Kitchen Capers

Time whizzes by all too fast as the distraction monster's immense claws pull me away from my little kitchen kingdom. Such is life I suppose. But now that I am back I'm attempting to make up for lost time by putting all those miscellaneous thought bubbles into concrete forms. I got my six burner Thermador all fired up and humming again. I'm creating recipes, cooking and testing them, and while for me it's fun, fun, fun, it is fraught with potential disaster. Kitchen flops can be hilarious but I didn't think so at first when I pulled my gluten free chocolate chip gingerbread spice cake out of the oven, burned my hand, and flipped the whole pan upside down onto the floor. Lucky for me the floor was reasonably clean, and being an adherent of the much revered twenty second rule, I scooped the whole messy pile back into the pan with a spatula, at which time Olivia and I proceeded to eat the hot goo with our hands. I have to say I really didn't like it very much, way too much molasses for my taste. Both the recipe and the cake got chucked in the garbage can. Chalk it up to experience, have a chuckle and move on...

I am happy with this vegan and soy free version of moussaka though, and when I eat it I feel like I've just eaten at my favorite Greek restaurant without the obligatory heartburn. It's a homey and satisfying casserole of roasted veggies, a cinnamon-spiked chunky Greek tomato sauce, and a chickpea cashew cream topping. Let me admit that my recipe was inspired by the one in the Veganomicon, The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.


POTATO EGGPLANT MOUSSAKA WITH CHICKPEA CASHEW CREAM

Serves 6, or 4 very hungry people
Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Roast the Vegetables

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Lightly coat three baking sheets with olive oil.

2 1/2 pounds potatoes (I used three very large potatoes)
1 pound eggplant (I used two small to medium eggplants)
1 pound zucchini or yellow squash (I used two round yellow squashes a little bigger than tennis balls)
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt

Wash the eggplant and zucchini and trim the ends. Scrub and peel the potatoes. Cut the eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes into 1/4-inch slices. Place them in a large bowl. Cover the vegetables with olive oil and mix with your clean hands, coating each piece. Sprinkle liberally with salt and mix again to coat evenly. Spread the vegetables out on the three baking sheets. It is OK to overlap. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes until the vegetable are tender, not mushy, and some of the edges have browned. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool as you make the tomato sauce.

Soak 1/2 cup cashews in enough water to just cover. Set aside to use for the chickpea cashew cream.

Chunky Greek Tomato Sauce

2 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper
1 cup vegetable broth
Three generous T tomato paste
2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 28 oz. can Muir Glenn whole tomatoes(I used the ones with basil)
A generous pinch of cinnamon

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium high. Add the garlic first and hear it sizzle, then add the onion and salt. Sir frequently until the onions are soft, about five minutes. Add the vegetable broth, tomato paste, oregano, thyme, and cinnamon. Stir frequently until the liquid reduces to a thick sauce. Add the canned tomatoes one by one, breaking them apart with your hands as you put them into the pot. Pour in the canned juices as well. On high heat, stir and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce to medium-low heat, put the lid on, and simmer for about ten minutes. Remove from heat. Add a generous pinch of cinnamon, stir, and set aside.

Chickpea Cashew Cream


1 15 oz. can chickpeas and liquid
2 T tahini (I used Joyva brand)
1 T olive oil
1 T nutritional yeast (optional)
3 T fresh lemon juice, seeds removed
1 small clove garlic
2 T hot water
A generous grating of nutmeg, or a pinch
1 tsp. salt
A dash white pepper
1/2 cup raw cashew that have been soaking, drained

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor (I used a Vita-Mix) and blend until very smooth. Set aside.

Assemble the Moussaka

Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Oil a 9x13 inch pan. Spoon sauce with a soup ladle to coat the bottom of the pan. Layer half of the potatoes, half of the zucchini, and half of the eggplant as evenly as you can. Ladle half of the remaining sauce over the vegetables. Layer the remaining vegetables on top. Spoon and spread out the rest of the sauce. Use a rubber spatula to evenly spread the chickpea cashew cream over the top. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of nutritional yeast. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden and the edges slightly browned. Cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Serve.


I played a little trick on you. To make this photograph look more impressive, I layered one piece of moussaka on top of another. Try it! Since this dish is so rich, I recommend serving it with a simple salad.

Let this recipe do double duty for you. Make a batch of the sauce for pasta. (I really love this Bionaturae brand from Italy. It is by far the best gluten-free pasta I've ever tasted.) Heat up some of the sauce, add some fresh spinach, and cook until wilted. Serve it over the pasta with a generous amount of crumbled feta cheese.

I'll fill you in on my future escapades. And now to the business of washing dishes....

The Last Tastes Of Summer

Intuitve cooking involves using whatever fresh ingredients you've already got on hand. Or perhaps you've just gone to the farmer's market with your Little Red Riding Hood basket and picked up fruits and veggies that are so vibrant, beautiful, and sweet smelling that they cry out to you "Take me home!" Using your senses of sight, touch, and smell and your good common sense as a guide is a surefire approach to creating a deliciously honest and remarkable meal. Its sheer simplicity and freshness is the wonder and the magic of such cooking. Of course your own loving energy is the most important ingredient of all.

A Tisket-a-Tasket, a pretty brimming basket, and a skip-along-back to the kitchen. Let's play!

I have on hand the last tastes of summer. Organic cute little plum tomatoes, green beans, cauliflower, fresh corn, scallions, onions, and blueberries. Oh yes and a wrapped soft oval blob of fresh mozzarella cheese. Yum!

My menu is improvised as I go along. Very Zen, wouldn't you say?...Tomato and fresh mozzarella salad, green beans almondine, oven roasted cauliflower with olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice, steamed corn on the cob, and jasmine fried rice with onions, scallions, and peas. By the way, the rice was left over from yesterday and with me being thrifty and economical, I just had to transform it into a new tasty dish. Also a little sweetness, a lemon blueberry cornbread. I made it gluten and casein free* but it can be modified any which way you please. In fact, experiment and invent to your heart's content.

I've been toying (again) with different gluten free flours and have come up with this mix which I use for cakes, pancakes and more.


Gluten Free Flour Mix #2

1 cup white rice flour
!/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup millet flour
2/3 cup potato starch
3 T cornstarch
2 T teff flour
3 tsp. xanthan gum

Mix ingredients with a spoon in a container that has a tight fitting lid to incorporate the flours. Then put the lid on the container and shake vigorously to ensure that all ingredients are well combined. Use as you would regular wheat flour in recipes.


Lemon Blueberry Cornbread

4 T ghee* or melted butter, melted and slightly cooled (or oil of your choice, I would try melted coconut oil)

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup gluten free flour (or regular wheat flour)
1 cup organic brown sugar
1 T polenta
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup Silk Vanilla soy milk (or milk of your choice)
1 T lemon juice
The zest of two lemons
2 large eggs

1 pint of fresh blueberries, washed, drained and stems removed (or two cups frozen blueberries, defrosted)

Adjust the oven rack to the center. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease and flour a large round pie plate or a 9 inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients: cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, polenta, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a glass liquid measuring cup add one cup of milk (of your choice), lemon juice, lemon zest, and two eggs, lightly beaten. Sir with a spoon to mix. It will curdle and that's good! Stir in the melted ghee or butter (or oil of your choice).

Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients in the bowl until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Pour the mixture into the greased and floured pan and bake for about 35 minutes. The top will become cracked and golden. If the top is still soft to touch and mushy, bake for another five minutes or until slightly firm to the touch. Careful not to burn yourself!

Cut the cornbread right in the pan after it has cooled a bit. It is delicious served warm. Some people, inclined towards decadence, slather it with butter.

*Let me mention that ghee is casein free (or low in casein). It is essentially clarified butter, with its whey (or most of its whey) removed. Ghee is not dairy free. I make my own ghee which is not really that difficult, and that is a topic for another entry.


My tasters act as if they have just won the lottery. Smiles from ear to ear. Second helpings all around. Some inner glowing and eye twinkling going on. And many thank yous.

"Would you like me to pack some food up for you to take home?" I ask.

And so it goes, that now, with the end of summer taste cravings satisfied, we can skip along and rightfully experience the wonders and delights of the approaching, blustery autumn. Yea!

Eat Your Greens!

When I'm craving my greens, I take notice that my body needs the dense nourishment of leafy vegetables. Spinach is loaded with Vitamins A,C,D and K, calcium, magnesium,folic acid and iron. Along with being a vitamin powerhouse, the phytochemicals in kale have been found to have a protective effect against breast, cervical and colon cancer. Kale, being high in sulphur, helps the body detox from other diseases too.

My Greek ancestors well into their eighties and nineties, while appearing somewhat shriveled from the hot sun like wrinkled prunes, had the agility of mountain goats trekking up those rocky, crumbly slopes in search of wild leaves and shoots. OK, I'm daydreaming, but I'm sure there is at least a kernel of truth to that.

The Mediterranean diet, the one patterned from the Island of Crete is credited for the longevity and health of its people. Liberal doses of fruity olive oil, barley rusks, beans and legumes, whole grains, small amounts and bits of cheese, meat and fish, thick whole milk yogurt, and an abundance of fruits and vegetables comprise this diet. Bitter greens in particular have healing properties for the body and when in season they wind up in the stew pot or a salad with olive oil, lemon juice and herbs. Wine in moderation, a drizzle of wild honey here and there and celebrations with lively Greek music and dancing keep people happy, fit and full of life. Oopa!

A small shot of liquorice flavored ouzo warms the throat and the body. When poured over ice the liquor turns cloudy. Oopa, Oopa...but I digress.(Watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, then you'll understand).

Greens. Wild greens back in the day were not as squeaky clean as we are used to now. Small amounts of dirt and bacteria actually acted as medicine on the intestines. I'm guessing that they were used to a little crunch of grit and sand.

The religious fasting of the Greek Orthodox faith requires followers to eat vegetarian for long stretches at a time especially during Lent. Maybe this 'cleanse' contributes to longevity and health. I would bet on that, in fact.

Spinach and rice is the quintessential comfort food. It's what I enjoyed as a child while other children were eating their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I put my own spin on a marvelous recipe I found in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook, with the addition of dark 'dinosaur' kale and raisins. The raisins plump up in the tart sauce, sweet bursts of flavor in unctuous, tender greens. The kale, considered a superfood, is a great chewy contrast to the soft spinach.

Spinach With Rice

1 big bunch fresh organic spinach, leaves and stems left whole
1 bunch organic dinosaur kale, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 pounds of spinach and kale in total, I prefer to use more spinach than kale)
6 scallions cut crosswise into fine rings all the way up
3 T extra virgin olive oil
Salt
3 rounded T white rice (I used jasmine but Italian risotto rice would work here too)
1 1/2 T dried dill
2 heaping T raisins
The juice of a lemon

Trim the spinach ends and soak leaves with stems in a big bowl of water. Wash in several changes of water to remove sand and dirt. Drain. Trim ends off kale, wash well and drain. Chop kale into shreds.

Pour 2 cups of water into a large pot and bring to a boil. Add scallions, olive oil, 1/2 tsp. salt, rice, dill and raisins to the pot. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring regularly, for about 12 minutes, or until the rice is done and the liquid in the pot is reduced to a little thick sauce. Put in kale and allow to cook with the lid on for about five minutes. Remove lid, stir and add the spinach with another 1/2 tsp. of salt. Raise the heat and stir until the spinach wilts. Lower the heat to medium-low again, stir and cook for about five minutes. Add the lemon juice and a drizzle of more olive oil if desired.

This recipe can be adapted. Feel free to use other available greens like collards, Swiss chard, cabbage and so on. I prefer to use spinach in the mix because this is the flavor I crave from way back.

I serve the greens with a big pot of stewed gigande beans. Yum! A little feta cheese doesn't hurt either.

This is the kind of food that keeps me healthy and happy.