Low-Carb Flax Seed Crackers

From La Carihuela we rented a car and drove to my dear cousin Lucy and Larry’s place in San José, about 3.5 hours from La Carihuela. We spent the next three weeks in their beautifully renovated flat overlooking the Mediterranean. They were kind enough to create a beautiful kitchen for us, including my favourite, an induction stovetop. Induction is definitely the way to go in Europe, in fact, it outnumbers gas and electric by more than 70% in the stores. It is far more efficient, and apparently not nearly as bad for the environment as gas. Have you ever cooked on Induction?

Here are a few pics of the flat:

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We were still trying to maintain a low-carb diet, during our stay in Spain in February-March, but it was a lot more difficult than at home. Ingredients that I have come to rely on like Lupin Flour, vital wheat gluten, and oat fibre were impossible to find so I had to improvise. Flax seeds were readily available so I created a flax seed cracker. It’s similar to the almond flour cracker but not nearly as heavy so you could have a few more without filling up.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes about 2 x 20 cm x 30 cm sheet (2 x 8 inch x 12 inch sheet)

Ingredients:

• 150 g flax seeds, ground but some left whole
• 1 egg, beaten
• 5 g olive oil
• 30 g hard cheese, grated
• 2 g granulated onion, finely ground
• 2 g ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until thoroughly combined. 
3. Spill out the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Using a second piece of parchment, roll the dough out until it is approximately 20 cm x 30 cm sheet (8 inch x 12 inch sheet). Remove the top parchment and bake until it is lightly golden (the crackers will stiffen up as they cool).
4. When cool, break the crackers into bite-sized pieces.

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Classic Low-Carb Mac ‘n Cheese

When one is on a low-carb diet, one misses the old favourites like Mac ‘n Cheese. We particularly LOVE the way the cheese caramelizes on the noodles at the edge of the baking dish so they become crispy and slightly chewy. Most low-carb bread crumbs end up being almond flour which really makes the dish very heavy, I solved that problem by using my low-carb bread, toasted and pulsed into breadcrumbs. If you didn’t know this was low-carb, you wouldn’t have had a clue.

The noodles really maintain their shape and the sauce sticks to it nicely.

Classic Low-Carb Mac ‘n Cheese

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 100 mL milk, chicken stock, or water
• 60 g cream cheese
• 60 g Cheddar, grated
• 30 g Gruyère, grated
• 30 g Mozzarella, grated
• 1 slice of bacon, cooked until crispy
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• 92 g low-carb Garganelli, uncooked and dry
• 30 g Parmesan Cheese, grated, divided
• 30 g low-carb bread crumbs
• 10 g butter, also a little to coat the pan

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare an oven-safe dish by buttering the inside all-over and sprinkling about half the Parmesan cheese all over the bottom.
2. Begin to heat the milk very slowly over low heat.  Add the cream cheese, cheddar and gruyère and continue to heat until totally melted and incorporated smoothly into the milk. Take it off the heat and fold in the Mozzarella, bacon, and scallions.
3. Add the warm cheese sauce to the uncooked pasta and stir it so the sauce penetrates all of the hollows of the Garganelli. Pour the coated pasta into the prepared oven-safe dish.
4. Combine the remaining Parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs and butter and mix until crumbly. Top the pasta with the grated cheese mixture.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until the pasta has cooked through and has begun to caramelize on the bakeware.

 

Fresh out of the oven, the cheese was still bubbling!

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Lemon Caper Sauce

Sometimes, you just need a simple little sauce for a fish dish and this one fits the bill.

Lemon Caper Sauce

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes about 200 mL sauce

Ingredients:

• 20 g shallots, finely chopped
• 15 mL EVOO
• 20 g capers, finely chopped
• 150 mL chicken broth
• 20 mL lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 30 g parsley, finely chopped
• 5 g tarragon, finely chopped
• zest of 1 lemon

Directions:

1. Heat the EVOO in a small pan and cook the shallots until translucent. Add the capers, and chicken broth, and boil for 3 minutes.
2. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Stir in the herbs, lemon juice, and zest.
3. Serve warm.

 

A beautiful sauce to compliment fish, we had it on salmon.

 

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Low-Carb Flatbread

Stop right now! You have to make this if you are doing a low-carb diet. This is literally the best low-carb flatbread I have ever created. They’re fabulously chewy and springy. They fold perfectly to cradle the kebab and resist cracking or breaking apart. 

This flatbread has been a long and difficult journey. JT has had to endure some pretty bad flat bread samples. True, it’s pretty easy to make a flatbread that is thin and holds your kebab, but the difficulty lies in the chewy and springy texture that the original flatbread has. It’s mandatory for flatbread. This recipe has it all. 

Low-Carb Flatbread

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 8 flatbreads

Ingredients:

• 320 g water, about 60° F
• 2 g sugar
• 8 g instant yeast
• 80  g Lupin Flour
• 170 g Vital Wheat Gluten
• 38 g Oat Fibre
• 30 g psyllium husk, ground
• 48 g Erythritol
• 8 g Sea Salt
• 20 g baking powder

Directions:

1. Combine the water, and yeast and set aside to allow the yeast to bloom.
2. In the large bowl of your stand mixer, combine the erythritol with vital wheat gluten, oat fibre, lupin flour, psyllium husk, and salt, and stir to mix well.
3. Once the yeast has become foamy, add it to the flour mixture and knead with the cookie dough paddle until the dough has come together. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the salt and baking powder onto the dough and continue to knead for 15 minutes. Form the dough into a ball with your hands and cover to rest for 30 minutes.
4. Once rested, divide the dough into 8 equal portions, roll out each piece into an oval, rub with EVOO and allow to rest for 10 minutes covered with a clean kitchen towel.
5. Preheat a cast iron pan on medium heat. Cook each flatbread until golden, flip and continue until all have been cooked. Freeze in an airtight container/bag. Defrost in the refrigerator and reheat, slightly dampened with water on each side.

The kebabs fit into this flatbread perfectly.

 

Low-Carb Flat Bread Nutrition for 1 flatbread

Notes:

1. The sugar gets completely eaten by the yeast, although I have included it in the nutitional ingredients.

They are quite foldable, they won’t crack.

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Fresh Mozzarella Salad

This is an update of a salad I used to enjoy at one of favourite Italian restaurants in Yorkville. Unfortunately, they took it off the menu so I had to remake it at home.

They roasted the tomato slices in their wood-fired pizza ovens because Toronto tomatoes are brutal, particularly in the winter. I don’t have a wood-fired pizza oven, so I air-fried them with my Instant Pot Air-Fryer lid. You don’t want the tomatoes completely dehydrated, just enough to condense the flavour so it actually tastes like a tomato. Top the slices with a fresh mozzarella or better yet, a burrata and dollop homemade pesto mixed with a little prosecco vinegar and sprinkle some toasted Italian (or Spanish, as I had) pinenuts over the dish. Presto, you have a memorable appetizer.

The tomatoes really pop when you remove some of the moisture, a perfect foil for the rich fresh mozzarella

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

• 4-6 tomatoes, sliced in half, deseeded and air-fried
• 1 Fresh Mozzarella or Burrata
• 60 mL Pesto
• 30 mL Prosecco vinegar
• 15 g pinenuts, toasted
• 1 lemon, zested
• Fresh basil leaves

Directions:

• With everything at room temperature, lay the dehydrated/roasted tomatoes on the plate(s) and add the sliced mozzarella on top.
• Combine the pesto with prosecco vinegar and drizzle on top of the tomatoes and mozzarella. Sprinkle the lemon zest on top and garnish with the toasted pinenut and torn fresh basil leaves.

I wanted to try the newest rage, grated frozen tomato over the fresh mozzarella and although it was enjoyable, it isn’t practical if serving more than 4 people and it’s hot outside, the frozen tomato will melt too quickly.

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Low-Carb Cauliflour, Vital Wheat Gluten and Lupin Flour Gnocchi

Well, our journey through low-carb cuisine has not been bad, as attested by JT. I have been slowly converting many of our high-carb recipes to low-carb versions and it’s been rather fun. My latest creation is low-carb gnocchi. It has the chewiness and puffiness that regular flour gnocchi have without the carb-load. JT was impressed.

They are predicting our first really heavy snowstorm for this afternoon. Glad I made a few of these tasty morsels.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

This recipe makes 246 g of gnocchi dough about 50 gnocchi. 2-4 servings

Ingredients:

• 115 g cauliflower mash (see notes)
• 57.5 g Vital Wheat Gluten
• 57.5 Lupin Flour
• 10 g Parmesan Cheese, finely grated
• 11.5 g egg, beaten

To fry:

• 15 mL EVOO or butter

Directions:

1. Combine everything in the large bowl of your food processor and process with the plastic blade until entirely combined (the dough may not come together in a ball, but you will be able to form it into a ball).
2. Pour it onto a lightly floured* surface and form it into a ball. then divide it into smaller pieces to make into a roll. I weighed mine so they would be more accurate but you don’t have to.
3. Cook into boiling water immediately or freeze on a baking tray so they don’t touch each other.
4. Cooking is similar to regular gnocchi, they sink when they are raw and float when they are done.
5. If you’ve cooked them and wish to crisp them, heat a frying pan with the EVOO or butter and fry each gnocchi so they are golden and crisp on each side.

Low-Carb Gnocchi in a creamy Gorgonzola Sauce sprinkled with lemon zest to freshen it up.

This is a dinner I made with Cod wrapped in Serrano Ham and had gnocchi as a side.

Notes:

• Cauliflower mash is simply roasted cauliflower with a little EVOO until soft and blended with an immersion blender until smooth, I usually have leftovers so I made gnocchi with the leftovers.
• *Use Lupin flour or vital wheat gluten to dust your work surface.
• These are best fresh but do freeze well. I detected a slight change in texture while JT did not.

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Low-Carb Hoisin Sauce

Firstly, I must apologize to my regular followers as I haven’t been able to comment on their blogs in the last week, I was taken down by the stomach flu that is going around and it was brutal! I could barely get out of bed for five days. I’m recovering but it takes time to reintroduce foods into your diet that won’t shock the system.

We are planning an epic adventure in 2024 and for that we need to get in shape so we are cutting back the carbs, cutting out the alcohol and bumping up the exercise. I will adapt as many of our favourite recipes on our journey and I started with this beloved sauce. This recipe isn’t as sweet as traditional hoisin sauce but it definitely has a good punch of umami and the best part is that 15 mL has 2 g net carbs, compared to 44 g! That’s a win-win for me.

It’s super salty but not as sweet as traditional Hoisin Sauce.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes about 150 mL sauce

Ingredients:

• 200 mL low sodium soy sauce
• 30 g erythritol
• 20 g roasted garlic purée
• 12 g molasses
• 5 g white miso paste
• 10 g tahini

Directions:

1. Combine everything but the tahini in a small saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and reduce to about 150 mL.
2. Using an immersion blender, blend in the tahini. Pour through a fine sieve into a sterilized jar.

Notes:

• The sauce will thicken when cool.
• Use as a marinade for chicken or pork or as garnish for phõ as you would regular hoisin sauce.

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Pantry Clean Out Crackers

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a wonderful time.

We spent the month of November in Arizona again, although it might be our last time this time. But we say that. Every. Single. Time. We see our dear American friends and get in a load of sunshine to boot! The weather was beautiful and slightly warmer than last year, we had high twenties (celsius) most of the daytime and mid-teens at night. Perfect for leaving the windows open for sleeping.

We did a lot of walking and hiking. The National Parks have beautiful trails that are reasonably priced and there are many free parks too. We fed our resident bunny and, inadvertently fed our resident Road Runner (sadly a bird crashed into our window and he died on impact and fortunately, the road runner didn’t mind and he scooped up the bird and took him home for a late Thanksgiving Dinner!) At least, we did not have to deal with it.

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Of course, we always have a party at the end to use up pantry ingredients and this time was no different, I came up with this recipe to use flour, oil, cheese, and herbs.

The oven was gas and baked rather unevenly.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

This recipe makes about 2 sheets approximately 25 cm x 38 cm (10 x 15 inches)

Ingredients:

• 125 g “00” flour
• 40 g cheese, finely grated
• 30 mL olive oil
• 80 mL water
• Pinch of salt
• 3-6 g dried herbs

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Transfer to a clean surface and knead by hand until the dough becomes smooth and everything is evenly distributed. Rest the dough for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
4. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet about the size of the baking sheet. Transfer to the parchment lined baking sheet and bake for xx minutes or until lightly browned and crisp.
5. Cool and break into chip-sized fragments. Serve with your favourite dip.

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White Minestrone

White Minestrone

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 2.4 L hearty soup

Ingredients:

• 15 mL olive oil
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1.5 L stock (see notes)
• 15 g butter
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 2 zucchini, diced
• 6 medium cremini mushrooms, diced
• Handful of spinach, roughly chopped
• 540 mL can of white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 g oregano
• cocktail bocconcini, chopped
• Basil, chiffonade

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a stock pot. Add the leeks and wilt. Add the vegetable stock and corn broth and cook the leeks until they are falling apart.
2. Blitz with your best blender until smooth and creamy. Push through a fine sieve into a large glass measuring cup and set aside, discard the pulp.
3. Add the butter and melt, add the celery, zucchini and mushrooms and sauté until fork tender. Add the spinach and oregano and cook until the spinach has wilted. Add the white beans
4. Serve hot in small cups garnished with a sprinkle of the bocconcini and the chiffonade of basil.

Notes:

• I used a combination of corn broth and vegetable stock which gave the soup a beautiful flavour.

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Rice Paper Nori Cups

You will recall my post about rice paper chips a few weeks ago, these rice paper nori bowls are a logical extension. I needed something to hold some poké salmon mix I was going to serve as quick little bites during cocktails and I thought of this version. The rice paper becomes crispy as does the nori but both will soften up depending on how long your filling sits inside. For simplicity, I used this for my poké filling and it worked out beautifully.

These little bite-sized are flavourful morsels.

Rice Paper Nori Cups

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes about 16 bite-sized nori cups

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet square rice paper
• 1 sheet nori

Directions:

1. Wet the nori on both sides and shake off excess water. Lay the nori onto the rice paper right to the edge (my nori was a little smaller than the rice paper, I just cut strips to fill in the edges so there is no waste). Roll the nori with a small rolling pin to make sure there are no air bubbles.
2. Lightly oil the exterior of four microwave-proof pinch bowls (these will give the nori shape). Lay them open-side-down on a microwave-proof plate.
3. Cut the nori into 16 squares. Lay one square nori-side down onto the outside of the pinch bowls and microwave for 30-40 seconds or until the rice paper has cooked and the squares are shaped like a bowl. Allow them to cool for a minute and then remove them from the bowls and set them open-side-up on a plate. Continue until you have cooked all the squares. Allow the Rice paper nori bowls to cool completely before you fill them with your favourite filling but don’t do it too soon as the moisture may soften the cups.

Notes:

• You can make them as large or as small as you wish. The only thing to keep in mind is that they will shrink about 40% of their original size.
• You can fill them with dips, cream cheese, deconstructed California rolls, and Steak Tartare, the possibilities are endless.
• There are many recipes online but they shallow fry them, I chose to microwave my cups. If you shallow fry them, you would have to figure out how to get them into a cup shape.

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Instant Pot Tuna “Casserole”

 

This dish comes together very quickly as long as you have everything mis en place, making it the perfect weeknight meal. The Instant Pot caramelizes the pasta with the chicken stock so that the pasta is al dente with just the right amount of bite. I have a feeling that this dish will become a staple on our weekly menu plan.

Canned tuna is a staple in most households in Spain and Italy, it doesn’t have the stigma that canned tuna has in North America. I was going to make the famous Spanish tuna and avocado salad for a dear friend but thought I’d better ask if she likes canned tuna and thank goodness I asked because her answer was adamantly not! We love it! 

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes enough for 2 for a light dinner.

Ingredients:

• 15 mL EVOO
• 1/2 small sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 small zucchini, diced
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 225 mL chicken stock
• 120 g pasta (we used rotini)
• 1 can tuna, drained
• handful of spinach, chopped
• 50 g goats cheese
• Aleppo pepper, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions:

1. Set the IP on “Sauté”. Add the EVOO and heat it up. Add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the zucchini, celery, chicken stock and pasta and give it a good stir. Cancel the “Sauté” setting.
2. Secure the “Pressure Cook” lid on and and make sure the vent is set to “Sealing”. Set the IP to “Pressure Cook” on “High” for 5 minutes (this means 6-7 minutes to come to temperature and pressure and 5 minutes cooking time). Allow the IP to depressurize naturally for 7 minutes. After 7 minutes, press the valve down to depressurize the remaining pressure and safely remove the lid.
3. Remove the “Pressure Cook” lid set the IP to “Sauté” on “High”, stir in the tuna and spinach and continue to stir to wilt the spinach. Once the spinach has wilted, add the goats cheese and stir to melt. Sprinkle in the Aleppo pepper. Season with salt and pepper to taste and give it a good stir..
4. Divide the tuna casserole between two warm bowls and garnish with Parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

Deliciously plump noodles lightly coated in a goats cheese sauce.

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Vanilla Almond Crunch Cake

It was my SIL’s 70th birthday last month and she came down to stay with us one night. We took her out for dinner and came home to have this celebratory cake. When I asked her what type of cake she would like for her special birthday, she asked for vanilla. You know I couldn’t just do vanilla, so I pulled out all the stops and created this masterpiece. The cake layers come from Recipe Tin Eats and while the method for this cake is slightly odd the result is pretty darn good. I’ve simplified her method and cut the recipe in half (because we prefer small desserts).

The crunch in this cake comes from a layer of almond meringue that is baked until crispy and when assembled in the cake, with a layer of buttercream and seedless raspberry jam, it results in a crunchy and chewy texture, similar to macarons. It is really wonderful.

Vanilla Almond Crunch Cake

Makes one 18 cm (7 inch) cake that may serve 8-10 people.

Ingredients for the cake:

• 150 g AP flour
• 7 g baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 58 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 125 mL milk
• 10 mL pure vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla bean pod
• 10 mL unflavoured oil
• 2 large eggs, room temp
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 125 mL seedless raspberry jam (for assembly)

Directions:

1. Prepare an 18 cm (7 inch) spring-form pan by lining the bottom with parchment and brushing the bottom and sides with quick-release mixture (see notes below).
2. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl and set aside.
4. Scrape out the vanilla seeds from the pod and set it aside.
5. In a microwave-proof container, melt the butter with the milk but do not boil the milk, add the oil and vanilla pod (not seeds at this point). Cool completely. Remove the vanilla pod and discard. Add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds and mix well to separate all of the seeds (I found a quick blitz with my immersion blender did the trick). Set aside.
6. Combine the eggs and the sugar and beat on medium speed for 7-10 minutes until light and fluffy and doubled in size.
7. Slowly add the flour on 1 or 2 speed until you have incorporated all of the dry ingredients. Scoop out a couple of spoonfuls of the batter, add it to the milk and butter mixture, and whisk well. Pour this mixture into the batter and beat for a minute or less until entirely incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and tap vigorously on the counter to help remove air bubbles. Bake for 30 minutes or until a wooden cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before completing the cake.

Ingredients for the crunchy layer:

• 50 g egg white
• 100 g sugar
• 2.5 mL almond extract
• 20 g ground almonds, toasted
• 16 g AP flour

Directions for the crunchy layer:

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F.
2. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and beat until it is stiff and shiny. Beat in the almond extract.
3. Combine the ground almonds and flour and mix well, fold in small portions into the beaten egg whites until completely incorporated.
4. Spread a circle of the meringue the diameter of the cake on a piece of parchment and bake for 30-45 minutes at 325° F until golden and firm to the touch. Cool completely.

This is the Buttercream recipe that I always use.

• The quantity in the recipe is perfect for lightly coating the cake including a crumb coat, but if you want extra decor, I would add an extra 50 g of butter and 25 g of icing sugar. If you wish to pipe rosettes on top, separate about 125 mL buttercream and beat in 2.5 mL almond extract.

 

Assembly:

• Allow the cake to cool completely. Insert toothpicks around the cake at the height halfway point. Using a serrated knife, cut directly above the toothpicks all the way around.
• Lay the first layer of the cake on the cake stand protected with parchment paper. Heat the seedless raspberry jam so that it’s liquid and spread half of it on the cut side of the cake layer. Add the meringue layer directly on top and spread about 250 mL of the buttercream across the meringue surface evenly.
• Spread the other half of the raspberry jam over the cut side of the cake and lay it over the buttercream raspberry side down.
• Spread a thin layer of the buttercream over the entire cake and refrigerate, covered for a few hours or overnight.
• Spread the remaining buttercream over the entire surface of the cake to even it out. If you wish to pipe rosettes as decoration, please see the note under the buttercream recipe link.
• If you have excess meringue, pulse it in a spice grinder to a relatively fine powder. Decorate the cake with it as desired. Using the remaining 125 mL buttercream, dot the top of the cake with rosettes as desired. Cake may be refrigerated but I would suggest bringing it to room temperature to serve it.

Notes:

• Quick-release mixture: 2.5 mL vegetable shortening, 2.5 mL vegetable oil and 2.5 g AP flour. Mix all the ingredients together so it is homogeneous and brush onto the cake pan surface.
• If you are planning on eating the cake a day after you bake it, you may use stabilized whipped cream instead of buttercream. But if the cake needs longevity, then use buttercream.
• My Crunchy layer ended up spreading out a bit more than the diameter of the cake, so I cut off the excess and ground it up and used it as texture and decoration on the cake.
• The cake may be made in several steps over a couple of days to limit the amount of time in the kitchen at once. Day 1, bake the cake. Wrap the cake in plastic and freeze. Bake the meringue layer. Day 2, make the buttercream. Set aside at room temperature. Day 3 Assemble the cake and add the buttercream.
• I am not a professional baker and I don’t have the patience to decorate a cake with much more than what I did with this one, just sayin’.

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Chocolate Cherry Squares

My dear friend/neighbour invited us for dinner one night and I offered to bring dessert. I spotted some frozen cherries at our grocery store and picked them up thinking they would be a good ingredient for dessert in a pinch, not thinking that pinch would be sooner than later. I’ve made these squares before, without the chocolate ribbons so I wanted to update the recipe, and because, as JT said, “What could possibly be wrong with cherries and chocolate?” You be the judge.

Chocolate Cherry Squares

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes one pan 23 cm x  33 cm (9” x 13”) about 20 squares

Ingredients:

• 300 g frozen cherries, defrosted and drained
• 3 eggs separated
• 120 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 125 g caster sugar
• 250 g flour
• 25 g baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 125 mL cream
• 150 g Belgian milk chocolate
• 50 mL cream

Directions:

• Grease and flour 9” x 13” x 2” baking pan (22cm x 33cm x 5cm).
• Preheat oven to 350° F (175°C)
• Heat the cream until almost boiling and pour over the chocolate and stir until entirely melted. Allow to cool.
• Whip the egg whites until stiff but not dry (should be able to stand in a peak) – no need to wash the beater if you do it in this order, if you cream the yolks first, then you must wash the beater and dry thoroughly).
• Cream the egg yolks with butter and sugar until light and fluffy (should be a lighter shade of yellow).
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt – dry ingredients.
• Alternating dry ingredients with the milk, fold into egg yolk mixture.
• Gently fold beaten egg whites into the mixture.
• Spoon  about half of the batter into greased pan. Note the batter is quite thick, you will have to spread it into the cake pan with an offset spatula. Drizzle the milk chocolate ganache over the batter and spoon the remaining batter on top, speading evenly with the offset spatula.
• Dot with the cherries throughout (you may want to give each cherry a squeeze as you dot so ensure there are no pits!).
• Bake in preheated oven for about 20 to 30 minutes (test with a toothpick to make sure it’s done).
• Cool in the pan (don’t cut until it is entirely cool otherwise it will become ‘bacony’ or szalonás, as the Hungarians put it).

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Rice Paper Chips

   

Talk about an easy recipe. And they satisfy the crunch aspect of snacks! Plus they’re not unhealthy! And I usually have a packet of rice paper in my pantry! All winners in my books.

I developed this “recipe” in response to an air-fryer version I saw on my Instagram feed; their version took too long to “fry” and was too fiddly. These Rice paper chips remind me of the mystery shrimp chips you get at Thai restaurants, they’re super crispy and melt-in-your-mouth, just like shrimp chips. But they are not deep-fried! They are microwaved!

Each sheet makes about 36 chips, less than .30g of carbs per chip! Easy AND Healthy? Where do I sign up?

I used square rice paper sheets that are made for Fresh Rolls. They need to be fresh and not brittle so they cut cleanly, but you could snap them into irregular shapes if they’re not fresh (I’m unsure that they’ll all microwave at the same rate though).

Using large kitchen shears, cut each sheet into six even strips, then cut each strip into six even rectangles. Place on a piece of parchment paper (no need to carefully place them, they don’t stick together) and microwave for 30-40 seconds on high. Immediately pour finished chips into a bowl and season with sea salt. Done!

Easy peasy. You can thank me later.

These melt in your mouth without sticking to your teeth (like some rice paper chips do)

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Apple Cranberry Bran Muffins

We had dear friends come up from America to stay with us as a layover to help mitigate a long, long travel day and I needed a quick and easy breakfast that we could grab before heading out for a busy day and these did the trick. They freeze well which makes them perfect for a quick grab-and-go snack, just pop them into a microwave and zap them until defrosted and slightly warmed.

They freeze well and defrost quickly in the microwave.

Apple Cranberry Bran Muffins

A Kitcheninspirations Original Recipe. Makes 12 good-sized muffins.

Ingredients:

• 150 mL 2% milk
• 400 g peeled and shredded apple (about 3 apples)
• 100 g bran buds
• 50 g cranberries, roughly chopped and rehydrated in hot water for 10 minutes
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 70 g plain Greek yogurt
• 300 g All Purpose Flour
• 60 g brown sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 2 g salt
• 5 g cinnamon
• 60 g walnuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C). Brush the muffin cups generously with the Secret Release Formula (see notes). Set aside.
2. Combine the milk, eggs and yogurt and mix well. Layer this liquid with the bran buds, apple and cranberries making sure bran buds are covered in the wet ingredients, and set aside for 20 minutes. In another bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and walnuts and set aside.
3. Stir the bran bud mixture well after 20 minutes of soaking. Fold the flour mixture into the bran bud mixture until just combined.
4. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups evenly and bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes clean.

The apples give them the moisture that oil normally does in muffin recipes.

Notes:

• Secret Release Formula: 3 mL unflavoured oil, 15 g vegetable shortening and 15 g flour. Mix well and brush baking tin generously.
• I will try a recipe without the brown sugar next time but it only adds 19 calories and 5 g carb

 

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Un-fried Potato Chips (Crisps) revisited

We had some dear friends over for a BBQ and I thought I would like to serve potato chips knowing how much they love them but I wanted to treat them to guilt-free chips that are not fried! These little devils are cooked in the Microwave and boy are they good. The secret is to soak them in cold salted water with a little acid, I used vinegar but you could use lemon or lime juice to help prevent oxidization. The salted water actually seasons them so you needn’t add salt after they are cooked (it wouldn’t stick to the chip anyway like it does when they are hot out of the deep fryer).

Unfried Potato Chips (Crisps)

Serves about 3-6 people

Ingredients:

• 3 good size white or red skin potatoes (large diameter)
• 30 g sea salt (more if you prefer a saltier chip)
• 100 mL white vinegar (to prevent oxidation and add a little flavour)
• 2-3 L very cold water for soaking

Directions:

1. Wash the potatoes skins well.
2. Dissolve the sea salt in very cold water (I used an immersion blender to help dissolve the salt). Pour into a large bowl of very cold water, add the vinegar and stir.
3. Cut the potatoes in half diagonally; then, using a wafer-thin mandolin slicer, slice from the cut end of each potato, tossing the cut slices into the cold salt water bath and allow them to sit in the bath for 5-10 minutes.
4. Remove slices from the water and lay them in one in a single layer on a clean linen cloth (allow to sit for 15 minutes, this will help with cooking them).
5. You may spray them with some good quality EVOO or leave them plain like I did.
6. Lay a layer of clean, unprinted paper towel in the microwave and layer potato slices on the paper towel so they do not touch each other. Microwave on 100% for 2 minutes or until some get a bit of colour. Open the microwave door and allow the hot humid air to escape for at least 1-2 minutes (it will allow the machine to cool down). Then cook for an additional minute on high, if needed, watching carefully as they burn quite easily. I found the slices I placed in the centre of the turntable cooked faster than the outside slices so I moved my larger slices into the centre. The slices will continue to cook a little after you remove them so don’t worry if they are a wee bit wobbly, but they shouldn’t be overly wobbly, they will crisp up.
7. Remove the slices from the paper towel and cool completely before putting them into an air-tight container. Repeat until all of the slices are “fried”.
8. When totally cool, store chips in an air tight container.
9. Serve with your favourite homemade dip.

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High Hydration Rosemary Focaccia

High Hydration Rosemary Focaccia

Makes one 23-cm x 33-cm pan focaccia

Ingredients:

• 50 g EVOO, plus more for drizzling
• 10 g fresh rosemary leaves
• 10 g sea salt
• 400 g All Purpose, unbleached flour
• 5 g quick-rise yeast
• 320 g of very cold water
• 5 g fresh rosemary leaves, plus more for garnish

Directions:

1. To make the rosemary-infused olive oil, simmer the rosemary and olive oil for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool completely. Strain well. Top up with more olive oil to make 50 g. Then add the salt and stir well.
2. Combine the yeast and the flour in the large bowl for your stand mixer and fit with the dough paddle. Run the paddle for 15 seconds to combine.
3. Keeping the paddle on the lowest setting, slowly spray about two-thirds of the water into the flour, allowing the flour to absorb the water as you spray. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes and then add the strained olive oil and salt mixture very slowly into the dough and mix well. I switched my dough paddle to the scrapper paddle to make sure the oil incorporated well. You will need to speed up the paddle speed to fully incorporate the oil. Then finish spraying the remaining water to make a soft, sticky dough.
4. Turn off the machine and allow it to rest for another 5 minutes. Then continue to knead the dough on high speed until it pulls away from the bowl and the bowl is pretty clean. The dough is still sticky and soft but not as sticky as before.
5. Add a little more water to the spray bottle and spray a little water on the counter, the spatula, and your hands and flip the dough out onto the board. Using your hands stretch the dough for a few minutes to develop the gluten. Allow the dough to rest for a couple of minutes. When rested, work the dough again by pulling, stretching and folding it adding the 5 g of fresh rosemary as you stretch and fold. When the dough becomes smooth and the rosemary is well incorporated, make it into a smooth ball, cover it with a little more olive oil and allow it to rest covered with a bowl for 1-2 hours.
6. When ready to bake your focaccia, stretch the ball into a lightly oiled 23-cm x 33-cm pan right to the edges. If it bounces back, allow the dough to rest a little while longer. Once stretched, make indentations with your fingers or with the end of a wooden spoon and decorate with additional rosemary leaves. Drizzle more olive oil on top, sprinkle with flaked Malden sea salt, and allow to rest while you preheat your oven to 400° F.
7. Bake the focaccia for 20 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reads 200° F in its thickest part.

Drizzle some EVOO on top just before putting it into the oven.

Deliciously spongey focaccia.

Notes:

• This is an adaptation of the High Hydration Pizza Dough posted earlier this month.
• You may use any other fresh herb for this focaccia.

 

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Salted Caramel Crème Brûlée

JT has been playing golf a little more this year than he ever has, and he is loving it. On one such occasion, we had our dear friends back for burgers on the barbeque for dinner and this special dessert. Salted caramel is still one of those flavours that has lingered in the top ten so I wondered how it would taste combining it with Crème Brûlée. It’s actually quite lovely and worth the extra effort to make the caramel. The recipe below is an extrapolation of my single-serve recipe with salted caramel added instead of sugar. Add a light sprinkle of Malden-flaked salt onto the Brûléed sugar and you have a flavour explosion! You can thank me later.

Dig into the crunchy top with Malden Salt Flakes to get to the creamy, caramel crème brûlée.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 4 x 80 mL portions

Ingredients for the Salted Caramel:

• 44 mL Cream or Half and Half
• 11 mL Whole Milk
• 11 g white corn syrup
• 23 g white corn syrup
• 40 g Sugar
• 30 g Unsalted Butter
  Salt to taste (about 1g)

Directions:

1. Combine the cream, milk and 11 g of white corn syrup in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat until just boiling. Set aside but keep warm.
2. Add the 23 g of the white corn syrup and sugar to a heavy-bottom saucepan and gently heat, without stirring, until the sugar is melted and has turned a golden brown colour. Swirl the pan around to make sure all of the sugar is melted. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the hot milk/cream carefully as it will bubble up. Add the butter and stir to melt. Blitz this mixture with an immersion blender until well blended. 

Ingredients for the Crème Brûlée:

• 240 mL milk or cream
• salted caramel quantity above 
• 10 mL vanilla bean paste
• 4 egg yolks
• 40-50 g sugar to brûlée
• pinch of sea salt flakes

Directions for the Crème Brûlée:

1. Preheat the oven to 275° F.
2. Combine everything but the 5-10 g of sugar for the brûlée and blitz with an immersion blender until smooth. Pour equal amounts into 100 mL bowls and set the bowls into a bain marie in a larger baking pan.
3. Bake for 40 minutes or until it is set in the centre. Allow to cool completely. Refrigerate overnight.
4. When ready to serve, sprinkle the sugar onto the top and spread by tapping and twirling the bowl evenly. Using a torch, caramelize the sugar and immediately sprinkle with a scant amount of sea salt flakes and allow to cool. Serve when the sugar has hardened.

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Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese is a family favourite so it shows up on the meal plan a few times a year, usually when I have some leftover cheese that needs to be used up. This was not such an occasion. Ever since my friend Jeff the Chef over at Make it like a man posted his Cheeseburger Macaroni in an Instant Pot I have been obsessed with creating an authentic “oven-baked” Mac and Cheese in the Instant Pot! We just adore the caramelized edges of the noodles and the crispy panko topping contrasted against the soft-baked cheesy noodles of the center. This version is just as good. You can see from the top-down photo how the panko has toasted and crisped up, as well as some of the noodles that poke through the panko. If you want more crunch, allow more noodles to peak through the panko so that the air-fryer lid and do its magic!

This recipe is only made in the Instant Pot, I usually use 2-3 pots to make my traditional baked Mac and Cheese, one for the cheese sauce, one to cook the noodles and one for baking. So many fewer dishes! Plus, on a warm day, you needn’t heat up the kitchen with the oven. It’s win-win, in my humble opinion.

The crispy topping really adds to the Oven-Baked style.

Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

A kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 4 servings (just over 50 g dry pasta per serving)

Ingredients:

• 213 g dry pasta
• 325 mL water
• 3 g salt
• 100 g old cheddar
• 50 g mozzarella
• 125 mL milk
• 30 g butter
• 15 g flour
• Good pinch of smoked paprika
• 40 g panko
• 20 g Parmesan
• 2 slices crispy cooked bacon

Directions:

1. Add the dry pasta and water to the Instant Pot and mix well, making sure the pasta is mostly submerged in the water. Put the lid on and set Pressure Cook for 5 minutes with the Pressure Release in the up position (closed).
2. When the cycle has completed, release the steam manually; the noodles should be half-cooked and there will be a little water left in the pot. Set Instant Pot to Sauté on High and stir in butter, sprinkle in the flour and stir to mix well and cook until a roux is formed. Add the milk and stir well and cook stirring until thickened. Add the cheese and stir until melted and thickened. Stir in the bacon. Now leave on Sauté for 5 minutes, not stirring.
3. Meanwhile, combine the Panko and Parmesan and mix well. Turn the Instant Pot off. Sprinkle the Parmesan and Panko evenly over the top. Set the Air Fryer lid on top and set to Air fry for 4 minutes at 400° F. After the time has been completed, turn off the pot and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

There is bacon in there, trust me.

Notes:

• While the Instant Pot does create a ‘crispy’ top and somewhat crispy sides, it is not the same as a traditional oven-baked Mac and Cheese with caramelized noodles, although JT said it was quite acceptable.
• You will need a good metal spatula to get under the caramelized noodles but the resting period should loosen them so you’re not fighting to get a serving out.
• I generally freeze the 2 extra portions for a quick meal. Just allow it to defrost in the refrigerator and bake in a 350° F oven until warmed through.
• The Swiss enjoy applesauce with their mac and cheese and that is how we prefer to eat ours too.

The Air-Fryer lid really helps toast up the top of this dish.

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Lentil Hummus Soup

Years ago, back before the internet, I purchased an old Weight Watcher’s cookbook at a garage sale that I’ve long since divested myself of. In this cookbook was a tasty hummus soup that I made a few times at the cottage when we didn’t feel like much for dinner. This is my version of the recipe.

The soup comes together quickly, no need to soak the lentils, they cook within 10 minutes. Don’t salt the water they cook in otherwise the skin will become a bit tough. I puréed the somewhat cooled soup in my Magic Bullet and it made a lovely, velvety-smooth soup. Serve the soup drizzled with really good olive oil and Aleppo peppers.

Makes about 500 mL soup

A kitcheninspirations original recipe

Ingredients:

• 135 g red lentils, rinsed and picked through
• water (to cover lentils)
• 45 g tahini
• 35 g roasted garlic purée (or fresh garlic to taste
• 12 g cumin
• 400 mL chicken stock
• 30 mL lemon juice
• Olive oil to serve
• a sprinkle of Aleppo peppers

Directions:

1. Add the lentils to a good size soup pot and just cover with cold water. Bring to a soft boil and cook the lentils until softened thoroughly and the water is mostly absorbed.
2. Add the tahini, roasted garlic purée, and cumin and cook on low for 1 minute.
3. Add the chicken stock and water and purée until desired thickness is achieved. The lentils will get thicker as they cool, so don’t add too much stock to start because when you reheat it, it will be too runny, add stock little by little until your desired thickness is achieved

Notes:

• We use roasted garlic because it is a milder, nutty flavour than fresh garlic.
• Toppings are pretty versatile but we like olive oil with Aleppo peppers for a touch of heat.
• I would imagine this soup freezes well but it comes together so quickly, I only make enough for one meal.

 

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Spring Green Soup

The weather in Toronto was certainly not as spring-like as we had hoped when we planned to return from our stay in Europe, otherwise, we would have stayed a lot longer! We did have a week of incredible but unseasonably warm weather in early April but that didn’t last long. We are back to grey, overcast, rainy, snowy spring so on such a day, I decided to let the garden inspire me because even though we humans find this weather unacceptable, the garden is in full bloom, bursting with green and colour! I created this simple, yet tasty green soup. Use homemade or good-quality chicken stock (and my secret ingredient) to make a tasty broth and add all the green veggies you have on hand. For me, it was frozen sweet peas, frozen broccoli, leeks, frozen green beans, some shredded kale, celery and some ripe avocado. If you want it a little more filling, add rice or gnocchi or my favourite, Hungarian csipetke (which is just pasta dough, pinched into small dumplings and cooked right in the soup).

A delicious combination of green vegetables in a rich, flavourful broth.

A kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes about 1.5 litres of soup

Ingredients:

• 15 mL garlic-infused EVOO
• Handful of each green vegetables: frozen sweet peas, frozen broccoli (separate stems), leeks, frozen green beans, some shredded kale, celery and some ripe avocado, all cut into similarly sized pieces.
• 1.5 litres chicken stock
• 15 mL white miso paste (secret ingredient)
• a splash of fresh lime juice

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot and sauté the leeks and broccoli stems until soft. Add about half of the kale and wilt. Add the stock with the miso paste and heat until the miso (secret ingredient) has melted and the kale is rather soft. Purée this into a relatively fine soup.
2. Add the remaining vegetables and heat through. I allowed the soup to steep for a couple of hours and reheated it when ready to serve.
3. Add the lime juice and stir well just before serving.
4. Allow the soup to cool completely before freezing leftovers. Do not freeze pasta or rice because it will turn to mush.

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Air Fried Spiced Chick Peas

As the weather is warming up, we are allowing ourselves to once again dream of patio days sipping on summery cocktails and enjoying the company of friends. These lazy days require some lazy snacks and I have just the tasty and healthy snack for you if you have an air fryer. I have the Instant Pot with the air fryer lid, and let me tell you, it works wonders! We don’t fry a lot so I didn’t want an appliance that just did one thing so this air fryer lid addition to my Instant Pot is the perfect solution.

These spiced chickpeas are so crispy and crunchy, they disintegrate in your mouth like a chip would and then the spice creeps up on you, just a little with tantalizing flavours of cumin, coriander, garlic and smoked paprika with a hint of heat, salt and sweetness. Just perfect for a glass of prosecco or Cava. Cheers!

Air Fried Spiced Chick Peas

Makes enough for 4 as a cocktail snack.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 can 540 mL chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried
• 40 g cornstarch
• 30 mL olive oil
• 2.5 g cumin
• 2.5 g coriander
• 2.5 g granulated garlic
• 2.5 g smoked paprika
• 2.5 g sea salt
• 15 g honey, divided

Directions

1. Mix the cumin, coriander, garlic, paprika, and sea salt until well combined.
2. In a large sieve, sprinkle the cornstarch evenly over the chickpeas (I did mine in two batches). Drizzle the olive oil over them and mix well.
3. Add the chickpeas to your air fryer and fry at 400° F for 15-20 minutes, pausing halfway to stir and separate them. I air-fried the recipe in two batches as my air fryer is not huge and I only wanted one layer so they really crisp up.
4. Confirm that the chickpeas are crispy (and not creamy in the centre) and pour them into a bowl and sprinkle with half the spice mixture. Drizzle with half of the honey and mix until well-coated. Return the chickpeas to the air fryer and fry for an additional 5 minutes (so the honey caramelizes). Pour onto a cookie sheet to cool completely. Repeat with the second batch.

Notes:

• The spice mix is totally up to you. Just plain salt and pepper would be nice too.

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Ginger Snaps

These cookies came about because of two things: the first thing was, one of the items I brought home from England was Treacle, we don’t easily get it here and I was curious about it and secondly, I was cleaning out my baking drawer when I came across a small package of candied ginger so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and bake up a batch of these tasty treats. These are not low-carb, they are what they are. Sometimes you just need a treat.

Makes about 36-46 Cookies depending on how big your melon baller is.

Ingredients:

• 76 g butter
• 100 g brown sugar
• 60 mL Lyle’s Golden syrup
• 60 mL treacle
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 4 g baking powder
• 4 g baking soda
• 4 g ground ginger
• 5 g freshly ground ginger
• 4 g ground allspice
• 30 g finely chopped candied ginger tossed in icing sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
3. In a small saucepan gently melt the butter, brown sugar and both syrups (do not boil unless you want to end up with jawbreakers!). Cool slightly.
4. Sift dry ingredients together into a medium-sized bowl.
   Make a well in the centre and pour in the syrup mixture. Mix well to make a soft dough.
5. Using a large melon baller shape into small balls (about the size of a walnut). Place each ball about two inches apart; press down to form even rounds about 1/2 cm thick.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until very very lightly browned. Cool on the cookie sheet for a minute and then remove to fully cool on a wire rack. If you were to err, err on the shorter baking time so they don’t get super hard.
7. Store in an airtight container or freeze. If they get too hard, add a slice of bread or a moist brown sugar disk for a few hours.

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Cheddar Cheese and Onion Kefir Scones

Hearty winter soups are a staple when we are in Canada and I just love to serve soups with scones. This recipe is an old favourite but I had run out of fresh onions so I used my handy dehydrated onion flakes in this easy recipe. There is just a little time to rehydrate the onions and you’re good to go. 

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 9 large scones

Ingredients:

• 260 g AP flour
• 15 g sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 5 g salt
• 2 g cream of tartar
• 56 g cold butter
• 155 g frozen, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus more for topping
• 200 mL buttermilk, 15 mL for brushing the tops
• 30 g dehydrated onion flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Rehydrate the onions flakes in the buttermilk for 5 minutes.
3. Combine the dry ingredients in the large bowl of your food processor with the blades and mix well.
4. Cut in the cold butter until it resembles a coarse meal. Replace the blade with the plastic dough blade.
5. Add the buttermilk onion mixture and cheese to the flour and pulse to combine into a ball (cheese should still be frozen or at the very least, extremely cold).
6. If it’s really warm in your kitchen, it’s best to refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. With very little flour to prevent sticking, roll the dough into 1 cm thickness and use your favourite cookie cutter to cut even shapes (I used 5 cm squares with scalloped edges.
7. Place each shape onto the prepared baking sheet about a centimetre apart and brush the tops with the extra buttermilk. Add a pinch of frozen shredded cheese to each top, if desired.
8. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

So flakey and delicious!

Notes:

• I buy my cooking/baking cheese on sale in 400 g logs and I grate them into zip-lock bags and freeze them. If you break up the shreds as they freeze, they won’t stick together in clumps.
• The frozen cheese will help make these flakey.

These are the grey days that just kill me.

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Individual Dutch Baby Bennies for Brunch (logistics and all)

The week before Christmas in 2022, we were in full-entertaining mode, trying to see all of our friends before we started travelling again. We have been doing more and more brunches, particularly in the winter months when driving at night can be more treacherous. I was hoping to do a simple brunch dish so I could spend more time with friends but then I saw this interesting pancake called Dutch Baby and I had to try it. It’s actually a German invention (think Deutsch) that was translated to Dutch in the states, this simple popover-like batter makes a grand entrance with its golden puffy sides and a lovely custardy-base that is perfect for brunchy-style meals. You can make them either savoury or sweet. I chose to make individual Dutch Babies to hold eggs bennies for a bunch we had just before Christmas. There is a bit of strategy so that everything remains hot and ready for serving but fear not, I have documented my process for you, easy peasy.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

This recipe makes 1 serving, please multiply by the number of people you are serving for your ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 63 mL milk
• 31 g flour
• 7 g sugar
• salt
• A smidge of butter for the cast iron pan

Also required per person:

• Hollandaise sauce
• Poached egg
• about 50 g Ham, shaved, room temperature
• Half an Avocado

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F convection, with the cast iron pan in the oven (place cast onto a rimmed baking sheet). You need to put the pan on the centre rack in the oven.
2. In a blender, combine the eggs, milk, flour, sugar and salt and blend until smooth. Set aside while the oven and cast iron preheat. When the pan and oven are heated to temperature, add a smidge of butter to the pan and melt coating the insides.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and bake for 15 minutes (keep checking from 12-15 so it doesn’t burn).
4. While baking, make the hollandaise sauce (see notes for my recipe or use your own). Cover the finished sauce and set aside.
5. During the last 6 minutes of baking the Dutch baby, poach the egg for a minute less than your normal poaching time, turn the heat off and remove the pan from heat source, keep the egg warm in the water they poached in. When you are ready to serve, remove the poached egg and drain it on a paper towel. Gently reheat the hollandaise over the warm poaching water whisking so it doesn’t separate.
6. Assembly:
   When the Dutch baby is golden (~200° F on an instant read thermometer), remove it from the pan and place it onto a warm plate. Top with a few spoonfuls of mashed avocado, ham and finally the poached eggs. Drizzle the warmed hollandaise sauce over the eggs and serve immediately.

Notes:

• My oven takes a good 15 minutes to pre-heat to 425° F so plan ahead.
• I used Betty Crocker mini oval cast iron pans 16 cm x 11.5 cm that were perfect for each serving.
• My hollandaise is very simple: 30 mL lemon juice, pinch of salt, 80 g butter, 1 egg. In a double boiler (I love Ikea’s KLOCKREN Double–boiler insert), melt the butter and add the lemon juice and salt and mix well, heat until warm to the touch without boiling the water below. Whisk the egg and slowly temper with the warm butter mixture, whisking well. Return the tempered egg to the double boiler and whisk until thickened. Remove the hollandaise immediately from the heat and set aside. If your sauce has separated, you’ve heated it too fast and too hot; although not kosher, you can blitz the separated hollandaise with an emersion blender to achieve a smooth sauce and avoid having to start over.
• To get the most professional-looking poached eggs, strain the raw egg through a fine sieve before poaching. Straining removes the excess white which usually just clouds the water and creates a messy, loosely-poached egg. I usually poach for 4 minutes, so for this recipe, poach for 3 minutes and allow the eggs to sit in the hot water, off the heat while you prepare the remainder of the meal.
• If you are making this for a crowd, poach the eggs in advance for 1-2 minutes and immediately plunge them gently into an ice bath and hold them there until ready to serve. When ready to serve, bring a large enough pot of water to hold all the eggs to a light boil and reheat the eggs and finish poaching them! Serve immediately.

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Shrimp Gyoza

It’s dinner party and cocktail party season so the team at Kitcheninspirations have been busy making and freezing party food so we are never caught empty handed. The filling for these tasty little bites comes together very quickly and if you don’t have time, store-bought wonton wrappers will do the trick.

For original gyoza wrapper recipe, please click here.

Makes 20 gyoza

Ingredients:

• 120 g AP unbleached flour
• 65 g water, boiling
• pinch of salt
• cornstarch for dusting
• 5 mL sesame oil
• 75 g shrimp
• 2 scallions, finely diced
• 5 g ginger, finely grated
• 10 g roasted garlic
• 20 g carrot, finely grated
• 10 mL soy sauce
• 8 g cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• Butter or grapeseed oil to brown gyoza
• Sesame seeds and cilantro for garnish

Directions:

1. Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Add boiling water to the flour and salt mixture slowly to make a dough, turn out to a surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the sesame oil in a pan and add the shrimp and stir fry. Stir in the scallions, ginger, roasted garlic, carrot, soy sauce and cook for a minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool thoroughly. When cool, add the cilantro and mix well.
3. To make the wrappers, roll each sausage out to a manageable thickness and run it through the KitchenAid pasta roller from #1 to #4.
4. Cut into 7.5 cm (3 inch) rounds. Wet the edges of each round, spoon 5 mL (1 tsp) of the filling into the centre and fold in half and seal the edges. I used a handy pleater like this one to get perfect pleats.
5. Steam each one for 3-5 minutes. When cooked, melt butter or grapeseed oil in a cast iron pan. Pan-fry each one on one side only so it is golden and crispy. Serve with your choice of dipping sauce.
6. Freeze uncooked gyoza on a piece of parchment and once frozen add to a ziplock bag for future use. Frozen gyoza will cook in 3-5 minutes!
7. To serve, melt about 15 g of unsalted butter with 30 mL of grapeseed oil and fry one side of each gyoza. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds and bits of cilantro.

Serve these tasty treats with a sweet and salty soy sauce.

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Instant Pot Roasted Garlic, Cauliflower Mash

 

If it’s a really hot summer’s day and you don’t want to turn on the big oven, this is a great alternative method to roast cauliflower and it’s super easy to clean up. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 500 g Cauliflower florets, similar size
• 15 mL Extra Virgin Olive oil
• 2-4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• Sea salt
• 250 mL water
• Butter, cream or chicken stock

Directions:

1. Drizzle the oil onto the cauliflower so it covers overall. Lay the cauliflower into the air fryer basket, tuck the garlic cloves into the cauliflower. Set the air fryer lid on and choose ‘Roast’, 330° F for 15 minutes. Stir three times during the cooking process.
2. Pour the cauliflower into the pressure cooking pot and add 1 cup of water. Set the pressure cooking lid on and setting to ‘Pressure Cooking’ for 5 minutes. Depressurize carefully or allow it naturally to depressurize.
3. When complete, cauliflower should be very soft. Squeeze out the garlic and add to the cauliflower into a glass container. Blend with the immersion blender until smooth adding the remaining water from cooking or butter or cream or stock to achieve the desired consistency. Reheat in the microwave when ready to serve.

A fantastic low-carb alternative to mashed potatoes.

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Savoury Cheese Tuille

Upon our return from Spain, I was missing being there so I made the Almond Tuiles of Sevilla (Tejas Dulces de Sevilla). They are delicious but it got me thinking about a savoury version. We had brought home some wonderful cheese called Old Amsterdam and I thought it would make a delicious snack. They are light and airy and crisp. They are strong enough for dip, but tasty on their own. I love how rustic they look from just breaking them apart.

Savoury Cheese Tuiles

Makes about 20 cm x 30 cm sheet

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 30 g cheese (I used Old Amsterdam)
• 1 g salt
• 1 g smoked paprika 
• 50 g flour 

Directions:

1. Beat the egg until it reaches the ribbon stage (about 5 minutes), add the salt and smoked paprika and mix well, then fold in the flour.
2. Spread evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle the cheese over it evenly and bake at 275° F for 20-35 minutes or until it has totally dried out and developed a golden colour.
3. Cool entirely and once cool break into shards. Serve at room temperature.

 

 

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Lime Sugar Cookies

As our time in Spain was dwindling in late May, I began to think more about using up pantry items. Here is another recipe that was created to use up pantry ingredients I purchased for our time in Spain. I wanted to use up the flour, sugar and a lime that I had sitting around. Unfortunately, I had only a little butter that I needed for the remainder of the week so I improvised and used reduced table cream. I figured if you could make cookies using olive oil, then you should be able to make cookies using cream, but I only had table cream which is generally about 18% fat so I reduced it about half in volume which I was hoping would give me about 36% fat or at least more than 18%. The cookies turned out delicate, not crumbly and slightly chewy. JT thought some coconut would be lovely in them so perhaps I’ll try that next time. I would have liked a little more lime flavour so I upped the zest in the recipe below because I only had one lime, two I think, would be perfect.

A deliscious, chewy cookie.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes about 24 cookies about 5 cm in diameter

Ingredients:

• 270 g all-purpose flour
• 5 g baking soda
• 2.5 g kosher salt
• 251 g granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
• 78 g reduced table cream (see notes)
• 2 large eggs
• 2.5 mL vanilla extract
• 15 mL lime juice 
• Zest of 2 limes

Directions:

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2. Combine the sugar, table cream, eggs, vanilla, lime juice and zest and mix well.
3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and just fold in so that there is no visible flour. Set in the freezer for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Drop about 15 mL cookies (about a tablespoon) onto a parchment-lined sheet bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Notes:

• For the table cream in this recipe, pour 250 mL table cream into a heavy bottom saucepan and reduce on high heat until about half (about 30 minutes), stirring occasionally so it doesn’t over boil. Cool completely.

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Sautéed Peppers with Pine Nuts

Sometimes it’s just the simplest things that are the best. While we were in Spain, we had a lot of tapas, they serve tapas every time you order a glass of vino. Sometimes it is as simple as delicious olives, or sometimes it’s a little ham sandwich. While we were in Granada, we slipped into this adorable little bar and ordered a couple of glasses of vino with some tapas. Before we even had our first sip, they brought out a good quantity of homemade potato chips and these little round sandwiches (about 7-10 cm in diameter). If we hadn’t already ordered a selection of cheeses and charcuterie, we would have been done! And they would not have been offended. This is Spain, where a glass of good quality wine is €3.50 (less than $5) AND it comes with food! And there is no expectation of tipping, most restaurants add a small service fee per person so you needn’t worry about it.

We were sitting at home one evening when we decided to have a glass of vino and JT asks what we were having for hors d’œuvres! I had to scramble a bit because I hadn’t pre-made anything for the freezer but I did have some incredible peppers (did I mention how wonderful vegetables taste in Spain?) so I sliced them thinly and sautéed them and presented them with some toasted Spanish pine nuts. They were fantastic! So simple. If you’re serving a crowd, you might want to add a splash of red wine and some sliced chorizo, served with crusty bread of course. This is definitely going into my repertoire because I always have peppers at home.

I haven’t stipulated quantities because it’s what you have on hand. I used about a half of pepper each of the red and yellow and about 1/4 of an onion.

These are some of the sweetest peppers we’ve ever tasted.

Sautéed Peppers with Pine Nuts

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

 Ingredients:

• Red peppers, deveined and seeded, cut into strips
• Yellow peppers, deveined and seeded, cut into strips
• Onion, thinly sliced
• Splash of olive oil
• Pine Nuts, toasted
• Salt and pepper to taste

 Ingredients:

1. Sauté the onions and peppers in a splash of olive oil. Add the chorizo and red wine, if using
2. Sprinkle with pine nuts, salt and pepper and serve with crusty bread.

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Pantry Clean Out Peanut Butter Cookies

We’re coming up to our last few weeks in Spain and I’m thinking about how to use up all the groceries we bought. I probably shouldn’t have bought a pack of sugar (about 350 g) but it was only about €0.50 so I’m not going to kill myself but I will give an honest go of using some of it. Peanut butter is not a common ingredient in Spain (most likely all of Europe) and is therefore expensive (€6.00 for a 500 g jar) but JT loves the stuff, so we splurged. We’ll be away for about 9 days of the last 18 days in Spain so I wanted to start on my pantry cleanup sooner than later.

I didn’t want to buy another package of butter so I needed a recipe that did not use it. Fortunately, this one is an old favourite, slightly modified to incorporate pantry ingredients. The 30 g portions make a decent size cookie but not large by any stretch of the imagination. The butter is not beaten into the peanut butter (mainly because I didn’t have a mixer) just mixed in well, without too much exertion which makes it an easy cookie recipe. I’ll be definitely keeping this one in my repertoire.

Delicious cookies with just the right amount of chewiness.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 19 cookies about 30 g each

Ingredients:

• 250 g crunchy peanut butter (natural, no salt or sugar added)
• 2 eggs
• 80 g flour
• 165 g sugar
• 3 g salt
• 50 dark chocolate with sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Combine the peanut butter and eggs and mix well.
3. Combine the flour, sugar and salt and mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.
5. Portion out 30 g balls and flatten slightly with your palm. Dot the chocolate pieces onto each one evenly.
6. Bake for 8-12 minutes at 350° F.

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Fried Cheese Tortellini

I always create a menu plan for every week and when we arrived in Spain, it was no different. I like to schedule meals out in a restaurant but if they don’t work out, I also like to have something easy to fix on hand, dried cheese tortellini was one of these things. We had been out for lunch at one of our favourite Italian places and the couple at the table next to us ordered the fried cheese tortellini and I was inspired, they looked so delicious. I have made fried pasta before but used North American dried pasta and it wasn’t good, they were too thick and ended up really hard and difficult to eat so I didn’t bother posting about them. These little gems are different, they are crispy, chewy little parcels filled with cheese! They are wonderful. I tested up a batch of 18 and found them quite successful so I fried up the entire package! I froze them for when we reunite with our dear friends Paul and T from Arizona, they came for a visit in early May. Just pop them onto a parchment-lined baking pan and bake at 350° F for about 10-12 minutes. Serve with salsa, romesco sauce or any one of your favourites. Make sure you make a bunch because they are addictive.

They are crispy and chewy little parcels of deliciousness.

Crispy Fried Cheese Tortellini

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes as many tortellini as your package has.

Ingredients:

• 1 package dry cheese-filled tortellini, cooked through
• 500 mL high flash-point oil
• dipping sauce, your choice

Directions:

1. Heat the oil to 350° F
2. Fry only 5-6 at a time until golden, place on an absorbant cloth to soak up any excess oil.
3. Serve warm with your favourite dipping sauce.

Notes:

• Cook your pasta to slightly overdone, this will provide the best crunch.
• Cook your pasta in advance so that you can totally drain them and allow them to slightly dry out on a paper towel or parchment (this will prevent the oil from splashing when the water hits it).

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Retro Olive Balls

You may have noticed from my other socials that we have escaped Toronto and finally headed to Spain. Our first trip in February was cancelled by you know what. We are here for 51 days. The sun and relative warmth have been life-altering. I wake up just to see the sunrise on the Mediterranean (it’s not that bad, 7:30-ish during our stay).

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Our kitchen in the flat (my cousin’s flat) is challenging from a size point. I have fitted it with most of my favourite tools so I can do most things but finding a place to do them can be a challenge. Most people who rent do take away or go out to one of the many restaurants in this little village. The Spaniards like to eat late (9pm would be considered an early dinner) but I find it difficult to eat that late, so we end up going out for lunch and having a light dinner around 7pm. Although the first few attempts to lunch were failures as many places don’t open until at least 1:30 (we don’t eat breakfast) and they close between 2-5pm for Siesta. Don’t get me started on Siesta, it is a beloved ritual in the smaller centres. This little recipe was developed to take us through cocktails one evening. 

Retro Olive Balls

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 8 pastry-wrapped olives

Ingredients:

• 15 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 60 g cheese, we used manchego
• 60 g flour
• 15 g roasted garlic purée
• Salt, pepper to taste
• water to bind
• 8 olives

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Combine everything but the olives in the small bowl of a food processor and process until combined. If the dough still doesn’t come together, add a few drops of water and pulse until it comes together.
3. Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Roll each portion into a small circle and wrap around each olive, rolling in your hand until it is smooth. Repeat until all of the olives are wrapped.
4. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet until golden, serve warm.

A delicious buttery pastry enveloping a Manzanilla Olive.

Notes:

• I used unpitted Spanish Manzanilla Olives because it is what I had at home, black olives or even pimento-stuffed olives would be lovely with this recipe. Make sure you mention to your guests that the olives are with pitts.
• Double or triple this recipe for more tasty little balls.

 

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Deluxe Egg Salad

Truth be told, I re-invented some leftover devilled eggs into this deluxe egg salad. The creamy egg yolks made perfectly rich and luscious creamy egg salad. I upped the ante by adding a small, ripe avocado. Winner, winner, egg salad!

I think I’ll make egg salad this way all the time.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes enough for 2 large croissant sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 4 left over devilled egg halves (see notes on how I jazzed these up), roughly chopped

• 2 additional hard-boiled egg, roughly chopped
• 15 mL mayonnaise
• 5-10 mL lemon juice
• 2 scallions, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
• ~10 cm of cucumber, finely diced
• 1 small, ripe avocado, finely diced
• Add salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the devilled egg filling with the additional hard-boiled egg yolk with the mayo and lemon juice, whisk well.
2. Stir the scallions, cucumber and avocado together, mixing well. Spoon the egg yolk sauce over the eggs and fold in, completely mixing with the eggs.
3. Serve in a croissant with additional finely chopped scallions as garnish.

Delicious stuffed into a croissant.

Notes:

• When I made the devilled eggs, I whipped the yolks with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard and room temperature goats cheese and a little finely chopped scallions. Salt and pepper to taste.

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Celery, Zucchini and Avocado Cream Soup

My brother loaned us his cottage for the last week of January. Yes, it is a lot colder up there but it is extremely beautiful with the pristine, sparkling snow and the occasional visit from wildlife. I needed to clean out the fridge before we left and created this tasty and satisfying soup. Pair it with a scone or grilled cheese and you have the perfect winter-time lunch. The measurements are not important here because I was just using up some less-than-perfect produce, it’s just an inspiration for future soups.

JT bought me the KitchenAid Vegetable Sheet Cutter to help me cut down our carbs so I had a lot of zucchini cores leftover which played right into this delicately flavoured soup. I was going to add cream but then I had a very ripe avocado that would meld perfectly into this winter meal.

Celery, Zucchini, and Avocado Cream Soup

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 1.45 L soup

Ingredients:

• 15 mL EVOO
• ~ 1/2 a bunch of celery, roughly chopped
• ~ 1 zucchini, roughly chopped
• ~ 1 small Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
• 5-10 sprigs of parsley
• 1 L chicken stock
• 1 small Avocado, peeled and pitted
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat the EVOO, add the celery, zucchini, onion, and parsley, and cook until softened. Add the stock and simmer for 30 minutes or until all of the vegetables are very soft. Add the avocado.
2. Blitz with your immersion blender or allow to cool and purée with a Nutri Bullet or VitaMix for a smooth and creamy soup. Strain through a fine sieve to remove the celery ‘hairs’.
3. Serve hot.

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Kartofdzhyn (Cheese and Potato Stuffed Bread)

I started watching a couple of Ontario-guys on Facebook who try to prove or disprove crazy videos they’ve seen, mostly of food but it can also be science or cleaning and such. They are a bit goofy which makes them rather charming. Their girlfriends sometimes participate in these videos by making some outlandish foods. This traditional Georgian potato, cheese-stuffed bread was one of them. The recipe looked so good, I had to do a little research and make my own. Their recipe was fairly straight forward using baking powder and not yeast bread dough, but the research showed that most of the recipes were yeasted bread dough, so I went with that. Then I found a few that had egg in them which gives the bread a wonderful, chewy texture. Then there is the mashed potato and cheese stuffed inside. OMG, so good. My recipe makes four disks about 20 cm in diametre, cut into eight portions.  The bread freezes very well. Remember to put it in the refrigerator overnight to defrost, then allow it to come to room temperature before baking. We went through two bad boys in two days and I sent a third one to a friend who was going to visit her parents! The fourth one is under lock and key in the freezer, I’m saving it for a special time! I will definitely be making this recipe again and again!

Soft, pillowy mashed potatoes with the sharp feta (or goat) and gooey mozzarella makes for a more-ish starter.

Kartofdzhyn (Cheese and Potato Stuffed Bread)

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 4 stuffed bread rounds about 20 cm (8 inches) each

Ingredients for the Bread:

• 6 g quick yeast
• 8 g granulated sugar
• 120 mL milk, at 110F
• 460 g bread flour
• 6 g salt
• 215 g Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• Olive oil for the dough
• 1 egg yolk, whisked for brushing the dough

Directions:

1. Combine the yeast and sugar with the warm milk and allow to proof for about 10 minutes (it should froth up)
2. Add the flour and salt to the large bowl of your stand mixer and mix lightly.
3. Combine the Greek yogurt and eggs with the frothy yeast mixture and whisk until well combined.
4. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour and knead with the hook for 10 minutes. Stop the mixer and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes, then resume kneading for about 15 minutes or until the dough comes away from the bowl.
5. Coat the dough with olive oil and allow to proof for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 2 medium yellow potatoes (about 230 g), boiled
• 30 g butter
• 30 g roasted garlic purée
• 2 scallions, finely chopped
• 100 g feta cheese or goats cheese
• 230 g mozzarella
• 6 g salt

Directions:

1. Mash the potatoes with butter and roasted garlic, then beat with a whisk beater until light and fluffy. Fold in the scallions, cheeses, and salt and set aside.

Directions for the dough disks:

1. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Roll out each portion evenly to a circle about 25 cm (10 inches). 
2. Add one-quarter of the filling to the centre of each round and pull in each side to form a sealed disk. Flip over and gently roll out to about 20 cm (8 inches). Pierce the top of the disk with a fork and brush each dough disk with the egg yolk. Set aside while the oven preheats or freeze on a baking sheet and transfer to a plastic zip-lock bag for the future.
3. If baking at the moment, put a cast-iron pan into the oven and pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Add one disk to the hot pan and bake for 20 minutes. When done, remove from the heat and brush the top with some more olive oil. Serve warm.

 

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Green Goodness Bowl

We usually have small quantities of a lot of different produce leftover as we approach shopping day, you know, a little of this, a little of that. That is where this bowl came from — it was an inspiration to use up the small portions of veggies before they were past their prime. The recipe is just whatever you have on hand, so I have not posted actual quantities, but there is no denying that this bowl is a keeper! It’s filled with flavour, texture, crunch against the creaminess of the avocado dressing. 

Lots of flavours and textures make up this tasty bowl.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Ingredients:

• Greens, shredded
• a handful of Chickpeas, cooked
• about half a Mango, small dice
  
• 1/2 Avocado, small dice 
• Cheese, small cubes
• a handful of Pearl barley, cooked
• a handful of vinegar coleslaw
• a couple of good pinches of Sunflower Seeds, toasted

Directions:

1. Place the greens at the base of the bowl and add each ingredient on top, into its own quadrant, leaving the sunflower seeds to garnish after you have dressed your bowl.
2. Dress with the avocado dressing (recipe below) and garnish with the sunflower seeds. Serve immediately.

A delicious combination that is satisfying.

Green Goodness Dressing

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes enough dressing for 2 bowls.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Avocado
• ~ 15 mL mayonnaise
• ~ 15 mL greek yoghurt
• ~ 15 mL lemon juice
• pinch of tarragon
• water, to thin

Directions:

1. Add all of the ingredients with the exception of the water to a tall, thin jar made for your immersion blender and blend until smooth adding water, little by little to make it loose enough to pour.

Notes:

• It is more flavourful to have sweet, salty and savoury things. 
• I like to toast the barley for a nuttier flavour when cooked.
• Alternatives to mango: craisins, raisins, grapes.
• Alternatives to chickpeas: lobster meat, crab meat, tuna, chopped ham, edamame.
• Alternatives to barley: rice, bulgar, Isreal couscous, couscous.
• Additions: peas, corn, diced peppers.
• Alternatives to sunflower seeds: pepitas, roasted walnuts, roasted peanuts.

 

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Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

It’s been wickedly cold here, and by wickedly cold, I’m talking -21° C or -5.8° F! I have only been able to think about soup. I love brothy soups but JT is not as much of a fan, he prefers creamed soups so I like to mix it up. I had purchased too much broccoli for Christmas day dinner so I had a small crown leftover along with a not-so-perfect-looking romaine, so this recipe was a result of these two leftovers.

Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes just over a litre of soup

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
• 15 mL EVOO
• 1 fist-sized head of broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1/2 romaine lettuce, shredded
• 1 L chicken stock
• 5 cm x 5 cm Parmigiana rind, cut into smaller pieces
• 30 g of cheddar, shredded
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. In a hot pan, cook the onion in the olive oil until translucent, add the broccoli and romaine lettuce and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and the Parmigiana rind and simmer for about an hour or until everything has softened.
2. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. If using a traditional blender, allow to cool a bit so the steam doesn’t blow off the lid.
3. Serve with some shredded cheddar sprinkled on top.

Notes:

• The romaine didn’t end up adding much flavour but it did help with thickening.
• Use vegetable stock if making vegetarian.
• The Parmigiana also helps to thicken the soup.
• I used both orange and white cheddar because that is what I had.

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Soyless Soy Sauce (soy-free, gluten-free)

My besty from uni is gluten intolerant and allergic to soy! It’s always a bit of a challenge cooking Asian foods because of the soy allergy but I try to be inclusive and make something special for her if she can’t eat my dish. One such occasion was Christmas day, I served Gyoza as the hors d’œuvres and I made her a special gluten-free version. Had I known how good the gluten-free version would turn out, everyone would have had it. The dipping sauce I usually serve with them has soy in it so I wanted to make a special sauce without soy so my friend can enjoy it too. This imposter has the forward saltiness and a bit of sweetness with a finish of umami from the Nori that actual soy sauce has. It turned out very well, in fact, I will make only one sauce with this soyless soy sauce that everyone can enjoy!

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 30 mL sauce

Ingredients:

• 5 mL molasses
• 375 ml water
• 2 g black garlic salt (I used this one)
• 3.5 dried black fungus
• 3 g dried shiitake mushrooms
• 0.5 g Nori Seaweed

Directions:

1. Combine everything but the Nori in a small saucepan and bring to s boil. Boil for 15-20 minutes or until reduced to about 30 mL.
2. Remove mushrooms and reserve for another use. Strain the liquid and add salt and pepper to taste. add the nori seaweed and immerse entirely, refrigerate with nori for 1 day.
3. Strain Nori and the sauce is ready for use.

This imposter has the forward saltiness and a bit of sweetness with a finish of umami from the seaweed that actual soy sauce has.

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Gluten-Free Gyoza Wrappers

We had dear friends over for Christmas Day dinner last month. I had made a bunch of regular gyozas and wanted some for my Gluten-Free besty. After much research, I found several recipes and came up with my own. This recipe has the elasticity that steamed gyozas have but it also packs an incredible crunch when fried to a golden brown on one side. JT couldn’t tell that they were gluten-free! I’m thinking they may even make incredible ravioli!

Gluten-Free Gyoza Wrappers

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Make 15 gyoza wrappers

Ingredients:

• 50 g gluten-free all-purpose flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
• 33 g tapioca flour
• 4 g xanthan gum
• 0.1  g salt
• 40 g boiling water
• 10 g vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients and mix well.
2. Combine the boiling water and vegetable oil and pour into the dry ingredients, mix well until it comes together. Set out to a lightly GF floured board and knead for a few minutes. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and allow to rest for about 15 minutes.
3. Cut the dough into four portions and roll out to about 2 mm thick using the KitchenAid pasta dough attachment, roll the dough and fold it onto itself several times on #1. Then roll the dough out from #1-#4. Use like any gyoza dough being careful to cover it tightly with plastic wrap when not in use.
4. Steam the GF gyozas for about 3-4 minutes, they should bounce back if you gently poke them.

Notes:

• Keep the dough tightly covered with plastic wrap when not in use, it dries out very quickly.
• Rub a little water on one side of the seam before closing so that they don’t come apart when steaming.
• The gyoza will puff up when you steam them.
• The uncooked gyoza feeze well. Freeze on a parchment-lined sheet and for about 30 minutes, drop into a ziplock bag. I wouldn’t leave them for more than 30 minutes on a sheet uncovered because they dry out.
• Most recipes did not have the addition of tapioca flour or vegetable oil; I added the tapioca flour to improve the elasticity that gluten-free flour lacks and the vegetable oil was needed to help the dough from drying out.
• You will need to roll out the dough by hand to get it through #1, but you’d have to do that with regular pasta dough too.

The gyoza is chewy and crunchy like a real gyoza should be!

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