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KimiHarris

Cassava Egg Noodles

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I love these noodles in a rich homemade chicken noodle soup. But my family also enjoyed them in a variety of noodle dishes. They are tender, grain-free, gluten-free, and delicious. Homemade noodles are the perfect comfort food, and who doesn’t need a little comfort food right now? We happily ate our way through various adaptations of this recipe. 

Cassava flour is made from the whole cassava root and as such is grain free. It should not be confused with tapioca flour, which is its refined counterpart. Cassava flour is loved for its more neutral flavor, and its ability to be used more readily in replacement of wheat flour. 

What brand to buy? While I haven’t tried all of the brands out there, I do know that different brands may result in slightly different results. I had success using Otto’s Cassava flour, Thrive Market Cassava flour, and Pamela’s Cassava Flour. (By the way, I love ordering from Thrive Market! You can sign up with my partner link if you haven’t already.)

Are these noodles like wheat noodles? 

In short, no. They are going to be more fragile. I still miss the days of making regular noodles, as gluten makes a strong noodle. You are going to have to use a light touch when handling these, and don’t get frustrated if they break into smaller pieces. That said, they are delicious when cooked, and with practice, I’ve been able to whip these together quickly. 

Ways to Enjoy Cassava Noodles: 

  • Delicious in soup, such as the classic chicken and noodle soup
  • Scrumptious served with melted butter and parmesan
  • Serve with a traditional tomato meat sauce

Cassava Egg Noodles 

2-3 servings 

  • 1 cup of cassava flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil (or oil of choice)
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • Salt for boiling water

(This recipe can be doubled, just boil in a large pot.) 

1. Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil on the stove while preparing noodles. 

2.  In a medium-sized bowl, stir together flour and salt. Add the egg, oil and water, and whisk together until the mixture forms into a dough. Gently knead with your hands. The dough should be fairly firm, but not dry (or wet). You can add more flour or water, as needed.

3. Roll out on your largest cutting board (can do in batches if needed): Dust surface with extra flour, place dough on top, and dust flour on top of the dough. Using a gentle touch, roll out the dough into a rectangle, until it gets between ⅛-¼ inch thick. 

4. Cut the rolled-out dough into desired size strips using either a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. I’ve cut them into tiny strips, and also into wide fettuccini sizes trips (around ½ inch). 

5. Salt the boiling water well, and add noodles to the pot. You want to keep the water at a gentle simmer. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until the noodles are just soft and cooked through, but still a little firm. Pour through a heat-safe sieve in the sink and give a quick rinse with cold water. 

6. Serve right away as desired.

How to Make Whipped Dalgona Coffee with Mushroom Coffee Option

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It apparently started as a craze in South Korea, and now is tearing its way through the U.S –- some have dubbed it the “quarantine coffee,” though it’s most often known by the name “Dalgona coffee.” Of course, I had to try it out. What alchemy is this! You put together some hot water, instant coffee, and sugar of choice, and it whips up like whipping cream.

My husband and I weren’t really sure that we would like it, but once spooned on top of milk over ice, it’s a deliciously sweet coffee drink that is an easy treat to make at home. We are sold! 

I had to dig out my instant coffee stash from our camping supplies for our first batch, but then I had an epiphany — what about my instant mushroom coffee? This is an instant coffee blend mixed with good-for-you mushrooms. It also happens to be the one coffee I can always tolerate. 

I liked the version with mushroom coffee even better. 

Some tips on supplies and methods: 

  • Instant coffee is good to have on hand not simply for coffee making but to use in baked goods. Try adding a teaspoon or two to your next brownie batch, and see how coffee makes the flavor richer and more robust. 
  • We used this brand of instant coffee. However, this brand has gotten thumbs up as one of the better ones. You can also find instant organic coffee (for our normal coffee habits, we try to pick organic since coffee beans can be heavily sprayed during the growing process). Also, this is a heavily caffeinated drink, but you can use decaf as well. 
  • This is the brand of mushroom coffee that I adore. It’s one of the only coffee brands I always tolerate. 
  • You want to use neutral milk for this. I tried coconut milk, and it was pretty strong in flavor (it helped once I watered it down some). Normal milk is ideal, but for those of us who are dairy-free, use the most neutral milk you have. 
  • We are trying to really keep our sugar consumption low right now, so we ended up trying out xylitol instead of regular white sugar, and it worked perfectly! I’ve also heard of people using coconut sugar with success. 
  • If you don’t have a hand mixer, I’ve heard that whisking vigorously by hand works or using a hand frother. One chef even shook it by hand in a mason jar! 
Incredibly delicious, but super easy, this coffee uses instant coffee to make whipped coffee foam.

Whipped Coffee 

  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee 
  • 1-2 tablespoons of sugar of choice (evaporated cane sugar, coconut sugar, and xylitol are all good choices) 
  • 2 tablespoons hot water 
  • Ice and milk for serving 
  1. Put all three ingredients in a heat-safe bowl, and then beat with an electric beater for 2-5 minutes, until the mixture resembles whipped cream texture. 
  2. Put ice in a cup, and pour milk of choice until 2/3s full. Spoon whipped coffee on top, and enjoy. 
This delicious and healthy version of “Dalgona coffee” is made using instant mushroom coffee. I love it with a neutral dairy-free milk with a little vanilla added to it.

Whipped Mushroom Coffee 

  • 1 packet of mushroom coffee *
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar of choice (evaporated cane sugar, coconut sugar, and xylitol are all good choices) 
  • 2 tablespoons hot water 
  • Ice and milk for serving 
  1. Put all three ingredients in a heat-safe bowl, and then beat with an electric beater for 2-5 minutes, until the mixture resembles whipped cream texture. 
  2. Put ice in a cup, and pour milk of choice until 2/3s full. Spoon whipped coffee on top, and enjoy. 

* One packet of mushroom coffee isn’t a tablespoon of instant coffee. It worked well despite that, but the foam was softer likely because it was half the amount. You can use two packets for a whole tablespoon, if desired.

Making a Beautiful Pancake Charcuterie Board

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The quarantine life inspires creativity in the kitchen and the trend for pancake charcuterie boards is one of the finest examples I’ve seen. Also — one of the more delicious ideas out there. It’s a simple concept: load a board up with pancakes, and then put toppings and sides around it and allow everyone to serve themselves. 

This would make a delicious Easter brunch idea, weekend meal, or a fun dinner for cooped up children.

I tried this out on my family, and it was a huge hit! 

What do I like about it? For those of us struggling to get our pantries and fridges full of the basics because of the extreme shopping and unstocked grocery store shelves, this allows you to use whatever you have on hand. Toppings can include peanut or nut butter, jam, or honey, maple syrup, homemade syrup, berry syrup made from frozen berries, whipped cream with caramel sauce or chocolate syrup, fresh berries, and more! 

A Beautiful Pancake Charcuterie Board!

Use what you have on hand, and enjoy. Like the perfect black dress, you can make this super fancy, or super simple. You can serve on whatever platter you have on hand, though I love using the traditional wooden serving board.

We made a version of this for our dinner the other night and this is what we did: 

  • Caramelized applesauce (I had some apples that were going bad, so I needed to use them right away. We diced them, added lemon zest and lemon juice, sweetener, cinnamon, dried ginger, and a dash or two of salt. Poured a little water in and roasted it in an oven for an hour and a half at 350F in a Dutch oven, covered. AMAZING). 
  • Fresh Blueberries 
  • Pure Maple syrup 
  • Sausage 
  • Gluten-free Pancakes and Coconut Flour Pancakes 
  • A simple strawberry syrup made from frozen sliced strawberries, and a little evaporated cane sugar and water (cook until syrupy in a pan). 
  • We kept the pancakes warm in the oven, so we could serve them all at once.

Recipes to inspire your pancake charcuterie board:

Why I’m Spatchcocking My Turkey This Year

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This method has many advantages, including a super fast cooking time, and moist, delicious meat.

Turkey is the centerpiece of most Thanksgiving tables, yet it’s also the hardest to cook correctly. If you undercook it, food poisoning is a possibility, but if you overcook it, the breasts can be dry and unappetizing. 

My solution for the past five years or so has been trying out different forms of brining. My go to is this dry brine – I love not having to deal with a lot of liquid (as well as not having to find a large enough container for said turkey and brine). A dry brine still gives you the flavorful benefits of a brine as well as a juicy turkey. 

However, I think spatchcocking makes my recipe even better. Spatchcocking is when you remove the spine of the turkey, and roast the turkey flat. This has significant benefits, the biggest that it cooks very fast. I cooked a 16 pound turkey in a little less than an hour and a half. Wow! But it also gets the turkey’s skin delicious, crisp and brown, and even better –roasts the turkey evenly – so the legs and breasts get done at the same time. 

While you won’t be able to stuff your turkey this way (an option that many experts say not to do anyway), the benefits far outweigh that fact. 

But before I send you all scurrying to try this out yourself, I do want to honestly share our experience testing this method out. 

  1. It’s not at all hard to spatchcock a chicken with a sharp knife or kitchen shears. I had a harder time with a turkey. My husband, with his stronger hands, ended up helping me out with this part. I prefer kitchen shears, but do expect to have to use some oomph on this part. 
  2. When I pressed down on the turkey to flatten it after the backbone was removed, a large squirt of turkey juice sprayed across the kitchen floor. Oops. 
  3. Most recipes I found used a very hot oven for this method. This ended up causing a lot of smoking. For Thanksgiving, I plan on turning the oven down a bit after the first 20 minutes, and also adding water to the bottom of the pan to hopefully prevent that from reoccurring. 
  4. Our turkey was hefty at 16 pounds, so it just barely fit on our sheet pan once flattened. I would say it needs to be 16 pounds or less, so this method won’t likely work for larger birds unless you split the turkey in half and roast on two pans. 

Despite those disadvantages, our “test” turkey turned out so well cooked and delicious we all decided this was a method we simply had to do again. Paired with the salt brine? Amazing. 

I don’t want to give my own directions yet, as I still want to experiment with this method, but here are a couple of recipes showing how to spatchcock: Example one, two, and three.

And here is my dry brine recipe!