Frittata with Purple Potatoes

The focus of my cooking lately has been simple meals using local vegetables. I’ve started planning my weekly menu after my trip to the farmers’ market instead of before. That way, I can just buy what looks good and plan my meals around it.

J is very busy right now participating in a six-week opera training program at U of A called Opera Nuova. His days are usually 10 to 12 hours long, with only Monday off.

Needless to say all the cooking falls to me! I try to make something home-cooked every night so he can pack it for his meals the next day. I’m sticking to simple meals that don’t take too long to make – Asian noodle and rice salads with lots of vegetables, pasta with tomato-vegetable sauce, Curry with rice, lentil and vegetable soups, etc.

We’ve also been eating a lot more eggs now that they’re readily available at the market. One of my favourite – and easiest – egg dishes is a frittata.

I’ve been cooking free-form frittatas for years. It’s something my Mom used to make when I was younger. The formula is very simple: eggs, vegetables, cheese if you like, all cooked in a pan on the stove and then stuck under the broiler for a few minutes to make the top nice and brown.

The great thing about frittata is its portability. It’s easy to take for lunch and reheat in the microwave. I love egg dishes with a poached or fried egg topping a salad or other dish, but unfortunately they don’t result in easy, packable leftovers.

Heidi Swanson has a great frittata recipe in her latest cookbook, Super Natural Every Day. It’s almost the same as the recipe I use, but I like her trick of removing half the cooked vegetables and topping the frittata with them before broiling. Since I never measure my vegetables but just eyeball them, I’ve taken Heidi’s amounts as my guidelines in the recipe below.

When I took these pictures I used mostly potatoes (purple ones from Sundog Organics) in my frittata. Feel free to play around with the vegetables as you like, and find your favourite ratio of egg-to-vegetable.

Frittata with Purple Potatoes

5 green onions, sliced thinly
8 oz. potatoes (purple or otherwise)
8 oz. seasonal vegetables (good choices are asparagus, mushrooms, peppers [you can also use jarred peppers which is what i did here], zucchini, green beans, broccoli), chopped into bite-sized pieces
10 eggs
Crumbled hard or soft goat cheese

Preheat the broiler.

Either chop your potatoes into bite-sized pieces and cook them in boiling water until just tender, or slice them very thinly.

Heat about 2 Tablespoons oil in a large skillet (for this amount of eggs, 10 to 12 inches is good). If you sliced your potatoes, add the green onions and potatoes. Cover and cook until the potatoes are just tender, about ten minutes.

If your potatoes are cooking in a separate pot, add your green onions to the pan and follow the next step.

Add the rest of your vegetables and cook until just tender (if I’m cooking mushrooms I like to cook them until they’re juicy). Remove half the vegetable mixture to a plate.

Meanwhile, whisk your eggs and season with salt and pepper. If you cooked your potatoes in a separate pot, add half of them to the pan once the vegetables are cooked. Lower the heat in the skillet to medium-low and pour in the eggs, making sure the vegetables are evenly distributed. Cook until the eggs are just set and only the very top is still liquid.  As they cook, slide a spatula under the cooked eggs and tilt the pan so the uncooked egg slides under.

Add the remaining vegetables and potatoes to the pan and sprinkle with goat cheese. Put the pan under the broiler until the eggs are puffed and brown. This takes me about 3 to 4 minutes, but the time will depend on how hot your broiler is. Keep a close eye on it.

Remove pan and cut frittata into wedges. Heidi suggests topping with chopped chives and sprinkling with olive oil. I think it would also be very good with your favourite hot sauce.

Morning Smoothie

My new habit is eating a morning smoothie. I even got J into it.

It's a fresh, easy, delicious way to start the day. It may sound cliche, but I'm always trying to find easy ways to get more vegetables and fruits into our diets, and smoothies are a great one.
I also love them because they're so adaptable. You can add lots of different things - fruit, yogurt, any kind of milk, juice, vegetables (though I haven't tried this yet), ground flax seeds, nut butter etc.

Here's how I'm making mine these days:

I ripe banana
About 1/2 cup frozen fruit (we usually use berries)
About 2 Tbsp. ground flax seeds
a few spoonfuls yogurt
Enough milk or liquid to make it smooth and drinkable

Blend it up and enjoy!

We bought a new immersion blender recently, with a more powerful motor, so it makes this really easy. I find the combination of ripe banana and yogurt, plus some frozen fruit, makes the perfect consistency: thick enough, creamy and frothy. I always use plain yogurt (my fave) and I never add sugar - the fruit is sweet enough.

I've been buying Fairwinds Farm goat milk at the Italian Centre and using that in my smoothie. I tasted it on its own and was surprised to find it tasted just like cow's milk to me - no funky sharp taste like most goat's cheese and yogurt has. It blends up into a creamier mix than our other standby, almond milk, but almond milk makes the smoothie a bit sweeter. The goat milk is expensive, but it's really great to have on hand for recipes that just don't work as well without dairy.

To last through the morning without getting too hungry, I usually combine my smoothie with a bowl of whole-grain cereal with milk and raisins, or some gluten-free toast with peanut butter or avocado. Yup, I like a hearty breakfast.

What do you like in your smoothies? Do you add vegetables? Let me know, I'd love some other ideas!

Gluten-free Pancakes

I've always loved pancakes. My Mom used to make them on the weekend when I was growing up. My Dad was the eggs and bacon guy, but Mom always made the pancakes. She was pretty health-conscious, and she often used a Jane Brody recipe that included whole-wheat flour, cornmeal and wheat germ. I have to admit they turned me into a pancake snob. I loved their heartiness and their crunch, and as a result I've never been
 able to appreciate the fluffy white Bisquick version.



Since discovering I have celiac disease, I've been reading a blog from Calgary called the Celiac Teen. Lauren has a great blog full of excellent recipes, most of which she creates herself. It's all the more impressive considering she's still in high school. I found the bones of this recipe on her website, but the beauty of these pancakes is their immense flexibility.



The first few times I made them, I used the flours in Lauren's version, but as I ran out of certain kinds of flour I started replacing them with others. Sometimes the batter was thicker, and sometimes it was thinner, but each time they tasted fantastic. Then one weekend morning, our wireless network wasn't working, but I wanted pancakes. I hadn't printed off the recipe, so I tried to make them anyway, working from memory. They still came out perfectly. When I checked later, I realized I had used quite a bit less flour overall than she calls for, but somehow these are magic pancakes. They are impossible to screw up!



I much prefer using weights to cup measurements when I bake. It makes the process so much easier and cleaner - you just pile it all into a bowl without getting all the cups and spoons dirty. It's especially handy with gluten-free baking since often you're using 4 or 5 different kinds of flour. It also makes adapting a recipe much, much easier. For these pancakes, I knew I needed a certain weight of whole grain flours and a certain weight of starches, but swapping different kinds was easy. I'm looking forward to being able to modify and invent my own recipes in the future using my trusty kitchen scale.



I'm also all about versatility when it comes to pancakes toppings. Classic real maple syrup is definitely a favourite, but honey is great too. I also love spreading peanut or other nut butters on the pancake and then adding something sweet (see above). Another habit is a dollop of plain yogurt and a drizzle of honey, sometimes with soft, sauteed apples if I'm really feeling fancy. And since these pancakes aren't very sweet, I'm sure they'd also be great with cheese and fruit.



Leftover pancakes are also great. It might sound a bit weird, but I like them eaten plain and cold straight from the refrigerator.

Gluten-free Whole-Grain Pancakes (adapted from this recipe)

You can play around with the flours in this recipe. Try using amaranth, sorghum, or quinoa in place of the millet. I probably wouldn’t use all quinoa flour because of its strong taste, but 1 oz. would be great. This batter is quite thin, but if you like thicker pancakes you can use an extra ounce millet flour and an extra ounce tapioca starch.

2 oz. millet flour
1.5 oz cornmeal
1 oz. flax meal
1 oz. tapioca starch
1 oz. sweet rice flour (sometimes called glutinous rice flour)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. xantham gum
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 to 1.5 cups milk – cow’s or soy works well
1/4 melted butter or oil.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Beat the wet ingredients until bubbly, about a minute. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir together, then whisk until smooth.

Heat a frying pan or a griddle to just over medium heat, and add a thin layer of oil.  Fry the pancakes until brown, flipping when bubbles appear on the tops.

Spelt Pancakes

I've found a new favourite pancake recipe.

I've tried many pancake recipes over the years. My first favourite was the one my Mom used to make for us when we were kids. My house definitely wasn't the Bisquick kind, and this pancake is full of whole-wheat flour, wheat germ and cornmeal. It's from a Jane Brody cookbook that is literally falling apart - the book is now kept together with an elastic band and the page with the pancake recipe can be slid out as a single sheet of paper.

Those pancakes are delicious and healthy, but on the downside, they have many ingredients, so aren't exactly a throw-together recipe. (In fact, I remember my sister and I used to laugh about the thought of whipping these up for before-school breakfasts, as Jane suggests. Weekday breakfasts were toast, frozen waffles, or cereal. That's it.)

 
When J and I lived in our apartment in Charlottetown I started making other pancakes recipes. There were some good oat and walnut pancakes from a Moosewood cookbook, but the recipe I liked best was from Nigella Lawson's book Feast. They're called scotch pancakes, and they have only a few ingredients so they're easy to make fast.

I’ve been making Nigella’s pancakes for the past three years. Until a few weeks ago. That’s when pancakes seemed to hit the food blogosphere in a few different places all at once. I saw this recipe first, and the writer's thoughtful and beautiful post, combined with the simplicity of the recipe, convinced me to try them.

I was not disappointed. They are easy to put together, tasty and healthy. The spelt flour gives me them a nice nutty flavour, and with no sugar they are the perfect foil for a dousing of maple syrup. But I think the best part is that they cook up super fast in the pan and get nice and brown, the way good pancakes are supposed to look. I hate standing at the stove for ages when it's Sunday morning and all I want to do is sit down with the newspaper and a cup of tea, and admire the way the morning sun hits the kitchen table. It can be one of the most peaceful moments of the week. So why spoil it with too much cooking time? These pancakes are fast. Like, you-need-to-watch-them-so-they-don't-burn fast. That’s my kind of pancake.

This is now my go-to pancake recipe, but who knows how long that will last. What kind of pancakes do you like?

As the original recipe says, I think these would be good with all kinds of fruits. I'd like to try frozen blueberries next. When I added the apple slices you see in the photo above, that side of the pancake didn't really cook enough for me, so I think I'd prefer little fruits mixed in.

Vegan Breakfast

It’s time to introduce something new here at The Little Red Kitchen: my first ever guest post! I’ve written here before about my sister Claire, the vegan foodie and aspiring chef. Claire’s hoping to open a vegan restaurant in the future and is diligently cooking and studying every day in preparation.

I asked Claire to write a post on Vegan Breakfasts, mainly for my friend Elliott. Elliott is vegan as well and told me he is always pretty uninspired when it comes to breakfast. So here is Claire to save the day for Elliott and any other vegetarians or vegans out there. Or anyone who likes a tasty breakfast.  - Isabelle

Ooooh, breakfast. How I love you. How I love waking up thinking about you. I prefer you leisurely and drawn-out, maybe accompanied by a peaceful conversation or a crossword puzzle or a magazine. And definitely some tea or a cappuccino.

Hello! I’m Claire, Isabelle’s sister. I live in Halifax. I’ll be your guest host for this chat about the vegan breakfast table. I became a vegetarian in 2003 and shortly thereafter went vegan. Since then I’ve delved excitedly into vegan cuisine of all kinds. In this post I’ll focus on the savoury vegan breakfast.

The variety of the vegan breakfast or brunch is very vast indeed. Let’s kick things off with a few photos to whet your appetites.

Tofu omelette, tempeh bacon, and toast.

Poori Bhaji, my breakfast every day in India: deep-fried puffy pancake and spicy chickpea curry filling.

Smoked tofu, greens, and citrus béarnaise sauce for a vegan Benedict, accompanied by roast potatoes.

Tofu scramble and Toast in Vancouver.

A classic choice for a savoury vegan brekky is tofu scramble. This dish can pretty much be whatever you want it to be. A few basic principles I’ve observed: Using extra-firm tofu and keeping it on high heat in your pan until it browns up beautifully will give you a crispy and chewy scramble. For those of you who like things saucier, you may find that method yields a scramble drier than you want. If that’s you, try using silken tofu, which is sold unrefrigerated in vacuum-sealed boxes and with which you can achieve a softer, more tender-on-the-tongue scramble.

Tofu scramble is an extremely easy dish in which to eyeball all the ingredients. In fact, I’m going to estimate them all right here in front of you. Take a medium-sized onion and a few cloves of garlic, chop it all and sauté it with a generous amount of olive oil in a (preferably cast-iron) pan for quite a while (20 mins or so) until they get all wonderfully caramelized. Crumble in anywhere from 1/2 to a full block of tofu, mashing it in your hands before dropping the pieces into the pan. Don’t make the pieces too tiny yet, because they’ll break up while cooking. Toss that around in your pan until you get to the brownness you desire. At some point during that process, add herbs and spices as you wish. I like thyme, oregano, and lots of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Taste it a lot as you go, to see what you need more of. You can add finely chopped vegetables at any time, say broccoli or mushrooms. When the tofu is done to your likeness, add two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and a quarter cup of nutritional yeast (a cheesy, non-active yeast that can be found at health food stores and some grocery stores). Mix until those are incorporated. You’re done!

I just came across an extremely delicious take on scrambled tofu – Puttanesca scramble - in the recently published Vegan Brunch, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. You’ll find that recipe and several others on the book’s website. Isa’s book is a great resource for vegan breakfasts of all kinds. It just came out last Spring and I highly recommend it.

I recently made vegan sausages for the first time, also from recipes in Vegan Brunch. They are deelish and very easy to make. The main ingredient is wheat gluten flour, which can be found at health food stores and some grocery stores. It’s very high in protein and is the main ingredient in seitan. The sausages have a chewy texture and hold together beautifully, due to the gluten flour. I fry them whole or slice and fry them, and then eat them as a side for pancakes or with gravy and toast.

I often compose a breakfast plate from small amounts of many items. Potatoes of any kind are usually there, from baked to home fries to roasted. I often bake potatoes in the evening and then the next morning it’s very efficient just to chop and fry them. Sauteed tomatoes, baked beans, toast, biscuits with gravy (see recipes on Vegan Brunch website), cornbread, and tempeh bacon (see photo) are all very yummy in combo with one another. Tempeh is a cake of pressed-together soybeans that’s more easily digestible than tofu because it’s fermented; it also has a nice nutty flavour. It can be bought at health food stores mainly. To make tempeh bacon, take a block of tempeh, slice it up thinly into strips, and sauté it in olive oil and tamari soy sauce on high heat in a non-stick pan until it’s browned and crispy, turning the pieces over halfway through. Continue to add more sauce and oil as it gets dry. Like in the versatile tofu scramble, you can also add other things like crushed garlic, maple syrup, sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, or herbs and spices to your tempeh pan.

A simpler, less-cooking-required breakfast that has become a favourite of mine is toast with avocado slices on it, sprinkled with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. It feels really great to me to start my day with avocado. It’s like the much more exciting and beautiful relation of peanut butter. Relation as in …toast-topping family. Almond butter is also great on toast, and very high in calcium. Another great toast combination is nut butter, cherry tomatoes, and tempeh bacon or smoked tofu. As far as margarines go, most margarine brands are not vegan because they contain whey or buttermilk powder, and in some instances (Becel) they also contain gelatin. An extremely good vegan brand is Earth Balance, which tastes very much like butter and can be used wherever you might use butter, especially on toast! I make my own bread in my breadmaker most of the time, but there are lots of commercial breads that are milk-free and egg-free.

I also love to eat stuff for breakfast that is more typically lunch and dinner fare. Last night’s pizza, baked pasta, and particularly marinated, baked tofu are winning guest stars of the breakfast world.

There are also a lot of processed vegan breakfast items available at the grocery store. I like some of them, but have found that it’s cheaper and healthier, and also very easy, to make my own versions. Maybe someday soon I’ll develop a recipe for my own Earth Balance. When I do, I’ll let you know. For now, happy brunching!

Apple-Rhubarb Sauce

Some of the food I’ve been making on this cleanse feels very autumnal. Roasted acorn squash rings. Roasted sweet potato fries. Lentil soup.

I have been eating lots of salads, lots of asparagus, and lots of avocado too, so there’s definitely a healthy dose of spring on the menu. But I wouldn’t usually be roasting squash or making applesauce at this time of year.

This applesauce, however, is a perfect blend of spring and fall. I love rhubarb, and when I saw the beautiful red and green stalks appear at the market a few weeks ago I couldn’t resist them. But I usually use rhubarb in cakes or crumbles, and I haven’t been doing a lot of baking lately. So I tried to figure out how to cook with it as the stalks got limper and limper in my crisper.

I scoured the internet for “rhubarb no sugar” recipes and somewhere along the way, I got the idea to blend applesauce with stewed rhubarb. The apples act as a natural sweetener, and that’s pretty much all you need.

Thankfully, rhubarb is a hardy vegetable.  It looked limp and defeated when I plucked it from the drawer, but after I chopped it up and stewed it down with some vanilla and spices, it fell apart beautifully.

I think the rhubarb makes ordinary applesauce a lot more interesting. It adds a tangy note, and the vanilla flavour really came through, especially in my first batch. You don’t need to stew it with anything but water, though, if you don’t have the other ingredients on hand.

This sauce was one of my treats for the first few weeks of this cleanse. Spooned into a bowl and topped with a shake of cinnamon and maybe a few sunflower seeds, it makes a great snack that I often craved more than a piece of fruit.

The last of the fall apples are still at the farmers’ markets, which makes this recipe almost completely local too. Always a bonus!

For a summery variation, I think this could also work with strawberries or raspberries instead of the rhubarb. And it would be delicious spooned over vanilla ice cream …

Apple-Rhubarb Sauce

About 5 0r 6 apples, unpeeled, cored and cut into eighths
One bunch rhubarb
Seasonings (optional):
   Half a vanilla bean
   5 whole cloves
   3 cardamom pods
Honey or sugar (optional)

To make apple sauce, put apples in a heavy saucepan with about a ¼ inch of water in the bottom. Cover the pan and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, or until the apples are soft enough to blend easily. If there is too much liquid left, leave the pot to sit off the heat for a few minutes and it will evaporate.

Blend the apples using a food processor or immersion blender. You could probably use a potato masher or a fork too for a chunkier sauce.

Meanwhile, chop the rhubarb into bite-sized pieces and put it into a heavy pot with just a splash of water. Add the half-vanilla bean, cloves and cardamom pods. Cover the pan and cook over medium heat for about ten minutes until the rhubarb is soft and falling apart. Remove the seasonings, then blend with a fork.

Stir the two sauces together. When I made it I think I had about equal ratios between the two fruits, or more apples, maybe  two-thirds to one-third. Taste for sweetness, and add honey or sugar if you think it is too sour. 

Homemade in Toronto: Palacsinta

Writing about Toronto feel miles out of date by now, but I just can’t let it go. It was too good a trip and I really want to share it with you.

It might seem strange that I’m telling you about the homemade food I ate in Toronto. After all, to me it is the land of a million restaurants.

But between the restaurant suppers and the many cafe treats, there were a few meals at home tucked in there. Unfortunately I didn’t make any of them. My gracious hostesses, Emily and Eva, were only too happy to spoil me.

When Emily and I lived together back in university, all four of us roommates had certain dishes that we often made for each other, or for potlucks. Rachael could whip up a delicious green salad with feta cheese, green onions, almonds and an amazing dressing. Jessie used to make this yummy, earthy mixture of mushrooms, pinto beans and brown rice. My favourite contribution was the Moosewood cornbread recipe. And Emily would treat us to pancakes for weekend breakfast.

If you knew us four at all, you would realize that these foods are all hugely characteristic of our personalities, and how we’re defined in this group. I’ve only just come to this conclusion now, as I write this three years later, but I think it’s pretty bang-on.

And I swear, the next time the four of us are all together (unfortunately, it happens rarely), I want to request that we all make those four foods and have a wonderful, nostalgic, albeit rather carby, meal.

The pancakes Emily used to make were little ones called “Three-in-a-pan”. I think the recipe came from a Unicef kids’ cookbook. Eaten hot and sprinkled with icing sugar, maple syrup and raisins, they were a divine way to start the day.

But in Toronto a few weeks ago, Em didn’t make Three-in-a-pan. She made Hungarian crepes, or Palacsinta, instead. Well, she said they’re Hungarian, and the recipe is from a Hungarian cookbook. But to me they tasted like other crepes I’ve eaten before that I always thought were French. I’m not complaining – they were delicious. Especially since they’re filled with jam, and have maple syrup on top to boot.

I’ve never made crepes before, but I’ve been meaning to for years. I think I have this strange notion that they require a lot of special technique to make sure they come out thin and perfectly crisped. That maybe I need to go out and buy a crepe pan just to make sure I get it right. Plain old pancakes seem a lot easier.

But Em mixed these up in a cinch, and delivered them to me and Eva rolled up and, again, sprinkled liberally with icing sugar. Along with the jam and the maple syrup. There’s nothing like a jolt of sugar to start the morning.

It’s just like old times. 

Thanks to Emily for this recipe!

Palacsinta

Ingredients: 

4 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Beat eggs and sugar until frothy, add salt and milk, beat in flour slowly, until very smooth, then add melted butter to have a very thin batter.

Use a non-stick crepe pan or a regular non-stick frying pan. Heat to sizzling point, then reduce heat for your first crepe. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter in pan and swish around until the entire bottom of the pan is covered. When lightly brown use a flat crepe spatula to turn over and brown ever-so-lightly. Remove onto a flat warm dish. 

Fill with whatever filling you want - traditional Hungarian filling is apricot jam (we like raspberry and strawberry). And always dust with icing sugar!

Yields about 12 - 16 thin crepes.

Gluten-free muffins

As I’ve mentioned here before, J and I have been trying to eat less gluten in the past few months. We wanted to see if it would make us feel different, since we both have a few digestive issues.  So far, J is feeling better, but I haven’t really noticed any difference. The stomach aches I sometimes get don’t seem tied to gluten.

Because of this experiment, I have been doing some gluten free baking, which has been interesting, fun, and yes, expensive. Gluten-free flour is not cheap. Especially because most recipes call for several different types of flour that all blend together to become a semblance of wheat. I haven’t bought any of the gluten-free flour mixes that are on the market yet, although I’m sure there are good ones. I’ve been going solo with my chickpea flour and tapioca starch (and several others).

I’ve made several loaves of chickpea bread from Bette Hagman’s book The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread, and they are quite good. No, they are not the same as wheat bread, but they are tasty. The texture is a bit dry and spongy, but it is perfectly fine once toasted, which is the way I usually eat my bread anyway.

Last week I tried my hand at some gluten-free muffins. I had been craving some muffins, since they are a treat that I love. In an ideal world, I would whip up a batch of fruit or vegetable-filled muffins once or twice a week so we could have a constant supply in our cookie (or muffin) tin, waiting for breakfast, a midday snack, or really any time of day. Some of my favourites are zucchini, carrot, apple and cranberry. If you have the right recipe, muffins can be both nutritious and delicious. And a homemade muffins beats most cafe or store-bought ones any day, for taste and for price.

I searched the internet for some gluten-free muffins and read many a recipe before I found a few with ingredients that I (mostly) had. I used one of those as a guide for the flours, and my favourite apple muffin recipe from a Moosewood cookbook for the rest of it. I was pretty proud of myself for adapting it, because they turned out great. They tasted like yummy apple muffins, and the only difference from the wheat version was a slightly darker brown colour and a more crumbly texture.

These passed the gluten test, too: J’s aunt and cousins, who were visiting, gobbled some up. If we stick to this gluten-free thing, I will definitely be making them again. They’re also a nice way to use some of the apples that we have been constantly eating … one of the only local fruits left. We buy our apples at the BC orchard stand at the Farmers’ Market. Lately we’ve been hooked on the Aurora variety, and they are really delicious. But … I am starting to crave some berries in this never-ending winter!

Gluten-Free Apple Muffins

Adapted from this recipe and Apple muffins from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

I made the oat flour by pulsing some oats with my immersion blender – I’d never done it before but it worked great. But I’m sure you could leave the oats whole for a slightly chewier muffin.

2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated apples
1 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel (optional)

1/2 plus 1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup oat flour (or oats)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/3 cup quinoa flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1  1/4 tsp. xantham gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon, or 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and 1/4 tsp. cloves

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add the apples and lemon peel and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir just until combined. Make sure not to stir too much, or the muffins will be dense. Add the nuts if you’re using them.

Spoon the batter into oiled muffin cups, or cups with paper liners. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. A knife inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out clean.

My First Braid

I learned how to braid hair as a kid, but I wasn’t very good at it. I could never make the three strands the same size, and I always seemed to miss little pieces of hair as I wove my way over and over, over and under. I could never get the hang of French braiding – that was way too complicated.

I haven’t worn braids in years. Every so often I attempt a single braid in what I hope looks like a casual, sophisticated hairstyle, but usually it just ends up looking messy and old-fashioned.

So when I attempted to braid my first bread a few weeks ago, I was a little nervous.

The bread recipe was a chocolate-chip pumpkin loaf that I came across while browsing some food blogs. I had some leftover canned pumpkin sitting in the fridge, but I wasn’t keen on turning it into a sugary treat (for once!) so this seemed perfect.

The dough came together nicely, and smelled spicy and aromatic. I discovered that kneading dough with chocolate chips in it isn’t the easiest thing in the world – they kept popping out and rolling to the floor.

After the first rise, it was time to braid. I divided the dough into three pieces and rolled each into a long, thin strip. I positioned the strips in a convenient place on our desk-cum-island, where I could get at them from both sides, took a deep breath, and began.

It went surprisingly well. The recipe tells you to start braiding from the middle and do both sides separately, which was clearly different from a hair braid. I got a little mixed up on the second side and spent a minute or two crossing the strips over and then crossing them back. But I figured it out, and when I was all done, my braid of dough looked pretty good.

Then I had to twist the dough, which I figure out without too much trouble, so the finished product looks like a big round braid. After another rise and some time in the oven, it puffed up golden brown and tasted delicious. The pumpkin flavour was subtle, but the spices pumped it up a notch and the chocolate chips made it feel like a special treat. I especially liked this bread sliced warm right after it came out of the oven, or toasted with butter.

I’m still not a great hair braider, but I’m ready to tackle my next bread braiding project. Maybe a loaf of Challah in time for Hannakuh?

Yeasted Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Source: www.bakingandbooks.com

Makes one loaf

Ingredients:

• 4 to 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 heaping tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup low-fat milk, warm
• 1/4 cup melted butter (warm, not hot)
• 1 large egg, plus one more for the glaze
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, according to taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, combine the warm milk, the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Add the pumpkin puree, spices, light brown sugar, salt, egg, and melted butter. Mix until combined. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between additions. After you have added 2 cups of flour, add the chocolate chips, then continue with the rest of the flour. When the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl switch to your dough hook, or a wooden spoon if making bread by hand.

If using a stand mixer, knead the dough for 4 minutes, adding extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed - just enough to keep the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl. If making the bread by hand, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 minutes, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough is done when it’s smooth and bounces back when you press your thumb into it.

Place the dough in a deep container greased with 1 tsp of olive oil. Turn the dough once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Spray a spring-form cake pan with baking spray, or oil lightly and lightly flour. Sprinkle the flour on the bottom and along the sides, then invert the pan and tap out any excess flour.

Divide the dough into 3 equal portions, and roll each portion out into a smooth, thick strip about 15 inches long, with the ends slightly thinner than the middle. Be gentle with the dough or you’ll tear it, which wouldn’t affect the final flavor but would influence the way the finished loaf looks.

Lay the ropes side-by-side, not quite touching. Beginning in the middle and working towards you, braid the lower half of the three ropes. To braid, alternately move the outside ropes over the one in the center - left over, right over, left over - until you come to the end. Now go to the other side of your working space and braid the other half, this time moving the outside ropes under the center one. Braid tightly - you don’t want any gaps. When you finish braiding each side crimp the tapered ends together, then tuck them under. Twist the braid around itself, pinwheel fashion, gently pressing the outside end against the larger body of dough. Transfer to your prepared pan.

Whisk together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, this is going to be the glaze for your bread. Gently brush the dough with it. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

About 30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush the dough with the egg mixture again. The dough will have stretched during rising, so be sure to get any spots that don’t have glaze on them.

Place the pan on a rack in the center of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until browned and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it with your fingers. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then transfer the bread to a cooling rack. Allow to cool at least 20 more minutes before slicing.

Winter Fruit Salad

I made two mistakes with this recipe.

The first was to completely forget about a very specific flavour, and the second was to underestimate the importance of specific ingredients.

Let me tell you what happened, from the beginning. J and I were invited to a potluck and I decided to make a recipe that I saw on Smitten Kitchen for Winter Fruit Salad. It involved a sugar syrup, dried figs, pears and pomegranates, and it sounded intriguing. I know it’s usually not wise to make a new recipe for a potluck, but I was feeling adventurous.

So I went grocery shopping, spending much more than I had anticipated on figs, vanilla beans, and star anise. I also bought garlic oil, noodles, sugar snap peas and sweet chilli sauce for the sesame peanut noodles that J was bringing. Let’s just say I gulped when I got to the cash register. For all that I love our precious Sobey’s, it can be a bit dear.

Later that night I started cooking. It was when the sugar syrup was simmering and I leaned over the pot to smell the steam that I began to realize my first mistake. It had somewhat slipped my mind that star anise has a licorice flavour, and that’s exactly what the syrup smelled like. And licorice … well, it’s not really my favourite flavour. In fact it’s one of my least favourite flavours. Oops.

I soldiered on and finished the recipe, pouring the syrup over the dried figs and apricots, slicing the pears and apples, putting the whole thing in the fridge to chill. I was hoping that I might still like it. But when J and I were riding the subway to the potluck and he opened the bowl to show me the salad, I realized my second mistake, and I pretty much knew that I wouldn’t.

I’m the queen of substitutions and it drives J nuts. Whole wheat flour instead of white (I once made a chocolate cake this way – not recommended, although I still ate it), sage instead of marjoram (big fiasco), . I am usually just trying to be resourceful and use up something we have hanging around in the fridge. It almost always turns out okay. I’ve been using self-rising cake flour in waffles recently, and they always taste great.

In the case of this fruit salad, I didn’t actually substitute a thing. In fact, I made a point of buying exactly everything that was called for, except for Turkish apricots that I couldn’t find. I just didn’t use the exact right ingredient.

The recipe calls for firm Bosc pears. When I decided to make this salad, I already had four Bosc pears sitting on our windowsill, and of course I wasn’t going to go out and buy more. It turns out I should have. Since the pears sit in the sugar syrup for about eight hours, they get a little waterlogged, and my very ripe pears just couldn’t stand it. They collapsed. They cooked. They mushed into slimy slices. It was very sad.

So this salad wasn’t a disaster. I think everybody at the potluck ate some. I didn’t hate it. But the intense licorice flavour combined with the mushy pears definitely didn’t make it a winner. And I thought I would like the figs better. I’m tempted to try it again, without the star anise and using firm pears. But I’ll be honest. It probably won’t be anytime soon.

By the way, J’s Sesame Peanut Noodles were delicious. Worth every penny. I’ve included that recipe too, because I picked it from our Nigella Express cookbook, and it proves that I don’t always make bad potluck decisions.

Winter Fruit Salad

smittenkitchen.com

3/4 cup sugar
3 star anise
1/2 of plump vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
8 dried Turkish apricots, cut in half
4 dried figs, quartered
4 2-inch long pieces lemon zest (peeled with a vegetable peeler) from a Meyer lemon if you can find one
Juice of the zest lemon
3 firm Bosc pears
1 firm tart apple
Seeds from half a pomegranate

1. Fill a medium saucepan with 4 cups water. Add the sugar, star anise, vanilla bean and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, and cook until all the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool for just a few minutes (it should still be hot) and then stir in the dried figs and apricots. Let it cool completely.

2. Meanwhile, peel and core pears and apple. Slice thinly lengthwise and place in a large bowl, and toss with the lemon juice.

3. Once the syrup with dried fruit has cooled, pour it over the apples and pears. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill it overnight in the refrigerator.

4. The next morning, using a slotted spoon, ladle the fruit into a serving bowl, sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and serve. Remove the vanilla beans (you can rinse and save what is left of them for another use) and lemon peels if you wish, or leave them in for decoration.

Do ahead Syrup can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a day or two. Hot syrup can be poured over the dried fruit and kept in the fridge for a day or so. Prepared salad keeps in the fridge for a day or two, but is best fresh.

Sesame Peanut Noodles

from Nigella Express

This recipe is kind of annoying because it’s all in weights, so you need a scale unless you want to estimate, which you could do too.

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon garlic oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

100g smooth peanut butter

1 tablespoons lime juice

For the salad:

125g snow peas

150g beansprouts, rinsed

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into small strips

2 green onions, finely sliced

550g ready-prepared egg noodles (or regular egg noodles, or you could probably use spaghetti or soba noodles too)

20g sesame seeds

1 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a bowl.

Put the snow peas, beansprouts, red pepper slices, sliced spring onions and noodles in a bowl.

Pour the dressing over them and mix thoroughly to coat everything well.

Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and chopped cilantro.

Serves 8.

Cornbread

So I lied. I haven’t given you my cornbread recipe. And believe me, it’s worth giving.

But I can’t really take credit. It’s not my recipe. The one I make now is mostly attributed to the Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook, with a little inspiration from Deborah Madison thrown in.

I started baking the Moosewood cornbread during my undergrad. I think it was because of a summer meal after my first year, when my friends Gavin and Phil came to visit me on P.E.I. They were at my house for supper and my sister Claire made vegetarian chilli and a huge platter of this cornbread. I fell in love with it. We ate outside in our backyard under the poplar trees. I remember my Dad telling Phil and Gavin stories about his younger days, when he drank lime ricky sandwiches.

(Lime Ricky is a kind of pop only made, to my knowledge, by the Seaman's bottling company on P.E.I. A Lime Ricky Sandwich, according to my Dad, was a shot of moonshine, a shot of lime ricky, and another shot of moonshine. I believe he drank these around the tender age of sixteen. By the time I was old enough to notice, he had long since switched to Captain Morgan on the rocks.)

I photocopied the recipe and started baking the cornbread myself when I got back to university later that year. I’ve been making it ever since. It became a hit with my roommates, particularly Rachael who actually started calling me Cornbread, a nickname that lasted right up until graduation (and possibly persists to this day).

So you see, this cornbread recipe comes with a lot of history attached. Treat it with respect. Make often, and enjoy unadorned, with butter and jam, or with a slice of aged cheddar cheese.

I’ve often meant to try a different cornbread recipe, or at least add some corn kernels, grated cheese, and/or diced green chiles to my basic recipe, as I’ve seen in so many other places. But I still haven’t gotten around to it. I guess that means this one is pretty darn good.

Isabelle’s Cornbread

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

Using butter in the pan means it comes out golden-crisped and fragrant. A Deborah Madison trick!

2 Tablespoons butter

1 cup cornmeal

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole-wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 to 4 tablespoons honey to taste

1 cup milk (soy works fine) or plain yogourt

Preheat the oven to 425. Put the butter in an 8-inch square baking pan and put the pan in the oven while it’s heating. Meanwhile, stir the dry ingredients together and make a well in the centre of the bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. As soon as the oven is hot, remove the pan and brush the butter around the edges. Pour any excess into the wet ingredients. Quickly mix the wet and dry ingredients together, then pour the batter into the pan and bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown on top and beginning to pull away from the edges, about 25 minutes.