I have been working with our new dehydrator to create several types of crackers and fruit leathers. The goal is to understand what the drying process does to various foods and to test some of the recipes one finds on the web.

Everything I will ever make will be 100% nut free. We have a zero tolerance policy on nuts of any kind.

Note that coconuts are not tree nuts and do not present tree nut allergens so I like to use coconut flesh, milk, butter, water, and juice!

I definitely enjoy making all manner of smoothies and munching on salads but its also good to have some texture for the need to nibble on dense food stuffs. I want to forestall cravings for Lays potato chips!

To wit, today’s post is on what I ate for breakfast this morning. After whipping up some cheese grits and homegrown chicken eggs for the family, I pulled together this plate of crunchy goodness.

I have a few slices of raw cow’s milk aged (5 years) cheddar cheese (Black Diamond) – notice I am not vegan, beta flax crackers (recipe here), sprouted wheat berry crackers, carrot ginger crisps, mango leather, and banana leather.

Recipes!

Sprouted wheat berry crackers (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup organic wheat berries
• pure water, as needed
• 3 tablespoons organic shoyu
• raw organic sunflower seeds, enough to sprinkle over top of crackers
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, cold pressed, first press
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
Sprout wheat berries (will take several days, I do it until primary shoot begins to emerge). Put sprouted grain in food processor, add the shoyu, lemon juice, and olive oil, process until the grains have been macerated. You might need to add a bit of water to get the mixture to macerate and form a dough.

Spread the dough onto paraflexx sheets in the shape of crackers (so that you will not have a hard time cracking them into shapes later).

Sprinkle with the raw sunflower seeds and press them into the surface of the crackers slightly.

Start dehydrating at 135F for an hour or so then turn down to 115F to dry over night. In the morning, flip the crackers and if they are still dark (not dried) underneath, put them back into the dehydrator until dry. Do not over dry. Store in a zip lock baggie.

Notes: When I make this next time I will add more shoyu and also sprinkle a bit of salt ontop as it goes into the dehydrator. Over time I will likely need this salt less but for now it seems this recipe needs that, for my taste.

—

Carrot Ginger Crisps

Ingredients:

• 15 large organic carrots
• 1 tablespoon shaved ginger
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• organic coconut water, as needed

Directions:
Peel and juice the carrots. Save the pulp, add to a blender jar. Add back in the carrot juice, lemon juice, and the ginger. Blend the mixture, adding the organic coconut water as needed to encourage a puree to form.

I almost killed my blender with my beta flax cracker recipe (began to smoke) and then this recipe was challenging for my run of the mill blender. Be careful with yours! Stop it often to mix the unblended stuff at the top down into the lower parts of the blender jar. You do not want this to be really juicy either.

Using an offset spatula (your very best of friends for a lot of these recipes), spread the puree/mix out onto the paraflexx sheets, might take 2 or more.

Dehydrate overnight at 115F. It goes fast so you might want to keep checking it, depending on your conditions.

Notes: the ginger is fantastic with this crisp! Its an intense experience and I am still thinking of how best to use it. Might be nice in salads, might make an interesting topping on another recipes.

—

Mango Leather

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe mangos
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• organic coconut water, as needed

Directions:
Peel mangos and remove flesh from pit, put into blender jar. Add lemon juice and then blend. Add coconut water as needed to help the puree loosen up just a bit without getting too juicy.

Using an offset spatula, spread the puree/mix out onto the paraflexx sheets.

Dehydrate 4 – 6 hours at 125F. Keep checking on it, depending on your conditions. Objective is a dried, slightly tacky sheet that is not so dry that it is brittle.

When done, remove from sheet, roll up in a parchment paper and store in a baggie in a cool dry location. I use a rolling pizza cutter to cut my leathers.

—

Banana Leather

Ingredients:

• 4 moderately ripe bananas
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• organic coconut water, as needed

Directions:
Peel bananas and put into blender jar. Add lemon juice and then blend. Add coconut water as needed to help the puree loosen up just a bit without getting too juicy.

Using an offset spatula, spread the puree/mix out onto the paraflexx sheets.

Dehydrate 4 – 6 hours at 125F. Keep checking on it, depending on your conditions. Objective is a dried, slightly tacky sheet that is not so dry that it is brittle. This banana leather might dry sooner than this, keep an eye on it. Mine turned out a bit more like banana toffee which is not necessarily a bad thing!

When done, remove from sheet, roll up in a parchment paper and store in a baggie in a cool dry location. I use a rolling pizza cutter to cut my leathers.

Ok, there you go!

I know my limits in terms of diet and I know I need lots of texture.

These things should not be what you are eating 100% of the time. A raw food diet should consist of mostly simple fruits and vegetables, some seeds and grains, LOTS of water, and in our case, raw dairy.

Let me know if you try any of these recipes!

If you are interested in getting a dehydrator yourself I can tell you that I am just tickled pink with my Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator, the only one I have experience with.

Their page is at this link.

Yikes, I have been so blocked with both of my blogs this past week. I can not put my finger on exactly why but that is the way writing is. For me its a double block because its both writing and shooting. Part of the problem, I think, is that the baby is starting to fight one of his naps so my writing time has been severely curtailed. Now the baby goes to sleep just as the middle child comes home from preschool. *sighs* I also am finding that shooting is more difficult because the baby and the middle one have decided that they must throw tantrums when I set up for a shot and that they need to scream the entire time I am shooting. I have said this before, while other photographers have to worry about the food looking stale in their shots, I have to shoot as fast as humanly possible in fears of hyperventilation and loss of 1 and 4 year old mental competence. Peace returns when the setup is put away. Gotta find a way around this problem. So, all excuses aside, I am trying to fight my way out of the double block, lets hope this post comes off ok!

On top of all of THAT, I am resisting this massive urge to write this post-modernist post-feminist paean to how my life has been impacted so utterly by the karma of the 1960s and the 1970s. I just watched the season finale of “Mad Men“, my favorite show, and I feel twisted up with conflictions around who I wanted to be and who I AM and who I want my kids to be and worry about what they may turn out to be. I won’t write it here, its off topic. But I do have to say that food plays a part of it but I am more concerned about the messy state of my kitchen and what that says about me than my ability to make puff pastry.

Back to the food.

We are finally starting to dig up some of our homegrown straw bale organic potatoes. I think next year we will be planting them in the ground because the straw doesn’t protect the tubers from the rodentia so we are getting some losses. We have also not gotten nearly as as many potatoes as we should have per plant.

If you have never eaten fresh out-of-the-ground potatoes then you have never eaten potatoes, period. They taste so fantastic, so perfect, the true realization of potato goodness.

I decided to make an autumn themed breakfast sort of celebration of potatoes.

I heated some olive oil, added some turmeric and salt, added some sweet onion, and then the sliced potatoes. Sauteed them until they were crispy and brown.

For the egg, I separated the yolk from the white. I heated some olive oil to about low medium and then submerged the yolk in the oil. Its a sort of yolk confit I guess. I put the white in a pan with olive oil and allowed it to harden on a low heat. I used a leaf cookie cutter and cut out some egg white leaves for garnish. I am not so sure I like the yolk preparation, I like mine much less done.

I served this all on one of my all time favorite things that are not really that good for me, a Nabisco Crown Pilot Cracker. I can not explain WHY I like these crackers so much, they just have this satisfying flavor. I had no idea that they were a New England obsession until I googled it. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: photographer, post-modernist, post-feminist, paean, karma, Mad Men, puff pastry, homegrown, straw bale, organic, autumn, breakfast, potato, olive oil, turmeric, sweet onion, potatoes, egg, white, yolk, Nabisco, Crown Pilot Cracker

To celebrate the summer solstice, I made sunny yellow cornmeal “mush” with blackstrap molasses for breakfast this morning.

We are enjoying an overwhelmingly beautiful bright sunny yet not-to-hot day here in central Massachusetts.

The garden is soaking up the sun and growing with leaps and bounds, our moods are sunny, and all is right with the world. The only downside to the solstice is that we are now on the other side of curve and the day length will begin to decrease every day until the winter solstice.

Mush is something my mom used to make for us as kids. It is real down-home comfort food and it is an excellent way to use excess grits or polenta (which are the same thing). I love and adore blackstrap molasses so I use this on mush and pancakes.

Cornmeal mush with blackstrap molasses (gluten free too!)

Ingredients:

• grits or polenta – made as per package/recipe (In this post, I describe making grits)
• cooking spray
• bread loaf pan
• foil
• cast iron pan
• oil
• warmed blackstrap molasses or maple syrup

Directions:

Line the bread loaf pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Make your grits or polenta and pour into the lined loaf pan. Cover with extra foil. Allow to cool overnight (or until cold).

Slice and then pan fry until golden brown and warn throughout.

Serve with butter and molasses/syrup.

Enjoy!

Related Posts:

• Ginger Sesame Key Lime Shrimp Grits

Technorati Tags: summer solstice, mush, blackstrap, molasses, breakfast, Massachusetts, garden, solstice, comfort, food, grits, polenta, pancake

I wasn’t necessarily raised on transcendent biscuits, we had patacones and arepas instead. My mom, who is from Illinois and from a family of Illinois corn, soybean, and pig farmers who came from the hills of Kentucky ages ago (and I don’t know where before that), would talk about the delicious food her grandma cooked in her diner. Biscuits were obviously part of that but she never made them on any consistent basis because they are “unnecessary carbohydrates”. In our house, in the 70s, if a carbohydrate was to be eaten it had better be whole wheat or rice. This is all fine by me, life is long and there is plenty of time to make biscuits.

I fell in love with biscuits when we lived in the south (Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Virginia, if you want to call NoVA the south). I mostly lusted for biscuits from two particular places – Popeye’s in New Orleans and Hardee’s in Peachtree City, Georgia. The commonality between these biscuits was their moistness.

I like biscuits so much that I do choke down the drier ones but I am always ruminating on those moist ones I remember from New Orleans and Georgia. I know that those two fast food joints are not the paragons of southern cooking but they got the whole biscuit thing right.

Unfortunately, my husband and kids have not liked my biscuits to date. I have tried the lazy way – Bisquick. I like them but the family won’t touch them. I have made them from scratch but the same story, especially if they are drop biscuits.

Lisa over at Homesick Texan had a very lovely post on beaten biscuits, something I have never eaten or made. Check out her post for more information, background, texture, and food porn.

Well, it seems that I have finally broken the dry biscuit barrier with my latest attempt. I combined several variations for biscuits as found on pages 789 and 790 of the 1997 version of the Joy of Cooking to excellent effect.

I served these whole wheat buttermilk biscuits to the more “discerning” 10 year old with little expectation but with threats of bodily harm if some of the biscuit wasn’t even at least tried.

Silence.

I looked over at the child to see her actually munching away on the biscuit. Then, this really blew me away, she asked for another one. I asked her, OK, I interrogated her, as to what was different with these biscuits and she says that they have a delicious flavor, something she has never said about previous biscuits. I tried them and they are moist, flavorful, and really take a beating in the storage department as they do not dry out even the next day. Most biscuits should not have to last more than 15 minutes but if you have to store a few leftovers, these work well.

If you try these, I hope you have the same experience.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

(as per Joy of Cooking and a bit of my own adaptation re: using whole wheat pastry flour)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C King Arthur Unbleached Flour
• 1/2 C Bob’s Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, small cubes
• 3/4 C cultured buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F.

Whisk together the flours, the baking powder and baking soda. Add the cold butter and then crumble it together with the flour until your get very small fragments of flour coated butter.

Please, if you can, study the advice given in the Joy of Cooking as to how best this is done. I use my hands because I like a little excitement in my life, living on the edge (right!). If you have hot hands, don,t do this because you will melt your butter and you will have a mess on your hands.

Add the 3/4 C buttermilk and mix ONLY until the dough has come together (over mixing is a massive no-no, just say no). Pick up the dough and press it against the edges of the bowl to pick up all the bits.

I make square biscuits because 1) I hate waste, 2) I am not dogmatic about the shape of my biscuit, 3) the reformed biscuits made from the scraps of round biscuits are always tough and not worth the time.

Put the dough out onto a floured board, pat to 1/2 inch (or your preferred size), and then slice into squares.

On an ungreased parchment lined baking sheet, place the squares so that they just barely touch one another.

If you wish, brush tops with butter or a bit of milk wash.

Bake 10-15 minutes until light brown. Your oven may take longer or less time. Since these are whole wheat they are already sort of brown so you need to keep watching them so that they get the color you like. Don’t bake too long, they will dry out.

Books of Interest:

• The All New, All Purpose Joy of Cooking, 1998

Products of Interest:

• Bob’s Red Mill Flour, Pastry, Whole Wheat, Organic, 5#
• King Arthur Unbleached Flour, 5 lbs

Related Posts:

• How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
• Arepa de huevo (Arepa with egg)

Technorati Tags: transcendent, biscuit, patacones, arepas, Illinois, farmer, Kentucky, carbohydrate, rice, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia, Popeye’s, New Orleans, Hardee’s, Peachtree City, southern cooking, Bisquick, Homesick Texan, beaten biscuits, food porn, Joy of Cooking, whole wheat, buttermilk, whole wheat pastry flour, King Arthur Unbleached Flour, Bob’s Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, baking powder, baking soda, butter

If you are diabetic, pre-diabetic, following a low carb diet, or simply trying to eat lower processed foods, breakfast can be one of the hardest meals of the day. So much of what we eat here in the US for breakfast is high glycemic.

If you want to eat on the go, it can be extremely difficult to find something that is not almost pure carbs and often highly processed carbs (breakfast cereal, oatmeals, juice, etc).

Before my recent blood sugar test results, this was my breakfast – French Roast Starbucks with milk and a LOT of sugar. (I buy the Starbucks coffee in the bag from the store so I am not talking about a coffee bought in one of their stores). Though this killed my hunger immediately this drink is bad on several levels!

Obviously, loads of white sugar first thing in the morning is non-nutritive and simply counterproductive.

Caffeine causes insulin resistance (Keijzers GB et al. 2002, Graham TE, et al. 2001), especially in skeletal muscle (Thong FSL. et al. 2002) (you can somewhat reverse this effect with exercise).

“Diminished response to insulin, but not exercise/contraction signals leading to glucose transport in skeletal muscle, is a major factor responsible for insulin resistance associated with type 2 diabetes.” (Thong FSL. et al. 2002)

This is a super negative thing because, if you “starve” the skeletal muscles of glucose then your metabolism is not going to be optimal and thus your weight loss efforts will be side-tracked. Further, if you reduce insulin responsivity then your blood sugar will rise. If you “poison” the skeletal muscles, taking them out of the sugar consumption loop to some degree, then blood sugar is even harder to control.

It is well known that a walk will decrease your blood sugar levels, drinking a cup of coffee before hand may not be the best idea.

Just as an aside, we use caffeine in the lab to do all sorts of nasty things to culture cells. It speeds up the cell cycle and can lead to aneuploidies or chromosome abnormalities. Fun stuff isn’t it!

I have to tell you, giving up caffeine is extremely difficult for me but this is just one MORE reason to reconsider cutting it out. The only time I have been able to cut it out has been during pregnancy and its easier then because you have an increased blood volume and all sorts of hormones that seem to help with the feelings of wellness that I use caffeine for.

Today’s breakfast featured here is McCann’s Irish steel-cut oatmeal, sliced star fruit, bacon, a passion fruit gastrique with dried apricots, and an egg.

This entire thing started out simply with the oatmeal and then grew into what you see here because this is what I had on had after going to the grocery store and buying little oddities like passion fruit, star fruit and Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar. I had to figure out a way to make the oatmeal look attractive and taste delicious while not going crazy on sugar. I also wanted to try my sample of Partida Agave Nectar which has a stupendously low glycemic index! I got my sample as a review product from the Well Fed Network but I can not seem to find ordering information online! Will update if I do find it.

Why steel-cut oats? It has a lower glycemic index than rolled oats. Why is that? Because rolled oats have been so processed (rolled, steamed, beaten within an inch of it’s life) that they have a higher percentage of simple sugars. Steel-cut oats are more whole and thus have not been “pre-digested” to some degree by the rolled oat processing.

The other ingredients are listed below with their GI values or cal counts:

• Steel cut oatmeal – 52 (Rolled oats oatmeal – 75)
• Agave nectar – 10 (White sugar – 100)
• Passion fruit – 30
• Star Fruit – 40 cals – tastes sort of melon like but brighter and its juicy too, delish and not JUST a garnish! See note at the bottom*.
• Egg and bacon – zero (though protein is insulinic)

I followed the package directions for the oatmeal (a bit more than 30 minutes of cooking)

The passion fruit gastrique is something I made up so I will provide the recipe below.

Passion fruit Apricot Fig Gastrique

Ingredients:

• 2 passion fruits
• 3 unsulfered dried organic apricots, sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon Partida Agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions:

In a small pan over medium heat, combine the scooped out pulpy seeds of the 2 passion fruits, the sliced apricots, 1 tablespoon of the Agave Nectar, 1 teaspoon of the fig vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of water. Simmer this down until it thickens to your desire consistency. You may need to add some water to thin or simmer longer to get it thicker, up to you!

I put the syrup through a strainer to get rid of most of the midnight black seeds (which have these very interesting little divots across their surface) as they didn’t seem very edible to me.

When I served this all up, I put some agave nectar in the oatmeal and stirred it up. I put the oatmeal into the bacon round (secured with a bit of wooden skewer) and then drizzled it with the gastrique and added a bit of apricot. The remainder of apricots were put into a passion fruit rind. Do NOT eat raw passion fruit rind (has cyanide compounds in it).

* A note on star fruit: If you have renal disease, and especially if you are on dialysis, please do not eat star fruit. You can not clear a substance or toxin (oxalic acid) found in it. This is called star fruit intoxication.

Star fruit, belonging to the Oxalidaceae family, species Averrhoa carambola, is a popular fruit among Orientals. There have been reports of hiccup, confusion, and occasional fatal outcomes in uraemic patients after ingestion of star fruit. An excitatory neurotoxin from star fruit has been implicated although the exact nature of this toxic substance has not been identified. A group of seven patients is described from the dialysis centres at Queen Mary and Tung Wah Hospitals who developed symptoms including hiccup, confusion, vomiting, impaired consciousness, muscle twitching and hyperkalaemia shortly after ingestion of star fruit. Symptoms of most patients resolved after intensified dialysis or spontaneously, and no mortality was observed. The close temporal relationship of ingestion of star fruit and onset of symptoms strongly suggests the existence of a causal relationship between the two. It is recommended that uraemic patients should totally abstain from star fruit due to these rare but potentially fatal complications. The clinical manifestations of other reported series and current evidence for the possible candidate(s) of the neurotoxin are discussed. (Tse, KC et al. 2003)

References used:

• Keijzers GB et al. Caffeine Can Decrease Insulin Sensitivity in Humans. Diabetes Care 25:364-369, 2002
• Graham TE. et al. Caffeine ingestion elevates plasma insulin response in humans during an oral glucose tolerance test. Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 2001 Jul;79(7):559-65.
• Thong FSL. et al. Caffeine-Induced Impairment of Insulin Action but Not Insulin Signaling in Human Skeletal Muscle Is Reduced by Exercise. Diabetes 51:583-590, 2002
• Tse, KC et al. Star fruit intoxication in uraemic patients: case series and review of the literature. Intern Med J. 2003 Jul;33(7):314-6.

Sites of Interest:

• Blood Type Diet TYPEbase4 database of relevant data on foods you likely eat!

Related Posts:

• Low GI Recipe: Whole wheat tortilla ginger tumeric tofu wrap with young spring peas
• Fast Glycemic Facts: The Second Meal Effect
• Pre-Diabetes and low glycemic cooking

Technorati Tags: diabetic, pre-diabetic, low carb diet, breakfast, high glycemic, cereal, oatmeal, blood sugar, French Roast, Starbucks, sugar, Caffeine, insulin resistance, skeletal muscle, insulin, exercise, glucose transport, type 2 diabetes, metabolism, coffee, pregnancy, McCann’s Irish steel-cut oatmeal, star fruit, bacon, passion fruit, gastrique, dried apricot, Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar, steel-cut oats, rolled oats, passion fruit gastrique, Passion fruit Apricot Fig Gastrique, Partida, Agave, nectar

If you choose to read The Glycemic Index site, you may briefly run across something called the Second Meal Effect (SME).

As I understand it and in short, if one eats a low GI food at one meal, there is a carry over effect to the next meal in terms of “buffering” the impact of eating sugar during that second meal.

This has actually been known for some time. In 1982, Jenkins, Wolever, and Taylor reported this in their seminal paper “Slow release dietary carbohydrate improves second meal tolerance” (Jenkins et al. Am J Clin Nutr 1982 35:1339–46).

This phenomenon was further explored in 1988, in a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating a low GI meal (even mixed with other higher GI foods) at dinner improved carbohydrate “tolerance” at the following breakfast.

“We conclude that the difference between the glycemic responses of mixed meals at dinner can be predicted from the GI of the individual foods consumed. In addition, breakfast carbohydrate tolerance is improved when low-GI carbohydrate foods are eaten the previous evening. This provides evidence for a sustained metabolic effect of slowing the absorption of carbohydrate.” Second-meal effect: low-glycemic-index foods eaten at dinner improve subsequent breakfast glycemic response.” Second-meal effect: low-glycemic-index foods eaten at dinner improve subsequent breakfast glycemic response Wolever TWS., et al. Am J Clin Nutr 1988 48: 1041-7.”

The mechanism for that effect has not been well understood until recently, when in 2006 Brighenti et al found:

“In conclusion, our results show that fermentable carbohydrates, independent of their effect on food GI, have the potential to improve postprandial responses to a second meal by decreasing NEFA (nonesterified fatty acids) competition for glucose disposal and, to a minor extent, by affecting intestinal motility. The potential of fermentable carbohydrates in the management of metabolic disorders linked to insulin resistance may warrant further study.” Colonic fermentation of indigestible carbohydrates contributes to the second-meal effect. Brighenti et al Am J Clin Nutr 2006 83 (4): 817-822.”

This is great news because it tells us that fermentable carbohydrates, whether low, medium, or high GI, have the ability to support a better insulin response in those experiencing insulin resistance.

What are “fermentable carbohydrates”? Foods that contain high-amylose starch are “slowly digested, some … starch would escape small-intestine digestion and be fermented in the colon.” (Ibid) Things like apples, broccoli, other fiber rich foods.

Its the fermentation in the colon that is important. Fiber that just goes right through you will not have this effect. The starch needs to be digested in the colon and thus some time AFTER the meal has been eaten, resulting in a longer period of sugar delivery and the minimization of a spike in blood sugar.

There are likely other effects, other mechanisms, that are yet to be discovered.

References used:

• The diabetic diet, dietary carbohydrate and differences in digestibility Jenkins et al. Am J Clin Nutr 1982 35:1339–46
• Second-meal effect: low-glycemic-index foods eaten at dinner improve subsequent breakfast glycemic response Wolever TWS., et al. Am J Clin Nutr 1988 48: 1041-7
• Colonic fermentation of indigestible carbohydrates contributes to the second-meal effect. Brighenti et al Am J Clin Nutr 2006 83 (4): 817-822

Technorati Tags: Second Meal Effect, GI, sugar, paper, low GI, meal, carbohydrate, glycemic response, mechanism, fermentable carbohydrates, postprandial, nonesterified fatty acids, glucose disposal, intestinal motility, metabolic disorder, insulin resistance, blood sugar

A couple of days ago, I did the “on black” shoot where some pears saw the light. Those pears were also part of our breakfast yesterday.

I found some delightful Bob’s Red Mill buttermilk pancake mix I wanted to try out and it made some amazing pancakes.

I sliced one Korean pear and two of the smaller pears of unknown global origin (I forgot, in other words), put the slices in a saute pan, added about 1 tablespoon butter, a dribble of olive oil, about two teaspoons cream of coconut, 1/3 cup white sugar, and let it simmer on medium low for about 20 minutes.

I let it go until the pears released their goodness and the liquid reduced to an almost recrystallized sauce that had the slightest bit of odd bite to it (from the nascent sugar particles). This went so well with the pancakes.

I show it here with just the pears and syrup but also added Vermont maple syrup to the servings for the other family members.

Bacon would go well as a side to old tires, let alone these delicious pancakes.

Related Posts:

• Resplendent food: A glimpse into fruits and vegetables, just so

Technorati Tags: pear, breakfast, pancake, Korean, butter, olive oil, cream of coconut, Bacon

Arepa de huevo is a Colombian food that I remember from my childhood. Other countries may do this but I do not know much or really anything about other varieties. Arepas are made from a very finely ground corn meal. I will put a recipe or guideline below for making that as well as how-to photos on how to make the arepa with egg below.

My first experience with it was when we visited Colombia 25 years ago. As in other latin american countries, street vendors sell all manner of things. We were on foot somewhere in Bogota, Colombia, and literally by the roadside there was this large woman sitting next to an enormous wok-like pot filled with boiling hot oil. She also had dozens of eggs and arepas. I didn’t really know what to expect when we walked up. I watched her cut open a large arepa (size of your hand, I am used to seeing them more like 1/2 that size), break an egg into the steaming middle of the arepa, pinch it back closed, and slip it quickly down the side of the wok-pot down into the boiling oil. Next thing I know, I am holding a napkin with a steaming hot arepa de huevo inside, tasting it for the first time.

Truly fantastic.

I have always respected the potent possibilities of food poisoning and GI upset that can happen when you eat things in a region where you have not acclimated yourself to the local bugs in the water. On this trip, I experienced food poisoning also for the first time but it was NOT from the Arepa de huevo I had from the street vendor.

Why?

Because this treat is deep fried, making it less likely to be a vector for forborne illnesses.

More important than all of that, it is very delicious!

I had not eaten one in all that time until just the other day, when I finally got down to making them in my own kitchen. They came out so much better than I had anticipated. I hope you will try them too!

Arepa de huevo

Ingredients:

Arepas:

• 1 C “La Venezolana” or “ArepaHarina” precocida masa harina (extremely fine precooked corn meal – you simply can not use any substitutes here, find this ingredient)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 C boiling hot water
• 4 eggs (or more, depending on how far your masa goes)

Hogao:

• 5 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 bunches of green onions, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of ground cominos
• Pinch of ground annatto seeds
• 1/2 cup of packed, chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions:

Saute the listed “hogao” ingredients in the olive oil until wilted, set aside.

Mix the harina and salt and then add the boiling water. Mix until incorporated and set aside for 15 minutes.

Wet hands with cold water and shape hand sized pancakes of harina (about 1/6 inch thick) or use a tortilla press. I used the press in this case but I think I would prefer to recommend the hand method as you get a thicker arepa. With the press, its a delicious crispy thing, just a bit different than I remember.

To use the press:
Put a ball of masa on the press (which you have lined with a freezer ziplock bag, cut to size).

Gently push down on the press so that you mash it flat but not TOO thin.

Open the press and rotate the arepa 180 degrees and press just slightly more to try to even the thickness all around.

Peel back the plastic and either toast in a hot pan like you do with most arepas (below shown with smaller ones), or slip the raw arepa into the hot oil until it puffs up.

Remove and allow to cool.

Carefully cut into the side of the arepa to form a pocket.

Put a spoonful of hogao in the bottom of the fried arepa.

Put an egg into a small cup and then slip the egg into the pocket.

Mend the edge with raw dough and then slip it back into the hot oil for a couple of minutes (until it hits the color you want, light golden brown).

Enjoy hot!

Related Posts:

• How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
• Yucas Fritas (Fried Yucas or Cassava Root) Recipe and How 2 photos
• Empanadas – The Recipe
• Flash Flickr Movie of How to make Colombian Empanadas
• Chicharron – Deep fried pork belly – How To
• How to make Colombian Empanadas – directions
• Latest full recipe for Colombian Bunuelos (2006 post)
• Last year’s Christmas Bunuelo Decadence
• A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
• Colombian Frescos
• Lechona preparation

(Source: Hoffman Media, click image to go to magazine order page)

I watch only a few shows on the Food Network, two of those being Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” and Paula Deen’s “Home Cooking“. I do not watch the “Paula’s Party” show though, something about that show makes me feel uneasy. I am positively inclined toward Ms. Deen but am not what you would call a fan. I am only a fan of the Japanese Iron Chef, other than that, I watch without much fan-like adoration.

I am also not the sort to buy cooking magazines because I am not in the habit of buying in the “women’s magazine” genre. When I was a kid, I did have a subscription to Bon Appetit (I know, wierd, I was an odd one to say the least) but not to any of the pop culture teen mags. Thus, I am not jaded by other “women’s” genre food magazines. I get Food & Wine and Saveur but I did not compare them to this magazine, different concept.

When I opened this magazine, I wasnt really paying attention to the fact that it was a special edition. I was astounded that a food magazine would have zero interstitial ads. The only ads you will find are on the back and front cover. What you get instead is bombarded by page after page of simply delicious recipes, appetizing and dynamic food photography, and a huge dose of Paula’s personality.

This issue boasts 85 recipes, 20 complete menus (and they ARE, I got full just reading them, honest) and photographic suggestions of inviting table settings and decorations. In the back, you can find all sorts of high quality kitchenalia and dining room related objects carefully chosen from artists in Savanna and other people and places relevant to Paula’s universe.

Each of the seven recipe chapters starts with a nifty little box outlining the menu and then provides recipes. With no ads, they really pack quite a few recipes in on each page.

• Wake Up Sunshine – Ham and Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust
• Lunch Bunch – Molto Muffeletta (Paula’s vegetarian version of the resplendent New Orleans sandwich, too much bread and too little Italian cold cuts in my mind)
• Special Suppers – None of the protein dishes attracted me but the Lime Blueberry Tiramasu calls my name like a siren.
• Dinner from the Grill – Bourbon Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Bourbon Sauce and Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Streusel Topping (Pinch me, I think this sounds fantastic! When my grill thaws out, I will be trying this for certain)
• Casual Evenings – New York Strip Steaks with Terragon Melting sauce, Herbed Monkey Bread and pornographic Easy Chocolate-Cherry Cake
• Game Time Tonight – Mini Bratwurst Sandwiches (cute things. Little = eat more!) and Queen of Hearts Brownies (dainty decadence)
• After Dinner Delights – Hot Carmel Apple Cider

In the last chapter, “Quick and Classy Tabletops“, the table setups are so colorful and very textural.

All that said, I do not see how these could be considered quick! The time I would have to spend in Pier One just buying all the stuff would be hours. Note – I will use any excuse to spend hours there, my toddler cries when she sees the Pier One sign though.

The tabletops are classy, certainly, but super complex. I think I would need a Masters in Design to accomplish this on my own. I am sure there are many readers here who have the desire and talent to do this (it is just beautiful) but I dont see my doing it any time soon. Its likely that one of my kids would either pull the tablecloth off with little flair or light a bonfire with candles and fancy linens.

I have only three beefs with this magazine:

1. I gained 3 pounds just reading the thing
2. I honestly felt lonely after putting it down because Paula looks like she has SO MUCH FUN
3. Paula’s photos can be a bit disconcerting at times because some of the shots make her look like she has a 1000 yard stare and her blue eyes are a bit too retouched to look natural. Note to Paula’s photographer, keep her giggling, catch her happy smiles and forget the Hello Kitty vapid look, it is a disservice to Miss Paula.

I can not recommend this Special Collector’s Issue ENOUGH.

If you see it on the news stand, grab it.

It will be out until May and sells for

• $7.99 US
• $8.99 CAN

Technorati Tags: Hoffman Media, Food Network, Alton Brown, Paula Deen, Home Cooking, Paula’s Party, Iron Chef, cooking magazine, genre, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Saveur, magazine, special edition, recipe, appetizing, food photography, menu, Savanna, chapter, Quiche, Muffeletta, Lime, Blueberry, Tiramasu, Tenderloin, Bourbon, Cheesecake, Streusel, Strip Steak, Chocolate, Cherry, Cake, Bratwurst, Sandwiche, Brownie, Carmel, Tabletops, Pier One

We had these for breakfast today, warm, sauteed in nutty browned butter. They are delightful on a winter’s morning.

Can you guess what they are?

Are they Tibetan MoMos?

Are they Chinese potstickers?

Are they Japanese Gyoza?

Hint: They are filled with a starch and cheese.