Fall flavours

It's that time of year again: time to put away the beach blankets and pull out the dried goods, peel up some winter veggies and snuggle in to some warm comfort food, stewed slowly on the stove.

I've been experimenting all summer long with coconut and papaya mostly and it's carried into the fall. The wheat-free endeavor also continues. Recently there's been endless stew with cornflower/lime/chipotle dumplings and black beans with mango, banana, lemon grass, ginger and coconut milk. Right now there's a giant pot of sliced up cucumbers getting ready to become mustard pickles before the apples and pears move in from the farm to be canned. Ah, it's almost hard to miss the beach yet with a kitchen in a state like this.

Life is good.

So who's ready for some beans?
I have to admit; while for many years I understood the financial benefits of dried beans I mostly used them to take up space in my pantry. Not this year.
But they still seem kind of boring, right?



Vegetarian 'pork' and beans
Tex-Mex black beans and corn
Thai beans with lemon grass and ginger
and Yesterday's stew on cucumber and jicama root
all finished off with a peanut sauce you could eat with cheese or ice cream (my definition of a pretty broad spectrum)


Who's hungry now?

Simple Summer Salad

It's picnic season and my mortar and pestle have been working overtime to develop some tasty and easy concoctions.

I'm leaving out amounts... use as much or as little as you feel like. Variety is encouraged.

jicama root sliced thin
a few sprigs of dill, chopped
tomato seeded and diced
a little onion, green (sliced), sweet white (diced) or red (what else rhymes with those two words that applies to onion shapes?)a handful of fresh local spinach, chopped
a sprinkle of hemp seeds

dressing:

small handful of unsalted cashews
splash of rice vinegar
dollop of honey
good ol' squeeze of dijon
salt to taste (or oddball organics smoked garlic chipotle salt from Granville island or www.oddballorganics.com )(if you order anything from this guy try the nuclear nectar too... wow!)

Mash the cashews in a mortar with the pestle, add the vinegar and honey and mash again to a smooth paste, add the dijon, salt, and if it's too thick to call dressing thin it down with some almond milk... or whatever type of milk-like product you keep on hand.

Voila!
Honestly, who buys salad dressing? You may start asking yourself this question after you taste this :)

Breaks All The Rules Chocolate Cake

As promised...

Get out the mortar and pestle and give it a good coat of almond oil to get things ready cause we're about to mash our way into delicious city.

Bake this the day before you plan on serving it to let it cool and congeal before steaming it into squishy perfection. It's a bit of a process so why not enjoy some tea while baking? Maybe make a little too much tea... say, a cup too much. I used The Blue Teapot's Energy Tea with black and green tea, manna grass and stinging nettle, sunflower blossoms and other wonderful things I would have never though to infuse in hot water and drink.

To start things off assemble:
The mortar and pestle, a seed grinder (coffee grinder dedicated to spices and seeds)

6 Medjool dates, pitted and torn into a few chunks
2 Tbsp honey
1 very ripe banana
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp pure sunflower oil
30g of flax seed
1/2 unsweetened rice milk/almond milk
1/4 tsp salt

Mash the dates with the honey in the mortar, add the banana and oil


Grab a small bowl and grind the flax in the seed grinder, add rice milk and leave it alone to do its thing. This mix forms a stabilizing goo that works a lot like eggs in the mix

Next:
Grab a sifter/mesh strainer and large bowl to combine the following

35g white rice flour (1/4 cup)
35g brown rice flour (1/4 cup)
35g buckwheat flour (1/4 cup)
30g potato flour (scant 1/4 cup)
70g tapioca flour (heaping 1/2 cup)

30g raw cocoa nibs
1 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate

Sift together the flours and combine with a whisk, grind the cocoa nibs in the seed grinder and finely grate the bakers chocolate into the mix.


The real kicker to this cake is the contrast between chewy sweet-breadish cake and the seed-riddled yet smooth filling. I cheated on this step and used yogurt. Soy yogurt could be used if you wanted to keep it vegan or even just silken tofu smashed to a thick cream.

For the filling:
Set up a double boiler, which in my kitchen is just a fancy way of saying throw a big stainless bowl over a pot of boiling water, grab a spatula and get the following ingredients together

1oz unsweetened bakers chocolate
15g coconut oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup plain, high-fat yogurt... you know, the good stuff.
1/2 cup tea, twice (aren't you glad you brewed that big ol' pot?)
15g chia seeds

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in the double boiler. Add the honey and stir in the yogurt. Before things get too thick and start drying up add the cup of tea and mix. Carefully remove the bowl from the heat and keep stirring. Add the chia seeds and another 1/2 cup of tea, stir to homogenize.

You'll wind up with a mix that's about 250g. Take 50g out and set aside. To the remaining 200g add another 45g of chia seeds and stir. Chia seeds have an external coating that swells into a protective jelly shell when it meets enough moisture. You wind up with a crunchy filling that doesn't have seeds all stuck together in a chalky mass. It's slick and crunchy and chewy and... you're almost there. I swear.


Assembly:
Vanilla extract can be used if you feel like. Take that pinch of salt from way back at the beginning and throw it in what should now be a thick flax/rice milk mix. Put some vanilla in the dates/banana mix if you feel like using it. Combine the flax/rice with the dates/banana, add the 50g of reserved chocolate/yogurt blend, throw it in the flour mix and stir until it all comes together. No wheat = no gluten = no devastating results if you stir too much.

I used a silicone fluted cake pan but you can use anything really. Baking times will vary but keep in mind I invented this recipe out of my crazy brain on the fly. I'm sure you can make it work.

Heat the oven to 175C/350F, use just over 1/2 the batter to cover the bottom and sides of the pan, spoon in filling, top with the remaining batter.


Bake for 1 hour, until it's firm and a toothpick inserted in the batter portion of the cake comes out clean. Let it cool down in the pan before you flip it out and let it cool some more




You can eat it like this... but its a bit tough and chewy. It'll do in a pinch, like a great energy bar on steroids, but if you want my advice: put down the fork, put it in a covered dish and put it in the refrigerator and leave it for the morning. It makes great breakfast.

The capper:
Set up a covered steamer, like a big ol' bamboo contraption, and steam a slice or two of cake for 7-13 minutes; until it seems nice and soft. Throw it on a plate with some fruit, maybe a drizzle of honey or caramel, try some nutmeg or cinnamon or whatever spice you're in the mood for. I used a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, strawberry, some kiwi, and a few grinds of my new favorite spice mill: PC's Sugar, Chocolate & Cinnamon blend. I've been using it on absolute everything from drinks to oatmeal.

Brew up some new tea and enjoy!

Don't move twice in one month

It can severely impact the amount of quality time you can spend in your kitchen.

I'm in an awesome place now with an amazing kitchen and a mountain kicking out in my front yard.

I've been in the city for a year now so yesterday I decided to bake a celebratory chocolate cake.

As a challenge I tried to make it nut free, wheat free, and vegan.
I fell a bit short but the cake was awesome... and I have pictures.

Steamed Sticky Chocolate Cake
date and bananas, flax and gooey chocolaty chia seed filling


This is made with a soft fruit base combined with a wheat-less flour mix.
All the sugar comes from fruit and honey and flax seed provides the stabilization.

The full recipe will come soon. I'm going to finish the key lime soon too now... but at the moment I have to rush off to serve caffeine to the masses.

Cheers