Homemade Vegan Chipotle®

If you’re following any of my albums over on Facebook, you know that during June -- with an aim of losing weight, getting healthier, and rebooting our food habits -- Husband and I are endeavoring to eat a 100% whole grain, low fat, low salt, low added sugar, vegan "diet.”  I put the word diet in quotes because this isn’t some quick fix that we will use only until we get to our goals and then go right back to the way we were eating before.  The word diet, for us, means a maintainable lifelong eating plan, not something temporary.  And while we won’t stay 100% vegan forever, this is meant to be the catalyst that lands us on the path to what will be our permanent practice: Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian Diet.

All of the parameters that we have set for ourselves (including ending up on the Nutritarian plan in the end) come from listening to Penn’s Sunday School and following Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, and Matt Donnelly’s weight loss journeys as close as possible (there's plenty of mainstream media on Penn's weight loss if you want to Google it).  They haven’t given away all the information that Ray Cronise taught them, but after listening very carefully to every podcast I could find where the guys talked about the “cult” diet, using my wits, knowledge, and experience to piece all the concepts and methods together as best I could, and reading every research paper, website, article, and other writing they mentioned – I am pretty sure I’ve got it mostly figured out; certainly enough to be doing the trick and not feeling any negative effects.  I tested it out on myself for one week, and lost 5.6 pounds in only 6 days, as I said, without being hungry or feeling deprived.  So now we are doing it for real.

Anyways, over to the right, you will see a link to my Facebook album (“One Month of Veganism”) where we are documenting our dinners (as well as some breakfasts and lunches).  Please note that I said “endeavoring” in that album description – there have already been, and probably will be a couple more, “slip ups” where we break the rules.  ;)  But still, it’s working….really well.  And the food is a.m.a.z.i.n.g!  Just look at all those pretty colors - seriously!!  I for one haven't yet missed what we're avoiding.  I feel very satisfied and perfectly happy.  In any case, results are being kept track of and will be announced when the month is through.  So stay tuned.

Finally, the reason I started to write this post today was to publish what we did over the weekend to create at home a meal from Husband’s favorite fast food restaurant, Chipotle.  Some people at work asked for the “recipe,” too, and it was so good, that I figured I should share it with anyone who might still be following this recently sadly sparse blog.  So here goes....

I thought I would be very cute and on Facebook described it as: 

"Chifauxtle" 

noun chi•fot•le \chə-ˈfōt-lā, chē-, -ˈfȯt-, -lē\

: all of the components needed to make a vegan Chipotle® rice bowl, except here they are homemade. 

;)

 

Clockwise from top right: cilantro lime brown rice,
black beans, tomato salsa, corn salsa, fajita veggies, and hot salsa.

Yes, it’s a lot of separate components, but the only part that individually took more than about 5-10 minutes was the hot salsa.  The other salsas were quick, as was the fajita veg.  It looks like a lot more work than it is – and that’s what Chipotle the restaurant relies on people thinking, so they’ll just go in and buy it instead of making it at home.  In the end, we easily had enough food for 3 or 4 meals.

Unfortunately, I don’t have exact measurement for everything (except the hot salsa recipe which Husband got from the comments in this website post).  Here is the best we could recollect after the fact not having written anything down as we went along:

Brown Rice

Cooked as normal but with a little lime juice and some cilantro.

Black beans

Straight out of a can, rinsed.

Tomato Salsa

Chopped up tomato, tomatillo, and red onion, plus a little lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper.  This salsa is not cooked – just mix it all up.

Corn Salsa

Corn, red onion (chopped), and poblano pepper (seeded, veined, and chopped), sautéed in a pan with a teeny bit of vegetable oil, then add some cilantro, salt, pepper, and lime juice.

Fajita Veggies

Red peppers, green peppers, and yellow onion, all cut into strips, then sautéed in a teeny bit of vegetable oil with cayenne pepper, cumin, salt, black pepper, and cilantro (mix of spices concocted by Hubby - and it turned out great!).

Hot Salsa (made by Hubby)

• 4 Tomatillos
• dried Arbol peppers (I think we used about a 1/2 ounce – use more of less depending how hot you want it.)
• Cumin
• 3 cloves garlic
• Water
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tabasco® sauce (we didn’t have Tabasco® on hand, so we just used the closest hot sauce already in the fridge) 

Boil the tomatillos until they are soft.  Put them in the blender with the stemmed and seeded chiles (Hubby didn't soak the chiles like the linked recipe says to - it wasn't necessary).  Add some of the water you used to boil the tomatillos.  Add garlic cloves.  Blend that mess up.  Add some dried cumin, salt, and pepper (guesstimated amounts).  Add a couple dashes of Tabasco and stir it up.

Obviously, because we are eating Vegan for now, there is no sour cream, cheese, or meat.  We also didn't bother with any vegan protein other than the beans, because when we do go to Chipotle, we don't ever get the Sofritas (even when avoiding animal products).

Here is what it looked like in our work lunch containers, and after mixing it up (granted, in the mix-up photo, I had already eaten a bunch of it, so it looks a little light on the veggies - it wasn't):

 

 

The only thing I forgot?  To make guacamole!!   Next time....

....because, as Hubby will attest, my guac rules (and chips made with my Homemade Corn Tortillas are awesome).  =)

Chicken Pot Pie

I mentioned it in my post about the currently ongoing experiment, and so finally, here is the recipe for my first-ever chicken pot pie.  As evidenced by this mess of papers and scribbles, I studied many recipes, did some comparing, mixing, analyzing and matching, and then decided on a combination of them that I thought would work well to make the crust:

As for the filling, I basically winged it as I went along.  Here’s what I did (as best as I can remember)….

CRUST INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Sugar
• 1-1/2 sticks of Butter
• 4 Tablespoons of chilled Vegetable Shortening (Crisco)
• 1 Egg
• 2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 cup cold water

CRUST DIRECTIONS

1.  Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

2.  Cut in the butter and the shortening.

3.  Add the egg and vinegar, and mix to combine (like you were hand-mixing a meatloaf).  Also add enough of the cold water (up to 1/2 cup), if needed at all, to make the dough not too dry.

4.  Turn the dough out onto a GF-floured board, and knead it for just a minute or two to make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed.

5.  Form it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and toss it in the freezer.  (If you are making your dough the night before, no need for the freezer – just put it in the fridge.)

FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 2 large Chicken Breasts
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Paprika
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 1 Onion
• 2 large Carrots
• 2 Potatoes
• A good handful of fresh Green Beans
• Chicken Stock
• Milk (I used 2% lactose free), probably about 1/4-1/2 cup worth
• 2 Tablespoons Tapioca Flour
• 3 Tablespoons water

FILLING DIRECTIONS

1.  Pre-heat oven to 400-degrees.

2.  Season the chicken breasts using whatever amounts of the above-listed seasonings are to your liking, and cook it in a large skillet until done.  Set the chicken aside to cool and let its juices redistribute.

3.  Chop the onion and start it cooking with the butter, in the same skillet that you used for the chicken.

4.  While the onions are cooking, chop the carrots, the potatoes, and the green beans.

5.  Chop up the chicken into whatever size pieces you desire, or you can even shred it if you want.

6.  Put all the veggies into the skillet, and season with whatever spices you like.  I think I used salt, pepper, thyme and savory.  Cook for a few minutes.

7.  Then, add the chicken and enough Chicken Stock to at least coat the entire bottom of the pan….but probably more like enough to come up a quarter of an inch.  Also add the milk, and then bring it all to a simmer.

8.  Mix the tapioca flour and 3 Tablespoons of water into a slurry, add it to the pan.  Stir, and let it simmer until the sauce thickens.

9.  Pour the filling into your deep baking dish, and set aside.

10.  Get the dough ball from the freezer and roll it out to as close a size as possible to cover the baking dish. 

11.  Place it on top, patching any holes or tears with extra bits of dough that were cut off from the edges.

12.  Bake the whole thing for up to an hour or until the crust is golden brown and starting to crisp.

13.  Allow the pie to cool for abut 15 minutes before slicing.

We served it with a side of fresh steamed broccoli:

COMMENTS

For a first attempt, I really liked this chicken pot pie.  But I wish the sauce/gravy was creamier and thicker.  Maybe I should have used a different milk/chicken stock ratio (i.e. more milk and less chicken stock), perhaps some heavy cream (which I didn't have on hand that night), and/or a higher concentration of tapioca starch in the slurry.  In any case, the unexpected dinner guest that we had that evening certainly liked it enough to go back for seconds.  And we would have had seconds too, if we were hungry enough.

The next day, however, wow! -- the leftovers were even better.  By then, the crust had time to soak up some of the juices and get a little bit gooey, moist, and gummy (the way I personally like my pot pie crust).

In keeping with the all-natural road we are currently trying to stay on, I think it should be possible to make this meal again without the xanthan gum, because it’s certainly okay (and some might even say better) to have pot pie crust flake apart and get all mixed into the filling while eating it.  Don’t most people chop it up and mix it in anyways?  I do.  In any case, as I have mentioned in the past, I am venturing to perfect a gluten-free crust (savory, sweet, or otherwise), and now hopefully one without any chemicals or xanthan gum.  If we continue to have to eat gluten-free after the experiment and I ever come up with anything good, I will certainly let you all know.

Finally, there will be no nutritional values given for this dish, because obviously I didn’t measure anything exactly (was just sort of eyeing it) nor did I weigh anything.  Plus with all that butter in the crust, who really wants to know, right?

Curried Squash and Apple Soup

In keeping with Autumn themes and using up what we have around, here is another apple recipe (we're still working our way through that big bag from apple picking - lol).  Many thanks to my friend, Valerie, who linked me to this recipe when I posted on Facebook looking for suggestions.

As per usual, I modified it for personal preference, but mostly based on what ingredients we had on hand.  Here's what I did....

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 of a butternut squash - seeds removed, roasted until tender, and scooped from the skin
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 teaspoons ground mustard seed (powder)
• 3 tablespoons curry powder (I didn't have "curry powder" on hand, so I made my own: 4 teaspoons of Penzey's Rogan Josh seasoning + 1 teaspoon of ground coriander + 1 teaspoon of ground cumin + 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric + 1 teaspoon of ground mustard seed, + 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper)
• 2 medium apples, plus 1 small apple.  I am not sure of the varieties, as they were mixed in the apple picking bag
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1-1/2 tablespoons ginger, finely chopped
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used Pacific Natural Foods Organic Vegetable Broth)
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) plain yogurt (I used a reduced fat, but not non-fat, variety)
• 1 lime -- cut off four thin rounds and reserve the remainder for squeezing

DIRECTIONS

1. If you haven't already cooked the squash, preheat the oven to 500ºF.  Place the squash in the oven and cook for 50 minutes, or until soft.  Scoop the flesh out and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, pour the oil into large pot over medium heat. Add the mustard powder and cook for 30 seconds or so, then add the curry powder and cook, stirring occasionally, for a minute or two.
3. Add the apples, squash, onion, garlic, ginger, and vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes.
4. Blend the soup until smooth.  Carefully stir in the yogurt, squeeze in some lime juice, and garnish each bowl with one of the thin lime rounds.
5. Season with salt if needed (I didn't do this).

It turned out four 1.5 cup servings, each with:

• 309 calories
• 6 grams protein
• 40 grams carbs
• 16 grams fat
• 0 fiber
• 573 mg sodium

MY REVIEW

I thought the soup was pretty spicy (definitely too spicy for regular people -- unlike me -- who don't like a lot of heat).  This was probably due mainly to the curry powder mix that I created and the amount of ground mustard seed that I used.  It could definitely be dialed down as you prefer by by altering the curry powder mix or reducing mustard seed powder.

I also thought that yogurt was an odd choice for the creaminess in this soup.  It mixed in only sort of okay, in my opinion -- turning out kind of lumpy (teeny bits of the yogurt didn't break down completely and you can see them floating around in the soup).  Flavor wise -- the yogurt was fine.  Next time, though, I will use cream and/or butter rather than yogurt.

Finally, the soup is pretty calorically heavy for only a 1.5 cup serving.  This could be lessened by reducing the amount of oil -- for example, if we were to remove the oil altogether, that would whack 120 calories and 13 grams of fat from each bowl.

All in all, I liked it and the idea of combining squash with apples, but I will certainly modify it further if I make it again.

Homemade Corn Tortillas (Soft Taco Shells)

Why Have I Never Done This Before?

We decided it would be wild boar tacos for dinner tonight.  Gluten-wise, since we have corn tortillas in the freezer, we though there'd be no problem.  But a look at the ingredients goes against our current "is it the gluten or all the stuff that comes along with gluten" experiment:

Ground corn treated with lime, water, cellulose gum, propionic acid (to preserve freshness),

benzoic acid (to preserve freshness), phosphoric acid (preservative), guar gum, amylase.

Cellulose gum?  Propionic acid?  Benzoic acid?  Phosphoric acid?  Guar gum?  Amylase? -- Why do these things need to be in there....especially considering this is a product kept in the frozen foods section?  I don't want to eat them, and they interfere with the experiment.  So, no thanks.  Moving on.

I Googled for a corn tortilla recipe and found this one.  Seriously, could it be any easier?  Off I went to Market Basket and bought some masa harina.  I bought Maseca brand Instant Yellow Corn Masa Flour.

Now, which one of these do you want to eat?

On the left, mine.  On the right, Mission.
Mine look better, taste better, and even *smell* better.
And they're much cheaper than any store-bought brands.

They really were easy to make, even without a tortilla press.  Here's what I did (basically just following the recipe I found online)....

First, mix 1-3/4 cups of the masa harina with 1-1/8 cups of hot water (you might also want to add some salt if you aren't going to be putting salty foods into these tortillas, or if you are going to be cutting them and frying them up into chips).  I tried to mix the dough in my stand mixer, thinking I would knead it using the dough hook, but it's not quite that moist and didn't readily come together in the mixer.  So I just mixed it by hand in a bowl, like a meatloaf.  If the dough is too wet or too dry, make adjustments by adding more masa harina or water, a teeny bit at a time.

Knead the dough until it becomes pliable and smooth (this took just a minute or two).  Then, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit (on the counter, not refrigerated) for a half-hour.  I am not sure why the recipe called for letting it rest like this, or if it would be okay to skip this step, so I just did as instructed.

Pre-heat your cast iron skillet with medium heat.

This is the size flame I used (it was perfect).

Take a little bit of the dough and form it into a ball.

Place it between two pieces of parchment paper and press down to flatten it some.  (I found that I had -0- sticking problems with parchment paper.)

Now, roll it out with your pin, rotating the whole thing a quarter turn every few strokes.  Note: the thinner you make it, the better.  (I cooked 2 that were too thick before I figured out that thinner makes a much better final product.)

Using a bowl or any other circular object that is the size you want, cut out a circle.  I cooked one that had irregular edges before I decided to use a bowl to get a perfect circle, so counting the 2 thick ones from above, I had a total of 3 tortillas that weren't perfect in the entire batch (and this was only my first try making these -- like I said, super easy).

If the dough splits or holes appear while you are rolling it out, all you have to do is rip off a bit of dough from an edge, place it over the holes, and continue rolling out.

Gather up the edges of dough that didn't get cut into your circle, add some more from the main dough pile, form a new little ball and repeat the pressing/rolling out process until you have a bunch of raw tortillas.

Cook each tortilla in the dry cast iron skillet (no oil or anything) for about 30 seconds per side.  When you flip it to the second side, it should puff up a little bit and look like this:

I ended up with 15 five-to-six inch tortillas (with just a tiny ball of dough lefover that wasn't enough to make one final tortilla).  I probably could have gotten 17 if the first two were rolled out thinner.  Anyways, each of the 15 has:

• 50 calories
• 1 gram protein
• 11 grams carbs
• 0 fat
• 1 gram fiber
• 0 sodium

Apple Crisp

We've still got that bag of apple-picking gems sitting around, so of course last night for dessert it had to be "find a way to bake up some apples" time.  Lol.

I was never sure what the difference was between a "crisp" and a "cobbler" -- they always seemed pretty much the same to me.  I decided it's high time I looked it up.  According to The Free Online Dictionary, a crisp is "a dessert of fruit baked with a sweet crumbly topping" and a cobbler is "a deep-dish fruit pie with a thick top crust."  I found similar definitions on other websites.  So it seems the difference perhaps between a crisp and a cobbler is in the crust; that a cobbler is more pie-like in it's topping, while the crisp's topping is more of a crumbly nature.  So, I guess what I made was a crisp.  :)

Either way, it was certainly crispy and tasty.  Here's how I did it (the recipe makes 4 servings):

INGREDIENTS

• 2 medium-to-large Apples (I used a golden delicious and another red-skinned variety that I am not sure what it was -- you can read in my Apple Pie post how we have a bunch of different kinds of apples that all look similar).
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2/3 cup of oats
• 1/2 stick of Butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup of Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• 4 Tablespoons of Apple Cider
• 1 more tablespoon of Butter, sliced into 4 thin pats

DIRECTIONS

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 350-degrees.

2.  Cube the apples and toss them with the 2 Tablespoons of Sugar.

3.  Put about half of the oats into your food processor and run the blade until the oats turn into oat flour (this doesn't take long at all -- maybe a minute).

4.  Add the rest of the oats, the cubed butter, the brown sugar, and as much cinnamon and nutmeg as you like.  Pulse the blade until you get what looks like a coarse, crumbly, lumpy pile of goodness.

5.  Spoon the apples into each of 4 ramekins.

6.  Then cover the apples with the crumb topping.

7.  Pour about one Tablespoon of apple cider into each ramekin, then top each one with a thin pat of butter.

8.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the crumb topping is crispy and golden brown.

9.  Allow them to cool for just a few minutes, then top with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and serve.

AND IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW
Each serving (including a half-cup scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream) has:

• 350 calories
• 4 grams protein
• 49 grams carbs
• 17 grams fat
• 4 grams fiber
• 122 mg sodium

Apple Cider Marinated Pork Chops

Last night, we did another Autumn-themed meal, using up some cider and apples.  It's not really anything too special, but a win nonetheless:


This dish started the night before last, after we went food shopping and came home with (among other things) two thick-cut, bone-in pork chops.  Hubby whipped up a marinade of apple cider, cloves, and freshly grated nutmeg (perhaps salt and pepper, as well, but I don't know because I wasn't watching)....and it all sat in the fridge overnight.  Come dinner time last night, and they were deliciously ready to go.

Cooked off in a super hot cast-iron grill pan....

....with a side of steamed carrots....

....and a side of green beans sautéed in a bit of olive oil with salt, pepper, sliced fresh garlic, and almond slivers....

....plus we boiled down the marinade (adding a cornstarch slurry, salt, pepper, a bit of brown sugar and a pat of butter) to make a gravy to go on top of the chops....

It was all quite super yummy.  But just wait until you see what we had for dessert afterwards (that's where the using up of some apples -- not just cider -- comes into play)!  Post coming soon.

:)

Apple Pie

It’s full-swing Autumn here in New England, and you all know what that means – apple season!!

We waited until it was almost too late (read: farms running out of crop and the one we originally planned to go to already being shut down), but over the weekend Hubby and I finally went apple picking at Parlee Farms.  We were relegated to whatever they had left, which was a mix of Cortland, Golden Delicious, Macoun, Empire, Cameo, and possibly a couple others that I cannot remember specifically right now.  Here’s what’s left of our 1/2 bushel-20 pound bag (there's going to have to be more apple recipes in the upcoming weeks):

As you can see most of the varieties look pretty much the same (at least they do to me), so when I made my Apple Pie, I just took a random sampling from the bag that added up to the poundage I needed for this recipe.



Gluten-Free Apple Pie

CRUST INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup white rice flour
• ½ cup sorghum flour
• ½ cup potato starch
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
• 1 egg
• 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 2-¼ pounds of apples
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, made into a slurry with 2 Tablespoons of cold water
• Freshly grated Nutmeg, to taste
• Cinnamon, to taste
• 1 egg, beaten
• Sugar, for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine all the dry crust ingredients in a mixing bowl, or the bowl of your food processor if you have one.  Mix (or pulse the processor) until well combined.
2. Add in the cubed butter and toss to lightly cover it with the flour mixture.  Then begin to incorporate the butter into the flour by “cutting it in” or pulsing your food processor if you’re using one.  If you don’t have a butter cutting tool as shown in the linked video, you can use two forks for the same purpose (that’s what I did).  You want to end up with something that is the texture of coarse bread crumbs or coarse cornmeal.
3. Form a well in the center of the flour mixture, and add the egg and apple cider vinegar into the well.  Using a fork, incorporate the liquids into the flour mixture until you get a sticky, clumpy mix (the final consistency should feel moist, but not too wet -- you can always add a little more rice flour if you think it’s too wet and/or sticky).
4. Form it into a smooth ball, wrap the ball in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge.
5. While the dough is chilling, it’s time to prepare the filling.
6. Pre-heat your oven to 350-degrees.
7. Peel, core and slice the apples.
8. In a medium saucepan, melt together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest.
9. Add the sliced apples and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring to coat the apples with the liquid mixture, until the apples just begin to soften.
10. Add the cornstarch slurry, and cook for one minute more, stirring gently.  This will thicken the liquids and cause them to coat the apple slices better.
11. Strain the apples in a colander and discard the extra juices which run off.  Add your desired amounts freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon to the colander and gently mix into the apples.
12. Remove your dough from the fridge and using either two sheets of wax paper, parchment paper, and/or rice flour for dusting, roll it out so that it’s more than large enough to cover the bottom and sides of your pie pan.  You want the dough to be no more than ¼” thick, and making it this thickness should allow that you will have enough left to cover the pie, too.
13. Gently pick up the dough and place it in your greased pie pan, making sure it falls into the corners.  Trim off the excess (there should definitely be some), form the excess into another ball, and roll it out.  This will become the top of your pie.
14. Pour the apples into the now bottom-crusted pie pan, spread them out to create an even layer, and then use the remaining dough to cover the top (either in one full sheet, or a lattice pattern, or any other design you might endeavor to create).  Just make sure there are a couple of holes/slits for steam to escape while cooking.
15. Bake for 30 minutes.
16. Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg, sprinkle with some sugar, and bake several minutes more (or however long it takes) for the crust to become golden brown and fairly crispy looking.

This was only my second attempt ever at making an apple pie (the first being years ago with regular wheat flour).  It was not any easier or harder this time.  Making pie, as you probably know, is a little time consuming and can be a bit of a pain in the buttocks, but it’s always well worth it.  It was delicious, and well-liked by the non-GF-ers who I served it to, as well.

Here are a few thoughts and suggestions based on my experience with this particular recipe and the ways I went about making it:

First, I want to note that there was no xanthan gum in the crust.  This doesn’t pose any problems whatsoever as long as you are serving the pie cold.  When cold, it slices well and holds together very nicely.  See?

But when we re-heated the pie (in the oven) for serving, the crust easily crumbled and fell apart some when slicing and picking it up out of the pan for plating.  Perhaps this could have been alleviated by slicing it cold, and then re-heating individual pieces in the microwave.  Alternatively, perhaps the addition of a little bit of xanthan gum to the dough might help this issue, and also allow us to reheat it without worry of it turning into an apple cobbler.  (I notice a lot of other crust recipes do include xanthan gum.)  I guess it all just depends on how you like to eat your pie (hot or cold) whether you want to experiment with xanthan gum and/or different re-heating processes.

I found that I had to bake my pie longer than the 30 minutes it should have taken.  I think this was because my dough was too wet.  I should have added a bit more rice flour to the dough before chilling it, and probably also should have dusted my surfaces with some rice flour before rolling out (I had some issues with the dough sticking to my wax paper).  You always see the TV chefs dusting their surfaces every time -- why I didn’t think to do this I have no idea.  Lol.

Finally, I am not going to calculate and give the usual nutritional information on this pie, like I do with other recipes, because, well….it’s meant to be an indulgent dessert, there’s a ton of butter in it, you're probably going to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top anyways, and....does anyone really want to know?  ;)

Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with Bell Pepper-Bacon Salsa

We have probably about twenty cookbooks in our kitchen, and while we don’t seem to use them as much as we’d like to, we have been making it a point more and more to flip through those pages and try new things.  One of the books we love is by local celebrity chef Ming Tsai.  If you are ever in the Boston area and have a chance, we highly recommend you stop into his restaurant, Blue Ginger.  We’ve been there a couple of times, and have nothing but the utmost praise for everything we encountered.  Just a few of the dishes I can recall off the top of my head right now are: Ginger Ale (with Ginger Candy) homemade from scratch, an incredible Osso Buco, and Chocolate Chip Green Tea Mint Ice Cream (omg).  The menu rotates and changes periodically, using what’s good and in season at the time, and everything is made in-house.  The portions are not overwhelmingly large, but nor are they not too small (they are just the right size that you can have a three course meal and be perfectly satisfied -- you will never go home hungry; and sometimes might even take a little bit of leftovers with you).  There is even an extensive gluten-free menu.  As a bonus, on any given night you can see Ming himself working in the kitchen and strolling through the dining room conversing with guests.  He even quite thoroughly enjoys autographing cookbooks for you if you so desire.  This is one down-to-earth and genuinely pleasant guy.

Today’s recipe is one of Ming’s, which we found in his book, East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai.  This Southwestern-style soup is ready for Autumn -- it's hearty and sweet, but still has some of the zing we love.  And it has bacon, so who can argue with that?!?  :)


Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with Bell Pepper-Bacon Salsa

SALSA INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices of bacon
• 1 small red onion, cut into a 1/4 inch dice
• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into a1/4 inch dice
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of 1 lime

SOUP INGREDIENTS

• 5 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 small white or yellow onions, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon pureed chipotles in adobo
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into a 1/2 inch dice
• 6 cups Chicken Stock or low sodium canned broth (for this particular iteration of the recipe, I used Swanson Natural Goodness 100% Fat Free 33% Less Sodium Chicken Broth)
• 6 tablespoons butter, chilled and roughly chopped
• Juice of 1/2 lime

SALSA DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the bacon until crisp.  Crumble it and set to the side.
2. Pour most of the bacon fat into a heat-proof container, leaving only enough left in the pan to coat the pan lightly.  Reserve the bacon fat.
3. Add the onion and red pepper to the same pan used for cooking the bacon, and sauté over medium heat, stirring, until brown (about 5 minutes).  Season to taste with the salt and pepper (I tend to use minimal salt, personally).
4. Add the crumbled bacon and the lime juice.  Re-season if necessary, transfer the salsa to a bowl, and set aside at room temperature.

SOUP DIRECTIONS

1. Return the reserved bacon fat to the same pan and place over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, onions, and brown sugar, season with the salt and pepper to taste (again, minimal salt for me), and sauté, stirring, until the vegetables are brown (about 5 minutes).
2. Stir in the chipotle puree and wine, and cook over medium heat until the mixture is reduced by about three-fourths, approximately 5 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potatoes and stock and simmer until the potatoes are very soft, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Using a hand blender or regular blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture. Add the butter one piece at a time, blending again after each addition, to thicken the soup slightly. Stir in the lime juice and correct the seasonings.
5. Immediately ladle into bowls, spoon a portion of the salsa onto each and serve.

We got 6 fairly large servings (about 1.75 cups of soup + 4 tbsp salsa), each with:

• 284 calories
• 7 grams protein
• 26 grams carbs
• 14 grams fat
• 3 grams fiber
• 815 mg sodium

This was a recipe that I had made many months ago, but I am now realizing that we happen to have a lot of these ingredients on hand at home right now (specifically chipotles in adobo that I was wondering how we'd use up), and so I think we should make this soup again very soon!  :)