Chocolate Cake

Did you all know that yesterday (Jan. 27th) was National Chocolate Cake day? ... I'm always a day late on things like this. And seriously, how do I get on the memo list for all the "National days of this or that"? I guess I also missed National Beer Can day this week. Who makes these things up?

A friend posted this New York Times link on Facebook. Which totally inspired me to make a cake, but I didn't have all the ingredients for one of their cakes (which by the way, looked amazing), so I made a great vegan chocolate cake. No, I'm not a vegan, I eat bacon, and cheese. That's so not vegan. But I don't discriminate, I've found alternative recipes to be inspiring. So, to all my vegan (but not limited to) friends out there. This is for you, Happy Day After National Chocolate Cake Day. Oh, and I "made up" a chocolate coconut milkly frosting below. Turned out nicely.


Chocolate Cake
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good quality cocoa powder
1 cup almond milk (or soymilk)
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup agave
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9inch cake pan.
Sift together flours, baking powder and baking soda.
In a saucepan, heat up almond milk and coconut oil on low-medium heat. When the coconut oil has melted, add coca powder, whisk well and remove from heat.
Add the maple syrup, agave and vanilla to the chocolate mixture, mix well then add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for about 25 mins - until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Let cool and frost with your favorite frosting.

Chocolate Frosting
Once again, I made this up in the moment, so I wrote everything down the best I could remember!
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 cup chocolate chips

Whisk together the coconut milk and powdered sugar. Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a double broiler. Whisk the melted chocolate/oil into the coconut milk/powdered sugar. Once mixed well, put in the freezer for about 10 mins. Mix again and use! 

Chipotle Beans

This is by far my favorite 101 Cookbooks recipe.

First time I had it was when we lived with the Smiths in the Mentor house... and we made it HOT HOT HOT on accident ... I had to have tons of Greek yogurt with every bite to withstand it, but it tasted soooo good I couldn't stop.

Anywho, this is still a regular meal around here. Justin and I consumed the whole pot last night... serves 6?! Bahahahahhahhaah


Chipotle Beans
From 101 cookbooks

Chipotle-tomato sauce:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 big pinches of red pepper flakes
2 pinches of salt
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers

Cilantro Pesto:
1 medium clove of garlic
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
big pinch of salt

2 cans of beans - I used white beans and black beans
2/3 cup kale or chard, washed, de-stemmed, and very finely chopped
1 cup queso fresco

1 1/2 cup whole-grain breadcrumbs, toasted in a skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil

Make your tomato sauce. Place the 2 tablespoons olive oil, red pepper flakes, couple pinches of salt, and chopped garlic into a cold medium saucepan. Stir while you heat the saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute just 45 seconds or so until everything is fragrant - you don't want the garlic to brown. Stir in the tomatoes and the fresh oregano and heat to a gentle simmer, this takes just a couple minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the adobo sauce - carefully take a taste (you don't want to burn your tongue)...If the sauce needs more salt add it now, more chipotle flavor? Go for it. Set aside.

Make the cilantro pesto by combining the clove of garlic and cilantro in a food processor. Pulse while you drizzle in the olive oil - alternately, you could do this by hand. Season with a bit of salt and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425F degrees. In a 9x13 baking pan (or large oven-proof casserole/dutch oven) toss the beans with the tomato sauce and the kale. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake in the top-third of the oven for roughly twenty-five to forty minutes, I look for the cheese to start browning and any visible beans to get a bit crusty. Remove from oven and let sit for about ten minutes. Top the beans with the breadcrumbs and just before serving drizzle with the cilantro pesto.

Serves about 6.

In other news: Jackson had rice cereal for the first time this week... mmmmmm. Can't wait till he can dinner with us!

Keeping me sane...

I'm still playing around with eating gluten-free, and because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm also not eating dairy or soy for a little while (I have my breastfeeding reasons behind this torture!).

Little jewels like these cookies are keeping me sane. I love these cookies... almost as much as regular 'ol chocolate chip cookies - if not more. (Although... I really don't remember what regular 'ol chocolate chip cookies taste like (white flour, white sugar...) it's been a long time!)



(Almond Flour) Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Elana's Pantry

2 ½ cups blanched almond flour**
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Form ½ inch balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet
5. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes
6. Cool and serve

Makes 24 cookies

** Elana mentions on her blog that the recipe does NOT work with Bob's Mills Almond Flour. The first I made these cookies I didn't read that, and it's true, it didn't work. The cookies spread out on to the baking sheet and make one huge, flat cookie, that still tasted good but was not presentable at all. The second time around I used Bob's Mills Almond Flour AGAIN (because I still had some) and instead of 1/2 cup agave I used 2 tablespoons agave and 6 tablespoons of natural brown sugar and a tiny pinch of water to get it all to mix together. IT WORKED PERFECTLY. The cookies help their shape and they tasted great. I've them this way a few times now, so it's not a fluke! FYI in case you can't get a hold of another brand of almond flour....

Eggplant Curry

Eggplants are in season - and here is something that we LOVE to make with eggplant. Love it, it's so darn good. Curry is one of my favorite things to eat, but it always seems so intimidating to make, but this is easy, so simple. Only thing that is time consuming is making the ghee, and that's not hard at all. Last week we had two small-ish eggplants in our CSA and we added this squash because it has a similar texture, and it turned out great.

So, I have great news that has nothing to do with this curry...
I'm going to Bangladesh!! I am being hired to photograph artisans at a fair-trade paper company! We leave November 19th. I'm so happy-can't-control-my-excitement ecstatic! I am so grateful for this opportunity. And I am so happy that Justin gets to go on the trip too.

And back to curry...


This isn't the most attractive dish, but don't let that fool you...

Eggplant In Coconut-Curry Sauce
adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ghee
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 cup unsalted cashews, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
  
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 medium eggplants (or 1 eggplant and 1 white squash)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 dried red chile
• Salt
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• Mint leaves, for garnish

Directions

1. Heat 1/4 cup of the ghee in a large pot over medium flame, add the onions and sprinkle with the curry powder. Cook and stir for a few minutes until the onions are soft. Add the cashews, shredded coconut, coconut milk, and vegetable broth. Bring up to a simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the eggplant.
2. Cut the eggplant into chunks. Heat the remaining 1/4 cup of ghee in a deep skillet or Dutch oven and add the eggplant. Cook and stir until the eggplant gets charred and sticky.
3. Puree the coconut sauce with a immersion blender, until it’s pretty smooth (I had to use my blender, the hand-held wasn't working that great for me). Pour the sauce over the eggplant and toss in the cinnamon stick and chile. Season with salt, to taste, and simmer for 15 minutes until thick. Give a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavor, garnish with mint leaves, and serve with steamed basmati rice and/or flat bread.

Gazpacho

We've had a surplus of tomatoes this week. Some from our CSA, some from our friend's garden, a few cherry tomatoes from our garden... The other night I roasted about 5... and I burnt them. Shoot. They were still mostly edible but what was 5 tomatoes turned into a 1/4 of a cup of rich sticky tomatoes, and I ate them all in one sitting. Then the next day I made gazpacho. Something about a cold soup really turns me off. Cold and soup, oxymoron? But I got over that and decided to try some... When life gives you tomatoes... yatta yatta....

Turns out... it's really good! I added extra spice and avocado to make it exciting. I suspect adding barbecued shrimp would make it out-of-this-world. I had it all week for lunch... and you know what? I still have more tomatoes...

Gazpacho
inspired by this recipe
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 large red onion, diced
2 large cucumber, diced
5 ripe tomatoes, diced
4 cups tomato juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Tabasco to taste
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Topping:
Sliced avocado
Cilantro
Sour cream/Greek Yogurt
Grilled shrimp

In the bowl of a food processor or in a blender, combine the minced garlic with half the red onion, half the cucumber, half the tomato, half the tomato juice, olive oil, lemon, Tabasco, and a dash of salt. Pulse until all ingredients are blended well; mixture will have a nice speckled, colorful texture. Pour into a large bowl and add the rest of the tomato juice, and the remaining onion, cucumber, tomato. Stir mixture together and check seasonings, adding salt or Tabasco if needed. Chill soup for at least a couple of hours.Remove the soup from the fridge and stir. Check seasonings one last time. Ladle into a bowl and garnish.