Marta jest uparta's Profile

Your lead-in made me a bit nervous! I was afraid you might go the other direction with this post.

The taste difference is not even arguable; fresh citrus far surpasses the bottled stuff. And I personally love the feeling of pressing the juice out of citrus using a citrus squeezer! I think it's one of those small kitchen pleasures. I usually just need to do one or half of one lemon or lime at a time, but even when making something that requires the juice of several fruit, I don't consider it to be time consuming (relative to other truly laborious but worth it prep tasks).

What I'd love to know is whether anyone has a guide for using fresh citrus juice rather than bottled for canning, since I'm planning to get into it this year. I know the bottled stuff is usually recommended for its consistent acidity, but canning has been around for much longer than bottled citrus, so surely there's a way to do it using fresh citrus?

I do think some readers need to lighten up about the weekly topics. It's one week. Are people so closed-minded that they can't give up gluten recipes for a week? I'm not gluten free but I have a few people in my life who I might like to make a few treats for. Besides, a lot of recipes featured aren't even based on substitutions, rather they simply celebrate all that is naturally gluten free and delicious in the world.

Anyway, it's too bad that people seem to have had bad experiences with this book. I was excited to see a gluten free recipe that was a little less processed, in that this one doesn't have xanthan or guar gum or any other specialized ingredients. I personally have no desire to keep those around but am happy to keep some alternative flours around, because I think I can benefit from a little variety, as long as the results are good. I checked the reviews on Amazon out of curiosity, and they are mixed, but there are a lot more positive than negative reviews. I'm curious to hear from other people who've tried the recipes.

Forgot to post the link, oops!
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/03/banana-ice-cream-recipe/

If you want to avoid iffy ingredients, cashew cream is a yummy homemade alternative. Soak cashews about four hours (two hours is an acceptable amount of time in a pinch, but no longer than 7-8, as the cashews can develop off flavors), drain, then blend with just enough water to get things running, a pinch of salt and an acid – my default is apple cider vinegar but lemon juice, other vinegars or a combination can also be great depending on what you're going for. Blend until thick and creamy, adjusting salt and acid for flavor, and adding a bit more water if necessary to get it to the right creaminess. I find it's best to let it set up in the fridge for a bit, where the cashews further absorb the water and it thickens to a delicious consistency, but it can be used right away.

Yum, I've actually been meaning to try this dish for a while. This version looks delicious, I'll have to make it soon.

Yum! I love za'atar, I like to brush pizza with it.

But popcorn, I've never thought of; how fun!

I make almond milk at home sometimes, so I can control how rich I make it. I personally use a higher almond to water ratio than I see in most recipes because I like my almond milk a bit thicker. Of course, it is still water-based, but the almond milk I make is certainly richer than the ones from the store. Most commercial almond milks add thickeners and stabilizers. I'm guessing they do this so they can use less almonds to keep costs down, and then they try to replicate the body by adding the thickeners. Obviously, it's not a fair trade off.

You know, I've never really noticed its warm quality until you mentioned it, but you're right!

Yum – This may be my first sweet treat of the new year! I'd love to experiment with making this cake using a fruity olive oil. Sounds delicious to me, but let me know if there's something particular about this cake that you think won't play well with the olive oil flavor.
Thanks!

Send them to me!

That related link up there adds the good ideas of muhammara spread and pumpkin-walnut purée for ravioli filling.

Walnut pesto is another option that comes to mind.
I like to add chopped walnuts to stuffing used for filling stuffed veggies. In the summer I like to do stuffed round zucchini with beluga lentils, bulgar, chopped walnuts, parsley, mint, dried apricots, olive oil & lemon juice. I think a variation with winter squash might be nice too. Or maybe you could work them into your Thanksgiving stuffing.
There's also the Mexican dish, Chiles en Nogada, stuffed poblanos in walnut sauce.

On the sweet side, baklava is a good way to use up a good amount of walnuts.

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/fig-salami-097690
That fig salami includes walnuts as well.

But really, save yourself the trouble and send them to me. :)

I second the coconut milk and the soaked cashews. Though, I've always heard cashews shouldn't be soaked more than 6-7 hours, because they will turn bitter. I find that four hours is enough time for them to soften up to be turned into a super smooth cashew cream with little water in a high speed blender.

Here's a lovely Thai red lentil soup with coconut milk from Ottolenghi. It's a staple at my house:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/26/thai-red-lentil-soup-new-vegetarian-yotam-ottolenghi

Also, I've made a roux with chickpea flour and coconut or olive oil, and it comes out great. It was for a chickpea gumbo so the flavor was appropriate, but I think there are puréed soup recipes that might also benefit from the nutty flavor. Also, there are plenty of other alternative flours to experiment with depending on the flavor profile you're going for. Rice flour might be a good relatively neutral one.

It's cool that you're making an effort to keep cooking together despite the challenge.