Quick Fixes – Come and Cook with Us

Check for Chickpea(flour)

The fall might be seem like lightyears away, but we have already started to look at delicious, tasty and inviting cookbooks that we hope to sell at our book fair later this year. As you know, I’m always on the lookout for lesser known authors who put extra thoughts into creating recipes for the home chef that are doable on a weeknight while still being nutritious, delicious and satisfying. One such book I really like is Chickpea Flour Does It All by Lindsey S. Love who is also the creator of Dolly and Oatmeal.

Garbanzo – or chickpea flour – is made from finely ground, dried chickpeas. It has all the characteristics I am looking for in a flour: it’s gluten-free, grain-free, low-glycemic, and exceptionally high in protein. While relatively new in Western Cuisine, it has been used for centuries in Mediterranean, Indian and Southeast Asian cooking. I’ve written about making Farinata with chickpea flour before. The reason I prefer it to other more main-stream gluten free flour options is that it has a taste that reminds me of whole wheat flour, which I love. Many of the flour alternatives are just starchy fillers without much flavor. What do you think of it?

This cookbook contains a collection of recipes that focus entirely on this versatile and nutritious ingredient. I’ve tried the Sweet Crepes, the Mango Poppy Seed Cornmeal Muffins and want to share with you a Dutch Baby that was inspired by a recipe in the book. You can whip it up in a jiffy and it bakes while the kids are still waking up. What a perfect way to start these gorgeous summer days. Come and cook with us!

Blueberry Dutch Baby

Summer (Camping) Fun with Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas

School is out, kids are running wild and we are going camping! As always, sprinkled in between the easy-to-make, nutritious and yummy food we write about on a regular basis, I love to share what we cook when we go camping. Culinarily speaking, this time our outdoors adventure was lead by my 16-year-old nephew who is visiting from Germany. It’s great to see youngsters taking an active role in their food preparation and I’m sure the enthusiasm was partly fueled by the appeal of an open fire pit. Either way, we festively dined on very non-German chicken and mushroom quesadillas on the grill along with fresh corn, a delicious salad and, to pass on an American tradition to the next generation, a healthy serving of s’mores for everyone. Come and cook with us!

I have to admit, packing in a camping trip on the same day as school ends was a little ambitious. My best practices for prepping food ahead went out the window and we improvised at the store on the way to the site. My nephew led the charge and a few shopping bags later we were on our way. It was a windy, albeit sunny affair and once the fire was well established, the boys got busy. My cast-iron pan was heavily featured – no pun intended – in the preparation of the meal along with my grilling basket and a sheet pan that always comes in handy.

For the quesadillas themselves, we sautéed sliced mushrooms with a little olive oil and grilled and shred sliced chicken breasts. Assembly was left to each diner so that each quesadilla was personalized reflecting the tastes and prepping attitudes of each guest. We grilled the corn in the husks, after removing the silk, and they turned out golden, tender and juicy. The salad lent a lighter crisp distraction to the hot food.

The best part of this trip wasn’t what we ate, it was seeing my sons and their cousin connect, have fun, build memories. This summer, reach out to your family and spend time together to connect and share in the joy of a relatively peaceful and predictable political landscape, at least until the fall elections. Just kidding! We’ll be spending time with my family and many friends, so my blog posts will be a little more sporadic than usual until we return again to a more manageable routine in August. Until then, don’t forget to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to stay in touch. I’d love to hear from you and learn what you are up to this summer. Share your photos, your food and your fun! Come and cook with us!

Chicken Mushroom Quesadilla

Loving Lentils, Too

There are certain go-to staples that will always have a place in my heart. Pasta, rice and beans are regularly featured on my menu, however, I tend to look over another great pantry item that has many of the nutritional benefits of beans, is even more versatile and can be made in a much shorter time as it doesn’t require soaking. I’m sure you already know what I’m referring to: let’s give a round of applause to lentils which have been eaten by many civilizations reaching from Asia, to the Medtierranean all the way to our kitchens today! Come and cook with us!

Compared to Jessica’s love for lentils, I didn’t grow up eating dried legumes which is why I seldomly think of them when forming dinner plans which is unfortunate for my husband loves them. Lentils contain many naturally-occurring vitamin Bs and protein for those who wish to consume less animal products. Furthermore, lentils have low glycemic load, act as time-released energy, normalize blood sugar and blood lipids, and are a rich source of fiber, vitamins and minerals. To round out lentils’ virtues, they are loaded with lignans, which help balance hormones naturally. So if this doesn’t convince you, keep in mind that lentils are super easy to cook, versatile in their application and great when added to salads, soups and stews as well as meatloafs and dals.

Inspired by a recent trip to the brilliant Huckleberry Cafe in Santa Monica, we had a delicious lentil stew that was topped with fresh sausages. It all come together so beautifully and deliciously that I wanted to share this dish with all of you. Among the many varieties on the market, I choose black lentils which along with the green (or Le Puy lentils), keep their shape much better than the yellow or orange kinds. We added a steaming heap of polenta to the spread and it was all gone before I even got a chance to offer seconds. Make sure you use good quality sausages as they certainly belong to the food group of “few, but good”.

I hope you give this lentil stew a try! Come and cook with us!

Black Lentil Stew with Sausage

Make Indian-Spiced Lamb Chops NOW!

Most of my go-to dishes are heavy on the vegetable front, but to balance my family’s diet I regularly cook meat, too. It varies from beef, pork and and lately, I’ve been asked to prepare lamb chops more often. They are easy to make, fun to eat and go well with this flavorful ginger and garam masala marinade. Trust me, well worth a try. Come and cook with us!

It’s actually quite ironic that I grew up not liking Indian spices at all. I’ve certainly come around. Whether chai tea or curry, Indian spices are now featured more heavily in my cuisine. The marinade for these lamb chops, for example, uses garam masala which is a ubiquitous Indian spice mix that is translated to “warm spice blend”. In fact, like many other spices in the Indian cuisine, garam masala makes the body warm and includes the usual suspects such as cumin, coriander, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, just to name a few… Add garlic, ginger and lemon to it and you’re in for a tasty treat.

The chops can easily be roasted in the oven (approx. 15-20 min in 400 degrees F), but I tend to make them in my cast-iron skillet which I use so often that it practically lives on my range. Pancakes in the morning, sautéed vegetables for lunch and pan-fried chops for dinner. My version of one-pot-meals!

Depending on your guests and table manners – my kids love to chew the meat off the bones – you can use the bones to make a lamb bone broth. It goes well with hearty vegetable soups including my favorite and delicious vadouvan spiced carrot soup that I will write about soon. For now, let’s stick to the chops! Come and cook with us!

Indian-Spiced Lamb Chops

Cooking with the Seasons – Tuscan Tuna Salad

The longer I live in California, the more I appreciate the year-round accessibility to fresh produce. We are supposed to eat with the seasons and this leaves you with plenty of options if you can call this place your home. The one thing that doesn’t change, however, is that I cook with the seasons. Meaning that I follow my intuition on which warming or cooling foods my body craves depending on the environment around us. In the macrobiotic diet this is called the Yin (summer style) and Yan (winter style) of cooking styles. So now that the hot climate is around the corner, we welcome spring with a slew of fresh salads that keep us cool while still be filling and satisfying. My current favorite is this Tuscan Tuna and White Bean Salad inspired by the restaurant fish in Sausalito. Come and cook with us!

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to nutrition but I like to think that one can take ideas and inspiration from different sources. The belief that there are expansive and contractive foods and cooking styles is something that speaks to me. Don’t you agree that eating a hot comfort dish makes you feel warmer inside while you probably crave something more refreshing and light to cool you off when it is warm? Here are a few cooking style ideas based on Kristina Turner, author of The Self-Healing Cookbook, a macrobiotic primer for heating body, mind and moods with whole, natural foods. It was originally published in 1987 but to me her theories still hold true. She even included a chapter on why eating organic produce makes a difference. Talk about being ahead of the curve.

But back to seasonal cooking styles. In warm weather, Turner suggests the following:

Steam, quick-boil or make salads
Serve cool or at room temperature
Eat lighter-more upward growing foods
Choose soft, leafy greens
Use less salt
Enhance with vinegar, lemon, fresh ginger, parsley or other fresh herbs

When it comes to the colder winter months, Turner says this:

Slow-simmer, pressure cook, bake or sauté
Serve warm
Eat hearty – more compact veggies and downward growing roots
Choose sturdy, leafy greens
Add a little sea salt, miso, tamari or sauerkraut
Enhance with green onion, sea vegetables, ginger or dried herbs

With this as a back-drop, there are plenty of easy, fresh and colorful salads that inspire me this time of year. To bridge this transitional period when days are hot and evenings are cold, I’d like to share a salad that is both refreshing but also hearty, and clearly not very macrobiotic: Tuscan Tuna and White Bean Salad. It’s crunchy in texture, decisive in flavor and made in a jiffy. And while it’s certainly not something I make all the time – being contentious about eating tuna – sometimes we just have to listen to our bodies and prepare what it is calling out for. Hope you like the salad as much as we do. Come and cook with us!

Tuscan Tuna and White Bean Salad