Red Lentil Patties with Spicy Tomato Jam and Rhubarb Walnut Loaf—Secret Recipe Club

Betcha anyone coming over here from the Secret Recipe Club that knows me well is shocked that this is my pick for the month and it’s not dessert!  Here’s the deal—I made three recipes from my blog assignment this month and chose the one I liked the most to feature here first.  I liked all three recipes from Isabelle’s blog, Crumb.  I am so happy that I took the time to make these Red Lentil Patties with Spicy Tomato Jam.  I had them in mind the whole month and just kept not getting it done. 

In the meantime, after spending Mother’s Day weekend with my parents in Idaho, I brought home a bunch of rhubarb from their garden.

Mom and I were having loads of fun trying to take a selfie before I left.  Some of them were pretty funny.

My parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 16th!  Anyway, their yard and garden is beautiful and they have 3-4 big rhubarb plants.  I got to bring home a bunch.

How cool is this pvc pipe planter?  They made holes all along the top, filled them with dirt and planted things like lettuce and herbs.  They’ve done that all along fencing in their yard.  No weeding!

I could post more pictures, but I’ll spare you too many more.  I just wish I could be like my parents and have a yard and garden like they do!

Back to the rhubarb—I scoured Isabelle’s blog for any rhubarb recipes and found this Rhubarb Walnut Loaf.  I decided that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make gluten free and made it. 

Here’s how I changed it to be gluten free and with a few other changes.

Gluten Free Rhubarb Walnut Loaf, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2/3 cup organic brown cane sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup canned coconut milk

zest of 1 lemon

1  1/2 cups diced rhubarb

2  1/2 cups gluten free flour (I used Premium Gold ancient grains blend with xanthan gum)

2 tablespoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup organic brown cane sugar

juice of a lemon

1 tablespoon toasted unsweetened coconut.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk together the brown sugar and coconut oil.  Add the egg and mix well.  Stir in the vanilla and coconut milk.  Zest and juice the lemon.  Stir the zest into the wet mixture.  Save the lemon juice for the glaze.

Whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just until combined.  Fold in the rhubarb and nuts.    Pour the batter into a 9x5 loaf pan that his brushed with coconut oil.  Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Whisk together the 1/4 cup of brown sugar and lemon juice and bring to a simmer in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved.  Pour the glaze over the loaf as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Sprinkle with coconut.  Cool on a wire rack.

Stay tuned for the red lentil patties and tomato jam, I’ll get to it soon.  It might be the first time in my blog’s history that I didn’t blog for a whole month.  I need to make up for lost time.  A bit more of the month went by and I still kept thinking about the lentil patties with homemade “catsup”.  I looked through Isabelle’s blog again, just for the heck of it and found these Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Breakfast Bars and felt like making them.  I made a few changes, using gluten free oats, brown rice flour, cranberries, sunflower seeds, almond milk, etc.  If you want my version of the recipe, let me know.  They were a good snack throughout the last week. 

Gluten Free Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

I didn’t think I was going to get the lentil patties made.  I knew if I made them they would only be something I would eat and no one else around here, but a couple days ago, I just decided to get it done last Thursday, the boys’ last full day of school.  I started with the Spicy Tomato Jam.  Super easy and very tasty!

Spicy Tomato Jam, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Isabelle at Crumb Blog

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1 small shallot, finely minced

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon dry ground mustard

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

14 ounce can of whole tomatoes, drained and chopped

1/4 cup organic brown cane sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

Saute the shallot and ginger in olive oil for a couple minutes.  Add the garlic and mustard and saute until fragrant.  Chop the tomatoes, or pulse them in a food processor.  Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat and cook uncovered for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened like jam.  Let the jam cool, then spoon into a jar and refrigerate until ready to use. 

This really has great flavor and a nice, perfect kick.  You can add a little more or less red pepper to your taste.  Isabelle used red pepper flakes.  I prefer the ground kind.  This tomato jam would be good on so many things.  After the jam was done, I made the patties.  I had bought some garam masala, which I had never used before, just to make these.  I’m glad I did! 

Since I was the only one eating these, I made just a few of them and have done so a couple times with the patty mixture in the refrigerator ready to make more.   I think I’ll fry off the rest of them, which I’ve done in coconut oil, and freeze them.  I made them gluten free by using rice flour instead of all purpose flour.

Red Lentil Patties, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Isabelle at Crumb Blog

1  1/2 cups red lentils

3 cups water

1 small shallot, finely minced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 teaspoons garam masala

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 large eggs

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

coconut oil, for frying

In a large saucepan, bring the lentils and water to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until lentils are soft, 15-20 minutes.  Drain lentils well.  In a skillet, saute the shallot in olive oil for a few minutes.  Add the garlic, cumin, and garam masala.  Cook and stir a few more minutes.  Remove from heat.  In a large bowl, combine the lentils, sauteed ingredients, eggs, flour, salt, pepper and cilantro.  Form into balls (or use a cookie scoop).  Lay them in a skillet that is heated with a couple tablespoons of coconut oil and flatten them to about 1/4 inch thick.  Fry the patties for about 5 minutes per side or until golden brown and crisp.

Serve them warm or at room temperature with the spicy tomato jam. 

These really were quite simple to make and I’m so glad I found the time to do so!  You know, a couple years ago, I got the pleasure of filling in for a missing Secret Recipe Club assignment and made some delicious marbled choco banana muffins and granola from Isabelle’s blog.  What I wouldn’t give for one of those muffins now!  I also just realized and had thought I had been assigned Isabelle’s blog before, but knew I’d filled in once, so I didn’t question it until now—I have also already had an actual assignment for Crumb and I made a couple more things--Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake and Sweet Potato Falafel!  I knew something seemed off, but didn’t question it.  Oh well, I am super glad I got to find more yummy things on Isabelle’s blog!  We need to have a talk with “the powers that be” who make these assignments. ;  )

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Salsa Asada in the Blendtec

My wonderful husband bought me a Blendtec!  We are having so much fun making all kinds of things in it.  Since making diet changes that include not eating gluten, I was wanting to make my own almond flour and other nut flours and butter.  It was wearing out my food processor.

We have already (in less than a week) made countless smoothies, almond butter, peanut butter, soups and this delicious salsa.  The Blendtec comes with some great little recipe books that we are plowing through.   We did end up making a change to the recipe from Blendtec recipe, they used fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, but since we didn’t have any at the time, I used some canned whole tomatoes.  Here’s the link to a lot of their great recipes, but the Salsa Asada one isn’t on their website.  Lots of other good ones though!

Super simple to make, just added all the ingredients to the blender and pulse a few times until it was the consistency we wanted.  You can pulse less if you like a chunkier salsa.  I like mine to not have really any chunks at all.  This salsa has a little different kick in it from some liquid smoke and some vinegar.  It is otherwise pretty similar to the one we make most often, called Mildly Wild Salsa.   Try this one if you like a little kick.  Don’t tell those who try it what it is that is in it and see if they can guess what that smoky flavor is.

Salsa Asada, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Blendtec

2—14 oz. cans of whole tomatoes, drained

2 jalapenos, skins blackened over gas stove (for extra spiciness, don’t throw out the seeds and ribs, just cut off the tops)

1 small shallot (or 1/4 medium onion), peeled and chopped into 4 quarters

2 cloves garlic, peeled

about 1/3 cup fresh cilantro (or to taste)

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

1  1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 teaspoon all natural liquid smoke

With a gas burner on medium heat, set two jalapenos over the rack and blacken each side.  You can hold them over the flame with tongs as well, it is often necessary to move them around to get even blackening.  Once they are blackened, put them in a bowl and cover it.  In the bowl of a blender, add the drained canned tomatoes (there were about 4-5 whole tomatoes in each can).  Add the shallot, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, salt and liquid smoke.  Remove the skins from the jalapenos by rubbing them with a paper towel.  (Don’t rinse away that grilled flavor!  A little black skin left on them is okay.) 

One all the ingredients are in the blender, pulse it in 1-2 second pulses until it is the desired consistency.  Pulse less if you want chunky salsa, more if you want it smoother. 

(This was a little spicy for me, but others in the family loved it.  I would remove the ribs and seeds from one jalapeno next time and left them in the other.)

With the new Blendtec, it has the big jar, but we also got the smaller one that is used more for making nut butters.  If you’re going to get a Blendtec, I would recommend getting the smaller jar (for an added price) as well (though you CAN still make nut butters in the bigger jar).  Also not pictures, I made sunflower seed butter—within seconds!  When I was doing these butters in my food processor, it was taking 10-15 minutes to get it to a smooth consistency and I think my food processor would have eventually died for the overworking. ;)

It would be overkill if we took pictures of all the smoothies we’ve been making and Kevin made a tortilla soup (all the raw veggies are just added to the blender, then you push the “soup” button and within seconds you have soup—it even heats it slightly.  We liked it a little hotter, so we did heat it a little on the stove after that.  Kevin liked the tortilla soup so much, he’s made it twice already (and this is coming from someone who claimed he didn’t like soup)!

(This is not a sponsored post and I was not paid to say this, I just love my new Blendtec!)

Thanks for the Blendtec, Kev!  I wasn’t even begging for it, he just knew I wanted one and that it would get used.  What a guy!

Mildly Wild Salsa, The Best Homemade Salsa

I recently made what is now my favorite homemade salsa and I’ll most likely make it this way from now on.  I couldn’t think of a fun, clever name to call it and asked my mom for ideas.  So I credit her with what is now called Mildly Wild Salsa.  It’s got a great, spicy kick to it, but is not-too-hot to enjoy.  That is one thing I don’t like about some hot salsas—they are just too much to actually eat and like.  I don’t like chunky salsa, mostly because I strongly dislike onions, especially in any recognizable form. ;)  This has the perfect hit of flavor you need from onions (though I used shallot), but the real flavor punch is from the jalapeno and cilantro.  Can’t forget about the garlic and fresh lime juice either. 

There are a couple of Mexican restaurants where I love the salsa, I always say I could almost drink it.  I also like to say I love the smell of April Fresh Downy so much that I could drink it, too, but that’s a totally different story (and no, I haven’t and won’t drink Downy). ;)  Sometimes when we’ve tried making it at home, it has seemed a bit acidy.  We’ve tried putting a little sugar in it and that helps a bit, but this time when I made it, it was just too hot, even when I removed most of the seeds and ribs from the inside of the jalapeno.  We have also found over time that we like using canned tomatoes rather than fresh ones.  Many like a fresh, chunky salsa with lots of cut up veggies, but that brings up the whole raw chunks of onions that I can’t handle again.  After making this as I most often do and deciding it was much too spicy, I decided to add a can of tomato sauce—and it is so good!  It added just the right amount of sweetness that helps cut the acid and made it so it was perfectly spicy but definitely not too spicy.  Try it!

Mildly Wild Salsa, The Best Homemade Salsa, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 jalapeno, ribs and most of the seeds removed (but leave some!) and cut into 4 pieces

1 shallot (or about 1/4 cup onion), roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8-1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

juice of half a lime (or more to taste)

14 ounce can of diced or whole tomatoes (not drained)

8 ounce can of tomato sauce

In the bowl of a food processor put the cut up jalapeno, the shallot, garlic and cilantro.  Pulse a few times.  Add the sugar, cumin, salt and lime juice.  Pulse until all is finely chopped.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Pulse again.  Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce and pulse until  tomatoes are well chopped and almost smooth.  Serve with chips.

Perfect for snacking, lunch, dinner, snacking…….heck, it would work great for huevo rancheros for breakfast, too, or any other type of Mexican breakfast!

Caprese Sticks and Tomato Mozzerella Pesto Puff Pastry Spirals---For A Virtual Bridal Shower

Today I’m joining with some other bloggers for a Virtual Bridal Shower for Jessica from My Baking Heart!  She’s getting married—soon!  Nikki at Pennies on a Platter is hosting Jessica’s bridal shower.  She’ll have a round up with all the bloggers’ posts with links to their delicious contributions for the shower.  I can’t wait to see it!

I’ve known Jessica in the blogging world almost the whole time I’ve been blogging, since she has always been involved with Tuesdays With Dorie even all through Baking From My Home to Yours.  She is also faithful with the French Fridays With Dorie group who are cooking and baking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table cookbook.  I tried to keep up with that group, but was finding it too hard to keep that up weekly along with all the other things I’m doing.  Jessica almost never seems to miss a post.  Now we both continue Tuesdays With Dorie as this year we’ve started baking our way through Baking With Julia.

I decided to make an appetizer for the shower.  Actually, I ended up making two.  First of all, with my always blooming AeroGarden full of basil, I kept thinking about these little tomato-mozzarella-basil sticks—perfect bites sitting on a plate drizzled with balsamic syrup. 

Caprese Sticks, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

cherry/grape tomatoes

fresh mozzarella pearls

basil

balsamic vinegar

First, in a small saucepan over low heat, reduce some balsamic vinegar.  About 1/4 cup of vinegar will reduce to 1-2 tablespoons and will thicken into a syrup consistency.  Let it cool while preparing the caprese sticks.  First add a tomato to the stick, then a small basil leaf and end with a mozzarella pearl.  Make as many as you’d like.  Drizzle some of the syrup on a plate or serving platter (it looks the best on a white plate).  Set the prepared sticks on the syrup.

*If you find one whole basil leaf too strong on each stick, you can tear them smaller or use smaller leaves.  I think they are good, but some might think it a little strong.

Love that balsamic reduction!  Caprese is one of my favorite flavor combinations.  These were super simple to make.  I love that the mozzarella pearls aren’t round, but look more like gems. 

I also recently made some pesto puff pastry spirals for a baby shower I hosted.  I actually make them for all kinds of occasions.  Sometimes the spread on them is a little different, in the past I have spread them with some sauteed spinach with garlic, cooled and chopped finely, but they are almost always sprinkled with chopped roasted red pepper, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.  Roll up each side of the puff pastry and slice into spirals. 

Love the light, crisp, flakiness of these and the pesto and cheese flavor is delicious!

Tomato Mozzarella Pesto Puff Pastry Spirals, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed

about 4 tablespoons prepared pesto (or store bought)

1/4 cup finely chopped roasted red pepper

1/4 cup tomatoes, chopped small (optional)

1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

*Other times, I have also added some finely chopped artichoke hearts and/or some finely chopped sauteed spinach with garlic (cooled before spreading over the pastry).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Lay one puff pastry out flat on a lightly floured counter.  If any of the seams are slightly torn, pinch them together with your fingers.  Roll with a rolling pin the puffy pastry (which will also help seal any tears) until it is a little thinner than it is originally. 

Spread evenly about 2 tablespoons of the prepared pesto (or sauteed/cooled spinach, may use or need more per sheet of pastry, it’s really to taste) onto the puff pastry.  Next sprinkle on the red pepper and if using, the tomato and artichoke.  Sprinkle on half the mozzarella cheese and parmesan.  Roll from the long ends of the pastry each side to half way.  Slice the rolled pastry into 15-17 slices and lay each spiral flat on the baking sheet.   Bake for about 20 minutes until golden and crispy and the cheese is melted.  While the first sheet is baking, prepare the second sheet the same way.  Serve slightly warm.

I always eat way too many of these.  ;)

So fun to be part of Jessica's virtual bridal shower!  Thanks again for inviting me, Jessica, and for hosting the party, Nikki.  Check out what everyone brought to the party at Nikki’s blog!  Congratulations on your upcoming marriage and wedding, Jessica!  Enjoy your day! 

 Love this picture/invitation!