Featured: DailyBuzz Food: BBQ Vegan Skewers

My BBQ Vegan Skewers are featured on today's Top 9 on DailyBuzz Food.

Loving this! The site, DailyBuzz Food is an update and add on to FoodBuzz. I love the new format, and am excited to be included.

There is a tab on the top of the site for Special Diets. Until today, I hadn't really thought my recipes would fit into this. Upon further inspection into my list of posts, I guess I do talk a lot about alternatives to dairy and gluten. And now vegan. You can track my eating habits through the last 3+ years of posts to see just when all these exceptions to my very full diet began. Blogging is interesting in that way. Sometimes you repeat and repeat (you'll see roast chicken here and any number of smoothies appear over and over). Sometimes you change and update (no more cheese for me: make the pesto without it, it'll be just as good).

Take a look at the collections they have featured so far (the new format just started this month). It's really nifty.

Thanks, DailyBuzz Food (I still want to call you FoodBuzz, is that ok?)!!

Vegan and Gluten-Free Mini Veggie Pizza

Comfort foods are my best friend. My parents are both great cooks and go out of their way to make everyone's favorite foods at all times. One of my favorite childhood dishes, was the English muffin mini pizzas Joe (my dad) would make for us. Honestly, I can't remember if he made them very often , but this is a dish I always associate with him.

I've been wanting to make these mini pizzas myself, but I have two problems: gluten and dairy. In the past, I've made my own pizza crust with gluten free flour, but I just want to be able to throw together a quick and easy pizza, that reminds me of Joe's pizza.

My solution presented itself in the form of these great gluten and dairy free Amy's sandwich rounds. I haven't had much luck in finding a small roll or English muffin-type of bread in the past. These are amazing. They are nice and soft, but not too chewy and held up well with all of the toppings on them, too.

Veggie Pizza

INGREDIENTS

• 1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 3 to 4 mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in olive oil
• 3 to 4 asparagus stalks, steamed and cut into small pieces
• Amy's Gluten-Free Sandwich Round or 1 English muffins or 1 pita cut in half
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, coarsely chopped
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. If using pizza dough: prepare as per the package instructions and pre-bake the dough halfway.
2. If using English muffins or pita bread: place in a toaster oven or a regular oven on broil for 3 minutes.
3. Take the partially baked pizza dough or the toasted bread and layer on top all of the veggies.
4. Pour the oil over top, and sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper.
5. Place back in the oven or broiler and cook until the veggies and crust/bread have browned slightly.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 5 to 20 minutes.

Cook’s note: You can add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce, mozzarella or Parmesan cheese as a base, before you place the vegetables on the bread.

Leek and Cremini Mushroom Soup

A version of this recipe is featured on The Fruit Guys website.

I decided to give leeks another try this week. I've not always been a huge fan, as you can see from this post. But, I'm growing up (about time) and decided I needed to give the mighty leek another chance.

My chance came when I walked through my local farmer's market this weekend and spied a pile of leeks. Now was as good a time as any to give this a go. Right next to the leeks, I spotted some lovely cremini mushrooms for sale. I thought for a moment and knew that I could make a good soup out of these, with some little additions from my kitchen.

I chose to enhance the cremini mushroom flavor with mushroom broth. And, I used bread to thicken the soup, as I've done many times in other soups. I figured this way, the flavor of the leeks and mushrooms would really take center stage.

The soup, I must say, came out pretty tasty. It's very simple to make, since all you're really doing is cooking the cut up leeks in broth while you saute the mushrooms in oil. Not much too it, but the flavors are really nice and earthy. Very Spring-is-in-the-air type of dish.

This recipe has proven to me that I need to not be so stubborn about my likes and dislikes and at least get creative with an ingredient I had long-ago written off.

Long live the might leek.

Leek Soup

Cook’s note:  The recipe can be easily double or tripled, dependent on the amount of people you are feeding. 1 cup of leeks was the equivalent of two medium sized leeks cut into rounds.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of leeks, cut into rounds
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 cup mushroom broth
• ½ tablespoon minced basil leaves, or ¼ tablespoon dried basil
• 1 slice gluten-free sandwich bread, cubed (I like Udi's)
• 1/3 cup cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

• Place the vegetable stock over high heat in a large saucepan.
• Add the leeks and boil until soft, about 20 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, add the sandwich bread to the soup. It should thicken the soup right up.
• While the leeks are cooking, sautee the cremini mushrooms in the olive oil with some salt, over medium heat until crispy.
• Remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.
• Put the soup, basil and oil from the mushroom pan into a blender and blend until smooth.
• Serve the soup in bowls with the crispy mushrooms on top.

Chicken Picatta

Have you ever had a dish that just makes you smile? This dish does that for me. Gran Fran made this for me and Joe a few weeks back and it reminded me of weeknight meals from my childhood.

My parents were (and still are ) the King and Queen of the multi-task. Both Gran Fran and Joe worked at the same office. They took shifts getting the younger kids (mostly me) to school. Gran Fran would head into the City early (around 7am, I think) and Joe would go in after he dropped me at school (around 8:30am). The afternoon shift would mostly fall to my older brother and sisters, and we did live in a town where we could just go out and play, ride bikes or walk down to the store without too much trouble.

Gran Fran would arrive home around 5pm, in time to get dinner on the table. She did, however, instruct us post-school over the phone on how to prep the dinner and get anything in the oven that we could handle before she got there. This was before cell phones and e-mail, so Gran Fran called us at about 3:30 to get us started.

The only issue was that she was convinced everyone around her could hear everything she said. She spoke at barely above a whisper, which sometimes led us to some odd conclusions on ingredient measurements and cooking temperatures. The best part about her behavior was that for a good number of years, she was in an office with her door closed whilst having these illicit conversations with her children.

Gran Fran and Joe managed to raise another generation of multi-tasking adults in my brother, myself and my sisters. It is both a blessing and a curse. A Claro can get done in half a day what it takes a normal person a full day and half to do. I often get comments when I arrive at work (around 8am) after I've recounted the amount I've accomplished between the hours of 5:45 and 8am. It seems normal to me to finish two loads of laundry, put away the dishes, make breakfast and lunch for myself and my daughter, get the dinner ingredients organized, shower and get out the door. I guess it's a bit much.

The chicken picatta featured above makes for a nice easy weeknight meal. Not much fuss, lots of flavor and not too many dishes after cooking. It's the perfect end to an otherwise crazy day.

Chicken Picatta

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs. thinly sliced chicken breast
•  1/4 cup all purpose flour (I use Rice Flour)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper tp taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 ounces mushrooms, cleaned, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic quartered
• 1 1/2 cups marsala
• 3 tablespoons Italian parsley, minced

Method:

1. Salt and pepper chicken cutlets; dredge in flour.

2. Pour oil intoheated skillet 3. Saute cutlets on both sides until golden and just about cooked through.

4. Remove cutlets from pan; add mushrooms and saute until golden.

5. Add garlic and marsala; reduce slightly over high heat.

6. Return chicken to pan,stir; cover simmer until the marsala forms a nice gravy.

7. Serve sprinkled with parsley

Hot and Sour Soup

I can't stop making soup. This is my third batch in two days. So, here it is, hold onto your hats, the best hot and sour soup recipe I've come across.

It involves a lot of steps, but it's not really that hard, just follow along and calmly work it. The original recipe came from Cook's Illustrated, but I've adapted it, enough, I hope, to call it my own. I use chicken instead of pork and since I am gluten-free, I use Tamari instead of regular soy sauce, as it has no wheat in it.

You'll want to get all your ingredients organized, lined up and measured out since some of the steps have a few sub-steps. It's well worth it, so hang in and have fun.

See that bottle? Chinese Black Vinegar. It's the secret ingredient for the flavor in this dish. Between this and the white pepper, it's amazing how much earthiness and valor these give to the soup. The white pepper is very pungent, use caution! As it is always easy to add more, but you can't remove it once it's in there.

The meat picks up an amazing texture when it is soaked in the cornstarch mixture.I've read that it helps to seal in the juices of the meat, which, if the soup is any example, then, yes, it works!

This is fun, don't over think it. But, do, go slow and try to make the drizzled stream as thin and consistent as possible.

Important Note:  Read the entire recipe all the way through first, please. You will need a bunch of small and medium bowls for this process. So grab them as you are reading and it should help start you off on the right foot.

Hot and Sour Soup 

adapted from Cooks Illustrated, 5/2006

• 4 tablespoons tamari (gluten-free soy sauce) or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch , plus an additional 1 1/2 teaspoons
• 8 ounces extra firm tofu, drained and cubed (see below for directions)
• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch by 1/8-inch matchsticks
• 3 tablespoons cold water , plus 1 additional teaspoon
• 1 large egg
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms , stems removed, caps sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 1 cup)
• 5 tablespoons black Chinese vinegar or 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar plus 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (see note above)
• 2 teaspoons chili oil
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 3 medium scallions , sliced thin

First, drain the tofu:

• Take the tofu out of the container, put it into a shallow pie plate (or any dish with a short rim).
• Then, put a plate on top, and press down hard. Place two or three cans on top of the plate (I used canned beans) and leave to drain for about 15 minutes. Add more time if the tofu still appears soggy when you check it.
• You'll know when it's ready to be cubed when the liquid has pooled at the bottom of the dish and the tofu appears much drier than it had been, but not super dried out.
• Dice the tofu into cubes and set aside (though it's likely the broth will be simmered and ready by the time you've cubed your tofu).

Next Marinate the Chicken:

• Whisk in a medium bowl:
  • 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
  • Sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• Thoroughly mix the chicken strips in the marinade and leave to soak for about 10 to 20 minutes.
• The meat will become silky and somewhat fatter than it was when you began.

And Then:

• Combine:
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons water in small bowl and mix thoroughly
  • Set aside, leaving spoon in bowl.
• Mix:
  • Remaining 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
  • Remaining 1 teaspoon water in small bowl
  • Add egg and beat with fork until combined. Set aside.

Start Putting it Together:

• In a large heavy-bottomed pan, bring the chicken broth to a boil.
• Once the broth has boiled, lower the heat to medium-low and:
  • Add mushrooms.
  • Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are nice and tender.
• Add:
  • Tofu and chicken, including marinade, to soup, stirring.
  • Continue to simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 4 minutes.

Almost Done:

• Remember the mixture you made that you left the spoon in? It's time to stir it and make it more liquid now.
• Add to soup and increase heat to medium-high.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until soup thickens and turns translucent, about 1 minute.
• Stir in:
  • vinegar (either the Chinese Black Vinegar, or the combo of Balsamic and red wine vinegar)
  • chili oil
  • white pepper
  • remaining 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• Turn off heat.

Make the Egg Drops:

• Get your egg mixture (the last bowl, I hope, that you have left with something you mixed earlier) and grab a spoon.
• Do not stir the soup, make sure it's still when you start this next step.
• Take your spoon and scoop up a bit of it into your spoon.
• Very slowly, like you are just hanging out and not in any kind of rush, start drizzling the egg mixture over the soup, moving around the pot in a clockwise motion.
• Let rest for a bit, about a minute.
• Bring soup back up to a gentle boil over medium heat.

Serve it Up:

Remove from heat and give the soup a light stir, just enough to break up the egg drops, but not so fiercely that the nice thickness that the cornstarch leant to the mix.

Ladle into bowls and top with scallions.

Shimeji Mushrooms

I came across these mushrooms at Far West Fungi at the San Francisco Ferry Building yesterday. I come to this stall often to get Porcini mushrooms and stock, which I used in my Risotto recipe. The Shimeji mushrooms are beautiful and delicate. Since I usually buy dried mushrooms, I was intrigued by the soft and round quality of them.

Having never used Shimeji mushrooms before, I took a look at Wikipedia and found the following information:

Shimeji should always be cooked: it is not a good mushroom to serve raw due to a somewhat bitter taste, but the bitterness disappears completely upon cooking. The cooked mushroom has a pleasant, firm, slightly crunchy texture and a slightly nutty flavor. Cooking also makes this mushroom easier to digest. In stir-fried foods, as well as with wild game or seafood it is a good mushroom. Also it can be used in soups, stews and in sauces. When cooked alone, Shimeji mushrooms can be sautéed as a whole, including the stem or stalk (only the very end cut off), using a higher temperature or they can be slow roasted on a low temperature with a small amount of butter or cooking oil. Shimeji is used in soups, nabe and takikomi gohan.

I'm very much looking forward to a warm broth-based noodle dish incorporating these mushrooms, which, of course, I will share with you all!