Gingerbread

This is a fairly spicy gingerbread cake. It can be fasting or not--if not, it's great with whipped cream on the top! I brought this a few weeks ago for trapeza.

Gingerbread

2 ½ cups flour

1 ½ tsp baking soda

2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

(optional—½ tsp black pepper)

½ tsp salt

½ cup melted butter (or coconut oil)

½ cup sugar

1 egg (or ¼ cup water)

1 cup molasses

1 cup hot dark coffee*

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan.

Sift dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat together the butter/oil and sugar; add the egg/water and molasses. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients. When completely combined, slowly mix in the coffee. Batter will be runny. Pour into pan and bake 30-35 minutes.

*Instead of a cup of coffee, I often add some instant coffee granules to the dry ingredients and use plain hot water at the end.

Salt-cured Salmon

Salt-cured Salmon

This is the salmon I brought for trapeza on the Entry of the Theotokos. There's a link to a website below that explains all about it, but basically, this is what I did: Find a glass container large enough to hold the entire fillet, laid out flat. Cover the bottom of the dish with a layer of coarse salt (like Kosher). Rinse off the (thawed) fillet of salmon and lay it, skin-side down, on top of the salt. Cover the top and sides of the fillet with more coarse salt. (I sprinkled some lemon juice--maybe a TBS?--over it as well.) Cover with plastic wrap (or use a lidded dish) and put in the fridge. Let it sit for about 24 hours, checking now and then to make sure all the fish is covered by salt. At around 18 hours it might develop a brine--this is fine--just spoon it back over the fillet. After 24 hours or so (taste a bit to see if it's "done"), brush off the salt and rinse the fish under cold running water (if you're afraid it'll be too salty, you can soak it in cold water for a bit). Thinly slice, and eat! It was so, so good.

I think my fillet was about 1.5 pounds, and I used about 1.5 cups of salt. 

Please read the blog post below for more information!

http://ourmothersdaughters.blogspot.com/2012/09/salmon-cured-at-home-with-ease.html

Inside-out Spring Rolls

Inside-out Spring Rolls

I really love Vietnamese spring rolls (the raw kind—though the fried ones are good too of course) but it takes forever to roll enough, at least for a family my size! So this is my way to get the fresh tanginess of spring rolls without the work. It's basically the spring roll fillings, chopped small and served on top of rice or soba (the Asian buckwheat noodles). The recipe is very adaptable and is really just a framework—use whatever vegetables sound good to you, and vary the sauce to your taste. I never measure when I make it, but I've tried to estimate what I usually use. It seems like a long list of ingredients, but it's very easy to put together. The only hitch is that the tofu needs to be prepared ahead of time.

Ingredients

1 block firm or extra-firm tofu (14 oz), cut into 4-6 strips

Marinade/sauce (all amounts approximate):

2 cloves garlic, minced/pressed

large chunk fresh ginger, chopped small or grated (about a TBS, grated?)

1/8 tsp Sriracha or other “hot” stuff

1 TBS sesame oil

juice of 1 lime and/or 1 tbs rice vinegar

1 TBS brown sugar

about ½ cup soy sauce

2-3 TBS peanut butter

water—a few TBS

Vegetables—prepare some or all of these, according to your taste:

2-3 carrots, grated

1 cucumber, chopped

2-3 green onions, sliced

sprouts

cilantro, chopped (lots!)

spinach, chopped (a fair amount)

fresh basil, if desired, to taste

fresh mint, if desired, to taste

rice or soba, prepared normally

To make the baked tofu:

Several hours before the meal, prepare the marinade by mixing all the marinade ingredients except the peanut butter and water in a baking pan large enough to hold all the strips of tofu laid flat (I like to use a glass baking dish). Taste the marinade to make sure you like the mix of flavors; it can be infinitely varied. Marinate the tofu for an hour or so, flipping a few times. Pour off the marinade into a bowl and save it to make the base of the sauce later. Bake the tofu at 300-325 degrees for about 2 hours, flipping it every 45 minutes or so, until it is well-browned and a bit dried. This isn't exact—just when you like the texture, take it out. Transfer the tofu to a plate, and refrigerate until later. (You basically are partially dehydrating the tofu by baking it long and slow—for more info you can go to this blog post, from which I learned this technique. Tofu prepared this way can be used in many different ways or just eaten by itself—it's delicious!)

To make the sauce:

Warm the peanut butter in a small bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to make it easier to combine with the other things. Gradually stir in some of the reserved marinade. Add the peanut butter mixture to the rest of the marinade and stir till combined—it may take some time to fully incorporate the peanut butter. Taste, and adjust; usually I add some water because the marinade itself is very concentrated, with all the soy sauce. You want a thick but pourable sauce. Refrigerate until serving time.

To serve:

Prepare the rice or soba. (If using soba, run cold water over the cooked noodles to cool them.) Toss together all the vegetables in a large serving bowl. Add the chilled tofu, cut into bite-sized pieces. On each person's plate put rice or soba, with a large scoop of the vegetable mixture on top, and a few spoonfuls of the sauce drizzled over everything. Enjoy!

Quinoa salad with black beans, avocado, and cumin-lime dressing

Quinoa salad with black beans, avocado, and cumin-lime dressing

Christina is the one who found this salad--she brought it to trapeza a few weeks ago. I've never liked quinoa before, but I really love this salad! It's fresh and flavorful and very healthy. Quinoa is a "grain" (not technically a grain, actually) native to South America that is very high in protein and other important nutrients--it's actually a complete protein, which makes it wonderful for fasting! Here is the original post where Christina found the recipe: http://www.eating-for-england.com/quinoa-salad-beans-avocado/.

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Avocado and Cumin-Lime Dressing

serves 4-6

1 cup dry quinoa, rinsed (it's very small, so use a very fine mesh strainer)

1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

1 3/4 cup water

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 clove garlic, minced

juice of 1 lime

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tbsp olive oil

salt, to taste

1/2 red onion, diced, or a few green onions, sliced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

large handful cilantro, diced

1 avocado, chopped into chunks (2 avocados would be great)

tomatoes in bite-sized pieces—3 Romas, a handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, etc.

Warm the olive/coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add the rinsed quinoa and toast for about 2-3 minutes until it starts smelling nutty and lovely. Add water, stir, cover, and simmer with a lid on for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients. To make the dressing, mix together the garlic, lime juice, cumin, olive oil, and salt.

When the quinoa has finished cooking, remove it from heat and fluff with a fork. Add black beans and toss to warm them through. Let the quinoa cool for about five minutes and then stir in the dressing. Add the remaining ingredients and gently stir; adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve warm, room-temperature, or cold.

Leftovers are great—but it might be better to add the avocado and tomatoes at serving time.

Artoklasia (Litia bread)

Artoklasia

This is the bread we bless at Litia at festal Vespers and usually distribute after the Gospel at Matins. One recipe makes 15 loaves, which is enough for 3 services (5 loaves per service). You can make 15 equal loaves, or graduate the sets in size according to the likely attendance at each service—10 medium sized, 5 a bit larger, or something--just make sure there are 3 sets of 5 evenly-sized loaves.

2 scant tablespoons yeast
½ cup warm water
¾ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups warm water
¼ cup neutral oil (canola, etc.)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 ½ to 6 cups flour

In a big bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the ½ cup water. Add sugar and salt and stir; let sit a few minutes until the yeast is active. Add the rest of the water, the oil, the cinnamon, and 3 cups flour. Mix until the batter is smooth. Add remaining flour, ¼ cup or so at a time, until the dough is soft but firm. Knead 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic (less than 5 minutes in a stand mixer), adding flour if too sticky.

Divide dough into 15 equal parts (or 16 if it's easier, and you'll just have one extra to munch on) and shape into smooth balls. Place on greased pans, not too close together. Let rise for 15 minutes to half an hour, then bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on racks.

When completely cool, put 5 loaves each in 2 freezer bags labeled with the date and store in the church freezer. The third set will be brought to church to be used fresh.

Poor Man's Toffee

I've also seen this called Chocolate Caramel Crackers. There's both a fasting and non-fasting version. The non-fasting one is the tastiest, of course (and what I brought for trapeza today), but the fasting one is incredibly good too! (I've brought that in the past.)

---------

Poor Man’s Toffee

makes roughly 100 pieces

1 1/4 cups butter, divided
around 40 saltine-style crackers (or graham crackers)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cups finely chopped nuts (optional)

You'll want to have all the ingredients ready ahead of time--once it starts boiling, everything happens quickly!

Preheat oven to 375.
Melt 1/4 cup butter; pour into foil-lined jelly roll pan.
Arrange crackers over butter, edge to edge (cover the entire pan).
Melt remaining butter; add sugar and boil 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally (the longer it boils, the chewier the toffee will be).
Remove from heat and stir in condensed milk. Pour over crackers and spread as evenly as possible.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes, until bubbly and slightly darkened.
Remove from oven, cool 1 minute, and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes (until chocolate is soft and melty) and spread.
Sprinkle with nuts; press lightly into chocolate.
Cool; refrigerate until chocolate is set.
Remove foil and cut candy.

To make fasting--use margarine instead of butter and omit the sweetened condensed milk. Spread the caramel mixture over the crackers quickly; it will start setting as soon as it's poured.

--------------

(My "personal" version is kind of a combination of an old family recipe, and these two blog posts at Smitten Kitchen and Life in a Shoe)

My new favorite (fasting) cookies

I checked Veganomicon out from the library because I've heard it's a fantastic cookbook. I can't speak for the whole book--this is the first recipe I've tried--but these definitely are fantastic! Rich, dense, chewy, with a lovely hint of flavor from the almond and raspberry. These aren't just good fasting cookies--they're good cookies period! And you don't need a mixer to make them.

Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies

1/2 cup raspberry preserves
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup neutral oil (like canola)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease cookie sheets.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the preserves, sugar, oil, and extracts. In
another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 batches, mixing well with a fork or spoon after each addition. Mix to a smooth, soft, pliable dough. By the last batch, you'll probably need to get your hands in there to help.

Roll the dough into walnut-size balls and flatten into 2 1/2 inch diameter disks. Place closely together on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes (they'll be slightly cracked on the tops, but still very soft).

Remove the pans from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Or eat warm and still slightly gooey!

Makes 2 dozen.