Roasted Cauliflower and Fennel

With spring came an unnaturally strong desire to add fennel to everything. We've been buying super sized bulbs of fennel each time we go to the grocery store and following that urge where it takes us. It was only natural to add it to the cauliflower I was making with this meal to add some semblance of starch to a Montignac feast with people who aren't doing our diet.

This was everything I was hoping for. I love cauliflower, fennel and garlic. Roasted and tossed together it was a nice rather simple side dish. Pre-sauting all the veggies was kind of a pain but it did make sure that the texture of everything was perfect and cut down in the time in the oven. I braised leeks in the same pan and slid both dishes in the oven at the same time to took together so it all worked out in a nice rhythm.

Next time I'm in the mood for this I plan on trying to make a faux mashed potato with cauliflower and fennel. I've read about this combination as a low carb potato substitute but my Google-fu was unable to come up with an actual recipe. Seems like removing the herbs from the cooking sheet and tossing it all in the food processor with a dab of butter would be dreamy.

Other recipes from the Riesling Feast:
Almond Soup
Sara's Braised Leeks
Riesling Chicken
Beet Torte

Roasted Cauliflower and Fennel

1 head cauliflower, cut into 1 inch florets
6 tablespoons oil, divided use
1 onion, halved and cut into 3/ 4 inch wide wedges
2 fennel bulbs, halves and cut into 1/ 2 inch wide wedges
8 small garlic cloves, crushed but unpeeled
15 sprigs fresh marjoram

Preheat the oven to 425. Toss cauliflower and 2 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Heat a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add cauliflower and sauté until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer cauliflower to rimmed baking sheet.

Add 2 tablespoons oil to the same skillet. Add onion wedges and cook until browned on 1 side, about 3 minutes. Using spatula, transfer onions to baking sheet with cauliflower, arranging wedges browned side up.

Add last 2 tablespoons oil to same skillet. Add fennel; sauté until fennel softens slightly and starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to same baking sheet.

Scatter garlic and marjoram over vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until vegetables are caramelized, about 25 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Original recipe from Recipezaar.

Soupe Aux Amandes (Almond Soup)

Last weekend the fella and I had a couple of friends over for a ridiculous French dinner. Apparently it was such a good meal that we may have tempted them over to what they called our wine and cream diet. If anyone I know could handle the rigorous nature of this diet it's them, they're foodies who don't mind making things from scratch and like to experiment with new things. Hopefully we reeled them in, it would be nice to have some one else to talk about living in a world without bread and as the fella and I have learned this crazy diet does work.

This soup may have blown their minds a tiny bit. It's basically almonds, eggs and heavy cream cooked in a fussy way. It doesn't seem like it could be legal on any diet not even a strange French one. But alas it is and it was pretty tasty. It was tasty even though I screwed it up a little bit.

Having dipped into the cooking wine before dinner—purely for the purposes of testing which one was driest of course—I apparently was unable to read the recipe correctly. Admittedly the original recipe is poorly written so in this case I'm not taking all the blame. I missed the tiny side note near chicken stock in the ingredient list that calls for it to be warmed and waiting before starting to cook anything else. Of course, that's pretty important why wouldn't you make “warm the broth” the first step in the recipe? That would be too easy.

Neglecting this step was probably what caused the almond mixture to settle to the bottom of my soup. In my retyping out of the recipe I made the directions more clear so that no one else has to make the same mistake. Not that we noticed, the soup was still lovely the way it was. Very subtle and rich. The cream and nuts made it a heavy soup but the flavors were very soft. It went nicely with the Riesling I served with dinner. The sweet wine makes you salivate slightly and the cream satisfies your open taste buds. It was quite the experience.

Other recipes from the Riesling Feast:
Roasted Cauliflower and Fennel
Sara's Braised Leeks
Riesling Chicken
Beet Torte

Soupe Aux Amandes

1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
6 ounces almonds, shelled and peeled
3 hardboiled eggs, yolks only
3 cups heavy cream
2 egg yolks
slivered almonds

In a large sauce pan put the broth over low heat to warm through as you prepare the other ingredients.

Put the almonds and the yolks of the hard boiled eggs in a food processor and process until you have a smooth paste.

In a pot combine the almond mixture and 1 1/2 cups of the cream. Slowly add the heated broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.

In a large pot, not over heat, whisk together the raw egg yolks and the remaining 1 1/2 cups heavy cream. When the almond and cream mixture has cooked pour it slowly into the pot with the egg yolk mixture, and whisk while over medium heat for about 2 minutes. DO NOT BOIL.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve when soup is just heated through. Top with slivered almonds.

Original recipe from The Lutece Cookbook.

Low Glycemic Ice Cream

I've been a neglectful blogger, too busy wining and dining friends and just plain drinking wine to find time to post. Tonight I discovered something while shopping that I'm too excited not to share immediately. Low glycemic index coconut milk ice cream!

Three months with no ice cream is no way to live. So when I saw this peaking out of freezer case among all the other crazy and expensive frozen treats at Whole Foods I knew even at $5.99 a pint it was coming home with me. I clutched it to my chest and ran to the fella where he was peacefully shopping for vitamins and panted something about “Must...have...now...yum.” Once I got out the words “sugar free” he gladly tossed in our basket, still looking at me like a crazy person hyperventilating over ice cream.

This was worth every penny. It was the best ice cream I've ever had which is odd considering there is nothing traditionally ice creamy about it aside from being cold. It's dairy free combination of coconut milk and hazelnuts which made is super creamy and sinful. It's sweetened with agave nectar. And its loaded with chocolate and hazelnut chunks. It is delightful. If the fella hadn't been watching there would have been little to keep me from eating the whole pint in one sitting.

Sometimes this diet and its restrictions gets me down. There are a number of days I just want to say screw it and go drown myself in a huge baguette slathered in mayo and deli meat. It would be so easy. No more complicated menus or being picky in restaurants or explaining why I can't eat such and such a thing for the millionth time. Then out of the blue I stumble upon something like this ice cream and the blind excitement of that discovery that makes it worth it. The successes are worth the work. Oh yeah and the living longer and going down two sizes isn't too bad either.

Flourless Pizza Crust

The fella has been missing pizza just a teeny bit.

It used to be his Tuesday night ritual to buy the cheapest most unspeakable frozen pizza to eat while doing the geeky things he does on Tuesdays with his friends while I work. Apparently it's called gaming or something. Everyone has their flaws so I try to pretend this one doesn't exist by refusing to understand it.

Some people juggle geese. Some people sit around pretending to be demons and necromancers while playing with tiny painted figures. Some people decide to cook highly complicated meals 7 days a week and then freak out at random intervals about it being too difficult. If the person is worth it you grin and bear their silly hobbies and soldier on. Really I'm more concerned about his ability to have eaten those cardboard pizzas for so long.

After several months of being unable to slather gluttony rounds of dough with mounds of cheese he's been getting punchy. We drive by pizza places and he starts to drool. At night he would mumble the name of his lost mistress, pizza. Any mention of the word would cause him to go wide in the eyes and tap his veins begging for a fix.

Okay so it wasn't quite that bad. There were times that he looked at me however and I couldn't tell whether he was imaging that I was a pizza he was about to eat or if he was wondering how he could back out of this diet before losing his cheese loving mind. It was time to find a way to make this man a pizza.

Enter almond flour and all the wonderful things that can be made out of it. We've been on a bit of a kick with it lately, satisfying cravings all over the place by using it. So it was only natural that about this time I stumbled upon a nut flour pizza crust recipe. And lo the heavens opened and the fella said “woo flipping hoo” when I sent him the link letting him know pizza was imminent.

When the faithful night of pizza making arrived we were both bouncing with excitement. Then we started making the crust mixture and got a bit concerned. It was really runny and didn't look like any crust I'd ever made before. It didn't seem like it was thick enough to not run all over the pan. And how was this wet mess going to solidify enough to put toppings on it in just 5 minutes of baking? We were seconds away from thawing something from the freezer as we watched the crust do a whole lot of nothing in the oven.



Miraculously I pulled it from the oven and it was a nice firm crust like texture. We let it cool to firm up a bit more and started throwing toppings on it. It withstood being covered in sauce and veggies so things were looking good. I pre-sauted the vegetables assuming the vegetables wouldn't have enough time to cook on such a delicate crust and was right. Unless you like raw veggies on your pizza, cook them to your preferred level of doneness before this goes back in for round two. Topped with some sundried tomatoes and Havarti and we were drooling as hard as the dog does while we cook.

This was fabulous! It looked and smelled and had the texture of pizza. It doesn't taste like the real thing exactly but its a great fake out. The only problem is you really need to oil whatever surface you're baking this on or it will never let go of the pan. We spent a lot of time dislodging our pizza before being able to eat it.

I'm sure this will become a regular fixture on our menus. That sound you hear is the fella sighing with relief. His favorite food is a possibility again.

Flourless Pizza Crust

3 eggs
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 tablespoon oil
1/ 2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 salt
6 ounces ground almonds
1 teaspoon vinegar

Preheat the oven to 360. Line a round pizza pan with baking parchment, make on a silcone tray or oil your pan VERY well. This crust will stick like crazy.

Whisk the first five ingredients together in a bowl until frothy and starting to thicken slightly.

Beat in the ground nuts and vinegar and spread onto the baking parchment in an even, thin layer. It will be like thick batter, not a sticky dough. It doesn't look anything like pizza crust at this point but don't worry.

Bake for 5 minutes until just firm but not colored. Leave crust to cool a little before spreading your chosen toppings on and re-baking until the edge of the pizza base is golden brown and the cheese melted. You'll want to pre-cook any vegetables you plan on putting on this pizza in order to soften them, they won't have much time to cook before the crust is ready to be removed from the oven.

Original recipe from Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried blog.

Pear Crumble

I've been missing dessert something fierce while on this diet. Almost everything else I crave we've figured out a way to fake, and many things I used to lust after I just don't miss anymore. Not being able to bake however has been really disappointing. There are a lot of sweet things it's impossible to make without sugar or flour.

Fortunately there quite a few blogs out there written by people with similar diet restrictions that are finding ways of making really delicious desserts without either. I decided to start experimenting with something simple and summery. The original recipe called for peaches but it's not quite that time of year yet so pears made a nice substitute, they went well with the sweet almond crumble.

Somehow I managed to resist the urge to eat the whole pans of this yummy treat, in fact I've been nibbling on it for days and very happy about it.

Pear Crumble

6 pears, chopped in bite sized pieces
(original recipe called for 8 peaches which aren't in season yet)
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup water, approximately

6 oz ground almonds
2 lemons, zested
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 teaspoons agave nectar
4 teaspoons cold butter


Preheat the oven to 320.

Heat gently in a saucepan with a tablespoon of butter and enough water just to cover the bottom of the pan but not cover the fruit, I used about1/4 cup. You can always add more water if you want. Cook gently until the fruit is soft, but not too pulpy. There should be just enough juice around the fruit to make the crumble juicy, not swimming. Pile into a small baking dish and spread into an even layer.

Pour ground almonds into a mixing bowl with vanilla and lemon zest. Spoon in agave and butter, rub together gently with your fingertips until a damp crumble mixture forms. Spoon over the fruit and pop into the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.

Original recipe from Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried blog.