More Market Munchies...

Today is my final post extolling the virtues of The Third Place Commons Farmer's Market in Lake Forest Park, WA.  It has been a small sample of the bounty that is the market.  There are many more vendors I can't get by to visit every week but I am very grateful for them all.

Linda Khandro giving the boys a little harp lesson.

 

     Holmquist Hazelnut Orchards sells DuChilly hazelnuts, which I mention here often.  They are huge like almonds and taste sweeter and crunchier than the average hazelnut you'll find in a grocery store.  I love the sugar coated ones frozen as a little sweet snack after the boys have gone to bed (shhh... don't tell!)

     Uncle Eyal's is in its second year at my market.  They make the delicious mint garlic sauce I've told you about, as well as a super spicy version, beet hummus, and lots of other tasty sauces.  This year, they have added falafel to the menu.  Place your order, and you've got a hot falafel patty or two sitting on a delicious salad or wrapped in a tasty flat bread in a matter of moments and topped with one of their super fab sauces.  It's a huge meal and it's delicious.

     Social Ice Cream is the closest to home-made ice cream I've ever had.  Tracy comes up with some unusual flavors that are beside themselves with awesomeness.  Pictured above, is Roasted Strawberry.  It makes the berries even more "strawberry" if that's possible.  She uses products she sources locally as much as possible, including milk and berries from farmers at the Third Place Commons market.  Her vanilla ice cream needed nothing to make it perfect, but I gilded the lily a tiny bit with a sprinkle of wild berries from my yard.  Nothing beats a dish of cold ice cream on a hot afternoon.

Vanilla Ice Cream and Wild Black Raspberries

     I'll be honest.  When I got down to these last three, I wasn't sure how I was going to pull this off.  How do hazelnuts, baba ghanoush and ice cream go together?  That's a bit of a trick question because ice cream doesn't really go with baba ghanoush and it's kinda awesome on its own, but I did find a fantastic way to combine hazelnuts and baba ghanoush.

     I had many, many ideas, but finally this morning, I stumbled upon a cracker recipe in a book my husband bought me for Mother's Day.  Brown Butter-Hazelnut Crackers from Crackers and Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks by Ivy Manning pp 36-65.  Gluten-free and pretty darn delicious with savory or sweet dips.

 Brown Butter-Hazelnut Crackers and Baba Ghanoush with a sprinkle of Sage

Brown Butter-Hazelnut Crackers

2 1/4 C/295g Hazelnuts

3 Tbs unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 Tbs sugar

1 tsp fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/gas 4.  Cut two pieces of parchment paper to fit your baking sheets.  Place the nuts on an unlined baking sheet and bake until they are light brown, their skins have cracked, and they smell nutty, 10 to 15 minutes.  Set the nuts aside to cool and maintain the oven temperature.

In a small sauté pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Once the foaming subsides, the butter will begin to brown.  Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan frequently, until the butter is light brown (the color of light brown sugar), about 45 seconds. Do not overcook the butter or it will give the crackers a burned flavor.  Pour the butter into a small glass bowl and chill it for 10 minutes.  Collect enough of the clear liquid fat to measure 2 T and discard the dark solids.  Whisk together the brown butter and the eggs in a small bowl and set aside.

Rub the nuts together in a clean dish towel to remove their papery skins; discard the skins.  Place the hazelnuts, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse until the nuts look like fine cornmeal, about 45 one-second pulses. (Be careful not to overprocess the nuts or they will begin to turn into nut butter.)  With the machine running, gradually add the butter and egg mixture through the feed tube until the mixture comes together into a moist ball of dough.  (You may not need all of the egg mixture.)

Divide the dough into two portions.  Center one portion of the dough on a piece of parchment paper.  With moistened fingers, form the dough into a rectangle measuring 4 by 6 in/10 by 15 cm, cover with a piece of plastic wrap, and roll the dough out until it is 1/16 in/2 mm thick, lifting up the plastic now and then to make sure there are no creases in the dough.

Remove the plastic wrap and transfer the dough on the parchment paper to a baking sheet.  Using a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 2-in/5-cm squares.  Any unattractive or partial segments of the dough can be scraped up with a bench scraper and added to the second ball of dough.  Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the second ball of dough.

Bake the crackers until they are light brown around the edges and firm when poked, 12 to 15 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets once from top to bottom and from back to front while baking, and watch carefully the last few minutes-they can go from perfectly cooked to burned in a matter of seconds.  If some of the crackers are done before the others, transfer them to a cooling rack and return the undone crackers to the oven for a few more minutes.  Cool the crackers on a rack and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Cracker Tip:  Don't panic if you spy a layer of white foam forming on the crackers as they bake-this is from the natural fats in the hazelnuts heating up.  The foam will settle back into the crackers as they finish baking.

Notes:

• I used Sucanat instead of white sugar in these.  
• I baked these DuChilly nuts for 25 minutes and never did get the skins to come off.  I started with frozen ones, so that may be why, but at any rate, I ground them up and used them anyway, and the flavor is totally fine. 
• The book recommends serving these with blue cheese and fig preserves or a slice of pear, which would be gorgeous, but they would be just as welcome with hummus or a savory dip, a little cream cheese with a drop of honey, or dare I say it?  A little homemade Nutella.  

***

I hope you have enjoyed the posts this week!  On your next visit to the farmer's market take a moment to let your farmers know you appreciate what they do!

On Valentine's Day Have Cake for Breakfast!

     When Cara over at Fork and Beans announced her vegan gluten-free baking competition, I thought,  "Oh... that's nice..."  Then she requested I enter and behold, I was terrified.  (I love you Cara, seriously, I do, but baking is hard, vegan baking is harder, gluten-free baking is even harder and the "make up your own recipe" thing just totally broke my mind for like a week...)  I suggested heart shaped ice as my recipe.  At one point (while my first trial was baking in the oven) I was still seriously considering it as an option...

     While I was trying to come up with an idea, I ruled out a simple sauté dish right away because, well (besides the fact that it's not baking) it hardly counts as gluten-free unless it would normally have gluten in it, right?  But for a recipe to be truly mine, it needed to be something using local in-season ingredients and it needed to be relatively healthy.  I didn't want to use any chemicals which unfortunately seem to play a large part in commercial gluten-free products.   Xanthan gum in particular is a big one on my "That Just Ain't Natural" list that seems to be in even organic and all natural gluten-free products.

     I live in Washington State.  Things that are local, in-season, and bakeable are precisely: apples (from storage) and Winter squash (from storage).  Ayup.  No sweet little red strawberries, forget about a gorgeous pink raspberry, and watermelon is right out.  So I thought, "Well, what about a butternut squash cake with vegan cream cheese frosting sweetened with maple syrup?"  And that, my friends is what I endeavored to create.  At one point I found a very similar sounding recipe on Gluten-Free Goddess, but hers called for a lot of ingredients I didn't have and it also had eggs in it.  I referenced it a little for ratios, but ultimately came up with a very different recipe.

     The whole "cake" thing didn't really work out.  It ended up as an awesome breakfast bread that we Can't.  Stop.  Eating.  Besides the butternut squash, the hazelnuts are local to us and Bob's Red Mill is technically considered local too I guess, coming from Oregon, though it feels a little like cheating...

Vegan and Gluten-Free Butternut Squash Bread
1/2 C coconut oil (still solid)
1 C Sucanat
1/2 C silken tofu purée
2 T cornstarch combined with 2 T water
1/4 C blackstrap molasses
1 1/4 C butternut squash purée
2 C Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 C chopped hazelnuts
Optional:  You can substitute 1/4 butternut squash with 1/4 C banana purée.  It makes it taste like banana bread.  My hubby prefers it this way.

If you don't just happen to have a bunch of butternut squash purée laying around, cut one in half, roast each piece, cut side down, at 450° for about an hour.  Then peel when cool and purée.  I did this step a few days ahead.  You can also microwave butternut squash in a similar fashion in about 10-15 minutes.  If you make the squash the same day you bake your bread you can also purée the tofu and banana while the squash is cooking.  The blender worked great for the tofu while I managed to get a great banana purée from my mini food processor.

Once you have your purées, pre-heat oven to 350°.  Grease a loaf pan with coconut oil and dust with BRM flour.  Set aside.   In a large mixing bowl, combine coconut oil and Sucanat using the high speed of your mixer until very well combined.  Add the banana purée (if using), tofu purée and cornstarch mixture and mix everything well.  Mix in molasses and squash purée.   Once you have all the wet ingredients mixed with the sugar, begin combining the dry ingredients in a small bowl.  This will give the Sucanat a little time to dissolve. Slowly begin adding flour mixture to the wet mixture about 1/4 at a time.  Add hazelnuts, and mix until just combined.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

     The result is a warm and comforting moist bread that is perfect just out of the oven for breakfast with a little butter (or whatever substitute you like).  As it cools, it's not as good, but that's nothing a few seconds in the microwave can't cure...  But since this is a Valentine's Day Contest, why not kick it into pretty pink dessert mode with a little pink frosting?

Frosting
2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C Tofutti cream cheese
2 T pure maple syrup
4-5 drops natural food coloring

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and beat til combined.

I feel the same way about Tofutti cream cheese as I do about mascarpone cheese: It should never be eaten by any human ever unless it's full of confectioner's sugar and resting on top of a cake.  Then it's happiness on a fork.  The natural food coloring I use has beets in it, which gives the frosting a slightly fruity flavor.  I like it. Technically, the powdered sugar I used isn't vegan.  If you're being really careful,  The Vegan Chef has a recipe for DIY vegan powered sugar.

 Isn't that just pretty like a Valentine Princess?

     I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day no matter how you start it out.  February 6th is the deadline so there's still time to enter the contest!  It really is much less complicated than it seems!  And three winners receive $75 gift cards to their favorite store!

Boldly Going Where No Chocolate Pie Has Gone Before!

     My food blogger friend, Chinmayie, from over at LoveFoodEat created a luscious chocolate mousse pie with a secret ingredient.  Listen up, folks, I'm about to spill the beans... It's beets!  I made it a few weeks ago and discovered how super easy and super yummy it is.  You would never know there were beets in it.  Don't get me wrong, I can go to town on some beets.   Roasted, they're one of my favorite vegetables.  But this pie, it's just pure, smooth, chocolate yum all in your mouth.  The beets are purely for texture.  The crust is very simple, just 5 ingredients, so when I found gluten-free hazelnut flour at my farmer's market, this pie sprang to mind immediately.   I finally made it last week when I had a friend over for dinner who is eating a gluten-free diet.  I was surprised how well this converted!  Chinmayie was kind enough to allow me to re-blog her recipe with my updates. I also converted my cornbread recipe, and I'll be posting that soon!

But for right now...

Gather your ingredients, cuz it's Pie Time!!  *Squeeee!*

For the crust:
    * 1 cup hazelnut flour
    * 2 tbsp cocoa powder
    * 4 tbsp sugar (I used Sucanat)
    * ¼ cup coconut oil
    * 3-5 tbsp cold water

Grease a pie pan with coconut oil.  If your coconut oil is liquid, first place it in the freezer/refrigerator till solidifies (mine is always solid except on the very hottest days). Mix the flour, cocoa powder, and sugar until combined, then incorporate the coconut oil slowly with your fingers. When it resembles bread crumbs, add enough cold water to make dough.  Press it into a pie pan with your fingers as you would a graham cracker crust.  Bake at 410°F for 8-10 minutes or till firm. Let it cool completely.

 

 For the mousse:
    * 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
    * 1 large beet (or 2 medium size)

Peel and cube beet.  Cover with water and boil till soft, then drain and blend into a smooth purée. Melt the chocolate, using a double boiler, till smooth. Turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. Now add 1/2 C of the beet purée and mix well. Pour this chocolate/beet mixture into the prepared pie crust and smooth the surface with a spoon.  Refrigerate overnight.  Whereas, the regular wheat crust version of this pie is ready in a couple of hours, this pie really needs to sit overnight in the fridge.  It helps the crust release from the pan a little easier.  Another thing that might help in this regard is to dust the pan with a little gluten-free flour after greasing it, but I haven't tried this.

Notes:
In the filling, I used 1/2 C Scharffen Berger 70% Cacao Baking Chunks and 1/2 C 62%.  I have also used plain old grocery store generic semi-sweet chocolate chips, which work just as well or better.

Review:
You don't want to miss this one, friends!  Thank you, Chinmayie, for sharing this recipe and allowing me to adulterate it shamelessly.  For those of you who aren't gluten-free, try her original recipe.  You won't be disappointed!

Shameless Bragging

     OK, can I just say how much I love my farmer's market?  The last time I was there buying eggs, I heard a woman insisting that she get "a rainbow dozen."  Little did she know they're all rainbow dozens.  Beautiful, green, brown, tan, and white eggs dutifully laid by happy chickens who forage in the grass, eat bugs, and do happy, happy chicken things.  Whatever that is.  Roost in the forests of the moon or something... Anyhoo... I also found asparagus, morel mushrooms, and hazelnuts, and garlic...

     Have I mentioned morel mushrooms before?  Allow me to expound.  They're the little brainy looking things on the plate there.  They don't taste like any mushroom you've ever had.  They are drier, meatier, chewier, and they don't taste like a fungus.  I love mushrooms.  Just about all kinds (there's a few Asian ones I'm not too keen on) but the morel is just above and beyond.  They're hard to find, which makes them rare.  And the hiding spots are often a well kept secret.  Like the take it to your grave kind.  Fortunately for me, our farmer's market has a forager who brings fiddle head ferns, morels, sea beans, elder flowers, all kinds of wild edibles.  I love morel season.  If you can find some, buy them.  If you like mushrooms, you won't be disappointed.  If you don't like mushrooms, try them anyway, you might be surprised!

     I put this recipe together to highlight the morels and the asparagus, which I'm also nuts for.  You could also sub garlic scapes or fiddle head ferns earlier in the spring.

Morel and Asparagus Sauté
1/2 bunch asparagus
1/8 lb morel mushrooms
1/4 C chopped hazelnuts
4 cloves garlic
red wine for de-glazing
pre-cooked chicken (optional)
Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend

Sauté garlic, asparagus, hazelnuts, and garlic in pan with a little olive oil.  Meanwhile, make grains according to package directions.    As vegetables begin to stick to pan, de-glaze with red wine.  Cook until asparagus is cooked, but still firm.

If using the chicken, re-heat it in microwave or in a frying pan with a little bit of water.  Or, if you eat meat, go ahead and throw it in the pan with the veggies.

Serve!

Notes: 
TJ's Harvest Grains Blend is mostly little cute pastas, so if you can't find it, this would be great with pasta or brown rice.  I cooked mine with a little mushroom stock and a tad of butter.

Review: 
Absolutely fantastic.  Morels are a delicacy for a reason!

Also, just another quick little bit of bragging.  One of my hummus photos was featured yesterday on Finding Vegan!