Turkey Mu Shu

Random, I know, but like most of my recipes, I had a craving.  Sweet meat and pancakes (ish).  Traditional mu shu is typically pork, which my husband doesn't eat, and served with pancakes, which my son and I can't eat.  And I wanted it to be easy.

Easy it was. I did about 10 minutes of prep work ahead of time, and when it came time to actually make dinner, this was less than a 30 minute meal.  Rachel Ray, eat your heart out!

I thawed the meat ahead of time, cheated and used corn tortillas and bought my veggies pre-chopped.  But it was a keeper, definitely.

Recipe:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 pkg. broccoli slaw
4 tbsp. tamari sauce
2 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. corn starch
4 eggs

for the Hoison sauce:
5 tbsp. tamari sauce
3 tbsp. natural smooth peanut butter
3 tsp. honey
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. tabasco
1/4 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. rice vinegar
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Mix together ground turkey, ginger, garlic, tamari sauce, and corn starch in a large bowl.  Stick it in the refrigerator to marinate.  If you are making homemade hoison sauce, mix together above ingredients with a fork.  Set it aside.

Go do whatever you have to do for a couple of hours.
When you're ready to make dinner, pull out your turkey, a pack of corn tortillas, your sauce, and your slaw mix.  Heat a large skillet and add the sesame oil.   Add the turkey and brown. Remove the turkey to a bowl or plate.  Beat up your eggs and cook in the same skillet, flipping once.  Chop.  Remove to plate or bowl, and toss in the broccoli slaw.  Stir fry it until it is just limp.  Add the turkey and egg back to it, and about a half-cup of water.  Cook on medium heat about five minute or until the sauce is reduced.

Meanwhile, steam the tortillas in the microwave.  To serve, spread a tablespoon or so across the corn tortilla, add the turkey and veggie mixture, and roll up.

Don't fight with each other over the last of the hoison sauce.  You can always make more.

Gluten-Free Fried Okra

Something about being gluten-free makes me crave foods I never ate or cooked regularly before I was gf. Fried foods definitely fall into that category! I do try to eat healthy and cook healthy for my family. But I am a Georgia peach and our okra plants produced great big okra...too big for pickling. And my youngest had never had fried okra..... Ok, ok. Enough excuses!

Gluten-free fried okra:
5 or 6 large pieces fresh okra
1 cup cornmeal (NOT cornmeal mix.. It contains wheat flour and is not gluten-free)
1/2 cup gf flour mix (I used Bob's but it doesn't really matter)
2 cups milk (I used goat's milk)
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1/4 tsp. Cayenne pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Black pepper
coconut oil

Directions:
Mix together all dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour milk into another small bowl. Start heating coconut oil (enough to coat the bottom of pan). Wash okra and slice into medallions. Dip each piece into the milk and then in dry ingredients. Add battered okra into the hot oil. Cook until brown on one side, then flip. Once second side is browned, remove from pan and drain grease. Salt and serve hot. Eat a few before debuting to the kids or you won't get any!

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Socca.. how I love thee!

I tried socca a while back but wasn't overly thrilled with it, just kinda appeased that there was a bread-like substance about.  I obviously didn't do a good job making it.

Because now I'm in LOVE.

When I went to Seattle last week, I made a pan.  And I cut the slices and made a sandwich to take on the plane.  A SANDWICH.  A sandwich that didn't make me sick.  As a breadman's daughter, that means A LOT.

And I found a much, much easier recipe to make here on the New York Times.  I cut the amount of rosemary and pepper in half, but otherwise left it the same.  Served it with spaghetti (made with rice noodles) for dinner.  I didn't even miss the garlic bread.

Salmon Sauté

So I went last week to Seattle on a business trip, and actually dreaded trying to navigate eating gluten-free.  I was very pleasantly surprised that there were options everywhere I went, even striking it lucky at an Italian joint that happened to have gluten-free pasta on hand.

The best meal I had by far, however, was in Pike Place Market at the Athenian, a little seafood joint overlooking the water. I ordered their Salmon Sauté and it literally melted in my mouth.  It was fabulous.

Sad that my family didn't get to enjoy it, I came home and made my own version. Sadly, my salmon wasn't as fresh so it didn't have quite the same taste, but it still came out pretty darned good.

Salmon Sauté

8 oz. Salmon (preferably wild-caught)
3 tsp. lemon zest
2 onions
1 bell pepper
2 banana peppers
7 cherry tomatoes
3 leaves basil
2 celery stalks
1 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. minced garlic
3 garlic cloves
copious amounts of olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
brown rice
water
fresh squeezed lemon juice

Start your rice.  While it is cooking, chop your onions, peppers, and celery, and set aside.  Slice the garlic cloves.  Quarter your cherry tomatoes and put them in a separate bowl from other veggies.  Let rice cook about halfway before starting everything else, just so it all finishes up at the same time.

Once you're ready to start, heat a large skillet and pour in about 2 tbsp. olive oil.  Once it's hot, add in peppers, onions, celery, and sliced garlic.  Cook on medium heat until veggies start to soften, then push to the side of the pan.  Turn the heat up to medium-high and place salmon in empty space, skin side down.

Rub olive oil over the top of the salmon.  Continue stirring veggies to ensure they don't burn.  Cook the salmon about 5 minutes, or until skin separates easily when you pick up the salmon with a spatula.  Remove skin and discard.   Cut salmon up into bite-size pieces and return to pan.  Add in butter, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.  Lower heat back to medium and cook, stirring continuously. After about 5 minutes or so, add in tomatoes and basil.  Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking until fish is cooked through and/or rice is done.  If your rice is taking FOREVER (like mine) reduce the heat to almost off so the fish doesn't overcook.

Serve over rice with fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Verdict-- the whole family enjoyed it, but the baby is going through an anti-green stage, so he pulled all the peppers and celery out and argued with his dad about eating them.  But definitely a keeper.

Vanilla Pears

Randomly my 7 year old was watching a cooking show the other night and asked for vanilla pears.  I had never heard of such, but was impressed she would ask for such a thing.  So on a Saturday morning I found myself at the market buying organic bourbon vanilla extract.

And here's my recipe:
2 1/2 tbsp. organic bourbon vanilla extract
2 tbsp. lemon juice.
1/8 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp. butter
2 pears, washed, halved and de-seeded
ground cinnamon

Wash and slice your pears as directed above.  Place in the bottom of a greased baking dish and drizzle lemon juice over.  Sprinkle over with brown sugar and then drizzle on vanilla.  Top each pear with 1/4 of the butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Cook in convection oven on 350 for 50 minutes, turning the pear halves over once.  Baste them often with the juice in the bottom of the pan.

Serve immediately.  Eat yours quickly, before someone tries to take it!

More Fresh Figs

I am SO behind on blogging! I started a new job and am working 6 days a week, which definitely takes some getting used to.  I think I've been sleep deprived for a month!

But I had to share some more of what we've done with the wealth of fresh figs we've been given....


Fresh Fig Topping for Pancakes
12 fresh figs
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tbsp. sherry vinegar


Ok, so this is very, very easy, particularly if you can get a volunteer (aka my husband) to make you pancakes!  Ours were gluten-free naturally.
I started by washing the figs and chopping them into quarters or smaller, and throwing them in a saute pan with the butter.  Then I sprinkled the sherry vinegar and sugar over them.  I cooked over low heat, stirring often, for about fifteen minutes.  The result? A yummy fruit topping/syrup that everyone loved.  In fact, they loved it so much I didn't get a picture at all (OOOPS.)


Another breakfast easy fave with figs...

Figs & Oatmeal
2 cups whole rolled oats (NOT INSTANT)
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. coconut oil
4 cups water
12-15 fresh figs
cinnamon
ginger
1 tbsp. maple syrup

In a saucepan, bring the rolled oats, coconut oil, and water to a boil.  I always go ahead and put the oil in because it helps it keep from sticking.  Once the contents of your pan are boiling, reduce the heat to low.  Cook on low for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.  When you are starting to get an oatmeal-looking substance, add in your figs and maple syrup, mixing throughly with the oatmeal.  Sprinkle in cinnamon and powdered ginger.  Cook (still on low) another 10 minutes or so, stirring to be sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Add the pat of butter, and cook until it's melted. Stir throughout.

Note: I didn't use any sugar in this, and my youngest ate two bowlsful!

Fresh Figs!!!!

The lessons you learn in college are not all, shall we say, academically related.  That being said, when I was a student at UGA, my roommate and I had a house that happened to have fig trees in the backyard.  And one of the lessons I learned was that fresh figs are absolutely divine.

My cousin got married this weekend, and I didn't get to talk to my grandparents much at the wedding, but my Mema (that's Southern for grandmother if you are uninitiated) sent me some fresh figs from one of her trees.  None of my family aside from myself had ever had any, either, so it was with great joy yesterday that I introduced them.

Mema sent me a sackful of figs, which can turn bad rather quickly, so we could not extend the joy, they had to be used right away.  We ate a lot of them, sliced them and threw in our dinner salad (which we had with our gluten-free spaghetti-- yay!) and then I started cooking.

I've never made jam before, so I made a large jar of jam using a recipe I found on the internet (that I can no longer find to share) and then I made fig chutney.  I couldn't find a recipe that was what I wanted, so I just made up my own:

Fig Chutney

12-15 fresh figs, washed, stemmed, and chopped

3 tbsp fresh ginger

3 thai chili peppers

½ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup water

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp. Tabasco sauce

½ tsp nutmeg

Bring everything to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes, or until everything is nice and thick.  Stir regularly, to prevent sticking.  Pour everything into the food processor and and pulse three or four times until you have a chunky consistency.  Refrigerate before serving and use as a condiment.