I am currently making creamy tomato curry chicken veggie rice soup. Say that 10x fast. So far, it tastes good. But I need to let the rice (and the flavours) cook. I can smell the aromas wafting around my house as we speak. De-e-lish.
However, I tried making dairy-free gluten-free quinoa cranberry orange cookies last night.
The first batch of cookies came out crumbly. Or should I say, as crumbles. (No, flax water did not work well as an egg substitute.)
So I chucked in an egg for the next batch. Came out as cookies, but kind of, well, flavourless and a bit dry. Hot from the oven, and slathered with butter, they are edible. If I double-baked them I might be able to turn the batter into an acceptable biscotti.
Speaking of other cooking accomplishments, I came in second at my church's annual chilli cook-off. Kind of exciting since I beat the senior pastor, who is a professional chef. ;)
What made my chilli so amazing, you ask? (I don't know, I actually voted mine third, with pastor's as second.) But I'll tell you what was in it, if I can remember!
Chili-seasoned ground pork (yes I cheated a bit, but I made it right after church so i didn't have time to let the flavours simmer like everyone else did); quinoa; a bean trio I got from Costco comprised of mung beans, lentils, and adzuki beans; black beans; chili powder of course; roasted onions, celery and garlic, tossed in olive oil and crushed sea salt; diced tomatoes, tomato paste; honey... and I can't remember what else. (I cook based on intuition and smell, and I usually have a flavour or taste or sense in my mind of what I want, and cook toward that.) Oh right. I fried up bacon and tossed the vegetables in that when roasting them. I wanted a smoky flavour to my chilli and that was the only thing I had that was smoky. Plus, bacon makes everything better. (The chilli that I voted as #1 was ridiculously smoky. It was incredible. They used BBQ sauce, of all things.)
I've been on a quinoa kick lately. I got a quinoa cookbook for Christmas and have been poring over the recipes avidly. I have attempted a couple - well, the concepts - and both times they've come out a little less...just less... than I'd expected. But that's entirely my fault. I am a very spontaneous and adventurous cook and I usually don't use recipes for anything other than inspiration. Then again, I rarely bake - and the lesson I am learning is, recipes must be followed when it comes to baking! Someone gave me the advice of not to change a recipe until I've first done it to the letter. The next time start to make changes. Good advice that I think I will stick to, if I can. ;)
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