Sushi

Spicy Shrimp Sushi Roll:

Ingredients:

2 c. Sushi Rice (Recipe to follow)

1 tbsp. Olive or Avocado Oil

1 tsp. Salt

¼ c. Sugar

½ English Cucumber

1 tsp. (or to taste) Sriracha sauce

¼ c. Mayonnaise

½ c. + 1 tbsp. Rice Vinegar

¼ lb. Shrimp

Cajun seasoning (or whatever you prefer)

Nori wraps

Sesame seeds

You will need:

Bamboo sushi mat

Wooden spoon

Plastic wrap

Bowl of water

Sharp Knife

Prepare sushi rice as follows:

1. Rinse the rice in a strainer or colander until the water runs clear.  Combine with water in a medium saucepan.  Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes (mine never takes the full 20 minutes so keep an eye on it).  Rice should be tender and water should be absorbed.
2. After rice is cooked, combine the (½ c) rice vinegar, oil, sugar and salt.  Cook in the microwave for 45 seconds, or until sugar dissolves.  If the liquid is really hot, let it cool slightly.  Poor the liquid over the rice and stir. 
3. Line the counter top with plastic wrap.  Fan the rice out on the plastic wrap and allow to cool.

Prepare spicy sauce as follows:

1.  Mix 1 tbsp. rice vinegar with ¼ c. mayonnaise.  Add sriracha to taste.

Now put your sushi wraps together.

1. Bring a small pot of water to boil with about a tsp. of your seasoning.  Add shrimp and cook until pink.  (One of the websites I read suggested doing this to make sure your shrimp don’t taste too fishy.) Strain from water and let cook.  Cut shrimp in small pieces (I cut it in thirds) and add about half of your spicy sauce mixture.  Set aside.
2. Prepare your cucumber by cutting it into small matchstick pieces.  Set aside.
3. Line your bamboo mat with plastic wrap.  Place a nori sheet on the plastic wrap, rough side up.
4. Wet your wooden spoon.  Scoop up your sushi rice with the wet spoon and put down a thin layer of rice on your nori.  Your rice should only be one grain thick.  Use a wet spoon to smooth out.
5. Place a layer of plastic wrap over the rice and flip the sheet over so that the nori is on the top.  (You do not have to do this but I like the texture better in my mouth when the rice is on the outside.)
6. Start about an inch from the end of your sushi and add a single line of your shrimp mixture.  About an inch down from your shrimp add your cucumber in a line.
7. Now roll your sushi, tightening the roll with each turn. 
8. Sprinkle sesame seeds over your sushi log.
9. With a wet sharp knife, cut the sushi log into 1 inch or so pieces.  Once all of your rolls are finished place the extra spicy sauce in a sandwich bag and cut a very small hole in a corner.  Dribble the extra sauce over the sushi.
10. ENJOY!

The second type of sushi (vegan) was filled with avocado and cucumber and a little bit of sriracha.

If you wanted to make a California roll you would follow all of the steps above and instead of filling the roll with shrimp and cucumber you would fill it will cucumber, avocado, and imitation crab.

Zucchini Brownies

Are you wondering what to do with that bumper crop of zucchini?  I know there are a lot of uses for zucchini, and every year I am trying to find new ways to use it.  I ran across this recipe on Pinterest (I know I'm not the only one here with a pinterest problem, and I will see you at the Pinterest Anonymous meeting...) and I slightly modified it.  They are so delicious and healthy, and you won't even miss the flour, oil, sugar, and everything else that goes in to a traditional brownie.  I did make these with dark chocolate and they weren't as sweet as I like my brownies, next time I may try milk chocolate.

 

Ingredients:

Hazelnut Butter* - 1 cup

Grated Zucchini - 1 1/2 cups

Raw Honey** - 1/3 cup

Egg - 1

Vanilla - 1 tsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - 1 tsp

Nutmeg (I like fresh ground!) - 1/2 tsp

Dark Baking Chocolate - 1 5.3oz bar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8X8 pan (I like to use coconut oil, but you can use whatever you like).

Melt your chocolate.  I melted mine in the microwave in 2, 30 second intervals.  I was given a bar of Green & Black's Organic (pictured below), Dark Baking Chocolate with 72% Cocoa, so that is what I used.

In a separate bowl from the chocolate, mix together the egg and the nut butter. *You can use whatever nut butter you prefer.  I had a container of hazelnut butter from the last time I went to Sauders, so that is what I used.  Next mix in all of the ingredients, except for the zucchini.  **We had a jar of Raw Pomegranate Honey,*** so I used that.  Once you have mixed the ingredients well, add the zucchini.  Spread in your greased pan and bake for 35 - 45 minutes.  Mine baked for 42 minutes.  You should be able to test the center with a tooth pick, and have it come out clean.

These brownies are amazing.  You would never guess that they have zucchini in them.  Stay tuned for more zucchini recipes!

***I use iHerb to order a lot of stuff that is hard to find in my area.  They have really good, quality ingredients at a good price.  I will look for my discount code and update this post so that you can get $5 off of your first order.  If I haven't changed this, feel free to contact me and I will find it for you, if you are interested.

This recipe was adapted from http://www.delightedmomma.com/search/label/recipes.

Ricotta

Do you buy your ricotta by the cottage cheese?  The stuff that has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks already, and has a shelf life for a month or more longer?  Try this simple recipe.  It is only two ingredients, and it is so easy and delicious.  If you have never had fresh ricotta, you don't know what you are missing.  It has a creamy, delicate flavor, and is so cost effective to make.

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 Gallon

Cider Vinegar - 1/4 Cup

Yup, seriously, that is it!

In a pan large enough to fit 1 gallon + some wiggle room, poor the gallon of milk.  Make sure that you are not using a copper pan.  The milk doesn't react well in copper.  Poor 1/4 cup of vinegar in the milk.  You can use any kind, but I prefer the delicate flavor of the cider vinegar.  Heat the milk to about 180 degrees, stirring until you see little white flecks (curd) forming.  Stop stirring at this point so that you don't break up the curds.  If you do not have a thermometer don't worry, you should heat the milk to just below the boiling point.  You will see the milk separate and all of the curd will float to the top.  Let it rest for 5 minutes or so and then with a slotted spoon, ladle in to a strainer, lined with cheese cloth.  If you do not have cheese cloth you can use a clean dish towel.  Let the ricotta drain in the cheese cloth until it is at the desired consistency.  Depending on what you are going to use the ricotta for will depend on how firm you want it to be.  If you are using your ricotta in a pasta dish, drain for 10 minutes or so.  If you would like it to be a little firmer, say for a cheesecake drain for 40 minutes or so.  Now pat yourself on the back, you just made ricotta!  Season as you wish.  Use within a week.

Chocolate Syrup

My kids will go through three gallons of milk in a week or less if you would let them drink chocolate milk all day.  Most chocolate syrups you will buy at the store contain a lot of ingredients that most people probably can't even pronounce.  I wanted to make a chocolate syrup that I didn't feel bad about my kids drinking.  I found a lot of recipes that the number one ingredient was sugar, or corn syrup.  I wanted to use a natural sweetener, so I thought I would try using honey and maple syrup.  The results were great, my kids love it, and it is only four ingredients.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

Ingredients:

Pure Maple Syrup - 1 Cup

Honey - 1/2 Cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder - 3/4 Cup

Water - 1 Cup 

Combine and whisk all ingredients in a saucepan.  Heat on high to a boil and boil for one minute.  Allow to cool and refrigerate.  Really, its that easy!  If you don't care if your sweetener is natural or not, you could certainly use regular old white sugar.  You could also use all maple syrup, all honey, or even all agave nectar. 

Tortillas

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour - 1 Cup

All Purpose Flour    - 1 Cup

Coconut Oil (Melted) - 1/4 Cup

Salt (I use sea salt) - 1/2 teaspoon

Warm Water - 3/4 Cup or less

I normally just use a recipe as guidelines.  If you prefer a more whole wheat tortilla, use more or all whole wheat flour.  If you prefer white tortillas, then use all all-purpose flour.  If you don't think you like coconut oil (I just started using coconut oil and I LOVE it, it doesn't have a coconut taste if you use the expeller pressed like this one), you could substitute olive oil, vegetable oil, or butter.  I did make this recipe with olive oil and I thought it could have used a little less than 1/4 cup.

To make your tortillas:

In a large bowl, mix together the flour and the salt.  Next mix in the coconut oil, making sure that it is fully incorporated.

Add in the warm water a little at a time and stir.  Your dough should be very moist but not overly sticky.  Add in just enough water to form a very soft ball.

Next, on a very lightly floured surface, roll your dough in to a log.  Using a knife or a pastry scraper, portion the dough in to about 10 golf ball size portions.

Cover the portioned balls and allow them to rest for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.  This will give the gluten in the bread time to relax and give a better consistency and taste to your tortillas.

After your dough has rested, and working with one ball of dough at a time, flatten the dough with the palm of your hand.  This will form a little disc.  Then with a floured rolling pin, roll each ball thin (between 1/16" and 1/8").  These will not rise at all, so the thickness you roll them will be the thickness of your final product.  Continue with the rest of the dough, stacking them on a plate as you go along (they will not stick together). 

After you are done rolling the dough, heat a large frying pan or griddle pan on low heat.  Lightly fry each tortilla (don't oil the pan, I cook with stainless steal and there is enough oil in the dough for it to not stick) for about 30 seconds to a minute on each side.

These will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge, or freeze very nicely.

Granola

I’m sure I’m not the only one that looks at my checking account and says, “where did all of my money go”.  So one day I sat down and noticed that a large portion of my paycheck gets spent at the grocery store, considerably more than we even spend on car payments.  In an effort to try to save some money on my grocery bill, and of course as always, make sure that my family is eating healthy, I decided to try to make most of what we eat from scratch.  One of the first things on my list was granola.  Here is what you will need, but feel free to switch it up.  The only thing I tend to keep pretty constant is the amount of oats and sweetener.  (Pictured is a double recipe.)

Ingredients:

Rolled Oats – 2 cups

Wheat Germ  – ½ cup

Chopped Almonds  – 1 cup

White Chocolate Chips – ½ cup

Raisins  – ½ - ¾ cup

Pure Maple Syrup – ½ cup

Honey – ¼ cup

Melted Coconut Oil  – 2 tablespoons

Ground Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine first 3 ingredients and toast on a cookie sheet for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once toasted, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly (if you mix the rest of the ingredients while the oats are hot, it will melt the white chocolate).  Reduce the heat to 300 degrees.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients except for the raisins and white chocolate.  Line a 9x9 cake pan with tinfoil and lighting oil the pan with coconut oil.

Next combine all of ingredients in a bowl.  Dump the mixture in to the prepared pan and press firmly in to the pan.  Bake for about 25 minutes.

Allow to cool and break apart, or cut in to squares.  The tinfoil will help you pull the granola out of the pan easier. 

Because this is not full or preservatives you will need to keep this in an airtight container and you should eat it within a week.  Whatever you are not going to eat with in the week can be stored in the freezer.

Don’t be afraid to be creative with your granola.  The possibilities are endless!  My favorite is switching ground flax seed for wheat germ, dried cranberries for raisins, and leaving out the cinnamon.

Strawberry Jam

When I decided that I wanted to make jam, I knew that I didn’t want to use any sugar or pectin, but I wanted it to be really tasty.  So I found a recipe on one of my favorite blogs and modified it to my taste.  You can certainly use sugar if you would like.  The recipe is pretty basic, and then you can add other flavorings.

Here is a list of some sugar substitutes:

Honey

Agave Nectar

Maple Syrup

Molasses

This is where I purchased my jars.  Most of the jars are able to be used for canning.  I plan on giving these away as gifts, so I wanted to have some nice jars.  The shipping is pretty high, so if you want to make an order it might be a good idea to do a group order with some friends.

http://www.specialtybottle.com/

Basic Recipe:

Fresh Local Strawberries – 3 pounds

Apple – pealed and shredded  (apples contain a lot of natural pectin!)

Lemon – half

Sugar in some form listed above – 2 cups

Combine all ingredients and mash together.  Heat on med-high heat until the mixture is boiling.  Boil until the jam gets to the jelling stage (this took me about an hour), stirring frequently.  You can test the jam by putting a plate in the freezer and spooning a small amount of jam onto the chilled plate.  If you can push it with your finger and it is thick then it is good.  At this point you can take the jam off of the heat and either ladle hot jam into sterilized jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes, removing from the water and allowing to rest for 12 hours; or you can let the jam cool, ladle in to containers and freeze.  Because of the low sugar content of this jam it will only keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks, but I don’t think that will be a problem.  We have never been jam eaters, but since having made homemade jam, we haven’t kept a jar for more than 2 or 3 days.

Modifications:

Strawberry Maple Jam

Follow directions for basic recipe, using maple syrup as the sugar.  During the last couple of minutes of cooking, add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.  Process as listed above.

Strawberry Vanilla Jam

Follow directs for basic recipe, using agave nectar as the sugar.  While cooking, split a vanilla bean down the middle.  Scrape the insides from the bean and add both the bean and the insides to the jam mixture.  Once you take the jam off of the heat, carefully take the bean pod out of the jam* and add 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract.  Stir and process as listed above.

I purchased my vanilla beans from Amazon.com.  They are really great quality and you can't beat the price.  At the grocery store you will pay about $5 a piece for vanilla beans.  Through Amazon I got about 50 (I think it was actually 52) beans for $24.99.  Lets do that math.  $24.99/50 = .4998, or about $.50 each.  That is 10 times cheaper! 

* Save the spent bean pod for another application.  Just rinse off jam, allow to dry and store in an airtight container.

This recipe has been modified from this blg http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/05/10/how-to-can-some-jam-a-simple-method-without-pectin/

Honey Wheat English Muffins

Ingredients:

Active Dry Yeast – 2 Teaspoons

Honey – 2 Tablespoons

Warm Water (around 110 degrees) – 1 Cup

Milk – 1 Cup

Butter – 4 Tablespoons

Whole Wheat Flour – 2 Cups

Bread Flour – 3 Cups +/-

Salt – 1 ½ Teaspoons

Cornmeal – ½ Cup +/-

Olive Oil or Cooking Spray

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, honey and 1 cup of warm water. Stir to dissolve the honey and yeast. Let sit about 5 minutes or until foamy on top.

While the yeast/honey mixture is resting, combine 2 cups of the whole wheat flour, 1 cup bread flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir well to evenly distribute the salt. In a second small bowl, combine the milk and butter.   Warm the milk and butter in the microwave until the butter has melted.

Pour the yeast mixture and the milk mixture into the flour. Stir until combined. Adding 1/2 cup bread flour at a time, stir in more flour until the dough forms a soft, slightly sticky ball.  Do not over mix as this will make your muffins tough.  You may need to use more or less that the listed amount of flour.  You can also use any combination of flours.  I liked the bread flour because I feel like it yields a much softer English muffin.

I used my Kitchenaid mixer with my dough hook on the low setting and let it go for 5 minutes.  You can also knead the dough by hand for 5 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated in olive oil or cooking spray.  Let rise until double in size.  This should be about 45 minutes to an hour.

Punch the dough down, shape it into another ball, cover the bowl and let rise for a second time.

Punch down the dough again and lightly flour your workspace. Using a rolling pin, lightly roll the dough until it is about ½ to ¾  inch thick. Using a cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or round glass cut the dough into circles.

Place the cut dough circles onto a sheet pan that has been liberally covered in cornmeal.  You don’t want to use too much because it will burn later, but you need enough for it to not stick to your pan.  Do not crowd the pan as the muffins will expand in size and you will need to remove them without losing the air in them.   Sprinkle more cornmeal on top of the muffins. Cover loosely with a damp towel and let rise for the last time, about an hour.

Heat a large skillet over low heat. Spread a very small amount of olive oil around the bottom of the pan with a paper towel, or use cooking spray.  Carefully transfer muffins to the skillet with a spatula, being careful not to deflate them. Cook the muffins, in batches, in the skillet until they are golden brown and crispy on each side. Do not rush this process.  It should take about 5 minutes on each side.  You will know when they are done if you can tap the top and it sounds hollow.

Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.  I keep mine in the fridge so that they stay fresh longer.  These also freeze beautifully.  You can half this recipe if you would like.  I usually end up with about 25 muffins.

My favorite way to eat these is toasted,  with fresh ground all natural peanut butter and homemade jam, YUM!

Look back for my post on homemade strawberry jam!

This recipe was modified from http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2010/07/english-muffins-068-recipe-008-each.html