Totally Leftover Stroganoff

I had some leftover meat, rice, half a packet of mushrooms, and half an onion. I even had an open box of soy milk. All that was missing was the flashing neon sign: “Make Beef Stroganoff!”

Leftovers!

Ingredients: (for 1 person)

About 1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 onion (or few slices leek), chopped
~100-150 gr champignon mushrooms (about 1/2 a packet), sliced
~100-150 gr leftover meat (I had turkey and beef cubes), sliced
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp cornflour (or Conditor gluten-free flour)
Fresh nutmeg
Salt
One portion leftover rice in a microwaveable bowl

Instructions:

Saute the onion or leek in the oil until getting transparent. Add the mushrooms and salt, saute until you can smell them. Add the meat, mix. Put the rice in the microwave for 1 minute (or less depending on your microwave). Add the soy milk, a couple dashes of freshly ground nutmeg, and the cornflour. Mix a bit until thickened. Pour over rice and eat! (If you really want to, you can photograph it first 😉 )

Bon apetit!

 

Song for the new week-Hunting High and Low

I heard this on the radio the other day, and BAM! I’m seven years old again, singing my favorite song. Music is the best time machine 🙂

Do you have a song that can bring you back in time? What is it?

Glass-Half-Full Pear Pie

I had a humongous amount of pears – the sweet kind that go soft after about maybe 5 minutes? My kids won’t touch anything if it even has a slightly different colored spot on it, so they refused to touch them 🙄 So I searched for pear pie recipes, that would be non dairy (as I planned this for dessert for a meat meal) and gluten free. I quickly gave up and searched just for non dairy pear pie. I have Tami flour, that is supposed to be a 1:1 gluten free flour substitute and I figured I’d use that. I went for this recipe. I skipped the liqueur (we had Druze guests for that meal, Druze don’t drink alcohol), and used yet another flour substitute for the filling. Whew!

The result? Depends on your outlook (hence the title). The pear filling was excellent. The crust left much to be desired, being very crumbly. But it looked great!

Wow!

Investigator, as usual, ate it with gusto, the others didn’t touch it. I’m definitely keeping the filling part of the recipe, and I’ll continue searching for a gluten free crust that’s worth making (and eating!).

Do you have any good pie recipes? Post them below!

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups Tami flour or other Gluten free flour substitute
1/4 cup almond butter (maybe more will make it less crumbly?)
50 gr margarine (maybe oil would be better?)
1/4 tsp salt (too much for a sweet pie, using a pinch next time)
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
ice cold water

Filling:

8-10 small pears, unpeeled, cut into halves, seeds scooped out with a spoon, sliced
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp Conditor flour (cornflour)

Instructions:

In the food processor, mix the flour, the sugar and the salt. Add the margarine and the oil, and process until large crumbs. Add the ice water a tbsp at a time until dough comes together (maybe more water?). The dough came out with a great texture, which just made the result even more disappointing 😦 I’ll go for sticky next time 😀 Put in a bag and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

10-15 minutes before taking out the dough, deseed and slice your pears and mix gently with the rest of the ingredients. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Halved

Scooped

Sliced

Mixed

Press the dough into a pie dish. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Does look crumbly, now that I  look at it again… definitely more water.

Pour the pear mixture into the crust, including all juices. Flatten.

Before Baking

Bake for 55-60 minutes, until the filling has set (might be a little jiggly in the middle still).

Smell that pie!

Eat!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Quote for the new week – 23.1.16

“Love is like a lot of things, it is always best done with the head. Save mindless efforts for mindless things.”-Raymond E Feist, Magician: Master

I reread the entire Riftwar Saga. It is still as good as I remember 🙂

What I most liked about it then, and still like about it now, is that plans don’t always turn out as expected, and the books take truly unpredictable turns. Instead of the standard “orphan turns magician and weds the beautiful princess” that it starts with, the Magician needs to go through a lot to become the magician, he doesn’t wed the princess (oops, spoiler) and so many other things and people come into it and make it even more interesting: monks, priests, aliens, tigers, eagles, dragons, giant ants, centaurs, elves, dwarves, you name it. And a really great story.

Even the quote above illustrates this. Instead of “follow your heart” and “go with the flow” and “the heart wants what the heart wants” the message is “leave mindless efforts for mindless things.” Beautiful!

5 stars.

Like a child

It’s been ages since I baked a cake all alone. Lately either I haven’t baked a Shabbat cake at all, or the kids helped me. And if they help me, obviously I do the grown-up thing and let them lick the cake batter. What else can I do?
But now I made a last minute birthday cake for my niece and I’m all alone. I can’t let that batter go to waste, now, can I? So I’m standing in the kitchen licking batter and scraping the bowl and feeling… like a child.

I missed a spot!

May we all remember the sweet taste of childhood 🙂 Have a great weekend!

Curry-less Curry

Since Insightful and Investigator were diagnosed celiac, I got rid of all my spices and bought new ones. I had a bunch of leftovers and I thought a curry would be great, and I forgot that I didn’t buy curry when everything was already bubbling nicely 😦 What to do?

Improvise! (though really, if you have curry just use curry 🙂 )

I found that Hawaij for soup, which is a Yemenite spice, has cumin, turmeric, cardamom and cloves. I added more turmeric and ginger, and it turned out surprisingly good. So I present to you (*drum roll*): Curry-less curry!

Ingredients (2 large servings)

about 1 tbsp oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced (or minced if you like)
1-2 slices fresh ginger (I peel, slice it and keep it in the freezer in a bag)
5-6 large champignon mushrooms, quartered or sliced
canned peas (or any leftover you might have, chickpeas, lentils, other beans, and nothing at all also work)
leftover meat (optional) cut up if you wish
about 1/2 cup of coconut cream (or however much you have leftover)
2 tsp Hawaij for soup
1 tsp turmeric
about 1/2 dried chili pepper, if desired
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion in the oil. Add the garlic and ginger, fry until fragrant. Add the mushrooms, the meat, the coconut cream, the peas,and the spices. Taste and adjust seasonings if desired.

Bubble bubble

Let simmer until bubbling (or until rice is ready 🙂 ). Serve over rice or couscous.

Yummy!

Bon Apetit!

 

Quote for the new week – 26.12.15

All the ways to manipulate time instead of having time manipulate you 🙂

Have a great week!

Quote for the new week – 19.12.15

“Baby you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed”

-One direction, “What makes you beautiful”

No, I haven’t suddenly turned into a teenager 😉 I’ve turned into a dancer:

After doing a warm up with fitness blender, I go to youtube and dance 🙂 I’ve already bought Just Dance 4 for Wii on eBay, but I’m not waiting for it. The problem is, the songs that are great to dance to are not necessarily the best of music. So now I find myself humming “I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number, so call me maybe” or “Gibberish that might be Korean” or the gem from above. People look at me strangely but it’s worth it 😉

Have a great week!

Quote for the new week – 12.12.15

Keep calm and eat latkes!

The perfect quote for Hanukkah 🙂 and this time with our very own (well, sort of) oven baked potato latkes recipe – there’s only one day left in Hanukkah, so you have to make it TODAY!

Oven baked latkes  based on Chia’s excellent recipe

1 Kg potatoes, shredded in the food processor
1 onion, shredded
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
3 dashes pepper
1/4 cup gluten free breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp baking powder
oil spray or about 1/4 cup oil and an egg brush

Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix everything together. Drain excess water (a bit, no need to work hard over this).

See? Not very drained.

Spray baking paper (or brush with oil). Put in tbsp on the baking paper, flattening down as much as possible. Spray more oil (or brush oil) on top of the latkes. Bake for 10 minutes, turn them over and bake for 5 minutes more. Eat!

Yummy!

If you have cooked potatoes you can add them to the latkes, it will turn out great. You can also add carrots, zucchini or sweet potato in place of regular potatoes.

Gluten free breadcrumbs

As I have tried making gluten free bread, if the taste is good but the texture is bad I process it until I get gluten free breadcrumbs. If the taste is bad, there is nothing to be done…

Have a great week!

Quote for the new week -28.11.15

 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me. – Genesis 32, 10-11 (King James version)

קטנתי מכל החסדים ומכל האמת אשר עשית את עבדך כי במקלי עברתי את הירדן הזה ועתה הייתי לשני מחנות, הצילני נא – בראשית לב יא-יב

From this week’s parasha, and an absolutely amazing song. It speaks to me when I am sad and aching; and also when I am overjoyed. A great way to start the week.

Have a great week!