Have You Met Quinoa?

Do you know about quinoa?? If not, let me introduce you. Gluten-intolerant reader, meet quinoa (pronounced "keen-wa"). Quinoa, meet the gluten-intolerant readers. I'm sure you two will get along just fine.

Do you miss couscous or bulgar-wheat tabbouleh? Do you have to steer clear of corn or oats? Quinoa is a great substitution for recipes that call for many of these ingredients. It's also a very healthy alternative to rice and is packed with protein. It's an ancient grain from the mountains of South America. It has more protein than any other grain and it's a complete protein with an essential balance of amino acids. Quinoa also provides starch, sugars, oil (high in essential linoleic acid), fiber, minerals and vitamins. It's also easy to digest, which is important to many of us with sensitive tummies. It's good stuff.

Here are two recipes I've created, a breakfast quinoa loaded with protein for a tasty start to your day and a red quinoa salad that tastes light and fresh but will indeed fill you up!

Breakfast Quinoa

1 cup quinoa

2 cups of water or milk of choice (I use almond milk.)

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Any additions you'd like such as nuts, fresh or dried fruit, butter, cane sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup...

Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and combine with the liquid in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Once the quinoa is fully cooked, transfer to a bowl and stir in the cinnamon and your desired mix-ins. My favorite is a pat of butter, a little brown sugar or cane sugar, pecans and fresh blueberries. That's a good start to any day.

Red Quinoa Salad

1 cups red quinoa
2 cups of water (For other quinoa recipes, I sometimes use chicken or veggie broth for more flavorful, but I like water best for this light salad.)

3 roma tomatoes, chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

The juice of one large lime or lemon or combination of both

1/2 tablespoon oil of your choice (I use grapeseed oil.)

4 green onions, whites and greens finely chopped

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and combine with the water in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Once the quinoa is fully cooked, allow it to cool, transfer to a large bowl and mix in the remaining ingredients. Chill well before serving.

Afterthoughts: Bulk quinoa is usually the most economical option. Just remember the one part quinoa to two parts liquid ration for cooking. Costco sells a four pound bag of organic quinoa for about $8 or $10 dollars. Trader Joe's has a small, organic box for $4, which is a good start if you're new to this ingredient. Finally, red quinoa can be trickier to find but most health food stores carry it in the rice isle if they don't carry it bulk.

This salad reminds me of a Greek salad I used to make with bulgar-wheat tabbouleh. To give this more of a Greek influence, add some feta cheese and toasted pinenuts.

Fruity, Decadent Goodness

Pears poached in red wine, cardamom, cinnamon and orange. Fruity, decadent goodness. Give it a try. Oh and I bet you think that's a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream atop the pear, right? Oh no, you misguided soul, allow me to enlighten you. That, my foodie friend, is lemon frozen custard!

If you're not from the Midwest, you may not know about the delicacy that is frozen custard. Frozen custard is a type of ice cream but it contains more butterfat than ice cream (at least 10%) and also contains 1.4% egg yolk. Some ice creams do contain egg yolk, but less than 1.4%. Finally, frozen custard is churned much more slowly than ice cream, which creates less air in the product, and is served at a slightly higher temperature than ice cream. All this creates a richer, smoother and denser frozen treat that puts traditional ice cream to shame. I was raised in Wisconsin, where the gold standard of frozen custard is Kopp's. Here in Seattle, where I live now, we are lucky to have Peaks made just like the best frozen custard I grew up with back home. If you don't have frozen custard in your town, I guess you'll just have to slum it with good quality ice cream. I'm sorry.

Decadent Poached Pears

1 750-ml bottle dry red wine (I used Malbec.)
2 cups sugar (I used organic cane sugar.)
2 cups water
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 cinnamon sticks
4 firm but ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut in half (I used Anjou.)
Lemon frozen custard (Or lemon ice cream or sorbet, if you must.)

Combine the first seven ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a simmer. Add the pears, cut side down, and return the mixture to a simmer. Reduce the heat and simmer slowly until the pears are tender when pierced with knife, about 25 minutes. Transfer the pears to a plate and cover with foil if you'd like them to stay warm.

Boil the liquid in the saucepan until it's reduced to about three cups of syrupy goodness. This will take about 20 minutes. Allow the sauce to cool before serving or the hot syrup will instantly harden when it hits the frozen custard or ice cream. Serve the pears cut side up with a generous scoop of frozen custard or ice cream and drizzle some of the poaching liquid over your masterpiece.

After thoughts: Refrigerate leftover sauce and pears separately or the pears get mushy. Both can be reheated when leftovers are served or served cold. You will have plenty of syrup leftover which is tasty on frozen custard or ice cream on its own. Or you can drizzle it over goat cheese or blue cheese and serve with crackers, or drizzle it on pancakes and waffles.

Haricot Vert Hodgepodge

I was never a big fan of green beans, until I started buying them at the farmer's markets. Green beans in the grocery store are too waxy and tough but fresh beans from the farmer's market are delightful. Well it's January and I've discovered a year round option that's also quite tasty - Haricot Vert or French Green Beans. Granted, they aren't fresh from the market but I like these smaller, more tender beans.

I recently concocted this dish, Haricot Vert Hodgepodge. I call it that because it was created with a hodgepodge of items in the fridge and pantry: haricot vert, shallots, water-packed artichoke hearts, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and sea salt. Amounts? Ratios? I don't know. You can wing it, just like I did.

Saute some shallots in oil until they just start to turn golden. By the way, I typically use grape seed oil when sauteing, rather than olive oil. It has a higher "flash-point," which means that it can be heated longer and at a higher temperature than olive oil before it breaks down and starts to smoke. I also like it because it has a lighter, more neutral flavor than olive oil.

Once the shallots are golden, add the haricot vert and chopped artichoke hearts and cook until the beans are tender. Add in some finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes and finally some pine nuts. Sprinkle with sea salt once plated and dig in.

After thoughts: I think I like this dish even better on the second day, reheated in the oven. By then the flavors have married and I like the crispiness that comes from reheating the dish in the oven.

New Year's Riches

Rumor has it that you should eat blacked-eyed peas on New Years Day to insure good luck in the new year and greens to insure riches. Hmmm, I don't have any recipes for black-eyed peas and I promise I will get around to posting something green and healthy on this blog...eventually. In the meantime, how about super rich risotto which was the star of this new year's feast? Hey, at least I put it in a green bowl...that should count for something!

Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato Risotto
5 cups of mushroom broth
14 ounce can of water-packed artichoke hearts, well-drained and chopped
1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (Either oil packed or reconstituted dried ones.)
1/3 cup chopped shallots
2 cups Aborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus a little more for plating
About 2 ounces of goat cheese
About 1 tablespoon of butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Warm the broth and set aside on a burner set on low. Saute the shallots in butter until the edges just start to turn golden. Add salt and pepper to taste and add rice. Stir constantly and cook until rice is translucent, about 4 minutes. Add wine and cook until absorbed. Start adding the broth, about a cup and a half at a time and cook, while stirring constantly, until each addition is absorbed. Add the artichokes after about the third addition of broth and the sun-dried tomatoes with the last addition of broth. Once all the broth has been absorbed, remove from the heat and stir in the two cheeses. Stir until melted and well incorporated. Once plated, add a little bit of finely grated Parmesan and dig in!

For the Love of Comfort Food

Let's face it, comfort food is almost always about the starch, which in many cases means gluten. Wait! Potatoes - wonderful, creamy, starchy, comforting potatoes. Here's a recipe that's all about cheesy, easy, comforting potato goodness. Enjoy!

Roasted Blue Cheese Potatoes

1 pound of thin-skinned, baby potatoes (I used a mix of red, white and purple.) - cut in half

Olive Oil

Fresh ground sea salt and pepper

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Heaping 1/3 cup crumbled Blue Cheese
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put the potatoes in a glass baking dish and generously coat with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste and arrange them evenly in the pan, cut side down. Roast about 40 minutes or until tender and the undersides are golden and crispy.

In the meantime, toast the walnuts. I always do this in a skillet on the stove so I can move them around a bit and not burn them, as I invariably do in the oven. Once toasted, set them aside in a bowl and add the scallions once cooled.

Once the potatoes are done, sprinkle with the walnut and scallion mixture and the blue cheese, in the pan the potatoes were roasted in, and mix well to coat. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Channeling Willy Wonka

There's no gluten in good quality chocolate...and for that I say "Thank God!". I celebrate this gluten-free fabulousness on a regular basis and also love to make candy every Christmas. The stars of this year's creations...Molded Chocolate Truffles! I'd made Hand-Rolled Truffles for years but last summer I took a class with Anne Mills, founder of Eat Chocolates. What a wonderful class! Anne is patient and generous with her time, knowledge and materials and the class is very reasonably priced. Classes are small, for lots of individual attention, and held in her professional kitchen in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood.

Once you're ready to tackle truffle making on your own, Anne rents out her kitchen and equipment and sells all the necessary supplies. Alternately, you can rent the necessary tempering machine and molds from Bill Fredericks, AKA The Chocolate Man, and mess up your own kitchen as I did. Bill also sells chocolate and carries a wide variety of high quality brands and additional candy making supplies. Call him up, tell him what you want to make and he'll tell you the best chocolate for the job; and his prices beat anything you'll find in stores and the quality is much higher. Bill also teaches classes through community colleges and cooking schools throughout Seattle.

I made a wider variety of truffles in Anne's class than I did at home this holiday season, but no one complained that they only received three varieties...Dark Chocolate with Cardamom Ganache, Dark Chocolate with Kahlua Ganache, and Dark Chocolate with White Chocolate Irish Cream Ganache. Yes, it pays to be on my "Nice List" each holiday season!

Gobble, Gobble!

Well life has thrown me a few curve balls over the last two months, but I still have much to be thankful for. Seeing as a blog post in long overdue, I figured I'd better reemerge with something spectacular, so here's the dessert I made for yesterday's Thanksgiving festivities. It's a bit of an ambitious recipe but definitely a crowd-pleaser.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Brown Sugar Bourbon Cream

Crust:
2 cups Pamela's Gluten Free Pancake and Baking Mix
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1 cup finely chopped pecans

Grease a 10" springform pan lightly with butter. In a large bowl, combine the baking mix and brown sugar. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until fine crumbs form. Stir in the nuts and mix well. The crust will be crumbly but will hold together when pressed into the pan. Pat the mixture onto the bottom and sides of the pan, bringing the crust about half way up the side of the pan. Use a spoon or the bottom of a juice glass to press the crust evenly along the edge of the pan. Set aside and begin preparing the cheesecake filling.

Filling:
1-1/3 cup raw cane sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1-1/2 pounds (three 8-oz packages) of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, at room temperature
1 tbl good quality pure vanilla extract
1 tbl freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. Before you start preparing the filling you must prepare your canned pumpkin to remove most of the water content. This procedure seems strange and magical at the same time and I highly recommend it for any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin, as it will greatly reduce the water in the puree, making any recipe lighter and more "pumpkin-y" tasting. Trust me, it's worth the effort.

Spread at least two layer of paper towels (about three full squares long) onto a clean counter top. Spread the pumpkin puree on the paper towels with a rubber spatula. You went to spread it as thinly as possible, as if you were icing a cake. Once it's evenly distributed on the paper towels, cover the pumpkin with at least two layers of paper towels and press with your hands. You'll see much of the water soak into the paper towels yet the pumpkin will stay firmly attached to the bottom layer of paper towels. Once the top layer of towels is saturated, replace them with two more layers and keep doing this until the towels no longer soak up much water or until you get really tired of the process, which ever comes first. I typically do about eight rounds of this and use a half a roll of paper towels and then call it quits.

Now for the super magical part, grab one end of the paper towels and fold about a third of the pumpkin puree on top of itself. The bottom layer of wet paper towels should easily peel away and the pumpkin will stick to itself. Repeat this action until you have a small "stack" of pumpkin puree to add to the recipe. I now use this technique for any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin puree.

There are two additional preparation steps to take care of before you begin making the cheesecake filling. First wrap the outside of the springform pan with heavy duty foil. You need to do this because you'll be baking the cheesecake in a water bath. This will insure even cooking and will keep your cheesecake from cracking. Be sure you use heavy duty foil and if possible, purchase foil wide enough to wrap completely around the outside of the pan in one piece. If you use multiple layers of narrower foil, you run the risk of water seeping through the gaps of the foil and your crust may be a bit soggy.

Also, bring four quarts of water to a simmer. This will be the water for the water bath.

To prepare the filling, combine the sugar, spices and salt in a small bowl and set aside. With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the three packages of cream cheese on medium speed for about a minute. Add the sugar mixture in three batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition and mixing until well incorporated, about a minutes. Add the vanilla, lemon juice and pumpkin and beat on medium speed for about another minute more. Add three of the eggs and beat on low-medium until well incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and then add the final two eggs. Add the heavy cream and beat on low speed for about forty-five seconds more. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once or twice by hand, to be sure everything is well incorporated. Pour the filling evenly into the pan and carefully cut away any crust above the filling.

One the pan is filled and the four quarts of water are simmering, put the foil-wrapped springform pan into an empty roasting pan. Be sure the pan is large enough so that there's at least an inch between the sides of the pan and the springform pan. Carefully ladle the simmering water into the roasting pan, making sure that none of the water splashes into the cheesecake pan. Fill the roasting pan until the water is about half way up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the center of the cheesecake is slightly wobbly when the pan is shaken and it registers 150 degrees on an instant read thermometer. This was an hour and a half in my electric oven but may vary by oven. Once the cheesecake is done, remove the pan from the water bath, remove the foil and place the pan on a wire rack to cool. While still warm, run a thin paring knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen the crust from the pan. Allow the cheesecake to cool completely, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. I think cheesecake tastes best when it's been refrigerated at least twenty-four hours and I think it tastes even better the second day.

Brown Sugar Bourbon Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons good quality bourbon

In a metal bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, sour cream and brown sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least four hours and up to twenty-four hours. Right before serving the cheesecake, add the bourbon and beat on medium speed until small bubbles form around the edge of the bowl. Increase the speed to high and beat until fluffy and doubled in volume.

Before serving the cheesecake, run the paring knife around the inside of the pan again and gently remove the springform ring. Run a sharp knife under cold water before cutting the first slice of cheesecake. Rinse the knife under cold water and dry between cutting each slice for cleanly cut slices. Add a dollop of the Brown Sugar Bourbon Cream to individual cheesecake slices. Enjoy!!