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Saturday, February 25, 2006

Crustless Quiche with Roasted Vegetables

A slice of gluten-free quiche loaded with roasted vegetables

Crustless Quiche with Roasted Vegetables Recipe

A short and sweet post today. Last night I made more roasted vegetables than we needed- just so I could use them today in a quiche. Nestled good-for-you goodies baked in a creamy, cheesy custard. What's not to love?

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Friday, February 24, 2006

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Lemon Yogurt Cake- Gluten-free recipe
A lovely gluten-free lemon cake recipe.


Ever since I saw Ilva's sumptuous Almond and Ricotta Cake I've been jonesing for something with lemon. The odd thing is- her cake doesn't even have lemon (strange the way our mind works and sweeps us away along memory traceries of scent and flavor) but I started craving a cake laced with citrus- not too sweet and not too light. A cake with character and heft.


The day I decided to bake, of course, I had no ricotta, but I did have organic plain yogurt and plenty of blanched almond flour. Inspired by Ilva's recipe, I tweaked her ingredients with those I had on hand and baked up a lovely simple cake that reminds me of a coffee cake I remember liking as a child, a bakery cake called Louisiana Ring made by Freihofer's- yet in truth, that cake featured a hint of orange rather than lemon.

There's that memory glitch again.

Some intuitive leap from taste to taste. An image, a smell can trigger a remembrance as vivid as the day you experienced it, enhanced, I imagine, by hindsight. This ability sharpens as you get older.

Time seems to condense into the senses (invoking forgotten details). You start believing the Buddha's theory about ten dimensions. You start savoring the smallest moments. Your husband hands you a mug of green tea, the steam rising in the late afternoon sun slatted through the bamboo window shade, and a loss from the past heals for a moment.


Next time I make this recipe I think I'll use oranges.


Lemon Yogurt Cake Recipe

For this recipe I used blanched almond flour which is slightly softer and more flour-like than straight almond meal processed from raw almonds. I've made cakes with both. I thought the blanched almonds worked well in this cake. The lemon peel imparts a little chewiness.

1 cup blanched almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of fine sea salt
5 medium free-range organic eggs
4 oz. light cream cheese (or butter or vegan margarine), softened
1/2 cup organic plain or lemon yogurt- low fat is fine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Lemon zest (fine grated peel) from 1 fresh lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch Springform or cake pan with buttered parchment paper.

In a bowl whisk together the almond flour, sweet rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt and sugar.

Beat the eggs in separate large mixing bowl until they are light and foamy. Beat in the cream cheese and yogurt until combined.

Add in the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla; beat to combine.

Add in the flour mixture a bit at a time and beat on medium speed for a minute or two.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake in the center of a pre-heated 350 degree F. oven for about 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cake emerges clean.

Cool on a wire rack; and release from the pan. Dust with powdered sugar.

Makes 10 servings.

This cake freezes well. I just ate a piece warmed slightly. It's moist and tender.





Thursday, February 16, 2006

Make Mine a Gluten-Free Cheese Sandwich



When food bloggers were challenged by a recent article in Food & Wine magazine to write with more verve and snap than a "boring cheese sandwich" I knew I had to head to the kitchen. Not to begin unwrapping my favorite snowy goat cheese (creamy with only a slight tang and a finish that barely flutters with August grass blowing in a southerly Aix-en-Provence wind breeze) but to bake.

Because, Dear Reader, in order to make a cheese sandwich- boring or not- you first need bread.

And bread is a rare event in my gluten-free kitchen. I bake bread perhaps twice a year, even though it's the perpetual tap-dancing Holy Mother of a Grail to the ever widening gluten-free world, the numero uno item verboten most newly minted celiacs yearn- with quasi-religious fervor- to replace.

The reason for my culinary indifference?


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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Dark Goddess Cake

Gluten free dark chocolate cake
A rich dark gluten-free cake made with almond flour


This recipe is one I've played with for years. It began in the nineties as one of those trendy flourless chocolate things with ten eggs, and has evolved into mere semi-indulgence with only seven eggs and some extra cocoa powder for a little more structure.

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Our Favorite Basil Pesto Recipe

Basil Pesto Recipe

Just in time for Weekend Herb Blogging at Kalyn's Kitchen, Steve brought home two hefty bunches of fresh California basil from our local organic produce market. A big green treat for mid-February. And since basil lore links the peppery-minty herb with amore, I figured the timing was perfect for pesto.

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with the intoxicating seduction of fresh basil and garlic?

Having your way with pesto...

Sauce it:

Classic pesto is served as a flavorful raw sauce, perfect for cooked pasta in all sizes and shapes.

Slather it:

Pesto is terrific spread on sliced focaccia, gluten-free toast, baked potato skins, or your favorite pizza shell. Steve's favorite pizza recipe: Stir a dollop of pesto on cooked sliced red potatoes; spoon the potatoes on top of a partially baked gluten-free pizza crust and top with crumbled goat cheese . Throw on a handful of sliced ripe olives, some roasted red peppers and feta to add a Greek touch.

Stir it:

Pesto is a wonderful flavor spike for Italian inspired soups. Stir in a spoonful to liven up a minestrone, chunky potato, bean, or garlicky chicken and greens soup. Or float a pesto-slathered crouton in a bowl of fresh tomato bisque.

Spike it:

Options make pesto so individual. Add garlic- or don't. Use pecans, walnuts, almonds or pine nuts. Change out the basil for cilantro or parsley and mint. Add a roasted red pepper or some olives. Pesto can be as varied (and inventive), or as traditional as you make it. And remember, it's wise to taste test and balance the flavors. Have a nibble. Is it a balance of herby- nutty- garlicky- cheesy- salty?


Our Favorite Basil Pesto Recipe

My husband Steve has become the primo pesto maker in the family. Here's his basic recipe.

3 cups washed, fresh basil leaves, stems removed, patted dry
2-4 garlic cloves, peeled- according to taste
1/3-1/2 cup pecans, pine nuts, almonds or walnuts
10 tablespoons fruity extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, optional- omit for vegan
Pinch of sea salt, if desired

Combine the above ingredients in a food processor and pulse it on and off until it becomes a smooth paste. Taste test for seasoning and texture adjustments.

Use immediately, or cover and chill.

If it becomes stiff add some extra virgin olive oil and stir till smooth.

Pesto will darken if exposed to high heat and will lose its vibrant green color, so don't "cook" pesto in a hot pan or add it to hot pasta in a hot pot; rather, transfer the cooked pasta into a bowl first- then add the pesto and stir gently.

Serve this basil pesto as an appetizer spread on toasted bread, baked artichoke hearts, or triangles of flatbread. Or toss it with warm pasta, roasted potatoes or carrots. Spoon it on toast, croutons, pizza shells or crackers.

To keep the pesto fresh, I layer mine with a thin coat of extra virgin olive oil on the top before I cover and store it in an air-tight container, chilled. Storage isn't usually a concern, as pesto disappears quickly in our house.

Some folks like to freeze pesto in ice cube trays, but I've never had enough extra pesto to set aside.

Melted Peppers & Dags




Mickey O'Neil:


J'like dags?

Tommy: 

Dags?

Mickey O'Neil: 

What?

Mickey O'Neil's Mother:

Yeah, dags.

Mickey O'Neil:

Dags, ya like dags?

Tommy:

Oh, dogs. Sure, I like dags. I like caravans more.






Melted Peppers + Dags Recipe

Dinner and a movie. Snatch and an updated old family favorite appropriate for the film (Irish Catholic Scottish Russian-Polish Jewish inspired). Confused? Not as much as I am untangling the threads of my own heritage bundle, I'm sure. All you need to know is how good it tastes. How the peppers literally melt in your mouth. The trick is slow-cooking. Throw this together early in the afternoon and rent a movie. One of Brad Pitt's best.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, peeled, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large red pepper, cored, cut into strips
1 large yellow or orange pepper, cored, cut into strips
2 green bell peppers, cored cut into strips
1 28-oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes [or plum tomatoes], with juice
A handful of grape or cherry tomatoes
1 cup broth
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1-2 teaspoons dried Italian Herbs [oregano, thyme, marjoram]
2 teaspoons dried basil
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
4 large Kosher hot dags, sausages, brats or vegan dags (in other words, Babycakes, any dag you choose), sliced into coins

In a slow cooker, combine all of the ingredients and cook on low [according to manufacturer's instructions] until the peppers are so tender they break apart with a wooden spoon.

Serve over cooked brown rice or split baked or mashed potatoes. Terrific on noodles.


Serves 4.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Vegetarian Stir-Fry Bliss

Retro veg yum.

This is a post about old school bliss- an easy  budget-friendly stir-fry for a weeknight. The recipe stems from my art school past. Why do I bring this up? Because last night we waxed nostalgic.

Over olives, a wedge of Parmesan, and a bottle of Chianti, Steve and I talked about our unencumbered days at art school. The late nights painting. The crazed friends. Midnight movies at the Rialto. Jean Luc Godard. Truffaut. Fellini

And the loft parties- the drama of almost meeting Warhol (he never showed up; he was famous for it).

We talked about all that longing and envy and art student poverty mingling in a passionate virtual eddy of sensing we were a part of something big, a tidal push toward consciousness, toward peace and equality.

Sounds almost quaint, doesn't it?


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Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Roasted Winter Vegetable Ragout with Shaved Parmesan

A simple warming recipe for oven-roasted stew or ragout. 

After an odd and uncharacteristic nod to spring the temperature has dipped again into chilly territory. The bird baths are frozen. No snow, but the moonlit sky was sharp last night in a brittle way it hasn't been for weeks.

We went to an extraordinary film late yesterday- one not to miss (though I fear it's circulating out of theaters already). Terrence Mallick's The New World. It's hard to put into words, because the experience of it is so, well, non-verbal. Like all of his other films it is visual poetry- lyrical, intuitive, non-linear, experiential. The Jungian in me can only say it beautifully evokes the Divine Feminine, the Heroine's Journey. Don't miss it.


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Saturday, February 4, 2006

Roasted Vegetables in a Nest

Tender, sweet roasted vegetables in a nest of gluten-free pasta.

Last night was a night for roasting. There's nothing so easy as roasted vegetables. And nothing quite as tender and sweet. All those natural sugars softening and caramelizing into deep toned jewels of melting charred goodness. It's enough to soothe any gloomy girl's heart. Especially against-the-current girls who dream of Venice Beach and don jean jackets and flip-flops instead of downy winter coats and wool scarves.

Especially in February.

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Thursday, February 2, 2006

Gluten-Free Potato Frittata


Whenever I roast potatoes I make extra. That way I'm sure to have some yummy leftover morsels to play around with the following day. The night before I roasted Yukon Gold, red and blue potatoes cut into wedges and tossed in olive oil, sea salt and Old Bay Seasoning. The leftovers were perfect for a crustless quiche or baked frittata- an easy and simple way to make a savory gluten-free pie.




Roasted Potato Frittata Recipe


How relaxed and laid back easy can you get? Whisk a few eggs with a little sour cream. Grate some Jarlsberg. Chop some parsley. Whisk the custard and toss in those leftover potato wedges you roasted last night. Dinner in a New York minute.

Light olive oil or butter, as needed
About two cups cooked seasoned potato wedges
1 1/4 cups shredded Jarlsberg
5 extra large organic free-range eggs
1 heaping half cup of sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
12 grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil or butter a nine-inch glass pie plate.

Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of the pie plate. Sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

In a large mixing/measuring cup, whisk the eggs with the sour cream till smooth. Add almost all of the parsley [save a little to decorate the top]. Pour the egg mixture all over the potatoes.

Dot the top with the halved tomatoes and remaining parsley. Using the back of a spatula, lightly press down all over the top surface to encourage the egg custard to seep in and around the potato wedges. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan.

Bake in a hot oven for 35 minutes, until the frittata is set and golden. Cool slightly before slicing and serving.

Serves 4 to 6.