Fig Date Bread

¾ cup brown rice flour

½ cup potato starch

¼ cup tapioca flour

2 tsp xanthan gum

½ cup honey or maple syrup

2 tbsp flaxseed, ground (and 6 tbsp water)

2 cups dried figs and dates, chopped (whatever proportions you’d like)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 ½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ cup water

Optional: ½ cup pecans, walnuts, or chocolate chips.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the figs and dates, coconut oil, baking soda, baking powder and water.  Microwave this mixture on high for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring in between.  This process softens the dried fruits; it’s usually done my boiling water and letting it sit and soak but this is way more time consuming than the microwave and in my opinion it works just as well.  Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the ground flaxseed and water and microwave in 30 second increments stirring the mixture in between until you achieve the consistency of eggs.

In a larger bowl, combine all the flours, gum, sugar and flaxseed. Add the date mixture and then pour into a greased 9”x 5” pan or two smaller pans.  Bake at 350 for about an hour.

Portabello Mushroom Risotto

This is a version of my father’s go to risotto recipe that has definitely become one of my staples when cooking for other people.  It makes enough for 4 or 5 people, but watch out because it’s really easy to eat all of it alone in one sitting.  I’ve heard a lot of people say that making risotto is hard, but I really disagree. That being said, it takes an inappropriate amount of time and attention and probably isn’t suited for those with a short attention span.

1 cup Arborio rice

1 medium white onion, diced

8-10 cups vegetable broth

1 bottle white wine (½ cup for risotto, the rest to drink while you are busy cooking)

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic

1 massive or 2 small portabello mushrooms, chopped

½ almond or coconut milk
 

First, in a large pan sauté the onions and garlic in oil until somewhat soft, maybe for 5 minutes or so.  Reduce to medium heat, add the rice and stir continuously for 2 or 3 minutes being careful not to brown or burn the rice.

After this add your first cup of vegetable broth and turn to a lower heat setting.  If you use a prepackaged carton of broth, you’ll use the whole thing so just ration this through the next hour or so.  The idea is to keep adding broth by the cup until it boils off until the rice is thoroughly cooked.  Pay attention to make sure it doesn’t get dry and try to stir it every minute or two.  You’ll spend most of the time hovering around the pan (which is why the other part of the bottle of wine is essential).

Add the wine towards the beginning of this process in place of a broth addition.  You know when it’s done because the little white center in the rice kernel goes away… or just taste it (stop where its not crunchy but not mushy).  When the rice is getting close to done add the mushrooms and milk.

I realize this was a terrible explanation of how to make risotto, honestly I think it just takes making it a few times to get it right.  I like mushroom risotto, but it also taste good with asparagus, sage, squash blossoms, butternut, etc.  The photo below is actually a chili pumpkin cranberry risotto.

 

Pizza!

To avoid sounding like a five year old, I usually refrain from telling people my favorite food is pizza.  In all seriousness pizza is so phenomenal I can hardly contain myself.  Also, there is some flaw inside my stomach that has no recognition of “full” when it comes to eating pizza and its extremely hard for me to refrain myself from eating less than 5,000 calories in one sitting. This said, I am very particular about my pizza and tend to prefer the nontraditional approach.  Learning to make pizza that was exactly what I loved was the most disastrous thing to happen to me from a health and wellbeing standpoint.

Precautionary note: I cannot condone continuing on without a pizza stone.  This is really the secret to making pizza.  I’ve also heard there is a direct correlation with cost of equipment and quality of crust and judging by how much I doled out, I believe it.

Crust (conveniently can be made ahead of time)

1 cup brown rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca flour

2 tsp xantham gum

1/2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 cup cold water

1 tbsp olive oil

Mix the water and yeast first and let stand for a few minutes, then add remaining ingredients. Kneading doesn't really work to do anything, so just mix well and let the yeast do its thing for 20 or so minutes (the longer the better). This should make about 3 pies, so split the dough up as such.  Flatten it out on corn meal by pressing it out with very wet hands.  If you want to use them later, you can toss the dough, in balls or flattened in the freezer, or the refrigerator if you think you’ll use them in a week or so.  If you choose to freeze, be sure to take them from freezer to refrigerator at least 24 hours before you plan to use them.  When you do end up using them, let them sit out for a few hours at room temperature.

While you let the dough sit out, it’s wise to start the stone heating.  Put your pizza stone in BEFORE starting the oven, which should be set for as high as your oven will let you go (for mine it’s 550).

Transfer your flattened pies to a pizza peel.  You can either cover the peel in corn meal, the little balls act as dynamic rollers to slide your pie nicely onto the stone or you can cut a pizza sized piece of parchment paper that you will slide onto your stone.  I prefer the latter, and you can reuse your parchment piece for each pizza.

Now for toppings, the following have been EXTREME successes, but really you can do whatever you want.  Don’t overload it, it just complicates things.  Bake each pie for 8-10 minutes.

Pizza Toppings!

Base: Olive oil and garlic

Figs

Goat cheese

Caramelized white onion

Arugula

Balsamic reduction

Base: Almond butter, ginger, lime, apple cider vinegar, honey

Mozzarella

Sliced carrots

Red onions

Cilantro

Red pepper flakes

Base: Hazelnut arugula pesto (will later post recipe)

Mozzarella

Tomato slices

Parmesan mostly, and Romano

Base: Pesto

Three cheese blend

Roasted beets

Arugula

Caramelized onions

Goat cheese

Balsamic vinegar

(This next one is pretty exceptional)

Base: Gluten free BBQ, preferably lacking in high fructose corn syrup

Mozzarella

Tofu

Cilantro

Red onion

Bell pepper

Cheddar cheese

Base: Green Chile

Cheddar cheese

Black beans

Cilantro

Red onion
Corn

I know you'll enjoy, so I hope you'll try!

Green Chile

Ah, the joys of late summer: tomatoes turning colors, school bus traffic, sweet corn, back to school specials, Oktoberfest on the shelves, the peak of wedding season and of course, my personal favorite, Mexicans roasting countless bushels of green chiles on Federal.  Oh how I look forward to the painful scorch from hours of chile peeling.  

Last year we got three bushels, and have only one small zip lock baggy left in the freezer, talk about perfect timing!  Its not an exact science, but I think one bushel weighs about 15 pounds, just for reference.  We always have green chiles, but I’ve never actually made a green chile sauce/stew.  Well, I decided I’d give it a try with some of the fresh chilies from the first two bushels we got a few days ago.  HUGE success!  I’ve ceded that it’s pretty hard to put a lot of green chile in something and have it NOT taste amazing, but I was impressed regardless.  This is what I did:

10-20 (depending on your desired hotness) roasted, peeled, chopped New Mexico hatch green chiles

1 red onion chopped

1 squash cubed

2 tsp cornstarch

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

5 cups vegetable broth (5 cups water 2 cubes bouillon)

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

First in a large pot, sauté the onions, chiles, and squash in the olive oil until soft.  Add the vegetable broth and remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour.  I pureed the mixture at the end to make a sauce with good consistency. It seems so very simple and yet so amazing.

Date Squares

Dates are by far my favorite fruit.  I have trouble understanding why they aren’t everyone’s.  These date and oat bars are great as on the go breakfast or a delicious sugary snack.

Filling

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped

½ tbsp coconut oil

¼ cup water

1 tbsp orange juice

Layers

½ cup gluten free oats

1/3 cup buckwheat

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp date sugar or brown sugar

Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and microwave 2 or 3 minutes, stirring intermittently.  Mash the date mush with a fork until somewhat smooth.

In another bowl, mix the oat crust ingredients.  Brown sugar is a nice touch, but if you have the time, I suggest making some date sugar. I mean at this point you already have dates and what’s the harm in having some extra unrefined sugar around the house?  To do this cut the dates in half and put them on a baking sheet in the oven at about 150°F for an hour or so, until they are rock hard and totally dehydrated.  In a powerful blender, turn the dates into dust! Sweet!

In a bread pan, spread half the oat mix across the bottom. Be sure to oil the pan well, the bottom layer has a tendency to burn.  Another alternative is to put parchment paper down if you have it.  It works best to use a fork to try to smash out the oats into a thin layer.  Using that same essential fork, spread the date filling evenly on top.  Finally add the remaining oats sprinkled across the top.

Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes.  Let it cool for little while before trying to cut these, or it’s a mess!  This is another situation where parchment paper has proven somewhat useful, just pulling the whole thing out intact and leaving a clean pan below. So magical.

Black Bean Burgers

Homemade Black Bean Burgers. So simple. Sooo good. Certainly cheaper than buying giant bags of veggie burgers from Costco and I’m thinking probably less than a pound of hamburger meat.

1 can black beans

½ bell pepper, any color

½ red onion

2 cloves garlic or garlic scapes if you happen to be so lucky as to come across them

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp salt

½ jalapeño pepper

2 roasted green chilies

¼ cup corn meal

Wash and drain the beans then smash aggressively with a fork. The alternative is to puree with a hand blender but make sure it doesn’t get clogged. After they are somewhat creamy, try to drain them again to remove as much moisture as possible.

Chop and add all the veggies and spices and mix well. To prevent from bean mush going between the bars on the grill, I prefer to bake these for about 20 minutes at around 400 degrees.

I’ve been adding ¼ cup or so of hominy to this recipe, and I haven’t noticed any adverse effects thus far. Once upon a time I had hominy hash at one of my favorite brunch locations, Root Down. I don’t know that I’ve ever had hominy before but I fell in love.  So when I saw a 12 pound can in Costco for something like 4 dollars, I had to have it. I made one measly attempt at recreating the hash and was forever disappointed. Turns out my beloved magic white kernels were bland with an unappealing texture… and I had 11.75 pounds left. Accordingly, I froze what remained and have tried to find some excuse to use it in whatever I could. Well six months later I only have about 11 pounds, so I’m certainly making progress.

Garbage Plates

Hailing from the more rural areas of Upstate New York, I’ve become accustomed to enjoying only the best of the worst foods. I say this because the region seems to have an affinity for hot dogs and fine cuisine containing an excess of mayonnaise. Rochester in particular is home to one of the most unique dishes, the Garbage Plate. Traditionally this is an underlayment of your choice of home fries, baked beans, or macaroni salad, then two hot dogs (or hamburgers, sausage, etc.). Atop lies an awkwardly spicy sauce whose secret ingredient is supposedly grill scrapings. The Garbage Plate even earned a short spot on Food Network, although I can’t remember the show.

Uncomfortable with the idea of saying goodbye to Garbage Plates when leaving meat behind, in an attempt to live more sustainably, amongst other reasons, I needed to try to recreate this dish. The result was a delicious and not terribly unhealthy high protein meal that honestly, doesn’t taste much like a Garbage Plate. I’m continuously evolving this recipe to more accurately mimic its flavor. In this current state, its still quite good and gives me the same feeling as if I had ate 6 hot dogs, which is what I think I was ultimately seeking.

Generally I throw random spices in, but for the purpose of writing a recipe, I will assign values. First, the sauce:

1 chopped white onion

3 cloves garlic

2 or 3 cups of diced tofu, pan fried

1 can of tomato paste, no preference of can size

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp cloves

¼ tsp allspice

¼ tsp NM green chili powder, if you have it (that’s kind of a stretch)

I cook in cast iron, so pans are usually pre-oiled, but I suggest sautéing the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add all remaining ingredients, except tofu.  Keep it simmering for 20 minutes or so, preferably with a lid. Adding water will improve the consistency I think and help it stay moist while cooking. Add in cooked tofu late, just before you are ready to go.

I personally like Garbage Plates with baked beans and potatoes, but feel free to chose whatever sides suit you. Half and half spreading the plate with your sides, then put a (veggie) burger or dog on top and smother with the sauce. Adding some fresh onions and mustard is traditional, and I think excessive ketchup really perfects it. Pairs well with stale white processed bread and a watery-light ale.