Baked Brown Rice with Red Pepper Flakes

I love Alton Brown's baked brown rice, in part because I've never screwed it up, and in part because it saves pretty well if I don't finish it. But I never want a full recipe, so I usually cut the recipe in half. And I add pepper flakes (and sometimes dried herbs) most of the time, because 1) they're super pretty and 2) they add nice flavor.

This recipe is also pretty easy in that it requires almost no attention once you pop it in the oven--as long as you don't forget about it. Another major plus, especially at the end of the work day. Here's how I do it:

Baked Brown Rice with Pepper Flakes
3/4 cup brown rice
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter (I often use olive oil instead, and this would make it vegan)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme/oregano/fines herbes (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Dump the rice into an 8-inch square baking dish, or into a small casserole dish (I use a tiny dutch oven). Add the butter, salt, pepper flakes, and herbs if using. Bring the water to a boil and then pour it over the rice. Stir to combine. Cover the dish tightly with foil or an oven-safe lid, and then bake in the oven for 1 hour. Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and serve.

Ambercup Squash with Forbidden Rice and Cranberries

When my local growers market was still running, I bought several varieties of squash I hadn't tried before, or had only tried once or twice. I've been slowly working through the pile and recently tried my ambercup squash. I hadn't tried this type before because in my grocery stores past, it was always just in a pile of winter squash with no flavor profile descriptors to be seen. Fortunately my growers market did a much better job with describing it -- though for the life of me, I can't remember what the sign near the bin of these squash said.

Forbidden Rice

I wanted to bake my squash and stuff it and so I looked at my ingredients and saw I had some forbidden rice (a black rice) I'd purchased from my co-op around the same time I bought the squashes. I decided to boil it up, adding split red lentils and some flavorings, and then stuff the rice mixture into the baked squash.

This recipe was nice, because of the small size of the ambercup squashes I used. I could cut them in half and stick two halves in my toaster oven (I could have also used my regular oven, but I didn't actually need to make all the filled squash right away), start the rice, and take the dog on a run -- and do all this after work. After 30 minutes, the squash was quite tender, the rice was ready for lentils and cranberries, and I only had a little bit longer to wait for dinner.

I made the conscious decision to make this recipe vegan, because I know at the beginning of the year, a lot of people make promises to themselves about the eating habits they will adopt in the coming year. My regular readers know I play with vegan recipes regularly, but if you're new to the blog this is a great recipe to start with -- it's savory, filling, and doesn't use (too many) bizarre ingredients. If you don't have access to forbidden rice, you could certainly use a short grain brown rice in a very similar way. Nutritional yeast, which provides a lovely cheese-y flavor without cheese, is available at most major grocery stores now -- but certainly in the bulk section of stores that focus on whole food approaches to eating and online. And this filling could go in a number of different winter squashes, be eaten on top of salad, or (in the summer, though you might have to sub out the cranberries unless you're like me and stock up on cranberries while you can or happen to live in a place that keeps them in the freezer section of the grocery store year-round) stuffed in a large tomato.

Without Sunflower Seeds

You can use fewer cranberries, but I really like cranberries and try to eat as many as I can while the season permits, hence the wide range. They'll definitely add a tart flavor to your dish if you use way too many, but I liked the lightly tart taste they provided for this meal.

After all the hyper-indulgent food from the past month, this dish is a welcome respite, and full of flavors that still match the season without being the flavors of the season.

Roasted Ambercup Squash with Forbidden Rice and Fresh Cranberries
2 small/medium ambercup squash, cut in half with seeds removed
2/3 cup forbidden rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup split red lentils
1/2-1 cup fresh (frozen) cranberries (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon fines herbes
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-4 tablespoons nutritional yeast (to taste)
Shelled sunflower seeds, optional

Bake the squash, cut side down in a baking dish covered with a thin layer of water, for 30 minutes at 350 degrees then remove and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, combine rice and water in a small saucepan over high heat. When it boils, turn the heat to low and cover the pot. Cook 30 minutes.

After the rice has cooked for 30 minutes, increase the heat, remove the lid, and stir in the lentils, cranberries, and red pepper flakes. Cook 10 minutes and then stir in the fines herbes, salt, and nutritional yeast. Cook another 5-7 minutes to allow flavors to combine (add a small amount more water if the mixture begins to stick to the bottom of your pan -- you want it dry, but not so dry that it sticks).

Rice, lentils, cranberries, pepper flakes

Spoon the rice mixture into hollow part of the squashes and sprinkle the top with sunflower seeds, if desired.
(I like that they add a bit of extra crunch) Use salted and roasted, or raw, depending on your personal preference. Serve warm as a side dish, or a main meal.

Not-Too-Sweet Chunky Apple Cake

Earlier this month, I was looking on a blog for work (yes, I sometimes get to read blogs for work, kinda awesome when i do) when I saw a post for a "kid-friendly" apple cake. The blogger was playing it up as super-healthy because it had DHA in it from flax. Okay, yes, technically you can get DHA from the ALA actually present in flax, but the human body isn't very good at making that conversion happen. And the original recipe contained 1 cup of sugar, plus 1/2 cup of butter. And that's before the topping, which also had a fair amount of butter and sugar.

Kid-friendly because it's super sweet? Fine. But maybe not the best option. The original recipe also used white whole wheat flour, which is fantastic (whole grains, whoo!), unless you're trying for a gluten-free diet.

I intentionally did not use guar gum or xantham gum in this recipe--quick breads don't always need it. That may be part of the reason that this cake is a little crumbly. It could also be that I used closer to 3 cups of chunked apples, or whole oats (which can be a problem for some people with gluten-sensitivity or intolerance, please ask if you don't know for sure). Or maybe I just didn't let it cool enough after initially coming out of the oven. It did get more solid as I let it cool.

The original recipe didn't contain any extra salt (maybe the blogger used salted butter, but the post didn't indicate one way or the other), so I added some because salt is a flavor enhancer. I also added cardamom and cloves because I enjoy the flavors. Also, it's just the time of year when I want the house to smell of sweet spices. As E put it when she came down in the morning, "It's that time of year, isn't it, when there's lots of baking?" I look forward to baking with her during these next few months, when the days are shorter and cooler.

I'd been wanting to make this recipe for a while, because it seemed like a fun thing to do with some of the extra going-soft apples I had around. I've already made applesauce this season (and will again) and still have some in my freezer. I wanted a different option. But I didn't really want a lot of bread. When my friend Rachael came for a visit, I decided it would be the perfect time to make this cake. I wanted to make it a lot less sweet and serve it with breakfast. I could send her on the road with some. And, because we planned to do a lot of hiking, it would be something fortifying we could eat in the morning and feel fuller with for a while.

The morning I made this, I also heated up some black beans Rachael brought with her, in a chipotle-peanut butter sauce and let them cook until the sauce thickened around them, which added extra protein to the meal--protein + whole grains = staying power. We spread a little extra butter on the bread, but a lot less than the recipe originally called for. Sometimes, I find spreading fresh butter on a bread lets me actually taste the butter, which I appreciate if I'm going to be eating those calories anyway. Then, we went hiking and walking through town and hiking again. And in between, we baked other things. Magical.

To make this vegan: substitute the egg for a flax seed egg, commercial egg replacer, or a banana, and use a vegan margarine or olive oil in place of butter. I used water in my recipe, but a milk alternative would work as well--and the original recipe used regular, low-fat milk.

Not-Too-Sweet Chunky Apple Cake (Gluten-Free)
Dry Ingredients
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (GF)
1 teaspoon yeast
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Mix together in a large bowl and set aside while you mix the wet ingredients.

Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon ground flax
1 1/2 cups water or low-fat milk
1 egg, beaten

Melt the butter and sugar together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring often. Add the vanilla, flax, and water or milk and remove from heat and let cool about 5 minutes. Stir in the egg. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Other
2 cups (or 3) chopped apples

Brown sugar
Cinnamon, optional

Stir the chopped apples and pour batter into a 9" greased pie pan or round cake pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with brown sugar and cinnamon, if using. Bake in an oven preheat to 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool at least 15 minutes before slicing.

With butter

Rachael's Happy Curry

This recipe makes a ton of servings, or at least 8-10. My friend Rachael recently made it for me while she was in town. The original recipe comes from Simply in Season and Rachael made a few adjustments to the original recipe, which I tried my best to capture in the recipe below. It's a lovely meal for a cold autumn day. The day we ate it, we'd gone on a long hike in the mountains and for a while we hiked in snow--the first snow of the season, in this part of the country, which felt magical. As Rachael put it at one point when she tried taking a picture of me, "It's okay though, because it's like you're in a fairy tale."

And the entire weekend was like a fairy tale. We saw snow and a bit of a bus, or some other yellow piece of metal deep in the woods. We traipsed through clouds. We hiked through snow that was up to our hips. We scrambled up rocks and back down them. We went to Goodwill and the grocery store and drank local Viongier and local, organic chocolate vodka. We hiked daily, we baked and cooked, we had long conversations. We wandered through the First Friday art walk and looked at beautiful things we (for the most part) knew we couldn't afford. We went on a mini road trip. We talked about how we were both living lifestyles most people we know don't really understand and how small moments, like watching a video a friend of Rachael's made about Holden Village, make us feel like we're making the right decision for us, at this point in our lives.

While Rachael was here, we listened to Iron & Wine while making dinner, to a song, "The Perfect Space" by the Avett Brothers, that made us think of our friend Brenna while we drove on our mini road trip. We listened to Cat Stevens and The Beatles and a short story ("Paper Lantern") by Stuart Dybek, as read by ZZ Packer.

We talked about how we liked working outdoors--though Rachael works outside more than I do and I'm a bit jealous of it--and environmental education. We talked about how much we liked being able to go hiking or kayaking after work and how the best conversations either of us have occur while we're moving around. I felt more grounded, less like I was just existing, in a somewhat grounded way, in this liminal spot. But I also realized I was going to feel sad when Rachael left. I want her to live near me. I only feel that way, at this point, about a couple of people--though there are a lot of people I'd love to see more often. Rachael's a lovely, kind woman and I'm glad she's been such a constant force in my life over the past three and a half years, and especially during the last year as so many other things in my life have felt in transition.

It felt, to me, like having family around and helped me feel more like I belonged in the place I'm in, because Rachael and I were equally interested in having quiet adventures together--not the type that involve going out to the bar, necessarily, or constant entertainment in the traditional sense, but in ways that allowed us to interact with the places near here, with the place I live, with the food we were eating--which was almost entirely local and organic. Her visit made me feel less homesick--and simultaneously more because I knew I'd miss her when she leaved. It made me feel more like an adult. Rachael's someone I don't have to work to be around, which is sometimes the most comforting thing--which I needed more than I expected.

One of the best things about making this curry: that we worked on it together. I baked brown rice, sliced (the recipe calls for minced) garlic and ginger, and found things in my kitchen for Rachael. She worked on the rest and we talked about the things in our life that felt the most immediate, and also listened to a Day of the Dead mix full of wonderful songs. After we'd both had our fill of food, there was plenty of curry left over, so I could think of her as I ate some of the leftovers and send her back on the road with some of it, perfect for eating on the road, presumably while sitting in her distinctive car on her at a lovely vista.

Curry

Rachael's Happy Curry
1 large onion, chopped
1 tableespoon ghee, coconut butter, or olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons ginger, chopped
2 serrano chile peppers, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon each: turmeric, ground cumin, black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 bay leaves

14 ounces coconut milk
1/4 cup tamari (we actually used some marmite and extra water)
3 large tomatoes, diced

1 1/2 cups dried red lentils
5 cups water

1 medium head cauliflower (cut into 1 1/2 inch florets)
1 large sweet potato
1/4 head cabbage (we didn't use this, but I will next time I make it)
1-2 cups peas (again, we didn't use this but next time I will)

Salt

In large saucepan or soup pot over medium-high heat, saute onion in coconut butter or oil, until transparent but not brown. Add garlic through bay leaves and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook and stir constantly for 3 minutes. Do not let spices, garlic, and onion brown. Add the coconut milk, tamari, and tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring lentils to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add, with liquid to soup pot.

Add the cauliflower, sweet potato, and cabbage to the soup pot and cook until just tender, about 5-10 minutes. If using peas, add at the end of the cooking time. Taste and add salt, if necessary.

Serve hot, over brown rice with toppings (optional) such as: Indian chutneys & pickles, fresh diced pears, roasted sunflower seeds, plain yogurt, or a squeeze of lemon.

Brown Rice Risotto with Butternut Squash & Swiss Cheese

Sometimes, the road you're on seems to lead no where.  That's when
it's time to decide whether you want to forge your own path, or
just continue down the road and hope for a scenic detour.
(Photo taken October 25, 2011)

I wanted to make a brown rice risotto because I really, really like brown rice--at least as far as rices are concerned. And I've been enjoying the lemon risotto E's been making, but last time she made it, she said we needed to try another risotto recipe--and I thought she was right. I also wanted to figure out how to use up the remaining Swiss cheese I bought for another recipe.

The interwebs didn't tell me much about brown rice risotto that used Swiss cheese. Or about risottos that used Swiss cheese without using other cheeses. And for the brown rice risottos, many seemed to use cornstarch to make it creamy (ick! I'm sure it's fine, but it doesn't sound appealing). I finally a recipe that used just a splash of cream (okay, 1/4 cup) at the end to create this effect and I liked the idea (if nothing else, it would potentially smooth out the flavor at the end) and co-opted it, using milk instead--the milk we had in our fridge. Normally, I might use skim milk if I used a dairy-based milk at all.

I added nutritional yeast to increase the sort of bright flavor that parm usually lends to risottos, and because E said I'd have to be pretty sneaky to get her to eat it (second night in a row, E, second night in a row!). The Swiss lends a lovely nuttiness to the risotto, which complements the natural flavor present in brown rice and also the earthiness of the butternut squash (which for the record, pretty much disappears by the time it's been cooked with the rice, if you're the type that needs to hide veggies from your family).

Because brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice, this risotto takes longer to cook than risottos based on arborio rice. I cooked it while talking on the phone to a friend in the Midwest (who, when he learned I was adding cumin, encouraged me to make it into a palak dal--and I'll admit, it was tempting and maybe a soon-to-eat meal with E) for a while and the rest of the time while E sat our kitchen table talking with me and knitting. I think, from start to finish, I spent perhaps 90 minutes on it (including prep!), which makes it a very time-intensive meal, even for a risotto, but I think it was pretty worth it. It tastes rich and creamy (and is rich and creamy) and has a salty-savory kick that seems especially appropriate for autumn.

This could easily be served as a main dish (how E and I ate it) or as a side dish. Although it's time intensive, it's also pretty easy to make -- you stir often, but not constantly, you can get other things done if you want (such as making puppy chow, like I did). The key is mostly not to get too distracted because brown rice isn't as traditionally starchy as arborio, which is a big part of what makes risotto so creamy.

A quick note about the herb water -- I don't tend to buy veggie broth or keep it on hand. This was my variation of making a vegetable broth. The fines herbes, once the water begins to simmer, steep into a weak tea-color and the salt gets absorbed slowly into the rice. I didn't find it overly salty, but depending on your rice and on your Swiss cheese, you might need more or less.

The picture I was able to get isn't super-great -- the risotto didn't work with the lighting in my kitchen. If I remember to take a picture again next time I make it, I'll post a better photo!


Brown Rice Risotto with Butternut Squash  & Swiss Cheese
6 ounces frozen butternut squash, cubed
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 large onion, chopped
2 large or 3 medium cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups long grain brown rice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
6 cups water heated to simmering with 1 tablespoon fines herbes and 2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup white wine (optional, but deepens the flavor)
3 ounces Swiss cheese, cubed
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons milk (preferably whole)

Saute the butternut squash in olive oil and butter, over medium heat, for 1-2 minutes, until defrosted and beginning to brown. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion turns translucent. Add the cumin and pepper flakes and saute about 30 seconds (until fragrant) then add the rice. Stir occasionally until the rice begins to turn white. Add 1 1/2 cups herb-water and the nutritional yeast to the rice. Stir constantly until the water has mostly been absorbed. Add the remaining herb-water 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently between additions, until the water has been used up and the rice is plump and tender. Add the white wine and stir until absorbed. Add the Swiss cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and well incorporated. Add the lemon juice, stir to incorporate, and then add the milk. Taste and add salt, if necessary. Serve hot.

Gluten-Free Yeasted Bread (Oat, Brown Rice, & Quinoa))

Multigrain Bread with Cream Cheese

When E wanted to make a creamy artichoke pasta with garlic bread, and I made her a French-style bread, I wanted to make myself bread also. I haven't done much with gluten-free yeast breads, but I do get tired of buying them, because most seem far too expensive and often don't taste that great.

In my current town, the GF bread options are better (and tastier), but still pretty expensive for the size loaves I get. I figured, if an attempt at GF bread didn't work, I could go buy one of these breads (or, more likely, go without garlic bread). But, I miss trying GF baking experiments and I'd been keeping my eye on a gluten-free bread recipe from Moosewood Daily Special for a while. Since I had some non-wheat flours on hand, I decided to give it a try--making a LOT of substitutions.

I think it turned out fairly well, and what I found interesting was that because I didn't stick it in the refrigerator for the first two days, it developed a nice sourdough flavor. It slices easily and is better toasted (much better toasted, in my opinion). Many gluten-free breads seem to be that way--better toasted. It still stays pretty moist after it's toasted, unless I leave it in our toaster oven for a long time.

The first time I made this bread, I didn't include quinoa and as you'll see here, there still isn't much--quinoa flour is expensive (about $11 for 1.5 lbs online through two different companies)! I like both ways, but the variety of grains is fun and adds complexity to the flavor. This bread is easy to make--you literally mix all the ingredients in one bowl at the same time, toss it in a greased pan and let it rise in a warm place before baking--which I appreciate, especially with a busy schedule. It doesn't feel (too) inconvenient to make myself a loaf of bread after work that will last me for a week (or more!).

I use a base of rice and oat flour here, but I know some people are sensitive to oats (use certified GF oat flour and if it bothers you, using millet works out pretty well too--but lends a very different flavor) and rice. If you have a rice allergy, check out my friend Victoria who is creating GF bread-y recipes that are also rice-free.

Multigrain Gluten-Free Bread
1 cup oat flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour or corn starch
1 tablespoon guar gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon light brown cane sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon dry yeast (or, if you don't buy it in bulk, 1 package, close enough)
2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Loaf, close-up

Using a wooden spoon, combine all the ingredients. Mix pretty well--you could also do this with an electric mixer, but I think the dough is too thick if you only have a hand-held mixer. Scoop the dough into an oiled 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and smooth the top. Spray or brush the top with a light coating of vegetable oil (not imperative if you're using foil or plastic to cover the dough while it rises, definitely necessary if you're using a tea towel). Loosely cover the pan and set aside, in a warm place, to rise until the dough is even with the top of the pan, about 1 1/2 hours.

After the dough has risen for 1 1/4 hours, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the covering from the bread and bake the bread until golden brown, about 45 minutes. It's done when it sounds hollow, when tapped. Remove from the oven, invert onto a rack, and cool for 30 minutes before slicing.

Look at that paleness. Toast it first!

Again, this bread tastes fine if you eat it as slices, but is much better toasted. If you don't eat much bread, it also freezes well (slice it first and toast to warm up).

Lemon-y Snickett Risotto

Ingredients, minus dairy products

It's almost Halloween! What better to do than to have Halloween-themed food (which I fully intend to do for at least a couple of posts--hopefully that intention will actually happen!)? This post is inspired by E's recent endeavors into a (wonderful) lemon risotto. She's made it a couple of times now and it seems worthy of sharing with others. I'm not sure which site she got it from originally, either, but I am going to try and write it up to best reflect what she does when she makes it.

So, what makes this risotto lemon-y snickett risotto? Honestly, not much. Okay, not anything. Totally unauthorized re-use of the name (hence Lemon-y with a hyphen and snickett with two "t's") BUT, this basic lemon risotto can be dressed up with little "lumps of coal" (aka black olives), reptile tongues (aka carrot curls), or fire flecks (aka red pepper flakes).

Risotto in Pot

E seems to have endless patience for stirring the risotto rice--but honestly this doesn't take that long to make, as far as risottos go. In the past, I made a risotto that took forever to cook. And I don't remember it being as tasty as this one. The original recipe calls for parsley, but we haven't used it yet. I imagine it would brighten up the flavor nicely and provide lovely little flecks of green to make it look even fresher (serpent scales to go with the theme of lemon-y snickett?). We also haven't used shallots, but instead just use a bit of yellow onion. I suspect that the lightly garlicky flavor of shallots would be beautiful in this dish, so if you can get your hands on it, you should definitely use shallot in favor of the onion. Don't skip the lemon zest. It'll taste fine without it--but you get an extra hit of lemon flavor whenever you bite into a zesty curl.

Like many risottos, this dish is rich. But fabulous. And I would happily make/eat it for breakfast if I wanted something savory/lemony one morning and had all the ingredients handy. I might also saute some mushrooms and add that, but E doesn't like fungus, so we haven't tried that.

Lemon-y Risotto
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine

ZestingTools & Zest

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
3 tablespoons lemon juice (at least!)
4 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Bring broth and water to a simmer in a large bot over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; cover to keep warm. Meanwhile, saute onions in the olive oil and butter over medium-low heat, until tender, about 6 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add the arborio rice; stir one minute. Add wine and stir until evaporated. Add 1 1/2 cups broth; simmer until absorbed, stirring frequently.

Add remaining broth 1/2 cup at a time, simmering until completely absorbed before adding more broth. This will take about 35 minutes. Stir in cheese, then lemon juice. Add zest just before serving.

Risotto with "fire flecks"

Roasted Carrot Carrot Cake (and muffins!), Gluten-Free

On a mountain

It must be fall. I'm in serious baking mode. French-style bread. Gluten-free risen bread. Monster cookies. Brownies (semi-failure). Chocolate pumpkin cake. Carrot cake. If only I had more time. The day I made this cake, I also hiked a nearby mountain with a co-worker and then volunteered to yank invasive species out of the ground at a local park for three hours in advance of Make-a-Difference Day since I'll be at work on the actual day. Then, I went home to walk S (okay, okay, hike with S) and call a couple of people who I've been playing phone tag with for a week or so. There's so much to cram into weekends.

I had this much carrot
when I gave up grating

To say the least, this cake was inspired by general feeling of "there's no way I'm going to stand here for 45 minutes and hand-grate carrots for this carrot cake," which I was making at the request of my supervisor for another co-worker who's birthday had recently passed. I said yes, because I love to bake (and I knew I could try and make it gluten-free) and when I said yes, I had no idea how much time I'd invest into other activities during my weekend.

Rather than grate the carrots, I decided to pan roast them (which I define as different from sauteing only because I didn't stir them very often at all) until they were very soft and then mash them before adding them into the cake batter. Pan roasting the carrots let me:

1) work on making dinner, which was good, since I'd only had a carrot since breakfast

2) do a little kitchen clean-up

3) mix up other cake ingredients
4) turn on Chain of Lakes because I had carrot-free hands

5) feel less irritated by the very slow process of hand-grating carrots (I did hand grate about 1/2 cup before I got fed up with the process and you could do this too, if you were so inclined--I just added the grated carrot with the mashed carrots to the cake batter.)

Roasting the carrots also makes them sweeter and deepens their carrot-y flavor.

Look at those brown sugar-spots

The base recipe for this carrot cake came from one of my favorite carrot cake recipes--a vegan recipe (though I used regular cream cheese in the images you see--I have made it the other way and actually prefer the way Tofutti  Better Than Cream Cheese tastes to regular cream cheese, but that's just me--because the person I'm making this for is neither GF or vegan).

I'm still experimenting with gluten-free flours and trying to avoid that not-so-lovely GF flavor. Since I started helping a friend out with her pie stand at the local growers market, I've heard several people say "I don't like anything gluten-free," to which I have a hard time not being snarky ("do you realize how much you eat that's naturally gluten-free?"). But to be fair, a lot of gluten-free baked things not only taste gluten-free, but they have a particularly grainy texture that's not so appealing. In this cake, I used a mixture of brown rice flour, GF oat flour, quinoa flour, and millet flour.

I poured the batter into an 8x8 pan and still had plenty of batter left to make a dozen cupcakes (muffins, I'm not adding extra sugar to them all and if I were to intentionally make them as muffins, rather than cake, I'd probably scale back the sugar by at least 1/2 a cup--I think it's far too sweet right now for muffins).

Vegan Roasted Carrot Carrot Cake (Gluten-Free)

2 pounds carrots, washed and sliced into coins

Olive oil

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup quinoa flour

1/4 cup millet flour

2 teaspoons guar gum

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon each cardamom, cloves, nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup light brown cane sugar 

3/4 cup cane sugar

3 egg equivalents (I've used both flax eggs and Ener-G Egg replacers with this recipe, both work fine)

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 14-oz can crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup shredded coconut

nuts and raisins, optional

Faux Cream Cheese Frosting
(again, you could use regular cream cheese and butter if you're not vegan or preparing this for a vegan, but this is really good frosting)

1 8-oz package vegan cream cheese

1/3 cup vegan margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups vegan powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (really, you should do this after you've mashed the carrots to save energy, but this type of information is usually at the front of recipes, so here you go). Roast the carrots in a saute pan, lightly coated in oil, over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the carrots are beginning to caramelize and are very soft.

Carrots ready to pan roast

If you're under time constraints* or your carrots just don't seem to be getting soft, you can add a little water to the pan and cover it for a few minutes to steam them after they've begun to brown. Let the carrots cool a little and then mash them until you've got very few chunks. You will want about 1 1/2 cups of mashed carrots total.

Carrots, almost ready to mash--get them a little browner than this

While the carrots are roasting, in a medium bowl, mix flours, guar gum, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt.

In a large bowl, mix sugar and egg replacer until creamy (use an electric mixer if you can get your hands on one--it makes life so much easier). Add the vanilla and combine, then add the vegetable oil and mix well. Mix wet and dry ingredients together, combining well (one of the great things about gluten-free foods is that it's a bit harder to over mix). Stir in the carrots, pineapple, and coconut. Add nuts and/or raisins, if using.

Grease a pan (9" x  9" pan for a thicker cake--I promise it won't fit into an 8" x 8"--or 9" x 13" for a thinner cake) and smooth the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 40-45 minutes (for a thicker cake--reduce time if you're using a 9" x 13"), or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool entirely before frosting.

Above and Below: Roasted Carrot Carrot Cake Muffins
(1/2 of which turn into cupcakes because E requested  it)

For the frosting:

Beat together the cream cheese and margarine in a medium-large bowl until smooth. Add the vanilla and incorporate well. 1/2 cup a a time, beat in the powdered sugar. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth before adding more. The frosting should be very thick. On a humid day, you might have to add more powdered sugar.

Frosted Cupcake

*For my carrots to get soft enough to mash, it took about 45 minutes of pan roasting in a medium-large saute pan over medium to medium-high heat and I did add about 1/4 of water and let them steam for about 10 minutes at the end to make sure all the carrot coins would mash pretty well.

Vegan White Chili

The Midwest has gotten blasted by cold air (again!) this week. We're seeing highs in the single digits (gasp!) before the wind chill for the first part of this week. This seemed like the perfect excuse to make a hearty chili. A while back I purchased some white chili blend from Pendery's Spices, but I hadn't experimented with it. Chili generally feels heavy to me--but I know it'll feel even heavier when the weather starts getting warm again.

The basic recipe comes on the chili-blend package and calls for chicken. I use seitan instead. You can make your own seitan--there are a lot of recipes available on the internet, or you can buy a mock chicken product. There are many varieties of mock chicken products out there and in this recipe, I use one made by White Wave.

I keep telling myself one of these days, I'll make seitan. But then I keep telling myself one of these days, I won't be a poor, time-crunched student. Maybe.

You could also make this chili gluten-free by increasing the number of beans and withholding the seitan altogether. Seitan is made from vital wheat gluten and therefore can't be given to people with wheat or gluten intolerances/allergies.

My vegan version of white chili(double everything, if you want) is below:

Vegan White Chili

1/2 pound baby lima beans (or other small white bean), soaked 6-8 hours or overnight and then cooked, according to package instructions, approximately 1.5-2 hours, depending on the type of bean you use.




While the beans are cooking, prepare the rest of the chili:


3 tablespoons olive oil, vegan margarine, or a combination
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 4-ounce can drained, chopped green chiles
2-3 fresh jalapenos, or to taste, chopped*
4 ounces seitan
1/2-1 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, depending on how thick you like your chili
1.5 tablespoons white chili blend
Salt
Freshly cooked brown rice, quinoa, or wheat berries


Heat the oil in a medium pan, over medium heat. Add the onions and saute 2-3 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook one minute more. Add in the canned chiles and jalapenos. Saute 2-3 minutes, until the jalapenos start to get limp. Stir in the seitan and cook 3-4 minutes. Add the cooked beans, along with 3 cups vegetable broth, and the chili blend. Simmer for 15 minutes. Adjust salt, if necessary, and serve hot over brown rice.

*If you slice the jalapenos in half and take out the seeds and veins with a spoon, you can reduce the heat. Be sure to carefully wash your hands with soap and water you handle peppers.

It's also probably important to note that many traditional white chilis are topped with a mild white cheese, such as Monterrey Jack. I haven't found a vegan cheese I like well enough for this purpose--but perhaps you know of one? If you're feeding a lacto-vegetarian, you might top this with a mild, grated white cheese--or at least put the cheese in a bowl on the table.

Fruit, Rice, and Seed Salad

What do you take to a Wild Boar Roast?

That was what I asked myself during the last week before the end of the semester, when one of the other women in my program invited me to come join her (and 20 other people) for a boar roasting--an in-law had provided the Alabama boar at Thanksgiving and in May my friend and her husband had yet to eat the thing. Fortunately, the (well meaning) in-law had only given them 1/2 the pig.

Since I didn't plan on eating the boar and the woman who was hosting the roast is an excellent baker and cook, I wanted something 1) I would eat and 2) she probably wouldn't already make--which ruled out all desserts, hummus, and bread.

The next question was, "What do I have on hand?" I'd been trying to eat down the perishables (and non) since I wasn't going to be there over the summer and didn't really want to run out to the grocery store for anything.

I flipped through a couple of my Moosewood cookbooks and Madhur Jaffery's World Vegetarian until I found a couple of rice salad recipes I thought sounded good, but not great (mostly because I didn't have all the ingredients for either salad on hand). I tried to figure out what I thought would be the best aspects of both salads and combine them to create this dish. The sesame seeds were a last minute addition--and add a nice, nutty flavor to the entire dish. If you can't eat sesame seeds because of diverticulosis, try substituting 1/2 teaspoon of the canola oil for toasted sesame oil.

Orange Rice Salad with Fruit
1 1/2 cups basmati rice (1/2 cup may be wild rice, if you have it)
3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon frozen pineapple-orange juice concentrate, or the zest of one orange

Dressing

2 tablespoons of frozen pineapple-orange juice concentrate, mixed with 4-5 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, or ½ teaspoon dried
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½- ¾ cup currants, dried cranberries, or raisins
10 ounces canned pineapple chunks, cut in half if desired
1 small tart apple, chopped
2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds

In a small saucepan with a tight fitting lid, bring to a boil, the water, rice, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoons pineapple-orange concentrate. When wells start to form in the rice, cover tightly and cook on low for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the rice to rest for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk together the ingredients for the dressing and set aside. When the rice is done, place it in a large bowl and allow to cool at least 10 more minutes. Add the dressing and toss well. Stir in the fruits and sesame seeds. Set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.