Culinary Adventures with Camilla

While the list of ingredients seems lengthy, this soup is fairly easy to make. The longest process is to caramelize the onions though it is largely hands-off. Don't skip this step, however, as it add a delicate sweetness to the dish.You can also make this soup the day before you need to serve it. Ingredients 1 cauliflower 1 onion, thinly sliced, approximately 1 C while raw olive oil 1 can organic coconut milk 2 C organic vegetable broth water, as needed 1/4 t ground cardamom 1/2 t ground turmeric 1/2 t ground coriander 1/2 t ground ginger 1/2 t ground cinnamon 1 t ground smoked paprika 1 t ground cumin freshly ground salt, to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste organic grapes, quartered lengthwise, to garnish green onions, thinly sliced, to garnish sliced almonds, to garnish kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced, to garnish* Procedure Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Quarter the cauliflower head and place on a parchment-linked baking sheet. Dr...

This morning, our first Saturday of summer vacation, D asked to go to Paris Bakery and get some bear claws. Ummmmm...nope. I successfully steered him towards a more nutritious breakfast, but I had to promise to help him make the bear claws here at home. I have to say that I don't think I've ever had a bear claw...otherwise I would know that it had a marzipan-like filling in it. How did I not know that?!? This was a fairly involved recipe, but D did a great job. Thanks, Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf! And I love that cooking reinforces his math skills. Here he is, figuring out how many sticks he needs... Ingredients 1-1/2 C cold butter 5 C whole wheat pastry flour 1 T active dry yeast 1-1/4 C organic half-and-half cream 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 egg white 3/4 C organic powdered sugar 7 ounces almond paste, cubed sliced almonds Procedure Cut your butter into cubes. In a bowl, toss butter cubes with 3 C whole wheat pastry...

My chia experimentation continues. And this version is outstanding!  Five ingredients and a little bit of patience - because the longer it sits, the better - is all it needs. I'd definitely make and eat this over tapioca any day! Ingredients 6 T chia seeds 2 C coconut milk (I used a vanilla-coconut milk from Trader Joe's) 1 T blue agave 1 T dried coconut flakes 1 T sliced almonds Procedure Pour the coconut milk and blue agave into a large jar. Add in the chia seeds, coconut flakes, and sliced almonds. Cover with a lid and shake to combine. Let sit in the refrigerator - to chill and thicken - overnight.

I've used chia seeds before - to make Raw Warrior Pudding , Lemonade with Chia , and I've even used them as a binding agent in Russian Meatballs - but I knew that I could make many more creative chia puddings. I started tonight. Ingredients 6 T chia seeds 1 C fresh pomegranate juice 1 C water 1 T honey (I used a wildflower honey from Kimes Apiary in Watsonville) dried coconut, for garnish sliced almonds, for garnish Procedure Pour the water, juice, and honey into a large jar. Add in the chia seeds. Cover with a lid and shake to combine. Let sit in the refrigerator - to chill and thicken - for at least an hour. To serve, spoon into glasses and garnish with coconut and almonds.

Though my 10-year-old and I could eat pesto every day, it isn't a favorite for the other two members of our household. So I don't make it too often. But when I was trying to come up with a green condiment for Food Revolution Day 2014, I decided to make a definitively non-traditional pesto, using arugula, parsley, and almonds instead of basil and pine nuts. Oh, and I used black garlic, too! Click to read about  my intro to black garlic .  Super duper non-traditional pesto. Ingredients 2 C wild arugula greens 1 C parsley 2 cloves black garlic  1/2 C sliced almonds 1/2 C shredded parmesan olive oil freshly ground pepper fleur de sel Procedure Place all of the ingredients into the blender. Pulse a few times, drizzle in olive oil, and resume pulsing.  Pulse. Oil. Pulse. Oil. If you want a smoother, sauce-like pesto, add more olive oil and blend longer; if you want a chunkier pesto, use less oil and blend for less time....

What's the saying about repaying kindness with kindness? I usually repay kindness with - what else? - food. So, when my friend Marne offered to help me with the boys this week, I offered to make her whatever she wanted. She picked meatloaf...and she doesn't eat gluten...hence, the gluten-free meatloaf. She remembered a sweet-soy glazed meatloaf that I had done versus a ketchup-glazed one. Ingredients  Makes 4 mini meatloaves 2 lbs ground turkey 1 large egg 2 T chia seeds 2 T gluten-free flour 4 T gluten-free tamari or soy sauce 1/2 onion, peeled and diced 1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 1 shallot, peeled and diced 1 T minced ginger 2 C mushrooms, sliced 1/2 C sliced raw almonds freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper splash of olive oil splash of rice wine vinegar Sweet and Sour Chili Sauce 1/2 C rice wine vinegar 1/2 C organic granulated sugar 1 T minced garlic dash of ground cumin dash of ground cinnamon freshly...

I went through a phase when I sought to read books that had been banned or requested removed from library collections; if a book were controversial, it was probably on my nightstand during that period in my life. Think - Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and more. Okay, you can almost tell when I was in that phase...since I didn't mention any of the Harry Potter books or Captain Underpants. So, when I glimpsed a bag of "Forbidden Rice" at Cornucopia in Carmel a few years ago, it went straight into my shopping basket.  It's been a family favorite ever since. Called 'forbidden' because originally, in China, it was considered the Emperor's rice and was forbidden for anyone else to eat it.  Black rice is an heirloom variety and is extremely high in nutritional value including iron.  It is a deep black color when raw and turns deep purple when cook...

Using the bulbs of the red onions from the organic garden at the boys' school, I made a red onion and potato galette today - twice. Once for brunch and once, by request, for dinner. Guess they liked it. I started with my recipe for Pâte Brisée . [Click name to go to the recipe post.] Line a work surface with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, lightly dust with flour and dust the top of the dough with flour. Roll the dough into a rustic 15-inch circle, adding more flour, if necessary, to prevent sticking. Transfer the crust to a baking sheet with the parchment or baking mat in place. Leaving a 2-inch border, fill the crust - with caramelized onions, sliced parboiled potatoes, and a handful for shredded mozzarella cheese - and fold up the edges to make a free-form galette. Drizzle the top with olive oil, sprinkled it with freshly ground sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and dot the top with sliced almonds. Bake in a 425 degree oven until lightly browned on the ed...

I wanted to use my bounty of tart, ruby stalks to create some savories and came across this salad recipe: Beet, Rhubarb, and Orange Salad . And I used it as an inspiration for my own creation...  This made 2 dinner-salad sized plates... 2 salt-crusted beets , rinsed, peeled, and sliced 1 rhubarb stalk, sliced into matchsticks salad greens 1/4 C sliced almonds 1/2 C fresh sheeps' milk feta juice and zest from 1 Meyer lemon freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper In a large mixing bowl, place the salad greens and toss them with the lemon juice, lemon zest, and a splash of olive oil. Plate the greens and top them with the remaining ingredients - sliced beets, rhubarb pieces, almonds, and feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. *Update 6/4/2013: I am linking this post up the  The Law Student's Cookbook 's  June 2013 Pantry Party . The theme is cheese. Caseophile that I am, how could I resist?! While I used feta on my salad, get ca...

For Jake's birthday party at the beach, I whipped up some carrot cupcakes and zucchini cupcakes. They were devoured before I remembered to take a photo of them, but I did shoot the extra batter that I made into a loaf! Same recipe, different shape. 2 C white whole wheat flour 2 t baking powder 1-1/2 t baking soda 1 t ground cardamom 1 t ground ginger 3 eggs 1-1/2 C organic raw sugar 1 C Greek yogurt 1/2 C olive oil 2 C grated carrots 1 C sliced almonds 1/2 C marigold petals + some for garnish Preheat oven to 325. Whisk all wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in carrots. Fold in dry ingredients until just moistened. Gently fold the flower petals. Scrape batter into cupcake liners and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely then top with cream cheese frosting and top with more marigold petals for garnish Cream cheese frosting: 16 oz cream cheese, 1/2 C softened butter, 1 T vanilla extrac...

I sprinkled dianthus blossoms on top of a dandelion pesto-smeared pizza for our first course. For the second, I topped a salad with jasmine blooms from Jenn's garden. organic wild arugula organic micro greens romaine lettuce hearts cubes of Danish feta roasted beets , cubed sliced almonds jasmine blooms for garnish freshly ground pepper Meyer lemon vinaigrette* *white ambrosia vinegar, Meyer lemon juice and zest, olive oil, freshly ground sea salt and pepper If you know nothing else about vinaigrettes, remember this: the magic ratio of oil to vinegar/acid is 3 to 1. As long as you know that, you won't need to consult a vinaigrette recipe ever again. Just remember three parts oil to one part vinegar/acid and you'll be all right. If you get them backwards and do three parts vinegar to one part oil, your puckered mouth will ensure you don't make that mistake a second time!  So, I did 3 parts olive oil, 2/3 part white ambrosia vinegar, 1/3 p...

This is an easy side dish for a busy school night. And, best of all, you can cook the barley ahead of time and just assemble the salad the evening you plan to serve it. 2 C cooked barley 1/4 C capers 1/2 C sliced almonds 1 handful of rough chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley and mint) lemon vinaigrette* to moisten washed and dried lettuce leaves *vinaigrette =  white ambrosia vinegar, Meyer lemon juice and zest, olive oil, freshly ground sea salt and pepper If you know nothing else about vinaigrettes, remember this: the magic ratio of oil to vinegar/acid is 3 to 1. As long as you know that, you won't need to consult a vinaigrette recipe ever again. Just remember three parts oil to one part vinegar/acid and you'll be all right. If you get them backwards and do three parts vinegar to one part oil, your puckered mouth will ensure you don't make that mistake a second time!  So, I did 3 parts olive oil, 2/3 part white ambrosia vinegar, 1/3 part lemon juice.  I p...

My Food Matters Project creation this week -  Lemon-Blueberry Crisp  -was such a hit that I opted to make a variation for dessert tonight. I had some blueberries and a few bananas that were on the verge of being banana bread-worthy. Is this distinct enough to be it's own recipe? Probably not. Oh, well... 6 T butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan 3 C organic, fresh blueberries 2 sliced bananas ½ C sliced almonds ½ C organic, dark brown sugar ½ C white whole wheat flour ½ C ground almonds ½ t ground nutmeg 1/2 t ground cinnamon Butter your baking dish and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Dust your blueberries in 1 T of flour so that your crisp won't be too watery. Lay them in your dish. Lay sliced bananas on top of the berries. In a large mixing bowl blend the butter, brown sugar, ground almonds, and spices with a pastry blender to form pea-sized chunks. Add in the sliced almonds. Spoon the mixture over the berries and bananas a...

This week  Laura of Chef Laura at Home  picked our recipe for the week: Lemon-Blueberry Crisp with Pine Nut Topping. Here's her take ; and here's what the rest of us made (look in the comments section). While Mark Bittman's recipe looks fantastic, if you have ever had pine nut mouth , you might steer clear of pine nuts as our family does. Those three days of a tinny taste in our mouths after eating anything soured us to the poor pine nut. So, tonight I swapped out the pine nuts for almonds. 6 T butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan 4 C organic, fresh blueberries ½ C sliced almonds ½ C organic, dark brown sugar ½ C white whole wheat flour ½ C ground almonds ½ teaspoon ground cardamom zest from 1 lemon Butter your baking dish and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Dust your blueberries in 2 T of flour so that your crisp won't be too watery. Lay them in your dish. Sprinkle the zest over the top. In a large mixing bowl blend...