learn, learn and re-learn

I am traveling, which means that, in general, I have to make do.
This time I am in france, and I have to figure out a new flour recipe.
My usual recipe of tapioca, sorghum, rice, corn starch, and coconut is just not possible to make here.
I went to the organic store, trying to find some xanthan Gum to make crepes, and other baked goods.
I could not find any.
I ended up getting some on the internet and had it delivered in express. Everyone in my family is expecting that I have answers to every gluten free baking issues they have. I do appreciate that they are trying really hard to satisfy the food requirements, but sadly, i don't have all the answers that they expect me to have.

I wonder how chestnut flour is going to compare to other flours. We shall see.
I am baking something in the next few days.

Caldo verde - one of my favorite soup.. which is naturally gf.

Caldo verde is an amazing soup, gluten free, a family favorite AND it is healthy. It is pretty easy and is cooked in less than 1/2 h. What else would you want?
it is supposed to be a Portuguese soup, but I never found it in my Portuguese cookbook, so I am doubtful.

ingredients:
*some form of sausage. I use kielbasa
* red potatoes ( 4-5)
* chicken broth (I also use my home made thxgiving stock)
* a bunch of kale.

-In a big soup pot, put your chicken broth, your red potatoes cut in small equal pieces. The fact that they are red is actually important, as they won't dissolve in the broth.
-cook until the potatoes are tender.
-mash them with a potato masher. This is not an exact science, you just don't want any more pieces.
- add the kielbasa cut in bite size pieces.
- bring back to a boil.

Meanwhile, wash and dry your kale.
For each kale leave,

• first run a sharp knife to each side of the stalk,
• then bunch it up and cut in very small ribbons

Add the kale about 5 minutes before you eat the soup.

You can add some crackers in the soup if you want but i personally like it without anything in it.
So far, I have not met anyone who disliked it, and that includes kids.

Tom Kah shrimp

In my experience, thai food is the easiest thing to order gf, followed by mexican.. I also love tom kah gai, which helps.

I recently brought a care soup to a friend of mine. There was a request for shrimp so I made it with shrimp. Here is the approximate recipe.

*about 1.5 pounds of shrimp, uncooked. (you will need to remove the shell)
* 1 tb of thai chili paste
* 1/2 C of fish sauce (get the real thing. it should have more than just anchovies in there)
* some limes
* 5-6 garlic cloves- mashed
* an onion thinly sliced
* 2 stalk of lemon grass cut in pieces
*some galangal root (not edible)
* 4-5 lime (kaffir) leaves
* 2 qts chicken stock
* 2 cans of coconut milk
* some mushrooms ( I used both enoki and brown mushroom, the traditional is straw)
* some tomatoes quartered ( I think that is an americanism, but i like it that way).
* chili flakes (optional)
* 2 chilies (optional)
* cilantro, thinly cut.
* fresh squeezed lime juice

in a thick bottom soup pan put some oil, and add the garlic, onions, chili paste, lime leaves, galangal and lemon grass. (and chilies...)
Fry until the onions are somewhat translucent. You need to watch this because the paste will burn and become bitter..
Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Add the fish sauce, coconut milk and mushroom. boil for a few minutes. The mushrooms should get tender but no mushy.
Add the shrimp and tomatoes and turn off the heat.

Shrimp in my opinion, are nasty when overcooked. If added to a boiling soup, they will cook almost instantly, so I turn off the heat and wait for a few minutes.
Finally add the cilantro as a garnish.
Serve with a bit of lime juice .

If you serve it with chicken, coat the bit size chicken pieces with corn starch. cook for a few minutes before turning the heat off. The chicken with be very tender.
enjoy

scallion and gaot cheese savory cupcakes

This is a modified recipe for the excellent book: gluten free cupcakes from Amsterdam.

I adapted it using Pamela's pancake mix.

I have found that in a pinch, the mix works well.

 

1.5 C Pamela's mix

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 C olive oil

3 large eggs

1/2 C thinly sliced scallions (came to about a bunch from the supermarket)

5 oz goat cheese (keep it cold).

 

preheat oven to about 350

prepare your cupcake tray and line with paper cups,

mix Pamela's mix and the black pepper.

In  standup mixer, mix the eggs and oil.

Add the flour/pepper mixture

Add the scallions.

 

put a small scoop of batter in each cup. You don't want to fill them.

Add a slice of goat cheese (I folded mine in two),

bake for about 20 minutes.

Note that the mix can take longer to cook than the original recipe which was straight almond flour.

 

the goat cheese will melt somewhat, but keep its shape.

 

Cool down some and serve warm.

 

 

 

Wow! it has been a long time.
So.. My daughter and I have been gf for almost a year. On the positive side, she is healthy, happy, has gained 8 pounds, 2 + inches and is pain free. I know how to cook gf, but baking still escapes me. Moreover, if by any chance, I manage to make something that tastes good and is gf, I can't seem to be able to reproduce it. <sigh>
I will post some of my success recipes before I forget.

murphy's is always a guest

Today was a big day. After making some pancakes, i made some mini quiches with a sweet potato crust and  then I tried my hand at lasagna.
Instead of being half way normal, using pre made lasagna noodles, and keeping the thing for myself, i went all the way out, and made the noodles from scratch (why else do i have a pasta machine?), and I invited some friends over for dinner. i made 3 pans of lasagna (2 vegetarian, and one normal) so as to make sure that if there were problems, i would enjoy them fully;)

From the get go, something went wrong. I used a tiny measuring cup which had tbsp which i confused with tsp (small letters, no caps), and i put 3 times the amount of Xantham gum, and salt, which would have been a disaster. So I tried to recover and tripled everything.
It went down from there.

The result was good, so somehow i recovered.;)
i learned:
1)The lasagna noodles should be very thin because they will double or triple during cooking.
2) People like chewy lasagna noodles, so I probably need to reduce the pre-cooking time to try to get an aldente feel.

coconut almond pancakes

Today is a big testing day.
I just made some coconut almond pancakes, from the nourishing meals cookbooks. I love that cookbook. The pancakes were delicious but very hard to flip. I made a bunch and froze them. I guess I can make them in the weekend only. They are too long to cook for a herding cats weekday breakfast .

I am gearing up to make some GF lasagna tonight. That should be interesting. It turns out that in spite of all the flours i own, i still don't have the one used in most of the home made recipe.. I am lacking potato starch.

turkey sausages

For my first experiment, i thought i would try something that is a standby in our home, but which contains bread crumbs. I call them "turkey sausages". I found the original recipe in a baby cookbook: baby bistro cookbook After making it once, I modified the recipe greatly. My daughter loves them, my ex loved them. They freeze well, and can be used as finger food. They are a complete meal, with vegetable, protein and carbs. i used to make them much smaller.

I chose to replace the bread crumbs with Quinoa flour.
The result is ok. Not great, but ok. Maybe I should add some almond or filbert's flour to give it a nutty taste as well as absorb some of the mixture.

Here is my approximate recipe:

• 3 pounds of ground turkey
• 1 big onion chopped fine.
• garlic or garlic powder (about 2-3 TB)
• 2 bags of spinach, wilted.
• salt, pepper
• sage (about 3 Tablespoons)
• coriander (about 3 TB)
• a tsp of cayenne pepper
• 3 eggs
• enough quinoa flour to make the mixture hold together, in my case about 4 TB.
• applesauce (1/2 Cup)

Mix everything very well. Form little patty using two tablespoon, saute until cooked and browned.

This recipe makes about 30 patties.
Miriam's comment was "i don't see the difference with the regular ones", which is encouraging..

Intro

My name is Odile. My daughter, Miriam, 7, just got diagnosed with Celiac before xmas. Until that time, we both were omnivorous. Her dad and I have decided to give her one last gluten filled xmas. After our xmas vacation, i.e. tomorrow, 12/29/2012, we are going cold turkey.

As a cook, I am triply cursed: I am a foodie, I am french and my mom started her career as a cooking teacher. Needless to say, I have used two cake mixes in my entire life. I make everything from scratch. Maybe I thought I was making "everything" from scratch. I have learned in the last month that gluten is in an amazing number of foods, including 'soy sauce', spelt, and that the jury is still out when it comes to oats.

I am facing a big challenge, I am going to have to re-learn how to do everything from scratch, but without gluten. I have bought a dozen cookbooks to learn how to bake and cook again.
Since my daughter's santa's list has contained "Pasta" for the last 4 years, part of my experiments will be to learn to make decent pasta, esp. raviolis and also decent crusty, yummy, filled with holes, bread.
I am not sure how this is going to turn out, so I am going to document my experiments. If they work, I will post the recipes. If they don't, well, I will have learned something.