PeJu's Super Yummy Biscotti

Right out of the oven!

Our friend Chris emailed us a chocolate almond fig biscotti (gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, refined sugar-free, vegan-adaptable) receipt the other day, so we decided we would bake some biscotti this weekend after returning from our morning errand-hand-holding bike ride (Christmas Market, Foi Epi, Fantastico, and Mother Nature's Market) to go with our afternoon tea.

We altered the original ingredients:

• Coconut flour and quinoa flour for some of the almond meal 
• Maple syrup for honey
• Candied ginger for figs

We ended up with two versions, fig and cacao, and almond and ginger.

Ready for first baking!

Both taste great with afternoon tea. Don't let the whole gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, refined sugar-free, vegan-adaptable scare you off. I guarantee no one will notice if you don't tell them they aren't packed with refined sugar and glutenous flour!

Next up:

Our own version of ginger bread biscotti:

• 1 c sorghum flour
• 1/4 c almond meal
• 2 t tapioca flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 4 t ginger powder or candy ginger
• 3 t ground cinnamon
• 1 t ground cloves
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 6 T maple syrup or agave syrup or honey
• 3 T almond slices (you can add these by hand after)
• Add water if it is too dry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the food processor, add all ingredients. Pulse to combine until the dough comes together in a ball. Remove the dough and press the dough together with your hands. The dough should be barely moist enough to come together. If it is too moist, add a bit of tapioca flour. If too dry, add a sprinkle of water.

Pat the dough together on the baking sheet into a log about 2 1/2 inches wide and 10 inches long. Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
Remove and allow to cool on the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes. Lower the oven to 300 degrees.

Once cooled, slice the dough with a serrated knife into pieces about 1/2 inch thick on the diagonal. Separate out the biscotti onto the baking sheet and bake again for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool completely before serving.

Makes about 10-12 biscotti.

Any other suggestions for ginger bread flavour tips?

Do you think we should dip the ends in chocolate or a white glaze? 

Note: you can add any spice you like to change the flavour from sweet to savoury. It good with cacao to. 

PS, It was sunny in Victoria yesterday in case you easterns are wondering!

Summer is Hanging On!

Two kinds of local sausages
on the indoor BBQ.

The weather this past week has been pretty darned nice. Nice?  How about swell? Okay, awesome.  A little bit cooler first thing in the morning, and the sun is definitely setting earlier these days, but the sun in the middle day is glorious. Absolutely glorious.  Makes one want to sing.  And skip, and ride one's bicyle.  Even when tired.

And tired, I was.  I don't know about anybody else but I was tired all of this past week.  Peter was too.  All that virtual travel with James and Eve, I guess.

I have to say, Friday ended well. A quick bike ride to the Cook Street Village and voila!  Dinner ingredients were purchased and ready to go.  Peter was hoping for bangers and mash and I did my best to please.

We ate tasty local gluten free sausages grilled on the indoor BBQ, local organic baby potatoes, sauteed zucchini and mushrooms,  and savoured a glass of our favourite house wine.

Oh yes, and some refreshing sliced cucumber on the side.  I had fun using our fancy slicer thingy.

We finished it off with some fresh fruit.  Then we had to sit still for a while to let the week (and the meal) settle in.  Life is good.

Local peaches and plums. Okay, the kiwi isn't local!

I Can't Believe it is July Already

Really?  July 1st?  What happened to June already?  Let's see ....

It was a glorious day, although not
bathing suit temperature

Visit to Vancouver - Peter and I had a quick weekend visit to Vancouver. We managed to take time to share some sushi at Spanish Banks and make the obligatory visit to Granville Island.

Getting my hands dirty

"Empress of the Underworld" - hey,
I 'earned' that title the hard way!

Two weekends on Hornby Island - as Peter's parents are staying there now that the weather is better, we went up to visit and help them get ready for summer.  We managed to clean the roof, plant some flowers in pots, replace some fencing so the deer can't get in and eat the flowers we just planted, and move some things into storage under the house.

Peter in his natural habitat.

Right out of the oven - yummy!

To balance it out (it was the weekend after all), we made a loaf of gluten-free crusty boule that I absolutely had to try (Peter found the recipe and it was quite good), the hot tub was up and running so we tested it out, we made dairy-free ice cream with sugar-free hazelnut flavour, went for a walk in Helliwell Park early one morning, walked along Tribune Bay and saw the new tennis court surface.

Looking southeast towards Vancouver

New court surface!

We even had some time to visit with  friends and wander around the farmer's market both weekends. It was sunny both weekends but just a little cooler than one hoped it would be.  Looking at the selection of fresh flowers and strawberries available, the sunshine was more important than the temperature.  It was a good month.

Fresh flowers from Maia at the Hornby Island Farmers Market

Chocolate Peanut Parfait

It's so simple, and so wonderful!  And, dairy and gluten-free too.

Step 1 - roasted organic peanuts with a hint of sea-salt

Step 2 - whip up some raw Chocolate Sauce

Step 3 - churn some homemade ice cream

Layer together in whatever order and quantity you prefer and enjoy!
(Oh boy, my mouth is watering all over again)

Love those coconuts

One of our favourite treats is to share a young coconut.  They make a wonderful snack, drink, or dessert.  Until a week or so ago, we found them quite a challenge to open  - which has been one of the few drawbacks to enjoying a young coconut.   The other main drawback has been trying to find them in a grocery store, and harder yet to find them on sale!

Young Coconut, fresh from the store, individually wrapped

Amazingly, we found them on sale today at 3 for $5 so we brought some home to eat.  Luckily, Peter found a website with a video showing us an easy way to open them - this, after years of trying to find that perfect little spot to stick in a really strong knife, and then forcibly cut it open.  Lots of wasted effort.  The new way is MUCH easier and I'll try to show it here.

Shave the fibrous covering from the top part with knife - the sharper,
the better. Shave following the angle of the coconut top.

This is what it looks like 'shaved' or bald.

Take the butt end of a big knife and slam it into the top,
just above the widest part, where it will crack open just a wee bit.

Once the lid is cracked, it will crack all the way round and is easy
to pry off bit by bit all around.
Be careful to not spill too much coconut water!

Here you can see the clear water and thin layer of soft meat.
Or, can you?

Use a spoon to scrape the soft, young meat from the lid.

Pour the water into a glass or bowl, and scrape the young meat
from the inside of the coconut. I use a spoon.

Voila!  Fresh young coconut to enjoy! Nutrition from coconuts is off the map! Potassium, manganese, lauric acid, zero cholesterol, less fat than whole milk, a small amount of natural sugars, and very little sodium - all wrapped up into a liquid that has the electrolyte equivalent of our own plasma.

Spring Ahead Salad Rolls

vermicelli noodles, jicama, lettuce, cucumber, 

carrot, peanut sauce ready to go together

Today we spring ahead an hour and Salads Rolls seemed the obvious choice for dinner on such an occasion. 

SALAD ROLLS

Start by making a dipping sauce. Here are two examples of ones we have enjoyed. You can use anything that resembles salad dressing that you enjoy. So don't worry too much about it!

PEANUT 

1/4 to 1/2 cup organic peanut butter

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp honey (optional)

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp oil (sesame if you have it)

1 to 2 tsp (to taste) sambal oelek (very important in my opinion)

1/4 cup soy sauce (wheat free tamari if you have it for gluten free)

Blend by hand or in a food processor / hand blender.

OR 

CHILE LIME

Juice of two limes

1/4 cup fish sauce 

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp sambal oelek 

Blend by hand. 

Next the rolls. You will need:

1/2 package rice vermicelli (thin rice noodles)

Round rice paper wrappers  (22 cm/8.5 inch)

Shredded carrots

Shredded lettuce or kale

Shredded cucumber 

After the salad basics you can add anything you like. For example, we love jicama, so we add shredded or julienned jicama. 

Sometimes, we also add BC Spot Prawns when we're feeling flush, or fruit (mango) and vegetables such as green onion or sprouts, and fresh basil. Any salad fixings you have on hand. Experimenting can be fun!

DIP, BITE, DIP, BITE, DIP, BITE ...

Directions:

Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Remove from heat. Place rice vermicelli in boiling water, remove from heat, and let soak 4 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Fill a large bowl with hot water. Dip one rice wrapper in the hot water until soft (only a couple of seconds). 

Lick your lips and enjoy!

Lay wrapper flat on work surface and place desired amounts of noodles, carrot, lettuce etc., etc., in the center. Roll the edges of the wrapper slightly inward. Beginning at the bottom edge of wrapper, tightly wrap the ingredients (think burrito). Repeat with remaining ingredients.  

Serve the Salad Rolls with dipping sauce of your choice, and sit down and enjoy.  The wraps also keep well for lunch the next day if you wrap them in plastic wrap.  That is, IF you have leftovers!

More Food

Sunday dinners used to be a fairly formal get together for me when I was growing up.  Perhaps it was for you too.  In any case, it seems I still have a little bit of that same urge these days to take the time and make something really nice for Sunday night dinner.  Yesterday we surprised ourselves and had a fabulous one - almost without planning it!

Steamed local mussels in a white wine sauce, tossed green salad with Mamma's Marvelous Dressing and home grown sprouts, finished off with a homemade coconut lime ice cream topped with fresh strawberries (ripe and on sale).

The entire meal was gluten- and dairy-free, nutritious, colourful, and, best of all it tasted really, really good!  Peter was lovingly nurturing the sprouts all week, and I had made the ice cream Saturday evening on a whim.   Well, not exactly a whim as it had been inspired by a local artisan ice cream maker (Cold Comfort) whose Rum, Banana and Coconut Ice Cream I managed to taste a month ago, and I'd seen some coconut based ice creams at the local Lifestyles Market.  After reading the list of ingredients I made up my own recipe and it worked out quite well as the taste was almost spot on.  The strawberries and mussels were on sale, and the wine, well, it was the cheapest bottle in a specialty wine store. What can I say?  Luckily there was enough wine for us as well as the mussels.  Life is good.

Blueberry Pancakes

This being Saturday, we have time to make lattes and take our time deciding what we want to eat for breakfast.  Today over coffee, we quickly narrowed it down to oatmeal or pancakes.  The last few times we'd made pancakes, we had tried either a gluten-free pancake mix or a recipe labeled as gluten-free.  Turns out most of these contain some form of potato or corn.  Since we have became aware of Peter's various food sensitivities, especially corn, we have chosen to search for a new gluten-free recipe.

Sesame-Rosemary Crackers

With the success of the Sesame-Rosemary Crackers we have been making and enjoying lately, we decided to search for a pancake recipe that includes sorghum flour.  We found one and today was the first attempt using the recipe below.  We added blueberries because we can, and I have to say plates were licked in satisfaction!

Sorghum Pancakes

The sorghum blend is 2 cups sorghum, 2/3 cup arrowroot, 1/3 cup tapioca (I sift this together into my sorghum blend container).

Blueberry pancakes in the pan

In bowl mix:
1 cup sorghum flour
½ cup sorghum blend above (I used tapioca flour instead)

1 packet Stevia powder (= 2 tsp sugar)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

In another bowl:
Beat 1 egg (or egg replacer)
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup milk (I used almond milk and needed more than 1 cup)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix egg mixture into dry mixture. Make sure your pancake grill is nice and hot before you pour your batter on the grill. They will be flat if you don’t heat your grill enough.

Note: I added more milk a tablespoon at a time until the batter was thinner than in the photo.

Homemade Crackers

Further to our last post, here is the recipe for the gluten-free, corn-free, homemade crackers. We have finally got it right so they are a delight to eat, one by one, until they are almost gone!

Sesame-Rosemary Crackers

1/2 cup sorghum flour (NB - other flours don't work as well)

1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup almonds/pecans, finely chopped (I used my food processor/hand blender/coffee grinder to make them finely ground, almost into a coarse meal)


1/4 cup flax seeds
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup sesame seeds


2+ tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2+ tsp. dried rosemary, finely chopped (or dried basil)
1 tsp. cider vinegar


Toast sesame seeds until golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes in a toaster oven, hot fry pan or hot oven. Watch carefully so that they don't burn.


Soak flax seeds in 1/4 cup warm water for at least 15 minutes, or until they have swollen to absorb the water. The longer the better and I have even left them overnight.


In a medium mixing bowl, blend together sorghum, tapioca, pecans and salt. Add flax seeds, olive oil, sesame seeds, rosemary and cider vinegar and mix into a ball of dough. If dough is too dry, add a tsp. or two (or more) of warm water to make dough ball stick together. Divide dough ball in half.


Place a sheet of parchment paper on your counter and place first dough ball on top. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper. Roll with rolling pin to rough rectangular shape to fit a cookie sheet. I rolled this out to a little under 1/4 inch thickness. Remove top sheet of parchment paper and place bottom parchment layer and dough on cookie sheet. Score crackers into serving size with sharp knife or pizza cutter (about 1/5 x 2.5 inches).


Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until slightly brown at edges. While first batch is baking, roll out your second cracker batch as above.


Makes about 60 crackers. Once cooled, store in airtight container to keep fresh ... if you have any left over! I easily doubled the recipe.