Wild Rice Salad for Deborah

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

I have some standby recipes for last minute potlucks when I can’t think what to make and this is one of those recipes. I think the first time I had something like this was at a Shakespeare in the Park play in Los Angeles several years ago. I can’t even recall who brought it to the potluck, but I loved it and have recreated it in my own way many many times over since then. One of my favorite friends on earth, Deborah, is quite pregnant and by doctor’s orders has to restrict certain foods.

Deborah and I love to eat together. We love to go out and share, eat in and cook, whatever. Many of my all time favorite meals have been with this chic. Ooh- once, when I went to stay with her and her parents in Paris we went to the Jewish Quarter and ate the most amazing meal ever. I remember unbuttoning my pants and then kept going on that hummus and hatzilim (licking the plate is highly encouraged amongst us). I could name several memorable meals over the years (best bagel on earth, anyone?), but the point is, Deborah told me she was struggling with this no sugar stuff and more than that is this low on complex carbs or something. She’s not a huge fan of rice, but I think she and Chris might just like this one. So this one’s for ma petite Deborah…

Keep in mind that this is from memory so these measurements are not exact and alas, there are no pictures.

Wild Rice Salad
1 cup of wild rice (I like that lundberg mix you can find most places)
2 cups of water and/or broth (I like 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 water)
half a bunch cilantro, chopped
green onions or spring onions, chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds, or whole almonds chopped and toasted (I like the crunchiness once they’re toasted)
OR pecans, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup dried cherries, cranberries, or currants (don’t roll your eyes at this one Deborah- you can take it or leave this part)
If you do NOT do the dried fruit, do an avocado
chopped arugula (optional)
wheat free tamari or soy sauce
sesame oil
Feta cheese, crumbled (also optional)
dash of good salt and pepper

Cook rice according to instructions. When rice is totally cooled, put it in a large bowl and add all the ingredients EXCEPT arugula and cheese. Taste for flavor. Add lettuce or chopped arugula just before eating. This dish should be served room temperature. The trick is to cool the rice. If you add the sauce when it’s still hot, the texture will get funky (I get impatient, but try not to).
That’s it. I eat it as a main course, but it can also be a side or served under roast chicken.

Posted in Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Salty | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Porch Swing

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

I had some leftover white wine, some grapefruit juice, and a big thing of sparkling water in the fridge and none of those items was I planning to drink. Then… I had a friend coming over and we were supposed to go have sangrias and I asked if I could make her something instead of going out. So I put each of these leftover ingredients in our glasses, a splash of agave, a squeeze of lime and voila, a very delicious and refreshing drink. We did drink a couple of these and then thought it would be a good idea to go to Goodwill for some shopping. I bought an ugly skirt, but that’s a whole different story.

I made this again later in the weekend for Sunday’s dinner and used orange instead of lime and some less flat bubbly water. It was so refreshing after working in the garden, I’m tempted to make this all the time.

Porch Swing
1/2 c soda water
1/2 c white wine
1/2 c grapefruit juice
squeeze of orange or lime
squeeze of agave

Less juice, more sparkling water

Posted in Recipes | Tagged | 1 Comment

Avon Lady Lemon Squares with a Twist

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

This was actually one of the first posts I wrote a few months ago and did not finish, but when I went to check it out, I realized I didn’t write down a single ingredient that I used! So… I remade these at previously mentioned impromptu Sunday supper. Here we go:

When I was probably around 8 years old I started making lemon squares. The recipe is from my mother’s college roommate’s mother’s avon lady. Yes, you read that correctly. It is THE best lemon square recipe known to man and I became the lemon square maker at a very young age. My mom used to have to mix the crust for me when I was wee and I made these for just about every occasion and until I went GF, I made them all the time. In fact, it was my go-to recipe when there is nothing else in the house or I can make it at parties in minutes flat with guests waiting for a midnight snack. My mother wrote this down on a piece of lined paper in 1970ish. I used that browned and waxy piece of paper for years.

I hadn’t made this recipe in over a year, but then the director of our Farmers’ Market requested something “lemony” for her birthday. I had 2 choices: I could make these famous lemon squares and torture myself as I watched others eat them, or I could experiment. I could alter the best recipe ever and see what could happen. I chose the latter.

Here is my version of these lemon squares and I must say they turned out pretty darn good. I started with a pecan almond crust and went from there…

Pecan Almond Crust
2 c almond flour (blanched almonds, ground in the cuisinart)
1 1/2 c pecans, ground (still cracking those from our trees)
5 T sugar
1/2 c butter (earthspread)
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 t vanilla (I used 1 Tablespoon for my version here but next time I would do less)

Heat oven to 350. Grind the almonds and pecans in the cuisinart to a fine powder. Add other dry ingredients and blend. Add butter and vanilla and blend until completely mixed. Press the crust with your fingertips into a 9×12 pyrex. While I would normally suggest pressing it up the sides, I found that this crust is better without being very high up on the sides. So I covered the bottom, and then pressed just up from the corner. The dough is very sticky. Don’t worry, it works. Alas, my pyrex was tied up, so I used 2 smaller pans. Par-bake the crust for about 10 minutes.

Then the filling. These are puckering lemon squares. As in, not those uber sweet ones you find at the store. It’s also a very gooey recipe, not tons of flour in the filling, which is why it was so easy to substitute the 4 T of flour it calls for with arrowroot (I’m sure tapioca starch would do too or white rice flour mightwork too).

Lemon Goodness:
4 eggs
2 c (scant) sugar
1/2 c lemon juice
4 T arrowroot powder

Beat together all of the above ingredients with a whisk and add it to par-baked crust. Bake at 350 for another 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you must.

Posted in Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Sweet | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Easy Roast Tomatoes with Feta and Herbs

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Salts Kitchen


Tomatoes might be my favorite fruit. But a bad tomato, even a slightly mealy tomato, may very well be one of my least favorite textures known to mankind. How often do people say they don’t like tomatoes and then they try a good one? Many. My British roommate in Japan hated tomatoes until I brought home cherry tomatoes from a tiny shop near my house. And those weren’t even that good!

Here in Texas we have pretty good tomatoes. Alas, not great. I wouldn’t eat any here like an apple. Height of the season I will slice them up with salt and maybe some olive oil. The point of this post is ROASTED tomatoes. Roasting is often what I do if tomatoes are getting a little shrively. Roasting is also fantastic at the end of the season and you’re getting only a couple of mediocre tomatoes at a time. Roast them as they come, stick them in a jar with olive oil, add to the jar until it’s full, and then you have a jar of roasted tomatoes.

And roasting tomatoes is a great trick to bring out the flavor, when they’re just not that flavorful! Which brings me to today’s recipe. Part of the impromptu Sunday supper included Lisa bringing a few tomatoes over and we roasted them up nice and simple like…

6 tomatoes
1 T herbes de Provence or any variety of dried herbs in your cupboard (basil, parsley…)
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Feta or other crumbly cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400. Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally and place them cut-side up in a roasting pan. Sprinkle olive oil, then herbs, then feta over each tomato. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper over all the tomatoes. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes (I didn’t write this down). They’re done when they are a little browned on top and nice and shrively. You can turn the heat up to broil for the last few minutes too.

Posted in Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Salty | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Shopping at the HEB and Making Friends

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

Earlier this week I was in the bulk/”healthy” section of the Hancock Center HEB. There was a woman making faces at the Gluten Free section and mumbling to herself. She laughed when she saw me notice her. I minded my own business until her mumbling became speaking directly to me about how high the prices of GF are. She was looking at the cake mixes and I said, “yea especially when you have to experiment and find out that $8 box of cake mix is actually pretty gross.”

She told me her daughter, who is 10, can’t eat gluten anymore and it’s been really hard and she doesn’t bake. Her daughter misses bread. I told her there’s a frozen bread section so she at least doesn’t have to bake it herself. She asked for a guided tour of that section. So I gave it to her. Then I gave her my card with my favorite blogs on it. I almost gave it to her before I remembered I should probably add my own blog too!

As I finished my shopping I realized that I haven’t written nearly enough about what brands work for me and which ones don’t. Actually, this particular trip they were out of my regular bread and I found one that may even be better. So, I’ll be better about that.

The truth is, if you don’t know food or can’t bake (and sometimes even if you do and can), GF can be really expensive and daunting. I bet a whole lot of folks shopping at the HEB instead of Whole Foods don’t know what quinoa is, don’t realize that rice is naturally gluten free. We focus so much of our energy on the “fad” that is GF: the white, affluent, farmers’ market-going, Whole Foods shopping folk (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that, it’s just not the whole world)- that people tend to forget that this is a real live affliction and one that is not limited to “foodies”. Dang, that term used to not be so loaded. I could start my rant right now (wait, that’s not what I was doing already?), but instead I’ll leave links to a couple of articles that were debated to no end on a listserv I subscribe to, all about being picky, not being picky, wanting better food, chefs lying, oh so much.

NY Times Puritan Article
Chef Admits to Lying
Bread Made Dozens Ill

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Roasted Artichoke Halves

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

Roasted Artichokes

Artichoke season is short. I mean really short. I was working at the farmers’ market last week and walked passed the artichoke vendor and couldn’t help myself. I knew he would sell out so I asked him to set just 3 aside for me. Instead, he told me to hang on to them and I should pay him only if I remembered. I love it. Of course I remembered, but he still wouldn’t take my money (until I pressed a whoppin’ $2 in his hand as a tip, yea that’s how I roll).

The last time I made artichokes they tasted like poison. Really. They were baby artichokes and I don’t understand what happened to them, but they were pretty inedible. Two years later I’m ready to try again. This time was part of an impromptu Sunday night dinner. Of course, I’ll get to all the other things made that night, but first… the artichokes since there is only 1 more week of them at the market. So get down there and try these out!

I didn’t measure well and I think I’d have liked it a little more saucy, so this is an estimate of what I would do NEXT time…

Roasted Artichoke Halves
3 medium-sized artichokes
3 T capers, chopped
1-2 T anchovy paste or canned anchovies, chopped
half a bunch parsley (I didn’t have it but wished I had)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 T gluten free bread crumbs
dash of chili flakes (optional)
5-7 T extra virgin olive oil

Trim base of the artichoke (just enough so there’s an inch or 2 of stem still). Trim the very top of the artichoke off and remove the outer most layer of leaves. Cut in half down the center and throw in a bowl of water with a lemon cut in half. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400. Saute garlic, anchovies, and chili flakes in 2 T olive oil for about 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Add capers and parsley. Saute for another minute. Remove the artichoke from the water and pat dry. Rub olive oil all over them to coat. Lay them cut side up and sprinkle the garlic mixture on top of each half, and rub in with your fingers so it goes between the leaves in some spots. Throw a dash of salt over everything.

Sauteed garlic, capers, anchovy, and chili flakes


Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 400 or until tender. Turn heat to broil, sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top of each artichoke, and toss a little more olive oil on top if it looks dry. Broil for about 5 minutes, until the breadcrumbs seem nice and toasty. Again, this is an approximation. Make it and tell me how it goes!

Posted in Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Salty | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Oh so spicy sweet potato and beef red curry

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

Again with the sweet potatoes you say? Yes, I had a frackin’ ton. I also had opened a can of coconut milk to make some rice pudding, so I decided curry sounded good. Thai Fresh on West Mary street sells cans of very tasty curry. I had a can of red curry in the house and that sounded delightful with sweet potatoes. The problem was that I didn’t have much else and hadn’t gotten out of my pj’s yet (yes it was 4pm on a Sunday and I was recovering from sxsw) so I didn’t want to go to the store. Then I remembered those last 2 ribs in my freezer from The Neighborhood Table and decided that could be in there AND be used as my stock.

I made an oh-so spicy curry using a few good ingredients and very little prep time. As with many of these recipes, I used what I had in the house- if you have something different, have at it!

Spicy Sweet Potato and Beef Red Curry with vermicelli
2-3 large beef short-ribs
1 T vegetable or peanut oil
1 can red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1 yellow onion, diced
2 green onions, diced (white and green parts separated)
2 sweet potatoes, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
2 T fish sauce
1 large tomato, diced
mushrooms if you’ve got them
juice of 2 limes
vermicelli

In a large, wide pot brown the shortribs on all sides. Set aside.

Turn heat to low, and add 1 T vegetable oil. Add yellow onion, white part of green onion, and carrots. Saute until onion is just barely translucent. Add the curry and 2 T of the coconut milk. Mix together over low-medium heat until curry is completely dissolved. Add the rest of the coconut milk, the shortribs, half of the sugar, and half of the fish sauce. Cover and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes or until sweet potatoes are just about tender. Add water if the liquid doesn’t cover at least 2/3 of the potatoes and beef.

Remove the ribs from the curry and with a sharp knife, slice the beef off the bone. Return both parts to the pot. Add green parts of onion, juice of 1 lime, and taste for more sugar and/or fish sauce. Add the tomato and mushrooms. Partially cover and cook over low heat for 3-5 minutes. In the meantime, boil vermicelli and drain.

Serve curry over vermicelli (or any rice noodle) and top with cilantro.

The Goods

Posted in A Little Spicy, Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Salty | 1 Comment

Sweet, sweet, sweet potato pie

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

I’m not sure I’d ever had sweet potato pie. I’m not a huge “spice” fan: you know, cinnamon (hate it), nutmeg, cloves, but I do love sweet potatoes. And I had about 15 pounds of sweet potatoes in the cupboard. Yes, I am a garbage disposal for friends and family. I don’t mind- I like the challenge of figuring out what to do with a massive amount of ingredients. In fact, I love it, but it does fill up the fridge to capacity. With 15 pounds of 1 ingredient, I am forced stretch the imagination and think outside the box (at least after the first 10 pounds). I made curry (to be posted soon), baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato and black bean salad, and still had a couple left. So… sweet potato pie edged it’s way onto my radar.

Actually, I really wanted to experiment with a new pie crust “mix” and I owed a friend a favor. So I decided to make my friend (and colleague) a sweet potato pie. It was a little bit of a challenge seeing as he’s from the south and has probably eaten some serious versions. But, the use of the power drill, the shovels, the seeds, and the numerous trips to his house to borrow other various sundries (not to mention using his facilities when my water was off for a week) deserved a pie- at the very least. So… a pie I baked. I brought it to Andrew at the office which meant it was shared with all the staff.

I used Gluten Free Pantry pie crust mix. Now, when it comes to GF, a “mix” does not necessarily mean the easy way out- the cop-out if you will. This one involves an egg, butter and shortening (okay, that’s what I’ve always done), apple cider vinegar, and more. And I must say, it was a delight. I felt that it was a little drier than I wanted it to be, which is strange because it was so wet that I couldn’t even fold it into the pan properly. Next time, I’ll use an egg wash and sprinkle sugar as well. Next time.

Rolling out the dough

As I mentioned, the dough was a bit tacky. I rolled it out between 2 pieces of parchment paper and it had some issues getting into the pan. I ended up having to press a few of the pieces back into place, which was just fine once I crimped the edges. The mix makes 2 double 8-in pies. So I used half the mix and had some leftover to make mini-cookies.

For the sweet potato filling, I made a variation of Marion Cunningham’s version from her Fannie Farmer Cookbook. This is very much one of my go-to books for all things tasty. I love what Marion does, and while I know she has aged tremendously in the last few years, the last time I saw her I decided she was the kind of beautiful old woman I’d like to be. That was several years ago when my mother and father were in a car accident in Northern California, and Marion came with her date walnut cookies (and other various treats) to the hospital. But that’s another story. As is the first time I tried those cookies of hers…

Sweet Potato Pie Filling
2 cups steamed, peeled, and mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 almond milk
3/4 scant cup sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t fresh grated nutmeg
2 T whiskey (the recipe called for rum, but I had Makers Mark and it was perfect)
4 T earthspread butter, melted

Preheat the oeven to 425F. Line a 9-in pie pan with half the pastry dough. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until homogenous. Pour into the pie crust. Bake 10-15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 300F and bake for another 50 minutes or until the filling doesn’t jiggle.

Lo and behold, it was DELICIOUS! I thoroughly enjoyed the filling and even the crust was pretty good. Actually, I’d say it was “good for gluten free”, meaning it was tasty but a real crust would have been better.

Posted in Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Sweet | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Yammy Carrot Muffins

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

Not so yammy…I’m not really that clever. There is an existing recipe called Yammy Muffins. However, I didn’t actually use that recipe from The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre™, I just like the title. I think I’m getting braver. Or sillier. Or maybe since I’m tracking my successes and failures finally I’m simply taking more chances.

So I had a ton of carrots and sweet potatoes at home and decided that muffins sounded good. Of course, I found no recipe that I like with those ingredients and there is definitely no recipe on those that is also gluten and dairy free. So here comes the brave silliness, I’m creating my own. This was part of my Sunday ladies’ brunch and alas, this recipe was the least favorite. Since here is where I track my experiments, I shall make a note to myself that I did not enjoy these so much and if I did make them again I would make some serious adjustments.

I should note that half way through my process I discovered a new (to me) blog called Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried and she did indeed have a carrot sweet potato muffin. I ended up changing some of my thoughts to mimic some of hers, but still the end result was meh. Straigh Into Bed- I shall try this again sometime.

Yammy Carrot Muffins
1/2 floz melted butter
3 eggs
2 T Honey (I think next time I would increase to 3 and add 2 T sugar too)
1/2 c carrots grated
3/4 c Sweet potato, cooked (I steamed them), and peeled and mashed
1/4 c sorghum flour
1/4 c ground almonds
2 T arrowroot powder
1 t cream of tartar
1/2 t baking soda
1 t xantham gum
1/4 t cinnamon (optional)
zest and juice of 1 orange (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease 10 muffin tins. Mix the dry ingredients into a large bowl and set aside. Beat together the butter, eggs, and honey, and then mix them into the dry ingredients with the grated carrots and mashed sweet potatoes.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the tin and bake for 35 minutes. These stayed pretty moist with the cooked sweet potato, so never felt completely done.

Posted in Dietary Restrictions, Fail, Recipes, Sweet | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tom Kha Gai

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Salts Kitchen

Yesterday morning Tom Kha (Thai Coconut Soup) came up in conversation and I promised to send my friend Sarah my version of this recipe. Then on my way to yoga later in the day, another friend simply texted, “I want Thai food.” I texted back “me too. pick me up some”. Suddenly I realized I’d really like to make soup and I had about half of the ingredients already. So right before yoga began, I texted Tom again, “if you pick up cilantro, lemongrass, tofu, and mushrooms, I’ll make us soup tonight”. Next thing I knew, there were 4 of us around the dinner table enjoying Tom Kha. Yum. So, no pictures, and yes there are drafts waiting to be published of other dishes, but I’m throwing this out there while it’s damp and chilly outside and while Sarah still awaits my version of this recipe.

Since the blond roommate was eating too, we replaced the chicken broth with veggie broth which I never do, but it tasted delightful. I also used tofu instead of chicken which also worked just fine. I also usually use galangal but didn’t have that in the house for this time.

Tom Kha

3 cups vegetable stock (1 box organic vegetable broth)
2 cup coconut milk (1 can)
2-3 T fish sauce
1-3 tsp chili paste
1 T sugar (or more to taste)
2 stalks lemongrass
2 inch piece of ginger, sliced in large pieces (so you can remove before eating), bruised
2 red shallots, chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves
10 button mushrooms
1 large tomato, cut into pieces
8 oz tofu
Juice of 3 limes
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 cups of white rice

Prepare rice and set aside.

Chop the tender part of the lemongrass very finely and bruise the rest (the whole stock, cut in half, and smash it a little with a knife and your palm). Heat 1 T vegetable oil in a pot and add shallots, lemongrass, and if you have galangal add that now too (I used ginger here). Saute until tender, and cover over low heat to let the lemongrass get very tender about 5-7 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of chili paste.

Add coconut milk, broth, the lime leaves and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and add fish sauce and sugar, stir until dissolved. Add mushrooms and tofu. Simmer over low, partially covered until mushrooms are just tender. Add tomato. Add more chili, fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice according to your taste.

Serve soup over rice and garnish with a hefty sprinkling of cilantro and a lime wedge.

Posted in A Little Spicy, Dietary Restrictions, Recipes, Salty | Tagged , , | 4 Comments