The "e-group" youth group kids ("E group" because "we're better than a D-group [discipleship]") came over on Thursday for our first-ever "Eat like a Joscelyn" supper. Joscelyn is working through a number of difficult food allergies right now with uncertain causes. Her current doctor-prescribed diet cuts out gluten, soy, dairy (anything with casein) and nuts. That makes it hard to eat!
Joscelyn calls her diet "non-people food," and we all wanted to walk a mile in her shoes (or at least a meal), so we got together for supper on Thursday. It went pretty well, actually. I found as a cook that the dietary restrictions were, well.... very restricting. But all is not lost.
This starts a series of posts (I hope) of menus from our Eat Like a Joscelyn dinners. If you know of any good non-soy or non-almond dairy substitutes, I'd love to hear about them! Meanwhile, if you are dealing with a restricted diet, or just want to sympathize with someone who does, maybe some of these recipes will help.
MENUChopped Salad with Grilled Glazed Steak and Balsamic DressingVanilla Cake with Strawberries and Marshmallow Creme 
ALL RECIPES SERVE 8-10; reduce for your own needs~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chopped Salad with Grilled Glazed Steak & Balsamic Dressing
All recipes follow. Here are the steps
1. Prep steaks for marinating in time for dinner (at least an hour before).
2. Begin the glaze for the steak so that it's done in time (takes 45-60min).
3. Chop veggies for salad & make dressing. Dress the salad in a large bowl and set aside / keep chilled.
4. When it's time to eat, sear the steaks: I used a cast iron skillet on medium heat, hot enough to sizzle water instantly. Cooked the steaks one at a time in a little canola oil; 2min on one side and 1min on the other (for medium or med-rare).
5. As the steaks come off the pan, let them rest on a cutting board and immediately top with some of the balsamic glaze.
6. Assemble the salad: Dish out portions of the chopped salad & top with thin slices of steak (cut across the grain). Serve immediately.
Steak Marinade (for 3 lb of top round steaks)
~1cup apple cider vinegar
~1/4 cup turbinado sugar (or brown sugar)
~2 T kosher salt
~1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
~2 T honey
~3-4T good olive oil
ground mustard
garlic powder
oregano
dash of red pepper
Heat the cider vinegar, salt & sugar for about 1min in microwave and stir until sugar begins to melt. Stir in all other ingredients (use seasonings to your liking) and add steaks. Allow to marinate for at least an hour. Make sure steaks are room temperature before you grill or pan-fry them.
Dressing:from Emeril; recipe from
Food Network for Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette:
I shook together in a small salad dressing mixer the vinegar & spices, then added the oil & shook till I got an emulsion. You need at least a cup of dressing to do a large salad, but leftovers (if making a smaller salad) will keep in the frig just fine.
Glaze:I poked around on the Food Network site and settled on this:
~1 cup balsamic vinegar
~1-2 tsp honey (opt)
Bring vinegar to boil in saucepan over medium heat. Boil down until thick & syrupy -- takes about 40-60min. The honey adds a nice sweetness, but if you overboil, you will get something that hardens too much.
Salad:Since this is a chopped salad, you can use any greens & veggies in season that you like. Just make sure everything ends up chopped to the same size, around 1" pieces.
GREENS & VEGGIES: Ours included green lettuces (J is avoiding most green leafy things right now at doctor's request, or I would have used arugula & romaine & spinach); cucumber; red peppers; carrots; tomatoes ... chopped red onion on the side.
FRUIT & SEEDS: a chopped Pink Lady apple (dressed with a little fresh lemon juice); toasted, salted sunflower seeds; craisins
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vanilla Cake with Strawberries & Marshmallow Creme
It's terribly hard to find a non-soy, non-nut dairy substitute. Right now the best we could find to replace whipped cream was
marshmallow creme -- which Joscelyn loves, so it turned out well.
Before dinner, slice up
strawberries & dress with plenty of white
sugar. Leave on the counter to masticate (the sugar draws out the juices & forms a light syrup).
The
Vanilla cake was a gluten-free mix that I really liked. I can't remember the company name; there are only 2 regularly sold in our stores around here; this one has a pastel label with a script font for the name.... the label was periwinkle.
Cake turned out moist & tasty. We baked it in a 9x13 to get flatter squares & topped each square with fresh strawberries & syrup, with optional marshmallow on top -- sticky but yummy!
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