Archive for the ‘Equipment’ Category
Triumph Dining sent a copy of their Essential Gluten-Free Restaurant Guide, and a set of their Dining Cards, to Gf-Zing! for review. We have tested the book in two states so far, and we have used the cards extensively in American, Thai, Indian and other restaurants and can say that the cards provide an easy way to communicate the gluten-free dietary restriction to restaurant staff. We consider these the restaurant guide and the cards to be true “workhorses” of our gluten-free collection.
The dining cards are useful both with the manager and with the waitstaff. A second less obvious use is that by reading the English translation on the back of each card the diner can find out what the risky items are in each ethnic cuisine, and this proves useful in grocery stores as well. These cards are useful and convenient, and we rely on them heavily. The only difficulties we have had are 1) sometimes the staff will interpret gluten-free to mean ’spice-free’ and we have to assure them that indeed we like spices and flavors, just no wheat, barley or rye and 2) for the Chinese card sometimes the staff cannot read the characters for barley or rye and has difficulty interpreting the card. Our only other wish is that Triumph dining will produce a Korean and a Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese card!
The Essential Guide to Gluten Free Dining is a very useful book as well. We take it with us when traveling, and we even learned about some new opportunities right in our own back yard. The bright orange cover makes it easy to unearth on the coffee table or in the car. We like this guide, even though we were initially skeptical - we have the internet, right? so, why do we need a book? Well, when you have left your wireless connectivity behind, and you’re on the interstate and hungry, it is just great to be able to leaf through and find tons of restaurants that are not too far away, with phone numbers and menu hints, and sometimes the name of the owner. This book is a welcome addition to our gluten-free library!
A Gf-Zing! book review.
Fresh vegetables, fish, lamb, chicken, soups, stews and rice dishes - these are the features of a cookbook that has immediate curb-appeal for the gluten free community. We are looking for recipes that don’t use flour, and don’t rely on processed foods. With the exception of a very few recipes (mostly in the bread and borek chapter and the desserts chapter), this cookbook will satisfy your gluten free needs.
The Sultan’s Kitchen, with its beautiful color photos and Turkish aesthetic, even down to the page numbering, is a pleasure to behold and to cook from. All of the recipes we have tried have been delicious, and we mean all!
A few favorites include: Rice Pilaf with Chickpeas, Green Lentils and Caramelized Onions, (we used lentil orzo), Sea Bass Poached with Herbs and Raki in Parchment, (we used ouzo instead of raki), Stewed Lamb Kebab with Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
A Gf-Zing! recommended product!
The Triumph Dining Cards, which are available in 6 languages, have become indispensible to us when we go out to dinner. The translations, in Thai, Mexican Spanish etc. have caused many waiters and maitre-d’s to pay attention to the provision of gluten free food to our table.
Without these cards we used to be greeted with that frosty smile that says “I am clueless about gluten and don’t want to learn, today or any other day. I am turning off my brain now.” We used to hear things like “well, you can’t eat pasta, but would you eat semolina?” Or, “I have a cousin who doesn’t eat gluten…,” and then along comes the salad with croutons on top, followed by an uncomfortable request to return without bread in the salad etc.
Using the Triumph Dining Cards, we can hand the card to the waiter and be assured that someone will understand and try to help us find gluten free food on the menu. For some reason these well-written, professionally designed restaurant cards for the gluten free engage the waitstaff in the problem and inspire them to read labels and to research the recipes.
Tip well, and return happily!
A Gf-Zing! recommended product!
The GF community eats a lot of rice, and we’re pretty fussy about how it is cooked! After we got over the initial gluten-free shock of realizing how much rice we would be about to consume, we didn’t mind spending more money on a newer and better rice cooker than the cheap one we had purchased in 1990. That old one was a standard no-frills rice cooker with an aluminum insert. It cooked rice, but the rice was never quite right, and the bottom rice was always a little browned…..but it was fine for us when we could choose to eat rice! Now that we have to eat rice a lot, we have become real rice snobs!
Enter the Zojirushi rice cookers. We figured that if the thing is made by people who eat a lot of rice, it will probably be good.
The Zojirushi fuzzy-logic rice cookers make the GF life-style a breeze! Jasmine rice gets a good soaking and comes out perfect every time. Brown rice comes out cooked just right, not like a bowl of tiny stones. The interesting setting “porridge” seems to be for a type of porridge unfamiliar in the west, perhaps a congee style of porridge.
A few pointers: There are a couple of different measuring devices that come with the Zojirushi rice cookers - one is green, and one is clear. It is important to follow the advice in the cooking manual and use the clear one for standard white rice. Also, when the cooker says it makes “5 cups” that refers to the number of their little measuring cups of dry rice. So if you fill the clear cup 3 times with dry jasmine rice, and fill the water up to the line on the cooking pot that says 3 for white rice, then you will get “3 servings” of cooked rice a the end of about an hour. This is the correct serving size for people who eat lots of rice, but will be more than the right amount for people who typically don’t eat rice as a staple food.
It takes a little longer to make rice in one of these rice cookers - the typical elapsed time before the rice is done for dinner is about an hour for most white rices. Brown rice takes longer. Stove top rice cooking takes less than a half hour for white rice, but that is because there is no soaking cycle. The Zojirushi adds a soaking cycle, which is why the rice is so delicious! We usually put the rice on to cook before starting to make the rest of the dinner, that is unless there is pie for dessert. If there is going to be pie for dessert, we start that first, pop it in the oven, then put on the rice and get going on the vegies and other good things!
It is important not to try to cook rice in coconut milk in one of these rice cookers because a lava flow of coconut milk comes spewing out the steam vent and flows down the sides of the rice cooker onto the counter top. Likewise, it is important not to add raisins and things like that which would clog up the steam vents. Stick to cooking rice, that is the best thing, and put the add-ins in separately.
It is possible to cook quick-cooking gluten free rice mixes in a rice cooker. It takes a little longer than on the stove-top, but the rice comes out nice. We used the “quick cooking” setting.
See more information at this posting: Basmati Rice in the Zojirushi Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker