Depression Pandemic Baking: Scones (gluten free, dairy free)

 Today I looked at a job ad and immediately fell into a deep depression. Nobody will ever hire me! I am DOOMED if we stay here, doomed!!

Then I made some scones and ate too many. I have regrets and I'm still depressed, but they are extremely tasty.

If you eat wheat and dairy I recommend the original recipe.

 

Depression Scones

Makes 12?

1 c fine cornmeal

1 c rice flour

1/2 c coconut flour

1stick margarine (I like the country crock pretentious " plant butter" one)

1/2 c canola oil

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/2 c sugar (I like turbinado)

1/2 c diced candied ginger, if you want, or something else flavorful

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

About a cup canned coconut milk

Canned sweet cherries or something fruity

1/2 t salt

1 egg

Combine the dry ingredients, cut in the margarine, and add the oil. Dump in everything else but the fruit and mix well. Chop some canned cherries and stir in, in a disheartened manner. Plop in large blobs onto a cookie sheet, then realize you should have used two. Bake at 325 or 350 for about 25 minutes, until the edges are brown and crispy. Enjoy, but you'll still be depressed afterwards.

Brief Update, And Mostly Useless Recipe

Ear status: better than it was, but not great.  I don't want to die any more!  But I could really go for some nice narcotics.  (Yes, I have other drugs; no, nothing is as good as narcotics.  Except maybe FIXING MY !@#$ EAR.)

Recipe: Because I live in the middle of nowhere, we are amply supplied with nature, mountains, fresh eggs, livestock, and local vegetables.  We are not amply supplied with stores.  It is not possible to buy fake-butter for baking without driving for hours. Hence: my version, made from what I can get locally or order from the internet (ALL HAIL).

Fake Butter-Flavored Earth Balance Baking Sticks Shortening (non-hydrogenated, vegan)

110 g cold water
2 T pea protein 
2 T soy lecithin

2-3 t salt

500 g unrefined coconut oil (such as Lou-Ana, Kroger brand, or whatever is handy - the kind that melts at 72 F, not 90 F)
350 g palm shortening
150 g canola oil
Optional: 1/2 dram Lor-ann artifical butter flavor or the flavoring of your choice


Mix the water with the protein and lecithin and let sit at least an hour until the lecithin is fully dissolved. Add the salt.

Melt the solid oils in the microwave or on the stove until they are at least 90% liquid.  Mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer until fully blended.  Add butter flavor if desired (it contains no dairy). While beating, pour in the water mixture slowly.

Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.  This shortening is soft at room temperature, mostly solid in the refrigerator, and melts a lot like butter.  Good for cookies, where pure coconut oil gives structural failure and pure palm oil gives a strange waxy taste.

Notes:
Any neutral-flavored liquid oil can sub for canola. I don't recommend olive oil; it gives a very strong flavor.
You could probably use soy or rice protein.  I haven't tried either.
Many co-op/organic type stores will sell soy lecithin by the ounce if you don't want a whole pound.  You can put the extra in bread dough a tablespoon or two at a time.  Sunflower or egg lecithin would also work.

Recipe: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (GF, Dairy-free)

Adapted from Oct 2016 Cook's Illustrated

4 T Spectrum palm shortening
5 t blackstrap molasses
1 1/4 c raw sugar
3/4 t salt
2 T coconut milk
1 T water

1/2 c raisins

1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 c oil
2 medium eggs
1-1.5 t butter-vanilla emulsion
3 c old fashioned oats
3/4 c rice flour
1/4 c potato flour

Put the shortening, molasses, sugar, salt, coconut milk and water in a saucepan.  Boil for a few minutes, until most of the sugar is dissolved.  Add the raisins, stir, turn off heat.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together, then stir in the hot oil/sugar mixture.

Divide into 20 balls. Flatten onto parchment paper.  Bake at 350 or 375 F for 8-10 minutes.

(CI version has 4 T browned butter, no coconut milk or water, and regular wheat flour. Also, 1 lg egg + 1 yolk.)

NOTE: Almost all of these ingredients can also be found at Walmart.  Yes, butter-vanilla emulsion is tastier than just vanilla; no, it does not have any actual dairy ingredients in it.  Yes, you can substitute ingredients, but it probably will turn out different.

Why I Hate Cooking Dinner (Recipe: Really Good Moroccan Chicken)

Put  the children down for nap/quiet time/mama needs a break.

Realize that your meal plan says chicken and the chicken is frozen solid.  Dump chicken in pot of hot water for an hour. Then brown  chicken in 1 T  oops, glug glug, 1/4 c of olive oil.

Peel some mangy sweet potatoes you found in a drawer.  Look at them, then peel another. Chop into giant inch thick slices because you are in a hurry.

Realize that you have zero onions.  Gnash teeth.  The baby wakes up and starts crying.  Throw a cup or two of broth into the chicken pot along with two cinnamon sticks, some cardamom pods because who has time to grind them, and pepper.  Squash a couple tablespoons of coriander seeds and some fenugreek in a mortar, and throw it on top of the chicken along with a few tablespoons of mediocre pre-diced garlic because who has time to dice garlic. Leave simmering (covered) on low on the stove.  Hope the house doesn't burn down.

Toss your two screaming children in a minivan; pick up a third child (surly) and a carpool child (also surly).  Deposit carpool child, then take your three arguing, whining children to the grocery at 3:30 PM on a Friday.  Regret everything.  While you are there, remember that you have 24 hours to produce baked beans for 100.  Buy some chocolate.

Go home an hour later and frantically dice up an onion or two.  Saute until browned and slightly burnt; try not to set off the fire alarm or take off a finger. Feed the baby half the raisins you'd intended to use as she pounds on a stool and shouts 'Moah!' Take the chicken out of the pot, getting garlic bits everywhere.  Swear.   Throw in the onions, sweet potato, raisins, olives, chopped apricots, some more garlic probably, two drained cans of garbanzo, an inch of ginger root peeled and finely diced, and whatever else you feel like.  Stir; stick the chicken back on top and bake in a covered dish in a 325 F oven until the sweet potatoes are tender. Take out and cut up and debone chicken. (Put chicken back in.)

Serve to the accompaniment of whining children who will refuse to eat it even though they like every single ingredient.  Vow to never cook them dinner ever again.  Pour a glass of wine and count the minutes to bedtime.  Lather, rinse and repeat.

Ingredients:

1 chicken preferably brined
An onion
Garlic
Some olives (8 oz - mine were the $1.79 marinated pack from TJ's)
Golden raisins (4 oz)
Apricots (whatever size they come in- 8 oz?)
Sweet potatoes (5 medium)
Chicken broth
2 cans garbanzo beans
Coriander, cinnamon sticks, fenugreek, green and black cardamom
Ginger root
Dash of despair and salt tears

Recipe: Incidentally Vegan Dosa-ish Waffles

This recipe originated due to a tragic lack of gram dal in rural Virginia.  My children eat it cheerfully (generally with peanut butter), it's flexible, it has protein in it.  It's good with curry!  You can make quite a lot!  Etc.

Do Ahead Version:

Soak overnight in two separate bowls:

1 lb bean of your choice (red lentils, black eyed peas, NOT kidney beans)
A cup or two of any kind of rice
- for more authenticity, boil water, pour it over the rice, then soak overnight: dosa rice is parboiled

Pour off most of the water, saving about two cups somewhere.
Grind the beans in a food processor, adding water until it forms a smooth thick paste that is the consistency of pancake batter or glue. Put in a bowl.  Then grind up rice the same. Mix together and leave, covered, in a warm place for 2-3 days. If you have sourdough starter of any kind, you can add a little. It should smell kind of like yogurt.  If you're worried about it, add a tablespoon of yogurt and a pinch of yeast before fermenting. After the 2+3 days add about 2 teaspoons salt and mix well.

Cook in a well-oiled nonstick waffle iron on the high setting.  Good with practically anything. Batter keeps a long time in the refrigerator and can also be made into dosa-like pancakes, though it may need thinned a bit.


Oh No What's For Dinner Version:

1 lb red lentils
2 c rice flour (or wheat, if you want)
Some water
Maybe an egg
Yeast
Salt


Pour boiling water over lentils and leave them for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, mix flour and water to a medium thick paste and add yeast and salt.  When lentils have cooled enough to handle, grind as above and mix into flour.  Add an egg if you feel like it, and salt.  Waffulate.

Accidentally Vegan Best Gingerbread Mini Muffins (dairy-free, optionally gluten free)

Today I went to bake something (all three children home, one with a bad case of FOUR and one with a bad case of PINKEYE) and realized I'd used all the eggs for dinner last night.  (Now ten weeks without a stove! AAAAAA.)  

So I made something anyways and it was so tasty that I'm typing it out here so I can ever make it again.

Most Delicious Gingerbread According to Me

1/4 c boiling water + 2 T flaxseed (or an egg, or the egg replacer of your choice)
1/2 c coffee
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c molasses (not blackstrap)
3-5 t ground ginger
3-4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4-1/2 t ground black pepper
1/2 t salt
2 c flour (see below)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda

Let flax egg sit a minute, then mix the rest of the liquids in and whisk in the spices.  If using wheat flour, mix flour with baking powder and baking soda, then combine with liquids.  If using GF flour, it doesn't matter how much you mix it, so just mix everything together really well.

Spoon into in a well-greased 24-mini-muffin tin; sprinkle top of each with a small amount of sugar (demerara or raw sugar is best - purely for textural reasons).  Bake at 350 or 375 F until still slightly wobbly in the middle, about 8 minutes, or if you prefer until dry in the middle, closer to 11 minutes.

Should come out sort of dense and chewy, in the best way.

(Bake until done in a moderate oven.)*

GF flour mix:
1 lb millet flour (I use Bob's Red Mill, which is about $3/lb at the local bulk store)
1 lb glutinous rice flour (I don't know if it makes a difference vs. regular rice flour)
1/2 lb brown rice flour (ditto about bulk store)
1/2 lb potato starch
1/4 c potato flour (adds a more moist texture, can sub with flaxseed or chia if you really want)

Whisk thoroughly.  Store somewhere.

* Family joke.  My great-grandmother, may she rest in peace, had a wood stove out in the country.  All the family recipes therefore read "Mix.  Bake until done in a moderate oven."

Gluten Free Honey Cake Recipe for Rosh Hashana

Look, I'm not a food blogger. I made this once. It was tasty. It was easily the best flavor and texture on any it won't kill me, wheat free, soy free, dairy free baked good that I've made in ever. (How much do I wish I could eat these delicious things? A LOT.)

 Almost Just Like Smitten Kitchen's Honey Cake 

 About 6 c flour blend (see below)
1/4 c finely ground flaxseed
1.5 teaspoons regular salt
6 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1.5 cups vegetable oil
1.5 cups honey
0.5 cups brown sugar
5 large eggs at room temperature
1.5 cups coffee, instant is fine
2 teaspoons ground orange peel and 3/4 c water OR 3/4 c orange juice
 1/3 cup brandy
 2 teaspoons baking powder
 2 teaspoons baking soda 

Optional glaze:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1/4-1/2 cup brandy

 Flour blend:
2 c potato starch
3 c white or brown rice flour
1/2 c potato flour
2 c millet flour

 If using orange peel, microwave with water and let cool. Put oil, honey, eggs, sugar, coffee, orange juice/water, and 1/3 c brandy in a bowl and mix well. Add flaxseed and 4c flour blend and beat thoroughly (there is no gluten ; you can't over mix it). Add flour blend 1/4 c at a time until it forms a thin batter. Let sit 15 minutes. Add a little more flour if you want. Add baking soda and baking powder and beat thoroughly.

Grease cake pans or loaf pans well, and fill about 2/3 full. This will make 4 small loaves and two large loaves, or 2 8" cake pans and a couple smaller loaves. Bake at 350 F until done: about 30 minutes for a 1-lb loaf pan, 45 for a small regular loaf, 60 minutes for an 8” pan or full loaf. The top will turn a dark golden brown, rise, and split when it is done.

 Before you take the cake out of the oven, boil the honey and water until the honey dissolves. Take from heat and stir in brandy. Taste it and add more honey if you wish- it should be a sticky but thin liquid tasting strongly of honey. Brush over hot cakes (do not pour or spoon unless you have to- brushing works much better) until all the syrup is gone.

 (To make with regular flour: use 5.25 c flour, mix dry ingredients including powder/soda, mix wet ingredients separately, stir as briefly as possible to combine, proceed to baking. I make no warranties as I haven't tried it with wheat flour.)

In Which I Try Very Hard To Be Cheerful (For Five Minutes At Least)

Our garden is lovely.  We picked a ton of leafy green things today and I managed to eat a chard omelette for lunch while C. fed my children home-made pizza.  Pretty soon we will be giving striped Italian zucchini to everyone we know. Also, if the cucumbers grow well, everyone within 100 miles is getting holiday gifts of pickles.

I am still in pain but trying to figure it out.  I am still nauseous but the drugs help.  I am still really angry and depressed but trying to figure out why so I can work through it.  (If I can't figure out why, I can't examine my feelings, and I can't accept them.  I feel a little stuck.  Maybe... I'm angry because I'm frightened and angry is easier to countenance?  And, of course, I'm depressed because I feel powerless.)

The interview-y people are finally interviewing me!  So at least perhaps that will be resolved.  Eventually.  (University policy requires that they interview two people on campus, so there's that.)  I am resolutely not worrying about what will happen if they DO hire me - there are only three daycares in town, and one is full already.

I have finally mastered a recipe for gluten-free chocolate crinkles that actually taste mostly right!  They are not in any way healthy, but they are delicious.  We made Yuppie Hamburger Helper for dinner last night, and it was delicious.  It's the natural successor of Desperation Tofu.  Here, have a recipe:

Yuppie Hamburger Helper (Mostly Vegetarian Dinner, of Things in Cans That I Can Buy at Walmart, Which Takes 20 Minutes)

2 lbs pasta (corn pasta, rice pasta, regular pasta)

Your choice of the following, though I prefer all:
Jar of marinated artichoke hearts
Can of cannellini beans
A fresh tomato or some sun-dried tomatoes
A large jar of roasted red peppers+
Some Kalamata olives
Fresh peppers, sweet onions, garlic, basil, parsley, rosemary, capers, whatever...
(Optional: Filet of salmon, preferably fresh)
(Also optional: spinach, kale, baby kale, or anything green and leafy that's good cooked)

(Yes, I can actually buy all these things at Walmart, except the fresh salmon.)

Put some water on to boil.  Meanwhile, if you want fish, put your salmon on some parchment paper, sprinkle some salt and pepper and rosemary on it, wrap it up, put it in the oven at 350 F, and bake until done..  Cook your pasta.  If you're using onions, saute them.  Chop up your artichokes, tomato, peppers, olives, fresh peppers, and whatever spices/ herbs/ fresh stuff you're using.  Drain the beans.  When the pasta is done, put it in a colander, put a little olive oil in the bottom of your pasta pot, throw in the green stuff if you're using it, toss the pasta on top, then mix in all the rest of the vegetable ingredients.  Serve with salmon on top, or not.

A (Mostly Cheap) Brownie For All Allergies

(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's recipe)

Dear Readers, do you know how I feel about insult (can't eat anything) being added to injury (dairy allergy)?  I feel frickin' ticked off.  However, these brownies help.  You can make them gluten-free.  You can make them dairyless.  You could even make them vegan, though I haven't tried that yet, so caveat comestor.  You can also make them from normal things that normal people have around the house, or at least from stuff you can buy at Walmart* with a minimum of inconvenience.

Cocoa Brownies

10 T probably-not-butter
(options:  Crisco**; coconut oil, either refined, mysteriously de-coconut-flavored, or not refined, it's all the same; palm shortening, sold as Spectrum vegetable shortening, or whatever  You can use oil if you have to but it tends to separate out.)
1/2 c sugar
2 T molasses
A little less than a cup of cocoa powder.
(Look, I use the Toll House brand because that's what I can buy.  They taste fine.  Would fancy expensive cocoa powder taste better?  Probably, but...)
1/4 t salt
1/2 t vanilla extract (you can use vanilla bean past if these need to be alcohol-free for a Muslim pal)
2 large eggs (or 1/2 c hot water + 1 T ground flaxseed, or EnerG)
1/2 c flour-like substance.
(Half food-processored-oatmeal and half cornstarch; some corn flour and rice flour and cornstarch; tapioca and rice flours if you can eat those; whatever.)
Optional: 1/2 (?) c chocolate chips.
(Ghirardelli semi-sweet contain no dairy AND taste good, though not as good as the bittersweet ones which do contain milk fat, and though they have the standard 'made in a facility that processes dairy', I am super-extra-allergic to dairy and the semisweet ones are fine for me.  YMMV.)

Preferably in a bowl over simmering water/ a double boiler, melt the shortening with the sugar, molasses, cocoa powder, and salt.  Or you can microwave it if you have to.  Beat in the eggs for about 30 seconds; it should get kind of thick.  Add the vanilla extract, flour, and chocolate chips.  Mix very well.  Put 12 muffin papers in a muffin tin and divide the batter into 12 brownie-cupcakes. Bake at 325 F for 20-30 minutes or until you feel like they are done enough to eat.  If you are using coconut oil it may bubble up around the batter in a disturbing fashion.  Do not be alarmed!  It will all soak back in once you take them out of the oven.

(Not recommended: All in one pan.)

* The main grocery store in these parts.  I live in the hills, y'all.
** Yes, I know that Trans Fats Will Kill You; I can't eat it anyways, and it's not like one should make this every day.  Trying to make this easy here.

Cure What Ails You

(From Jan. 2)

As my three weeks of hellacious, uninterrupted small whiny children are coming to an end, we have - of course! - caught another cold.  I think my headache-o-meter is miscalibrated from the six months of migraines (plus another six months when I was pregnant!).  I only realized that I had one after I screamed at Bug at the top of my lungs.  Mother of the year right here.  Tylenol gives me rebound headaches, NSAIDs give me ulcers, and I'm right out of opiates.  So here's my family's traditional remedy for when everyone's ill.  I gave Bug a little glass and Tatoe a few teaspoons and then they took a nap while I drank the rest, and now I no longer want to hide in a closet and weep!

Ginger Toddy

1) Make ginger syrup.  (If you are my family, you have this around anyways.  Perhaps one can buy it as well.)  Peel and thinly slice a ginger root or three.  Cover generously with water - a couple cups per medium-sized root- and add a couple cups of sugar.  Simmer uncovered for a couple of hours. Strain the syrup off and put in your refrigerator; save the ginger, which is now mostly candied, and put it in cookies or something.  Or, if you're me, eat it.  Delicious with chocolate.

2) Boil a cup of water.  Add a shot of bourbon (or brandy), a few tablespoons of ginger syrup, and lemon juice to taste.  (I like a couple of tablespoons.)

3) Drink.  Feel all better. 

Toddler Foods, And Recipe: Optionally Vegan Carrot Cookies

Bug will no longer eat dinner.

For breakfast and lunch, he can choose his meal: typically oat-e-os and soymilk and then, invariably, PB&J for lunch.  For dinner, he can have what's on the table, or nothing.  (Unless it's super-spicy, or fish.)    This is the child who begs for goat cheese, who- one week- started eating whole sweet peppers, out of the bag, at the grocery; but offer him homemade lasagna and he throws a fit.

I refuse to make food an Issue, so I repeat to myself, "I put healthy food in front of him and he can choose to eat or not."  He's eating double lunch to make up for it; afternoon snack has been abolished.  He weighs 35 pounds (that's a hearty 2.5 year old), so I wouldn't care except he's hungry and insane for two full hours every single night.

Oh well.  Someday he'll grow out of it, right?  In the meanwhile he and I have embarked on a microgreen-growing project. Likely he will eat two bites and then turn up his pert little nose.  And we bake healthy, protein-y veggie-hiding things together, on the theory that if he helps cook, he might eat it.

Here is a toddler-friendly, low-sugar, high-protein, carrot-containing cookie recipe. Don't expect carrot cake; this is more like the whole-grain breakfast muffin your co-op makes.

Vegan-or-not Carrot Cookies (adapted from Farm Journal Country Cookbook)

Friday Corruption Recipe: Cambodian Rice-Vermicelli Soup

Num Ba Chok (the kosher and vegetarian versions)

4 quarts broth
2 pounds fillets of mild white fish
-or: 2 pounds pressed firm tofu
2 stalks lemon grass
5 strips krachai
1/2 t ground turmeric
1 clove garlic
6-10 dried anchovies
-or: 1 T fake chicken soup powder
-or: 2 t-2 T prahok
1 T sugar

If using tofu, slice and sautee with soy sauce and sesame oil until browned. Simmer fish or tofu in broth 5 minutes. Pound all remaining ingredients into a paste in mortar and pestle; add to broth. Simmer 5-10 more minutes.

Sauce

2 T oil
1 clove garlic
1 T crushed red pepper, or to taste
8 oz roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
-or: 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
7 oz coconut milk
1 rehydrated dried anchovy, smushed
5 T sugar
1 T tamarind concentrate

Chop garlic coarsely. Saute in oil, with pepper, until garlic is golden. Add rest of ingredients; cook until flavors are blended (10-20 minutes).

Garnishes

28 oz thin rice noodles (vermicelli)
1/2 pound green beans
1 green (unripe) papaya
4 oz fresh bean sprouts
2 small cucumbers
Banana blossoms
(Thai plum leaves)

Boil water. Put in noodles and cook until barely done, 2-3 minutes. Rinse in cold water and set aside.

Snap off ends, then blanch green beans. Peel papaya and cucumber and slice into paper-thin one-inch strips. Blanch banana blossoms if fresh; rinse if canned; quarter. Put each vegetable into a separate bowl.

Into a deep bowl, place a handful of vermicelli; cover with broth. Add a spoonful of the sauce and serve. Each diner will add their own vegetables. Enjoy!


***
All of these ingredients should be available at Chinese and Asian markets. If you cannot find a green papaya, an unripe mango is also excellent. Banana blossoms come canned, as does krachai; look carefully, since they will likely be labeled in Thai.

Friday Corruption Recipes: Iraq

(Haiti recipes updated.)

Iraq! Which the US single-handedly moved twenty or thirty spots down the list in two short years. Regardless of the colossally corrupt mare's nest we've made of their country, the food remains tasty.


Lissan el quathi ('Tongue of the Judge')

2 large eggplants
oil

1 tomato, sliced
1 onion, diced
14 oz tomato sauce
1/2 c lemon juice
1 c stock
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 t turmeric

2 lbs lean ground meat
1 medium onion, minced
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Peel eggplants and slice about 1/4 inch thick lengthwise. Salt and let stand; rinse and pat dry. Either fry until both sides are brown, or brush 2 baking sheets liberally with oil and bake on one side until browned (375 or 400 F).

Saute onion, then add tomato, tomato sauce, lemon juice, stock, and spices. Simmer 10 minutes.

Mix ground meat, onion, salt, and pepper. Divide meat into sausage shaped portions 1 inch thick and 2 inches long. Place a sausage at one end of an eggplant strip and carefully roll the eggplant up around it. Place rolls in a baking dish- 2 layers is okay- and pour sauce over. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 425 F for one hour or until done.

Rice with saffron, almonds and raisins

4 c water
1 T rose water (in Middle Eastern groceries; sometimes the kind perfumeries sell is food-grade, check the label)
1 pinch saffron (Spanish saffron fine, and also much more economical)
4 T oil
2 c long-grain basmati rice
1 T salt

2 T oil
1/2 c slivered almonds
1/2 c raisins

In a dish, mix 1 c water and saffron; let sit at least 5 minutes. In a large saucepan, heat oil, then add rice and fry until it becomes more opaque and starts to brown just a little. Add all the water, including saffron water, immediately. Let simmer uncovered until most of the water is absorbed. Stir, cover, and cook 15 more minutes. Add salt and rose water.

Meanwhile, heat 2 T oil and fry almonds until slightly brown. Add raisins; stir.

Serve rice with almonds and raisins sprinkled across the top.

Friday Corruption Recipes: Haiti (updated)

By request, and from Mr. S's brilliant and inspired World Corruption Index Dinner Series. For this, we even suspend our five-ingredient rule (not counting spices and water and things you don't have to do anything to), though this recipe qualifies. I'll put up a couple more Haiti recipes at the end of this post when I have time to type them.

Like many of these recipes, it looks very odd, but I assure you that it tastes wonderful.

Haitian Sweet Potato Pudding

3 medium sweet potatoes
2 c coconut milk
3 c water
1/4- 1/2 c raisins
1 c brown sugar
3/4 c cornmeal
1/4 c flour
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1 t vanilla (optional)
1/2 t salt
1 T margarine or butter

Preheat oven to 350 F (165 C). Peel and grate potatoes. Mix everything but the margarine. Grease a 10-inch round pan well, then dot with the margarine. Bake 2 hours or until set in the center. Optional: Mix 2 T rum and 2 T lime juice and pour over.

Excellent warm or cold.

***
Akkra (black-eyed pea fritters)

1 lb black-eyed peas
1 onion, choped
2T hot pepper sauce or ground hot pepper
1 egg or some rice starch or flour
salt and pepper to taste
oil

Soak black-eyed peas overnight in a large amount of water. If you're feeling especially energetic, slip off all the skins. Alternatively, slip off about 1/3 of them and throw a fit.

Put all ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until smooth.

Heat 1 inch of oil in a deep pan. Fry tablespoons of the batter, turning so they brown on both sides. Check they're done in the middle. Serve with hot pepper sauce. Not very good cold.

Hot pepper sauce

1 or more hot peppers of your choice
1 onion, chopped
1/2 c chopped shallots
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c lemon or lime juice
1/4 c oil
salt and pepper to taste

Puree garlic, lemon juice, oil, and hot pepper in a blender. Mix in finely chopped onions and shallots. Add salt and pepper.