Monday, June 1, 2009

New recipes

I know, I know, I just haven't been around much lately, have I? The sun has finally come out, the rain has finally gone away for longer than one day, and add into that all the weddings, etc, and I've just not been in a bloggy sort of mode!

However, I did want to take a few minutes to share some of my new food ventures. Because they've just been fun!

First off, last weekend, I had a couple of cups of cream that were about to go bad. So I decided to make butter. I've wanted to for awhile. And it was fun! I just dumped the cream in the food processor and then let it run for about 10 minutes. First it went thick (like cream does when it's beaten), and then it thinned back out again to a liquid, and then all of the sudden out of nowhere, I had butter floating around!

After running water through the butter and squeezing all the buttermilk out of it, I flavored it with some herbs. And it tastes really, really good!

Well, that apparently was enough to kick-start me back into a new recipes cooking mode.

Hillery had actually tried out one of Betty Hagmen's bread recipes (Light Graham Bread) that turned out really, really tasty. It's made with Teff (one of my absolute favorites out of all the new flours I've been playing with). Since I liked it so much, I decided to make it. Again, it turned out tasty. However, it also split in half coming out of the pan (don't ask, I don't know), and so was a bit of a disaster because it's really hard to toast bread that's, well, shapeless. And try to make a sandwich with it? Not so much. However, in terms of taste/texture - it was great! Now to just get it to come out as a loaf.....

This weekend, to continue to new recipe trend, I decided to try making Pita Bread. I found three different recipes, tried the one that seemed most compatible with the ingredients I already had on hand, and it was DELICIOUS (and surprisingly simple)! Next time I'm going to definitely double or triple the recipe, make a whole bunch, and then freeze the rest so I'll have some for quite awhile. If you want to try, here's the recipe I made thanks to Gluten Free Gobsmacked.

If you're trying it, I did make a few substitutions. Instead of amaranth flour, I used Quinoa flour (very interchangeable flours), and as I didn't have any almond meal, I used Teff (told you I love the stuff!) instead.

And then finally, my last venture this past weekend was a bit unexpected. It was a warm day, and I wanted something light and refreshing to drink. But I didn't want juice. I looked up recipes for milkshakes (which I'll totally be trying sometime!), but was missing a few essential ingredients for those. And then I remembered. A few months ago, I had researched and tucked away for future reference several recipes to make Sweet Lassi (for those unfamiliar with Lassi, it is a yogurt-based, Indian drink; goes excellently with curries and other spicy food; very cool, light, and refreshing. A lot of people like the mango version, but I personally favor just plain, ol' sweet Lassi). Fortunately, I had everything on hand, so I whipped it up in the blender. PERFECT!

Some of the versions I found recommended lemon juice as well. I might try adding some of that next time and see how it goes.

Here's the recipe for that (I'd tell you where I got it from, but, to be honest, I don't remember!).

Sweet Lassi - Serves 2 (12 oz each) or 3 (8 oz each)
2 cups plain low fat yogurt
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
6 ice cubes

Combine the yogurt with the water, sugar, and cardamom in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add the ice cubes and blend until they are completely incorporated.

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