♥ Z's Cup of Tea

Quinoa Pancakes

Zoe — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:26:03 +0000

I’m up at 6AM making pancakes and I feel slightly Julia Child-like standing over the stove, wearing my fake pearl necklace I posted yesterday on trend & chic, my fashion (among other interests) blog.

These pancakes are hearty, fluffy pancakes that are the epitome of classic pancakes. These are the pancakes you think of when you think of your basic breakfast pancakes. They have a slightly nutty flavour as well from the quinoa (we use quinoa flour and cooked quinoa in the batter), which compliments itself well to being generously spread with butter and drizzled with honey or maple syrup.

Thanks to quinoa being nutrient-dense (protein and fibre, among other nutrients), these pancakes also fit the bill for this month’s theme of Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten-Free! hosted by Maggie of She Let Them Eat Cake.

Standard blogging etiquette dictates that a recipe has to be made multiple times (anywhere from three to five to seven times, or more) before it gets posted, to ensure that it’ll consistently work and especially if you create your own recipes rather than adapt them from other sources.

The thing is, I’ve only made this recipe once – this morning! – and I’ve decided not to wait. Technically I have made them only once, but I’ve been playing with the idea in my head for months and by that time, when I’ve been playing with ideas that long, they generally work out the first time. I’m crazy that way sometimes. (Or I could’ve just used the Mighty Decider: no need to make decisions even if it could slow down improvisation.) I know that they’ll be made again.

iPod photo (Instagram)

As of yesterday, I’ve started restricting my blogging and Twitter time to the evenings so that I have more time to focus on my schoolwork and studying. So from this moment forward, until further notice, you’ll be seeing new posts in the evening – or depending on where you are in the world, in the morning. If that’s the case, what a great and lovely start to your day! I imagine this arrangement will just be till I’m done school, but we’ll see. The only exception during this juncture will be if I’m participating in a blogging event or guest posting in which my post has to be up by a specific time in the morning.

To start your morning off right, how about singing a song while making these pancakes? (I admit that I did this – and wholeheartedly, too! I can’t help myself. Get into it!)

Quinoa Pancakes
Adapted from The New York Times and Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood

This quinoa pancake recipe is adapted from two different recipes, one from The New York Times and the other from Quinoa 365, from which I have previously shared a recipe for quinoa chocolate crepes. As previously mentioned above, these are hearty, fluffy pancakes. This is the closest I’ve got to recreating pancakes like this since my coconut macaroon pancakes, which I should make again soon now I’ve thought of them.

Makes 16 pancakes

46 grams (1/3 cup) quinoa flour
60 grams (about 1/2 cup) tapioca starch/flour (tapioca starch and tapioca flour are the same)
28 grams (1/4 cup) brown rice flour
28 grams (1/4 cup) millet flour
40 grams (1/4 cup) brown sugar or palm sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 medium or large eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cooked quinoa*

Sift the quinoa flour, tapioca starch, brown rice flour, millet flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

Crack the eggs into a large bowl or similar vessel and mix with the olive oil, coconut milk, and vanilla extract. Gently whisk in the dry ingredients until you’ve made a thick batter, making sure there aren’t any lumps. Fold in the cooked quinoa.

Heat a fry pan over medium heat with a little butter or oil. Once the butter has melted and starts to sizzle, pour in 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. Depending on the size of your pan, you may get to do two to three or four pancakes at a time. The pancakes will spread a little.

Fry the pancakes until bubbles appear all over the surface and the surface is no longer shiny and the bottom is an even golden brown. Flip and cook until the other side is browned. Transfer to a plate and repeat until all the batter has been used.

Serve pancakes with butter and honey or maple syrup, or condiments of your choice. Enjoy!

*Cooking quinoa: bring 1/2 cup quinoa with 1 cup water to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, covered. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes before fluffing quinoa with a fork. You’ll have a little leftover quinoa as it makes a little over a cup.

Filed under: Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Pancakes, Recipes Tagged: dairy-free, gluten-free, quinoa

Gingery Pork Pot Stickers for Chinese New Year

Zoe — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:02:07 +0000

Chinese New Year is next Monday (it’s the Year of the Dragon) and what better way to celebrate it than share this recipe for Gingery Pork Pot Stickers from Laura B. Russell’s cookbook, The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen? If the photo above looks familiar to you, it’s because it’s from when I reviewed Laura’s cookbook back in August last year.

I’d never made pot stickers from scratch until this recipe. Prior to making them, my only fond memories of pot stickers were eating them after I’d watched Mulan. The most time consuming part is rolling out the dough and shaping the dumplings, but once you’ve got that all out of the way, it’s pretty straightforward. The pot stickers are first fried a little, then – holding lid at the ready, before yourself like a shield – water is added to the hot pan and the lid is quickly clamped on, covering the pot stickers and steaming them. They’re fried a little more after that, then you serve them right away with the dipping sauce or some soy sauce.

The best part is that they’re practically indistinguishable from pot stickers made with wheat flour and there is no difference in taste at all. They’re an instant party pleaser! I’ve even had family try them who eat gluten and loved these gluten-free pot stickers. You’ll have people clamouring for more, guaranteed.

From my review:

Even my brother, who claimed that he didn’t like pot stickers, had some and was annoyed when he couldn’t have more, since we were saving the rest (four) for my Dad to try. While I was still making the pot stickers, I had to add the water to the pan to steam them, and told my Mum to put some distance between herself and the stove – she didn’t hear; she was too busy enjoying the stickers! It took a second or third time telling her, until she realized.

If you’ve never made pot stickers before, follow the instructions carefully and pay close attention. After you’ve made them at least once, it’ll be a cinch.

Dumplings symbolize wealth, as their shape resembles the Chinese tael: a kind of weight measure, although they could also resemble little purses.

I was given permission to reprint the recipe from the publisher, Ten Speed Press, as well as use the cookbook’s cover art in my post. You can purchase The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Gingery Pork Pot Stickers
Reprinted with permission from The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen: Recipes for Noodles, Dumplings, Sauces, and More. Copyright © 2011 by Laura B. Russell. Published by Celestial Arts, an imprint of Ten Speed Press and the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA. Photo Credit: Leo Gong.

Makes 28 dumplings

1/2 cup tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch)
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour, plus plenty more for rolling out the dough
11/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons cold water
3/4 pound ground pork
3 green onions, white and green parts, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari GF
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
Soy Vinegar Dipping Sauce  (page 26), for serving

To make the dough, stir together the tapioca flour, millet flour, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add the just-boiled water and stir with a fork to combine. Add the cold water and mix well until a dough starts to form. Use your hands to knead the dough together a few times—you can do this right in the bowl—and then form the dough into two balls. Transfer the dough to a large resealable bag until ready to use, up to several hours.

In a second bowl, combine the raw pork, green onions, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Mix well to combine.

To form the dumplings, dust your hands, the counter, and a baking sheet with sweet rice flour. Roll one piece of the dough into a long rope, about 3/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 14 pieces and put them back into the resealable bag. Repeat with the other ball of dough for a total of 28 pieces. The dough will dry out quickly; make sure it stays covered.

Keep plenty of sweet rice flour nearby (up to 1/2 cup) for dusting the counter and the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking. Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten the dough into a circle with the heel of your hand. Using a small rolling pin—a small dowel works best—roll the dough into a 3- to 31/2-inch circle, turning the dough periodically to prevent sticking. (Alternately, put the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll it into a circle.) Transfer the dumpling wrappers to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. (If you run out of space on the baking sheet, make a second layer separated by plastic wrap.)

Dust a dinner plate with sweet rice flour. Spoon a scant tablespoon of filling into the center of each wrapper. Dip two fingers in a small bowl of water and run them around half the circumference of each circle. (This is so the wet side can stick to the dry side.) Lift the sides, forming a half-moon shape around the filling; keep the bottom flat against your hand or the counter. Pinch the dough together at the top and then form two or three pleats along each side; press to seal. (Alternatively, if you have a dumpling press, use it to form and seal the dumplings.) Transfer the dumplings to the prepared plate. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook, up to 4 hours ahead.

In a large nonstick frying pan, heat 11/2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Add half the dumplings to the pan and cook until browned on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Holding the pan lid in one hand (to control splattering), add  1/3 cup water to the pan and immediately cover it. Lower the heat to low and steam the dumplings until cooked through,  8 to 10 minutes. Remove the lid and raise the heat to medium. Cook until the water evaporates and the bottoms of the dumplings are well browned, about 2 minutes longer. Repeat with the remaining dumplings and oil. Serve hot with the dipping sauce or a bowl of soy sauce GF.

Note: If you do not plan on eating the dumplings all at once (reheating them is fine, not great), freeze some of the uncooked dumplings for later. Freeze the dumplings on a plate or tray before transferring them to a freezer bag to keep them from sticking together. Add the dumplings to the pan straight from the freezer and increase the steaming time by 2 minutes.

heads up

The dish calls for Soy Vinegar Dipping Sauce. You can prepare it up to 1 week ahead.

Soy Vinegar Dipping Sauce

makes about 1/2 cup1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari GF
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
11/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2–3 slices fresh jalapeño, or large pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Stir together all the ingredients in a small serving bowl. The dipping sauce will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for about 1 week with fresh jalapeño or 2 weeks with red pepper flakes.

Filed under: Appetizers and Snacks, Dumplings, Food, Recipes Tagged: Chinese New Year, gluten-free

Girl Hunter : Reconnecting with Our Food

Zoe — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:11:45 +0000

It was unusual in the city to see a whole pig roasting on a spit. It was summer and, sitting in the passenger seat, driving along Broadway with my Mum, I saw a whole pig being roasted right on the sidewalk in front of a pub. I craned my head back frantically, not sure about what I’d just seen. I told everyone I knew about it, all equally astonished as I. When I told my grandmother in Fiji about this odd sight she said, “It’s the way of life.”

I’ve been contemplating that memory and, in particular, thinking of my grandmother’s words since reading Georgia Pellegrini’s new book, Girl Hunter. There is a moment in the book in which Georgia visits Yellowstone National Park and realizes the sad irony of people observing nature from their cars and behind fences; cameras ready for action. She questions if nature has become “the last great zoo”, living off the land simply a romantic notion but unrealistic.

Girl Hunter is about reconnecting with our food and ultimately with ourselves as human beings. Whether we hunt and kill our own food or not, whether or not you eat meat, there is something for everyone to relate to in Georgia’s book and hopefully be inspired by it. Girl Hunter‘s pioneer charm crept up on me, quietly at first and then holding me in its grip until the last page. I’d watched the book trailer and that led me to download the free Kindle sample, leaving me wanting to know more after I’d read it. I bought it on Kobo with my Chapters gift card I got for Christmas.

It begins with Georgia’s childhood, in which she describes catching trout for breakfast and growing up on the same land with the charming name of Tulipwood that her great-grandfather owned and worked in the Hudson Valley. Beautifully written, some of it is in the realms of the fantastic, what most of us could only dream of and believe to belong in fairy tales or that personally reminded me of an elaborate nonsense scribbling of Noel Fielding’s or Vince Noir being raised in the forest by Bryan Ferry: “…and I painted, using only wild berries and crushed grass as my ink. I hung from vines until they fell and then made vine wreathes that I studded with dandelions and rose hips.”

Generally from the professional reviews (from traditional media such as online versions of newspapers and other websites) I read, I somehow gained the erroneous impression that Georgia had been a city girl, switching from her Wall Street career to a classically trained gourmet chef. Actually, she was just going back to her roots – beginning when the chef at one of the restaurants she worked at requested five turkeys to be slaughtered for a dish. In that moment she realized she had to look her kill in the eye to truly understand where her food came from.

There is a wide gap in our connection with the food we eat and where it came from. It’s easy to become disassociated with our food when we buy it from the store or the supermarket, even when buying locally. It is easier to be thankful and be appreciative of our bounty when we’ve taken part in producing it or hunting it as our understanding becomes full circle. Now it’s not so much about that the vegetables you grew or the turkey you killed tastes better, but that you have that connection to your food. I felt (and had) that connection when my brother was in the UBC Farm’s Farm Wonders program last year, where the children learned about growing their own vegetables and harvested them.

I’ve never hunted or killed my own food in my life, however I wouldn’t say no if the opportunity rose. There’s the question if I could actually pull that trigger and be able clean my own kill but that’s something to find out.

“I will know while I eat. I will know how it all went down. And I still think that is better. Because it makes me a more conscious chef, a more careful hunter, and a more awake human being.”

It’s a meditation on life.

Interspersed throughout her narrative, there are recipes for the various game she hunts and that range beyond what’s usually available in a typical supermarket such as elk, pigeon, and even squirrel. Recipes range from Moroccan Elk Stew, Wild Turkey and Oyster Stew (a homely stew that I would love to try), and Pulled Javelina to Grouse with Cabbage and Chestnuts, Curried Pigeon, Buttermilk Fried Rabbit, and Squirrel Brunswick Stew with Acorns. There are also recipes for quail, boar, deer, and other game meat as well recipes for things such as stock, liver pate, and sausages. I haven’t made any of the recipes (yet) and some do use all purpose flour, although I’m sure that those ones could easily be made gluten-free.

However and whatever you eat, Girl Hunter is a book for everyone! Watch Georgia’s book trailer below to learn more. I’ll be surprised if you’re not left feeling inspired after you’ve watched it – I was!

Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time on Amazon

Note that this review refers to the Kobo e-book edition.

Filed under: Food, Food for Thought, Reviews Tagged: Georgia Pellegrini, hunting, slow food