Che Chuoi—Banana, Coconut and Tapioca Pudding

A month or two ago, I took M* to Cho Mee, a Chinese grocery store that also carries various Pan-Asian items, and he picked-up some large Tapioca Pearls with the idea that he would make them. I suspected that this might not be the case. With our time in Cambridge winding-down, I decided to make them before we ended-up leaving them for the next tenant.

The instructions on the back were not in the best English, and I didn't feel confident in following them. Instead, I went to Google to point me in the right direction. I didn't find many recipes calling for the large tapioca pearls, so I tried to follow the instructions on the package just to cook the pearls. While I was doing this, I came across a recipe for a Vietnamese dessert, Che Chuoi—Banana, Coconut and Tapioca pudding, which required small tapioca pearls but sounded delicious.

I ran into a little bit of trouble when, after almost an hour, the pearls had not turned completely translucent but a number of them had gel-ified (?) on the bottom of the pan. I just plunged ahead though and started following the recipe with step 2. Within minutes the desert was done, and I was able to put the pan in the sink, where it took a few days of soaking/ scrubbing to remove all the pearls from the bottom.

My husband loved the dessert, and I loved the taste but would have enjoyed it more with the small pearls. Coconut milk and bananas are already staples for us, and I can see small tapioca pearls making future appearances in my shopping basket.

Che Chuoi—Banana, Coconut and Tapioca Pudding
Makes 6 servings.
(I recommend following the link above. The web site has useful notes about types of bananas and coconut milk and a description of the dessert)

3 cups water
3 tablespoons small tapioca pearls (about 1/8"in diameter)
3 ½ tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup coconut milk
3 bananas (about 1 pound total) peeled and cut on the bias into ½-inch thick slices

1. Cook the tapioca. In a 2 quart saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Use a whisk to swirl in the tapioca pearls. This prevents them from sticking together! Let the tapioca cook in the boiling water for about 12 minutes, at which point they'll have lost about one half of their opaque-ness and the mixture will have thickened. The pearls sort of resemble fish eyes!

2. Add remaining ingredients. While the tapioca cooks, whisk the sugar, salt and coconut milk together. When the tapioca has finished its initial cooking (step 1), whisk in the sugar, salt and coconut milk. Stirring occasionally, let the mixture cook for a minute to dissolve the sugar. Add in the banana slices and continue to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes to allow the bananas to heat through and the flavors to meld. Set the pudding aside to cool. Serve at slightly warmed or at room temperature in individual bowls.

Thai Fish Cakes With Thai Dipping Sauce

I've only attempted a few recipes from "Healthy Gluten-Free Eating," as they tend to be a bit involved—lots of chopping, steps, bowls, pans, sauces. I had bought some salmon from the neighborhood fishmonger, and I was happy to find a recipe in this book that wasn't too involved. Yes, there was lots of chopping, a sauce and a sauteing step before the actually frying, but it wasn't hard. This may be because I've gotten much more familiar with the ingredients from making a Thai soup. We have the nam pla and Thai chilies, and I know where to find kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass.

Enough typing. "Fabulous recipe. Love it! No additions." That's all I originally planned to write. Recipe is below with photos of the fishcakes. Oh, they still tasted excellent the next day and the day after that. I'm sure wheat and gram flour could also be used if rice flour isn't on hand—we used brown rice flour.

(click on image to enlarge)

Thai fishcake recipe (dipping sauce recipe below)

Formed fishcakes ready to be fried

Once they're in the frying pan, dinner is almost ready!

At least the sauce is an easy one

Applesauce—Like Mom Makes

I cannot believe that it took me so long to make applesauce. I l-o-v-e it, and my mom, the queen of excellent homemade applesauce, makes it frequently—always having some on hand when I'm home for a visit. When M* and I were in Germany, M* was helping his sister make strained apples for her infant son when the familiar smell of warm apples caused a cartoon-like light bulb to appear over my head. "I too should make applesauce," I realized.

After our return to Cambridge, armed with instructions from my mom, I bought a number of large Bramley apples from the Cambridge Market Square. I thought they'd be good as I'd used them for baking, but they were quite tart. Yes, the applesauce had the right consistency and satisfied the craving, but I ended up adding more sugar and cinnamon than I liked, and then it still made me pucker a bit. M* was a fan of the tartness, but I found it too extreme. I know that, for me, the right apples, result in the addition of no or only small amounts of sugar.

Boiled Bramley apples (skin still on) being mushed through a strainer.
Bramley applesauce (Bramley apples, sugar, cinnamon)

A few days later I went back to the Market Square and eyed the apple selection from my favorite stand. My ideal choice would have been Macintosh, but I've yet to see them in the UK. I opted for a bag of Braeburns and headed home to begin batch two. The only disappointment with the Braeburns was that I wished I'd bought more. The applesauce was so friggin good, and I did not need to add any sugar.

I think I'm going to buy a lot of apples tomorrow and make an entire stockpot full of applesauce: it freezes really well.

Braeburn applesauce being reduced on the stove (Braeburn apples, cinnamon)

Mom's Applesauce

Just good apples

Cut them up into chunks, you can leave skin on for the vitamins, put enough water in bottom of pan to steam them, not to cover them up with water. Just cover pot and simmer til soft, then cool and mash through a strainer, add sweetener, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, if you have it, to taste.

My notes:
*You do have to spend a little time getting the soft apples through a strainer, but it's no more time than peeling the apples beforehand.
*Don't worry if you use too much water, if the applesauce is too thin after putting the apples and liquid through the strainer, just reduce on stove until desired consistency is reached.
*It may be strange to some, but I really like to eat cold applesauce with cottage cheese.

Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies with Agave Nectar

Yes these completely normal and yummy looking cookies are gluten-free and contain no white sugar. I felt confident that I had perfected the gluten-free chocolate chip cookie using the recipe from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics," and I did want to reduce the amount of sugar in my baking. Since I had some agave nectar on hand, I simply substituted 3/4 cup of agave nectar for 1 cup of white, granulated sugar—I left the 1/2 cup of brown sugar unaltered. I've read recommendations that one is suppose to reduce the amount of liquid in a recipe when using agave nectar, but since there are no other liquids besides the eggs in this recipe, I did not make any modifications. I blended the agave nectar in with the brown sugar and butter, and then proceeded as described in the recipe below (except I used light brown sugar instead of dark because when this recipe was published in Gourmet in 2005 it called for light brown sugar).

The result? Happily, absolutely no sugar-substitute aftertaste. Our dinner guest and my sister both thought they were perfectly normal chocolate chip cookies—meaning that no one was able to just eat one or two or three or ...—although they were a little browner in color and very light, yet the slightest bit cakey. I also found them a little sweeter, so I might reduce the amount of agave nectar by a tablespoon or two. A plus was that I didn't get night sweats after eating a bunch late in the evening, as I've been known to when I have too much sugar in my system.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics"
To make white sugar free, substitute 3/4 cup agave nectar for the granulated, white sugar
(click on image to see recipe in detail)

Fish in a Bag

Not a recipe really—just a comment that I love the ease of cooking fish, vegetables, herbs, seasonings, and what have you in an aluminum foil "bag." It's almost impossible to dry out the fish, as the close-enough-to-airtight environment covering the top and bottom of the ingredients with foil and sealing the edges provides keeps the juices from evaporating and makes the fish self basting. We usually heat the oven to 450º and give the fish about 30 minutes (longer if a thick fillet). The result is always a crowd pleaser.

Salmon fillet, purchased from the Newnham fishmonger, covered with basil, tomatoes, garlic, pepper and lemons.

Gluten-free, Sugar-free Blueberry Scones

My sister was coming for a visit, and, as she is diabetic, I wanted to do some gluten-free and sugar-free baking. Having made lemon, cornmeal gluten-free scones before, I knew that they contained very little sugar (1/4 cup). I've been interested in substituting out white sugar in recipes for my own health--all the gluten-free baking I did in the winter didn't exactly slim me down for summer.

My sister uses agave nectar to make a sugar-free margarita, and I've read a bit online about using agave nectar in place of granulated, white sugar. As for how to substitute in agave nectar in a recipe, I've come across different suggestions. What I seem to find most, since agave nectar is quite sweet and syrupy, is to use 3/4 cup agave nectar per 1 cup of sugar and reduce liquids a bit (amount decided by trial and error I guess), if the recipe even calls for liquids. While setting-up a monthly Tesco delivery, I found that they carry agave nectar and added it to my order.

Recipe in mid-production. Agave nectar in plastic squeeze bottle in foreground.

The scone recipe calls for mixing the dry ingredients, including the sugar, together, and then adding, at the same time, the dry mixture and liquids to the beaten eggs. Since the agave nectar is syrupy, I added it to the milk. Since only 1/4 cup of granulated sugar is required, I didn't go through the bother of exactly measuring 3/4 of 1/4 cup (anyone have 3/16 measuring cup?), I just eyeballed "a little less" than 1/4 cup agave nectar. I also reduced the amount of liquid from 1/2 cup milk to a little more than 1/3 cup.

Recipe from Annalise G. Roberts' "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" (click on image to enlarge)

Another change I made, not related to sugar or gluten issues, was using fresh blueberries instead of raisins—just not a fan of the little, dried buggers. I did make the mistake of following the recipe and adding the blueberries in with the milk. Now, raisins could stand up to the next step, being beaten with a hand mixer. However, blueberries would just get mashed-up and color the batter blue. Instead of picking the blueberries out, I just mixed the batter by hand.

Scones head into the oven. The recipe said 14 scones one inch deep and 2 1/2 inches in diameter, but I ended up with 11 one inch-y by three-ish scones. I've never been good at judging size—of a crowd or a pastry.

Hopefully from the picture below you can see that the scones emerged from the oven looking "normal." As for the taste? Well, I was really pleased, and my husband and my sister both approved. As I did not eat many scones in my gluten eating days, I still wasn't confident in their true scone-iness. When I commented that they seemed a little dry without jam, my husband reminded me that scones are drier than muffins and are typically eaten with jam. I can confidently comment that the 1/4 cup of agave nectar sweetened the scones perfectly and did not impart any aftertaste.

Oven-fresh scones ready to be eaten.