The Perfect Pint-Sized Gluten Free Cake

Today's post is by a guest writer - Mister!

Alright. For the record.

your ingredients

two fresh eggs

cream of tartar

sugar. two-thirds of a cup

soy milk (not intending to name-drop here, but silk really is best for baking ...)

one lemon

real vanilla extract

cinnamon

poppyseeds. if you like

goat butter. a third of a cup

white rice flour. a third of a cup

salt. just a pinch

baking powder. just a wee bit

baking soda. barely any, really

sprinkles and what have you

Two eggs, room temperature. Big ones.
Separate the yolk and whites, yolks in a small bowl, whites in a big one.

Whip those whites with a whisk. Old-fashioned-style. When they get frothy, add a pinch of cream of tartar ... it'll help you with the whipping. Beat those eggs like you mean it, adding sugar slowly, about half a cup in total... maybe two thirds. You want your whites stiff.

To the yolks, you add your flavourings. You need to have about a quarter-cup of liquid added here, and you can certainly use your imagination. Lemon zest is divine, and accompanies fresh-squeezed lemon juice and poppyseeds well in a traditional poppyseed cake. If you'd like plain white cake, just stick with vanilla and milk.

I felt like a comfort cake this afternoon, so I added vanilla, cinnamon, freshly-brewed espresso and a good hit of molasses to my yolks, imagining some sort of a spice/coffee cake.

In another bowl, combine about a third of a cup white rice flour with a dash of salt, baking powder and baking soda. Just a dash, folks. The eggs do most of the work in this recipe.

Right. Normally, I would never melt butter for baking ... real butter, when used at room temperature, gives baked goods a fluffy richness that you want, but not today. Melt your respective fat, about a third of a cup, just until molten. (Goat butter works well here, but make sure it's extremely fresh. We don't want goat cakes) Let it cool, then add to egg yolk mix.

After stirring, add egg yolk mix to fluffy egg whites. Use a spatula, and fold it in. Add the dry ingredients, and fold gently until combined.

Right. Pour it into a greased cereal bowl, throw it in an oven heated 350, for about 40 minutes, or until the center isn't very jiggly. Don't be afraid of a teeny-bit of jiggle in the center. General rule, really.

Let it sit for a good half-hour, then pop it upside-down onto a plate. Voila!

Makes a great picnic cake!

Obviously, this is a small cake. If you'd like a bigger one, triple the recipe!

- Mister

Cured Salmon Recipe

As a child I rarely ate fish. I grew up in a landlocked part of a very large province and fresh fish was not overly available. I don't actually have any memories of eating any form of fish until I discovered sushi. The tenderness of salmon lightly teased by the cold fire of wasabi and the plump rice? I can eat sushi any time of day. I was absolutely devastated when I first learned that I could not eat unagi anymore but the world of sashimi, those perfect slivers of fresh, firm tuna and the pink salmon lined with creamy fat more than surpasses the sweet meatiness of the eel. I think the allure of sushi for me was that it was simple freshness.

This salmon is absolutely stunning. I pretty well followed the recipe from Saucisson Mac . I didn't have the dill and even if I did I wouldn't use it because I really don't like the taste of it, especially to this extent. Instead, I used either sesame or curry leaves. These are the leaves that came in a plastic bag from Pete's and there was a hand-written tag that stated sesame leaves, but when Mr. was fooling around google he convinced himself the leaves in question were curry leaves. Who knows. They add a smokey lemony flavour that definitely evokes curry. Another change I made was add a lot of brown sugar and the extra sweetness definitely paid off in the final product.

Rainy Day Baking with Kids!

butternut squash cupcakes • coconut cream icing

The sun's brightness is softened by the likes of spring, it hasn't reached the fever pitch of whiteness that you find in the summer. Instead, on days like today, you can start opening your eyes and looking around again to catch a glimpse of colour. The transition into spring and warmth is a cautious quest. With food we are just reaching the end of our root vegetables and heavy soups and delving into lighter fare as the cool weather greens start coming around.

A few days ago was typical cool spring where you can barely move outside without soaking in a mix of sea water, rain and rolling grey clouds. Periodically the mist would recede into fog and we could take our Monster games outside. Much of the day was spent running around inside so to distract the babies I corralled them into the kitchen and enticed them to make butternut squash cupcakes. That is obviously the smartest thing to do for an indoor day with a toddler and a 4 year old but all the craft, game and train distractions had already been exhausted. So, it was time for baking.

My children have always been surrounded by baking and cooking so they are little naturals with a spoon and bowl. I know that more of the indulgent recipes seem to end up here but part of that has to do with my food philosophy. I believe that if you are going to be eating any kind of 'junk food' you ought to make it yourself. Why? No strange chemicals that could potentially cause feet to grow out the top of your head and you are much less likely to eat those sugary/salty snacks if you have to make it yourself. Also, when you bake you start to learn the intricacies of food. Before I really started experimenting with cooking I was tossing around all kinds of fun with baking.

This recipe was inspired by a re-run of Jamie Oliver at Home and a butternut squash that has been kicking around in the potato bin for a bit. I was lazing on the floor and watching the Jamie Oliver show and while I was trying very hard to pay attention it was proving a difficult task. He is incredibly adorable. I was doing my usual dorky kind of bouncy giggle thing I do when something of monumental adorableness is in my vicinity. I am sure I look less than sane at this point. The whole point of this was that he made butternut squash muffins with a light lavender glaze. Since I was working with little direction I decided that I would incorporate a bit of coconut instead of the lavender.

The only picture I have of the finished product was taken by Girly. The morning after making these I got a chance to sleep in (bonus!) and when I woke up the kids (and possibly Mr.) had either licked off the icing or stuck the fingers into the cupcake. This wouldn't normally have been a problem but I didn't take a picture of the attractive version the night before because of crap lighting. I shouldn't say the unadulterated cupcakes were more attractive ... they were the polished version of the much loved and poked cupcakes I found in the morning.

The cake was moist and light but carried a sweet density on the tongue with the sweet subtleness of squash. Coconut milk is thick and creamy but just beneath the velvet liquid is a miniscule dryness that I sense more than feel or taste. The icing captures all the complexities of coconut milk and subtly carries the butternut squash. How it stands, there is only potential with this recipe.

The Recipe:

1/2 butternut squash

1/4 cup butter

one cup coconut milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

256 g gluten free flour (fine white rice, brown rice and soy flour.)

15 g baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Cook diced squash until soft. This should take about 20-25 minutes. When soft, blend until smooth with the coconut milk.

2. Cream butter with sugar and vanilla. Add eggs.

3. Mix together all the dry ingredients.*

4. Alternate flour mix with butternut squash, mix well into the creamed butter.

5. Pour into lined muffin tins and bake at 350º for 2-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them.

6. Once cool spread with coconut icing.

*I always list my flours and baking powder in weight measurements because it is more accurate than using cups. That's the official story. Really it's because I always lose count when mixing my gluten free flours at 1/3 cup at a time and I found estimating as I pour into the one bowl on the scale works. It's really not exact but simple math is not my friend.

The Icing

one tbsp. creamed coconut

2 cups confectioners sugar

coconut milk - just a drizzle, enough to loosen the icing

1. Cream together the creamed coconut and about a teaspoon of the coconut milk. Just start with a little because you don't want copious amounts of icing.

2. Add the icing sugar a little bit at a time and cream together. Don't let it get to thick and dry as you won't be able to spread it on the cake. Conversely, if it's really thin it'll just go everywhere.

Basic icing is really just that: Basic and easy.

Photo Friday

brown rice noodles • arugula cream • sweet and salty tofu

courtesy of Mr.

Thursday Basics: caramelized onions

Everyone needs to know how to make perfect caramelized onions. I know it may seem a little silly and trivial but if you take a little time with those onions the reward is unbelievable. To really impart a perfect golden crispness to the onions while maintaining a certainly level of tenderness is really not that scary. This is how I go about caramelizing onions:

1. Chop onions. I generally end up dicing mine because Girly says she doesn't like onions which means she doesn't want to see them but expects the flavour to be present.

2. Heat a pan on medium. Once it is hot enough drop in either butter or a drizzle of olive oil. Butter adds its own richness but it can burn. In the best case scenario, add your butter and to keep it from burning add just a small drizzle of oil. You do want the butter to foam up, that is when you add the oil.

3. Add onions and toss around until they get the slightest bit of browning.

4. Turn the heat down to low and let those babies simmer away. The onions will start to release their juices and everything melds into perfection.

5. Just before you are set to add your other ingredients, sprinkle a pinch of sugar over the onions, deglaze with wine and pinch a bit of potato starch on it. The wine and starch will transform your onions. Seriously.

For a little extra bite and depth sometimes I will use half balsamic vinegar/half wine to deglaze the pan. Be careful with balsamic vinegar, sometimes it is really acidic and mind the colour!

Intense and Delicious Chicken Soup Recipe

Lilies trying really hard.

Spring in Nova Scotia fights a valiant battle and struggles mightily to work itself out and when it does happen we are rewarded with the most spectacular beauty. Everything is lush and there is suddenly life where soggy branches and leaves from last year used to lay. Before that? Weeks of miserable rain and fog. It is as if the clouds have descended to the sky and yesterday, the fog fulfilled its duties. It was formidable and when not eating my neighbours it wept tears upon my balcony. If you tried hard enough you could reach out and hold a piece of the atmosphere in your hand to take a peek at The Mystery. The magic that carries spring aloft is held in that fog.

The damp cold that comes with fog is entirely different than the kind that dances on your cheeks with snow in the winter. This cold settles into you and smoulders dry ice in your belly. The only way to chase away these gnomes of heavy atmosphere is to quench them with soup. This is the soup to do it. It is is rich and creamy but there are no heavy noodles to stop you from searching for puddles to stomp.

The secret is time. This soup is so fragrant and heady and the only way to actually experience and enjoy it properly is to let it simmer over the stove all day. Our little apartment smelled like a haven for all cold wanderers.

The Soup

6 chicken drumsticks

7 carrots

one cup corn

one cup peas

one potato, diced

one purple onion, diced

3 - 4 cloves garlic (let your tastes direct you)

to taste: rosemary

sea salt

crushed black pepper

1. Caramelize your onions in olive oil. Once juicy and golden remove from the pot because you do not want to burn them when you turn up the heat. Check out the best caramelized onions in Thursday Basics.

2. Dust your chicken in a bit of potato starch. I added fresh rosemary, sea salt and cracked black pepper to the dusting.

Oh my.

3. Turn up the heat and add a bit more oil to your pot, you don't want to scorch the chicken. Chicken is notoriously difficult to brown which is why you add the dusting of starch, it is actually the starch you are browning. Once the chicken is a a rich and crisp golden colour pur in a hefty glug of white wine, sprinkle with just another light dusting of potato starch and let it simmer.

4. Boil down the wine then fill the pot with stock and water: About 3 parts stock for one part water. Return the caramelized onions to the pot.

5. Bring to a boil for about 15 minutes to seriously cook the chicken. When the chicken is cooke, lower to a simmer and add the entire potato and half the vegetables. Rinse the potato really well to wash off any of the starch that escapes. I only add half the vegetables now so that they will break down a bit and add flavour to the soup. The starch will help naturally thicken it a bit. Remember, there are no noodles in this soup. At this point, give a little taste to see if you need to add any salt or any other herbs. Be careful adding at this point because this soup is intended to simmer all day and the flavours bloom with time (which means if you over salt now you are slightly screwed.*)

6. At about 15 minutes prior to serving add the reserved vegetables and remove all the meat from the bones. That is, if it hasn't fallen off already.

I feel like I ought to add a disclaimer about my recipes because they are not so much die hard recipes but guidelines. I rarely use measurements because my cooking is visceral. I use all my senses to cook and I trust my own taste and I know what my family likes to eat. So do you. Always taste your food. That is my one rule. Put your whole self into your food, it's the only way.

*If you are ever making a soup and you find it too salty, put in a whole potato and boil for a few minutes. When you remove the potato you will find it has removed some of that extra saltiness.

Thursday Basics: Soup Stock

Through commercial advertisement children learn to enjoy simple and overly sweet flavours, like strawberry, grape, fruit punch and as they get a little older: The dreaded bubblegum. It's the beginning of the candy phase. And, if these one dimensional flavours are dumped upon them over time, we end up with picky eaters.

The other night neither mr. or I felt like cooking dinner so we grabbed a bit of sushi on the way home from the park. Halifax has been unseasonably warm for March and I have started wandering upstairs to stash to winter coats until next year. It might be too early, but I digress. The Boy effectively ate more than anyone else. He gobbled down (in his hufffy way) salmon sashimi, tuna nigiri and he was eyeing up the unagi but his sister was quicker. My children have unique palates because we encourage them to explore food. We don't assume they will not like a food because it isn't a frozen chicken finger or flat pizza. This isn't about food elitism, it is about teaching our children. It is about a legacy (monsters are [possibly] going to come out of the sea about this).

A few years ago I was listening to the radio and the featured expert stated that this coming generation will be unable to make their own soup stock. That is entirely unacceptable. That is a disservice to our children and ultimately devastating (particularly considering 2012 is right around the corner).

It doesn't have to be like that; you don't have to assume your children will only eat folded pepperoni pizza things because chain restaurants have decreed it so. Good food does take time. Delicious, nutritious food that is creative and beautiful takes time. And, the way you have to start thinking about food is different. That will work itself out. Want to know the reason why the coming generation won't know how to make soup stock?

Their parents aren't teaching them.

The Stock:

vegetable knobs (leftover bits)

bones (no humans.)

inner garlic cloves, ginger

wine

water

You know all the ends of carrots, pieces of leftover onion and chicken bones that are always left over after cooking a meal? Keep 'em. store all of it in a sizeable container that is freezer safe. That is, instead of composting. Throw in all the small pieces of garlic, the kind that are so small that your fingertips hurt if you even consider chopping them. Beet ends give the end result a sweet and mysterious tang.

When you have filled that container dump it all in a pot with water and a hefty shot of white wine and season it with salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil then let it simmer for a few hours. All the yummines in your magic container of vegetable bits will be drawn out and make for an incredible basic soup stock.

That's it.

Steps (just to break it down.):

1. Collect the container of leftover chopped up vegetables and bones.

2. Bring to a boil in water and wine. Basically the ratio is 1 part wine to 5 parts water.

3. Simmer for a few hours.

A bit bizarre looking, it's the stock working its magic.

Once you have your stock guess what you can start doing? Anything! All those recipes that call for stock to infuse an extra layer of flavour .. guess what you have? Exactly. Forget that awful dehydrated yellow stuff, besides, if you are gluten-free you will be staying away from it already. It takes no time at all to collect your stock-fixings which means you theoretically won't run out. Too often, unless you are like us and have at least two containers in the freezer. Go. Have fun.

(A note: It is somehow appropriate that the very first Thursday Basic post inadvertently went up on Wednesday because I am completely incapable of figuring out my time zone. Isn't that perfect?)