Pancakes

Just the word “pancake” cracks me up nowadays (I’ll explain why in a second), and this morning, for the first time in years, I woke up thinking, “I want pancakes for breakfast!”  Maybe it’s because I didn’t sleep well, maybe it’s because I didn’t eat enough variety for dinner last night, maybe it’s because I don’t eat enough variety in general…. maybe I just wanted comfort.  Yes, I think that’s it.  I’ve been grading like a fiend all week and all weekend, and I woke up feeling like I need some warm and nourishing.

Pancakes make me laugh, because I have a senior who is writing his college essay on when he did his first successful pancake on the football field.  Apparently, a pancake is when you push against the other guy until he topples over and you basically flatten him.  Pancaked!  I think this sounds terrifying and somehow really hilarious, like knocking over weeble-wobbles.  Every time I see my student, I want to call him “pancake” in the way that I call other students “sweetheart,” “honey,” or “pumpkin” on occasion (usually when I want something from them — “Sweetheart, can you throw this away, please?”).  This kid, though, my sweet pancake, is a huge, hulking guy with a round baby face.  If I could shrink him to 1/10 of his size, I would probably just walk around the classroom rocking him in my arms while I teach….and he would probably like that.  He’s extremely needy and any small feat of compliance must be observed and loudly acknowledged – “You brought your book to class today!  Great job!”  I usually end up standing next to his desk while we’re discussing during class either to keep him awake or to minimize his off-topic comments.  He’s definitely disruptive but in a non-malicious way, and, so, in honor of both my cravings and his neediness, here’s a recipe for pancakes.

I adapted this from Cristina Pirello’s recipe.  I’m not sure why, but these pancakes cook really fast which make them even better for cooking early morning and sharing with friends.  Cristina says that her recipe makes 10 pancakes… I only 6 out of the recipe, and I ate them all.  If you’re sharing, I recommend doubling the recipe.  You can always save them for a snack later.

PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 tsp. baking powder

1 pinch sea salt

1 tsp. umeboshi vinegar

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 cup vanilla rice milk

Whisk the dry ingredients together.  Add the vinegar and oil, then add the rice milk, whisking until smooth.  Heat a griddle or comal to medium heat.  (I didn’t grease mine, but you could if you need to).  Scoop out 1/4 of batter onto the griddle.  The pancakes are ready to flip when bubbles appear, and the edge is clearly defined.

I ate these with a little bit of brown rice syrup and apple butter on top.  Delicious!  These would be fantastic with a blueberry or sour cherry compote on top.  Also, you don’t have to use cornmeal, but I think it gives the pancakes a more interesting texture.  Eat and enjoy!

Pancakes on the Comal

Washing

I have so much respect for anyone who makes enormous amounts of apple butter or jam or jellies or anything that requires preserving.  For some reason, I thought that I could just toss a bunch of apples in a pot and let it cook away for a few hours while I graded papers and, ta-da! , I would have apple butter.  Not quite.

It’s not that apple butter is difficult.  It’s not at all.  It’s just that, like most things, it requires a lot of attentiveness and care.

Cooking the Apples

I used Heidi’s recipe from 101 cookbooks, except that I left out the sugar completely, and I added some shakes of allspice to the spice mix.  The process is straightforward.  Wash, cut, and cook with enough apple cider to cover the apples until they are soft.  Then, puree the cooked apples.  Return the pureed apples to the pot and cook for a few hours (1-2) until the liquid thickens into butter.  THIS is where things get exciting.

For one thing, the pot you use is really important.  I used two pots for 1/4 of a bushel of apples (probably less, actually).  The thick stainless steel pot worked wonders, while the thinner pot that I usually use for soups took forever to thicken.

Cooking Down the Apple Butter

When you’re cooking down the apple butter, it turns into this lava-like substance that pops and spurts everywhere.  My floor is a sticky mess now, and I’m dreading the prospect of scrubbing down the stove.  I recommend covering the stove with aluminum foil before you start to save yourself the extreme cleaning that will inevitably be needed post-apple butter extravaganza.

The sterilizing of the jars was a bit tricky as well, since I don’t have the proper equipment… not even tongs, so I was using wooden spoons and soup ladle to slide the jars down the side of the pot into the boiling water.  I started with 8 full jars of apple butter.  Only 6 survived.  Not a bad rate, I don’t think.

The apple butter turned out delicious, and I love being able to give these jars to my friends as a fall treat.  Tomorrow night, I’m making cornbread to spread the butter on.  In the meantime, I’m savoring the sweet and spicy smell that of the apple butter that is lingering in my apartment even though I made the apple butter 3 days ago.  It sure beats the stink of cabbage that my neighbors complain about when I make my macrobiotic healing drinks.  :)

Apple Butter Ready to Eat and Share

Gourds in the Ann Arbor farmers' market

This weekend, I drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to visit my dear friends Eva and Tom who recently moved there.  I was eager to see them in their new home and also to have a very restful and food-full relaxing weekend.  I have been really fortunate to have spent a week in Eva and Tom’s home in Barcelona two years ago and to have had Eva spend a week in my home a year and a half ago.  All of these sleepovers have led to some great feasting.  We are not so comfortable in each other’s kitchens that sometimes I get confused when I don’t automatically know where a pot or a certain utensil is in her kitchen.  We are quite a vegetarian team in the kitchen, and we cooked a fantastic squash soup, the recipe for which is below.  We spent the weekend going to the farmers’ market, apple picking, cooking apple pie, having long leisurely meals with lots of conversation, and just enjoying each other’s company in a beautiful setting of russet and golden leaved trees.

The squash soup is really simple and very nourishing.  Don’t worry about pureeing it like most squash recipes call for… the squash gets so soft when cooked then you can mush it with your spoon in the bowl.  I added burdock and tamari when I made it again this afternoon, because I like them, but they’re not essential.  Also, if you’re allergic to cumin (hi, Jess!), you could just leave it out.  I think just adding cinnamon would really give it enough flavor.

Squash Soup

SQUASH SOUP

INGREDIENTS

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. cinnamon (or 1 cinnamon stick)

1 small butternut squash, seeds removed and cut into smallish pieces (leave the skin on)

1/2 cup sliced burdock root

1 Tbsp. tamari sauce

1 tsp. sea salt

Saute the onion and carrot in the sesame oil for 2-3 minutes.  Add the spices and stir to mix.  Cook for about 2 minutes more.  Cover with just enough water and cook for 2-3 minutes more while you’re cutting up the squash.  Add the squash and burdock.  Cover with just enough water, maybe about one finger’s width of water above the squash.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.  In the last 5 minutes or so, add the tamari sauce and salt.  Eat and enjoy!  (You can also garnish with parsley or cilantro….)

kale, chard, and collards at the farmers' market

herbs at the farmers' market

me loving the mint

me with a sunflower

apple freshly picked from the tree

Eva eating an apple in the orchard

picking Spy apples

Eva with the Spys

Beautiful fall colors in the orchard

Eva and me at the farmers' market

Pear Compote

I hardly ever eat fruit anymore now that I have been eating so many vegetables and whole grains as part of macrobiotics.  When I do eat it, the natural sweetness of the fruit doubles in intensity and delicious satisfaction.  Last weekend, the pears looked so gorgeous and so fallish, so I picked up two Bartletts and let them ripen on my counter for about 4 days.  Finally, tonight I made pear compote inspired by Natasha’s amazing peach mint compote that she served at September’s macrobiotic dinner.

I have always loved the combination of pear and ginger as well as pear and hazelnut, so I combined all of them in this recipe.  When I came home from school today, I mixed this together and let it sit while I threw two loads of laundry into the machines in the basement and went for my daily walk to enjoy the afternoon.  I love recipes that you can leave alone for a while, and, when you come back, they have work their magic with the help of time.

GINGER PEAR COMPOTE

INGREDIENTS

16 oz. apple juice (2 cups)

1/3 cup brown rice syrup

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla (if you have it on hand, if not, it’s not completely necessary)

1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger

1/2 cup raisins

2 Bartlett pears, ripe and cut into slices

1/2 cup hazelnuts, chopped roughly

Mix the apple juice, brown rice syrup, salt, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Add the ginger, raisins, and pears.  Stir lightly to coat the pears in liquid and to disperse the ginger and raisins.  Place a plate on top of the pears and liquids.  Place something heavy (I always use my molcajete — my curious cats don’t stand a chance against that hunk of lava rock) on top of the plate.  This is the same technique that you use to make a pressed salad.  Let sit for at least an hour or longer.  When you are ready to serve, spoon out some pears with liquid into a bowl and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts.

Eat and enjoy!

Cornbread

When I bought cornmeal for the pizza crust that I made last week, I discovered that sweet ol’ Bob had included a recipe for Gluten-free Cornbread on the back of the “Gluten-Free Cornmeal” bag.  On a side note, I’m confused as to what he’s putting in the non-gluten-free cornmeal besides, well, corn?  Maybe I need to take a closer look at the bags the next time I’m in the market.

Anyway, not to sound like a broken record, but it’s cold and rainy in Chicago, and I spent all morning cheering runners on at the Race for Congo Women on the lakefront which was fantastic and a lot of fun, but, afterwards, I was cold… and I was curious to try out some baking.

Get yourself a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornmeal and follow the instructions on the back.  I’ll actually print the ingredients here with my substitutions included, because he uses a lot of non-vegan ingredients.  I ate it plain straight out of the oven, but I think this would be delicious next to a serving of aduki beans and squash and some steamed or sauteed collard greens or kale.  It would also be good with carrot butter or apple butter smeared on top for breakfast.  How do you like your cornbread?  Leave me a note and let me know.  :)

CORNBREAD – GLUTEN-FREE, SUGAR-FREE, DAIRY-FREE

DRY INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup tapioca flour *

1/2 cup potato starch (I used brown rice flour instead)

1/4 sorghum flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup sugar (I used about 1/4 cup brown rice syrup)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1 tsp. sea salt

LIQUID INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs (use 2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal mixed with 6 Tbsp. water)

1 cup milk (I used rice & soy milk blend from Edenblend)

1/3 cup canola oil (I used corn oil, because, duh, it’s CORNbread, and I can’t stand canola oil)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  MIx all of the dry ingredients together.  Add the liquid ingredients.  Mix.  Spread into a greased pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Eat and enjoy!

* Note: Save yourself some money and buy this in a Caribbean, South American, or African market.  It’s also known as yuca flour or cassava flour.

Pizza

This is really not macrobiotic, but, on a rainy and cold fall day after a stressful week, pizza is comfort.  Sometimes I just miss bread, the chewiness, the pulling apart of it with your teeth, the full mouth feel.  My friend, Jessica, turned me on to the fact that Whole Foods makes their own boxed gluten-free pizza mix, and, miracle of miracles, it has NO SUGAR in it!!!!  Yay!  They use honey instead, so, blurring the line on whether a vegan eats honey or not, I am a big fan of this pizza crust.  Okay, honestly, I wish they had used brown rice flour instead of white rice flour, but I’ll save my pickiness for later.

Just follow the instructions on the box.  It’s very simple.  The trick, though, is what to do about the eggs.  No problem.  For each egg that the recipe calls for, mix 1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp. water.  Voila.  Sally, my “twin”, introduced me to the use of flaxseed meal as a binder last January with the best brownie recipe EVER… but you’ll have to pester her for that one.  I’m under sworn secret recipe guardianship.  :)  Not only do you get a good binder, but the flaxseed adds a nutritional bonus to your comforting baked treat.  Over Christmas break, I want to try my hand at creating some cookie recipes using this trick.

The other substitution I did was to use brown rice syrup in place of the sugar it called for.  Also, after I mixed all of the ingredients together, I added about 1/3 cup of cornmeal to hold the dough together and to give it some extra flavor and crustiness.  Sherrie suggested this, and it made a terrific difference in the flavor.  It’s not necessary, but it adds a little special something.

This pizza dough turned out really well.  The first time I made it was at Sherrie’s house, and we used a deep pan that I think people use for cooking chickens?  Or maybe lasagna?  I’m not sure what it’s called, but it had high sides.  I recommend using this kind of baking pan if you have it, because the pizza crust rose and ended up chewy and fluffy like focaccia.  When I made it a second time at home (see pic above), I used a baking pan, and it was more like a thin crust pizza.  Still good but the first version was absolutely sumptuous.

Cheese is really unnecessary.  In the pic above, I smeared a homemade pesto sauce over the unbaked crust first.  I added garlic to this pesto version, because I was feeling a bit under the weather.  Then, I sauteed mushrooms and onion slices in olive oil, and spread these out over the pesto sauce before baking in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

If you want cheese on your pizza, I recommend this cashew cheese.  You are supposed to make it two days ahead of when you want to use it, but I don’t believe that’s entirely necessary, since you’re cooking it.  This cheese is smooth and light and tastes delicious when cooked on the pizza.

Be creative, have fun, and eat well.  By the way, I think pizza is an excellent party food and good for people who are not used to the more unusual ways of gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free eaters.  It’s familiar.

Rutabaga and Yam

I am infatuated with rutabagas.  Greatly ignored in American cooking, they are beautiful and delicious!  Just look at that gorgeous purple blending into yellow.

For some reason, I always thought rutabagas were enormous, unwieldy roots.  I have this vague memory of my mother telling a story when I was a child of my father struggling to cut a rutabaga for  Thanksgiving.  ???  Maybe the rutabagas in Georgia are gargantuan?  Maybe my memory is foggy.

At any rate, rutabagas are not unwieldy at all.  I am trying to expand my diet beyond my staples of kale, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips, squash, and onion.  Every time I go to the market, I try to find something that I have no idea what to do with.  I let it sit in my refrigerator for days while we get acquainted with each other.  Then, eventually, I figure out what to do with it.  Yes, I’m that annoying person in line at the checkout with all of the weird produce that the cashier has to ask, “Is this a turnip?”  No, it’s a rutabaga.  Smile.  :)  As if I had any clue before that day.

I looked up some information on rutabagas, and what a find!  According to Wikipedia, the word “rutabaga” comes from the Swedish word “rotabagge” which means “root ram”.  I’m not really sure what a root ram is, but, that explains why rutabaga has been more commonly known as “Swedish turnip”.  Before pumpkins were available in the UK, they were used as jack o’lanterns and were (I LOVE this!) an ancient symbol of  a damned soul.  Buah-ha-ha-ha!  I always thought that damned souls would either look a lot worse, like say a horseradish root or much more devastatingly beautiful, like an eggplant.

Rutabagas apparently resulted from a cabbage mixing with a turnip.  According to “Vegetarians in Paradise” (really?), 3 1/2 ounces of rutabaga has:  561 IU vitamin A (beta-carotene), 48 mg calcium, 53 mg iron, 23 mg magnesium, and 326 mg potassium among many other fantastic minerals and vitamins.  Not bad at all.  Especially for a damned soul.

The recipe below is adapted from Annemarie Colbin’s book The Natural Gourmet.  Be bold.  Eat a rutabaga…. and enjoy!

Rutabaga-Yam Mash

RUTABAGA-YAM MASH

INGREDIENTS

1 rutabaga

1 yam

1/4 tsp sea salt

1-2 Tbsp oil (I used sesame oil, Colbin recommends butter)

Cut the rutabaga and yam into chunks (don’t bother peeling them).  Put in a pot, and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and cook until soft (about 30-40 minutes).  Drain the water.  Mash or puree them (I just mashed) with the oil and salt.  Serve warm.  Eat and enjoy!

* Note:  I felt like the yam overpowered the rutabaga.  Next time, I would use 2 rutabagas for every 1 yam.  I think I would also throw a parsnip in to see how they all interact.  Some spices you could add for more flavor would be nutmeg, sage, or rosemary.  By themselves, though, the rutabaga has a slight spicy and sweet undertone.  It’s definitely not bland.

** Another note:  This is a great dish for Thanksgiving to replace the boring and very yin regular ol’ mashed potatoes.

Kinpira Soup

The edges of the leaves are starting to turn golden and orange, and some of the elm trees have already released their feathery yellow leaves to the whim of the wind.  Alliteration, anyone?  :)

Yesterday was a gray day in Chicago but still rather warm beneath a cool breeze.  A perfect day to make soup.  I learned how to make Kinpira Soup from Natasha Valodin who runs a macrobiotic cooking center in Skokie.  She’s an amazing woman who truly glows from the inside-out.  This is her recipe.  According to her recipe, this soup is good for vitality, strengthening blood and calming emotions (I’m hoping for a lot of the last part).

KINPIRA SOUP

INGREDIENTS

1 carrot cut in matchsticks

1 burdock cut in matchsticks

1/2 cup winter squash cut into chunks (leave the skin on — I used butternut)

1 onion diced (I used leek instead, because it’s still warm outside, and I had one)

1/2 cup cabbage, sliced

1-2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 strip of wakame

1 tsp. miso

tamari or shoyu to taste

optional for garnish: ginger, scallions

1. Heat the oil in a pan.  Add the burdock and carrots and saute.  I also added daikon, because it was getting soft in my refrigerator.  Saute for a few minutes, then cover with water and bring to a boil.  Cover with a lid and simmer on low for 30 minutes.

2.  Add the squash, cabbage, and onion (or leek) and continue to cook until the veggies are soft, about 20 minutes.  Add more water so that the veggies are covered.

3.  Add about 1 cup more water and the wakame.

4.  Return to a boil and add the miso and tamari.  Cook on low for 3 minutes.

5.  Serve garnished with ginger and scallions if you wish.

Eat and enjoy!

Scrumptious Squash Pie

Apple Pie

I have always been a cookie girl and have never been too intrigued by pies.  I always felt like there was too much mush and not enough pie crust.  My views on the matter have done a 180 since starting macrobiotics, however.  I’ve made two squash pies in the past two weeks and finally remembered to take a picture on the second round.  Pies have so many benefits.  They satisfy a sweet tooth.  They are very adaptable and flexible to many types of experimentation.  They look beautiful and therefore are excellent potluck and picnic participants.  The first squash pie went to the amazing performance of Redmoon theater in the park by Lake Michigan.  The second squash pie stayed at home and was devoured by me.  The apple pie was shared with my two dear and engaged friends, Jess and CP, as the cherry on top to an incredible gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free homemade teriyaki pizza made by Jess.

I’ve been playing around with the pie crust, and I think I’ve hit upon the right combination.  I’ve been using the pie crust to make cookies as a snack to take to work, but I need to play with the recipe more before I publish it.

The pie crust is based on the recipe for a wheatfree crust in Kristina Turner’s “The Self-Healing Cookbook”.  However, I thought the oats called for in the original recipe made the crust too crumbly (plus, I’m allergic to oats and ended up quite sick after the first squash pie version).  The squash pie is also from her book.  The apple pie is based on the recipe from Annemarie Colbin’s book “The Book of Whole Meals.”

PIE CRUST

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free baking mix

1 cup brown rice flour

1/4 tsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

3/4 cups water

Mix all of the ingredients together until a dough forms.  Press the dough into a pie pan.  Cook at 350 F for 20 minutes.

SQUASH PIE

INGREDIENTS

Pie crust (see above)

1 butternut squash, cut into chunks

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp. kuzu

1/4 tsp. sea salt

2-4 T. brown rice syrup (not entirely necessary, can leave out)

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice (optional)

pinch of nutmeg and cloves

Cut the squash in quarters and remove the seeds.  Boil in water until soft.  Peel.  Puree the squash in a blender.  Dissolve the kuzu in water.  Mix the pureed squash into the kuzu, add rice syrup and spices.  Fill the pie crust and bake 25 minutes at 350 F.  Cool before serving.  (This pie gets firmer the cooler it is.  It’s great the next day, so you can make it ahead and keep it in the refrigerator.)

APPLE PIE

INGREDIENTS

Pie crust (see above)

6 apples (I used Gala, because those are my favorite — use what you want — be creative)

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. cinnamon (or to taste)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 Tbsp. kuzu dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1 cup almonds, toasted and chopped (or ground)

Chop the apples up (don’t peel them), remove the cores, and put them in a pot.  Cover the apples with just enough water.  Add the lemon juice, cinnamon, and vanilla.  (You can also add raisins at this point, if you want).  Boil until the apples are soft and able to be mashed.  Mash them a little.  Don’t worry too much about excessive liquid since the kuzu will thicken it up.  Add the kuzu, and stir in well.  Pour the apples into the pie crust (don’t cook the pie again).

I chopped up raw almonds and sprinkled them on top.  However, the next time I make this pie, I think I’ll toast the almonds first and then grind them a bit in the blender before sprinkling them over the pie.  You can use a different nut, if you want, or no nut at all, but the nuts really give it a good texture and keep it from being just applesauce in a pie crust.

We ate this pie with Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss vanilla ice cream……. it was divine!!!

So, there you have it.  Two very easy fall pies.  Both are dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and stress-free.  They look beautiful, and no one will ever know what’s “missing”.  I plan on making these for Thanksgiving this year.

* I think you could use the same recipe for the apple pie but substitute pears for the apples and hazelnuts for the almonds.  Voila.  Pear and hazelnut pie.  If you want to get really fancy, you could add a little bit of frangelico to the pears while they’re cooking.  So many options!  Let me know which ones you come up with.  Enjoy and eat well!

"Pad Leftovers"

Two weeks of the school year down.  I feel like we’ve been in session for months already.  I’ve been struggling, as always, to maintain balance in my life — to take my daily walks and do my daily meditations even when I’m wiped out and stressed about school.  Those walks make me sane.  I’m also hoping to feel more grounded and better prepared in the weeks to come so that I can devote more focus and energy to eating well and getting enough rest.  I find myself getting into ruts, eating the same thing day after day, because it’s easier to making one big batch for the week than to be cooking from scratch every night.  I tend to cook fresh vegetables daily at 6 am.

After a week of millet and leeks (which were delicious, by the way, but slightly boring), I finally made myself a good, flavorful breakfast that broke my rut of grain + steamed vegetables.  I call it “Pad Leftovers”.  :)  It’s so easy, it’s laughable.  Here’s the recipe…. although “recipe” sounds almost presumptuous for such a simple, throw-it-together in one pan dish.  It’s a great dish to make for dinner and eat the next day for lunch since it’s good both hot and cold.  You could also throw in some tofu or tempeh if you wanted extra protein.  Play around with the flavors and let me know what kinds of variations you come up with.  Enjoy!

PAD LEFTOVERS

INGREDIENTS

2 cups rice noodles

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1/3 cup diced onion (or green onions or leeks)

1/3 cup green cabbage diced

1 cup (or more!) leftover vegetables already steamed (kale, bok choy, parsnip, carrot, etc.)

1 Tbsp. tamari or shoyu

1 cup fresh cilantro, cut up roughly

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

optional – freshly grated ginger

Soak the rice noodles in cold water for half an hour.  (I.e. do this first, then feed your cats, water your plants, get dressed, etc.)  Heat the sesame oil in a pan, add the onion and cabbage.  Cook until the onion is golden.  Add the leftover vegetables.  Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring.  Add the rice noodles, tamari, and ginger.  Cook, stirring, for about 3-5 minutes.  Be careful that the rice noodles don’t stick to the pan (if they do, that’s okay — they’re really tasty when they’re crunchily burnt).  Add the cilantro.  Turn off the heat and toss everything together well.  Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.  Eat and enjoy!