Product review: TomYam Rice Snacks, sweet Rice Snacks.

This is one of those Trader Joe's products I discovered while wandering the aisles in a PMS mood. (MUNCHIES! Sweet and spicy?! Yay!)

NAY!

I opened the bag this morning. They are individually packaged, with each little snack nestled in its own little pouch. They are then placed in a plastic tray and finally sealed in the bag.

Broke one out. Open the wrapper. Scent of lemon wafted up at me. Wafted? Too light a word. Blasted is more like it. No wonder these are hermetically sealed. I decided to try one.

Who put lemon scented dish detergent on this snack? All I can taste is overpowering lemon. Dried lemongrass isn't usually this pungent (nor is the fresh I've used). It takes a lot to get this whammo of lemon. Ten minutes later, writing this, I still taste mostly lemon. It would have been good had they not overdosed on the lemon. And it wasn't even a lemon party in my mouth, it was LEMON lemon lemon lemon, more lemon, with a hint of chili and a few cashews.

I may reverse-engineer this, and come up with something similar, but better-tasting, on my own.

The sweet Rice Snacks I only saw once, bought them, and then they went poof. I wasn't thrilled though. I was expecting something a little more interesting than what tasted like a plain, ordinary rice cake with a drizzle of caramel. These too are individually packaged within the package.

So far, not thrilled. Either with the packaging of the snacks, or the flavors. Because we all need more snacks that contribute plastic, plastic and more packaging to the environment. And its either flavorless or painful.

Excuse me...I have to go rinse my mouth out with my lavender dish soap. It would taste better than this stuff. I feel like I ate an artificial lemon.

Losing weight wheat-free...

I'm trying to lose weight. I love food. I love to eat. And it makes it more difficult to lose when gluten-free products are all high-fat, high-sugar, low-fiber. And they all feel like they need something on top to make them palatable. And combined with the fact that you can't get anything in a reasonable serving size... I would love to be able to get ONE cookie, or a slice of cake. Because I do have a sweet tooth, but having to bake mass quantities? Or buy a whole box for one cookie? (I do that, and the rest of the box goes stale or develops moths).

So I'm trying to go low-gluten, high fiber. I've cut out cheese for Lent, since cheese had become my to-go grab and eat snack. I'm trying to have fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I'm trying to eat more whole grains and beans for lunches, and sensible dinners. I'm trying to make foods that create leftovers. Mousaka was my latest. In honor of St Patty's Day, I should probably have picked up cabbage and made a stuffed one. Eating more like I did growing up, lots of rice, fruit, veggies with meat flavor... I'm going to try to experiment with salads this summer...

I really want to come up with some kind of bread that has fiber, but is not a sugary brick. So that's the next attempt!

Recipe-in-progress: oat bread

(Apologies in advance, my A is having ISSUES)

I just modified a recipe which I used to love, for oat bread. I wanted something hearty, a winter bread... and now that you can get gluten-free oats... (just store them in the freezer or fridge)

1 pkg yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp molasses
3 tbsp molasses
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups oats
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
2 cups brown rice flour (this was freshly ground from medium-grain brown rice, you could probably approximate it with 1 1/2 cups brown rice flour and 1/2 cup of sweet rice flour)
2 cups hot water

Dissolve the yeast in the 1/4 cup warm water with the 1 tbsp molasses.

Mix the rest of the molasses with the sugar, salt, and oats and butter. Add the hot water and mix, mix, ,mix. Add flaxseed meal. Mix tapioca flour with brown rice flour, and then add. Add yeast mixture last. Add more water if necessary.

Preheat oven to 350. Put bread mixture in pan (I used a cake pan for this) and let rise for an hour in a warm place. (its doing this now)

Put in oven and bake until done. I'll post pics when it is, and tell you if I like it.

(Also, I made a happy discovery today! I have one precious bag of Trader Joe's sweet rice flour left!!!! yay!!!! Now is the time for them to bring it back, before I run out and am sad...)

Addendum-dah-dum-dum-dum.... Its really good. Very dense, I could have baked it longer, and it does have a crust... I do wish I could figure out how to tenderize the crust... It does need to cool completely before slicing, but it is very good!

Golden Gluten-free Gorgeousness

This gorgeous bready delight is, of course, gluten-free. It is a millet-potato bread.

I think the one thing I'd change about the recipe would be to cut down the salt. I think I'd originally formulated the recipe with kosher salt, which I'm out of. It seemed very salty when I tried it, but still a great texture, and fabulous crumb.

1/2 cup warm water
1 pkg yeast
1 tbsp sugar
(mix all these together, to make sure mr yeast is happy and alive)

1/2 cup peeled, baked potato
1 cup buttermilk (can use yogurt)
1 cup millet flour
1.5 cups rice flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1 egg yolk
2 tsp salt (cut to 1 tsp)
olive oil

In stand mixer, with paddle attachment, mix together the potato and buttermilk. Add the millet flour, mix, add egg yolk, mix.

Mix rice flour, salt and potato flour in bowl, add half to potato mix, switch to the dough hook. Add the other half, then the yeast. Add more water to rinse out the yeast bowl (only about 1/4 to 1/2 cup)

Beat for about 3 minutes with the dough hook.

Add batter to loaf pan, oil the top liberally.

Preheat oven to 400, leave bread to rise in warm place for at least 40 minutes.

Bake in oven until done. Rub the top with butter immediately after removing from oven. Let cool, slice, enjoy.

In its original incarnation, this was the first homemade bread I'd made after going gluten-free, and I was overjoyed...there are exclamation points all over the original recipe.

Mochi success in the New Year!

Thanks to a wonderful cookbook, Seductions of Rice, I now know how to cook mochi. In a previous post, from about a year ago, I had lamented my inability to cook mochi without it looking vaguely pornographic in its leakage. This cookbook suggested that you broil it, not bake it. So I did a combo. I heated up the oven to 400, then put the pan under the broiler....

And voila! Perfect squares of puffed-up mochi! (and incidentally, its supposed to bring you luck for the New Year).

So Happy New Year, and may you have many successes with your gluten-free baking!

(and please, let me know about them)

Panforte-the other fruitcake.

This is a fabulous mixture of chocolate, fruit, honey and nuts. This recipe is adapted from one in Martha Stewart Living, December 2000. Its ready to eat off the bat, and also contains no added fat (apart from what already is in the chocolate and nuts). You can increase the amount of nuts and fruit with no problem.

4 oz hazelnuts
3 oz dried cherries (I used the tart Montmorency, from Trader Joes)
2 tbsp spiced rum (original recipe called for brandy, which I don't have...I haven't figured out the intricacies of gluten-free drinking yet--all I know is NO BEER)
4 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup of honey
2/3 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350, toast nuts and remove the skins. Reduce the heat to 300, grease a 9 inch springform pan, and 'flour' with cocoa powder.

Place nuts, cherries, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a heatproof bowl and add rum. Leave to soak. Mix flours and cinnamon in another small bowl.

Combine honey and sugar in saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer for about two to three minutes. Pour heated syrup over the fruit-nut mixture, stir until the chocolates are melted. Add flour mixture.

Put the goop in the springform pan, and bake for about 30 minutes, remove from oven and let cool. I've found it slices better when still slightly warm.

Mini-mincemeat tartlets...

After having gone to a British School for a number of years, I associate mincemeat with Christmas. Before going gluten-free, I had found a wonderful recipe in Bon Appetit, 1998 for little mincemeat tarts. I had been quite a baker in those days, mailing family members boxes of Christmas goodies...


And so, today, in honor of Christmas past, present, and future, I give you my variation on a stalwart British tradition:

Dough:
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup potato flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup cornmeal (can substitute quinoa flour or cornstarch)
6 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp grated, fresh orange peel (or to taste)
scant 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter
1/2 pkg cream cheese
1 egg yolk
orange juice (prob will not need it)

Blend all flour ingredients, add orange peel, then fats, finally egg yolk. Add OJ if mixture isn't clumping. Chill dough for 1/2 hour.

Mincemeat filling:
3/4 cup mincemeat
3 tbsp minced crystallised ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp grated orange peel (or to taste)

Mix together all mincemeat ingredients.

Butter a mini-muffin tin. Preheat oven to 375. Line muffin cups with dough (can roll out and cut out circles, or roll into little balls and press into the sides to form a little cup) Fill cups with approx 1 tsp of mincemeat each. Bake for approx 10 minutes.

Edit: The dough does not roll out well. The pic shows both 'thumbprint' type: which didn't hold together well on the sides, and the little 'muffin' tin ones, which held up better. They need to cool before you can take them out, as the dough is very tender. We ended up pinching out a cup and placing it in the mini-muffin tin, which worked best.