Gluten Freebird

The best thing about the ritual of Sunday supper is that it happens once a week. We used to venture out to Nana’s Sunday Dinner at the Majestic as often as possible, but now Sunday nights are spent al fresco on the deck soaking up the remaining balmy nights.

Last night was a locavore feast with an attempt to conquer some of the CSA goods. Last week was not a good week for CSA consumption (there were Asian pears…yuck), so we tried doubly hard this week.

That meant conquering the big bag of heritage potatoes. I’m not into baked potatoes, so I decided to use them as a canvas for garlic and peppers.
Witness Patatas Bravas.

Patatas Bravas Taste Much Better Under Twinkling Stars and Bright Lights.

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I went a good many years without eating meat and even longer without pork or lamb. The Gluteneer’s carnivorous ways reintroduced most things back into my diet. These days, I still avoid veal, but I can’t hide my love of pork. Prosciutto with cantaloupe works so well and there really isn’t anything better than a BLT (unless it’s a BLT on real, glutenful bread). I just have to balance it out with a few good vegetarian dinners.

Truck Patch Farms offers my favorite pork. Their chops are succulent with such flavor and it’s hard to beat their beacon. I figure these were very happy pigs.

The recipe below couldn’t be much easier. The lime keeps the chops really juicy and showcases the spice of the cumin. Quick sear, some time in the oven, and you’re good to go.

As you can see, we served it over brown rice with some sauteed vegetables.

And now for some gratuitous cat photos.

(The kitties love the Wii more than I do.)

Chili-Dusted Pork Chops

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These days, it’s a race against time to enjoy tomatoes, zucchini, and other summer lovers before they’re gone. I have heard magical rumors of people who have more zucchini than they can possibly use. I am not one of those people. I happily buy as much as I can eat when I spot it at the market and love when it arrives in our CSA.

I’m also trying to use mint, which is one massive bush if left to its own devices with a bit of water and space. My mint has become a life force, so I’m happy to make mint tea and anything else I can think up, including this braised zucchini dish.

It’s all the flavors of summer — light lemon, mint, the crunch of pine nuts.

In short, it’s delicious.

Braised Zucchini with Mint and Lemon

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Okra is one of those foods that I always thought I would hate until I had it in a good preparation and fell in love. (Other foods in this genre include beets, Brussels sprouts, dark chocolate, and plain yogurt.)

I fell into this particular relationship in Nepal without even realizing what okra was. The style was a spicy stew where the okra was cut just like the spicy peppers, so I couldn’t tell what was pepper and what was okra and it seared my mouth in a masochistically delicious mess. Nowadays, most of my okra cookouts have stuck with that region of cooking, with curries and spicy stews. I’ve also tried a few cornmeal crusts which are also lip-smacking.

My current favorite is an Indian preparation that shakes up the norm.

Rather than serving the okra in coin-like slices, it’s narrowly sliced lengthwise, fried until it almost becomes the shoestring fry of okra, and served with julienned red onions, tomatoes, and garam masala.

It’s the perfect way to ease out of summer. Enjoy by itself or with simply grilled fish or chicken.

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Apparently in some golden era of America, breakfast was a large family affair with glistening sunny-side up eggs, sizzling bacon and freshly squeezed orange juice. This wasn’t ever the case for me growing up (think power bars grabbed in a race out the door) or in college (think coffee on the run), but I have come around.

Breakfast is usually brown rice cereal or some yogurt wolfed down by the computer, but every so often, Gluteneer and I make the time for it. Sometimes we go for huevos with avocado, sometimes it’s a fruit smoothie with the spice of fresh ginger, but we always come back to our found favorite: an herby, aromatic scrambled egg dish that has hints of Indian flavors in it.

We try to use scallions when we have them, but shallots, garlic, and onions work just as well. (This is all approximate. You can tweak, double, substitute, and adjust as you see fit.)

Cilantro and Ginger Scrambled Eggs

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A routine trip to MOM last week became a triumph of sugar when I discovered some new gluten-free products.

In the refrigerated section (near the hummus and packaged lunches), I discovered Sweet Christine’s, a line of fresh gluten-free baked treats. I love discovering fresh gluten-free treats since it seems like they’re nowhere to be found. Sure, you can go for a bag of Mi-Del cookies or whip up your own, but it’s nice to buy a fresh treat.

The store stocks brownies, peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies, though they were out of the latter.

They weren’t cheap ($8.99 for the cookies, $9.99 for the brownies), but they’re totally worth it. [Read more →]

Peaches come and go, broccoli is just as fleeting, but when it comes to green beans, those things are here to stay. I’m not sure if our CSA is aiming to take up commodities trading or just loves long legumes, but we get a bag o’ beans nearly every week.

I don’t mean to sound any less than thrilled about this bean abundance. I used to pick green beans from our garden (which we only had for about a year or so), but this bean exposure goes above and beyond — it has made us geniuses at using them all up. I julienned them to mix in with rice pasta, chop them into stir fries and mix them into curries.

But a favorite preparation is borrowed and adapted from the Post. Rather than use beef as originally suggested, I use turkey and add in whatever vegetables appeal. I used baby bella and mitake mushrooms and onion, but asparagus would also work.

The original recipe lists the lime leaves as optional, but they really make the dish. You can occasionally find them at whole foods or at Indian grocers.

Spicy Ground Turkey With Green Beans

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