Finally

Beatrice Peltre’s La Tartine Gourmande blog was the 2nd blog I ever read (the first one was 101 Cookbooks), and I am still especially mesmerized by Bea’s food photography. Her whimsical, playful food styling with the use of bright clear colors (and also good dose of pink) still fascinate me. I also have made several of her recipes (like the tea almond cakes, and her apple olive oil cake) and she basically got me into gluten-free baking, not because I need gluten-free but because the gluten-free flours such as quinoa flour, rice flour and almond flour are so much tastier than regular flour.
Since 2009 she has been working on a cookbook and I was sure this would be one I’d buy without having ever looked into it. – yesterday, it was finally released and arrived. Can’t wait to explore the recipes!

Cozy Sunday

Sunday! The official day off. I already went for a very chilly and icy walk, bundled up in my most serious winter clothes (almost floor length thick down coat, fur lined winter boots). The woodstove now is roaring hot and brings a cozy warmth to  the living room and the kitchen. Chanelle relaxes on a whicker chair not far from the woodstove and takes in the warmth. Baby Cat snacks on organic, free range, freshly roasted chicken legs (and purrs while eating). The sun is slowly setting behind the trees, the TV is on and New England is ready to get game on.

Vegan lentil walnut porcini meatballs

The other day I came across the recipe for vegetarian meatballs from the Meatball Shop in Manhattan. Vegetarian is nice, vegan is better. So, I added my own tweaks and twists to the meatball recipe and made it vegan. And still very tasty.

Preparation of lentils:

• 1/2 cup beluga/French lentils
• 1/4 cup red lentils
• 1/4 cup chickpeas
• 1 1/2 quarts water
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 2 garlic cloves

Wash and rinse the lentils and chickpeas, and place in a pot with the water, the bay leaf and garlic. Bring to a boll, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours  on low (simmer only for 30 min if you soaked the lentils and chickpeas for 12h). There is likely little water left, but if there is then drain it. It should make about 2 1/2 cups of cooked lentils.

Lentil walnut porcini meatballs:

• 2 cups cooked beluga and red lentils and chickpeas
• 1 ts olive oil
• 1/2  red onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, microplaned
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 2 TB tomato paste
• 1 TB red pepper spread (avjar, or Trader Joes red pepper paste)
• 1 oz dried shitake mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water, drained and chopped
• 1 oz dried porcini mushroom, reconstituted in hot water, drained and chopped
• 2 TB BBQ sauce
• 4 TB ground flax seed, 1/4 cup of water (mix to make 2 flax eggs)
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1/4  cup bread crumbs
• 3 TB finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a  large baking sheet with some olive oil so that the meatballs won’t stick. Set aside. 

Prepare the flax eggs by combining the ground flax seeds with hot water, and set aside. The mix will gel.

Add the olive oil to a frying pan and sauté the onions, chopped carrots, minced garlic, thyme and reconstituted mushrooms over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for about 5-7 min. Add the tomato paste and red pepper paste and continue to cook for about 2 minutes, until all the ingredients are mixed well and the liquid is absorbed. Transfer the mixture to a food processor, and let cool in the food processor for about 5 min.

Add about 75% of the cooked, and slightly cooled lentils/chickpeas to the vegetables in the food processor, and chop coarsely until all the ingredients are well combined. (It will be quite mushy, that makes the lentil balls even more sticky and hold together). Add the mixture to a large mixing bowl.

Add the flax egg, regular bread crumbs, panko bread crumbs, chopped walnuts, BBQ sauce and the salt to the pureed mix as well as the non-pureed cooked lentil mix. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly incorporated. Let sit for about 10 min (for the bread crumbs to soak up the liquid and bind the meatballs).

Use a small ice cream scoop and scoop out ping pong ball sized meatballs. Place the lentil balls in the prepared baking sheet, allowing 1/4 inch of space between the balls and in even rows vertically and horizontally to form a grid.

Roast at 400F for 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. Allow the meatballs to cool for 5 minutes in the baking dish before serving.

The cold and the warm

We are in the deep freeze here for 2 weeks already, temperatures in the low teens, and now a handful of snow. The good about the snow is that it allows for a whee bit of rigorous outdoor exercise again such as gliding through the sunny, cold woods on skis and still feeling warm. Warm is good.

Sunburst salad in the middle of winter

It is continuing to be cold, very very cold and even some snow on the way. The woodstove is fired up day and night to keep us warm, and anything reminding me remotely of summer and warmth is welcomed. The grocery store had a delivery of beautifully looking strawberries from Florida that had the wonderful aroma of just ripe strawberries, an aroma so good that it convinced me to buy them out of season (for Maine, at least)  but at least national and east coast (all depends on the scope of local, right?). They were a great addition to the sunburst salad the other day, rounded out with mixed lettuce, orange bell pepper, goat cheese and toasted pine nuts with balsamic vinaigrette.

Winter Farmers Market

Today was one of the Saturdays when the winter farmers market takes place. Yes, we are in Maine, it is freezing cold and we have an outdoor winter farmers market. We are really serious about farmers market. As expected there was not much offered with regard to vegetables in the dead of winter, but goat cheese, fresh free range eggs, fish from the coast, milk as well as vegan cupcakes were available. Everyone was buddled up. A stand with hot coffee would have made a killing!

Black bread

101cookbooks is one of the first blogs I’ve ever read, and it is still one of my favorite ones. Heidi posted a recipe of a black bread in the last few days, and as bread enthusiast I planned to try it. The ingredients sounded esoteric for bread (cocoa? espresso? molasses?) but it could really work for a dark rye bread, which I love. Since I am rather busy and  have little time to babysit a bread right now, I made it using the breadmachine. My breadmachine makes 1-1 1/2 pound loaves so I halved of the ingredients. Verdict? It is delicious!!

Find the original recipe here!

Busy Beaver

Hey there! How is your new year going so far? Resolutions, plans, a clean canvas? Busy? When I walked along the river yesterday I saw the handywork of some really busy beavers…

Green Garbanzo Beans

There was a time when garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) were mostly of the white variety. Then came the black garbanzo beans, which are really more  brown. Rumor has it real black indeed exist. But searching for my beloved petite frozen brussels sprouts at WholeFoods brought about a new variety: frozen green chickpeas.

Green chickpeas are basically young chickpeas that -- when left to mature on the plant -- turn into the blonde variety that is dried. They are like edamame, and they do taste like peas rather than regular chickpeas. Nevertheless, off to trying them out, although I cringed at the cash register at the steep price tag ($4.69 for a small bag), but then what is not expensive at Whole Paycheck.

Green garbanzo beans are basically raw garbanzo beans and do not take very long to cook. I put them in the microwave for about 3min with some water and they were ready to go. WF conveniently offers a few recipes for green chickpeas such as green hummus and chickpea guacamole,  but I think I will eat them as a salad ingredient.

Ice Beach

The days between Christmas and New Year are spent by many people at either one of 2 locations: the cold mountains, skiing, snowboarding, Aspen and the like, or at a warm beach, like St Barts or Miami. Yesterday, I took my last trip of 2011 to the ocean at Mount Desert Island, and I did not have to choose, I had both, the ocean, the beach and the snow and the ice. A beautiful atmosphere.

Vacation includes fine dining. Mine was tapas at the ever beautiful Cleonice in Ellsworth.

Hidden Treasures

Today I did something that I normally don’t allow myself doing. Visit the Humane Society. Because one of these wonderful animals always tugs at my heart strings and I end up with a new cat (I have 4). But how can you walk away? So, instead I would like to ask you to visit your local Humane Society and see if you find a wonderful animal who you adopt into your family. Or just go and play with the cats and dogs for a bit, bring them a toy, a treat, make their day.

Here is the first inmate I entertained today. A wonderful 2-year old long-haired gray-white girl. Very smart, very loving. And while I played someone stuck a sticker on her kennel. “I’ve been adopted !”. I am not surprised.

I almost adopted her myself.

And then there was the nursery. With 4 little, 3-months old brothers, 3 orange tabbies and one gray kitten, scared to death. The only place to hide was the litterbox.

 

Or behind the cushions.

Maybe, the litterbox is better after all.

So, go, and explore and maybe you have room for one more kitten or cat or dog.

Winter in New England

There is some snow, not as much as usual yet, but it still makes for the wintery atmosphere we associate with New England. Looking at the photos it reminds me of the winter scenes of Valley of the Dolls, the 60s movie about three different women. Not much has changed. At least not in the wintery scenes of New England. It is serene, quiet and beautiful.

Merry Christmas!

Someone around here asked Santa for a Christmas sweater… doesn’t she look happy?

Adventures in Nut Butters

This morning, I saw several home-made almond butters as gifts for the holidays. They looked so luxurious and with a texture just like the Justin’s maple almond butter I am out of, so I decided to give nut butter my first try. A cup of raw almonds, mixed with 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, a tablespoon of chia seeds and a tablespoon of dark flax seed as well as 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. I mixed it all up, and distributed the almonds on a baking sheet, and roasted them at 300F for about 20min. Now, the food processor got to work. And to work,  it did get.

I poured all the almonds in the food processor, added a 1/2 TB of honey and pulsed the nuts. I scraped down the walls a  few times, and then let it run. And let it run. And let it run. According to the recipe it should be buttery after 10min. But after 10 min it still looked like coarse dark almond meal (center picture). So, I let the processor run for another 5 min, and another 5 min, and another 5 min….. For a while there I suspected that the only thing that would get to a liquid consistency would be the food processor’s motor. But I put faith in those recipes telling me “Be patient!” After about 30min, I gave it a rest (and the food processor a cool down). It looked like the picture in the bottom right, a thick fudge like consistency. After another 1/2 hour I added a tablespoon of sunflower seed oil, and let the food processor do its thing a while longer.

Overall, it took about 1 hour until the almond butter had the required consistency (top right picture). Phew! Tastes good, though. And the food processor survived, too.

Cinnamon-Spiced Candied Nuts

I love some crunch on my lunch time salads --- not just simple crunch with healthy nuts, but luxurious crunch with nuts candied in a tad of butter, brown sugar and sometimes a pinch of cayenne pepper. But it is the holidays, and time to change things up: time for vanilla and cinnamon. Delicious (and not just as a salad topping)!

Cinnamon spiced candied nuts

• 3/4 cup slivered almonds
• 3/4 cup walnut halves, chopped into medium sized pieces (or chopped pecans)
• 1/2 TB butter
• 1 ts vanilla extract
• 2 TB brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 ts ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground cloves (cautious, this is a strong flavor, add very little).

In a large skillet melt the butter on medium heat and add the vanilla extract. Turn down the heat to low, and add the nuts, the brown sugar and the spices and salt  (it might be good to premix the spices and the sugar before adding them to the pan). Stir the mixture until all nuts are well coated. Slowly turn the heat higher to medium heat and constantly gently stir the mix. It will take about 2-3 min until you see the sugar melting and becoming candy-like, stir for 1 more minute, turn of the heat and take the pan off the stove. Gently stir the mixture for about 1 min until it is slightly cooled off, and then distributed in a single layer on a paper towel lined baking sheet. Wait about 15 min until the candied nuts are cooled and can be stored in an airtight container.