Celiac disease (and lemon goodness)

so, T and I have a friend who has celiac disease. Now, there is a lot of sensationalism these days about what many folks can and cannot eat, purported food allergies that aren't, all kinds of bullshit in popular social culture about food "intolerances" and other, utter, nonsense. - But this is not.

Thus, I will have to save my rant about people with fake food "allergies" for another day. For now, let us just say that I hate them, ok?

Real autoimmune gluten intolerance can make the way that most Americans eat a minefield for those affected, and in a way, I was impressed with the trust that our friend placed in me when I invited her for a meal. So I wanted to be certain that nothing I cooked made her feel in any way marginalized, and I had absolutely no intention of sacrificing my culinary integrity (nor of making her sick!)

Instead, I'll share a positive idea that I had: polenta cake.

Being that I had to avoid wheat, and I hate to bake (too much precision for my kitchen ways), I had to brainstorm a bit about something that I thought I could make excellently on the first try (since I never bake and also won't serve something gross to my friends - what kind of friend would that make me?!), and would be a dessert that I would probably like (applying the E-dessert-rule of chocolate-almond-lemon-cherry-caramel-salt-or-bust) (henceforth to be known as the CALCCSOB dessert choice rule), this took some consideration. And then I recalled a cake that I had eaten for breakfast in Greece - a kind of lightly honey-steeped walnut and polenta loaf. While this was tasty with coffee, it was too sweet for after the meal I had planned, and I had no idea how to make it.

so instead, I read some recipes online, changed the ingredients to match what I had in my pantry, and proceeded from there.

and, out of respect for folks who actually bake, I weighed stuff and I threw it into the bowl. huzzah!

The result: not to be even more self-promoting than the sort of narcissist who has a blog, but...

Great.

Seriously. As, she-who-usually-abhors-dessert, I ate a whole slice. T ate all of the leftovers the next day. ALL.OF.THEM.

I served this, in reference to the "Greek breakfast" root idea of this dessert, with some plain Greek yogurt sweetened with a touch of warm honey, dusted with fennel pollen,(Fennel pollen makes everyone think you are fancy, so I highly recommend it) and some quick stovetop berry compote with cinnamon.

This is not low-fat. eat a small slice and relish it (if you care).

This is not vegan.

Vegan swaps: maple syrup (B-grade, preferably) or agave syrup sub for the honey, and one could use raw sugar in the cake itself. I was imagining that in lieu of butter, olive oil (weigh it, not volume) would be excellent as a sub for the butter. If it seems too wet at the end, toss in either a touch of maltodextrin (corn, to keep it gluten free) or (even better) coconut flour to maintain the consistency of the batter. for the eggs, I might suggest subbing the Bob's Red Mill egg substitute. IT does work, but it is not Gluten free, methinks.

Do it. Do it tonight. Here ya go:

2 sticks (about 230 grams) butter, softened
250g sugar
3 eggs
200g corn meal
150g ground almonds (I used Bob's Red Mill almond meal)
1 tsp baking powder
3 lemons (3 zested, 1 juiced)
1 teaspoon of lemon extract (optional, I added this, twice)
taste the batter and if it is bland, add 1/2 tsp of salt (I did not use this)

hardware:
a mixer (or use a hand mixer)
a 9 inch spingform pan
parchment paper
cooking spray (like PAM)
2 med-to-large mixing bowls
pre-heat to 320F, with convection if you have it.

then:
cut a round of parchment paper that will fit on the bottom of the pan.
prep the pan: spray with pam, then set the paper round into the bottom, and spray it lightly.

make the batter:
combine the cornmeal, almond meal (sifted), and the baking powder.
set aside

in the other bowl (or bowl of mixer, I just used a hand mixer):
cream together the butter and the sugar.
then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well to fully incorporate each one.

then fold the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar-egg mix.
then fold in the lemon zest and the lemon juice.
consider adding a small splash of lemon extract.

press the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top and edges to be as uniform as possible. this takes a few minutes. you may prefer to use your hands, cold but dry.
and cook it at 320F for about 30 minutes.
then cover the top with aluminum foil (to prevent excess browning) and cook another 20 minutes or until set but not dry.

cool completely at room temp and serve.

I made this with a berry compote, which is super easy:
drop some mixed frozen berries (mine is the Trader Joe's Cherry Berry mix), probably about a cup or so, into a small saucepan and heat them up.
if they aren't defrosting much, add a little water (like 2 tablespoons)
get it all nice and hot and smash around a bit with a spatula.
to thicken (if needed) - dissolve one teaspoon of cornstarch in 2 teaspoons of water and mix, then dump into the berry mix, stir well and rapidly. once it clarifies, turn the heat off, sprinkle in a little cinnamon, mix and you're done.

vanilla yogurt sauce:
plain greek yogurt, about 1 cup
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon of real vanilla paste
mix.

garnish with lemon-y items and fennel pollen.

IF you make this, e-mail me and let me know if you enjoyed it. I totally intend to make this again.

a small start

I'll start with a recipe.
I posted it once before and it got lots of good reviews from my tofu-eating foodie pals. The original post can be found here.

but here's an easy high-protein mostly vegan meal that takes minimal time to prepare and is tasty.
La Nuit de la Grande Citrouille, Charlie Brown!
(Aromatic maple pumpkin tart with sage-polenta crust and red wine laquered wild mushroom ragout with sage and brown butter)
(yes, I know the butter isn't vegan)
(and that that description is silly)

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

ingredients (all of this is rough, I didn't measure):
1/2 cup corn meal
1.5 cu water
salt
about a tablespoon of finely minced (back cut for dryness) fresh sage

one can, 15 oz., of Libby's pumpkin (just the plain pumpkin, not the preflavored pie mix)
3/4 cup of silken reduced fat tofu
about a teaspoon of finely minced Chinese ginger
a small dash of ground red cayenne pepper (I always put this in a pumpkin pie, as an aside)
a few shakes of five spice powder
one shake of nutmeg
salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 cups of mixed wild mushrooms (we had shitake, crimini, and oyster)
2 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp of unsalted butter
the red wine (a medium bodied cab) that was left in my glass (I think a dry chardonnay would have been better, but I wasn't drinking that)
some more fresh sage (this is just rolled up and sliced finely into the pan with kitchen scissors) - circa a teaspoon
salt

maple syrup (and a little Pecorino Romano as a garnish would have been good, but I didn't want the fat)

easy:

in a saucepan, put the water and salt it to taste (I think I used about 2 tsp). boil it. whisk in the corn meal, cook it until it is done over medium heat (maybe a minute or so), toss in the sage, whisk it all together, and remove from heat. set aside to cool a bit.

spray a nine inch metal pie pan or whatever you have around with some cooking spray. I just use the olive oil kind since I like the taste.

Press, using a hand rinsed in cold water (no sticking), the polenta into the pie pan, then put this in the oven and cook it for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling: dump filling ingredients into a bowl and blend until smooth, then salt to taste. I used a stick blender. You use whatever you like.

when the "crust" is kinda set and dried a little, dump in the filling, smooth it out, and put it back in the oven.

I cooked it at about 350 (the oven in my apt is unreliable, but that is what my thermometer said. Incidentally, I set the oven to 390 F, so as ever, YMMV) for about 50 minutes whilst I accomplished other goals.

when it was done, I turned the oven off but left the pie in there while I made the mushrooms: put the olive oil in a skillet. get it warm but not super hot. put the mushrooms in, whole. toss in a pinch of salt. toss the mushrooms every so often to prevent sticking. when they're mostly done to your liking, toss in the sage. continue to cook. toss in the butter, let it brown very slightly, and lightly caramelize the outsides of the flat mushrooms. deglaze with whatever you were drinking at the time (kinda like a reverse monte au buerre), toss a bit more, the whole thing will thicken and be delicious.

to serve: cut a nice slice of your semisavory pie. put some of the mushrooms on top. pour on a teensy touch of real maple syrup, and finish with a sage leaf and a little Romano grana if you have it and are feeling fancy (or just eat it, if you are me, while watching William Shatner interview Jenna Jamison).

If you are a hungry person, 1/4 of the pie is a serving. roughly, this contains 14 grams of protein, 12.5 grams of sugars, and under 200 calories. plus the mushrooms, which, depending on how many you eat, are the source of fat in this dish.

Have vegetarian(ish) food ideas? a great recipe to share? tried this and it sucked? let me know!