Showing posts with label quinoa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quinoa. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Hey Dumplin'

I have tried another Gwyneth Paltrow recipe again. This one is the Veggie Dumplings. The recipe call for (imho) alot of equipment and ingredients.  This is not one that you want to try "on the fly".  It takes time and organization.

 However, the recipe does say you can freeze them for the future and it does seem to make many at one time.

Ingredients: garlic, onions, cabbage, cooked quinoa, tofu,frozen peas, egg roll wrappers, soy sauce,

It is important to have the quinoa cooked first. Hopefully, you have some leftover. I didn't so it took about 18 minutes for the quinoa to get done.

First you have to chop up garlic, onions and napa cabbage.  Since I didn't have any Napa cabbage handy I did you a cabbage that my neighbor gave me. WooHoo!
 
You put the garlic, onion and cabbage in a food processor and blitz.  The onion seemed to get a little "pasty" before the cabbage was fully chopped so I chopped in smaller batches.
 
After mixing this together, you place it in a frying pan with neutral oil in it. They saute until the onion and cabbage are almost brown.
 
Add the tofu, quinoa, and frozen peas to the pan and cook until the peas are softened.
 
 
 
*Then remove the pan from the heat and add soy sause and toasted sesame oil. Mash it all together.
 
 
Get out the egg roll wrapper and place them somewhere flat. I used a baking sheet with a silicon mat on it for ease.
Wet all for sides of the wrapper so it will stick together when forming the dumpling. Some people use a pastry brush, I just used my finger. Add about 1 tablespoon of the filling to the middle.
 

 
Then, bring up all for sides to meet in the middle to form a dumpling.
 
The top of mine looked too large for the bottom and was very flacid.  So I decided to cut the original wappers into fourths and make the dumplings much smaller.
 
 
You then need to steam them for about 4 minutes. They suggest you use a bamboo steamer. I just use the steamer pot that came with my pans. They turned out pretty well. 
 

If I make them again I would make sure to:
  1. Not make them when I am hungry
  2. Get everything set up beforehand and have plenty of time to create them
  3. Use one big batch and freeze some, so you don't have to go through this process everytime you want dumplings.
     
 
 
*This is the step I forgot to do and maybe why my dumplings did not look nearly as good as Julie's and Gwyneth's






 

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Blueberry Bounty

This is the latest recipe from It's All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow that I have tried. The recipe called "flourless any fruit crumble" was chosen because the Fresh Market had a sale for the 4th of July on blueberries. It was good. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was about a 7 overall. Of course my friend who came over for dinner had three helpings so, opinions may vary.


This is the book picture
You start with 4 cups of any kind of fruit. The picture in the book looks like there are apples and blueberries. Due to the sale, I got 4 POUNDS for $10 so I had plenty. I did make sure to take the stems off before I washed them.


4 cups of blueberries
The author's said to use a shallow baking dish but I decided I wanted to use a different type and it may have alter the recipe.The next ingredient to add to the blueberries is maple syrup. It says you need 4 tablespoons but you only use 2 tablespoons with the blueberries. You use the rest of the syrup later so if you want to divide it to make it easier you might want to.


Maple Syrup
For the one tablespoon of lemon juice, I had some frozen that I was going to use. The recipe calls for fresh though. Unfortunately, the frozen didn't thaw in time. I did have a lemon and wound up using the whole lemon to get the one tablespoon of juice. I put it in with the blueberries.
Lemons Lemons


Julia and Gwyenth said that you could substitute groun up almonds for the almond flour in the recipe.  It was easy as pie to do. I had previously gotten a bag of almonds at Big Sam's and just put those in the food processor and ZAPP!

You need 1/2 cup of almond flour and 1/2 cup of Quinoa. The cookbook lists Quinoa flakes and the ingredient. I am not sure if these a the flakes or not. Fortunately, the rosemary and olive oil seasoning is in a separate bag. So the quinoa was just plain.  These go into a separate bowel for the topping. Then add the leftover maple syrup and some salt. This gets mixed well together and becomes the topping for the crumble.

When everything is put togeth you place this dish into a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. 
Before