GF-Zing!

Archive for October, 2005

Boil 2 cups of water with one dried whole cayenne pepper until reduced to one cup. Remove the pepper. The water will be spicy!

Add 2 ounces of unsweetened gluten free chocolate and stir until melted. Add 3 Tablespoons honey and a pinch of salt. Stir well while adding another three cups of hot water. Add a pinch of cinnamon or a cinnamon stick to each serving.

Note: We grow cayenne peppers just so we will have them around for producing this drink. It is an excellent breakfast drink.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

For the ice cream:

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups light cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup local honey
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons powdered GF vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
An ice cream freezer with instructions

For the raisins:
1 cup mixed raisins
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup water

For the ice cream:

Scald the heavy cream and light cream with 1/2 cup of sugar in a saucepan. Transfer to the top of a double boiler over hot water.

In a bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar until the mixture forms thick pale yellow ribbons dripping from the beater.

Gradually add a little of the cream mixture to the egg mixture, a half cup at a time, beating constantly until you have added about half the cream to the egg mixture. Then add the resulting mixture to the remaining cream mixture in the double boiler. Stirring gently and constantly, heat the custard mixture until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove the double boiler from the heat, and stir in the spices and the honey.

Pour the mixture into a shallow pan and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours until cold. Transfer the mixture to the ice cream freezer and freeze. Serve with rum raisins.

For the raisins:

Boil the raisins, sugar and water for about 4 minutes until slightly thickened. Transfer the raisins to a Mason jar and add an equal quantity of GF rum. Let stand until the raisins are fattened - a few hours. Serve the raisins with the ice cream, but not to minors.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

Mixture A:
1 cup almond milk
1 egg
1 /4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon GF vinegar

Mixture B:
1/3 cup potato starch (this is not the same as potato flour)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt (or less depending on your taste)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons GF baking powder
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum (available at health food stores)

Oven: 375 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

Combine Mixture A with Mixture B. Mix with a whisk to remove lumps. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 3o minutes (roughly) until a cake tester tests clean.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes at least, but serve while it is still hot.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten-free!

1 cup sliced almonds
6 Tablespoons sugar
lettuce
2 whole scallions, chopped, or 1 Tablespoon fresh minced chives
Canned GF mandarin oranges, drained or fresh strawberries, sliced

Dressing:

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon minced Italian parsley
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons GF cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon GF prepared ballpark style mustard
a dash of GF hot sauce

Prepare the nuts: Cook the almonds and the sugar in a non-stick pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has melted and the nuts are browned. Take care that the nuts do not burn. Transfer the nuts to a ceramic plate to cool. These can be stored in an airtight container so you don’t eat them all before you serve the salad.

Mix the dressing ingredients up. The mustard will act as an emulsifier, causing the dressing to become one with itself and look very nice. Put the lettuce and green onions in a salad bowl, toss with the dressing and the oranges just before serving. Pass the nuts to sprinkle on top. Most recipes of this kind have half as many nuts, but here the nuts are doubled to allow for snacking.

Your GF guests will appreciate your asking which brand of mustard they are able to eat!

The Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix by Pamela’s comes in an attractive bag, and has a recipe on the side that is just absolutely stunning! The chocolate pound cake recipe, to be found on the side near the bottom of the bag, if made with gluten free chocolate chips added, will satisfy even your pickiest non-GF friends. It is a first-rate cake.

The cake will stay moist for days and will not fall apart or become petrified. This is the best GF chocolate cake mix we’ve tried yet, and that’s after trying quite a few mixes.

Wasting money is always a concern in the GF world, since everything is so darned expensive - how many times have you purchased a GF product and tipped the resulting “cake” or “bread” into the trash receptacle, wondering if the ancient Egyptian tomb builders might have used a similar mixture in building the great pyramids? That’s happened to us a few times, and it is so aggravating when you’ve shelled out a five-spot for the privilege. Well, go ahead and splurge on Pamela’s Chocolate cake mix, and a bag of GF chocolate chips, and then have the chocolate pound cake for breakfast also, in case you didn’t eat enough of it at dinner.

Ok, we’re done raving but did we mention that Pamela’s Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix might become a staple food for us?

A Gf-Zing! recommended product.

Note: Here at Gf-Zing! we do not verify the gluten-free status of any product. We rely on the manufacturers to declare the status of their products. It is up to the reader to check labels, and to verify that the products they consume are safe for them to use.

The recipe is adapted from one at www.Celiac.com. Here, the pie has additional spices and coconut milk instead of cream.

Make an uncooked one-crust gluten-free pie crust and use it to line a glass pie dish.

Bottom of pie:
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 Tablespoons gluten free margarine (for dairy, use butter)

Filling:
3 large eggs, stirred
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white or turbinado sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons GF cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon GF ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon GF allspice
1/4 teaspoon GF cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 ounces GF canned pumpkin, or freshly cooked pumpkin, blended and strained to remove excess water
1 cup coconut milk

Mix pecans, sugar and butter and distribute in the bottom of the uncooked pie shell. Prick the part of the pie shell that goes up the side of the pie plate with a fork in several places so it won’t balloon out while cooking. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes and then allow to cool for another 5 minutes.

Mix the filling ingredients in a food processor or blender. Pour the mixture into the partially cooked pie shell, on top of the nut layer. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. A knife inserted into the center of the pie should come out nearly clean. Cool completely before cutting, although we often end up eating pie when it is warm because we can’t wait.

This is a custard pie, and should be refrigerated because of the eggs.

Try this pie for breakfast - it is sure to be more healthy than any breakfast cereal!

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

Why is it that whenever you see the words “steak tips” it always says “teriyaki” right next door? Teriyaki is made with soy sauce, which is avoided in the gluten free world because soy sauce usually has wheat on the ingredients list.

Here is a nice marinade for steak that does NOT include soy sauce!

1 Tablespoon finely grated fresh garlic
1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons tequila
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 pounds steak or skinless, boneless chicken

Mix the first 6 ingredients together and massage it into the meat. Let sit for a half hour, or as long as overnight.

Barbecue the meat on the grill until cooked to your liking. Steak tips take about 3-4 minutes on one side, then turn and cook another 3 minutes for medium rare. Chicken takes 15 minutes to cook through, turning once after 8 minutes are up.

Make sure that all of your ingredients are gluten free, including the spices and liquors.

Succotash is a Narraganset Indian word for a mixture of corn and legumes. The Depression era version of this dish included lima beans. If you prefer other vegies to limas, you may want to try branching out with asparagus, green beans or peas. If you like limas, then use them.

1/2 a spanish onion, chopped (spanish onions brown well)
3 Tablespoons butter, GF margarine of olive oil
corn off the cob from 7 ears of sweet corn, or 1 bag of frozen corn
1 bunch asparagus cut in 1 1/2-2 inch lengths, or string beans, or peas
salt
pepper

Stir-fry onion in butter in a non-stick pan until golden.

Add corn and asparagus or beans or peas, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the asparagus or beans are done - 10-15 minutes.

Make sure all of your ingredients are gluten free.

2 sticks butter or margarine
1 cup grade B pure maple syrup (this is the darker maple syrup)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons gluten free vanilla extract
zest of one orange, grated
1 1/4 cups GF cookie flour mix
3/4 cornmeal
1 Tablespoon gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shredded sweet coconut
3/4 cup of almond milk mixed with the juice of 1/2 a lime
1 cup raisins

Grease a large 10-inch bundt pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and maple syrup in food processor. Gradually add the eggs, vanilla and orange zest.

Sift dry ingredients in another bowl, and then add the coconut. Add the dry ingredient/coconut mixture to the food processor alternately with the almond milk/lime juice mixture and process just until mixed. Remove the dough to a bowl and mix in the raisins. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan, and bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes in the pan, then turn out on to a cooling rack and cool.

1 1/2 cups unsalted shelled pumpkin seeds (toast them on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes)
4 ounces gluten free bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chocolate chips
2 sticks of butter, unsalted
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups of Dream Pastry Mix (see Bette Hagman’s The Gluten-free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy)

2 Tablespoons sugar (for sprinkling)
1 egg white (for topping)

gluten free semisweet chocolate chips

Grind the roasted shelled pumpkin seeds in a coffee grinder or food processor until like coffee grounds.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler and remove it to a bowl. To the melted chocolate, add butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon and mix together well. Add Dream Pastry Mix and ground pumpkin seeds and stir well.

Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll one piece of the dough out between two sheets of wax paper to 1/4 inch thick. Cut 1 1/2 inch circles using a cup or cutter. Place circles of dough on Silpat lined cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. Prick each cookie with a fork a few times. Roll more dough and cut cookies, until you have used up the dough. Brush each cookie with egg white and sprinkle with the extra sugar. Bake cookies at 325 degrees fr 18 minutes or until done.

When the cookies come out of the oven, immediately put 3 chocolate chips on each cookie and wait for the chips to melt. Spread the melted chips to make a frosting. Remove the cookies carefully to a cookie rack and let them cool until the chocolate is hardened.

Note: Shelled pumpkin seeds are also called pepitas. They are green in color. You can find them in the refrigerator section of a natural food store. Make sure they are really fresh and shelled, and make sure they are unsalted. Toasting them gives them a nice nutty flavor.

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

This is the most requested Gf-Zing! recipe ever! The cookies are crunchy, with a complex flavor and interesting buttery sugar coating.
Mixture A:

Cream together:
1 cup GF soybean margarine, or butter, or a combination of both
1 ½ cups brown sugar, (For a very crunchy cookie use 1 cup turbinado sugar and ½ cup white sugar )
1 teaspoon GF Vanilla extract

Add, and beat well:
1 large egg

Mixture B:

In another bowl, mix together with a whisk:
1 teaspoon GF ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon GF ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xantham gum
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups GF cookie flour mix

GF confectioner’s sugar for rolling.

Combine mixture A with mixture B.

Add: 2 cups of top quality GF chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts (you can optionally also add dried cherries or dried cranberries.) Form 1-inch balls, roll in GF confectioner’s sugar, flatten slightly, place on Silpat mat-lined (or parchment paper lined) cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 F. Remove pan from the oven, let rest 5 minutes on pans before removing cookies from the pan.

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

COOKIE FLOUR MIX
this mixture works well.

2 cups plain brown rice flour
2 cups plain white rice flour
1 1/2 cups sweet brown rice flour (this is a different kind of rice flour – you could also use sweet white rice flour)
1 1/3 cups tapioca starch or tapioca flour
2/3 cups GF corn starch
1/2 cups rice bran or rice polish
2 teaspoons xanthan gum

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free. Mix all the ingredients together in a large container or bag. Use as much as you need for your recipe. Store the rest.

Have ready a Crockpot or other slow-cooker.

In a large non-stick frying pan, fry:

2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

until golden.

Add and fry for a few minutes until the chicken is somewhat browned and spices are fragrant:

2 Tablespoons gluten free chili powder
1 Tablespoon whole cumin seeds
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken, chopped up

Add:
2 14-ounce cans of diced gluten free tomatoes
19 ounce can of gluten free black beans, drained and rinsed

Stir is all up, bring it to a simmer and transfer to the crockpot. Cook on low (slowcookers have heat settings of high and low), for 4-8 hours. Adjust the seasoning with a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar if necessary.

Serve with rice, gluten free cornbread or your favorite choice of starch, and with garnishes of diced scallions, gluten free sour cream, grated cheddar etc.

To serve food to gluten-free friends, check carefully with the manufacturers, or on the reputable internet-based gluten free food lists, making sure that all ingredients including spices are gluten free. Or, ask your friends which brands are safe for them to eat. They will appreciate your concern!

Peel and cut enough potatoes, a combination of baking and waxy potatoes is fine, and place them in a large pot with water to just cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Check the potatoes to see if they are done, and if not you must boil them for another 5 minutes or so.

Remove from the heat, and mash them with a potato masher, while adding sea salt, freshly ground pepper, unsalted butter and chopped up brie cheese (rinds and all.) Add about 1 Tablespoon of butter per serving, and add about 1/10 as much brie cheese as you have potatoes. Adjust the seasoning, and serve.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free. Do not try to add blue cheese to this dish unless you are absolutely sure the blue cheese is gluten free.

Serve this tuna with Mashed Potatoes and Brie if you are able to use dairy products.

First, make a Sweet and Sour Hot Sauce:

2 cups gluten free rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup minced red bell pepper
1/4 cup minced onion
1 1/2-2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 Tablespoon minced cilantro
1/2 teaspoon of gluten free sriracha or Vietnamese chili sauce with garlic

Cook the vinegar and sugar until it makes a syrup - a half hour or so. Add the next 5 ingredients and set aside.

Make a spice mixture:

1 teaspoon of gluten free cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon gluten free paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried EACH thyme and oregano
1 Tablespoons gluten free garlic powder
2 Tablespoons kosher or sea salt

2 pounds fresh tuna steaks
safflower oil

Coat 2 pounds of tuna steaks (about 1-1 1/4 inches thick) with safflower oil. Sprinkle one side liberally with spice mixture. Heat a very sturdy pan to extra hot, and turn on the exhaust fans on high! When the pan is hot, add the tuna steaks, sprinkle more spice mixture on them, and seer for 5 minutes (cover the pan after one minute), then turn the tuna steaks, and finish cooking the other side for another 4 minutes or so. Some people like their tuna rare and in that case you only want to cook the tuna for a couple of minutes per side. We prefer it cooked through. It is up to you, and what you are comfortable with according to your understanding of safety in cooking fish.

Serve the blackened fish with the Sweet and Sour Hot Sauce, and hot mashed potatoes on the side. A salad of mixed baby greens with a citrus dressing compliments the meal.

This recipe is adapted from one in the Hali’imaile General Store Cookbook by Beverly Gannon, adjusted for gluten free cooking and leaving out some ingredients and spices.

Be sure that your spices are indeed gluten free - some of the spice purveyors promise to include all ingredients on their labels but not all! Check to find out it the manufacturer will ensure that your spices are safe to use.