Testing Out the Pie Crust Recipe

As with all of the recipes that we post, they get tested on our friends first. Last night, we had the opportunity to test out the Macadamia Nut Pie Crust. Admittedly, it was the first time we made it as a full pie. The taste sensation had definitely been perfected. The extraction of pie slice from the pie pan, however, is another story….

Needless to say, I have updated the pie crust recipe to include instructions for soaking the pie pan in very warm water for a few minutes to prevent the crust from sticking to the pan. Alternatively, you can make the crust and place it into individual ramekins like a tart (which is what we think we’ll be doing from here on out).

Despite the look of the picture, our dinner guests did greatly enjoy the pie and wanted seconds. Thankfully for us!

Gluten-Free Macademia Nut Pie Crust

Lately we have been inspired by the Raw Food movement. Raw food recipes use nuts and seeds to re-create foods like crackers and pie crusts without using processed ingredients (most notably there is no all-purpose flour). Whether or not you follow a raw food diet, there are many principles and recipes that can be applied to gluten-free cooking. Case in point, this pie crust.

This pie crust uses macadamia nuts and pecans as the base. It works extremely well with pies whose fillings do not require baking–e.g. cheesecakes, key lime, fresh fruit pies etc. Using the natural oils from the macadamia nut as the binder, refrigeration keeps the crust bound together. The final product has a consistency similar to a graham cracker crust but less crumbly.

Ingredients

• 2 cups macadamia nuts
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Add the macadamias and pecans to a food processor and grind until fine (about1-2 minutes).
2. Add kosher salt and vanilla and process for an additional 15-30 seconds to combine
3. Remove the mixture to a 9×9 pie pan and using your hands or a spatula move around to fill the pan and form the crust.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour before adding your filling.
5. To cut the pie, soak the pie pan bottom in warm water for 1-2 minutes to make it easer to separate the crust from the bottom of your pie pan.

How Not to Screw It Up

1. Make sure you purchase unsalted and unroasted nuts. It’s easy to accidentally get the roasted or flavored kind, especially when buying them in the bulk aisle of your grocery store.
2. Despite the previous post I made on this blog, do not toast the nuts. Use them raw.
3. We’ve been using a glass pie pan. You definitely have to soak the pie pan in shallow very warm water before cutting. Otherwise, the crust will stick.
4. If you don’t want to deal with slicing the pie and bringing your creation to possible destruction, you can make this crust and put it into indivdual ramekins like a tart. Basically, you create about 6 individual servings of pie.

Ideas for Pie Fillings

Feel free to send me your suggestions. As I work with this crust more, I will continue to update this recipe with additional fillings. In the meantime, here is one to start:

• Strawberry Honey

How to Toast Nuts

Toasting nuts brings out a deeper and richer flavor. Whenever we use nuts in cooking–even to simply garnish a salad, we always use them toasted.

The premise is quite simple: use high heat and short cooking time to toast the outside. When following the directions below, keep in mind that it’s a better result to slightly under-toast than to burn the nut, so if you are unsure, err on the side of the shorter cooking time in the range below. This is especially true for delicate pine nuts.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with a single layer of nuts.
3. Toast 5-10 minutes until the outside is golden brown (no black…that’s burnt!) and the nuts smell toasty.

The Best Nuts for Toasting
These are the nuts that we most commonly use in cooking or toss onto a salad:

• Walnuts
• Pecans
• Hazelnuts
• Pine Nuts (given their small size, err on the side of 5 rather than 10 minutes)
• Peanuts
• Macadamia nuts
• Almonds

Grateful for Gratitude (Mission District)

For what are you grateful? In this post, it’s Cafe Gratitude. To say that this place is a little unusual is an understatement, but we are grateful for just the unusual food they do.

Confused? So were we. Let us demystify.

The food is all raw and vegan. In all honesty, I don’t really care about that part. The best part is that all of their food is wheat and gluten-free. I know what you are thinking….raw, vegan, no wheat, no gluten (also no dairy) means no taste.

You would be dead wrong.

The food here is fantastic and very original. So is the style of ordering. Here’s what we had:

• I am Generous: Authentic guacamole and spicy tomato salsa with live flax chips
• I am Happy: Sprouted almond-sesame hummus with assorted live crackers
• We split the I am Cheerful: Sprouted pumpkin seed and walnut burger served on a sweet onion sunflower bread with lettuce, sliced tomato, onion, house made catsup, cucumber pickles and sprouts. We add macadamia cheddar cheese for an extra $2
• And shared a I am Amazing for dessert: Tart lemon pie with coconut meringue in a macadamia nut crust
• I drank a I am Sweet
• And Jan drank a I am Rich: Orange, carrot, beet and lemon “sunrise”

The wait staff is energetic. I suppose delivering food that sounds like a daily affirmation would make one happy. It certainly made us happy to eat. And relaxed. Very relaxed.

Good food, good for you. And an extra big kudos on making it easy to eat gluten-free. It was truly the first time I walked into a restaurant and could order ANYTHING THAT I WANTED from the menu without having to probe as to whether it really was gluten-free. For that, I am Grateful.

Cafe Gratitude
2400 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA
415-824-4652

How to Make The Perfect Steak

Because of the recent popularity of this post, I am re-posting it for easier reading.

For the longest time, I always believed that steak was better eaten when dining out than at home. The secret in restaurants is high heat cooking. You see, restaurant ovens and stoves can generate higher temperatures than your home ovens and stoves.

Of course, you can Broil. This does get the high heat, but always seemed to come out too burned on the outside and too raw on the inside.

So, what I have here is the way to make the perfect steak. This one assumes making steak for 2 people. See “How Not to Screw it Up” for tips on more.

Please, anyone who has been to our house and eaten our steaks, please feel free to comment on this post. Are these not just like the best steakhouses?

Ingredients

• 2 Filet Mignon or New York Steaks
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Pepper
• 1 very small pat of butter

(Yes, folks that is really all you need. Trust me. Anything else just takes away from the flavor of a good steak.)

Directions

1. Place your steaks out on the counter 20 minutes before cooking them. This gives them some time to shed refrigerator temperatures and come closer to room temperature. (Don’t worry, we’re cooking them on 500 degrees for sufficient time to kill any bacteria.)
2. Place a skillet in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. When the oven reaches 500 degrees, leave it for about 10 minutes. This lets the skillet really soak in the heat.
3. Remove the skillet to the stove top on high heat. Sear the steaks for 30 seconds on each side. This creates a brown crust.
4. Move the steaks (pan and all) into the 500 degree oven. Roast for 2 minutes. Set a timer. This is an exact science.
5. After 2 minutes, flip the steaks, and roast for 2 more minutes.
6. Remove from the oven, cover the pan with foil for 2 minutes. The steaks continue to cook, but come to a rolling stop on rising temperature.
7. Serve with the very littlest pat of butter on the top of each.

This cooks the steaks to a perfect medium rare assuming that you have a steak that is 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick.

How Not to Screw it Up

• Steaks can vary in thickness, you may not like medium rare, all of these things contribute to how long you need to cook. The ABOSLUTE best way to determine if your steaks are perfect inside is to get a remote meat thermometer. That is, a thermometer that puts the probe into the meat, but allows you to have a display that is outside of the oven. Like this one at Cooking.com.
• If you are cooking with an electric stove top, make sure the burner is already heated to high before moving the pan from the oven. You don’t want to lose any heat.
• I’ve found this method optimal for 2 steaks in a pan (3 if they are filet mignon). Any more than that, and you are crowding them out. If you are making more and need to work in batches, heat two pans when you preheat the oven. Leave one in while you start the first steaks. Complete the first ones through to the aluminum foil step before starting the next. If you make the steaks that need to be more well done first, they will continue cooking on the heat of the first pan while you finish off the second (and still be warm to serve). However, I strongly recommend that you use a digital meat thermometer to monitor the temperature.
• Later today or tomorrow, I’ll add a post on cooking temperatures for beef, so that you all can know what temp to cook to for rare, medium rare, medium, etc.

Related Recipes

• How to Make the Perfect Hamburger
• How to Dry Age Beef
• Steak Tartare

1996 Chateau Lanessan at K&L

I suppose it’s not really in my best interest to tell you this, but we scored this little gem, a 1996 Chateau Lanessan, at K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco for $19.99 per bottle.

According to Robert Parker, “A sleeper of the vintage, Lanessan’s 1996 boasts an impressively saturated dark ruby/purple color, and knock-out aromatics of melted chocolate, asphalt, and cassis. Deep, rich, and medium-bodied, with excellent concentration and purity, this impressively-endowed, flavorful, well-structured wine should be at its finest between 2004-2016.”

We found the flavor to be very earthy. It’s definitely a good (and cheap as Bordeaux goes) drink now. It’s starting to taste a little thin and not as robust as one would expect a Haut-Medoc to be, so we think it must be drunk now. Oh darn.

About Haut-Medoc
The Haut-Medoc is an appellation of Bordeaux. The wines of Haut-Medoc are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blends.

New Look and a New Page

We’ve changed our look and feel a bit. Sorry for the new paint, but the furniture is still in the same place.

Also, we just added a new page to showcase our favorite gluten-free products. It’s called, duh, Favorite Gluten-Free Products. You can also get there by clicking its title in the header up there at the top ^.

Waldorf Salad

This classic salad of apples, celery, and mayonnaise served on a lettuce leaf was created by maitre d’ Oscar Tschirky at New York’s famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896. Since Oscar invented this salad, we only thought it appropriate to bring it to our friends’ Oscar party on last night.

Although the original salad contained only apples, celery, and mayonnaise (walnuts later became a staple), we’ve found several other additions to be a big hit.

Ingredients

Traditional Waldorf

• 2 Ginger Gold apples (substitutes: fuji, winesap, jonagold, pink lady, or gala)
• 1 Red Delicious apple
• 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 3/4 cup toasted walnuts
• 2 stalks celery sliced on the bias
• pinch of kosher salt and white pepper to taste
• Green leaf lettuce (enough for one leaf per serving of Waldorf)

Optional Yummy Additions

• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/3 cup mint, chiffonade
• 1/2 cup red onion, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toast the walnuts for 7 minutes. Set aside to let cool.
2. Chop the apples into medium bite-sized pieces. In a large mixing bowl, toss them with the cider vinegar.
3. Fold in the mayo.
4. Add the celery and walnuts. Season with kosher salt and white pepper to taste and toss.
5. (Optional) Add any additional ingredients from the Optional Yummy Additions above and toss.
6. To serve, place a lettuce leaf on each plate and spoon the salad on the top.

How Not to Screw It Up

1. You can’t just use any old apples. The ratio here is 2 greenish red to one bright red. We eat with our eyes first and this ratio makes a stellar visual presentation, but it is also a ration of tart to sweet apples. Don’t get lazy. Use the apples listed here.
2. It’s better to under-toast walnuts than to over-toast them (i.e. burn them). Err on the side of less time. Also, toasted even a little is better than raw. Toasting brings out the deep flavor. Don’t be lazy.
3. As soon as you chop the apples, toss them with the cider vinegar. The vinegar will prevent the red delicious apples from turning brown (the Ginger Gold or subs don’t usually turn brown…or at least, not as quickly anyway).
4. I strongly recommend white pepper here. It will blend with the mayo. Otherwise, black pepper will look like little specs of dirt in the mayo. Remember, we eat with our eyes first. Besides, dirt in food = bad (even if it only appears to be dirt).

Roasted Allspice Celery Root

This is one of our favorite ways to eat celery root. The roasting brings out the earthy, salty, parsley-like flavor of celery root, allspice is a perfect compliment to the light celery flavor, and dressing it in a good olive oil with a touch of sea salt is simply divine.

Ingredients

• 1 bulb of celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2″ thick slices
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• sea salt (or kosher salt)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2. Peel and slice the celery root. I generally cut the bulb in half down the middle, slice 1/2″ thick pieces, than cut those pieces into halves or thirds (depending on the size of the starting bulb).
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the olive oil and allspice.
4. Toss the celery root slices in the olive oil/allspice mixture to coat.
5. Lay the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
6. Roast for 10 minutes turning once after 7 minutes.

How Not to Screw It Up

Other than under-cooking the celery root (which is easy to fix), I don’t have any tips for you. If you come up with ways to screw this up, let me know. I’m happy to embarrass you…er, I mean, share your cooking tips with the world.

Celery Root Mash

As promised in our post about using celery root as a substitute for potato, here is one of our favorite celery root recipes: celery root mash. This makes a healthier and more flavorful alternative to mashed potatoes. In addition to the celery root being lower in carbs and calories than potatoes, this side dish gets its flavor from the celery root, broth, and truffle oil rather than cream, butter, or sour cream traditionally added to mashed potatoes. This makes the overall dish a healthier alternative.

Given that the truffle oil and the celery root are rather rich in flavor, we generally serve a smaller portion than we would of mashed potatoes (yet another way that celery root is a healthier alternative to potato).

Ingredients

• 1 bulb of celery root, peeled and cut into 1″ cubes
• 3 cups of vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon of truffle oil (alternatively, 1/4 teaspoon of allspice. See #3 in How Not to Screw It Up Below)
• kosher salt
• white pepper

Directions

1. Peel the celery root and cut into 1″ cubes. Place in a pot with enough vegetable broth to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until the celery root is softened (about 20 minutes).
2. Transfer the celery root to a food processor or blender. Add 1/4 cup of the broth and blend until it reaches the texture of soft polenta. Add more broth, if necessary.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of black truffle oil and kosher salt and white pepper to taste. Blend to mix.

How Not to Screw It Up

1. You only need to soften the celery root with boiling to make it easier to blend. There is no need to overcook it. Most recipes I’ve seen for celery root cook it for 30-40 minutes, and in my experience that’s too long. No one likes mushy vegetables.
2. Be conservative when adding the broth to blend. You can always add more, but you can’t take it away. This is not a recipe for celery root soup.
3. Black truffle oil can be very expensive. The last bottle we purchased cost us about $20 for 3 1/2 ounces. If you don’t want to spend that kind of money, you can instead season the mash with 1/4 teaspoon of allspice. Although the result will taste different, you still get a great celery root mash at a much cheaper price.