the food faffer

Not sure if any of you lovely peeps noticed, but I’ve been faffing with the look of my blog. Do you like it? (Please, only respond if you have something nice to say!!) I love it!! I have to give a HUGE shout out to our friend Shane who’s responded very graciously to my elementary questions and numerous fix-it requests. He has the patience of a Pope waiting for beatification.

Anyway, after all my tweakings this week I was in a bit of a dilemma as to what my next post should be. I feel like I’ve done a whole lot of cooking lately, and taken a whole bunch of pics… hence I have a whole host of recipes I’m desperate to share!! However, our friend Chris has been asking me for this recipe for several weeks now, so I figured I should oblige. If nothing else, it gave me a reason to make it again on Saturday for a bunch of us to enjoy photographic purposes!!

I saw this on A Hippie with a Minivan and, apart from loving the name of this particular blog, the recipe caught my attention because it’s gluten-free. Not that I want, or need, a gluten-free diet… but I’m always happy to reduce my intake of the stuff that often causes me to wake up in the wee hours of the morning feeling more congested than the gates of Buckingham Palace after a royal wedding. And who would’ve thunk it: black beans… in a cake?!! I’ve also become a huge fan of coconut oil, too, and replacing the butter with it doesn’t appear to have any detrimental effects whatsoever. Now, if I gave Peet the option of “butter” or “no butter”, there are no prizes for guessing which one he’d go for. But even he freely admits that this cake is fabulous.

A word of warning: within minutes of this cake going into the oven, it fills your home with the most chocolatiest smell ever. It’s probably one of those perfect items to be baking when you have people coming to view your house that you’re trying to sell. And to seal the deal, try offering the lovely couple a slice. Seriously!! And… if you just so happen to mention that it’s kinda healthy, maybe they’ll give you your asking price. OK – so that might be taking it a bit far, but you get the idea!!

I usually like to tweak recipes that I find, but I pretty much follow the original version of this one. Why mess with perfection? I don’t even bother to ice the cake – it’s so moist, it really doesn’t need anything. Just a dusting of powdered sugar is enough. Having said that, I often serve this as a dessert with a spoonful of unsweetened berries on the side (frozen berries that have thawed out and created a glorious pool of berry-ness). When the chocolate sponge soaks up some of those juices… well… you just have to try it to believe it!!

Black Bean Chocolate Cake
(From A Hippie with a Minivan, with a couple of minor tweaks…)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (my cans are 15oz)
5 large eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbs coconut oil (or butter if you can’t live without it!!)
3/4 cup demerera sugar (or Sugar in the Raw will work)
6 tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbs water

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease/line a 9″ cake pan.
2. Mix together the cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl.
3. In a larger bowl, whisk the coconut oil (or butter) until it’s soft and fluffy. Add 2 of the eggs and whisk well after each one.
4. Put the beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, sugar and salt into a blender or food processor and blend/process until the mixture is smooth. Add this mixture to the coconut oil/egg concoction and mix to combine.
5. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients and the water and beat on high for 1 minute until smooth.
6. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 25-30 mins. The top of the cake should be rounded and firm to the touch, and the cake should be pulling away from the sides of the pan.
7. Allow to cool for 5-10 mins in the pan, then release and allow to cool completely on a rack.

Enjoy!!

Due to popular demand, I’m posting the recipe for one of my favorite versions of potato salad. Peet and I had a multitude of people over at the weekend… and, after consuming a copious amount of this stuff, there were several requests for the recipe… and I’m nothing but compliant!!

This mayo-less, sour cream-less side dish originally caught my eye because I was needing a potato salad recipe that could sit outside on a table for much longer than its dairy/eggy relatives. Not that I would want to leave this out for hours on end… but I can definitely have my paranoid moments when it comes to guessing how long mayonnaise has been basking in 80ºF temperatures.

The added bonus of this version is that my friend Bernie can’t stand mayo or sour cream. So this one works for her. I think. (Bernie, am I remembering correctly that you like this??) Unfortunately, her hubby, Shane, doesn’t like mustard… so I’m still on the look-out for a version that satisfies both palates. Let me know in the “Comments” if you have something up your sleeve that’s been tried and tested…

I used the tri-colored fingerling potatoes this time, mainly for presentation purposes. I’ve used pretty much any variety of spuds in the past, and the dish has never let me down. If someone put a gun to my head, though, I’d probably default to fingerlings (colored or otherwise) simply because they retain a sturdy, creamy texture when cooled to room temperature. Also, they can sometimes be tricky to find in the stores (especially if you live in Memphis), which must mean they’re more special, right??!!!

This dish is equally wonderful whether it’s served warm or at room temperature. Just make sure you toss the tats in the mustard mixture while they’re still warm in order for the maximum flavor to be absorbed into the potatoes as they “rest”.

So, to the recipe…

Dijon Potato Salad
(From Food Network’s Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello, with some tweaks…)
Serves 12… generously!!

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 tbs red wine vinegar
2 tsp chopped fresh herbs of your choice
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp fresh black pepper
1/3 – 1/2 cup olive oil
5 lbs fingerling potatoes, unpeeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

1. Put the potatoes in a pot of cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for approximately 15 mins, until a sharp knife can be inserted easily. Drain the potatoes and tip into a large bowl.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, mix together the onion, mustard, vinegar, herbs, salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until the mixture has a thick, pourable consistency and add to the potatoes, tossing to coat.
3. Serve warm or allow to cool to room temperature… and enjoy!!

I had Travis and Mackenzie over for crêpes at the weekend. We laid out a variety of fillings, including my favorite palate cleanser of lemon and sugar, and chomped our way through maybe twenty of the things. Yum!! One of the items left over from the feast was fresh baby spinach… and when Travis said he was leaving it here for me to use, I had a fleeting thought that I might try my hand at making chips out of it. So I did!!

Talk about easy. And scrumptious. I kept these simple, seasoning them with salt and pepper… but you can go to town and flavor them however you like: herbs, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, garam masala, parmesan cheese, blah blah blah.

There’s really not much to it, so here we go…

Oven-Baked Spinach Chips

fresh baby spinach leaves, rinsed and shaken/patted dry
oil of choice (I used sunflower oil, because it’s what I had within reach)
sea salt and fresh black pepper

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250ºF.
2. Place the spinach into a large bowl and toss with the oil. (Please be aware that a little oil goes a long way. I had one cookie-sheet’s worth of spinach leaves, and 1 dessert spoon of oil was more than enough!!)
3. Lay the spinach leaves out in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (If you have non-stick foil, that may or may not work here. But the leaves will definitely stick to regular foil and to a naked cookie sheet.)
4. Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh black pepper.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, and then check them every 5 minutes after that until they are crispy (mine took around 30 mins).
6. Allow to cool, then enjoy. Then make some more because you’ll be shocked at how quickly they melt in your mouth and vanish “just like that”!!