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!

Laurie's Potatoes

That's what Bob said I should call my latest creation. It's a play off my brother's dish which we call Taylor's potatoes.

This is a super simple, easy to adapt roasted potato dish that works well as a dinner side dish or main course or as great breakfast potatoes.

Laurie's Potatoes

Ingredients

4-6 large yukon gold or other interesting potatoes, use more if they are small
1 red bell pepper
1 red or yellow onion
1 zucchini
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1) Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cover a large baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, spray or brush lightly with olive oil.

2) Chop all the vegetables into small size chunks.

3) Toss together in a bowl with a tablespoon olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4) Spread evenly on the prepared baking sheet.

5) Bake at 400 F for 35 to 50 minutes, until the vegetables start to brown on the edges. I like to stir them around every 15 minutes or so to prevent sticking. The time with vary with the size of your chunks and how crispy you like them.

6) Serve immediately and hope you made enough for leftover !!

I served them with grilled salmon and my favorite preserved lemon yogurt sauce.

Feel free to add any vegetable you have on hand, add fresh herbs, garnish with fresh tomatoes and black olives or sour cream.

Jean's No Flour Chocolate cake

This dense delicious chocolate cake was first made for me by my dear friend Jean. She along with two other women and myself have been getting together almost every month since our kids were in pre-school together, 20 years I believe !!
We rotate homes and whoever hosts makes dessert and there have been some very memorable desserts.

I forgot to take a photo when I cut this cake recently, and as you can imagine it didn't last long.

Jean's No Flour Chocolate cake

Ingredients

16 oz. semisweet chocolate

1 cup unsalted butter

9 eggs separated

1 cup sugar

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9" spring form pan, dust with flour.
2) Chop the chocolate into smaller chunks.

3) Slowly melt butter and chocolate together in a heavy saucepan over low heat, set aside to cool.

.

4) Separate the eggs into two large bowls. 

5) Beat the yolks for about 1 minute, slowly add sugar and continue beating until thick and lemon colored.

6) Beat the whites until they just begin to peak.

7) Add cooled chocolate mixture to yolks and blend thoroughly.

8) Pour this mixture into egg whites and fold in gently until completely blended. 

9) Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45 minutes. 

10) Cool 1/2 hour or longer before turning out onto a serving plate.The cake will rise and then fall as it cools.

11) May be served with whipped cream, ice cream, garnish with fresh strawberries and slivered almonds.

Enjoy.

Cashew Cardamom Fudge

I love cardamom, it's a fairly unusual spice used in most Indian and Middle Eastern cooking, mostly in desserts and a major component of Chai.

Cardamom comes in pods, seeds or powdered.

You may have seen those weird white sticky puddings in Indian lunch buffets. Most people won't try them but if they have cardamom, I usually love them. That's what drew me to this recipe. I found it in my local paper's food section and was intrigued. The Indian name is Soy Paneer Kaju Barfi, yes "barfi", that doesn't bode well does it ??
Turns out that barfi is condensed milk that is cooked with sugar until it forms a solid, who would have know ;-)

I used my recent yoga club potluck as a chance to try this out.

Cashew Cardamom Fudge

Ingredients

8 ounces of super firm tofu
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1 can ( 14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

1) Line an 8 inch glass baking dish with parchment so that it goes up one side.

2) Press the tofu to remove some of the moisture, then grate it into a bowl, using the smaller holes of your grater.

I was surprised by how easily it grated, extra firm tofu !!

3) Using a small or regular sized food processor, grind the cashews to a fine texture.

4) Add to the tofu and mix together.
5) Use a saute pan to cook your fudge, pour in the can of sweetened condensed milk and your tofu cashew mixture.

6) Stir together over medium heat, cook for 15 minutes. You need to increase your stirring as the mixture heats up to prevent it from burning, don't walk away ;-)

7) The mixture should not really boil, although it will bubble and will eventually hold together and look like very thick cooked oatmeal. It will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, that's how you will know it is done.

8) Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cardamom. Pour into the prepared baking dish, spreading it if need be with a spatula.

9) Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and press gently into the fudge. Chill for several hours, the resting time allows the flavor to develop.

10) The flap of parchment with help you to remove the fudge when you are ready to cut it. You can slice it into triangles or diamond shapes which are traditional. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

I guess my yoga club enjoyed it because when I offered to send the leftovers home with them everyone accepted !!

Next time I am going to try adding shredded coconut and maybe some rosewater ( another one of those exotic flavors I love ).

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

It may not be as American as apple pie but this strawberry rhubarb crisp is a great summer dessert !!

Rhubarb is an odd ingredient for a sweet dish being the stalk of a vegetable plant.

Someone figured out that it pairs beautifully with strawberries.

Genna recommended a recipe by Ina Garten, (the Barefoot Contessa) which I took and made mine as usual.

Ingredients
Filling:
3 cups rhubarb
3 cups strawberries
zest of one orange
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water *
2 tsp. cornstarch

Topping:
3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups rolled oats (not instant)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter diced

To make this vegan use Earth Balance in place of the butter. To make it gluten free use brown rice flour and gluten free rolled oats ( Bob's Red Mill makes them).

1) Preheat oven to 350 F , place a glass baking dish,( 8 by 8 inch) on a cookie sheet.

2) Chop the rhubarb into inch long chunks and stem and cut the strawberries into halves or quarters.

3) Toss the fruit in a large bowl with 1/2 cup sugar and the orange zest.

4) Dissolve the 2  teaspoons of cornstarch in 1/3 cup water. * The photo below shows me whisking the cornstarch into orange juice which is what the original recipe calls for. I found the orange flavor overwhelming. Genna made it with water and pronounced it great ;-)

5) Mix the cornstarch liquid into the fruit and pour into the glass baking dish.

6) For the topping, place the flour, oats and brown sugar into a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment. Mix together.

7) With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the cold butter in pieces until the dry ingredients are moist and the mixture crumbles.

8) Sprinkle the crumble over the fruit to cover it as completely as possible.

9) Bake at 350 F for one hour.

10) Serve it warm for dessert with ice cream, whipped cream or creme fraiche. Or have it for breakfast with plain yogurt !! Yum !!

Zucchini Bites

This time of year there can never be too many recipes that use summer squash :-)
These little bite remind me of the zucchini pancakes I posted a few weeks ago, they make great appetizers at a party or brunch.

The recipe calls for mini muffin tins which I happen to have.

You could probably try them in a regular muffin tin. The recipe with only make a dozen and might need to bake longer.

Ingredients.
2 large eggs
2 cups grated zucchini ( 1 to 2 zucchini depending on the size)

With this size zucchini I needed one and a half to make the two cups.

1 small onion grated or finely chopped
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup finely chopped parsely
1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper

1) Preheat oven to 400 F, spray mini muffin tins with spray oil.
2) In a large bowl, lightly beat the two eggs.
3) Add grated zukes, onions, cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper.

4) Mix together with a wooden spoon. The batter will be sticky and loose.

5) With a spoon, fill each muffin cup to the top.

6) Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops are browned and the mixture has set.
   

7) Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.

8) They should keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge and should freeze well. I wouldn't know since they all disappeared at the party they attended !!

Note: You can use any kind of cheese that melts well, or use grated carrot if you want them dairy free. Fresh chopped basil would be a nice addition. Use gluten free bread or crackers to make you own crumbs for a gluten free appetizer.