Author Archives: Lee White

A la Carte: Everyone Loves Gluten-free Cappuccino Rice Crispy Treats

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Lee White

I think I have mentioned that there are certain things I have never baked or cooked.

I have never made a soufflé, even though I do understand how to gently incorporate the whipped egg whites into the mixture. Could it be because I am afraid of failing? Doubt it. I have not just screwed up recipes once, but sometimes more than once. One of these days I will make a soufflé.

As I child, I was asked to at least try everything at least once; who knows, maybe you will love those garlicky, buttery snails. I did and I do adore then.

But I do not like grapefruit.

My parents loved grapefruit and, every day, my mother would cut one in half, horizontally, and, using a special serrated knife that was bent at an angle, cut each into its wedges. I don’t remember them adding any sugar. I tasted it once, when I was very young, and made a face.

This was the same “face” I made when my husband would say, “Try this beer, baby, I think you will like this one.” He knew I would not and did this only so I could make that “face” and laugh.

Maybe this week I will buy a grapefruit (friends says it should be the pink one), cut it into wedges, top with brown sugar and broil the fruit.

Maybe I will love it.

Or maybe I will forget this for another decade.

In the meantime, I had never tasted a rice crispy treat. But a friend, Dede Wilson, a cookbook author and magazine writer, recipe creator and, interestingly, a breeder and handler of champion bull terriers, included this recipe for her followers on Facebook.

And, for those have tricky tummies, she is the founder of FODMAP, a clinically-proven diet to help many who have IB (dedewilson.com).

In the recipe below (which is also lactose- and gluten-free), I have added both the melted milk and white chocolates.

No wonder everyone loves this quick dessert.

Low Fodmap Gluten-free Cappuccino Rice Crispy Treats
From Dede Wilson

Photo by Jade Wulfraat on Unsplash.

4 tablespoons butter pieces
6 cups mini marshmallows
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
6 cups rice cereal
2 or 3 ounces milk chocolate melted (optional)
1 ounce white chocolate, melted (optional)

In a 8- by 8-inch square pan, cover bottom and sides with plastic wrap. 

Melt butter in a large pot on low heat. Add marshmallows on low heat, stirring frequently.

When three-quarters done, add powders and cinnamon and stir vigorously, until powders dissolve.

Remove from heat and using a spatula add the rice cereal.

Pour into prepared pan (allow to cool a little if too hot). You can use your fingers and palms to press the layer down so it is even.

Allow to set for about half an hour or hasten it by refrigerating.

Cut into layers.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: Take Time to Make Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

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Lee White

I have been to the beach exactly three times since the end of May, each time for less than an hour and a half.

One day it was blistering hot and humid. As much as I like summer, I really dislike humidity to the point that I can stay in my condo for two days just because I have central air conditioning.

I remember that my mother could stay in her apartment for the exact opposite reasoning: she hated winter. She tried to spend as much time in Florida or, later in life, Arizona, just to avoid cold weather.

My father never complained about weather: he would play golf as soon as Daylight Savings Time began, so he could close the store by 5 p.m. and get in 18 holes in before it went dark. On weekends he’d play 27 holes on both Saturday and Sunday.

I like it cold in the winter (with my thermostat at 60) and I turn the central air on in late May, turning it off in early October. (My condos have heat pumps and, although I cannot understand how it works, I just turn “cooling” to “heat” and vice-versa twice a year.)

I like to cook what I want whatever the weather. I just ordered packages of Wick Fowler 2-Alarm Chili Kit to make chili in August and today found a recipe for Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore.

I foraged into the freezer and hauled out two, unthawed freezer bags of chicken thighs. No reason to heat the oven; dinner tonight will be this new recipe.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

From Food Network Magazine, March, 2017

Yield: Serves 4 (and freezes beautifully)

¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms (about ¼ ounces)*
1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cloves garlic, mined
2 sprigs fresh basil, plus torn leaves for topping
14.5 ounce can stewed tomatoes, crushed (fire-roasted tomatoes are fine instead)
½ cup dry red wine
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup white rice

Soak the mushrooms in 2/3 cup hot water, 10 minutes. Strain through a paper towel-lined sieve, reserving the liquid. Rinse mushrooms and finely chop.

Toss chicken and carrots into the oil in a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker, season with salt and pepper. Top with mushrooms, garlic and basil sprigs, the pour in the tomatoes and their juices.

Whisk red wine with flour, tomato paste and reserved mushroom liquid in a bowl until smooth; add to slow cooker. Cover and cook on low, 7 hours. 

About 10 minutes before chicken is done, cook rice as the label directs. Uncover the slow cooker and stir, breaking the chicken into chunks; let stand, uncovered, until sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Discard basil sprigs and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve chicken with rice and top with torn basil.

*If you have fresh mushrooms, any kind, use them instead.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream is the Ultimate Summer Dessert … and so Easy to Make!

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Lee White

In the early 80s, when we lived in Massachusetts, I bought an ice cream maker called a Lickety Split. It was all plastic, except for the two bowls, which were maybe aluminum or stainless steel. It costs around $25 and it could make two different pints of ice cream simultaneously.

A few years later, Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs entered the freezer aisles, and eventually my Lickety Split entered the basement shelves of my appliance cemetery.

But the covers of food magazines this year brought back my love of home-made ice cream. I may have mentioned this to my friend, Lisa.

In early June, just a few days after my birthday, there was a notice to pick up a package at the post office. I dragged it home and inside was a Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Sorbet and Ice Cream Maker, the very one my magazines said was the best. And it was smack dab during that short, three-week strawberry season.

This appliance is a fantastic machine. If you keep its bowl, which encases water, in the freezer, you are almost 25 minutes from a heavenly frozen dessert. You can eat it immediately, but I pack it in quart plastic packages and will keep it more than a week.

This is one of the easiest recipes; I have made it three times (2 quarts at a time).

Next will be fresh peaches or blueberry gelato. Later in the fall and winter, perhaps chocolate ice cream with Heath bars.

Should you buy this particular ice cream maker, it costs around $100 or even less.

E-mail me at leeawhite@aol.com when you are ready to begin if you have any questions. And let me know how many other recipes you come up with yourself.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
From Cuisinart’s small brochure that came with the ice cream maker

Yield: about 14 ½ cup servings

Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash.

3 cups fresh ripe strawberries, stemmed and sliced
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ cups sugar, divided
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 ¾ cups heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla ice cream

In a small bowl, combine strawberries with lemon juice and ½ cup sugar. Stir gently and allow berries to macerate in the juices for 2 hours. Strain berries, reserving juices. Mash or puree half the berries.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine milk and remaining granulated sugar until sugar is dissolved, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream, reserved berry juice, mashed berries and vanilla.

Turn machine on; pour mixture into freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Five minutes before mixing is complete, add reserved sliced strawberries and let mix in completely.

The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture.

For a firmer consistency, transfer ice cream to an airtight container and placed in freezer for about 2 hours or longer. Remove from the freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: Two Columns Bursting with Strawberry Treats

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Lee White

Column 1

Oh my, no matter the season, last week was a perfect summer day. Was it always sunny? Not really, but for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, the clouds didn’t explode with raindrops and the humidity stayed around 70 percent and in Groton and Madison, there was always a soft breeze.

Friday I learned how to make a watermelon “sorbet (well, it required some sweetened condensed milk),” and I will try it with other fruits.

Next week I will give you that recipe (and the new friend who created it) and another recipe for fresh fruit and a two or three cream that tops a grainy bread. I just met a new friend that was a lovely appetizer that requires only if you make your own bread (which she did!).

For today, now that strawberries are local and delicious. Then again, strawberry’s  two- or three-week season may be my favorite time of the year. (At least until it’s corn time, or tomato time, or basil time).

Toasted-almond Cake with Strawberries in Whipped Cream

Adapted from Gourmet, June, 2007, page 143

Yield: about 8 to 10 servings

Three-quarters cup whole almonds with skins (one-quarter pound), toasted and cooled
1 ¼  cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½  teaspoon salt
4 large eggs at room temperature about 30 minutes
1 ¼  cup superfine granulated sugar (I put sugar into processor to get it fine)
1 ½  sticks (three-quarter cup) unsalted butter, melted and cool
1/3  cup milk (2 percent is fine)
¼  teaspoon almond extract
½  cup sliced almonds
2 pints frozen strawberries with sugar, thawed, or 2 pints fresh strawberries, sugared to taste
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or one-half teaspoon rose water)
1 and one-half heavy cream, whipped

Put oven rack on middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 8- or 9-inch square or round cake pan. 

With blender on high, add half toasted almonds through top hole and finely grind (be careful not to grind to a paste). Transfer to bowl and grind remaining almonds in same manner, transferring to bowl. Add flour, baking powder and salt to ground almonds and whisk until combined well.

Beat eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until foamy, about 15 seconds, then add sugar a little at a time, beating. Continue beating until mixture is thick, pale and forms a ribbon when beater is lifted, 7 to 8 minutes in a stand mixer or 10 to 14 minutes with a handheld.

Add butter in a slow stream, then add milk and almond extract and beat until just combined. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

Spread batter in pan, smoothing top, and then sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake until  top is golden, cake begins to pull away from side of pan and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes in clean, around 25 to 35 minutes, depending on size of cake pan.

Cool on a rack around 30 minutes, then run knife around edge to loosen and invert onto rack. Take cake right side up on rack and cool completely.

To serve, slice cake onto individual plates, cover with strawberries and top with lots of whipped cream. 

Column 2

Oh, the two recipes I’d promised to give you today will have to wait. My friend, Jennifer is leaving today for London for a few weeks, so her recipe will come later in the summer. When she gets home, fruits will be even riper and she will show me how to make them.

I will, however, give you two other fruity recipes.

The first is easy and it comes from Karen Valente.

Cut watermelon from its rind (get rid of all the green and yellow). Cut the watermelon into approximately 1-inch chunks. Place the melon chunks into a fresh gallon-sized plastic bag, carefully push the bag somewhat flat and seal it well.

Freeze the melon overnight or even a few days later.

Open the bag of melon and pour into a Cuisinart bowl. As you puree the fruit, add sweetened condensed milk into the melon. Stop the food processor and taste the melon. When it is sweet enough for you, add a whisk of salt and puree another second or two.

Spoon the mixture into a plastic container, seal it and freeze, What you have here is not a sorbet, actually; sorbet is usually dairy-free. But there is so little dairy in the dessert, yet it has the mouth-feel and texture that is heavenly. 

For my second dessert, I was going to give you a Bon Appetit recipe for a strawberry hand pie, but it requires making a pie dough, making a strawberry filling, then creating frosting and assembling the dessert. And, with that, the hand pie might gush out on your white pants or sneakers. Instead, why not make enough crisp recipes for the whole summer, freezing it (right out of the freezer you can crumble it over the fruit and serve it after dinner). This is a dish you can serve in no time. So here is the recipe for crisp that top almost any dessert all summer long.

Strawberry Filling 

From Bon Appetit, Summer, 2022

12 ounces strawberries, hulled, finely chopped
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon kosher salter

Toss all ingredients in a medium bowl to combine. Let sit for 30 minutes. Place the strawberries in a gratin or Pyrex pan. Top with one package of crisp over the fruit and place in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the filling bubbles.

Crisp Topping
Created by Deb Jensen, a dear friend who died just a few years ago
I quadruple this recipe and freeze it in little plastic bags.

Yield: makes around 5 cups 

1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oatmeal (rolled oats)
1 cup walnuts or pecans
1 cup almonds or pine nuts
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted

Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix together with nice, clean hands.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: Creamy Coconutty Shrimp Makes a Super Summer Salad

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Lee White

After the quick turnover to the Dallas wedding (flew there at 6 a.m. Saturday and was home by Monday, mid-afternoon), I unpacked, played with the cats, watched a DVR’d Connecticut Sun game) and finished a book, then slept until 7:30 Tuesday.

Then I drove to Madison and took friends to pick up their new car in Westchester County, NY. 

Eric drove the new car home (the next morning he drove to Montreal to pick up their son from college), Lisa and I stopped at Trader Joe’s in Milford to do some quick food shopping, but realized we could not both go because Lucy the dog was with us.

Since I really needed nothing (I’d gotten my Trader Joe’s fix the week before), I read in the air- conditioned car and played with Lucy. About 20 minutes later, Lisa arrived with a cart filled with goodies, giving me some frozen shrimp and her favorite goat cheese.

I assumed the pink shrimp was cooked. Instead, it was the raw pink shrimp we used to get in Stonington, CT. I had just gotten my new Bon Appetit and saw the recipe below. The next morning, I bought a lime, some cilantro and a little green jalapeno; that night I made the recipe below.

It was as good the night I made it as it was twice more as leftovers.

Creamy Coconutty Shrimp Salad

From Bon Appetit, Summer Issue, June/July 2022
Yield: 4-6 servings 

1 large lime
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined, patted dry
Kosher salt; freshly ground black pepper
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 small jalapeno, thinly sliced on a diagonal, seeds remove if desired
½ cup cherry tomatoes, preferably heirloom, halved, quartered if large
1 cup packed coarsely chopped cilantro
High-quality extra-virgin olive oil (for serving)
1 cup tortilla chips, lightly crushed
Flaky sea salt

Remove zest from lime in wide strips with a vegetable peeler, cut lime in half and set aside. Bring zest, garlic, coconut milk and fish sauce to a simmer in a large skillet over medium heat. Arrange shrimp in a single layer and cook, maintaining a bare simmer, until opaque, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer shrimp t a large shallow bowl and let cool.

Increase heat to high; cook coconut until thick and pourable (similar to the consistency of runny honey), about 5 minutes; remove from heat. Remove and discard lime zest and any shrimpy bits. Season coconut sauce with kosher salt and pepper and let cool in pan.

Squeeze juice from reserved lime half over shrimp and spoon coconut sauce over. Top with onion, jalapeno, tomatoes and cilantro. Squeeze remaining lime over. Drizzle with oil, then top with tortilla chips and sprinkle with sea salt.

Do ahead: Shrimp can be cooked and coconut sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer to separate airtight container; cover and chill.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.