Gluten Free Goodness

Just a tidbit of news, since it’s making my day: Karina, the GF Goddess is posting low glycemic (low carb) recipes. As a nutritionist who is very into low glycemic foods, and someone who loves to eat, I’m delighted.  Wait, you’re not gluten free?  No worries, good food has no boundaries!  So check out her luscious blog, you’ll be glad you did.

Now on to other tasty topics: ground cherries.  I was reading a seed catalog, which isn’t as boring as it sounds. Hey, I was on a plane and didn’t have much else to do! The description was intriguing: they “have a flavor reminiscent of pineapple”.  How could I resist?  I’d never heard of them before, but hey, that’s never stopped me in the past!

Lo and behold, they’re totally delicious, and probably the happiest member of my garden.  They’re a relative of tomato, but are much sweeter, like a typical fruit.  Like tomatillos, they have a papery peel, which you remove to get the fruit.   Unlike tomatoes,  they grow close to the ground, and they are super low maintenece (i.e. all I do is pick ‘em and they’re happy)

As far as preparation, usually I don’t really do much with them aside from peeling and popping them into my mouth.  I’ve used them in salsa, and in salads as a colorful addition.  I found recipes to make a jam with them, but adding sugar to them seems totally unnecessary.  Besides, I end up eating them so quickly I’d have a hard time getting enough!

I wanted to make sure I was following the WHB rules and give a recipe, so I tried dehydrating a few with a tray of apricots I was drying.  They’re interesting and not as sweet as I expected.  They’re a bit like raisins, but don’t have as full of a flavor.  However, if by some quirk of fate, you’re allergic to grapes (like me), they might make a decent substitute.

As a totally unexpected bonus, they also make an excellent cat toy.  I co-habitate with a large, lazy feline, and he went nuts for one that I dropped on the floor.  Apparently, it makes a great puck.  But the next morning I discovered they’d somehow maneuvered a bunch out of the bowl they were in so the guys would have more toys.  Gotta love it.

This is my entry into Weekend Herb Blogging, as originated by Kalyn’s Kitchen.  This week’s happy hostess is Marija from Palachinka, a fellow Daring Baker who has some seriously drool-worthy pictures on her site.

I made sorrel soup for the first time last year, and told my husband. He started laughing, and said, squirrel soup? Um…not even close!.

Sorrel has a nice tart taste to it, and is supposed to be lovely with fish. Next time! It can be hard to come by, and I was happy to find it at the market.

I know I saw a recipe last year, but don’t remember where, so I decided to just wing it. I left some of the lettuce and veggies un-pureed because I like the texture and hint of crunch, but that’s a a matter of personal preference.

Last time, I thickened with a potato, but those are off limits, so I used a little coconut flour. I’m sure more walnuts or another root veggie like parsnips would work, too.

2 Tablespoons oil
1 cup diced onions
2 big romaine hearts, chopped (divided)
3 cups veg or chicken broth
4 cups or so sorrel
2 Tablespoons coconut flour, or potato flour (NOT starch)
1/2 cup walnuts, soaked overnight if you think of it!
sea salt
fresh mint
white pepper

Saute the onions for 5-6 min until soft with a pinch of salt. Add in 1 1/2 of the romaine hearts and saute a few minutes more. Add broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add sorrel and simmer 5 minutes more. Reserve 1 cup or so of cooked veggies and puree the rest with the (drained) walnuts. Add back reserved veggies and add in the last 1/2 chopped romaine heart. Add salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with fresh chopped mint.

Enjoy!

This is my weekly offering for Weekend Herb Blogging, the brainchild of Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. This week’s kind host is Sounding my Barbaric Gulp

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

I planned to make a simple peaches and cream ice cream as a fun raw recipe for July Go Ahead, Honey, It’s GF “UNCOOKING” edition, but the fates had something more interesting in mind.

It was a bit of a comedy of errors. My first two recipe attempts–banana macadamia candies– were okay, but underwhelming, and time was running out. So I decided to go for one more attempt, peach ice cream, and as usual, I figured I could could wing it. I used young coconuts for a creamy texture, and blended in a few peaches, but you could barely taste them. Coconut milk is wonderfully creamy, but it takes a strong flavor, like chocolate, mint, berries, etc. to mask it. So I hastily ran out to the Farmer’s market, and pureed some more peaches. You could taste the peach, but still it wasn’t prominent.

Hmmm. So I had a vat of yummy, peach goop, and I needed inspiration. Pecans? Extracts? And then I realized, of course! Crystallized ginger.

The ginger and peach pairing worked really well, with the sweetness balancing the sharpness of the ginger. I would make vanilla ice cream again, and have chunks of peaches, but I wouldn’t do peaches by themselves again. I would try it with pineapple or banana in the future, and will certainly tinker with this recipe again!

You live, you learn. May all my “mistakes” be this yummy!

Makes a batch for a 4 quart ice cream maker

“meat” of 2 young coconuts
4 cups of water (I assume you can sub 2 cans of coconut milk for the coconut and water)
2 tablespoons of raw cashew butter
1/2 cup agave nectar
7 peaches
1 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
vanilla or almond extract, if desired

Puree all ingredients, except ginger, in batches. Stir together in a big bowl. Chill for 1 hour. Add in ginger chunks, and put in ice cream maker and follow instructions.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

I’m sneaking under the wire here to share one of my simple cooking favorites. Weekend Herb Blogging rules are changing so that we use exotic veggies and expand our horizons…and cauliflower doesn’t fit the bill!

Cauliflower has a bum rap, no way around it. Some people don’t like it raw or boiled, and so they assume that they don’t like it at all. But roasting gives a totally different dimension to the flavor, and there are so many great spices you can add. I thought I first read about roasted cauliflower with paprika in Joy of Cooking, but I looked back and it’s not there, so I have no idea where I first got the thought, but there are so many other flavors that work as well (or better, I think). I didn’t even offer it to my DH for a while, and then I got him to eat a piece. And gradually over months, he’s stealing all my cauliflower! I’ve had more success getting him to be a cauli-convert than I have with any other veggie.

So you can’t really go wrong as long as you roast. You can do high heat for a shorter time and stir more often, or lower heat, and get busy doing other things. I’ve tried it as low as 350, which takes a long time, and I’ve seen recipes as high as 450. However, the higher temperature you use, the bigger issue of development of acrylamide, a chemical which is cancer causing in high doses. I usually opt for lower and slower because I always have a ton to do and hey, I’m a nutritionist. What do you expect??

You can really get creative for spices, from cumin seeds, to panch phoron, to rosemary, to chili powder, to lemon and dill. Just use sea salt, the texture does matter here.

It’s hard to give an exact recipe, as caulis come in all sizes, and it depends on how much of the stems you use and all of that.

1 cauliflower, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1-3 Tablespoons of oil
1-2 teaspoons sea salt
1 bulb (not clove) of garlic
pepper, to taste

Cumin: add 1.5 teaspoons whole seeds
Panch phoron add 1.5 teaspoons whole seeds and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
Rosemary: add 3 Tablespoons or so fresh rosemary needles or 1 Tablespoon dried
Chili:Add 1 T chili powder
Lemon dill: squeeze juice of one lemon and add 3 Tablespoons fresh dill or 1 T dried. Omit garlic.

Preheat oven to 375-400*. Remove the biggest garlic bulbs from the garlic ‘paper’ but leave the small ones. Chop cauliflower and toss with salt and seasonings. Spread out on a cookie sheet LINED with parchment (you’ll be glad you did.)

Roast until nicely browned around the edges, stirring every 15-20 minutes.

Rediscover cauliflower…isn’t it good?!

*see discussion above

This is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging, a fabulous way to celebrate the herbs and produce of teh season, and our hostess is Simona from Briciole.

By the time I got to stop by Kate’s Virtual BBQ Party, most of the letters, (aside from q and z, I think) were taken. So I figured I that N would work, although in the past, I’ve called this my lazy day skillet bread.

I thoroughly love this recipe. It’s not a traditional banana bread, and it’s not a cake, per se, I suppose it’s best compared to a cornbread. I tend to make things that pop up in my head, and then try to figure out how to explain it. Generally, if someone asks what something is, I tell them to taste it and figure it out that way! I’ve had it for brunch, as a snack, as a dessert with chocolate chips, and it could be used (sans nuts) with chili instead or as a side for, say, a BBQ!

Once upon a time, I wanted a snack cake…but I didn’t have time and I was really tired. So I figured that perhaps I could dump everything in the Vitamix and all would be well. Fortunately, that’s what happened, and this has become one of my quick/easy recipes. It’s easy, delicious, and just comfort food for me. Most times when I make something, I try to figure out what to change next time and how to spice it up. But I actually like this one exactly as is.

I wanted something with a banana flavor, but lower sugar and no eggs or soy, and something I could just pick up and eat, too. That’s a tall order! Through trial and error I came up with a cake I liked, but wanted a brown crisp crust, and so this became a skillet cake. You can make it in a regular 9 inch cake pan, though. This recipe is also totally versatile, and I’ve halved it and put it in a 7 inch dish, which works, too.

You can do all teff, all sorghum, or a combo. If you can get your hands on mesquite, do! Not only is it super high in fiber, but it has caramel-ly taste.

Ingredients
1 cup teff
1 cup sorghum flour
1 T mesquite flour
1Tablespoons +1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pecans or walnuts (optional)
pinch of salt

Wet:
2 über ripe bananas
1 level tablespoon +1 teaspoon ground flax seeds
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1/3 cup sparkling (bubbly) water, ‘milk’, or juice

Grease a 10 inch cast iron skillet with coconut oil. Preheat oven to 350.
Thoroughly mix dry ingredients together. Dump wet ingredients (not water) in a blender. Let it roll until well blended. In my vitamix, that takes less than a minute. I would assume an ordinary blender would take a few minutes. Add wet, including water,  to dry, mix until well everything is well combined, but don’t overmix (i.e. no more dry stuff, but no need for a workout)

Bake for 30 minutes or until top turns a beautiful golden brown. Cool on a drying rack 5 minute, then turn out.

Yum.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

I’m a pretty free spirited gardener. So when I plant things, (like onions for example) I don’t label them because I can tell the difference between carrots and onions, right? I also (apparently) tend to forget what I planted from season to season. So when these big plants came up, I thought, great! Garlic. I’ve never seen them so big. Awesome!

Then I went groping around, and realized there was no bulb. I know, where are my manners. And then I thought, oh no! A bed of leeks. I don’t even like leeks that much! And then when I pulled them up, there was a bulb, and they looked just like spring onions at the Farmer’s Market. Here’s a pic.

It’s important to me to find something exciting to do with everything from my garden. And so I tried them creamed, and the results were a little boring. Then I figured, I really can’t go wrong roasting, I think the only veggie I haven’t ever roasted is rhubarb.

And so I did. The results were good, not great. Yet when I cut them open, bulbs looked strangely like garlic…because they were. Hard and soft neck garlic really don’t look much alike, and that really threw me All I have to say is that vampires ran at my approach for a few days.

But I did have spring onions, too, and I roasted them on the second round. They are absolutely, plate-lickingly, sugary sweet and delicious when roasted. Next year, I think I’ll only be planting spring onions.

So the moral of the story is that spring onions are, indeed, yummy when roasted, and time spent labeling is probably a good idea. I figured I’d share these pearls of knowledge with Weekend Herb Blogging, the brainchild of Kalyn’s Kitchen. Our kind host this week is
Joanna, of Joanna’s Food.

Oh…and if you’re a garden lover, please check out my “Cute Fruit” round-up. for what’s growing this week.
Roasted Spring Onions

6-8 spring onions
2-3 tablespoons oil
sea salt and pepper, to taste

Line a rimmed cookie sheet or 9X13 pan with parchment paper. Trim the spring onions, leaving 4 or 5 inches of the green parts if desired. Coat onions with oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 350, turning every 15 minutes or so, until well browned and oozing yummy juices.

Very simple, but very yum.
Enjoy!

Rhubarb is one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss it foods. It’s really only in season the tail end of April through middle May, although I occasionally see it at the Farmer’s Markets in the fall. And I’m so jazzed that I saw it so many places at the market this weekend, because last year I couldn’t find it anywhere!

So here’s my ode to rhubarb. In my humble opinion, there’s nothing quite like it. I love the tart tanginess, the crimson color, and how it often cooks down to an unreal looking pink. It’s a fruit, but unlike most fruits, it’s very low glycemic (i.e. doesn’t affect blood sugars much).

You know when you think about lemons and your lips start to pucker? I could feel the same thing happening when I was cooking the rhubarb–you can almost smell the sour. This bunch cooked up more a yellowy-green color, as you can see in the picture. It must be another variety of rhubarb that is pink. And I’ll have to get my hands on some more, because I gobbled it all down and didn’t share with my husband.

You can, of course, add gobs of sugar to rhubarb and put it in a pie, or mix some into a strawberry pie. But I like making it simple and cooking the rhubarb down to a compote.

4-5 big stalks rhubarb
1/2 cup pineapple or chopped apple
sweetener, to taste

optional add ins: crystalized ginger, powdered ginger, cinnamon, etc.

Trim edges and leaves, discard. Slice rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces (the smaller the pieces, the quicker it goes).

Combine 1/2 cup of frozen pineapple pieces or chopped apple. Add rhubarb and cook over medium heat. Cover partway, and stir every 2-3 minutes until the rhubarb dissolves.

Sweeten with a pinch of stevia, agave, or sugar.

This freezes very well, because it’s mush! Freezing is not going to change that any.

This tribute to rhubarb will be submitted to Weekend Herb Blogging, which was started by Kalyn’s Kitchen. This week’s host is Gay at A Scientist in the Kitchen

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

At a glance, charoset is a brown, unappealing looking dish served at Passover to commemorate the bricks and mortar of slaves. But looks are deceiving, it’s actually a super yummy apple/cinnamon/walnut/wine sweet combo that disappears within minutes at every Seder I’ve been at.

For starters, wine is out for me, as is grape juice, as I can’t do grapes or anything fermented. So I got a little creative, and used pomegranate instead. I think apricots would be a wonderful addition, but didn’t have any on hand. Next time!

2 mildly tart apples, cored (I like Macintosh)
1/2 cups walnuts
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon or more, to taste
3 Tablespoons succant or sugar (or 3 T agave nectar, if you’re not strictly following Kosher for Passover guidelines)
a pinch cardamom
a pinch stevia (or you can add sugar to taste)
3/4 cup pomegranate juice

Simmer the pomegranate juice over low heat until reduced to about 1/4 cup. Do keep an eye on it, as it seems to disappear to nothing at the end!

Chop apples coarsely and add to the food processor. Pulse a few times. Add all ingredients except reduced pom juice and pulse until you have small chunks of everything. Add the thickened juice and stir. Add sugar and or spices to taste.

It doesn’t taste the same, but it IS delicious in its own right. It’s even better after sitting overnight.

The first night Seder, I had
Turkey vegetable soup
Roasted cauliflower with garlic
Roast turkey
Mock Matzo from GF Bay. It was quite tasty, but I needed much less water.
Charoset (see above)
and chocolate chips for dessert.

I will have the Tropical bananas for dessert next time.

Some people call them spring rolls, some people call them summer rolls. Either way, they’re yummy and surprisingly easy to make, once you get the hang of them.

They’re totally customizable, depending on what you like and what’s around in the fridge. You can put the sauce in the roll, or do the dipping thing.

I’ve gone for a veg/vegan roll because a) I like sneaking more veggies into unsuspecting husband and b) I’d rather avoid the fuss of precooking non-veggie stuff. But you can always add in cooked shrimp, chicken, rice noodles or whatever strikes your fancy.

Go for the 8 or 9 inch rice paper rounds. I’ve seen them at Whole Foods and Asian markets. I’ve never seen one with gluten, but check the label just in case. The 5 inch are way too small, and you could wrap a small dog in the big ones. Massive overkill, I think.

You can premix your “filler” veggies, which is easier, unless you have a picky person who doesn’t like one of the ingredients. In our house, that’s DH who doesn’t like cilantro. I know, hard to believe, but somehow, I love him anyhow.

These are great party foods and can be made ahead of time. Just wrap these babies up in wax paper and put them in a sealed baggie with a moist paper towel.

Ingredients:
12 lettuce leaves
2 cups shredded carrots
about 1/3 napa cabbage, sliced very thinly
1/2 yellow, red or orange pepper, sliced thinly
1 cup bean sprouts
1/3 cup mint leaves
1/3 cup cilantro or basil
15 rice paper wraps (a few extra in case of mistakes)

So here’s the general idea:
Have a large dish of warm water and all of your veggies arranged. Put the rice paper in warm water. Grab a piece of lettuce. Fish out your rice paper and arrange it on the plate. Put down the lettuce leaf and a small handful of the “filler” veggies. Roll up! If the paper rips, you can double wrap.

It takes a few tries to get the hang of it, and often less is more. Don’t overstuff! For a crash course, you can always come to my GF and healthy class in Alexandria, VA.

Serve with Thai dipping sauce or peanut sauce. I’ll post a soy free almond sauce recipe I use when I figure out what I put in it. It’s based on a modified recipe from the Spice and Herb Bible, one of my favorite reference books.
Book of Yum has a peanut agave sauce that looks intriguing, too.

These are my finger food entry for April’s “Go ahead, honey, it’s gluten free!” as hosted by Glutenagogo

from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

Someone mentioned going on a nightshade free diet (i.e. avoiding potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, etc.) and I got to thinking about my favorite potato-like veggie: celery root, or celeriac.

This bizarre looking vegetable has a mild, celery like flavor and is delicious roasted with a little oil and thyme. As with many things, its beauty lies within… Just cut off all of the dirty/hairy looking stuff, then cut into 1 inch cubes, toss with fresh or dried thyme and a little sea salt and oil at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Personally, I think celeriac is much tastier than potato and has a much more complex flavor. It’s certainly much healthier and lower glycemic. It works well in many soup recipes as a faux-tato, but is a winner on its own, too. Whenever I roast it, I freeze a cup or two for use in last minute soups, like this one.

2 cups GF chicken or veggie broth (I like Pacific brand)
1/2 cup thyme roasted celeriac
1/2 cup steamed broccoli (fresh or frozen)
a pinch of dried thyme, or a sprig of fresh thyme

Heat broth and celeriac on the stovetop or in the microwave. Blend 2 cups broth and celeriac on high until creamy (4-5 min unless you have a vitamix). Add a pinch of dried thyme, to taste. Add in broccoli and pulse, leaving chunks if desired.

Serves 4 as a starter.

As an added bonus, I submitted this to Susan from the Well Seasoned Cook as part of my first foray into the Weekend Herb Blogger (WHB) event. They have lovely recipe roundups with all sorts of creative veggie and herb recipes.

from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008