Cheesy potato and leek soup

Sometimes you just have to work with what you’ve got. And I have a lot of potatoes, leeks and cheese available to me at the nearby market! This is nothing to complain about…I often craved a leek and a good hunk of cheese while I was in the States. So here is a simple, hearty soup that you can modify to your own tastes. Use yellow onions instead of leeks if you like, add some carrots or peas, and maybe a little diced ham if you would like.

For those of you who are curious about how the gluten free baking is going, I am almost through the stash of sorghum flour that I brought with me and I have not found any yet at the African markets nearby where we live. I have found tapioca starch at the Asian market nearby, as well as Fou Fou flour, or manioc/cassava flour, which is similar to tapioca starch. There is also an abundant and inexpensive supply of potato starch, which I may begin to substitute for cornstarch in my quick breads and cakes. Seeing though as I have not found an acceptable substitute for my staple flour, sorghum, I may have to order a bulk supply of sorghum flour from the States, which will, believe it or not, be considerably less expensive than using any of the gluten free baking mixes I have found here, and I just love that flour for its taste, texture and health. It is an exciting adventure to experiment with locally available grains! But I am definitely missing the incredible variety of gluten free options that I previously enjoyed. Anyway, perhaps I will find some sorghum flour in Paris at one of the African markets there.

Cheesy Potato and Leek Soup

• olive oil
• 2 large leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and sliced thinly (or 1 large yellow onion, diced)
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced.
• 5 to 6 medium yellow potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks or half moon slices
• salt and pepper
• 4 cups of chicken broth (gluten free)
• 4 T butter
• 2 T cornstarch
• 1 C milk
• 2 C shredded cheddar cheese
• optional: some diced ham

In a soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium to medium high heat and sauté the leeks until they are wilted and perhaps a little golden. Add the minced garlic, some salt and pepper to taste and cook for another minute. Add the diced potatoes and the chicken broth and simmer the soup for about 30 minutes. During the last ten to fifteen minutes of the soup’s cooking time, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the cornstarch to form a roux. When the roux is bubbling and fragrant, stir in the milk, and heat the mixture until it thickens, stirring frequently. Then add the cheese and stir until the sauce is smooth. Take your potato and leek soup of the heat and stir in the cheese sauce until everything is well incorporated. Also add some chopped ham at the end if desired.

Cornbread stuffing with bacon and apples

I wanted to post this before Thanksgiving, but I still needed to perfect the recipe. Well perfect it is, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Really, this stuffing easily could win in a contest with gluten filled competitors. Serve it with pride (maybe for Christmas), no apologies necessary. And, of course, if you like gluten, you can substitute the sorghum, tapioca and cornstarch for 1 C all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum. Bake the cornbread the day before you plan to make the stuffing and let it dry out a bit overnight so that it will soak up the chicken stock the next day. This recipe serves 6 to 8 people – if you are serving a crowd, double the recipe, and consider cooking the stuffing in a large crock pot, 1 hour on high and 4 to 8 hours on low, to free up some oven space.

Cornbread

• 1 C cornmeal
• ½ C sorghum flour
• ¼ C cornstarch
• ¼ C tapioca flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/3 C sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 C milk
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/4 C melted, salted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly in a mixing bowl. Pour the batter into a greased square pan and bake for 20 to 23 minutes. Allow the cornbread to cool, then cut it into cubes. Spread the cubes out on a large baking sheet and allow them to dry out overnight.

Stuffing

• Cubed cornbread
• 6 strips of bacon
• 1 large onion
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 green apples, diced or 1/2 C sweetened dried cranberries
• 1 T sage
• 1 tsp thyme (or 1 1/2 T of poultry seasoning for sage and thyme)
• salt and pepper
• 1 beaten egg
• ½ C heavy cream
• 1 C gluten-free chicken broth

In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until it is crispy. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate to cool. Saute the diced onion, celery, and carrot in the bacon drippings until everything is very soft. Add the sage and thyme, as well as a little salt and ground black pepper to taste. Add the green apple and cook for another couple of minutes. Toss the cubed corn bread, the sauteed vegetables and the reserved bacon, crumbled, in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Whisk together the egg, heavy cream and chicken broth. Pour the liquid over the cornbread mixture to soften. Cook the stuffing in a 375 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is brown on top. Alternatively, you can cook the stuffing in a small crockpot on high for 1 hour and then on low for another 4 to 8 hours.

Spaghetti and meatballs

The extra time you spend preparing this sauce yourself, instead of opening a jar of store bought, will be well worth your effort. This recipe will feed quite a few hungry people, about 8 to 10 good size servings. I don’t explicitly state this in the recipe, but it is important to verify that your ingredients are gluten-free. Check the labels on tomatoes, cheese, and meats, and call the manufacturer for verification if you have any doubt. This would also be a fine time to utilize your food processor if you have one, as the most time consuming element of the recipe, besides the browning of the meatballs, is chopping the vegetables for the sauce. But I don’t recommend you chop your onions in the food processor – it seems to really let those eye irritating onion juices permeate the air, and your guests might shed a tear or two when they walk in your door.

Marinara sauce:

• 1/3 C olive oil
• 1 large onion or 2 small onions, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 2 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ½ C white wine (optional)
• 2 28z cans of crushed tomatoes
• 1 14.5z can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1 T of dried basil

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion, carrot, and celery, as well as the garlic, salt and pepper to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes. Add in the white wine and cook for another minute. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low heat with the lid askew on top of the pot.

Meatballs:

• 1 lb ground beef or turkey
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 C Italian blend of shredded cheese
• ¼ C parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 T chopped garlic
• ¼ tsp ground pepper
• a few pinches of nutmeg

Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix them with your hands until everything is combined. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Form the meatballs into balls the size of large golf balls. Brown them on all sides in batches in the skillet, turning gently with some tongs. When browned, deposit them gently into the marinara sauce. Simmer the sauce and meatballs for at least an hour, and preferably more toward 3 hours. Serve over brown rice pasta with a side salad.