Food - Kate Degelau-Pierce

Cookie monster

I’m not going to lie… this recipe is really, really heavy on the chocolate. I find it hard to eat more than one of these cookies in a sitting. But, to my mind, that’s a good thing. I don’t need to eat more than one cookie at a time. I really don’t.

Chocolate Cookies
(adapted from ATK’s gluten-free cookbook)

12oz semi-sweet chocolate (I accidentally used bittersweet)
2T unsalted butter
4oz gluten-free flour
0.75oz unsweetened cocoa powder
0.5t baking soda
0.5t salt
0.25t xanthan gum
5.25oz brown sugar
1.75oz granulated sugar
2 large eggs
5T vegetable oil
1t vanilla extract
0.5t instant espresso powder
9oz bittersweet chocolate chips (accidentally used semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate and butter together in a double-boiler. Mix dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum) together in a bowl. Set aside.

Whisk wet ingredients (both sugars, eggs, oil, vanilla, espresso powder) together in large bowl. Add melted & cooled chocolate-butter mixture. Whisk until smooth. Add dry ingredients, mix till smooth. Fold in chocolate chips. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll generous 2T of dough into balls, place 2″ apart on sheets. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time for 12-14 min, rotating halfway through cooking.

Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes before moving to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp.

Light, fluffy, gluten-free muffins

Gluten-free baking is a pain and I don’t do it very much. It’s just too hard to get right and there are too many opportunities to screw it up. (Never, ever just sub in gluten-free flour. It will not work.)

These muffins, though. They came from a cookbook I trust, so I gave them a shot. And they are delicious and light and fluffy and amazing. Yum.

Sweet Potato + Five Spice Muffins
(summarized from It’s All Good)

1 large sweet potato
1/2c extra-virgin olive oil
1/2c milk (almond milk if you’re avoiding dairy)
3/4c good quality maple syrup
1t vanilla extract
2c gluten-free flour
1t xanthan gum (if the flour doesn’t already include it)
2t baking powder
2t baking soda
1.5T Chinese five-spice powder
1/2t salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Poke holes in the sweet potato, then bake it for an hour, until soft. Set aside till it’s cool.
Peel the sweet potato and mash the flesh in mixing bowl. Whisk olive oil, milk, maple syrup, and vanilla into sweet potato. In separate bowl mix remaining ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet.
Line muffin tin with paper liners, distribute batter evenly.
Bake 20-25 minutes, brushing top with extra maple syrup in last 5 minutes (I usually skip this). Let cool before serving.

Cheesy deliciousness

Oh, enchiladas verdes. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways….

You are delicious
Your recipe involves tomatillos, which I don’t cook with enough
Your recipe also involves a green salsa recipe, which I have made without the enchiladas. It is also delicious.
Cheeeeeeeese. Melty, cheesey, chicken-y deliciousness.

Without further ado, here is the recipe (a more complete version can be found in Cooks Illustrated #93):

4t veg oil
1 med onion, chopped
3 med garlic cloves, minced
1/2t cumin
1.5c chicken stock
1lb chicken breasts
1.5 lbs tomatillos
3 med poblano chiles (if you can’t find poblanos, sub 4 jalapeños), halved, stemmed, and seeded
1t sugar
salt & pepper
1/2c chopped fresh cilantro
8oz pepper jack
12-6″ corn tortillas

Heat broiler. Heat 2t oil in saucepan, sauté onions till golden. Add 2t garlic, cumin, cook till fragrant. Add chicken & stock, cover, simmer 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. Remove chicken from broth and let cool. Remove 1/4c liquid, discard the remainder.
Toss tomatillos and chiles with 2t oil. Place on baking sheet, broil until vegetables blacken and soften, ~5 min. Let cool, then remove skin from chiles. Transfer vegetables to food processor. Decrease oven temp to 350.
Add sugar, salt, pepper, and reserved cooking liquid to food processor. Process until sauce is slightly chunky. Taste, seasoning with additional salt, sugar, and pepper to taste.
Dice chicken. Combine with cilantro and all but 1/2c cheese.
Smear bottom of 13″x9″ pan with 3/4c tomatillo sauce. Heat tortillas in oven for 2-3 minutes, until pliable. Increase oven temp to 450. Spread 1/3c of chicken filling mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll each tortilla tightly, place in pan seam side down. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, using spoon to spread it evenly over all of them. Sprinkle remaining 1/2c cheese down middle. Cover pan with foil.
Bake enchiladas for 15 minutes, until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

A basic roast bird

I am a fan of a good roast chicken. Done right, it’s delicious and moist and a great, easy way to feed a few people. It takes about an hour, but most of that hour involves you doing something else while the oven cooks the bird. The hardest bit is carving it, I swear.

Roast Chicken
2T butter, melted
salt & pepper
4lb-ish chicken, preferably kosher

Heat the oven to 375. Brush chicken with butter, sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Place chicken in pan with roasting rack, wing side up. Roast 20 minutes. Flip chicken over, so the other wing side is up. Roast another 20 minutes. Flip the bird so the breast is up, and roast until a thermometer inserted in the breast reads 160 and in the thigh reads 165 (this should take about another 20 minutes). Take chicken from oven, place on a cutting board for 10 minutes. Carve & serve.

Spicy sweet potato deliciousness

Sweet potato chipotle soup is delicious, but not very filling. Or filling at all. This would be a great side dish with a roast chicken or something else with a lot of protein. It might make a good soup course at Thanksgiving dinner, if your Thanksgiving meal works in courses. But this is not a main course.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Chipotle and Coriander
from It’s All Good (which is a better cookbook than it has any right to be)

2T olive oil
1 large red onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 sprigs cilantro, leaves reserved for garnish (I clearly skipped the garnish step)
3/4t cumin
salt
1 1/2t chipotle in adobo (I was generous here – I really like that smoky taste)
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
6c vegetable stock

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and a healthy pinch of salt and cook, stirring now and then until softened but not brown, about 10 min. Add the chipotle and sweet potatoes and stir to combine. Add the vegetable stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Once soup boils, lower heat, simmer for 30 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Discard the cilantro. Carefully puree the soup. If you want a very smooth texture, pass it through a strainer. Garnish each bowl with a few cilantro leaves.

The Yummiest Snack

avocado slices on toast with a sprinkle of salt — My new go-to snack

Avocado toast is simple and delicious! It’s the perfect snack, tasty and full of healthy fats. Throw a piece of gluten-free bread in the toaster. Once it’s done to your liking, smear a touch of mayo on the bread to help the avocado stick. Put your avocado slices on top and sprinkle a pinch of salt, and you’re done! Om nom.