Gluten Free Goodness

First, an ode to my peppers, from their very beginnings
Just a baby

Seedling

Go, baby, go!

Red peppers are one of my favorite foods. They’re amazing roasted, better grilled, and best, grilled with fresh herbs. There’s something about adding herbs and sea salt that just adds another dimension of yum that just puts them over the edge of total yumminess. My favorite is with thyme, but I’ve used rosemary for a change, too. You just can’t go wrong.

Not only that, the leftovers are incredible! Red pepper soup. Red pepper sauce. Red pepper dip. Are you drooling yet? And no, I do not discriminate. Yellow and orange peppers are just as welcome on my grill, but they’re usually harder to come by. I usually use bells, but smaller ones work, too. About half of the ones in the picture of grilled peppers above are actually from my garden

My poor husband knows that no matter how many peppers we make, I’m eating most of them, and so help him if he tries to steal my peppers. Seriously, good grilled red peppers are up there with chocolate in my book.

9 peppers, seeded and chopped or torn in 4ths (depending on the size)
2 loosely packed tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of vitamin c crystals, a good squeeze of lemon, or splash of balsamic vinegar (optional)
3 Tablespoons high heat oil (almond, avocado, rice bran, high heat sunflower or safflower, etc)

Mix peppers with seasonings. This can be done a few hours in advance if needed. Put peppers on grill on low to medium heat skin side down. Turn once they’ve started browning (about 5 minutes) and grill 3-4 minutes more on the second side.

This is my submission for Weekend Herb Blogging, originated by Kalyn’s Kitchen. Our host this week is Ulrike from Kuchenlatein. The posts look so yum that I’m going to have to find a site that does translations!

I was at my meditation class, trying to empty my mind, but all I could think of was Cashew Macadamia butter. If you’ve had it, you’ll understand why. Cashew macadamia butter is one of the most indulgently blissful things on the planet. So I promised myself I’d whip this together when I got home so that I could get back to concentrating on…well, not concentrating on anything.

This dip is fabulous to eat by the spoonful, as a frosting, on fruit, a sandwich, whatever! It’s a bit like a blond nutella.  I added a bit of agave because my banana was just barely ripe and I was impatient. If you’ve got a ripe banana, it’s probably not necessary.

This is my submission to the PB Boy’s Great Peanut Butter Exhibition #4–No Bake. You’ll notice that there’s no PB involved, since I am allergic, but “cousin” nut butters are allowed. I bet PB would work, though.

1/2 cup roasted Cashew Macadamia butter (from TJ’s)
1 ripe banana
2 Tablespoons agave, or to taste
1 Tablespoon cacao nibs

Either combine all ingredients thoroughly by hand, or do it the lazy way. Put the first 3 in a food processor, and let it do all the work.  Then add in cocoa nibs and enjoy!

I got a kick out of the “mood lighting” for the picture of my cauliflower. Of course, I meant to do that! (yeah, right.) Taking pictures is still quite new for me. I’m so in awe of many of you whose photos look like a work of art!

If you’ve read my blog, you know that I have a thing for cauliflower, and that I enjoy trying different things. I saw tamarind pods in the neighborhood Latino grocery store a while ago, and I’ve
been strategizing ways to use it. Somehow I thought they were really sour. I was quite surprised that the tamarind pulp reminded me of dates, and has sweet taste! Tamarinds are actually fruit, which was news to me

This was a very experimental dish, and I didn’t know quite what to expect. The taste is unique and I did enjoy it, though I was quite surprised when I looked up the Glycemic load. Oh well, turmeric root is a good anti inflammatory food, so hopefully it balances. But it is a nice change and both DH and I enjoyed the dish.

I used Thai peppers from my garden, and I was surprised at how mild they were. I don’t know if I just have a mild plant this year. I would probably toss in a few more peppers next time! I didn’t count the number of tamarind pods, and the sizes are so different that it’s hard to give an exact amount.

1 1/2 cups boiling water, divided
enough tamarind pods to fit in 1 cup of water and still stay covered

1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 Tablespoon oil
2-3 Thai red peppers with seeds, chopped
2 teaspoons ground tumeric root
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Florets from 1 large head of cauliflower
pinch of salt

Put tamarind pods in boiling water (as many as will fit in 1 cup water). Let sit for 2-3 hours. Smoosh with a fork and press solids through a strainer (add additional 1/2 cup of hot water to help with the process).

Heat mustard seeds over medium heat for a minute and add oil and chopped Thai pepper. Add in the cauliflower florets and cook, stirring, for a few minutes. Add spices and salt, mix well to coat.

Simmer, partially covered for 15 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook gently until cauliflower is tender. If there is too much liquid, just turn it up to a rapid boil at the end. Adjust seasonings, serve and enjoy! We had this with papadams and garam masala baked chilcken.

This exploration is my weekly submission to Weekend Herb Blogging. I know tamarinds are familiar territory to many, but to me, it’s totally new! WHB was founded by Kalyn as a fun way to learn more about new foods and enjoy herbs. Our host this week is Srivalli from Cooking 4 all seasons.  She has a bunch of recipes listed that I plan to try soon!

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.