Hummus Like Grandpa's

Or, as I like to call it, "yummus"!
I am such my grandfather's granddaughter. More than anyone else in the family, I have his adoration for trivia, details, spices, and ethnic fare. Along with his taste for curry and hot sauce (he once tasted a flight of habanero sauces without blinking an eye or touching the water cup - at age 70!), Grandpa's got a rather deft hand in the kitchen - especially when it comes to scrambled eggs, pancakes, and my favourite - garlicky, creamy hummus.

I have yet to perfect Grandpa's recipe for hummus (and there's no point in asking since it's always a slap-dash "chuck in the blender" type thing), but I do know that it is tangy with lemon and packed with garlicky goodness, and not overly oily either (in fact, I never remember seeing any oil floating to the top of the jars). I don't recall the thick, yet still dippable, spread being super sesame-ish either, hinting that though there was likely the conventional tahini in the mix, it wasn't as much as a lot of the recipes out there. Personally, I don't bother buying tahini since it just sits in the fridge after a single use and goes bad!

When I started playing around with the recipe, I came up with the idea of using simply ground sesame seeds instead. Actually, since I already had a batch of ground sesame seeds mixed with ground and flax seeds on hand, thats what I used. The one thing I learned quickly - and I'm sure Grandpa would definitely approve - is that this definitely tastes best (and is way cheaper!) when you've used home-cooked chickpeas! In fact, the man himself got a taste of it practically out of the processor, and I dare say he enjoyed it as much as I did!

 

Worth the Extra Step

In this world of instant gratification and fast fixes for everything from planting a garden to enjoying a hard-boiled egg, the true art and care of doing these simple tasks is often shoved to the side. Why bother to remember a fabric softener sheet to your dryer loads when now there's a product you toss in for a whole season, or send a gift by regular mail when an instant e-card with an online gift certificate will do?

At the very least, the art of cooking like Grandma is waning in popularity, especially with the high demand for fast (and often figure-friendly) foods. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for convenience and speed in the kitchen, just not for the junky tags that come along with so much of those pre-fabricated products. Canned beans and tomatoes, dried pasta, ground spices and rolled oats are all in my pantry. I have bottled lemon juice and ketchup in my fridge.  But some things, if you're going to do them at all, are just worth doing right. For me, those things are the simple and inexpensive classics: bread, muffins, cookies and biscuits.

I know - it's an ideal scenario to have the time, patience and ability to pull a picture-perfect pan of anything baked out of the oven. Box mixes, frozen or refrigerated dough and even pre-sliced, pre-garlic buttered bread is pretty much foolproof, and in a time or ingredient crunch with demandingly hungry (or picky) audiences I use them with abandon. I have never been able to justify the refrigerated biscuits, however. My grandma's buttermilk biscuits, using shortening and without the need for finicky butter, chilling and careful rolling, were just so simple and fast to whip up - 15 minutes and I had a dozen sitting in a bread basket. But even I can learn how to take a little extra time, an extra step, and perfect the flaky morsels my family and I love so much. Peter Reinhart's method not only uses chilled, cubed butter, but then letter folds the dough three times before cutting it and baking (no pre-chilling, thankfully!).

Is it worth it? Well, if your goal is puff pastry-like, buttery layers, a hint of crispness to the crust and an interior that needs no adornment (although jam would find a welcome home in the crannies), then the answer is undoubtedly, unequivocally yes. That said, am I making these for every Saturday morning brunch or Sunday supper? To put it mildly - BWAHAHAHAHA, no. But really, if you're having biscuits that often, you probably have other things in your diet to worry about.  

What things do you always (or almost always) make from scratch, or value most when you know they're homemade?

Vegan Pumpkin Shortbreads

Sometimes I think I'm getting slower and slower off the draw. I mean, really, it's not exactly "pumpkin" season anymore (although I guess that depends on who you talk to...) and yet I had the scent of baking squash with hints of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves wafting through my kitchen. And cranberries too! But I think this is what happens when, like me, you have way too much time on your hands (though I did finally write and post a new NEW-trition article), a fully stocked baker's pantry, an internet connection and the sudden realization that after all that careful planning during the holidays you left one person off your list. Oh well - what better excuse to get back into the kitchen and make some melt-in-your-mouth, rather unusual, shortbread cookies?

These are to my mom's classics like the Trans Siberian Orchestra is to Beethoven - same spirit, different twist. These are tender, sugary and not overly good for you, but rather than the taste of butter being in the forefront the spices and pumpkin shine through. The original recipe came from the blog Adventures in Shaw, and after reading through the comments and perusing the recipe, I came up with my own modified version that suited me just fine! If you don't opt for the mix ins like I used, the dough can be rolled into a log and partially frozen for slice-n-bake cookies. Otherwise, I found scooping about 1 ½ tbsp sized balls, flattening them slightly and baking them that way to work best.

Bananas Foster Jam

I've never had the pleasure of visiting New Orleans, but to me it is without doubt the world's most fascinating city. I've loved the whole idea of Louisiana for years, since my first taste of jambalaya when I was about 7, and for a solid two years I was all about the Ya-Ya movie and book series (which I highly recommend you read!), decorated my bedroom in Mardi Gras beads that my grandparents brought back from the real NOLA shindig, and begged my parents to book us into the Orlando location of the House of Blues restaurant for dinner when we went to see The Mouse. Though I only made it to HoB once (and now can't have my beloved andouille jambalaya lest I get sick), every time I go to Disney World I still have to buy at least 3 bottles of Bayou Heat hot sauce (although in retrospect I should have bought about 12 the last time, I'm out :-( ).  I can't wait until the day I can finally walk around the French Quarter, check out what real Cajun and Creole music is like live, and totally immerse myself in the insanely rich culture, art and (of course) food! It would be a total win in my book to hit the city at the peak of it's celebration activity, the infamous Mardi Gras, but in all honesty just being there would be the experience of a lifetime.

Along with the jambalaya, gumbo, po-boys, muffulettas and etoufee, NOLA has a sweet side to share with it's visitors too. Beignets, pecan pie and King Cake are commonly thought of, as is the infamous Bananas Foster. A Brennan's specialty (according to NOLA Online the restaurant serves over 35,000 pounds of bananas yearly with this dessert), the flaming, sliced bananas are legendary and really, it's hard to argue with a bowl of ice cream topped with a combination of buttery, soft fruit, caramelized sugar and rum!

It was in the spirit of this NOLA hallmark sweet that I came up with this banana and raisin "jam". With hardly any sugar and no fat to speak of, it's a more "breakfast friendly" way to get your fix! Given that it's really only designed as a "store in the fridge" type of spread, I scaled back one of the jam recipes I found in my mom's cookbook Caribbean Cuisine and switched up the flavours a little bit, cooking the sugar into a slightly thicker, more caramelized syrup than called for originally, adding a packet of caramel flavoured stevia and raisins for a bit of extra oomph, and both doubling the rum and adding it with the vanilla off the heat. Because I had it on hand, I added a tiny dribble of butter flavouring to the vanilla and rum, which instantly made me visualize the fruit sizzling in a Louisiana pan as the chef goes to light off the rum. If you don't have either the stevia or the extract, no worries - it will be plenty caramelized as it is, and if you really need that butter element you can stir in a half teaspoon of the creamy stuff (or it's equally delicious substitute) at the end before adding the rum and extracts.

Have you ever been to NOLA or had Bananas Foster? What did you think?

Apple Coconut Coffee Cake - No Gluten, No Nuts, All Vegan!

Well, this recipe was a long time coming. I made this waaaay back in October, when I did the cake and cupcakes for the autism gala, but somehow it fell off the face of my "I should post this" planet. That said, it is not exactly a cake like any other, and it's definitely not from a box!

I actually made this for the coordinator of the charity gala, since she's been so generous by both figuring out all the logistics of the event and it's associated dessert auction and asking me to bake every year! Keeping in tune with the general autism diet restrictions of gluten- and casein-free, I wanted to give her something that was also nut and egg free just in case someone in her home had an allergy or intolerance to those too. Of course, I knew exactly where I'd be headed for the inspiration and at least a basic recipe - and really, would you argue with a Goddess? A couple of clicks and a quick pantry check down the road later, I knew what I'd be making: Karina's self-proclaimed

"lovely gluten-free apple cake with coconut flour".