Adventures in Allergen-free Baking

By ellen on April 8, 2010

This week has been totally amazeballs. I picnicked for dinner not once, but twice in Central Park with the foxy hus. AND I’ve hit up a class at Core Fusion every day since Sunday. (Nothing like yuppie scumming on my $40 unlimited week-long pass!).

So pretty much all week I’ve been craving french toast for some odd reason. Random, I know. So without eggs, and a little gluten intolerance thang, I thought I’d experiment with a gluten-free, vegan version of it. And hey, why not make it soy-free too.

I’ll admit that I haven’t had too many experiences with vegan, allergen-free baked goods. The ones I’ve had have been good, but I hadn’t made any myself. I mean, I’m pretty skeptical that anything can be sweet and delish without all the “good stuff.”

Banana French Toast Casserole

Gluten-free, vegan, soy-free

  • 6 slices of sprouted grain bread (I used Ezekiel)
  • about 1c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (any other milk could probably be substituted)
  • super-ripe bananas (I used 3)
  • 1/4c maple syrup
  • cinnamon
  • vanilla extract (2 tbsp)
  1. Oil a square oven-safe dish.
  2. Cut the bread into cubes and sprinkle in the dish.
  3. Mash bananas.
  4. Mix in almond milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon.
  5. Pour liquid mixture evenly over the bread cubes. You may want to add more almond milk to get the desired consistency.
  6. You can now pop this in the oven right now. 20 minutes at 375 and it will be allergen-free perfection. I do, however, recommend letting the casserole hang out in the fridge overnight to let the bread soak everything up (yum!). Prior to baking it, I’ll drizzle a little more maple syrup and cinnamon on top.
  7. Enjoy!

Posted in Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Stuffed Butternut Squash and Slow-Cooker Turkey Dinner

By ellen on February 26, 2010

Good morning! This is actually a great morning for me today – this teacher has a SNOW DAY! NYC is in the midst of a snow storm and I’m reaping the benefits :) The only thing better than a snow day, is a FRIDAY snow day. Helloooo three-day weekend.

The other night I put together this fabulous meal. It was very simple and perfect warm comfort food for a freezing cold evening. I have to admit, I’ve always been a little intimidated by squash. I like to eat it, but wasn’t convinced that I liked to prepare it. It seemed pretty high-maintenance. They are really, really tough to halve when raw, and then there’s the scooping out of seeds, then you can finally bake/roast it. Seems like an awful lot of work.

But as I finally discovered the other day, it’s oh so worth it. So this is my Farmer’s Market local meal of stuffed butternut squash and slow-cooker turkey. Here’s the whole meal, step by step.

IMG_1004.JPG

Ingredients:

  • 1 head of garlic, plus 2 additional cloves
  • olive oil
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 2-4 lb turkey breast
  • 1 butternut squash
  • white wine
  • chicken broth
  • salt and pepper
  • bread crumbs, dried apricots (this is for the stuffing, you can sub almost anything, though)
  1. Preheat the oven to 375. Turn on your Crock Pot to high. Put 1-2 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of the Crock Pot and put the lid on it.
  2. Take a head of garlic. Cut the pointy top end off, exposing all the cloves. Roughly peel some of the extra skin off the outside. Put the garlic, cut side up, in a small oven-safe dish. Drizzle liberally with olive oil. Loosely cover the dish with a piece of aluminum foil. IMG_0992.JPG
  3. Chop 2-3 other cloves of garlic and add to the Crock Pot.
  4. Once the oven heats up, put the garlic in the oven for one hour.
  5. Take out your thawed turkey breast. Salt and pepper both sides of the breast. Add any other spices you’d like. I love herbs de provence, so I used them. Salt and pepper would be fine on their own, too.
  6. Place the turkey breast side down in the Crock Pot. Add 1/3 – 1/2 bottle of white wine (you’ll drink the rest at dinner), and about 2 glugs of chicken broth (maybe 1/2 c). Place the lid on. Set the timer for 2.5 hours. Flip the breast over about half-way through. IMG_0994.JPG IMG_0991.JPG
  7. Carefully cut your butternut squash in half lengthwise. (It’s easiest, I found, to start at the neck). Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. IMG_0996.JPG
  8. At this point, the garlic is just about done. Once it is, remove the dish from the oven and set it aside. Change the temperature on the oven to 350.
  9. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. (A jelly roll pan is the kind that looks like a cookie sheet, but has a shallow lip around the edge. If you don’t have one of these, any oven-safe pan will work). Parchment paper is awesome, especially for baking. I highly recommend it, but if you don’t have it, use aluminum foil. This will make for really easy clean up :)
  10. Place squash face down on the parchment paper. Brush the skin with olive oil. Put the squash in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. IMG_0997.JPG
  11. While the squash is roasting, prepare the stuffing. There are so many different things you can do for stuffing, so get creative! Remember, whatever you prepare, you’ll mix in some of the roasted butternut squash (like a twice-baked potato). I got some inspiration from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and made a sort of sweet/savory stuffing with bread crumbs, roasted garlic, and dried apricots. I used all the garlic, a heaping handful of plain breadcrumbs, and about 8 dried apricots, chopped. IMG_0998.JPG
  12. The butternut squash should be done. Remove the pan from the oven, but leave the oven on. The squash will be really hot, though, let it hang out for a few minutes. Once it’s been out of the oven a few minutes, use a spoon to scrape some of the soft squashy goodness out. Add it to your stuffing mixture. IMG_0999.JPG IMG_1001.JPG
  13. Mix the squash and the stuffing mix together then spoon it back into the squash cavities. Pop those babies back into the oven for 30 more minutes.
  14. Everything should finish up at around the same time. Be sure the check the turkey breast with a meat thermometer.  IMG_1002.JPG IMG_1003.JPG

Plate it up! The tasty white wine broth in the crock pot will be great as sauce, and the turkey will be very moist and flavorful. This meal would easily feed four, and would be pretty nice for a small dinner party. Pair with a nice green salad, and don’t forget to drink the rest of your wine!

Posted in Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Seafood Tuesday: Poached Flounder

By ellen on February 23, 2010

The husband has been taking his seafood Tuesday duties very seriously :) This week he studied all of our cookbooks over the last few days, and decided to do his own creation. It was amazing – and really, really simple.

IMG_0912.JPG
First, he put the fish in a glass bowl with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to marinate for a few minutes. While the fish is marinating, saute some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until fragrant (2-3 minutes). Next, he added the bok choy (any leafy green would do), and sauteed about 2 more minutes. Finally, he added a few glugs of white wine and chicken broth, then the fish. Once the fish was in, he added the lid to the pan and let it cook up until opaque (about 5-7 minutes). We ate it in bowls with lots of broth and crusty bread. It was wonderfully simple, and the perfect warm meal for a cold winter night.

IMG_0913.JPG
Enjoy!

Posted in Tagged , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Spicy Meat-a-balls

By ellen on February 22, 2010

When my friends and I went home for Thanksgiving break during our freshman year at college, each of us carried a little extra, um, padding thanks to cafeteria food, binge drinking, and late-night pizza. One of my roommates, wore this extra padding mostly in her face, poor dear, and upon entering her parents’ home was greeted by her mother screeching, “Ooooh, look at my spicy little meatball!” While she may be tracing many things back to this in future therapy sessions, I’m happy to say that this (very well-adjusted) friend (as well as the others – myself included) lost that college weight not too long after graduation.

That said, here’s a little turkey meatball recipe that will allow you to indulge in these tasty little morsels without turning into a little meatball yourself.

Spicy Meat-a-balls


IMG_0967.JPG

Yields 32 little meatballs

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. ground turkey breast (I get mine from my Farmer’s Market)
  • garlic clove, chopped finely (or garlic powder if that’s what you have)
  • finely chopped/minced onion (just a little; half of a small onion)
  • 4-5 dashes of Worcestshire sauce (the secret ingredient)
  • 1 egg
  • Italian panko crumbs (start with about 1/4c and add more as needed. You can always add more, but you can’t take too much away).

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, roll up your sleeves and begin to combine. Remember, you don’t want to mix it too much, just make sure the ingredients are fairly evenly distributed. If it feels to mushy, or doesn’t roll into balls, add more panko. If the meatballs fall apart in your hand, they will definitely fall apart in the oven. Once you’ve gotten to the desired consistency, begin rolling them into balls. For consistency, I use a cookie dough baller (not sure if that’s the official name).

IMG_0968.JPG

With this, all of the meatballs will be the same size, and thus, cook more evenly. I put the meatballs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baked them for 20 minutes. They came out perfectly :)

Enjoy!

Posted in Tagged , , , , Leave a Comment

Seafood Tuesday: Grilled Halibut

By ellen on February 2, 2010

Recently, we decided that it would be a great idea for M to take one night a week to cook dinner. He would like to cook more, and I like the idea of having a night off :) To further focus his cooking endeavor, we narrow his culinary focus to one genre: seafood. We both like fish and seafood, but don’t really cook it ourselves very often. I’ve cooked fish a handful of times, mussels a few, but for some reason, I don’t make it a regular thing.

Enter: Seafood Tuesday.

Now, M pores over cookbooks on Monday night selecting his recipe and listing the ingredients he’ll need. He picks them up on his way home from work, and cooks on Tuesday night. Perfecto, no?

Here’s last week’s Seafood Tuesday recipe and pics. It was really, really fantastic. And I don’t just mean the sight of my cute husby cooking dinner for me in an apron (I pushed the apron thing, haha).

Grilled Halibut with Fennel, Red Onions, and Oregano

IMG_0862

Recipe by Rachael Ray on Food Network.com

Ingredients

  • 4 (6-ounce) halibut filets
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons plus some for drizzling
  • Salt and pepper
  • Crusty bread, cut into thick slices
  • 1 orange
  • 1 bulb fennel, quartered, core removed, thinly sliced
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, a couple of splashes
  • Handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves, 2 sprigs

Directions

Heat a grill pan or outdoor grill over high heat.

Drizzle extra-virgin olive oil over the fish and season with salt and pepper. Grill 4 minutes on each side until fish is firm but not tough and cooked through. Grill bread alongside or char under broiler then dress with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper as well.

Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat.

While fish cooks, peel the orange as you would a melon: cut off ends, stand it upright and cut off skin and pith in thin strips from top to bottom. Cut orange across into thin slices.

To preheated skillet add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, the fennel and onions, season with salt and pepper and cook 3 to 5 minutes until seared and beginning to soften. Add vinegar to the pan and give it a shake. Remove from heat and toss in the oranges, the parsley and oregano. Adjust seasoning and serve salad on dinner plates topped with fish, and seasoned bread alongside.

 

It was REALLY delicious. A bit more of a summery dish with the light fennel and orange salad, but it really hit the spot. I had been skeptical of the fennel/orange pairing (I don’t normally like savory/sweet combos, and I find that anise/licoricy flavor grosso), but the rumors were true. The orange didn’t taste like an orange. It was as if the juices just combined all the flavors and the sugars carmelized the other veggies. As for the fennel, it’s got such a light, fresh flavor that I’m really going to try to add it to dishes more often.

IMG_0860

IMG_0859

My foxy chef in action. (Sorry for the blur; he was a flurry or activity :) )

Do you eat a lot of seafood? Have a recipe for us to try?

Check back next Tuesday to see tonight’s recipe!

Note: In addition to cooking fish on Tuesday nights, M is also charged with the responsibility of learning more about mercury in seafood as well as sustainability.


Posted in Tagged , , , , , Leave a Comment

Saturday Brunch: Banana Walnut Pancakes

By ellen on December 19, 2009

While I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of a monster snowstorm (this teacher would sooo rather have a weekday storm :) , I decided to make some pancakes. I figure I’ll be hunkering down for the weekend so pancakes are a nice way to start off this cold, snowy day.

Banana-Walnut Pancakes

*Note: all of my measuring cups were in the dishwasher when I made this, so measurements are approximate.

IMG_0654

IMG_0656

  • 2c whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 c oats
  • 1/4c toasted wheat germ
  • 1tbsp brown sugar
  • dash of cinnamon, ginger
  • 1tsp baking soda
  • dash of salt
  • 2.5 c water (alter to desired consistency)
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet to desired consistency. Then, add banana slices and chopped walnuts (or whatever fruit/nut combo you’d like). I made 4 jumbo pancakes in a frying pan. Husbo and I could barely finish them! This could easily feed 3-4 people (with normal-sized pancakes).

Posted in Tagged , , Leave a Comment

Super Weekend and Singing the Praises of Olive Oil

By ellen on August 30, 2009

Ahh! What a wonderful weekend. I was in Philly for a family tailgate at the Phillies game, which included some hot dogs, lots of beer, and lots more rain. There were about 30 of us total and it was funny to look at the three rows in front of me at the game and realize that I knew everyone sitting in them, haha. We had such a great time!

Once we got back in the late afternoon, we had an early dinner of the black bean enchilada bake and corn salad that I made on Friday. The corn salad was possibly even better after soaking up flavors for a few days in the fridge.

After dinner, I settled in to make a few things for the week. On my list of things to do: pesto, granola, and muffins. The common thread, I decided, between the three would be olive oil. Pesto was easy – I used basil (obviously), parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic, ad olive oil. I toss them in the Magic Bullet and play it by ear adding more olive oil as needed. I’ll post a pic when I mix it with some pasta. I love pesto and can’t wait to eat it all week!

Next up was the olive oil granola from the New York Times that I’ve been dying to try. I made many substitutions, only using the recipe as a loose outline. For example, I used almonds and sunflower seeds instead of pistachios and pumpkin seeds. Also, I omit the coconut chips, and I switched the cardamom for ginger and omit the dried fruit. It’s been out of the oven only about 45 minutes and husbo and I have already noshed so much our bellies ache – it is so easy and really really really tasty.

IMG_0265

Caution: It may look innocent enough, but it’s dangerously addictive.

Next up? Olive oil muffins. I really just googled “olive oil” muffins and used the recipe that called for 2 eggs (that’s all I had!). So I found this one. Once again, I hijacked the recipe and made many substitutions. I ran out of white flour, so I wound up using only a little more than 1c and using cornmeal for the rest. Besides, I kind of like the texture of cormeal. Also, I added loads of lemon zest – there’s something delicious about olive oil and lemon zest. They baked up perfectly, and I doused them with a bit of confectioner’s sugar.

IMG_0267

They are really yummy and the lemon added a really nice vibrance to the muffins. They will be great for breakfast in the morning.

I’m gearing up for the week. I’ll be heading into school tomorrow to set up my classroom and attempt to mentally prepare myself for another school year! I’m not ready for the summer to end yet!

Posted in Tagged , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Farm-fresh Dinner and Homemade Flatbread

By ellen on August 27, 2009

CSA Veggie and Homemade Flatbread Dinner

After coming home last Thursday with our CSA veggie bounty, I tried to use as much as possible for a truly farm-fresh dinner. We had a fresh salad with some balsamic and olive oil. I also made a ragout with summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and chickpeas. Rounding out the meal was a homemade flatbread (from Bittman, natch) and some parmesan cheese.

I used the mandoline to slice up the zucchini and squash and tossed it in a pan that already have some garlic and onion sauteeing in olive oil. The veggies cooked down for a few minutes, then I added tomatoes, salt and pepper. Once everything really looked and smelled delish (maybe five minutes), I turned it down to simmer and added the chickpeas.

But oh, the piece de resistance was the flatbread. And because it was a Bittman it was very very simple.

Bittman's Flatbread

MMM… I love you, flatbread. Here’s Bittman’s recipe. I used 1/2c whole wheat flour and 1/2c regular ole white flour. Also, my little pan was smaller than the one called for so my flatbread was a little less flat, I suppose. Sooo delicious. Please try it – very soon. I have since done many variations including a cornmeal, sugar, and cinnamon for a sweet bread. YUM.

Posted in Tagged , , , , , Leave a Comment

Recipe Review: Cucumber Granita

By ellen on August 25, 2009

I got 4 cucumbers from my CSA last week. I wanted to try something new and easy. I was thinking of a cold cucumber soup, but I didn’t have any dairy products – which pretty much all the recipes I found called for. So I looked to Cooking Light and found this interesting recipe for granita (and only 2 ingredients)!

A granita is a frozen dessert. Sort of like a slushie, I guess. While ice cream, and sometimes sorbet, contain dairy, a granita is just ice. The Cooking Light recipe is quite simple. First roughly chop the cucumbers. I had to de-seed mine first (see first picture). Next, toss them in a blender or food processor with a little honey to taste. Finally, pour the mixture into cheesecloth and let sit in a bowl in the fridge overnight. Note: I didn’t have cheesecloth. Instead, I put a silicone steamer insert in a bowl, put a paper towel on top, then poured the cucumber on. You can get pretty creative here.

Anyhow, once that has sat overnight, pour the mixture into a container and toss it in the freezer. You can periodically scrape it with a fork so that it does turn into some sort of ice block.

Well, maybe something went horribly wrong… but I wasn’t getting that summery delish dish I was hoping for. I think since I forgot to scrape the mixture every hour or so, it froze a bit too much for that granita consistency that makes it so good. I think I also would have added more sweetener.

I haven’t given up on trying the granita, though. Any tips?

Posted in Tagged , , , , , , Leave a Comment

My Favorite Fast Meal

By ellen on July 10, 2009

When I’m in a pinch, or just looking to unload some leftovers, this is the meal I go to. It’s fast, easy, versatile, and delicious (not to mention very good for you). It’s an easy three-step process. It may take a whopping 5 minutes to make. Seriously. 

There you have it. My black bean soup. All you need are black beans, salsa, and chicken broth in its most basic form. Add all three (no need to use more than 1/3 or so of the salsa with a whole can of beans) to a blender, food processor, or Magic Bullet (my tool of choice). Mix it up. You can eyeball it to see if you’d like it more creamy or more soupy (for more soupy just add more chicken broth). Then heat and eat. It is super tasty in this barebones form. Note: This would also work w/ veggie broth for any vegetarians out there. 

On Tuesday I made this for lunch and added chopped onions and leftover shredded chicken on top. Sometimes I add milk to it, a cheddar cheese cube, or a clove of garlic before I toss it in the Bullet. 

I’ve even used other bean combos… like a more Italian-style soup using white beans, garlic, onions, rosemary, and chicken broth. This version is great with some crusty bread. No matter how it’s prepared, it’s always fast tasty, and nutritious. 

Are there any delicious easy combos that you’ve come up with in a pinch?

Posted in Tagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment