Mushroom Madness

I do like mushrooms and pastry crust so the combination of this spring tart really appealed to me. The problem is, I loathe eggs. The idea of taking this succulent mix of mushrooms and tossing them into a Gluten-free pastry tart and adding some eggs and cream, was almost too much for me. Once I had the mushrooms ready I just wanted to sit down and eat them and forget the tart altogether. I can't say I loved the tart like I loved the mushrooms but it was special and stylish, exactly what I was looking for as part of my vegetarian dinner Tuesday Evening.

I made my own Gluten-free tart shell, following a recipe from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef. You will have to get their book if you want the recipe, I can't copy it here. It is a very nice, flaky pastry that won't disappoint. You could also get an ready made Gluten-free pie shell from Whole Foods, they are quite good.

Regardless these mushrooms are delish. I wouldn't hesitate to serve them as a stand alone side with a piece of grilled or roasted meat, atop crostini or lathered on a piece of toast.

Dried Porcini and Fresh mushroom tart

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

1/2 cup white wine or dry sherry

9 inch tart shell

1 tablespoon olive oil plus a teaspoon

1/2 pound white or brown mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1/2 pound portabella mushrooms, gills removed, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 large white onion diced small

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons minced parsley and thyme

1 egg

2/3 cup cream

Preheat oven to 425. Prepare tart shell or pie shell and pre-bake

Put the porcini in a saucepan with the wine and half a cup of water, bring to a boil, turn off head, cover and let sit for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine strainer into a bowl and chop the mushrooms into smaller pieces. Reserve the soaking water.

Heat oil in a wide skillet. Add the onion and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until the onions start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the fresh mushrooms. Raise heat to high, season with salt and pepper, tossing until they start to color, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and a few tablespoons of the mushroom-soaking liquid. Add the porcini and continue cooking, adding more mushroom liquid in small amounts until the mushrooms are tender and glazed about 15 minutes. Add half the herbs.

Scoop the mushrooms into your prepared tart pan or pie shell. Blead the egg with the cream and pour the custard over the mushrooms. Bake until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. When done, sprinkle with remaining herbs and dab some olive oil over the mushrooms to make them shine. Serve warm or at room temp.

My New Cookbook

I really try hard to not purchase new cookbooks! I have plenty already and we don't have shelf space. Besides, I am a mighty fine, creative cook with excellent resources. Considering how much is available on the Internet, it seems foolish to waste money buying cookbook after cookbook. I don't know about you but generally I find that a entire cookbook renders just a handful of recipes that I actually make. Eventually I make them so often I don't need the reference.

Recently we had Shabbat dinner at our friends Mara and Miryam's, two excellent cooks who totally get the Gluten-free issue. Their attention to detail arises out of their adherence to a strict Kosher diet and maintaining a Kosher kitchen. They are pros at calling food suppliers and asking questions about manufacturing practices, digging deeper into the ingredients listed on food labels and have an appreciation for cross contamination, safe utensils . . . I never worry about eating at their house, and I am always well cared for. That particular evening Mara made a broccoli dish with a mustard cream that literally made me swoon. You see I love mustard. Anyway, I am getting a little off track. Of course I wanted the recipe and Mara directed me to an online source providing the recipe which came from the one and only Deborah Madison. If you are vegetarian no doubt you know her, a total kitchen wizard. As I looked through some of her other recipes I decided I needed to actually see some of her cookbooks. I went off to Barnes and Nobel and came home with Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen.

Since Tina is out of town, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a vegetarian dinner over to Mara and Miryam's tonight. So I selected three different recipes from my new cookbook, all of them are worth a post! These stuffed peppers are colorful and flavorful. I hemmed and hawed about substituting gluten-free couscous for the quinoa, you see I am not a fan of quinoa. I stuck to the recipe as written as I am hopelessly trying to like quinoa. Couscous would be a great substitute no doubt but I found that I actually like the quinoa just fine. The tangy feta cheese is a real treat but leave it out if you want a dairy free dish! The original recipe is a great template for any number of variations, play around with it. Olives, black beans, tomato, all come to mind. This is somewhat labor intensive but they can be made ahead of time and heated at the last minute.

Peppers stuffed with quinoa, corn and feta cheese on a bed of red onions

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well several times (I used pale quinoa but thinking about it, red would be beautiful)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch scallions, including 2 inches of the greens, sliced on the diagonal into rounds

1 fresh jalapeno chili, finely diced (remove seeds if you don't want the dish too hot)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cups or so of fresh corn from 2 ears of corn (you can use frozen but fresh is so much better)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 pound feta cheese, cut into small cubes

1 large red onions, sliced into rounds, about 1/4 inch thick

1/2 cup white wine

4 bell peppers

1/2 pound of spinach leaves

Bring two cups of water to a boil, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and then the quinoa. Give it a stir, cover and simmer over lowish heat until the grains are tender and water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Warm half the oil in a wide skillet. Add the scallions and chilies, cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, add garlic, cumin, corn and spinach along with 2 tablespoons water. When the spinach is wilted, add the cilantro, quinoa and feta, tossing everything together.

Heat remaining oil in a clean wide skillet. When hot, add the onions and saute, stirring until they start to color around the edges. Add the wine to deglaze the pan, season with salt and pepper and distribute the onions on the bottom of a baking dish large enough to hold the peppers.

Slice the peppers in half lengthwise without removing the stems, cut out the membranes and remove the seeds. Brush with oil, season with salt and pepper and grill over hot coals for 8 minutes, turning once. If you don't want to grill the peppers simmer them in salted water until tender to the touch of a knife but not overly soft, about 4 minutes.

Place the peppers cut side up in the baking dish with the onions. Fill them with the quinoa mixture.

Preheat the oven to 400, bake until heated through, about 15 minutes, then switch the oven heat to broil and brown the tops. Serve hot, warm or at room temp.

Chickpeas with Chard and a Kitchen Kitten

We have a kitchen kitten. Actually we have two kittens but one of them is a kitchen rat like me. Thabo Lama and Ziva Jane joined us the end of January, not even a month after our little Sophie passed away. I have to say, I don't remember the kitten stage very well, it has been 12 years since we had a pair kittens running amuck in the house. Needless to say, we are in love and we are tired. Ziva Jane has come into her own, almost a cat, healthy, sleek and already she has carved out her spot as Alpha cat. Thabo Lama on the other hand is beyond lovable, and thank goodness for that because he has been a challenge.

The little guy loves food and stakes out his position in the kitchen when ever I am cooking. The only problem, he doesn't love his food. No, left to his own devices Thabo Lama would sit at the table, in a chair and eat what we are eating. He clamors for any thing Tina is eating, grabbing bites of popcorn, peanut butter and banana bread literally right out of her mouth. He makes a bee line for her morning oatmeal and just today he was crying over a pan of braised chard and chickpeas. He is crazy for people food.

We have struggled, daily for the past month to get him to eat. You see he lost about 8 ounces after he arrived and really gave us a scare. We spent two weeks making trips to the vet three times a week, then another two weeks going twice a week. He even spent three full days at the vet, getting hand fed and monitored to see if something more serious was going on. We seem to be on the other side of the scare, he has gained back all he lost and then some but not without some vigilance. Sometimes I wish we could just feed him a human diet and I will admit, it is somewhat amusing to watch him clamor for the things we eat. However, kittens need an essential amino acid called taurine, without it they go blind and develop serious cardiac and neurological problems. We don't need a blind kitten with an enlarged heart having seizures around here. There isn't anything other than cat food that will give Thabo Lama enough taurine. He can't afford bites of oatmeal here and there, or anything else for that matter.

So no Chickpeas and Chard for Thabo Lama but I assure you these are good.

Chickpeas and Chard

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 large onion, sliced

4 cloves of garlic, two sliced thin and two smashed

sea salt and ground pepper

1 cup cilantro leaves

1/4 cup parsley leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, more to taste

2 teaspoons tomato paste

two bunches chard leaves

1 can chickpeas, liquid reserved or 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

Heat olive oil in wide, deep skillet. Brown the sliced garlic. Add onions and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, till soft. Meanwhile, pound the garlic with 1/2 teaspoon salt, the cilantro, parsley, and cumin to make a rough paste. When the onions are golden and soft, ad the paste to the pan along with the tomato paste and work it into the onions and garlic.

Slice the chard leaves off their stems and put them in a pot filled with boiling water. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes, strain in a colander.

Add the chickpeas to the onions with their liquid, or a cup of chicken stock or vegetable stock, simmer about 10 minutes.

Dang These are Good!

It's no secret, I love ethnic food and I love spicy! These Sichuan Green Beans are over the top. I paired them with coconut rice which is oh so simple to make and tempers the heat with a hint of sweet. I don't know about most of my GF possy but eating out at ethnic restaurants takes too much energy and research. I would rather reinvent the dishes at home. These beans, with their crinkled, chewy texture and intriguing spicy tang hit the note for me. I love the addition of the ground pork but if you want a vegetarian version substitute shitiake mushrooms.

Sichuan Green Beans

2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari sauce

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/4 -1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, more if you really like it hot

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound green beans, ends trimmed, cut into 1-2 inch pieces

4 - 6 ounces ground pork

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press

1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced

3 scallions, white and light green parts sliced thin

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Blanch green beans in boiling water for about 3 minutes, plunge in ice water and set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together tamari sauce, sherry, sugar, cornstarch, white pepper, red pepper flakes, mustard and water until sugar dissolves; set aside.

Heat oil in a 12 inch nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the beans and cook, stirring frequently, until crisp and tender and skins are shriveled and blackened in spots, 5-8 minutes. Transfer beans to a plate.

Wipe skillet clean of any remaining oil. Reduce heat to medium-high and add pork. Cook until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, cook until fragrant, about a minute or two. Stir in sauce and return beans to skillet with the sauce, cook until thickened, several minutes. Remove form heat and toss in scallions and sesame oil. Serve over coconut rice, or not. Enjoy!

Macular Madness

I am on a mission. Improve our ocular health. You see, my mother-in-law, and her mother both have Macular Degeneration, a degenerative disease that destroys the central vision of the eye and is the leading cause of blindness in individuals over 60. It is also a hereditary condition which means Tina is at risk. I am a great believer in the power of taking one's health into your own hands, especially when there are specific things you can do to decrease risk. Interestingly, eye health is very connected to nutrition. Macular Degeneration, while it can not be prevented, can be tempered and the onset put off with the ingestion of certain nutrients. I am all for that, even if it means eating foods that I may not like.

So it turns out that lutein and zeaxanthin are the most powerful nutrients in treating or delaying the onset of Macular Degeneration and the American Optometry Association advocates taking both, daily. So of course I don't know anything about any of this. My expertise is the Gluten-Free diet, not the Macular diet. However, I am the most well resourced person on the earth so I turned to my trusty and generous friend Katrina, over at http://glutenfreegidget.blogspot.com/ for some help. Katrina sent me links to helpful articles and lists of foods to focus on. That was the good news. The bad news, there wasn't much on the list that Tina likes.

I started by adding spinach leaves into Tina's sandwiches, next week I am adding toasted walnuts to her lunch for a Macular power snack. At home I am trying to include greens, corn, including popcorn (yes rich in lutein and zeaxanthin) and more pork and lamb in our diet. I love greens but they aren't Tina's favorite. So Katrina has been working on some recipes for greens that might pass the test for those with a fussy palate. Tonight I am making Katrina's Drunken Swiss Chard and Mushrooms (http://glutenfreegidget.blogspot.com/2011/02/ive-joined-green-party.html). I have to make a few adjustments as I got confused and got mustard greens instead of swiss chard. I think Katrina would not only agree but would approve. Greens are greens as long as they are green, leafy and organic, completely interchangeable. I am not that fussy about my produce and don't always buy organic but greens, they are different, they harbor very special organisms of the fecal sort and pesticides that I don't want in my house. Green are one of those Dirty Dozen.

You can find the recipe over at Katrina's blog, http://glutenfreegidget.blogspot.com/2011/02/ive-joined-green-party.html . While you are there look through all her wonderful, healthy recipes. I am going to use a combination of mustard greens, collards and kale. Tina is going to have sloppy joe's along with her greens and I am going to have sweet potato fries which I wish I could get her to eat as they pack a Macular boost like nothing else. Maybe down the road. Here's to our eyes!

Making Hoppin' Jane with The Gluten Free Gidget

I am faithful to just a handful of bloggers including Katrina who writes The Gluten Free Gidget at http://glutenfreegidget.blogspot.com/ . I love Katrina's blog. She writes about fresh ingredients, interesting ingredients that intrigue me and she has the most positive attitude ever. Her theater background plays front and center in a well scripted narrative of a young, enthusiastic hard working fun loving employee, wife, sister, friend . . . just waiting for the next crazy moment to present itself. She is generous beyond measure and her recipes are to die for, especially this Hoppin' Jane I made last evening.

I am little more skeptical of certain new ingredients, including buckwheat which is a gluten-free grain that shows up in a lot of gluten-free recipes. The first time I had buckwheat I was visiting my brother in Virgina, another Celiac in our family. He took Tina and I to this hole in the wall street vendor that sold savory buckwheat crepes out of a shack with a window on the street. They were weird and wonderful at the same time. Tina has mastered these at home and every now and then we enjoy a savory buckwheat crepe for dinner. I can't say I crave the odd tasting grain but it works and it is fun to have Tina cook a gluten free dinner.

So when I read Katrina's recipe I was a bit put off by the addition of buckwheat, trying to figure out what I might use instead. Lots of ideas came to me including quinoa which I don't really like and brown or wild rice. After careful deliberation I decided to give the buckwheat a try, why not.

I threw the very easy to prep ingredients together with just a few modifications and within an hour I was eating a wonderful bowl of pipping hot Hoppin' Jane, savoring every bite. You can check out the recipe yourself over at Katrina's blog at http://glutenfreegidget.blogspot.com/ .

Instead of green pepper I used a red pepper, just because I don't like red pepper. I also used a jar of black eyed peas I canned myself last fall, Katrina calls for frozen black eyed peas. If I made this dish again I would use the frozen peas for a couple of reasons. I over packed the jar of black eyed peas and by the time I was eating them in this dish they had been cooked three times and literally disappeared in the dish, they were the consistency of refried beans. My result also seemed a little dry, especially the collard greens. Using frozen peas might add more moisture. I might also dial back a little on the amount of buckwheat, to get a less bulky dish, or add more canned tomato. Regardless of my commentary, the dish was to die for. I loved the buckwheat and the flavor of the combination of herbs Katrina selected. This is an over the top vegan, low fat, and good for your macular health meal!

Roasted Chicken Chili

A few weeks ago I made some soup that was the result of wanting to get rid of recently roasted chicken so I could make some home made chicken stock with the bones. I finally got the confidence to make my own chicken stock, thanks to Shauna and Danny Ahern over at Gluten-Free Girl. Shauna and Danny made a video tutorial awhile back, showing step by step exactly how to make stock and ever since I hoard bones and vegetable peelings in my freezer like it were my job.

Back to my soup. It was early morning, by best ideas come out of the early morning hours. I actually had everything I need on hand. My partner was sitting at the dinning room table with her sister, working on her sister's new resume. I was puttering around the kitchen, dicing an onion, mincing garlic, opening a can of ROT*EL, cooking garbanzo beans and pulling roasted chicken off the bones from the previous night's left overs. I heard some talking coming from the dining room, "Wow, that smells good, what's cooking". I felt a little silly telling them I was making soup, after all it was about 9:00 am. A few minutes later I started gasping as I tasted the soup. "Oh my God, this is so good." I offered two small bowls, not wanting to give much away. The two of them sat at the table with small bowls of pipping hot roasted chicken chili, in complete agreement and dismayed that I simply created this soup out of nowhere. Well it wasn't exactly out of nowhere, I had recently enjoyed a bowl of soup at Bonfire that I really enjoyed and was simply trying to copy the recipe. Total success. This unusual version of chicken chili is to die for and a great way to use left over roasted chicken. Beware, it is so good that you are going to find yourself roasting a chicken just to make this soup which is exactly what I am doing again today after some pleading from Tina. This is a really versatile recipe! Use any kind of dried bean you like, add some chopped kale or spinach instead of corn. Heck, toss in anything that sounds good.

Cari's Roasted Chicken Chili

4 cups homemade chicken stock

1 teaspoon of olive oil or so

1 small onion diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup of corn

2 cups of garbanzo beans, cooked

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

3 ounces tomato paste

3-4 cups roasted chicken, shredded

Saute the onion and garlic in a scant amount of olive oil, a teaspoon or so. Add the oregano, salt and pepper and saute until translucent. Add the broth, ROT*EL, beans, corn, chicken and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer.

You could really dumb this down using a canned broth, canned beans and a store bought rotisserie chicken, turning it into a 15 minute prep. I prefer the effort of roasting my own chicken, making my own stock and cooking my own beans because I think it elevates the outcome. You will get a perfectly acceptable and delicious soup either way!