind slogged out of the murky recesses of my well-earned slumber on Saturday morning, I was in the mood for chili. Chili and cornbread.

I had to work in the evening and certainly wouldn't have time to slave over a stove and oven. Normally, this would pose a problem, as my cravings are not easily subdued. But fortune smiled down on me on this particularly Septembery day. Robert cooked.

What he created was a delicious vegetarian chili with no tomatoes, kidney beans, or anything else I really associate with chili from my childhood. It's light and healthful, yet hearty and flavorful enough to fill your stomach and please the palate.

BLACK BEAN CHILI
cooking oil
1 cup diced onion, 1/2-inch dice
1 cup diced carrot, 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup diced celery, 1/2-inch dice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ground ancho chili
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp dried crumbled Mexican oregano (or 1 tsp ground)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cans black beans with juice
1/2 cup water, as needed

1. In a stockpot or large saucepan, sweat onions, carrots, and celery in a little cooking oil.

2. When soft, add garlic and seasonings. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.

3. Add beans, along with their juice. Pour just enough water over chili to barely cover. Simmer gently, covered, for 30 minutes.

4. Serve hot with cornbread. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

PROS: healthy, hearty, vegetarian, tasty
CONS: simplistic, needs seasoning


This here is gonna be a two-recipe post! I just can't help myself. Chili and cornbread were made for each other.



The beauty about this cornbread is that it's gluten-free and tastes like corn. Not falsely fluffy and wheaty, but dense and mildly sweet and just plain corntastic. It makes a golden crunchy, crusty addition to a meal. It can be made sweet or savory by adding blueberries or jalapeño peppers to the batter.

CORNBREAD
1 cup medium-grind cornmeal
1/2 cup coarse-grind cornmeal
1/2 cup corn flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Warm 2 9"x5" cast-iron loaf pans, a 12" cast-iron skillet, or 12-cup cast-iron muffin pan in oven for 10-15 minutes.

2. As your bakeware warms, combine dry ingredients thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add oil, blending well. Whisk egg together with milk, and fold into other ingredients until barely incorporated. Let sit for 5 minutes.

4. Butter preheated pan liberally. Pan is hot enough if butter sizzles and browns lightly. Immediately scrape batter into pan (or pans) and return to oven.

5. Reduce oven temperature to 375º and bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown and edges begin to pull away from pan.

6. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then remove to wire cooling rack and serve warm or at room-temperature.



PROS: corntastic, versatile, gluten-free
CONS: ...

Learning Experience #1: Carrot Raisin Drop Cookies

I consider myself a pretty good baker. Nearly all of my concoctions are edible - most are downright scrumptious - but alas, I am new to gluten-free baking. I don't know if it's my technique, or the recipe, that is off, but one thing's for sure: these cookies will probably end up as a pulverized ice cream topping. If they're lucky.

Maybe my expectations were unrealistic? Maybe gluten free cookies are supposed to look like dog vomit.

Anyway, I chose this recipe because I love carrots and sweet things, and I love raisins, and I love (nearly) anything that has pumpkin pie spice as an ingredient. OK, they don't taste that bad. But um, yeah.

CARROT RAISIN DROP COOKIES*
1 cup gluten-free flour mix (2 parts white rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch, 1/3 part tapioca starch)
1/2 cup soy flour
1 (rounded) tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ginger, 3/8 tsp nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp cloves)
1 cup rice polish (or crushed gluten-free cereal: I used Arrowhead Mills Rice Flakes)
1/2 cup butter
3 large eggs
1 cup corn syrup
2 cups grated carrots
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. In a bowl, mix together flours, baking soda, spice, and rice polish.

2. In another bowl, beat butter, eggs, and Karo with an electric mixer until blended. Mix in the carrots. Add the flour mixture. Stir until mixed, then beat until blended. Stir in raisins and nuts.

3. Spoon dough in tablespoon-sized mounds 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake in preheated 350° oven until cookies feel firm when touched, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from pans and cool.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

*Source: The Gluten-Free Gourmet: Living Well Without Wheat by Bette Hagman

I don't get it. I tried chilling the "batter" (yes, it made batter, not dough) in the freezer before baking, but it didn't make a difference at all. I don't know the chemistry of gluten-free baking or anything, but it seems to me that the recipe would have been better using sugar or brown sugar or a combination of both (at least then it may be drier!), and maybe some vanilla (and salt... hello?!) to bring the flavor up a notch. I don't know how acidic the corn syrup is, and if that's the only thing that the baking soda is reacting with to provide lift (which in this instance, let's face it, rivaled the lift of a crepe)... but I may have added baking powder as well. Ah well. Another day, another learning experience... will have to try this again sometime. Not soon.

At least the batter tasted good.

Acorn Squash with Corn and Pinto Beans

This will give you your daily dose of fiber. Mmm, mmm.

Tonight I decided on something warm and filling, yet not fatty or "heavy." Kind of particular, I know. So voila!


ACORN SQUASH WITH CORN AND PINTO BEANS
1 small-medium acorn squash
pinch sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar
dribble cooking oil
1/2 cup (or so) cooked pinto beans
1/4 cup (or so) sweet corn
1-2 tbsp salsa
1-2 tbsp sour cream (optional)
1/4 avocado, sliced or diced (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut squash in half along verticle axis (from stem to butt). It helps if you have a wide-bladed knife. I didn't, so I ended up with one piece being twice the size of the other. I like to think it looks homemade.

2. Scoop out seeds on either half. You can either discard them, or.... well, I thought it would be a good idea to try and dry them out. You know, in case I get hungry later and can use some seeds or something. Maybe I'll puree them and put them in a smoothie. Maybe I'll plant them in the garden. The possibilities are endless.

3. Sprinkle each squash half (or whatever) with salt and pepper to taste. Needs more salt than pepper, probably... Divide butter and maple syrup proportionally between the two, placing in the cavity that once contained seeds. Bake in a shallow baking dish containing 1/2" water for 1 hour. This would be a good time to take a shower, catch up on your e-mail, or brush your cat.

4. Remove dish with squash from the oven and set it aside to cool down for a few minutes. In a smallish skillet, warm up beans and corn with a little oil (just a little - nobody likes greasy beans). I suppose if you wanted, you could use a nonstick skillet. I don't like cooking with plastic, but whatever works for you. When they are warm enough to your liking, remove the pan from the heat and add salsa and stir. This a) cleans the pan, and b) warms up the salsa that is undoubtedly cold from being refrigerated, without cooking it down.

5. Serve with a bit o' sour cream and/or avocado (which I didn't have on hand, boo-hoo). You could also add melty cheese (such as monterey jack or pepperjack), chiles (in case you got stuck with mild salsa), a sprig of cilantro, or whatever you like. You could also use a different kind of winter squash, or black beans instead of pinto. It's your food! Enjoy it well. Serve with a fresh vegetable or something.

PROS: healthy, simple, tasty with proper seasoning.
CONS: a little bland unless seasoned just so, not the most picturesque!

day two

Today shall mark the second official day of my gluten-free diet. How long said regimen will last, I cannot say.

Yesterday I enjoyed:
Breakfast - an organic black plum and organic single-shot 12-oz pumpkin pie soy latte
Lunch - a gluten-free vegan burger with tomatoes, onions, pickles, cheddar cheese, and ketchup wrapped in a leaf or two of Romaine lettuce, corn on the cob, and potato salad
Dinner: quinoa tabouli, baked cod, and green beans with feta and pine nuts

Boy, was that good. And for breakfast this morning? One poached home-laid egg on organic gluten free toast. And another organic black plum.

I could get used to this. So far, no regrets...

In case you're wondering why I'm on a gluten-free diet, I am just remembering words said to me by my naturopath when I was little. Well, more like the general idea. I don't actually remember his words. He told me that I was sensitive to wheat, and that it was causing me to break out in eczema. While I grew out of my eczema as a teenager, it is back with a vengeance in the last few years and I am prepared to give up the bread, cookies, cakes, pies, pizzas, and other fine things to which I've become accustomed in order to see if it helps. Who knows? Maybe it will. And I'm a pretty good baker. I can make all those things without wheat.

You just wait. You'll see.