Archive for August, 2005
Wanton Soup
Monday, August 29th, 2005
wanton
Wanton soup made with leftover pork and shrimp filling from my stuffed eggs a while back. I added some shrimp to the broth for extra flavour.
The broth is made by pressure cooking chicken wings with garlic ginger and spring onion for 1 hour. It makes a much richer taste than boiling the wings.
The wanton wrapping is shown below. In step one spread the filling along the length of the wrapper rather than a ball or it will be difficult to complete step three. Step 2 fold in half to a triangle. step 3 fold again from filling end, but dont cover the pointy end. step 4 bring left to right points together. It is better to cross the ends like an X or pinch together like hands clapping, rather than stick together like I did, but that wasn't discovered till later.
Boil wantons separately then add to broth - this makes a clear broth. I added mine straight in as the separate cooking was too much trouble for lunch
Very yummy esp with a Vietnamese style oyster and chilli sauce dip.
Victoria Sponge
Monday, August 29th, 2005
Explorations of the countryside in my new home have introduced me to twee english cottages with thatched roofs, lead paned windows, trellises of roses climbing over little green doors with brass door knockers and a little rush mat complete with boot scraper outside the door. The only time I'd ever imagined this was could exist was when reading books like Milly Molly Mandy or The Secret Garden as a child. If you don't believe this can be real, in the 21st century, I will have to take some photos next time I am out that way.
Inspired by old time English ways, I decided to make a Victoria Sponge - the old fashioned way. This cake contains 4oz butter, 4oz sugar, 4 oz flour and 2 eggs. No baking powder. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add the eggs till well combined then stir in the flour. Put into a 6" cake tin and bake at 350F.
The cake is a little flatter than a normal sponge, although I had to use a 7" cake pan, however it is still very light strangely enough for such a low lying cake. I filled mine with a spread of strawberry jam and cream. It was very tasty but also a little sweeter than my normal sponge. Please remember don't store open in the fridge (cover well or keep in a box in the fridge) because the cake will soak up all the odours and you won't want to be eating a green curry -esque sponge the day after.
Fancy Broccoli
Friday, August 26th, 2005
Broccoli
This comes from soon to be publishedThe Good Home Cookbook. I signed up to be a recipe tester after reading about this on Food Goat's site. You are assigned three recipes at random.
My luck was this 'yummy' broccoli mixed with cheese, Oven Barbequed Brisket 5lb and Roasted Fresh Ham 8lb- both of which I forgot to photograph, as I was too busy being struck dumb by the amount of meat product I would have to eat. I used the leftover brisket to make a shepherds pie (from Elizabeth David) mixed with carrots. The barbeque flavour was delicious and adding extra stock to the pie ensures it is moist and flavourful
Toad in the Hole
Friday, August 26th, 2005
toad in hole
To my readers, sorry for the lack of postings lately but I have been busy trying to finish a long overdue piece of work!
This toad in the hole was a miracle of lightness, and was made with sausages from the local butchers. My batter dishes tend to be somewhat haphazard ending up leaden and stodgy as often as they turn out well.
This used a yorkshire pudding batter, which contained double the amount of eggs and half the amount of flour as a normal recipe. I also put a fair bit of oil in the pan and heated that first. The batter was abit dry but my oven tends to do that.
From Elizabeth David - English Food "Award Winning Chinese Yorkshire Pudding".
making homemade, gluten-free ravioli at 10 o’clock at night
Friday, August 19th, 2005
Last night, I made homemade, gluten-free ravioli. With a spinach-potato-goat cheese filling no less. And I made it without a pasta machine, a friendly helper, or a clean kitchen.
I have to admit—I’m so proud.
Crazy as I am, I wouldn’t have made this last night without a little prompting. Today is the last day of Scribes at Hugo House, and while it has been an enormous delight, filled with spontaneous laughter and startling writing, it has also been exhausting. I’m ready for long summer days with no plans again. And sleeping in. So I could have used a long evening, a movie to watch, a nap. But not me. Instead, I chose to make homemade ravioli for the first time, make gluten-free pasta for the first time. Why?
Why, it’s a food blog competition, of course. Expect a lot of these from me. How could I resist communing with foodies around the world, all of us making the same dish in the same week?
It’s just that I chose to do this on a night when my kitchen looked as though someone had thrown dishes indiscriminately on the counters, when I had stayed up far too late the night before, working on an important piece of writing, when I had been teaching all day, and I still had a query letter to write.
But first, I had to take a bike ride.
(You have to understand. The light outside was achingly beautiful, and after a full day of teaching, I need to move.)
I gathered the ingredients. Fred Meyer for gluten-free flour (the GFP French bread mix, of course) at $5.29 a pound. Yikes, it’s expensive to have celiac disease. A few new GF products, which I’ll write about another time. A bunch of organic spinach. Yukon gold potatoes. A head of garlic. But unfortunately, Fred Meyer has lousy, pre-packaged cheese. Nothing I would put in my homemade ravioli. So, the shopping wasn’t done. I drove home in crepuscular light, grinning at the thought of cooking again. As the days go by, no matter how fully I am joining the day, there’s always a part of me thinking: “What am I going to cook tonight?”
(I really should find a boyfriend, just for all the food I have to share.)
So I unloaded the bike, the groceries, the bungee cords from the bike rack. Humming as I climbed the stairs, I set out to cook. But the messiness of the kitchen slapped me in the face. (The past few days, I’ve been letting it go, in the face of big writing assignments and all-day teaching gigs.) Twenty minutes of scurrying and flinging dishes in the dishwasher, and I at least had some clean surface to work on.
And then I remembered the cheese. Luckily, I have Ken’s Market across the street. A locally owned grocery store, they have little gourmet items tucked away in interesting corrners. So I grabbed some shredded parmigiano and some soft goat cheese. Now I could start cooking.
Wait, where’s the camera?
I took out the food processor and dumped in the silky-white, gluten-free flour. A little olive oil. Salt. And the eggs....
I'm out of eggs.
Back to Ken’s. Thank goodness I lived across the street from Ken's. And that they stay open until 10. By now, they’re used to seeing me walk in with flour on my shirt and a rushed look on my face.
And finally, I made the ravioli.
It really wasn’t difficult, just time intensive. But from start to finish (once I had all the fricking ingredients in front of me), it took about an hour. It was messy—flour everywhere in the end, including in the glass of water I dunked my finger in to stick the edges of the ravioli together. It was far more work than ten raviolis would seem to warrant. My kitchen is even more cluttered now.
But damn, they were good.
I put the ravioli on a splash of balsamic-port reduction, and topped them with parmigiano and slivers of rosemary. For the filling, I used mashed potatoes with handfuls of fresh spinach, herbed sea salt, goat cheese, parmigiano, and rosemary.
And there’s enough potato filling left over to make some incredible potato pancakes, later today.
Boy, though, I’m going to sleep well tonight.
GLUTEN-FREE RAVIOLI WITH A POTATO-SPINACH FILLING
For the pasta, I found this recipe on Glutenfreeda:
2-1/2 cups gf flour (I used the Gluten-Free Pantry’s French Bread Flour Mix)
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
5 eggs
1 egg yolk
* Place GF flour in a food processor. Add salt, oil and eggs. Pulse processor until mixture resembles dough. Remove from the bowl and place on a lightly GF floured surface.
* Knead dough by folding over and turning over and kneading for a few minutes, until the right consistency appears (somewhat like bread dough). If the dough is too dry and crumbly, add remaining egg white. It won't be, though.
* Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or put in a bowl and cover. Allow dough to rest for at least 20 minutes. (This part is KEY to GF flour).
* For the filling (from the Jamie Oliver recipe dispensed on the web, and so I’ll use quotation marks):
“2 pounds all-purpose potatoes
4 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped
4 or 5 good handfuls of spinach (the recipe calls for watercress, but I couldn’t find any)
1/4 cup butter
10 - 12 oz. cheese, extra for garnish
Grated nutmeg, to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
“Wash and peel the potatoes, put them into well-salted, boiling water with the garlic and cook until the potatoes are just tender (it is very important not to under- or overcook them). Drain them and let them sit for about five minutes to enable the excess water to evaporate (if you overcook them or don't drain them correctly they'll be too moist and your filling will be too wet).
When the potatoes have cooled slightly, add your butter and your chosen cheeses. Stir and mash with a fork to mix and break the potatoes up (I like to leave the mixture slightly chunky). Add the nutmeg and seasoning to taste. Stir in the spinach.”
* From here, the recipe calls for particular actions with the pasta machine. But since I don’t own one (yet), I simply rolled out the dough like a pie dough—carefully—then cut it with the ravioli cutter I bought at Sur La Table on Sunday. The recipe called for us to put some filling on one side of the ravioli dough, then fold it over, but that didn’t look like ravioli to me. So I put some filling in the middle, then placed another one on top. (Dab a little water on the inside portion of the ravioli to make them stick together.)
* Cook the ravioli a few at a time in boiling, salted water. Cook for about one minute, or until the ravioli begin to float on the surface of the water.
* Drain the ravioli with a slotted spoon and put it on a pretty plate. Cover with more olive oil, some shredded cheese, pine nuts, or whatever you would like.
learning to love your food, fully
Thursday, August 18th, 2005
quiche without a crust, originally uploaded by shaunaforce.
Slam.
A car slammed into mine, right into my side. I’m lucky to be alive.
I’ve written about this before, many times before. In December of 2003, I survived a terrible car accident. Life spun me around, and I finished facing another way. Pain surged through me. I could barely walk. My back spasmed in time with my head.
So, two weeks later, I started a diet.
What?
That entire time period is foggy in today’s mind, so I cannot tell you why I thought it the best plan of action to start The South Beach Diet for my stupid new year’s resolution. Everyone was doing it? I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much more than lying on my back in pain, so there went exercise. And of course, following a lifetime’s tradition of regarding food as my enemy, I panicked. I’m going to get fat.
Maybe I needed something to do. I don’t know. I wasn’t eating much anyway, and everyone had to make the food for me. But in my cracked-up, concussed head, I thought the best thing I could do for my body was to deprive it.
Sheesh.
I’ve never been a skinny malink. I’ve never been a size two, or even a size six. And so, following in the tradition of everything I had been taught by the media and other girls my age, I perpetually worried that I should lose more weight. And some of those years, I was right. I used food as a defense, as a layer against the world, as a muffling of the loud noises in my mind. Emotional eating overwhelms many of us.
But so many other people have written about that. I don’t want to put any more words into the world about that. Especially because it’s no longer true for me.
For the past five years, I’ve been eating well—olive oil; ten servings of fruits and vegetables a day; nothing fried, everything whole—with the occasional exception. Except I couldn’t lose weight. I was doing everything they say to do, and it just wouldn’t come off. I went to a fancy-schmancy gym and lifted weights, took African dance, worked out six days a week for an hour a day, and the needle on the scale barely moved. I had surgery in January of 2003, which left me constantly enervated. I think now that’s when the celiac set in. Apparently, it can lie dormant for years, silently affecting us, but a trauma to the body of some kind can kick it into action. Like abdominal surgery. At the end of 2003, the terrible car accident—that was a peach of a year. That made the celiac worse. I just couldn’t shake my exhaustion, my headaches, my lingering joint pain. Exercise was right out. And so I slipped even further into the fear of food. It seemed it was always chasing me. No longer a comfort, food threatened me.
Most Americans seem to regard food as an enemy. At Weight Watchers, people talk about “trigger foods,” the ones that open up the doors to the cavernous hole below and they just fall in and eat to fill themselves up. Is food a shotgun, threatening to shoot them? Others eliminate entire food groups, as though they are little blue meanies ready to attack with pointy knives. People talk about carbohydrates as though they are the devil.
Well, for me, some carbohydrates are. Wheat, rye, barley, triticale, spelt.....
I have this theory. I think the reason all these no-carb/.low-carb diets have been so popular is because undiagnosed celiacs tried them and felt mysteriously better. They didn’t know why, but they just felt lighter. More awake. And so they stayed with these rigid programs (and in the case of Atkins, I’m sorry, stupid programs), thinking that was the cause of peace. Instead, it’s the gluten. Or lack thereof.
I did feel a bit better on the South Beach. I think. I barely remember. But I do remember that it was easy to follow. I needed everything written out for me those days. And it called for no processed foods and no grains the first two weeks. Without knowing it, I was cutting out gluten. I lost weight, I started to feel a release from the headaches.
But I couldn’t stick with it for too long. The worst moment was the night I could only walk on my hands and knees because of the sciatica pain, and the pain pills were hurting my stomach so much that I threw up for only the third time in my life. And I had no other choice but to eat some saltines crackers for dinner that night, because it was the only thing I could keep down. But in the back of my head, I was thinking, “But I’m on the South Beach diet! I’m not supposed to be eating carbohydrates!”
That was it. I realized what I was doing to myself. I went back to eating macaroni and cheese and processed foods. And the pain grew worse, and my headaches persisted, and I spent a year and a half in a pain-wracked body, just wishing for some energy.
Fast forward to now. Four months without eating gluten, and I already feel better than ever in my life. Finally, finally, I have the boundless happy feeling of exercise. Biking the Burke-Gilman trail, bouncing in the pool, gliding along Lake Union in a kayak, rollerblading Greenlake, walking in my neighborhood at night, regular yoga classes—I’m doing two of them a day. At least. Turns out it was the gluten that kept me laying on the couch every afternoon, wanting to be well but not having the energy for it.
And my body is changing. I’m not eating any less. In fact, I’m sampling all the foods I’m making for this blog, and I’m not scrimping. If it’s gluten-free, I’m trying it. But in spite of that, the weight I’ve carried around all my life is starting to fall off me, without me trying. Why?
Well, more and more research is showing that the traditional definition of celiac disease is far too narrow. Traditionally, you could only be a celiac if you had trrible diarrhea and couldn’t put on weight. But now, studies are showing that some celiacs can’t lose weight. No matter how hard they work or try to diet, the weight just stays on. It’s a function of the damaged small intestine, the way that body reacts to gluten. The way my body reacts to gluten.
Hm. Yet another blessing. Losing weight without trying.
But I think it’s something deeper than that for me. You’d think that more than ever, I’d regard food as a poison. With all this hidden gluten, you’d think I’d suspect every morsel of being a potential assassin. But I don’t. In fact, it’s the other way around now. Because good food, gluten-free, is the only way to heal myself. Food is the only cure. I love that. And now, more than ever, I know the old adage is true: I am what I eat.
And now, I only want to fill myself with goodness.
I love great food, food I’ve prepared myself with the best ingredients. Food I can feed to my friends and they will love it, and somehow the laughter ringing in our ears is part of the taste of it. Food I can photograph and write about, and share it with you.
When food is an elixir, a joyfulness, a sensory pleasure—and especially when it’s the path to health—I don’t eat too much of it. I taste it, fully. And then I’m full, quickly.
Befriend your food. Accept it. And watch it change your life.
CRUSTLESS QUICHE CUPS
There's not much of the South Beach diet I follow rigorously anymore. But I found the book on the floor of my laundry room, in the pile of give-aways I'm taking to Value Village. And I remembered this recipe for quiche cups with egg whites.
In the endless quest for an interesting breakfast, this one isn't bad. I changed their recipe around a bit to make more taste, and the proportions are mine. So call it a blend.
one 16 oz package of egg whites, gluten-free of course
sauteed vegetables, whatever appeals to you
sea salt
cheese of your choice
* So I sauteed some zucchini, wilted spinach, soft green peppers, even softer tomotoes, and some jalapeno peppers I had sitting on the counter. This recipe is great for the vegetables you should have used but haven't yet. They don't have to be pretty. Make sure to use great olive oil and sea salt.
* Pour the vegetables into a bowl, and add as much good cheese as you want. Last night, I added about 1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Add the egg whites.
* Ladle portions of this goopy mess into a muffin pan. (For those of you who are celiacs, you have to buy new baking supplies after the diagnosis. You don't want residual flour in this.)
* Cook at 425 degrees for about half an hour, until the quiche muffins are puffy and crusty.
They'll store in the refrigerator for days. A fast breakfast for those squeezed mornings.
Tarta de nuez y mermelada de frambuesas.
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005Hoy estoy repitiendo la receta de esta tarta. Ligeramente modificada:
TARTA DE NUEZ Y MERMELADA DE FRAMBUESA
Masa:
100 g nueces
60 g azúcar orgánica
250 g harina 000
2 cdtas. polvo para hornear
1/2 cdta. bicarbonato de sodio
pizca de sal
2 cdtas. cacao amargo
ralladura de medio limón
1/4 cdta. canela molida
2 clavos de olor molidos
200 g manteca
2 huevos
Relleno:
400 g mermelada de frambuesa
pan rallado
En la procesadora muelo las nueces junto con el azúcar, para que esta absorba el aceite que pudieren soltar. Agrego harina, cacao, leudantes y especias. Proceso un poco más. Con la punta de los dedos incorporo la manteca en trocitos hasta obtener una mezcla arenosa y más bien homogénea. Incorporo los huevos. Queda una masa bastante blanda (se podría probar con un solo huevo). Envuelvo en film plástico y llevo a la heladera por lo menos una hora.
Extiendo 3/4 de la masa en una tartera enmantecada. Llevo a la heladera. Después espolvoreo con un poco de pan rallado. Distribuyo la mermelada encima. Formo tiritas para hacer un enrejado sobre el dulce. Horno 180-190º alrededor de 50 minutos.
No se confíen mucho de los tiempos porque mi horno no funciona muy bien. Por lo menos ahora puedo controlar la temperatura con el termómetro que le encargué a mi tía. Pero no cambia el hecho de que el horno no es parejo.
TARTA DE NUEZ Y MERMELADA DE FRAMBUESA
Masa:
100 g nueces
60 g azúcar orgánica
250 g harina 000
2 cdtas. polvo para hornear
1/2 cdta. bicarbonato de sodio
pizca de sal
2 cdtas. cacao amargo
ralladura de medio limón
1/4 cdta. canela molida
2 clavos de olor molidos
200 g manteca
2 huevos
Relleno:
400 g mermelada de frambuesa
pan rallado
En la procesadora muelo las nueces junto con el azúcar, para que esta absorba el aceite que pudieren soltar. Agrego harina, cacao, leudantes y especias. Proceso un poco más. Con la punta de los dedos incorporo la manteca en trocitos hasta obtener una mezcla arenosa y más bien homogénea. Incorporo los huevos. Queda una masa bastante blanda (se podría probar con un solo huevo). Envuelvo en film plástico y llevo a la heladera por lo menos una hora.
Extiendo 3/4 de la masa en una tartera enmantecada. Llevo a la heladera. Después espolvoreo con un poco de pan rallado. Distribuyo la mermelada encima. Formo tiritas para hacer un enrejado sobre el dulce. Horno 180-190º alrededor de 50 minutos.
No se confíen mucho de los tiempos porque mi horno no funciona muy bien. Por lo menos ahora puedo controlar la temperatura con el termómetro que le encargué a mi tía. Pero no cambia el hecho de que el horno no es parejo.
Desde el jardín…
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005Sigue aumentando la terraza de aromáticas. Ayer planté en macetas la menta, que había comprado meses atrás, una de las plantas de frambuesa que me ha dado el tío Daniel, y el tomillo. Este último lo compré con una planta de curry, Helichrysum lanatum(3.11.05) italicum, (no le siento perfume, estoy muy congestionada) en el vivero de Tamashiro. Hoy en la feria compré una plantita de apio.
El orégano se ha extendido bastante. Y la salvia y el romero parece que también se encuentran bien en ese lugar. La planta de romero que tenía mamá se ha recuperado un poco desde que le cambié la maceta y está floreciendo profusamente. Los rosales están brotando y supongo que dentro de poco tiempo tendré que iniciar los almácigos de pimientos, rúcula y plantar el perejil...
El orégano se ha extendido bastante. Y la salvia y el romero parece que también se encuentran bien en ese lugar. La planta de romero que tenía mamá se ha recuperado un poco desde que le cambié la maceta y está floreciendo profusamente. Los rosales están brotando y supongo que dentro de poco tiempo tendré que iniciar los almácigos de pimientos, rúcula y plantar el perejil...
Grated Coconut with Beef
Saturday, August 6th, 2005
As part of my tour of South East Asia (see Pho Hampshire) I also made Serunding Daging. This is Malaysian beef with coconut. It was tasty but quite sweet and rich. Perhaps it is best served as part of a buffet rather than for a whole meal.
Serundeng Daging
1/2 pound beef sliced
1/2 lb shredded coconut
2 tbs palm sugar
2 tbs ground shallots
1 tsp ground garlic
1 tbs coriander powder
1 tbs tamarind juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup coconut milk
Mix all except beef and coconut. Cook over low heat until sugar melts. Turn off heat an dremove. Mix half with the beef and half with the coconut. Place beef in a dry pan and stir fry over low heat for 10 minutes until cooked and sauce is absorbed. Add in coconut, stir fry 15 minutes until dry. Do not burn coconut.
