Adventures in Spiralizing Veggies

Our newest kitchen toy is a tiny hand spiralizer. Certainly, on the weekend Twitter feed for #KaliFoodGoddess, I’ve included more than one zoodle recipe because they seem like pretty awesome things to have in your repertoire for future reference.

Spiralizing veggies to pass as noodles are great for those following a raw diet, for those who must avoid pasta whether for gluten allergies or because they must adopt a zero-carb or vegan diets – whether as a lifestyle choice or for health reasons (diabetics, in love with a militant tree-hugger, whatever).

I joke, but there are many reasons why this trend has reached popularity. Any food trend that encourages the use of fruits and vegetables is one I welcome, and new ways to prepare these foods is also welcomed.

The first thing I made were spiralized oven fries. They cooked in 15 minutes and were crunchy and creamy. More importantly, it took less prep time than if I’d peeled and julienned—but this assumes that your knife skills are just average.

The second spiralized dish we had was a simple salad with cucumber and tomatoes in a simple vinaigrette. And then we had a raw zoodle side dish with a pesto sauce – the very first recipe I saw and loved.

I love salads and spiralizers allow for a different presentation, but if you are not into the raw moment, there are plenty of recipes that call for sautéing (usually 5 minutes or less), or roasting (less than 15 minutes), and in some cases you can boil (for less than 5 minutes).

Handheld spiralizers make spaghetti and spaghettini widths, and the more popular veggie slicer models have 3-5 different size blades for a variety of shapes. Certainly, if you have the knife skills, it may not be worth buying tech, but the recipes are still worth checking out nonetheless.

Check out all the fantastic work that Ali 

has put into http://www.inspiralized.com/

You can julienne and create matchstick width to resemble linguine. Likewise, good handling of a good peeler will get you ribbons (paper thin or as thick as your favorite tagliatelle). A combination of knives, peelers, and mandolins (if you already own it) create similar results.

And yes, I realize some of you prefer death to giving up pasta, but if you open up to a few changes, you can add spiralized veggies to your diet and help keep a summer waistline (if that sort of thing interests you).

The changes I suggest will add flavor and texture to your repertoire of taste sensations and how can that be wrong? If an eggplant lasagna can mimic the old original with noodles, so can other veggies bring a whole new dimension to pasta recipes. This is the gentlest way to incorporate meatless dishes to your diet. Also, most of these dishes are perfect for your bento boxes! 

Check out the Pinterest board for recipes - from salad to appetizers, soup to dessert.

No Churn Premium Vanilla Ice Cream

Have you ever saved a recipe knowing that you just needed to save it, because you had to make it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But eventually, and to an expectant transcendental change. I’m talking about a recipe that will change everything. The fantasy recipe that appears in dreams in muted lights...

Enter the Magic Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from the Summer 2010 issue of Cook’s Country, the folks who also do Cook’s Illustrated (including the PBS cooking show). We like them because they test their recipes thoroughly. This doesn’t mean that it will always meet with our palate, but their research does make it easier for us to tweak dishes because we already know the things that may or not work, and what each iteration will yield, and we can avoid the undesirable results.

This recipe does not require an ice cream machine, but it would be easier if you have an electric mixer. You can use a whisk, but it would take a little longer. By longer, I'm speaking of a matter of minutes. A child could do this, and the best part is that it will impress the pants off your guests. (Assuming that's a goal!)

Magic Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes 1 quart

½ cup sweetened condensed milk

1 ounce (about 2 tablespoons) white chocolate chips

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup sour cream

1 ¼ cups cold heavy cream

Pinch of salt

Place condensed milk and chocolate chips in a glass bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds to a minute. (The milk will become like molten lava, so do not test it by touching it.) Stir the mixture and make sure you incorporate the chocolate into the condensed milk. It will resemble a caramel sauce. Let it cool off. Stir in salt, sour cream, and vanilla extract. 

Note: use real vanilla extract, the good stuff, not the fake (vanilla-flavored extract). This will make a difference after freezing and will make the taste pop. It's worth the expense.

Whip cream with an electric mixer or a hand mixer to soft peaks. (I used a metal bowl and placed it and the whisks in the freezer about an hour before using.) Whisk a third of the whipped cream into the chocolate sauce and, once fully incorporated, fold in the rest by hand. 

Note: make your own whipped cream. This will only take 2-3 minutes. Go natural, don't ruin it with processed crap. It's worth it, I promise!

Finally, place in an airtight container and freeze until firm. We have these small, individual portion containers—at about ½ cup each portion, you’ll have between 6-8 servings.

The final product will have a silky finish and it tastes like premium ice cream. The condensed milk gives it a creamy texture, and the whipped cream adds airiness – that lightness that lets it melt in your tongue and make you moan.

Already as we enjoyed our first batch of the Magic Vanilla Ice Cream, we were thinking of ways to tweak it. I suspect that we’ll try this recipe (possibly with blended berries) and make popsicles with it. I also want to try it with milk chocolate chips and do a mixed serving.

Of course, this is a treat, not an everyday thing! If you must, do the ice cream dance to counterbalance the calories. Enjoy!

20 Beautiful Dishes with Edible Flowers

Winter in New York has been brutal! Around The Temple wherein The Goddess cooks, it has been a little chaotic. So imagine our unbounded joy: it is finally Spring!

Mind you, it’s April and we’ve had flurries a couple of times already. It’s just tiresome at this point. We’re tired. But it’s Spring! The air is electric with excitement and possibilities.

In the next few weeks, flowers and trees will begin blooming at large.

I want to explore bringing the joy of blooming flowers inside. Of course, all who can will bring inside beautiful flowers and make spectacular centerpieces. But what of using flowers for culinary purposes to make your plates spectacular centerpieces?

Bring Spring to your table with these great ideas:

1.    Flower Adorned Ice Cubes

2.    Herbal Ice Cubes

3.    Flowering Bee Balm

4.    Cucumber and Borage Canapés

5.    Edible Flowers Canapés

6.    Fried Dandelions

7.    Open Faced Salmon Sandwiches with Edible Flowers

8.    Garden of Eden Spring Rolls

9.    Daylily Fritters

10. Radish Soup with Yogurt and Edible Flowers

11. Pan-fried Squash Blossoms with Creamy Herbed Goat Cheese

12. Veggies with Mint and Pesto and Edible Flowers

13. Edible Flower and Microgreen Salad

14. Nasturtium Butter

15. Spring Flower Lollies

16. Edible Flower Cupcakes

17. Dark Chocolate Pot de Crème (Blender) with Blossoms

18. Strawberry Rose Sorbet

19. Gluten Free Lavender Yogurt Parfait

20. Growing Chives and a Couple of Ideas for the Blossoms

For a comprehensive list of edible flowers (with corresponding and complimentary flavors), bookmark this chart: http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers.htm

You can also rely on this page (with photos, tastes and textures, and culinary uses) to plan your edible flower dishes: http://crackersonthecouch.blogspot.com/2014/06/flowers-for-breakfast.html

There are plenty more recipes online, but this simple list ought to get you started on ideas. Edible flowers can be bought online, in some specialty stores, and from farm and green markets. Play!

Latinize Your Sandwich

I don’t generally spend too much time writing about sandwiches but I take every opportunity to share Warren Zevon’s words of wisdom: “Enjoy every sandwich.” March Madness is a good excuse for tailgating menus and sandwich porn. 

Why bother? A sandwich is just a piece of bread, some meat and possibly cheese, perhaps a spread to bind it and veggies to make it healthier, or crisper… No, I am not talking a deli ham and cheese! If you want ham and cheese, what I am suggesting is that you Latinize it and make it Serrano ham and Manchego cheese on a crusty roll lightly toasted, on which you’ll scrape a piece of garlic and then spread a dash of olive oil on the bread.

Try a gourmet grilled ham and cheese with fried eggs, recipe here

Sexy, no? ¡Si!

Latin America offers a variety of sandwiches that will make your taste buds to screams in ecstasy. You may be familiar with some of these. I suggest trying them all.

Torta Ahogada, Mexico

Patacón Maracucho, Venezuela (gluten-free)

Chivito al Pan, Uruguay

Cuban Sandwich, Cuba

Cemita, Mexico

Choripán, Argentina

Milanesa, Argentina

Chacarero, Chile

Arepas Rellenas, Colombia (gluten-free)

Four tips to Latinize your sandwiches just a touch:

·         Chipotle in adobo – smoky, a little sweet, and spicy (but not too hot). These are sold in stores and can be found in markets with international foods. Otherwise, they can be bought online. We use La Morena.

Escabeche – red onions love the treatment. Jalapeños and carrots also work and give your sandwich an earthy and vibrant dimension (check recipes here).

Black beans – blended or puréed, it makes for an earthy and sophisticated spread (check recipes here).

Avocado – mash up and add a little lemon juice, salt and pepper, and it makes for a creamy spread.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

For those who'd like to explore other tailgating menus, I share these resources (which I offer in no particular order) for you to check out and bookmark to plan out your weekend parties:

Pocket Change Gourmet

Come Home for Comfort

Sporting Parties

Southern Living

Feed Blitz

Cupcake Diaries

You’ve Been Waffled

My uncle bought my grandmother a waffle iron for mother’s day. I’m not sure she thought it was the coolness he thought it was. I was mystified by the four-clover leaf design and could not wait until we made these Belgian waffles that were all the rage!

I loved it. I was hooked the moment the batter hit the iron and the sweet aroma filled my nostrils.

“Get away from there,” Mami warned me. “And don’t touch it, it’s hot!”

As I remember, my grandmother had two waffle recipes. One was pretty much a pancake batter. The other contained corn flour and those waffles were really crispy.

In the past year or so, I have seen waffles used in sandwiches (instead of bread), and a host of recipes for non-waffle stuff you can make in a waffle iron – none originating in Belgium.

Mami’s little waffle maker, with the green top, drowned a horrible death after a hurricane hit Puerto Rico and the river overflowed. In the same manner the river stole one of my dolls decades before, it absconded with Mami’s waffle iron.

In my own kitchen, my George Foreman grill includes waffle plates and I highly recommend it.

We recently replaced the unit, and these recipes seem like great ways to use the little grill (which remains one of my favorite gadgets for its ease of use and removable/interchangeable plates that help keep it clean).

There are at least a handful of non-waffle things I want to try:

Bacon

Hash browns

Churros

Brownies

Falafels

There are plenty of waffle variants to make for breakfast, brunch, snacks or desserts. Breakfast for dinner is a fun possibility: making eggs in the waffle iron or a breakfast quesadilla (there are a few different recipes in the Pinterest board I create for your reference)…

Queso frito. Crab cakes. Soft pretzels. Philly Cheesesteak. Ramen. Oh yes, ramen. Mash potato waffles with cheddar cheese and chives. Pizza!

There’s even a book called Will It Waffle?: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron. I do not own a copy yet, but it is on my wishlist as it includes a recipe for calamari salad.

My vegan and gluten-free folks get at least one recipe they can play with.

Of course, if I find other recipes that look palatable, I will add them to the Pinterest board, FoodGoddess: Waffled.

The beauty of the recipes I have collected is that most are relatively easy and novice cooks can look like geniuses. If a cook gains experience and confidence in the kitchen, I love it!

Pantry Staples: Black Beans

Pantry essentials depend largely on how big a pantry you possess.

I had a friend years ago, that lived in a one-bedroom apartment and her cupboard consisted of three-tier hanging mesh baskets, the top of her fridge, and the floor space below the sink.

My late aunt used to have a hole in the wall pantry, a literal nook-with-shelves built into the wall under the stairs (like Harry Potter’s room!), that she covered with a little curtain.

We live in a house, so our kitchen – while not luxuriously large – is comfortable and we have a small hutch and cabinets.

Your diet and cooking abilities also dictate what your pantry looks like. It may consist of nothing but Oreo cookies in all their glorious varieties and girth! Your cupboard may have nothing but instant ramen. Or it may house your cat...

I will not tell you what you need in yours. That is a very personal choice. I’ll share some of my favorites from time to time, starting with black beans. I love black beans!

Beans are a great source of protein and fiber, and each variety has minerals that are good for you. I love black beans for their earthy flavor and creamy texture, and their endless flexibility.

Some of the better tasting canned black beans available

You can have black beans for breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, and even dessert; and they are substantial enough that if you have them with grains and vegetables, you’ll have a perfectly filling meal without meat. In my experience, black beans go well with seafood, poultry, beef and pork.

You can explore a variety of international dishes, such as Cuban frijoles negros, Brazilian black bean stew (feijoada), or Mexican black bean soup. You can snack on black beans in fajitas, burritos, enchiladas, and salsa. You can go healthy with black bean burgers or for total comfort and indulgence with black bean chili. Finally, you can finish off any meal with black bean ice cream and brownies.

The first time I had black beans, I was visiting a family friend. Doña Sylvia was a Cuban émigré who’d moved to Puerto Rico after the Revolution and befriended our family, becoming a de facto member in a short time.

Doña Sylvia was one of the best cooks whose food I have ever had the fortune to sample. Her black beans were both silky and velvety, and had a hint of tart, spiciness, and that alluring muskiness that lingers on the tongue.

My own frijoles negros vary each time I make it. Sometimes I substitute lemon juice for vinegar. I will use red, green, and sometimes yellow bell peppers – and on occasion something hotter. I may sauté garlic or squeeze roasted garlic into the boiling mixture. I will switch from vidalia to red onions. Sometimes my beans have cuttlefish added to them. If I have a ham hock, it goes in the beans. I may use capers or green olives.

Black beans from a can benefit greatly from fresh ingredients, but you can make the same dish entirely out of pantry ingredients (oregano, pepper, powdered garlic and onions, salt, oil and vinegar). To me, black beans always feel like a treat.

There is a Pinterest board with a variety of recipes that you should check out and try out at your discretion, and tease your palate.