Tempura and Ponzu

This stuff is so delicious, and not terribly complicated. It is good without any ponzu sauce, but the sauce is so simple to make, you will definitely want to try it.

I cubed the tofu and set it on a clean towel to drain away excess moisture.

The tempura mix consists of equal parts: cornstarch, nutritional yeast and wheat flour and a teaspoon of salt. (Try rice or potato flour if you don't want gluten.) Use about 1/3 cup of each. 

Toss the cubes in the dry mix and gently lower into hot oil. Used about a quarter inch of coconut oil in a frying pan at medium heat.

 

Fry for 4 or 5 minutes; then flip (carefully) to crisp the other side. Stir a little to make sure all the pieces are coated with oil. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain on some paper toweling.

The ponzu sauce consists of:

Soy sauce - about a half cup

The juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime

A tablespoon of vinegar

And a couple of teaspoons of honey

Drizzle a little over your crispy tofu for a real treat.

Good for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

Mignon McLaughlin

Fruit and Cider Pancakes

I'm searching for a better name for the long list of pancakes I have made over the past decade or so. "Cake" is not what I am going for, but they always consist of batter fried in a pan, so this is it for now. These have a summery flavor and are simple to make.

This summer was a good year for fruit and I like to use what's on hand.

For these tasty breakfast treats you will need:

5 eggs
1 1/2 cups of mashed fruit
1 + cups of any flour you like; I have used wheat, quinoa, and brown rice flour - all with good results.
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of cider; it can be hard cider or the non-alcohol kind.

Mix your ingredients together. Heat some coconut oil in a large frying pan, and spoon in some batter, and cook on a low heat setting.

Make the pancakes dollar size for easier flipping. If you like thicker batter, it's all right to add more flour. I tend to like a crepe-like result, so I use less flour.

Top with fruit sauce, honey, syrup, jam, butter or anything else that you like on pancakes. I usually sprinkle some chopped pecans on mine.

Pie Crust Options

Pie Crust Options

Graham Cracker Crumbs and Butter
Ground Nuts and Butter
Wheat Flour and Butter or Lard (with a little water)
Oat Flour, Butter, and Nuts
Golden Flax, Nuts, Butter, and Oat Flour

When you think about it, a crust is just an additional layer on the bottom of a dessert. It is sometimes also a layer on the top of a dessert. Many people are intimidated by pie crust because they have a crumbly, flaky texture in mind that is difficult to create, especially when it is on the bottom of a second layer that is full of fruit juice or custard. Frankly, the only way to keep a crust from getting soggy is to construct it mostly of ingredients that won't easily absorb moisture.

Of course, the thing that doesn't absorb moisture is oil. So plenty of butter, oil or nuts will do the trick. The place where most people get hung up is in trying to roll out a sheet of pastry that doesn't want to stick together. Forming a sheet of pastry that can be maneuvered is a function of gluten, but glutinous and stretchy is the exact opposite of what we want a crust to be. Because a glutinous crust will absorb liquid like a sponge. One solution is to forget the rolling and simply press the crust mix into the bottom of the pie plate.

The top might be a little easier to roll into a maneuverable sheet because it is smaller in diameter, but crumb crusts on top are also appetizing in appearance and quite delicious. Think Dutch Apple. The crust in the photo of this delicious Pumpkin Creme Pie is made with oat flour, sugar, spices, ground pecans and butter. Oat flour is easily made by putting oat flakes in a coffee grinder. Pecans are also crushed in the coffee grinder. Mix these things together right in the pie plate and press them against the bottom and the sides.

 Many years ago, pie crusts were made with a variety of trans fat concoctions, which are certainly impervious to liquids, but they are also pretty impervious to healthy digestion, so these solutions should be relegated to history. A good quality lard, however, is a fine oil for pie crust if you want something traditional. Mix, stir, and handle as little as possible to avoid activating gluten.

For the crusts listed above use 1/2 cup soft butter, and whatever combination of dry ingredients you like or have on hand. You can grind most nuts and seeds in a coffee grinder to get the amount needed for your crust. Add nuts and dry ingredients until you get a crumbly mix that can be pressed easily. Spices and sweeteners can be added at your discretion. Sugars tend to scorch easily, so you might want to be somewhat sparing with these.

Apple Custard Cake

Apple Custard Cake

There are many recipes for apple cake. The two things that set this one apart are: cooking the apples which helps create a custard texture, and browning the butter which gives it an extraordinary flavor.

Sliced apples - about 6 medium apples
I happened to have some Asian pears when I made this and I used a bit of pear along with the apples. Four apples and two pears will make an even more fabulous custard than the apples alone.

1/2 teaspoon Cardamom

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 cup bourbon or dry white wine or brandy

2 eggs

2/3 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup flour (This can be oat flour, wheat flour, fava flour or some combination of these.)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Put 1/2 cup butter in a skillet over low heat to brown. When butter is browned, set it aside to cool.

2. Peel and slice apples.

3. Put nutmeg, cardamom​, sugar, flour, bourbon, vanilla, salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl, and add the partially cooled butter.

4. Put the apple/pear mix and 2 generous tablespoons butter into the skillet to begin softening. Sprinkle the fruit very lightly with cinnamon.

5. While the fruit is softening in the skillet, add the eggs to the mixing bowl. This should take 10  -  15 minutes. The fruit should be partially cooked, but not mushy.

6. Let the fruit cool a little before adding to the rest of the batter so as not to cook the eggs.

7. You can bake the custard in a glass pie plate or in individual custard cups. At  340, the cake will take about 35 minutes to bake. The individual cups may be done at around 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar. Serve while still slightly warm with whipped cream. It's also good cold!

Tropical Truffles

Tropical Truffles

1/2 cup macadamia nut butter
Substitute cashew butter if this is too hard to find.
 3/4 cup cocoa powder
 1/2 cup butter
 3/4 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts
 1/3 cup chopped dried pineapple
 1/2 cup chopped dates

Coating
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup finely shredded coconut

1. Let the butter melt in a slow cooker while you chop and assemble all of the other candy ingredients.
2. Stir everything together and drop spoonfuls on waxed paper.
3. When these have cooled, roll them into roundish shapes and roll them in the coating.
4. Refrigerate between sheets of wax paper. Remove them from the refrigerator 10 - 15 minutes before serving.

Days and months are travelers of eternity. So are the years that pass by.  Matsuo Basho

Jazzy Stuffed Mushrooms

Holidays are over, but perhaps you have made a resolution to do more entertaining in 2015. Stuffed mushrooms always seem to be popular and these are extra delicious.

20 mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
olive oil for sauteeing
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped, dried fruit
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated cheese

1. Choose large mushrooms and break off the stems. This recipe is for about 20.

2. Chop the stems into small pieces and saute them in olive oil with some minced garlic.

3. Add 1/2cup chopped, dried fruits to the saute mix. Cranberries and pineapple are especially good because of their tanginess, but apricot or golden raisins might work well, too.
5. Put a spoonful of the saute mix in each of the mushrooms and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Serve warm. Try not to eat too many and spoil your dinner, but that will be difficult!

Note: You can use gluten free bread crumbs, or you can use almond flour instead of bread crumbs.

The cost of cheap food is way too high.   Unknown

White Bean Chili

There isn't any particular reason to use white beans for this chili except that it has a good look. The contrast makes for an appetizing, almost festive looking chili.

1 medium minced onion

4 cloves minced garlic

1 chopped Poblano pepper

1 cup white beans

1 ½ cups cooked chopped chicken

2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 chopped tomatoes

2 cups mild enchilada sauce

½ cup wild rice or barley

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Soak beans and drain water. You can soak them overnight or for a couple of hours in a warm slow cooker.

2. Put the soaked, drained beans and two cups water in the slow cooker on high.

3. Sauté the onion, garlic, and Poblano pepper on low in either olive or coconut oil.

4. When the beans begin to soften, (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours) add all of the remaining ingredients and let simmer for another hour or more.

5. If the chili becomes too thick, add some water.

Serve with sliced avocado on top.

You only live once; but if you do it right, once is enough.      Mae West

White Sauce

A white sauce is a simple thing to make, but after decades of recipes which read, “Use a can of mushroom soup,” or “Use a jar of Alfredo sauce,” this may have become a lost art. But look how simple it is to make a quality white sauce!

The great thing about making your own is that you can decide what goes into it and you can alter the flavors to suit your particular dish.

½ cup butter

4 tablespoons flour*

2 cups milk**

Seasonings

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour as soon as it is melted. Stir continuously and bring the butter flour mix to a boil. Add the milk and continue to stir and cook until it gets to the thickness you need.

2. For the standard white sauce, salt, pepper and a spoonful of vegetable or chicken bouillon powder will give it a good flavor. You can also add any herbs or spices that fit with your use for the sauce. A few good ones are: parsley, basil, caraway powder, curry powder, thyme, and coriander.

3. To make a cheese sauce, add grated Parmesan and/or Romano cheese.

4. If you want a garlic flavored sauce, add a couple of cloves of mashed, roasted garlic.

*You can use nearly any kind of alternate flour if you don’t want the wheat flour. A tiny bit of cornstarch mixed with water, chick pea flour, or rice flour will work as thickening agents.

**Almond milk, coconut milk or any combination of the two will work as well.

White sauce is simple and has only a few ingredients. Now, go look on the label of the mushroom soup!

Nothing is worth more than this day.  Goethe

Hearty Greens and Leek Soup

It would be hard to describe how good this soup tastes. Something about the combination of leeks and fresh greens is total deliciousness with every bite. I am always looking for ways to cook those all important greens, and this does the trick very well.

Large pan of chopped greens - spinach, beet greens, kale, bok choy, Swiss chard

These should cook down to approximately 1 1/2 - 2 cups of cooked greens.

Olive oil

2 leeks

3 cups almond coconut milk

1/3 cup butter

Curry powder

Salt

Small pieces of asparagus or broccoli to add while soup simmers

1. Remove large stems from greens and cut into 1/2 inch strips.

2. Saute greens in a large skillet with olive oil and salt.

3. Saute leeks in a separate pan with a little olive oil and butter.*

4. After leeks are soft and greens are cooked down, let both cool for about half an hour.

5. Put greens and leeks in a soup kettle with 2 cups of almond coconut milk and purée them with an immersion blender. 

6. Add 1 more cup of almond coconut milk, remaining butter, curry powder and vegetable pieces.

7. Simmer on low for 10 - 15 minutes. Add salt or more curry powder if needed.

8. Serve with avocado slices or rice crackers or both:)

*Leave out butter if you want a vegan or dairy free option.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
Virginia Woolf