Gluten-Free Meatballs & Spaghetti... Yes, it can be done!

You guys, I'm really successfully doing it! (I sort of half expected to start crying and give this up after a day) but now in day 3 I'm gluten-free and going strong (even though I did have a dream about bagels the other night.)

On Day 1 I made a FANTASTIC and delicious Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas with Lemon and served it with rotisserie chicken (provided by the good folks at Whole Foods... they do a fabulous job of rotisserying - is that a word?) The recipe calls for a pound of baby spinach but I used 12 oz of baby spinach and 6 ounces of BABY KALE because I saw it at Whole Foods and couldn't resist (yay, extra vitamins and antioxidants?)

But here comes the real crux of my post... MEATBALLS! 

Let me tell you about meatballs. Once upon a time I was scared of meatloaf. Why? I didn't know what it was. Back in my younger days (college) I was invited over to my then-boyfriend's house for dinner and his mother fixed me meatloaf. I was terrified. My family was not a Meatloaf Family. But then I realized when she served it that meatloaf is really just one big meatball served in a pan. Also sort of like eating a hamburger without the bun. I like hamburgers. I like meatballs. Hence, meatloaf ain't so bad!

So when drawing up recipes for my gluten-free experiment I thought that meatballs would be gluten-free. Why? I was always under the impression that meatballs were just round hamburgers. Again, wrong. Apparently I have so much to learn about meat. Meatballs (and meatloaf) also include breadcrumbs. A lot of them.

I found this great recipe for making meatballs (but of course, it is loaded up with breadcrumbs) so I thought about what I could do for a substitution. I searched around my cupboard and the internet and settled on crushing up some Rice Chex (which are gluten-free!) and Rice Krispies (the gluten-free variety... NOTE: Regular Rice Krispies are NOT gluten-free, we'll get to this in my next post.)

I crushed these up, added JUST A TOUCH OF WATER, some Italian spice and baked a little so the spices mixed in. It worked out pretty well to add some "filling" to the meat for the meatballs. I added bits of sliced onion also to boost up the flavor.

Of course, this was my first time making meatballs, so what do I know? They sort of fell apart a little while cooking. Is this normal? I tried not to pack them too tightly as the recipe warned, maybe I should have packed them a little harder... either way, they pretty much stayed together enough to actually be meatballs in the end. I cooked them on the pan for a while but I was worried they were just searing the outsides and not cooking through so I also baked them for 10 minutes in the oven while the pasta cooked on the stove.

The outcome: Delicious! They were soft, moist, and very tasty! Also, the gluten-free pasta, made from rice, tastes exactly like normal pasta. Score.

Bonus: Here's my cat in a bowl. Isn't she cute? And no, I didn't cook dinner with this bowl, don't worry.

Food Porn for Carnivores

Does the idea of a juicy burger or a big old meaty sandwich get you all hot and bothered? If so, this week’s post is right up your alley. I don’t have quite enough time to dedicate one post to each thing I made, so I’m lumping these delicious meals together into what I call “Food Porn for Carnivores”.


I could go on a long speech about the use of food in literature and how in children’s literature it is typically a substitute for sexuality and sex… but let’s save that for a later date. Or just the grad school classroom.


For Christmas I bought my boyfriend nearly 100 dollars of meat. And not just any old meat, but exotic meats -- antelope, kangaroo, elk, alligator, boar… to name a few. I went with simplicity when making each of these dishes because I wanted the flavor of the meat to really come out. Though the idea of eating wild boar burgers was a little strange, each meat so far was very tasty -- I think I’m an exotic meat convert. I can’t help but wonder if I lived in movie-world (and rich, of course) if I would have been one of the first people to snag a ticket to the Endangered Animal dinner in "The Freshman."


Without further delay, I proudly present to you: FOOD PORN FOR CARNIVORES.

FRENCH DIP SANDWICH. DOESN'T FALL UNDER THE "EXOTIC
MEAT" CATEGORY...BUT I MADE IT A FEW WEEKS AGO AND IT
WAS DELICIOUS AND DESERVED REPRESENTATION.

BOAR BURGERS FRYING IN THE PAN. I TOPPED THESE WITH
A LITTLE BIT OF SPICES... DELISH!

BOAR BURGER ALL COOKED UP AND WAITING TO BE EATEN.

ELK STEAKS READY TO COOK.

ELK STEAKS WERE VERY TASTY. SERVED WITH POTATOES
AND SARDINE/TAPENADE TOASTS.

OSTRICH STEAK SERVED RARE/MEDIUM-RARE. VERY
SOFT, TENDER, AND TASTY.

ELK BURGER TOPPED WITH GOODIES. THOUGH THIS COULD
HAVE BEEN THE ANTELOPE BURGERS... I DON'T REMEMBER. EITHER
WAY, VERY GOOD!

Welcome 2011, Year of the Rabbit

Ok, so I know it’s not actually Chinese New Year yet, but for the sake of my blog, can we just pretend? Because 2011 marks the year of the rabbit. Sweet, cuddly, fluffy bunnies. My sister owns one, actually. Its name is Toffee (though it has gone by other names including Robot, Bunnix, and Nixon -- my personal fave.) I volunteer at an animal shelter here in Boston, and I sometimes visit with the bunnies. I LIKE rabbits. They’re cute. They remind me of Easter and candy and cartoons.

** NOTE: Bunny lovers, be warned, this is where you should stop reading this blog post**


So why, you ask, did I decide to cook rabbit stew?


I recently purchased a few Polish cookbooks (part to get in touch with my Polish heritage, and part as research for a novel I’m working on.) And what did I find inside each one of them? A recipe for rabbit. And in some cases, MANY recipes. What I gleaned from this: at one time eating rabbit was cool. And based on these cookbooks, I get the impression that Poland was overrun by rabbits – sort of like my neighborhood here in Boston is overrun by rats (ew). But unlike rats, rabbits made for good eating.

So why are Americans (many of who are descendents of Europe) so horrified by the idea of eating rabbit? I blame Disney. And Warner Brothers. I had the same feeling of shock and horror the first time I ate venison. BAMBI!? NO! This time while I was at the butcher shop and looked at the rabbit meat in the freezer I had images of Thumper and Bugs Bunny flash through my head.


Bunnies are for snuggling and hopping around your apartment and nibbling on power cords and scaring your cat. Not for EATING! Right?


But people DO eat them. Many people.


As I stood at the freezer at the butcher I got to thinking: What makes some animals good eats and others taboo? I’ve decided it is The Snuggly Factor. We have no problem eating chickens (man, are they ugly) or cows or pigs or turkeys (also quite ugly) or fish (certainly no snuggling there.) But cats and dogs, no way, they are so CUTE! And rabbits, CUTE! I recently learned that we are genetically programmed to think baby animals are cute and they trigger nurturing instincts in us. Is that why we have a hard time eating cute animals? Because it goes against our nurturing instincts? I’m no scientist, but I might be on to something.

In any case, I threw caution to the wind (and instincts) and bought rabbit. I cooked it up in a traditional German style -- slow cooking it as a stew. Verdict: Tastes like chicken.


Dear Readers, Do you eat rabbit, or any other “non-traditional” animals? Tell me about it, I’d like to hear. PS: For you meat fanatics, I just bought my boyfriend a whopping of strange meats for Christmas (elk, antelope, kangaroo, alligator) so stay tuned while I serve up some of that in the coming weeks! I’m also going to work on posting more regularly. Happy 2011!

Tear-Jerker Chili

I have FINALLY located the little contraption that takes the photos on camera’s photo card and imports them into my computer! HORRAY! While means I can finally be back up and posting some of the yummy things I’ve made since moving… and share new things, of course, too! HERE WE GO:

As Natalie Portman’s character says in Garden State: “I look forward to a good cry. It feels pretty good.” Well, if you’re in one of those moods, I have the meal for you. Voila! Tear-jerker chili!

Peppers and tomatoes

WHAT YOU NEED:

• A variety of chili ingredients – most importantly, onions and spicy peppers
• A sappy movie or two – may I recommend, Rudy, My Girl, Scruffy, Titanic, or Up.

HOW TO:
Step 1: Pop in your sad movie to watch in the background as you cook. (Or if it’s Sunday turn on the TV to watch the Bills.)


Step 2: Brown your meat. I used a 2/3 lb of hamburger meat from Whole Foods coupled with 2/3 lb of hamburger meat purchased at the Brookline Farmers Market from River Rock Farm.

Step 3: Slice the rest of your veggies. For me that included tomatoes that came from Byron’s mother’s garden and mixing those with 2 cans of beans: one kidney, one black.


Step 4: Slice your onions. I used 3 onions from my Enterprise farm share. As you slice the onions feel free to let those tears flow, just remember to have a hankie on hand to wipe away any mascara smudges.


Step 5: Slice up your peppers. I used:

• 1 LARGE jalapeno grown in Byron’s mother’s garden
• 1 small jalapeno grown in Byron’s mother’s garden
• 1 red chili pepper purchased for 40 cent at the Brookline Farmer’s Market
• 1 bell pepper from my Enterprise farm share
• 1 sweet red pepper that I bought at the Brookline Farmer’s Market
• 1 habenero pepper purchased at the Brookline Farmer’s Market
• (Note: Farmers markets are CHEAP for peppers! Stock up when you go. A single pepper will cost anywhere from 25 cents to a dollar – a total steal compared to the supermarket.)

Sliced up spicy peppers... mmmm

Step 6: Cry when juices from the hot peppers get into the little cut you have on your finger. If you don’t have a cut on your finger, fake it, then you don’t have to feel like a schmuck when you start to cry when Rudy finally gets called onto the field and everyone chants RUDY RUDY RUDY!


Step 7: Throw everything into the slow cooker. You can use a can of tomato paste, I used a Campbell’s tomato Soup at Hand because I didn’t have any tomato paste in my pantry. It seemed to have done the trick. Add some spices. I used a tablespoon of garlic powder and a few large shakes of chili powder. Plus some salt and pepper. Cook on high for as long as it takes for the veggies to get tender (a couple of hours.)


Step 8: While the chili cooking, watch another sappy movie. Or, if you are a writer like me, write the first draft of a chapter where you kill of a loveable/sympathetic grandmother, or stab an unsuspecting, friendly grandmother in the back.


Step 9: Spoon chili from the slow cooker. Sprinkle cheese on top. Eat your first bite. Yell out in pain when you realize how spicy the chili is, and then start to cry again.

Delicious!

Step 10: Crack open a beer (or five) so you can blame your crying on Beer Tears. As if that’s a better excuse…


If you follow these easy steps, you, too, can have a day full of tears. Cheers!

BBQ Bonanza!

Ok, I suppose the title of this blog post is a bit more exciting than it deserves but I had a lot of fun creating this meal. After living 2.5 years in a grill-less existence, I finally know someone with a grill! And it's starting to get warm outside,so, what better way to welcome in the spring than with a little grilling?

Three yeas ago (when I was the proud owner of a grill) I bought a cookbook full of BBQ sauces, rubs, marinades, etc. Since I moved back East, the cookbook has been gathering dust on my bookshelf, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to crack it open again! I decided to make two things for this meal:

First, a BBQ rub. Basically that’s a mixture of dry spices that I turn into a super-spice (the elusive 6^th spice girl?) and then rub all over meat. When I told the butcher at Whole Foods what I was planning on doing, he helped me pick out a skirt steak, which he said would grill up quickly as well as have a lot of flavor. The rub I used (recipe below) had a great flavor when combined with steak, it was savory and it had a little kick. I think it would also go pretty well with chicken, especially oven baked chicken wings or chicken drumsticks (yes, I’m back on the chicken wagon!)

The second thing I made was a BBQ sauce. What intrigued me the most about this sauce is that it’s made with Coca-cola, which gave it both a sweet and spicy flavor. According to the cookbook, pot roast braised in Coca-Cola is a favorite in Venezuela. Along with the steak, I also grilled up veggie kabobs (heirloom tomatoes, green peppers, yellow peppers, mushrooms, and onion). The BBQ sauce was really tasty with the steak but it was great to dip the grilled veggies into.

Bonus about this meal: I was able to prepare four hours in advance (since the steak marinated with the rub for a few hours). Also, there is leftover rub and BBQ sauce that will last at least a month so that I can always whip up something very quickly when I’m feeling like a lazy cook but still want an air of fancy, homemade goodness.

Overall score : 8 out of 10.


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Recipe – Basic Barbecue Rub (Compliments of Barbecue! Bible : Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes)

Ingredients –

¼ cup coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)

¼ cup (packed) dark brown sugar

¼ cup paprika

3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon dried onion flakes

½ - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon celery seeds

Directions –

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir or whisk to mix. Transfer to a jar, cover, and store away from heat and light. The rub will keep for several months. Makes 1 cup.

Recipe – Coca-Cola Barbecue Sauce (Compliments of Barbecue! Bible : Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes)

Ingredients –

1 cup Coca-cola

1 cup ketchup

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons A1 Steak Sauce

1 teaspoon onion flakes

1 teaspoon garlic flakes

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions –

Combine all the ingredients in a heavy nonreactive saucepan and gradually bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat slightly to obtain a gentle simmer. Simmer the sauce until reduced by a quarter (6-8 minutes). Use right away or transfer to a large jar, cover, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate. Makes 2 cups. Will keep for several months.

Moroccan Harira

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten Moroccan food before, let alone cooked it. I also don’t think I’ve ever eaten lamb before, let alone cooked it. AND had no idea what “Harira” meant. So, right off the bat this recipe was going to be an adventure. But the picture in the cookbook looked good – so I figured it was worth a shot!

According to “The Soup Bible” Moroccan Harira is a meat and vegetable soup that is traditionally eaten during the month of Ramadan, when the Moroccan Muslim population fasts between sunup and sundown. It sounded (and looked) hearty, which was great for a cold winter’s night in Boston. Before I continue I must digress… I’ve never eaten lamb before for a silly reason: I always though of them as “cute” animals. But really, I got to thinking, I find cows cute too, and deer (and I have perfectly no problem eating those) so I’m not sure why I’ve been so adverse to eating lamb. I figured this soup was the perfect opportunity to combat my weird lamb phobia.

This soup/stew was a mixture of lamb meat, chick-peas, shallots, red lentils, tomatoes, and soup noodles (I used a thin capellini). The soup was also flavored with cinnamon (a personal favorite), turmeric, and garnished with cilantro and limes (two more of my personal favorites) so I knew my taste buds were going to be in for a treat. This recipe was pretty easy to make, it took a little bit of prep work browning the meat {see picture 1: meat & onions cooking} and then adding the ingredients together at the right time, but once everything was put together it was nice to let it just sit on the stove or crock-pot (which is what I did) for an hour and a half. The inclusion of soup noodles was a great addition which turned this stew into more of a soup. The only downfall was that they soaked up a lot of the broth so I’ll probably have to add more water next time or use some vegetable broth.

All in all, I thought this soup was delicious with a great amount of spice and very tender, tasty meat.

Overall score: 9 out of 10.