Just Stuff

I'm freely admitting being lazy when it comes to doing writeups for this blog lately. Actually, when doing anything lately. I cannot get motivated, and it is seriously cramping my style.

Oh, but I have kept baking. And shopping... what do you want to hear about first?

Shopping? Good, 'cause that's what you're getting!

Always on the lookout for good protein sources, I spotted a couple shake mixes the last time I was at the health food store and picked them up. I figured, heck - the mornings of 8:30 AM classes must mean that I could use something a bit more substantial than tea and dry cereal. I picked up two kinds to try:

Unfortunately, I can't really say anything good about either of these shakes. Drinking either of them was like sucking wet sand, and the taste... well, I guess it is called "green food" for a reason. I know there are people out there who do like these, but you know what... I'll stick to the green tea and dry (GF, of course) cereal for now, or green tea and GF toasty bread.

Toasty bread, you say? Gluten-free, you say??? Why, yes indeedy! I have been dabbling again in the realm of GF baking. The last thing I made completely GF was (if you recall) this cracker recipe... almost a year ago! That was, at the time, nothing but a passing flirt with a new type of cooking. Now, with gluten not so much of a possibility in my diet, I still wanted to be able to exist as a baker for myself! Of course, I can't make it easy... haha... that would be simple! My bread couldn't have gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts or oil in it. Which kind of knocked most of the packaged mixes out of the running. I did find one pre-fabbed bread... Ener-G's "Soft Corn" loaf... that looks promising, but since it's an online-order shindig for me I was pretty much contemplating rice paper rolls as a sandwich medium!

Then I found a most brilliant recipe at Gluten Free Day. The page also has some wicked-looking 'shroomage, which I am looking forward to attempting eventually! But oh, this bread... it intrigued me. No xanthan whatever, no guar or other gummy-like elements, only optional oil and vegan!! Happy days, my friends. I did modify the recipe, I won't lie, since I already had a ton of random, GF flours on hand in varying amounts that I wanted to try out first. Using the basic formula, I not only made this bread (which is fabulous, especially toasted under the broiler and topped with jam, and gets the stamp of approval from both mum and Andrew!) but I have plans for another, sweeter breakfast-style loaf in the works.

Now, if you aren't familiar with the elements of GF breads, you'll notice something about this loaf... it's kind of cratery looking. I knew it would do that going into the baking process, and was also prepared to pull out an inedible brick. Thankfully this was far from inedible - and though it's denser than say, Wonder bread, it's on par with your basic rye or steakhouse bread. I'm keeping this one around! Thanks, Emilia! I'm sending this bread off to YeastSpotting over at WildYeast this week too!

Gluten-Free Vegan Sandwich Loaf
Makes 14 slices
2/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/3 cup corn flour (not cornstarch or corn meal)
½ cup chickpea flour
½ cup de-fatted soy flour
1 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp FiberRiffic (chicory fibre) powder [or try Hi-Maize... you can get it at King Arthur's website]
1 ¼ cups warm water
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp dry active yeast

1. Combine all the flours, salt and FiberRiffic in a large bowl, set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water and sugar.
3. Sprinkle the yeast overtop and let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.
4. With the mixer running, begin adding dry mixture, beating until incorporated.
5. Cover and allow to rest ½ hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350F, grease a loaf pan.
7. Pour batter into the pan. Cover and allow to rest 45 minutes.
8. Bake 50 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 61.3
Total Fat: 0.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 3.1 mg
Total Carbs: 10.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.3 g
Protein: 3.5 g

By the Spanish Sea

There's something about the Mediterranean that makes me crave that atmosphere... maybe it's the sunlight, or the sea breeze, or the fact that while we're sitting at -10°C here in Toronto (with 10 feet of snow out back), Madrid is resting comfortably tonight at 9°C and nothing but a light misting of rain to complain about! Luckily for my grandparents, they don't have to dream much longer, since tomorrow they're boarding a plane for a nice, long trip to Spain! They also get to take a day-long jaunt to Tangiers, Morocco, and experience the open-air markets, music and perfumed air! I'd be full of jealousy if they weren't so deserving of the trip!

Since they would be away for my Grandma's birthday this February, we held a small Sunday dinner this weekend for her. Ironically, I was mostly in charge of planning the menu, regardless of the fact that since it was full of meat, wheat and olive oil - three things I most definitely cannot stomach - I wouldn't be partaking in the feast. Thank God for my mom's wonderful taste buds... she took my recipes and ran with them to create a beautiful meal that smelled just like a Greek gourmet festival!

This leg of lamb was cooked off the bone, unlike traditional methods, but the potential loss in flavour is more than made up for with a black olive and fresh oregano rub inside and out. The lemon cuts through any "gaminess", and if you get a chance to let it sit for an hour or two... all the better!

Mediterranean Leg of Lamb
Serves 6
4lb boneless leg of lamb
2 bunches fresh oregano, picked and chopped roughly
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup pitted black olives, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Combine oregano, garlic, lemon zest, olives and olive oil in a food processor to form a paste.
2. Season lamb generously with salt and pepper.
3. Rub inside and outside of lamb with paste, roll leg up and truss with butcher string.
4. Preheat oven to 375. Pat any excess olive oil off the lamb leg.
5. Grill the lamb leg until all sides have developed a rich, dark brown crust.
6. Roast, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 1 ½ hours, or until thermometer inserted in thickest part of leg registers 150. Allow the lamb to rest, covered, for at least 10 minutes before carving.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 512.5
Total Fat: 26.6 g
Cholesterol: 193.4 mg
Sodium: 332.1 mg
Total Carbs: 2.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 62.2 g

For a side dish, I mixed up an exotic blend of flavours to compliment the otherwise bland flavour profile of whole-wheat couscous. I used Spanish (of course!) blood oranges and saffron, added a Moroccan touch of cumin and cloves and spiked the whole thing with Canadian dried cranberries for a sweet and fruity pilaf my mom folded into steamed veggies and everyone enjoyed!

I'm passing this mini pasta dish off to Presto Pasta Nights this week, hosted by Erin at The Skinny Gourmet and created by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast!

Moroccan – Inspired Jewelled Couscous
Serves 6
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon fresh-grated ginger
pinch ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground saffron
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Juice and grated zest of one orange
1 ¾ cups vegetable broth
½ cup dried cranberries
1 ½ cups whole wheat couscous

1. Bring cumin, ginger, cloves, saffron, salt, pepper, orange zest and juice and vegetable broth to a boil.
2. Add the dried cranberries, reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes.
3. Return the mixture to a boil, stir in the couscous and remove from heat.
4. Cover, and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 189.1
Total Fat: 1.4 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 276.6 mg
Total Carbs: 39.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.8 g
Protein: 5.8 g

Alas, the part of the menu I didn't get to take part in was the dessert... my element! Ah, well, next time!

Babies and Bananas

I have this theory that as the weeks go on in the school year, the days get shorter. Even though I had Monday morning and all of Wednesday off, it's been like a constant marathon these days.


I think part of it is that I am actually busy, of course... my second term of classes is full of assignments on the front end of things rather than having everything tacked on last minute, and my schedule is slightly awkward this time around too... but the major issue I seem to have is that I'm just purely scatter brained. I have the attention span of a goldfish (or as my sister says, a lemon), so I constantly have about forty things on the go and never get any of them done. Take tonight, for example. I have 14 IE windows open, the title page (only... that's all I have done!) of my Nutrition assignment, a Notepad file of "recipes-to-try", two e-mail clients and No Reservations playing on the TV. I can guarantee you that the movie will be mostly over before I get through any major backlog. Even in the kitchen I'm a total basket-case: I'm constantly underestimating the time things will take and half the time I don't write down the recipe (or remember to snap a photo). I cook out of sheer boredom and lack of creative expression over half the time, and I hope you all like bagels - one of the (many) recipe files I have on my laptop has about 10 different variations I want to try!!

But creativity is what brings me to you today, with a bag full of blackening bananas, a touch of leftover coconut and a box of bargain-priced Ganong chocolate creams in my (cold) little hands. At least this time I had a recipient for my brainwaves - one of my mom's co-workers recently became a proud papa, and the office was getting together for (another) surprise party. They do like surprise parties, don't they?? From what I was told, this bread went off like a shot, and considering it had huge chunks of all kinds of filled chocolate - coconut, caramel, almond and truffle - I'm not all that amazed!

Shake Your Bon-Bons Banana Bread
Serves 12
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup vanilla-flavoured syrup
1/4 cup water
1 tsp banana extract
2 large, over-ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 cups chopped chocolate bonbons

1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease a loaf pan.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and coconut. Set aside.
3. Cream together sugar and shortening.
4. Add syrup, water and extract, beating well.
5. Gently stir in flour, alternating with bananas, until just incorporated.
6. Fold in chopped bonbons.
7. Bake 50 minutes, cool 20 minutes in pan before turning out onto wire rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 274.2
Total Fat: 12.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 4.5 mg
Total Carbs: 40.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
Protein: 2.7 g

Hmm, well, the movie's about half over now (it had just started when I bean writing), but I haven't touched anything else on this machine. Or drank any of my tea... which is now cold. Ick. Cold tea... I don't reccommend it!

Steak(less)house

I'm going to preface this by saying that in no way is this recipe completely original... it's just been modified to my own preferences, because I can!

Who here's been to a certain steakhouse where, prior to recieving your slab of beef (or chicken, or fish, as the case may be) they set down a delicious, dark, sweet loaf of bread that's piping hot and calling out in desperation for a pat of butter? Show of hands?

Yeah. I thought so. I loved that place too!

It's funny, actually - one of the last places I remember eating dinner as a "normal", allergy-free patron was that steakhouse. I don't even want to think about the amount of stuff I ate that night that caused me inner turmoil - I (and poor Andrew, by proxy of me being up all night) paid for it dearly! I can live perfectly well without red meat, creamy sauces and even the deep-fried onions, but I have never have forgotten that wonderful, wonderful bread.

Of course, I have had the world of the internet at my fingertips, and with that the in-exhaustible lists of "copycat" recipe sites out there. Pretty much every single page I looked out for this recipe was exactly the same - like this one - so I decided to take it upon myself to change it up as I saw fit. In the process, not only did I make the pile o' carbs a tiny bit healthier (without the yummy whipped butter, though...) but I also got to use up some of the stuff lying in wait in the pantry! Besides, baking bread is a WAY better use of my time and energy than filling out accounting spreadsheets and summarizing articles, right?

Though the commercial-grade formula for this bread uses caramel colour, my home version uses (admittedly gratuitous amounts of) food colouring. Of course, if you don't like to use food colouring in your recipes, leave it out... the bread won't be nearly as dark but it will taste exactly the same!

Multigrain Molasses Bread
Serves 20
1/4 cup buckwheat honey
3 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 tbsp melted, salted butter
1 small bottle (1/4 oz) green food colouring
1 small bottle (1/4 oz) red food colouring
1/2 cup warm (not hot) coffee
3/4 cup warm (not hot) water
2 cups flour
1 cup dark rye flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 packet instant yeast

1. In a bowl, stir together honey, molasses, butter, food colouring, coffee and water. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix flours, gluten, cocoa, salt and yeast.
3. Pour in the liquids and stir in to form a slightly soft, sticky dough.
4. Turn out onto a floured board and knead 10 minutes, adding only minimal flour (you want the dough to remain soft). Alternately, knead with a stand mixer for 7-8 minutes, until smooth.
5. Place into an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover and allow to rest 30 minutes.
6. Divide dough in half and shape into two small (about 15-oz), oblong loaves.
7. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, cover and allow to rise 1 hour.
8. Preheat oven to 350F.
9. Sprinkle loaves lightly with cornmeal and slash diagonally 3-4 times with a sharp knife.
10. Bake 35 minutes, remove immediately to wire racks and cool completely.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 105.8
Total Fat: 1.0 g
Cholesterol: 1.5 mg
Sodium: 6.4 mg
Total Carbs: 22.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.8 g
Protein: 2.6 g

Check out this week's round-up of YeastSpotting over at WildYeast for more bready goodness!

Purple Pumpkin Pasta Pillows...

For Presto Pasta Nights!! Whew... I was wondering just how many "P" words I could get away with... hehe. No, don't adjust your monitors - this is really the colour of the pasta dough, courtesy of your friendly, neighbourhood beet!

Since I was playing around with the whole idea of pumpkin goodness, and had some ricotta cheese left over from making a certain (and sadly, maligned) cheesecake for New Year's, I whipped up a creamy, herbed mixture of the two, adding some extra Parmesan just because I could. I had, at the time, fanciful ideas of making low(er) carb ravioli for my dad, who was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic a while back and has to watch what he eats now. Not having the energy to deal with pasta dough after making the filling, though, I stuck it into a freezer bag and (consequently) the freezer - I reasoned that when I needed it all I had to do was thaw it in the bag, snip a corner and, voila! instant piping bag. I hate cleaning my piping bag out, so this was a nice bonus for me.

A couple days later, feeling much refreshed, I set about making the pasta dough. Thinking about the whole carb-angle, I opted to make up a white-flour free, high-protein dough concoction with a blend of soy, chickpea, whole wheat, and semolina flours, with some gluten powder for strength. I added in a touch of salt, some good, fruity olive oil, nixed the eggs and used the beet juice instead of water for no reason other than I had it and it was pretty!

However...

Do not underestimate the power that is gluten. I obviously didn't add enough this time... I almost threw the whole batch of dough into the compost after it failed (repeatedly) to run properly through my machine. Finally, with gratuitous flour dusting and a heavy rolling pin, I beat enough of it into submission to make 100 respectable ravioli. That procedure alone took me 3 hours. I swear to God... it will be a while before I do the pasta thing again, at any rate (the family doesn't like it, apparently). When I do brave the trials of noodle-making again, I am staying far away from the GF kind. Props to everyone out there who can do it and has the patience for it (or the money for Xanthan gum!), but I don't have the energy or time.

On the yay for GF side of life... I've only been GF two days and already I am feeling SO much better. Which, in a way, sucks... I was really hoping not to have to have to cut out the gluteny-ness from my life, but hey - I'll take feeling better over eating bread! I'm still not at 100%, however, so I'm looking into getting a comprehensive allergen panel blood test for anything else that could be the culprit. I actually got that idea
from Karina... thanks for the heads up!

Be sure to take a look at Haalo's site, Cook (Almost) Anything, this Friday for the noodle-age hoedown!

Pumpkin - Filled Purple Pasta
Makes about 100 ravioli, 10 servings
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1 cup chickpea flour
2 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup beet juice
1 cup ricotta cheese
2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
2 tbsp fresh-grated Parmesan
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp dried rosemary

1. In a large bowl, combine flours, gluten and salt.
2. Stir in oil and beet juice with a fork to create a workable dough.
3. Wrap in cling film and chill 2 hours.
4. Meanwhile, in another bowl, beat ricotta, pumpkin and Parmesan together thoroughly.
5. Add remaining ingredients and beat well to combine.
6. Put filling into a Ziploc or piping bag and set into the fridge while rolling the pasta.
7. On a well-floured surface, roll strips of dough out twice as wide as you want for the ravioli.
8. Pipe small "dots" of the filling down one side of each strip.
9. Fold dough over filling and seal around the dots, trimming excess dough away with a sharp knife.
10. Place completed ravioli onto parchment-lined sheets and repeat with remaining dough and filling.
11. Freeze sheets of pasta if not cooking immediately or cook in boiling salted water 5-7 minutes.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 235.8
Total Fat: 5.6 g
Cholesterol: 13.3 mg
Sodium: 96.3 mg
Total Carbs: 34.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.3 g
Protein: 13.0 g