Polenta Pizza

OK, I know this is just about identical to my last post minus the eggplant and that each of you is perfectly capable of thinking of this on your own and, in fact, have probably done so.  But for the record, this morning I fired up some roasted corn meal polenta, turned it over on the other side, added warmed up sauce and cheese, covered the pan so the cheese would melt, and served it up with a fried egg.  It was awesome.  Would have worked with a poached egg dropped on top too.

Polenta and Eggplant

The other day, we went up to Echo Hill to get some roasted corn meal.  We have eaten grits a couple of times lately and I have used the extra setup in a pan for slicing and frying at a later meal.  But the grits have a very bland flavor, more just a carrier for maple syrup than anything else.  I had a hankering for some fried corn meal mush with some backbone to it.  Got around to making it yesterday which means today we had roasted corn meal polenta in the 'fridge.  Just so happens, the baby eggplants (one of the few things the deer have left us in the garden this year) are coming in beautifully and I just made some fresh tomato sauce.  So, bread and bake baby eggplant slices the way Mom always used to, slice the roasted corn meal polenta, layer up polenta, baked eggplant, fresh tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese, and bake in the oven at ~375 until everything is hot and cheese is melted.  Served with hot Italian sausage and sauce on a good Kaiser roll.  Yum.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Every year at about this time I like to make fresh tomato sauce.  This is just tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes and not cooked down so far that it loses its fresh taste.  I usually include onion, green pepper, garlic, fresh basil, bay leaf, etc., etc., etc.  You know the things that work.  Trouble is, it tends to be watery.  If you cook it down far enough to avoid "tomato chunks in very watery sauce" it soon takes on the regular cooked flavor.  This year, I tried something different.  After the tomato chunks had just cooked enough to soften, I separated most of the liquid from the solids using a colander.  I then cooked the liquid portion, reducing it by about 50% or slightly more.  Recombined the liquid and solids, added a can of tomato paste, and voila:  sauce that was not too watery but with the tomatoes not over cooked.

A couple of years ago I was at a training class about this time of year and sat next to a classmate of Italian extraction.  We were chatting and I described fresh tomato sauce to him.  He told me that the Italians have a name for this.  I have forgotten the name, but the concept is recognized as distinct from marinara, which is a cooked down tomato sauce, as I understand it.

Fried corn fritters

After a day at the beach and a mid-afternoon lunch, I thought we would want, at most a light summer dinner tonight.  I got a hankering for corn fritters and after looking around and reading some reviews came up with the recipe below.  I thought they were great!  Nice fresh corn flavor, light and crispy.

I used a gluten free 1:1 substitution blend, which is mostly rice flour.  I've read some recipes that weren't designed specifically to be gluten free that used rice flour because it's lighter and makes for a crispier crust than wheat flour.  The original version from which this recipe is adapted called for wheat flour.

1 c. flour -  (see note above)
1/4 c. cornmeal
1 t. baking powder
3/4 - 1 t. salt
1/4 - 1/2 t. sugar

~12 oz fresh corn (I cut the kernels off of 4 ears of corn)
~1/4 c chopped basil (optional)
~ 1/3 - 1/2 c chopped scallions (optional)
some grated parmesan or a little havarti would probably also work well, but I didn't try that.

2/3 c. buttermilk (or plain milk would probably work)
1 egg
1 T. shortening, melted

Oil/shortening for frying


Heat about 1/2 - 3/4" of frying oil of your choice in a skillet or whatever you fry things in.  I dumped the corn into some hot water briefly (~2 min, maybe) just to cook them a little as I really dislike under-cooked corn.  From there it's pretty basic - mix up the dries, then stir in the veggies/extras.  (Adding them to the dry ingredients allows for even distribution throughout the batter without the danger of over-mixing once the wets are added).  Whisk together the wet ingredients, then stir into the dries just until combined.  Drop spoonfuls into hot oil, fry until brown, then turn over to get the other side.  I mixed together some sour cream and scallions to serve on top of these, which I thought was pretty good.  Some people leave out the basil and scallions and serve them with honey or syrup.  Whatever floats your boat.  These were slightly sweet, but mostly from the corn, and just really delicious, I thought.  I'll be adding them to our meal list for light summer dinners.  I served them with lightly sauteed zucchini and carrot ribbons with chopped mint and basil and topped with goat cheese.

Dad's Bangin' Baked Beans - Take 1

Needed something to take to a party Memorial Day weekend so I decided to try my hand at baked beans.  I did a trial run early in the week using 1 cup of dried navy beans which turned out OK, then modified the recipe based on that.  I was pretty happy with how the end product turned out so I am posting it.

Ingredients:
5 cups dried navy beans
1 lb bacon, cut to small pieces
2 medium onions, diced
9 cloves garlic or to taste
4 carrots, grated
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
5 t. prepared Dijon mustard - I used Grey Poupon of course
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. garam masala
1 t. dried mustard
1 t. salt, then to taste
1 t. Thai Fish Sauce
3 T. apple cider vinegar
1 cup V8 juice
Ground black pepper to taste

Prepare your dried beans according to your favorite method.  I used the soak-overnight,-then-boil-for-1 1/2-hour method (actually, I over cooked this batch by about 45 min, but no worries).  I tried the soak-for-an-hour-in-boiling-water method for the 1 cup trial batch and wound up never really getting the beans cooked through and soft.  You want to be sure that your bean wind up thoroughly cooked and soft for baked beans, in my opinion.

In your cook pot of choice (I like a cast iron dutch oven) cook the bacon, rendering the fat.  Add the onions, garlic, and carrots and saute until the onion is translucent.  Remove from heat and add the beans, reserving the bean water.

In a separate sauce pan, combine all of the other ingredients, heating gently to fully dissolve the molasses and brown sugar.  Pour this mixture over the beans, adding bean water as needed to fully cover the beans.  Mix thoroughly.  Bake in a 275 deg oven for as long as it takes.  Add bean water as needed to prevent drying out.  I baked mine for about 2 hours.  The key is making sure the beans are fully cooked (mine were already overdone from the boiling step) with plenty of time to soak up the flavor from the sauce.  If you do not overcook your beans it may take 4-5 hours of slow cooking, regularly making up the water volume with bean water (or just water if you run out of bean water).  I actually transferred mine to a disposable aluminum roasting dish to bake them; this works well for taking them to a party or picnic where you don't want to have to chase up your dish afterwards.

Oh, yeah.  Garam masala is actually just "mixed spice" so the composition might vary according to your source.  I get mine at Echo Hill in Dryville.  In this recipe, the key flavor contribution from the garam masala is clove, I think.  If you do not have garam masala you could try to substitute 1/2 t. or so of ground clove.  Thai Fish Sauce is made from anchovies.  If you do not have it, you could substitute 2 or so finely chopped anchovies in the recipe.  This is added for umami, not for fish flavor so don't overdo it!

Also, I didn't do it this time because I was taking this to share with others but I would normally add just a pinch of red pepper, not enough to notice any heat, just enough to add some sparkle and interest.

You don't need gluten to make a decent cookie (peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies)

We recently came across two pretty good gluten-free cookie recipes.  I'll just link to them here with a couple notes:

1) Flourless peanut butter cookies
These are good and peanut-buttery.  Watch the cooking time so they don't dry out.  I use half the sugar, and they're plenty sweet.

2) Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
These are definitely my new favorite cookies.
-You definitely need to really press the batter into the measuring cup, or else the cookies crumble apart after they bake.
-Don't try to make them too thick or the oatmeal will get a little "gluey" before they're cooked all the way.
-I think I made these with 1/2 c of sugar, instead of 3/4 c, because I always cut the sugar.

Roasted carrots, fennel and sausage salad on yorkshire pudding

This recipe is basically just what the name says, but it comes together to something that's a lot more than the sum of its parts.  I originally served the salad with popovers on the side, but we were short on time to make popovers the other night.  Instead we made some individual stove-top yorkshire puddings, and they turned out to be a good base for the salad.

Ingredients:
Carrots
Fennel
Brats or sausages
Salad greens - I used spinach and arugula
Yorkshire pudding (recipe below): egg, milk, flour, salt, butter
Olive oil
salt
pepper
fennel seeds if you want.

Peel and cut carrots for roasting (whatever size you want and have time for.  I usually cut a regular carrot into halves or quarters length-wise, then cut them into 1-2 inch long pieces.  Toss with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and some crushed fennel seeds if you're feeling fancy.  Put on a baking tray, then throw a little water on top - maybe 2-4 T, cover with foil, and bake for 10 min at 400 degrees.  Remove the foil and continue to roast until the carrots are tender.

Core and cut fennel into 1/4-1/2" wide slices, toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roast at 400 degrees.

Cook some brats.

The basic recipe for a yorkshire pudding that I use is:

1 egg
1/2 c milk
1/2 c = 2.25 oz flour*
1/4 t salt.

This makes a good-sized yorkshire pudding for one hungry person if cooked in a 6" skillet.  I usually do it on the stove top: just preheat the skillet under medium low heat, add some butter, pour in the batter, cover with a lid.  Cook until the top of the batter is just set, about 3-5 minutes.  Flip and cook until the underside is slightly browned - another 1-2 minutes.  *Note: We've had good luck using gluten-free all-purpose flour blends.

To serve, put some greens on top of the yorkshire pudding (or next to your yorkshire pudding if you're not quite willing to take my word on this one).  Top with sausage and roasted veggies.  Enjoy.

Seriously, it blends together so well.  And it's easy.  So, it ranks as delicious, nutritious, cheap, and easy - the quad-fecta that I'm always looking for!

Another note: I'm starting to think that you can put just about any leftovers on top of a yorkshire pudding to make a good post-workout breakfast.  We regularly enjoy them cooked with a sprinkle of cinnamon and some melted chocolate chips and/or berries for breakfast or a snack.  They're also amazing as a base for left-over carnitas tacos, and today I threw some left over cheese and corn on top of one and was pretty pleased with the results.  You can also add cut up cooked sausages to the skillet before adding the egg batter to make Toad-in-a-hole.

Choco-coco balls (no bake)

I was inspired to make up this recipe after tasting a cookie Mark got at the coffee shop the other day.  These aren't too sweet, but satisfy any craving for a little bite of chocolate.  They are, of course, gluten free.  They're also super quick and easy to put together, and I think they taste fancy enough that they can be served with something like fruit for a company dessert.

Makes about 10 1-in balls

75 g ground almonds or almond flour 

60 g finely shredded coconut (unsweetened)

28 g maple syrup

16 g (~2  T) cocoa powder

1/4 - 3/8 t. salt

30 g melted coconut oil

Stir everything together in a bowl.  Let it sit for a minute or two.  Press into whatever shape you want - I tend to make 1-in balls.  Cover with plastic to keep them from drying out.

Notes:

- To make the ground almonds, I just throw a couple handfuls of almonds into the food processor.  I store any extra in the freezer for the next time I'm going to make these.  

- The first time I made these I used 60 g of almond flour and 60 g of coconut.  They were really good, very striking, but in some ways too much.  I think upping the almond flour makes them a bit more balanced, but if you like really strong bold flavors you might prefer it with less almond flour. 

- The amount of salt indicated here results in a "salted chocolate" taste.  So, in the midst of coconut and cocoa, you get an occasional taste of salt, in a pleasant way.  If you don't like that taste, use 1/8 t of salt or less.

Serbian cornbread muffins

A Serbian astronomy friend that we met in Madison made these muffins for us last fall, and they very quickly became my staple cornbread recipe.  They're super moist and healthier than regular cornbread.

They're amenable to lots of variations.  The original recipe calls for the addition of feta, which makes them the most eastern European-like.  The kids like them plain.  I like to mix in a handful of chopped pickled jalepenos and queso fresco if I'm serving them with chili.  It's also been really easy to make them gluten free as there is very little regular flour in them.

Depending on your additions, the recipe below makes about 10-12 muffins

3 eggs
1.5 c yogurt
3 T oil
7.5 T flour*
7.5 T (56 g) cornmeal
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt

Additions: cheese (feta, queso fresco, cheddar) - 1/4 - 1/2 lb, peppers, bacon, etc

*(for gluten free muffins, I use 4.5 T (42 g) of corn flour + 3 T of a 1:1 replacement flour mix

Stir together the wet ingredients, stir together the dry ingredients, add the dries to the wets and mix.  Fold in any additions that you're using.  Bake at 375 for 18-25 min until a toothpick comes out clean.  Note: these tend to stick to regular muffin liners a lot, for some reason.  I use silicon liners, and they pop right out with no mess.  You can also grease your regular foil or paper liners with a spray oil.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Ed gave me a year subscription to Cook's Illustrated for Christmas and it's a game changer.  My goal is to make something new each weekend, so I'm getting good use out of the magazine.  This weekend was chicken and sausage gumbo.  I've never made gumbo before and I'm not even sure I've really had gumbo before, but ya'll...ya need to make this recipe.  I'm telling you...it was so so good.

It takes some time, about 90 minutes, but that's not all active time by any means.  It uses pretty common ingredients.  In fact, we subbed some things because I didn't feel like searching for andouille sausage on this island.  We struck out at Whole Paycheck and decided not to look any further.  Here are the substitutions I made...

chicken thighs - chicken breasts (probably would be even better with thighs though)
andouille sausage - Italian sausage (again, probably awesome with andouille)
fresh thyme - dried thyme
white vinegar - rice vinegar (what the heck, how do I not have white vinegar on hand?)

Despite my lame substitutions, it was great because the secret, I believe, is in the sauce.  It's all about toasting the flour to create a dry roux.  You throw the flour in a cast iron skillet and put it in the oven for about an hour, until it's the color of cinnamon.  That's where all your flavor comes from and holy cow, is it good.  I can't imagine that subbing a gluten free flour would have a negative impact on the final product.  I will say that the gumbo had a velvety texture so it's possible a GF flour would effect that, but I don't know enough about GF to say.

Anyway, here's the recipe.  Give it a shot, I doubt you'll be disappointed.  Oh, one more thing, if you're sensitive to spice, go easy on the cayenne.  I'm pretty sure I measured the cayenne and the final product had some kick to it.  Might be better to go easy and then add more if you need.  Oh and we both thought the addition of hot sauce after serving was awesome.

Ingredients
1 C flour
1 T vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 green pepper, chopped fine
2 celery ribs, chopped fine
1 T minced fresh thyme (I used about 3/4 t of dried)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t paprika
2 bay leaves
1/2 t cayenne
salt and pepper
4 C chicken broth, room temp
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed
8 oz andouille sausage, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 scallions, sliced thin
1 t distilled white vinegar
hot sauce, to taste for serving

Method

1. Heat oven to 425, adjust rack to middle.  Place flour in 12 inch skillet and bake, stirring occasionally until it's the color of ground cinnamon (approximately 40-55 minutes).  Towards the end it needs to be stirred more frequently.  Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
2. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering.  Add onion, pepper, and celery and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes.  Stir in thyme, garlic, paprika, bay leaves, cayenne, 1/4 t salt, and 1/4 t pepper and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Stir in 2 cups of broth.  Add chicken in a single layer (it won't be completely submerged).  Bring to simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until chicken is fork tender, about 15-17 minutes.  Transfer chicken to plate.
3. Slowly whisk remaining 2 cups of broth into flour until thick, smooth, batter-like paste forms.  Increase heat to medium and incorporate paste into gumbo, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next.  Stir in sausage.  Simmer, uncovered, until gumbo thickens slightly, about 20-25 minutes.
4. Shred chicken and put in gumbo with scallions.  Remove pot from heat and stir in vinegar and season with salt to taste (I didn't add any more salt).  Remove bay leaves.  Serve over rice with hot sauce.

It's stick-to-your-ribs good!

Enjoy,

Molly