         
Archive for the ‘Ethnic’ Category
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
So… I have a functional kitchen now! The cabinets are built, the countertops installed, backsplash set, everything grouted, and the sink, dishwasher, and stove are all hooked up! *CANNOT* tell you how god it feels to have some culinary autonomy back.
We haven’t had the use of the dishwasher since May’s tornado – it’s been used to store the glassware ever since! We’ve been living off takeout. While my access to the kitchen has been sporadic at best, my brain hasn’t taken a break, so I’ve had this LONG list of ideas and theoretical recipes brewing, with no ability to do anything about it, short of write them down. I tell you, working through those ideas on paper, while being stuck with months crappy fast food? Torture.
One of the things I wanted to make this whole time was a proper tourtiere (“tortiere”, for some). It’s a French Canadian meat pie, and it’s soooo good when made properly. Also, as part of the planning process, I worked on a gluten free pastry crust that wouldn’t make me grieve for my inability to eat wheat.
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Yesterday was my first day with the new kitchen, so I rolled out of bed and almost immediately went to buy groceries. With 3 items I wanted to make, Tourtiere was to be made in the afternoon, closer to suppertime. Couldn’t handle it, dug in to the preparation right away!
I tell ya, the filling, as it’s cooking, smells amazing on the best of days. All those fresh veggies, herbs… yum. To someone who’s eaten more Wendy’s takeout in the past few months than anyone should have to in a lifetime? Absolutely amazing. |
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The crust also turned out extremely well – you’d never peg it as being a gluten free crust. Very rich and flaky! Oh, so good. I just had some leftovers for breakfast – this recipe is definitely a winner!
Oh, and if you want to make a regular, non-gluten free version? Just swap out the crust for your favorite double-crust recipe, or premade dough.
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Posted in Canadian, Ethnic, Gluten Free, Main Dishes, Pies, Recipes | No Comments »
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
This weekend – and the past few weeks – is/has been a big push to get out post-tornado kitchen reconstruction DONE. Well, not quite done-done … we won’t have the lumber for the cabinet faces and doors for a while, and those will take some serious time to make … but functional.
I haven’t had a functional kitchen since we bought this house, a year ago. The kitchen, as we bought it, was only barely functional – you may have seen the “before” pictures and description on twitter. Don’t worry, I’ll be posting the awful “befores” when I can finally post the “afters”!
This weekend is all about building the cabinetry to surround the slide-in oven, which has been free-standing since we moved in. By Monday, I should not only have the base cabinets, but tiled counter AND backsplash there, also. *CANNOT WAIT*. I’m not being facetious there, either. We’ve been discussing all of the great foods I haven’t been able to make in a long time, as well as the recipes I’ve been mentally designing ever since losing my kitchen. All of this takeout food… ugh.
| So, we went to the store to pick up groceries for the first couple of meals I’ll be able to make, and I used one of my new counters – and my freshly-installed sink area! – to make Cod au Gratin on Friday night. Aw yeah.
Cod au Gratin is a traditional Newfoundland dish, and one of my all time favorites. Generally speaking, it consists of cod, Béchamel sauce, and cheese / bread crumbs on top… but – of course – I started bastardizing it the first time I made it. Béchamel because a hearty cheese sauce, filled with tons of sharp cheddar. I’ve made this with dill, with asparagus, with bacon, and with other seafood involved. It’s just one of those recipes that I make by “feel”, and I’ve never written down measurements or anything as I’ve gone. Til now.
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Posted in Canadian, Ethnic, Gluten Free, Main Dishes, Recipes, Seafood | No Comments »
Monday, January 16th, 2012
Cream puffs / profiteroles are a great “fancy” dessert option. Not only are they insanely easy to make, they take very little in the way of ingredients, and can be customized many ways.
Cream puffs start out with the batter – Pâte à choux, or “choux pastry”. It’s a basic recipe that’s used to make everything from cream puffs and eclairs to cruellers and churros. It doesn’t contain any leavening ingredients (yeast, baking powder, baking soda, etc), instead relying on its high moisture content to puff during baking. Baked at a high temperature, the water becomes steam and creates large air pockets in the final product. Fill them however you want – with pastry cream, pudding, mousse – and there you go. Fancy dessert!
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If you want to up the badass factor though, consider assembling cream puffs into a croquembouche.
A croquembouche is a spectacular dessert. It’s traditionally served at weddings in various European cities, but is also becoming a popular alternative to wedding cakes here in North America. It’s also great for holiday dinners, or fancier potlucks.
A bit of a disclaimer here: This is an easy recipe to make, however, it’s also sort of dangerous. I won’t kid you, there is nothing worse than a hot sugar burn. If you drop the sugar onto skin, it will burn, it will stick, and it will HURT! Please exercise caution when dealing with the caramel in this recipe.
If you do make this for a group, and you do manage to burn yourself in the process.. I promise the reception it will receive – and the amount of brownie points you’ll gain – will be worth it. Be careful anyways, though.
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The recipes below – the cream puff dough, filling, and caramel to assemble the croquembouche – are all from my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. Used together, you can make a croquembouche from scratch, start to finish. (more…)
Posted in Adults Only! (Boozy), Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Ethnic, French, Holidays, Kid Favorites, Recipes, Spirited Baking | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
| As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’m a major gluten free snob. If it’s regularly something that requires regular flour, and that’s been replaced by “alternative” flours.. I usually find it revolting. So… I tend not to buy much prepare food that’s labeled “Gluten Free” in the grocery store.
A couple weeks ago, though, we were rifling through the gluten free freezer area, because I desperately wanted pizza, and was willing to make that compromise to get it. My husband saw a package of Amy’s “Salsa Verde Tamales”, and had to have it – even if it was labeled as a gluten free product. I’d never had a tamal before, so agreed to give it a shot – the photo DID look tasty! |
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Damn. Frozen, prepared food from a grocery store has NO business being THAT good.
Not sure if it was an accurate representation of a tamal or not, I started researching. Convenience food is great every once in awhile, but this was obviously something that I needed to learn to make. Aside from being inherently gluten free (as I soon found out)… my husband is also the biggest corn freak on the face of the planet, and the idea of wrapping his meal IN corn? As I said – quite obviously needed to learn to make it.
So created my own filling recipe. Then, I read a bunch about the dough and rolling, took bits and pieces of info that I liked from a few sources, and came up with my own recipe. Completely bastardized, I know – it’s probably nowhere close to authentic – but it IS super tasty. If you don’t want to include beer, substitute chicken broth.
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Posted in Budget Meals, Ethnic, Gluten Free, Guy Food, Kid Favorites, Main Dishes, Recipes | 2 Comments »
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