Gluten Free, Or Not, Strawberry Ricotta Tart with Strawberry Balsamic Glaze.

   I grew up with a liking for a lot of stuff that other kids my age wanted no part of. Why? My mom shopped the sales.  Pigs feet one dollar a pound? She'd buy em, we'd eat them. Vegetables not many people were interested in became my favorite. She never was part of the dented can, eat past the expiration date crowd, (though I knew some of those and yes, they're still alive). The one thing this frugal shopping left me with was a taste for sales of any sort. So when our local Whole Foods announced a sale of organic strawberries 2 lbs for 3 bucks, of course I was there. What a deal! I started thinking about things I might do with the berries. Should I make jam, shortcakes again, ice cream? Then my problem was solved for me when a close friend of ours who has a gluten allergy suggested we get together. "I'll bring the dessert!" I said and I suddenly knew just what I wanted to make.

   This recipe for a strawberry ricotta tart started out as a recipe I saw for a regular strawberry tart made with mascarpone cheese, strawberries, and port wine. I thought why not make it a bit lighter with ricotta, and instead of Port wine, (which I didn't have). I'd use Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar from Sonoma Harvest. I used my special blend of gluten-free flour for the crust, but you can use any type of gluten-free flour, or regular flour if there are no allergies involved.

   I made the ricotta myself which is pretty dang easy. It's also easy to just pick up a carton. If you'd like to make your own  ricotta my recipe is here.

Anyway, whether you make your own or use store bought, this is a pretty quick recipe to make. So let's get to it.

Strawberry Ricotta Tart 

Here's What You Need: 

For the Tart:
1 1/4 cups of flour, (regular or gluten free) plus a bit more for dusting
3 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
7 Tbs unsalted butter chopped up
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs ice water

For The Filling:
1 1/2 lbs cleaned  trimmed and halved strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups of ricotta (16 oz) If you are using my recipe for ricotta double it to have enough for this recipe
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated fresh lemon zest
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 10 inch tart pan  with a removable bottom,
pie weights or dried beans or rice

Here's What To Do: 

 

Preheat the oven 375 degrees, with the rack in the middle.

Blend your flour, sugar, butter, and salt in a bowl with a pastry blender, or do as I do and mix it together with a couple of pulses of a food processor. (much easier)
Blend it until you have a mealy mix. Set it aside

In a small bowl mix together the egg yolk, vanilla, lemon juice and ice water.
Drizzle this mixture over the flour mixture and pulse it until you have dough.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 times.
Shape it into a 5 inch disc and put it in the center of your tart pan.
Cover it with plastic wrap, and then using your fingers, push and spread the dough around the bottom and sides of the pan until they're covered.
Take a fork and prick the dough all over with a fork  through the plastic wrap, then stick the whole thing in the freezer to firm up for 10 minutes.

Take the tart shell out, peel off the plastic wrap and line the tart shell with aluminum foil.
Fill it with pie weights or beans.
Bake the tart until the sides are set and the edges are pale golden. This takes about 20 minutes.
Carefully take the foil and pie weights out of the tart and pop it back into the oven until it's a deep golden color, another 20 minutes more.
Cool the tart in the pan for about 45 minutes and remove the ring.

Stir the strawberries together in a bowl with the granulated sugar and let it sit for about 30 minutes, then strain the juice out of the berries.

Place the juice in a small pot and set it aside.
Whisk the ricotta together with the powdered sugar...

...lemon zest...

...lemon juice...

...vanilla and a pinch of salt.

Beat everything together until it's nice and stiff.

Spread the ricotta mixture into the tart shell...

...and spread it around.

Fill the tart shell up.

Meanwhile back at the strawberries....
Add 1/2 cup of Strawberry balsamic vinegar to the juice fro the macerated berries.

Pour it in and stir it around.

Bring this mixture to a boil then turn it down to a simmer and simmer away until it's reduced. This takes about 15 minutes or so.
Stir this every now and then so nothing burns. The syrup is done when it's thickened.
Arrange the sliced berries on top of the ricotta cheese.

You want a nice pile in the center.

When you've got them where you want them, drizzle the thickened balsamic glaze over the berries.

And serve it up!

 Note: 
  the berries and the glaze should be put on the tart right before serving to avoid bleeding of juice into the ricotta base. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just looks prettier. 
  
   This is a great dessert for the gluten-free crowd, and it works just as well using regular flour. You can also try a variety of berries on this dessert. Just use what ever's freshest. Coming up next, chaat for a crowd and a great way to serve it, thanks to Restaurantware! Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Sweet, and Hot, and Indian Spiced, Red Corn Ice Cream Perfect for Summer Cookouts.

   There is nothing that says the hot weather is here like the taste of homemade, fresh churned ice cream. One of the best investments in cooking equipment I ever made was buying an ice cream machine. I have worked that thing to death and it's still going strong. It gets so much use in the Summer months around here that I actually bought another bigger machine to keep it company. Homemade ice cream is fast and easy and one of the few desserts that almost no one can refuse. Don't eat dairy? It can be made with coconut milk, and when cooking for gluten-free friends, it's an allowed indulgence.
  
   I veered from my vegan diet a few months ago when I was doing chemo. I was anemic from treatment and advised to add more protein to my diet, and so I did, just a bit. Now that I'm done, I'm still taking iron pills everyday and getting back to regular vegan fair, but sometimes I'm just plain vegetarian and that's where the ice cream comes in. One of the best things about doing your own cooking is having control over what goes into ones food and one of the clearest examples of that is ice cream. Fresh organic milk, fresh organic cream, sugar, and pure vanilla. That's it. No gums or fillers, or fake flavors, just the real deal.
 
   So, when I set out to make some plain vanilla ice cream the other day I got distracted by something I'd only seen once before at my local Whole Foods market and that's organic red corn. Not wanting to repeat my loss of fresh garbanzos a few weeks ago, I didn't wait. I  jumped on that corn like a starving locust and then once I got it home I kept wondering how it would be in ice cream. I've made sweet corn ice cream before and I've even used red corn before in Red Corn and Radish Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing so I wondered how I could use my red corn and make a different sort of ice cream.Could I take an Indian spice rub used for grill roasted corn and add a  few things and come up with an ice cream? You bet I could, and I did just that. You can too.

Indian Spiced Roast Red Corn Ice Cream

Here's What You Need:
2 cups organic whole milk
2 cups organic heavy cream
3/4 cup of sugar
2 ears of fresh red corn, (or regular corn)
2 whole limes
salt to taste
2 pinches of cardamom
1 tsp of Kashmiri chili
2 tsp vanilla
1 generous pinch of cinnamon
1 pinch of sugar

Here's What To Do:
Wash and shuck the whole ears of corn.

Cut the ears in half.

Roast them on a grill until they are soft and slightly charred.

Cut the limes in half. Put the Kashmiri chili in a small bowl. Dip the halved limes into the chili.

Rub the chili-coated limes on the ears of corn while squeezing to get the juice out.

Like so.

The corn should be coated in chili and lime juice.

Sprinkle a bit of salt on the ears of corn.

Cut the kernels off of the corn ears and place them in a bowl.

Add two pinches of cardamom...

...a generous pinch of cinnamon and a couple of pinches of sugar, and a touch more salt.

Stir everything together and check for taste. This is up to you as to how how or sweet or hot you want this. When it's seasoned to your satisfaction set it aside.
Add the milk, cream, and sugar to a large bowl.
Stir everything around until it's well mixed.
Add in 2 tsps of vanilla.

Pour everything into an ice cream machine.

Churn for about 30 minutes.
Scoop out the ice cream and put it into a freezer container and into the freezer for an hour or two to firm up.

Then serve it up.

Sweet, with a touch of heat and the wonderful flavors of cardamom and cinnamon.

   The red corn adds a faintly pink color to the ice cream, and the sweet hot chewy corn kernels are the perfect addition. This recipe of course will work with any color corn, but if you're lucky enough to run across red corn, grab some. You won't regret it. Coming up next, as I get back to a normal appetite again I'm looking at Indian vegetable salads the perfect side or even main dish for Summer entertaining. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Fast and Healthy, Spiced Roast Favas. You Snooze, You Lose.

      
   Somebody told me once years ago," if you miss something don't sweat it, it's not leaving the planet." That's a maxim I've always believed until a couple of weeks ago when I attempted to buy fresh garbanzo beans. I'd never seen fresh garbanzos before, though I'd heard of them, and when they showed up in my local Whole Foods Market, I was shocked. I wanted those garbanzos badly. I hadn't even been able to find them at the Organic Farmers Market, no matter how many times, I'd asked. Nobody seemed to know nothin', then, Bam! There they were right in front of me and like a dope I didn't buy any. My excuse was I didn't have the time that day to cook them, I figured I'd come back the next day and pick some up. After all they weren't leaving the planet, right? Wrong. After that day, I never saw them again. No matter how many people I asked, it was a lost cause. As fast as they appeared they were gone. It seemed they had left the planet. My plans for spiced, roast, fresh garbanzos seemed gone forever. It was my first time discovering that sometimes stuff actually does leave the planet. Then I thought, wait a minute, hold the phone, fava beans!
 
   Now, a lot of people have never tried fava beans. All they know about this delightful legume comes from Hannibal Lecter.

    
  
But this is fava bean season, and if you haven't tried them you really should. They're inexpensive, readily available, and delicious. So that's what I did. I bought some fresh fava beans and decided to pretend they were fresh garbanzos. After all a bean is a bean is a bean, right? Right. The recipe worked beautifully with favas, and would work with garbanzos, and yeah...fresh garbanzos too, if you are one of the  lucky people able to find them. This recipe can be made with frozen favas, but if you use fresh here's how to prep them no matter what you're using them for.

Spiced Roast Fava Beans

 

Here's What You Need:

1 lb of fava beans
3 Tbs of olive oil
3 Tbs of spice mix (your choice of mix, and I'll show you what I used)

Here's What To Do:

Wash the fava beans.

Shell the fava beans.

Boil some salted water in a pot. When it's boiled, toss the shelled favas into the boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Drain them.

 Plunge them into an ice water bath so that they stop cooking.

Take them out of the ice water, drain them and pop them out of their skins.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with paper towels, and place the skinned fava beans on it to thoroughly dry.
While they're drying, prep your spice mix. The spice mix, can be anything you'd like. Just think of the favas as popcorn and go from there. I decided to go with an Iranian spice mix,  called Advieh Khoresht  from Raw Spice Bar also this link for subscriptions

In case you've not heard of them, Raw Spice Bar is a company that delivers small batch, freshly ground spice blends to your door for 6 bucks a month. For that price they also give you about 3 or 4 spice blends from a given region, enough to be used in 3 dishes that serve between 8-12 people. They also include all the info on the spices and recipe cards that show you exactly how to use them.What could be easier? When they asked me if I'd like to try this out, of course I said yes!

I received 3 packets of spices used in Iranian dishes. Advieh Koresht is a blend of organic rose petals, cinnamon, green cardamom,angelica,Persian lime powder, coriander, cumin, and ground black pepper. These spices are traditionally used in bean stews, so I figured, bean stews, roast favas, how could I go wrong?

Once the favas are dry, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Line a flat cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the favas on it. Roast them in the oven for 15 minutes.

Then take them out, turn them over and roast for another 10 minutes. The favas should be nice and crispy.
In a bowl mix together 3 Tbs of olive oil and 3 Tbs of spice mix.

Mix the oil and spices together then add the roast favas...

...and stir them around well to coat them.

Pop the coated favas back into the oven for another 4 minutes. Then take them out, sprinkle with kosher salt to taste, and serve them up.

Sweet, and savory , these favas make a wonderful party snack, fast, simple, tasty, and healthy. Try this with favas, try this with chickpeas, try it with peas, and if you can find fresh garbanzos, definitely try this with them.

   Coming up next, having learned my lesson with the fresh garbanzos, I saw  organic red corn, and rather than waiting, I bought some, sure enough today it was gone! So I learned my lesson, you snooze, you lose. What do I have planned? Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Something Green for St. Paddy's Day...Broccomole!

 
   As a native Californian I grew up eating and loving  avocados. I know there are people out there who don't see things that way. There are actually people who can't stand the taste or feel of avocado, and I've even seen them wonder what is it good for? Absolutely everything as far as I'm concerned. I can't get enough avocado.
 
   Yes, avocados are full of fats but they're the good fats. They're also high in protein, and vitamins, everything from potassium, to Vitamins E and B. They are champs. They are what is known as a nutrient-dense food in that they provide a whole lotta bang (the good healthy stuff) for very little buck (aka calories). I have to admit I eat a lot of avocados as part of my daily diet, especially since I am currently in my last month of chemo it's important to stay strong and nourished. However, as great as the avocado is, there's another champ out there, maybe a little less popular and less known to hang out in the dip bowls at bars, and that is broccoli.
   
   Yes, broccoli, it's green like avocado, full of vitamins and antioxidents, has even less calories... but yes it still is broccoli. Personally, I happen to like broccoli., and I've eaten it in a variety of dishes. I thought I'd done broccoli almost anyway one could do it until my friend Tim Connelly in New York tweeted me about Broccomole. Tim wasn't sure whether I'd given him the recipe, (no I did not) or he'd given it to me before (no way, That I would remember) but all of a sudden broccomole, a guacamole made with broccoli was on my radar, and I had to try it.
    
   In making my broccomole however, I decided that no ordinary broccoli would do. I was going to go above and beyond mere broccoli, I was going to go romanesco. In case you haven't ever seen a romanesco before, this is romanesco.

It's also known as the fractal vegetable. In short, the vegetable most likely to be enjoyed by any of the characters on The Big Bang Theory.
 
   I found my perfect organic romanesco at Whole Foods and the game was afoot. I was going to turn my romanesco into a south of the border treat, or die trying. As a matter of quick explanation, the romanesco is a sort of baroque cauliflower/ broccoli which originated in Italy. It's sort of like a cauliflower, but it's not, and sort of looks like broccoli, but it's not. I decided to use it for my broccolmole but if you can't find one, good old broccoli will do just fine.

Broccomole

 

Here's What You Need:

 1 head of broccoli or 1 romanesco. Either way it should all come down to about 3 cups of cut up broccoli.
1 jalepeno seeded and chopped
2 Tbs green onions, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
2 oz of something creamy. Here you can use, soft tofu, cream cheese, Mexican crema, sour cream, yogurt, you name it.
1/4 tsp Kashmiri chili
1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp salt
 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Here's What To Do:

Wash your broccoli or romanesco.

Chop it up. You'll need 3 cups.

Steam your broccoli or romanesco until it's tender. You want to get it a lot softer than al dente.

Once it's steamed, drain it well and let it cool a moment.

Chop up your green onions.

Put the steamed broccoli or the romanesco into a food processor along with the chopped onions, salt and other ingredients except for the sour cream tofu (or whatever creamy stuff you're adding in.)

Process it unitl it's smooth, then add in your creamy ingredient. I chose sour cream.

Add in the chili...

...cilantro...

...and that's it. Check the flavor for seasoning and serve it up with your favorite chips.

I used some sweet potato chips from Whole Foods. Now, this does not taste like guacamole, because well, it's broccomole and there's the difference. But you can still dip and chip and it's tasty, and good for you!

   Check it out. I warned Tim that I'd better like it, and what do you know, I did. I'm not giving up guacamole for it, but it's a great change up alternative, and a painless way of getting your broccoli requirement. Coming up next, more easy tricks with Indian food and some intriguing spices from a new source.. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori