Recipes from Chez Santanen
Browsing à la keittiö ! blog archives for July, 2010.
These lovely almond biscuits are both gluten– and dairy-free — much like the coconut chai cakes that I baked not too long ago. They are slightly sweet with a wonderful almond flavour.
For those who are not a fan of almonds, you could easily use hazelnut flour instead. Also, this recipes only yields about 5 biscuits, but you could easily double or triple it if you need more.
When I brought these into work, I asked my co-workers to see if they could name the ingredients. “Pumpkin?” one of them asked. “Sweet potato?” inquired another. “Nope!” I proudly disclaimed. They contain neither of those ingredients — but your taste buds will be fooled! These little cake/cookie-like confections are entirely flour– and dairy-free. If you were to try using an egg substitute, you could easily make these egg-free as well.
The secret to their moistly goodness is coconut flour. I like working with coconut flour since it has some great health benefits attached to its name. High in fibre, low in net carbs, coconut flour is a great addition for anyone with a gluten intolerance or for someone following a carbohydrate conscious lifestyle. The trick to coconut flour, however, is that it needs LOTS of moisture. Go ahead, put a bit on your finger and eat it. You’ll notice within a few seconds that it feels like all the saliva in you mouth is being absorbed. So, keep in mind that when cooking with coconut flour, your batter will need A LOT of liquid to keep it moist.
When measuring these cakes out, I find a cookie scoop works best but you are welcomed to use a tablespoon as well. This recipe will yield about 24–30 cookies, depending on size of serving.
Originally posted on Simply Recipes, this curry-inspired dish was a lovely touch for an evening meal. The flavours melded well together, though the end result wasn’t what I had originally been expecting. Call it a Western take on curry, call it infusion cuisine, but the bottom line is this: it’s delicious and worth making.
The changes I made to the recipe were minimal, but enough to where I think the flavour of this may have deviated some from the flavour of Elise’s original recipe. Where her’s called for jalapeño peppers, I used a poblano; I only used breast meat — not thighs; instead of chili powder I used cayenne; and I prefer white onions, so I used that instead of red. Nevertheless, I think both recipes are worthy for a week night meal!
Growing up, I always hated potato salad. It wasn’t because of the potatoes — which I adore — or the mayonnaise — which I really don’t mind. It was because of the boiled eggs. Yes, hard-boiled eggs — one of my arch nemeses of the food world. Now, some of you may not put boiled eggs in your potato salad, but in the South it is a requirement for a proper potato salad. And I hated it. There was no way to pick around those little white bits of rubber, and their eggy-ness pervaded throughout the entire salad, thereby completely ruining it.
And then I moved to Finland. There, potato salad was about the potato — and there was no egg-taint going on. Now, I suppose if you want to be really technical, this should be a German inspired potato salad, since it has a vinegar base and not a sour cream or mayonnaise one like what is typically found in Finland and Sweden. But the flavours, in my humble opinion, echo more of what one could find in Finland rather than in Germany. All in all, the flavours are perfect for summer — clean and simple. This can easily be prepared ahead of time and left in the refrigerator, but allow the potato salad to come to room temperature before serving, as this is the temperature it was meant to be served.