8.27.2011

5 Minute Raw Power Cookies

We just made cookies in under 5 minutes!... Notice how I said 'made' not baked. They are Raw. Vegan. Gluten free. Almond butter cookies. The first time around I got the measurements wrong, so we made them again and our version was definitely tastier. Sometimes mistakes are serendipitous. Here's the original recipe and here's ours:

Raw Vegan Gluten Free Almond Butter Cookies

2/3 C almond butter (I used almond/hazelnut butter)
1 C almond flour
1/2 C ground flax seeds
1/4 C shredded, unsweetened coconut
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp pure maple syrup (almost raw)
1 tbsp coconut oil

Mix everything together in a medium bowl. Roll into balls and enjoy.

Add cocoa nibs on top for extra sweetness. The additions are endless: chocolate chips, extra coconut, oats, honey, protein powder, or substitute another kind of butter, like peanut butter or cashew butter.


8.22.2011

Foodie Weekend Part 1

It was a serious foodie weekend with Saturday being La Cocina's 3rd annual San Francisco Street Food Festival and Sunday being SF Food War's Salsa-licous salsa competition. There was definitely no baking going on just a lot of eating. Here's how Saturday went down:

We pre-purchased a $50 passport, which I would recommend it if you're planning to try a lot of different foods. It gets you one free drink, a souvenir passport that lists every vendor, and a "secret snack," which was a random bite of quesadilla courtesy of Mission tortillas, an event sponsor.

Me and my better half arrived at about 10:30am, 30 minutes before the event started and had a chance to walk up and down before the place became packed (with 50,000 people!) Right at 11am the place was filled but the crowd was generally mild, smiling and sedated from all of the delicious food in their bellies. We lasted about 3.5 hours there and here's what we tried:

Azalina's, based out of San Francisco, sold at various SF markets
- Malaysian fried peanut taco (small bite): The only vegan item we saw and pretty darn good. A fried flour tortilla with a peanut, tofu filling.
- Penang curry bomb buns: two curry shredded chicken sandwiches on deep fried rolls (big plate). This is the only place where we got the small and big bite plates, they both had a spicy pickle topping and a creamy sauce. This was the last thing we tried and our favorite. Friend and flavorful!

The Peached Tortilla, Austin TX, Food Truck
- Pad Thai taco (small plate): a chicken taco with peanut sauce, bean sprouts on a thick flour tortilla.

Nettie's Crab Shack, San Francisco, Restaurant
- Dungenous crab devilled egg (small plate): A perfectly hard boiled egg with plenty of creamy crab filling. Our breakfast appetizer.

Flour + Water, San Francisco, Restaurant
- Fried peppers and corn (small bite): a let-down, I think there big bite plate, a Porchetta sandwich was meant to be the star. It is still supposed to be an amazing restaurant that I'm dieing to go to.

Zella's Soulful Kitchen, based out of Oakland, Caterer, also sold at Whole Foods in Noe Valley
- Jacked Up Hush Puppies (small bite): just regular ol' hush puppies but they were good. The big bite, a shrimp po' boy sandwich, looked awesome.

Embrace Sweets, Los Angeles, sold at LA Farmer's Markets
- Caramelized banana Nutella brownie: very fudgy.
- Chocolate chip cookie: soft and nice flavor, but I think it was made with shortening.

We purposely avoided two of our favorite food trucks/carts: Curry Up Now out of San Francisco, because we ate it twice the week before, and Big Ass Sandwiches out of Portland, because we ate it twice during our weekend trip to Portland last month. We had to give other places a fighting chance.

I highly recommend taking a good look at which vendors you don't want to miss before you arrive. There where so many more we wanted to try but couldn't get to. Both events benefited various worthy Bay Area nonprofits.

11:30 am

crates, zip ties and plywood bar tables

Seoul Sausage guys. Fear the beard!

Jello art

The Peached Tortilla truck

Pad Thai taco

Look at that grip! (trip to Portland)

Big Ass Vegetarian sandwich

8.14.2011

Nectarine Crumble

What do you do with a bag full of free nectarines? Make a crumble and take it to the beach to share with your friends!



Be sure to eat it straight from the pan with a giant spoon, that way there's time to pass it around while your friends are still eating their bite. 

Gluten Free Nectarine Crumble

Filling Ingredients
  • bag of nectarines (at least six nectarines), peeled, cut into sixths
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2/3 C granulate sugar
  • pinch of salt

Crumble Ingredients
  • 1.5 C rice and/or almond flour (or regular white flour)
  • 1/2 C cold unsalted butter, cut into sixths
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp all spice
  • 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/3 C brown sugar
  • 1/3 C granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a glass baking dish.

Make the crumble by stirring all of the ingredients except the butter in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter with a couple of butter knives or a pastry cutter until crumble pieces form. Place in the fridge.

Make the filling by combing all ingredients. Scoop into the buttered dish. Pour the crumble topping over the filling. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and the juice is bubbling through.



Beer goes well with this Crumble as a pre-dessert beverage...at least when you're at the beach it does. Any type of beer will do.

8.02.2011

Gluten Free Brownies

Here we go, gluten free brownies (take's a bite)- Pretty good, especially while they are still warm!


Ideally I would have tried the gluten free flour mix from the NY Times, but I had to work with what I already had. After comparing a few different flour mix recipes, with varying ratios of ingredients, many of which I didn't event have, I decided to just go for my own basic mix. So, my first gluten free flour mix is:
  • 1/2 cup rice flour
  • 1/4 cup almond flour (According to the Isa you can use as a substitute for corn flour)
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/3 cup brown rice flour
My regular brownie recipe creates cake-like brownies, and the gluten-free version was just as cakey and chocolatey. The texture was only slightly off and after cooling completely where a bit dryer than usual. Over all I would say a success! (The Joy of Cooking actually has a note at the end of their brownie recipe that says 1 1/3 C rice flour can be substituted for the 1 cup flour in the brownie recipe, and this book is from the 1970s before gluten free was talked about.)