Grilled Salmon with Roasted Poblano Lime Butter

I love hosting dinner parties. Small ones, big ones, I like them all. But my favorite part is planning the menu. For me it is an agonizing artistic event. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes only hours, but it is a process that can’t be rushed. Occasionally, I am helped along by a menu from an entertaining cookbook. But often I build the menu around a dish that I’ve been wanting to make, or I start flipping through cookbooks looking for that dish around which I can construct a menu. I know this doesn’t sound like it should take hours, or even days, but I’m a little bit insane. I almost never want to make something I’ve made before, and I often want to make something that is either ridiculously expensive, or ridiculously involved, or both. So, I tell myself that I have to simplify, and I make compromises. If, for example, I feel I have to make an exquisite dessert, I try to find an entree that is both tasty and easy. I still often need help editing my exuberance, and a phone call to Shannen quite often does the trick. For example, she talked me out of making homemade ravioli for a dinner party in May, reminding me that ravioli is heavy, and not exactly the easiest thing to pull together. Instead, I ended up with this:

homemade salsa fresca with tortilla chips
sauteed bok choy
corn on the cob
polenta corn cakes
grilled salmon with roasted poblano lime butter
strawberry shortcakes

I forgot to take pictures, but it was a great meal. Even though the polenta cakes didn’t want to cohere, and the shortcake recipe was not quite right. The company was great, the wine was plentiful, and the salmon was spectacular. Since you can’t enjoy the company or the wine, I thought I’d share the salmon.

 

Another Quinoa Salad (and a restaurant review)

Last night, I threw together another quinoa salad. I needed some comforting, and I knew a quinoa salad would do it. This time, I roasted an eggplant and a couple of tomatoes, tossed in some basil and diced spring onions, and served it up with a creamy lemon dressing. It was good, both warm and cold, but especially warm, I think the cold version could have used some baby spinach tossed in for good measure. It was comforting, but I did still resort to ice cream and hot fudge later in the evening… and then nachos and a hard cider even later… not really the way to look good in a bathing suit this summer.

The quinoa salad I made had lots of flavor, which was not true, sadly, of the Lucky Green Tea Quinoa bowl that I had at R. Thomas’ Deluxe Grill the other day. A friend and I decided to check out R. Thomas’ because they have a fairly extensive range of gluten-free options and their chef really pays attention to his ingredients. The first thing I noticed about R. Thomas’ is that this is not the typical Buckhead restaurant. The side of the building is lined with birds in cages, happily singing away, and the whole restaurant seems to have been beamed in from a different planet, or maybe just Berkeley in the seventies. The menu is vegetarian and vegan friendly, but there are also plenty of free-range meat options. I immediately zeroed in on the quinoa bowls (hello, my name is Lynn, and I’m a quinoa-holic).

I had heard that the Thai Quinoa bowl was amazing, but since they let the local paper print that recipe, I plan on making it soon and wanted something different. I decided on the Lucky Green Tea bowl because it sounded interesting and flavorful. The vegetables were fresh and tasty, the quinoa was good, but I couldn’t taste the green tea or the miso. There was also supposedly some wasabi in the bowl, but I couldn’t taste even a hint of it. I mixed in a purple relish that was hanging out on the side of the plate, and that kicked up the flavor a bit, but at almost $12, I was disappointed. Still, I bet there are some real winners on their menu. My friend’s burger was very good, and so was her Raw Spicy Gingerade. Next time, I’m trying the Down Home.

R. Thomas’ Deluxe Grill
1812 Peachtree St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.872.2942
eat@rthomasdeluxegrill.com

For a gluten free menu, look here. This menu is not available in the restaurant, so print it out and take it with you. I forgot to do this, but my server was quite comfortable helping me figure out what I could eat (it helps that 70% of their menu is okay… even the chicken piccatta)

 

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Deb from Smitten Kitchen did me in again. I now have in my freezer six generously sized homemade ice cream sandwiches…. and they are good…the cookies especially. I skimped on the ice cream, it isn’t homemade or even premium, and I certainly can taste the difference (but my wallet objected to spending the extra, and tonight the wallet won…) Still, these ice cream sandwiches were never really about the ice cream. No, they were about the brownie roll-out cookies, which I wanted the second I saw them. I managed to put it off for a week or so, but when five o’clock rolled around, and I knew that I had nothing to make for dinner that was worthy of posting on the blog, I couldn’t resist any longer. I did manage to show some restraint… I cut the recipe in half (which yielded 16 large round cookies… and yes, if you do the math, that means two of the resultant ice cream sandwiches are not in the freezer, but only one of those is in my stomach… thank God for roommates).

 

Morning Glory Muffins…

I promised this recipe last week, and I keep delaying posting it, because I have a horrible confession. I made these muffins the same day as the blueberry ones, and I still haven’t eaten a single one. I let them cool on the racks, slipped them into freezer bags and froze them. But every time I open my freezer, I hesitate for a mere second, before I reach for a blueberry muffin. I imagine that the morning glory muffins feel hurt, confused, and rejected. They are entitled to those feelings. I think, with time, I will find my way back these veggie-loaded, bran-like, standbys, but not today, and probably not tomorrow. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try them though. As I mentioned in my blueberry muffin post, these muffins were all I made in the muffin department for months, and they are very lovable.

 

La Tartine Gourmande’s Potato Salad

This month I am participating for the first time, in the Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger blogging event. For this challenge, I adopted La Tartine Gourmande. I have drooled over Bea’s site for months. Her photographs are always lovely, and her food is creative. Better still, she is always using flavor combinations that I find surprising. So I was excited about the excuse to try out some of her recipes. Unfortunately, things got busy and I only got to try one. But I predict her Dark Chocolate Tartlets and her Amaranth Quinoa and Dark Chocolate Cake are in my near future. Yesterday, in the spirit of not always giving in to my sweet tooth, with my back firmly pressed against the deadline, I chose to make Bea’s “potato salad to love” also known as her Potato Pea and Mint Salad. I tried my best to follow the directions, but my budget demanded substitutions for the Bresaola and the quail eggs (I used Capicola and 4 hens eggs instead). Still this was indeed, a potato salad to love. I’m not really the biggest fan of the classic potato salad, so it was nice to try one with some more unusual flavors. The dressing uses tahini & mustard, which works wonderfully with the mint and the Capicola. I would definitely make this again, and it would make fabulous picnic fare.

Bea has not always been a gluten-free blogger, though starting around November, she transitioned over to using almost exclusively gluten-free flours. She has a “gluten free” category on her sidebar, which makes it easy to find safe recipes. If you haven’t been reading her site, you are really missing out, so check it out today.

 

Baking Blondies while Buzzed…

I don’t know what it is about blondies, but I never seem to make them sober. Somehow, when you get me three or four drinks into the evening though, the urge to bake becomes irresistible. So tonight, four shots in, out came the measuring cups and the chocolate chips. But hey, my guests didn’t seem to mind, and the blondies were delectable. I should probably tweak this recipe a little more. My blondies don’t have a lot of lift, another egg or a little more baking powder would help that. But these are a carmelized gooey delicious mess, and while they might not be the most photogenic, it doesn’t really matter. Also, I find that trying to improve a recipe while drinking is not a good plan. So, feel free to add baking powder or an egg, and let me know how yours turn out. But really, these are great just as they are.

 

Crispy Calamari

Fried chicken, onion rings, fried shrimp, fried calamari… these are a few of the things that threaten to disappear when you go gluten-free. But, with a little hot oil, and a little practice, you can welcome these treats back into your life. Tonight I tried my hand at calamari. I had never cooked squid before or deep-fat fried anything so I was a little intimidated. Luckily, when you fry squid, you work in batches, which means that I was able to refine my technique. The first handful of squid absorbed too much oil (because the oil wasn’t hot enough), the second handful became rubbery (because I let them cook for the full 2 minutes suggested by the recipe). But the third batch was perfect. The key was, to make sure the oil was hot enough before adding the squid, and to cook for approximately 45 second. Now, I bought my squid already cleaned and cut into rings, which happened to be very small. For larger squid rings, 1-2 minutes is probably perfectly appropriate, so you might need to play a little with the timing.

 

Blueberry Muffins

Having fished out the last muffin from my freezer for a mid-morning snack, I knew it was time to make more. Sometimes a batch of muffins can last me a long time, as I try to eat fruit during the day. So not having muffins in my freezer shouldn’t be a big deal. But for a quick breakfast, or a long study session, nothing beats a muffin for convenience and satisfaction, so I decided to go ahead and replenish my stash. For the last four or five months, every time I’ve made muffins, I’ve followed the same recipe, one which I will share later this week. But after reading this article in the New York Times, I decided to challenge myself and try something new.

So I started trolling the internet for muffin ideas, not sure what I was looking for. I thought about making quinoa muffins, or trying something exotic, but in the end, I decided on a classic, the blueberry muffin. I used this recipe on Simply Recipes as my base. To adapt it, I added an egg, upped the leavening, and changed the flours.

The resulting muffins are delicious. They fall somewhere between a muffin and a scone - a little denser than other gluten-free muffin recipes that I have made, but not in a bad way. These have a pleasant richness while still retaining a fluffy texture, and the browned muffin tops give a satisfying crunch. Lemon zest comes through as a subtle accent that plays off the tang of the blueberries without overpowering them. These are definitely going to be repeated, I just wish I didn’t know how much butter was in them…

 

Chickpea salads

As the weather gets hotter, I find myself turning more and more to salads. Although, I’m a pretty finicky salad eater. I get bored easily, and like my salads light on lettuce and heavy on flavors. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve made two great chickpea salads. I love chickpeas in salads because they add so much flavor, and they give a salad heft.

The first of these salads, I found on 101 Cookbooks. I discovered it a year ago, made it a couple of times, and somehow managed to forget all about it. I forgot it so completely, that when I was looking for something to take to the baby shower, and a friend suggested I make “that chickpea salad,” I had no idea what she was talking about. A little sleuthing though, and the salad was found. I hope I don’t forget it again, because this is a nice quick tasty salad. It definitely has enough staying power to count as a meal, and that pesky lettuce is nowhere in sight. I’ve actually never made it with the butternut squash, opting for sweet potatoes the first time I made it and purple potatoes the second. Next time I make it, I’m going to toss in some quinoa and maybe even some avocado.

The second salad, is another gem from Didi Emmons’ Entertaining for a Veggie Planet. With this salad, I particularly enjoyed the roasted eggplant and tomatoes and the excellent lemon dressing. At first, I was actually a little ambivalent about the crunchy chickpeas, although they grew on me. Next time I might try seasoning the chickpeas, or even sprinkle soy nuts on the salad instead.

 

Making Pasta

About a year before I went gluten-free, my brother gave me a pasta maker. I used it twice, then put it away when I gave up wheat. But those two times were magical. The first time, Shannen was visiting from DC, and we invited Su over to help us make tortellini. We went grocery shopping together, bought appetizers to tide us over, and started cooking around 6. Unfortunately, I got a migraine, before we were even halfway done. I spent much of the evening lying on the couch, waiting for the imitrex to kick in, and listening to two of my best friends bond over the finicky pasta machine and the four different recipes they were trying to simultaneously follow (there was the pasta, the filling, the basic tomato sauce, and the tomato cream sauce). I felt better just in time to taste a little of their creation when they finally managed to pull it all together around 9:30 or 10. They were starving, I was nauseous, but the food was fabulous. It might not have been the smoothest evening ever, but that didn’t matter. My kitchen was filled with love, and I felt blessed to have two amazing friends who understood that I wanted to be near them, but couldn’t quite function. They kept cooking, with almost all the lights off, checked on me often, and each made a new friend that night. Lying on the couch, while they made me the dinner I had wanted to make with them, I felt content, and nurtured.

The second time I made homemade pasta was when my sister Kristen visited me. We made the fettuccine and again topped it with a tomato cream sauce. It was a little easier the second time. After all, I didn’t have a migraine. Kristen is nine years younger than me, and growing up fast. She paid for her plane ticket to fly to Atlanta, and held her own in the kitchen. Once again the kitchen was filled with love and laughter, and there were more than enough hands to move the pasta through the machine.

Tonight, though, was a different story. I made ravioli alone. Not only was nobody physically present, but I was feeling cut off from friends and family, sad, and angry. I thought maybe it would be therapeutic. Making pasta is involved, maybe, I thought, it will be distracting. Instead, I kept thinking about those other times, feeling sorry for myself, and wanting desperately to get away from Atlanta. My gluten-free ravioli wasn’t made with love, and I could taste the difference.

I’m not ready to give you a recipe for the ravioli yet, there are some kinks I want to work out, and I don’t know if I can face making pasta again without someone I love in the kitchen with me. But if you do want to make gluten-free ravioli, here are some great places to start:

Gluten Free Girl’s Homemade Ravioli - this recipe was the foundation of my attempt

Gluten Free Sox’s Homemade Mushroom Ravioli - this was a recipe I considered, but I’m not a fan of bean flours so I chose to go another direction, though I did stuff mine with a mushroom filling as well.