Month: September 2015

Popcorn galore: dark chocolate and caramel popcorn

~ Hanta ~ Leave a comment

Quick to prepare, simple and delicious snack…introducing the popcorn!
For a few days now, my son has been asking for popcorn for snack. And he wants to freshly pop them every time. And who blames him? Popping corn is really fun. When they pop, he runs around the kitchen saying “Pop !Pop! Pop! ” And freshly popped corn just tastes so good.

I do like the natural flavor, but this time around I splurged and flavored them two different ways: dark chocolate and caramel.
If you don’t feel like popping corn as I did here, you can certainly use pre-popped corn in bags (non salty or only lightly salted) or microwave popcorn. It works just as well.IMG_5895

To make popcorn in a pan
– 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
– 1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Heat up a large saucepan on medium-high heat (you need a pan with a lid). When the pan is hot, put in the oil along with 3 popcorn kernels, cover with the lid. When the 3 kernels pop, dump the rest of the kernels in the pan, careful to make one layer of kernels at the bottom of the pan, so all the kernels get heat. Cover with the lid. Gently shake the pan from side to side to move the kernels around so they don’t IMG_5887burn on one side. When the kernels start to pop,  continue shaking the pan so that the unpopped kernels always fall to the bottom and get heated to pop. Turn the heat off when there is a couple of seconds between the pops. Be careful to wait until the popping stops before opening the lid to avoid getting possibly burned by a flying popcorn.

Dark chocolate popcorn
– 2 cups of popcorn
– 2 tablespoon of mini dark chocolate chips

Heat up a sauce pan on medium-low heat. When pan is hot, add the chocolate chips. Move them around to help them melt faster. As soon as they are melted, add in the popcorn and mix well with a wooden spoon until there is no chocolate left at the bottom of the pan, but it is all coating the popcorn. Cool on a sheet covered with parchment paper to IMG_5900avoid sticking.

Caramel popcorn
– 2 tbsp brown sugar
– 1 tbsp vegetable spread (here I use the Coconut Spread from Earth balance)
– 2 cups of popcorn

Heat the pan on medium-high. Sprinkle the sugar in the pan so there are no clumps that will melt unevenly. Lower the heat to medium. As soon as the sugar has melted, add the vegetable spread and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the popcorn and mix well until all the caramel is all covering the popcorn and none is left at the bottom of the pan. Cool on a sheet covered with parchment paper to avoid sticking.

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Veggie pancake

~ Hanta ~ Leave a comment

Looking for a hearty breakfast or lunch? This is a perfect one.

Since I have started to dabble with gluten-free cooking, I have been looking to experiment with different kinds of flour. My gluten-free baking goods turned out pretty good. Well, to my benefit, I had an excellent recipe book to help me with that.

But I also wanted to try using a gluten-free flour in a salty dish. This is my first experience using chikpea flour and the result turned out to be quite interesting. I thought it tasted like an omelet, and my husband confirmed that as well, once he tasted it. Although, I am not going to take credit for this recipe, as I stole it from another recipe post (Oh she glows!) with some minor modifications.

Veggie pancake

  • 1 green onion, finely choppedIMG_5722
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped spinach leaves
  • 1/2 cup chickpea flour (or garbanzo flour)
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup of water

IMG_5724For serving
– 1/2 of an avocado
– 1/2 cup of tomatoes cut in cubes
– 1 tablespoon of finely chopped onion
– 1 clove of garlic, crushed
– fresh basil leaves

 

Cut the veggies finely and reserve aside. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl. Add the water and whisk until there are no clumps left. Add in the veggies and mix it all.

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Heat a non-stick pan, or spray/rub a pan with oil. Pour in all the batter and spread out to fill out the pan. Cook for 5-6 min on one side and carefully flip it and cook for another 5 min. Transfer to a plate

Make a salsa with the tomatoes and onions. Saute the onions and the garlic with a squirt of vegetable oil. When the onions start to soften, add in the tomatoes and cook until they are slightly soft.

Serve the pancake with the sliced avocado, salsa and some fresh basil leaves.

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

~ Hanta ~ 3 Comments

Some days, one just needs a picker-upper. Today is one of these days. Nothing really dramatic or crazy happened, just that it has been a long IMG_5840week already. And to top it off my babysitter did not show today when I had planned to go down to the office. So I thought, okay let’s enjoy the afternoon and head down to the beach then! So we went, only to be caught by a fast arriving storm, which turned the sky from a clear blue to black in 10min. We run home, well, I ran , pushing the little man in the stroller, but we still got wet. Anyway, today is one of those days when chocolate chips need to be put to good use.

The chocolate chips I use here are the mini kind and they are allergen-free. Since we are on a dairy-free, egg-free and nuts-free diet, this is my go-to ingredient for anything that calls for chocolate. We also just eat them as is and they are delicious.

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Oatmeal chocolate chips cookie

Wet ingredients
1/3 cup sunflower seed butter
2tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup dairy-free milk (I use a mix of coconut milk and flax milk)
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Dry ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat the oven at 425°C. Whisk the wet ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with a wooden spoon.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon the cookie dough onto the parchment paper with a tablespoon. Unlike regular cookies, these cookies do not spread out and will stay the size as you have spooned them, so there is no need to space them too faIMG_5833r apart.
Bake in the oven at 425°C for 8min.

Cool the cookies on a rack. Enjoy!
The cookie dough can also be frozen on the cookie sheet (already in cookie form). When frozen, transfer to a Ziploc bag. They can be baked at a later time when in need of an emergency cookie.

Baked salmon with green onions

~ Hanta ~ Leave a comment

A long time ago, when my boyfriend  (now husband), Hamy and I started living together, I barely knew how to cook. I think I could make some eggs and maybe some pasta (and that is still debatable), but that was about it. I for sure did not know how to cook rice, which is a staple in the Malagasy (from Madagascar) cuisine. We were students and did not have a lot of money then; so either we invited ourselves at our parents’ tables, or we ate street food or my husband cooked. My role in the kitchen was more to help him cut, wash etc. However, I loved to eat and soon, I was facing a dilemma of wanting to eat a dish and not knowing how to cook it.

At first, I called my mom and asked her how to make my favorite dishes then I would ask my husband to cook it with me. Then I started to watch  and observe when other people cooked and learned the basics. A friend of mine taught me how to cook rice perfectly, a la malagasy, when I was in graduate school. But even though  I got better at cooking over the years, I can still say that my husband is still the more creative one in the kitchen. He is one of those people who can just whip up a dish and it would turn out awesome. Or maybe I am just biased because I am his number one fan.

His big specialty is the makeover of left-overs. He will take a left-over dish and turn into something completely different. A sauteed dish will become a soup; a veggie asian style dish will end up a curry dish with kitchen. Unfortunately, as surprising and delicious as they are, these types of dishes are practically impossible to reproduce…and impossible to blog about. But fortunately for this blog, he can also make dishes from scratch , and this recipe here is one of those.

The quantities here are not precise, it will depend on how big your piece of fish is and your taste.IMG_5519

For the spices he used 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe’s. Other herbs  I like to pair with salmon are dill, thyme and tarragon. But basically, the spirit is that you can use whatever you have, or whatever you like. I don’t think you can really go wrong.

Baked salmon with greens onions

  • A salmon tail fillet (the one used here was a frozen fillet of about 2lbs)
  • 4-5 green onions, cut about 3 inch long
  • Spices fresh or dried (Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute)
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic , crushed
  • Salt
  • Olive oil

Heat the oven at 415°C.

Line a oven proof dish with aluminum foil, with excess going off the edges. Place the fish on the foil, rub it with the crushed garlic. sprinkle with the spices.IMG_5523
Line the green onions on the salmon sideways. Drizzle the fish and onions with olive oil.
Place another sheet of aluminum foil on the top and fold the edges with the bottom foil to basically form a pocket with the fish inside.

Bake in the oven. For a frozen piece bake for 20-25min. If using a fresh cut, bake for 12-15 min

Serve with a drizzle of lemon juice and the sides of your choice.

Serving suggestion: Steamed green peas, brown rice spaghetti with pesto.

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Kiwi and greens smoothie

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Green smoothies have always looked kind of scary to me. I used to think that smoothies should be fruity and colorful. But hey! kiwi is a fruit and it’s color is green so I guess a fruity smoothie can be green too.

I decided to make this smoothie one day I was not feeling very well, a cold was lingering and I just needed something to give me an energy punch and clean out my system, all at once…and of course taste good. Kiwis taste delicious and they are packed with vitamin C and other phytonutrients that beneficial to reduce inflammation and boost the immune system. Green leaves are also packed with vitamins and are rich in calcium. So, these sounded like a great mix for a energy-packed smoothie to me.

This is also a great way to get my toddler to have his share of fruits and greens. He loves smoothies and he readily drinks it no matter what color it is.IMG_5482

For the greens here, I used a salad mix of baby greens which had baby spinach, dandelions, kale, lettuce and others. But you can use any baby leaves of your choice. Using mature leaves will also work but will have a stronger “green” flavor which might not be to everyone’s liking. Banana or pineapple are great add-ins when making green smoothies as they tend to mask green leaves flavors pretty well.

Kiwi and greens smoothie

  • 1 1/2 cup of green leaves mix
  • 2 kiwis
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 4 dates (can substitute for sugar or honey to sweeten)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.

Serve in a glass (or a jar) and enjoy!