Organic "Mushroom sauce free" stroganoff

Well, this is my first post on Aubrey's blog, but having recently re-discovered a childhood recipe with a healthy alternative, I had to blog it. I combined this with my as of late fascination with fermented foods to create an all new sauce that closely mimics that used in my childhood favorite, beef stroganoff:

appetizingly delicious: Mushroom sauce
and grass fed beef

Ingredients

• Kefir cultured from organic milk
• Tahini
• Qt. Mushrooms
• 1 Ibs Free range grass FINISHED ground beef (or 100% grass fed)
• Black pepper
• Organic brown rice

1. Culture a batch of kefir for 4-5 days (or just buy the regular Lifeway plain stuff
2. In a blender, blend on high your kefir and tahini to taste. You should end up with a greyish looking cream sauce that tastes reminiscent of smoked mushrooms. Let sit in fridge for 2 days to gain viscosity.
3. Start cooking your rice (this is the longest step)
4. Pan cook your beef and using the spatula, mash into fine pieces.
5. Chop mushrooms and add to beef.
6. Add cream mixture and stir.
7. Serve rice with stroganoff topped over.

Red Wine Poached Beets and Goat Cheese a la Mexique

Every time I go to Mexique, chef Carlos presents another meal that I just can't live without!  Of course, rather than keep going every week, I've figured out how to make it at home and am sharing it here with you.  This is a beautiful looking dish, listed on their menu as "betabel," perfect this time of year.

Fragrant, savory

Beets.  It is what's for dinner.

Delicious, healthy

Ingredients

• 2 medium beets
• 3/4 cup of red wine
• 3/4 cup of water
• balsalmic vinegar
• goat cheese (5 oz or so), frozen
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• flour
• watercress (or another sweet green) 
• cooking oil

1. Peel the beets and cut into slices.
2. Over medium-high heat, warm the beets, wine and water (to cover the beets) until boiling.  Cover the pot and reduce heat to medium.  Simmer 30 minutes, or until beets are soft enough to eat.
3.  Cut the frozen goat cheese into four pieces.  Dip each piece into the egg to coat, and then the flour to coat.
4. On each plate (this recipe serves four), drizzle balsalmic vinegar.  Top with watercress, then 2 slices of beets.
5. Turn up the heat on the liquid that held the beets and boil to reduce to a more syrupy texture.
6. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the coated goat cheese over medium approximately 5 minutes on each side, until browned.
7. Place one slice of fried goat cheese on each plate and drizzle with the redwine reduction.

A Review of Gluten-Free Flour.... for PIE.

With more apples than I could pawn off on friends, and temperatures that made cold, crisp, fresh apple eating undesirable, I had no other recourse but to make a pie.  Pie would warm me up, and my friends never turn down pie!

Determined though, to see this gluten-free thing through, I wasn't going to cave and have wheat just for warmth and friendship, no - I was going to have it all!  Warmth, friendship, and a gluten-free pie!

Now, substituting gluten-free ingredients for wheat flour in a recipe, as you might know is complicated.  There is no ONE other flour that has the same consistency, absorbtion and taste.  And then you need xanthan gum or guar gum to make it all work.  Well, Bob's Red Mill supplies a wonderful array of gluten-free products, and I thought I'd give it a try.  I used Bob's Red Mill All purpose gluten-free baking flour.  It contains garbanzo bean flour (which I already use and love), potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour.  No gums at all though!  Oh horrors when I saw that and thought my pie-making might be a bust!  (With only 14 degrees floating around outside, going to the store was not an option.)

So, in experimenting with the gluten-free flour, no gum, a traditional and simple piecrust recipe and an egg (egg = gum, right?) I gave it my all.  I substituted margarine for half the butter in the recipe to hold it together a little better.  The dough was crumbly and imperfect,

and when I first put it in the oven, it smelled a bit like potatoes (thank you, potato flour), but the pie turned out to be delicious.  I believe I might have just overcome my fear of gluten-free baking!  Mini-muffins - here I come?

For the crust:

• 2 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, in Tbsp pieces
• 1/2 cup margarine, in Tbsp pieces
• 1 egg, plus one yolk
• cold water

for the filling:

• six or seven apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and the salt.  Cut in the butter until the dough is crumbly.  Add up to 1/2 a cup of cold water, on tablespoon at a time.  Add the egg and mix together with your hands.  On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin (I don't think it matters which flour you use for this - I used garbanzo bean flour), roll out the dough into one long piece.  Cut it in half and line a 9 inch pie pan with one half of the dough.
2. In another large bowl, toss the apple slices with lemon juice.  Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, nectar and flour and mix thoroughly.  Fill the pie pan with this apple mixture and top with the remaining pie crust.
3. Brush the top of the pie with one egg yolk and put on a baking sheet and cook at 425 for 15 minutes.  Lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes.

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Eat your Brussels Sprouts

"Boy, I need something warm and fragrant, and healthy, and filling to eat right now.  Something that I can cook quickly and season with whatever I have in my house."  I have just let you into my thoughts of late morning on my day of hibernation.  Imagine my delight when I remembered that I had Brussels sprouts in the house!  

A versatile vegetable, Brussels sprouts are said to help reduce cholesterol, protect against certain cancers, combat inflammation, and contain lots of fiber.  They grow like mini-cabbages on a stem and are in season in late Autumn/early Winter.

Steamy Brussels sprouts

Gluten-free mini-muffins

Perfect late-night snacks

Today I prepared mine simply:

Ingredients

• As many Brussels Sprouts as you can eat
• A sprig or two of Rosemary
• Enough good quality olive oil to drizzle over the sprouts
• Parmesan or Romano cheese

1. Wash the Brussels sprouts and remove any yellowed or wilted leaves.
2. Trim the ends, and cut an X into the bottom of each sprout to allow them to cook evenly.
3. Steam for 10 minutes (I use a bamboo steamer).
4. Remove a portion to a dish and drizzle with olive oil, grate the cheese atop them, snip some rosemary over them and serve warm.

Leftover Brussels sprouts make great snacks!

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Lamb Burgers and Lentil Salad with Feta and Mint

One of my favorite restaurants, Marigold, in Colorado Springs serves an open faced lamb-burger and it is gorgeous, smells wonderful, and is unfortunately covered in gluten.  Since I've been hungry for one ever since I saw/smelled the one at Marigold, I decided to make them last night.  And for those of you who don't like cold salads, this one is warm.  And has no lettuce!

Anything with cheese

Goes well with wine and garlic

Makes an evening fine! 

Ingredients:
(for the salad)

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 leeks, thinly sliced (white and light green parts)
• 2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
• 2 tsp whole-grain mustard
• 2 cups cooked lentils (you'll have to soak and cook these before starting the recipe)
• 1 1/2 cups red grapes, halved
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted pistachios
• 3 Tbsp finely chopped mint
• 3 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta

(for the burger)

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 Tbsp chopped garlic
• 2 Tbsp chopped onion
• 1 Tbsp chopped mint
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tsp olive oil

1. With your hands, mix the lamb and all of the other burger ingredients together in a bowl.  Form into patties (3 or 4) and set aside.
2. For the salad, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add leeks, and cook 7 to 9 minutes, or until tender and translucent, stirring often.  Remove from heat, and stir in the sherry vinegar and mustard.
3. Combine the lentils, leek mixture, grapes, pistachios, mint, and parsley in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
4. In the same leeky (hah) pan, pan fry the burgers, flipping after about 5 minutes and covering to cook through.
5. Serve the burger with the warm salad on the side and sprinkle both with crumbled feta cheese.

I served this meal with a side of tzatziki following a cup of avgolemono.

Salad Recipe from Vegetarian Times, November/December 2010.

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!

Happy Beaujolais Nouveau day!  The third Thursday of November every year is the day that the new Beaujolais comes out.  Beaujolais is a light, fruity wine, meant to be served slightly chilled, enjoyed young, and paired with almost anything!  As a dry red-wine drinker, I think of this as an afternoon or white wine.  I have read that the Beaujolais should actually be consumed by the May after it comes out.  CAN DO!  Sounds like a perfect wine to me! 

In celebration, tonight I am opening a bottle and enjoying it with a light and simple meal of deviled eggs, cheese and crackers, and caramelized pears.

For those of you looking, this is a nice wine for Thanksgiving dinner.  I thought this year's Beaujolais seemed almost sparkly.

A votre sante!

Beaujolais Noveau
C'est rouge,  et délicieuse
Le francais et dur 

You can get this year's Beaujolais for just ten dollars at the Green Grocer on Grand.

Kimchee Shepherd's Pie

To my delight, I recently came across a creative food I hadn't tried.  A friend took me to a new place in Chicago called Del Seoul, where the specialty is Korean Barbeque Tacos.  The food was fabulous (pictured here) and what inspired me (which sounded a bit gluttonous at first) were the pork-belly kimchee cheesy fries.

Here is my new take on an old family standard inspired by that recent trip.

Kimchee Shepherd's Pie

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum

Kimchee Shepherd's Pie!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 lbs ground turkey
• 1/4 cup barbeque sauce (I like Bone Suckin' Sauce, Spicy)
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 jar kimchee (approx 15 oz)
• 5 potatoes
• cheddar and jack cheeses

1. Chop the potatoes and boil until soft for mashing.
2. Sautee the onion and garlic until soft and aromatic.  Add the turkey and saute until cooked through, stirring.  Add the barbeque sauce and stir.
3. In a souffle dish, put the barbeque ground turkey on the bottom.  Layer with the kimchee, straight from the jar.
4. Once the potatoes are soft, drain, return to pan, and mash using a bit of butter, olive oil, sour cream - whatever you typically use.  Grate the Monterey Jack cheese into the potatoes and spread atop the turkey/kimchee layers.
5. Bake for 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  Pull out and top with grated cheddar cheese to cover and bake 5 minutes more until cheese melts and begins to bubble.

1. Serve warm.