Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread

Santa’s in the house (or, at least, in the neighborhood). It’s time to get your gingerbread on. This recipe is a riff on traditional gingerbread. It has generous dollops of fresh cranberry sauce stirred through the batter. What you get is a taste of traditional…

Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian

November 12, 2018

Of Cabbages, Kings and Flying Pigs: Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup

The time has come, the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings. …

Chowder, Soups, Vegetables, Vegetarian

October 22, 2018

Barley And Lentil Salad With Feta

What a delightful way to get some fiber!

According to the medical experts, you need about 30 grams of fiber each day (women/25 and men/38). This salad meets about half of your daily requirement.

If you hog all the avocado, you get even closer to your daily fiber target. A whole avocado has about 13 grams of fiber. Good news for avocado freaks! (You know who you are.)

And…if you add 100 grams of dark chocolate as your dessert, you’ve pretty much nailed it. Dark chocolate (70% or higher) has 11 grams of fiber.

See, it’s not so hard to get all the fiber you need in your diet. In fact, it can be downright delicious.

Barley and Lentil Salad with Feta

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Ingredients

For the Salad

1/2 C. dry green lentils
1/2 C. dry pearl barley
1 garlic clove (peeled)
1 tomato (chopped)
1 packed cup fresh spinach (chopped)
1/2 C. crumbled feta cheese
1/4 small red onion (finely chopped)
Freshly ground black pepper
Garnish with sliced avocado, chopped roasted walnuts, tomatoes, red onion and extra feta

For the Dressing

1/4 C. olive oil
1/4 C. balsamic vinegar
1 T. grainy mustard
1 t. maple syrup (or honey)
1 garlic clove (crushed)

Instructions

Put lentils, barley and garlic clove into a pot of water The water should cover the grains/lentils by about 2 inches. Bring the water to a boil and cook for about 45 minutes until the lentils and the barley are tender. Once the water comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer. Drain the lentils and barley and discard the garlic clove. Set aside to cool.
Combine the cooled lentils and barley with tomato, spinach, feta, and onion in a large bowl. Sprinkle with some freshly-ground black pepper.
Add the dressing ingredients to a bowl or a small jar. Shake or whisk the ingredients together. Pour over the salad (I didn't use all the dressing. Add dressing to your taste.) Toss the salad to coat with the dressing.
Garnish with additional sliced red onion, roughly-chopped roasted walnuts, sliced avocado and/or a bit of extra crumbled feta. Serve or refrigerate until needed.

Nutrition

Calories

2144 cal

Fat

69 g

Carbs

334 g

Protein

42 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

https://bluecayenne.com/barley-and-lentil-salad-with-feta

This recipe is adapted from one in Spilling The Beans by Rosendaal and Duncan. You can get the cookbook here.

Avocados, lentils, salad, Salad Dressings, Salads, Vegetables, Vegetarian

October 17, 2018

Fast Food: Skillet Chili

This probably never happens to you, but I sometimes find myself wanting to get in and out of the kitchen quickly after a tiring day. If I can do that and still produce a great meal, I’m one happy camper. This is a recipe…

Avocados, Beans, Main Dishes, Mexican, Vegetables, Vegetarian

October 12, 2018

Minestrone, A Wistful Pup and Letting Go of Summer

There is an old Italian saying O mangi questa minestra o salti dalla finestra. That roughly translates to “Eat the soup or jump out of the window”–an exclamation for those times when inaction is off the table and you just have to do something–anything. Take it…

Soups, Vegetables, Vegetarian

September 28, 2018

Lemon-Almond Butter Cake

Raise your hands if you are fans of lemon curd in all its piquant wonderfulness.

Good. I thought so. Read on.

This delicious lemon-almond butter cake is a crumbly cake made with regular flour, almond flour and a generous amount of home-made lemon curd. When you’ve got the cake batter in the pan, you drop dollops of the lemon curd onto the batter. As the cake cooks, the batter rises around the lemon curd and, in the end, you have a pretty warm- brown cake interspersed with the yellow splotches of curd.

One taste and holy moly. (Sorry. I hope that isn’t swearing.)

Lemon-Almond Butter Cake

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Ingredients

Lemon Curd

Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
3/4 C. plus 2 T. sugar
4 extra-large eggs
6 T. unsalted butter (cubed)

For the Cake
9 T. unsalted butter (softened)
1 C. plus 1 T. flour
1 C. plus 1 to 2 T. sugar
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. kosher salt
2 extra-large eggs
1/2 C. ground toasted almonds (I used almond flour)
2 T. toasted sliced almonds
Heavy cream to garnish (optional)
1 T. almond liqueur (optional)

Instructions

To make the curd, combine zest, juice, sugar and eggs in an heatproof bowl and beat well. Add butter cubes. (I used the ceramic insert in my double boiler.)
Put water into the bottom of a double boiler or a regular sauce pan, heat the water to simmering, and place the glass bowl (or double boiler top) over the simmering water. Cook your curd batter until the butter melts and the batter thickens into curd. You will need to stir it constantly with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until this happens. This will take from 5-10 minutes. Strain the thickened curd into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap making sure the plastic touches the surface of the curd to keep a skin from forming on top of the curd. Refrigerate the curd until it is cool (at least 1 1/2 hours).
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9-inch spring-form pan by greasing it with 1 tablespoon of butter. Dust the pan with 1 T. of flour, shaking off the excess.
Put the remaining butter and 1 cup of sugar into the bowl of your standing mixer and cream the butter and sugar until they are fluffy. In another bowl, sift the remaining flour, baking powder and salt together. Stir this sifted mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until they start to foam being careful not to overbeat. If you overbeat the eggs, your cake will be tough. Add the eggs and the ground almonds to the batter and mix well. Spoon this batter into your prepared pan.
Drop 8 individual tablespoons of lemon curd around the perimeter of the batter. You will want to leave a 1-inch border. Take your time and be sure to space the drops as evenly as possible. Then, drop 3 to 4 tablespoons of curd into the center of the batter. (You won't use all the curd. Refrigerate it for another use.)
Sprinkle the cake with toasted almonds and 1-2 tablespoons of sugar (or to your taste.)
Bake the cake until it is a nice brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the cake (not the curd) comes out clean This will take about 40 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Then remove the sides of the pan and let it cool completly.
Serve plain or with spoonful of almond-liqueur flavored whipped cream. I found that this cake was at its best on days 2 and 3.

https://bluecayenne.com/lemon-almond-butter-cake

This recipe is adapted from one that appeared in a New York Times food column by Regina Schrambling. You can find that recipe here.

Cakes, Desserts, Lemon, Pastries, Vegetarian

September 20, 2018

Ho. Ho. Ho. and Spinach and Mushroom Gratin

It is the Christmas season here in Huntington Beach. I know that because my local Costco has Christmas trees for sale. Seems a tad early to me, but there is some research that holds that people who decorate early for the holidays lead happier…

Gratins, Main Dishes, Mushrooms, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian

September 13, 2018

Farro: You Can Take It With You (Apparently)

This is a post about farro. People have been enjoying farro for a very long time. Farro images can be found on the walls of the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. The Egyptians stocked the tombs of their leaders with all the good stuff they would…

Grains, salad, Salads, Vegetables, Vegetarian

September 8, 2018

Pucker Up for Nectarine Frozen Yogurt

Trust me. It’s tough photographing frozen yogurt.

The stuff melts. There you are setting up the shot–just the right lighting…just the right angle– and bam! By the time you are ready to release the shutter, your subject has melted and those pretty little chunks of fresh nectarine are bobbing in the milky liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Aargh.

Juliet and I were forced to eat four melted bowls of it before I got the shot right. I thought of it as sacrificing for my art. Juliet thought of it as doggie heaven.

So…we’re experts on this particular recipe. Here’s our review. First,if you put nectarines and plain yogurt together, you get quite a bit of tang. This frozen yogurt has a lot of tang but it’s a tang in the best possible way. You can adjust the sweet side of the equation by adding more sugar.

This frozen yogurt has a lot of other great qualities, too. It is a beautiful hue of…well…nectarine. It is creamy. It pairs beautifully with sorbets or other flavors of frozen yogurt. I paired it with raspberry sorbet at an impromptu dinner party and it was a magical dessert. It’s easy to make, too.

Pucker Up for Nectarine Yogurt

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Ingredients

4 large nectarines (peeled and pitted)
3/4 C. sugar (or add sugar to your taste)
1 t. lemon juice
3 C. 2 % plain Greek yogurt

Instructions

Peel and pit the nectarines. Put the nectarines, sugar, and lemon juice into your blender and blend until you have a very smooth puree. Add the Greek yogurt and blend until the mixture is well combined.
Chill this mixture thoroughly and then process in your ice cream maker. Put the processed frozen yogurt back in your freezer for a few hours to let it firm up.
Cook's note: I made my yogurt in my Instant Pot. It is a long process, but the yogurt was quite good and worked very well in this recipe.