"A Taste Of Heart & Home"
This post will focus on a double duty recipe called Orange Glazed Roasted Salmon with Orange Fennel Salad that is quick to prepare, flavourful and refreshing. Fennel and citrus pair very well with fish.The recipes feature oranges beautifully. As an additional bonus, these recipes are gluten free, grain free, dairy free and refined sugar-free.
Orange Glazed Roasted Salmon
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The UrbnSpice kitchen is a creative place and I love that. Sometimes, inspiration falls into my lap unexpectedly and then ideas and possibilities materialize so quickly that I cannot create fast enough. This is what happened when I was presented with an opportunity to develop recipes using nugget potatoes. So, how did the idea of a Smashed Potato Pizza come about?
Recipe development is definitely a large part of what I do as a chef, and many of the recipes that I develop for folks are for gluten-free dishes. One of the dishes that they tell me they miss the most is pizza. Now add to that another dietary restriction that indicates a grain free limitation – well, that gets a bit more complicated, doesn’t it? I took that challenge of finding a grain-free, gluten-free option that would not leave anyone sitting on the sidelines while everyone else was enjoying pizza. Thus, the recipe for Smashed Potato Pizza was born.
Smashed Potato Pizza – Grain Free, Gluten Free – So no one is left out
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Pancakes are definitely a comfort food, aren’t they? I have experimented with different varieties and Sweet Potato Pancakes have become a favourite. Lately, pancakes in our house often mean certain dietary restrictions are considered, depending on who I am making them for. When grandchildren are visiting, I will often add a scoopful of protein powder (age appropriate ) and quinoa flakes to give them a running start. When their Daddy or Mommy are visiting, the recipe gets changed again to accommodate dairy free and grain free restrictions.
The little ones told me yesterday that they had run out of my pancakes, so I had better get busy again making a batch and freezing them to reheat. They make a quick and easy breakfast served with fresh berries and a fruit syrup.
This recipe for Good Morning Cranberry-Coconut and Carrot Gluten-Free Muffins is bar none, one of the best gluten-free muffins, if not the best gluten free breakfast pastry I have ever tasted. It is the closest thing to a Morning Glory Muffin that I can think of. In my career as a pastry chef, I have made a ton of muffins for breakfast service and various morning events. I mean A LOT of muffins! I challenged myself to make a gluten-free muffin that no-one could differentiate from a gluten muffin. I believe I have done that with this gem of a recipe. The feedback that I receive from anyone who has tasted this muffin verifies my findings. Try it! Let me know what you think – I would love your feedback.
Good Morning Cranberry-Coconut and Carrot Gluten-Free Muffins
I am revisiting a very familiar and much-loved family recipe for Yogurt Pancakes. One of my readers asked a question regarding baking powder vs baking soda. She was on a quest to make her daughter light fluffy pancakes. The tricky part was making a fluffy pancake without eggs due to an egg allergy.
Once again, another reader, being a celiac, wanted so much to try these pancakes. I adapted this recipe again to accommodate her dietary concerns and issues. Since she was able to tolerate dairy products, I was able to use milk. There are, of course, other options for dairy milk, such as substituting rice milk, coconut milk or almond milk or even fruit juice.
Yogurt Pancakes ready to eat
This is a perfect recipe to try. It has all the qualities of a fluffy pancake and the egg substitute as posted below will ensure that your daughter can enjoy her fluffy pancakes soon! Good luck!
Yogurt Pancakes on the griddle
Yogurt Pancakes
CHEF TALK: No other pancake will do in the Urbnspice household. These are very easy to make. They are light, very fluffy, and so delicious! If you can find real maple syrup for the Hot Maple Butter, it’s the best!!
INGREDIENTS:
METHOD:
INGREDIENTS:
METHOD:
Fluffy Yogurt Pancakes on the griddle
For Egg Allergies: Substitute ½ cup egg substitute (below) for the 2 eggs
INGREDIENTS
Combine these :
METHOD:
Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:
You Might Also Enjoy:
Gluten-Free Tips and Techniques
Cranberry-Coconut and Carrot Muffins
Roasted Tomato Compote with Poached Eggs
If you try my recipe for Yogurt Pancakes, please leave me a comment below with your feedback.
You can find me on social media (see links below) – just be sure to tag @urbnspice and #urbnspice so I am sure to see it. Enjoy!
Denise Paré-Watson
The Urbnspice Chef
Follow me on Social Media
How could I resist it? It was just sitting there in all its beauty, beckoning me to create a culinary masterpiece. I felt that my favourite green grocer had created this display to entice just me – it worked! It was a magnet. Would you be able to pass this gorgeous vegetable by without admiring its beauty? I could not. My prize was a Savoy Cabbage.
Market Inspiration: Savoy Cabbage
I watched that morning how passersby did not even give this gorgeous display a second look. Perhaps they did not know what to do with it; perhaps they were far too busy to consider its use; and perhaps, they were stuck in a cooking rut that would not allow them to consider this prize.
My mind was spinning with possibilities – how would I use it to its best advantage? How could I show off its bounty? Who could I share it with?
The grand total of this beauty was $1! How could something so beautiful be so reasonably priced? I had to have it. I brought it home with great care and proudly admired it on my kitchen counter for the remainder of the afternoon.
For those of you that have never tried this variety of cabbage, you are missing out on a very mild flavoured vegetable that is as versatile as it is delicious. Its uses are many, from salads, soups, side dishes such as shredded savoy cabbage with leeks and pine nuts, or sautéed with butter, salt and pepper. This beautiful cabbage was destined to be included in my gluten-free repertoire – a stuffed cabbage, but not just any stuffed cabbage.
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This post is a sequel to Gluten for Punishment, which is why I called it Gluten for Punishment, Too. What do you do when you have the challenge of multiple dietary restrictions to consider?
I have been experimenting at home and in my workplace featuring gluten-free, grain-free, and sometimes dairy-free recipes. This week, the recipe testing happened to include all three restrictions!
This would make most chefs shake their heads, shiver in their toques, or briskly march their chef-clogs out of the kitchen. Not this chef, since I have a virtuous reason why I am persisting in this culinary undertaking. I need to provide my daughter with ideas regarding a very special 1st birthday cake. Why, you ask? The one-year-old has an Auntie who has a gluten-free, grain-free restriction and follows a Paleo Diet. As well, our tiny guest of honour is lactose intolerant.
If this happened to you, what would you do? You may not necessarily be facing the restrictions listed above; however, most gatherings have guests with some type of restriction that you have to consider when planning your menu. This does not necessarily mean that you have to serve sorbet for dessert, although it certainly provides an alternative.
My suggestion is to list the restrictions of your guests and make sure you review the ingredients that you will be using in your recipes carefully and methodically. Eliminate or modify any recipe that will be problematic for allergies, sensitivities or intolerances (these reactions are all different).
In many cases, you can exclude or substitute an ingredient in certain recipes and they will not affect the end result. For example, the addition of heavy cream or butter to your pan when making a sauce for chicken breasts or other meats can be omitted for your dairy sensitive guests without adversely affecting the sauce. In this situation, you can use the reduction method by simmering the liquid in the pan until it thickens.
Taking the concept of substitution into consideration, my challenge was to develop a birthday cake or dessert recipe that is gluten-free; grain-free and dairy free.
The birthday cake recipe that I developed is a flourless chocolate cake, using a nut meal (if tolerable), coconut flour or sunflower seed flour as a flour substitute. Typically, I would cover this type of rustic cake with a ganache made of heavy cream and chocolate. Since dairy ingredients are an issue, I made a ganache from fruit puree – in this case, raspberry puree. Raspberry puree is easily made by pressing fresh or thawed berries through a sieve to remove seeds and sweetened to taste. You can find out How to Make Raspberry Coulis post here.
Another dessert option for this type of dietary restriction (if a cake is not required), is a sabayon (the French culinary term) or zabaglione (Italian culinary term). A sabayon is a sweet sauce produced by a similar technique used in the popular savoury hollandaise sauce (Eggs Benedict). There are only three ingredients in a sabayon: Egg Yolks, Sugar, a speciality wine blend. Marsala is typically used, although an Ice Wine is also brilliant (although very expensive).
Another dietary restriction challenge has been unravelled. There are others to be solved! Stay tuned.
Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:
Urb’n’Spice Books:
Chocolate Desserts Made Easy and Delicious – The Cookbook Series from Pastry Chef Denise Paré-Watson of Urb’n’Spice
If you enjoyed reading this post, please leave me a comment below with your feedback.
You can find me on social media (see links below) – just be sure to tag @urbnspice and #urbnspice so I am sure to see it. Enjoy!
Denise Paré-Watson
The Urb’n’Spice Chef
Follow me on Social Media
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Sabayon is an elegant French dessert that anyone can make. It is easy to do and it only requires a few ingredients: egg yolks, fine sugar and typically, a wine like Sweet Marsala, Madeira, Icewine or Port. recently, I taught a class at a specialty vinegar and spice store and made Quince Balsamic Vanilla Bean Sabayon with Seasonal Fruit and Berries for the class using one of their exquisite line of balsamic vinegars.
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