Gluten-Free

My mom found this simple recipe, and it is really, really delicious. The sauce uses wine, tomatoes, and mushrooms - need I say more?

Makes enough for about 7 people, if served over rice or similar starch.

I was surprisingly unsatisfied with the latke recipes I turned up by google-searching this year...so I adapted this one from the Food Network. They turned out deliciously, tiny and lacy and crisp and just-right salted. Perfect with apple sauce...

This makes a large number of latkes, almost enough for two hungry adults and three hungry children.

(2016 Latke Party Notes: 21 lbs. of potatoes (7x recipe) generously fed 17 eaters; we also ate a 2/3 full 8-quart pot of applesauce (about 7 jars worth), and had a pot of chicken soup on the side.)

Right around when my second son was born, the Sierra Club magazine ran a recipe that sounded delicious: red lentils cooked with "fire-roasted" tomatoes, wild rice, a bunch of shittake mushrooms, and red wine, cooked until creamy and full of flavor: http://www.food.com/recipe/shiitake-lentil-pressure-cooker-soup-276160 .

The problems with the original recipe were small but numerous, including how it made way more than indicated, and overflowed my cooker!

These are really delicious, and are good left over, too. The sauce becomes a thick, sweet-sour glaze as it cools, so I like to toss the fully-cooked chicken around a bit once it comes out of the oven. This way, the glaze attaches to the meat instead of the pan.

15 drumsticks
Loose cup of fresh herbs - a mixture of thyme, sage, oregano, and savory is nice
Salt and pepper to taste (1-1.5 tsp. salt)
3/4 c. cider vinegar (balsamic is awesome, too)

Cooks Illustrated has more and more recipes that can be adapted to fit "special diets." This one, for simplified Massaman Curry, was absolutely superb. The curry paste was a huge pain in the rear, but I made 4x the recipe and froze leftovers for later. That turned subsequent dinners into (nearly) Fast Food.

In May/June 2014, Cooks Illustrated presented an in-depth article on "Gluten Free Pizza Worth Eating." I was very intrigued...but didn't want to use commercial baking yeast, and wanted to eliminate a couple of other questionable ingredients. Therefore, I created a prototype for a 24-hour-fermented, kefir-risen pizza crust. It was nearly unbelievable - you wouldn't even know it was gluten free unless someone told you, the texture was crispy-on-the-bottom and chewy, you could eat a slice with one hand (just like real pizza!) and I'm gonna keep experimenting...

I can't decide what I think about chia. On the one hand: seems pretty indigestible. On the other hand: is a traditional food. On the other hand: did people just eat it as is?? Did they grind it, or ferment it?? I don't know. But this tastes pretty delicious. :)

3.5 c. coconut milk
2 T. vanilla
1 vanilla bean's insides, scraped
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
2 T. honey
pinch salt
1/2 c. chia seeds

I love love love saag paneer. And when our friend brought over two pounds of fresh paneer, I just had to find a good recipe. Here it is:

2 T. butter or ghee
1 T. minced fresh ginger
1 T. minced fresh garlic
3 small dried chiles
2 T. curry powder
Salt, to taste
1.5 lbs. spinach, washed well, cut into 1-inch pieces, water still clinging to the leaves
3/4 lb. fresh paneer cheese cubes
1/2 c. yogurt
1.5 c. light or heavy cream, preferably cultured (yogurt cream)
squeeze of lemon

There are a ton of similar recipes that proliferate around the Internet. This one is a pretty tasty one - heavy on the Sweet, but hey - decadence every so often is supposed to be a good thing, right?

2 c. raw walnuts (soaked and dehydrated)
2.5 c. medjool dates, pitted
1 c. cocoa powder (raw doesn't taste as good as Regular)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. raw almonds (soaked and dehydrated), chopped coarsely

Process walnuts till finely ground. Add the dates one at a time, and process until fine cake-like crumbs emerge, that can hold together when pressed.

I love what cauliflower does to a soup - it's much more than you might think, if you imagine cauliflower as a Limp Steamed Vegetable! And turmeric supposedly does all sorts of good things for conditions like Dementia, etc...except I can't remember what it does, exactly...

At least this is delicious. :)