New Year… Resolutions for a Better Lifestyle!

Well, a week late but here I go.  My New Year’s resolutions: exercise more, eat less processed foods and cut back on sugar.  I already eat a lot of veggies and fruits and plan on as much or more.  Also, sleep longer on consistent basis, (The irony of my typing this post late this night is not lost on me!) avoid harsh soaps and chemicals, find more time to relax, laugh more and smile more.  Find more joy in life

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So, when shopping I am going to avoid the sugar and processed foods. I bought a bag of cheese curls for my visiting family.  Last bag ever.  Swear it! A couple months ago I found some nummy cheese puffs at Aldi’s that are naturally flavored with white cheese. Their cheesiness is delicate and pure in comparison to those neon orange Utz curls.  Good decision. Keep trending that way is how I plan to roll while grocery shopping.

Less cake…more fruit based desserts is my baking resolution and I will share them with you.  I did my year of pies in 2016 and it was very nice indeed.  This year might be more like lots of hand pies, tartlets, galettes, clafouti and other fruity concoctions.  I also am trying to cut back even more on white sugar; go for honey, maple syrup, raw sugar, or coconut palm sugar. Just say FRUIT and I smile!

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peach tartlets ready for the oven last summer

I also want to explore more spicy entrees in my cooking; Moroccan, Indian, Thai etc. Love spices, love new foods and enjoy the discovery of lovely flavors and textures in my adventures into other cultures.  You may soon be seeing posts voyaging to new foods and spice combinations. Come along for the ride and be an explorer with me in 2017!

Lemon Custard Bars

Lemon season is right now; they are very fresh and I have a whole box of them my wonderful brother in Texas sent me.  The incredible lemon scent when I opened the box about knocked me over! Besides the venerable lemon meringue pie, lemon marmalade, lemoncello liqueur, lemon velvet pie, lemon chiffon pie and lemonade; what else can be made with them? I use them when I oven bake chicken with small potatoes. I make preserved lemons for use in Moroccan cooking and in sauces. I put the zest in shortbread cookie dough and I love lemon bars.  Recently, I found a new lemon bar recipe that is more of a lemon custard bar you cut into squares. This recipe is so simple. I followed it exactly down to the parchment paper lined baking pan; makes for easy removal of the squares after cooling.  This is a 8×8 square pan; makes 9 big squares or 12 smaller rectanges.

The custard is eggs, gf flour blend, baking powder and a whole lot of lemon juice.  Beat them up and pour on top of a lemon scented shortbread (it has lemon zest in it!) and bake a while.  Then comes the waiting; they have to chill two hours before you can cut into the pan of delicate lemony goodness.  The squares get sprinkled with sifted powdered sugar for a pretty picture of a lemon treat.  They are from Nicole Hunn’s gluten free website.  Since she doesn’t allow bloggers to share her recipes; here’s the link to her amazing lemon bars: http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/gf-lemon-bars-for-dad-plain-lemons-for-me/

lemon-custard-square

They are thicker and more custardy than typical lemon bars and a delicate delight when made using Meyer lemons.  But the recipe is for regular lemons and they make a great dessert using whatever lemons you like.  If you are a lemon lover they can’t be passed by!

Instant Pot Revolution!

I got this amazing kitchen appliance: the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker 6 in 1, six quart size.  It has functions for sautéing, steaming, making rice, porridge, stewing, slow cooking and yes; pressure cooking.  Now, when I was a kid, my mom had a pressure cooker. She used it mostly for canning tomatoes and I remember being told to never ever touch it while in use.  I was terrified of that pressure top thingy; if touched, clouds of boiling hot steam poured out.  Any time I thought of getting a pressure cooker, those memories would come back and it was “nope” to a pressure cooker.  This past year a lovely friend of mine, Jenn, got an Instant Pot and she was always talking about it on facebook.  I asked and got her response of “This thing is wonderful and I use it all the time.”  She is a vegetarian and is totally in to legumes and grains.  Not gluten free like me but she eats very healthy and that IP (as folks call it) seemed to be her best friend in the kitchen.  On Black Friday, the 6 qt Instant Pot went on sale on Amazon 47% off.  I ordered one during my lunch break and it came the following Monday!  Kinda intimidating with all the directions, but I dove in and did the required water pressure test, no issues so next I made my favorite chicken paprikash in it in slow cooker mode.  For this setting, I did get the glass cover that allows one to see the food cooking inside; not for use under pressure but great for sautéing or slow cooking.  It turned out perfectly.  And so it began.  My love affair with my IP….

instant-pot

I made amazing coq au vin; chicken thighs braised in red wine to you! It was done faster than the mashed potatoes I was making in the traditional stove top fashion. The sauté feature is wonderful; the chicken goes in to get a browning, comes out, the onions go in and cook a bit; then garlic and after a minute back goes chicken as well as wine, broth, herbs and the lid is tightened and the manual feature set for the desired minutes.  It takes a few minutes to come to pressure and then my IP beeps and starts the pressure cooking and the count down to zero.  I let it naturally release (read: turn it off and let it stand ten minutes untouched) and then I pushed the pressure valve to release with a kitchen towel over it for any serious steam.  It released for 2-3 minutes and then I added the pan full of sautéed mushroom slices and my luscious and tender chicken with mushrooms and wine was ready to serve.  To recap the time: it took about 5-6 minutes to come to pressure and the time at pressure was like 15 minutes.  That’s a fast way to make excellent dishes. I like it better than a slow cooker; my veggies taste fresher and the meat is cooked better without being over cooked.

instant-pot-controls

Then, I made two different kinds of meat broth; chicken and pork; done in about 30 minutes for chicken and 60 for the pork.  Which is far less than half the usual time for making broth. I love being able to load it with the broth ingredients and start the cycle and walk away to do other stuff.

The other day I made some amazing dulce de leche caramel sauce; so delish and creamy and one ingredient: sweetened condensed milk.  You pour it into canning jars and pressure cook it for 14 minutes. I did two batches of that for gifting.

I expect to make soup in it often; made some cauliflower potato soup last week; so easy.  One item I had that is very helpful is my immersion blender; great for pureed hot soups. I call it the boat motor!

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Making soup!

So, next time someone starts talking about an IP you will know what they mean.  And maybe you will start thinking about getting one.  It will change how you cook, for the better.

Apple Cranberry Holiday Pie

I had a few last apples from our fall orchard expedition and a bag of fresh cranberries in my fridge bin.  Needed a tasty and different holiday pie, saw this recipe and knew it was just the ticket.  I revised some: simplified and made my version gf (of course!)  It is a much brighter in flavor and color than an apple pie but you can definitely taste those apples.

This is my mixture of a couple of recipes. I know it has several steps but each one is easy. Note that I cook the fruit briefly so it smushes down a bit and you don’t have crust issues due to fruit settlement.

I call this top crust my cherry cheater crust as I love it for a cherry pie so you can see the bright red filling. But, because making a woven lattice gf crust is a lot of work, I just cut out circles on the rolled out dough using a small round jar lid and use a butter knife to pull out the marked circles.  Then, flip it onto the fruit filing and there you go…almost as fancy as a lattice crust! Just crimp the edges and sprinkle it with sparkly sugar for a very pretty look.  One last great tasting pie to round out 2016, “My Year of the Pie!”

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Angie’s GF Apple Cranberry Pie

Double Crust:

2 ¼ c brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

¼ cup sweet rice flour

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

12 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

2 large eggs

4 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 9 or 10 inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. Or not; I forget to do it most of the time, hah!

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into two equal balls with your hands. Put each on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust balls some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you make the filling.

Filling:

4-5 cups sliced fresh baking apples

1/2 tp 2/3 c sugar (use the higher amount if you like it sweeter)

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp. fresh orange rind

½ tsp. grated fresh ginger

2 tbsp. butter at room temp

1 large egg (optional)

1 tbsp. rice flour

Raw or big/fancy crystal sugar to sprinkle on top

Directions: Mix the fruit, spices and sugar in a large bowl, add the butter to a large sauce pan and melt; dump in the fruit mixture, cook about 6-8 minutes until apples soften and the cranberries are bursting. Then add the rice flour, stir.  Let cool a few minutes and then add egg (if you want but I made it without myself) which you first beat up a bit. Cool filling to room temperature.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out one pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper; try to get the thickness even, no fat middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  I have a plastic pie bag to roll my crust in and love it.  It is sturdier than wax paper.  Parchment paper works well I am thinking….

Pour cooled filling into pie shell, top with crust; I like to cut circles out of the top crust using a jar lid; about 1 ¼ inch diameter. So the filling peeps out but no need to weave pie crust strips which is pretty tricky for gf crust. Center it on the fruit and crimp the edges.  Use your fingers for this or maybe a fork to create a nice look that seals the top edge completely to the bottom crust.

Place on baking sheet to catch drips (I have a pie drip pan I love!)  Bake for 50-60 min until crust is golden and you can see the filling bubbling.  I put aluminum foil strips around the edges for last 15 minutes to keep them from getting too dark. Cool on rack for at least 1-2 hours before serving.

I made a couple yummy hand pies with all that leftover crust due to the cutouts.  Bonus!

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

 

This recipe is a blending of one I found on foodnetwork.com and the crust by Annalise Roberts as well as my own touches to the filling. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/apple-cranberry-pie.html

Pork, Poblano Pepper and Black Bean Stew

What to do with leftover pork roast?  There isn’t much eating a plate of pork with all the leftover sides that I can take.  So searching I found this recipe for a soup and of course had to alter it some! Don’t you get tired of rushing out to buy that one or two ingredients you don’t have? Then there are the things I don’t care for like cilantro, creamed corn… Any way; it is pretty darn tasty and a big change of pace from typical holiday food. You may call it a stew; not actually sure where the delineation between soup and stew is.  This is very chunky and hearty so maybe it is more a stew than a soup.

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Pork, Black Bean and Poblano Soup: serves 6

1 poblano pepper, roasted

1 ½ tbsp mild olive oil

1 red onion; diced and divided (set aside ¼ of it)

2 cloves minced garlic

1 heaping tbsp. ground coriander

¾ tsp. ground cumin

1 32 oz box of chicken broth, low sodium preferred

2 cups chopped kale (dinosaur kale is my choice for this soup)

1 tbsp. basil pesto

½ can black beans, well rinsed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¾ lb roasted fresh pork cut in ½ inch cubes

Cooked brown (or white) rice for serving

Garnishes:

Sour cream; 1-2 tbsp. per serving

¼ diced avocado per serving

¼ lime in a wedge to squeeze in your soup bowl

Some diced red onion or scallion rounds

Crushed tortilla chips

Chopped fresh cilantro (optional!)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan.  Add most of the red onion, sauté 4-5 minutes stirring often.  Add poblano pepper cut in ¼ inch dice, the minced garlic cloves and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add coriander and cumin and cook another 1-2 minutes.  Add broth and beans, bring to a simmer.  Add the chopped kale (Make sure you remove the ribs if you use dinosaur kale aka Tuscan kale.)  Cook 5-8 minutes until the kale gets tender.  Add the pesto, stir well.  Add the cubes of cooked pork and heat through out, add salt and pepper to your taste.  Ladle into large bowls that have about ¼ to 1/3 cup of rice in the bowl and top with the garnishes. I like it with the brown rice or minus any rice. Have had it with or without the crushed chips. My favorite chips are the multigrain ones from Aldi’s; perfect crunch and spot on flavor. Do crumble them a few at a time as you slurp the soup so some chips stay a bit crunchy.  I also tried it with scallion rounds instead of red onion; works great too.  You will love that you can use any combination of toppings to vary the flavors. That is something I appreciate about this soup.

 

This recipe originated on Food Network; titled Pork and Poblano Soup; there were a number of changes I made.