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Cheesy Potato Pancakes with Jalapeno Sour Cream

12.09.2012 23 Comments

I like to throw parties, invite people over and make them feel at home. I like to make more than enough food, and for everyone to leave very full and with a take away bag of goodies. But the last time I had a little gathering at Casa De Dodd, I had overlooked my Gluten Free friends. I had remembered the vegetarians, and the vegans, the people who don’t drink beer, but for the ones who are allergic to gluten there wasn’t much. I felt terrible.

Gluten Free isn’t a fad diet. It isn’t Paleo or Raw or Weight Watchers. It isn’t a choice. It’s a medical condition and a food allergy  that is one of the fasted growing diagnosed food allergies in the United States.

Gluten Free (Celiac’s Disease) people don’t want to give up bread. And regular pizza, or hamburger buns and flour tortillas, they don’t have much of a choice. Eat gluten free or become debilitatingly ill. Have you ever had food poisoning? In away, it’s like that.

And with over 3 million American’s allergic to gluten, chances are your next party may have one. It might even be you, Celiacs is most often diagnosed in adulthood. Because we want everyone who walks into our parties to feel at home, we all need to have a stock pile of appetizers to accommodate. Because unlike other diets, this isn’t a choice.

Because gluten is used as a thickener in tons of processed foods, it can easily hid in obscure places like canned soup, pre-made salad dressing, imitation crab, cheese spread and some brands of soy sauce.

At each party I need to have a few Celiac Friendly dishes that I made from scratch so that I can be sure there isn’t any rogue gluten waiting like a digestive ninja to attach my friends insides. Potatoes are a great place to start. Because who doesn’t love potatoes? It’s like not liking puppies or The Beatles.

So when you come across Gluten Free appetizers and dishes that you love, bookmark for them for gatherings. Because your friends would do it for you.

Cheesy Potato Pancakes with Jalapeno Sour Cream

Ingredients

  • 1 cup red potatoes, grated with a cheese grater
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbs masa (corn flour used to make corn tortillas)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • pinch cayenne
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded (if using pre shredded, check to make sure it does not contain gluten)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 jalapeno, diced, stem and seeds removed
  • 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Instructions

  1. Place grated potatoes between several sheets of paper towels, press to remove some of the moisture. In a bowl, combine the grated potato, egg, masa, salt, pepper, cayenne and onion powder, mix until combined.
  2. Heat olive oil over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Form potatoes into silver dollar sized pancakes about 1/4 inch thick. Add to the pan and cook until browned, about 2 minutes, then flip pancake. Top the pancakes with a small amount of cheddar cheese, cook until cheese is melted and underside of the pancake is browned, about an additional 3 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to drain on a paper towel.
  3. In a bowl, combine the sour cream, jalapenos and smoked paprika, mix. Top the potato pancakes with sour cream. Serve warm.

 

Cucumber Cups Stuffed With Goat Cheese Caprese

10.09.2012 26 Comments

 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

On Friday I fought a culinary chicken battle that ended with a giant foam core check with my name on it. This was my second attempt to win the Semi-Finals of the Foster Farms Chicken Cook Off, last year wasn’t my year. But this year, I won a giant check, a trip to Napa, the opportunity to cook at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone (my favorite prize so far) and the chance to grab another Giant Check worth ten grand.

I’m so excited. Not just because the other dishes I was competing against were incredible and each worthy of their own Big Check, but because, in a way, this Big Check (that currently sits on my bar, in all it’s 4 foot long splendor) serves as a validation for what I do. I’m good at this! See, look, other people picked my recipe out of thousands of other ones!

Maybe that seems silly, I create 3 to 5 recipes a week, post them for you and you seem to like them. You send me emails and post comments telling me that you liked my little creations. That should be enough, right?

But for some reason, that Big Check gave me tangible evidence that my recipes are good. Other people, who don’t even know who wrote that recipe, liked it.

Maybe I have a future here.

;

For this, I’m resurrecting and re-creating one of my most popular posts.

I love these little cucumber cups, so easy, so versatile, the perfect thing to throw together for a party. They take about 5 minutes, and they look so fancy. I used persian cucumber for these, smaller than your standard English cucumbers and the skin is so thin, there is no need to peel them.

Just use a small melon baller to scoop out a good portion of the middle, or use a paring knife to cut a wedge out of the middle and you can fill them with just about anything.

Cucumber Cups Stuffed With Goat Cheese Caprese

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup balsamic
  • 4 Persian Cucubers
  • 2 oz goat cheese
  • 1 large beefsteak tomato, chopped
  • 3 large basil leaves, chopped
  • salt & pepper

Instructions

  1. Place balsamic in a small sauce pan over medium high heat. Cook until reduced by half (you can also by pre-reduced balsamic, called balsamic glaze, in the market near the balsamic vinegar).
  2. Cut the cucubmbers into 1 1/2 inch slices. Use a melon baller to scoop out the middle, leaving the walls and bottom in tact.
  3. In a bowl, add the goat cheese, tomatoes, basil and stir until combined. Salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Fill cups with goat cheese mixture, drizzle with balsamic reduction.

 

 

Coconut Cornmeal Shrimp With Jalapeno Peach Jam

03.09.2012 17 Comments

 

I’ve had a busy week, and my body has decided to request that I slow down.

On Friday, I was asked to do a cooking segment on CBS news in Los Angeles. I’ve spent the week preparing. My husband helped me run through the segment in the evenings, and for an entire week my drive home consisted of me practicing my talking points, out loud, looking like a crazy person, on an LA freeway. It  all seemed to work, the segment went well:

The Beeroness Cooks on CBS

 As soon as I started my drive home from the studio, I started to crash. The next morning I lay in bed as my incredible husband got up with Tater, and I was able to sleep until the late, late hour of 8:45. In Mom Time, that’s pretty close to sleeping until noon. As I lay in bed, trying to pull myself together and trick myself into thinking I’m not actually sick, I watched this, this and this, and laughed so hard I think it worked. Maybe it’s true what they say about laughter and that whole "Best Medicine" thing.

And on Thursday I leave for the Foster Farms Cook-Off. I’ll be competing against 4 other cooks for $1,000 and a trip to Napa for the Cook Off Finals with a prize of $10,000.

Wish me luck! I’ll be posting on twitter and instagram as the contest goes along.

And now, the recipe. I bought a huge bag of Masa to make corn tortillas with, and if you have never made corn tortillas, you really, really need to . They’re so good, nothing like those cardboard disks they sell at the store, and they take about 5 minutes. The flavor is so good, I’ve been throwing the corn flour into everything, I’m totally in love with it. And the Jalapeno Peach Jam I also used on pork chops. So Good.

Coconut Cornmeal Shrimp With Jalapeno Peach Jam

Ingredients

For The Jam:

  • 3 cups peaches, skin removed, chopped
  • 2 tbs fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 jalapeno, stem and seeds removed, diced
  • 1 tsp cornstarch

For The Shrimp:

  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 2 lbs raw shrimp, shell and tail removed
  • 1 cup Masa Harina
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 cup oil

Instructions

  1. Add the raw shrimp and coconut milk to a bowl. Chill in the fridge for about 45 minutes while you make the jam.
  2. In a pot over medium high heat, add all of the jam ingredients. Stirring occasionally, allow to simmer (not boil) until thick, and the peaches have broken down, about 45 minutes. Smash peached with a potato masher until a jam like consistency is reached. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. In a bowl, combine the masa, coconut, salt, pepper and pinch cayenne. One at a time, remove the shrimp from the coconut milk and allow to drain a bit before adding to the cornmeal mixture. Coat the shrimp well in the corn meal mixture.
  4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the shrimp and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.
  5. Remove from heat. You can either top the shrimp with the jam or serve the jam as a dipping sauce.