almond milk chocolate pudding

Have some roasted, somewhat chunked almond slivers for a topping.  Looks great in pinot tumblers.

In a 2 qt pot, place

• up to 1 c sugar
• 1/2 c cocoa powder
• 1/3 c cornstrch, 1/4 t salt.

Whisk together.  Add, while whisking, maybe 1 cup at a time, 3 cups almond milk. Put heat on 7 and whisk frequently until thickened, at least 5 min.

Off heat, stir in 1 tsp butter and 1 t. vanilla.

Needs just 30 min in the frig.

Update on spinach sformata, now with quinoa

Spinach Sformata

Originally from WaPo. I cook it in a 1.5 liter Corningware bowl. If you are going to unmold and present it, you can oil it and sprinkle it lavishly with breadcrumbs. Try pressing tomato slices into the breadcrumb before cooking for color. Our B&B hostess Ruth at Kealakakua adds half-cooked quinoa to to her morning fritatas to absorb liquid released by the cooking spinach.

Ingredients:

• 24 oz fresh spinach, long stems removed
• 1/2 t. each of ground cinnamon and nutmeg
• oil to saute 1 small onion, finely chopt, and 1 clove garlic
• 3 eggs, whites separately beaten, or 6 whites
• 1/2 cup + grated Parmigiano and/or pecorino)
• An ounce (25 g) of raisins, soaked in warm water, then drained and minced (optional)
• 24 oz ricotta; can use skim; can sub in 8 oz. Cottage cheese
• up to 3/4 c. quinoa (can use brown kind) half-cooked, 10 min., in 1 1/2 c water; strain
• Salt and pepper
  

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 and boil ~ 1” water in a skillet. Drain the well-washed spinach and heat it in a pot with the water that remained on the leaves; when it wilts and is pretty done drain it again, cut it pretty fine, press in a strainer, and season it with the cinnamon/nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Combine the spinach with the onion & garlic, cheese, egg yolks if used, quinoa and raisins. Fold in the egg whites and pour the mixture into the mold. Put the skillet into the oven and add the mold. Bake it for 15 min at 375, then for another 40, or until it sets, at 325 and serve it hot, sliced.

Pear clafoutis

I tweaked a recipe I found online, and the results were nice.  I thought I'd ordered 3 pears, when I must have ordered 3 pairs of pears, and I got a free gallon on almond milk (a Peapod giveaway), so I had a big surplus of pears and almond milk.  Here's what I did:

• Preheat oven to 350. Oil 4 ramekins and a larger baking dish with almond oil.
• Peel, core, and slice 4 bartlett pears in the FP.  As they go in the FP. squeeze in some lemon juice, maybe 2 t. total.  I grated the zest from the top of the lemon I was going to use and added it to the dry ingredients later.
• saute them in ~ 1/4 c  of almond oil.  The Bartletts gave off lots of liquid, so I collected about 1/2 c., and stirred in 1 t. cornstarch to the hot liquid, thinking it could become a thickener.  Apples brown nicely in the almond oil, so maybe bosc pears, or apples for that matter, would not require this step.  My pear slices didn't ever brown, even with ~ 15 min cooking on medium high.
• In a 2 c. measure, add 1 c. almond milk, 3/4 c eggbeaters, 1 t. vanilla, and 1 T Grand Marnier (don't forget to lick the spoon).  I forgot to add the 3/8 c honey called for, but this would have been the time to do so.  To compensate, I sprinkled on about 3/8 c. sugar after I remembered, when the dishes were in the oven, and that was a pain and made a mess.
• In the empty FP, place 3/4 c almonds.  Grind them very fine.  Larger chunks will sink to the bottom and overpopulate the last baking dish you fill up, so grind away.  The recipe called for almond flour.
• In to the FP then add the lemon zest, 3/8 c. flour and a pinch of salt.  It could use more salt. Then pour in the liquids and very briefly blend in.
• As an afterthought, I observed that the recipe had no leavening.  I must have been thinking it would be a cake and not an egg-risen pudding.  So I added 1 t. baking powder.  If you think baking powder is a good idea, add it to the ground almond mixture.
• Cover the bottoms of the dishes with the sliced, sauteed pears.  Pour the batter atop.  Put the dishes into the oven and check after 30 min.  Tops should be puffed up and toasty looking.

Andrew's recipe for swordfish

Braise 1 lb swordfish in

• 1-2 c wine (as needed to cover)
• 1/4 c white wine vinegar
• 2 T. oil
• juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1 t. savory, or poultry seasoning 
• pepper

chicken, fennel, apple & rosemary dinner OR chicken, fennel, sweet potato & lemon vinaigrette

Your choice! I've only tried the second one; see comments.

2 1/2 - 3 lb chicken
2 t fennel seeds
3 T olive oil
1 med  onion, sliced thin
1 fennel bulb, sliced thin
1 tart apple, wedges
4 sprigs rosemary

425 degree oven. Toast fennel seeds in skillet over meium low heat, 2-3 min.  Pound into powder.  Large bowl:  toss together chicken with 1 T olive oil and fennel seeds, salt & pepper.

On cookie sheet, put onion, fennel and apple slices and toss w remaining oil.  Spread.  Add chicken on top of vegs and lay rosemary on top. Roast 25-30 min.  Turn oven to broil.  Remove rosemary sprigs, broil chicken 1 - 2 min until skin is crispy & golden.

OR

 2 1/2 - 3 lb chicken.  Toss in bowl in 2T oil.  PUt on cookie sheet and toss 1 bulb diced fennel and 2 diced sweet potatoes in 2 T oil in bowl, then spread on sheet.  Roast until deep brown, 35 - 40 min.  Add vinaigrette (1/4 c white wine vinegar, lemon zest + juice, 4 T oil, 1 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 T dijon, 1 garlic minced),.  Sprinkle with 1 c grated pecorino,  1/4 c. chopt parsley and 2 T. chopt. fennel fronds. 

I liked the way the sweet potatoes cooked.  The chicken, not so much.  The vinaigrette was good.  Here is a nice chart for you to look at.  I could not figure out how to delete it: