THE CRISPY COOK

Teenagers Spotted Quaffing Healthy Substances. Film at Eleven

2012-01-23T10:34:00.002-05:00

It's true. Two cute young ladies were recently spotted by the Crispy Cook scoffing down healthy drinks in upstate New York. And though there was no carbonation, no added sugar or neon food coloring or even a Justin Bieber endorsement involved, they enjoyed their "smoothies" very much!

The drinks in question were Dahlicious Lassis, of the Oregon Strawberry and Alphonso Mango varieties, respectively. I received some samples of Dahlicious Lassis from this Vermont-based company that makes these Indian-style yogurt drinks, reminiscent of a really creamy smoothie. According to Dahlicious, the Lassis are made of lowfat milk from grass-fed cows on a small, family farm which is then slow cooked in a process that creates 15 billion probiotic cultures in each bottle and a good bit of natural lactase, which enables many people with lactose intolerance to enjoy a Lassi without ill effect. The lassi base is then mixed with fruit, cane juice and inulin, which gives each drink a healthy dose of fiber (8-9%, depending on flavor).

All of this sounded really good to me, as chief nutritionist in the house, but without great taste and appeal, no product is worth spending money on if it languishes in the fridge. Happily, all of the members of our Crispy household (plus one delightful friend) gave this product a thumbs up, both in terms of flavor and creamy consistency. The Maine Blueberry flavor was judged the favorite flavor by our taste testers and I particularly enjoyed the fruity, not too sweet taste. A great product indeed.

Locally, you can find Dahlicious Lassis at the Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany or you can order Lassis by the case (12 bottles for $23.88 with free shipping if you live in New England, New York or New Jersey) at the Dahlicious website. You can also enter a monthly giveaway of a free lassi giveaway at the company's Facebook page. I'll keep an eye out for them in other local food markets and post a comment if I find them for sale elsewhere. I know I'll be buying them for an apres-sports snack for the teenaged soccer star.

**Note: I received a package containing five Dahlicious Lassi drinks from the Dahlicious company, but was not under obligation to post a review, favorable or not. As always, my comments about this product were completely my own.

In Which I Become an Outlaw Cook with John Thorne

2012-01-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

Running a used bookstore for the last fifteen years has educated me about which books are treasured, or perhaps guarded is a better word, by their owners and hardly ever relinquished back into the market. I rarely get any books in the shop about blacksmithing, stained glass or rare coins; such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, The Cat in the Hat and Gone with the Wind don't show up to be traded; and works by a select group of authors and illustrators like Shirley Jackson, W.H. Auden, Edward Gorey, Kurt Vonnegut, Tasha Tudor and Philip K. Dick are seldom brought to our doors.

Add food writer John Thorne's books to this elite list. I was first made aware of his work many years ago by my bibliophilic friend Myra, who asked me to keep an eye out for Thorne's books. After at least a decade, I had yet to find any such titles in my shop or out book hunting, until one day when I was on a holiday in Great Barrington, Massachusetts at Yellow House Books, and spied a copy of Outlaw Cook (NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux: 1992), a collection of food essays written with his wife Matt Lewis Thorne. I snapped it up and devoured it with great pleasure over the next several weeks and am waiting to savor another of his books, Mouth Wide Open, which is at the top of my bedside room reading pile.

Now I know why Thorne's books never show up in the shop. They are to be savored and reread, bookmarked and propped open on the kitchen counter, and reread again. I chose Outlaw Cook for the current round of Cook the Books, the online foodie book club started by me, and two lovely blogger friends: Deb of Kahakai Kitchen in Hawaii and Johanna of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food in Greece. For this bimonthly blog event, participants are asked to read our chosen book, blog about it and cook something up that is inspired by our reading. Anyone can join the "regulars" in this book club by posting and then leaving a comment at the Cook the Books site. The deadline for this round is January 23, 2012, and I am delighted that our featured author, John Thorne, will be reviewing the submitted posts and picking a winner to receive the coveted CTB winner's badge.

Thorne's prose is an interesting mixture of the erudite and the commonplace. One will learn much about a lot of different subjects, and need to look up many things along the way, but the writing is simple and direct and full of great quotes and turns of phrase. There are many intriguing essays in the book which explore different dishes and cultural traditions, some autobiographical asides, reviews of cookbooks and examinations of food personalities. Outlaw Cook devotes many pages to bread baking and outdoor hearths and there's a gloriously evocative chapter on Russians' love affair with mushrooms.

I really like Thorne's approach to trying out a new recipe or ingredient. Once something strikes his fancy, he's on an adventure to study it and make it his own. He reads about it extensively, cooks up many variations and then presents the reader with his findings. Whether it's hunting for the perfect meatball, simple pasta dishes, black beans and rice, pea soup or the best thing to do with a bounty of summer raspberries, there's lots of research and development in the Thorne kitchen and library and plenty of references offered up for further exploration.

As an avid member of the Order of the Stinking Rose, I was particularly entranced by the essay on garlic soup. I've made creamy, decadently rich garlic soups and delicate garlic and rice soups, and thought that covered much of the culinary territory on that subject. Not so fast, says Thorne, with his musings on various Mediterranean permutations of garlicky broths. There's the paprika and saffron-laced Sopa de Ajo of Spain, France's Soupe a l'Ail Bonne Femme studded with potato and tomato, herb-redolent Aigo Bouido from Provence and even a cold Garlic and Walnut Soup with Fresh Goat Cheese. Most of these soups require a crusty piece of toasted bread sunk at the bottom of the soup bowl, and since my gluten-free breadbaking production neither produces quantity nor quality (witness the hockey puck "fluffy bun"example in the photo below), I turned to my trusty recipe card file for a breadless garlic soup recipe instead.

My garlic soup recipe is of origin unknown, most likely copied out of a cookbook borrowed from the public library during my foodie youth, but I tinkered with it enough to confidently call it my own adaptation. It's a very herb-redolent broth, perfect for bolstering the winter-ravaged immune system and imparting a warm glow after a day battling the wind and cold. Just be sure to share it with those around you, since "...garlic is the ravisher, dominating those who would eat it, and then crowing that subjugation to the world through the body's every pore." (p. 120)

Herb and Garlic Soup

1 head garlic, separated into cloves
2 quarts water
2 tsp. salt

2 whole cloves
1/4 tsp. dried sage, crumbled
1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crumbled
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. parsley, chopped coarsely

2 egg yolks
3 Tbsp. olive oil

Grated Parmesan

Bring water and salt to a boil and drop in garlic cloves. Boil 1 minute, then fish out garlic and peel. Cut off root tip and cut into chunks. Throw it back into the simmering pot with the herbs and spices.

Bring to a boil again and then lower heat and simmer 30 minutes. Strain soup to remove herbs and then pour broth back into pot. Finely mash the cooked garlic and put back into the soup pot. Bring to a low simmer.

Beat egg yolks with olive oil and add to the soup pot. Gently simmer for 2-3 minutes to let simmer and thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot with a sprinkling of cheese on top.

Makes 4-6 servings.

I'll have a roundup of all the Cook the Books posts about Outlaw Cook after the January 23 deadline, so be sure to stop back to see all the submissions. Next up for our book club is Roald Dahl's childhood classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which will be hosted by Deb during February/March. Happy reading and eating!

A Book Review and Some Down Home Russian Cooking with Anna: Heart of a Peasant, by Carol Marie Davis

2012-01-13T14:14:00.004-05:00

As proud as I get when my children do something wonderful , I am as enwreathed in smiles when my creative mom finishes a project. Mom's latest endeavor (and second published book!) is the fictionalized biography of her maternal grandmother, Anna Anisovich Olchick, born in the small village of Pristupovschina, Byelorussa in 1886. Anna emigrated to the United States in 1914, after being banished from her family's home in the wake of a horrible accident, and her courage in leaving all that she knew and loved for an uncertain future in a new land is chronicled lovingly in this book. (Anna Heart of a Peasant, by Carol Marie Davis, Sarasota, FL: Peppertree Press, 2011, 108 pages, $12.95).

I grew up hearing stories about my great-grandmother Anna (usually called Anita), from her daughter, my grandmother Sophia, and though I'm sure she told me things that were nice about her well-loved mother, I see to have imprinted on the harsh side of Anita. Grandma told me about how her mother used to punish her by making her kneel for hours on dried corn kernels (how medieval!) and how she used to take care of the ever-burgeoning kitten population around the house by drowning the poor babies in a bucket of water in the backyard. Then there was the embarrassment of having a mother who didn't speak English, who would traipse to the butcher store with my teenaged grandmother in tow, making her speak directly to the butcher and order the weirdest things, like pig's tails and ears. She always seemed like a strange and mean ancestor.

However, Anna had endured quite a bit of tragedy, and other stories of her zest for life unfold in the pages of this biography, so carefully researched by my mom over the course of several years. Mom unearthed fragments about Anna's life in Byelorussia, her long voyage to America, life with her husband and children in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and her talent for gardening, home remedies and cooking. I've filled in many more details about my great-grandmother and after reading my mom's book, I've come to love her, corn kernels and feline atrocities aside.

One thing that has made me feel closer to Anna is her love of gardening and cooking. She always had turnips, grapes, herbs, carrots and garlic in her garden and was adept at preserving the harvest by drying, canning, salting or fermenting them into sauerkraut or homemade wine. I love that my mom included eight of Anna's recipes (updated with measurements and enlivened with some delightful illustrations) at the end of the book, so that readers can try out some traditional Russian peasant fare.

Some blogger friends of mine are going to join me in reviewing Anna: Heart of a Peasant and we are all planning to try out some of Anna's or other Russian recipes. Look for reviews of this book by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen, Heather of Girlichef, Claudia of Honey from Rock, Alicia from Foodycat and Simona of Briciole in the coming weeks, which I will roundup back here at The Crispy Cook next month.

I made up a big pot of Cabbage Soup the other day based on Anna's recipe. I tweaked it a bit to include what I had in the pantry, so this is an adaptation of this hearty vegetarian soup. My comments are in the parentheses).

Anna's Cabbage Soup

2-3 pounds of cabbage sliced into ½-inch strips (about 1 med head)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons minced garlic

1 cup of chopped carrots (only had 1 large carrot)

1 large onion, chopped

1 28-ounce can pureed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato paste

½ cup of brown sugar (left it out)

¼ cup of lemon juice (left it out)

1 bay leaf

pinch of black pepper

(I added 1 tsp. dill seeds)

Heat oil and sauté garlic in a large soup pot over medium fire until garlic is soft, about 2 minutes. Add onion and sauté until soft as well. Add 3 cups of water, carrots, tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, bay leaf and simmer for 10 minutes until carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Take out the bay leaf and discard.

Mash the above mixture in a bowl until it is a coarsely blended. Return the sauce mixture to the pot, add lemon juice, cabbage strips, and 3 cups of water. Simmer until cabbage is cooked about 2 hours. (I like my cabbage crunchier, so I only cooked it for 45 minutes) Add more water to desired consistency. Add pepper (and dill seeds) and serve with a topping of sour cream. (And some brown bread!)

Makes 8-10 hearty servings.

If I have piqued your interest in this wonderful book, you can borrow a copy from your local library or buy a copy on Amazon or from my mother directly if you would like a signed copy (I'll send you the details if you leave a comment below). It truly is a wonderfully written account of an interesting life and one which I am very grateful has been elaborated for others to learn from and enjoy.

Thanks Mom, from the bottom of my own peasant heart.

Hummus in a Biscuit

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

This month's baking project for the Gluten Free Ratio Rally is BISCUITS in all their incarnations. My family are all Northerners, so biscuits don't feature as prominently on our table as they do with Southern diners, but we do enjoy sopping up a good soup or stew with a soft, fluffy biscuit now and again. Dan the Breakfast King makes a mean batch of cottony Buttermilk Biscuits, but I hadn't done much biscuity exploration in the kitchen until this month's GF Ratio Rally host, Gretchen of Kumquat, picked them for our group.

I did a little prowling around the 'net and found out that there's an annual Biscuit Festival held in Knoxville, Tennessee, where the bake-off is divided into the categories of Buttermilk Biscuits, Sweet Biscuits, Savory Biscuits and Most Original Biscuits (Fat Elvis Biscuits, anyone?). Savory Biscuits beckoned my further attention, so I took a look at what supplies I had in the baking cabinet and in the pantry and thought I would tweak a standard Baking Powder Biscuit recipe into something savory and maybe even a little sassy. When my bag of chickpea flour (labeled besan since I bought it in an Indian foods market) waltzed into my orbit, I immediately thought of using its rich, beany flavor as part of my flour mix.

Then, since chickpeas usually equal hummus in my house, the idea for a hummus flavored biscuit was born. The idea was to incorporate all those heavenly hummus flavors, garlic, cumin (I used toasted cumin seeds, coarsely ground in my coffee mill for a little extra texture, but you could just use ground cumin if that's what you have on hand), parsley, lemon, olive oil, salt and a little hot pepper, because I like a spicy hummus.

I went to my kitchen cookbook shelf and plucked Marion Cunningham's Fannie Farmer Baking Book down. This was one of my favorite baking cookbooks in my pre-GF days and I've found it to be a good starting point for preparing to convert these very detailed recipes into gluten-free versions. Marion/Fannie's Baking Powder Biscuit recipe (p. 572) proved once again to provide good background information about preparing biscuit dough and I used its' "bones" to work through my recipe.

The other starting point that GF Ratio Rally bakers use is a ratio of primary ingredients (measured by weight, not volume) and for the Biscuit Project we started out with 3 parts flour, 2 parts liquid and 1 part fat. My biscuits came out quite nicely: they held their shape, rose a little, and had a nice crumbly texture with a CRISPY outside.

I had the idea that fresh chopped parsley and lemon juice would be better in an olive oil dipping sauce, but I think that next time I would mix the parsley and some lemon zest into the biscuit dough instead.

These biscuits really smelled tempting while they were baking and we enjoyed them hot from the oven paired with their dipping oil and softened butter for a hearty winter afternoon snack. Scrumptious! The next day they were the perfect sops for a vegetable curry. Scrumptious II!

Here's a recipe for:

Hummus in a Biscuit

4 oz. chickpea flour
4 oz. white rice flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. granulated garlic or garlic powder
1 tsp. toasted cumin seeds, coarsely ground (or plain ground cumin)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp. sugar

3 oz. vegetable shortening

6 oz. milk (I used almond milk cause that's all that I had on hand in my house of cereal-chomping teenagers)

Olive Oil Dipping Sauce:

4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. minced Italian parsley

Stir together dry ingredients above until well mixed. Add in shortening with a pastry blender or two butter knives until mixture resembles coarse sand. You really want the fat mixed in well with the flours.

Add in milk and mix well until dough clumps together. Turn out on a sheet of plastic wrap and cover and chill in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to let shortening in dough harden up again.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly dust work surface with white rice flour and plop dough down. Working quickly with floured hands, pat dough down into 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 16 rounds (3 inch diameter) and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Baked 15 minutes or until they have puffed up and are lightly browned.

Serve immediately with Olive Oil Dipping Sauce on the side or split and spread with softened butter.

Makes 16 biscuits.

Gretchen will have all the links to the sweet, savory and other interesting gluten-free biscuit variations back at her Kumquat blog, so be sure to check back and visit!

2011: A Crispy Cook Year in Review

2012-01-03T14:04:00.002-05:00

Another year of experimenting in the kitchen and blogging up my adventures in a Brave New Much More Noticeably Gluten-Free World has come and gone and upon reviewing last year's posts there were a few highlights to share with you:

Best New Crispy Cook Recipe - My Hearty, Smoky Vegetarian Pea Soup recipe gets the nod for best new thing I concocted, plus extra points for being awesomely cheap eats. In fact, I think I have to go get cracking on a pot after typing up this post.

Best Thing I Cooked Up Courtesy of Someone Else's Recipe - That would have to be Elizabeth Bard's wonderful Raspberry Financiers, a nutty, buttery, raspberry-dolloped French cookie from her book Lunch in Paris, which I read as part of the fun foodie book club, Cook the Books. Incidentally, that three-tiered cake plate was also the coolest craft project I tried all year -alright all decade-, made from some scavenged fancy saucers, a candlestick, sherry glass and glass bowl, all glued up with some ceramic cement.

Best New Thing I Grew in the Garden - Though I truly enjoyed shearing off delicate fronds of chervil for my summer salads and played around with kohlrabi quite a bit, I would have to say that the thicket of lemongrass that I grew from some slender seedlings from my friend Andrea takes top prize. I loved having fresh lemongrass to chew on as I weeded the garden and it made lovely tea and additions to various Asian dishes.

Best Cookbook I Reviewed - There were some wonderful new cookbooks sent to me by various publishers to be considered for review here at the Crispy Cook. Hands down, though, the winner was Laura B. Russell's The Gluten Free Asian Kitchen. I have cooked and cooked from this great book and each dish has added a new dish, ingredient or technique to my repertoire. If you love Asian food and are adventurous in the kitchen and the grocery store, this book is for you!

Best Photo - I think this handsome Broccoli Pasta Timbale shot was the best thing to pop out of my digital camera. And it was a good recipe too. Have to try that one again soon.

Best New Gluten-Free Product I Reviewed - Here we have a split at Casa Crispy. I and one of my daughters vote for Zatarain's Yellow Rice as the item most likely to make its way into our supermarket cart. I pop it into our rice cooker for an easy side dish that everybody always eats up. Husband Dan and my other sweet toothed daughter vote for Namaste's Chocolate Cake Mix, which gets requested for special occasion cakes and gets brought to friends' houses for a dessert that is so moist and that noone ever suspects is gluten-free.

My Favorite 2011 Post - Though I never thought I'd be a mushroom hunter, let alone find a serendipitously beautiful and lush batch of Oyster Mushrooms in my woefully under-forested backyard, I came out one day during my garden stroll to discover, research and harvest a beautiful specimen that fed us for two suppers.

Along the way I had fun participating with other Capital District food bloggers in a taste test of some Big Kahoona Barbecue and joined other blogger buddies online in various blog events, including Weekend Herb Blogging, Presto Pasta Nights, My Legume Love Affair, the aforementioned Cook the Books Club, and the Gluten Free Ratio Rally. I look forward to more food adventures with them and with you in 2012.

I'll also be reviewing some more books, products and letting you know about gluten-free restaurants, events and other news in the Capital District. There may be more giveaways too, which leads me to my announcement of the winner for the Red Pack Tomatoes Giveaway, which is commenter number 9, Debra. Congratulations Debra! Send me an email at info AT oldsAra togabooksDot com with your shipping address and phone number and I'll forward the information to Red Pack so that you can receive your prize.

Happy New Year everyone!

Of Truffleheads, Escarole and Crazy Mugs

2011-12-29T14:16:00.001-05:00

When you work in retail, the holiday season is a busy time. Our bookshop gets flooded with gift-giving inquiries about various out-of-print titles, last-minute shoppers and daily trips to the post office to mail gift packages. Our eldest daughter was busy with her part-time jobs too, so all we wanted to do was collapse into a heap on Christmas Eve night, enjoy a lovely supper (cooked by the younger daughter elf as her present to us all) and then veg out with books, movies and Scrabble.

Watching my girls open their presents after we finally got THEM awakened (what a reversal from when they were tots!) and then cooking up some special treats has always been my special pleasure on Christmas Day, but since last year, I must admit I am finding another highlight to be the Crazy Mug contest that Dan and I engage in. This Second Annual Crazy Mug contest featured the two ugliest/craziest/weirdest mugs that we could find during the course of a year's bookhunting. We scoured the wilds of upstate New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and environs all throughout 2011 and I thought for sure that my entry on the left, "This Spud's For You!", a strange souvenir of Idaho with vaguely R. Crumb-esque grinning potato people, would claim the prize.

But alas, my better half once again took the top honors with his cutesy, pipe-chomping fisherman tankard, judged by all present to garner the coveted Crazy Mug Contest. Last year's winner, "Smashed Again", however, still remains the Craziest Mug of all time, and has a place of honor in my kitchen holding my collection of measuring spoons. I will perhaps extend my mug hunting throughout 2012 to more regions so as to try to capture the Crazy Mug crown next Christmas morning.

Enough tomfoolery. Let's talk about some great food here at The Crispy Cook.

I am honored to note that I am the featured poster on Trufflehead.com this week with my observations about a terrific recipe for Escarole with Garlic and Hot Pepper. Trufflehead is an Iphone and Ipad app that was started by Deborah Chud, a medical doctor and excellent cook, who is on a mission to get us all to cook healthier, delicious meals. You can download a free e-book with five Trufflehead recipes to explore yourself at the site. It was with pleasure that I test drove her escarole recipe (and another for a wonderful citrus-infused Sesame Slaw), because we love escarole in our house.

Escarole is a wonderful, slightly bitter green, that most people may be familiar with eating raw in salads, but which becomes meltingly tender when cooked. Italians have many recipes for braised and sauteed escarole and it is a traditional ingredient in Greens and Beans and Italian Wedding Soup. We love escarole so much that it is a regular part of our home garden. It's easy to grow, but it is the one vegetable that invites slugs into our usually very dry, sandy soil, garden environment. Escarole grows thickly at the base, so between the slug issue and the many grains of sand that hide in its crevasses, this vegetable requires thorough rinsing and several soaks before it's ready for the cooking pot.

If I had a greenhouse windowsill I would grow some escarole alongside some basil, parsley and chives for my winter meals, but instead, I buy escarole at the supermarket (overpriced and of much sadder quality than my home supplies!) to give us a little green tonic in the winter.

**Don't forget that there are still a few days left in my Red Pack Tomatoes giveaway (a cool tin filled with tomatoes and kitchen gadgets) so feel free to enter that by leaving a comment back on this previous post by Jan. 2nd at midnight.

Enjoy the rest of the year!

Sharing Some Simple Gifts and a Red Pack Giveaway

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

So goes the first stanza of the beautiful Shaker song "Simple Gifts", a tune I find myself humming and singing often during the holiday season. (I also sing "Let it Snow" quite often, but really prefer to shovel rain myself).

I have a few simple gifts to share with you all and hope you will enjoy them:

1) A Tomato Lovers Giveaway

The Redpack Tomato company has generously offered to send a nice gift pack to one of my Crispy Cook readers which includes a huge Redpack tin filled with all kinds of goodies, including a pasta fork, pizza cutter, can opener, refrigerator magnets, cans of Redpack tomatoes, and recipe cards. When I am out of homemade tomato sauce in my pantry or freezer, or want a chunkier tomato product for a different recipe, I turn to a can of Redpack tomatoes. I reviewed the Redpack tomatoes previously on my blog, They are 100% natural, taste fresh (not tasting tinny like the can like some other canned tomatoes I know) and are available at most local supermarkets and stores here in upstate New York. They are a product I use often and can recommend to you wholeheartedly.

To enter this giveaway to receive this cool Redpack tin full of goodies (I use my tin to hold my bird seed stash), leave a comment below by January 2, 2012, midnight Eastern Standard Time and I'll pick a randomly generated winner.

Note: I received a tin full of the items pictured above from the Redpack company, but I was not obligated to review their product here at the Crispy Cook, favorably or not. As always, my choice to blog about this product (I love it!) and my comments herein are entirely my own.

2) Potent Potables for $200, Alex

I've recently discovered a couple of new beverages these past weeks which have made things decidedly more festive. First, there's a knock-your-socks-off Christmas drink recipe from my friend Annemarie. She was born in Bavaria and her aunt makes this powerful mulled wine recipe each Christmas. It is called Gluhwein in German and was also made to celebrate my friend's December nuptials many years ago.

Annemarie shared a cup with me at a recent holiday party and it was both good and a little scary. I hadn't realized rum was also involved until I asked for her recipe, so be sure to make this when you are going to stay at home or when you have a designated driver if you are out reveling. One sip of this Gluhwein and I felt the heat rise in my cheeks, so I'm sure this will be an excellent restorative after a hard morning of shoveling snow and bringing in wood.

Aunt Gretel's Gluhwein

1.5 bottles dry red wine
1/2 bottle dry white wine
6 cups black tea (hot)
3 oranges juiced plus one orange sliced
2 lemons, juiced
1 stick of cinnamon
4-5 whole cloves
1 ladle full of sugar (about 3/4 cup)
Shot of high proof rum (optional)

Heat wines in a large saucepan, but don't let come to a boil (wouldn't want to burn off the alcohol, I guess). Add hot tea, orange juice, lemon juice, cinnamon stick and cloves. Heat, but don't let boil. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add rum and then Annemarie says to light the punch on fire. Her rum wasn't high enough proof to flambe, and I'm always worried about the risk of self-immolation, so I would skip this step myself. Add orange slices to float on top.

Whoa! Makes about 15 servings.

And here's a great link to a recipe for a fantastic non-alcoholic beverage, Homemade Ginger Ale, that we recently brewed up and enjoyed. It's a little more like a strong and aromatic ginger beer than store-bought ginger ale, but we relished it.

3) The Christmas Orange

One holiday tradition that I enjoy is our annual fireside reading of the following story about giving and the spirit of Christmas. My daughter came home from her wonderful pre-school teacher with this story over a decade ago and we have enjoyed reading it and doling out sections of orange-flavored and -shaped chocolate ever since.

The story's a little schmaltzy, but I don't mind being overly sentimental when it comes to the holidays. It's decorating, family and friend visits, special treats and trimmings that make Christmastime special to me, not the frenzy of gift-giving and shopping. That actually makes me kind of Grinchy.

Miss Shirley's Christmas Orange Story

"James lived in an orphanage with nine other youngboys. In the winter, any extra moneywent for coal to heat the old building. At Christmas, though, the buildings always seemed a little warmer, andthe food a little more plentiful.

Butmore than this—Christmas meant an orange. It was the only time of the year such a rare treat was provided, and itwas coveted by all the boys like no other thing they ever possessed.

Eachboy would save his orange for several days—admiring it, feeling it, loving it,and contemplating the moment he would eat it. Some would even save it until New Year’s Day or later, much like many ofus relish saving our Christmas trees and decorations until the New Year, justto remind us of the joy of Christmas.

Thisparticular Christmas Day, James had broken the orphanage rules by starting afight. The orphanage mother took James’orange away as punishment. James spentChristmas Day empty and alone. Nighttimecame, and James could not sleep. Hesobbed silently. This year he would nothave his orange to savor with the other boys.

Asoft hand placed on James’ shoulder startled him and an object was quicklyshoved into his hands. A child thendisappeared into the darkness to leave James alone to discover a strange-lookingorange: an orange made from the segments of nine other oranges, nine highlyprized oranges that had to be eaten that Christmas night, instead of beingsaved and cherished until a later date.

Maythe orange remind us all of the unselfishness and love for others that aboundsat this special time of year."

Wishing everyone a lovely holiday season filled with peace, love, joy and a few simple gifts.

xoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

-RACHEL THE CRISPY COOK

Cookbook Review: The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando

2011-12-20T09:44:00.001-05:00

For me life's simple pleasures are the best: petting my dog and cats, strolling through the garden (or as in this time of year, a seed catalogue), chatting with friends, sipping an aromatic cup of tea before the fire. And there's the quiet pleasure of flipping through a new cookbook, with the promise of so many new recipes and ideas for future edibles waltzing through my head. And when the new cookbook is about baking, there's always the alchemical magic of having simple ingredients puff up into cakes, pastries, biscuits or other treats.

So it was with pleasure that I have been reading through and baking from Stacy Adimando's new cookbook: The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking and Reinventing the Classics (Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2011, $18.95). I have my favorite cookies to bake up at holiday time, but there's always the excitement of trying out something new for my cookie tray and I'm happy to report that the Dried Fruit Cookies I made from her recipe (p. 87 - subbing in a blend of sorghum, tapioca starch, white rice flour and a 1/2 tsp. of xanthan gum for the wheat flour to make them gluten-free) made a wonderful batch of cookies that disappeared in no time. The cookies were chewy and studded with nuggets of dried cranberries, with a hint of cinnamon. Perfect!

The Cookiepedia is a great example of graphic design. The durable covers and wire spiral binding lay out flat so that a baker can use this workhouse of a cookbook over and over without banging it up. There are many color photos of what the final product should look like and Adimando adds in tips about handling dough, baking times and ways to alter the recipe to make even novice cooks feel comfortable in the kitchen. There is even space for owner notes in each recipe and the author actively encourages readers to experiment with variations on each cookie recipe.

The book is interestingly organized. There are chapters on Buttery Cookies, Chocolaty Cookies, Fancy Cookies, Fruity Cookies, Spicy Cookies and Nutty and Seedy Cookies. Readers will find many traditional recipes for Snickerdoodles, Thumbprints, Shortbread and Brownies, but there are many other unusual cookie species to explore as well. I am looking forward to making some delicate Green Tea Cookies and Alfajores (buttery sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche) in the New Year, for sure!

I enjoyed reading through the introductory chapter on the ABCs of Cookie Baking and picked up some new information to incorporate in my baking routines. Unlike many baking projects, cookies are fun and uncomplicated and the author certainly relays this playfulness in her directions for each recipe. It's easy to relax and just tinker around with her recipes, and this spirited combination of prose, photos and other illustrations really sets this cookie cookbook apart from the many other baking cookbooks I've seen.

My only quibble with this cookbook is its title. With just over 50 recipes and 160 pages, I would hardly refer to this cookbook as being encyclopedic. Sure, there are many variations suggested for each recipe, but it does not encompass the universe of cookie recipes. Still, aside from this overly ambitious title, I have really enjoyed poring over this stylish, fun new cookbook and it has earned a (floury) place in my cookbook library.

Note: I received a review copy of this cookbook from the publisher, but I was under no obligation to write a review, favorable or no. My comments are, as always, completely my own.

Presto Pasta Nights #244 Roundup

2011-12-13T19:13:00.000-05:00

I had the distinct pleasure of serving as this week's guest host for Presto Pasta Nights, the weekly noodle celebration founded by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast way back in 2007!

It's the last PPN roundup of the year, but I am looking at one of the tastiest spreads a noodle lover could hope for. We've got pasta in various shapes and flavors, made of various flours and cooked in all kinds of culinary traditions. Come into my virtual dining room, grab a glass of wine or some hot spiced cider and then pass your pasta bowl for a sampling of these wonderful eats:

Shaheen blogs at Allotment 2 Kitchen in western Scotland and loves to garden, forage and cook seasonally. She brings a plate of Garlic-Chilli-Spiked Cauliflower Pasta, which sounds so fragrant. Shaheen even uses the steamed core of the cauliflower in this dish, which is something this frugal cook will be trying next time out when I'm cooking cauliflower.

Tandy of Lavender and Lime has just taken the lid off her steaming platter of Creamy Pasta with Beef, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Mushrooms. Everybody dig in!

Alisha of Cook. Craft. Enjoy. is doling out some spicy Cajun Chicken Pasta. A little spice, a little cream, a little onion and peppers and that's some awesomeness on a plate.

My blogger pal Deb of Kahakai Kitchen in Honolulu was kind enough to drop by with some Rotini with Red Pepper and Anchovy Sauce. Deb is one of the cofounders of Cook the Books, a bimonthly foodie book club, where we are currently reading and cooking from John Thorne's Outlaw Cook.

Here at the Crispy Cook, I made a stir-fry of garlic, carrots, tofu, and Korean rice cakes, or dduk noodles, that remind me of little white tongue depressors. They require pre-soaking, but are a great textural addition to the wok.

Anne's Kitchen brings us a savory casserole to share: Wholemeal Penne, Pancetta and Cauliflower Bake. She advises that we can all have seconds without fear of being "gannet-esque" because the pancetta is less fatty than regular bacon and because wholemeal penne is in there too for extra nutrition.

One of my Capital District neighbors, Shelby, of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, made a real crowd pleaser for her husband's office party and she made a double batch to share with us: Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese. Aren't they cute in their little individual ramekins?

Blogging from lovely Melbourne, Australia is Johanna of the Green Gourmet Giraffe. She came to our virtual feast to share her delicious recipe for Panfried Gnocchi with Cauliflower and Peas.

I know you must all be full from this wonderful pasta sampler, so before I head off for a nap to work off my carbo coma, I will just let you know that Presto Pasta Nights will be on holiday hiatus but then back in full force in the New Year, when our PPN founder, Ruth herself, will be ushering in our weekly helping of pasta love. From now until January 5th, you can send your PPN submissions to ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com.

Here's to a holiday season full of peace, love and pasta!

Those Gluten-Free Bloggers Are Taking over the Universe!

2011-12-13T17:32:00.000-05:00

Time for my semi-annual peek at what some of my gluten free blogger buddies are doing out there.

When I first started this list several years ago, I had fifty or so bloggers listed and then the list ballooned on over 150. I've trimmed it back since then so I can update it more easily and now the list reflects the blogs that I think most effectively cover a certain point-of-view or lifestyle.

There is probably a gluten-free blogger that shares your cooking style, whether you are an adventurous cook who likes to dip into a variety of international cuisines; a mom in need of kid-friendly recipes; a budget-conscious gourmand; someone who loves to bake and is in need of retooling for the gluten-free kitchen or someone who is all of the above! I hope this list and summary helps ease you into the GF lifestyle. I know I am grateful for all the camaraderie, recipes and information I have gleaned from the fantastic and supportive Gluten-Free blogging community.

A Baking Life - There's lots of gorgeous photography and plenty of gluten-free baking going on at Tara's blog about GF living in Maine.

ATX Gluten-Free - ATX stands for Austin, Texas, and Jessica is the amazing cook and GF personal chef who offers news and stylish GF recipes for such cool eats as Caprese Salad Skewers, Spicy Roasted Okra and Red Quinoa with Artichokes, Cranberry and Mushrooms.

The Baking Beauties - Jeannine is a Manitoba Mom who knows her way around the kitchen and is navigating a new gluten-free lifestyle just, well, beautifully! Great baking recipes and photos.

Book of Yum - Vegetarian with some fish and seafood recipes added, this blog features a lot of Asian recipes and recipes that are not only gluten-free, but dairy and egg free. Book of Yum also has a lot of raw food and vegan recipes to try and is the home of the monthly Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger Event.

Cannelle et Vanille - Just the most gorgeous food and photography blog you'd ever want to spend hours perusing. The hostess is Aran, a Basque ex-pat living in the U.S. and all the sumptuous recipes are gluten-free.

Celiac Chicks - These New York City gals know where all the good gluten-free restaurants, delis, pizzerias and foodie havens are and also dish out good gluten-free advice about travel. If you sign up for their email newsletter you can also enter contests for free gluten-free products.

Celiacs in the House - A thrifty mom of two teenagers (now that sounds familiar!) in Columbus, Ohio reports on her gluten-free home cooking experiments and thrifty meal ideas.

Celiac Teen - Lauren's a Canadian teenager interested in good food and fashion and she is one fabulous baker!

Cinnamon Quill - The Cinnamon Quill is a wonderfully talented baker (not to mention an awesome food photographer). All her recipes are vegetarian or vegan, in addition to being gluten free of course.

The Crispy Cook - Hey, that's my blog! Gluten-free and mostly vegetarian recipes, with the occasional fish and seafood recipe. Some product reviews, gardening posts and other fun stuff.

The Culinary Life - Culinary Wordsmith Stephanie Stiavetti blogs about gluten-free food, photography, organic cooking, and health issues from her computer in San Francisco.

Diet, Dessert and Dogs - Ricki's the author of "Sweet Freedom: Desserts You’ll Love without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar" and has a great vegan and gluten-free blog with lots of baking and healthy recipes. And the occasional canine photo op.

Eat This - Whole grains, natural ingredients, and sugar-free recipes are the focus of this Michigan blogger. You'll find plenty of vegetables and plenty of flavor and some gorgeous food photography to boot!

Elana's Pantry - Elana's a Little League baseball coach and Boulder, Colorado businesswoman whose elegant site promotes gluten-free cooking, healthy homemaking and environmentally-friendly information.

Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen - While not a gluten-free blog per se, there is a wonderful archive of gluten-free recipes on this popular food blog.

Fire and Salt - Brian's a Portland, Oregon fire-fighter, so we know he's already a great cook and he cooks gluten-free for his celiac wife. Terrific recipes.

Flour Arrangements - Sophie's got a sweet tooth, and you'll find plenty of gorgeous photographs of her gluten-free baked goods with mouthwatering recipes.

For the Love of Food - Noosh is the host of this gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free and soy-free blog with excellent recipes, including Persian culinary delights.

The GFCF Experience - Blog host Thomas is a Montana father of four who feeds his family a gluten-free, casein-free diet. You'll find lots of great recipes, information about Autism Spectrum Disorder and parenting anecdotes.

Ginger Lemon Girl - Carrie is from North Carolina and has a particular penchant for gluten-free baking. She also hosts a Gluten-Free Girl interview feature which showcases other gluten-free bloggers and a Kid-Friendly Fridays event for gluten-free goodness that kids will lap up.

Gluten Free A-Z - Judee's got some great vegetarian and gluten-free recipes on her blog, as well as health tips, information and resources.

Gluten Free Easily - Shirley is a dynamo who leads a celiac support group in her native Virginia and is a wealth of information about how to cook with naturally gluten-free and unprocessed foods.

Gluten Free Philly - Get the scoop on new GF products, events and restaurants in the Philadelphia area.

Gluten-Free Cat - This self-described fitness fanatic, health nut, wife, teacher and GF foodie has lots to say about navigating the GF life and offers many awesome recipes too.

A Gluten-Free Day - Wonderful gluten-free recipes and ethereal photography from Finland.

Gluten Free Diva - Ellen is a musician and excellent cook, judging from the delectable range of gluten-free recipes on her popular blog.

Gluten Free Frenzy! - This Utah gal has plenty of recipes, giveaways and health tips for the GF community and some great photos to boot!

Gluten Free for Good - Melissa is a nutritional therapist who blogs about the healthiest gluten-free recipes. Wonderful advice and information with the added bonus of lovely food photography.

Gluten-Free Fun - Erin is a New York City resident who has lived gluten-free with gusto for 25 years! You can find product and restaurant reviews, recipes, and other information.

Gluten-Free Girl - Shauna James Ahern married the Chef, published a book and had a perfect baby girl, all in one year. Her blog is more essay than recipe heavy, but when the recipes come, they are perfect and seasonally fresh. Make sure to buy her book, "Gluten-Free Girl" and make your local library buy it.

Gluten Free Gobsmacked - This girl Cheekalina can cook! Lots of great recipes for everyday comfort foods to the wildly exotic to all kinds of baking.

Gluten Free Goodness - Cheryl is an Alexandria, Virginia dietician whose blog features her tasty experiments in gluten-free and other allergen-free cooking.

Gluten-Free Gourmand - Get the skinny on gluten-free options in Portland, Oregon and lots of other great posts with recipes and good advice.

Gluten-Free Guide - A stylish blog about life as a celiac with lots of recipes, travel tips, essential posts about Thanksgiving and cupcakes, and product/restaurant reviews.

Gluten-Free Guidebook - Hilary Davidson is a professional travel writer who was diagnosed with celiac disease five years ago. Her blog has information about celiac-safe dining in cities across North America, as well as Spain, Turkey, Peru and other countries.

Gluten Free in Georgia (and Florida)- I guess I can't say it any better than Ginger in describing her blog, "Adventures in Gluten Freedom with a Crazy Southern Blogger Chick". Decadently good gluten-free and sugar-free recipes, witty writing and lots of fun and useful GF information.

Gluten Free on a Shoestring - This lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mom-of-three really knows how to write. Plus she's funny. Plus she's a creative and frugal cook. Don't miss a chance to visit this blog.

Gluten Free Portland - Dave provides the dish on gluten-free products, eateries and news in the Portland, Oregon area.

Gluten Free Saratoga - Suzanne in Saratoga Springs, New York, dishes out great recipes, tips on gluten-free eateries and groceries in Saratoga County and other interesting tips.

Gluten Free Spinner - Mary is passionate about entertaining friends and family with good food that's gluten-free and kissed with her well-stocked spice shelf.

Gluten Free Taste of Home - A blog packed with GF product reviews and giveaways, restaurant reviews, recipes and more from Cinde in Washington State.

Gluten Freeway - Navigating a gluten free life in Los Angeles is the focus of Stephen's new blog, with lots of product and restaurant reviews.

Gluten Hates Me, But I'm Surviving -Marlow is a Southern gal who's having way to much fun in the kitchen cooking great gluten free foods and inventing cool new kinds of martinis.

The Good Eatah - Life with this Massachusetts native involves gluten-free, dairy-free cooking, in between skydiving and biking trips.

Hey, That Tastes Good!- Jill lives in Connecticut and blogs about local gluten-free eateries and has some excellent recipes, as well as the occasional gluten-free travel report from Slovakia.

Hold the Gluten - Maureen is a New Jersey mom with lots of witty information and mouthwatering recipes about life on planet celiac. She even does podcasts...whoa!

Jeena's Kitchen - Jeena is a U.K. food blogger with a ton of gluten-free recipes in her index. Her focus is healthy and fresh food, with an emphasis on Indian recipes. My family is hooked on her Onion Bhajis recipe and all the variations with other vegetables that we cook up.

Jenn Cuisine - Jenn is a chemist living in Switzerland with a GF husband and an arsenal of awesome photography and culinary skills. Just a breathtakingly delicious site.

Karina's Kitchen - Karina is the Gluten-Free Goddess, whose blog reflects her background as an artist and writer, with lots of gorgeous food photography. Karina's gluten-free and other allergy-friendly recipes have a Southwestern flavor and a focus on fresh and natural ingredients.

Kat's GF Kitchen - Albany, New Yorker Kat has a husband who has recently gone gluten-free and this blog chronicles her cooking adaptations and experiments.

Life Gluten Free - A gluten-free blogger mom with an emphasis on sugar-free and healthy cooking and eco-friendly lifestyle tips. Plus cool crafts!

Lynn's Kitchen Adventures - After suffering from undiagnosed gluten-intolerance for most of her life, Oklahoman Lynn is reveling in retooling her family favorite recipes into delicious foods that are free of gluten, tree nuts, peanuts and sesame.

The Mommy Bowl - Deanna is a Wisconsin mom who blogs gluten-free and dairy-free recipes and information on her blog. Wonderful photographer, too!

No Gluten Required - Kristina has a Master's Degree in Gastronomy, a custom set of Gluten-Free wooden utensils and a whole lot of great recipes, product and restaurant reviews and good advice.

No Gluten, No Problem - Kelli and Peter Bronski blog about recipes and gf living and are the authors of "Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking."

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies - Terence Crumbley gives out some great GF recipes as well as the occasional post about health and fitness and Nintendo games.

Only Sometimes Clever - An Arizona homeschooling mom who very thoughtfully blogs about the gluten-free lifestyle, books, GF products and hiking.

Pig in the Kitchen - This U.K. pig is one of the funniest food writers out there and her recipes for her family of many allergies are great to boot. Throw in some great food photos and it's a blog party!

Please Don't Pass the Nuts - This New York City psychotherapist and social worker shares recipes and lifestyle advice for gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, sugar-free, lactose-free and other -free diets.

Rachel's Recipe Box - This New England homeschooling mommy's blog contains a wealth of gluten-free, dairy-free recipes and advice about healthy living.

Real Sustenance - Brittany is a gluten- and dairy-free cook with lots of Skills (that's a capital S there) in the kitchen. Gotta try that won ton dough recipe and soon!

Savvy Celiac - Amy offers a wealth of information for parents of celiac kids and their families, as well as news and Minneapolis/St. Paul GF recommendations.

The Sensitive Pantry - If you are looking for recipes and kitchen advice about eating gluten- and egg-free , check out this stylish blog. There are also many recipes that are tagged as vegan and casein/dairy-free.

She Let Them Eat Cake - Maggie is the baking diva that provides a ton of tasty recipes for GF and often dairy-free meals, with an emphasis on REAL foods.

Simply Sugar & Gluten Free - Amy's maintained a healthy weight loss by eliminating refined sugars and gluten from her diet, but that doesn't stop this blogger from creating spectacular recipes for the things that make life sweet. Amy hosts Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays to highlight fabulous foods made a little bit healthier.

Sorry I Can't Eat That - Allie in Western Massachusetts gives out advice on gluten-free groceries, restaurants and other places.

The Spunky Coconut - A Colorado mom and food coach/personal cook that specializes in gluten-free, casein-free and sugar-free cooking dishes out some great, healthy recipes. She is also the author of the new "Spunky Coconut Cookbook".

Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried - Naomi over in England is a homeopath and her recipes for lovely, healthy and kid-friendly treats are spectacular. She also started the blogging event, Go Ahead, Honey, It's Gluten-Free, to inspire theme-based gluten-free recipe roundups.

Strawberries are Gluten Free - A Canadian mom of three young kids and a celiac husband who shares her family-friendly recipes and menus.

Sugar and Spice - A Boston girl who likes to cook, read nonfiction, kick box and watch the Red Sox.

Sure Foods Living - Alison, a California mom, maintain a excellent informational blog about living gluten-free and avoiding other food allergens.

Tasty Eats at Home - This Texas mom knows how to put a great meal on the table quickly, even when it's gluten-free and from scratch.

La Tartine Gourmande - French ex-pat Bea (accent aigue in there over the e) is a food and travel writer/photographer, whose blog is achingly beautiful. Find over 100 gluten-free recipes in her recipe index.

Trav's Gone Gluten-Free - Philadelphian Travis explores the gluten-free world, with many recipes and reviews of gluten-free beers and other products.

Triumph Dining - The publishers of the "Essential Gluten-Free Restaurant Guide" and Grocery Guide have a blog packed with tips about finding gluten-free food throughout the U.S.

Wheat Free Meat Free - Kalinda cooks for her vegetarian celiac husband in Chicago and this blog features her great recipes and wonderful food photos.

Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen - Husband and wife nutritionists and cookbook authors Ali and Tom have a wonderful blog about healthy, gluten-free eating coming to us from Bellingham, Washington.

A Year of Crockpotting - Stephanie is the hilarious, gluten-free chef who has a strong attraction to her herd of crock pots--but she's OK with that. A funny and tasty food blog which started on January 1, 2008 with a new crock pot recipe each day.

This list is just an appetizer, there are so many other great gluten-free food bloggers out there that I haven't had time to taste and more sprout each day. Let me know if you see any other great GF bloggers out there that you would recommend.

Gluten Free Food Find of the Week: Korean Rice Cakes or Dduk Noodles

2011-12-11T07:48:00.001-05:00

One of our recent food finds at the Asian markets in Albany has been bags of dried rice cakes. No, not those tasteless puffed rice cracker-y things that come dusted with cheese or cinnamon, but a variety of Korean rice noodle, called dduk and spelled about thirty different ways in English.

These gluten-free noodles look like mini tongue-depressors to me, being somewhat elongated ovoids, and are a nice, chewy addition to stir-fries. One can buy fresh or frozen dduk, but so far I have just experimented with the bags of dried dduk. These noodles are made of pounded, steamed and dried sweet rice flour and must be pre-soaked in cold or boiling water to make them ready for cooking. They have a great texture that really stands up to extended cooking, so they are a good choice for any noodle soup or juicy stir-fry dishes in which a more tender noodle would give up and implode into mush.

Korean cooks make many varieties of dduk dishes, both sweet and savory, and a bowl of steaming Dduk Gook soup is a traditional way to ring in the New Year. I enjoyed reading this blog post from a Korean doctor who relates the many sayings that involve their much beloved rice cakes, like "give your enemy another piece of dduk" (i.e., "turn the other cheek").

I haven't followed any traditional Korean recipes for using this noodle, (but I intend to!) so much as incorporating them in my weekly stir-fries when I have needed something starchy. They do tend to suck up a lot of sauce and flavor, so plan on adding more liquid to your wok when you are adding in your dduk noodles. Above you can see a stir-fry of julienned carrot, cabbage, zucchini and garlic bathed in a sesame-soy-garlic sauce and zapped with a little chili-garlic paste. The dduk noodles add such a nice heft in there!

I have the privilege of hosting Presto Pasta Nights #244 this week. PPN is a popular weekly blog event chronicling the many incarnations of the world's noodles and was started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast in 2007. I thought relaying my adventures with this new-dle would fit the bill quite nicely.

I have already received some great pasta recipes from other bloggers and look forward to other pasta creations in my emailbox until the deadline of Thursday, December 15. You can send them to me (with a photo attachment of your creation) at oldsaratogabooks (at) gmail (dot) com and please also cc ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com. I will post the roundup for this last Presto Pasta Nights of 2011 the day after. Hope you can squeeze in some pasta fun with us during this busy holiday week!

Melomakarona Cookies

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

With Christmas packages needing a little sweet treat from the home ovens, it's been cookie baking time here at Chez Crispy, and so I was glad that this month's host for the Gluten Free Ratio Rally, Caroline of The G-Spot Revolution, picked COOKIES. Our dedicated band of gluten-free bakers tackles a new baking adventure each month (together we've made pasta, pate a choux, pie, doughnuts, cake and other goodies) using major ingredients by weight and ratios in our experimentation. For cookies, we were trying out a ratio of 3 parts gluten-free flours, 2 parts fat, and 1 part sugar.

Cookies are familiar territory to most home cooks and thankfully, the architecture that gluten provides to other other baking endeavors is not crucial to most cookies that are not made of wheat flour. I wanted to try something unusual for this month's cookie challenge, so I turned to the boatload of baking cookbooks that had recently come into our used bookstore, Old Saratoga Books. One of them, A Baker's Odyssey: Celebrating Time-Honored Recipes from America's Rich Immigrant Heritage, by Greg Patent (NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2007), has entranced me with its intriguing heirloom recipes from bakers from all corners of the world. From Wales to Mexico to Nigeria, the book is stuffed with baking lore and instructions to make the most interesting baked goods.

Patent's description of Melomakarona Cookies, an ancient holiday cookie from Greece, reeled me in with its siren song. Melomakarona are made with flour, nuts and semolina, perfumed with orange, olive oil and spices and then soaked in a honey-nut syrup. It just seems like something Penelope would have served to Odysseus on his return home, so that he could take in the tastes and scents of his native land and they could lick the honey from each other's fingers. A sensual cookie indeed.

When I produced a batch of this wonderful cookie for my family, however, the kids kept referring to them as maccarena cookies, or worse, melanomas, and only the adults really dug into them. I don't think they were chocolatey or sickly sweet enough for them, but we grownups savored them all week long. They are lovely with a cup of fragrant herb tea and it's a nice contrast between a not-too-sweet, nutty cookie drenched in honey syrup with a nice crust from the potato starch to keep things interesting in one's mouth. Melomakarona also keep well at room temperature and just keep soaking up their honey syrup.

I used a blend of potato starch (for crisp cookie texture), corn flour (not to be confused with corn starch or corn meal. It's a flour that I got from the health food store and I thought it would substitute well for the semolina, adding some nutty flavor and stretchiness to the dough), and buckwheat (for more nuttiness) and this seemed to work well in adapting The Baker's Odyssey recipe to a gluten-free version. Next time I think I would reduce the baking time by 5 or 10 minutes because my cookies did not seem to absorb as much of the syrup as I think they should have because the outsides were fairly crisp. Or maybe I would use half as much potato starch and add in cornstarch or white rice flour to make up the difference. When serving the cookies, I made sure to dole out some extra syrup and chopped nuts after tipping the cookie plate so they could be dunked anew after each bite. They also soften up a little bit if you heat them for a minute in the microwave.

Here then is my contribution to the GF Ratio Rally's cookie extravaganza:

Greek Melomakarona Cookies
(adapted from Greg Patent's A Baker's Odyssey)

6 oz. corn flour
6 oz. potato starch
6 oz. buckwheat flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Extra flour for shaping the cookies (I used white rice flour)

6 oz. olive oil
3 oz. sugar
6 oz. orange juice
Grated zest of one orange

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

4 oz. honey
4 oz. sugar
6 oz. water

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Whisk together corn flour, potato starch, buckwheat flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.

In a larger bowl, whisk together olive oil and 3 oz. sugar to dissolve sugar. Add in orange juice and zest. Gradually mix in flour mixture above until well combined. Slowly add in spices and 3/4 cup walnuts until blended. Let dough rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes. This seems to let the oil suck into the flour and the dough thickens up a bit. It's a very soft dough, but not difficult to work with if you have extra flour to coat your hands.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment. With floured hands, take about 2 Tbsp. of dough and shape into ovals, fitting fifteen cookies onto each prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cookies are browned and spring back when pressed. Midway through baking time, rotate cookie sheets from top rack to bottom so that they brown evenly.

While cookies are baking, make the syrup by adding honey, 4 oz. sugar and water in a small pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to make sure sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.

Immediately upon taking the cookies out of the oven, slip them onto another cookie sheet or glass baking dish and then drench them in your hot syrup. Let stand for 15 minutes, then flip cookies and let them sit in their hot syrup bath for another 15 minutes. Turn them right side up again and sprinkle with 1/4 cup walnuts. Patent says to let the melomakarona sit overnight before tasting, but this is impossible. The warm cookies are very good right away, though they do improve after soaking in more syrup after a long nap.

Makes 30 cookies.

Be sure to check back with The G-Spot Revolution, where Caroline has links to a wealth of gluten-free cookie posts from the other Ratio Rally bakers. And if you are looking for other gluten-free cookie recipes to try out for your holiday table or Christmas care packages, here are some from the Crispy Cook archives. I like a cookie that is long on spice and not overly sweet, as you can see below.

Swiss Basler Brunsli
Almond Cloud Cookies
Mexican Cinnamon Cookies
Apricot-Ginger Shortbread
Elegant Sesame-Ginger Cookies (vegan)
Peanut Butter Kisses
Elizabeth Barbone's Lemon Bars
Ginger-Nut Lace Cookies
Mocha-Pepper Sandwich Cookies
Fig Newtons
Rudolph's Noses (no bake chocolate-cherry cookies)

Happy baking!

Time to Cook the Books a la Grecque

2011-11-28T13:07:00.001-05:00

The latest book pick for Cook the Books, the Internet foodie book club that my friends Johanna of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food and Deb of Kahakai Kitchen started three years ago, is Patricia Volonakis Davis' Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece (NY: Harper Davis Publishers 2008). With Cook the Books, we have read many kinds of foodie non-fiction, novels, children's literature and biographies, and traveled the world reading about different culinary traditions, but we have never examined the wonderful food culture of Greece, so I was excited when Johanna picked this book for our current CTB selection.

Davis tells the story of her courtship and marriage to a Greek immigrant and the cultural clashes between her first generation Italian-American family and his. Eventually, she and Gregori and their son Nick move to Greece and her descriptions of her new life there were the most interesting part of the book for me. I enjoyed the translations of various Greek words and expressions ("She can make a donkey die!" means someone is stubborn beyond words) and loved her prose about about Greek Orthodox rituals, the complex dance of the biscotti and coffee at Greek funerals, and comparisons of American and Greek attitudes towards children, stray dogs, and education.

Though the word "Food" is given preeminence in the title of this book, there is not so much discussion of Greek cuisine as there are descriptions of how Davis' marriage weakens and ultimately unravels. And this is not what I thought the book would be about, so unfortunately, I would find my thoughts drifting away through yet another recitation of a marital argument or fight with a passive-aggressive in-law. I flipped ahead through many pages seeking out the nuggets about Greek culture seen through an American's eyes or about the love-hate relationship that first generation immigrant families have with US pop culture and societal freedoms.

My favorite character in the book is Patricia's mother, a chain-smoking philosopher, whom she unfortunately becomes estranged from after too many Gregori incidents. I absolutely loved Mama Nancy's theory of comparative religion. When young Patricia came home from Catholic school one day and asked how one knows that their religion is "the right one", Mom replies:

"All religions are the "right" religion, if they're right for the person following them. They all teach basically the same things: to love one another, be the best people we can be, to never deliberately harm someone else."

When her daughter asks why there are different religions, Mom's educational metaphor comes back: "The best way I can describe it is that it's like decorating a house. Some have furniture that might seem strange to you, but the people who live there are happy with it." (p. 81)

After my reading, I was inspired to filch a Greek cookbook from our bookstore shelves, Perfect Greek (London: Parragon, 2006) and perused many a delicious recipe for various mezze, sweets and salads, but ultimately I settled on a recipe for a tomatoey Greek Fisherman's Soup which I adapted to be much more stew-like and which made for a wonderfully fragrant meal served over rice. I'm glad I made a big pot of rice, because this concoction had terrific juices and we sopped up every bit at dinner.

Here's a Fish Stew fit for a Harlot or Fisherman or whomever shows up at your table:

Greek Fisherman's Stew (adapted from Perfect Greek)

2 frozen fillets of tilapia, thawed and cut into chunks (they will flake off in the cooking)
1 lb. frozen shrimp, thawed and shelled

1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
4 stalks celery, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes and their juice
Peel of one orange
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
3 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot cooked rice

Heat olive oil in large soup pot. Add onion, celery and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about five minutes. Add fish and shrimp and cook, stirring often, another 5-7 minutes, until shrimp are pink

Add white wine and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add orange peel (I used a tangerine and squeezed in the juice too), thyme, parsley and bay leaves. Cook another 15 minutes at a simmer until seafood is thoroughly cooked and the fish has flaked up and into your wonderful stew juices. Season with salt and pepper and serve over hot cooked rice. The citrus in the sauce really picks up the sweetness of the fish and shrimp.

Makes 4 dinner servings.

Johanna, our resident Athenian Cook the Book hostess, will be posting a roundup of all the blog entries about Harlot's Sauce after tomorrow's deadline, so hop on over to Cook the Books later this week to see all the posts. Our featured author, Patricia Volonakis Davis, will also be serving as our guest judge to select a winner from the blog entries so that should be entertaining reading as well.

**Next up on the Cook the Books reading list is John and Matt Lewis Thorne's collection of food essays "Outlaw Cook". It's a fantastic book and I invite you all to join us in reading the book and then blogging up your thoughts and any Outlaw-inspired recipes.

Holiday Feasting Experiments and Giveaway Winner

2011-11-26T09:22:00.001-05:00

The Thanksgiving feast keeps on giving as our family enjoys lots of savory leftovers. I'm giving thanks that I made all that food because it's a busy time at our bookshop and I need to focus on customer requests and special orders and the ever-ringing phone. Can't be cooking when I have to track down a replacement copy of someone's mom's favorite cookbook for Christmas or roam my shelves for the exact edition of Homer's Iliad for a special holiday gift.

One great success at the Thanksgiving table was a big antipasto platter that I made for us all to graze on while I was cooking up stuff Thursday morning. I usually have to swat away all the nibblers that plague me while I am trying to whisk gravy, orchestrate all the side dishes and come up with a good looking feast for our celebratory table, but with this luscious mound of salad greens, pickled bits, cheeses and meats set out on the table, I was able to keep humming along without being pestered and the turkey remained unmolested and fully skinned.

The other great addition to my holiday table was a batch of soft-on-the-inside, crusty-on-the-outside rolls. I used Carol Fenster's recipe for Dinner Yeast Rolls from her 1000 Gluten Free Recipes (NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2008). Though yeast rolls are a time-consuming and ingredient-rich baking project, it was well worth the effort. They filled up the house with a wonderful scent during their baking and were winners at the dinner table too. I will definitely be making them again, perhaps with some kosher salt or sesame. And definitely a double batch next time too!

And now to announce the winner of The Crispy Cook giveaway of a copy of Laura B. Russell's fantastic new book, The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen. The winner is commenter number 8, Moonsword. Congratulations Moonsword! This truly is a great book that we have dipped into quite a bit recently. Dan used it to cook up some radish cake recently from some grated daikon, which tasted great but smelled horrendous, so he will have to wait until warmer weather to make this again so that we can open the windows during cooking.

I'll have another giveaway from Red Pack Tomatoes to announce later this week, so stick around for that!

A Vegetable Sputnik Sends us into Orbit: Cooking with Kohlrabi

2011-11-17T08:45:00.001-05:00

Chipmunk-ravaged kohlrabi plants from our garden

A wonderful little vegetable sputnik is the kohlrabi, a newcomer in the Crispy home garden, which I grew from a packet of seeds. Gardening with kohlrabi so easy. They grow rapidly, like radishes, and should be picked before they get too large and woody, or a swell up too quickly after a bout of rainy days.

They have the most interesting, sculptural form, looking all the world like a small, pale green satellite with stemlets jutting out from all points on its circumference.One can eat leaves too if a chipmunk is not present in one's garden shed and keeps nipping out to mine them.

I would describe the taste of this brassica as having a mild turnip or cabbage flavor. When chopped, the pale green flesh is more reminiscent of celeriac or a fat broccoli stem in texture, though it is somewhat more juicy.

You can eat kohlrabi raw, sliced into sticks or rounds to dip into your favorite spread or eat sprinkled with salt. We also tried grating the kohlrabis on my box grater and dressing them with mayonnaise, celery seed and salt and that was an okay sort of salad.

Kohlrabi in a Remoulade Dressing

On the advice of my friend Erika of Hungarian descent, the best way to cook kohlrabi is to hollow out and then parboil smallish specimens and then stuff them with a rice and meat mixture, as one would stuff a green bell pepper. We haven't yet tried that method, but I tried Erika's other suggestion, which was to slice some kohlrabis, fry them in butter and then add vegetable stock and herb. A little simmering time later and they were a nice side dish on a brisk autumn night.

You can also find a lot of information about kohlrabi and how to cook it from one of my favorite vegetable cookbooks, Bert Greene's Greene on Greens (NY: Workman Publishers, 1984). He shows his particular fondness for this brassica with no less than eleven recipes, some of them quite elaborate.

However, the best dish hands down that we have tried with our kohlrabi bounty has been Kohlrabi Cakes. They are similar to potato or zucchini pancakes and we found that we can use up the bags of grated kohlrabi in our freezer. Dan the Breakfast King came up with this recipe during one creative morning and we've been really enjoying them.

Getting the specifics of the recipe from my brilliant, breakfast-making husband is a little difficult since it's kind of an improvisational recipe. He makes it a little bit differently each time, but he also notes that it is a very flexible and forgiving recipe. If you have a carrot or onion scrap in your fridge, you can add it or not. You can season it differently each time. The amount of flour depends upon how moist your kohlrabi mixture is. So, with some less-than-wide-awake-note-taking on my part (I need my second mug of coffee in the a.m. before I am fully cognizant), I offer the following tasty recipe for:

Kohlrabi Cakes

2-3 apple-sized kohlrabis
1/2 green pepper, coarsely chopped
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 egg, beaten
2-3 Tbsp. white rice flour
Your choice of herbs and seasonings (we like to use coarsely ground black pepper, smoked paprika and salt)
Butter and olive oil for frying

Whack off the ends of the kohlrabi and peel them. Grate them on the big hole side of your box grater. You will end up with about 2 to 2-1/2 cups of grated kohlrabi. Squeeze to remove excess moisture. You can also use frozen grated kohlrabi, thawed and drained.

Mix in pepper, onion, carrot and garlic. Beat in egg, seasonins and add enough flour to bind it all together. If your batter is too moist, add another Tbsp. of flour. It should just hold together when you shape it into patties.

Heat a Tbsp. each of butter and olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add two or three patties to your pan and fry slowly, flipping two or three times, for about 10 minutes, or until kohlrabi cakes are brown and CRISPY on the outside.

Makes 4 kohlrabi cakes.

I am sending this kohlrabi post and recipe to that most venerable food blog event (it's reached venerability as it's in its sixth year!), Weekend Herb Blogging was started by Kalyn's Kitchen and is now headquartered by Haalo at Cook Almost Anything and guest hosted this week in Italian and English by Brii at BriggisHome.

Brii will have a roundup of all the Weekend Herb Blogging #311 posts after this Sunday's deadline, so stay tuned for that.

**And if you would like to enter in my giveaway to receive a copy of Laura Russell's new "Gluten Free Asian Kitchen" cookbook, be sure to leave a comment at the previous post here at The Crispy Cook. I'll have another giveaway this week after I announce the winner of this great new cookbook.

Cookbook Review and Giveaway: Laura B. Russell's The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen

2011-11-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for ways to expand the culinary possibilities in your own Brave New Gluten Free World, then Laura B. Russell's cookbook, The Gluten Free Asian Kitchen (Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 2011) is tailor made for you. Though many Asian food traditions are gluten-free, try going out to your favorite noodle or dim sum place or try navigating a typical Chinese (well, Chinese-American, really) restaurant and figuring out whether there's wheat in the soy sauce that's in nearly every dish or whether the noodles are wheat-based or rice-based, or a combination. It's enough to give you a gluten headache without even eating anything.

That's where Russell's new cookbook is so useful. Our family loves all kinds of Asian foods and we've really loved trying out new ingredients and cooking techniques since La Vida Gluten Free rained down on us five or so years ago. The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen has helpful descriptions of all kinds of Asian ingredients, including shopping tips to help you avoid varieties of noodles, sauces, marinades and spices that may contain gluten. A special chapter at the end of the book by Marcus Pakiser is devoted to the delights of drinking sake, fermented rice wine that comes in many varieties and pairs well with many of the dishes outlined in this book. Dan and I bought our first bottle of sake and have enjoyed sipping and cooking with this delicate tasting beverage.

The recipe section is very well-written and the author patiently and thoroughly explains various techniques for which novice Asian cooks may need extra hand holding. (that would be me!). So far I've made four wonderful recipes from this inspirational cookbook and I can tell that it will be a real workhorse in our cookbook library. There are many popular Asian foods that one can cook (Pot Stickers, Mu Shu Pork, Bibimbap) but also many unusual and innovative recipes (Stir-Fried Rice Cakes with Shrimp and Vegetables, Crabby Noodles with Snow Peas, Thai Coffee Macarons).

I have happily bespattered this great cookbook already, and the first dish I tackled was a simple and homey one, Braised Tofu in Mushroom Sauce (p. 126). The cookbook photo by Leo Gong is so much more delicious-looking than mine, but I can tell you that this was a fantastic recipe that I know I'll be making often, especially since I have lots of bags of garden green beans in the freezer. I used dried shiitake mushrooms (bought cheap at the Asian market) instead of the fresh ones called for in the recipe. That gave me the bonus of free mushroom broth from my soaking liquid for the luscious sauce, so that earned extra Crispy (and Frugal) Cook points.

By using the nonstick pan called for in Russell's recipe, I was finally able to keep my tofu cubes intact after cooking, and for that tip alone, I think this cookbook is a great investment. Russell calls for seasoning the tofu cubes with salt and pepper first and then dipping in potato starch, and this was some of the tastiest tofu I've had outside of a restaurant. You can check out this great recipe yourself at this link. (You can also find many more of Laura B. Russell's recipes on her website.)

I next whipped up a batch of Lemongrass Shrimp Skewers (p. 44) using lemongrass from my own garden patch (it lasted until October out there!). That was a heavenly and elegant dish. It's a little tricky working with the pulverized raw shrimp and shaping them around your skewer, but the aroma of these patties wafting off the barbeque grill was intoxicating. We served them over wonderfully-scented basmati rice and that was a killer meal.

After perusing all the tempting recipes made from many species of gluten-free noodles, I cooked up a batch of slightly lavender-colored Sweet Potato Noodles with(out Beef and) Vegetables (p. 91). They are pretty slippery characters, those Sweet Potato Noodles, so I appreciated Russell's tip about snipping them up with kitchen shears into manageable lengths to avoid wearing one's dinner.

Finally, I made a pile of Eggplant with Sweet Miso Glaze (p. 123), another dish with layers of flavor. I really loved this one, with its blend of smokiness, sweetness and creaminess. If I had fresh-picked eggplants, I would dispense with the step of soaking the eggplant slices in salted water, but mine were a week old at least and starting to get soft, so I'm sure this short brining removed a bit of bitterness.

I am really going to have fun trying all of Russell's pickled vegetable recipes next garden season and look forward to creating my own batches of pickled ginger and green curry paste. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Asian food traditions and cooking techniques. Using this cookbook as a guide to exploring various Asian foods, you can create restaurant-quality meals for your family and friends and noone will ask "is this gluten-free?", because they'll be too busy noshing away.

Celestial Arts has graciously offered to send a free copy of The Gluten-Free Asian Cookbook to one of you. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me what Asian recipe you'd love to learn how to make yourself by Wednesday, November 23, 2011 (midnight Eastern Standard Time), and I'll randomly pick a winner. This giveaway offer is limited to readers living in the United States.

Note: I received a free copy of this cookbook from the publisher, but as always, I was not obligated to review it on the Crispy Cook. I was also given the opportunity to offer a copy as a giveaway to one of my readers.

Gluten Free Accomodations at the Porches in North Adams, Mass.

2011-11-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

While it was only me (a non-Gluten Free member of the household) and only one night's lodging, I was impressed by my stay at the historic Porches hotel in North Adams, Mass. I am let out of the bookstore for an annual "Ladies Weekend" with friends and though I had to abbreviate my annual getaway to just one night because of other commitments, it was a heavenly time.

Luxurious and Funky Accomodations

We chose North Adams, Massachusetts for our getaway this year because of its proximity to our Albany, NY hub and because most of us had not yet been to MassMoca, a great contemporary art museum that has exhibitions of incredible, huge sculptures and installations.


A very cozy reading room

The Porches is a historic hotel consisting of several adjacent rooming houses that were home to textile mill workers in the 19th century. The hotel is funky and decorated with interesting artwork and is walking distance to downtown North Adams and its many shops and restaurants. It is right next to MassMoca, which consists of many of these cavernous old factory spaces.

A palatial and stylish bathroom

The Porches was just great for us. We love to get together and catch up on what's been going on in our lives, drink wine, swap books and just generally chill out. The Porches had big rooms for the ten of us to gather in for our nightly pajama parties and there was also a heated outdoor swimming pool and hot tub which we used for our post-prandial gab sessions. Other perks included a cozy reading room, with fireplace, cuddly in-house cat, a sauna and bookshelves full of interesting books. The hotel staff was attentive and friendly and everything was perfectly relaxing.

Ladies Weekend Essentials

It was a wonderful overnight stay, but to top things off, I was pleasantly surprised the next morning when I stumbled into the breakfast room for a (series of great cups of) coffee and saw that there were many gluten-free things to eat, including granola, breakfast cereals, hardboiled eggs and bread. While none of the "Ladies" were gluten-free, I was pleased to see that if I want to spend a romantic getaway weekend with the celiac husband, we will both be wonderfully housed and fed.

In a hotel cat's world it's always nap time

A big thank you to The Porches staff for making this a wonderfully restful stay with my favorite friends and thumbs up for being so accommodating for the gluten-free community.

Cinnamon Basil Cupcakes with Fresh Tomato Soup for Novel Food

2011-11-08T08:55:00.001-05:00

If you are a gardener, cook or voracious reader of mystery novels, (or all three like me) you will love diving into Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series. Set in the Texas hill country, China is a former high-powered defense attorney who shifts gears mid-career to open up an herb shop surrounded by gardens in a small town. Her main side kick is a red-haired Amazon, Ruby, who wears flamboyant clothes and shares commercial space with our heroine to run her New Age shop full of crystals, tarot cards and incense.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable time this summer reading through the cozy series, which now numbers 19 books in all. Albert has a different herbal theme for each book and its title and one can learn a lot about gardening, folklore, the medicinal use of herbs and even try out some delicious recipes from the back of many of the books. I was particularly taken by a scene in Book 2, Witches' Bane, in which China and her mom dine at former nun Maggie's Restaurant and have a lunch of Cinnamon Basil Cupcakes, thick Tomato Soup and Greek Style Broccoli Salad. That sounded like a fantastic combination, so much so, that I ordered cinnamon basil seeds from a catalogue just to try out those cupcakes (which are more like savory muffins).

That's where I was stymied. I had a nice little bunch of Cinnamon Basil plants sprouting up in a clump in the garden when the overzealous weeder, husband Dan, yanked them out by mistake. It was a long interval between reading about this mouthwatering literary feast and actually seeing this project to completion, but it was a worthwhile wait.


A bunch of Cinnamon Basil with gorgeous purple stems

Back to the garden patch I went to plant some more, this time carefully marked with a special stake, and they duly grew into the handsome plants you see above. This basil variety really does have a spicy cinnamon fragrance and taste and are a striking plant with dark purple stems and light purple blossoms. In addition to using them in the following Cinnamon Basil Cupcake recipe, I used the chiffonaded leaves liberally in my tomato and noodle salads all through August.

The Cinnamon Basil Cupcakes come out a pale shade of green, which is not the usual color for a muffin or cupcake, but they are so delectable and they certainly make for a colorful meal paired alongside deep red tomato soup. I will reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe when I make them again, as I felt they were a little too sweet, but they really were a wonderful accompaniment when served warm from the oven and dunked into my soup.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Basil Muffins (or you can call them Cupcakes like China)

1/4 cup cinnamon basil leaves, stripped from stems
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Puree cinnamon basil leaves in a blender with the oil until it is a fine puree. Add sugar and egg and mix well.

Sift together dry ingredients. Add to basil-oil mixture and combine. Add in sour cream, milk and walnuts and mix well.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, or until muffins feel springy.

While muffins are baking, you can whip up a quick tomato soup by sauteeing some onions and garlic in olive oil until golden, adding in a bunch of fresh or canned peeled, pureed tomatoes and then cooking over low heat, stirring often, until desired thickness. Season with a little more fresh cinnamon basil and salt and pepper and you have an awesome, literary-inspired light meal.

I hope this whets your appetite for this excellent herbal mystery series and to plant a patch of cinnamon basil yourself. You'll want to read the China Bayles series in order, as China, Ruby and various family members go through a lot of changes in life. I saved up this tasty post just for the 14th edition of Novel Food, which is hosted quarterly by Briciole. Novel Food invites participants to cook up recipes inspired by a literary work which has been particularly captivating.

If you haven't already discovered this fun blog event, you can check back through the archives to discover novels, plays, short stories and poems which have inspired bloggers to whip up wonderful creations in their kitchens. This round of Novel Food ends this Sunday, so you still have time to join in the fun or wait until after the deadline to see what others have been reading and then eating.

**And now for a bit of Crispy Cook housekeeping. I am pleased to announce the winners of my Lundberg Family Farms and Stonehouse 27 giveaways. The five winners are: Lindsey, John, the Swedenese Family, Simona and Kathleen. Congratulations to all and I will be contacting you to get your mailing address so that you can receive your Lundberg Brown Rice Bowl and Stonehouse 27 Cooking Sauce sent to you.

Stay tuned for another Giveaway post this week to learn how to get a copy of a great new GF cookbook: Laura B. Russell's "The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen". I've made several recipes from this cookbook and all have been terrific.

Maple Walnut Pie

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe" said the late Carl Sagan.

Well, inventing the universe seems a bit much for the Crispy Cook to tackle, so I took a different approach and decided to try my hand at making a custardy type pie in a pre-baked shell. Gluten-free of course, and so that required inventing or at least improving on the universe of my baking skills. These skills being perhaps more like a small galaxy, or an orbiting moon. Or realistically, an asteroid, but I digress.

I've made a few fruit pies in my time, but I wanted to tackle a different species of pie, so I reached for my shoebox full of index cards and picked out a recipe for Maple Walnut Pie of uncertain provenance (it has my teenaged handwriting, so it is probably from a cookbook borrowed from the library). If you are like me, you are one of those folks who likes to eat trees. I mean that toothsome combination of maple and walnut flavors that just tastes so perfect together, especially during the cooler days of autumn.

The Gluten Free Ratio Rally bunch picked pie making for our October project and this month we are led by Lisa of Gluten Free Canteen in tackling gluten-free pie pastry and fashioning it into various pie permutations.

The Gluten Free Ratio Rally is a group of bloggers who believe in tackling baking projects by using basic ratios of flour, fat, liquids and eggs as a starting point and by measuring ingredients by weight rather than volume, to ensure more scientific results. I joined this amazing group of bakers several months ago, when we all shared our results using Pate a Choux (I made Cream Puffs with Coffee Cream), then Pasta (I made Smoked Paprika Noodles), then Cake (I made a Czech Cherry Bublanina), and then Doughnuts (mine were pretty darn fancy Chocolate Donuts with Chocolate Glaze). I had to skip the last round, when this group made pizza (I made one but it was soggy and sorry), but I was determined not to miss a chance to hone my pie making skills, in readiness for the upcoming holiday season.

Gluten Free Ratio Rally Pie Bakers at Work

Pie crust is a tricky sort of baker's art. It requires ingredients to be at the correct temperature and a pair of deft hands for rolling out and shaping the pie crust. The good news for Gluten Free bakers is that you don't have to worry about overworking the dough and having it become tough, because guess what? That's what happens to gluten-RICH dough. With gluten-FREE dough there are no evil glutenous fibers to overstretch, so you can patch your broken crusts time after time and your crust will not get tough. It may not stick together perfectly (VOICE of EXPERIENCE), but it will not get tough as leather.

I've made a couple of gluten-free pie crusts in the past with some success, like Baked Brie wrapped in a bean pastry crust (not bad) and Apple Sour Cream Pie with flaky pastry crust (maybe a bit too flaky), and was determined to use the Ratio Rally methods to strengthen my pie baking skills. So back to eating trees.

The unbaked pie crust ready for the oven

I decided to make two crusts instead of one since it is so much work and so floury to put together one crust anyway. The starting ratio for the Gluten Free Pie crust is 3:2:1, 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat and 1 part liquid. For two crusts then, I would need 12 oz. flour, 8 oz. shortening (my pie-master is my late maternal grandmother, who always used shortening), and 4 oz. (or less, depending on how things stuck together with my dough) of ice water.

I used equal parts of cornstarch (for lightness), tapioca starch (for flexibility in the pastry) and sorghum flour (for a nutty, hearty taste) for my flour blend. I buy these items in bulk at any one of Albany's Asian markets to keep my gluten-free flour costs down.

My Gluten Free Pie Crust Recipe (adapted from Michael Ruhlman's 3-2-1 Pie Dough recipe)

4 oz. cornstarch
4 oz. tapioca starch
4 oz. sorghum flour (sometimes labeled as jowar flour)
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (keeps gf baked goods from crumbling)
1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. vegetable shortening
4 oz. ice water
Rice flour for dusting

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until texture resembles coarse sand and shortening lumps are gone. Add half of the ice water and stir together until dough clumps together into a ball. You may need to add bits more of ice water until it all holds together.

Divide dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Unwrap one ball of dough and set on floured surface. Roll out to a large circle and then gently fold in half to transfer to nine inch glass pie plate. My dough cracked and tore in several places, but this GF pie pastry is forgiving, so I just kept patching and filling in and the warmth of my hands secured the dough. (It wasn't a flawless pie crust, rather more like a Frankencrust, but it held together for my filling.)

Prick dough several times with a fork. Line crust with a piece of aluminum foil and then weight down with some dried beans or pie weights to keep the crust from buckling during baking. Repeat with second ball of dough.

Place pie crusts in preheated oven and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and beans/pie weights. Bake another

15-20 minutes until pie crust is golden brown and baked through. Let cool.

Makes 2 pie crusts

The baked gluten free pie crust (a few cracks, but really flaky and tender)

Maple Walnut Pie Filling

3 Tbsp. softened butter

4 Tbsp. white rice flour

4 egg yolks

1 cup PURE maple syrup

1 cup white corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped

Cream butter and rice flour together. Add egg yolks, maple syrup, corn syrup and water and mix until completely blended. Cook in saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. You don't want this to overboil or scorch, so you need to be doing something right next to the stove, like washing the mound of pie crust-making dishes, to keep a close eye on things.

Add in chopped nuts and continue to stir and cook until a little bit thicker, about another 5 minutes. This will also soften up the walnuts.

Pour into cooled baked pie crusts and refrigerate at least 1 hour to firm up. Serve topped with slightly sweetened whipped cream. Makes 2 pies.

This pie was really terrific. As an ardent arbophage (tree eater), I do love Maple Walnut flavor anything, but this was a nice dessert that is similar to a pecan pie, but not nearly as cloying sweet. I may try a little more xanthan gum in my next pie crust or perhaps switch in more sorghum flour and less cornstarch to get the crust to be less crumbly and more easy to roll out and bake without cracking, but I was really happy with the whole pie project. One pie is wrapped and nestled in the freezer for our Thanksgiving meal, and the other pie is nearly gone after two rounds of partaking.

Lisa of Gluten Free Canteen has all the links to the other gluten free pie experiments that my fellow GF Ratio Rally Bakers will have for you to see, including hand pies, galettes, savory pies, pot pies, quiches and other pie pastry goodness, so be sure to hop over there.

Product Review and Giveaway: Lundberg Brown Rice and Stonehouse 27 Cashews and Cream Sauce

2011-10-31T18:51:00.000-04:00

How I love Indian food. And how I have loved quick meals during this Fall soccer season. The Youngest has been the goalkeeper on her Varsity soccer team and so we have been running from practices to games and everywhere in between since August. Now they are in the sectional playoffs (Go Bulldogs!) and the excitement and transportation continues.

Enter Lundberg Family Farms and Stonehouse 27. The Lundberg rice farm cooks up some wonderful flavors of Rice Couscous which I previously reviewed here at The Crispy Cook, and has introduced a new Heat & Eat Brown Rice Bowl. These are single servings of brown rice and are quickly heated up in the microwave.

Lundberg Family Farms has an ongoing promotion with Stonehouse 27, a company which makes all natural, Indian-inspired cooking sauces which are also vegan, gluten free and low sodium. I received a Lundberg Heat and Eat Brown Rice Bowl and jar of Stonehouse 27 Cashews & Cream to sample and mix up into a quick meal combo. The goal was to add no more than three other ingredients and to make the meal within five minutes. I added cubed tofu, a fat head of broccoli and a box of Lundberg Brown Rice Couscous to complete my combo. I heated the Lundberg Brown Rice Bowl in the microwave, steamed up the broccoli, warmed the tofu cubes in the Cashews & Cream sauce in a pot, and made up the Brown Rice Couscous (took 15 minutes to cook that, but I needed extra rice to feed my family of four).

The result of my killer combo: Delicious~! The Stonehouse 27 Cashews & Cream sauce is nicely rich and has a mellow heat (there is also a Spicy Cashews & Cream variety available for chili heads, as well as Tamarind and Garlic, Tomato and Chillies, Cilantro and Coconut and Dates and Tamarind).

This was a healthy, hearty and quick vegetarian dinner to whip out on a busy autumnal school night. All of the Lundberg products I've tried have been great. We particularly enjoy the Brown Rice Couscous, which gives us a little textural variety with the many rice and X meals we eat in our house. I sprinkled some Kashmiri Mixture topping over my meal combo for a little extra crunch. I find this gluten-free combination of melon seeds, potato sticks and other crispy items at my local Asian market.

In Saratoga County, I found both the Lundberg rice products and Stonehouse 27 sauces in the aisles of my local Hannaford Supermarket. To check out the availability of these items in your neck of the woods, look for Lundberg Family Farms items here and Stonehouse 27 sauces here.

I am delighted that these two companies are allowing me to offer five giveaways of a Stonehouse 27 sauce and Lundberg Heat and Eat Brown Rice bowl to my readers in the U.S. To enter this giveaway leave a comment below describing what three ingredients you would add to these two items to make your own "killer combo". Do so by next Sunday, November 6, 2011, midnight Eastern Standard Time and I will randomly pick five winners from the comments below and have these giveaway packages mailed to you.

Good luck and good eating. And Happy Halloween!

Eat Your Roses. And Your Squash Blossoms

2011-10-28T11:40:00.001-04:00

It was during the steamy days of summer that I gave a thorough test drive to a review copy of Eat Your Roses: Pansies, Lavender and 49 Other Delicious Edible Flowers by Denise Schreiber (St. Lynn's Press, 2011). This great kitchen and garden reference is handily bound with a sturdy wire spiral binding so that it lays flat to each page enabling the reader to tote it about during the harvest, cooking or even the selection of one's garden seedlings.

I learned so much from this book and was pleasantly surprised to learn that many of the vegetables and herbs that I let flower on after the main harvest are still able to provide food and garnish for my table. Those radishes that inevitably get past me with their growth spurts are still able to provide snappy salad toppings with their pale pink and purple blossoms. Those deep blue and purple bachelors buttons that I let reseed themselves in bits of my vegetable garden because they arere just so darn pretty and feed the pollinating insects also fed my family for the first time, strewn over our summer salads. And who knew lilac blooms were edible? I grow a stand just for its heavenly scent and color, but next Spring some lilacs will migrate into my cream cheese to be spread on a cracker for a pre-prandial snack.

Schreiber's book is loaded with color photos and each page is devoted to a different edible flower. Organized alphabetically, the book gives descriptions of how to grow, harvest and prepare each plant and also gives cautionary advice about some of their health impacts (i.e., don't consume chamomile if you are taking blood thinners). A recipe section at the back lists many scrumptious and unusual dishes that will appeal to all five senses, including Fresh Salsa with Pineapple and Nasturtiums, Watermelon and Feta Salad and Lemon Verbena Salmon.

My tastiest use of this informative book was in experimenting with squash blossoms. I had a healthy zucchini crop this summer (only three plants) with plenty of blossoms available during the really hot spells. Schreiber's book notes that "squash flowers can be stuffed with cheeses and other fillings, battered and deep fried or sauteed and added to pasta". The trick with the squash flowers is to get the male flowers (the ones without a bulbous base that indicates that a baby zucchini is on the way) when they have just started to open, as they are rather fragile and get raggedy even after a day in the sunshine. The other trick is to avoid getting stung by a bee while picking them, as they are also very attractive to the Insect Kingdom. I found that early morning, when the cold-blooded bees are still drowsy and slow, was the best time to swoop in and steal them.

I don't often have great frying success, so rather than battering and frying my blossoms, I gently rinsed and patted them dry, then laid them on a parchment-lined baking tray. I mixed up a little softened goat cheese with salt, pepper and some chopped fresh summer savory and gently stuffed my squash blossoms. I then gave my flowers a good spritz of olive oil. I popped them in the toaster oven and broiled them for a few minutes on each side, until the tops browned and the cheese started to melt.

They were decadently good and we indulged in this little snack several times over the next few weeks, subbing in cream cheese and basil and rosemary, when the goat cheese ran out and we wanted a different herb flavor. They are also terrific with a little fresh marinara on the side.

If you enjoy cooking from the garden, foraging your own grub or interesting kitchen experiments, you will want to buy your own copy of Eat Your Roses. You can purchase one at the St. Lynn's Press website ($16.95) or your favorite bookstore.

Note: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, but was under no obligation to post a review. My comments, as always, are my own.

A Look Back at the 2011 Garden and some Braised Celery

2011-10-26T07:52:00.000-04:00

Despite lashings of rain and wind from Hurricane Irene and a sodden Spring and Fall, the garden season here at Chez Crispy was productive indeed. Our garlic crop was tremendous and I have given away lots of fat-cloved batches to friends and family and will be sticking some in the ground this week for next year's crop.

We also had a bodacious broccoli and hot pepper crop. I thought I had bought one variety of hot pepper seedlings and one of mild peppers, but both turned out on the fiery side, so our freezer is stuffed with sliced capascins, we dehydrated some and I made a batch of hot pepper sauce. We ate tons of broccoli over the summer and I put lots in the freezer as well, though we also enjoyed trying it grilled over a piece of foil on the barbecue. We drizzled it with olive oil and seasoned it with salt, pepper and fresh basil, and it was very tasty.

Broccoli in situ and roasted on the barbie

The lettuces, escarole, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs were also abundant. I pickled. I sauced. I froze. I dried lots of comestibles during the harvest season. My canning sessions were limited to tried and true favorites like tomato sauce, spicy salsa, dilly beans and zucchini relish.

A typical August daily harvest

Lots of garden garlic mid-season

I was given some interesting new plants by my buddy Andrea, who works at an organic farm. She gave me some lemongrass, epazote, chervil, some smudging herbs which I can't remember the name of, and some dragonhead, which was a very cool, spiky purple flowering herb which makes a lovely tea. The epazote was an interesting looking plant, and though I love to smell the odor of turpentine, I am less inclined to ingest it. This Mexican native herb spells very pungently like the turps, so I just let it grow on. It made lots of seeds and some have already sprouted up next to the mother plants so I will no doubt get a second chance to inspect it next Spring. Let me know if you have played around with epazote in the kitchen and have some ideas for me.

Epazote

The chervil was a gorgeous plant that I would consider growing among my flowerbeds, with lacy dark green leaves and a licorice flavor. A few chervil leaves in the salad bowl make a nice accent.

Chervil

The lemongrass was also a great surprise. I had never considered growing this tropical plant because I thought it would be too tender, but it grew quickly and thickly in my garden and I still have a luxuriant stand of lemongrass even at this late date and after two frosts. The leaves are fragrant additions to curries and soups and I have a few bundles drying in the garden shed for winter teas. I've yet to scoop out the remainder of my lemongrass stalks and chop them up for the freezer but will need to do that and pronto, since snow is forecast for tomorrow.

Lemongrass in my October garden!?!

I swapped a bunch of garden items with Andrea throughout the season and when given a dark green and very fragrant bunch of celery from her raised beds, I thought I would try out a recipe that would highlight this vegetable. I had recently gotten in a Depression-era cookbook at our bookshop, Alice Foote MacDougall's Cook Book (1935), and enjoyed browsing through her recipes and prose. A recipe for a simple Braised Celery caught my eye, so I made it up and it was a herbal, delicately-flavored side dish that we dined on for one meal and then reused into a tasty celery soup the next day by adding some leftover mashed potatoes and milk.

Braised Celery

Here's Alice Foote MacDougall's recipe for:

Braised Celery

"Remove the outside coarse stalks from a bunch of celery and save for seasoning. Wash the remainder and cut into pieces one inch long. The large stalks should be cut down the middle.

Place 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and, when melted, put in the celery. Saute slowly until tender. Season with salt and pepper. This is a pleasant addition to one's dinner."

Just so! A simple but luscious and certainly more-than-pleasant recipe, which I will be sharing this week at Weekend Herb Blogging, an event hosted by Haalo at Cook Almost Anything and guest hosted this time round by Cafe Lynnylu.

Cook up a Homemade Life and Some Cabbage with Molly Wizenberg

2011-09-26T09:10:00.002-04:00

There are times when you are in the mood for a light read to let you escape into another world; there are times for a chunky doorstop of a novel to distract you from the miseries of a stubborn cold; and then there are those occasions when a great book of essays or short stories is just the thing to see you through bouts of stop-and-start appointments and other life interrupters. Molly Wizenberg's "A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table" (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2009) was the perfect book to tuck into during a busy last few weeks and I thoroughly enjoyed reading and dog-earing the pages of this lovely book of food essays.

The author has chronicled her journey from anthropology grad student to popular food blogger and author on her blog Orangette and expands upon these writings in "A Homemade Life". The pivotal moment that changed her life focus came after the death of her gusto-laden dad, known affectionately as Burg. Burg smacked his lips when cooking and eating; he sometimes laughed so hard that he gagged; he showed his family how to live "wholly, hungrily, loudly" and to appreciate the whole process of cooking and gathering together around the table. The pages of "A Homemade Life" are packed with the author's memories of various members of her family and friends, but Burg is the one that cartwheels out of the pages with his effusiveness and charisma.

I was also tickled by Molly's memories of a first date with a health food aficionado who served her a salad made of seven kinds of sprouts--plus three cherry tomatoes!-- and then serenaded her with some sort of Chinese lute. She lurched home to her peanut butter jar to muffle the roar in her stomach. It reminded me all too vividly of some one and only dates in my past, including one strange encounter on Halloween night (I should have known better) with a cute but twitchy reporter who played opera music at Def Leppard volume while we poked at our bowls of not-quite-defrosted lentil soup with blocks of frozen legumes in the middle.

The book is stuffed with recipes for desserts and sweets, but I was lured in by her recipes for savory delights. Someday I will try her intriguing recipe for Pickled Grapes with Cinnamon and Black Pepper and those Tuna Buchons, but for a recent dinner, I made up a batch of her homey Cream-Braised Green Cabbage. The cabbage sections come out caramelized, yet sweet and this simple, luscious recipe has won a place in my brassica recipe rotation.

Molly's great book is the present selection of the online foodie book club, Cook the Books, that a couple of food blogger colleagues and I started back in 2008. We take turns hosting the bimonthly rounds of Cook the Books and this time round it was my Hawai'ian blogger buddy Deb of Kahakai Kitchens who picked this gem for us to delve into. Today is the deadline to submit a blog post for the roundup that Deb will put up with all the blogger contributions, so be sure to check back in later to see what others thought about the book and what they cooked up. Molly herself will be taking some time out of honing her next book to serve as the guest judge for the CTB submissions.

Gluten Free Chocolate Donuts with Chocolate Glaze: Baked, Beany and Beautiful!

2011-09-07T09:00:00.010-04:00

I sit here stunned. Amazed that I baked up something that was not only edible, made with normally infuriating talc-like, slippery, gluten-free flours, but which looked kinda fancy; like something you might buy in a bakery.

I'm talkin' doughnuts, those circular little sweeties that form two-thirds of Homer Simpsons food pyramid; those coffee break staples and snack time scarfables that bring sugar and grease together in one carb-bursting handful of deliciousness. Oh, I tried lightening up my doughnut making foray with some garbanzo bean flour, by baking rather than frying, and by substituting in coconut oil instead of other oil or shortening. But I know doughnuts are lovely indulgences that wreck hell on one's middle-aged metabolism unless you are an annoyingly lean soul such as my Old Man.

Doughnuts and fritters are this month's baking challenge at the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally, hosted this time round by Meg of Gluten Free Boulangerie. Meg has all the other links to the toothsome doughnut varieties that other GF bloggers and awesome bakers have cooked up in their kitchens, so be sure to drop by on your coffee break.... The GF Ratio Rally is built on the premise that using ratios of flour:eggs:fat:liquid and measuring by volume will produce more predictable results in baking and I am sold on the concept after successfully churning out cream puffs and cherry bublanina cake with this group.

I was thinking about maybe sitting out this GF Ratio Rally challenge this month, as my Fear of Frying and visions of ending up with a greasy pan of burnt donut crumbs was scaring me off. But then I had a sign from Saint Honoratus, the patron saint of bakers, while I was making my weekly visit to my favorite charity thrift shop. Ever alert in the housewares section, I spied my Holy Grail: a bag of what I believed to be aluminum doughnut molds (they actually produce a rather skinny, though beautifully round, donut) but which I believe now to be individual jello molds. No matter, St. Honoratus gave me the self-confidence to put these new kitchen treasures to use, and after a thorough cleaning, drying and anointing with holy oil, or rather cooking spray, they were perfect for shaping my sticky and unwieldy donut batter into perfect little cake donuts.

I started with this great recipe for a vegan chocolate donut from this blogger, and then adapted it to be gluten-free and to incorporate the coconut oil for my exploration into the donut zone. I thought that the garbanzo bean flour would work beautifully in a chocolate doughnut, both in terms of taste and texture, and that proved to be the case. The dough was rather sticky, as most GF batters tend to be and really dripped rather slowly and thickly from my wooden spoon into the greased donut molds. It was a messy project, but satisfying, and the gooey batter leveled itself out after a minute or so, so I didn't have to smooth it into position.

These doughnuts are cakey, rather than CRISPY, like fried doughnuts. They had a not too sweet taste and the chocolate, gooey glaze was the perfect counterpoint. With a glass of cold milk or a mug of hot coffee on the side, (and I tried out both options), this made the perfect snack/breakfast/go-to-the-gym-motivator.

Gluten Free Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze

Cooking oil spray

3 oz. coconut oil, (liquified if your coconut oil has gone solid in the jar)

10 oz. sugar

10 oz. gluten free flour (about 1-1/3 cups - I used a mixture of 1 cup brown rice flour and 1/3 cup garbanzo bean flour, also known as besan)

4 oz. baking cocoa (about 1/2 cup)

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk mixed with 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar (let sit for 10 minutes to get thick)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp. vanilla

Chocolate Glaze:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 Tbsp. melted coconut oil

Doughnut Toppings of your choice (I used flaked coconut and sprinkles for my resident coconut-phobe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. If you own doughnut molds or donut rings/small jello molds, lightly spray them with cooking spray. If you don't own such things, try a different recipe, because this batter is too oozy for shaping freehand.

Blend together sugar, flours, baking cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.

Add the milk and vinegar mixture, coconut oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix just until the ingredients are combined.

Dribble 2 1/2 tablespoons of batter into each prepared doughnut mold. My batter was very thick and I had a lot of drips and drizzles all over the molds until I got the hang of it, so I kept a wet napkin at the ready to wipe things down.

Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool on the racks for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the doughnuts in the molds and invert them onto a baking sheet. Let cool another 10 minutes.

Make chocolate glaze by melted coconut oil over a low flame in a frying pan. Add chocolate chips, and, stirring continuously, let melt into a smooth chocolate glaze.While glaze is still warm, dip half of the doughnut into the chocolate sauce. Allow some to drip off and then dip glaze side down into your coconut or sprinkles. Let dry on a rack for at least another 10 minutes.

Makes 12 doughnuts. GF Ratios: 4:1.5:1.5:2.

These doughnuts are not super-sweet like a coffee-store donut or greasy like the cider donuts you get at an apple orchard. Instead, they are more cake-like and semi-sweet like a great cake donut, but they were a stone cold delight for my family. I am envisioning making spice cake and carrot cake versions in the future, and will certainly be checking out the other GF Ratio Rally recipes that other bloggers have posted over at GF Boulangerie. St. Honoratus would want me to.

A Czech Heirloom Recipe Made Gluten-Free: Cherry Bublanina Cake

2011-08-03T09:00:00.005-04:00

The theme for this month's Gluten Free Ratio Rally is Yellow or White Cake and I knew immediately which cake I wanted to modify to make GF for our household: my Czech father-in-law's famous Bublanina. Bublanina is a fruit-topped cake that is delectable by itself for dessert or breakfast or gussied up with whipped cream or ice cream. Here's a plate of the delicious blueberry bublanina (try saying that three times fast) and strawberry bublanina that "The Wheaties" were served at our last visit from Alex's kitchen (my GF hubby had ice cream).

Bublanina is good Eastern European comfort food and I wanted to try my hand at a gluten-free version for my Dear One, so this GF Ratio Rally Challenge was the perfect opportunity to get cracking at it. Plus, sweet cherries are in season here in upstate New York, so I bought a couple of pounds: one for snacking and one for cutting up for a Cherry Bublanina

The Gluten Free Ratio Rally event is a monthly challenge to tackle a recipe in which participating bakers use weight as a measure for ingredients rather than standard cups and teaspoons to ensure more reliable results. I enjoyed playing around with Pate a Choux in May to make Cream Puffs Filled with Coffee Cream and posted up my recipe for Smoked Paprika Noodles last month for the pasta round. This time we are all trying out white and yellow cake variations, and the roundup of everyone's posts is available at Gluten Free Gobsmacked.

I was determined to reproduce this homey Czech cake recipe for the Yellow/White Cake round this month and I'm happy to report that it came out really well. You can also use most any other fruit to top your Bublanina. Father-in-law Alex uses strawberries or blueberries most often, but other berries or stone fruit will work well too.

Czech Cherry Bublanina

4 eggs, separated

8 oz. sugar (about 3/4 cup)

8 oz. white rice flour (about 1 cup)

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

fine gluten free bread crumbs

1 lb. pitted slice cherries (or other fruit)

Powdered sugar

Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Add 1/3 of the sugar, beating until whites are stiff and glossy. Fold in egg yolks, 1 at a time, and then blend in remaining sugar and flour. Gently blend in xanthan gum, cinnamon, lemon juice and grated lemon peel.

Grease a square or rectangular 1 quart baking pan and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Pour in batter and spread evenly in a layer about 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches thick. Dust cherries with a bit of white rice flour and arrange evenly on top of batter.

Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. Cool. To serve cut in squares and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Makes 8 servings.

Cook the Books: Garden Spells and Bachelors Buttons

2011-07-24T16:53:00.000-04:00

With the fruits of our garden labors taking up an increasing amount of real estate on my kitchen counters, it is the perfect time to let you know about an evocative novel, Garden Spells, the debut offering by bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen (NY: Bantam Books, 2007). This is the current book selection for the bimonthly foodie book club, Cook the Books.

Cook the Books features books from all kinds of genres, from chef memoirs to fiction featuring cooking or foodcentric themes, and participants offer up posts that discuss our current selection and their culinary creations inspired by their reading. I will be coordinating the roundup of submissions at the Cook the Books blog after tomorrow's deadline and then our guest judge, Jenna of the wonderfully entertaining blog, Literature and a Lens, will pick a winner.

Garden Spells is a lyrical blend of Southern Gothic and magical realism set in a small North Carolina town, where the Waverley clan has always had a certain reputation for odd powers. Elderly cousin Evanelle is driven to give people gifts which they later find out that they need and want, from Strawberry Pop-Tarts to bed linens, condoms and mango cutters. Caterer and night gardener Claire cooks up magical foods that have various properties, like the snapdragon casserole used to ward off the unwanted admiration of her hunky new neighbor. It would be a plot spoiler to let y'all know about the power that her wayward sister Sydney discovers that she possesses late in the book, but suffice it to say that all of the Waverley women have unusual talents. Even the family apple tree in the backyard has an ominous power: the ability to fling apples around, which, if eaten, will give the bearer a vision of the biggest event in his or her life. And bigger is not always better.

There were so many delicate and intriguing things that Claire cooks up in this book: lavender bread, crystallized pansies, violet white cake, lemon-verbena sorbet, and honeysuckle wine. Herbs and garden vegetables feature prominently in her sensual descriptions and it was a treat to read the excerpts from the Waverley kitchen journal at the rear of this book. Chive Blossoms will ensure you will win an argument and are an antidote for hurt feelings, and Nasturtiums are noted as promoting appetite in men (for sex or food, or both?) and for making women secretive. Very entertaining.

With a swath of long-blooming Bachelors Buttons in my vegetable patch, grown just for attracting pollinating insects (and because they're so easy to grow and are self-sowing), I was delighted to learn from this book that the petals are edible and, according to this book,

"Bachelor's buttons make people see sharper, helpful for finding thing like misplaced keys and hidden agendas"

Well, sez I, I could certainly use help in both these departments, so I plucked a handful of petals, and used them to garnish a salad gleaned right out of the Crispy summer garden: mixed lettuces, radishes soaked in rice vinegar and some sliced asparagus stalks. They really looked lovely as a garnish and I am making a note to remind myself to use them on top of my next Fourth of July dessert. They are so deeply blue.

I'll be posting the roundup of all the Garden Spells submissions over at the Cook the Books blog after tomorrow's deadline and encourage you to drop by and see all the different, creative interpretations of this dreamy novel that we've all cooked up.

Our August/September Cook the Books selection is A Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenberg, a collection of essays and recipes, compiled from her popular blog Orangette. Anyone is welcome to join in the fun for this and all future rounds of CTB by reading the selected book, and then blogging up your book commentary and a dish inspired from its pages.

Off to deliver some garden produce to my friends. Now, where'd I put those keys?

Weekend Herb Blogging #292 Roundup

2011-07-18T08:36:00.000-04:00

The pleasures of the garden, farmers markets, and produce shelves are all spectacularly showcased in the following roundup of posts for Weekend Herb Blogging #292. I was given the pleasure of hosting this week by the Queen of WHB, Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, and once again, I have learned a lot about growing and cooking some new plant ingredients as well as some old favorites.

This week there were WHB participants from around the globe, where different vegetables and fruits are in season, and I thought about organizing the roundup geographically. However, while tidying up the children's section at our used bookshop the other day I got inspired and thought it would be fun to announce the WHB submissions in the format of an alphabet book, so here goes.

B is for BISCOTTI DI MAIONESE, or Mayonnaise Cookies, an intriguing entry from Cindystar on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy. Cindystar provides the recipe for this sweet treat in both English and Italian, and they look tempting in (and around) any tongue.

C is for CHERRY PLUMS, which Shaheen foraged from her inlaws' backyard. She brought them back to her Allotment 2 Kitchen, somewhere west of Scotland, and baked up an impressive Cinnamon Cherry Plum Torte.

D is for DANDELION AND YAM PIE, straight from Graziana's Italian oven at Erbe in Cucina. This recipe was inspired by an out-of-control dandelion plant fighting for control over its herb and chili pepper neighbors in a container pot. Graziana yanked it out, cooked it up with some yams, and baked up these little pies in parchment.

F is for FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISH. Vietnamese-born, Australian transplant Anh of A Food Lover's Journey is a novice gardener, and relays her adventures in horticulture in her blog post. She has lots of great advice about using recycled containers for garden plants and grew these sumptuous looking French Breakfast Radishes.

G is for GARLICKY STIR-FRIED PEA SHOOTS. Earlier this week at the Crispy Cook, I had a bag of pea shoots and tendrils from Albany, New York's Asian markets to experiment with. I stir-fried them with garlic, oil and soy sauce and they were a new taste treat for my family.

H is for HEALTHY EATING FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE, Rivki's New Jersey-based blog. She cooked up some Creamy Baby Collards with spring onions and chives.

K is for KIRSTEN who assembled this refreshing Shaved Fennel Salad with Dill and Feta at her blog From Kirsten's Kitchen to Yours. This recipe also incorporates thinly sliced zucchini, which many northern hermisphere gardeners are starting to harvest in their summer gardens.

M is for MEXICAN CABBAGE STIR-FRY. Torontonian Janet of The Taste Space takes the humble cabbage and zips it up with some spices and beans for a new twist on the old stir-fry.

P is for PACKHAM PEARS, which WHB Hostess with the Mostess, Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, baked into a luscious Pear Crumble Pie. Packham Pears were first bred in Haalo's native Australia and are just coming into season.

R is for ROASTED STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM. With a splash of balsamic vinegar, no less. What a glorious gelato this must be with such colors and flavors, alchemized by Simona of Briciole in her northern California kitchen.

S is for SAGE, which Elly of Nutmegs, seven in Oxford, England uses to perfection in her recipe for Sage-Crusted Veal with Summer Vegetables. Elly's prose and photography are so wonderful and she explores lots of cooking traditions on her beautiful blog.

Thank you to Haalo for the chance to host this terrific food blog event this week and to all the participants for sharing their interesting posts. Next week Weekend Herb Blogging will be hosted by Almond Corner, who already has her announcement post up with a cool recipe for Sour Cherry Cake, so be sure to drop by.

A Tour of the Crispy Garden and a Product Review: The Rachael Ray Garbage Bowl

2011-07-17T14:59:00.000-04:00

The summer garden is now in full harvest mode, with lots of lovely vegetables and herbs to eat. I start the day with an early morning harvest walk with my colander and by next week, I'm sure I'll need a much larger vessel or perhaps several smaller harvest walks to rake in the veggie bounty.

The spring vegetables are nearly done: lettuces, garden peas, spinach and asparagus all devoured. The radishes are still hanging on strong, though. I planted a new-to-me variety from Jung Seeds, the German Giant Radish and the radishes are a beautiful deep red and have a medium heat. Best of all, they have remained free of that fibrousness that afflicts so many other radish varieties once the summer heat kicks in.

My garlic crop is almost ready to harvest. The plants loved all the spring rain we had so they grew vigorously. Now that I've lopped off and cooked up all the garlic scapes, they are starting to get yellowed leaves and tilt over, so they should be ready to pull up for curing soon.

The kitchen prep area near the sink contains my two gallon-sized compost bucket (an old joint compound container). I usually clean and cut up my garden edibles at the sink and toss the trimmings into the sink basin with all the dirty dishes to be fished out later for the compost bucket, but that's not only kind of unsightly, but it's a drag having to keep pulling vegetable matter off my plates and unscrewing the compost bucket lid when doing the dishwashing.

Lately, however, I've been using my new Rachael Ray Garbage Bowl to hold the vegetable scraps until I'm done with the cooking. I received a free Garbage Bowl from rachaelray.com and am delighted to offer my praise. It's a snazzy speckled melamine receptacle that adds a little style to my 1920s porcelain sink drainboard and it's certainly been capacious enough for all the radish beards, pepper tops, asparagus bottoms and pea pods (those that my kitchen hound Martha doesn't scarf down) I've had to process on my daily harvest walkabouts. I'm also partial to Ms. Ray, despite the fact that she adds that extra A to her first name, because she is an upstate New York native and used to delight us on the Channel 6 news with upbeat cooking segments before she became a foodie celebrity.

I actually think I may want to use my Garbage Bowl as a pretty serving bowl the next time I'm toting a salad to my next party. Just be aware that this bowl is not intended for oven or microwave use. You can find your own Garbage Bowl at major retail outlets like Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond or online at the web link above for $19.95.

Now, if I could only get some more counter space in the Crispy Kitchen, I'd be all set for the onslaught of the summer harvest. Off to the garden again to harvest some more broccoli...

Stir-Fried Pea Shoots with Garlic for Weekend Herb Blogging #292

2011-07-13T10:55:00.000-04:00

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet, by William Shakespeare)

And so it seems the Bard's words ring true with each trip I take to the ethnic markets in Albany.

Finding a new vegetable to cook up is so much fun. While at the vast arboretum that is the produce section at Albany's Asian Supermarket, I found a bag of bright green pea shoots to play with. They looked just like the tips of my own garden peas with their curly tendrils and fleshy stems and leaves, but since clipping the tips of peas would mean diminishing the precious harvest of fresh peas from the pod, I have never wanted to harvest my own.

I washed through this bag and picked out a few yellowed pea shoots and then rinsed them off. My cookbook collection advised me to simply prepare this tender vegetable with some garlic, oil and a splash of soy sauce, so that is what I did. I threw 5 cloves of finely chopped garlic in some heated peanut oil; stirred them around for a minute or so, then threw in my pea shoots. They wilted down, though not as much as spinach or other fresh greens would, and after 3-4 minutes of stir-frying, I splashed in a tablespoon of soy sauce and hied them over to the table.

Curiously, these pea shoots did not so much taste of peas as spinach. They have a springy texture from the stems and a soft, melting greens taste in their leaves. They are full of all kinds of wonderful nutrients and they will be sproinging their way onto my table again soon. I may even have to consider harvesting my own, much as I love my sweet little petit pois; that's how tasty they are.

I found a great list of pea shoot recipes on this website and will be sure to try out some of these methods soon.

This sojourn into the possibilities of pea shoots is my contribution to the 292nd edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, which I am hosting here at The Crispy Cook. Weekend Herb Blogging, now in its fifth year, is headquartered Down Under by Haalo at Cook Almost Anything, and if you are new to WHB you can find out all the details about this popular and longstanding food blog event here.

In a nutshell, (or pea pod), Weekend Herb Blogging is a weekly celebration of posts from great cooks all around the globe which spotlight an edible member of the Vegetable Kingdom, be it herb, fruit, flower, veggie or some other plant part. Posts for WHB must be written exclusively for this event and not cross-posted elsewhere. They may contain information about growing, harvesting or cooking a plant ingredient. The deadline for submitting a WHB #292 submission is Sunday, July 17, 5 pm, Eastern Standard Time.

To participate, send your posts to me at oldsaratogabooks AT gmail DOT com
with WHB #292 in the subject line and the following details:

Your name
Your Blog/URL
Your Post URL
Your Location
Attach a Photo: 250px wide

Looking forward to your tasty posts!

Smoked Paprika Noodles with Butter, Cheese and Garlic Scape and Herb Drizzle

2011-07-09T10:33:00.000-04:00

A wonderful bunch of gluten-free bloggers posted a collection of recipes and posts for making fresh pasta a couple of days ago. I was unable to get my own post up in time for the Gluten Free Ratio Rally, a monthly food blog challenge that encourages experimentation in the kitchen with gluten-free flours. Last month, we all played with pate a choux (I made cream puffs filled with coffee cream) and next month we will be trying out cake recipes.

I did make an awesomely good set of gluten-free noodles, gently flavored and colored with smoked paprika, and wanted to share my experiment with you. I started with the Fresh Gluten-Free Pasta recipe from the showcase cookbook, Gluten Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna and Daniel Ahern. I had made their recipe for fresh pasta once before and wanted to switch up some of the flours. Shauna and Daniel's recipe in their cookbook called for corn flour and quinoa flour, which added a nice nubby texture to the fresh pasta, but I was out of quinoa flour, so I subbed in brown rice flour and added in 3 generous tablespoons of smoked paprika. The Aherns have since done some other experimenting with fresh pasta, so you can check out their recipe at the link above and try it for yourself to find out how adding in a boost of extra egg yolks makes the dough more easy to work with.

My dough came out beautifully; just needed a touch more water to make it more pliable. I covered it and let it rest for a while, giving me time to head out to the herb patch to pick some Italian parsley, basil, oregano and garlic scapes. I whizzed them up with some olive oil and kosher salt in my blender to make a garlicky herb drizzle that I scattered over the noodles later on.

I then rolled out my pasta dough between sheets of parchment paper and was able to get it to about 1/4 inch thickness. I would have liked it to be thinner, but I just couldn't seem to get it to stretch as much as I wanted, so my noodles came out on the hearty and thick side. I therefore cut them into short fettuccine lengths.

After a short bath in some salted boiling water, I tossed my noodles with some butter and grated Parmesan, seasoned with salt and pepper and then drizzled on my garlic scape and herb puree. What a toothsome dish! It was a satisfying, yet light supper and we all licked our plates.

I'm sending a batch of these gluten free noodles over to Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly celebration of the world of pasta started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. This week's guest host is Lavender and Lime, who will be posting her roundup of carbs next Friday.

Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Garlic Scapes and Anchovies

2011-07-01T18:19:00.000-04:00

It's taken years, but I finally made an anchovy aficionado out of the old husband. Oh, I've tried before, with stealthy insertions of the salty fish into Caesar Salads, minced onto pizza pies and tucked into pastas, but I was always discovered. Not until I melted a tin of anchovies into a luscious and decidedly unsalty base for a supper pasta with Broccoli Rabe and some of our bountiful supply of homegrown garlic scapes did I succeed in winning over my Dan to the anchovy side.

When anchovies are cooked down over a low flame, they lose their super salinity and gain a mellow, earthy flavor that was the perfect foil to the bitter Broccoli Rabe greens. This dish was so successful, I've made it twice since, and Dan has even cleaned out the cupboard of my tinned anchovy stash, so I believe I have an anchovy convert on my hands now.

It's a quick and simple pasta dish and one that I will pass on to you should you covet a hearty pasta dish with once-sharp flavors that are delightfully mellowed after cooking.

Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Garlic Scapes and Anchovies

1/2 bunch broccoli rabe, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 lb. fettuccine

1 tin anchovies

10 garlic scapes, chopped

Olive oil

Pinch of hot pepper flakes

Grated Romano cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste (taste first; you made not need to add any salt with the saltiness of the anchovies)

Cook fettuccine until al dente. Drain and rinse with warm water. Set aside.

Heat a teaspoon or so of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add chopped garlic scapes and stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring. Add anchovies and their oil and break up with a wooden spoon, stirring until they melt and coat the scapes. Add chopped broccoli rabe and stir all around. Cook until leaves are wilted and broccoli rabe is crisp-tender, about 7-8 minutes. Add a little water and cover pan to steam for another minute or two.

Add hot pepper flakes and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with your cooked pasta and toss to coat. Garnish with grated cheese.

Serve hot to 6-8 persons.

I am sending a plate of this toothsome pasta over to Helen of Fuss Free Flavours, who is this week's host for Presto Pasta Nights. This weekly event was started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast and is a great showcase for noodly dishes. Helen will have the roundup for Presto Pasta Nights #221 posted after the July 7 deadline.

A Review of Kelapo Coconut Oil and an Awesome Coconut Tea Bread

2011-06-25T14:10:00.000-04:00

Coconut oil is one of those ingredients that I want to use more in our cooking at the Crispy Casita. I've heard a lot of buzz about its healthful qualities because of its lauric acid content and proponents' arguments that it increases good cholesterol levels. I have been intrigued about trying some unrefined, cold-pressed, virgin coconut oil in my cooking and when the Kelapo Coconut Oil company offered to send an 8 oz. jar my way for sampling, I took them up on it.

The Kelapo Coconut oil is harvested in Sri Lanka and is an organic, trans fat-free product. It is solid at room temperature but quickly melts when the temperature gets above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I used it in lieu of shortening or butter to grease a loaf pan and my skin temperature melted it immediately. It has slight coconut flavor and scent and after perusing the Kelapo blog, I found a recipe from Chef Marcus Samuelsson for a Coconut Tea Bread.

Oddly enough, though this quick bread recipe calls for shredded unsweetened coconut, it didn't include coconut oil, but rather butter. I made the substitution, and subbed in white rice flour and xanthan gum for the all-purpose flour, and the result was really wonderful. Our resident coconut-phobe wouldn't partake, but the rest of the Crispy Crew polished off slices of this moist and chewy bread for breakfast and dessert in short order. It was nutty and full of chewy bits of coconut and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

I'm not an expert on the health aspects of coconut oil, but I have heard such positive things about using coconut oil in baking and cooking. I would reiterate that it is always a good idea to keep fats on the tapered end of the food pyramid or the smallest concentric portion of the food plate or whatever healthy eating food imagery is being pushed about by the Food and Drug Administration these days. To find out more about the properties of coconut oil, I would refer folks to my fellow Gluten Free blogger, The Spunky Coconut, for more information and recipes.

My only reservation in using this tasty product is the price. An eight jar retails for $8.99 on the Kelapo site, making it a much more expensive product than butter ($2.50-$3 a pound) or shortening ($1-2 pound, depending on brand), so this is always going to be a strong consideration with my budget, especially given the higher cost of shopping for our gluten-free foods.

Betty Crocker Giveaway Winner and a Batch of Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes

2011-06-24T11:58:00.000-04:00

First, a little Crispy Cook housekeeping. The winner of the Betty Crocker Gluten-Free baking mix package is Paula. Paula's got a great blog, Live Free, Gluten Free, where you can find some of her delicious recipes, lifestyle tips, weekly menus and information about cooking without gluten or dairy. Congratulations Paula!

As I noted in my earlier post about the Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes, there is a gluten-free baking contest underway at Glutenfreely.com, and you are all invited to submit a holiday-themed recipe by June 30, 2011. For more details, see last month's post or go to the Glutenfreely website.

I submitted a recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with a Creamy Orange Frosting that was inspired by our family's tradition of spreading around a Chocolate Orange (you whack it and it breaks into citrus-printed wedges) and reading a lovely story about sharing. My youngest daughter's preschool teacher started this holiday tradition with us and we've enjoyed it ever since.

I made a batch of these cupcakes and brought them to Youngest Daughter's first summer softball game as a treat for the players afterward and with the exception of one chocolate-hater (weird!) they were scarfed right down. Only later, did my kid ask me if these were gluten-free, and then she was surprised because she thought they were really good. The GF stealth baker strikes again!

Disclosure: I received a package with five boxes of Betty Crocker gluten-free baking mixes in it for myself and a second box to share with a Crispy Cook reader as a giveaway from MyBlogSpark.

Foraging a Fungus Among Us Which is Now In my Corpus

2011-06-18T15:22:00.000-04:00

And what a delicious fungus it was. I don't normally cook dangerously; but having transplanted a patch of lily-of-the-valley at the base of a grand old sugar maple in my backyard the day before, I came out to inspect my flowers the next morning. Right above them was this beautiful shelf of white mushroom that had definitely not been in residence before.

It was a truly lovely 'shroom.

It was a pearly white with a cascading shape and sweet aroma.

And most importantly, it looked delicious.

Now, I'm no foraging expert. I am more in tune with the idea of foraging than successful in its application. I've failed at harvesting stinging nettles (gathered them too late in their development) and at figuring out fiddlehead ferns (gathered them too early in their development). The potential for disaster with harvesting wild mushrooms always steered me clear but this specimen was so tantalizing. And my husband Dan was so cute when I pointed out this gorgeous fungus and its potential for our dinner. He exclaimed that he had just fallen in love with me all over again.

Out came my field guides, my mushroom books, my Euell Gibbons library, and research on the Internet. After much study, it appears that I had an Oyster Mushroom, a wild edible delight that blooms on decayed and dying maples during the spring and summer in the Northeast. It has no toxic lookalike mushroom cousins on this continent and so it was with only a small amount of trepidation that I cleaned it up, dipped cut up sections in brown rice flour and then dipped them back in some beaten egg. After a final dredging in some gluten-free bread crumbs, I sauteed them briefly in butter and garnished my 'shrooms with some chopped lemon thyme and parsley.

Heeding well-worn foraging advice of the ages to only sample a small amount of this new wild edible, we adults munched on our CRISPY fried oyster mushrooms with moderation on the first night. They were earthy and delicate and had a nice chewy texture. The next day, having noticed that we were still alive and were suffering no ill effects of my foraging adventure, we heated them up and feasted once more on these delicious wild treats.

I noticed one more shelf of oyster mushroom blooming at the base of my tree and decided to come back a few days later to cook it up, but alas, the passage of just a couple of days had made this mushroom dry up quite a bit and turn brown. There were also lots of insects in residence, so it was not the evanescent thing of beauty that its had been.

I am sending this successful mushrooming adventure post over to Healthy Green Kitchen, who is hosting this week's episode of Weekend Herb Blogging. WHB is the popular food blog event centering on edible plants, herbs, flowers and fruits, and is headquartered at Cook Almost Anything. Healthy Green Kitchen will post a roundup of delicious posts from great cooks from all corners of the globe, so tune in after tomorrow's deadline to see what was cooking.

My Gluten Free Food Finds of the Week and a Product Review

2011-06-16T08:35:00.000-04:00

Gluten-free foods that look and taste "normal" are just multiplying like crazy out there on the grocery shelves. This week I scored a box of the new GF Rice Krispies, found out that local meat company Bilinski's makes a variety of gluten-free chicken sausages and a gluten-free chicken meatloaf (with GF oats no less!) and stocked up on cheap GF baking supplies at the Asian Supermarket in Albany. I was able to get 24 one pound bags of white rice flour for $19.00 (I bought a case and got a 10% discount), so instead of paying $3 or $4 for a one pound bag at the supermarket I got my white rice flour for 79 cents a pound.

The Asian market also had boxes of sweet rice flour for $1.19 and two new kinds of rice and seaweed crackers that are GF so I made the husband pretty happy when I came back with the groceries.

And then I received a box of three gluten-free cereal items to sample, courtesy of the Nature's Path company. I had previously reviewed their Vanilla Sunrise and Maple Sunrise cereals here at The Crispy Cook, and was expecting that this new box of breakfast goodies would be tasty and wonderful as well, which they proved to be. We also really love their Peanut Butter Pandas cereal, which is readily available in the natural foods sections of our local supermarkets and health food stores.

The Whole O's were the big hit with our Crispy Crew. Once again, Dan has another food restored to his diet that he previously enjoyed, the humble Cheerio-type cereal. The Nature's Path Whole O's are a superior product, in fact, made with organic ingredients: brown rice flour, corn flour, evaporated cane juice, pomegranate juice concentrate and sea salt. They have a lovely nutty taste and stay crunchy in milk even when one is a bit of a slow breakfast muncher (me).

The kids made quick work of the CRISPY Rice Bars, which the youngest pronounced as really good and "not too sweet" (that's my girl!). The Mesa Sunrise cereal was more favored by the adults. It's a crunchy blend of quinoa, flax seed, amaranth and buckwheat, and full of fibery goodness - 12% of one's daily requirement.

Thank you to the Nature's Path Company for sending me this box of three new gluten-free products to sample. They passed my family's taste test and get additional points for quality, organic ingredients, so I am happy to recommend them to you as well.

Disclosure: I received a package with three free products to sample from the Nature's Path Company, but as always here at The Crispy Cook, I chose to write up a review and my comments are 100% my own.

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Recipe Contest and Giveaway

2011-06-12T09:03:00.000-04:00

Betty Crocker's having a gluten-free recipe contest and you're invited! Betty's home company, General Mills, is sponsoring its first Baker's Challenge Gluten-Free Recipe Contest and inviting bakers to submit an original, holiday-themed recipe over at its Glutenfreely website. The recipe must incorporate one of the Betty Crocker gluten-free baking mixes (Bisquick, Brownies, Chocolate Cake, Yellow Cake and Chocolate Chip Cookie mixes).

The contest deadline is June 30, 2011, so you have a fortnight to cook up an awesome appetizer, bread or dessert recipe. Prizes include a $5,000 Grand Prize and a chance to be featured on a Betty Crocker package or publication. The top ten finalists will also receive baking gift baskets and be featured on the GlutenFreely website. For more details about the contest and to check out a 20% savings on the Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes during the month of June, be sure to visit GlutenFreely.

I'm thinking of baking up something revolving our beloved tradition of passing around a Chocolate Orange on Christmas Eve and reciting a lovely little story about giving that we started after my youngest was in preschool. The preschool owner sent every kid home with this sweet story and we've been incorporating it in our holiday traditions ever since. Maybe instead of just whacking this mock orange up into segments and passing it around I can develop a chocolate and orange flavored dessert. We'll see...

I am pleased to be able to offer a giveaway for my American readers of a prize pack containing one box of GF Bisquick and the four Betty Crocker gluten-free dessert mixes.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me what your favorite holiday dessert is by June 19, 2011, midnight Eastern Standard Time. I'll randomly select a winner after this deadline.

Disclosure: I received a prize pack of these five gluten-free baking mixes from the General Mills Food Company through the MyBlogSpark program myself and have one to offer to a Crispy Cook reader as a giveaway.

Taste Testing some Big KaHoona Barbecue at Classe Catering

2011-06-09T16:54:00.001-04:00

I almost passed on a chance to taste some of the new barbecue menu from Albany's Classe Catering when yesterday's forecast changed to a sweltering fug of haze, heat and humidity, but I really wanted to meet some of my fellow Capital District food bloggers and scope out a local company to see what they do and how hip they were to the gluten-free deal. Of course I got stuck in some urban traffic in my non-air-conditioned jalopy to and from my destination so as to enjoy this steamy weather pattern even further, but the overall foodie trek was well worth it.

Classe Catering is a local fixture on the wedding, corporate event and upscale party scene, with Executive Chef Jeremy Kane at the helm. Chef Kane has a passion for barbecue - one he shares with a teenaged nephew who sells a tasty Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce at local farmer's markets - and owner Brian Palozzolo is smart to launch a casual and less expensive Big KaHoona Barbeque catering line which he will be offering both on-site and as a take-out option from his 2 Petra Lane production facility (it's off Central Avenue near Exit 2W of the Northway).

Presenting the Big KaHoona Boyz: that's our wonderful server, Sean, on the left, owner Brian P. in the center and the knowledgeable, gracious and quietly confident Chef Kane on the right.

Pierce Communications arranged for this blogger preview of the Big KaHoona Barbecue menu to get our feedback and we weren't shy. The taste testing panel consisted of me, Wendy of Wendalicious, Daniel of FUSSYlittleBLOG (plus his toddler daughter, the impossibly cute Little Miss Fussy) and Jess of 518bite&sights accompanied by her lovely mom.

Below is the Wendalicous One on the left and the ProFUSSor on the right. Wendy's blog is full of great information about Capital District events, dining, products and rants about the present ubiquity of the cupcake. Daniel's blog is on a mission to make the Albany food scene as diverse and wonderful as he had enjoyed back in his home town of San Francisco.

And here's the face behind 518bites&sights, Jess (on the left) and her delightful mom. Jess' blog has tons of timely information about what to eat and where to go in the Capital District region.

From our perceptions of the presentation, taste and quality of ingredients, we let Chef Kane know about our constructive comments, from a definite need for more napkins or wet naps (try writing notes, taking photos and not dribbling BBQ all over your bloggery self while perched up on a high stool), to our personal biases on the finer points of seared meats and side dishes. There was a lot of blogger love for the smoky Macaroni and Cheese, which Chef Kane noted was inspired by his grandmother's cooking. It had a dry mustard tang and included the CRISPY burnt ends of the meltingly-soft brined and barbecued brisket that was served later on. I'm already thinking of how to reconstruct this into a gluten-free, vegetarian version for Mr. Crispy. Liquid smoke? Frizzled onions?

First up on the tasting menu was some pulled pork served on a biscuit and accompanied by a vinegary but still creamy coleslaw. My Crispy Cook verdict: loved the slaw, loved the tender, spicy pork, but didn't like so much crumbly biscuit, which made eating an already messy item even more challenging. Plus it soaked up all the delicious pulled pork juices away from me.

Our second tasting plate arrived with the aforementioned wonderful slices of brisket and two falling-off-the-bone tender and tasty spareribs. This was my favorite meat selection by far; the meat was perfectly cooked, flavorful and had a mellow heat. Accompanied by some of Kane's chunky slices of ham hock-infused collards and that was all I needed to feel like I was at a down home South Carolina barbecue.

A third tasting of Jamaican Jerk Chicken proved to be a bit of a disappointment, as the chicken was not as CRISPY as I favor and the spice and heat was not assertive enough. The same goes for the baked beans that were served. They were good, but not exceptional, and were another drippy and hot item on the barbecue menu. It occurred to me later that a cold bean salad would be a better side dish to lend some variety in temperature and texture for this Big Kahoona spread.

Gluten Free is not a problem at Classe Catering and both owner Brian Palazzolo and Chef Kane were knowledgeable about gluten free concerns and will make a special phone call to Classe Catering customers or guests about any dietary concerns for any function that they are catering. Kane noted that all the rubs and sauces were gluten-free and that he routinely uses cornstarch rather than wheat flour as a thickener in his cooking. He also notes that they frequent Sherry Lynn's Cafe and Bakery in Latham when they need gluten-free items in quantity.

You can check out Classe Catering's new Big KaHoona Barbecue Menu yourself next week on Thursday, June 16th from 4 to 7 pm at the historic Pruyn House in Colonie. This charity event will benefit local food pantries and the Friends of Pruyn House and feature BBQ samples, live music and other entertainment (there are rumors of fire-breathing performers). Tickets are $5 a head and you know you can't make a decent barbecue in your own backyard any cheaper than that, so it sounds like a great event.

Despite the oppressive heat, when the ProFUSSor had some questions about smoking techniques, Chef Kane he let us all tromp from our air-chilled tasting room into the cavernous Luciferan heat chamber (aka kitchen) that he had slaved away in since 6 am. That impromptu tour speaks volumes to me. I already thought that Classe was an impressive catering and event planning business, but to be confident enough to let us all barge in unexpectedly into their (very tidy) kitchen, and then pepper the staff with questions and criticisms, is the sign of a very well-run operation.

Disclosure: I was invited to attend this free tasting event and received a plentiful sufficiency of top-grade barbecue, but I was not otherwise compensated for this opportunity and my comments are 100% my own.

Jazzing up some Gluten Free Eats with Zatarain's Rice Mixes

2011-06-08T10:04:00.000-04:00

Jazz is a cool word, isn't it? It describes a great style of American music, conveys being excited ("I was jazzed up to hear about your new job"), and can be used as a verb to show how to do something creatively ("he jazzed up his vintage automobile with a coat of paint and some spiffy detailing").

So, when the folks at the Zatarain's company asked if I'd like to review some samples of their gluten-free rice mixes, I was, in a word, jazzed. I love the spiciness and flavor combinations of New Orleans style cooking and was delighted to receive four boxes of various Zatarain's rice mixes to try out.

With the smoky sounds of some Cassandra Wilson on my kitchen boom box to inspire me, I first tried out this easy supper recipe from the company's website: Seared Shrimp, Peas and Yellow Rice. Perfect! Everyone gobbled that down because we all love those three ingredients and I loved the ease of slapping it together on a softball-school concert week night. Next time I'll try it out with frozen shrimp, because I usually have a bag in the freezer for a quick meal.

I used to buy bags of a different brand of Yellow Rice mix that my kids would love, but it contains wheaty ingredients so I haven't done so since we went gluten-free. But the new Zatarain's Yellow Rice mix is gluten-free, so that restores one more food that we all used to enjoy before the celiac diagnosis. The Jambalaya rice mix and Dirty Rice mixes are a bit spicier than the Yellow Rice, and I doctored them up further with a bit of garden cilantro, whizzed up into a slurry with some olive oil and coarse salt, and swirled throughout the rice. Delicious!

The Zatarain's Yellow Rice is sold for $1.29 for an 8 oz. box at my local supermarket and there's a bigger "family size" box as well, so it's an inexpensive start to a quick meal when you are pressed for time. I even made the Jambalaya Rice and Dirty Rice mixes in my rice cooker (they spluttered a bit, but it came out fine. As Roger Ebert notes, "the pot always knows"). I've since stocked up on Yellow Rice and Dirty Rice for our cupboard so I can whisk together a shortcut dinner during this hectic end-of-the-school-year.

Do avoid the Red Beans and Rice, which contains wheat and barley, but many of the other varieties of the Zatarain's rice mixes - Jambalaya, Yellow Rice, Dirty Rice, Spanish Rice, Long Grain and Wild Rice - are gluten-free and should all be displaying a gluten-free label with a little check mark (see lower left corner on photo above) on your grocer's shelf as the old product sells and the new packages arrive. You can see the full list of the company's gluten-free products and some other jazzy recipes here.

Overall, an enthusiastic thumbs up for these tasty products and a thank you to the Zatarain's company for adding the gluten-free labeling to their GF products. We all still need to double check labels to make sure foods are safe to eat, but it's nice to have another large food company reach out to the gluten-free community and retool its packaging to make it easier to shop for our dinners.

Tackling Gluten-Free Cream Puffs

2011-06-01T09:00:00.198-04:00

There's a new posse of gluten-free bloggers who are tackling the art and science of GF baking with two central premises: 1) that measuring ingredients by weight rather than volume will produce better results and 2) that each species of baked good is organized around a ratio of liquid, flour, eggs and fat.

This band of baking bloggers was organized by Shauna, the Gluten-Free Girl (and the Chef), several months ago, and has so far tackled Pancakes, Quick Breads/Muffins and Scones.

How exciting and freeing it is to join this creative gang! I feel like this approach will give me much greater confidence as a baker and I'm looking forward to cozying up more with my oven and kitchen scale.

Unlike most of the other GF Rallyers who use lovely new digital kitchen scales, I realize I am probably the only one kicking it old school - like early 20th century old school- with my kitchen scale, but it's very accurate and it fits my cluttered country kitchen. I can't tare it out (start at zero) but it's easy arithmetic to weigh my bowl before filling it with my flour combos and then just subtract it from my final weight.

This month's Gluten Free Ratio Rally challenge was to experiment with Pate a Choux. Our hostess this month is chemist and culinary expert Erin Swing of The Sensitive Epicure, who has the fantasy job of investigating Gluten Free recipe formulation at Ferran Adria's research and development facility in Spain. Okay, that's some street cred!

Erin's choice of Pate a Choux was intriguing. Now there's a versatile dough in the baker's arsenal. Sweeten the dough a bit and then plop down little round blobs (choux means cabbage in French - mon petit choux is a charming endearment for your loved ones- and the baked results do resemble young garden cabbages) and you get lovely puffs that you can fill will cream (whipped or custard cream) and call cream puffs. Ovals of pate a choux, filled with cream and iced with chocolate become eclairs and classic French bakers have lots of other toothsome creations to Fill them with ice cream to make profiteroles or cement a whole pile of cream puffs together for an impressive croquembouche. Fry them and fill them with sweetened ricotta cheese and you have zeppole. Really, that pate a choux is something.

If you fancy something more savory, you can take out the sugar from your pate a choux, add some shredded cheese and savory mix-ins, and you have gougeres to accompany a stout glass of red wine. Or a red glass of stout, whichever you prefer. Or one could stuff cream puffs with egg salad, chicken salad, herbed cream cheese or other savory filling for a showstopping appetizer.

There was no indecision about what to do with my Pate a Choux: I HAD to make Cream Puffs for my family. Cream Puffs are something that we expect to come from a bakery. They are FANCY and FRENCHY and they are one of the items that my dessert-obsessed, Czech-born father-in-law tempts us non-GF types with when we come for dinner. My gluten-free husband settles for a dish of ice cream or a slice of my mom's GF cheesecake.

The GF Ratio Rally started off with a ratio of 2:1:1:2. (2 parts flour, 1 part egg, 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid). I used a combination of flours and kitchen tips gleaned from my cookbook reference shelf and Internet recipes. It seems that the key with making a successful pate a choux is to make sure that the ball of flour, butter and water that is boiled up on the stove cools enough to allow one to vigorously beat in one's eggs without cooking them. The other technique that is critical is to make sure not to underbake one's pate a choux or it will not puff up and form that pocket to stuff with something luscious later on.

Here's my Recipe for Gluten Free Cream Puffs Filled with Coffee in my Cream
-adapted from recipes by Michael Ruhlman, Carol Fenster and Rebecca Reilly, and to be perfected later with a longer baking time:

4 oz. flour (3/4 cup) - I used mostly brown rice, with a little potato starch and a couple of tablespoons of tapioca starch

1 stick butter (4 oz.)

8 oz. water

1 tsp. sugar

Pinch of Salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

In medium saucepan, heat butter, water, sugar and salt until butter melts. Bring to a rolling boil. Add flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until a ball of dough forms and moves away from the sides of the pan.

Remove from heat and cool for 5-10 minutes, until dough is just warm. Add a bit of the beaten egg and mix vigorously to incorporate. Keep adding bit of the beaten yolk and beating, until it is all incorporated and dough is cohesive.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Plop 12 rounded balls of dough onto cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Round down any points or bumps with a wet finger.

Bake in preheated 425 degree F oven for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake another 20 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown.

Remove cookie sheet to baking rack to cool 5 minutes. Remove cream puffs and transfer to rack. Poke each cream puff with a sharp knife to start a hole for filling later on. Let cool completely.

Fill with plain whipped cream or Coffee Cream as I did:

Coffee in My Cream Sweetened Whipped Cream

1/2 pint heavy cream

1 tsp. instant coffee

2 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar

Chill beaters and metal mixing bowl in freezer beforehand.

Mix all ingredients and then mix with beaters until cream is fluffy and forms soft peaks.

I then split my cream puffs, stuffed then with a generous dollop of this coffee-flavored cream and dusted the tops with some confectioner's sugar.

Makes 12 cream puffs.

It was so satisfying to see Dan come home to dinner, not expecting his mostly non-baking wife pull out a plate of cream puffs, dusted with confectioner's sugar and stuffed with coffee-flavored whipped cream. He was incredulous that they were okay for him to eat and promptly polished off three. Actually, he inhaled the first and second cream puffs and sneezed from inhaling the powdered sugar. After dinner he scarfed down a couple more, though a little more slowly and with sighs and lip smacks.

Now, my batch of cream puffs were actually not spectacular. From what I can determine, they were underbaked, so they did not did not have much in the way of puff. But they were filled with cream and did taste great and after at least six years of not having a cream puff orbit his lips, Dan was pretty happy. And so, despite having made a batch of Cream-Filled Flatties, I think of this experiment as a success and look forward to playing around with it more.

I'm excited to see what the rest of the Gluten Free Ratio Rally bloggers come up with for this round, which will be revealed at The Sensitive Epicure today. There will be lots of great links for other gluten-free pate a choux creations of all kinds, so do stop by.

A Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches with a Rachel and Reuben on the Side

2011-05-23T12:07:00.000-04:00

What do you get when you slap a Blogga and a Biter between two slices of bread? Why, a fantastic foodie history and recipe book, chock full of gorgeous color photos and interesting sandwich lore: The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches: Recipes, History, and Trivia for Everything Between Sliced Bread, by Susan Russo (the Blogga, as in Food Blogga) and with photography by Matt Armendariz (the Biter, as in Matt Bites)(Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2011).

I received a review copy of this delightful, sandwich-shaped (crusts trimmed) book from the publisher and it has been road tested a few times in the last month. First, I had a most enjoyable time reading through the alphabetized descriptions of sandwiches. Russo writes with such verve and introduces the reader to so many obscure and regional varieties of sandwiches, that it is a pleasure to pore over. Whether you savor a Southern Fried Green Tomato BLT; a Walleye Sandwich from Minnesota; Buffalo, New York's Beef on Weck, or Kentucky's Hot Brown Sandwich (an open-faced turkey-bacon melt with Mornay cheese), there are plenty of great sandwich ideas in these pages.

Now, we've tried a few of these tantalizing, bready meals since the book arrived at Chez Crispy. Daughter No. 2 immediately requested a Croque Monsieur and I made some Falafel Pitas, but the big hit was making up a batch of Rachel and Reuben Sandwiches. How could I not try my name in a sandwich?

The Rachel sandwich is a twist on the traditional Reuben, that cardiologist's nightmare: grilled sliced corned beef and Swiss cheese, laced with sauerkraut and Russian dressing. The Rachel subs in pastrami and cole slaw, but is no less awesome. Served up with a garlicky dill pickle, and you're talking awesome eating!

Now, for a wheat-free, meat-free version of the classic Reuben for my gluten-free, vegetarian husband, I had to make some changes to Susan's traditional Reuben recipe (pp. 221-222 of the book).

Obviously, corned beef would have to be substituted. I saw a great recipe for a Tofu Reuben on Vegan Dad and used his recipe (sans the juniper berries, which I just don't have in my pantry). I used a very firm, almost rubbery tofu purchased from the Asian Supermarket in Albany, seen below. This tofu is ready to use in any recipe and it's firm texture allows one to slice it very thinly, without having the tofu disintegrate into soft pieces.

The spice and brine were perfect for this dish and gave the tofu a salty and complex corned flavor that was perfect for the sandwich. Next up was making up a batch of braised sauerkraut, since the Crispy Old Man likes a mellower kraut than is to be had straight out of the can or jar.

I've made this Braised Sauerkraut recipe many times before. Sometimes I add a little white wine or beer, or snipped fresh herbs for a little variation, but for this Tofu Reuben, I wanted a strong deli flavor, so I went heavy on the caraway and mushrooms:

Braised Sauerkraut

1 (14.5 oz.) can sauerkraut, rinsed and drained

2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 large onion, peeled and chopped fine
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded
1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 tsp. caraway seeds
1 cup vegetable broth

Melt butter in sauce pot. Add onion, carrot and mushrooms, and cook until softened, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sauerkraut, caraway seeds and vegetable broth and raise heat to high. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat, and simmer, until liquid is reduced by half, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To assemble your Tofu Reuben, generously spread some Russian Dressing on the inside of your bread (classic rye bread is out for celiacs, so we used one of Dan's chewy gluten-free rolls), top with a mound of Corned Tofu slices, a mound of braised sauerkraut and a couple of slices of Swiss Cheese. You can then grill or microwave up your Reuben to ensure that the cheese melts, and then hoist into your mouth for an amazing, messy taste treat.

I've got a pile more sandwiches to eat my way through in Russo's much dog-eared book, and I am eagerly awaiting the height of the summer garden season so as to consume mass quantities of the classic Tomato Sandwich. If you enjoy a juicy food history book, packed with recipes, and want to explore other more exotic sandwich species, this is the book for you (or is the perfect gift for your favorite Dagwood).

I'm sending on a Tofu Reuben to Souper Sundays, a weekly blog event that celebrates soup, salads and sandwiches, hosted by my Hawai'ian blogger buddy Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. You can also inspect Deb's great review of The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches and see her take on the Potato Chip and Toasted Chocolate Sandwiches.

Raspberry Financiers at my Lunch in Paris

2011-05-10T12:16:00.000-04:00

Elizabeth Bard has written a book to make me sigh with happiness. Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes (NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), is a very snappily-written memoir of how this native New Yorker fell in love with her future husband, his family and his country. From the grace with which he dealt with a splat of pigeon poop while on a romantic stroll with our author, to his joie de vivre in cooking for his lady on a cramped apartment hot plate, attending tap dancing camp and film studies conferences, and tenderly caring for his ailing father, I have to say I fell in love with Gwendal too.

Bard writes with plenty of panache about her faux pas and discoveries about her new country. She learns not to use the word "plaisir" interchangeably with "pleasure", as the former has some sexual connotations. She learns how to correctly bargain while shopping in the Parisian food markets. And perhaps most importantly, she learns how to navigate French culture as an ex-pat American. I particularly loved her observations about the snits and spats that she and Gwendal went through in their wedding preparations:

"One of the great gifts of an intercultural relationship is that when you fight, you never quite know if you are mad at the person, or at their culture: Is he really too bum-ass lazy to call back the band at eight p.m. on a Monday evening (are they in the middle of dinner?), or is he just being French? Is she bombarding me with lists and timetables and questions about the color of the wax used to seal the invitations because she is a manic control freak (or General MacArthur's granddaughter), or is she just being American?" (p. 137)

This wonderful book is the current selection of The Cook the Books Club, which is being run this time round by my blogger buddy, Johanna, of Food Junkie, not Junk Food. At Cook the Books, we read a different foodie novel or non-fiction book every two months and then post a roundup of participant's thoughts about the book and any recipes inspired by our reading. Anyone is welcome to join in the fun (deadline is May 27 to submit a post) and I am delighted to report that our esteemed author, Elizabeth Bard, will be serve as our guest judge to read through the submissions and announce the winner of the much-coveted Cook the Books Winner's badge for his or her blog.

I have a few dog-eared pages in Bard's book for delicious recipes that I will make when various edibles come into season: Goat Cheese Salad with Fresh Figs (p. 100), Zucchini Flowers Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Mint (p. 160) and Melon with Port (p. 290), but I had to run out and splurge on a jewel box of red raspberries to make Raspberry Financiers (p. 87), rich little tea cakes stuffed with butter and ground almonds and topped with a perfect raspberry that melt into your mouth. This recipe was terribly easy to make gluten-free. I substituted brown rice flour for the regular wheat flour called for in Bard's recipe and my family was delighted with the sweet results.

I made one batch in my muffin tins (sprayed with vegetable oil first) and then one batch in my dollar store find of the decade, a madeleine pan. Unfortunately, I thought the madeleine pan was non-stick (it isn't) and didn't use the cooking spray, so I had to dig out these delicate little financiers with a butter knife so they are the crumbled up examples in the photos. (And check out my second example of "upcycling" some of my thrift shop china and glassware into this triple-tiered cake stand.)

I am love with these little French dainties and hope to make some other financiers soon. I may try these other gluten-free examples from some other wonderful bloggers:

Apricot and Lavender Brown Butter Tea Cakes
from Tartelette

Chocolate Financiers
from Gluten Free Girl and the Chef

Blackberry and Vanilla Bean Financiers
from Une-deux Senses

Hope to see you at the Cook the Books roundup after our May 27 deadline. Next up after "Lunch in Paris" is Sarah Addison Allen's magical debut novel "Garden Spells".

Strawberry Cupcakes and a Review of the new Gluten-Free Cupcakes cookbook by Elana Amsterdam

2011-05-04T09:48:00.000-04:00

Who can resist a cupcake? They are so darn cute and make delightful little hand held treats. Cupcakes are so prevalent these days throughout the foodie world and Colorado blogger Elana Amsterdam has presented the gluten-free community with a lovely Spring gift with her new cookbook "Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour" (Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 2011).

The publisher sent me a review copy of this book and it had already been perused by my youngest before I got home from the bookshop. She requested that we go out the next day and get the ingredients for the Strawberry Cupcakes (p. 24 of the book, and there's also a recipe posted on Elana's Pantry here)

We picked up the ingredients and also decided to top these delicate cupcakes with Elana's Strawberry Meringue Frosting (p. 97).

These cupcakes were delectable and even better the next day after the chopped strawberries mixed into the cupcake batter had moistened up the cakes with their juices. Coconut flour provides the base for the cake mixture and has a nice fiber and nutrition boost as well. All of the recipes in Elana's book are chock full of healthy ingredients, so one can feel good about cooking up these sweet treats and serving them to your family. The author does a great job of describing the various ingredients that she uses in a beginning chapter that is really useful. Cooks that are unfamiliar with what they are, where to buy them and how they perform in the baking process (cooks like me!) will refer back to this section many times over.

The Strawberry Meringue Frosting got less favorable reviews. It certainly performed well and made some wonderful curlicues that held their shape well on top of my cupcakes, but half the Crispy Crew complained that the frosting taste and texture was not to their liking (it's a meringue made of whipped egg whites, boiled down agave syrup and chopped strawberries), so I would top these pink beauties with a cream cheese or buttercream frosting next time. And there will be a next time soon. ; )

I am glad that my kid picked the Strawberry Cupcake recipe, because not only was it scrumptious, but it was one of the recipes that didn't call for almond flour. The only almond flour I have found in my area for sale is at a local health food store for $13 for a one-pound bag, and that's just too expensive for me. I see that one can halve this price online, but I wasn't ready to plunk down double digits for a bag of flour.

The book contains a great selection of other interesting flavor combinations to try out (Pecan Pie Cupcakes, Pina Colada Cupcakes, White Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes) as well as some gluten-free recreations of some nostalgic delights, like the Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes which are dead ringers for the Hostess chocolate cupcakes. There are also a few toothsome savory muffin recipes at the back of the book. Kudos also to Annabelle Breakey for the great color cupcake photographs throughout the book that make all of these recipes seem so irresistible.

I enjoyed perusing and test driving this sweet treat of a cookbook and recommend it to other home bakers.

Here are some other favorable reviews of Elana's new cookbook by fellow bloggers:

Gluten-Free at Mother Earth News

Book of Yum

Gluten-Free Easily

Gluten-Free Diva

***As an aside, this book review also gave me the perfect chance to make my own cupcake stand made from vintage plates and candlesticks. I certainly have more than a few orphaned pieces of china in my shelves and will now be keeping an eye out at garage sales and thrift shops for more perfect cupcake stand components.

With inspiration from my Greek blogger buddy Johanna, of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food, I whipped this up craft project up in a few short minutes on one of the few breaks in the Spring precipitation we've been enjoying this past month. I used a clear all-purpose epoxy to join my pieces together and want to remind those of you who may want to try this cupcake stand project out yourselves to make sure to do so outside or in a very well-ventilated area. Solvent fumes are very hazardous to your health and I want you around to let me know how your cupcakes and cupcake stands turn out!

Roll-Cutting and Dry-Frying some Chinese Eggplants

2011-04-26T14:51:00.000-04:00

Second Daughter and I took a shopping trip down to Albany to stock up on pantry provisions and went to the Asian Supermarket at 1245 Central Avenue. This stop proved to be yet another fabulous ethnic market to add to our list of great places to find interesting, exotic and naturally gluten-free foods.

Asian Supermarket had an extensive produce department, where we found everything from banana blossoms to huge piles of durian to dragon fruit. I didn't buy those three intriguing edibles, but I did buy a huge bag of baby bok choy, packets of chrysanthemum tea, a 20 lb. bag of basmati rice and a wonderful Chinese vegetable from the mustard family, yu choy, which was meltingly soft when braised with garlic and soy sauce.

Some other new items fell into our cart. I fell in love with Thai packages of Crispy Fried Seaweed in regular and Tomato Ketchup flavors (gotta try the Kimchi and Squid flavors next time!), while the young 'un enjoyed scoring a huge bag of Happy (rice) Crackers and some delicious to-go foods from the take-out bar.

Some sensuously-curved, light purple Chinese eggplants called to me and I brought them home to play around with. I have never cooked with any eggplant other than the glossy purple-black aubergines of the Mediterranean variety, but I had read that the slender Chinese and Japanese varieties are less bitter and more tender, which I found to be slightly true. Certainly more experimentation with these gorgeous members of the nightshade family are in order here at Crispy Cook Central.

My first step was to pore through my well-loved copy of the late Barbara Tropp's "China Moon Cookbook" (NY: Workman Press, 1992). Tropp's blend of traditional Chinese cooking techniques and ingredients, Yiddish-spiced instructions and California pizzazz always wows me, and I love her clear instructions that break down restaurant cooking results into components that a home cook can understand.

Tropp offered a few recipes for wonderful eggplant-centric dishes (I've made her Strange Flavor Eggplant several times to rave reviews), but her siren song description of "Dry-Fried Chinese Eggplant Nuggets" as her favorite Chinese eggplant dish, bar none, made my decision for me.

The dish involves a roll-cutting technique which I had never tried. It's easy to do but hard to describe. Basically, you make one 45 degree slice at one end of your vegetable and then roll it 180 degrees and make another 45 degree slice at your desired thickness. You end up with chunky, somewhat triangular segments of eggplant, which have a lot of surface area to absorb cooking heat and sauciness, not to mention a whole bunch of visual style. Ming Tsai has a short video segment on roll-cutting carrots and zucchini here which I found helpful before I attempted hacking away at my beautiful lavender-colored eggplants.

Aren't those eggplant slices beautiful?

They lose their gorgeous purple color when they are cooked up, but the resulting mixture of spicy and sweet flavors surrounding these soft hunks of eggplant tantalize the other senses quite nicely.

Sweet and Salty Braised Chinese Eggplant

adapted from Barbara Tropp's "Dry-Fried Chinese Eggplant Nuggets" in her China Moon Cookbook.

1-1/2 lbs. Chinese eggplants (4 slender eggplants)

3 scallions, thinly sliced (reserve some for garnish)
1 Tbsp. finely minced ginger
1 Tbsp. finely minced garlic

2 Tbsp. chili paste with garlic
2 Tbsp. soy sauce (check to make sure it's gluten free)
2 Tbsp. palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 Tbsp. black rice vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
2 Tbsp. hot water

3-4 Tbsp. peanut oil

Slice top and tail off your eggplants and then roll cut them into one inch pieces.

Mix together chili paste, soy sauce, palm sugar, black rice vinegar and hot water and stir until sugar dissolves.

Heat 3 Tbsp. peanut oil in hot wok or large, heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Add minced ginger, garlic and most of the sliced scallions (reserving some to garnish the dish). Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Add eggplant chunks and cook, stirring frequently, until browned on all sides. Add another Tbsp. of peanut oil if the pan gets dry, but no more, because eggplant is like a big sponge when it comes to absorbing cooking oil.

Stir in chili paste sauce mixture and let mixture come to a boil. Lower heat, cover and braise until liquid has mostly been absorbed and eggplant is soft, about 3-5 minutes. Garnish with reserved sliced scallions.

Makes 4 main dish servings. We enjoyed it over hot steamed basmati rice. Delectable!

I am sending this dish using my new found favorite vegetable, the Chinese Eggplant, to Weekend Herb Blogging which is hosted this week by Honest Vanilla. Weekend Herb Blogging is housed over at Cook Almost Anything by awesome food blogger and photographer, Haalo, and you'll find four years of weekly recaps, rules for WHB, and other great recipes and blog posts at this wonderful site.

Festive Spring Feasting

2011-04-23T10:35:00.000-04:00

Wishing everyone a lovely Easter Day and a welcome to Spring (we're still waiting here in upstate New York for seasonal, sunny weather: a light dusting of snow when I woke up. Sigh).

If you still need some inspiration for your Spring feasting, here are some light and lovely menu ideas for your table:

Herbed Cream Cheese
Radish Dip
Cosmic Shrimp
Pea Salad in Endive Cups
Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Pasta
Asparagus-Rice Salad with Lemongrass Gremolata
Salad with Asian Sesame-Ginger Dressing
Spring Vegetable Navarin
Mojito Cupcakes

These adorable rabbit photos come from a sweet 1930s children's book that we recently acquired in the bookshop, Harry Whittier Frees' "Four Little Bunnies".

I also have two announcements:

The winner of the Crunchmaster cracker coupon giveaway is Marshowl. Congratulations Marshowl! Please send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get these coupons out to you.

I also wanted to let people know about the Unbelievably Good recipe contest which Rudi's Gluten-Free Bakery is sponsoring from now until May 20, 2011. Participants are invited to submit their gluten-free story and a completely gluten-free recipe that includes one of Rudi's gluten-free products: Original, Multigrain and Cinnamon Raisin Breads, Multigrain Hamburger Buns and Hot Dog Rolls, and Original Pizza Crusts. For more details, check out the Rudi's GF Facebook page. There are some pretty fun prizes, including Williams-Sonoma gift cards, Rudi's products, and a trip to Boulder, Colorado for the three contest finalist.

A Roundup of Gluten Free Product Reviews: Three Thumbs Up, One Thumb Down

2011-04-17T17:06:00.000-04:00

Recently I have received a spate of gluten-free products to sample and potentially review here at The Crispy Cook. My blog review policy is to only feature products that I would buy for my own family and so you don't see product reviews for eats that just aren't tasty or otherwise considered wonderful by me and the other members of the Crispy Test Kitchen and Eatery. I am making an exception in writing about a product that I do not recommend at the very end of this post below because of an egregious labeling error that I feel members of the gluten-free community should be aware of.

First, let me introduce you to the wonderful gluten-free products that I received from various companies to sample and potentially review.

In celebration of April as National Pecan Month, Larabars sent me some of their Pecan Pie energy bars. I don't need extra energy or snacks between meals, so I had my resident teen athlete and annoyingly skinny husband do the taste testing on this product and they both pronounced an excellent verdict: great taste, nice nuts to crunch on, and moist, soft texture. We also received some Carrot Cake Larabars to sample and these were also well received.

I like the Larabar brand because they contain simple ingredients, are readily available in most supermarkets around here and are affordably priced. I've purchased them before for my family and will do so again and again. They are a nice after-school-before-sports treat and are nice to have on hand for a gluten-free source of energy for my celiac husband when he's busy at the bookstore without a chance to heat up a lunch in between customers.

The Crispy consensus is that the Peanut Butter and Jelly flavor is the best, followed closely by the Pecan Pie and Carrot Cake flavors. Interestingly, these bars are not baked or cooked, but ground together with the various ingredients, so they are described as suitable for folks seeking raw and minimally processed foods. You can find other dietary information (about vegan, kosher, allergy and other dietary issues) on the Larabar website here.

Verdict: Thumbs UP!

Next up, we have a review of Udi's hamburger buns (whole grain and classic) and hot dog buns. I received a package of each from the Udi's company and Dan let out a whoop when he saw them in the freezer. He is not so much into sandwiches on sliced bread, being more a bun sandwich devotee. Since I am a very desultory bun baker, he was out of homemade buns, and immediately went off the store to buy some tofu pups to stuff into the Udi's hot dog buns.

The Udi's hot dog buns were great. They need to be thawed at room temperature or in the microwave (1 minute in the microwave, wrapped tightly in waxed paper did the trick for us) and then they have a great springy texture. They don't crumble and rip easily like other gluten-free breads and buns we've tried (and made). His tofu pups topped with sauteed onions and some newly gluten-free Nance's sharp and creamy mustard and Dan was in hot dog heaven.

The Udi's hamburger buns were also given high marks for both flavor and texture. The whole grain buns were particularly toothsome and made a great housing for a batch of Dan's barbecued tempeh. Right now you can get a $1.00 coupon for Udi's breads on their website so you can give these buns a test drive of your own. Locally, you can Udi's products in the freezer case at Pure and Simple in Glens Falls, Four Seasons in Saratoga Springs, and Wild Thyme in Ballston Spa.

Verdict: Thumbs way UP!

Glenny's Foods sent me a box full of various kinds of snacks. Most were gluten-free, but they also popped in a bunch of brownies and blondies that were chock full of wheat, though they were not labeled as being gluten-free. Therein lies the reminder that even when one expects that a product is gluten-free and safe to eat, one should still examine the ingredients and labeling to make sure.

Of the gluten-free Glenny's products that were sent for review, my family generally gravitates toward the salty over the sweet, so the American Fries were the first to be snacked upon. These baked french fry-shaped potato snacks were deemed winners by the Crispy Crew for flavor and novelty shape. Second to be devoured were the Soy Crisps, with the Feta Cheese, Garlic and Olive Oil flavor the clear favorite.

We also had sweet treats to sample in this generous Glenny's package: four flavors of Brown Rice Marshmallow Treats and some Fruit and Nut Bars. I am chagrined to note that the Glenny's Marshmallow Treats are much better, both flavorfully and nutritionally to my homemade GF krispie treats (made with store-bought mini-marshmallows and either Cocoa Krispies or puffed rice). The Glenny's marshmallow treats are made from organic ingredients, including vegan marshmallows, and sweetened with brown rice syrup and organic evaporated cane juice and we especially enjoyed their CRISPY, crunchy texture.

I brought the Fruit and Nut Bars in the car for my daughter to share with some of her softball team members for a pre-workout snack and we didn't note that they were gluten-free. This informal tasting panel gave the Fruit and Nut Bars a solid B for taste and texture. They were judged a little too sticky by some of the gals.

Overall, an impressive selection of really high quality gluten-free snacks that everyone in our family thoroughly enjoyed. I would suggest to the Glenny's company that they offer a Gluten Free Deluxe Snack Sampler Package on their website (the Deluxe Snack Package offered now contains those glutenous brownies and blondies), because this might prove popular in the gluten-free community. I could foresee a marketing opportunity for the company to offer this to newly diagnosed celiac and gluten-intolerant folks, as well as being an attractive option for college care packages for gluten-free students.

Verdict: Thumbs UP!

And now for a disappointing product review. I was delighted when Tasty Bites contacted me about sampling some of their gluten-free Indian and Asian foods. I was already familiar with their products and had purchased their simmer sauces on several occasions to whip up quick meals. I was aghast to receive a package of Barley Medley which was not just mistakenly popped into my Gluten-Free box of sampler products but was labeled as being gluten-free. Barley is, of course, one of the grains that must be avoided on a gluten-diet. Some people confuse wheat-free with the term gluten-free, and this is an important distinction.

Here's a photo of the Tasty Bites Barley Medley package on the rear where it is clearly labeled as being "gluten free", when of course it is not. When I contacted Tasty Bites to let them know about this labeling error and to inquire as to whether the other ostensibly gluten-free foods that they sent me that were in fact safe for my GF husband to eat, I got no response.

Verdict: Thumbs WAY down.

I appreciate the companies that are making strides to make more gluten-free foods available to us and appreciate when they reformulate their existing products to eliminate gluten ingredients. I am going to continue my blog policy of limiting my product reviews to foods that I can recommend without reservation and give my critical feedback back to the companies directly. However, I feel that Tasty Bites needs to improve their labeling and understanding of what gluten free means and so I included them in this product review roundup.

What do you think? Have you noticed any other great gluten-free products out there? Have you noticed other food products which have been incorrectly labeled "gluten-free"?

The Great Cabbage at the Crispy Casa

2011-04-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

Until I found out that Alaskan gardeners were the champs in growing gigantic brassicas, I was quite proud of this rather large cabbage that I grew last summer.

It was bigger than my cat Simon.

It was bigger than Lulu.

It was bigger than Martha's big, bony head.

It was a great cabbage. But Alaskan gardeners, though they have a short growing season, have the perfect cool, wet growing conditions to coddle their cabbages into great big mammoths, so this honking big ball of cabbage was just a champion in my own record book. As I recall, I did get two batches of coleslaw, a stir fry and a lovely side dish of cabbage sauteed with caraway out of that one cabbage.

Cabbage was on my mind again last week when I purchased a small head to mix into a dish that I wanted to refashion into a gluten-free version. Many years ago, I sampled a great cabbagey salad at an office potluck and got the recipe from my co-worker. It involved some sliced cabbage, its Chinese cabbage cousin, and crushed up ramen noodles in a sesame-drenched dressing. Tasty.

I dug out my recipe and changed it up to use rice noodles (mai fun) to make it gluten-free. I also used less butter and oil than the original recipe called for and the results turned out rather spiffy. Here then is:

A.C.'s Chinese Cabbage Noodle Salad

3 cups green cabbage, sliced thin (about 1/2 small head)
5 cups Chinese or Napa cabbage, sliced thin (1 small head)
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 (8 oz.) pkg. rice stick noodles (mai fun)

4 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sesame seeds (the black ones stand out nicely)

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in mai fun and let soak 10-15 minutes or until they are springy but soft. Drain and chop up a bit. Mix in large bowl with cabbages and scallions.

Melt butter in frying pan and add almonds and sesame seeds. Saute until light brown and fragrant, stirring all the while so they don't burn. Add to cabbage salad.

Mix oil, sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce until sugar dissolves. Pour over salad and toss well. Let sit at room temperature at least 30 minutes before serving to let flavors meld.

Serves 8-10.

I really loved noshing on this sweet-salty-tangy salad and will be making it for company during the warmer weather.

I am sending over this cabbagey post to this week's edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being guest hosted by Anh of A Food Lover's Journey. Weekend Herb Blogging is headquartered at Cook Almost Anything and you can find out all about this veg-centric weekly blog event and the rules for posting on that terribly tasty site.

From Bougainvillea Flowers to Broccoli: The Weekend Herb Blogging #278 Roundup

2011-04-11T09:27:00.001-04:00

Weekend Herb Blogging #278 was hosted here at The Crispy Cook this week, and once again it was an edifying pleasure. This popular blog event was started by Kalyn's Kitchen five years ago and it has been headquartered at Cook Almost Anything for the last two years.

The focus of WHB is not just on herbs, but on posts that feature other edible plants, and the weekly roundups are always full of interesting ingredients cooked up beautifully by great cooks around the world. This week we had entries from bloggers from Indonesia, Canada, England, Germany, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Italy, and Mexico and they covered some intriguing new (to me, anyway) ingredients as well as some new presentations of old standbys.

First, lucky Simona of Briciole is already able to harvest some tender young chard from her California garden and she put it to good use. Check out her Frittata with Baby Chard and Homemade Ricotta.

Over at La Cucina di Cristina, a bilingual food blog in English and Italian, we get a bowl of Pasta with Fava Beans and Pecorino. Che bello!

Indonesian blogger GrowinKitchen offers up a plate of Tumis Oncum dan Leaunca, a traditional Sundanese or Western Javanese dish, which she translates into English as Fermented Soybean Waste with Black Nightshade. While this might be a literal translation, I think "Sundanese Tempeh with Nightshade Berries" might be a more appetizing way to introduce this tempting entree to Western readers.

Imagine getting your summer fix (in raggedy early spring no less) with maple roasted tomatoes, arugula, and eggplant topped with a dollop of Greek yogurt and pomegranate molasses sauce. Yum. You can find your reveries turned into reality at the German blog run by expat Italian, Caffetteria al Rosa.

British Columbian blogger Val of More Than Burnt Toast offers up a plate of Shaved Lemon Fennel Salad to accompany a delectable Chicken Saltimbocca.

It's off to Oxford, England, to Elly's Shakespearean-named blog, Nutmegs, seven, for a real harbinger of spring: Bottled Rhubarb. Doesn't this beautiful preserve remind you of jewels?

Winging over to Singapore to visit Asan Khana, we get a peek at a refreshing Cottage Cheese Salad with Purple Basil Leaves.

Imagine quaffing a beautifully purple-tinged, cooling drink infused with bougainvillea flowers. Now, add a cooking school based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and you've got Flavors of the Sun's Bugambilia Limeade.

Hawai'ian blogger Claudia of Honey from Rock sends over a plate of lemony Zucchini Crudo, perfumed with fresh garden dill. Be sure to stop by and check out Claudia's full post for the photos of two of the cutest chicks you'll ever "lay" eyes on.

A five-star bakery could not produce a more perfect tray of Blueberry Cheesecake Macarons than Melbourne, Australia-based blogger Sue of Youcandoitathome. She offers detailed instructions with lots of photos to help us reproduce these purple beauties. (And I love that macarons are naturally gluten-free!)

Let's all stop over to Briiblog in English to wish our friend a Happy Birthday this coming week and revel in her Spelt, Buckwheat and Carrot Muffins. Brii leads hiking tours around beautiful Lake Garda in Italy and always shares some gorgeous landscape photos with her tasty posts.

Our Weekend Herb Blogging Goddess, Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, made a fantastic looking Schiacciata di Cavolo Nero. This stuffed Italian bread has a luscious filling made with cavolo nero, a brassica also known as Black Cabbage, Tuscan Cabbage or Curly Kale.

Janet from Tastespace sent in an exotic Moroccan Cinnamon Orange Salad in fond remembrance of her travels in North Africa.

Finally, there's my contribution to the wonderfully colorful WHB #278 bounty: Broccoli and Pasta Timbale. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this rather elegant vegetarian casserole was to make. And eat. ; )

Thanks again to Haalo of Cook Almost Anything for allowing me the pleasure of hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week. Be sure to check out Anh's Vietnamese food-infused blog, A Food Lover's Journey next week when she hosts WHB #279.

Crunchmaster Crackers: A Gluten Free Product Review & Giveaway

2011-04-08T09:17:00.000-04:00

The folks at Crunchmaster recently sent me two boxes of their gluten-free crackers to try: Multi-Grain Crisps and Sea-Salt Flavor Multi-Grain Crackers.

The Crisps were the clear favorite among the Crispy Snacker Test Panel members. They have a pronounced sesame flavor and they were also judged to be the best-looking cracker with their small hexagon shape. I like that they contain a good bit of whole grains (amaranth, quinoa seeds and brown rice flour), flax seeds for a fiber boost (2 grams per 30 cracker serving, which sounds like a lot of crackers, but they are little and easy to scarf down).

The Multi-Grain Crackers were also good, though they were judged by my girls as not being as tasty as the Crunchmaster Crisps. This is probably due to the fact that they are a healthier chip: 0% saturated fat free, they have fewer calories than a serving of the Crisps and more dietary fiber (3 grams per 16 cracker serving).

Locally, Crunchmaster Chips are available at Wal-Mart Supercenter stores and at Dollar Rite in Queensbury (in the shopping plaza behind Toys R Us). You can download a $1 coupon at the Crunchmaster website and go try them out yourself, OR

Leave a comment below to win 2 coupons for a free 3.5-4.5 oz. box of Crunchmasters crackers. Offer limited to U.S. residents. Leave comments by April 15, midnight (another deadline for us all) Eastern Standard Time, and I'll randomly pick a winner.

I also wanted to announce the winner of the Love Grown Foods granola giveaway, which is Katie Kathleen. Congratulations Katie Kathleen! Send me an email with your shipping address at info [at] oldsaratoGabooks [dot] com and I'll get your Love Grown Granola out to you soon.

Broccoli and Pasta Timbale for Weekend Herb Blogging

2011-04-07T13:52:00.000-04:00

Weekend Herb Blogging #278 is happening here this week. I am delighted to once again be the guest host for this weekly roundup of blog posts about plant-centric dishes. To celebrate my hosting duties I made a cake. A pasta and broccoli cake. Of sorts.

At least I felt like sticking a birthday candle into my new creation, which looked remarkably like a yellow cake with a broccoli filling. In reality my pasta and broccoli cake was a timbale, a not too tricky new cooking technique, though its presentation makes it look like a hard thing to accomplish. Basically you make a layered pasta dish in a buttered baking dish and then unmold it after a short cooling period.

My husband kept kidding me about trying to make the Timpano from the great foodie movie "Big Night", in which Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub are Italian brothers fighting over the right way to run their Italian restaurant in 1950s Maryland. Their restaurant features authentic fare, but is no match for the spaghetti and meatballs drowned in red sauce type menu at the much more popular Italianesque restaurant down the block. They try to make one fantastic meal at a party they throw in honor of jazz singer Louis Prima, whom they think is going to drop by and thus make their reputation soar.

A huge Timpano is the star of the menu, a washtub sized layered pasta dish baked inside a pastry crust, but my creation was but a baby sibling to that pasta edifice. (Joelen of What's Cooking Chicago has pictures of the real deal over at her tasty blog).

The inspiration for this deal come from Bert Greene's excellent paean to vegetables, Greene on Greens (NY: Workman Publishing, 1984). Of course, I adapted Bert's recipe to make it gluten-free and lightened the original up a bit by substituting Greek yogurt for ricotta. I twiddled with the seasonings, and By Gum, this timbale turned out terrific! Dan's Timpano mockery soon faded into snorfling sounds as he sliced himself a second helping. And let me tell you that he brought some delicious and rather beautiful leftovers of Broccoli and Pasta Cake, I mean, Timbale, into work today. Snorfle, snorfle.

Here's my adapted recipe for Broccoli and Pasta Timbale, an impressive looking and tasty gluten-free, vegetarian casserole that would be a great dish for entertaining:

Broccoli and Pasta Timbale

1-1/2 lbs. broccoli (about four crowns)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

5 Tbsp. butter (plus a couple more Tbsps. for buttering baking dish)
4 Tbsp. white or brown rice flour
1/2 cup shredded smoked gouda
1 cup hot vegetable stock
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (freshly grated nutmeg really perfumes this dish)

1 lb. gluten-free pasta (I used Pasta d'oro corn pasta in the cute lasagna corte shape, but any small elbow, fusilli or penne will do)

1 cup Greek yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste

Butter a 2 quart souffle or baking dish with high sides that can be easily upturned and unmolded. Set aside.

Cut up broccoli by trimming off florets and then dicing stems to 1/2 inch dice.

Heat olive oil in large saucepan. Add garlic when sizzling and stir 1 minute. Add in broccoli and cook, stirring often, until broccoli is crisp-tender and still a bit bright green. Remove from heat.

Cook pasta in salted water until al dente and drain.

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add flour and whisk constantly for 2 minutes. Beat in hot vegetable stock and whisk until smooth. Add shredded smoked Gouda and stir until melted. Add in heavy cream and nutmeg and heat just to boiling point. Remove from heat and seat with salt and pepper.

Toss pasta with cheese sauce, Greek yogurt and mix thoroughly.

Put half of pasta in buttered baking dish. Press down firmly. Layer in broccoli. Press again and then add remaining pasta layer, pressing down firmly into dish.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Remove your timbale from the oven and let cool for 8-10 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen it and then cover top with a plate. Slowly invert and let gravity draw the timbale out of the baking dish onto the plate.

Makes 6-8 servings. I liked it plain, but Dan enjoyed his timbale with a bit of marinara "ganache".

This is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging this week. If you are not familiar with this popular blog event run by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, please check out the rules below. If you have a delicious post that you would like to share this week, send me your entry by
this Sunday, April 10, 4 pm Eastern Standard Time. I'll have the roundup posted the next day.

1. Entries to Weekend Herb Blogging must be posts written specifically for Weekend Herb Blogging. This means they cannot be cross-posted in other events. Photos used in the posts however can be submitted to photo events like DMBLGIT.

2. Weekend Herb Blogging entries should have the goal of helping people learn about cooking with herbs or plant ingredients.

Only two types of entries will be accepted:
* Recipe posts where a herb or plant ingredient is one of the primary ingredients in the recipe
* Informative posts that spotlight one herb or plant ingredient, particularly including information about how they are used in cooking.
Naturally, posts can be a combination of both these criteria.

3. Posts must contain the phrase Weekend Herb Blogging with a link to The Crispy Cook and to this site.

4. In your email please include the following information:

Your Name
Your Blog Name/URL
Your Post URL
Your Location
Attach a photo (250 pix wide or less)

Book Review: Nicole Hunn's Gluten-Free on a Shoestring

2011-04-01T17:04:00.000-04:00

There's a new gluten-free cookbook that has joined the ranks in my kitchen bookshelf and it's a real winner. Nicole Hunn is the newly published author of "Gluten-Free on a Shoestring: 125 Easy Recipes for Eating Well on the Cheap" (NY: Da Capo, 2011) and has been writing at her blog for the last couple of years as well, since finding out that her son had celiac disease.

The publishers were kind enough to send me a review copy of Nicole's new book to review and I enjoyed reading through and learning some new methods for shopping and baking. I like her witty prose and her practical, economical cooking style in equal measure and wrote down a ton of notes and menu ideas. She emphasizes once-a-week and once-a-month cooking days to make up vats of broths, sauces, extra portions of casseroles, etc. to tide busy home cooks over on weeknights and her tips about piggy-backing meals and making creative use of leftovers, bulk and seasonal/sale items are full of great advice. Another delightful note at the end of many recipes is a cost comparison of the homemade item versus a store-bought item.

I'm always eager to try out other people's recipes for baked goods, so I made two items from the Shoestring Cookbook. Nicole advocates using Better Better Flour mix, but since I didn't have any in the pantry, I used a mixture of white and brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, and potato starch for the all-purpose flour called for in these recipes.

The first cookbook test-drive involved a terribly tasty Focaccia (pp. 94-95 of the book or you can find it here at her blog). Mine was was topped with sliced scallions, dried herbs and sea salt for a variation of the basic recipe. We enjoyed it as is the first night and then I cut it up into Focaccia fingers the next day for dipping into marinara sauce. A crowd pleasing recipe at our house, for sure.

Husband Dan was most keen to try out her flour tortilla recipe, since we hadn't yet found a great gluten-free version. The Shoestring Tortillas (pp.120-121 of the cookbook, no recipe posted on Nicole's blog) came out wonderfully pliable and moist, I suppose because there is some vegetable oil in the batter. They were easily rolled around various fillings without crumbling like other GF recipes we've tried and Dan was over the moon. He's made them twice since and enjoyed them filled with eggs and cheese for breakfast burritos and filled with beans and fish for heartier main dish burritos. This recipe alone makes the book a real keeper in our estimation. Look at that tortilla curl!

Nicole has wonderful posts about money-saving ideas and tons of gluten-free recipes (I counted 94 of them) on her blog, so you can give her recipes a spin in your own kitchen before deciding whether or not to buy her new cookbook. I think it would make a great introductory cookbook for anyone who is newly diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, though there are also enough uncommon recipes to keep someone who's been cooking gluten free for awhile interested. I'm tempted by Brioche Bread, Lo Mein, Arepas, and Apple-Cinnamon Toaster Pastries myself.

This wonderful cookbook arrived just in time for me to participate in the Book of Yum's Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger event, so of course Nicole is my adoptee this month. Book of Yum will have the roundup posted sometime after the April 5 deadline.

Gluten Free Food Seminar at Price Chopper HQ in Schenectady, April 13

2011-03-25T07:53:00.001-04:00

Attention Capital District Crispy Cook Readers:

Price Chopper is hosting a Gluten Free Food Seminar on Wednesday, April 13 from 6-8 pm at their corporate headquarters, 461 Nott Street in Schenectady. The Seminar features samples from various food vendors and cooking demonstrations by Elizabeth Barbone and Amy Rota-Poulin. Nutritionist Ellie Wilson will also be on hand to answer questions. The cost to attend the seminar is $10.

I have raved about Elizabeth Barbone before on The Crispy Cook (we really dig her lemon bars and banana bread) and can highly recommend her Easy Gluten-Free Baking book to you. She really breaks down her recipes into easily understandable steps and doesn't get too wild with funky ingredients you can't find.

I haven't yet met Amy Rota-Poulin, who is a graduate of the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island and has become an expert on gluten-free cooking since her husband was diagnosed with gluten intolerance. However, I have enjoyed reading her blog, Gluten Free with Amy, and will have to track down a copy of her new cookbook "Cooking Gluten Free with Amy".

To find out more about this event, contact Maureen Murphy, Manager of Consumer Trends, Nutrition and Lifestyles at 518-379-1617 or send her a $10 check to reserve your spot at 461 Nott Street, Box 204, Schenectady, NY 12308 by April 7.

Mad Housewife Wine Contest at Girlichef

2011-03-23T21:12:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of March Madness, my good blogger buddy Heather, of Girlichef fame, is hosting a really fun contest. From now until March 26th, she is featuring the award-winning Mad Housewife wines, which include a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, White Zinfandel, and Chardonnay. The contest asks the oenological question, "What type are you?".

Well, if I could have FOUND some Mad Housewife in a twenty mile radius of my house, I would have loved to answer that question. I popped in to Tim's Liquors in South Glens Falls, where Tim was puffing away on one of his eternal cigarettes (despite this unpleasant smokiness he does have a good wine selection), and inquired about Mad Housewife. "Never heard of it", croaked Tim hoarsely, but he promised to look into it.

Next I tried Diamond Plaza Wines and Liquors in South Glens Falls where I managed to pry the shop clerk away from her soap opera for a query about Mad Housewife for two seconds, before her eyes glazed over again.

Okay, says I, they must carry Mad Housewife at Mohan's in Queensbury, which is a big discount wine and liquor supermarket, but nooooooo... I inquired after Mad Housewife and got a funny look from the lady at the checkout counter. "Well", I pointed out, "you do carry Smoking Loon, Menage a Trois, Il Bastardo, Gnarly Head and Mommy's Time Out, so why no Mad Housewife?" "Good question", said the clerk, "I'll make a note of it".

So I did my best to try and enter Girlichef's fun contest, and I feel like I would have enjoyed a glass of their Merlot, since I am that type of spicy red Mad Housewife according to my dear husband. To get in the spirit of the contest, I had my daughter doll me up with a boatload of lipstick and eyebrow pencil to resemble Ruby, the Mad Housewife Mascot, (that's Ruby on the right) and I made do with another Merlot-who-shall-remain-nameless in my wineglass.

Gotta go. My second glass of wine awaits....

A Gluten Free Product Review and Giveaway: Love Grown Granola

2011-03-23T18:06:00.000-04:00

I used to really like granola, but after cracking a chunk of molar off one morning while chomping on some, I turned to other breakfasty items (turns out the cracked molar was from clenching my teeth at night; who knew?). Then the old man got the celiac thing, so since most granolas contain non-certified gluten-free oats, we just haven't had it around. Oats don't contain gluten per se, but they tend to be contaminated with gluten from the milling and processing of wheat, rye and barley, so you must buy certified gluten-free oats to avoid getting glutened.

Enter Colorado-based Love Grown Foods and their bewitching troika of Gluten Free Granolas: Cocoa Goodness, Raisin Almond Crunch and Sweet Cranberry Pecan. Whoa! They are really tasty. Love Grown sent me a free box with a bag each of these three varieties and a couple of little packets of Raisin Almond Crunch (perfectly sized for tucking into the lunch sack with some yogurt for a delicious parfait later on).

The Crispy Crew and I all really enjoyed them. I've tried some other gluten free granolas, and they were alright but not praiseworthy. However, these three varieties from Love Grown are in the gourmet category, full of delicious ingredients, like little chocolate chips in the Cocoa Goodness, a hint of cinnamon and nutty little sunflower seeds in the Raisin Almond Crunch and pecans and dried cranberries in the Sweet Cranberry Pecan. The Love Grown granolas are sweetened with agave syrup and are terrific when partnered with some thick Greek-style yogurt for a healthy breakfast or snack. Even my persnickety teen daughter who typically doesn't like yogurt or granola scarfed down most of the Cocoa Goodness bag on her own in this fashion.

The good news is that not only can I heartily endorse all three flavors of the Love Grown granolas to you but the company has courteously agreed to send a box to one of you containing a bag each of each granola flavor. Just leave a comment below and I'll randomly pick a winner from them after April 5, 2011. This giveaway offer is limited to U.S. residents.

In the meantime, you can check out the Love Grown website to find out detailed information about ingredients, where to buy these tasty cereals and find out about their Love for Love promotion for Facebook users, where you can receive a package of their dee-licious granola if you post some pix and comments on the Love Grown Wall.

Happy Chomping!

Cook the Books Review: An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof

2011-03-17T20:02:00.000-04:00

As one terribly winter-weary North Country resident, I was glad to have an armchair sea voyage to warmer climes courtesy of Ann Vanderhoof in her book "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" (Doubleday Canada, 2003). This fun book is the current selection of The Cook the Books Club , a bimonthly foodie book club and was chosen by my CTB cohort Deb of Kahakai Kitchen.

Vanderhoof's book is about the two-year sailing trip that she and her husband Steve made from their home in Toronto down through the Caribbean. Long distance sailing holds no appeal for my hobbity self, but I was glad to have this vicarious vacation in a dust jacket while foot upon foot of snow and other variants of frozen precipitation visited my home pretty much every couple of days these many long winter weeks. It was nice to imagine myself basking in sunshine, sipping a rum punch and bopping to soca, that combination of soul and calypso music that screams "party time!"

The author's prose is very descriptive and certainly lauds the wonders and beauty of cruising around the West Indies, but she doesn't gloss over poverty in the region or the down side of sailing. I loved her passage about the day long chore of scrubbing, washing and repacking of foodstuffs when stashing new provisions to avoid bringing bugs on board. Vanderhoof was lucky to make friends with a Grenadian buddy, Dingis, who is a master in the kitchen and offered to teach her some of her cooking secrets.

I was entranced by the description of Dingis' lobster curry, so despite the very dear cost of the crustacean, I got one steamed at the fish counter of my supermarket and brought him home, scarlet and stiff, in a waterlogged paper bag. I cracked the meat out and then stuffed the shells into a pot with some vegetable trimmings collected in my freezer stash and boiled it all up for a delicious lobster broth that was later cooked up into a lobster-scented rice.
.

The lobster rice served as my base for Dingis' Lobster Curry (recipe on page 127 of the book). I was surprised that the lobster wasn't overwhelmed by all the seasonings in this dish; curry powder, peppers sweet and hot, garlic, onion, ketchup and vinegar. The next time I would use poor man's lobster, i.e., chunks of monkfish, or maybe some large shrimp, because of the cost, but the sauce was really luscious.

A delicious Island dinner needed a toothsome ending, so I also made up some Mango Crisp (p. 133), which had a great zing from some chopped crystallized ginger.

There's still time to join in the fun at Cook the Books. Deb will be accepting entries from readers who like to head for the kitchen after reading a great book until Friday, March 25th. Be sure to stop back to CTB headquarters after the deadline to see the roundup of Embarrassing Mango posts and then to see which entry will be picked by our special guest judge, our esteemed author herself, Ann Vanderhoof!

Austrian Kale and Potatoes

2011-03-15T16:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this is not a great photo, even for me, of what was really a wonderful dish. So my apologies for not having the patience to set up my traveling photo studio (two lamps and a popup white tent contraption which live in the basement) and snap a fab photo. But do try this awesome vegetarian stew if you would like a new way to cook up kale, which is so packed with nutrients and available pretty cheap this time of year.

I dove into my shoebox recipe card file and retrieved this recipe, provenance unknown, for Austrian Kale, and it was a great blend of tender, frilled bits of kale in a potato and celery base. You can thicken up the stew with a bit of grated cheese, but I liked it on its own, with its delicate flavors. It was even better the next day heated up for lunch.

Austrian Kale and Potatoes

1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. oil

2 cups vegetable stock
4 potatoes (not russets), peeled and cut into chunks
2 stalks celery, chopped

2 bunches kale, chopped into 1 inch ribbons

Heat oil in large frying pan. Add onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until lightly browned. Add vegetable stock, potatoes and celery and bring to a boil.

Lower heat, cover and simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add kale and blanch for 2 minutes. Drain and then add to the potatoes and simmer 10 minutes longer.

Season with salt and pepper.

This was a hearty vegetarian main dish supper for 4 with a couple of lunchtime leftover servings.

I'm sending a bowl of this great dish over to Real Sustenance for her weekly Seasonal Sundays roundup of delectable dishes using foods in season.

A Gluten Free Nosh of Newsy Bits

2011-03-06T14:33:00.000-05:00

Things are always changing in the Gluten Free Blogosphere, so here's a couple of interesting things that I have found over the past week:

Gluten Freely Resource

General Mills has rolled out its revised Gluten Freely website, and it's full of health information, coupons, recipes, lifestyle articles, monthly news from several GF bloggers and an online store where you can purchase hundreds of gluten-free products, including a couple of great gluten-free gift packs for the GF newbie or for chocolate lovers.

The recipes are naturally heavy on using General Mills products (there are many, many variations of Chex Mix and snacks involving Chex), but overall this is a great resource for anyone who is new to the gluten free lifestyle or who wants some fresh cooking ideas. Gluten Freely is endorsed by the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Celiac Research and University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, so you can trust the medical and health information on the site.

No Need to Hold the Mustard

I did a major Christmas faux pas this past December when I tucked a bottle of Nance's Sharp and Creamy mustard into my husband's stocking. I had remembered that it was his favorite mustard of yore but didn't remember that it contained wheat flour as a thickener. I didn't read the label when shopping, though Dan thankfully did before ingesting it and gently reminded me that he couldn't eat it.

I emailed the company that makes Nance's mustard, BR Foods, and asked if they would consider reformulating their product to make it gluten free. To my surprise, they said they already had done so for all of their mustard products. I hot footed it to the market where I picked up a new and definitely improved jar of Nance's mustard to present to my hubby. He is a happy sandwich eater once more. That's the gluten-free Nance's Sharp and Creamy Mustard on the left in the photo below. There might still be some older stock of the glutenous mustard on grocery shelves, so do read your labels.

Gluten Free Rice Krispie Treats in the Near Future?

Gluten Free Appetite reports that the Kellogg's Company is planning to roll out revised versions of its popular breakfast cereals, like Rice Krispies, to be certified gluten free by June 2011. I will be on the lookout for that so I can make him up a batch of Rice Krispie Treats. Right now I make up Cocoa Pebbles marshmallow treats, but he's not a chocoholic and wants the traditional Rice Krispie treats of his youth.

Gluten Free Product Review: Lundberg Brown Rice Couscous

2011-03-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

Couscous, I have missed you. Your quick cooking time, your delightful nuggety-ness, your ability to soak up tasty dressings and sauces. But alas, couscous is made of little bits of gluteny semolina flour and so we haven't enjoyed it at our house for the last five years.

Until now.

Lundberg Family Farms, a family-owned rice farm in California, has launched a new product line of Brown Rice Couscous. They take their organic brown rice, grind it up into small pieces, roast it and then package it up plain, or with seasoning packets to make three other flavors: Savory Herb, Mediterranean Curry (my favorite) and Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil.

Lundberg Farms sent me a package each of their four flavors of Brown Rice Couscous to try and I can enthusiastically endorse it. What a great product. It's got great fiber from the brown rice, it's kosher and vegan in addition to being gluten-free, and it can be used as a quick side dish to zip up simple dinners or as an ingredient in a casserole or main dish salad. While this rice couscous is not quite as quick cooking as wheat-based couscous which I used to throw into boiling water, cover, take off the heat and let steam for 5-10 minutes, it is only a little more time intensive, with a fifteen minute cooking time after tossing in the brown rice couscous into boiling water.

I found all four varieties of Lundberg Farms Brown Rice Couscous at my local Hannaford's supermarket where they were selling for $3.19 a box. I also noticed that Lundberg Farms is the source of the brown rice in the Hannaford Bulk Foods Bin, so that was interesting.

There are some great recipes for all kinds of rice dishes on the Lundberg Farms website as well as other information, including a printable coupon for 75 cents off the Brown Rice Couscous so you might want to stop over and check it out.

* Disclosure: Thank you to Lundberg Farms for sending me these four boxes of couscous to sample. I received these items for free, but was not compensated otherwise. My opinions are completely my own and I was not influenced by this company to write a positive review. And that's always the way it is on The Crispy Cook with my product reviews.

Consider the Rutabaga

2011-03-01T18:13:00.000-05:00

As the mom and head cook of my household, there are little food sacrifices that I make all the time. I constantly DON'T cook things that only I like to eat, like Pasta Puttanesca (caper and olive phobes in the house), Scalloped Oysters (now that my mother-in-law is no longer with us, I'm the only one that likes that Thanksgiving favorite), Pasta with Anchovies (don't get my husband started on defaming them as hairy, stinky eyebrows), Beets? Fuhgettaboutit. And I only buy those delectable little jars of pickled herring for parties when my buddy Lisa, she of Finnish extraction, is going to be around to nibble with me. I figure it's not frugal or fair to make up up a whole pot of something that only I am going to enjoy.

But I ask you, dear readers, is it wrong to occasionally cook up something I crave from my pre-finicky family days? No, I say! Everything in moderation, as my wise Grandma used to say. There must be payback for all those sleepless nights walking my ear-achey babies around and being the only one that can find things in the refrigerator for my appliance-challenged husband. (there's a finite amount of space in the fridge, so I don't know why he can't find stuff).

And so I splurged on a rutabaga.

A little one, comparatively. About 1.5 lbs.

Rutabagas can be much larger, but I picked up this very cute purple-topped beauty, gleaming in its skin of wax. The wax keeps the 'baga from wilting away during storage. It's a member of the Brassica family, closely related to the whiter, smaller turnip, but with a mellower flavor. Once stripped of its skin, the flesh is a pale golden color that deepens into a yellowy-orange when cooked.

My grandma, she of the moderation exhortation above, would make mashed rutabaga for holiday meals and she and I always partook of it, but my nuclear family will have none of it, so I chomp it down myself and subsequently only buy a rutabaga every few years. I think it is very earthy and tasty, steamed in chunks until tender and then mashed with salt, pepper and butter. It is a great source of fiber and Vitamins A and C.

The rutabaga is also known as a Swede (if you are English or Australian), a kalrot (if you are a non-vegetable Swede), or a neep (if you are a Scot). I find it curious that it has so many funny sounding names. Apparently this root vegetable inspires a lot of humor, because it is also the star of the annual
International Rutabaga Curl, an annual end-of-the-season Ithaca Farmers Market event. The vegetable has even inspired a fabulous Handel-inspired Rutabaga Chorus.

So I cooked up my rutabaga and then decided to try a recipe for a Rutabaga Souffle from my shoebox card file. I don't know where I got the original recipe, but I halved it and tweaked it a bit and the result was so good that I was even able to tempt Mr. Crispy into trying it on his dinner plate. He said it was better than eating it plain mashed, so while he might not be a Rutabaga Convert, I think I might step up to buy a rutabaga each year!

Here's my recipe for Rutabaga Souffle, which can be easily doubled for rutabaga loving folk:

Rutabaga Souffle

1 small rutabaga, peeled and cut into chunks (about 2 cups)

3 Tbsp. softened butter
1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste

2 eggs, separated

2 Tbsp. sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated

Lightly grease a small casserole dish with softened butter, reserving remaining butter for rutabagas.

Place rutabaga chunks in a small pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer until rutabaga is fork-tender (about 15-20 minutes). Drain.

Mash rutabaga with softened butter and try to get most of the lumps out. Add onion powder and salt and pepper to taste. Beat in egg yolks.

Beat egg whites in separate bowl until stiff. Fold in gently but thoroughly into rutabaga mixture.

Turn into buttered casserole dish and bake in a 325 degree F oven for 45-50 minutes. Sprinkle souffle with grated cheese and bake another 5 minutes until cheese is melted.

Makes 4 servings.

I will be sending this post over to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Yasmeen Health Nut. Weekend Herb Blogging is a popular food blog event, now in its fifth year, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia by the lovely Haalo of Cook Almost Anything (who has yet to cook a rutabaga judging from a quick search of her blog!)

Stoking the Internal Combustion Engine with a Hearty, Smoky Vegetarian Pea Soup

2011-02-26T09:38:00.000-05:00

With a gaggle of teenagers over during this snowy and cold school break week, I was hard at work in the kitchen flinging 3 hots and multiple snacks in their direction. Their normally ravenous adolescent appetites were further stoked by an afternoon of tubing at Willard Mountain.

What's tubing, you say? Well, it's a fancy version of sledding and a much cheaper version of skiing. One dresses in warm layers of outerwear that don't have to come from a designer ski shop, at least two pairs of socks, sturdy boots and some waterproof gloves (mittens tend to fly off on the descent). Then you head to a ski slope (we paid $15 each for 2 hours of tubing) where you get a big, puffed-up inner tube on a leash. With reggae music booming, the attendant hooks your leash to a tow rope that drags you up the mountain, dumps you off at the top and then a burly farm kid sends you down straight or spinning down the snowy incline where you brake at the bottom over piles of hay.

It's outrageously fun and even an old chaperone like me with minimal athletic skills can enjoy it. Which I did. As evidenced by all the hay sticking to my fleece jacket. Just got a couple of bruises from not remembering to keep my hind end from drooping too low in the inner tube.

All that icy air got those teenage engines roaring, so it was back to the Crispy Kitchen to make vats of ziti and a salad bar. Dan and I enjoyed a simpler, satisfying supper of Pea Soup. Most pea soup recipes traditionally include a ham bone or bits of chopped ham, but I added a touch of olive oil and smoked paprika for my vegetarian version, full of chunky bits of other veggies. It was satisfying and restorative; just the thing for apres-tubing on a cold winter's night.

And did I mention that Split Pea Soup is Cheap Eats? I figure it cost $3 or $4 to make this pot of soup, and we have enough for 8-10 mug servings.

Hearty, Smoky Vegetarian Pea Soup

1 lb. dried split peas

1 onion, peeled and chopped coarsely
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped coarsely
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped coarsely
2 stalks celery, chopped coarsely
6 cups vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. smoked paprika

Pick through split peas to remove any pebbles or odd-looking peas. Rinse and drain.
Place in soup pot with onion, garlic, carrot, celery and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover pot and simmer until peas are tender and start to break down, about 30 minutes.

At this point, you can mash up the soup with a potato masher or leave chunky as you like. I like a smooth base with bits of chunky vegetables, so I used my newest kitchen gadget (a thrift shop find for $2!), a Braun immersion blender to puree up about half of the soup.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Swirl in olive oil and smoked paprika and serve hot.

Makes 8 big mugs of soup.

I'm sending a mug of this hearty, healthy, frugal and warming soup over to my buddy Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her weekly Souper Sundays roundup. Head on over to Honolulu-based Kahakai Kitchen (where they go surfing instead of tubing) after Sunday's deadline to see all the great soup recipes that pour in each week for this event.

Schuyler Sweets and their Gluten Free Treats

2011-02-22T11:44:00.000-05:00

Last Spring a new candy store opened in our little village of Schuylerville, Schuyler Sweets, owned by husband and wife Bob and Debbie Stickle.

When I first stopped in for Easter basket treats last year, the Stickles indicated that they were still researching which of their extensive selection of chocolates and candies were gluten-free. On this return trip, however, Bob was quick to point out which items were not gluten-free (mostly the caramels) and he even had a special batch of gluten-free chocolate-covered caramels in the candy case that had to come home with me for a husband treat in a sweet little beribboned white box. I also scooped up an assorted selection of their elegant little chocolates and creme filled dainties for a gift. Too bad I missed the Strawberry and Champagne Fudge that they had featured for Valentine's Day, which sounds really toothsome.

Interestingly, Bob is a diabetic, probably a rare trait in a chocolatier, but this also makes for a wide selection of sugar-free candies and chocolates.

Schuyler Sweets is located at 123 Broad Street in downtown Schuylerville, and is open Tuesday through Friday, 1-6, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 11-4. You can also find them on the web if you are interested in ordering their candy through the mail or give them a call at (518) 695-4171.