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Pumpkin Pie – dairy and gluten free

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This recipe has been developed and tested for the gluten free community by Gf-Zing!

A one-crust unbaked gluten free pie shell (9-inch deep-dish glass pie plate is perfect)

Filling:

1 can pure pumpkin (1 pound size – the “one-pie” size)
4 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups almond milk

For a standard pumpkin pie, made with evaporated milk or heavy cream, the recipe would use fewer eggs. For this pie, which uses almond milk instead, more eggs are required to set the filling. This pie also includes less sugar than standard recipes.

Mix all the ingredients for the pie filling together with a whisk, electric mixer or food processor until thorouhly mixed. You can mix the pie filling in the same food processor that you mixed the pie crust in, and any left-over crust ingredients will just get mixed in to the filling with no ill effects on the pie.

Anyway, after the filling is thoroughly mixed, pour it in to the unbaked pie shell set in a glass pie plate. The filling will be quite thick and there will be enough for a deep dish pie. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for another 35 minutes or more, until the filling is set. If the pie is 9-inches and deep dish, it may take as much as an additional 20 minutes before the filling is set. To test the pie, dip a clean, dry, knife-blade in to the center of the pie. The knife should come out nearly clean, but little bits of filling clinging to the knife are ok. The top of the pie will start to crack.

Remove the pie from the oven. Cool completely. Pumpkin pie is an egg-based custard pie, so it should be kept chilled when not being served, and then brought to serving temperature.

If you prefer, you can use a one-pie can of squash, or 1 1/2 cups of home-cooked, mashed, drained pumpkin or winter squash (butternut, buttercup etc.). To use winter squash or sugar pumpkin, halve them and seed them, then bake or microwave until tender.  Finally, remove it from the skin, allow it to sit overnight, then strain it thoroughly to remove excess liquid.

If you don’t care about using dairy but want to use less fat, you can substitute 1 2/3 cups of 1% skim milk or gluten-free fat-free evaporated milk for the almond milk, and use 2 eggs plus 1/2 cup of gluten-free eggbeaters product for the eggs. Make sure the product is gluten free.
Make sure all the ingredients, including the spices, are guaranteed gluten free by the manufacturer. Certain manufacturers guarantee the gluten-free quality and accurate labeling of their spices. Read the internet gluten-free lists to find out which manufacturers are currently maintaining this level of quality.

The original concept of this recipe is from the Victory Garden Cookbook by Morash.  There, the recipe was a an old-fashioned winter squash pie, and called for milk or cream.

Spice Rub for Turkey

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1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon gluten free prepared mustard
salt
freshly ground pepper

For every 7-8 pounds of bird, mix up the above amount of herb mixture. Rub this mixture on the bird, and roast as usual. The herbs will season the drippings in the pan, and make for a more interesting gravy.

The paprika contributes to the attractive coloration of the roast. You can use this mixture for chicken and cornish game hens also.

The mixture comes from a recipe by one of our favorite cookbook authors, Perla Meyers. The original recipe, which includes a butternut squash and lingonberry sauce, is called Roast Turkey in Lingonberry Sauce, and can be found in the From Market to Kitchen Cookbook, 1979.

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

Sweet Potatoes with Apricots

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4 sweet potatoes or red garnet yams, cleaned, baked and peeled
1 Tablespoon gluten free frozen orange juice concentrate
1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg
a very small amount of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced and soaked in warm water for 1 hour and drained (discard the soaking liquid and keep the apricots)

Mash the sweet potatoes or yams. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Transfer the mixture to a buttered or greased casserole, (a shallow one is best so the mixture is not too thick and will heat quickly.) Bake for 25 minutes at 350, until slightly browned on top.

You can substitute other dried fruits for the apricots – cranberries, raisin, pears etc. or a combination.

This is based on a recipe in Casserole Cookery Complete, a cookbook from the mid and late-1950s.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple and Cinnamon

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4 sweet potatoes or red garnet yams, cleaned and baked until soft
Gluten free crushed pineapple, drained
brown sugar to taste
salt
pepper
cinnamon to sprinkle on top

The amount of pineapple should be 1/2 the volume of cooked yams, approximately.

Peel and mash the sweet potatoes (if you can obtain canned sweet potatoes that do not have gluten, you can use them, but why not use fresh?) Add the crushed pineapple and as much brown sugar as you feel is appropriate. Add a little salt and pepper.

Place the mixture in a buttered or greased casserole, sprinkle gently with cinnamon.

Bake at 350 until heated through – if you use 4 yams, you would need to heat this casserole for 30-45 minutes, depending on the depth of the mixture in the dish.

Make sure that your spices are gluten free!

Gluten Free or GF Pie Crust

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We tried mixes, and recipes, and had almost given up on ever having a decent pie again, when we discovered this method for making gluten free pie crust. Let’s just mention that pie was one of the most important foods in our repertoire, and we used to be very proud of our pie crust, and then we entered the parallel universe of gluten free cooking, for medical reasons. We went in to pie withdrawal – depression, cold shakes, somber mood…..after all, what were we going to have for breakfast, if we couldn’t eat left-over pie?

Well, the news is good – you can have your pie and eat it too!

Use the Dream Pastry Recipe from Bette Hagman’s More From the Gluten-Free Gourmet. A very similar recipe is also called “Donna Jo’s pie crust” and is available on the internet. (Be careful about the recipes on the internet, which are sometimes missing key ingredients in the list of flours, such as the sweet rice flour, for example!) Of course, we don’t exactly follow the recipe anyway, so we have printed here the method we are using at the moment…..

We prefer the flavor of lemon juice to the flavor of vinegar, so we use fresh lemon juice in the recipe. Also, we use one stick of gluten free margarine and one of butter (we don’t like Crisco so much). Lastly, we sprinkle the top of a two crust fruit pie liberally with sugar.

To save time and aggravation when hand-mixing the pie dough, we use a large cheese grater to grate the butter into the dry ingredients. This makes it much easier to get the “lima bean” sized pieces of butter called for in the recipe. We have also used a Braun food processor to make this crust, and it was acceptable, you just have to be careful not to overmix the butter.

Here are the ingredients for one two-crust pie shell:

Dry ingredients:

1/2 cup tapioca flour (tapioca starch) – make sure this is the flavorless kind, not the fermented find
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup potato starch (katakuriko in Japanese stores – this is NOT the same as potato flour)
1 cup sweet rice flour (mochiko flour – not the same as white rice flour)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Shortening:
1/2 cup gluten free margarine or butter
1/2 cup butter

(we use all butter)

Liquid ingredients:

1 egg
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon ice water

wax paper
sweet rice flour to sprinkle on the wax paper
lots of sugar for sprinkling on the top of the pie

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them thoroughly with a fork. If you own a sifter, you could sift them together, but it is not necessary. Grate in the butter and margarine using a large cheese grater. Mix the dry ingredients and the shortenings up with a fork until the pieces of butter are distributed evenly – you don’t need to get the pieces of butter as small as they would be in a wheat crust. The size of “lima beans” may be a little large, but don’t go smaller than kidney beans! Anyway, mix up the liquid ingredients until well combined, then pour them in to the dry ingredients and mix together. Squish the dough into a ball and wrap it up to store in the refrigerator for one hour. (For the record, we have made this crust in the winter and gone straight to rolling it out, without refrigerating it. You wouldn’t do this when the air is warm in the summer, but it is ok to do this in the winter when it is cold.)

Divide the dough in half.

To roll out this crust, spread out a piece of wax paper, dust it with sweet rice flour or GF flour mix, or whatever comes handy, put one piece of the dough on top, sprinkle with more flour, spread another piece of wax paper on top of the dough, and roll out with a rolling pin. * The dough is now contained between two sheets of wax paper. Peel off the top piece of wax paper, flip the crust on top of the pie plate, adjust it to fit the dish and remove the other piece of wax paper. Your counter is clean, and your pie crust did not fall to pieces when you tried to put it in the pie dish! You rock!

Fill your pie, then repeat the pie crust rolling maneuver for the top crust. Cut pretty holes in the top crust before transferring it to the pie, if you wish. After putting the top crust on the pie, sprinkle the top crust liberally with sugar – maybe 2 – 4 Tablespoons! Cut steam vent holes in the crust, if you forgot to do it before, and then bake the pie. This crust gets nice and brown and crispy, and it has a delicious buttery flavor! You bake it as you would any other pie crust (about 50 minutes at 400 degrees, for a filled two-crust fruit pie.)

*Note about the rolling pin: We use a piece of dowel from the hardware store – makes a perfect rolling pin, and costs very little. The piece we purchased was being sold as “closet pole” and is 1″ in diameter and 18 inches long.

Some Pies to Try:

See this post for yet more thoughts on gluten free pie crust: Click here.

Make sure to use all gluten free ingredients!

Pineapple Fried Rice

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You can use almost any proportion of these ingredients, and throw in other things besides…..

3 cups cooked, cold jasmine or other long-grain rice, massaged to separate the grains of rice
1 large pineapple (peeled, cored and cut in chunks), or a can of gluten free pineapple chunks, drained
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup peeled, sliced shallots
10 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and cleaned (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons gluten free curry powder
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
3 scallions, sliced
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons gluten free Thai Fish Sauce

Note: Read the label on the fish sauce. Some fish sauce companies include wheat, for unknown reasons, in fish sauce. Purchase a fish sauce that does not include wheat.

Prepare all your ingredients ahead of time, and get out the wok.

Heat the wok, and add the oil by drizzling it down the sides. When the oil is hot, add the shallots. Stir-fry the shallots until they are golden, a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and stir-fry briefly until it smells good. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until the shrimp are just turning pink – they don’t have to be finished cooking. Add the curry powder and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the pineapple, bell pepper and scallions and stir-fry until the pineapple is heated through, about 2-3 minutes. Add the cold rice and stir-fry until the rice is hot. Add the sugar and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Lastly, add the fish sauce by drizzling it down the sides of the wok into the rice. That’s it!

For gluten free curry powder, we make our own, using the recipe in Rebecca Reilly’s Gluten Free Baking.

You can add grated ginger, and chopped jalapeno peppers, or gluten free chili paste to this dish if you like things a bit spicier.

Make sure that all your ingredients are gluten free!

Herbed Hot Broth

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A nice bowl of highly flavored, steaming broth complements cold winter afternoons beautifully.

2 quarts gluten free chicken or beef broth
1/2 to 1 cup red wine (Chianti)
4 fresh tomatoes, halved
4 4″ sprigs fresh rosemary
4 4″ sprigs fresh thyme
4 large leaves of fresh sage
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
3″ cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves
salt to taste
2 teaspoons of sugar, or to taste

Combine all the ingredients except the salt and sugar and simmer gently for 45 minutes. Remove all the herbs and pieces of tomato with a stainless mesh screen strainer (this strains out fine particles). Save the broth! Throw out the herbs and tomato bits. Season the broth with salt, sugar and freshly ground pepper. This is an old-fashioned bouillon, so it should be clear.

Serve hot!

Chicken Soup with Salsa and Lime

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Soup:

1 quart gluten free chicken stock
1 1/2 cups gluten free salsa
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (2-3 limes)

Add-ins:

2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 cup cooked rice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Bring the soup ingredients to a boil. Add the “add-ins” and cook for 3-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Serve with avocado slices, gluten free sour cream (omit for dairy free), lime wedges and gluten free tortilla chips.

If using a pre-cooked chicken, make sure it did not include “an added solution” or a self-basting feature, as these added fluids can contain gluten.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

Honeydew Melon Chutney

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1 large honeydew melon, seeded, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks.
1/4 cup pickling salt, plus an extra 1/2 teaspoon
2 cups gluten free cider vinegar
2 cups light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed dried cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon whole allspice, crushed in a mortar and pestle
2 inches of cinnamon stick
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup EACH diced red and green bell pepper
1 clove garlic, minced or grated

1/2 cup dry currants
1/3 gluten free brandy

Soak the melon cubes in cold water to cover, with the 1/4 cup pickling salt, overnight in the regrigerator. The pickling salt is not iodized, so your pickle will not turn brown. Drain and rinse the melon in several changes of cold water.

Put the remaining ingredients (except for the currants and brandy,) in a large heavy pot and bring to a boil. Add the melon chunks and the currants and brandy, and simmer the chutney for nearly 2 hours, until it has reduced in volume by a half and thickened up. Do not cover while cooking. Store the chutney in the refrigerator. This chutney will keep for a long time.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

Turkey Stuffing with Prairie Bread

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For a half a loaf of gluten free Prairie Bread from Whole Foods Market, these are the amounts of other ingredients:

1 large onion, minced
4 stalks of celery, minced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup minced fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon dried sage, or sage and thyme
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
salt to taste
1 cup of chicken or turkey stock
1 egg

Fry the onion, celery and garlic gently in butter. Add the parsley, sage, pepper and salt and stir all together. Dice the gluten free bread up in 1/2 inch pieces. Add the bread to the vegetables in the pan. Mix the stock and egg in a bowl and add it to the pan. Stir gently just to mix, without breaking up the bread too much.

Grease a 2 quart ceramic or pyrex dish. Put the stuffing in the dish – it should fill the dish about halfway – not deeper. Put a cover on the dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes until the top is starting to brown. Remove the top and bake for 15 minutes more. If you pack the stuffing too deep, it will turn to a sort of pudding, without distinct bread cubes, and be kind of mushy. If you want the separate cube look and feel, then make sure it is not packed too deep in the pan. You could use an even shallower dish, if you like, and cook it accordingly.

You can make this recipe using cinnamon raisin bread, but reduce the garlic to 3 cloves.

Update for 2010: You can also use Against the Grain rolls for making any normal stuffing recipe.  If you like, you can use a mixture of half Udi’s Bread and half Against the Grain Rolls.  Cut the rolls, or the rolls and bread, in to large cubes and toast in the oven for 20 minutes at 325.  The Against the Grain rolls will maintain their structural integrity and stand up to the liquids in the dressing, while the Udi’s bread will disintegrate somewhat.  The combination of the two textures works well together.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

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!

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!

Sweet and Sour Salad Dressing

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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!

Black Bean and Chicken Chili – Slow Cooker Recipe

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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!

Fish Chowder with Thyme and Pancetta

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4 ounces pancetta or bacon, cut into small dice
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 Tablespoons mochiko (sweet rice) flour
2 medium onions, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
6-8 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
2 bay leaves
2 pounds all-purpose potatoes, in 1/3 inch slices
5 cups gluten free chicken stock (Be careful with chicken stocks – some contain wheat.)
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 pounds haddock or cod and salmon fillets, 1 inch thick pieces
up to two cups of heavy cream, or 4 Tablespoons of gluten free sour cream or gluten free sour cream substitute

In a chowder pot (4-6 quart sized soup pot), fry the pancetta or bacon until crisp. Drain, and reserve the little pieces of fried meat on a plate off to the side.

Add the butter, onions, thyme and bay leaf to the pot and stir-fry until the onions are brown. This will take 6-8 minutes. Sprinkle with the mochiko flour.

Add the potatoes and stock plus enough water to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until the potatoes are just cooked through. Season the potato mixture with pepper and salt to taste. Add the cream or sour cream substitute. If you don’t want either cream, sour cream or the substitute sour cream in the soup, you can leave it out and just add a little lemon juice to balance the flavors at the end.

Now, add the fish chunks and cook gently for 5 minutes – don’t boil it. Do not stir much or the fish will break up. Cover the pan and allow to sit for 10 more minutes, which will finish the cooking of the fish.

Add the reserved pancetta or bacon. Taste the chowder and serve. You can sprinkle it with chopped parsley or chives, to dress it up.

Tangerine Salad Dressing

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1/4 cup fresh tangerine, clementine or orange juice
1/4 cup gluten free rice vinegar
1 teaspoon gluten free dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper
gluten free cayenne pepper
Minced scallions, to taste – one or two

Use romaine lettuce for the salad, mix all the dressing ingredients and pour on the salad. Toss and serve. You can add more scallions if the guests are onion lovers!

If your friends are not eating oil, omit the oil. If they prefer not to have onions, omit the onions! This dressing is great made with citrus and seasoned rice vinegar, all by themselves.

If you are serving food to gluten-free friends, check carefully with the manufacturers, or on the reputable internet-based gluten free food lists, to make sure that all ingredients are gluten free. Or, ask your friends which brands are safe for them to eat.

Shrimp with Amontillado and Garlic

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1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and prepared
olive oil – about 1/4 cup
6-8 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1/4 cup flat leaf Italian parsley, chopped coarsely
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes, or 1/2 teaspoon GF vietnamese hot sauce with garlic
salt
pepper
juice of half a lemon
1/2 -3/4 cup good quality Amontillado sherry
1-2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
mangoes, peeled and sliced
Brown rice or GF bread

Heat up the oil in a large heavy pan over medium heat until hot. Add the prepared shrimp and cook them stirring until they are somewhat pink – a couple of minutes. Then add the garlic, hot peppers or hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper. Stir fry for another minute or two. Add the parsley and the lemon juice and sherry and saute until the shrimp are done. Then add 1-2 Tablespoons of fresh butter to “refresh the sauce” as the French say and stir-fry the sauce until all the materials are amalgamated. Serve with sliced mango on the side, a stir-fry of chinese cabbage, ginger, garlic and snow peas, and with brown rice or GF bread for a starch.

The sauce is excellent and very rich, so your guests will be full when they finish eating this dish.

If you are serving food to gluten-free friends, check carefully with the manufacturers, or on the reputable internet-based gluten free food lists, to make sure that all ingredients are gluten free. Or, ask your friends which brands are safe for them to eat.

Homemade Pork Breakfast Sausage

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Irish sausage gfzing.com 2011

2 egg whites (or 1 large egg)
1 Tablespoon of GF dijon-style prepared mustard or other GF mustard
1 pound of pork rib roast (boneless) or boneless country-style ribs
1/4 cup of GF bread crumbs (GF rolls, or GF bread of any kind will do – 2 end slices of Udi’s for example)
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons minced fresh sage
1 or 1.5 teaspoons of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper (or more, to taste)

Put everything in the food processor and process until smooth. Make into patties of the size you prefer and fry in 2 Tablespoons of hot oil for 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through. Use a non-stick pan.

These gluten free sausage patties are delicious and so much better than the store-bought sausage!

Note: if you don’t have fresh sage then use 1 Tablespoon of dried sage. If you want to use turkey or chicken in place of the pork, you can. Turkey or chicken sausage made this way is quite good, not too dry, due to the egg whites and mustard.

If you are serving food to gluten-free friends, check carefully with the manufacturers, or on the reputable internet-based gluten free food lists, to make sure that all ingredients are gluten free. Or, ask your friends which brands are safe for them to eat.

Roast Pork or Chicken with Garlic, Sage and Rosemary

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4 Tablespoons extra-virgine olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced or grated finely
1 Tablespoon minced fresh sage
2 Teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
4 pounds pork rib roast (don’t use the center cut – it will have no flavor and be dry)

12 ounces or 1 pound of dry flageolet beans, cooked, or small white beans, canned
1 large onion, or 2 medium
butter
3 large Yukon gold potatoes
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
pepper

For the meat, mix the first 4 ingredients and the salt and pepper, and rub them on the pork (you can use a large roasting chicken if you prefer). Put the meat in a roasting pan.

If you are cooking pork, cover the pan with foil and roast for 2 hours at 375 degrees. If using a chicken, do not cover with foil but use a vertical chicken roaster (sort of like a chicken chimney).

Fry the chopped onion in 2 Tablespoons of butter until golden, then add the drained beans, and the potatoes. Set aside.

After one hour of cooking the roast, remove the foil (if you are doing the pork) and place the cooked beans and the potatoes (peeled and cut in half), the bay leaf and parsley in the bottom of a roaster under the pork or chicken. Add 1-2 cups of chicken stock or water to the pan. Give the beans and potatoes a good stir, then roast for another 1-2 hours, until everything is cooked to your liking. Check from time to time and give the beans a stir. Add more stock if they are getting too dry. Salt the beans and potatoes to taste (it is best to salt beans after cooking so they don’t become tough).

Remove the roast to a platter to slice it, and dish up the beans and potatoes into a bowl.

The drippings from the pork or chicken will season the beans and potatoes, relieving you of the disheartening task of making GF gravy. The beans will be so delicious you will wonder why you ever used to make gravy to begin with.

Notes: If you are not familiar with the fabulous flageolet beans of France, please see if you can obtain some. They can be pressure-cooked for 25 minutes and used in this recipe. If you don’t use a pressure cooker, then soak them over night and cook as you would cook dry kidney beans. If you don’t have access to flageolet beans, then use canned small white beans but it won’t be as delicious.

It is best to grow your own fresh herbs for fall and winter cooking, but if you don’t have fresh sage and rosemary then use half as much dry herbs. So, if the recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon of fresh sage, use 1 and a half teaspoons of dry sage.

Chicken with Peas and Shitake Mushrooms

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4-6 slices of bacon
6-8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
3/4 cup dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes and drained
1 large onion, or 1 bunch of scallions, diced
3 cloves of garlic
2 -4 cups of chopped romaine lettuce (or other lettuce)
16 ounces of frozen peas
1/2 cup of GF broth, water or mushroom soaking liquid
2 teaspoons of GF ketchup
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Chop the bacon, saute it until crisp, drain away the grease and set the bacon aside. Fry the chicken in the same pan until golden, and put the chicken pieces into an oven-proof casserole. In the same pan where you fried the chicken, fry the onion until browned, then add the garlic, lettuce, peas, mushrooms, ketchup, sugar, salt, pepper, thyme and parsley. Add the broth or water, stir to get all the tasty bits of things that are stuck to the bottom of the pan mixed in with the vegetables, then put all of this material – the vegetables and the juices – on top of the chicken. Cover the casserole and bake for 25 minutes at 350.

This is very tasty served with jasmine rice. The recipe is based on one from Paula Peck in The Art of Good Cooking, which was published in 1961. The original recipe had much more fat, from chicken skin and a whole half a cup of butter which I have omitted here. Also, the original included soy sauce which is often not safe for the gluten-free community. I have updated the mushrooms to shitake mushrooms, but you could use regular button mushrooms without any diminution of flavor.

Beef Braised with Chianti and Coffee

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Beef Stew – Gluten free recipe!

2 pounds of beef chuck
olive oil
2 large Spanish onions
1-2 cloves of garlic
fresh oregano leaves and fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
Chianti
Black coffee
water

While your friends are adding flour to thicken the gravy, you will be reading a book with your feet up, waiting for a really tasty beef stew that contains no thickeners. To make a good stew, make sure to use high-quality stewing beef – the kind that will get tender with cooking! Beef chuck is the right cut. The meat must have some fat and connective tissue if you want a tender stew.

This recipe may sound unlikely, – braising beef in red wine and coffee – but it is just delicious. Serve it with braised potatoes and garlic.

First, brown 2 pounds of beef chuck, cut in large cubes – 1.5 inches – in 2 Tablespoons of good olive oil. Remove the browned beef cubes to a stew pot.

Next, chop up 2 large onions and brown them in the drippings in the pan – about 8 miutes on medium heat. Then add 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced, and 1/2 tablespoon EACH of minced fresh oregano leaves and fresh rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and frshly ground pepper. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of Chianti (Italian red wine) , 1 cup of black coffee and 1 cup of water. Pour all of this mixture in with the beef. Put a top on the stew pot and cook over low heat for about 2 hours – you will want to be checking to make sure the stew does not burn, and adding extra water as needed. Keep checking from time to time.

When the meat is tender, (check by sticking a fork in it), take the top off and reduce the sauce to the amount you like – some people like a lot of sauce, some people don’t.

This recipe is based on one from Tastes of the Pacific Northwest by Fred Brack and Tina Bell, 1988.