I never really considered myself a “healthy” cook.  In truth, because I don’t feel I am qualified to know what the word “healthy” means.  My Ph.D. is not in anything related to food or nutrition, nor anything that could even be remotely construed as such. To me, what seem like obviously healthy foods may not be the case for everyone – for example a banana is a pretty natural food, but to a diabetic the carb load in most bananas usually makes them off limits.  So who am I to make blanket statements about which foods or meals are healthy and which are not?  Everyone has different requirements and needs based on their individual situations, and I could not presume to guess what would be suitable for all.  I don’t even like associating the term “gluten free” with “healthy”, because we all know that gluten free foods and products come in several different forms – and gluten free junk food is still just that – junk food.  There are healthy and unhealthy items in every diet.  So the best I can do is make food that accommodates the specific dietary needs of our household and share my experience with you all.  I leave it to you to make your own decisions about the suitability of the food I make.

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I have very little experience with Indian food.  A couple of times I’ve gone out to eat at an Indian restaurant, but even then I can count those experiences on just one hand.  Why? I’m not really sure.  Every time I’ve had a chance to taste Indian food I’ve enjoyed it, and much of it is naturally gluten free – another bonus.  Maybe I just never got enough exposure to feel confident enough in what I was doing to try to cook it.  But really, when has that ever stopped me? I mean, most of the things I’ve made for this blog have been a bit of an adventure in the totally new and unfamiliar – whether it be new flavors, new ingredients (jerusalem artichokes anyone?), or even new techniques to experiment with.

So when Barbara, Prerna, and Kathy decided to host #IndianFoodPalooza in order to encourage more people to try making Indian food, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of and get me out of my comfort zone a bit.  But wow, India has such varied culture and cuisine, where and how to choose what to make?  I decided to go for more southern recipes, as I knew they would have more chance of being naturally gluten free, and I didn’t want to try to focus on figuring out substitutions as well as new cuisine.  I gravitated towards recipes with coconut flavors because, well, I love coconut – did a little searching online and came across a shrimp dish with coconut curry that I just knew I had to try!

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Welcome to another gluten free ratio rally event!! This month I had the wonderful opportunity to host, and being the non-baker that I am, chose another culinary creation near and dear to my heart, pasta.  Pasta was one of the first things I learned how to cook from scratch, ever.  While in grad school (yes, I know, I was seriously a late bloomer when it came to the kitchen), I had visited my parents over a holiday and decided to take back with me my parents’ copy of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

My first trial back then was a bit of a mess, but not long afterwards my parents also gave me an extra pasta machine they had lying around – I went back and reread Hazan’s very detailed instructions, and gave it another go  – but this time there was success! And the pasta made with that pasta machine became one of my very first posts here on Jenn Cuisine.

Since then I learned how to get a little creative and try things like incorporating spinach into the dough, and just a little over two years ago I had gotten up the courage to attempt my first gluten free pasta ever by making ravioli.   That ravioli? It worked.  It wasn’t awesome, but it held together (sort of).  After all it was nearly 75% starch and had xanthan gum, there should have been enough stickiness to stay together!  And from that time I’ve been slowly trying to cut back on the starch content and refine the pasta recipe a bit to create something that has a better consistency, a better texture, and a little more flavor.  I figured it would be a perfect challenge for the ratio rally, as well as give myself a chance to work on an ingredient ratio I was a little more happy with.

My typical flour mix would include at least half starches.  And with that flour mix I was rather successful – and the more I made pasta (and the better my dough became), the better my technique became as well.  I made it often enough that pasta became something I could throw together, and it was great to feel like I had finally accomplished the basics of making gluten free pasta -

But it really is a bit bland if made with so much starch.  It always needed a really strong sauce to combat the blandness.  This month was the first time I’d made egg-based pasta by weight (not counting gnocchi which I view as more of a dumpling than a pasta), and I wanted to really incorporate some taste into the pasta.

So here we are, the first week of July, and the ratio rally participants have been cooking throughout the past month to create gorgeous gluten free pasta goodness for you!

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Today marks exactly two years since we Daring Cooks intrepidly revealed our first cooking challenge to the world, and every month since has been an eventful, educational (and sometimes stressful) trip across various techniques and cuisines.  I am sad to say this shrimp & sausage gumbo will be my 20th and last Daring Cooks challenge that I present to you – the past 24 months have been wonderful, but I have to move on – Daring Cooks was an amazing experience, and did wonders to help me grow with my skills in the kitchen, new techniques, and above all creativity (especially when it came to making some of the challenges gluten free!).

This month for my last challenge of Daring Cooks, I made gumbo. I made mine with shrimp and sausage, and about twice as many veggies as were called for. Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

Out of 25 total challenges so far, today marks my 20th.  Twenty new experiences, trials, recipes, fails, photos and successes. Rather than reminisce about each one, I thought it might be more fun to show the dishes in picture form (each photo links to its post) – it’s funny to think about how scary making those gnocchi were that first time, and how far along I’ve come, even to host a challenge and help others.  Thanks Daring Kitchen, for some great memories and helping me to become an overall better cook.  So here they are, starting from the beginning:

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Ha, I told you we’ve been loving salads lately!  I’ve been all about “no cook” these days, and so when our friends organized a potluck picnic in the park yesterday I thought a flavorful salad would be the perfect dish to bring (so did everyone else, we had a lot of salads – just goes to show they are so well suited for this time of year ).  It was a picture perfect day – literally; the park was holding La Fête de la Tulipe – the festival of tulips – and we all sat in the grass together amongst over 300 varieties of the most gorgeous tulips all in bloom dancing in the warm afternoon sunshine.  We enjoyed some wine, some stories and laughs, and some delicious food all together.

But I could not get over these gorgeous tulips!! My camera and I went for a little walk through the park, would you like to join me?

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Read the rest of White bean tuna salad for a picnic in the park

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This month’s Daring Cooks challenge is all about Peruvian classics – there were actually two challenges this month – ceviche and papas rellenas.  Feeling in the need for some lighter fare, I decided to choose the ceviche for this month.  This was a fun challenge because I got to do something new.  I’ve marinated seafood in acid before in a ceviche-inspired salad, but never ever actually started with raw fish. So here is to another daring first!

I first had ceviche in Washington, D.C. at a trendy little Mexican restaurant with some friends a few years back while I was there for a conference.  I was a little skeptical of raw seafood then (this was back before I ate sushi even), but I really loved how the bright sharp citrus flavors worked so well with fish and the spicy chilli peppers, and ever since I have been a big fan. I’ve always loved a really strong punch of flavor, so ceviche is perfectly suited for my palate.

Now living in a land-locked country, it’s not the easiest to get fresh caught seafood (and I’m not exactly sure how well fresh-water fish do for ceviche, so wanted to stick with ocean fish), but I found some sustainably (well if you don’t count the travel to the other side of the world) caught Pacific cod – while it was pre-frozen, I’m not sure I can get seafood of any sort that wasn’t.  Not ideal, but it worked really well!

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

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I was going to write you yet another post about how I love my husband so I made him a nice dinner.  When I first told you about my Valentine’s Day food that I made for my husband, I went a little backwards and started with dessert first.  I started the day making sweet orangettes and sabayon in the morning, not even starting dinner until much closer to the time we’d actually eat.  I wanted the day to not be about stress, but just having fun.  And despite my rather emotionally raw post about Valentine’s dessert, today was going to be a bit more lighthearted.

Then, nixing that idea, since you’ve heard it from me a gazillion times already, I thought I would talk about some memories of eating scallops during my childhood.  Or maybe how much I love citrus in the Wintertime.  But I’ve already done that too, and I seriously doubt you want to read those same stories over and over again anyways.

It took me a while to come up with what to talk about, and then I realized it is because other things are pressing on my mind.  Specifically about a certain beautiful city in New Zealand that has suffered so much.  I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to have two amazingly wonderful and life changing experiences in New Zealand.  I was so impressed by  friendly and upbeat nature of everyone I met, not to mention some wonderful food that certainly contributed to the charming welcoming atmosphere that is Christchurch.  Even though that was five years ago, the place won my a soft spot forever in my heart.  I cried seeing the destruction of the first quake back in September on the news, and I cried today seeing photos of the beautiful cathedral tower in shambles and learning about the unfortunate who ended up dying in the disaster.  Luckily all of my friends were out of the city at the time so are safe and sound, but that doesn’t lessen the pain for those who have to rebuild (again), or mourn their loved ones or are still looking for those who are missing.

So instead of some lengthy drivel about my life in calm and quiet (albeit a bit gray & dreary lately) Suisse, I’m dedicating this post to CHCH and sharing some of the things I love about Christchurch’s beauty.  There are great tasting scallops in NZ too, that’s enough of a connection for me at this point to the recipe at hand.  I’m not really going to talk about the scallops, other than last weekend I learned that saffron and orange work exquisitely well together (recipe below).  And y’all should make Dario’s saffron risotto, it’s perfect.

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What makes comfort food so….darn comforting?  Why do we get cravings for foods that aren’t culinary masterpieces?  Why is it that a bowl of mac & cheese on a cool Winter’s day just puts me in a happy place? Or even say….gasp!…a packet of noodle soup?  Is the flavor of those dishes so out of this world that they are each deserving of their own Michelin star? No, of course not.  In fact, I’d argue that it has nothing to do with their flavor at all.  It has everything to do with where they take me.  Enjoying food is like having your own personal time-travel machine or private jet.  In just a few bites, I can be quickly transported through time and space, to specific memories, people, places.  Well, in my mind at least.

Mac and cheese, cooked with some stewed tomatoes and ground beef all in one big casserole bowl.  Not exactly restaurant material, eh? Ha, at home, we even named the dish “mush”. It was perfect when you were six years old, had a sore throat, and just wanted to cuddle up on the couch with your mom and a blanket wrapped around you.  It’s certainly no culinary star, but to me it will always be comfort food, because every time I make it I remember her taking care of me when I was little.

I think sometimes we have a tendency to underestimate the power that food holds over us.  It can make us laugh or cry, bring us joy or sadness, or a myriad of other emotions on so many different levels.  Trying to view food as a mere vehicle for calories and nutrients misses a bit of the point.  It is the meal, and the life experiences around which the food is eaten that give it meaning and power.  And as such, we can use our memories to create new comfort foods.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about living thousands of miles away from friends and family, it’s that new traditions can be forged just as easily as the old ones are enjoyed.  Tacos are my new comfort food.

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Growing up in New England, clam chowder is total comfort food for me. There was this place on the shore that served New England style chowder in sourdough bread bowls… oh sweet heaven. The first time I took my husband to New England to see my old “stomping grounds”, I showed him my favorite things growing up, many of which involved food. What can I say, foods are strongly linked to memories. I had already decided at that point (and so had he) in our dating that we were meant to be. Aww, we were grad students, young and in love….

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Read the rest of Clam Chowder, Gluten Free

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I tend to lose my appetite easily when it is grossly hot outside like it has been this week, tending towards fresh fruits and greens over carbs & meats.  There’s just one problem with desiring such lighter fare day after day – I don’t consume enough calories and then I am hungry.  So how to eat something more substantial when I don’t feel like anything heavy?  Why of course, a chilled flavorful pasta salad!

Unfortunately, pasta salads for me often invoke images of mayonnaise laden macaroni concoctions at a sweltering hot picnic brunch that leave my stomach in that “sunken” feeling after eating, like a giant boulder decided to take up residence in my tummy.  It’s usually not an awesome experience.  However, thanks to my friend Stacy over at Little Blue Hen, her Greek pasta with colorful visions of artichoke hearts and olives was exactly the inspiration I needed.  A light olive oil and vinegar dressing and some great bright flavors sounded perfect to me.

Most everything I had already in my pantry too, which means I didn’t have to go back out in the heat to the store to buy things.  Not that going to the store is an issue, but climbing the freaking hill back up to our apartment is.  Did I ever tell you that I am a complete wimp in the heat (especially if there is no A/C to be had)?  There’s a reason why most of my work & travels have been to cooler regions, or why my husband and I chose the chilly windy New England shore in the Autumn rather than a tropical Caribbean island for our honeymoon.  A beach all to myself on a day where the high is 50ºF with 30 knot winds?  Now that’s my kinda vacation:

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