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Archives for November 2005

Spicy Collard Greens with Lemon and Rice

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Originally, the recipe was for a Turkish salad, but we found that with a few adjustments we had a fine, highly-flavored hot side dish. You can use this recipe with other “braising” greens, such as swiss chard.

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup shallots, peeled and sliced
1 cup of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup diced green peppers
2 pounds of collard greens, cleaned well and chopped (leave out the tough parts of the stem)
2 cups gluten free chicken stock
1/2 cup uncooked Jasmine, long-grain or Basmati rice
salt
freshly ground pepper
Gluten free hot sauce or asian garlic hot pepper sauce, about 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
juice of 1 lemon

Fry the shallots in the oil in a non-stick pan with a lid. Add the tomatoes, peppers and collard greens (don’t worry, the huge amount of collard greens will shrink as it cooks.) and fry for a few minutes while the collard greens cook down to fit into the pan. Add the chicken stock and rice, salt, pepper and hot sauce and cover the pan. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more stock if necessary. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Serve with a sauce made from 1 cup of plain yogurt mixed with 2 cloves of raw garlic, grated, and a dash of salt.

Make sure all of your ingredients are gluten free!

Meatballs in Red Wine Sauce

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Meatball mixture:

1 cup of GF bread crumbs (make your old GF bread into crumbs and store it in ziplock bags in the freezer)
1 1/2 or 2 pounds ground beef (we grind steak to make ground beef), or ground turkey
2 eggs
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley (about half a bunch)
1-2 teaspoons salt (depending on your taste)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried summer savory (or oregano if you prefer that flavor)
a few drops of gluten free hot sauce
sugar, if needed
red currant jelly as needed

Frying oil:
1 Tablespoons butter or ghee
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
a dried cayenne pepper

Sauce mixture:
Stir these three ingredients together in a glass measuring cup:

2 cups Chianti (red wine)
1/4 cup gluten free tomato paste (or more)
3 cups gluten free chicken broth or beef broth (home made)
More broth if needed

Make sure to use a red wine that is really drinkable – don’t use a red wine that you think is too sour or the sauce will be sour.

Put all the meatball ingredients in a food processor and mix well, or chop everything finely and mix by hand. Most meatball recipes call for soaking bread crumbs in milk and then squeezing out the milk – that is not required. Just mix the gluten-free bread crumbs with the meat and onions etc. and then form the mixture in to large meatballs – larger than a whole walnut.

Heat the oil and butter or ghee with the cayenne pepper in a non-stick pan that can accomodate all the meatballs, and brown the meatballs in this oil. To the same pan that contains the meatballs, add the wine mixture and stir gently. Cook the meatballs in the wine sauce for about 15-20 minutes, stirring as necessary and adding more broth if the sauce becomes too thick. It is not necessary to cover the pan while cooking these meatballs. Taste the sauce for salt and pepper, and add more if you like. If the sauce requires a half teaspoon of sugar to improve the flavor, add the sugar at this point. You might also add, and this is a super addition, a couple of tablespoons of red currant jelly, whcih will melt into the sauce and give it something special. Remove the cayenne pepper before serving.

(If you have only a small frying pan, you will need to brown the meatballs in batches and then put them in a larger pan to make the sauce.)

The original recipe that this is based upon came from Bon Appetit magazine, February 2001. The original included flour, and required the meatballs to be baked and so on. This revision is gluten free.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

Jelly Roll – a cake

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Jelly Roll is very popular with children, and adults who used to be children. It’s a little tricky to make, because if you overcook the cake it will not roll up!

3/8 cup cornstarch
3/8 cup GF cookie flour mix
1/4 teaspoon powdered gluten free vanilla
1/2 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
pinch of salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon water
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam, melted
waxed paper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 13×9 inch baking pan (the kind you use for brownies).

Sift together the cornstarch, GF flour, GF vanilla powder, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk or beat the 3 eggs and half of the sugar until the mixture is very thick, and light in color – it should be thick and form ribbons off the beater or whisk. Gently fold in the dry ingredients, and then stir in the tablespoon of water. Pour the batter into the greased pan and smooth it out gently to fill the pan. Bake for 10 minutes – not any longer. The cake will spring back when touched briefly with your finger (don’t burn yourself.)

Spread out a sheet of waxed paper on the counter, and sprinkle it with the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Now comes the critical part. Switch into emergency cooking mode: Turn the cake out on to this sugar coated waxed paper immediately after you take it from the oven. Don’t answer the phone. Tell the kids they have to wait. Now, trim off the edges of the cake with a sharp knife. Spread the cake with the jam. Roll the cake up firmly, starting at the short end of the cake. Allow the cake to cool and slice it in 8 or more pieces.

This cake is great with a cup of first-quality Darjeeling tea. Serve the cake on a nice china plate, and enjoy a moment of peace, and the civility and pleasures of bygone days.

Baby Potatoes – are they really worth the $$?

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When we visit the produce section those baby potatoes are sitting there in their little plastic potato prisons, enticing us to remember the stories people used to tell, of creamed potatoes and peas on the 4th of July; of new potatoes just out of the ground. However, at upwards of $4 a box these little tubers are pretty pricey! So, the question is, should we spend our hard earned money on them? Are they worth it? A resounding Yes! Baby, or “new” potatoes are a superior braising or boiling potato.

Definitely buy the baby potatoes – – try the Yukon Golds – try them braised, or boiled plain and served whole with butter. You will not be sorry! Buy two boxes because you will want seconds.

Now, here’s a little useful information about potatoes in general:

If you go to spend the big bucks on tiny potatoes, make sure that they are not green – look at them closely and you may see that some potatoes have a green tinge to the skin. The green is due to the presence of solanine, which is a toxin. Potatoes form more solanine when they are exposed to light, which is why potatoes were stored in root cellars in the old days, and why they are often sold in opaque bags today. If you smell a very green potato, you will notice a bitter, grassy smell like that of weeds broken while gardening. This smell, and the green color, should alert you not to consume that potato. Solanine, in large enough quantities, can make you ill. So, avoid green potatoes.

Here’ the dictionary definition of solanine:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/32/S0543200.html

and here’s the chemical composition:
C45H73NO15

Now, you know more about potatoes than you used to!

Coconut Cream Pie – gluten free, with no cream!

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9″ pie gluten free shell – baked

Coconut Filling:
1 cup gluten free coconut milk (canned, reconstituted or frozen)
2 cups gluten free almond milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine
pinch of salt
1/4 cup fresh grated or sweetened dried coconut
5 Tablespoons cornstarch and enough water to make a thin mixture
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla

Meringue Topping:
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla

To make the filling:

Mix the coconut and almond milks, sugar, butter, salt and coconut in the top of a double-boiler over hot water. Stir constantly until the mixture is very hot. Mix the cornstarch with enough water just to thin it to pouring consistency, then add this to the hot mixture, stirring constantly and continue to stir until thickened.

Beat the egg yolks in a bowl just until mixed. Stir a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, beating constantly so as not to cook the egg yolks. Add the rest of the hot mixture and the vanilla, again stirring constantly. Put the mixture back over the hot water (double boiler) and cook for 2 more minutes and don’t forget to keep stirring! Cool this coconut custard, and then pour it into the prepared pie shell. Set it aside while you make the meringue.

To make the meringue:

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt tuntil they form soft peaks. Beat in the sugar and beat until the meringue makes smooth peaks. Add vanilla and spread the meringue on the filling in the pie shell.

Bake the pie at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, until the meringue is nicely browned. Chill the pie completely before serving.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

Basmati Rice in the Zojirushi Rice Cooker

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To cook basmati rice in the Zojirushi (fuzzy-logic) rice cooker – that is the question! Is it possible to make this rice in the cooker and obtain the quality that one gets from cooking it using a traditional method?

Basmati rice is a delicious rice enjoyed by many cultures. It has a mildly pop-corny flavor and a wonderful texture. In some countries, basmati rice is cooked with a delicious bottom crust created by steaming the cooked rice on a base of butter or buttered sliced potatoes. In other countries, it is cooked as biryani, or in many pilaf-style dishes. Basmati rice is enjoyed plain as well. Traditionally, this rice is soaked before cooking and the grains of rice come out separate and elongated from the soaking/cooking. In some countries, after the initial boiling of the rice, after the cooking water has been absorbed, a cotton cloth is placed over the rice and the top placed on the pot. The cloth absorbs the last vestiges of steam from the rice, and leads to even more separate grains. That’s what happens in a traditional way….now for what happens with a rice cooker.

We have successfully cooked delicious basmati rice in the Zojirushi, but read on. We have tried just putting the rice in the cooker and treating it like any other white rice, but if you do that you will not get the double-long, fluffy but slightly chewy grains that make basmati rice one of the world’s premier foods. To obtain the finest quality finished product, you should soak the rice in salted water and not use the water measuring lines on the cooker bowl – instead you need to use the measuring cup – 2 measures of water per measure of rice.

Use the clear measuring cup that is provided with the cooker. We say that to make sure that nobody exceeds the capacity of the rice cooker by using a larger measuring cup.

Do not add lentils to the rice for traditional dishes that require lentils. You want to avoid adding anything during cooking that will clog up the steam vents!

First: Measure the rice using the clear cup. Wash the rice. Soak the rice in a bowl for one half hour, by adding twice as many measuring cups of cold water to the washed basmati rice, and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt for every measure of rice.

Then, transfer the rice and all the soaking liquid to the rice cooker and use the regular white rice setting to cook the rice. The Zojirushi (fuzzy-logic) rice cooker will add another soaking cycle to the cooking time. It will take nearly an hour to cook. When it is done, fluff it up with a fork, without scratching your cooker bowl, and let it sit in the cooker for another 15 minutes. The basmati rice cooked this way, in the Zojirushi (fuzzy-logic) rice cooker, will have separate grains, not stuck together. It takes a long time, but, if you were using a traditional method to cook the rice, whether Iranian (Persian), Indian or other method, there would be a step where the rice steamed after the initial cooking – it just takes longer to cook this type of rice in general!

If you prefer the rice a little bit more “al dente,” or you don’t have as much time, then just put the washed basmati rice and water (1 measure of rice, 2 measures of water and 1/2 teaspoon salt per measure of rice) in the cooker and change the cooking setting to “harder” using the menu button. Push cook. This rice will be ready to eat when the rice cooker starts singing. The grains will have a slightly greater resistance to the bite – our favorite way to eat this rice.

We fried some finely grated garlic in ghee (browned clarified butter), then dribbled this mixture on the cooked basmati rice and fluffed it around with a bamboo rice paddle from Japan. (The Zojirushi comes with a plastic paddle, but we are ashamed to say that we had previously melted that paddle and several other plastic paddles during interrupted cooking adventures…) Anyway, adding a flavored butter sauce was a winning strategy!

Having cooked basmati the traditional Persian way, where it is soaked and then boiled and strained, and then steamed on top of a butter and yogurt mixture, and having cooked it in a couple of different traditional Indian ways, we would say that this method (adding salt to the water and using the rice measuring cup to measure the water,) is acceptable for everyday cooking of basmati rice using a Zojirushi rice cooker.

Thanksgiving Stuffing – from French Fries!

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It’s a dilemma we all face – the complications of gluten free cooking to top off the already complicated holiday season. Traditional holiday meals can be challenging, and the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving challenge is surely the stuffing and the gravy.

We have learned that it is possible to make quite an acceptable stuffing by using gluten free focaccia in place of wheat bread. Basically any of the bread recipes that contain eggs will be superior to the ones that don’t, as they hold together better. Also, and here is a really exciting possibility that just might cross over into the non gluten-free world, – you can use chopped up gluten free french fries in place of the bread.

Here are proportions to use if you would like to try:

For every cup of diced frozen gluten free french fries, you will need:
1 Tablespoon of butter or margarine
1 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup diced spanish onion (you could use scallions or leeks if you prefer)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander (optional)
1/2-3/4 cup diced celery (include the leaves)
2 Tablespoons (1/8 cup) minced fresh Italian parsley
2 Tablespoons (1/8 cup) minced fresh thyme (or 1 Tablespoon dried thyme)
1 1/2-3 Tablespoons of chicken stock
Vietnamese hot sauce (make sure it is gluten free)
salt and pepper

If you are using gluten free bread cubes, toast them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 7-10 minutes to dry them out. If you are using french fries, you just cut them in stuffing sized pieces!

Fry the onion in the butter and oil for a couple of minutes. Add the celery and garlic and cook for another minute. Mix with the remaining ingredients. If you are using GF bread cubes, you will need to moisten the mixture with 3 Tablespoons of chicken stock mixed with a few drops of hot sauce, but if you are using french fries then less moistening is needed – a Tablespoon and a half fo the chicken stock per cup of french fries should do the trick! Season to taste – use lots of pepper.

Place the stuffing in a buttered covered casserole and bake alongside your turkey – only a half hour of cooking is needed.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free, including the spices!

Hutspot – A Dutch Potato Dish

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2 parts potatoes
1 part onions
1 part carrots
water
salt
freshly ground pepper
butter

This is a very simple dish, and completely adjustable. If you use 2 pounds of potatoes, then use one pound of the carrots and onions. If you use more potatoes, increase the other vegetables accordingly. Peel the vegetables, cut the potatoes and carrots in chunks and cut up the onions a bit more.

Put all the vegetables into a pot with a lid. Add water about half way up the vegetables, then salt . Put the top on and cook on medium heat until the vegetables are soft. Drain the extra water (if necessary) – often there is no need to drain it, depending on what kind of potatoes you used. Mash while adding butter and freshly ground pepper. Taste the seasoning, and serve with meat dishes.

A simple dish that expands your potato horizons!