Gluten-Free – in thriver words

What Goes Well With Green

On St. Patrick’s Day, we all wonder what goes well with green! The question is relevant whether you’re cooking or choosing clothes. This St. Pat’s Day, I’m skipping the colcannon and opting for salt potatoes.

Bag of small red potatoes spilling out on table.

This allows me to skip the kale which I do not love. Technically, I could make colcannon with an alternate green and avoid kale, but the swiftness and ease of salt potatoes appeals to my Monday sluggishness.

The first time I learned of salt potatoes, my son told me to put so much salt in the brine I thought the potatoes would be inedible. I was wrong. They were delicious.

Like many dishes, salt potatoes are a result of availability and convenience. In the 1800s, Irish immigrants who worked in the salt mines around Syracuse, New York would bring new potatoes to work and cook them in brine left from solution mining. The high salt content of the water and the small size of the potatoes meant the cooking process was quick and it yielded a filling lunch.

To make salt potatoes, all you need is salt, water, and small potatoes. Yukon Gold potatoes work well, but any new potato can be used. For visual appeal, I like a mix of jacket colors. Once the potatoes are done and in the serving dish, I let a few pats of butter melt across the top. Some people serve with melted butter for dipping.

I’ve never used a recipe for salt potatoes and I haven’t found any two that are exactly the same. Roughly, use a ratio of 2 cups of salt to 8 cups of water. You read that right, CUPS. (See why I thought it would be too salty?) Some recipes prefer 1.5 cups salt to 8 cups water, but others add another .25 – .5 cups of salt to this amount of water. In other words, there’s some flexibility.

Any kind of salt is fine, but some cooks prefer large, coarse grains that result in a more even coating on the potatoes. When the potatoes are done and removed from the brine, the skin will have a cloudy white surface that becomes more pronounced as it dries.

The process is to wash the potatoes. Add 8 cups of water to a large pot. Stir salt into water until dissolved. You can turn the burner on while you’re dissolving the salt. Once salt is all melted and water is boiling, add about 4 pounds of potatoes and boil until done – about 15 – 20 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes. Remove potatoes from brine.

At this point, you can serve with melted butter for dipping or let some butter melt over the warm potatoes. Dipping butter can be plain or enhanced with fresh herbs and/or garlic.

These potatoes are delicious alongside cabbage or any other green. They’re a great starch to serve with beef, chicken, or pork. Leftovers can be reheated or made into potato salad or hash browns.

When you’re looking for something that goes well with green, don’t be afraid to choose frugal, simple, flexible, and delicious salt potatoes!

Dessert in the Palm of Your Hand

You can use a small bowl or prepare today’s dessert in the palm of your hand.

What could it be? Here are some clues:

It originated in Italy.
It’s a little over 70 years old.
It was invented to solve a problem.
It’s delightful in the summer.
It contains chocolate.

What if I told you, it often bears a resemblance to a DQ chocolate dipped cone?

Yeah, me neither. I only recently became acquainted with Tartufo di Pizzo, an easy to make gelato and chocolate dessert which can be quickly customized for your summer party.

Around 1970, there was a wedding reception at Bar Dante in Pizzo, Italy. A chef known as Don Pippo realized he would run out of gelato molds before he shaped enough gelato for the anticipated guests. Working with what he had, Don Pippo placed a small amount of hazelnut gelato and a small amount of chocolate gelato in the palm of his hand. He added some melted chocolate and wrapped the whole thing in sugar paper creating the mound shape of the tartufos served today.

Tartufo is the Italian word for truffle and these mounds of gelato and chocolate can be rolled in chocolate to visually mimic candy truffles. Another option is to coat them with a hard chocolate shell. This is my preferred version. My grandchildren turn the shell over and use it like a bowl.

The dessert is simple to make. You only need two flavors of gelato or ice cream, semi-sweet chocolate chips, coconut oil and any add-on you’d like in the center. Many recipes call for a cherry. Some call for crushed wafer cookies mixed with coconut oil.

An easy kid-friendly version is vanilla ice cream, crushed Oreos mixed with a little coconut oil, then chocolate ice cream. The whole thing is drizzled with a melted mixture of chocolate chips and coconut oil that cools to form the shell. The kids love it!

I’m boozing-up a fresh peach with bourbon and spices to put in the center of an adult tartufo that uses butter pecan or pistachio gelato paired with vanilla. Crushed Ava organic coconut crispy rollers would be an excellent addition to surround the peach.

My neighbors heard about this plan and have volunteered to taste test as many as I’d like to make! I can experiment with multiple combinations and not worry about eating too many myself. And you won’t need to worry about my hands freezing.

I use small bowls lined with plastic wrap to hold the gelato layers. I’m pretty sure I’m too slow to avoid melting the it if I tried to use my hands. I even place the first flavor and center components in the freezer to firm up before adding the second flavor.

Once that’s complete, I freeze the dessert in the bowls overnight and coat with chocolate the next day. They need to sit in the freezer for an hour to harden the shell, then I can wrap them individually in plastic wrap until I’m ready to serve.

Even though I may have used bowls to make them, when I remove them from the freezer, I have dessert in the palm of my hand! Get some tartufos and you too can have a chocolatey, cold, and super-sweet dessert in the palm of your hand!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Five Easy Ways to Freshen Up Your Summer Menu! – in thriver words (cooking2thrive.com)

Something Icy to Cool Things Down

Another day of 110˚ weather and it’s time for something icy to cool things down. No matter how patient I am in winter, put me in a heat dome and I get grumpy quickly. I’m not the only one; everyone seems on edge when the mercury climbs above 100.

What I need, we all need, is a quick cool down. What we don’t need is to get in a hot car. I’m thinking this is a good time to try out an icy granita treat that can cool me from the inside.

A quick inventory of my refrigerator confirms I have fresh pineapple and cucumbers. They sound yummy together! Mint or cilantro would be a nice addition, but all I have on hand is basil. If I throw some in, I’ll keep it light. I’m tempted to add a little white wine since I have an open bottle I’m struggling to finish.

To begin, I’ll make simple syrup. Not only will sugar sweeten the ice, it will keep the granita from freezing too solidly. The alcohol in the wine will also inhibit freezing.

Simple syrup is just sugar melted in water. The ratio is typically 1:1. If you prefer something sweeter, rich simple syrup has twice as much sugar as water.

Dissolving sugar before adding it to a drink keeps it from landing in the bottom undissolved. It can also deliver the herby flavor I want to add to this granita. Instead of putting basil in the fruit purée, I can throw 6 or 7 sprigs into the simple syrup once the sugar has dissolved, boil it for a minute and then just let it steep for half an hour while the syrup cools. I’ll just fish the herbs out before I add the syrup to the fruit.

If I had pineapple juice, I could use it for this cold treat. I don’t. I have slices left over from the pineapple upside down cake I baked last weekend. I’ll cut these into smaller chunks and purée along with the cucumbers. I’m estimating that I’ll use 1/3 of a pineapple. I’m going to peel a large cucumber and leave a smaller one unpeeled. I’ll also cut these into small cubes before adding to the food chopper.

I want a little liquid in the chopper before I turn it on. If I have a lime, I’ll squeeze in a little lime juice. If not, I’ll probably grab that wine and drizzle in a tablespoon or so. I’ll also add a pinch of salt. I’ll slowly add simple syrup to this mixture until the taste and texture feel right. The nice thing about working with dishes like this is that I can taste along the way. There are no ingredients that must be cooked to be safe.

Once the mixture is done, I’ll pour it into a shallow baking dish and place it in the freezer. I only want it to partially freeze. I’m not sure exactly how long that will take. I’m planning to check it every couple of hours. Once much of it has crystallized, I’ll scrape it with a fork and allow it to freeze a little more. I’ll scrape again before I serve.

This is the kind of recipe I love and that drives my sister crazy. I’ve given you no specific measurements or times. That wasn’t really my plan, but I’m working around contractors in the kitchen so here we are. That doesn’t change the fact that I’ll need something icy to cool things down in a few hours.

Ahhhhh, I’m looking forward to it!

Wintery Celebrations

I’m not really used to wintery celebrations. Last year when I traveled through Texas in mid-December, it was 85˚. At home it was in the 70s. Later this week, it will approach 70. But right now, it’s cold. That has me wondering what sort of drinks I’ll serve on New Year’s Eve if the weather outside is frightful.

In 2020, my most popular drink was half passion, half green, unsweetened iced tea served in tall glasses over Sonic ice. I offered a wide variety of hot tea, hot chocolate, wine, champagne, and liquor. But as midnight approached, everyone preferred the slightly red, tangy tea.

I’m not sure if the color was part of the appeal, but red drinks seem festive, and bubbly is a New Years tradition. That makes a cranberry or pomegranate mimosa seem like an easy choice. But a cold drink when it’s -15 ˚ doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as something warm.

If I pull out the slow cookers, I can offer Red Hot Cider spiked with rum or spiced rum and a pot of Mexican Hot Chocolate. Since both feature cinnamon, it should be easy to choose snacks that will work with either drink. A pitcher of the 2020 tea and champagne for toasting will round out what I need.

The cider can be made on the stove or in a slow cooker. I find serving from a slow cooker less distracting than running back and forth to check a burner when I’m entertaining. If you have lots of guests coming, you may want to have an extra batch or two waiting on the stove to refill the slow cooker.

Red Hot Cider

Combine ½ gallon of apple juice or apple cider with ½ cup red hots. Heat on medium until the candy dissolves and the drink turns red, stirring occasionally. You don’t want to let the mixture boil or it will turn into syrup. Stir in 1 ½ ounces of rum or spiced rum.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Combine 4 Abuelita™ hot chocolate drink tablets and 16 cups of milk in a large pot. Heat over medium-high heat whisking constantly until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat and place in slow cooker to keep warm for serving. This can be mixed in advance and stored in the refrigerator for two or three days then reheated to serve. For the adult version, add Kahlua or peppermint schnapps before serving.

I plan to serve the hot cider in clear glass punch cups so we can enjoy the color as well as the flavor. If you don’t have glass cups available, Smarty Had A Party stocks clear plastic coffee/tea cups. They also have white and black disposable mugs that would work nicely for hot chocolate. In fact, they’re my go-to when I need elegant disposable anything.

Now that I have a hot drink plan, I feel warmer already. And putting a menu together is always easier when you have a starting point. I’ll be ready for a wintery celebration just in time for New Year’s Eve!