Papaya Salad Dressing

I picked up an unripe red papaya from Trader Joe's the other day ($3.29 each large). It's typically used ripened, either as an eating fruit, in fruit cocktail, or sweetened and dried in a tropical trail mix. I thought it might be a good option for a papaya salad. I'm sure it's done. Most papaya salads call for shredded green papaya; I'm assuming that the flesh stays green through the ripening phase. The partially ripened red papaya looks like an evening sunset, mostly yellow on the outer part and that characteristic salmon red color towards the center. The papaya yielded about 4 tablespoons of seeds. 

Ingredients

1 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp fresh papaya seeds
1 tbsp raw honey
2 scallions, white part only, minced
1 tsp dry mustard -or- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
pinch of sea salt

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients except for the oil. Turn the food prep on and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the dressing emulsifies.

Kitchen Notes: Cost to Make One Quart Almond Milk

People buy commercially available alternative milks because they believe it is healthier and as a convenience food. Here's the cost breakdown for the previous almond milk post:

  • One 16 oz bottle of vanilla extract (from Costco, $6/bottle) = 96 teaspoons = $0.06/tsp
  • 1 lb almond meal (from Trader Joe's, $6/lb) = 4.72 cups = $1.27/cup
  • 2 Medjool dates (from Trader Joe's, $4.49/lb) = 1.25 oz = $0.35
  • Assume cost of water is negligible

1 c almond meal = $1.27
1 tsp vanilla extract = $0.06
2 Medjool dates = $0.35

Total base cost: $1.33 per quart, unsweetened -or- $1.68 per quart, sweetened

About the same price as Trader Joe's private label unsweetened almond milk but without the fillers and vegetable-based thickeners.

Almond Milk Chia Beverage

I got tired of buying cans of 60% coconut cream. There are a few still in the pantry, but I thought I should try to make my afternoon chia beverage out of something other than coconut milk. This is what I did with the quart of almond milk I just made.

Per half-pint mason jar:

1 tbsp organic chia seeds
1 tsp raw honey
1 c fresh almond milk

Stir it together, then lid and band the jar. Put in fridge until later. Give it another stir or shake the jar before drinking.

If you want to make "pudding" out of this, simply double the amount of chia seeds.

How to Make Vanilla Almond Milk from Scratch

My biggest gripe about the rising trend in alternative "milk" beverages are all the fillers that are in an 8 oz glass of it. Take a look at the fillers in these almond milk brands:

Silk: Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Sunflower Lecithin, Gellan Gum. Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Acetate, Zinc Gluconate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D2

What the hell is "natural flavor" as its own ingredient??

Blue Diamond: Evaporated Cane Juice, Calcium Carbonate, Sea Salt, Potassium Citrate, Carrageenan, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, D-Alpha-Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E)

So Delicious: Dried Cane Syrup, Pea Protein, Rice Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Kosher Sea Salt, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D-2, L-Selenomethionine (Selenium), Zinc Oxide, Folic Acid, Vitamin B-12

Protein powder?? WTF!

Pacific Almond: Dried Cane Syrup, Potassium Citrate, Sea Salt, Carrageenan, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2

Trader Joe's: Tricalcium Phosphate, Sea Salt, Gellan Gum, Dipotassium Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)

Hands down, if you can handle cow's milk, it is the only way to go for ice cream, milk shakes, pudding, cheese, etc. When you look at the packing for organic milk, it has one ingredient: organic milk. No fillers, nada. Just juice squeezed out of cow udders. Anyhow, I think I'm going to post a homemade almond milk recipe now. 

Vinegar Pie

Happy Pi Day!

This recipe hit my radar when I was reading up on pies that people make for Pi Day (March 14). I really didn't know what I wanted to make; but I did know I wanted to make something I hadn't made before. This recipe originates from the mid-19th century and counts as a pioneer style of baking (think Little House on the Prairie). The recipe ratio comes from Michigan's MLive article on the same topic.
Unbaked pie crust, filled pie crust, baked pie, finished pie with cinnamon dusting

Ingredients

1 pre-baked coconut flour pie crust

2 large eggs
1 c organic granulated sugar, divided
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 c cold filtered water
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
ground cinnamon, for dusting
organic whipped cream, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Whisk together eggs and 1/4 c sugar in a bowl.

2. Attach a candy thermometer to the pot. In a heavy pot, sift together tapioca starch and 3/4 c sugar. Add cold water and vinegar. Whisk together and bring boil until the sugar dissolves. While whisking, add egg mixture in a slow stream. Cook over medium heat until the custard registers 175 degrees F on the cooking thermometer.

3. Remove from heat and pour into pie shell. Cover rim with a pie shield or aluminum foil. The hot pie plate was too much for me and I just let the crust get really dark without either method in play. Bake until the pie filling is set, 15-20 minutes.

4. Let cool completely on a rack. Dust evenly with ground cinnamon.

In this case, mine was still wobbly after cooling on a rack; so I let it chill in the refrigerator and then dusted it with ground cinnamon.

[Update: This one of the worst recipes I have ever made. It's too sweet. The filling is like a runny not-quite-soury meringue that sat out for too long on a hot day. This pie ranks up there with tuna casserole. Don't make it. Well, if you do, don't overbake the coconut crust because that thing gets rock hard!]