Thanks to Coconut Mama, I have some new coconut flour baked goods. Being gluten free and now mostly grain free, I miss eating things some others take for granted… bread, biscuits, pizza. You get the idea.

Coconut flour is a relative newcomer on the food scene. With the rise of people interested in low carb dieting, Paleo and Primal eating, grain free recipes, the search went out world wide to find things to expand those  parameters. Coconut flour is sort of a conundrum for me. It is processed so not really a whole food. But/and, I am human and I want what I want. I am not willing to go the rest of my life without baked goods. I am willing to go the rest of my life having better health, having a healthier thyroid and all those issues which are affected by gluten. So, I am happy to include coconut flour in my diet when those carb-y urges arise. It has a really good nutritional profile, 2 Tablespoons provides the following:

1.5 g fat (1 g saturated fat)
10 g carbs (with 9 g fiber, bringing the net carb count to a measly 1)
2 g protein

(Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/coconut-flour/#ixzz1j1HnrWoy)

Note how high in fiber it is. I don’t need to tell you everything that that means! Just be aware and don’t eat too much at one time. ( a good thing to remember about food in general) Drink some extra water. I find that things made with coconut flour tend to be on the dry side. Most recipes contain plenty of fat and there seems to be some chemical reason that coconut flour needs a lot of eggs for things to work. This increases the protein content of things, which is a good thing.

This is a good basic recipe for flatbread, biscuits, and beyond.  After the recipe, you will find some of my ideas for improvising. As usual with my posts, I encourage you to be creative and come up with your own explorations.

Coconut Flour Flatbread

makes 4 small bread rounds

• 3  Tablespoons Coconut Flour or 1 Tablespoon Almond  Flour & 1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour Mixed Together
• 2Tablespoon Coconut Oil, Melted
• 2 Eggs ( local and pasture raised organic)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder

I am not sure when it started but a few well known food bloggers had a conversation about pie and soon #pieday was created. It is a  day for food bloggers, food lovers, cooks and chefs to make a pie, take a picture of it, post it on Facebook, Twitter, write a blog post about it. I can’t imagine very many people in our culture anyway who don’t like pie. This event has become a pretty big phenomenon. If you use either Facebook or Twitter I encourage you to go and explore the huge world of pie. Go here for the Facebook event page. Go to twitter and do a search using #pieday ( the “hashtag” is what enables you to see ALL the tweets that have to do with pieday)

I love savory pie. And I have been craving meat, so I created a savory Carnivore Cottage Pie. I wish I could give credit to the blogger from whom I got the crust recipe but the link is long gone. so, thank you, faceless Paleo diet practitioner. The crust is the only part I really have a recipe for. It would have been better had I had a recipe for the rest as I forgot to put some eggs into the filling which would have held it together nicely. Instead, it fell out of the lovely crust. Tasted good, yes, but not so pretty for a photo! As with all my recipes, improvisation is the name of the game and this could have almost infinite combinations of ingredients.

Carnivore Cottage Pie

crust:
5 c.organic almond meal/flour
4 T. cold organic butter, cut into small pieces
2 organic eggs ( please use ones from pastured chickens)
1 tsp. salt

filling:
I used a small onion and a couple cloves of garlic which I sauteed in some leftover bacon fat. Use what oil/butter combination you prefer. I added about 3/4 lb. of turkey sausage, and a couple big handfuls of beet greens, salt, pepper, some Penzey’s Summer in Paris seasoning. This is a good time to use leftover veggies. I had thought of putting mushrooms in, but forgot!

Place almond meal and salt into the food processor.  Pulse in the pieces of butter. Add eggs and mix until it comes into a ball. Dump onto a piece of parchment paper, wrap, and cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so. This dough is pretty fragile before baking. Divide into two balls and roll carefully into circles for your pie pan. I used a deep dish baking dish and pushed the dough carefully up the sides.I put a few slices of pork pate over the dough and sort of spread it around.  Add the cooked filling which you have mixed with a couple of eggs. Cover with the other rolled out crust and gently press the edges together.

Bake at 350º in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes. Yummy!

This post is also part of Traditional Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays blog hops. Hop on over and check out the other posts.

Frosting For The Cause is a monumental endeavor by Paula Kelly. It is a full year of posts from bloggers and participants honoring/celebrating/mourning women we all know with cancer, and celebrating them with a baking project. Oh the stories! Oh the yummy recipes! Not only is this project raising awareness but the participants pledge to donate money and baked goods. Please go take a look. This is my contribution. ( I wrote about this recipe once before but it is time for a revisit)

I found out in November, 2010 that my mother had bladder cancer. I was with her in the Dr.’s office when she got the news. She knew right away that she didn’t want any heroic measures but she and her doctors decided that surgery to remove her bladder was a good option for her. It turned out that maybe that wasn’t the best course. I returned to Pennsylvania the end of January of this year to be with her for her surgery. It was a difficult road for her to recover from that surgery. The challenge of learning to deal with her ostomy and the bag that required proved to be too stressful and too difficult. During all that needed to be done in preparing for her surgery, it was discovered that she had some cancer in/on her spine and a suspicious area in her liver. The first few days after her bladder surgery, she and I did the New York Times crossword puzzle as we usually did when we visited together. Soon, it was apparent recovery was not going well. She had much pain and began to lose her ability to walk and stand. We had a succession of family members come and monitor/be advocates for her in the hospital and subsequent nursing care. About 6 weeks after her surgery, her children gathered at her bedside to witness her dying. It was a challenging and beautiful time. I learned much about my mother in those last months of her life.  I spent my whole life watching her struggle with her really non existent weight problem, denying herself the pleasure of eating what she wanted. The last few years of her life, she would say that when she got to age 90, that she would give herself permission to eat whatever she wanted. She died at 89 and the last week she finally gave herself permission to eat dessert and boy did she enjoy it. I always thought she didn’t like chocolate but every day that last week of being conscious and eating she had chocolate frozen yoghurt for lunch and chocolate ripple ice cream for dinner ( and several days, not much else). I am happy she got that chance to indulge. Mom, this chocolate frosting is for you!

Baked Gluten Free Coconut Flour Doughnuts

1/2 cup of coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
6 eggs
1/2 cup of honey (or other sweetener)
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1/2 cup of unsalted butter (coconut butter, coconut oil, or regular oil will work as well)

option – add 1 T. of cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, 5 spice powder, or powdered ginger

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. I always sift the coconut flour. Mix together the wet ingredients in another bowl and add to the dry. Mix well. This is when an electric beater comes in handy. You also could use a food processor. One of the tricky things about using coconut flour is that it gets quite lumpy in the process of mixing and requires a bit of effort. If doing it by hand, I recommend using a fork to facilitate the breaking up of the lumps.  Fill the baking pan ( I got my doughnut pan at King Arthur Flours) about 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 minutes in a preheated 350º oven. Let them cool completely and then you either can just lift them out with your fingers or gently use a fork.

There are many options for topping as well as just leaving them plain. I melted some 70% cacao content chocolate, added a few T. of cream and frosted mine. You could make a glaze of powdered sugar and your favorite flavorings (  a bit of orange juice, maple syrup, or vanilla extract). You could glaze them with a bit of honey. Yum!

I live in California and my mom lived and died in Pennsylvania. I so wish I could send these doughnuts to the wonderful nurses and aides who took care of her but the complications and expense of doing that overwhelm me. So instead, I will be offering some donation of cooking time and money to WomenCare of Santa Cruz, Ca. ( http://www.womencaresantacruz.org/index.html) and giving a nice big plate of doughnuts to the daughter of one of my personal chef clients who is having her own struggle with several kinds of cancer. She doesn’t eat gluten and her children love sweets so, a good solution.

I miss you, Mama, and I miss your help with those “darn” crossword puzzles.

We are moving ever closer to spring and I am contemplating new items for my personal chef clients’ menus. I thought I would whet your appetite with some pictures and descriptions of some of the things my clients have eaten lately. Some things stay on the menu year round and many things are seasonal. As you faithful readers of this blog know, I am a firm believer in eating according to the seasons. The reasons are many. The quality of locally grown in season food is higher, has more nutritive value, and is less expensive. Each season has its own energies, as does the food that grows during that time.

I must admit I am ready for the spring produce – peas, asparagus, strawberries! But, we have a few more weeks of root vegetables and squashes ahead of us. We are blessed here in California with an early spring but Mother Earth is still resting and waiting and so must we.

Here is a Winter Vegetable Stew I made for a vegetarian couple, rich with mushroom broth and locally cultivated mushrooms, winter squash, celery root, celery, onions, spinach, and sundried tomatoes which were picked and dried in the height of the season and so carry that life force in them.

A soup that sticks around most of the year is Chicken Noodle soup. Obviously, this was not for the same clients, but a family who orders soup every week. Here is where I get to be creative. I hardly ever use a recipe for soup. I have a memory of a recipe or a concept  and either see what looks good at the market and/or what is available in the fridge. This means each time it is a one of a kind masterpiece, never to be exactly repeated. This soup contains chicken thighs which I find have so much more flavor and richness, especially good for soups and stews. It also has onions, carrots, celery, spinach and noodles. This day, I used what noodles were available in the clients’ cupboards. It also has a healthy dose of garlic, and some salt and pepper.

Next up is a recipe, often requested by my vegetarian clients, from the wonderful Molly Katzen for Spaghetti Squash Pancakes. You first bake the squash and when cooked scrape out the flesh which is noodle like in shape. Personally, I have never quite gotten into using this squash as a substitute for noodles but many people do. The batter is simple with the cooked noodles, rice flour, onion, eggs, salt and pepper. I like using red onion and adding some fresh thyme. This definitely is a seasonal recipe, appearing in the fall and winter. These clients love little patties and cakes so I am sure some sort of spring pancake will be on their menus soon, perhaps peas.

Lastly is a recipe I found on a piece of paper when cleaning out my garage. I suspect it is a Zone diet recipe but I cannot give appropriate credit for it. Delicious little good for you cookies, made of dried figs, almond flour, salt, vanilla,orange zest, and a bit of coconut oil. ( the oil was not in the original recipe) Happily, they are processed sugar free, grain free, and gluten free.

Almond Fig Bites

2 cups almond meal
1 c. ( 6 oz) soft dried figs ( one of my personal chef friends suggested subbing apricots, yum!)
2 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. coconut oil

Heat oven to 325º. Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 1 minute.

Form dough into small slightly flattened balls  and place on baking sheet 1/2 in. apart. ( cookies do not spread during baking). Bake until bottoms of cookies are slightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes, turning pan once half way through. Cool and eat!

There is a small taste of what has been keeping me busy lately. I love my work as a personal chef. Every day is different and every client is different. Stay tuned for Spring will surely come and new ideas will emerge along with the new vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

This post is part of  GNOWFGLINS Tuesday Twister. Head over there and read all the other interesting posts, please.

]]> http://forlifepersonalchef.com/2011/02/06/personal-chef-for-hire/feed/ 1 http://forlifepersonalchef.com/2011/01/25/pizza/ http://forlifepersonalchef.com/2011/01/25/pizza/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:21:06 +0000 Charity http://forlifepersonalchef.com/?p=774 my amazingly awesome actually good for me nutrient dense gluten free pizza

That title is a mouthful as was my most excellent dinner tonight.

Good pizza starts with the crust. When one is on a gluten free diet, this is a huge challenge at best. I am just not fond of any gluten free pizza crust I have ever tasted. A few years ago, Mark Bittman of the New York Times wrote about socca, a flatbread typically made with chickpea flour. I made his recipe as is and it was delicious. Not only am I gluten free, I generally avoid flours of all kinds, preferring to eat fresher, more whole foods. Enter the idea of making pizza crust from quinoa. This would take care of the whole food issue and definitely ups the protein values.  The important step that Mr. Bittman does not include in his instructions is to soak the grain or flour. This step is important for removing the phytates . Phytic acid is an “antinutrient” which binds up the minerals in the grain and prevents the body from using them. Soaking does mean some  planning and premeditation. Use pure water and cover the quinoa and let it sit overnight. When ready to use simply drain.  Easy but as I said, takes some thinking ahead.

Quinoa Pizza Crust

makes 2 thin 8 inch crusts

1 1/2c. quinoa, soaked overnight and drained

1/2 – 3/4 c. pure water

1 tsp. celtic sea salt

1/4c. olive oil

(of course you are using organic ingredients!)

Preheat oven t0 450º F. Place the quinoa, water, and salt in a blender and blend until creamy. The consistency will be thick ( like pancake batter). Start with 1/2c. water and see if you need more. Divide the olive oil and cover the bottom of 2 8 in. cake pans. Place the pans in the oven until they are shimmering hot ( not smoking).Remove from the oven. At this point, you can add some minced garlic and/or herbs if you would like. Divide the quinoa mixture evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. Flip the crusts over and return to bake another 10 minutes.  They should be brown and crispy.

At this point, let your imagination take over. Top with classic pizza ingredients or try something new. I have recently renewed my love of pesto but as you can imagine not your typical pesto. This one is made of arugula, parsley, walnuts, olive oil, hemp oil, and garlic. Delicious! Pesto is a nutrient dense food that assists the liver in detoxifying the body and helps lower blood fats. So, on went a hearty layer of pesto. I topped this with some caramelized onions and sauteed red chard, mixed with some pine nuts. Lots of vegetables, that deep red color that is good for us. The “icing on the cake” is a few dollops of kefir cheese. I strained some goat’s milk kefir to get the liquid whey for some fermenting that I am doing this week. What is left is a thick sour cream like substance that is delicious! AND it contains lots of good bacteria/probiotics.

Every part of this pizza is actually full of nutrition and while it does not look like pizzeria pizza, it was so good and gave me pleasure that a slice of that pizzeria pizza would not. I am satiated from the good fats, my belly is full from the big pile of chard, and I am happy with having made a good choice for dinner.

So, step out of the box. haha, literally. Don’t get take out, make your own good for you pizza.

Thanks to my friend and nutrition mentor, Craig Lane of Health Alkemy, for the inspiration!

I am neither vegan nor a raw foodist but this bread is high on my list of favorite things to eat and to make. It is raw, getting “baked” in the food dehydrator, vegan, and gluten free. So simple and so satisfying, it also can be made in your oven. You can do it overnight if you feel comfortable leaving the appliance on, so you won’t be taking away from other oven use.

I have never been ( yet) to Cafe Gratitude but use their cookbook occasionally. I know several people, vegan and carnivore , who claim this recipe as one of their favorites also.

Cafe Gratitude Onion Bread ( also known as I am Original)

1 1/4 lb. sweet onions, peeled
1/2c ground sunflower seeds ( I have been known to use more and to use a combo of sunflower seeds and sesame seeds)
1/2c. ground golden flax seeds
1/4 c. olive oil ( this last batch I made I forgot to put this in and it didn’t make a lot of difference!)
1 1/2 oz. tamari sauce
3 T. sweetener ( the Cafe recipe calls for agave but I no longer use it as it is too high in fructose. Please use local raw honey, which is NOT vegan, if you need sweetener. I leave it out totally and think it is fine without)

Put onions in the food processor using the “S” blade and process until small pieces, but not mush. Put into mixing bowl with other ingredients and mix thoroughly. The flax will absorb the liquid. With moistened fingers, smooth dough onto grid dehydrator sheets lined with a Teflex sheet. Spread to about 1/4 in. thick. Dehydrate at 145º for 1 hour and then reduce temperature to 115º and dehydrate until dry ( check at about 8 hours). Break into pieces or cut with pizza cutter and store in airtight container.

Yummy warmed up with good cultured butter or nut butter. Sorry vegans, but it is marvelous with cheese melted on it. Makes a very thin sandwich but it is actually pretty sturdy.

If you use your conventional oven, put the temperature at its lowest setting possible. Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet and using your wet fingers, spread out mixture as described above. At about 6 hours, carefully turn over the pieces of bread and continue drying. I think it took my oven about 10 hours. I also left the oven door cracked as I really had no idea what the temperature was in there. Once you get addicted to this bread, you just might need to buy a dehydrator.

A recent shopping splurge at King Arthur Flour Co. got me a doughnut baking pan. Why had I never thought of baking doughnuts before ? Could I really have a doughnut and would it be good ? I found a recipe on Comfy Belly’s site and went from there. I am happy to report the answer is YES. Gluten free baked doughnuts are delicious. What makes them gluten free is coconut flour, which is a wonderful ingredient. It is loaded with fiber and good fats.

Coconut Flour Doughnuts

• 1/2 cup of coconut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup of honey (or other sweetener)
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (coconut butter, coconut oil, or regular oil will work as well)

I used melted coconut oil and I added a Tablespoon of cinnamon. If you didn’t have a donut pan, you could put the batter in a piping bag or in a ziplock bag, snip off a corner and squeeze the batter out onto a baking sheet into a doughnut shape. (I did not experiment with this. If you try it, let me know how it turns out).

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. I always sift the coconut flour. Mix together the wet ingredients in another bowl and add to the dry. Mix well. This is when an electric beater comes in handy. You also could use a food processor. One of the tricky things about using coconut flour is that it gets quite lumpy in the process of mixing and requires a bit of effort. If doing it by hand, I recommend using a fork to facilitate the breaking up of the lumps.  Fill the baking pan about 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 minutes in a preheated 350º oven.

There are many options for topping as well as just leaving them plain. I melted some 70% cacao content chocolate, added a few T. of cream and frosted mine. You could make a glaze of powdered sugar and your favorite flavorings (  a bit of orange juice, maple syrup, or vanilla extract). You could glaze them with a bit of honey. Yum!

Many of my personal chef clients have special dietary needs such as gluten intolerance. As I do also, this works well for me. I have done a lot of experimentation over the years, searching for satisfying healthy ingredients. I did baking this winter and spring for a local cafe and made scones every week. Then I often used frozen blackberries. Now, we are in the height of summer fruit season and the farmers’ markets are overflowing with beautiful berries, as well as the stone fruits such as cherries and peaches, both of which would be yummy in this scone recipe. All berries, especially the dark ones, are high in antioxidants and so good for you and so satisfying.

In my own personal dietary path, I generally avoid flours of all kinds, not just the ones containing gluten. I have a hard time digesting refined carbohydrates if I eat too much. There also seems to be an almost addictive element there for me.  But, a baked good now and then is something to look forward to and savor.

Gluten Free Blackberry Scones

1 1/2 c. Almond meal ( I use Bob’s Red Mill)

1 c. Gluten Free baking mix ( again, I use Bob’s Red Mill)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/6 cup melted coconut oil ( 3 T)

1/6 cup melted butter ( 3 T )

3 – 4 T. raw local honey, depending on your sweet tooth and the sweetness of the berries

2 pastured eggs

1 c. fresh local organic blackberries ( of course ALL of your ingredients should be organic)

Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or a silicon mat. Mix all the dry ingredients. Add the blackberries and stir. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing gently. The dough will be sticky. Spoon it into mounds on the baking sheet. This recipe makes 6 large scones. Sometimes, I make 12 smaller ones. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes. I usually turn the baking sheet halfway through the baking to help ensure evenness.

You could substitute many other kinds of fruit. Strawberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches, or a combination. Just make sure the pieces are a nice small size.

So, make yourself and your loved ones a batch of scones. Take a break and sit a moment and enjoy the summer with a scone and an iced tea/coffee/coffee substitute. Life is sweet.

This post is part of the GNOWFGLINS  Tuesday Twister and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays. Check out the other interesting reads, please.

Here is a wonderful last minute but quick and easy appetizer ( gluten free and vegetarian) to take to a holiday party or to have on hand for company. I don’t know where the recipe came from originally but perhaps someone will recognize it and credit the author.

Curried Mushroom and Cashew Pate

4 T butter ( could use vegan substitute)

1 lb mushrooms, cleaned and chopped

1/2 minced onion

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 tsp curry powder ( I used a bit more)

1/2 to 1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp. ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 c roasted cashews

2 T oil ( I used olive)

chopped fresh parsley

crackers or bread for spreading, or veggies for dipping

In the butter, saute the mushrooms, onion, garlic, curry powder, salt, coriander, and cumin. Cook until the mixture is fairly dry. While cooling, chop the cashews finely in a food processor and slowly add the oil to make a paste. Add the mushroom mixture and continue processing until smooth. Taste and add more salt if necessary ( I did). Place in a serving bowl and sprinkle with parsley. Serve at room temperature with crackers, bread, or veggies.

No fuss, a bit of muss. Enjoy the holidays.

As a person working on living gluten free for almost 15 years, I have struggled with finding good bread. Believe me, I have tried many brands and have worked on learning to bake it myself. In one word, ugh! Most gluten free breads do not taste good, most are a weird texture. In the past few years, I have basically given up. And, recently, am moving towards a world that is not only gluten free, but flour free, so bread is out. But, there are those days when a sandwich calls my name.

I have mentioned the name Mark Sisson before in another post. He advocates a caveman diet… no grains! He recently gave a link to this recipe which is the reason for this post. You can find the original recipe here, which gives the nutritional info and it is always interesting to read peoples’ comments.

Foccacia Style Flax Bread

2 c flax seed meal

1 T. baking powder

1 tsp salt

1-2 T sweetening power from artificial sweetener ( I will NEVER advocate using artificial sweetener. Please inform yourself about aspartame. I used xylitol, which kept it very low carb but have no problem recommending sugar. It just would change the nutritional information)

5 beaten eggs

1/2c. water

1/3 c. oil ( I used olive)

Preheat oven to 350º. Prepare pan ( a 10×15″ pan with sides works best) with oiled parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Mix dry ingredients well. Add wet to dry, and combine well. Make sure there aren’t obvious strings of egg white hanging out in the batter ( if you look at the photo carefully, you will see that dreaded string!) Let batter set for 2 or 3 minutes to thicken up some ( leave it too long and it gets past the  point where it is easy to spread) Pour batter onto pan. Spread it out from the center into a rectangle an inch or so from the sides of the pan. Bake for aboutg 20 mins, until it springs back when you touch the tope. Cool and cut into whatever size slices you want.

oh, this is good. It is moist. There is a bit of a bitter aftertaste from the flax but it is not really noticeable.  I actually followed the recipe exactly, which is unusual for me but in recipe testing, that is important. I can see many variation possibilities. How about adding some soaked raisins and cinnamon for a breakfast treat ? Or, add some garlic and rosemary for a more traditional foccacia ?

As a personal chef, I often have clients who are gluten free and I plan on making this a regular part of my menu. It is easy. It is delicious. It is healthy. What more could you ask for ? A simple thing like a tuna fish sandwich brought me much satisfaction today. And yes, there was mayonaisse involved.

part of Real Food Wednesdays from Kelly the kitchen kop. Go check it out for other ideas!