Beef and Barley Soup

Having meals ready to eat in the freezer is essential to making it through my week without going hungry or eating something stupid that will make me sick. Right now, I'm cooking up 6 quarts of soup in my Crock Pot slow cooker so that I can restock my freezer. To make the preparation process quicker, I put most of my ingredients in my Cuisinart Mini chopper to get them diced fine. Later in the week, I plan to roast a pie pumpkin and serve the reheated soup in it for a dramatic presentation.

Ingredients:
1 pound of beef, cubed
1 rib of celery, diced fine
3 carrots, diced fine
2 pints of cherry tomatoes, diced fine
1 apple, diced
1 pear, diced
1 cup pearl barley
1 handful of fresh spinach, shredded
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
10 cups of filtered water

Put ingredients in the slow cooker in the order they are listed. Cook on low for 8 to 12 hours or cook on high for 6 to 8 hours. This recipe make 12 servings.

Next time I make the dish, I plan to leave out the celery and add potatoes, either sweet potatoes or Yukon Golds.

Eating While Traveling: Microwaved Tagine

A tagine is a North African stoneware cooking vessel with a conical lid. I've been considering purchasing one and was unable to resist when I saw this microwave miniature version called the "Stone Wave" at Walgreens.

I bought the tagine when I was getting ready to go on a trip and would need to prepare my meals using the usual hotel microwave and refrigerator. I imagined cooking with the tagine would at least make my meals a little more interesting than the usual microwaved bowl of food.

In my hotel room, I made a tomato and chicken tagine and served it with a microwaved sweet potato. The resulting dish tasted better than just microwaving the ingredients in a bowl. The lid seems to let just the right amount of steam escape to concentrate the sauce to deepen flavors, yet keep the dish moist. The addition of a high quality olive oil provided a warm savory flavor to the tangy and velvety tomato sauce.

Microwave Chicken and Tomato Tagine

Ingredients:

1/2 tomato, diced

1/2 organic chicken breast, diced

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 squirt of water from sports bottle (hay, I was traveling)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place half of the tomatoes in the tagine. Then place the chicken in the dish and top with remaining tomatoes. Add the remaining ingredients.
2. Place lid on "Stone Wave" and place in microwave. It is helpful if you have a microwave safe plate under it as it has the tendency to boil over a bit. Microwave on high for about 5 minutes, depending on the power of your microwave. Serve with microwaved sweet potatoes. Serves 1 small portion.

I am considering buying this larger version from William Sonoma to use at home so that I can make enough for my whole family at once. But the smaller Stone Wave version worked perfectly to feed just me safe meals while I stayed in a hotel.
How do you deal with your food allergies when traveling?

Apple and Tomato Steak over Jasmine Rice

This is an easy weekday recipe that takes about 20 minutes to make. I bought the beef already cut up for a very good price from the grocery store.
In this recipe, I describe how to cook rice using the pasta method. This is a fool proof method to cook rice because you can constantly check it by pulling out a few grains at a time as you go until it is cooked just as you like it. This method of cooking also has the added benefit of removing a lot of the residual arsenic that is in most grain products grown in the United States, according to a Consumer Report. You will need a sieve like the kind used to strain gravy or a colander with very small holes. Jasmine rice is an especially fragrant medium grain rice and is often found in the ethnic section of your grocery.

Ingredients:
1 cup jasmine rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 rib of celery, diced
1 pound of steak cut into 1 inch cubes
1 apple, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to the pasta method. This means bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil (at least 5 cups) with a pinch of salt in it. Add the cup of dried rice. Reduce heat to maintain boil (about medium). Cook uncovered until rice has reached the desired tenderness (taste it to check). Strain rice through a sieve to remove from the water. Allow to rest in the sieve to let it get fluffy.
2. While the rice cooks, heat the oil in a large skillet on medium high and saute the diced celery until it starts to brown. Add the cubes of steak and stir to brown the meat on all sides. Salt and pepper as desired.
3. Add the diced apple and quartered cherry tomatoes. Put a lid on the skillet and reduce the heat to low. Allow to simmer for 2 to 5 minutes. Then serve the meat mixture over rice. This makes 4 servings.

There are not a lot of ingredients to aggravate typical allergies and intolerances as this recipe contains no preservatives or dyes and no wheat, soy, egg, dairy, nuts or seafood.

Eating While Traveling

I have been known to earn some funny stares when I travel. Eating out with food allergies can be scary, and sometimes I want to relax and not take the risks. Here we are breaking some serious hotel rules and cooking with open flame on a hotel balcony. Do not try this at home (or at your hotel).

Goat Chop Vindaloo with Rosted Vegetables and Rice

Vindaloo is a pungent North Indian Stew. I met Teresa Mainello from Keeterbarn Corner Farm (http://keeterbarncorner.webs.com/)last Saturday at the Elizabeth City farmers market. I bought some fatty goat chops from her to make this delicious curry.

Ingredients:
4 fatty goat chops
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 onions, sliced
1 clove minced garlic (optional)
1 teaspoon minced ginger
12 ounces crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
prepared rice

Directions: Cook all of the ingredients except rice in a slow cooker on low for 8 hours. Serve over rice.

Update: I can't eat this anymore because it's high in sulfur.

Christina's Doughnuts

Over the years, I’ve gotten very good at adapting recipes for people who have special food concerns. Among my accomplishments are a preservative-free pineapple up-side-down cake and dairy-and-soy-free ice cream, but I am most proud of making doughnuts for my friend Christina who has many food allergies, including soy, dairy, and egg. While my friend—who doesn’t cook at all—watched with amusement, I combined flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in my largest mixing bowl. Then, in a separate bowl, I mixed olive oil, apple sauce and apple juice. While the vegetable oil was getting hot in an iron skillet on the stove, I kneaded the batter until it was firm and then rolled it out on my large wood cutting board dusted with flour. After that, I cut the batter into doughnut shapes by using a fancy glass for the round and a bottle cap for the hole. Christina leaned forward with interest as the dough started to sizzle when I placed it into the hot oil and looked on with delight as I turning each one to achieve a golden brown on each side. Finally, I lifted the doughnuts from the oil, dried them on paper towels, and dusted them with powdered sugar. Tentatively, she selected a doughnut and took a cautious bite. I was very gratified when I saw the look of joy on my friend’s face when she savored a doughnut for the first time.

Allergy Friendly Meatloaf

I like the edges on a meat loaf, so I make mine into a ring so it has edges in every slice. This meatloaf has no preservatives, is low sulfur and is wheat, egg, dairy, and nut free.

Ingredients:

For Meat Loaf:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 small carrot, diced fine (I use a food processor)
• 1 tablespoon honey

For Topping:

• 1/4 cup cooked and purred tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon honey
• juice from half of lime.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the meat loaf ingredients in a bowl. Transfer to an oven safe dish and shape into a ring. Create an indented trough on top for the sauce.
2. Combine the topping ingredients. Spoon the sauce into the trough. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done.