Quinoa and Asparagus Salad

This is another one of those insanely easy side dishes that would be well suited for taking to a summer picnic.  I made the quinoa earlier in the week during a cooking frenzy so when it was time prepare this recipe all I did was toss it together and eat.  It's filling, delicious, and just spicy enough to keep things interesting.  I of course made it vegan my using dairy free butter spread but I'm sure it's even better with the real thing.

I didn't change a thing so this very short post is brought to you by my love for 101Cookbooks where you can find the recipe for this simple salad.  Go check it out if you've been hiding under a rock and haven't discovered this trove of healthy whole food recipes.

White Bean Dip

This is what dinner looks like when I neglect to plan out recipes ahead of time.  Don't get me wrong, it was delicious but more random than I'm used to.

The fella and I were both hungry and uninspired.  All we had were a couple random vegetables and a bunch of dry beans that no one wanted to put the effort into boiling.  Then while looking through the oddities of my cupboard I found one can of white beans neither of us could remember buying.  Not one to look down upon random dinner providing beans, I whipped them into a dip I remembered seeing in my food blog browsing earlier in the day.  And tada we had protein and an almost balanced meal.

I'm not a fan of raw garlic (it's not a fan of me either I found out in my elimination dieting so at least the feeling is mutual) so I cooked mine before adding it.  But if you're a the garlicky-er the better type and loss in a few cloves raw, this is the easiest dip imaginable.  It's like hummus for when you're all hummus-ed out or not in the mood to plan ahead for soaking chickpeas.  Especially on the forbidden corn chips this dip was extraordinary. 

White Bean Dip

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 cups (or 1 15-ounce can) cooked white beans

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 a lemon, juiced 
salt and pepper, to taste


If you decide to cook the garlic, saute it briefly in the olive oil over medium heat just until it is no longer raw before tossing in the food processor.


If using canned beans, drain and rinse them, then place in food processor.  If using dried beans, cook 1 cup of white beans of your choice using your preferred method and put in food processor when cooked through.


Put all of the remaining ingredients in the food processor with the garlic and beans and pulse a few times until the mixture is very smooth.  Check the seasoning to see if more salt, pepper or thyme is needed.  Also add additional liquid at this point if you would like the dip to be thinner.  Blend again until well combined. 

Modified from an original recipe at Affairs of Living blog.

Adzuki Bean and Mango Curry

In case you've never tried adzuki beans let me tell you that you're missing out.  They have the texture of a black bean and a flavor along the lines of a sweeter version of a kidney bean.  You can use them in place of any similar sized bean for something different. 

The only problem is these pretty pink beans are a bit hard to track down.   I get mine in the bulk pins at Whole Foods (I know it's a gluten free no no but I wash then thoroughly and have never had a problem.)  Eden Organics also has them canned flavored with seaweed at all the local groceries I go to so they are out there if you look.

Putting beans regardless of how unique they are with mango in a curry might sound odd.  I thought so too until I actually gave it a try.  The sweetness of the mango mellows the spices and gives this curry a really interesting mouthfeel making it seem much richer than it really is.  With the coconut milk included this either becomes a weight maintenance only dish or a curry to eat while skipping the rice.  To make this for a low fat/high fiber meal just sub out the coconut milk for some vegetable broth and add a bit of tomato paste to get a thick sauce without the fat.

I found this Adzuki Bean and Mango Curry recipe over at the City Life Eats blog along with a handful of other really tasty ideas for recipes for us picky allergic eaters.  It's sometimes a hard blog to navigate but this recipe is perfect so I'm just sending you over there to check it out since I didn't change a thing.

Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Chips

This is my attempt at modifying another recipe from the Lisa's Kitchen blog to make it gluten and sugar free.  I was hoping to make it 100% Montignac friendly as well but I couldn't justify putting almond flour in something with a cup of peanut butter in it so I used brown rice flour instead.  That means this is a decent treat for dessert on the maintenance phase since it just has a hint of carby goodness in it instead of a refined flour.

My version isn't perfect as its a little dry so feel free to play around with the ingrediants and let me know if you could up with a different flour ratio.  Besides slightly dry baked goods are an excuse to have ice cream along side it and ice cream makes everything better.  And we all know how well peanut butter and chocolate go together so there really isn't anything else I should have to say to sell you on these yummy bars.

Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Chips

7 tablespoons of melted vegan shortening (I used Earth Balance butter flavor spread)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (divided use)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
scant 3/4 cup chickpea flour
scant 1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate finely chopped (or 1/2 cup chocolate chips)

Grease an 8 inch square pan with shortening. Line with parchment paper, leaving some overlap. Grease the paper in the bottom of the pan with more shortening.

In a large bowl, combine the melted shortening, agave nectar and 1/2 cup of the peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gently beat in the flours, arrowroot, baking soda and cream of tartar. Stir in the chocolate and remaining peanut butter.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until it passes the tooth pick test.

Modified from a recipe on the Lisa's Kitchen Blog.

Cherry Chutney

Is it dessert or is it a condiment?  After thoroughly enjoying it a little at a time over the last couple of days I'm still not sure.  What I am positive about however is that it was easy to throw together, its tasty and very very interesting.

 Though I'm not sure what the original recipe has in mind I'm going to go along with the idea that this is mostly likely a dessert because I've liked it a lot after dinner with a scoop of whiskey flavored ice cream on top.  The ice cream was an experiment that went wrong in the texture department as it froze but is still tasty enough on top of other things.  The sweetness of the ice cream gives the cherry and vinegar combination enough kick in the dessert direction.  Originally this recipe calls for some tangy cheese as a topping which sounds intriguing and would probably bring this back over into the condiment/side dish category.

Which ever way you do it this is a very unique treat.  I was lazy and used frozen cherries rather than pitting endless cherries for this recipe and I can't taste any downside to the laziness.  I'm also cheap so rather than using a fresh vanilla bean I fished one out of my homemade vanilla and used part of that boozy goodness to make the chutney which I recommend.  But then I condone adding alcohol to most things. 

Cherry Chutney

3 cups (or 400 grams) red cherries, pits removed
3 cloves
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 dried Szechuan pepper, crushed up a bit
3 tablespoons fruit vinegar (I used raspberry and fig vinegars from Vom Fass)
1 vanilla bean, scraped

In a medium size pot over medium heat mix cherries, cloves, agave nectar, Szechuan pepper.  Cover and let cook for 5-10 minutes or  until the cherries start to soften and turn into a jam like consistency. Add vinegar and reduce liquid for an additional 5-7 minutes. When the cherries are soft and look like a jam remove mixture from the heat, let it cool and serve in small bowls.  Serve topped with ice cream, whipped cream or some tart crumbly cheese.

Recipe adapted from one at the Citron and Vanille Blog.

Vegetarian Mexican Salad

This is me trying something new in the hopes of posting more often.

When I cook something unfortunate or something that didn't work for me I'm going to post it and link to the recipe in case you want to give it a try and in the hopes you'll have better luck cooking it than I did.  Maybe you will cook it and love it then tell me where I went wrong.  I make plenty of mistakes I just don't usually take the time to post about them unless they are particularly epic.

And when I make something fabulous that was amazing but the recipe was perfect I'll just do an easy cheater post and point you in the direction of the talented blogger that created it.  This Mexican salad which is a knock off of a dish at Chipotle restaurant is a perfect example.  It comes from the Healthy Irishmen Blog  where chef Gavan Murphy, and sometimes his wife, post fabulous healthy recipes using fresh organic produce.  They  have some great recipes to browse through and aside from the potato and bread dishes most of his recipes are French diet friendly.

The recipe for Vegetarian Mexican Salad is especially worth checking out.  This is the kind of salad that always looks appealing at restaurants but I never think to try to make at home where I can control the fat and salt content.  Now that I know how I will be making this beauty all summer.  The super spicy and tangy dressing is my favorite part but if you aren't into breathing fire you'll want to take the amount of peppers down a notch.  I also cheated to make this salad even easier by buying some jarred salsa (because the fella won't eat raw tomatoes and I was lazy), mashing an avocado on my lettuce rather than making guacamole, and then sprinkling organic canned corn and some cilantro on the salad rather than making the corn salsa. And if you're on the weight loss phase you'll want to skip the corn all together since it has a high GI but there are so many other tasty things on this salad you won't be missing anything.

Greens and Beans

They might not be pretty but these beans have sole.

This is my go-to for when there are random greens wilting in the crisper and random beans threatening to turn evil because I made too many for another recipe earlier in the week.  I can't believe it's taken me this along to post about this considering I eat some variation of it once a week at least.  But here it finally is ready for you to bask in the awesomeness that is it's ease of preparation and it's ability to use up those pesky left over ingredients in a tasty way.

The great part of this recipe is you can change it up with whatever combo of greens and beans you have on hand.  White beans are best: garbanzo, fava, navy, cannellini, or giant white lima beans are all beans I've used with success.  Then mix and match your beans with spinach, kale, rainbow chard, beet greens, or pretty much any other dark leafy green you happen to have around.  Lima beans with beet greens and a drizzle of lemon juice or garbanzos with kale and some fresh rosemary are my favorite combination but feel free to mix and match and let me know what you come up with.

Greens and Beans

1/2 pound of dried beans (or about 2 cups left over, cooked beans)

3 tablespoons oil

2 cloves garlic, diced

rosemary, lemon juice, or other seasoning (optional)

salt and pepper, to taste

handful of greens

If you're starting out with dried beans prepare them according to package directions.  Once you have your beans prepped, in a large (preferably non stick) pan, heat the oil over medium high heat.  When the oil is hot, toss in the beans and cook them, agitating them every so often so that they don't burn, for about 15 minutes or until they are browned on all sides.  If your beans are sticking to the pan or drying out too quickly, pour in a little more oil to moisten things up. 

Once the beans are toasted, lower the heat a bit and add the garlic, any other seasoning you would like and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook for another couple minutes or until garlic is to your preferred level of doneness.  Now add some greens and allow the warm beans to wilt down the greens.  Once your greens are wilted you're ready to eat.

Chickpea Crepes With Smoked Salmon

Apparently I'm on a bit of a crepe kick. Probably because they are the only vaguely bread like food I can have on this elimination diet. 

This time I went savory with chickpea flour crepes, pesto, and smoked salmon.  The fella and I were both really surprised by how delicious I was able to make these while still keeping them hypoallergenic.  The crepes themselves were ridiculously easy and a nice compliment to the salmon.  The pesto which I used pumpkin seeds in instead of pine nuts rounded out the flavors nicely.  Best of all this recipe is totally weight loss phase friendly for the French Diet.  Since it involves bean flour you can put whatever you're in the mood for in these.  So go crazy!

Since I'm only cooking really simple foods that don't usually require any sort of recipe I'm going to try to stop neglecting this blog so badly and just post pictures of my food to prove that I really am eating well while on such a restrictive diet.  We'll see how long I can keep up that promise.

Chickpea Crepes 

1 cups chickpea flour (easily found in Indian groceries)

1 1/4 cups water

dash of salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk together all ingredients.  Heat a large non stick pan over medium heat.  When hot, spray with cooking spray and drop 1/4 cup of the crepe mix into the pan, quickly sliding around  the pan to spread out the crepe as thin as possible.  Cook for 30 seconds.  Flip and cook for 90 seconds on the other side.  Repeat with the rest of the crepe batter.

I topped my chickpea crepes with a handful of spinach, a slice of avocado, some sprouts, a drizzle of pesto, and a couple pieces of smoked salmon.  This would also be amazing with cream cheese or creme fraiche, smoked salmon, watercress, and cucumber.  (Someone eat that version and tell me all about it since I will never be able to.)

Rice Flour Crepes with Blueberries and Coconut Whipped Cream

I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been eating much of interest.  

See the ridiculous thing is I'm a foodie with serious food sensitivities.  Figuring out that gluten was causing me problems helped out my digestive issues a lot.  Getting rid of dairy made me feel a lot better too.  However there were still things that seemed to be causing me problems and even after keeping a food diary, seeing a nutritionist, an allergist and a gastroentrologist I still couldn't figure out what was making me ill.  Unwilling to "just live with it" as all but one of my doctors advised I decided to take the next step and go on an elimintation diet.

The people over at Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen had one that seemed reasonable so I'm giving it a try.  Eating nothing but green smoothies for a couple days, giving up chocolate, coffee and alcohol and eating only the simplest of unseasoned foods has not been easy.  But after my body got over the initial shock I felt better than I ever had before.  If eating green salads and brown rice with lentils and nothing else was going to get rid of my unending digestive woes I was willing to do it.

At this point I've added in a few foods without any issues so I do have some variety in my diet.  So far I have sadly discovered citrus, cinnamon and parsnips are all problem foods for me.  So as this goes on I'll be healthier and feel great but my diet is getting more and more restricted.  In order to not let thoughts like that get me down I spent the afternoon plotting out a dessert that I could eat on this diet.  Something other than me peeling a mango and eating it like the crazy sweet-food starved person I am.  

Out of that I came up with this recipe for these vegan hypoallergenic rice crepes that fit with the strict parameters of the first phase of the elimination diet.  They are so amazing you would never guess they are missing things like eggs, dairy, wheat or sugar.  I went crazy and made some dairy free whipped cream as well since I was craving it but the crepes though simple are great without anything but your choice of fruit.  The fella and I enjoyed ours with blue berries while sitting out on the porch and enjoying the warm sunny evening.

Vegan Rice Flour Crepes 

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

2 tablespoons hot water

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon agave nectar

1 1/4 cup homemade rice milk

In a very small bowl mix the ground flax seeds with the hot water and mix well.  Allow mixture to sit undisturbed until it becomes very sticky.

In a medium bowl mix together the remaining ingredients until well incorporated then add in the flax seed mixture.. Your mixture will be very a little runny and gritty. 

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat and gently grease it with cooking spray. When the pan is at temperature add 1/4 a cup of the crepe mixture to the pan and agitate the pan to roll the mixture around the bottom making it as thin as possible. Cook the crepe for one minute then flip and cook for a 1 1/2 on the other side.

Repeat with the remaining mixture, being sure to stir the crepe batter before putting it in the pan as the heavy rice flour will quickly sink to the bottom of the bowl in the time it has taken you to make the preceding crepe.

Blueberry Filling

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 teaspoon agave nectar

Place both ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat and allow to simmer until the melting berries turn into a thin syrupy mixture.

Coconut Whipped Cream

1 14-can full fat coconut cream (the kind that separates out)

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon agave nectar

Place a metal bowl and the beaters for your electric mixer in the freezer.  Open the can of coconut milk and place in the refrigerator until the solid part of the coconut milk solidifies a bit more and is easier to skim out of the can.

After about 10 minutes remove the coconut milk from the fridge and place the solid mass floating on the top of the can in the frosty bowl that was in the freezer, leaving behind the liquid part of the coconut milk to use for other purposes.  Add the coconut oil and agave nectar to the coconut milk and return the bowl to the freezer until the mixture becomes mostly solid but not frozen through.  This will take awhile, probably between 30 to 90 minutes.  Check it often.

When the coconut mixture is stiff, begin beating the mixture with the cold electric beaters.  You will get both some soft peaks and some cold ice creamy textured bits during this process.  It won't exactly be "real" whipped cream but its so delicious it won't really matter.

Chocolate Lava Cake

 

The only thing sexier than this beautiful little molten pile of chocolate is the woman who wrote the recipe.  

Suzanne Pirret is what would happen if Nigella Lawson and a sultry sex writer got together and decided to write a book.  She's my food writing hero.  She is hot and funny and totally engaging.  Not usually words one uses when describing a cookbook but this one is all those things and more.  Then again I suppose hotness its to be expected from someone wearing a form fitting white dress and 6 inch Louis Vuittons on the cover of a book called The Pleasure is All Mine.  Get your head out of the gutter, it's a book full of fancy but easy recipes for one because eating alone is no reason not to treat yourself well.

Seeing as I've been obsessed with this book as of late I've already shared her recipes for TomYum Kung Soup and Lemongrass Steamed Fish.  But I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't write about the best recipe in the entire book.  It of course involves chocolate and is insanely decadent.  That didn't stop me from making this luscious melty mouth filling treat over a dozen times last week in order to experiment with getting the sugar free version of the recipe perfect.  It was tough but I made it through.  This is the type of rigorous testing I suffer through just for my loyal blog readers.     

In the end I came up with a gluten and sugar free recipe that is so good I couldn't tell the difference between the one that had sugar and the one that didn't.  I have to warn you though Suzanne Pirret says this is a single serving treat, unless you're immune to high doses of sexy chocolate induced caffeination you might want to find someone to share it with.  Or not who am I kidding it's too good to resist eating the whole damn thing.  

If you want to make the sugary version or need help figuring out how making this cake works check out this video for the recipe and watch Suzanne Pirret work her magic.  Someday I'll be the type of person coordinated enough to wear a designer dress and high heels while working with chocolate.  Or at least I can dream.

Chocolate Lave Cake

3 ounces unsweetened dark chocolate

1 tablespoon butter (soy butter also works nicely)

3 teaspoons fructose

1 egg

 1 tablespoon almond flour

1 dash sea salt

unsweetened cocoa powder

drizzle of agave nectar

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees.

In a small sauce pan over low heat very slowly melt the chocolate.  When chocolate starts to melt, briefly remove pot from heat and stir, then place back on heat to further melt.  Repeat the process until chocolate is completely melted and set aside to cool a bit.

Melt the butter in a small mixing bowl then whisk in fructose and egg until well combined.  Slowly begin to drizzle in the melted chocolate, whisking as you pour.  You want to add the warm chocolate a little at a time so it doesn't cook the raw egg.  The mixture should be very stiff and thick at this point, too dense to stir easily and that is the perfect texture.

Add in the flour and salt and stir once again briefly. 

Grease a small ramekin then sprinkle the inside with cocoa powder.   Tap the sides of the ramekin to remove any excess powder then pour the batter into it.  Bake for 9 minutes.  Don't over cook!  

When the cake is done cooking it should be firm on the outside but liquid on the inside.  If you tip the cake over a plate and it slides out it's done.  Drizzle with agave nectar or top with ice cream to take an edge off the bitterness of the chocolate.

Modified to be sugar and gluten free from a Suzanne Pirret recipe in The Pleasure Is All Mine.

Lemongrass Steamed Fish

Over on the other blog I write for I've been blathering about how much I love Asian markets and all the crazy ingredients that are to be found there.  Last week I wrote about all the crazy things I bought on my last trip through the Asian groceries of Madison and today I posted a delicious and easy soup recipe that I used to combine all the things I bought.   Now Tom Yum Kung soup is one of my favorite things to make. It seems complicated but it comes together super easily.

The only problem with a recipe like that and all the specialty ingredients is you are inevitably stuck with left over bits of things you have no idea what to do with.  Like lemongrass tends to come in big bunches but each recipe only calls for one stalk, so what to do with the rest?  Or you managed to track down lime leaves and galangal and they were kind of expensive so you don't want the rest to just rot, now what?

Steamed fish is the perfect solution.  Gather all the left over bits of Asian oddities and pile them on fish, wrap them up in parchment and you have an easy but creative dish that will save those stalks of lemongrass from going to waste.  It isn't pretty but it's very tasty and with just enough spice to be exciting.

Lemon Grass Steamed Fish

2 fillets of swordfish or other meaty fish

2 dried red chili peppers, chopped

2 limes, zested

4 thin slices of galangal (or ginger)

2 stalked lemon grass, bashed up with the edge of a knife and cut into 2 inch lengths

1/2 cup sake or white wine

2 dashes of fish sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut two pieces of parchment paper a bit larger than your pieces of fish.  Pat dry each fish fillet and season with salt and pepper on both sides before putting each piece of fish on a square of parchment.  

Sprinkle the top of each piece of fish with chili pepper, lime zest, galangal and lemongrass.  Now comes the interesting part.  Using string or staples gather together the parchment so that the fish is wrapped up like a present with just a small opening at the top of the packet.  When the fish is secured in the parchment, carefully pour 1/4 cup of sake into each wrapped up piece of fish.  Then drizzle in just a little bit of fish sauce to each fish packet.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a knife stuck into the fish meets little resistance.  Be careful unwrapping the fish so that you don't get burnt by the steam.  

Modified from an idea in Suzanne Pirret's The Pleasure is All Mine.

Sorrel Quiche

It's CSA season again.  That means its spring (yay no more snow!)  And it also means weekly confrontations with vegetables you have never seen before.  Sorrel? Ramps? Nettles? Say what?  I find it extremely exciting to hunt down recipes for these new vegetables, its like a treasure hunt than ends in a great meal.

This year the fella and I weren't able to go for a CSA since we'll very likely be moving out of state in the next couple of months and didn't want to abandon our box of veggies halfway through the season.  Instead the fella has been enjoying going to the farmer's market each Saturday and playing a little game called "stump Emily with wacky produce."  The star of the first episode of this little adventure was sorrel.  It's in a lot of French recipes but what do you do with it when you have a grocery bagful?  That's a very good question to which I answer; quiche!

But if you're on my site you're either on a low carb diet or just enjoy my typo ridden recipes and I'm gluten free so how do you make a tasty crustless quiche?  In this case covering the bottom of the pie plate with goat cheese worked out nicely as a crust substitute.  In fact this recipe was just all around fabulous and easy.  If you don't have sorrel go for spinach.  And if you're avoiding cow milk cheeses here is a fun tip: ground raw cashews taste very similar to Parmesan so it's a great thing to sprinkle on quiche or pasta without the unpleasant lactosey side effects.

Sorrel and Goat Cheese Quiche

5 ounces chevre

3 cups sorrel, coarsely chopped

1 handful scallions, chopped

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups soy milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 handful ground cashews (or Parmesan cheese)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread goat cheese (or any strong flavored cheese) in the bottom of a well greased pie plate.  Cover with chopped sorrel and scallions. Beat eggs, salt and milk together. Pour over greens. Sprinkle with ground cashews. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Modified from this recipe right over here.

Coconut Flour Bread

This is literally the easiest bread recipe in existence.  The hardest part about it is finding the coconut flour to cook it with.  Coconut flour I must warn you is not cheap.  I think a pound was $12 at my local grocery store.  But it is worth it for the experience and to try a totally new flour.  Coconut flour is ridiculously high in fiber and about a 45 on the glycemic index so it is perfect for this diet.  I really enjoyed having a bread that was different than anything else I've ever baked, it's naturally sweet and has a crisp outside and tender chewy middle that makes it have the mouth feel of toast without actually requiring a toaster.

Actually a word of warning on that issue, unless you have a very narrow toaster, because this makes such a tiny loaf the bread, it will just fall in the toaster never to be heard from again.   So if you want it warm just stick it in a warm frying pan for a minute or so to get warm.  Another thing, grinding up unsweetened coconut you already have at home will not make coconut flour no matter how finely you grind it.  Believe me I've tried and I haven't figured out how to fake it with out lumpy horrible results so this is one case where I'm going to have to advise you to suck it up an pay full price at the store for it.  You won't be sorry you did. 

Coconut Flour Bread

6 eggs

1/2 cup melted coconut oil 

1 tablespoons agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup coconut flour 

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a small buttered loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. 

From the Nourishing Days blog.

Swordfish and Olive Pasta

The fella and I were both extremely wary of this meal as we were cooking it.  Fish plus pasta seemed curious and had a likelihood to not be as tasty together as the two delicious bits are separate.  In this case the genius of the recipe won out over our doubts.  Not only is it a very yummy recipe it is also very easy.  The meaty texture of the broiled fish contrasted nicely with the pasta which then covered with the salty bits of caper and olive made a nicely balanced meal.  This recipe is going into our rotation of quick filling things to make when I don't feel like cooking.

Swordfish and Olive Pasta

6 ounces of swordfish
2/3 cup black olives, finely chopped
salt and pepper
6 ounces curly pasta (gluten free rice rice pasta works well)
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
4 tablespoons capers
1/ 2 starchy water reserved from boiling pasta
fresh parsley

Line broiler rack with aluminum wrap, rub on a little oil, set fish on top and broil 4 minutes on one side.  Turn the fish, top with olives and broil 2 or 3 minutes longer.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in the pasta.  While it cooked, saute shallot and garlic in the olive oil over low heat until they are soft, don't let them brown.  Add the herb de Provence and capers.  Slice the swordfish in thin strips and spoon the olives into the shallot mixture.

When the pasta is al dente, drain it, reserving 1/ 2 cup of the cooking water and mix the pasta in with the swordfish,adding pasta water a little bit at a time as needed to moisten the pasta in order to make a few tablespoons of sauce to cover the pasta.

Salt and pepper the dish.  Toss one last time and top with parsley to serve.

From Judith Jones' The Tenth Muse.

Double Chocolate Flourless Torte

It has been a hell of a day over here in my world so I'm going to just let this fabulous chocolate treat speak for itself.  Long story short; it's amazing and easy and I wish I had not already eaten it all so I could have some right now in my time of need.  Also please feel free to oo and aw over my new dessert plates.  That's all.

Double Chocolate Flourless Torte

1 cup dark chocolate (4 one-ounce squares)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Break up the squares of dark chocolate a little bit (I used unsweetened baking chocolate and still thought the recipe was too sweet) then place in food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.  Remove 1/2 of the ground chocolate for later. 

Add in almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt and combine for a couple more seconds in food processor.  Add eggs to food processor and pulse again, then add in agave, oil and orange zest.  Combine until smooth.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate pieces back to the mixture and stir briefly.

Transfer batter into a well greased 10 to 12 inch round pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until it passes the tooth pick test.

Adapted from a recipe on Elana's Pantry.

Spicy Goat Cheese Dip

Since I'm fessing up to my astronomical failures as a cook allow me to confess to another ridiculous thing I cannot manage to succeed at.  Nachos.  You heard me correctly.  Melted cheese and tasty fixings over chips.  Couldn't be simpler, right?  Anyone can do that.  Yeah anyone except me it would seem.  Having never attempted to make them before I thought the broiler would be the way to go.  30 seconds later I was waving out the fire on my organic blue corn chips.  Another dinner ruined.

In my defense nachos were never something we ate in my house growing up.   And the horrible alien cheese sauce drenched corn chips at the fair or the mall aren't nachos those are just wrong.  So I don't have a food memory of this dish to lead me to create a long forgotten favorite recipe.  All I had was a strange craving for cheesy corn chips after eating a quick meal at the Great Dane (a locally famous brew pub with good beer and a gluten free menu) and being mocked by the monster nacho plate being eating by people at a neighboring table.

Giving up cheese in Wisconsin is like giving up on snow in the Arctic, it just isn't possible.  It is everywhere and it knows where to find you when you least expect it.  Once you stop eating it you suddenly notice how prevalent cheese is.  Where as you once thought phrases like "cheesehead" or "the cheese state" are just cute metaphorical terms of endearment we use to talk about the area, you know now that the place literally is made of dairy and you can't escape seeing it.

I've gotten pretty good at ignoring all the amazing cheese this town has to offer and hardly mind that everyone around me makes yummy noises while nibbling on their latest gourmet cheese discovery at parties.  But everyone once in a while as I happily eat my bunless burger and salad a little rodent somewhere in my head will start screaming "Cheese!"  I try to ignore it but it gets more specific, "Ooey gooey sinful cheese drenched macaroni and cheese hot and fresh out of the oven!"  Then things go down hill into something along the lines of "Nachos! Nachos! Nachos! Nachos! Nachos!"  Until the part of my brain that hasn't been taken over by gerbils riffles my brain to find a solution that will make the cheese obsessed brain animals happy and not make me sick.  Anyone who read my vegan mac and cheese post knows that it is no small order to fill.

Thankfully I have a very understanding fella who is no longer surprised that the woman he lives with occasionally (okay on a very regular basis, shut up) goes crazy and insists that directly after lunch we must go to Whole Foods so I can look into making nachos immediately.  It probably helps that he usually benefits from my moments of madness by being rewarded with delicious food for the low low price of doing my endless dishes.

So the only way I could see this nacho thing going down was to indulge in goat cheese which I allow myself every couple of weeks because it doesn't seem to negatively effect me too much and lets face it I need some sort of cheese or I really will snap in the face of all this temptation.  However the goat cheese dribbled chips burst into flame because nachos under the broiler probably wasn't my greatest idea ever.  The cheese sauce I salvaged off of the wreckage on the other hand was amazing!  So whereas I cannot suggest asking me to ever making you something as simple as nacho I can tell you that this accidental goat cheese creation is a great dip.

Now world please do tell me how in the hell does one make nachos?

Spicy Goat Cheese Dip

1 5-ounce log goat cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream or coconut milk
1-2 chipotle peppers, chopped
1-2 teaspoons adobe sauce from chipotle peppers
1 jalapeno, finely chopped


Place goat cheese in a oven safe bowl.  Heat for 20 seconds or so until it becomes soft and easily mixable.  Add heavy cream or coconut milk until the cheese is the constancy you like, you might not need all the liquid depending on the goat cheese you're using.  Stir in the chipotle, adobe sauce and jalapeno until well combined.  Place in oven at about 375 degrees until cheese begins to brown on top.  Serve warm with good quality corn chips.

Sunchoke Fries and Zataar Chicken

Sunchokes also know as Jerusalem artichokes are an interesting little root vegetable.  In their raw form they look like the evil cousin of ginger root, there is no chance they will win a prettiest food contest that's for sure.  And they taste like an artichoke heart had a love child with a particularly waxy potato.  In other words oddly delicious.  It's a fun way to get your artichoke fix without the bother of steaming and dissecting an artichoke.  They also have a GI of about 50 so they aren't a great option for the diet but they're a better option than the evil carby potato and are a great treat for when you're on the weight maintenance phase and miss making homemade steak fries.

Until the other night I've only ever had them in delicious root vegetable mashes in fancy restaurants which I love but have never tried to recreate.  When it came time to prepare the sunchokes however I was not in the mood to experiment, I just wanted something fairly quick and tasty to eat.  So I turned on the oven, cut up the sunchokes, seasoned them and hoped for the best thinking they would probably do well baked like any other vegetable to make a sort of french fry.  And they came out great.  I also threw together my favorite no effort chicken and had a great meal that was easy but also very extraordinary. 

So if you ever see sunchokes in the store or more likely at the farmers market give them a try.  Especially if you're a lover of artichokes, these are the next best thing.

Zataar Chicken

2 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs

1 tablespoon oil

salt and pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons zataar seasoning 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a square glass baking dish coat the chicken with the oil then toss the spices on the chicken until somewhat evenly coated.  Bake in oven about 30 minutes or until the chicken is done all the way through.

Zataar is a blend of thyme, sumac and sesame seeds.  It's fairly easy to find and worth looking for because it's very flavorful and a nice seasoning for Mediterranean dishes.

Sunchoke Fries

handful of sunchokes, well scrubbed and cut into thin slices

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

1 or 2 tablespoons rosemary

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Spread sunchokes out on cookie sheet large enough to accommodate them all in a single layer.  Drizzle the sunchokes with enough oil to keep them from sticking to the pan, tossing them in the oil to coat.  Sprinkle salt, pepper and rosemary on the sunchokes to your taste.  Toss them again so the spices are evenly distributed and the sunchokes are spread out enough to not overlap much.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender in the middle and crispy on the edges.

Simple Lamb Curry

I'm apparently little bit obsessed with my newest culinary discovery.  My article over on Forkful of News today is a review of two of Judith Jones' books and now I'm posting for your cooking pleasure one of my favorite recipes of hers.  

It's just that she's a great writer, has had a jealousy inducingly interesting life and she also has amazing taste in food.  Most of the things the fella and I have eaten recently have come from her cookbooks.  She takes something simple like a steak or a curry and adds a little something extra to it that will make you rethink the way you've been cooking things all along.  And for someone like me who likes to know why something works instead of just being told what to do, I love that her recipes always include the reasoning  behind the instructions she provides.  I learned a lot about cooking just from reading her recipes.

Her book the Pleasure of Cooking For One was a lot of fun to cook out of the last time the fella was out of town.  She is a big proponent of cooking well for yourself and makings something special when you're alone, to make dinner a treat instead of a chore.  With that in mind she scales down huge feasts like Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon or tells you how to cook a whole duck and use every part of it to make meals for yourself for the week.  

And the recipes are amazing, I ate really well that weekend while cooking alone.  I had scallops and butternut squash risotto and this lamb curry.  Both were somewhat fancy but very simple, I defiantly felt treated and enjoyed my food which is sometimes hard to do when you're alone.  

I upped the scale on the portions from her original recipe to post here so that it makes dinner for two or dinner with left overs for the next day for one person.  Either way this is one of my new favorite curry recipes.  There is just something about lamb and curry that appeals to me and I could probably eat it everyday.

Simple Lamb Curry
 
4 tablespoon veggie oil
1 1/2 pounds lamb, cut into 1 inch piece
1 onion or 2 shallots, chopped
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
4 tablespoons curry powder
salt and pepper
lemon juice, to taste
1 1/2 cup broth of your choice
2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
1 small tart apple, cut into wedges

In a frying pan over medium high heat add 2 tablespoons of the oil until warm. Add the lamb pieces to the pan without crowding them. Brown the meat on all sides briefly without burning the meat or cooking the meat all the way through. Once browned set the meat aside.
 
Add the the other 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan and saute the onion, pepper and garlic for about 8 minutes or until softened but not browned. Add the cooked lamb, fennel seeds, and curry powder. Salt the lamb lightly then squeeze several drops of lemon juice into pan. Add broth of your choice, cover pan and cook at a decent simmer for about 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Reduce the heat and add more liquid if it evaporates too quickly.
 
When the sauce is your desired consistency add the coconut and apple slices, tossing them in the pan for about 5 minutes to warm through. Taste the curry, re-season with salt, pepper and lemon juice as needed then serve over rice or with flourless naan.

From Judith Jones' The Pleasures for Cooking for One. 

 

Fish Steamed Over Vegetables

While pouring a very interesting albeit not very enjoyable tasting of red wines from the Languedoc (they have a tendency to smell like a barnyard in the summer, not my idea of delicious) I got into a conversation about wine pairings with one of the tasters on a subject that I've never much thought about.  She was talking about  having just gotten into wine and how she's working on cellaring some wine.  However she is both a pescetarian (a vegetarian that also eats fish) and a lover of big red wines who was trying to come to terms with the fact she would never be able to pair all these great reds with an equally great meal.

I guess the whole "red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat" rule of thumb has become a bit too entrenched in the minds of starter winos.  And I say, rules?  Who needs them.  Do what you like.  If you're in the mood for fish and a red wine don't let the guy at the wine store who insists pinot gris is the only good wine to drink with white fish get in your way.  Of course a Cabernet and tilapia in a lemony sauce is going to be a little weird.  However pinot noir with a hefty fish like salmon is amazing.

So the other night when the fella and I were making this outstanding fish steamed over vegetables I tested out the red wine with white meat with good results.  The smooth, light bodied Castle Rock Pinot Noir from Geyserville, California had the right balance of gentle tannins and berry and stone fruit flavors to compliment the halibut steaks.  The steamed eggplant with the rich thyme and stewed tomatoes gave the fish enough heft that it could stand up to the Pinot.

Tada a red wine to pair with white fish.  It can be done.  And the recipe itself has the makings of a new favorite.  It was as easy as chopping up some vegetables and stirring it every once in a while.  And I can't believe I never thought of simply steaming fish over top of the veggies at the end, so much easier and waistline friendly than pan frying the fish.  Not to mention this is an excellent recipe to use, subbing in whatever random produce you have in the fridge.

Fish Steamed Over Vegetables

3 tablespoons oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

2 medium zucchini, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 medium pepper (any color), cut into inch pieces

2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

1/2 cup black olives

1 1/2 pounds white fish steaks (we used halibut)

1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large deep skillet with a lid, over medium high heat.  Add the garlic and onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft.

Add the zucchini, eggplant, pepper and a but more salt and pepper to the pan,  Lower the hear to keep veggies from burning and cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 to 15 minutes or until eggplant is soft. 

Add the tomatoes, thyme and olives, cook stirring occasionally until the tomatoes begin to break up and create a sauce, or about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper then place flesh side down over the pile of vegetables.  Adjust the heat so that the sauce simmers then cover pan and cook from anywhere between 5 to 12 minutes or until a knife inserted to the thickest part of the fish meets little resistance.  Thin fish will be done in 5 minutes, my medium thick fish took 8 minutes.

Spoon a portion of the veggies to a plate then top with fillet of fish.  Sprinkle with a bit of fresh basil.

Original recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. 

Whole Baked Trout with Fennel

This is a great meal to use should you need to impress someone without having the time to put tons of effort in to it.  Because nothing says "fancy" like serving someone a whole fish.  It seems complicated and complex but in actuality couldn't be easier.  Of course if you're squeamish about whole fish or know someone who is this probably isn't for you.

The fella surprised me by making this for dinner one night when we were having a friend over.  We were both quiet impressed and blown away by the presentation.  And this is a great way to prepare fish, it comes out at a perfect level of doneness so that is is flaky but very moist and flavorful.  The next time we made this dish I helped prepare it and realized just how easy it is to make and became an even bigger fan of this meal.

You can use any whole white fish, herbs and veggies you like.  This is just what we've come up with.  If you have any other combinations you find that you like let me know.

Whole Baked Trout with Fennel

3 tablespoons oil

2 whole trout, gutted

1 bulb fennel

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 lemon, sliced

salt and pepper, to taste

Grease the bottom of a baking dish large enough to fit the fish using the oil.  Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the fish and place into dish.

Cut the fronds off of the fennel bulb and put half of the fronds into the cavity of each fish.  Cut the fennel bulb into 1/2 inch thick chunks and scatter around the bottom of the dish around the trout.  Salt and pepper the fennel.  Place 2 sprigs of thyme inside each fish.  Divide the slices of lemon between the fish and place in the cavities.

Place in over for 15 minutes.  Check for doneness by poking thickest part of fish with a knife, if the knife goes easily through the flesh the fish is done and ready to eat.  If the fish isn't cooked through put in for another 5 to 10 minutes at a time until it is cooked to your preferred level of doneness.

Remove fennel fronds, thyme, and lemon from inside fish and serve with roasted fennel bulb.