You know, this whole gluten-free thing hasn’t been quite the pain in the ass I expected at first, and not just because I’m lucky enough only to get joint pain when I eat gluten (meaning I can cheat without major repercussions from time to time). I work in New York, so GF lunches are fairly easy to find, and once I got over my egg sandwich craving for breakfast it was pretty smooth sailing. The difficulties I’m having are in finding acceptable pre-packaged bread and pasta. I’ve turned out a few decent loaves of bread on my own in the past few months, but dried pasta offerings have been uniformly disappointing so far. If you have any recommendations, I’m all ears!

One of these surprisingly good homemade bread experiments was a gluten-free redo of a Concord grape focaccia I first tried last year. It took a couple of weeks to get to the point of baking that bread, just because focaccia is a favorite of mine and I knew no wheatless version could compare to the real thing… but then I sucked it up, put on my big girl pants and got to work.

And you know what? The weeks of anxiety were just a silly way to spend my time — it turned out great! Gil and I ate about half of it that first day, so I’d consider it a success. Also? It’s much, much easier than baking honest-to-goodness bread — no kneading involved and no overnight rest in the fridge, so the time between craving and craving fulfillment is much abridged.

I just received my copy of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, which has another version of focaccia that I’m dying to try. Let’s hope those Concord grapes hold out one more week!

recipe after the jump

Gluten-Free Focaccia with Concord Grapes adapted from Carol Fenster’s Gluten-Free Focaccia

I didn’t bother seeding the grapes, though I found them unpleasantly crunchy this time around. I’ll try them without seeds next time for a less al dente treat.

3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 1/2  teaspoons dry yeast
1 cup brown rice flour or sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder
1 1/2  teaspoons xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped and divided
olive oil, for drizzling
1 pint Concord grapes
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/4 cup turbinado sugar

Combine first 10 ingredients in medium mixer bowl along with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves. Beat with electric mixer (regular beaters, not dough hooks) for 2 minutes. Dough will be soft and sticky.

Transfer dough to greased 11 x 7-inch nonstick pan. Cover with aluminum foil and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes or until desired height.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

When dough has risen, press dimples in it with your fingertips and drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with remaining rosemary, scatter Concord grapes across the surface, and top evenly with coarse salt and turbinado sugar.

Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.

The Ringwood Farmers’ Market opened this weekend, and not one minute too soon! I’ve been craving their fresh produce since the weekly market closed last November; winter market (new this year) only took place once a month, and the pickings were slim. It was winter, after all.

But now we’re back to greens, berries, honey and meats from small local farms, so let’s dive in.

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What I missed most about the early markets was the amazing spinach and arugula from Bialas Farms, not to mention the rest of the veggies and fresh herbs that always make up the bulk of my shopping experience on weekends. Because I was impatient to try the first haul, I made brunch as soon as we got home — a quick pesto with the spinach and arugula, some walnuts and grated locatelli, all smoothed out with a Ligurian olive oil. The pasta was a gluten-free selection from Fontanarosa’s, which I only visited for the first time this weekend. I now plan to shop there all summer long.

[About the gluten-free thing: I cut out the major sources of gluten about a month ago after reading The GenoType Diet. I'm highly suspicious of any diet at all (and definitely didn't try this to lose weight -- so don't worry, those of you who know me), but thought I'd give this one a try since a lot of what the author said about my type rang true, given my experience. Anyway, I can honestly say that the mild-to-moderate joint pain I've had for the past few years has completely disappeared since I cut the out the gluten. (Other things I won't go into here have cleared up as well.) Maybe it's all unrelated, and I hope it is, but we'll see how I feel when I re-introduce regular pastas and whole-grain bread into my meals.]

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Even though we were invited to a BBQ Sunday afternoon, I had to get in a little grilling of my own this weekend, so I threw together a quick-ish lunch. The appetizers were inspired by this post at Smitten Kitchen and I was thrilled with the way they turned out:

That’s a lot of good stuff packed into a couple of bites, and it came together with almost no effort on my part. I just grilled 1/2-inch-thick slices of homemade bread till they were toasted, smeared them with loads of truffle butter, some room-temperature robiola (one of my favorites, but you could try whatever you like here), and topped them off with ribbons of asparagus, crunchy fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper.

To make the ribbons, just grasp the tip of the spear and use a vegetable peeler to shave down the length of the asparagus.

Our main course was a kofta salad. The spinach and arugula made another appearance here, tossed with tzaziki sauce for the salad base. I had a few extra asparagus ribbons from the appetizers, so I threw them on as a garnish. But the real draw was the kofta made with ground lamb from Snoep Winkel Farm. I used the recipe that’s become my standard, substituting walnuts for pistachios since those were, um, about 18 months out of date. Oops.

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And then we went to a BBQ where I consumed lots of steak and delicious veggie skewers, so I was pretty meated- and veggied-out by Sunday morning and took it easy with a little goat’s milk yogurt with fresh strawberries, blueberries and honey. (Sadly, the blueberries were store-bought since they aren’t quite in season here, but the The Orchards of Concklin’s strawberries are as perfect as ever, and their peonies aren’t half-bad either. I’ll bring my camera next time we go so I can show you just how popular Rufus and Otis are with the proprietor. The honey is local, too — from Nina’s Red Barn Farm, where we buy our fresh eggs and where I’m evidently known as Rufus’s mom.)

Hope everyone had a safe and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend.

Homemade bread’s a little like sex — even when it isn’t transcendent, it’s still pretty good.

To put it another way, this focaccia didn’t really come close to meeting my expectations for the Life List, but the charred bits of lemon rind and salty crunch were enough to keep me stealing bits all weekend whenever I found myself in the kitchen. And maaaaybe I found myself in the kitchen just a little more often than usual, but I’m not really helping my case here, am I?

I had two issues with it: The lemons were far too tart, even sliced paper-thin, and the bread itself wasn’t as pillowy as I know it could be. Using Meyer lemons would solve the first issue, but I’m not sure what to do about the second.

Any suggestions or recipe recommendations? I’d be happy to invite you over for a sample, assuming I don’t just park myself in the kitchen until it’s all gone.

Not wanting to go empty-handed, I pulled out the bag of almost-overripe persimmons I’d been storing for a couple of weeks and got to work on an upside-down cake that sounded like a perfect ending to a Thanksgiving meal — with two sticks of butter, it was possibly the most indulgent cake I’ve ever made.

I did a quick google search when the idea for the cake hit me (my standard approach, since very few ideas are truly new), and found only a couple of recipes. Joanne Weir’s parmesan flan has been one of the highlights of my summer for the past two years, so I opted for her version of the cake and came away very, very happy indeed.

Her secret for keeping things light and airy in such a rich cake? Whipping the egg whites, then folding them into the rest of the batter. Even so, the cake was much more soufflé-like in the pan than I expected:

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with the Edwards family and I feel like I finally have friends in the neighborhood, which is no small thing. They’re a creative family, into drawing, painting, photography, music, fashion…so you can imagine how much I enjoyed myself. Oh, AND I finally got a house tour with details of the major renovation they did last year! So we have lots of inspiration for our own house project, whenever we start.

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The next day, I roasted the Zuni chicken (with bittersweet pimenton added to the salt & pepper rub) originally intended for Thanksgiving and made a bread-based dressing with roasted acorn squash on the side. Nothing terribly exciting, but repurposed as breakfast this morning, I fell in love:

I pan-fried some of the leftover dressing, served it atop a thin drizzle of gravy and topped it with a fried egg. “X + egg = heaven” is undefined for Gil, so I waited till he was running an errand to work it up. (How anyone can snub a runny egg yolk over just about anything is beyond me, but hey, in sickness & in [mental] health, etc…)

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For Saturday’s dinner, there wasn’t a hint of Thanksgiving left over in the leftovers, though I forced myself to use the contents of my fridge and pantry in a stab at eating down the house. We ended up with a North African-inspired couscous dish that took maybe 30 minutes to make, but had a great depth of flavor mainly because it relied so heavily on leftovers.

To start, I made a quick harissa paste and set it aside for the flavors to develop while I worked on the rest of the meal. I hit the freezer for a package of caramelized onions, which I browned in some olive oil, then added two thinly sliced cloves of garlic, and reinforced the warm spices from the harissa — ground cumin, caraway seeds and ground coriander — in the sizzling oil. When the spices were fragrant, I added a package of Israeli couscous, bite-sized pieces of dark chicken, chopped roasted acorn squash, leftover chicken stock and two tablespoons of harissa paste. Only 15 minutes later, we were sitting down to a meal I wouldn’t even mind making from scratch someday.

I hope you add had a filling and fun-filled Thanksgiving. Now I need to figure out a way to work from home, because the last four days spent with all of my boys has been too good to miss again for 13 hours a day or more.

recipes and sweet doggy pictures after the jump

Persimmon Upside-Down Cake by Joanne Weir

16 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 pound fresh Fuju persimmons, peeled, halved and pitted
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
Pinch of cream of tartar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

Butter a 9-inch cake pan. Place the pan over medium heat and melt 4 tablespoons of the butter and brown sugar in the bottom of the pan. Overlap the persimmon slices on top of the melted butter and brown sugar.

Preheat the oven to 350F. For the cake, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Cream the remaining 12 tablespoons butter and granulated white sugar together in a bowl until light. Separate the eggs and add the yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla and mix well. Add the milk and the dry ingredients alternately to the batter, folding well after each addition.

Beat the egg whites to form soft peaks. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the whites into the cake batter. Spread the batter over the persimmons and bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 60 to 75 minutes.

Cool the cake for 10 to 15 minutes and run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen it. Turn the cake over onto a serving platter and let it sit another 5 minutes. Remove the pan.

To serve, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks are formed. Sift the confectioners’ sugar on top of the cream, add the remaining 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and fold together. Serve with the cake.

Serves 8 to 10

Harissa adapted from Global Gourmet

3 1/2 tablespoons dried chili flakes, soaked in the same amount of hot water
1 1/2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons caraway seed
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, dry roasted then ground
1 teaspoon salt

Place ingredients in small food processor and blend or grind in mortar until a paste is formed.

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When we were leaving the adoption fair with Otis last weekend, the representatives from Greyhound Friends of NJ told us to be sure to keep the boys muzzled on the drive home because they might get aggressive. Clearly, we have our work cut out for us, because they’ll never get along:

Honestly, we didn’t pose them.

They both love to sleep and don’t seem to mind if another creature is nearby, though sometimes they’ll change position and nap apart.

Turns out, it’s a lot easier to get a picture of awake-Otis than of awake-Rufus. His prey instinct is so strong that he’ll stand at the window staring at something in the yard (or in the tree, or across the street, or down the street just out of sight) for minutes at a time.

Bless his heart — he’s a pain in the ass to walk, but so much fun to photograph.

Finally.

It took two weekends of tweaking, combining and adapting recipes, but I finally settled on a Concord grape focaccia (inspired by schiacciata, but less desserty) we couldn’t stop eating. Gil did his damage to it while I was away at work, but each night before bed, I stood at the counter nibbling on tiny pieces that always added up to the one large piece I should’ve just cut for myself at the start.

Apart from the focaccia, I didn’t really do any cooking last weekend because I was working on my first (paying) portrait shoot! Last winter, Cara Packard, the super-talented owner of Cara Linn Cakes, hired me to take some promotional pictures for her business. She’s getting married next month, so her sister did a little sleuthing to find me and arrange a surprise bridal portrait session in the city. I had a great time working with someone so natural and relaxed in front of the camera, and found that taking pictures of humans is even more fun than taking pictures of food. Go figure.

a few bridal pictures and focaccia recipe after the jump

On a tiny, nearly-deserted street in Tribeca.

Cara does her best Jessica Molaskey impression.

Train service was surprisingly not slow, despite repairs on 99% of the lines last weekend.

Adjusting.

Beautiful bride, isn’t she?

Gil took a bunch of pictures at the shoot, too, and managed to get video of a stranger serenading Cara in Washington Square Park. It’s cliché, but I love NY.

Rosemary Focaccia with Concord Grapes adapted from Epicurious and Eating Out Loud

Because it’s nearly impossible to remove the seeds from Concord grapes, you’ll either have to deal with the crunch — which I don’t mind — or spit them out as you’re eating. It’s a minor inconvenience, really.

sponge
1/2 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

focaccia
1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, finely chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 quart Concord grapes, washed and dried
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/3 cup turbinado sugar

for sponge
Place 1/2 cup water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture is cloudy, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour and sugar. Cover with plastic. Let stand until very bubbly, about 45 minutes or less.

for focaccia
Place 1 cup water in small bowl. Stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture is cloudy, about 10 minutes. Stir dissolved yeast mixture and 1/4 cup olive oil into sponge in the stand mixer bowl. Attach dough hook and stir in 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons chopped rosemary and 2 teaspoons kosher salt at low speed. Add remaining flour in 2 batches, mixing until well blended after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high and mix for four minutes. Reduce to low, add walnuts, then resume mixing at medium high for another minute.

Oil large bowl. Add dough, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic. Let dough rise in warm area until doubled, about 1 hour 15 minutes. (My kitchen was cold, so the dough had to rise for about 3 hours till it doubled. The moral of this aside is, “Don’t rush it.”)

Oil an 11×17-inch baking sheet. Punch down dough and transfer to prepared sheet. Using oiled hands, press out dough to cover bottom of pan. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-3 days. (This improves the texture and allows the dough time to develop.)

Remove pan from refrigerator when you’re ready to bake. Press dimples in the dough with your fingertips and push dough to edges of pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary and Concord grapes. Cover with towel. Let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 500°F. When dough has doubled, sprinkle the top with 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt and 1/3 cup of turbinado sugar. Place in oven and immediately lower temperature to 450°F. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the pan 180°, and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until golden and center of focaccia registers 200°F.

I think the world would be a happier place if everyone could have stuffed French toast topped with fresh strawberries for breakfast.

…it’s a good theory, and bore spectacular results at our house last weekend. (Full disclosure: The maple syrup-baked bacon might’ve had a little something to do with the good mood, too.)

recipe after the jump

Stuffed French Toast

This is just a very basic template, but I’m having trouble imagining a bad version of this. Mascarpone and peaches? Goat cheese and figs? Nutella and Nutella?

4 slices challah bread, 1 to 1 1/2-inches thick
cream cheese, softened
strawberry-rhubarb jam
4 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar or agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
sliced strawberries for garnish
powdered sugar for dusting

Cut a pocket into each slice of challah by starting at the top of the loaf and cutting down almost to the bottom. (The wider the cut, the more creamcheesyjammy goodness you can schmear in there.) Spread the pocket with cream cheese, then jam, varying the proportions to suit your taste.

Beat eggs, milk, sugar/agave nectar and almond extract together in a large baking dish. Place the stuffed challah slices in the egg mixture, pressing down gently on the bread. Carefully flip the slices over after 5-10 minutes and allow the other side to soak for the same amount of time. (Thicker slices of bread may require a little more milk. The amount given worked well for 1-inch slices with a little to spare.)

Place a frying pan or griddle over medium heat and grease lightly with butter. When the pan is hot, add challah slices and cook until golden.

To serve, dust with powdered sugar and top with sliced strawberries. And tell me if that doesn’t make you just a tiny bit happier.