Dinner, Jan 2, 10

A lovely, light gluten-free dinner for one: quinoa with peas and roasted cauliflower with sunflower seeds and cherry tomatoes....

The nice thing about the components is that they can be morphed for lunch or dinner later in the week...  the quinoa can be tossed with more veggies, and a bit of sausage or feta cheese...  The cauliflower can be transformed into a frittata...   or  tossed with g-f pasta, or added to some chicken...  

New Years Resolutions.

I'm putting this on here, as opposed to my regular blog, because a lot of it has to do with healthy eating. And that's something where most of us fall short with gluten-free life... the things we miss are the treats, the croissants, the cinnamon rolls, the pies, cakes, Christmas cookies, French bread, etc. And the substitutes are universally bland, pallid, crumbly, dense imitations, high in sugar or fat (or both).

So for the new year I am going to try to eat and make healthy gluten-free products. Lots of veggies, brown rice, buckwheat flour, fiber, whole grains... I do need to lose, and have a tendency to head for the unhealthy options as snacks or breakfast.... So this month I will work on healthy g-f breakfasts to start out with...

Ringing in the New Year, gluten-free and happy....

I can't tell you how nice it is to be gluten-free, to have someplace to go for New Years, and to be healthy. I do want to talk a little about appetizers, buffets, and going gluten-free... most appetizers are, unfortunately, not g-f. Its something that usually makes me hesitant about going to most events, since I'm not going to find a lot of stuff I can eat, but also, eating isn't the primary focus of most events. Its the people. So I'll plan to have a snack when I get home...

but I'm amazed at how many celiacs try to eat the topping, or the filling of something.

Cheese is gluten-free, unless served on the same tray as crackers. Devilled eggs are usually gluten-free, since most people don't add soy sauce. veg and fruit are gluten-free, and hummus is (until someone dips that piece of pita into it). Shrimp are g-f (yum!) Be careful of chips though, the flavoring usually has wheat in it....plain are usually ok though.

I'm going to play around with rice paper on Thursday, and see if I can't make a g-f spinach roll thing, like spanakopita. (or however you pronounce it)

For desserts, macaroons and marshmallows and fudge are gluten-free, as are meringues. Puddings are g-f, but people have a tendency to try to make trifle, which is not. And beware banana pudding from Paula Deen, as she puts cookies in it....

If I were doing a party, I'd have devilled eggs, shrimp, various cheeses. I'd do baked cheese baskets and add a neat little filling of some kind. I'd do the roasted potatoes, with a dab of creme fraiche and caviar (or smoked salmon). If it was a big party, I'd do a slab of smoked salmon with the walnut bread I've made on here. I'd do hummus (of course!) and veggies. I might even do a salad with artisan lettuce and roasted sweet potatoes....

For desserts, gluten-free brownies, a cake, crustless cheesecake, chocolate fondue with lots of fruit and marshmallows to dip into it...maybe something in marzipan.....

Gluten-free-range fruitcake.

(No, this is not based on Alton Brown's recipe. But I loved the pun so much...I had to borrow it)

8 oz chestnuts cooked and mashed (minus one that fled behind the cabinet in terror)
1/2 cup masa harina (or finely ground cornmeal)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup potato flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup OJ (Juice, not Simpson)
1/4 cup potato flour
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
Vanilla to taste (1 capful)
1/4 cup candied, chopped citron
1/2 cup dried cranberries, plumped in 1/2 cup boiling water
3/4 cup candied, chopped orange peel

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together. Put in a springform pan and place in the oven. Bake until done.

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me....

And I suspect, even Cookie Monster would like these cookies! I started playing around with this idea after eating rice where I'd made a successful tahdig (crust) on the bottom.

2 1/2 cups fresh cooked rice (white, salted, with a little olive oil)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup walnut meal
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil (approx, could be more)
capful vanilla
5 dashes cinnamon
2 dashes mace
raisins

Preheat oven to 350. In bowl of stand mixer, beat rice with paddle attachment. Add butter, brown sugar, white rice flour. Add egg yolk and walnut meal (basically finely chopped walnuts). Add raisins (as many as you like), and olive oil enough to make the mixture scoopable. Add baking powder, and spices last.

Prepare a sheet pan with either silpat or baking parchment. place about 2 tsp worth for each cookie, but spread it out a little, so its flat... bake the cookies until they are brown around the edges.... let cool, and eat.


numnumnumnumnum!

Filo, Phyllo...pastry by any other name....

So, I've been looking for a gluten-free alternative to phyllo...and I think I've found it! I started experimenting today with rice paper... treating it almost as I would phyllo, wrapping it around walnuts, chocolate chips, with a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon mixed in.

Its not perfect, its a little more crunchy than phyllo, but wrapped into logs around the filling gave enough of a feel of pastry...

Here's what I did.

Wetted down the round (I dunked it a few times, until it was starting to soften). Put it down, brushed melted butter over it, and then rolled it up, with the filling placed near the end. Finished off with another dab of butter, and baked in the oven at 350.

You can do them with no butter on the inside, but I do suggest at least having a dab of butter on top... and they do turn out better if they can absorb the butter a little... I do wonder if it would be better to let them sit for 5 minutes before baking...

but it was so nice to have a crisp mouthful of something! And I will be trying this with a savory filling as well...party food!



I then, since I had the ingredients out, decided to experiment with making baklava... The first attempt, shown here, looks well, but the wrappers disintegrated somewhat in the syrup.... I hadn't prebaked the rice wrappers. The top crust was fairly light and crunchy though. I had layered the nut mixture with the fauxfilo, but I made the mistake of pouring on some syrup beforehand, and letting it sit, to try and keep it moister. I think that if I had just done a layering of buttered fauxfilo with the filling, adding a splash of syrup and putting it in the oven instantly, it would have worked better.....

Gluten-free mixes.... some fixes.

Ok, so we all sometimes resort to using mixes. More so than before we went gluten-free. Because sometimes we need to have last-minute brownies, or don't have a lot of pantry space, or are sharing a kitchen with someone, so don't have space for the umpteen kajillion little bags...

So I was with family over the Fourth, and we made gluten-free blueberry pancakes. mmmmmm pancakes. We used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour blend, but only sort of followed the recipe on the back. We used less flour, added extra leavening, and added orange zest and vanilla to the batter.

When I use mixes for brownies, I add extra cocoa. I add extra baking powder, and sometimes add coffee instead of the liquid specified (usually water). I'll add lots of extra vanilla too.

Do you notice a theme here? Most mixes are ok, but need a punch-up. (The same is true, apparently, of regular cake mixes, which is why The Cake Doctor exists). Usually, though, gluten-free mixes and recipes tend to go a little flat... so you add extra oomph! They also tend, depending on the mix, to taste a little beany or ricey, meaning you have to add a little more of a complementary flavor....orange, lemon, almond, coffee... but nothing that will weigh the mix down....