Who lived through the 70’s as a child and doesn’t remember the treat of a smidge of the green liquid on top of vanilla ice cream? I have to make these!!!
Oh my goodness…
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Is there some Hummus Among Us?
Simple ingredients. Use the best quality EVOO you can get your hands on, unfiltered gives a nice sweet boost of flavor.
Did you see the news about the hummus recall? Read the article if you buy yours from Trader Joes!
There’s always a chance of food getting contaminated in these large plants. It’s a fact of life and something we deal with for convenience. Thinking about it, it’s amazing that more of us don’t get sick more often. I for one, love the Sabra brand of hummus. We buy it often. But sometimes I’m not in the mood to head to the grocery store so I simply grab a few cans of chickpeas and whip up my own.
The basic recipes from around the web call for:
- chickpeas in water (small cans)
- garlic cloves
- fresh lemon
- tahini (sesame butter)
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
You’ll notice that I didn’t use any measurements. Why? Well, you don’t need them to make good hummus. I think it’s all about how it tastes to you, not to someone else.
I start with TWO cans of chickpeas because I like to make it once and eat it for a few days. The rest? All negotiable.
Squeeze fresh lemon right into the blender on top of the tahini…
I take about 1/2 cup of tahini, dashes of salt and pepper and a tablespoon or two of high quality olive oil and put that into my Blendtec. Then I squeeze in fresh lemon juice. You can use 1/2 a lemon, a full lemon — whatever you have. The key though is to use the fresh stuff. It just tastes better IMHO. Add some of the water from the cans of chickpeas to make the blades move.
Then pulse it up so that is nice and creamy. Taste. Add a little more salt, some onion powder if you wish, whatever. Then add a few peeled garlic cloves and some chickpeas. I add about 1/2 of the can at a time along with the water and pulse. Keep adding chickpeas and squirting in lemon and adding salt & pepper until it resembles a creamy dip and tastes good to you.
I have read that adding the chickpeas last is the key to creaminess. I would add that using the water the chickpeas came in helps, too. But I like my hummus creamy — you may like yours a bit more chunky.
Now — to riff on this, try adding:
- cooked & shelled edamame beans
- cooked great northern beans
- sun-dried tomatoes in oil
- roasted tomatos
- toasted pine nuts
- kale
- roasted onions
- roasted red peppers
- roasted garlic cl
oves
I think you could put just about anything you like into your hummus. The key for me? Get the base right — tasting good — not too garlicky (is that possible?) not too lemony, just right.
The best part of course, is eating it. I love schmearing it on bagel chips, toasted naan or pitas, or forgoing the wheat and scooping it up with cut up red peppers, cucumbers, carrots and celery sticks. I have seen that some people make egg salad with their hummus and I have had it mixed into pasta — seriously, not bad at all!
Girlfriends claim it is a miracle food because it is high protein, filling, and low-calorie. I think it’s easy and delicious. What’s not to love?
Dang, I’m making myself hungry.
Morning Glory Breakfast Cake made in a Big Ass Wrought Iron Skillet
everything that’s good for you in one yummy cake, this is a big, big winner at our house
So, it was Sunday morning. Last Sunday to be precise. I think around 7:00.
I was poking around in the fridge, trying to figure out what I should make for breakfast. I wasn’t really hungry, but since I was up too early on a day that there were NO sports, NO commitments other than coffee and Sunday morning talking heads while folding laundry… I figured I could be a little ambitious.
I opened the crisper and saw a big bag of organic carrots and immediately thought of a recipe I had seen a few days before for my favorite muffins in the world: Morning Glory Muffins.
Hmm… I decided right away that I didn’t feel like pulling out the muffin pan and baking twice – because I own only one stone PC muffin pan which can make 12 at one time and this recipe would have made 24 muffins in my guesstimation.
So — here’s the original recipe and what I did:
- 1 1/4 cups Sugar (half brown/half white)
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (1/2 cup of coconut flour, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1 1/2 cups of regular all purpose flour)
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (same)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda (same)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (same)
- 1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut (same, except I only had unsweetened)
- 3/4 cup Earthbound Farm Organic Raisins (1/2 cup of golden raisins)
- 1 large Earthbound Farm Organic Apple (peeled and grated) NOPE
- 1 cup crushed pineapple (drained, about 8 oz) (1 cup of chunk pineapple in water, not drained at all!)
- 2 cups grated Earthbound Farm Organic Carrots (I just threw a bunch of carrots in my food processor — it was a good two cups worth at the end — they were tiny pieces, not grated, not mush)
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts (1 cup pecans)
- 3 large eggs (same)
- 1 cup vegetable oil (1/2 cup of walnut oil, 1/4 cup of coconut oil, 1/4 vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (same)
And I added:
- 1/2 cup chopped dates (I love dates)
- 1/2 cup pear butter (why not? we had some in the fridge)
- 1 teaspoon of coconut extract
I took out my big ass wrought iron pan. You know what I mean? They are super heavy. You need two hands to hold them.
I used coconut oil to prepare the pan so nothing would stick. After mixing up all those ingredients in my food processor until they were coarsely chopped, chunky and mixed — I dumped the whole thing in my skillet. Spontaneously, I cut up a Granny Smith apple into pieces and splashed them on top like I was Jackson Pollock. Then I took some cinnamon-sugar mix and sprinkled that on top because I thought it would add a little extra crunch on top. (You just take white sugar, add some cinnamon and stick it in your blender and pulse a few times. Great for toast, excellent for cookies and now, I’ve learned – cake!)
Into the oven at 350. I checked it at 45 minutes, but it was still moist in the middle. I kept checking every 5 minutes. This was a big pan and a heavy batter so it took about an hour and ten minutes to be done. I took out the pan and before I could snap a picture my daughter grabbed a big piece!!
Suffice it to say that today is Thursday. We’ve been nibbling on it most of the week. Only have a tiny bit left and it is still moist. Next time I do this, I think I’ll grate in some fresh nutmeg.
BTW — the cake continued to cook, then cool and settle. It was very moist on the first day. Butter on a piece was divine. I swear this tasted better on Monday morning once all the flavors had a chance to mingle!
To die for salad #1: Shrimp over Argula & Fennel with corn.
Go ahead, smell your computer screen!
I love salad.
I could probably fill a blog up with my salad executions as I rarely make the exact same thing twice(!)
So if you are looking for inspiration, go no further than your nearest farmer’s market. Poke around and see what’s fresh. If you want to make something that sort of looks like the one I picture here, here’s what you need:
- Fresh young arugula
- Young fennel
- Corn
- Cucumbers
- Uncooked, peeled and deveined frozen shrimp
- Seasonings
- Oil
Pretty straightforward prep work. Wash and spin those salad leaves. Make sure that you don’t overspin them, but they need to be dry. Peel and slice those cukes. Add a few well sliced cuts of fennel if you like that anise taste. (If you want to mellow that flavor, you can simply sauté it is a little olive oil for a few minutes on the stove and then let cool before adding to your salad.) Salt some boiling water and add an ear or two of corn. Boil for 3-5 minutes — take them out to cool and dry off.
Defrost your shrimp by putting them in a bowl and running water over them. Or be lazy and leave them in the bowl with cool water for 10 minutes and rinse them out.
So, I use The Pampered Chef Chili Lime Rub and coat my shrimp generously before throwing into a hot pan that’s been lightly coated with olive oil. Keep moving them around until they pink up. It takes only a few minutes, so watch that pan! When close to done, just take it off the heat and put them on a plate to cool a bit. Take your cool corn and remove the kernels with a knife. (If you do this a lot, I have a tool for that as well. Shocking, right?)
When you are ready to assemble just take a big bowl and toss everything in.
Now the key ingredient? WALNUT OIL and SALT. I love La Tourangelle Roasted Walnut Oil and Maldon’s Salt. (I can buy both at my local Wegmans but you can readily buy these online if your story doesn’t carry them.) I toss everything — and I mean everything — with just these two simple ingredients. Actually I glug in some oil (you need to be the judge there) and then after I toss this, I pinch some salt between my fingers and casually sprinkle it on with one hand while holding my white wine in the other! What is so special about this salt? My friend Robin sold me on it when she showed me how the crystals are thin and triangular shaped. They are crunchy. You don’t need a lot to really get a bang of taste out of this seasoning. Trust me. You will want to keep this on your table and you will find yourself pinching some and putting it on everything including watermelon!
Riffing ideas?
OK, like I said, I rarely make the same thing twice. I’ve made this same basic salad and added sliced, hard boiled eggs, cilantro, red onion, julienned carrots, sourdough croutons, walnuts… you name it. Sometimes, I roast the corn before I remove the kernels.
Your job is to take the basics and improvise. But try that oil and salt. Trust me, it is decadent!
PS Kirby cucumbers are even better in this salad than regular, large cukes. Look for them!
It’s a “Magic Rice Salad” (think Chris Martin ate it before writing his song!…ERM…!)
Beyond delicious mix of rice, quinoa, nuts, fruit…cook today, eat all week.
Looking for a side dish to wow them at your next picnic? Something you can make today and eat all week? When I hear “Mom, can you make your rice salad again?” I know I have a good thing going.
Get a nice big bowl — so that you can put in all your ingredients and toss them around.
Cook up and cool to room temperature 1 cup of rainbow quinoa (“keen wah”) Ratio: 1 cup of dried quinoa to 2 cups water. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes and shut it off until the water is absorbed. Or, you can do it in your microwave. 5 minutes on high and 15 on medium power. Done.
Cook 2 cups of jasmine rice – which expands to about 4 cooked — and let it come to room temperature. (I have a rice cooker — best investment I ever made.)
While they are cooking — finely chop 3-4 carrots, 3-4 celery stalks — I use The Pampered Chef food chopper to get tiny pieces — so you wind up with about 1 cup chopped of each.
Add a cup of each of the following to a bowl:
– dried cranberries
– golden raisins
– chopped walnuts
Put it all in a the big bowl.
In a separate bowl mix up a vinaigrette of your choice. I used a black cherry balsamic vinegar (about 1/3 cup), a little maple syrup (3 tablespoons?) and 1/2 cup of good extra virgin olive oil. Add a pinch or three of salt. Mix it up ‘good’.
Pour the vinaigrette over the rice/quinoa/veggie/dried fruit/nut mix. Carefully toss to coat everything. Taste. Season as you wish with more salt or make more vinaigrette.
As good as this is the first day, if you let it sit overnight in the fridge, it’s even better the next day!!!
BTW…
The other one people seem to like is my riff on the basic Fiesta Salad.
The basic recipe calls for white rice, can of black beans (rinsed), corn, red onions, chopped peppers (red, orange, yellow.) Cook/chop, mix in a bowl. Eat.
Me? I added shrimp and chicken sausage (lime chipotle) and tossed it with a lime based vinaigrette and top it off with shredded cilantro. (I use my Pampered Chef salad scissors to cut those leaves up in a jiffy.)
BTW, I call this “magic” salad because just about everyone I know “magically” likes this and asks for the recipe. So there it is! If you make this, tell me how you “riffed” on it yourself.
Sweet Potato Pancakes
Sweet! Easy to make and better than white flour based cakes!
So..
If you have a craving for something — different — and don’t have any desire to work hard, take your basic potato pancake recipe and mess around with it.
I just shredded a couple of peeled sweet potatoes (yams), added an egg, two tablespoons of coconut flour, two tablespoons of coconut oil, a teaspoon of baking powder and baking soda — little pinch of salt… and voila! Pancakes. I add a little brown sugar if we’re having a breakfasty meal and garlic and onion if we’re looking for a more savory dish.
To riff on this one — use a different kind of flour — try a different oil. If you are gluten free — try sorghum or almond flour. Yum! If you aren’t — regular flour or wheat flour is delicious.
When it comes to toppings, I go with whatever I’ve got in the fridge:
– sour cream with a little honey stirred in
– cream cheese
– butter
– fig jam
And if you decide to serve this for dinner, you can sauté some kale with garlic and serve it on the side.
“We don’t need no stinkin’ recipes!”
Actually, we do! Well, I do. I like having recipes to give me an idea of what it would take to make something that might resemble something else. But I look at recipes like guidelines, not orders. It’s no secret that I love to improvise. I love spontaneity and the novel pleasures that arise when a happy collusion occurs between ingredients. But I’m not a trained chef or baker. I’m just a chick who enjoys playing with food! If you think about it, over 365 days, if you eat between 4 and 5 times a day (including snacks or preparing food for others) — you have 1,500 chances to experiment! And if you are trying to lose weight or eat healthier you have an ever greater reason to make adjustments to keep yourself interested and on track. Pan Riffing is my place to share my “riffs” — those moments of sheer serendipity where a basic recipe off the web is made better because it’s adjusted for me! Since I’m often asked to share my recipes, I thought it would good to show you how I bend the rules. I encourage you to take what I have done and make it your own, too!
Pan Riffing 