A Pumpkin Muffin worth sharing

My pumpkin muffins took a few tries.  You can't make a gluten-free muffin tough by overbeating, but you can make it tough if you make the batter too dry.  This was my third attempt, and the first worth sharing. 

I like to make a cinnamon cream cheese sweetened with honey or brown sugar to go with these muffins, so they're only lightly sweet.

14.5 oz. can solid pack pumpkin

2 eggs*

  70 grams oil (I used grapeseed)

185 grams lowfat buttermilk

  30 grams golden flax meal

  75 grams light brown sugar

  75 grams sugar

1 1/2 t double-strength vanilla

125 grams 40/60 All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend

100 grams teff flour

  75 grams sorghum flour

   2 t baking soda

   2 t baking powder

   1 t kosher salt

   2 t Penzey's Cake Spice

   1 c. walnut pieces or pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas)

If you're using walnuts, break each walnut half into 6-8 pieces.  Spread the broken walnuts or whole pumpkin seeds on a foil lined sheet, and toast in an oven or toaster oven until lightly browned and fragrant.

Preheat the oven to 350F, on the convection setting if you have one.

Weigh or measure all of the first group of ingredients into a mixing bowl.    Weigh or measure the second group of ingredients into a separate container.

Beat the contents of bowl thoroughly with a spoon or dough whisk until everything is smooth and uniform.  Stir in the dry ingredients gently at first, and then beat with the dough whisk.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and fold the batter over to make sure there aren't pockets of unmixed wet or dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl.  Stir in the nuts or seeds.

Spray the cups of two non-stick muffin tins with 100% oil cooking spray.  Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full.  You won't have quite enough batter for all 24 cups.  Wipe the cooking spray out of the empty cups, and wipe off any over spray on top of the pan.

Bake at 350F until the muffins are lightly browned  firm enough to spring back when you gently poke one with a finger.  This took me 18 minutes with the convection setting on -- it will probably take a little longer in a conventional oven.

Remove muffins to a wire rack too cool.

After they're completely cool, you can freeze leftover muffins and reheat them in the microwave or toaster oven.

*Egg sizes vary.  Since I had been tweaking this recipe, I was weighing everything, and my 2 eggs totaled 115 grams.

Chicken and Black Bean Soup

1 lb dried beans, soaked overnight in brine
2T olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 ~ 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ~ 1 1/2 chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of salt

8 ~ 9 c. water

4 chicken thighs, skin removed

1/2 c. finely chopped carrot
1/2 c. finely chopped celery

1 1/2 ~ 2 T. Penzey's Chicken Soup Base

1 red bell pepper, diced into 1/4" pieces
1 green bell pepper diced into 1/4" pieces
15 oz. can petite dice tomatoes with celery and onions

Did you notice the "small dice" theme in the ingredients list?  I wanted every spoonful of this soup to contain a couple beans and something else.

Cooking bean soup from scratch is not quick... I started the beans around 10:30 am, and declared the soup done at 2:00 pm.  I was doing other stuff in the kitchen off and on, so it was easy to keep an eye on it.  If you don't have other pots to watch, you and increase the heat after each ingredient is added, to bring the soup back to a simmer faster.

The black beans give the chicken a purpley-black tinge.  If you find that idea unappetizing, you could probably make this much faster using 3  - 4 cans of rinsed black beans, in which case it will look more like a chicken soup with the occasional purple bean floating by.


Drain your soaked beans and rinse them.

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the onions and a pinch of salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender and just beginning to brown.  Add the garlic, oregano and chipotle and stir to combine.    Add your water and beans and turn the heat up to high to bring to a boil.

Once the pot boils, turn the heat down until the pot is just barely simmering. I've started using the small burners on my stove for simmering.  Cover and cook until the beans are tender about halfway through.

Remove the skin from the chicken thighs and trim off any large pieces of fat.  Nestle the meat into the bean pot.  Cover and wait for it to return to a simmer (you can speed that up by turning up the heat), and then reduce heat so it just barely simmers for 30 minutes.  Remove the chicken and place on a plate to cool.

Test your beans and make sure they're almost tender and creamy all the way through.  If not, cook a little longer.

When the beans are almost ready, stir in the carrots, celery, and 1 1/2 T soup base. Simmer until the vegetables and beans are tender.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat into bite size pieces.  Discard the bones and any tough tendons.

Add the peppers, chicken, and tomatoes to the soup and stir.  Taste the broth and decide if you'd like to add more soup base or salt.    Cook until the peppers are crisp tender.

Investment Cooking on a Sunday

Today I chopped onions before I had my first cup of tea.

For several years, my sweetie and I had separate houses, so a lot of meals were made in my kitchen, and then re-heated/assembled and served in his.  I started devoting my Sundays to making big batches of soups and sauces and pre-cooking things for quick weeknight dinners.

So the first thing I did this morning was cook 2 small onions, 4 cloves of garlic, some dried oregano and a minced chipotle in a little olive oil.  Then I added water, and the black beans that had been soaking on the counter (drained and rinsed).  I brought that up to a boil, and tossed it on a back burner to simmer for awhile.

The hot front burner was turned down and a 10 inch skillet replaced the soup pot. When the skillet was warm, 4 links of hot Italian sausage and 1/2 a cup of water went in.  I covered the skillet and let the water simmer until the links were opaque on top, then flipped them and let them go a few minutes longer.  Those links are cooling on a plate while a second pound cooks.  I've learned to let them cool before butterflying them because you get a smoother, cleaner cut and that smooth surface crisps up nicely when you want to serve it.  2 lbs of sausage will become 14 brown & serve portions in the freezer, and 2 servings for breakfast.

I've sliced some small Yukon Gold potatoes, and those are sizzling in some good olive oil.  Fried potatoes are best cooked low and slow...and normally I don't have patience... but since I'm already puttering in and out of the kitchen this morning, it's a good time to start a batch.  When they're almost done I'll brown up 2 portions of the sausage, and scramble some eggs with spinach and a little bit of feta.

After breakfast is cleaned up, I plan to skin a package of chicken thighs, and nestle them into the simmering beans to cook.  Those will eventually get shredded into the bean soup when I add the rest of the vegetables. I also have a chuck roast thawing, which has a date with a smoking hot skillet, to brown it before it goes into a crock pot with some tomatoes and gets cooked until it shreds apart into a rich pasta sauce.

What do I get from spending half a day in the kitchen?  I get quick sausage dinners where the sausage is really brown and crispy.  I get long simmered pasta sauce in half an hour after work.  And I eat delicious soup for lunch that has 1/2 the sodium and tastes twice as good as anything from a can.

Blender Banana Pancakes - Gluten Free and Multigrain

Using gluten-free flours means that you don't have to worry about making pancakes and waffles tough by overbeating the batter.  Blending helps incorporate air into the batter, and gives you a better texture.   In this recipe, the bananas are completely broken up -- if you like moist chunks of banana in your pancakes, you might want to dice an extra banana and sprinkle some chunks on the pancakes after you pour them.


2 large eggs
4 T of light flavored oil
2 medium bananas, very soft and ripe
~ 1  c. milk

2 T sugar
1/2 t salt

Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Sprinkle of vanilla powder (optional)


125 grams of 40/60 All Purpose Gluten Free Blend
60 grams of millet flour
65 grams of buckwheat flour
4 t baking powder


Peel the bananas, break them into chunks and place them in a 2 cup measure.  Add enough milk to reach the 2 cup line with all of the banana submerged.  Pour the milk and bananas into a blender.  Add the eggs, oil, and sugar.  Cover and blend until smooth.  Add the sugar, salt, and optional seasonings, and blend again.

You can weigh out all the flours into a single container.  Add about half of the flour to the blender, cover and process.   If there are dry patches stuck to the side of the blender, scrape it down with a rubber spatula and process again.  Blend in the rest of the flour, and then scrape the sides of the container and add the baking soda.  Blend until thoroughly combined - 60 seconds.  (Remember, you can't make these pancakes tough with overblending!)

Cook the pancakes as you normally would. They're ready to turn when bubbles in the center break and the edges are starting to look dry.  If the pancakes get too brown, reduce the griddle temperature so the center cooks before the outside burns.

Turkey Green Posole

Since we were about to move, the Thanksgiving turkey's carcass went into the chest freezer instead of into a stock pot.    I'm off work this week, so I thought it was about time to make some stock.  When I mentioned making turkey stock, my boyfriend asked if I could make turkey posole.

Why yes, I can....


Disclaimer : I make no claim that this is "authentic Mexican posole".  I'm of European descent and none of my ancestors have lived any closer to Mexico than Ohio.  I had never eaten any version of posole before I found a recipe on the web -- and I still haven't tried posole made by anyone else.  (Obviously Columbus, OH needs more ambitious Mexican restaurants.)

I made the turkey broth the way I normally do : turkey carcass, water, onions, carrot, celery, peppercorns and dried parsley flakes (in a little paper tea bag).  Simmer until it looks like stock and the meat is almost ready to fall off the bones.    Salt to taste (it takes a lot). Strain and save the liquid.  Discard the veggies.  Pick the meat off the bones and set aside.   I leave a good bit of meat on my turkey because I usually make at least 2 batches of soup from it.  Today I got almost 5 cups of shredded meat and 14 cups of stock.



4 cups turkey carcass broth
2 - 3 cups leftover turkey shreds

2 poblano peppers

2 Tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 ~ 2 fresh jalapeno or 1 Tbsp canned diced jalapeno
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cloves
7 oz. canned diced green chiles
28 oz. canned hominy (yellow or white)

Preheat the broiler.  Cut the poblano peppers in half and remove the seeds.  Flatten the peppers and place them on a foil line cookie sheet.  Place the peppers under the broiler until the skin is bubbled and blackened.  Remove the cookie sheet from the oven, and place it on a trivet or hot pad.  Carefully grab the corners of the foil and fold it up around the peppers, crimping it into a packet, to trap the steam around the peppers.

Chop the onion and slice the garlic.

I prefer to use a fresh jalapeno, because I can control the heat level a little more easily.  Today I had 1 very large pepper - over 3 inches long - so I decided to remove the seeds from 3/4 of the pepper before mincing it.

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until translucent.  Add the garlic and jalapenos, and cook until fragrant.   Open your diced chiles, so they're ready to go in the pot, and then add the dried spices.  Stir until you can smell the spices, and then dump in the chiles (to cool the pot so the spices don't burn).    Add the turkey broth and meat.

Drain and rinse the hominy, and add it to the pot.  Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat.  Simmer for 1 hour to blend flavors.

This makes a soup without a lot of broth.  If you like a lot of broth, you might want to increase the amounts of dried spices and broth.

Gluten-free pizelles

Pizelles are another Italian tradition that I got from my boyfriend's family.  I bought a pizelle iron and made a few batches in December 2010, but in November 2011 I cut wheat out of my diet.  After a year of experimenting with wheat free baking, I realized that a lot of the texture and structure of the pizelle comes from the beaten eggs, so I decided to try a basic recipe, using one of the commercial gluten free flour blends.  The resulting pizelles are very delicate and crumbly, but absolutely delicious.

I substituted the flour by weight, but increased the vanilla content, since GF baked good seem to need a little more vanilla to taste right.


3 eggs
3/4 c sugar
3/8 t salt
1/4 t vanilla powder
3/4 t vanilla extract
220 grams King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour
2 teaspoons  baking powder
1/2 c butter, melted

Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and lemon yellow.  Add the vanillas, and then beat in the flour and baking powder, scraping down the bowl as necessary.  (You don't have to worry about overdeveloping the gluten and making the pizelles tough!)  Stir in the melted butter.

Cook according to the instructions of your pizelle iron.  The finished pizelles will be light tissue paper while they're warm -- I slid them onto a wide plastic pancake turner to transfer them to a cooling rack.

Braciole in the Slow Cooker

Several years ago, my boyfriend asked me if I knew how to make braciole.  He hadn't had it since his mother had passed away.  I read a few recipes, prepped one, and brought it over to his house to pop in the oven on date night.  It was very, very chewy.

"My mom always cooked it all day," he said.  "It's not really a weeknight thing."  As soon as I heard that, I knew that this was a job for the Crock Pot.   This takes significantly more prep than your average Crock Pot recipe, and I usually only make it for family gatherings.  The flavor is similar to meatballs, but the flank steak is more intensely beefy than ground chuck or ground sirloin.

If you don't have a meat tenderizer and food processor, you can still make this dish, but it will take more time and effort.  See the note at the end of the recipe.

I can fit 4 flank steaks in my 5 quart oval crock pot.  If you have a round crock pot, you might want to cut each flank steak in half before rolling and tying.

Sorry for the lack of measurements, but this is one of the things where I really don't measure anything, but go by feel.  The stuffing isn't a thick layer -- it's a line of green down the roll that makes infuses the meat with flavor.  You have to have some fresh herbs to get that green bulk, but I usually use a mixture of fresh and dried to keep the cost under control.

2 flank steaks (a total of 2-3 lbs)

Filling
2 - 2 1/2 small slices bread (to make ~ 1 c. fresh bread crumbs) -
1/3 ~ 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan, Asiago, Romano or any other hard cheese (pre-shredded tubs OK).
3 -4  cloves of garlic
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
3/4 oz packet fresh oregano, divided
Dried basil
Dried thyme
Fresh or dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
Kosher salt
2 ~ 3 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 egg

Butcher's string for tying


Sauce
1 onion finely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
5 oz (1 "glass") Cabernet Sauvignon or other red wine that goes well with beef
3 oz of tomato paste14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (fire roasted if possible)
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes (with basil if available --  or add an extra teaspoon of dried basil)
Dried thyme
Fresh oregano (the rest of the packet)
Fresh or dried rosemary (optional)
Fresh, dried, or frozen basil



On a clean cutting board, pound each flank steak until it reduced to about half of the original thickness.  The pounding is faster and easier if you use a 45 blade meat tenderizer first.  I pierce each side of the steak about 30 times before I start pounding, and usually go back to pierce the center a few more times to get it to flatten out.  If you overdo it with the tenderizer, it will pound into hamburger, so it's better to err on the side of piercing too little than too much.

If you have a round slow cooker, cut each steak in half before setting it aside on a plate or cookie sheet.  Wash your hands to prevent covering all of the your tools with slippery beef fat and juices.

To make the filling, drop the garlic cloves into a running food processor fitted with a metal blade, and process until the garlic is all stuck to the side in little bits.  Turn off the food processor and add the bread.  Pulse until the bread is chopped into uniform crumbs.  You may have top open the processor and reposition pieces to get it all evenly chopped.  Fresh breadcrumbs are much coarser than the ready-made ones you buy in a can.

Scrape the bread and garlic into a medium sized bowl.  Pull the leaves off of about 1/3 of the bunch of parsley, and half of the fresh oregano and pile them on the cutting board.  Add any other fresh herbs you're using, and chop them finely with knife or mezzaluna.  Add the fresh herbs and shredded cheese to the filling, along with any dried herbs you like.  I usually use about 1 tsp thyme, 3 tsp dried basil, and a little rosemary.  I sometimes toss in dried parsley as well.  Drizzle a couple tablepoons of olive oil into the filling, and break in an egg.  Stir until everything is evenly mixed.  The filling should be moist but crumbly.  Press the filling into an even layer in the bowl, and score it in half if you're leaving the flank steaks whole.  (Quarters if you cut them in half.)

Set your butcher's twine next to the cutting board, and have a small sharp knife handy -- or cut yourself eight  to ten pieces 8-10 inches long.

Return one piece of steak to the cutting board, with the grain running from left to right.  Season the meat lightly with salt and generously with pepper.  Using your hands, scoop a portion of the filling onto the flank steak.  Spread and pat the filling into a thin layer cover the steak from the edge nearest you to the about 1 inch away from the far edge.  Starting with the edge nearest you, carefully roll the steak up like a jelly roll.    Tie the string around the roll about every 2 inches with a square knot. (4 or 5 ties per flank whole flank steak)   Trim off the dangling ends of string with a sharp knife or scissors.

Fill and roll with the other flank steak.  At this point you can put the braciole in the fridge overnight, or go ahead and cook it.

When you're ready to cook the braciole, assembly all of the ingredients for the sauce.  Open the cans, and chop any fresh herbs you're using now, so they're ready to go.

Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat, and add a thin coating of high smoke-point oil or bacon fat.  Place the braciole into the hot oil, and turn them occasionally to get as much of the surface brown as possible.  If some of the filling leaks out, scoop it out of the oil and toss it into the slow cooker.  You'll have time while the meat is browning to finely chop the onion and garlic for the sauce.  (Again, I usually use the food processor here, to get a fine texture that melts into the sauce.)

When the meat is brown on all sides, transfer it to the slow cooker.  If you have a lot of oil in the skillet, drain some of it off -- a good bit of fat will come out of the meat as it cooks.  Add the onion and garlic to the pan, and stir occasionally to pick up all the browned bits.  Stir in the wine, and allow it come to a boil. Pour one can of tomatoes over the meat in the crock pot.  Pour the other can into the skillet, and add the herbs and tomato paste.  Stir until everything is evenly combined and cook until the sauce starts bubbling, and carefully pour it into the slow cooker.

Cover the crock pot and cook until you can pull shreds off the meat with a fork -- but no so long that the meat has fallen apart into the sauce.  To get a double-batch fully cooked, and falling-apart tender in 6 hours, I usually set the Crock Pot on high for 2 hours, and then reprogram it to low for the next 4 hours.

When the meat is tender enough to pull shreds off with a fork, turn off the crock pot. If there are pools of fat floating on top of the sauce, skim most of it off with large spoon. Remove the braciole from the sauce and set it on a cutting board or platter. Tent it with foil, and allow it rest / cool for a few minutes.  Use a sharp knife and tongs or a fork to cut the string and remove it, and then cut the braciole into 1 1/2 ~ 2 inch pieces with a sharp knife.  The ends probably won't be very pretty, but you'll get some picture-perfect spirals out of the center.   If you're going to serve pasta with the braciole, toss it with some of the sauce.  You can pour the rest of the sauce on a serving platter and arrange the meat on top of it, or pass sauce separately in a large gravy boat or bowl with a ladle.

You don't have to serve this with pasta -- polenta (either freshly cooked or sliced and fried) or mashed potatoes also go well with this dish.

NOTE:  If you don't have a food processor, you can chop, press, or grate the garlic -- or even used frozen garlic cubes.  I don't recommend jarred garlic ever for anything, but if that's what you normally use go ahead.
You can make fresh bread crumbs by grating the bread on the coarse side of a box grater.  I find this a little easier to do if the bread is frozen.