Book of Yum

This month after much soul and blogroll searching, I decided to adopt one of my favorite people- Diane of the Whole Gang. Diane describes herself as a gluten free food coach, and promotes whole, healthy, organic food on her blog. While recipes are just one of the features of her blog, she has a select, quality variety of recipes that appeal to me, including recipes for Gluten-Free Jalapeno Pepper Poppers and Black Bean Cakes. Tempting though these recipes are, Diane inspired me to adopt her based on one of her most recent recipes- one for Pesto Shrimp on Polenta Portobellos. Lately I’ve become obsessed with the peppery-flavor of arugula, thanks to lovely bags of the stuff available at Trader Joe’s. And, Diane’s dairy-free pesto recipe called not only for basil (one of my favorite herbs) but combined it with arugula as well as toasted pine nuts. How could I possibly resist? And I loved the idea of layering grilled portobello mushrooms with polenta and then a grilled or pan fried protein in pesto. I always try to follow recipes as closely as possible in adoptions, but in this case, I found that I was out of parsley so had to make the recipe with basil, arugula, and chives instead. I also am not tolerating garlic well these days (darned sensitive pregnant tummy) so left that out. Otherwise, though, I made her pesto as written, and found it rich but tangy. I used arrowhead mill polenta and tried microwaving it instead of boiling it on the stove, but came close to overcooking the polenta as their directions suggest far too long of a cooking time. Luckily I was able to add water and recover a nice, creamy, but thick polenta. I always like to season the polenta itself, so I added some pesto to the polenta for flavor and interest. I grilled the portobello on our gas grill and covered it with the pesto-flavored polenta and let it begin to set. I had considered using edamame for my vegetarian-shrimp substitute, but then I found a package of Tempeh in the fridge and decided to lightly baste it a mixture of coconut oil and olive oil and light salt and grill strips. It worked beautifully and added great texture to the dish. I found that once you let the polenta sit, you can also deconstruct the dish by slicing the mushroom and topping it with tempeh. Beautiful and delicious, too! I loved Diane’s idea to use arugula in pesto, as well as the fun combination of mushrooms, polenta, and protein, and I will definitely be making my vegetarian version of her dish again! This wasn’t the only recipe I made, though- I also mixed up a batch of her Amazing Toasted Mixed Nut Recipe. This dish is essentially a high protein snack of canned chickpeas and nuts, seasoned with spices and a drizzle of agave nectar. I’m not sure if it is because my oven runs hot or because my canned chickpeas were on the small side, but I found that some chickpeas burnt slightly on 400f, so next time I would either shorten the cooking time or lower the temperature. I did enjoy the seasoning (although I used smoked paprika instead of chili pepper), but I also reduced the oil since I didn’t need the extra calories. Diane is right, though- these mixed nuts (and beans!) are addicting. I enjoyed everything I made from Diane’s blog, and look forward to seeing the recipes to come from this dedicated and healthful gluten-free blogger.

Farmer’s Kitchen Cafe
624 4th Street
Davis, CA, 95616
(530) 756 1862

This week we went on an epic road trip with our new gypsy van and stopped at many great gluten-free and gluten-free friendly places in California and Oregon. Over the next week or so I’ll be reporting on some new finds and some changes to some old favorites. I’ll begin with our first stop at Farmer’s Kitchen Cafe in Davis, California for dinner. I always enjoy visiting this place for its fresh, local produce and interesting gluten-free dishes. The economy has been hitting this little place pretty hard, so if you get a chance, definitely come by and lend your support to this little gem in Davis, California. The good news is that in the last month or so, the cafe has come up with a gluten-free french bread recipe good enough to please even regular glutenoids and so no longer offers any gluten products in the cafe whatsoever. (And- I’ve tried this bread- it is truly divine and even beats my favorite Bette Hagman’s french bread recipe!) The only downside is that for strict vegetarians, this bread (As well as their sandwich bun/rolls) does contain gelatin and so is not vegetarian. Vegetarians (and even vegans) can take heart, however. Although I would be happy to see more vegetarian dishes on the menu as there is definitely a preponderance of non-veg options, vegetarians can enjoy the salads, roasted vegetable dishes, soups (check on stock), a few veggie sandwich or tacos (note bread gelatin for those that are strict veggies), a veggie/casein free ravioli dish or pizza, and a rice curry dish or two. This time I had my heart set on gluten-free ravioli and was intrigued by the promise of shitake mushroom ravioli, but a sudden rush of customers meant they were out. Instead I had the butternut squash ravioli in a melted clarified butter sauce with garlic. (Marinara was also a sauce option.) I do enjoy their ravioli, but there was an awful lot of the butter/oil sauce (as well as a generous amount of garlic, but no other herbs) so next time I think I’ll go with a marinara sauce. The DH who is neither gluten free nor vegetarian in any sense of the word ordered the chicken salad sandwich with homemade pickles. (I had the pickles and let me tell you, those were some FINE and tasty pickles. I wonder if it is possible to order them with the veggie sandwiches…) He was extremely pleased with his sandwich and proclaimed the GF bread EXCELLENT. I was intrigued by the extensive dessert menu (those darned pregnancy cravings for sweets!) and ordered a strawberry lemon tart. Unfortunately there was an order mix-up and we very nearly lost our shot at the pie, but they were able to get together a last? piece of the pie for us that while not beautiful, was very, very tasty. Their gluten-free pie crust is a little thick but the filling was superb and exactly what I was hoping for with fresh strawberry slices and swirls of strawberry on a tangy-sweet lemon base.

Since we were going to be on the road for a week and I wanted to make sandwiches (and the DH couldn’t stop raving about the bread), I purchased a beautiful loaf of their gluten-free french bread, swallowing my guilt about certain non-veg ingredients that will remain nameless as well as one of their buns and a gluten-free, casein-free chocolate brownie. I have no excuse for the latter except that I have no defense against chocolate these days. The owner also kindly gave me a trial package of their newest gluten-free panko crumbs to try at home. The DH very much enjoyed these panko crumbs on the crab cake sandwich he had last time. They are made from their gluten-free breads so do contain you-know-what, but how could I possibly resist gluten-free panko crumbs?

If you are close to home or have a great ice chest, you can stock up on frozen gluten-free goods including genuinely vegetarian pizzas (some casein-free), ravioli, blueberry muffins, and more. They have a wide variety of (room temperature) dried homemade pastas that I should probably purchase- but due to the time consuming nature of pasta, they are a bit pricey for my budget at $12/lb. I’m sure they’re worth every penny, but since I can and do occasionally make my own (and I’m usually feeling guilty about how much I’ve spent on other things) I haven’t tried them yet.

Previous Posts about Farmer’s Kitchen:
Review from my first visit in April 2nd, 2007
Review from my visit in June 17th, 2008