book review: Baking with Agave Nectar

i was recently at a friends house when i saw this great book Baking with Agave Nectar. she's letting me borrow it for the next few days where i have been making baked goodies non-stop.
we personally use agave, and lately many have been asking about canning w/ agave (of which i have no idea), but i was really interested in this book because the holidays are quickly approaching and my mother is diabetic...i would love to have her enjoy something without her blood sugar spiking while eating a "hippy" sugar.the book has a few pages introducing agave and the author's (whole food Chef Ania Catalano), personal experience with the product (and like my mother a diabetic). the end of the book contains a good little glossary and resource section, which honestly for how small the book actually is, Catalano really packs a good amount of info. and with over 100 recipes, Baking with Agave Nectar covers a pretty wide selection: vegan, gluten-free, breakfast goodies, cookies, healthy stuff for kids, pies/tarts, even sorbets and sweet sauces. What i love most is that there are a few recipes for crusts! so far i have made a few things- and i like them! that alone makes it well worth the price, especially if you are looking for ways to kick the sugar habit.

here is one recipe from the book:

ORANGE PECAN GRANOLA (vegan)
from, Baking with Agave Nectar by Ania Catalano

• 1c. oat bran, 1 c flax seed meal, 1c almond meal
  
• 1/4 c sesame seeds
• 1 3/4 c unsweetend applesauce
• 1c light agave
• 1 tbsp vanilla, 1 tbsp orange extract
• 2 1/2 tbsp cinn
• 1 tsp fresh nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4c canola oil
• 1 cup currant/raisins (or cranberries)
• 1 1/2c pecans (or something else!)

heat oven to 300. combine all ingredients except nuts. after add nuts and spread on a baking sheet (w/ oil). bake until slightly golden/1 hr, stir occasionally. remove from oven, add raisins and let cool. lasts 2 months.
PS: there is also a recipe for agave margaritas!-YUM more on that later!
and just in case you were interested in how agave is harvested, see below!

enamel cast iron alternatives-Greenpots

i can fair very well in my shoebox kitchen with my small, budget friendly supplies and equipment...that is a the whole point of this blog-doing it small-scale, on the cheap and consciously.
but that doesn't mean a girl can't dream. in my dream kitchen, there a just a few things that i would LOVE to have (or have the room for): Vita-mix, food mill (soon!), a commercial oven, a huge antique prep counter and Le Creuset cookware.
Le Creuset, a french company has been making porcelain cast iron cookware since 1925, and if you are familiar with them, you are first familiar with their high price tag ($200 + for a dutch oven, for starters). but they are great for cooking and look absolutely beautiful. now don't get me wrong, i am still an advent follower of using La Chamba cookware, which i will talk about in detail in future CSA cooking, but one really can't beat the heavy bottom of these cast iron beauties for making candy and other treats, plus...well yes, they are gorgeous.
i was lucky enough to find one at the 127 yard sale, albeit a SMALL one but for only $5, it was the score of a lifetime, but recently a friend (who knows i have been oogling her Le Creuset wedding gift) sent me a link to a new company Greenpots, who are making affordable versions.

(7 1/2 qt. at $128)

(7 1/4 qt. at $310)

looks the same right. well they are except that one is 1/2 the price and not made in France. if you are not into brands i would consider getting one.
PS. my birthday is May 5th.

chocolate covered macadamia nuts-EASY!

some friends came over last night and i made several things in anticipation of secret fork- potato soup with curly kale w/ grilled sausage(thank you Alice Waters!), roasted garlic heads, fresh guacamole, mixed green salad (from a basket of food that Kelly from Backyard Beekeepers sent me!) with this super easy dressing that i do, my soon to be famous kumquat margaritas and the best of all-chocolate covered macadamia nuts!
we usually get a small bag of shelled macs in our CSA, personally i am not the biggest fan (i know already!). what i usually do with them is toast them and put them on salads of grind them up good and put them in a lentil nut loaf.
several glasses of wine lead me to making these treats that are great if you are having people over and want a quick dessert that is yummy and original.
-in a double boiler (or you can do a ghetto double boiler like i did below), heat up 1/2 of a large bar of chocolate-you can get this on the cheap at your local Fresh and Easy.-make sure someone in watching the chocolate please, burnt chocolate is nasty! keep stirring around , they water should be just below boiling-about medium heat on the stove.
-tear off a piece of parchment paper and line a cookie sheet, smash up a small bag of macs with a hammer and spread on the paper. when the chocolate is nice and melted, drizzle on the nuts.
-sprinkle half with feur de sel (LOVE) and the other half with the dried pepper salt, and put it in the fridge for 1/2 hour or more (play a board game or a round of Uno, have a glass and by the time you remember why you started playing the game in the first place, the chocolate should be ready).

cast-iron cleanup

cast iron is one of the best things to use in cooking. not only does it last a long time, it provides small amounts of iron to food (great for women). and don't believe the hype-with proper seasoning cast iron is NON-STICK. if you are having a problem, you didn't season it right (or at all).
but probably the best thing about cast-iron is that you can find it cheap in thrift stores-like what happened to me recently during a recent visit to the Salvation Army. for $2, i picked up this adorable little cast-iron pot which is perfect for making sage butter for my squash gnocchi (will discuss later).

now as you can see the only problem is that this little pot has seen better days-it is dirty and covered with rust. what to do? it is actually very easy:
1. take either sandpaper or steel wool and scrub the crap out of it, make sure you scrub the rusty parts especially well.
2. rinse the pot and check for rust, scrub again.
3. give a good soap + warm water wash
4. cover the ENTIRE pot (inside and out) with a good layer of shortening, applying it with a paper towel-like to use a veggie-based/organic one. i have found that shortening is the BEST way to season cast iron (other people say an inch of oil in the pan-don't listen to them).
5. put the pot in a baking dish-or better yet, another cast iron piece (re-seasoning the other item!) and put in a 300 degree oven for 1 hour.
6. turn off the oven, leave the items in there until cool, wipe away excess oil.
check it out!!
washing cast iron: warm water (DO NOT SOAK) and a thorough dry. i usually just wipe it clean with a clean cloth and hang it up. i am seriously thinking about rehabbing old/vintafe pots and selling them!

quick and easy dressing

we have it completely wrong when it comes to dressing- we smother everything in this chunky sauce (which is not completely bad, i do partake in the heavy sauce every now and then). but what we do not realize is that we are not able to appreciate the things that are actually in the salad. this is especially important when eating farm-fresh produce. here is the most basic dressing recipe that you can make that has been very popular here at home:

delilah's easy-peasy dressing:
(i do everything by eye, but for starters try this, after start adjusting and experimenting until you find something you like)

old tomato jar with lid
1 inch good olive oil
1 inch fresh lime or orange juice
1 inch apple cider juice
scoop of dry mustard
pepper and salt-preferable the spicy salt
if you have any onions or shallots, diced them up (about 1-2 tbs worth) too

-put all the ingredients into the tomato jar and shake well. this keeps for about a week, the shallots/onions get nice and pickily!

easy spicy salt

for several months we have been getting these dry little peppers in our CSA basket and i have had no idea what to do with them. on a recent cooking trip to Donna's house from Morning Song, we found out what to do with them-make a super cook seasoned salt! it's easy and you do not have to have Donna's peppers to make it:
-take any variety of dried peppers, about 1 cup (not packed), just make sure they are dried.
-if they need some drying, the next time you make something in the oven, after you take everything out and turn off the oven and let the peppers sit in there on a baking sheet until the oven is cool.-put the peppers in a food processor and pulse for a while, couple minutes, DO NOT try to look down into the thing while blending over an opening to the blender-that's how you end up in a lot of pain. also, be careful when dealing with the powder after-it makes me cough.
-grab an old jar and fill 1/2 with sea salt. add a few tablespoons of the pepper mix, shake and try out, adjust depending on how spicy you like things.
i use this on EVERYTHING: dressings, on steamed veggies, dips...basically on anything that calls for salt. make enough of it and it makes a unique & quick gift.