Braised Hijiki Salad

Can you tell that I lived in Japan for ten years?

About once a month I get a serious hankering for Japanese-style braised hijiki salad, a combination of hijiki seaweed, carrots and gobo (burdock root) simmered slowly in a broth of soy sauce and mirin, and drizzled with toasted sesame oil.

Hijiki is a strongly flavored seaweed that grows in small black strands and packs a real nutritional punch. It has ten times the calcium of milk and is a rich source of iron, zinc, magnesium, and iodine.

Braised Hijiki Salad:

1 ounce hijiki
1 medium carrot
1/2 medium gobo
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
3 tablepoons gluten free soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 cup water (or dashi if you have it)

Rinse hijiki well, then soak in filtered water to cover for about 20 minutes or until plump. Drain (you can use this mineral rich soak water for your plants - they'll love it).

Julienne carrot and gobo, and soak gobo in cold filtered water until ready to use.

Heat 1/2 sesame oil in large skillet, and add carrot and gobo. Stir over medium heat about 2 minutes. Add hijiki, soy sauce, mirin and water (or dashi) and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes or until liquid is fully absorbed into the seaweed.

Turn off heat and drizzle with remaining sesame oil. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds, if desired.

Note: As will all seaweeds, please try to purchase organic or wild harvested seaweed from a reputable company. There have been warnings of contaminated hijiki and other seaweeds, the well known companies harvest from clean waters and test their products regularly for contamination.

Apple Upside-Down Cake with Calvados Caramel Sauce

This is a gluten free adaptation of a cake that I made years ago. It is a white cake topped by carmelized apples and just dripping with an intense Calvados caramel sauce. I had been fantasizing about this cake recently. My husband asked me the other day if Calvados (apple brandy) was gluten free (it is), which triggered memories of eating this decadent upside-down cake.

The original recipe is from the November 1995 edition of Gourmet magazine. For my version, I made it gluten free, dairy free and egg free. I replaced the butter with Earth Balance buttery spread (margarine), the sour cream with soy milk, the sugar with Succanet (unrefined sugar), and the eggs with egg replacer. Instead of making my own cake I bought a box of Whole Foods' new gluten free version of white cake mix and added cinnamon, chopped apples, and vanilla to the batter.

This cake got two thumbs up from my in-laws, here for Thanksgiving, who couldn't tell that it was a gluten free cake. In fact it was so good my mother-in-law asked for the recipe !

Topping:

3 1/2 Granny Smith apples
3/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (or other margarine)
2/3 cup succanet

Cake Batter:

15 ounce package 365 Gluten Free White Cake Mix (or other mix)
1/2 Granny Smith apple
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla
1/2 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
2 eggs or egg replacer
1/2 cup soy or nut milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Calvados Caramel Sauce:

1 cup Succanet
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons Calvados (apple brandy)
1 tablespoon Earth Balance buttery spread

To make the topping, peel and quarter 3 1/2 Granny Smith apples, reserving the remaining 1/2 apple for the cake batter.

In a well seasoned 12 inch cast-iron skillet, melt Earth Balance over moderately low heat until just melted. Stir in Succanet until combined. Arrange apple quarters, cut side up, in the skillet. Cook on low undisturbed about 25 minutes or until apples are tender in the center, and Succanet mixture is carmelized.

Make the cake batter while the apples are cooking.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Peel the remaining half apple and cut into small dice.

In a large bowl, mix together softened Earth Balance with vanilla, eggs or egg replacer, cinnamon and milk. Add cake mix and mix will (you can use and electric mixer if you have one, I just mixed by hand and it came out fine). Fold in diced apple.

Remove skillet from heat, and gently pour batter over the apples, being careful not to disturb them. Use a spatula to spread the batter over the apples more evenly. Put the skillet in the oven, either on a baking tray or aluminum foil (to catch any caramel drips) and bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes. Then run a knife around edge of pan to loosen and invert onto a plate.

To make the caramel sauce, cook succanet over moderate heat, stirring, until melted. Remove from heat and stir in water and Calvados. Return to heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Stir in butter.

Serve the cake with vanilla (soy) ice cream and warm caramel sauce (and a glass of Calvados).

This cake takes a little bit of time to make but it is well worth the effort if you want something really spectacular.

Pumpkin Pie

My family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving and I am testing recipes for the pumpkin pie. My goal is to make a pie that is allergen free, but that looks, tastes and has the texture of a traditional pumpkin pie. This pie is dairy free, egg free, gluten free and sugar free.

The essence of traditional pumpkin pie is the pumpkin based custard made with milk, eggs and sugar, and seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove. The challenge of an allergen free pie is recreating the texture of the custard without using eggs.

The milk is easy to replace with soy, nut, rice or coconut milk. I can think of three ways to replace the eggs. First, is to replace the egg with silken tofu which replicates the texture of the custard. The second is to add starch, such as cornstarch, arrowroot or tapioca starch to the pumpkin puree to create a custard. The third is to use kanten (agar agar) to set the pumpkin.

For this pie, I decided to combine silken tofu and arrowroot starch to replace the milk and eggs, and maple syrup to replace the traditional sugar. For the crust, I ground almonds for a grain free pie. I topped the pie with SoyaToo soy whipped cream, which is clearly labeled as dairy and gluten free.

The verdict? The pie came out great. It had an excellent custard texture, but came out lighter and less sweet than an egg and sugar based pie. I don't think anyone could tell that it was made without eggs.

And, we all had quite a bit of fun with the soy-whipped-cream in a can.

Here's the recipe:

Crust:
3 cups sliced almonds
4 tablespoons Earth Balance buttery spread (or other margarine)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Process almonds in food processor until coarsely ground. Add margarine and salt and process until incorporated into the almonds.

Press mixture into 9" pie pan, and set aside.


Pie:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 box Mori Nu firm silken tofu
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove

Preheat oven to 350.

Puree the ingredients until smooth.

Pour into crust and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until set.

Refrigerate overnight to firm.

Serve with whipped soy cream.

West African Unpeanut Soup

This is one of my all time favorite soups, and my kids love it. It's rich, spicy and thick.

The basic recipe for peanut soup combines onions, root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes, with ground peanuts or peanut butter. Here I've replaced the peanut butter with sunflower butter, and added curry powder for some kick. The soup is topped with chopped green onions.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 teaspoon curry powder, or to taste
2 or 3 sweet potatoes, chopped (about 3 cups)
1 can tomatoes (14.5 ounces) plus juice
5 cups stock or water
1 cup sunflower butter
chopped green onion (optional)

In soup pot, saute onion in oil until softened. Add ginger, garlic, carrots and celery, and saute 2 minutes. Add curry powder and stir until fragrant. Add potatoes, tomatoes plus juice, and 5 cups stock or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Puree soup, return to pot, and add sunflower butter. Stir until sunflower butter is well incorporated. Serve with green onion or chopped cilantro on top.

Kenchin Jiru

This past week we've all been sick and the weather's been cold. So once I managed to get back out of bed I wanted some nice warm soup.

So I made a Japanese favorite called kenchin jiru. It's a hearty vegetable soup flavored with sesame oil, soy sauce and miso. The traditional recipe calls for tofu, carrot, burdock root, shitake mushrooms, konyakku, lotus root, and mitsuba. I didn't have most of these ingredients, so I improvised with the vegetables in my fridge.

1/2 package firm tofu
4 shitake mushrooms
1 strip kombu seaweed
1/2 sweet potato
1 carrot
1 medium red skin potato
1/4 daikon
1/4 cauliflower
1 bunch mitsuba (can substitute spinach or other green leafy)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce
2 tablespoons miso
seven spice pepper (optional)

Start by making the stock (dashi) using the dried shitake mushrooms and kombu seaweed. Place together in a pot with 4 cups water, and soak 2 to 6 hours (If you don't have time, you can skip the soak and it will still come out fine).

After soaking, bring the mushrooms and seaweed to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut up your vegetables, taking care that they are all about the same size so that they will cook evenly. Remove shitake from stock and slice.

Add sesame oil to a soup pot and saute vegetables until aromatic. Add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and stir well. Add dashi and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are just tender.

While the soup is simmering, tear the tofu and marinate in the remaining 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

When vegetables are tender, add tofu plus soy marinade and mitsuba or spinach. Cook 2 minutes or until tofu is warm and greens are wilted. Turn off the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of miso.

Serve sprinked with shichimi togarashi (seven spice pepper), or a few sesame seeds.

Chocolate Pudding

This chocolate pudding is based on the classic chocolate cornstarch pudding, replacing the cornstarch with arrowroot powder. It is gluten free, dairy free, egg free and corn free.

2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup gluten free, dairy free chocolate chips
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup unsweetened gluten free soy, rice, or almond milk
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the arrowroot powder with a 1/3 cup of the milk, until dissolved, and set aside. Meanwhile, bring remaining ingredients to a boil in a small sauce pan. Reduce heat and simmer until chocolate has melted. Add arrowroot/milk mixture and stir until pudding is thickened. Refrigerate until set.

Allergen Free Baking 101: Baking Powder

What's wrong with commercially prepared baking powder?

Corn.

Most commercial baking powders use cornstarch to prevent caking. This is a problem if you are sensitive to corn. Luckily it is easy to make your own corn-free baking powder from scratch. Make up a big batch and store it in an airtight container. Use as you would store bought.

Corn-free Baking Powder:

1 part baking soda
2 parts cream of tartar
2 parts arrowroot powder

That's it. Mix it up.

This is a single acting baking powder, meaning that the chemical reaction occurs when the baking powder comes in contact with a liquid. For best results, mix the dry ingredients of your recipe first, mix the wet ingredients separately, then combine.

Cream of tartar is a derivative of the wine making process, it can be found in the spice section of most supermarkets. Arrowroot powder is the starch from the arrowroot plant, it can be found at natural food shops.