First, a note on the Kefir… I originally bought So Delicious Strawberry Coconut Milk Kefir to give it a shot since, although I love kefir, sometimes the flavor can overwhelm other ingredients in my smoothies.  Also, kefir (milk and coconut milk) has probiotics which are great for your digestive health – and although many people that are lactose intolerant can eat yogurt and kefir with no problem- I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry for my husband – who has that intolerancy we think.  The flavor of this coconut kefir is far more mild with a fantastic hint of coconut.  I love this stuff!

Then there’s the coconut.  There seems to be, over the past several years, a huge new wave of coconut lovers and followers, plenty of coconut oil diets and loads of websites dedicated to the health benefits of coconut.  In Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon talks about the health benefits saying, “It provides calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, iodine and many trace minierals.”  She discusses the fact that 60% of the coconut is fat and of that fat, 92% is saturated – but not to avoid coconut products.  The main fatty acid in the coconut is lauric acid, a “medium-chain 12-carbon saturated fatty acid that has potent antiviral, antifungal and antimicrobial properties.”  The medium-chain fatty acids in coconut also strengthen the immune system.  For a few more sources to read on coconut (treating AIDs and candida!), check these out: Coconut Research Center, Weston A Price, Organic Facts and make sure to check out the articles in those sites about Thailand!  In Thailand, coconut is part of the staple diet and Sally Fallon says that according to the National Cancer Institute, of the 50 countries tested, Thailand has the lowest cancer rate.  Coincidence?

Anytime I’m either in Italy or at an authentic Italian restaurant with meat and gravy over polenta (either roast or rabbit), my mouth instantly waters and I want to order it!  Luckily, either my Dad or husband always orders it, so I can try something else equally delicious and we can all share.  During our Vegas trip last month – one restaurant has a fantastic appetizer portion of rabbit and gravy over polenta and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Because I have a freezer in our garage full of cow, I decided to go ahead and throw this together.  I’m sooo glad that I did since we loved it and I know what I will be doing with a few more of those roasts in the freezer!  As a kid, I didn’t like the traditional American style roast with potatos and carrots.  I like it now but still prefer the Italian style most days.  I made it with extra liquids on purpose for some leftover gravy to share over more fresh polenta!

If you’ve read this post, Easy Purple Polenta Meal , then you’ll know my son finds purple foods intriguing and will eat it.  I would’ve made this with purple polenta but unfortunately, I couldn’t find the Bob’s Red Mill blue cornmeal this time!  That resulted in my son not eating this when I know he would have had the polenta been purple!  Urggghhhh!  Next time I see it, I’m buying a few of them.

Ingredients:

• 3 shallots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 TB butter
• 5 lbs bone-in chuck roast (or whatever roast you have on hand)
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth (less if you want less gravy)
• 1 cup dry red wine (I used a Chianti)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 16 oz mushrooms
• cornstarch for gravy (or whatever method you prefer) -about 2 TBs dissolved in about 1/4 cup of water
• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal (I used roughly ground cornmeal which takes longer, but you can use the fine ground stuff as well)
• 4 cups chicken broth + 2 cups water, more or less
• parmesan or pecorino romano

Method:

• Set crockpot to low (8 or 10 hours)
• Add olive oil to bottom of crockpot and then add garlic and shallots
• Add broth, red wine, herbs and tomato paste, stir
• Heat butter on stovetop pan and sear all sides of roast, (salt and pepper roast)
• Add roast to the crockpot
• Mid-day, if you are able to come home, add mushrooms – I did this about 4 1/2 hours into cooking so that the mushrooms didn’t get too tiny, omit this step if you can’t come home and just add the mushrooms
• For the thick-cut cornmeal, about an hour and a half prior to serving, I like to soak fora half hour, it seems to make cooking time go by faster without having to stand around and stir for quite as long.  Then, one hour prior to serving, set heat to medium and stir with whisk.  When bubbles start to form, turn down heat until the bubbles are minimal- continue stirring with a wooden spoon almost constantly.  When the mixture becomes tough- keep adding little bits of water at a time.  Continue cooking and stirring until coarseness of the grain goes away and it starts to pull in from the pan.  I think the thicker-cut cornmeal has a better texture, but you have to cook it long enough so that it’s not grainy!
• For the finer-cut cornmeal, similar instructions but it should only take 30-40 minutes
• Season polenta with grated parm or romano or both, and invert onto a plate (or do it like I do, just serve out of the pot so I don’t have to do another dish!)
• When meat is done, remove from the crock pot and put on a plate
• Slowly stir in cornstarch mixture with a whisk or spoon until desired thickness of gravy is formed.  I’m lucky, my mom was over this day and makes the best gravy ever, she did this part for me!  When done, return meat to crockpot.
• Serve the meat and red wine mushroom gravy over the polenta, top with more grated cheese if you wish!

By the way…excuse my picture- I meant to take a beautiful shot of how the meat fell off the bone and demonstrate how tender it was…but then our stomachs got the better of us and we ate all the good stuff in no time.  This picture is the last we could salvage of the meat!  It still smelled divine though…

Gluten Free Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m in love.  Seriously, I’ve turned into the cookie monster.  I’m not sure why this is, but every winter I turn into a chocolate and mint fanatic.  My friend Chris made the yummy Nestle seasonal chocolate and mint chip chocolate cookies a couple of weeks ago and I about died and went to heaven when I tasted them.  On the other hand, knowing the ingredients that went into them and also reading the label on the chips tells me that they’re pretty awful for you.  I basically needed a healthy alternative and I’m happy to say I succeeded!  This is going to be a go-to cookie for me all winter.  My whole family likes them- my husband wants to eat them with ice cream!   I decided to develop my own recipe when I was meandering on Goop.com and saw the gluten-free chocolate chip mint cookies on there made by Erin McKenna of Baby Cakes - but they didn’t look how I wanted them to look.  So, I took to the pen and paper and wrote my own recipe like I always do when I bake….and then crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Through Healthy Yum and Musselmans, I received two jars of applesauce, one regular and one chunky.  The regular version is what I used for this recipe – and it worked perfectly!  This way, the cookie is lightened up a tad and has a little healthy boost as well.  Not to mention the applesauce is yummy.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep at night.  My dad was always up reading and so when he saw me he’d pop two slices of heavy whole grain seedy bread in the toaster and top it off with applesauce.  He sometimes used prune or poppy seed pie filling as well.  Though my son loves his applesauce- he hasn’t quite gotten used to it on toast yet! 

I used real organic sugars in this recipe rather than agave, honey or fruit syrup because my husband can always detect it and usually doesn’t like the end result.  The perfect cookie would’ve used alternative sweeteners – but this is pretty close:)  In the close-up picture of the cookies- they appear a little grainy – they’re not!  They’re very smooth!  They’re not as thick as the Nestle flour version though – but still have a nice chewy thickness hard to find in many gluten-free cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used Musselman’s)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar (I use organic white)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (I use organic brown)
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup oat flour (for gluten-free, you have to grind your own GF oats)
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp xantham gum
• 10 oz chocolate chips (I mixed minis with regulars, but next time will stick with regular)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Warm coconut oil and butter until coconut oil is almost liquid and butter is softened, blend using mixer
• Add applesauce, blend, add eggs, blend
• Add sugars, vanilla and peppermint extract, mix
• In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients except chips
• Slowly add dry to wet, then add chocolate chips
• Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto cookie sheet
• Bake about 9 minutes – allow to cool on sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

I think these make about 7 dozen when using a small cookie scoop.  I always forget to count but 7 dozen sounds about right!

Marzipan Cake

One word: glorious.  My family LOVES marzipan and so this cake tastes like rich, decadent, glorious marzipan!  Not the pre-wrapped dry and tasteless stuff easily found, but the moist and delicious variety – usually found at Italian bakeries.  When I made this cake, originally I was planning on making a yummy Scandinavian Almond Cake but with almond flour instead.  There is a local place called Little Scandinavia that sells this cute Scandinavian Almond Cake Pan with a recipe included and I’ve had it for a year or so – and then last week a wonderful friend of mine, Chris, brought the cake to bunco!  It was absolutely delicious and we all gobbled it up throughout the night.  That got me motivated to make something new!  I will share that recipe as well, but it’s not the one I made. 

As usual, I couldn’t just stop at changing flours and adding some more moisture.  I felt it would be amazing with coconut and lime.  My first botched attempt at this cake produced an amazing tasting though insanely oily and moist cake.  I ate some of it but since it was so oily I sadly threw out the batch after making myself sick for a day.  My second attempt, however, was successful!  It’s a very moist cake, so if you want it less moist, I think you can just omit the milk and it should turn out well.  Basically, this is a delicious gluten-free cake made unhealthy by excess sugar.  But – it is a delicious treat and eating a small slice will make you feel full and satisfied.  I think the protein in the almond and eggs are the filling culprits:)   You can hardly taste the coconut and lime – I think the lime adds a nice very slight tartness (the flavor comes out a little more after sitting) and the coconut blends in with the almond making it taste even more nutty – and somehow adds to the marzipan flavor. 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (I used Tropical Traditions brand – use a good brand with great coconut flavor for this)
• 1 cup sugar (I used organic white)
• 3 eggs
• juice of 1/2 lime
• grated rind of 1 lime – don’t need to get too crazy here
• 1/4 cup milk or coconut milk (omit if you want less moisture)
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 2 cups almond flour (firmly packed)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 tsp baking powder
• few dashes of salt

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Grease almond cake pan (or I think a bread pan should work just fine, just won’t be as pretty) – I used coconut oil spray to grease
• Warm butter and coconut oil until softened to a little melty
• Blend butter and coconut oil
• Add remaining liquid ingredients and blend
• Add dry ingredients and blend
• Pour batter into pan
• Bake about 30 minutes, then put foil loosly on top – at this point it should be browned on the edges
• Bake another 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and it doesn’t wiggle.
• Allow cake to cool in pan and then invert and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  If you get excited and try to invert it too soon, the cake will break.  No one will blame you.

Chris made the recipe included which consists of: 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, 2 tsp almond extract, 2/3 cup milk, 1 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 stick melted butter – bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.   She also added sliced almonds to the bottom and it was wonderful – it added a roasted, nutty crunch.  I planned on adding the almonds but then got too excited and forgot about them.  Anyway, the original Scandinavian Almond Cake is slightly moist and heavy with a pure almond flavor.  My version has a major marzipan flavor and is more dense and filling.  They’re both delicious.

My two year old loved it but my husband thought it was a little bland.  I don’t understand how it’s bland at all since it tastes just like marzipan…but then again, he doesn’t get the allure of marzipan while I absolutely love it!  My parents and I didn’t think it was in the least bit bland, rather, it’s a pretty darn strong almond flavor!  So…if you don’t really like marzipan or are not sure about who you’re feeding this to…it may be best to stick with the original.  Otherwise, I think it’d be fun to play with this…try lemon instead of lime, omit the lemon/lime all together and just use milk and maybe more coconut, or even almonds inside the cake.  Any which way, I think it’s darn special.

Baked Hot Wing Sauce Garbanzo Beans

Two things happened yesterday that inspired me to make these.  First, I get an email from the people over at Saucy Mama telling me that I have until the end of the month to submit a new recipe to be considered in their contest.  If you haven’t read some prior posts, they sent 25 bloggers lots of sauces to try out and sponsor a giveaway (mine is over!) to finally compete to win prizes for the best recipes!  Then, I get a comment from Denise on my previous post, about Toddler Snack Ideas, suggesting that crunchy baked garbanzo beans are a different great snack idea that maybe O would enjoy.  Eureka!  Suddenly, nothing sounded better than some hot and spicy crunchy garbanzo beans (that end up tasting nutty rather than beany).  I had been wondering what to do with the hot wing sauce and kept wanting to press some tofu and put it on there for some “hot tofu fries,” but I just never got excited enough to do it.  See, I have never really liked hot wings but have always loved the sauce.  So, I crossed my fingers and gave the garbanzo beans a shot and am sooooo glad that I did.  I love them!  I only made a little just in case – since the last few things I’ve experimented with didn’t work out and then I get sad that I wasted good ingredients.  I used about a quarter of the can with the hot wings, and with the rest I just made with olive oil and sea salt.  I inhaled the hot wing sauce version!!!  The sauce gave the garbanzo beans an extra crunchy outside layer, kinda like sweet roasted nuts.  Or, I guess you could say kinda like chicken wings! 

I’m definitely making these for my next bunco with the girls.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit I play bunco- I’m only 30 and don’t feel that old but I guess that I really am that old.  I love it!  We have a great time.  To be fair, I started at 28, still in my 20s!   I used to roll my eyes at my mom playing bridge with her lady friends (because there was always so much giggling which is a little embarrassing and annoying when you’re a kid and it’s your parents and friends) and here I am doing the same thing.  Sigh.  Anyway, there is a girl there that is allergic to nuts, and some of the girls and myself always end up making something with nuts in it to bring and then remembering when it’s too late.  We’re getting better at that lately.  Plus, we like to eat healthy for the most part so we can enjoy the few really rich things at the table.  These seem like the absolute perfect healthy snack solution.  Yay!  If you want to make them, rest assured that they’re simple and cheap!  A little sauce goes a long way and a can of garbanzo beans is quite affordable.  However, I ate half the can of crunchy beans so maybe you can restrain yourself better than I can.

Lastly, I wanted to answer the question that may be in your mind.  Denise recommended these for my toddler as a great snack that he may like that adds extra protein – because he doesn’t eat as much protein as I’d like him to eat.  Does he like them?  The answer is: a little!  Which is great, I shared a bowl of the olive oil and salt version with him and he liked to play with them with his hands and eat one now and then and every so often spit one out.  I’m happy that he ate at least a few!  It’s something, which is much better than nothing I think!

Ingredients:

• 1 16oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
• Hot wing sauce (Saucy Mama)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Rinse and drain garbanzo beans
• In a shallow bowl, spread out garbanzo beans
• Pour a little bit of sauce over the beans and stir them up – keep adding until there’s just enough to coat the beans on all sides
• Grease a cookie sheet – I sprayed mine
• With a slotted spoon (like the kind you remove doughnuts from oil with) remove the beans and shake off excess sauce gently
• Spread evenly on pan – bake about 45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.  Beans will shrivel – you’ll notice in my picture some start to look a little burnt but they are not burnt- there is no burnt flavor, if you leave it in too long or don’t stir often enough, I assume it’ll start tasting burnt so make sure you keep checking on it!
• Remove from heat, allow to cool and enjoy!

Side note…the olive oil version took about an hour while these only took 45 minutes.

Disclosure:  I was provided free product from Barhyte Specialty Foods

Purple Polenta

Regarding the Food Network, I like to eat more like Giada, but today I feel more like a mix between Sandra Lee and Rachael Ray.  This meal is semi-homemade and takes about 30 minutes!  One of the reasons it’s so quick is because I used a bottled sauce.  It’s awesome though, Mother Earth Organic Tomato Basil imported from Italy.  I would not use most bottled sauces as they really are not very good.  If you can’t find Mother Earth Organic (at Whole Food’s and locally in the health section at Hy-Vee), Lucini’s Creamy Tomato Ricotta sauce is excellent as well!  I also like to make my own sauces but it’s just hard to find the time sometimes!  Of course, if you have the time, make your favorite sauce!  This was so good the first time that I had to make it twice in one week just so I could take a picture of it and post!  The first time I made it I used the remainder of the local American Italian Heritage Society’s sausages, which are amazing but alarmingly full of fat.  I swear it’s 50%.  I can’t stand chewing on fat and end up spitting it into my napkin.  So, the second time I made it (pictured), I bought the sweet Italian turkey sausage made without hormones or pesticides.  Much healthier!  However, with less fat, I do prefer the flavor of the good stuff the local Italians make!

If you’ve never made polenta before, don’t be intimidated because it’s super-easy.  But done right, it’s a little time consuming.  You can buy regular corn meal, but I like to buy the medium to course grind corn grits which just takes a little while longer to soften, but it brings a different texture dimension to the polenta.  Also, you can make your polenta with just water, but I prefer to use chicken broth.  It only adds a little bit of flavor, it won’t taste like chicken broth, but what it adds always goes with what I’m making!  By the way, I like my polenta soft, not hard.  Most people think polenta comes in tubes that you slice and fry.  I’ve tried that before and didn’t like it at all!  You can make your polenta soft, and then you can fry the leftovers the next day if you want!  It tastes a million times better than the store-bought tubes.  Part of my reasoning for making it purple (using blue cornmeal) other than the usual added antioxidants in colorful food, is that my son lately will eat purple food.  It’s funny, he won’t eat carrots or peppers, but will happily munch on purple carrots or purple peppers, which are milder than the green variety.  Sure enough, he chowed on this meal, but won’t eat yellow or white polenta!  My husband and I like to drizzle extra virgin olive oil (I’m partial to evoo from Spain) on top of most of our Italian dishes, and it’s really cute because our son will wait eagerly for his olive oil drizzle before digging into his food.  However, he still steals my plate and eats my food because it’s most always better than his…even though it’s exactly the same.

Ingredients: (for 3, double for 4-6 people)

• 1 cup blue cornmeal…yes it is called blue, but it looks purple to me!  Lavender to be exact.  Lavender Polenta doesn’t sound very good though.
• 3-4 cups chicken broth or water, for simplicity, I buy the 4 cup boxed organic chicken broth and usually use most of the box.
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano – the imported real stuff tastes better than regular Parmesan (without the reggiano behind the name)
• Olive oil
• 1/2 jar (Mother Earth Organic tomato basil sauce) jar sauce
• 3 turkey Italian sausages – sweet or spicy
• 1 TB butter
• salt to taste
• lemon basil or basil – lemon basil is delicious- it’s basil that tastes like a little lemon rind flavor found its way in, that’s what I used, again from the farmer’s market

Method:

• Boil 3 cups chicken broth, whisk in blue cornmeal, add butter and reduce to simmer.  This needs to be babysat, constantly whisking and stirring the mixture which will bubble.  If it gets tough to stir, add a little more chicken broth
• Meanwhile, on a skillet  on medium-high with a little bit of butter or butter spray, brown the edges of the sausage, continue cooking for about 10 minutes, remove from heat and slice sausage and return to skillet - until sausage is cooked through and browned nicely on the sides.  If there there is liquid leftover from the sausage that doesn’t cook down, just drain it
• (remember to stir polenta) reduce sausage skillet heat to low and after a couple of minutes add the sauce, rip up some lemon basil or basil leaves, about 7-10 and stir in with the sauce
• After about 30 minutes of the polenta cooking – do a taste test and make sure that it has softened – it shouldn’t be crunchy but it still has some depth to it, turn off the heat, add1/3-1/2 cup parm, a drizzle of olive oil (1tsp-1tbsp), salt to taste
• Serve polenta on plate and top with desired amount of sauce with sausage, top with freshly grated parm and drizzle with olive oil. 

My favorite way to eat polenta is with rabbit and gravy but it’s very time consuming.  I’ll make sure to post a recipe for that eventually.  From many of my friends, I get asked to make some less “healthy” things – see, this would qualify even though it’s healthy!  They’re basically asking me to sometimes not bake foods with scary sounding ingredients:)  Well, I hope this is less scary for you!

Fresh Berry Pie

Ever had a fresh berry pie?  They are absolutely delicious!  Best of all, it’s simple to make.  It’s just fresh berries in a sugary plain gelatin on graham cracker crust.  If you can’t eat wheat, this pie would taste excellent on most any crust.   In addition to the currants I received from my Dad last weekend, I just received some delicious raspberries and blackberries from his garden as well.  What to do?  Big smile.  I could eat two of these pies a week!   I’ve had a fresh strawberry and a fresh raspberry pie from a local restaurant, but never mixed or homemade.  So far, this mixed pie and also fresh raspberry are my favorites.  Seasonal, light, refreshing and yummy.

I chose to make my own graham cracker crust because the store bought varieties are made with hydrogenated fats.  Be careful with this because even the regular graham crackers at most grocery stores all have these trans fats in them – you’ll have to buy the graham crackers at the natural foods section or natural foods stores.  You should be able to buy them at Target though- the Back to Nature brand sticks are our favorite.

Ingredients:

• CRUST
•  1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 6 TB butter, softened
• FILLING
• 2 1/2 – 3 cups berries (my mix was equal parts raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and currants)
• 2 packets flavorless gelatin + 2 cups boiling water
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method:

• CRUST
• pre-heat oven to 350
• Grind graham crackers in food processor
• Mix graham crackers with sugar and cut in butter
• Form in a pie pan, patting crust firmly
• Bake for 8-10 minutes
• Allow to cool, about 30-40 minutes
• FILLING
• Boil water, with a whisk add gelatin packets and sugar
• Allow to cool slightly, a few minutes
• Arrange berries on pie crust
• Pour gelatin mixture over berries until it reaches top layer of berries.  Depending on your pie pan, there may be extra gelatin leftover, that’s okay, just discard it 
• Refrigerate until hardened

Dollup with fresh whip cream!  I make mine with heavy whipping cream, a little vanilla, and some sugar to taste.  Just whisk with beaters in a tall bowl until it reaches the desired consistency.

Shepherd's Pie With Red Wine

If I see Shepherd’s Pie on the menu anywhere (or something like it) I have to order it!  It’s the ultimate in comfort food with a nice bonus of vegetables.  Unfortunately, it’s not on too many menus in Omaha so I’m forced to make it myself.  Luckily, I found an amazing recipe from Saveur which I’ve tweaked to suit my needs…  as usual.  This recipe calls for lamb – making it shepherd’s pie, but if you don’t want to buy it for any reason, you can substitute ground beef and call it cottage pie!  That’s yummy too.  I love cooking with different meats, in fact, on Father’s Day we had some delicious braised goose with polenta, but we gobbled it up before I could take a picture so I thought I’d make lamb this time.  For a little fyi, I bought some grass-fed lamb at the farmer’s market, and it actually doesn’t taste any better than the lamb at the grocery store.  Interesting since the grass-fed beef is about a million times better than the grocery store versions (I’m talking no added hormone version).  I will continue to buy the grass-fed regardless since it’s better for you, but this lamb was really no different.  Depending on the cut of lamb you buy, you may have to do some major fat-cutting!  Lamb can be pricey, so it’s just more work cutting out fat if you buy a fattier piece.  I can’t stand chewing on fat so I’ll work forever cutting it off if I have to.  If anyone knows of a good butcher in Omaha, let me know!

This kind of food makes my husband happy.  However, this takes forever to make and makes quite a mess!  If you’ve got small kids, I suggest a babysitter or definitely some help before attempting!  In this case, my mom was around to help.  We started at nap-time and then when my son woke up, my mom entertained him so I could keep cooking.  Otherwise, I don’t think I would attempt making anything this time consuming!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 2 lbs lamb (any cut that’s on sale, cut into 1/2″ cubes)
• 1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 3/4 cup beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 15oz can chopped San Marzano tomatoes, drained
• 2 Tb flour (or if you’re gluten-intolerant, just substitute what you normally would to thicken gravy)
• 1 Tb finely chopped FRESH rosemary leaves, fresh rosemary makes a huge difference here!
• 1 tsp thyme, dried, 1 TB fresh if you have it, I didn’t
• a few dashes of nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
• 2-3 large russet potatoes, depending on how much you want, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 cup half-and-half or 1/2 cup chicken stock to lighten up the mashed potatoes

Method:

• Pre-heat non-stick casserole dish to medium-high on stove-top (I use the same oven-safe kind so I don’t have to dirty up 2 dishes, but use a pan if you don’t have a transferrable pan)
• Add enough butter to coat and brown lamb – you’ll have to work with 1/4 to 1/3 of the lamb at a time, removing to a bowl to brown up the next batch.  Add more butter as necessary, remove all lamb to bowl
• Add onion, shallot and carrots to pan and cook until onion is see-through and browns a little, about 5 minutes
• Return lamb (and all juices) to pan and add flour, whisk for about a minute.  You can also coat the lamb w/ flour first if you want to or if you forget the flour, just add it when you add the juices, it’ll all work out
• Add beef stock, wine, rosemary, thyme and nutmeg, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cover about 2 hours, until lamb is tender – yours may cook much faster, so keep checking.  stirring occasionally. 
• Remove cover from pot, add tomatoes, keep simmering until thickened, about 35-40 minutes.  Remove from heat and add peas, add salt and pepper to taste, transfer to 2 quart casserole dish
• Pre-heat oven to 375
• Cover potatoes with water in a separate pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 25 minutes, drain, return to pot.  Add half and half (or chicken stock if you’re making it lighter) and a few tablespoons of butter and mash with a potato masher.  Add salt and pepper to taste
• Top lamb mixture with mashed potatoes, here’s your opportunity to make those potatoes pretty.  I used 2 instead of 3 potatoes in the picture above, so more of the lamb mixture juices bubble over to the potatoes.  Yummmmm.  Slice thin slivers of butter on top of potatoes - about a tablespoon or two
• Bake until the potatoes turn golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes

…a little note about the potatoes, it’s prettier when you use three potatoes, but the last time I made this with three and had leftovers, I ended up getting a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy basically.  So, this time I made it with two instead of three for leftover’s sake.  It would’ve pictured even prettier had I used 3 but of course, I wasn’t thinking of looks, just of the flavor.  I need to remember that I have a food blog and it needs to look pretty, not just taste yummy.  It takes me awhile to learn my lessons but trust me, it’s goooood!

Takako Yazaki's Miso Soup

I love miso soup.  I could probably eat it every single day before a meal or two and be content.  Well, I am soooo lucky that my brother married a wonderful Japanese girl from Nagasaki willing to share her family’s recipe with me.  Usually she doesn’t measure but I made her do it this time.  Also, the recipe is a little tweaked for my brother, who doesn’t like the little fish floating around in the soup, we may make that one later.  However, for my brother, she makes it with an egg, rather than tofu.  For our purposes, we like tofu better in miso soup so this recipe has tofu in it.  If you don’t like tofu, you can add an egg instead per bowl and it’s pretty darn good as well!  Takako told me that in Southern Japan, they use light miso (Nagasaki is in the South) and in the Northwest, they use dark miso. 

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 cups water
• scant 1/4 cup katsuobushi, which is dried fish flakes (go to a specialty store that sells Japanese food, you may want to call ahead to make sure)
• scant 1/4 cup dried seaweed (we used wakame this time but Takako said whatever is fine)
• 2 1/4 TB light (or dark) miso, I bought mine at the specialty store but make sure you ask which one is natural, because the other brand they sold had msg in it, you can buy miso at most places though with English printed on it so you know what you’re buying.  I don’t understand a darn thing on my package!
• 8 oz extra firm tofu (or less if you want less) 
• green onion for garnish (just the green part, not the stalky crunchy part)

Method:

• Put water in pan over medium to low heat.  Put katsuobushi in a tea basket or strainer basket that won’t overfill into the water, cook on low until tiny bubbles form and start moving up to the top, about 10-15 minutes. Takako said it’s important not to let it boil once you add miso or the boiling water will ruin the miso flavor and you can’t taste it. 
• Meanwhile, put seaweed in a bowl of cold water, no need to measure, I think my bowl had almost 3 cups of water in it.  It’s very fun to watch the seaweed expand.  I felt like a kid watching some plant grow in fast-forward.  It’s fascinating:)  Something great for when you’re bored.
• Once those bubbles start forming in the water with the katsuobushi, add miso to the strainer basket and mix it up with chopsticks – the miso will disperse in the soup.  Some misos are chunkier, so then the chunks won’t get all over the place.
• Drain seaweed and add to the broth
• Add tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes or smaller.  Takako cuts the tofu over the pan like her mom does as she adds it.  She said sometimes the tofu is too soft to cut properly on the cutting board so it’s easier just to do it over the bowl in her hand and put it all in at once after cutting
• Remove the strainer basket, serve in bowls and add green onion for garnish

Ta da!  Easy!  I’m not intimidated anymore and will make this all the time!  Takako mentioned that just as you can’t boil the miso when you’re cooking it, don’t boil the miso while re-heating either.  This is a light, delicious version of miso.  I am used to darker miso and much saltier versions at restaurants and think this is fantastic.  Also, after eating this kind, I don’t think I’m gonna blow up like a balloon from all the sodium.  Awesome!

Oh…and for pronunciation purposes, Takako’s name sounds like TALKako - the ako part is really fast without any emphasis.  You’re welcome.

Thank you Takako!  For teaching me how to make miso soup and also styling and taking this picture!