Hello hello hello and welcome back to some!
I'm back at the blogging game, this time coming to you from a kitchen in Washington DC . As a quick background, I'm a 30 something private chef that decided to give up the sales/marketing corporate world for a little adventure to get French culinary training in Paris. After a few years in Paris, I moved back to DC and had the opportunity to work as a personal chef under a great mentor with numerous clients that included people wanting specific diets because of having cancer, gluten issues, wanting weight loss, recent heart attacks, even professional athletes....the list goes on. After a wonderful year full of great experiences, I knew it was time to fly the coop and go off on my own and now have settled in with a family in DC as their private chef and house manager. I enjoy using whole ingredients like fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, experimenting with new flours (why does brown rice flour deteriorate on its own in recipes sometimes? and what about the level of arsenic in it? ), re-introducing vegetables to children AND adults to erase past traumatic cooking experiences, and trying to perfect the ultimate meatball - I'm pretty close with my gluten free buttermilk chicken pancetta meatball. I am testing recipes daily as I cook for the family as well as being a recipe tester for Cooks Illustrated on the weekends. Unfortunately, I can only blog about my trials at work because the CI recipes have yet to be released, but I will always try to share lessons learned whenever I'm cooking. I will also try to further break into the gluten free world, as I have to cater many dishes to a family member with celiac disease. It's not a huge obstacle, and I've found that while it's a mult-billion dollar industry, cooking gluten free is not as tricky as it sounds once you are prepared with the correct substitutes and use a little imagination. Mostly, I want to inspire you with pictures of food so delicious, you can't help but get in the kitchen and start choppin'. I really believe it's about the little things, paying attention to the little details about the ingredients and your technique while you are cooking, that really make the difference between an average meal and one you will always remember.
Zucchini muffins are something I have always held near and dear to my heart. Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a Colombian grandmother that could take a pantry with nothing in it to a child's eyes (flour, canned tomatoes, old rice) and make a heart warming feast that left everyone wanting seconds - she is to this day, the best cook I know. I also have a mother who dabbled in baking from time to time, but focused her energy on growing her dental practice and becoming a successful business woman that I look up to today. Nonetheless, Mama Cuellar had a few tricks up her sleeves, one of which included her famous zucchini muffins. I asked her a few years ago if she still had the recipe, and how this magical muffin came to be. Imagine my surprise when I learned she had ripped it out of a Cooking Light magazine in the early 90s. I figure, if you can't have the original recipe, it's time to get to work to make a new one, and maybe even a new one that one day your kids will ask you about and you can tell them all about how it came to be. So, my journey began. Scouring magazines, the queen of baking herself- Ms. Stewart, Cooks Illustrated to start comparing recipes and techniques. My only other requirement was to keep the recipe gluten free. I found this recipe on Epicurious, but didn't want the barrels of oil used, the nuts, or extra spices. By all means, if you love walnuts - add em. If you see cinnamon and naturally reach for allspice, nutmeg and cardamom like me, then throw some of that warmth in there. However, I wanted to keep it simple. I substituted olive oil, because I now consider extra virgin olive oil to be more medicine than food and I love the way it tastes in baking. I've also found the Whole Foods Gluten Free flour stands up pretty well on its own giving whatever you are baking a good sturdy foundation, but I will find a cheaper way and blog about it later to make this at home so you won't have to pay $4 for a small box of it. The best part about this recipe is that you only really need a bowl and a whisk to prepare it. Any baking recipe that keeps it that simple wins my heart over every time. Enjoy!
I'm back at the blogging game, this time coming to you from a kitchen in Washington DC . As a quick background, I'm a 30 something private chef that decided to give up the sales/marketing corporate world for a little adventure to get French culinary training in Paris. After a few years in Paris, I moved back to DC and had the opportunity to work as a personal chef under a great mentor with numerous clients that included people wanting specific diets because of having cancer, gluten issues, wanting weight loss, recent heart attacks, even professional athletes....the list goes on. After a wonderful year full of great experiences, I knew it was time to fly the coop and go off on my own and now have settled in with a family in DC as their private chef and house manager. I enjoy using whole ingredients like fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, experimenting with new flours (why does brown rice flour deteriorate on its own in recipes sometimes? and what about the level of arsenic in it? ), re-introducing vegetables to children AND adults to erase past traumatic cooking experiences, and trying to perfect the ultimate meatball - I'm pretty close with my gluten free buttermilk chicken pancetta meatball. I am testing recipes daily as I cook for the family as well as being a recipe tester for Cooks Illustrated on the weekends. Unfortunately, I can only blog about my trials at work because the CI recipes have yet to be released, but I will always try to share lessons learned whenever I'm cooking. I will also try to further break into the gluten free world, as I have to cater many dishes to a family member with celiac disease. It's not a huge obstacle, and I've found that while it's a mult-billion dollar industry, cooking gluten free is not as tricky as it sounds once you are prepared with the correct substitutes and use a little imagination. Mostly, I want to inspire you with pictures of food so delicious, you can't help but get in the kitchen and start choppin'. I really believe it's about the little things, paying attention to the little details about the ingredients and your technique while you are cooking, that really make the difference between an average meal and one you will always remember.
Zucchini muffins are something I have always held near and dear to my heart. Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a Colombian grandmother that could take a pantry with nothing in it to a child's eyes (flour, canned tomatoes, old rice) and make a heart warming feast that left everyone wanting seconds - she is to this day, the best cook I know. I also have a mother who dabbled in baking from time to time, but focused her energy on growing her dental practice and becoming a successful business woman that I look up to today. Nonetheless, Mama Cuellar had a few tricks up her sleeves, one of which included her famous zucchini muffins. I asked her a few years ago if she still had the recipe, and how this magical muffin came to be. Imagine my surprise when I learned she had ripped it out of a Cooking Light magazine in the early 90s. I figure, if you can't have the original recipe, it's time to get to work to make a new one, and maybe even a new one that one day your kids will ask you about and you can tell them all about how it came to be. So, my journey began. Scouring magazines, the queen of baking herself- Ms. Stewart, Cooks Illustrated to start comparing recipes and techniques. My only other requirement was to keep the recipe gluten free. I found this recipe on Epicurious, but didn't want the barrels of oil used, the nuts, or extra spices. By all means, if you love walnuts - add em. If you see cinnamon and naturally reach for allspice, nutmeg and cardamom like me, then throw some of that warmth in there. However, I wanted to keep it simple. I substituted olive oil, because I now consider extra virgin olive oil to be more medicine than food and I love the way it tastes in baking. I've also found the Whole Foods Gluten Free flour stands up pretty well on its own giving whatever you are baking a good sturdy foundation, but I will find a cheaper way and blog about it later to make this at home so you won't have to pay $4 for a small box of it. The best part about this recipe is that you only really need a bowl and a whisk to prepare it. Any baking recipe that keeps it that simple wins my heart over every time. Enjoy!
Ok, now just give me one
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups gluten free flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup olive oil (vegetable oil will work too)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
- 2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (2 medium zucchini)
Technique:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour two 8x4x2 1/2-inch metal loaf pans. Whisk flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and lemon peel in large bowl to blend. Whisk in flour mixture. Mix in zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake breads until tester (I used a toothpick) inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. Turn breads out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and store at room temperature.)
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