Eggplant-Chego:  This is LIVING!

Chef Bill made me the most delightful dinner the other night – a cleaned up version of one of my favorites: Eggplant Parm. This dish may look elaborate and involved, but I assure you, it’s very do-able.  The crux of it involves dredging eggplant slices in gluten-free bread crumbs and then baking them until crisp. The slices are then layered in a baking dish with layers of a Bolognese-style meat sauce and topped with slices of Manchego cheese, a sheep’s milk cheese.  The result is positively delicious and no yucky, heavy feeling afterwards because my pipes aren’t clogged with gluten or cow dairy.  If you desire a more specific recipe, give me a shout and I’ll have Chef Bill dictate his magic formula for all you wonderful readers.  Buon Appetito!

The Simple Joys of Swai

Swai is one of my favorite types of fish:  inexpensive, and surprisingly moist and tender if cooked via Chef Bill’s recipe below. Probably another reason I like it so much is that it bears a striking resemblance to catfish. I moan over this recipe, and I’m not a big fish lover.  The key is not overcooking. According to Chef Bill, it’s best to be less concerned with the blackening than with the proper cooking of the fish.  It does not have to be traditionally blackened to taste good.  Chef Bill made this for dinner the other night, and true our gluten-free nature, served it with a side of homemade potato hash. It’s also great with  green beans, sauteed spinach, baked zucchini, a side of basmati rice, a baked potato, gluten-free cappellini with oil and garlic – just about anything.  Summer’s the perfect time to enjoy a little Swai.   Let me know how you like the recipe  –  Bon Appetit!

Sauteed Swai

Serves Two:

Two Swai filets

Olive Oil

Good Quality Cajun Spice such as Emeril’s Essence or Paul Prudhomme’s Fish Magic

Lightly brush or rub filets with olive oil. Fairly heavily season both sides of the filet with Cajun spice. Heat approximately 3 TBS. olive oil in a large frying pan till almost smoking. Sear fish on one side approximately two minutes. Flip fish over with spatula and sear for two minutes. Add one pat butter to pan until pan is about smoking. Sear for 40 seconds each side. Serve immediately.

Have I mentioned that I’m in love with this little clay baking pot I found at Good Will last year?  It’s amazing. After having so many good things come out of it after 30 minutes in the oven, I’m convinced it’s an alchemist.  I’ve baked everything from mini-casseroles and leftover soup to duck eggs over potatoes and coconut milk rice pudding in this adorable little cassoulet. There must be something about the covered-clay-baking-process that turns the ordinary into the sublime. Eggs are more evenly cooked, desserts are more soft and creamy, and soups are imbued with new flavor and life. This morning I decided to give baked cherries a whirl.

My Ayurvedic constitution is Kapha (http://doshaquiz.chopra.com)  so maybe that’s why I prefer warm foods vs. ice-cold.  Warm fruit out of the oven is simply more enjoyable to me, whether it’s apples, peaches, or berries.  The heat, when applied gently and for the right amount of time, beautifully brings out the flavor, as well as a river of juices you just wouldn’t get from fruit out of the fridge, or even at room temperature.  One of my most adored fruits are now in season so what better time to do the baking experiment:  a crock full of washed bing cherries baked covered at 335 for 30 minutes. This morning the cherries were straight out of the fridge; if you’re using room temperature cherries, the time or temperature might vary.  I always turn the oven off at the end and let them marinate a little more, say 10 minutes or so.  The result is pure Nirvana: The beauty and fragrance of a cherry pie minus the white stuff to wreak havoc with the blood sugar.

The photos might not do their splendor justice, so you’ll just have to try it out to see what  I mean.  Any covered casserole dish will do if you don’t have a crock.  Let the cherry-baking begin!  Bon Appetit…

Espresso in the a.m. has been a ritual since the 80’s.  Once I discovered its hedonistic depth and flavor, there was no going back to coffee.  The thing is, I’ve never been a black coffee kind of drinker, so the octane of my espresso was always tempered with a generous splash of cream. It was my own version of a strong, full-bodied latte.

Three years ago, when I found DDPYOGA and the guidance of Diamond Dallas Page and Terri Lange, they strongly urged me to give up cow dairy.  It was sound advice, but I also knew I was in no way, shape or form ready or willing to give up cream from my beloved a.m. ritual.  When I undertook a vow to change my life, health, and food choices, I knew that to make it work long-term, I had to be realistic.  For me, this meant keeping pleasure in the equation to a certain extent…it would be crucial to the longevity of my changes.  The deal I made with myself was as follows:  cow cheese takes a hike; cream in the espresso stays in the picture.  This decision was due in large part to never finding a suitable cream substitute.  I didn’t like the fake creamers or the substitutes made of soy or coconut.  Then oneday, an unexpected revelation:  Almond Milk makes FABULOUS latte’s.

It all came about quite by accident while vacationing at my friend Rene’s house.  Rene is also a recent ‘no cow dairy’ convert and drinks only Almond Milk.  My first morning there I was horrified to discover she hadn’t had time to shop for cream, and I was too groggy for a supermarket run, so I bit the bullet and heated Almond Milk on the stove in a saucepan in tandem with the percolating Bialetti.

“It’s gonna be horrible,” I thought to myself as I mixed the two together in a mug.  Then I took a sip.  Then I smiled in delight.  That was a year ago.  Suffice it to say, I don’t buy cream anymore. I’m not saying Almond Milk tastes the same. How could it?  It’s an entirely different substance with significantly less fat, but somehow, it still works.  And it has loads more nutrition (Calcium, Vitamin E, Vitamin D, Phosphorus, Manganese) than cream.  Now that my palate is acclimated to it, cream tastes a little heavy and odd when I’m dining out and it’s the only option.

The key to a good espresso latte is adding enough Almond Milk to make it milky and lush without overpowering the coffee. I use about a half cup of espresso to 1 cup of Almond Milk.  Another way of gauging it is color:  I prefer my Almond Latte’s to be a deep beige.  If you’re not into espresso, use whatever coffee you’re accustomed to.  So if you’re a regular coffee drinker, I hope you’ll give the Almond option a try, and let me know how you like it.  Oh, and it’s also FANTASTIC chilled…just in time for heatwave season.

And last but not least:  my favorite brand is Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze, Unsweetened.  It’s only 40 calories a cup, loaded with nutrients, and unloaded with sugar. Sweetened varieties can range from 60 to 90 calories a cup and I’d rather spend the calories elsewhere. 

Bon Appetit!