Chanh Muối- Quick Salty Limeade

Drinks

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

Before my trip to Vietnam I anxiously checked the weather reports on a daily basis. I’d chosen to visit during the shoulder season, when the heat and humidity in the Central region is known to be particularly bad. One website in particular made me extremely anxious.

In addition to the usual weather readings, it also had a “Real Feel” measure. So while the actual temperature in Hoi An was, say, in the high 80s, the “Real Feel” was something closer to 120+ degrees. Gulp.

Now we’re no stranger to high temperatures out here in Hawaii, but we’re usually blessed with tradewinds to keep things moderately comfortable. While I don’t remember much relief coming from ocean breezes in Hoi An, I did get plenty of relief from chanh muối, a salty and sweet limeade made from preserved limes.

I’ve heard chanh muối is common in many Vietnamese restaurants (although I’ve never seen it on any menus in Honolulu). The traditional way to make it is by preserving limes (or lemons) in salt and then adding sugar and water. Since I was too impatient to wait months to properly preserve the limes, I followed the shortcut recipe from this cookbook.

Now before you write off the idea of salty limeade as being weird or gross, consider this: much of the world already adds a touch of salt to their citrus beverages. Chanh muối is the perfect combination of salty, sweet and sour… with electrolytes to boot. Perfect for those hot and humid summer days…

Chanh Muối- Quick Salty Limeade

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

juice of 4 medium limes (approximately 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt
6-8 cups water
lime slices for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Combine the lime juice, sugar, salt and 6 cups water in a large pitcher. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Taste and add more water if you’d like. Serve over ice with a couple slices of lime, if desired.

Avocado Soup

Soups

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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I’m not gonna lie. Two things drew me to this soup: the claim that it could be made in 15 minutes and the fact that I already had all of the ingredients on hand. I can’t say I had high expectations…. one too many mediocre-at-best cucumber and avocado chilled detox soups I suppose. The ones that taste like an attempt to salvage a smoothie gone wrong.

Thankfully this soup is nothing like those detox soups. If you’ve had avocado smoothie before, whether it was the Southeast Asian variety with plenty of sweetened condensed milk (or ice cream) or something closer to the healthy/vegan/cleanse type, you know that avocados lend a certain silken quality and texture when it’s blended.

It does the same here when it’s combined with a chicken broth enhanced with sautéed garlic, onion, celery and jalapeno, which gives it just a hint of heat. Half-and-half to gives the soup its creamy indulgence while a squeeze of lemon or lime gives it just a touch of citrusy acidity and brightness.

You can have it chilled or warm… just be careful not to heat the avocado too much because it’ll curdle. Probably not the look or texture you’re after. This would be a great, and unexpected, first course for a South American meal. It’d also be super fun in shooter glasses as an amuse bouche.

Avocado Soup

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

* 2 avocado, pitted and diced
* 2 Tablespoons lemon or lime juice
* 2 Tablespoons olive oil
* 2 cloves garlic
* 1 medium onion, diced
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
* 3 cups chicken broth, divided
* 1 cup half-and-half
* salt and pepper
* parsley or cilantro for garnish (optional)
* creme fraiche or sour cream for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Combine the diced avocado and lemon juice in a small bowl. Toss together and set aside. In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, celery and Jalapeno pepper and sauté until softened but not browned. Add 2 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In the jar of an electric blender combine the avocado and lemon juice, the remaining cup of chicken broth, and half-and-half and process until smooth. Add half of the broth and sautéed vegetables and process until smooth. Add the rest of the broth and sautéed vegetables and process until smooth.

Taste and add salt and pepper, if needed. Serve warm or place in the fridge for several hours until thoroughly chilled. Garnish with crème fraiche or sour cream and some fresh parsley or cilantro, if desired.

Papaya, Pineapple and Ginger Cooler

Drinks

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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I’d like to say that I set out to create a mocktail to balance out the boozy beverages I’ve been posting around here, but this actually was intended to be a Chilled Minted Papaya Soup. It didn’t quite work for me as a soup, but a tweak or two made it into one stellar drink.

Fresh papaya (or paw paw, depending on where you live) is blended with fresh pineapple, pineapple juice and lime juice and then combined with spicy ginger beer. Although you could substitute regular ginger ale in a pinch, I definitely recommend seeking out some of the spicy stuff: Reed’s, the Ginger People, Blenheim… well, you get the idea. If you have time, seeping the papaya and pineapple mixture with some fresh mint gives it something extra special.

Papaya, Pineapple and Ginger Cooler

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

2 ripe papayas, seeded, skinned and cubed
1-1/2 cups cubed fresh pineapple
1 cup pineapple juice
1 Tablespoon lime juice
5 sprigs mint (optional)
2 12-ounce bottles of spicy ginger beer
mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Combine the papaya, pineapple, pineapple juice and lime juice in a blender and process until smooth. If you have time, combine the mixture with the mint in a pitcher and refrigerate for several hours. Just before serving remove the mint and add the ginger beer. Serve over ice and garnish with mint leaves, if desired.

Banana Po’e

Recipes

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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For those of you looking for an authentic Tahitian dessert… this is it. You just better like bananas because this dessert is full of them… four cups of pureed bananas to be exact.

Not too long ago I needed some baby food jars for a craft project and ended up buying eight fruit purees. I ended up eating them as snacks at work, but man do I wish I’d come across this recipe earlier.

The pureed bananas get combined with a small amount of brown sugar for sweetness, cornstarch and vanilla. You bake it in the oven and end up with something akin to very dense banana bread… almost like a banana bread-mochi hybrid. Cut it up into squares and top with coconut cream for a truly tropical treat.

For a decidedly more American flavor, you could top the po’e with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Banana and chocolate is never a bad combo. If you truly aren’t a fan of banana, you can always experiment with other fruit purees… just make sure you’ve got a full four cups.

Tahitian Po’e

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

butter or coconut oil, for greasing pan
about 7-8 ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup brown sugar (could also use palm sugar), plus extra for sprinkling
1 cup cornstarch, sifted
seeds scraped from 1 Tahitian vanilla bean
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can full fat coconut milk, unshaken and refrigerated for 2-3 hours

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 and butter or grease a 2-quart baking dish

Place the banana in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. You should have four cups of banana puree. Pour into a large bowl and add the brown sugar, cornstarch, vanilla bean seeds, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake until firm/set.

Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. Cut into cubes and place in a bowl. Remove the top from the coconut milk. Spoon the cream, which should have risen to the top, over the cubes of banana po’e. Sprinkle with a little extra brown sugar and serve.

Another favorite American dessert that works as a mid-afternoon snack or breakfast is banana bread. This baked loaf is very popular because it is easy to make in just one bowl, the key is working with ripe bananas, and it is easily customizable to include nuts or even chocolate chips.

Fun Side Note:

A couple of years ago I prepared over fourty portions of banana po’es for a banana themed birthday party for one of my friend’s daughters. We ordered a 100 funny custom banana-themed stickers much like the ones below that we put everywhere inside and outside of their house among other things. That was a fun day.

Caramelized Onions, Arugula, and Goat Cheese Gluten-Free Flatbread

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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Caramelized Onions, Arugula, and Goat Cheese Gluten-Free Flatbread

Before I went gluten-free, I always picked pizza as the one food I’d choose to eat for every meal for the rest of my life. After I was diagnosed with Celiac, I went through the obligatory rough patch when I hadn’t yet found good new recipes or products. Some people say there’s no such thing as bad pizza. They’re wrong… there’s definitely a lot of bad gluten-free pizza out there.

But I’ve finally developed a gluten-free pizza crust recipe that is pretty close to perfect, which I also use, slightly modified, for flatbread. In this version, caramelized sweet onions temper the peppery bite of the arugula and tanginess of goat cheese. It might sound like a weird combo, but it totally works.

For those of you close to a Whole Foods: they have some small, round rice flour pizza crusts that would work really well for this recipe. Add a green salad and you’d have a super quick weeknight meal.

Caramelized Onions, Arugula, and Goat Cheese Gluten-Free Flatbread

Yield: 4 flatbreads

Ingredients:

Flatbread:
* vegetable or olive oil for greasing baking sheet
* 3/4 cup superfine rice flour
* 1/3 cup potato starch
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
* 1 teaspoon instant yeast
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup warm water
* 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
* 1 Tablespoon olive oil
* sweet rice flour

Topping:
* 1 Tablespoon olive oil
* 1 onion, thinly sliced
* couple handfuls of arugula, washed and roughly chopped
* salt and pepper
* 2-3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and generously grease a large baking sheet with you choice of oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the rice flour, potato starch, sugar, xanthan gum, yeast, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the water, vinegar and oil and mix on the lowest speed of your electric mixer. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix for one minute.

Use a wet spoon to spoon four mounds of dough on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle each with sweet rice flour and use your hands to press out into an rectangular or oblong shape, adding more sweet rice flour as needed. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the flatbread is just beginning to turn golden.

While the flatbread is baking, heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion slices and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and caramelized, about 12-15 minutes. Add the arugula and cook, stirring, until the greens have wilted. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and top the flatbreads with the mixture. Sprinkle the flatbreads with crumbled goat cheese, cut into slices (if desired) and serve immediately.

Tej- Ethiopian Honey Wine

Drinks

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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This recipe is so simple that it almost doesn’t warrant a post. But it’s a super quick and easy alternative to T’ej, Ethiopian’s honey wine that’s similar to mead. It’s light, sweet and has a definite honey flavor. Although I wrote down a recipe as a general guideline, you can easily tailor it to your own preferences for alcohol strength or sweetness.

It’s not particular strong, which is great because it sure does go down easy (and fast!). I also found it was an excellent way to quell the fire in your mouth if happened to take a bite of something super spicy.

Tej- Ethiopian Honey Wine

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups light, sweet white wine
2 cups water (reduce to 1 or 1 1/2 cups if you’d like a stronger drink)
1/4 cup honey

Combine ingredients in a glass jug or pitcher and stir to combine. Serve chilled.

Super Fast Gluten-Free Pecan Pie Muffins (with Chocolate Option)

Recipes

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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Super Fast Gluten-Free Pecan Pie Muffins (with Chocolate Option)

This is the kind of regional recipe that really needs to hit it big nationwide. I saw it in two Southern cookbooks and you could tell both authors were big fans of these muffins… these were no cookbook filler. And there’s good reason: they’re quick, the ingredient list is short, and they taste amazing.

Imagine rich, dense cake with the flavor of pecan pie without the time or hassle. You could conceivably be eating these in just over 30 minutes. Yes, they’re that quick and easy.

A friend who tasted these claimed they reminded him of Caramel Cuts, a chewy pecan blondie that they served at Punahou School (for any other Punahou alums or Obama fans out there). Since I’m a big fan of chocolate pecan pie, I also did a chocolate version that ended up tasting like a killer fudgy pecan brownie. I really like the fact that you can make these in such small portions too. You could even cut the recipe in half… although why would you want to? In fact, you might want to think about doubling this one.

These are rich and chewy, but they’re also a bit delicate so be sure to use cupcake liners and give them a good coat with cooking spray. I think the gluten-free among us have a bit of an advantage here. We have things like xantham gum in our pantry arsenal. I added a bit to the batter to help bind the finished product. Score one for celiacs everywhere…

Super Fast Pecan Pie Muffins

Yield: 9 muffins

Ingredients:

* 1 cup chopped pecans plus 9 pecan halves, divided
* 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup rice flour
* 1/4 cup sorghum flour
* 2 Tablespoons sweet rice flour
* 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup butter (8 Tablespoons), melted
* 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with 9 baking cups. Coat with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the chopped pecans, brown sugar, rice flour, sorghum flour, sweet rice flour, and xantham gum. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy. If you’re making the chocolate version, place the chocolate chips in the melted butter and let stand for a minute or two. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the butter (and chocolate, if using) to the eggs and stir quickly to combine. Add the egg and butter mixture to the pecan mixture and stir just until combined.

Spoon the batter into the baking cups and place one pecan half in the center of each cup. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pans immediately and let cool on a cooling rack.

Serve at room temperature or chilled (my preference).

Ethiopian Cabbage, Potato and Carrot Stir-Fry

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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Ethiopian Cabbage, Potato and Carrot Stir-Fry

If you glossed over the word Ethiopian in the title of this dish and had only read the recipe, you probably would have thought it was an Indian dish. And that would have been a pretty good guess. Ethiopian cuisine is highly influenced by Indian spices and flavors and this dish definitely reminds me of one of my favorite recipes (spicy cabbage).

But this cabbage dish gets beefed up with some potatoes and carrots to help make things a bit more filling. The original recipe didn’t include any heat, but I’m never one to miss an opportunity to spice things up.

It’s total comfort food with an added bonus of being chock-full of veggies and cancer-fighting spices like turmeric and ginger. And considering that my usual comfort foods tend to be things like macaroni and cheese, cookies, and chocolate, I’m happy to add a healthier option to the list.

Ethiopian Cabbage, Potato and Carrot Stir-Fry

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1/3 cup nit’ir qibe or vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 carrots, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece fresh, peeled ginger, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
5 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
berbere, to taste (optional)

Directions:

Heat the nit’ir qibe or oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the carrots, garlic and ginger and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Stir in the cumin, turmeric, salt and cabbage and coat the cabbage with the spices. Cook, stirring occasionally another 10 minutes.

Add the potatoes, stir to combine, and then cover. Cook, stirring once or twice, until the potatoes are soft. Taste and add salt, if necessary, and black pepper to taste. If you’d like to add some heat, add berbere to taste.

Sweet and Sour Bacon and Green Beans

Recipes

Girl Cooks World

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April 11, 2019

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My first experiences with green beans were quite possibly the exact same as yours. The divided cafeteria trays at elementary school often had a scoop or two of canned green beans with a greyish tint at lunch at least once a week. I suppose the lunch ladies hoped that there wasn’t enough chicken nuggets or pizza to sustain through the afternoon and that we’d be forced to eat the tasteless, mushy side. I may have tried a bite once, but after that the portion always went back 100% untouched.

The only way I’ll eat the canned version these days if it’s it’s mixed in with a three or four bean salad. Otherwise, fresh is the only way to go. And although excessive amounts of cheese sauce is what lured me into eating broccoli and other vegetables when I was a kid, I’m guessing bacon could have also done the trick.

In this Southern dish green beans get cooked with bacon and onion and flavored with vinegar and sugar. The rendered bacon fat helps cover each and every green bean with a tangy, sweet, and smoky glaze. This is another gem from Christy Jordan’s book, Southern Plate. Christy’s recipes are simple and delicious and the book is peppered with lovely stories of the South. Want to get a preview of her unfussy and unpretentious Southern Food? Check out her blog, also called Southern Plate. I think you’ll become a fan too.

Sweet and Sour Bacon and Green Beans

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

* 1/2 pound bacon, cut into small chunks
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed and cut into manageable sized pieces
* 2 Tablespoons vinegar
* 2 Tablespoons sugar
* salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add bacon and fry until crispy. Remove the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate and spoon out several Tablespoons of bacon grease and reserve for another use.

Add the onion to the bacon grease and cook until softened. Add the green beans and cook until tender-crispy, or your desired tenderness. Add the sugar and vinegar and stir well. Add the bacon back to the pan and cook, stirring, for another minute or two. Season to taste with salt and pepper.