Quinoa Potato Cakes

I  was served these simple potato pancakes at Mount Madonna, a retreat center where I attend a biannual yoga retreat. The food is always simple and usually tasty (sorry, I can be a bit of a snob). These pancakes were so delicious and satisfying, I could hardly believe they had only two main ingredients.

I just made a large batch and froze them just the other day, some we had for dinner, some will come with us on our big road trip this week and the rest will await our return as a simple addition to a future dinner.

You can get as fancy or a simple as you like with these cakes. 

Quinoa Potato Cakes

Ingredients

2 cups cooked mashed potatoes

2 cups cooked quinoa

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

 optional:  1 teaspoon cumin powder or some sauteed leaks or ...whatever strikes your fancy.

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Make your favorite mashed potatoes and allow to cool enough to handle or use leftovers from the night before.

2) Same with the quinoa, we often use it in place of rice with a stir fry, in fact I cook it in the rice cookers.

3) Mix equal part in a bowl, add salt, pepper, cumin etc... to taste.

4) Form into patties.

5) Place on a well oiled baking sheet or into a cast iron skillet. I use the spray olive oil, you can brush them with olive oil or melted butter.

6) Bake for 15 minutes then carefully flip them and brush or spray with more olive oil. Bake for another 15 minutes.

7) They should be nicely browned. If you use a skillet, they will take less time, cook on medium heat, flipping them after 5 minutes. Cook for another 5-10 minutes.

8) Serve with as a side dish with  steamed greens, or a big salad, with a pork chop or sausages. They are great by themselves or try any of your favorite condiments, we like them with my tomato chutney.

They are great the next day heated up for breakfast or lunch !!

Coconut Bliss Balls

Coconut bliss balls is not the best name for these simple sweet treats, but it is the name they came with so that's what I will call them until I come up with a better name.
My friend Laurie made them for me once upon a time, then made me promise not to blog about them until she did. She has a wonderful food blog herself, check it out. I just looked and she posted about these treat back in December 2014...I guess it's OK if I post about them now ;-)

I was so impressed when I first ate them, then made them, with how simple they are...few ingredients and simple prep, almost too easy. They do need to chill several hours before serving, so take that into consideration if you plan to use them for dessert. They are vegan and gluten free, in case that matters...

Coconut Bliss Balls

Ingredients

    •    2 cup finely shredded coconut
    •    3 Tbsp. coconut oil
    •    2 Tbsp. maple syrup
    •    ½ tsp. vanilla extract
    •    1  cup dark chocolate chips
    •    sea salt

 Makes about 25-27 balls

1) Combine coconut, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract in a blender or food processor. Blend until well combined into a thick ‘crumb’.

2) Use your hands to mold the coconut crumb into bite-size balls. They should stick together nicely. Place the balls on a piece of wax paper. If you are having trouble getting them to stick together try chilling the mixture for an hour.

3) You can chill them once you formed them into balls or try to coat them now. It depends on the temperature of your kitchen. If you are in Baton Rouge like one of my favorite people, then chilling them will make them easier to dip.



4) When you are ready to dip the balls, melt chocolate chips, I like using the microwave for this, start with 1 minute, then stir, heat for 30 more seconds, stir, until you have a nice soft texture. You can use a double boiler if you prefer. I had trouble getting my soupy enough one time and found that a teaspoon of coconut oil added to the chocolate worked wonders.

5) Use a spoon to dip each ball into the chocolate. This is the messy and sometimes tricky part. Persevere ;-)

6) Sprinkle each ball with a bit of sea salt while the chocolate is still moist. I used this wonderful lavender rosemary sea salt my friend Joni made for me.

7) Refrigerate the balls for two hours (to harden) and enjoy!

Tomato Chutney, definitely addictive.

This was the year of crop failures here on the Mount Ranch. Our apple and pear trees did not get enough chilling hours to produce fruit, first time ever and a devastating one for the resident orchardist.
I usually make a LOT of pear chutney, it's a popular item at the arts & crafts sale I do every fall.

I needed something to fill that niche...and I had just bought 40 lbs of "seconds" organic dry farmed tomatoes. In a quick search I found this tomato chutney recipe, it was billed as "adult catsup".
My usual sous chef has an extreme aversion to peeling tomatoes and I can't do it for long without thumb pain, so I enlisted my very good friend, Susan, to help. While she peeled the "love apples" ( old fashioned term for tomato), I peeled and chopped the garlic and onions.

I had no idea how this mixture would turn out so it was a bit risky to start with a double batch which is what I did. Luckily it was an instant hit here served the next day with burgers. In fact we liked it so much we took it with us on a camping trip the following week. We met our friends who were hiking the John Muir Trail to give them supplies.

They had been on the trail for twenty days and were so happy to have food that did not require rehydrating. We made them burger (beef and veggie) for dinner with this chutney as the star condiment. Even my friend Laurie who is not a fan of most chutneys pronounced this one: amazing. She liked it so much she bought a jar once she was back home :-)

Here is my (as always) modified version.

Amazing Tomato Chutney

    •    4 lb tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped  ( I weighted them before peeling)
    •    1/4 c. minced garlic (about a medium sized head)
    •    1 c. chopped onions
    •    3/4 c. brown sugar
    •    3/4 c. white sugar
    •    1 c. cider vinegar
    •    1/2 cup white vinegar
    •    1 TB. pickling salt
    •    1 lemon, zested and juiced
    •    1 TB fresh grated ginger
    •    1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes (or to taste)
    •    1 tsp. cumin seeds
    •    1/2 tsp. black pepper
    •    1/2 c. raisins, chopped


1) Here is my post on how to make peeling tomatoes relatively painless.

 2) Peel and chop the garlic and onions. You can do a coarse chop in a small food processor or do it by hand.
3) The recipe calls for chopping the raisins, you can leave them whole if you like.
4) The original recipe called for powdered ginger and cumin. These will certainly work but I like my modifications. Remember it's much easier to grate ginger if the root is frozen, it will also keep longer that way.
5) Combine all the ingredients in a heavy nonreactive ( stainless steel or enamel) 4-6 quart pot.
6) Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower heat and cook at a low simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours until thickened. Stir often as it thickens to prevent scorching. When I double recipe it took twice as long to boil down.
7) Can in half pint jars using a hot water bath for 10 minutes. As always use safe home preserving techniques, here is  a site with lots of information. The original recipe did mention that she had good results freezing this chutney.
Yield is about five half pint jars, depending on how much you cook it down.
Try it on potatoes and anything else that passes by your plate !!