Puréed fruit is tasty and healthy for dessert or for snacks. Applesauce is a quick and easy go-to fruit purée, and you can find it in one portion containers in most food stores. But there are other fruits! Click HERE … Continue reading Puréed Fruit–Beyond Applesauce
My sister made a delicious Cool Berry Soup (Recipe HERE on NPR) for my Dad. He loved it! It’s simple to make, and it’s a nice change from yogurt or pudding for a snack. Another great soup–and one with more … Continue reading Chilled Summer Soups
A nice, crispy summer lettuce salad…no way on a puréed diet. And puréed lettuce of any kind just doesn’t sound good to me. Then I thought of arugula. It is packed with flavor and isn’t too watery. And it makes a really good pesto! So what about a raw arugula purée à la pesto (to mix Romance languages). Ditch the nuts, but keep a touch of garlic, cut down on the olive oil, and add a touch of freshly squeezed lemon juice. This turned out OK! It was good with slices of tomato gelée and ham loaf for a cold … Continue reading Arugula “Salad”
What to do? It’s summer. It’s hot. My Dad loves tomatoes. How can I serve them cold–and not as a sauce or a soup? [Puréed Gazpacho recipe coming soon!] Gelatin must be the answer. But all the recipes either lack real tomato oomph, like the various recipes for Tomato Aspic that are based on tomato juice, tomato sauce, or V-8 Juice. [Click HERE for a classic version.] Other versions of Tomato Gelée sound lovely–types of deconstructed tomatos (as this site with a nice recipe and image puts it) with the tomatoes puréed and drained to create a light-greenish tomato water. … Continue reading Tomato Gelée
As lovely as they are and as many ways there are to gussy them up, mashed potatos become a bore if served night after night. One nice alternative is Polenta–corn meal porridge. While traditional Polenta takes a while to cook, … Continue reading Polenta–One Alternative to Mashed Potatos
The approach is pretty much the same as the one for Puréed Creamed Spinach. One thing to watch out for, however, is that asparagus is watery–so you have to let the cream, Half and Half, or stock really reduce down. … Continue reading Puréed Asparagus
You can take the easy route and buy frozen Creamed Spinach (I like Seabrook Farms the best) and purée it, or you can take the route of making it yourself–not all that much more work! This site has a no-nonsense … Continue reading Puréed Creamed Spinach
Lemony, buttery Hollandaise Sauce is delicious on many things. For example, it is great on Fish Quenelles (and is a way to use up that extra egg yolk!). Or if you have Ham Loaf on hand, serve it with soft-scrambled eggs, topping them both with the Hollandaise to make a dish reminiscent of Eggs Benedict. A poached egg served on puréed spinach or asparagus is nice blanketed in Hollandaise too! Ina Garten has a great recipe for a one-yolk blender Hollandaise: Click HERE. She also has one for a two-yolk blender Hollandaise: Click HERE. Continue reading Hollandaise Sauce
A Quenelle is a classic item in French cuisine, and there are a number of ways of preparing them. Recipes for Quenelles Lyonnaise call for Pâte à Choux (Choux Pastry–what you use to make Cream Puffs). Here’s a link to … Continue reading Quenelles! aka Puréed Fish or Poultry Dumplings
An ugly name…I know! But that’s what it is. Ham ground fine, bound with Bechamel and Gelatin, and reconstructed into a loaf. Serve slices cold for lunch with a spoonful of mustard on the plate to spice it up (and … Continue reading Ham Loaf
home-made puréed 