Jenn Cuisine » Breakfast

Strawberry Chocolate & Banana Quick-Bread

Jenn — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:48:50 +0000

The success of cooking is as much dependent on how well one follows the directions of a good recipe as it is on being able to add a personal element – either to suit your tastes, your current pantry, or just to give a recipe a little bit of flair to help you make a dish become a part of you. And that’s why I’m going to be embarking on a little project. Over the next month or so, I’m going to make for you a guide. A guide to GF ingredients, a guide to knowing when you can switch one thing for the other – in the hopes of giving you more tools to enjoy your gluten free cooking. I’m going to aim for a month to put it together, and I hope it will help you.

One of the hardest facets of gluten free baking is making the right decisions about substitutions – When does it matter what flours are in a recipe? When can you just substitute a box mix? Is it really necessary to own 20 different types of ingredients to make something? If you are like me, you probably have a base of 4-5 flours that you use regularly, and when you see a recipe with someone else’s gluten free flour mix, you do your best to make do with what you own rather than going out to spend even more money at the store – cause let’s face it – gluten free ingredients often bring a whole new definition to pricey groceries. I think about substitutions almost every time I bake gluten free – sometimes I am sure the end result will come out great and other times I’m praying to the gluten free baking gods that whatever is in the oven will turn out edible. As you probably well know, baking is not my original area of expertise, and even I am prone to a mess-up or two.

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Gluten Free Granola

Jenn — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:38:09 +0000

This granola was made specifically as a method for enjoying the dried strawberries that we got at the market the other day. They aren’t just dried fruit, the strawberries do have some sugar added and when we bought them were labeled as “confiture”, making them more like fruit snacks, but oh were they delicious and worth every franc (at 4.50/100g they are not cheap!). So that we didn’t scarf them down like small children who had just found their way into Willy Wonka’s factory, I decided to incorporate them into a gluten free granola. Granola isn’t hard to make, it just takes a little babysitting and turning every now and then. The best thing about granola? You can put in it literally whatever you want!(...)
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The Gluten Free Husband Makes Breakfast Quesadillas

Jenn — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:21:29 +0000

Hello everyone! Well I am back for a second installment of “Holy crap my husband can cook” on Jenn’s blog!

Breakfast. It’s probably one the hardest times for a gluten-free person to find something really tasty to eat. I know it is for me. Every time I go to the store to get foods for breakfast I am faced with cereals, meuslis, oats, pastries, and several other extremely flavorful (but ultimately glutenicious) items that I know I can’t even think about eating. For this reason, I have been trying to come up with breakfast items that I could make that would inspire me to once again look forward to eating in the morning (a cup of yogurt gets old REAL quick).

The idea for these quesadillas came very quickly to both Jenn and I in one of those moments where you just look at each other and say, “Wow, we really have to make that.” We were talking about how much we liked the enchiladas that we had made, and I had recently come up with the bright idea of frying tortillas in a pan, salting them and devouring away (not the most sophisticated meal in the world but you would be surprised how satisfying it really is, especially accompanied with fried halloumi cheese). Then, I don’t know who started talking first, but we began asking things like, “What if we put cheese, cured meats, an egg and a few other breakfasty items between two tortillas and then fried them in butter?” If your mouth just started watering, then you just had the same reaction I had as well.

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Maple Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Gluten Free

Jenn — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:29:52 +0000

There was a time once while I was young, when very briefly I thought my sister was nuts for asking my dad to put chocolate chips in her pancakes. ”Chocolate chips and maple syrup? Yuck!” Well, let me emphasize the briefness of that thought – maybe for half a second or so, until I realized my sister was a genius. She converted my whole family to chocolate chip pancake lovers, and maple and chocolate perform a harmonious symphony that allows the taste buds to dance and rejoice as if heaven had literally shown itself right then in that single glorious moment.

This may seem like an obviously awesome combination to you, but how many dishes do you see blending maple and chocolate together? I for one do not see many – in fact I cannot even remember a time when I tasted these two flavors at once that wasn’t at breakfast. It’s a shame really, because I think chocolate and maple tastes a lot better than current foodie fads such as chocolate and bacon. In my mind bacon needs a sweet fruit like strawberries to counter the salt and fat, not chocolate. But that may just be me. But chocolate and maple? Perfect. Especially a dark chocolate which lends just a hint of bitterness.

These aren’t dark chocolate chips, but they are still good. Along with peanut butter, my sister-in-law gave us a ginormous (yes, that’s my new word) bag of chocolate chips. It’s so funny to me that I cannot find them in a store here because well, the major company that makes them is only a skip and a jump away…. And then the crushed hazelnuts and pistachios added for a nice dimension, a little bit of texture and the nuttiness offset the very sweet quite well. And after all, who doesn’t love candy for breakfast?

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Chanterelle Omelette with Saucisson Vaudois

Jenn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:00:08 +0000

So last weekend I successfully navigated the market (very similar to a farmer’s market in the States), and was able to buy things – speaking in French! Woohoo! The market here is insane – there are SO many different types of food along with produce. One stand just sold olives – there must have been over 20 types of olives! Some stands sold spices, and breads, oh it was amazing. And it was packed. It turns out the entire city must come out on the weekend just for the market, and with good reason!

One of my prize purchases were chanterelles. So fresh, and perfectly golden. They are one of my favorite types of mushrooms and I was so excited to see them! Chanterelles are not as strongly flavored as say, morels, but they do carry their flavor well even through a lot of cooking. I gave them a tough competitor to build a flavor profile with, the saucisson vaudois (sausage from Vaud). This is the local sausage of the area, very well marbled, and a great smoky taste. One thing about Switzerland is just like every area is known for a certain type of cheese, almost the same variety exists in cured meats. Despite using such a flavorful meat in these omelettes, the chanterelles did not disappear, but rather blended quite nicely. A little bit of a very mild soft cheese (camembert) to bring it all together, some green spinach for garnish, and a tasty Swiss Winter omelet is made

In the States, I doubt you can find saucisson vaudois. I know I had never heard of it before I came here. If you do find it, I encourage you to try it because it is so delicious. But if you choose a decent smoked sausage it would work fine. Omelettes are pretty flexible. In the background you can see a delicious croissant that I ate, because even though my husband cannot enjoy the bread, I still indulge Don’t think he is missing out that much. OK in bread terms he is. But he had a hazelnut yogurt with his omelette that was freaking amazing. We both love hazelnut, and are so glad to see hazelnuts incorporated into so many foods here. For some reason hazelnut flavor doesn’t seem to be as popular in the States.

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients (for 1 omelette, scale up as needed):
2 eggs
2 tbs. oil
1 large shallot, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
50 g fresh chanterelles roughly chopped (about 1/3 cup)
75 g saucisson vaudois, or smoked sausage (about 3 oz), chopped
1/4 wheel camembert, cut into pieces
fresh ground pepper
handful fresh baby spinach

Directions:
1. Crack 2 eggs in a bowl and beat until uniform. Set aside. In a large skillet, heat up oil and saute shallot, garlic, chanterelles and sausage until the sausage is fully cooked and browned. Set the mixture aside.
2. On a medium heat, pour eggs into the skillet and let sit for a minute or so, until it just stops being runny. Place your sausage and chanterelle mixture on one half along with pieces of camembert and a few leaves of spinach. Fold over and let cook another minute or so. Flip once to brown the other side, then transfer to your plate.
3. Season with pepper if needed. You don’t need to add salt because the sausage will add plenty. Garnish with spinach. Enjoy!

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Butternut and Sweet Potato Hash with Turkey Sausage

Jenn — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:35:28 +0000

And a giveaway that’s perfect for the holidays!!

I love having a hot breakfast. It’s not too often that I have the time in the mornings to spend cooking a great hot breakfast, but when I do it’s often the highlight of my day. There is just something about fried eggs and a steaming hot plate of delicious food sitting in front of me that is so satisfying. Especially when I can couple that with the chance to sleep in a little bit and enjoy it as my brunch.

I know you probably looked at the title and thought “Uggh I’m so sick of turkey right now,” right? But this isn’t something to make with roast turkey leftovers, and while it has some great Autumn ingredients like butternut squash and sweet potatoes, this doesn’t taste like it would belong on your Thanksgiving table either. No, this dish has an entirely different flair to it and uses some awesome flavors that give it a bit more of a Southwest type of appeal to it, using poblanos, black beans, dried cilantro, and of course, some ground dried hot chiles. Mmmm I love chiles!

I hardly ever by pre-packaged sausage anymore, and find that I love the versatility and freedom of adding my own flavors to ground meats instead, which is exactly what I did here with ground turkey. This dish is easy to make, if a little bit time consuming (because of having to roast the root veggies), but it’s quite cost effective, which is important when one is trying to budget for all of the various expenses that come along with enjoying the holidays. We definitely have a lot going on as this year draws to a close, and so sometimes it’s nice to have something easy and cheap to cook. I made this and got tons of wonderful leftovers, which are easily re-heatable as long as you can spend a quick couple of minutes frying an egg for each person right before serving.

Speaking of chiles, you know where you can purchase some awesome ones? At Marx Foods, which sells all sorts of stuff. Back in April I got to try out some dried morel mushrooms to use in a recipe contest which I (and the rest of my family) just loved, even though I didn’t win. The folks at Marx Foods gave me an awesome gift to use as a giveaway for one of you lucky readers! Since the year 2009 is coming to a close, this giveaway is the chance to win 20.09% off of anything on their site, which is a pretty awesome deal. Yep, ANYTHING! I personally drool over truffles (the mushroom kind, not the chocolate kind), maple sugar, and dried chiles, though I have not gotten the courage yet to buy the Ghost chiles – the hottest pepper in the world. There are lots of great spices and meats as well that you can order. Use it to get a gift for your favorite foodie friend, or just treat yourself!

So to enter, simply leave a comment saying what you’d be most excited to buy using this great discount, and next Tues. on December 15th one winner will be randomly selected (via random.org) to win! I’ll email the winner the coupon code (so make sure to leave your email in the comment form – don’t worry it won’t be published), and then all you have to do is make your purchase before the year 2009 runs out, and you can enjoy this awesome discount!

Mandatory disclaimer & yada yada stuff – I was not compensated in any way to host this giveaway, I really just think this is an awesome opportunity to purchase some really cool foods with a cool discount

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients (for about 8 servings):
1 lb. sweet potato, chopped into bite size pieces
1 lb. butternut squash, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
salt
canola oil
1 lb. ground turkey
1 tbs. salt
ground pepper
1 tbs. dried cilantro
1 tsp. dried sage
2 tbs. brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
amt. to taste of your favorite dried chiles, ground (chipotles are some of my favorite)
1/2 large onion, diced
1 poblano chile, diced
2 c. black beans, cooked
1/2 c. your favorite salsa
1 egg per person and canola oil to cook it in
chopped parsley for garnish

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375F. Place sweet potato and squash on a large sheet, salt generously and drizzle canola oil on top. Bake for about 30 min or until tender throughout.
2. Mix together with your hands turkey, salt, pepper, sage, cilantro and sugar to form the sausage, set aside.
3. One squash and sweet potato is done, take out of the oven. ”Sweat” garlic, onion, and poblano, and ground dried chiles (amount is variable depending on your taste, start with about 1/2 tsp. and add from there if you aren’t totally sure how much you want to use – it also depends on how much heat your dried chiles pack) in a large (think 12″ or bigger) cast iron skillet on med. high heat in a little bit of canola oil. Once the onions start to soften, add in the turkey sausage, and cook, breaking it up in the pan.
4. Once sausage is fully cooked, do a taste test – if you like a bit more heat, add some more of your favorite ground chiles, or leave it as is. Add the squash and sweet potato, and beans and salsa to the mixture, and cook a few more minutes so all the flavor comes together, stirring every so often so all ingredients are evenly mixed.
5. In a small cast iron skillet, fry your eggs with a little bit of oil, however you like them.
6. Place some of the hash on the plate, top with a fried egg, and garnish with parsley. Enjoy!

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Guest Post: ZOMTBAKES – Easy Honey Muesli Bars

Jenn — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:58:37 +0000

I’m so excited to be hosting this great guest post from Zoe of ZOMTBAKES! While not gluten free, these muesli bars look absolutely scrumptious. One could buy gluten free oats and maybe something like rice bran could work as a substitute for the wheat germ. Once I get back from my great vacation I will have to try these out – Thanks so much to Zoe for guest posting!

Hello, I’m Zoe from ZOMTBAKES. Jenn so very kindly did a delicious peanut butter and banana (gluten free!) muffin recipe for ‘Healthy ZOMTreats’ so I am returning her the favour with a very simple, but very delicious muesli bar recipe. (Thanks for having me on your beautiful blog Jenn!) These came on a 3 hour road trip to Canberra and were a perfect snack to keep the energy levels up.

The best thing about these is that you can swap the dried fruit and nuts for other types so you will never get bored! Try some cranberries and pecans, or dates and dried banana chips…the possibilities are endless. Just keep the ratios the same and you will be fine.

Easy Honey Muesli Bars

Ingredients

1 cup old fashioned oats (not instant)
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup organic honey
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup sultanas, chopped
1/4 cup pepitas

Method

Preheat your oven to 180° Celisus. Spray a square 10 x 10 brownie dish with canola oil and line with parchment paper to assist lifting out the slice. Spread the oatmeal, almonds, wheat germ and coconut together on a tray and toast lightly in the oven until the coconut is slightly golden, about 10 minutes or so.

Place the hot mixture into a large bowl and mix in the pepitas. Quickly stir in the honey, vanilla and salt it is well combined. Then fold the dried fruit through. Put the mix into your prepared baking dish and press it down as firmly as possible with a spatula. I actually put some baking paper over the top and used a book to apply even pressure which worked well.

Bake for 20 to 27 minutes, the top should be quite golden brown, but watch the edges don’t burn! Allow to cool enough to touch and then put it into the fridge to chill before cutting. I used a sharp kitchen knife, it will crumble a bit, but just eat the crumbs as you go.

I store my muesli bars in the freezer; they won’t freeze but they stay nice and firm and deliciously cool to eat. The fridge would be ok too but they go pretty soft if left at room temperature.

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Molasses Granola

Jenn — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:03:01 +0000

If you haven’t noticed, I like my food to taste as indulgent as possible. I am definitely one of those people that “lives to eat” rather than “eats to live”. I think most foodies are. It is a definite balance though, with pretty strict portion/calorie control and trying to have a fairly active lifestyle, so that I don’t feel like I ever have to restrict myself from taste or flavor. Some things I eat are totally healthy. And others are purely indulgent. I think I would put this granola in the indulgent category for sure.

Mmm granola. Have you ever had molasses granola before? If not, I HIGHLY recommend it. This was more like eating candy than it was eating granola. Completely crunchy, and completely sweet, I think breakfast is going to be the highlight of my day for a while

I based this recipe off of this cocoa-molasses granola recipe that i found over on Librari[d]an. I made a gazillion changes (ok, not quite a gazillion, but a few), so am posting my adapted recipe here.

Unfortunately this is not gluten free, because I am too cheap to spend the $$$$ on gluten free oats. They do exist though. If you buy gluten free oats, this granola should be celiac friendly.

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of oats
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 tbs. cocoa powder (not unsweetened)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbs cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275F. Mix oats, coconut, almonds, and seeds in a large bowl and then lay out on a large cookie sheet. Sprinkle with a generous helping of salt, and bake about 15 minutes – take out just before it starts browning and return it back to the original bowl. Set oven to 300F.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (up to the cinnamon) to a small pan. I found that by stirring alone, I could not get the oil to incorporate into the rest of the mixture, so applied a little heat (medium) for a few minutes while stirring rather vigorously until the mixture was completely homogenized together.
3. Gradually add the wet ingredient mixture to the dry, until it is well incorporated. I felt that the granola was fairly well coated with only about 2/3 of the liquid mixture, but decided to add the rest anyways. It probably would have made for a shorter baking time if I had stopped then, but that’s ok
4. I kept the temperature low for the granola (the original recipe said to bake at 350F), because I was really worried about all the sugar in the mixture burning before the granola was done. Because I used a lower temperature, I only turned the granola every 15 minutes instead of every 10, and the total baking time was closer to an hour. I could tell when it was done because our home was really fragrant with the smell of the baking granola, it was so enticing! The granola had just started to really harden a bit and that’s when I knew to pull it out.
5. I turned the granola one last time, and then let it cool for a good hour. Removing it from the pan was a trick, I used a fork to get under it and pull it off the metal baking sheet, since it was all caramelized and hardened. Note – this can make a mess. I also used my fork to break up the large pieces into smaller ones, so that they would be more manageable when eaten. This was cool though because my granola has all these yummy clusters in it. Add your cooled granola to a large bowl, and toss in the dried cranberries. Make sure the cranberries are evenly mixed with the granola, and store in a container far away from reach so you don’t eat it all at once

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How to Make Perfect French Press Coffee

Jenn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:21:45 +0000

If I am not making a latte, I am often making beautifully aromatic coffee with my French press. I love using a French press – no counter-space required, no fancy machinery, just some hot water. The average one will run you $20-$30, that’s it. And in my opinion, using a French press correctly will result in a better, stronger, and tastier coffee than traditional filter/drip methods. This is because you brew the coffee with the grounds free floating in your water, giving them as much contact area and time as possible to release their flavor into your drink.

Of course the first step to an awesome cup of coffee is awesome coffee beans. Currently I have some coffee that my dad brought me back from a recent trip to Brazil. I’m sorry, but no matter what you do with bad flavorless coffee, you just can’t magically make it become awesome. However, if you have decent beans, it will make a huge difference.

Next you need to grind your beans if they are not already ground (if you can, buy whole beans and grind them fresh each time, because they will retain their flavor longer – pre-bought ground beans tend to lose flavor quicker). Fill your French press with the ground coffee – my press tends to fill about 3 mugs worth and this is how much I fill mine 1-2 cm:

Now all you need is some hot water, which is easy for me since I have a tea kettle that permanently lives on my stove. Heat the kettle until the water is just starting to boil, and then pour over your coffee grounds. Good coffee will develop a nice “crema” and some of the grounds will float to the surface. A crema is typically associated with espresso brewing, but most everyone I know who uses a French press refers also to the crema formed by making their plain old coffee this way as well. Crema refers to that foam that builds on the top layer of your coffee. Let your French press sit like this for at least 5 but I typically let it go for closer to 10 minutes. This will allow the flavor to develop in your coffee.

See the crema here – sometimes creamy will be more frothy, sometimes more foamy like this – I think that’s a function of the specific coffee you use:

Once the grounds have steeped enough, push the plunger in the lid piece all the way down to push the coffee grounds down to the bottom. Now when you pour your coffee it will be filtered from the grounds. Just pour into your favorite mug and prepare like you normally would – cream, sugar, etc. Yum!

I also use my French press for brewing loose leaf tea, because the filter is perfect for straining tea leaves after steeping!

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Strawberry Scones, and yes, Gluten Free!

Jenn — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:07:40 +0000

Gluten Free Day hosted this month’s “Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free”, and this theme was fruit desserts. And while I didn’t develop anything for the event, I did however look at all of the awesome recipes that were submitted (my lemon almond cake was a variation of Elana’s orange cake also featured here), and came across this one for strawberry scones. Sophie’s scones looked so good and scrumptious, I just wanted to try it out!

Well I’m so glad I did, because this recipe was FANTASTIC.

I made this recipe exactly like it was printed, well except I didn’t have guar gum so just used more xantham gum instead, and lemon zest instead of orange zest. Ok, so I guess that means I didn’t make it exactly like the recipe, but those are minor adjustments in the grand scheme of things. I even found sorghum flour just for this recipe. Haha, I also can’t believe I’ve gone through three entire quarts of strawberries this week, I love strawberry season so much!

I am amazed at how perfect these scones came out. I mean, just look at the center! They were light, moist, and fluffy, and exactly like scones should be. So this morning, had a nice breakfast with my husband in the park with scones and some fresh Brazilian coffee that I took in our French coffee press. It was the perfect morning for it, mid 60′s, and sunny, so relaxing!

I also imagine that making these scones without the strawberries in them would make them perfect for things like strawberry shortcake…Mmm I may have to try that next time….

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