Although I've successfully completed by Gluten Free diet, it's taught me a lot in terms of knowing what's in my food and encouraging me to eat fresher. This recipe for gluten free gnudi was a pretty good one I tried during this time, and I'd recommend it for all your gluten-full gluttons as well. All I did was replace regular flour with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour. While the texture was a little challenging, as the gnudi was a lot more sensitive to staying together in boiling water, it didn't ruin the experience and Dan enjoyed them as well.
The best part of this dish is using really simple but high quality ingredients such as fresh ricotta cheese that I got at LIC's Foodcellar, local spinach from Satur Farms and my own windowsill basil. A fresh tomato sauce would've been nice too but I ran out of time. Try it for yourself and let me know how you did.
Here's a few recipes you can follow, and just make sure to switch out the flour for Bob's Red Mill or something else that's gluten free.
Gnudi recipes, courtesy of The Food Network:
Scott Conant Gnudi recipe
Giada De Laurentiis recipe
Still trying to maintain healthy eating, especially when cooking at home, I made the above pictured easy salmon dish this week that was tasty, healthful and satisfying. Buying the salmon fillets ahead of time, there is some pre-planning required, but all else I managed to put together from the ingredients we had on hand.
Fully stocked with a big bag of salted pistachios, I decided to make them the star of the show by chopping them up, combining them with Italian breadcrumbs and a little bit of olive oil to form the crust. Although the middle layer was supposed to be made up of stone ground mustard and lemon juice, I didn't have this and used 2% Greek yogurt instead, which worked just fine. Serving the whole thing on a bed of whole wheat cous-cous, studded with raisins, chopped onions and green peppers, Dan and I loved chomping down on it and felt really good and fulfilled after - and not overly stuffed.
Here's the easy recipe, courtesy of the Food Network, but you can feel free to change it around as you wish.
Pistachio Crusted Salmon Recipe
I was so tired from the week and getting back in the swing of things, that I wanted to cook something good without it being too elaborate. And since I haven't really had seafood in a while (there's not much in the way of shellfish in Slovakia), I thought shrimp would be perfect.
Being a bit of a hit or miss for me, I don't always succeed in making shrimp, but this time around was different. I followed the cooking directions of this recipe to a t, which produced really delicious and not overdone shrimp. The simple pairing of cherry tomatoes and a spicy paprika rub gave the shrimp a lot of flavor, which then further rested on a bed of whole wheat cous-cous. Dressed with sliced apricots, pistachios and dill, all the flavors were fresh and vibrant and didn't weigh you down. As you'll see in the recipe, it says you can do it in about 20 minutes and I can personally vouch this is true. Hope you love it as much as we did.
Broiled shrimp with whole wheat cous-cous and a side of yogurt-hummus sauce, as seen on foodnetwork.com
Last week, while at my parent's house, I must admit that we pilfered a bit from my neighbor Kim and Ken's garden (Kim and Ken, if you're reading, we thank you!). Actually, let me rephrase that...my parents were taking care of their garden while they were on vacation and they offered for us to take advantage of their ripening fruits and veggies. The figs were especially gorgeous and totally ready to eat, so we picked a whole bunch, not yet knowing what we'd do with them.
After some deliberation, as I thought about how to prepare these (I originally wanted to make a fig crostata), I found an easy recipe on the Food Network website for prosciutto wrapped figs. Not only did they sound absolutely scrumptious, they were also pretty easy to prepare and needed only three simple ingredients including the figs themselves, goat cheese and prosciutto. The rest was left to the oven gods who made this into a warm, decadent and savory creation.
I brought this to a Labor Day BBQ at my brother and sister-in-laws and they literally disappeared in about 5 minutes. Even picky eaters couldn't resist. I hope you won't either.
Prosciutto Wrapped Figs Recipe courtesy of The Food Network
It's true...this cake will knock your socks off or maybe just make you want to slip them off gingerly because it's so comforting and decadent. I got inspired to make it for our 1 year wedding anniversary in anticipation of our frozen wedding cake being less than edible. I was right, the wedding cake was pitifully dry and cardboard-y, but the apple cake shined, providing that perfect sweet finish to our lovely day.
I used a simple recipe from one of my favorite Food Network personalities, Dave Lieberman. Picking an apple dessert was important to me because of the seasonality of apples, thus promising a better tasting dish. Yum! It SO delivered! The cake was moist, sweet and also a bit hearty from the cinnamon-flavored apple chunks. In addition to being a nice anniversary cake, it would make a great breakfast dessert or a treat for when you have company over.
One mistake I made was not greasing up my bundt pan enough, and therefore I had a really hard time getting the cake out. Dan helped me, but in the end we lost about 1/8 of it from the top. It was sad but not tragic, as I made a quick strawberry sauce (heating up strawberry preserves with a few splashes of water). I then smeared it on top of the apple cake and topped it with crushed almonds. It was deeelightful! Enjoy.
Here's the recipe.
