Our Dessert Specials Include Chocolate Cake and Pannacotta

Gluten-free Sugar-free Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake. No, really.

This cake is really good. Especially if you haven't had chocolate cake (or chocolate in any form) in a few years.  Plus, it counts as breakfast because it's got so many un-cake-like ingredients. I adapted this from a coffee cake recipe at www.nourishingfoods.com.  I promise that you will NOT taste the beans.

The Batter
1 15-ounce can small white beans, rinsed and drained
6 eggs
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. melted coconut oil, plus more for greasing the pan
1/2 to 3/4 t liquid vanilla-flavored stevia (I use Sweetleaf)
5 T unsweetened soy milk, almond milk or regular old cow's milk, if you can have dairy
1/3 c. coconut flour
4 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t coarse salt, such as sea salt or kosher salt

The Topping
1/2 c unsweetened shredded coconut

Put the beans, eggs, honey, melted coconut oil and stevia in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Then add all of the dry ingredients.

Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan and put in a preheated 325 degree oven.  After 10 minutes, when the batter has begun to set, sprinkle the coconut evenly over the top of the batter.  Bake for an additional 25 minutes.

Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan and slice into 16 servings. Serve warm or room temp. If you don't eat it all up the first day, tightly cover and refrigerate the rest for up to 3 days.

Decidedly Rich Honey Pannacotta

This is a fabulous way to enjoy a sweet, decadent dessert without cane sugar and gluten.  Don't misunderstand. This isn't exactly something I'd serve to a diabetic.  Notice I said it doesn't have "cane sugar". It is super-sweet. 

1 package (1/4 oz.) unflavored gelatin
1 c. half and half
2 c. heavy cream
1/3 c. honey
pinch of salt

Pour the half and half into a small saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin over it.  Let this sit for 3 or 4 minutes to soften the gelatin.  Now heat the mixture over medium-low heat until the gelatin dissolves.  Slowly add the heavy cream, honey and salt and heat through. Do not allow the mixture to boil. 

Pour into 6 teacups or small ramekins and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.  Serve sprinkled with cinnamon or unsweetened cocoa powder.  Or you can shave a bit of 100% cocoa bitter chocolate (I like Ghirardelli) on top.  Very nice with espresso or good strong black tea.

Thanksgiving! (Part Three: Roasted Sweet Potatoes)

Did you think I'd forgotten about the sweet potatoes? I almost did. Sweet potatoes are so scrumptious and sweet and full of flavor, I just cannot understand why some people gunk them up with marshmallows and other junk.  Save the marshmallows for s'mores and let the sweet potatoes shine.  All you need is a little oil, a little butter, a little cinnamon and some ginger. Here goes:

About 3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks.
Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and very finely minced(or 1 t ground ginger, if you must)
1 t cinnamon
zest of 1/2 orange (optional)
salt to taste (about 1/2 t)
3 T olive oil
about 1/4 c water
2 T butter (optional)

Put the sweet potatoes in a bowl or a ziploc bag and toss with the seasoning and oil. When well coated, put into an oiled 9 X 13 baking dish. Add the water and cover with foil. Cook in a 375 degree oven for about an hour.  After an hour, uncover, check for doneness. They should be "forkable".  Raise the heat to 400. Dot with butter, and put back in the oven, uncovered to brown the top for 15 minutes. 

These are also fabulous as leftovers for breakfast, reheated and topped with a touch of cream or yogurt.

Cuban-Inspired Black Bean Soup

Okay folks...I originally said this would have red onion in it. But I didn't have any in my pantry. So regular onions it is. Here's my fave black bean soup so far. I call it "Cuban-inspired", because it sounds Cuban, but probably isn't, since I made it in New Hampshire.

• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 pound dried black beans
•  water
•  2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 bell pepper (any color, but red makes it pretty), diced
• 2 small or medium onions, diced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano (you can use Italian seasoning if you like)
• 2 teaspoons honey
•  1 teaspoon kosher salt
• chili powder or cayenne
• 1 avocado, diced
• juice of 1 lime or more if you've got it
• a little more salt, if you like
• sour cream or Greek yogurt (optional)

If you haven't soaked the beans overnight, go ahead and put them in a pan with enough water to cover them by an inch or so and bring them to a boil. Once it's boiling, cover the pot, turn off the heat, and let them sit for an hour. Pour off the water, strain and rinse the beans several times and return them to the pot with more fresh water to cover them by an inch. Throw in the bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and let simmer for an hour and a half to two hours. Check occasionally to see that there is enough water. You want just enough that the beans are loose and there is some semblance of broth going on. Add more as needed. Generally speaking, the older the beans, the longer they'll take to cook. Now use Anne Burrell's "five bean test".  Take a bit out of five random beans. If they are all tender, the beans are done.

In the meantime, put the oil in a saute pan and cook the onions and peppers over medium high heat until completely cooked (about 10 minutes). Then add the cumin and oregano, stir it in, and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the veggie mixture, honey, salt and juice of half the lime to the cooked beans and broth. Add a little chili powder or cayenne. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Dice the avocado and toss it in the rest of the lime juice.

Serve the soup topped with avocado and a dab of sour cream or Greek Yogurt.

Thanksgiving! (Part Two)

I'm not a fan of meat stuffing. Maybe I've never had it done right but, to me, it just tastes like French Meat Pie stuck in the middle of a turkey. So, not being able to eat actual bread, I had to get innovative. To me, half the flavor of Thanksgiving comes from celery and onions and bread covered in Turkey drippings and flavored with Bell's poultry seasoning--plus a little linguica. (My New Bedford roots are showing.)  The eureka! moment came when I found a few recipes for flourless cornbread.  None of these are particularly good when eaten as cornbread. But I took the best of each, made my own recipe, thank you very much, and turned it into stuffing. Each year, I make this flourless cornbread stuffing for the actual turkey. It really needs that addition of the roasting turkey juices to make it succulent and scrumptious. Then I make a regular bread stuffing in a second pan with the big ol' turkey neck nestled in, just for the purists. 

Now, I can't have regular old linguica either. For those of you who don't know, linguica is a Portuguese sausage made from pork, garlic and paprika. Chourico is its spicier cousin. But most of them also add vinegar and nitrites to the mix.  Enter La Tienda. It is a company that imports Spanish foods and ships them out of Virginia, USA. They sell Palacios Mild Chorizo Sausage (available at LaTienda.com) that is fabulous added to bread stuffing and its only ingredients are pork, paprika, salt, and garlic. It's dry cured and ready to eat, so you can render it in a pan for your stuffing, but you can also eat it sliced as part of an antipasto plate.  Excuse this shameless advertising picture and consider it for what it is--a fab resource to replace the sausage that is stuffed with artificial preservative...



  


Now on to the recipe....

You can make this Flourless Cornbread two days ahead if you like. Earlier than that and you can use it to play frisbee with your teenaged cousins on Thanksgiving morning.

• 2 cups corn meal, divided
• 1/2 cup boiling water (boil first, then measure)
• 1 T honey
• 1 t. salt
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 c. buttermilk or plain yogurt, not Greek yogurt (Why yogurt? Because buttermilk is sold in quart sized jars and what are you gonna do with the rest of it?)
• 2 T oil. I use sunflower oil, use anything you like.

In a bowl large enough to fit all of the ingredients, mix the boiling water into 1/2 cup of the corn meal with the honey and salt to make a smooth porridge.  In a second bowl, mix the baking powder and baking soda into the remaining corn meal.  Beat the dry ingredients into the corn meal mush. (That's what my mother called it when she served it to us for breakfast with maple syrup swirled in.) Make a crater in the middle and add the egg, buttermilk and oil.  Mix it all together with a wooden spoon.

Now grease an oven-proof skillet (preferable non-stick, or well-seasoned cast iron) and heat it over the stove top until it's nice and hot.  Pour the batter into the skillet and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Let the cornbread cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then turn it out onto a wooden cutting board or a rack and let cool completely.  If you put it on a plate, the residual heat will create too much steam underneath it.  If you are making it a couple of days ahead of time, wait until it cool completely, then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

The Stuffing

One recipe is enough to fill a 12 to 16 lb. turkey.  This recipe can be doubled for a really large turkey.  If you make too much, you can always bake the extra in another pan and baste it frequently with the pan drippings from the turkey pan. 

• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter (I know, I know...but it's Thanksgiving! You can use 1/4 stick and throw in 2 tablespoons of olive oil if it makes you feel better. Whatever you do, don't use margarine....please. Really.)
• 1 large onion, chopped, diced
• 4 celery stalks, including tops, diced
•  4 cloves of minced garlic, (only IF you are NOT using the chorizo)
• 1 4-inch piece of Palacios Mild Chourizo sausage, diced (optional)
• 1 disc of flourless cornbread
• 1 Tablespoon of Bell's poultry seasoning.  When I say "Tablespoon", in this case, I mean a small handful.
• 1/2 to 1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 4 cups of chicken stock.  I use Imagine brand free range chicken broth. No sugar, no yeast extract, no additives, no junk.
• Salt to taste

Melt the butter (and olive oil) in a saute pan large enough to hold all the veggies and the chorizo. Throw in the onion and celery and cook over medium low heat until translucent and completely cooked.  You want the keep the heat low enough that the vegetables turn just barely golden after they are completely softened. They should not be allowed to dry out at all. Add the garlic OR chorizo for the last 2 minutes.

While the veggies are cooking, break up the cornbread  into 1 inch chunks in a very large bowl. It is fairly crumbly, so this is easy to do with your hands, no cutting required.  Once the veggies are done, pour them into the bowl over the cornbread and toss to mix.  Sprinkle in the poultry seasoning and red pepper flakes and mix. Now add 2 cups of the chicken stock and mix. Then add 1 cup at a time until the bread is all well-moistened.  I add about 1 teaspoon of salt. You may need more if you omit the chorizo. Part of the beauty of this stuffing is that it does not require the addition of an egg (there's already an egg in the bread), so you can safely taste it for seasoning before it is cooked.

After you have cleaned the turkey and are ready to put it in the oven, you can stuff the cavity with your flourless cornbread stuffing.  Please don't stuff it ahead of time and let it sit.  There is always a chance the warmth of the stuffing will turn your turkey into a lab experiment. Do yourself a favor and put it in the oven right away.  I never truss my turkey, so I use the pan juices to baste the exposed part of the stuffing at least every hour, more frequently the last hour of cooking.

If you are making some of this in a separate pan, bake it tightly covered in foil for at least an hour and baste it liberally. It will need the extra pan drippings to keep it moist.  You can uncover it the last 15 minutes or so to develop a nice crust. 

And finally, the last "if". If you are a vegetarian, you can make this with garlic, omit the chorizo and use Imagine brand vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. You will need a little more salt and hot pepper flakes to offset the sweeter flavor of the vegetable broth. You may also want to keep a small saucepan of broth warm on the stove for basting.

Enjoy!