Fig Puffs

I love figs. I love figs to a level that is a little frightening. We have a gorgeous fig tree in our back yard and I really like making these crispy, flakey, attractive Fig Puffs as soon as they start to ripen. They are so delightfully easy.  

To make them, you need:

1 package frozen Puff Pastry

3 Tbl white or raw sugar (divided)

3 Tbl brown sugar

3 ripe (soft but not super soft) green or black figs - I use green

Directions:

Remove frozen puff pastry from the freezer about an hour before you start the rest of the recipe. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine both sugars in a small bowl, keeping 1 Tbl of white/raw sugar set aside. Open the puff pastry and unfold it flat on a baking sheet. Cut the puff pastry in 6 equal parts (I usually follow the seams and then slice the long pieces in half). Sprinkle puff pastry with white/raw sugar 

Prepare figs by slicing off stem and bottom. Slice fig into 1/8th inch slices. Arrange in a row on the pieces of puff pastry. Sprinkle each piece with the sugar mixture. 

Back until golden brown and delicious looking (about 15 minutes) - Remove from oven and enjoy!

Persimmons and Home Canning Basics

I have the pleasure of working with the Portland Fruit TreeProject throughout the year. They are a great organization, which organizes harvest parties for the large amount of fruit trees in Portland. Groups of volunteers harvest ripe fruit and a portion is donated to the Oregon Food Bank. Volunteers also take home a portion of the fruit, as does the owner of the property/fruit trees. On top of the harvest parties, they also organize canning and cooking classes to help people with ideas on what to do with… we’ll say 30+ pounds of Persimmons, for instance.

Enter Heather and Jason! We joined with the PFTP to teach a Persimmon Preservation class. We did a demo of one of my favorite persimmon recipes, Persimmon Chutney. It makes a great addition to a holiday gift basket and goes well on all sort of things. Jason prefers it on pork while I prefer it on a nice curry… or a spoon.

To help with the class, I put together a handout. Who doesn’t like a good handout? It includes three persimmon recipes as well as a basic guide to home canning. Credit where it is due, the basic guide came directly from My Pantry Shelf. It is incredibly well written and a great guide.

The three recipes are:

Persimmon Chutney

Persimmon Jam

Persimmon Cookies

Granted, persimmon cookies aren’t a canning thing, but it you have persimmons, you should 100% make these cookies. They are soft and chewy. On top of that, the bizarre science experiment that is persimmon and baking soda brings me a weird level of joy.

Creamy Peach Mango Popsicles - Pinterest Battle, week 2

In celebration of the heatwave that Portland has been sitting in for the past week, I decided to break in my growing collection of popsicle molds! I've been eyeing a bunch of fancy recipes on Pinterest, along with all things summer. My creation is a delightfully cool and creamy (vegan) peach mango number.

Creamy Peach Mango Popsicles
Ingredients:
2 8oz containers of coconut milk yogurt - vanilla flavor (I used SoDelicious brand. I heart it)
1 bottle of R.W. Knudsen Mango Peach juice

Directions:
Put about 2 spoonfuls of yogurt into each popsicle mold. Hold at angle and lightly bang it on counter, so that it all goes to one side. Place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer and fill the remaining space with juice. Put sticks/tops on popsicle mold and pop back in freezer for 4 hours or more. Enjoy!

Makes 8 popsicles

This is enjoyment.

Seitan Roast – Celebrate your Holidays with Seitan

Seitan Roast – Celebrate your Holidays with Seitan

I love this roast for holiday events. With Easter coming up, I wanted to share it with you. This is a great one for mixed company. Meat eaters completely enjoy it. Sadly, not for the Gluten Free guests though.

All Hail Seitan!

Ingredients
For the Seitan:
10 oz Firm tofu
1 cup water
3 Tbl oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic gradual/powder
1 tsp sage
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl Braggs liquid amino (or ½ Tbl more soy sauce)
2 Tbl Nutritional yeast (big flake, not fine powder)
2 tsp Kitchen Bouquet
2 and 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

For the Stuffing:
.5 cup mixed wild rice
1 cups water
1 “chicken” flavor bouillon cube
1 sprig fresh Rosemary, finely chopped
¼ cup pine nuts (raw or toasted – I usually use raw)
Salt and pepper to taste

You will also need:
A steamer tray or stove top steamer (available for super cheap at any Asian grocery store)
Tin foil
Spray cooking oil

Start the stuffing first – In a pan or rice cooker, add rice, water, bouillon cube and rosemary – Cook rice following standard cooking method – Once rice is done, add pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Get your steamer going.

In a medium bowl, add the vital wheat gluten. In a blender (blender is preferable, but food processor will also work), combine everything on the “For the Seitan” list except the vital wheat gluten.  Pour mixture into the bowl with the vital wheat gluten and stir. Once the mixture has combined a little, get your hands in there and knead it a bunch. You want to activate the gluten so that it pulls against itself a bit and creates thick strands (about 3-4 minutes of kneading).

Lay out 2 large pieces of tinfoil in a cross pattern and spray with cooking oil.

Create a flat layer of the gluten mixture in the center of the tinfoil cross. To do this, I usually pull off small pieces and lay them side-by-side and then flatten them all together (since gluten can be difficult to roll out or flatten like pizza dough) – the small pieces will form together as it is cooking.

In the center of your flattened gluten, make a pile of the rice mixture. Roll the gluten around the rice mixture like a burrito. Pinch the ends together so that the rice is entirely encased. Use the foil wrapping to hold it all together tightly.

Place in the steamer and steam for 1 hour. Check on the water occasionally to make sure your steamer doesn't boil dry. 15 minutes before the steaming is complete, turn the oven to 350 degrees. When the steaming is complete, put the foil wrapped goodness into the oven for 45 minutes.

Optional, you can roast vegetables in the oven with the roast (in a separate pan) so they are ready when the roast is!

When oven time is complete, serve sliced with your festive meal :D

Beet Burgers - Gluten Free and Vegan

I don’t think I can eat enough beets and cauliflower. They might be my favorite foods. Both vegetables are incredibly versatile.

For this meal, I went very “American bar food” – burgers and hot wing. Shockingly, we were not watching sports that night.

For the hot-wings, I love the PETA Vegan Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Wing – I have made them with a few different types of flour and find that brown rice flour is my favorite – this makes them vegan AND gluten free AND paleo (in some people’s interpretation of paleo). While I am not gluten free nor paleo, I have some dear friends who are both. Finding gluten-free, paleo, vegan recipes is an exciting challenge. I love food challenge.

The Beet Burgers are hands down my favorite burger ever. The recipe is super quick and easy too!

Note: if you go gluten free on the flour and bun, this is a great gluten free and vegan meal!

Ingredients:

3 whole beets – medium sized:  raw, peeled and grated

1 small onion, diced

2 Tbl chia seeds

1 Tbl flour (whatever kind you like, I love brown rice flour)

1 Tbl olive oil

1 tsp garlic granuals/powder

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp dry basil (if you have fresh, use that instead. Nummers)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Condiments and Buns – I love sprouts, avocado and vegan mayo/aoili on this amazing burger.  

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, stir well. Let sit for about 30 minutes.

Once the beet mixture has had time to mingle, heat about 3 Tbls of oil In a pan. Form the beet mixture into patties and place carefully in the oil. Let cook on that side for 4-5 minutes, until a good crust has formed. Flip and cook that side as well.

Place pattie on bun and add condiments.

Enjoy!

Serves 2-3, depending on burger thickness.

With the leftover beet mixture, I made little slider burgers and fried them. I then packed them for lunch the next day with some adorable vegan (but not GF) buns that I found. This is the slider bar at my desk at work: