Incredible Pear Dessert.. even if you don't generally care for pears or ginger..

Last night, my husband and I had dinner with a couple of friends with a newborn baby. Hubby had been in the mood for a chilled dessert involving ginger and pears, so he'd found a recipe on Global Gourmet last week that he wanted to try. I made it last night, and it was absolutely wonderful! All four of us adults (the baby wasn't interested in anything but milk, of course) practically inhaled our dessert! Here's the recipe (with a modification or two):


Poached Pears with Ginger
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 c. sugar
3 c. water
1 c. white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
2 2-inch pieces of lemon zest (I use a vegetable peeler)
1 4-inch cinnamon stick
1 2-inch unpeeled piece ginger root, sliced
2 star anise
6 firm Bosc pears

Directions
Place sugar, water, wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, ginger root and star anise in a saucepan just large enough to hold all of the pears in a single layer. Bring the liquid to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, and cook for about 5 minutes to allow the spices to flavor the liquid.

Core and halve the pears. Carefully place the pears in the boiling liquid, adding more water, if necessary, to cover them. Return the liquid to a boil. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the pears gently until they are just tender, 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the ripeness of the pears.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the pears from the liquid and set aside. Increase the heat to high and boil to reduce the liquid to about 2 cups. Strain the sauce, discarding the solids.

If serving hot, place the pears in individual serving dishes and spoon some sauce over each.
If serving cold, place the pears in a bowl, pour the sauce over them and refrigerate, covered. The pears will keep for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Creativity born out of necessity

Earlier tonight, I started making our weekly GF/CF pizzas. In our home, I typically make the crusts and my husband comes up with awesome gourmet topping combinations. What started out as a pleasant routine ended in a manner I never suspected. You see, we normally use goat mozzarella cheese due to my husband's dairy allergies, but the store we normally buy it from was out. When it came time to choose pizza toppings, I called in the expert: my husband. We had an unusual assortment of options, most of which were very dependent on using the goat mozzarella as the cheese. My husband carefully smelled all the ingredients and started experimenting. I love watching him work his magic!  I never know what he's going to come up with. :) He mixed up some sesame tahini spread, roasted red peppers, chopped garlic, butter, lemon juice, and some spices into a pizza sauce and proceeded to spread it on one of the pizza crusts. After topping the crust with some diced sun-dried tomatoes, Al Fresco chicken sausage with jalapenos, diced onion, goat monterey jack cheese, and goat pepper jack cheese, he slid it into the oven. 15 minutes later, we tentatively took our first bite. Had the experiment worked?

It was a masterpiece! Neither one of us had ever had an "Indian" pizza before, but it was so good that I just had to share the recipe for the Indian pizza sauce my wonderful, creative husband came up with!

If you want to try making your own Indian pizza, here's the pizza sauce we made:



Indian Pizza Sauce

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 c. roasted red peppers
3/4 t. curry powder
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. McCormick's seasoned pepper blend
1/2 c. roasted sesame tahini spread
1 t. lemon juice
1 T. Earth Balance margarine

Directions
In a small cast iron skillet over medium heat, add a tablespoon of safflower (or other neutral) oil. Saute garlic until it starts turning brown, constantly stirring.  Add red peppers to the garlic and continue cooking and stirring for a couple minutes.  Stir in the spices (the pan will look very dry).  Add the tahini spread and lemon juice, mixing thoroughly.  Pour the mixture into a food processor, add the margarine, and process till smooth.  It will be a dark reddish-orange color.  Spread onto prepared pizza crust and add toppings (be sure to add chopped onion and sundried tomatoes because they really make the sauce work!).  Enjoy!

My very first blog!

I know. Why has it taken me so long to join the blogging world? Well, I can only say that:

1. It never occurred to me to have a blog, and
2. I'm still not sure I even have the time to blog.

Nevertheless, at the urging of a friend, I've decided to try my hand at blogging, for better or worse.  I suspect the topics will be greatly varied, but for now, I'm going to start off with a fantastic venison recipe that I made the other night for supper, modified from ehow.com. Please note that most of the recipes you'll see on this blog are gluten free and dairy free.  If you have no need to avoid gluten or dairy, feel free to use your usual milk, butter, and flour products instead.

Tender Venison Steaks with Mushroom Gravy
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 venison steaks
1 egg
1 c. rice milk
1 c. breadcrumbs (I throw leftover GF bread cubes into a Vita-Mix blender.)

Gravy Ingredients
2 c. rice milk
2 heaping T. sweet rice flour
2 T. Earth Balance magarine
1 1/2 c. sliced mushrooms
1 T. pepper
1 t. salt

Directions
Steaks: Beat the egg into the milk in a shallow dish that can hold a steak. Put the bread crumbs in a separate shallow dish that a steak can fit in flat.

Place 1 inch of vegetable or safflower oil in a large skillet; heat to medium temperature. Place the steaks (one at a time) in the egg/milk mixture, then in the breadcrumbs, flipping the steak to cover both sides in breadcrumbs. Put the steaks in the pre-heated oil and cook 5-6 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Gravy: Melt the margarine in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and add the two cups rice milk, stirring constantly. When starting to thicken, add the salt, pepper, and mushrooms. Reduce the heat to low and stir until mixture reaches a smooth gravy consistency.

Place one steak per plate, cover with gravy, and enjoy! This is a rich meat, so you may want to serve with a steamed vegetable or a green salad rather than potatoes.