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Thanksgiving Greetings: Dairy-Free Pumpkin Flan Recipe. Pumpkins originated in Mexico.

Posted on Wednesday, November 27, 2024 | Comments Off on Thanksgiving Greetings: Dairy-Free Pumpkin Flan Recipe. Pumpkins originated in Mexico.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope your feasting holiday is filled with family connection, good friends, relaxation, and the celebration of life — another year around the clock! I’m in Albuquerque with my son and daughter-in-law. It’s the three of us for Thanksgiving, by far my favorite American holiday. Before launching into sharing a recipe I prepared for our feast tomorrow, I want to shout out a big THANK YOU to Mexico for giving us the gift of pumpkins.

Ready to eat! Yum.

Pumpkins originated in North America and are thought to be around 9,000 years old. The oldest pumpkin seeds have been found in Mexico and date back to between 7,000–5,550 B.C. In Mexico, we call pumpkins calabacitas, a general term for squash. Mexico has given the world many food gifts, primarily corn, cacao, turkey (yes, turkey), tomatoes, vanilla, jicama, beans, and avocado. (Load up on your guacamole. We will be priced out of eating avocado if the US enters a trade war with Mexico.)

The word “pumpkin” comes from the Greek word pepon, which means “large melon”. The French called them “pompons” and the British called them “pumpions” before Americans changed it to “pumpkins.”  Pumpkins were a vital food source for Native Americans, who grew them along with maize and beans. This planting technique, called the “Three Sisters Method,” helped the crops sustain each other. 

Right out of the oven, Pumpkin Flan

I’ve been dairy-free for the last five years. I searched for a good recipe to substitute coconut milk instead of evaporated milk. I couldn’t find one. So, I took three different recipes with ingredients that looked appealing and modified them into one great and easy process. I used to own a gourmet cookware shop and cooking school, after all. I told myself, “I can do this!” And I’m passing it along to you.

Pumpkin Flan Recipe

Equipment: 9-1/2″ x 6″ x 3″ high loaf pan, electric hand mixer, shallow baking dish, saucepan, mixing bowls

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

First, make the Caramel Syrup:

  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (mine is from Chiapas)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine the maple syrup, sugar, ginger, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5-8 minutes until thick and syrupy. Pour caramel into a loaf pan, tilting it to evenly coat the base and sides. Set aside.

Next, make the Flan Base:

  • 1 can (13.5 ounces coconut milk
  • 1/3 cup turbinado or natural cane sugar
  • 1 can pureed pumpkin
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 6 large eggs
  • pinch of salt

In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, beat eggs until well blended. Then pour in the coconut milk, pumpkin, salt, and spices. Mix on medium speed until all ingredients are well blended. Pur the flan mixture into loaf pan on top of the caramel syrup. Set loaf pan into a larger baking dish. Fill larger pan with 1 inch of hot tap water.

Bake uncovered for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. To unmold, run a knife along the edges of the pan. Cover the pan with a serving plate and turn upside down to unmold. If the pan sticks, dip it in warm water briefly to loosen the caramel before you carefully invert the flan onto the plate.

Slice, garnish with crushed ginger snaps, and serve.

May your holidays be warm in spirit, filled with optimism and joy, and hope for a more enlightened future. All my best, Norma

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It’s September. Tomato Ginger Chutney Time. Recipe.

Posted on Monday, September 7, 2020 | 15 comments

I posted photos and ingredients of my favorite September past-time: making tomato-ginger chutney on my Facebook page. People wrote to ask for the recipe, so here it is (below).

Now this is appropriate. Did you know that tomatoes originated in Mexico as early as 700 AD? It’s no wonder I love this concoction.

Ready for the pantry … or the belly!
Try it on blue corn chips — gluten-free!

I’ve been making this condiment for 40 years every September when there is a plethora of ripe garden tomatoes. It is a ritual that started in South Bend, Indiana, where I was a young mother and met my long-time friend, Natalie Klein. We would go to farmer’s market (or grow our own) and stock up on the harvest. Over the years, I’ve adapted the flavors of Natalie’s original recipe to make it my own.

The slow simmer — ready when froth is no more

Next week, I’m taking a road trip to Indiana where Natalie and I will have a jam-making reunion. (We are both virus-free, virus-safe, super-cautious.)

Using tool to remove from hot water bath

This is a perfect accompaniment to any meat, fowl or fish dish. Schmear it on a toasted bagel, with or without cream cheese. Use it as syrup over pancakes or French toast. Gift it for the holidays. Serve it at Thanksgiving alongside your turkey.

Ready to eat!

Prep time: About an hour. Cooking time: About an hour.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups of peeled, cored and thinly sliced tomatoes (about 4-5 tomatoes)
  • 4 cups sugar (I prefer organic, cane sugar)
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 stick cinnamon, broken into pieces
  • 1/4 tsp. hot red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
  • 3 T. fresh grated ginger or 2 T. minced candied ginger
  • 1 medium navel orange, sliced thin
  • 1 small lemon, sliced thin
  • 1/2 C. chopped fresh pineapple (optional)
  • 3-4 whole cloves (optional)
Ready when slow drips from spoon — like syrup

To peel tomatoes, bring an 8-qt. pot of water to boil. Core whole tomatoes. Score an X at the blossom end with a sharp knife. Immerse in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove. Cool. Peel.

Add all ingredients to a stainless steel 4-6 qt. saucepan. Base of pan should have a thick aluminum core. Do not use a thin based pot or you will burn your ingredients. My preferred cooking vessels are made by All-Clad Aluminum, which I sold 40-years ago in my gourmet cookware shop and cooking school, The Clay Kitchen, South Bend, Indiana.

I like to recycle jelly jars, too.

First cook over low heat until sugars begin to melt. Turn burner to medium-high heat and bring to boil. Adjust heat and allow mixture to cook at low boil for about 1 hour. You can stir occasionally to make sure mix isn’t sticking to bottom of pan. You need to check the pot periodically to be sure! Safe bet: Use a jelly thermometer. Mix is done when temp reaches 220 degrees Fahrenheit.

Preparation of jars: clean canning jars. Immerse in hot boiling water just before filling. Use new canning lids and bands. Immerse these in boiling water, too, to sterilize.

Sterilizing jars. Some put theirs in dishwasher.

Use a canning funnel and insert it into the jars. Ladle mix into jars with about 1/4″ head space. Wipe rim with wet paper towel to clean off any jam residue. Place lid and band over jar top and tighten band so it is secure.

Immerse jars in an 8 qt. stock pot of boiling water. Cover. Process for 10 minutes. Remove and cool. You will hear the lids pop if the top is properly sealed. You can also press on the lid. If there is no movement, the top is sealed.

Yield: about 2 pints of jam. You can use 1/2 pint jelly jars to prepare for gifting. Natalie doesn’t do a water bath. She refrigerates jam. It will keep open and refrigerated for several months.

Lids and bands waiting in hot water

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Norma Schafer’s Red Tail Grains Cornbread–Dairy + Gluten Free

Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 | 6 comments

We are confined to a smaller lifestyle. There are limitations to what we can do, where we can go, who we can see. Many of us are suffering loss of income, family contact, financial well-being. Some of us don’t know if we can keep our homes or make the next rent payment.

I yearn for Oaxaca. I yearn to take small groups of travelers into indigenous villages in pursuit of understanding and to explore the textile traditions. I perfected a cornbread recipe in Oaxaca where I went to my local mill down the street to buy organic meal. They grind the finest cornmeal and I could not find it here — until now!

redtailgrains@gmail.com or www.redtailgrains.com

For now, I’m stuck in Durham, North Carolina until it is safe to travel again. Many of us are stuck somewhere, physically or metaphorically. (There are worse places to be stuck!) For solace, I turn to cooking — that great leveler of creative output. This falls into the category of comfort food.

At the Durham Farmer’s Market (I go early when it is safe and there are fewer people), I discovered Red Tail Grains from Mebane, NC. I’ve been using their fine stone ground corn meal for several months. It makes the finest cornbread, perfect for my lactose-free and gluten-free diet. It yields a cake-like texture with a fine crumb. I season it up like a spice cake but add Hatch Chili powder for a Mexico-style kick. Great with morning coffee, too!

Ingredients/Recipe:

  • 1 C. Red Tail Cateto Orange Heirloom Flint Corn
  • 1-1/2 C. Gluten-Free Flour (almond flour or King Arthur brand)
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. Hatch chili powder
  • 1 t. ground cinnamon
  • 1 T. ground turmeric
  • 2 T. finely grated fresh ginger
  • 1-1/2 C. almond milk or other plant-based milk
  • 1 tsp. white vinegar
  • 7 T. unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 eggs, large
  • 1/2 C. sugar

Note: To make this VEGAN, use butter and egg substitutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients and grated ginger in a mixing bowl. Make a well. Combine milk and vinegar and let it sit to clabber for at least five minutes. Beat together eggs and sugar. Add all liquid ingredients to the well and mix until thoroughly combined into a cake-like batter — the consistency of pancake mix.

Prepare a baking pan. I use a 10″ cast iron skillet, well-seasoned, lined with parchment paper. You can also use an 8″ x 8″ square glass baking dish, greased. I would also recommend lining same with parchment paper.

Pour batter into baking pan. Put onto middle rack of preheated oven. Bake 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool. Cut into squares. Will keep refrigerated for one week or you can freeze successfully.

Enjoy!

Fresh from the oven! Can you smell it?

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Cinco de Mayo Special: Norma’s Spiced-Up Corn Bread Recipe–Gluten Free

Posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 | 4 comments

It’s Cinco de Mayo. What better way to celebrate than with CORN. Native to Mexico and first hybridized right up the road from where I live in Teotitlan del Valle, corn has traveled around the world and become a food staple for many. Of course, Cinco de Mayo was invented in the USA. Read more about it HERE.

Now, for the RECIPE. What some of you have been asking for: the cornbread recipe I created and modified over many recent bakings. I think I’ve perfected it to the point that I’m ready to publish it. It is much better than the original recipe I made and posted a few months ago from Oaxaca.

Finely textured cornbread using almond flour and Gold Mine brand corn meal

The recipe uses almond flour instead of gluten-free white flour and a finely ground cornmeal, giving it a texture more like a cake than the traditional dense, gritty cornmeal one usually encounters in cornbread. If you want something more dense, use a different flour and a stone ground meal.

Assemble the following ingredients:

  • 1 cup gluten-free almond flour
  • 1-1/2 cups finely ground corn meal
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 T. ground turmeric
  • 4 T. fresh grated ginger
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 2 T. dried oregano leaves
  • 1-1/2 cups almond, coconut, rice or soy milk (for lactose free) or cow milk, if you prefer
  • 1 T. white or apple cider vinegar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Prepare a baking dish. Use any one of the following:

  • Cast iron 8″ skillet, OR
  • 8″ aluminum springform pan, OR
  • 8″ x 8″ pyrex baking dish

Grease baking dish with grape seed oil. Grape seed oil can take a high temperature without burning. If you use the springform or pyrex pan, cut a piece of parchment or wax paper in a circle 1″ larger than the circumference. Oil the paper, too. I like to use cast iron because it gives a crunchy exterior.

After removing the cornbread from the springform pan

Steps to Prepare the Batter:

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and cornmeal with all the spices, oregano, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

Combine milk and vinegar and let sit 10-15 minutes until clabbered.

Melt butter in microwave — in three 30 second increments so it doesn’t splatter or overheat.

Beat the 2 eggs with the sugar until blended, about 2 minutes.

Make a well in the flour mix. Add the milk, butter and egg mixture into the well. (A well is a deep indentation in the middle of the dry ingredients.) Mix until all the flour is absorbed into the liquid ingredients. Beat until smooth.

Pour mixture into the greased baking dish.

I grate the peeled ginger with a microplane — my new essential kitchen tool

Put on the middle rack of a pre-heated 425 degree oven. Bake 30-40 minutes until done. Test doneness with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the baking is finished. If there are particles of batter on the toothpick, continue baking, checking every 10 minutes.

Remove. Let cool. Cut into squares. Can be stored refrigerated in a sealed container for up to 5 days, or freeze. I doubt it will last 5 days and you’ll find yourself making this recipe at least weekly.

Note: you can cut down or add to the spiciness by adjusting these ingredients. I like a lot of turmeric and ginger. To me, this tastes reminiscent of pumpkin bread.

Let me know if you have any questions. norma.schafer@icloud.com

P.S. In years past, I owned and operated a gourmet cookware shop and cooking school in South Bend, Indiana. Just a little tidbit to affirm my competence in the kitchen.

This is the corn meal I love
You can also use this brand, made in Mexico–also excellent for nicuatole

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Recipe Redux: Nicuatole with White Corn Meal, Oaxaca Tradition

Posted on Thursday, December 12, 2019 | Comments Off on Recipe Redux: Nicuatole with White Corn Meal, Oaxaca Tradition

I served the nicuatole recipe I made and published last week to my Zapotec friend Janet. She said it was good, very good, but it wasn’t the traditional nicuatole recipe she was used to eating here in Teotitlan del Valle. The traditional cooks of Oaxaca use white corn, not comal (griddle) toasted and ground yellow corn, like I used. I confess, it’s what I had on hand for the cornbread and I didn’t know the difference until now!

Hence, Recipe Redux.

Honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe, vintage ex-voto

December 12 is the feast day for the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. I’m celebrating Lupita by going to a Virgin Play Day, where a bunch of us will make something related to the pre-Hispanic Goddess of Corn who is the syncretic icon more popular than the Virgin Mary or Jesus. I want to bring nicuatole to contribute to the potluck and I want it to be just like its pre-Hispanic origins.

This is a dessert I’m fond of for many reasons. It is corn. That means, it’s gluten free. I use almond milk instead of cow milk. That means it’s dairy free. (I imagine one can also substitute other nut and plant milks, too, but I think coconut milk will give a distinct flavor that will alter the taste.) This dessert is comforting, creamy, like pudding, eaten with a spoon it is almost like a mousse.

In my research, I could not find a specific recipe for a white corn nicuatole. So, I watched some videos that came up in the search — all in Spanish, and all with no measurements of ingredients provided! Traditional cooks here make food like their mothers and grandmothers — by touch, sight and consistency. Great, but not good enough for the precision we need in the USA.

White corn ground at my neighborhood mill (molino)

Receta de Nicuatole de Maiz Blanco — Las Delicias Lupita, this is a high-calorie treat that uses whole milk and condensed sweetened milk. As we would say here, muy rico. This is fun to watch to see how great food comes from humble kitchens. No measurements. I made up the recipe below from just watching and from making the previous recipe. Here, I’ve added specific measurements.

Norma’s Nicuatole Ingredients

  • 2 cups white corn, ground fine
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 cup of almond milk
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cups of white cane sugar
  • 4 pieces of stick cinnamon, broken or 1/4 t. ground cinnamon
  • 2 T. sugar colored with red food coloring

Directions:

Combine 2 cups of cornmeal and 3 cups of water in a blender and process mixture until smooth.

White cornmeal and water in blender

Note: I bought whole kernel, organic white corn that had been dried, from a puesto (stand) in the Teotitlan del Valle village market. One kilo. I’m certain it was grown on local land by her family. I then took the corn to my corner molino (mill) where the kernels were ground into a fine meal. I told them I wanted it to make atole!

Pour water/corn mixture through cheesecloth or a fine sieve to filter out any large corn particles. If you buy commercially prepared cornmeal, you probably won’t need to do this step.

Pour filtered liquid into stainless steel saucepan or heavy clay cooking pot. Put pot over a heat diffuser and turn heat to medium. Add remaining liquid and stir. Add sugar. Stir. Add cinnamon. Stir. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for the first 15 minutes. Turn heat to low, and then stir constantly for the remaining 30 minutes (45 minutes cooking time total). I set my timer to stir every 5-7 minutes until the last 10 minutes of cooking time, making sure the bottom doesn’t stick to pot.

Mixture will become the consistency of heavy cream, then thicken to a consistency of heavy porridge like Cream of Wheat. When you stir and see the bottom of the pan, you know it is done. Watch the video to see the proper consistency.

Pour the hot corn mix into a square pan. Let it cool. Top with colored sugar and refrigerate. Prepare 12-24 hours in advance to chill sufficiently so that it is firm and easy to cut into squares.

Serves 8-12, depending on portion size.

Here is another nicuatole video to tickle your taste buds for a smaller batch, but it uses GMO corn. Substitute organic.

It’s December 11 and almost 9:00 p.m. in Teotitlan del Valle as I write this. The cojetes (firecrackers) have started. There is a full moon, the last of the year. On December 12, the Dance of the Feather, Los Danzantes de la Pluma, will honor the Virgin of Guadalupe in the church courtyard. Take a taxi and come on out to join the festivities. Maybe there will be nicuatole, too.

Teotitlan del Valle traditional cook prepares nicuatole

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