gluten-free

Chocolate, cinnamon and almond loaf cake by Julia Turshen

February 7, 2017 by edlyngd@gmail.com

Last Saturday was Gayle’s birthday. At the end of this month it’s my mother’s birthday. Next Tuesday is a feast of a saint turned love holiday and on the Tuesday after that Gayle will be going to Spain for an internship at a Basque restaurant that requires you to have a chef’s tweezer on the sleeve of your coat. I got another one. It the type of restaurant that looks like Tony Stark’s house or a gifted/mutant child warrior training centre with a vegetable garden at the back for those meaningful conversations that are a build up to the climactic fight scene(s). All I know is that they make fancy food and if it was me instead of her, I would be happy to wash dishes and wipe down every stainless steel surface three times a day if it meant I could eat every element on the plate in one bite because that’s all I think about while watching Chef’s Table and/or Jiro Dreams of Sushi. …

Spring-y socca flatbread with walnut pesto – This wild goose

May 17, 2014 by Edlyn

A week of not breathing, consuming a lot of information and 1/4 of a cake, crashing (happily) into lots of wonderful people, heartfelt talks that sometimes got a little too heated for any real ideas to be born, and I’m not ready for a weekend of relaxation. When a physical to-do list is as long as the other list you make in your head that tells you that you’re never going to see the end, burnout is inevitable. It always is – at least for me – quite spectacular.

As it usually goes with overwhelming times, I retreat. We were promised a week of personality-exploding sunshine and it was delivered. Everybody was happy. They said so with their brightly-printed clothing choices and general willingness to have more of a conversation instead of hurrying away from the rain. Right now, it’s raining…a bit. I can hear duck babies (SPRING!) outside and how the heck did the clock just strike 11 pm?! Days go by too fast. Catching up seems impossible.

Maybe I should stop trying. I gained so much since the last time we spoke. Not enlightenment, but ideas….that I feel strange sharing on my half brain-half food blog. I volunteered at Ladies Rock Camp for the second time and I never, ever come back from there as the same person. Let’s just say I will no longer respond with anger to a system that has been in place since the beginning of time. It’s a simple question: Do you believe women should have rights that are equal to what a man enjoys? If you say yes, then HEY! You’re a feminist. No matter what you identify as. I hardly know much of this struggle but I will call you out if you resort to archaic ideas of describing people and situations. We’re much more empowered with ideas today and I feel very grateful that I have a strong female community to go back to every time I need to be sat down in a spinning chair and have my mind blown.

Oh! I can’t forget my country has a new Prime Minister and news flash: He’s a mass murderer. These are my views and maybe if I was in India, I’d have this post taken down. If you’re in the US, the country from where I write this, you probably don’t care considering the news media here is still infatuated with Conservative V/s Liberal. I wrote a piece for a Seattle-based news blog so if you want to know more about the world’s largest democracy, this is where you can go. From the stand point of food, this election is everything. The last government allowed the entry of the crazies like Wal Mart and Tesco, and you know how amazing that always is for the small farmer. This to-be Prime Minister shouted his development plans for the country and maybe that was how he won. I just don’t see anything realistic about development when Wal Mart is in the same sentence. Meanwhile, our farmers are still killing themselves over the inability to pay back the smallest of small loans (If you measure the cost in dollars) after failed crops. I have this idea of starting a website to crowd source money directly to these farm families. I know I would need to do a lot of ground survey work because people won’t just put money into something invisible. If you know someone who is already doing this, please direct me to them. I would love to help. If not, this is my seed of an idea. Consider sharing it. I am not the most intelligent person if you stick me in a classroom full of people studying social policy but I feel it’s okay to have an idea.

This weather update from 40 minutes ago is brought to you by Matt’s inherited Westminster-chiming clock: I just saw sun.

So I’ll take that as a sign that this day is precious. For some it might be painful but oh these times, they just don’t wait around for us.

“…Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”

– an excerpt from Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

I knew I wanted to try socca as soon as I saw it as a part of this recipe. It’s so easy so why not? I can answer that. I had a big bag of besan (chickpea flour) in the kitchen which I had used only once in an attempt to make khandvi. That was a big mistake. First of all, I was warned how insane such an act would be and second of all, it tasted so chickpea-y flour-y. That’s supposed to be a good thing, I know. But I’ve eaten plenty of bhajji and pakodas to know that this was a very foreign-tasting chickpea flour. I wanted to work it out between us and so I did. With lemon. Chickpea flour and I have been good friends since then. The toppings were courtesy a fridge clean-up.

Ingredients

For the socca

Adapted from Dolly and Oatmeal

1/2 cup (75 gm) chickpea flour/ besan
1/2 cup warm water
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil + a tsp more to coat a skillet

For the walnut pesto

113 gm fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
4-6 garlic cloves, depending of their size (4 for large and 6 if they’re small)
1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/8 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

For the vegetable toppings

1 medium crown broccoli, chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 whole green onion/scallion, chopped into rounds
A handful of fresh herbs like thyme, oregano and chives, (a tbsp of each, if I was guessing)
A squeeze of lemon juice

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F and lightly coat the bottom of a 9-inch cast iron skillet with some olive oil. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the socca. Break down all the flour lumps and let it sit for 30 minutes.

In a food processor, add the basil leaves and cheese and let them blend on a high-speed. Turn off the machine and use a spatula to guide the leaves that stick to the side, back to where the blades are. Turn the processor back on and add the garlic, walnuts and olive oil (<in a thin stream) to the almost pesto. If you feel like you need more olive oil, add it one tablespoon at a time. Let it all blend into a smooth paste and then set it aside.

Once the oven is sufficiently heated, place the cast-iron skillet on a rack in the middle for about 5-7 minutes. Pull it out of the oven (safely. The handle will be hot), give the chickpea flour mix one last big stir and pour it into the skillet. Use the handle to spread it all around, until it’s one large, yellow pancake. Put it in the oven for 8 minutes and let it cook on the bottom. Pull out the skillet and using a high heat-safe spatula, carefully flip over the socca. You’ll know it’s ready when it pulls away from the edge of the skillet. Put the skillet back in the oven for two more minutes and it’s done.

This step can be done while the socca is in the oven. Chop about 1/2 cup to a cup of broccoli into small pieces and steam it along with the peas. Cut up the green onions, chives and de-leaf (is that a word? It is now) the thyme and oregano so it’s ready to go on the perfect finger food.

Now back to the socca, place it on a serving plate and spread a generous amount of pesto on the top. Add the broccoli, peas and green onions and sprinkle with fresh herbs. Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the top and serve warm.

Happiest of eating times!

(Note: You will have more pesto than this recipe requires, which I promise, is a very good thing. Use it on eggs, sandwiches and on pasta. It also freezes well, if your self-control allows you to let it stay around that long.)

Cilantro-basil pesto + Some real talk

April 2, 2013 by Edlyn

Are you one of those people that believe ads? I’m not talking about the usual “Oh I need to get that” kind of belief. It’s more like the “Poor thing, I should help them out by buying some of that new toothpaste” kind of faith. There’s a big part of me that can’t stand advertising (this punchline is just one reason why). My sister was an ad copywriter for the start of her working life and one of the things I’d famously do in my head was secretly hate that profession. I had my head stuck in the clouds about how much better a journalist was. That somehow, my work was more meaningful no matter how much I was forced to fill space with make-up tips I didn’t have the slightest idea about. I was a good pretender. I know my spring colours. If by spring you mean trying to stop your face from melting because it does not exist in India.

That one.

I guess I’m not one to be Miss journalistic ethics but I do believe that a part of me did some good work. Now that I feel a lot more informed and less misguided, I still miss the poop world that us news guys created. No other place let me love and hate with equal fervour and I embraced it, knowing well that some of what we as an industry did was pretty crummy. Like that one time….meh. Fugghedaboutit.

As much as I try not to, I can’t help but be naive. It’s this big, fat stupid baby stuck inside my head that still wants to believe that people are good. I mean they try so hard to put Hawaiian breeze in an easy to spray can that they can’t be that bad, right? And just like Santa’s not real, I get to snap back into reality, except it’s more of a *thud* because shit just hit the fan. At least it’s Hawaiian-scented.

It’s not.

I’m 25 years old and I think I should be used to the idea that everything is something I’m supposed to need. All I ever need is for my body to be nourished well, my mind to be okay. As we become more conscious consumers, this goal become less of a chore and we can easily win. So try. Maybe one day, we’ll have the ad world wrapped around your finger.

I feel like I make this recipe too much because I (eeps) eat too much spaghetti. Judge, judge all you like. I love life in the fast lane. If my instructions are too easy because the recipe is just that. Make it once and you’re expert enough to adapt it the next time. I’m gushing. It’s my fave. Take that “can’t live without Thursday”!

Ingredients

1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup pecans, chopped roughly or just crushed with a punch of your fist.
2 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1/4 cup olive oil (you will need less than the quantity stated but have a 1/4 cup ready to pour into the food processor while it’s working the basil, cilantro and pecans)
1/4 cup parmesan-reggiano (optional)
Salt to taste

Put the basil, cilantro, garlic, parmesan and pecans in a food processor. Start it up and set it to low because setting mine to high just makes me paranoid that the blade will fly out and turn me into this.

Why so serious?

Okay that NEVER EVER happened.

As the food processor is working itself up, add the olive oil in a thin stream. Like I said in the ingredients note, you will not need the entire 1/4 cup of olive oil so keep a watch on the contents and how it reacts to the oil. When you notice the ingredients moving around the food processor bowl more freely and looking more pasty, stop stop stop stop. It’s done. Did I scare you? Okay, good.

Make a huge bowl of spaghetti, mix this in and bounce across the room because this is the life.

If you have leftover pesto, bottle it and refrigerate until you’re ready to make another huge bowl of spaghetti.

I don’t have to tell you what to do next.

(Look out for a sandwich recipe using this pesto on Thursday. So I guess as an afterthought, you could skip that second huge bowl of spaghetti.)

Can’t live without snack bars Thursday

March 21, 2013 by Edlyn

I might be exaggerating a little when I say I can’t live without a snack bar. I can definitely live without them. Now more so than ever since going to a grocery shop requires every drop of determination I store in my quads to take a bus there. If you must know, a more accurate representation of what I can’t live without is quick to-go healthy snack things that I can just stuff in my bag for my bus rides. As if to say I’ll get stuck in traffic and might have to start chewing my shoe. I’m kooky but I’d never do that. What do shoes taste like anyway? Assuming you have a distant uncle who makes edible wearable shoes…you know, the usual.

For a person who takes her snacking so seriously, you’ll always find seeds and dried fruit in the house. Like a squirrel. My friend Claire (who quotes lines from my blog and makes me feel shy) would joke everyday about me eating bird seed when we worked together at the world’s best newspaper. It was the best, right Claire? I feel like she can hear me.

Last last week when we (not Claire and I {I wish}, rather Awesomeshoes and I) went for a hike on the island, I knew we had to have snacks. Even if we didn’t walk 5 hours and instead chose to vegetate in our stretchy pants, I’d still know we had to have snacks. I’m very intuitive that way. The old me would go to Trader Joe’s and pick a selection of granola bars and fruit-roll ups but the new me wanted to be more efficient. In the spirit of making the best of what we already have, I did exactly that.

I found this great guide to making protein/energy bars on this blog and I thought how lucky I was because I knew what all of those ingredients were. Admit it, sometimes you look at a plain and simple recipe and it’s plain and simply WTF. This wasn’t like that at all. Great!

The day before the hike, I put all these ingredients together and thought I’d leave out the flour because the other ingredients seemed sticky enough to bind everything together. They weren’t. No big deal except I had to fill crumbly crumbs into a Ziploc bag and those make for slightly difficult “on the move” snacking. On that day however, I felt blessed to be alive with my favourite person. As long as I had my water bottle, we’d be okay.

The next week, I tired it again and down below lies a successful second attempt and a new “Can’t live without…” recipe. Except I can live without them.

Black bean snack bars

As I (think I) mentioned, I did a lot of what this recipe entailed from a scratch. Here’s a little prior guidance if you choose to do the same. I soaked 3/4 cup of black beans overnight and then cooked them in plain water until they were soft. This generally takes 30-40 minutes. You can use a pressure cooker but since I don’t own one like a bad Indian, I just boiled them. Once cooked, drain them and leave aside. I also made the almond butter for which I’ll share the recipe in a separate post tomorrow. Can you wait that long? Okay fine, I’ll just do it today.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 tsp juice of a blood orange (optional)
Sprinkle of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
Chocolate chips, raisins (to stir in at the end)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, which is 2085 degrees F for my oven. It’s still broken, thanks for asking.

In a food processor, pulse together the beans, almond butter, agave nectar, chopped dates, vanilla extract, blood orange juice, cinnamon and salt until combined into a paste. To this, add the buckwheat flour and process a little at a time until it’s all mixed well. Pour this out into a big bowl and mix in the rolled oats with your hands. You can also do this in the food processor but if you do, pulse it only until it mixes together. You don’t want the oats to get too crumbly and dry out the mix. Add the chocolate chips and raisins at the end and mix them manually. ROAR like a lion/ess.

Grease a deep baking pan and then spread and flatten the mixture into it. You want the the snack bars to be at least an inch thick.

Bake for 15-17 minutes on the middle rack. Let it cool before dividing it into individual bars. I always have the hardest time with the whole “letting it cool” part.

The heart wants what it wants.

Can’t live without paneer Thursday

March 14, 2013 by Edlyn

There were always these mini wars at home any time my father made palak paneer. No daggers were drawn and unkind words never uttered. This was a silent war. A war where you ensured you were the first person to serve yourself food so you could quietly spoon the most skewed palak paneer ratio into your plate. Nobody noticed this masti was going on until all the paneer was gone and my father decided to be vocal about it.

I think it was Gayle.

Paneer is one of the biggest reasons why I’ve become such a spinach fiend. It’s not the other way around. I just realised how true this is after I typed it. Unlike other Indian households that know the exact doodhwala (dairy, but literally translated to milkman) that makes the softest, pillow-like paneer or provides the milk that can aid you in the process, my family rarely did any of this. Paneer was a once in a while, Sunday sort of thing and that made it even more tantalising. Every time it was stir-fried or dropped in a pot of pureed spinach, Gayle was always the first in line stealing all the paneer.

She’ll say no but don’t believe her.

Which brings me to my new kitchen. There’s an “Indian store” some kilometers away that sells paneer like any good Latin-American run Indian store should. If ever I sum up the courage to walk there, I never forget the cottage cheese. I’m a good Indian girl that way.

Last week I wanted to be the best Indian alive. I wanted to make my own paneer, which if any seasoned Indian cook reads, they’re probably going to laugh in my face. I knew when I saw a bottle of milk from the local dairy, all swirling with the fattiest of fat milk I’ve seen in the West, I had to have it. HAD TO. If you’re ever thinking of attempting this recipe, buying the best milk is a good place to start. It’s so simple, and with a little patience, you can be like your friend’s mother who takes restaurant-like orders for food every morning and when you come home after FROLICKING in the 1000 degree Agra summer there’s a freakin mango milkshake and 10 course meal with paneer you press with your index finger because it’s clearly sent from heaven.

If you have no intention of attempting this recipe, that’s okay too. Just leave a comment in the end that says: “You’re the best Indian alive.” “You’re” meaning me.

I think I’ve earned it.

Ingredients

1 litre of whole aka fatty fat milk (4 cups)
1- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

You will also need

Cheesecloth

Pour the milk into the pot and keep it on medium heat. You will now be waiting for it to come to a slow/gentle boil. As it sits there, keep stirring from time to time with a spoon.

Keep a watchful eye on the pot. It should take about 30 minutes to reach a gentle boil. If you’ve ever seen milk reach its boiling point, it doesn’t just do the sissy bubbling that water does. It will rise right out of the pot and on to the burners. Total anarchy will ensue. When all you were hoping for was a cup of tea, you will have a stove that doesn’t light and a whole mess to clean. If you’re going for gentle boil, you do not want this.

While the milk is going along, keep the cheesecloth ready. It should be big enough to bundle and hang. Place the cheesecloth in a strainer or colander.

As soon as you see tiny bubbles come up to the surface of the milk, add the lemon juice a little bit at a time (a teaspoon would be a good start). You’ll start to see slight curdling of the milk. While doing this, keep stirring slowly. You want the milk to separate. Once it does this, it changes colour. I want to call this change a greenish colour but you might have a different opinion. That’s the milk turning into curd and whey. I have a picture to show you what you’re looking for.

You might require more or less lemon juice than stated in the ingredients as every lemon has a different acid content.

Once it completely separates, stir for 15 seconds more and then strain the curd-whey through the cheesecloth. Rinse the curd under cold water to remove any lemon taste and also to cool it so you can squeeze out the whey before you hang the cheesecloth.

You can add some dried herbs like thyme or oregano before you tie and hang the curd if you want to flavour it. I didn’t do that this time but I will try it the next time.

Tie the cheesecloth (with the curd inside) tight with baker’s twine or some other string and let it hang out for 30 minutes. I tied it from the handle to our microwave. Weirdo. Thirty minutes later, put some weight on the cheesecloth bundle to get rid of any extra whey that’s still in the curds. You don’t want too much weight or your paneer will become too dry. Leave it under the weight for 2 hours.

Untie it and voila, guess what we’ve just created? Perfect palak paneer material, that’s what.

Apart from the spinach, of course.

Banana pancakes. Life choices. What’s the difference?

February 23, 2013 by Edlyn

Since I’ve been so good with sharing embarrassing things about myself, I’d like to throw this information out there into the universe too. Hopefully it doesn’t find its way into a black hole:

I signed up to run a 10K race in January. Not just any 10K. It’s the Best Dressed 10K.

Applaud.

Now I know you thinking: “How is this embarrassing? I can’t even run to my mailbox! Get that triple cheeseburger!” Thank you, your words mean a lot. You had me at cheeseburger. It’s still slightly embarrassing that after 2 years of trying to be a runner, I still don’t know where exactly I stand.

2 years ago, I made a mad dash to reclaim my life after I found out I’d be married soon. I needed one more milestone for myself before the leap. As if planning a wedding in 5 months wasn’t challenging enough, I also wanted to die at the end of a half marathon. It was either that or climbing Mt Everest and Everest seemed too easy for me. After waiting till the last week to sign up, I never got a spot. No clearer indication that I just wasn’t into it.

Yet, a huge part of me still was. I kept running every week. Though I took breaks to do silly things like attend my wedding, I persisted. I read an article last year about how running was one of the greatest metaphors for life; that you get out of it what you put into it.. Since then, I’ve never wanted to jump back into fighting myself more.

I have no faith in my knees, I have the most erratic eating habits, I’ve been a failure at building muscle since 1987 but I. want. this. I want to feel the ecstasy of crossing a finishing line even though it’s only 10 kms away. If it means I’ll finally drown out those voices that say I’m incapable, I’ll take 2 of each. I will feel every step and run it like this was meant to be.

10K? No biggie. Best dressed? You better believe it.

Banana pancakes

When I eat 5 of these, I can run like it’s nobody’s business. This + Led Zeppelin = Magic to my feet. Tested and certified. It’s also gluten-free.

Ingredients

2 overripe bananas
1/2 cup almond butter
2 eggs
3 tbsp buckwheat flour
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
Pinch of salt

You’re going to have to do a lot of mixing, as it goes with ever pancake recipe in the world. Mash the bananas and add the almond butter to it. Mix it all up and add the eggs. Mix it some more and add the buckwheat flour, honey and cinnamon.

Heat a griddle pan if you have one. I just use a normal civilian frying pan in fear that I might type girdle instead of griddle. All I can say is, you do not want to heat a girdle. Especially if you’re wearing it. I am not. Now I’m afraid I’ve interchanged the words. Please bring it to my attention if I have. After you’re done laughing, that is.

Griddle. Heat. Done?

Spoon the batter onto the lightly greased cooking surface of choice. Once you spot tiny bubbles on the top, flip it over. Cook through a minute more on the other side and flip it on a plate. If you notice that the pancakes are turning too brown after you flip it, reduce the heat slightly.

Serve with maple syrup or butter or honey or all 3!!!

Okay maybe not all 3.

Who does that?

Can’t say.

Gotta run.