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Product Reviews

A Non-Newtonian Suspension in the Kitchen

0 · Apr 19, 2012 · Leave a Comment

By Alice DeLuca

Would you like to buy a few metric tons of tomato paste?  For only $786 per metric ton you may purchase a minimum of 20 metric tons in 238 kilogram drums. That’s one of the interesting business opportunities that are dropped in the email box of a food blogger these days.

 

Food bloggers also receive lots of offers for coupons.  The scheme goes like this: if the blogger will just agree to write nice things about Company X, the company will provide coupons to offer to blog readers as enticements for them to visit, thereby driving up the blog’s popularity as measured by page visits.

 

Instead of money and real compensation, manufacturers and marketers offer the food writing community coupons in exchange for the virtual currency of “visits.” Using coupons of very little value, and shamelessly taking advantage of blogger vanity, the company receives “exposure” without having to spend a single honest dollar for advertising.  The problem is that this currency of “visits” and coupons is coinage that the blogger cannot spend or barter for things of real value.

 

Also common is the “free sample” offered so the hapless food blogger will “tweet’ about the product or perhaps “like” the product on Facebook, thereby starting a viral marketing event that companies dream about.  I have found entire Styrofoam containers of frozen food products shipped to my doorstep, sent by a startup company hoping I will write favorably about their product and start a stampede of customers. Few of these products have been even as tasty as hospital food.  In addition, since 2009, if a blogger receives a product in exchange for a review, the Federal Trade Commission requires the blogger to disclose the gift.[i]

In contrast to the coupon offers, the solicitation to purchase a metric ton of tomato paste feels respectful, – a potentially honest, clean business arrangement instead of like cash left on a dance hall girl’s bedside table in a film noire.  The blogger can reject coupon and sample offers every day, even when the offer is for a delivery of sample beer. Perhaps all bloggers should, united, refuse the “cheap date” coupon and sample offers, just as a matter of pride even if they don’t care about earning a living.

 

The recent tomato paste sales pitch caught my attention and made me wonder about the global value and volume of tomato paste. Haunted by the idea, I couldn’t really leave the subject alone.  As soon as I began to think about it, I saw tomato paste everywhere. Americans consume 2.5 billion pounds of tomato paste each year, in various forms – condiments, pizza and spaghetti sauces, drink mixes. [ii]Hundreds of millions of metric tons and billions of dollars’ worth of tomato paste are moved hither and yon, all over our now-flat world[iii], eventually landing on the shelf of the local grocery store in ludicrously sized 6 ounce cans.

 

Elizabeth David tells us that in Italy “before the days of canned food and preserves concentrated tomato paste was made by drying the cooked tomato sauce in the sun.” She reports that it was sold in “loaves the colour of dark mahogany” and she notes that the commercial product available in Parma fifty years before she was writing (so around 1908) reduced the tomatoes to 1/7 of their original volume[iv]. She notes that only a very small amount of tomato paste should be used as it is very strongly flavored.

 

Tomato paste companies sprang up in the early 20th century[v], creating what became an expensive commodity in the Second World War (based on the prices for tomato paste in the ration books of the period[vi]) before retreating to its inexpensive status today.  In 1950s Australia, it was manufactured and “predominantly sold to Italian delis and restaurants to make the base of sauces.”[vii]

 

The vast amount of tomato paste we humans use has lured the dishonest broker to the table, so government resources and strategies for quality control have been brought to bear.  Aside from ascertaining what the components of a paste are, it is also difficult to assess the quality of pastes when surreptitious thickeners are used to sop up the free liquids in the paste. A company might very well try to thicken up their tomato paste with something other than tomatoes, and so begins the procedural-crime-drama game in which the government tries to regulate the requirements for various food products.  Unregulated, the contents of any canned food would likely be a mystery.

 

Study, for example, the case of the mislabeled tomatoes:  In 1912, the U.S. seized  canned tomato paste and canned peeled tomatoes that were supposedly “Vesuvian” but actually came from New Jersey, and found that the contents consisted “wholly or in part of filthy, putrid, and decomposed vegetable substance.“  The canned tomatoes were released on bond, if you can believe it, while the tomato paste was ordered destroyed.[viii]  With lightning speed, the first U.S. food standards for tomato paste were issued – nearly 3 decades later – in 1939.[ix]

 

In 1971, the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) noted the need for uniform consistency in its fascinating “Methods of Analyses for Tomato Products: Determination of Consistency.”[x]

“With the advent of the tomato paste “futures” market, a measurement of consistency of tomato paste scheduled for delivery against exchange contracts must be determined.”

 

The device recommended for measuring consistency is laid out: The Bostwick Consistometer[xi]. This device is still in use today, even available on Amazon.com, and allows the user to create a sort of lava-flow of ketchup or mustard, or in this case tomato paste, to see how far the condiment will travel in a given time.  A low number represents a thicker condiment.

 

It is easy to imagine testing a squirt bottle mustard and a jarred mustard, but harder to picture the tomato paste test. Clearly any tomato paste that runs downhill at all, in any length of time, would be too thin. Tomato paste is a “non-Newtonian suspension.”[xii] It is thick, and fundamentally it is a paste. For the record, a whole can of tomato paste, removed from its can, will slide down an inclined porcelain surface as a whole unit – just had to try that.

 

A 6 ounce can of tomato paste is nearly always more tomato paste than is required by modern American recipes so a substantial amount of product will be wasted in the end, leaving the buyer in a state of “tomato paste regret.” There is a very narrow historical window in which the 6 ounce can[xiii] was the common basis for an entire spaghetti sauce, somewhere in between Elizabeth David’s Italian Cooking and the current day.  Today, recipes use substantially less tomato paste, on the whole.

 

Malcolm Gladwell gives us a clue as to the current state of American tomato pastes, which are getting farther and farther from plain tomato paste – flavored and tarted up with spices and garlic. In a TED talk about spaghetti sauce and happiness[xiv], he recounts the development of varieties of commercial spaghetti sauce (usually overly sweet, thick, unctuous and gooey in my opinion) that changed the way that Americans purchase prepared sauce.  The tomato paste industry has apparently applied the same thinking to tomato paste, now providing different flavors of tomato paste, and in a dark new twist, the cans may only be labeled “PASTE” with the word “tomato” in tiny letters off to the side.  Take a look at the major brands when you next visit the grocery store and you will see this bizarre phenomenon in action.

 

Can of Paste - DeLuca Alice 2012
A can of "Paste" - 2012

How does tomato paste taste, actually?  A bunch of us sat down to dinner on a weeknight in March and opened up 4 cans and a tube of tomato paste.  The prices varied from 69 cents for the can to more than 3 dollars for the tube. Although all these products did taste fundamentally of tomatoes, cries of “acrid”, “bitter”, with “hay” or “hamster bedding” notes, filled the air around the table.  In general, the pastes were not particularly appealing on their own.

We all remarked about the ubiquitous recipe ingredient “1 Tablespoon of tomato paste” – so irritating because if 1 Tablespoon is used, an open can of paste will lurk in the refrigerator, pressuring the cook to use it up or store it carefully, otherwise wastefully discarding it later while around the world there are people starving.

Helpful websites provide hints about how to portion and store tomato paste, suggesting that other consumers are unhappy with the can sizes as well.  You can cut out both ends of the can, push out the tomato paste as a cylinder, slice it and freeze the slices.[xv] Did you know that?  Or you could smush tomato paste in to ice cube trays, freeze them and pop out the cubes for later use.  Substitutions are also an option – such as rehydrated and blended dried apricots or prunes to provide a paste consistency and that intriguing sweet-sour note, or dried tomatoes. The tomato is also a fruit, after all, not a vegetable. And yet, we have all read that the school lunch program recognizes 2 tablespoons of tomato paste as a vegetable[xvi].

The place where tomato paste became a vegetable is The Nutrition Standards for School Meals[xvii] which reads like the 10-K filing for an insider-trading corporate executive.  It is in the “fine print” and footnotes of the document that the reference to tomato paste resides.[xviii]

“tomato paste and puree are credited based on calculated volume of the whole food equivalency.”

 

In these same fine documents we learn the shocking and perhaps more interesting news that acorns are not permitted as a nutritional equivalent to meat.  This exclusion suggests that someone somewhere might have been planning to try to feed acorns to school children, as if the children were pet squirrels.  So, next time you reach for the acorns to build dinner, just remember that these are not the same as meat.[xix]  As greatly perceptive as children are, the ludicrous irony of the school lunch program will not be lost on them, and one day those same children will be running the country.  Think about this future world, FDA, before your bureaucracy compromises on child nutrition, hiding the outcome in these footnotes and allowing a canned paste to have the same stature as a fresh vegetable.

 

Is Tomato Paste a Vegetable - DeLuca Alice 2012
Two Tablespoons of Tomato Paste - a vegetable - 2012
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will one day look back at the beginning of the 21st century, when adults fed tomato paste to children calling it a vegetable, manufacturers called a food product “paste” without really saying what kind of paste, and advertisers offered coupons and promised “visitors” to writers instead of money, as if these held value like a coin of the realm.  Perhaps we can somehow alter the course we are on, as we go further and further in to the virtual world, and ascribe greater value to the real things than to the false products that surround us.

 

 

 


[i] Arango, ArangoTim. “Soon, Bloggers Must Give Full Disclosure.” Http://www.nytimes.com. New York Times, 05 Oct. 2009. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.  http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

[ii] “2011 Tomato Paste and Processed Tomato Statistics.” Www.morningstarco.com. The Morning Star Packing Company, 31 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

[iii] “Processed Tomato Products Outlook and Situation in Selected Countries.” FAS/USDA. Horticultural & Tropical Products Division, Sept. 2003. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

[iv] David, Elizabeth. “The Italian Store Cupboard: Pomidoro E Concentrato Di Pomidoro.” Italian Food. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958. 29-30. Print.

[v] “Contadina Roma Style Tomatoes: Tips and Advice: Our History.” Contadina Roma Style Tomatoes. Delmonte Foods Corporation. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://contadina.com/tips-advice/history.aspx>.

[vi] Office of Price Administration. Handy Point Chart for Processed Foods: Point Values of Popular Items, Effective October 31, 1943. Ames Historical Society. Des Moines Tribune. Web. <http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/events/rationing_paper.jpg>.Des Moines Tribune, Friday October 29, 1943, Page 9.

[vii] “Food Label – La Tosca Tomato Paste, 1950s.” Melbourne Museum. Museum Victoria. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

[viii] U.S. v. 50 Cases Peeled Tomatoes No. 3 Cans; U.S. v. 50 Cases Peeled Tomatoes No. 2 Cans; U.S. v. 50 Cases Tomato Paste. Http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/fdanj/bitstream/123456789/38466/4/fdnj02984.pdf. Middle District of Pennsylvania. 30 Mar. 1914. Print. See Bureau of Chemistry Service and Regulatory Announcements. 1914. p.198-199.

[ix] “Snapshot of Food Safety Milestones in the History of the FDA.” Snapshot of Safety Milestones in the History of the FDA. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 19 July 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FSMA/ucm238505.htm>.

[x] USDA. Methods of Analyses for Tomato Products: Determination of Consistency. USDA. U.S. Department of Agriculture: Processed Products Standardization and Inspection Branch, Sept. 1971. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5074096>.

[xi] Gatenby, Art. “Bostwick Consistometer – Incline or Not.” CSC Scientific Blog: A Blog About Test Equipment. CSC Scientific Company, Inc, 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.cscscientific.com/csc-cientific-blog/bid/25543/Bostwick-Consistometer-Incline-or-Not>.

[xii] Heidarinasab, A., and V. Moghaddam Nansa. “Time Independent Behavior of Tomato Paste.” World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 62 (2010). Web. 13 Feb. 2012. <www.waset.org/journals/waset/v62/v62-8.pdf>.

[xiii] Other can sizes have withered on the vine of history – the “No. 1 Picnic” or the No. 303, for example[xiii]. Perhaps the 6 ounce can for tomato paste will join them!

[xiv] Gladwell, Malcolm. “Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce.” TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED Conferences, LLC, Sept. 2006. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html>.Recorded February 2004

[xv] Deb. “Get the Most Out of That Can of Tomato Paste.” The Scoop : Posts from the BHG Test Kitchen. Meredith Corporation: Better Homes and Gardens, 7 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.bhglivebetter.com/community/blog/2011/get-most-out-can-tomato-paste-0>.

[xvi] Kliff, Sarah. “No, Congress Did Not Declare Pizza a Vegetable.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/did-congress-declare-pizza-as-a-vegetable-not-exactly/2011/11/20/gIQABXgmhN_blog.html>.

[xvii] “Final Rule Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs – Jan. 2012.” United States Department of Agriculture : Food and Nutrition Service, Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-26/pdf/2012-1010.pdf>.

PDF document – one page summary of regulations

[xviii] “PART 210—NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM: § 210.10 Meal Requirements for Lunches and Requirements for Afterschool Snacks.” Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=02dde6ef8db07a90198929f18099722e&rgn=div5&view=text&node=7:4.1.1.1.1&idno=7#7:4.1.1.1.1.3.1.2

(iii) Vegetables component. Schools must offer vegetables daily as part of the lunch menu. Fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables and dry beans and peas (legumes) may be offered to meet this requirement. All vegetables are credited based on their volume as served, except that 1 cup of leafy greens counts as1/2cup of vegetables and tomato paste and puree are credited based on calculated volume of the whole food equivalency. Pasteurized, full-strength vegetable juice may be used to meet no more than one-half of the vegetables component. Cooked dry beans or peas (legumes) may be counted as either a vegetable or as a meat alternate but not as both in the same meal. Vegetable offerings at lunch over the course of the week must include the following vegetable subgroups, as defined in this section in the quantities specified in the meal pattern in paragraph (c) of this section:

[xix] (ii) A serving of meat or meat alternate. Nuts and seeds and their butters listed in FNS guidance are nutritionally comparable to meat or other meat alternates based on available nutritional data. Acorns, chestnuts, and coconuts are excluded and shall not be used as meat alternates due to their low protein content. Nut or seed meals or flours shall not be used as a meat alternate except as allowed under appendix A of this part;

Food products, Product Reviews food writing, paste, tomato

Alice’s Excellent Gluten Free Pancakes or Waffles with Wild Blueberries

1 · Apr 19, 2012 · 2 Comments

Alice's Excellent Pancakes and Waffles gfzing dot com 2012
Pancakes and Waffles - gluten free from gfzing dot com

In October of 2005 I shared excellent pancake and waffle recipe with you all. Buy some frozen blueberries and real dark maple syrup before you read any further.  In 2012 it is updated to include information about our favorite waffle iron – we have no commercial affiliation with Nordic Ware by the way, we just like their stove-top waffle iron better than any of the electric models we have tried over the years..

This recipe works with buttermilk as well – for the pancakes.  It makes the best waffles if you stick with almond milk as the liquid.

Mix in bowl:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 Tablespoon GF baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

In another bowl:
1 1/2 cups almond milk
3 eggs
4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Stir the two mixtures together. Heat a non-stick pan on medium, add
butter or margarine. When pan is hot, pour batter to form pancakes (1/2
cup makes a beautiful big pancake), sprinkle with frozen blueberries.
Wait until the bubbles that form in the pancake start turning into holes
(if you don’t wait long enough the pancake will be hard to turn) but not
so long that the pancake burns, then flip. When other side is cooked,
transfer to plate and serve with real maple syrup – use the Grade B syrup which has the most flavor…

To use this recipe for waffles, use only 2 eggs and add another
tablespoon of oil. Omit the blueberries. Waffles take 4-6 minutes to cook.

Update in 2012 For best waffle results, try a Nordic Ware stovetop waffle iron – the belgian waffle type – and brush it lightly with vegetable oil before heating.  You have to practice with these waffle irons a few times to get it right. On our stove you heat it on medium high for three minutes, then flip it and heat the other side for 3 minutes. Then, you open it, pour in one and a half cups of batter, close it and cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook for 2 minutes.  That makes the perfect waffle in the photograph.

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.

 

Breakfast, Dairy Free, Equipment, Product Reviews, Recipes blueberry, dairy free, pancake, waffle

Baked Gluten Free Chicken Burgers

0 · Jan 11, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Chicken Burger from Gfzing dot com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read a Southeast Asian cookbook and you will likely come across a recipe for meatballs including baking powder.  Baking powder is an oddball ingredient for those of familiar with western meatballs, so I thought I had better give it a try.

I made two attempts.  The first, using a recipe from A Vietnamese Kitchen by Ha Roda, and the second using a chicken burger recipe from one of my very favorite new cookbooks, Poulet – More Than 50 Remarkable Meals that Exalt the Honest Chicken, by Cree LeFavour.  The recipes in this book are easily adaptable for the gluten free community.

Based on experimenting with a modified version of Cree LeFavour’s Phuket Beach Cart Sandwiches, I am recommending the baking powder addition to meatballs and burgers for those of us who use low fat meats and poultry to make burgers.  The result is juicy and interesting! (I always grind meat or poultry when making balls and burgers; using good quality meat to start out with yields a tastier ground product, and you know for sure what went in to the bowl).

My instructions to grind your own spices may seem silly until you catch a scent of the amazing, lemony coriander blasting out of the mortar as you grind. It is worth the tiny moment of your time and the little bit of muscle that is required, just to have this aromatherapy experience.

Grind in a mortar and pestle:

  • 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds – Pow!

Put the ground seeds in a food processor and add:

  • 2 pounds of boneless chicken thighs
  • 1/2 or 1 dry cayenne pepper (LeFavour uses 2 or 3 habanero chilies but even 1 was too spicy for us)
  • 1/3 cup gluten free fish sauce – check the label
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon – (grind some cinnamon stick in a mortar and pestle – such a sweet smell!)

Zap all these ingredients together in the food processor until smooth.  Shape 4 patties using wet hands.

This amount of mixture will yield four absolutely enormous burgers, each one almost 2 inches thick after baking.  I found it practical to make the four giant patties, put them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Check the interior temperature so it reaches 175 degrees in at least 2 places, then when the burgers are cooked through slice each one horizontally in half to yield 8 burgers.

LeFavour recommends serving the burgers on buns with fresh cilantro leaves (instead of lettuce) and a sambal mayonnaise, with a side of carrot and mung bean salad.

I used buns made from Pao de Quejo Brazilian Cheese bread dough (Chebe makes a gluten free mix that works well for these buns, each package yielding 4 buns that are 4-5 inches in diameter),  fresh cilantro, and a sauce made from equal parts of mayonnaise and gluten free Thai sweet chile sauce with a very small amount of gluten free chile paste with garlic.  Serve with a side of gluten free coleslaw.

LeFavour toasts the hamburger buns she uses, but instead we used the Pao de Quejo right out of the oven, split horizontally.

This is a delicious, juicy burger experience from a highly recommended cookbook – Poulet by Cree LeFavour!

Cookbooks, Fall, Lunch, Meat Dishes, Meat-eater, Product Reviews, Recipes, Spring, Summer, Winter baking powder, burger, chicken, gluten free, meatball

Mortar and Pestle

0 · Jan 30, 2011 · 1 Comment

For serious gourmet gluten-free cooking, you will want a good mortar and pestle.

Mortar and Pestle
Powerhouse 3-cup granite mortar and useless 1/2-cup mortar

What is a mortar and pestle?  It is an antique tool, found in many cultures around the world, for grinding or smashing food in to a paste.  It performs the function of a modern food processor, but uses arm power instead of electricity.  Using a mortar and pestle is good exercise and provides a platform for meditation.  You don’t need to pay to use the gym or go to a meditation class if you use a mortar and pestle regularly.

Mexican mortar & pestle arrangements (molcajete) are made of volcanic stone – both the mortar and the pestle have rough surfaces.  Thai people often use a ceramic mortar with a wooden pestle. The mortar and pestle we use is made of granite – both the mortar and the pestle – and because it is made of rock, it is very heavy.

Don’t bother buying the beautiful little 1/2 cup mortar & pestle sets that are sold in health food stores –  they may cost less than $15 and look beautiful, but they hold less than half a cup and are not really functional for cooking.  Even grinding a handful of peppercorns in one of these little toys is an annoying exercise in futility.  As you poke around with the tiny pestle, the peppercorns will leap out of the bowl, scatter over the counter and on to the floor, leaving you with nothing but frustration, having had no exercise, in a state of distress, with no more ground pepper than you started with.

Grinding spices with a hefty mortar and pestle, however, is a satisfying experience.  The aroma of the pepper teases your nose with the sensations of cooking yet to come.  Your arms become stronger.  Your mind fills up, not with memories of work left undone, bills yet to be paid, or annoying conversations from your place of work, but with spiciness, fine memories, the act of grinding the pepper, and the promise of a good meal.

The minimum size for a functional mortar and pestle would be about 3 cups (total width at the top = 7″ with a 6″ bowl width), or 5 cups if you want to make Thai green papaya salad.

Equipment, Product Reviews gluten free, grind, mortar and pestle, spices

Gluten Free Cookbooks for gift givers

0 · Dec 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment

A reader says:
I love your recipes.  …  I am looking for a  GF cookbook for a relative who needs fairly easy recipes, doesn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen and too much time in the restaurants. Do you have one?  Or can you recommend one?

Answer: Absolutely.  We can recommend cookbooks (and are hard at work on a Gf-zing! cookbook, seeking a publisher)!

GF friendly cookbooksMaking the switch to gluten free cooking is initially annoying and feels like deprivation, but your relative will eventually find that journeying to the parallel universe of gluten-free cooking presents an opportunity in disguise.  She will find that the complex flavors and textures of gluten free cooking are often superior to “wheatavore” cooking.  She will also see that the produce and meat sections of the grocery store are her favorite areas, and that there is very little reason to travel in to the cereal or bread aisles.

For simple GF baking, we like: Great Gluten-Free Baking by Louise Baker.  This British book relies on simple brown rice flour for many of the recipes. The superfine brown rice flour from Authentic Foods is the one we like best.  To use this book, your relative will need a kitchen scale – another excellent Christmas present for the home cook.  She should try baking the Victoria Sandwich Cake on p 124; the Lemon Drizzle Loaf on p. 54 , and the Cherry Crumble Muffins on p. 27.

For a general cookbook, Gluten Free and Easy by Robyn Russell is a good choice. Your relative could try the Quinoa Tabouleh on p. 30;  the Quinoa, Eggplant and Chickpea Salad on p. 32; the Pesto, Lamb and Sweet Potato Salad on p. 98; the San Choy Bau on p. 106; the Pistachio and Apple Cake on p. 150 (add some vanilla and salt); the Lemon Tea Cake with Lemon Butter on  p. 153.

Another fine general cookbook: Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking by Darina Allen and Rosemary Kearney. Your relative might like the Buttermilk Pancakes on p. 41 (make sure she gets flavorless tapioca flour – we like the one from Authentic Foods); the Fish Cakes with Parsley or Garlic Butter on p. 95; The Fruit Scones on p. 123 (grate cold butter in to the dry ingredients and mix by hand); the Pizza Base on p. 149 is excellent for deep dish pizzas.  Use it in a cast iron skillet.

And a third general book that uses no grains at all: Healing Foods: Cooking for Celiacs, Colitis, Crohn’s and IBS by Sandra Ramacher might also fit the bill. Your relative could try the Mini Chicken Satays with Peanut Sauce on p. 43; and the Apple and Blueberry Crumble on p. 165 (it uses almond flour for the crumble). No grains, no gluten, no refined sugar and no lactose in this book.

Also, although The Sultan’s Kitchen by Ozcan Ozan does contain recipes with gluten, most of the recipes are gluten-free. 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, and your relative would need to make sure whatever licorice liqueur she used was gluten free), Stewed Lamb Kebab with Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

And finally, although Eating Stella Style by George Stella is pitched to low-carb dieters trying to lose weight, it has many, many excellent recipes that are gluten-free.  Your relative will need to be sure that the spices and meat products she uses are gluten-free, and she doesn’t have to substitute Splenda for sugar.  This cookbook is a find for the gluten-free community.  (The picture on the front of the book is a little goofy, and it is geared to weight loss.)

Thanks for inquiring, and there will be a Gf-Zing! cookbook coming, but not in time for Christmas 2010.

Ask Gf-Zing! - Responses, Cookbooks cookbook, GF, gluten free

More thoughts on Gluten Free Pie

1 · Nov 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Some of the most popular posts on this website have to do with pie!

How to make gluten free pie crust (see this link for the recipe)  is a key interest for the gluten free community.  It turns out that the type of flour you use for pie crust really does matter, so here is some advice on finding good gluten free flours:

Where to find those flours for the pie crust mix? We buy them from Authentic Foods (you can use Amazon.com.)  Not even a trip to the grocery store is required;  they grind the flour really fine (so it does not have that gritty quality, sticking in your back teeth like dental amalgam ), and their tapioca flour does not taste like boiled lobster.

When you do buy the flours, consider storing them in the freezer – those pantry moths like to eat gluten free too, but they don’t seem to be able to squirm in to the freezer yet.

I’ll sign out with some lyrics from the great Bob Dylan song, “Country Pie”:

“Raspberry, strawberry, lemon and lime
What do I care ?
Blueberry, apple, cherry, pumpkin and plum
Call me for dinner, honey, I’ll be there.
…Oh me, oh my
Love that country pie.”

Gf-Zing! does not guarantee the gluten-free status of products;  we rely on the manufacturer to do that.  Check the labels, and make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

Food products, Pie, Product Reviews, Recipes baking, crust, food, gluten free, pie, recipes

Homemade Garam Masala

0 · Oct 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Garam masala is an Indian spice mixture used in many dishes and often added at the very end of the cooking of a dish. It can be 100% gluten free if made correctly.  Like curry powder, garam masala usually seems to be made from a standard list of spices, the amounts of each spice customized according to taste.

Interestingly, if you do a Google search for “homemade garam masala” there are only a million hits – that’s twice as many hits as for “homemade ketchup” or “homemade mayonnaise” but not as many hits as for “homemade mustard”.  What is going on with that mustard?  Are beer drinkers interested in mustard at the season of the Oktoberfest?

Back to the topic at hand.  We compared recipes for Garam Masala from two authors: Julie Sahni and Madhur Jaffrey.  Both have written wonderful cookbooks which are excellent and frequently consulted resources – these authors were instrumental in bringing the world of interesting, largely gluten free, Indian cooking to the North American audience.

For a generic Garam Masala (there are other more specialized types of garam masala as well) these authors offer varying formulas, using the following spices.  The weights in parentheses are just there to give you an idea of the ratio of amounts that could be used – we have measured here the weights for one of the Jaffrey recipes:

Cardamom Seed (25 pods – see the picture below for a couple of pods next to the seeds from 25 pods)

Black Peppercorn (2  1/8 ounces or 62 grams)

Whole Cumin Seed (1 1/4 ounces or 36 grams)

Whole Coriander Seed (1/2 ounce or 15 grams)

Cinnamon Stick (3, 3 inch sticks)

Whole Cloves (4 to 6 cloves)

To give you an idea of what this amount of spice looks like, here is the full amount:

Gfzing.com Garam Masala spice picture 3
Garam Masala spices before grinding. Clockwise from top left: Cinnamon and Cloves, Cardamom, Cumin (in cener), Black Pepper, Coriander.

Sahni generally recommends toasting the spices in a dry skillet for 10 minutes, stirring all the while, then cooling and grinding to a powder.  Jaffrey’s instructions generally omit the toasting process and go right to the grinding. Jaffrey sometimes omits the coriander and adds nutmeg.

By volume, Jaffrey’s recipe from Indian Cooking uses 3 times as much black peppercorn as Sahni’s recipe from Classic Indian Cooking.  Other proportions are very similar in both recipes.

Why buy stale old spice mixtures ready-made when you can easily make your own pungent gluten free garam masala using whole spices, toasted (or not) and ground up?

Condiments and Sauces, Cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian garam masala, gluten free, homemade, Indian, recipe, vegetarian

Homemade Thai Red Curry Paste

0 · Oct 17, 2010 · Leave a Comment

One reader asked if we had looked at recipes for making homemade Thai curry paste.  Well, we have.  We used the following useful sources :

Seductions of Rice by Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid 1998

Saveur Magazine

Thai in Minutes by Vatcharin Bhumichitr 2004

Thai Cuisine with Jasmine Rice from Eastland Food Corporation

Thai Culinary Art by Srisomboon Bhandhukravi 1993

Terrific Pacific Cookbook by Anya von Bremzen & John Welchman 1995

Thai Red Curry Paste recipes use a basic list of ingredients, and all the recipes seem to include chilies, coriander, cumin, peppercorn, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, a fishy element like shrimp paste or fish sauce, and salt.  Most also include shallots, kaffir lime leaf or zest, and either cilantro leaf or root. A few add nutmeg, paprika, or cardamom.

Dry chilies are usually seeded and soaked. Dry spices are generally toasted in a skillet before grinding. Garlic and shallot are peeled and chopped before making in to a paste. The bottom 3 inches of lemon grass stalk is cut off, the toughest leaves removed, and the whole piece is then smashed with the flat side of a cleaver before the lemon grass is minced.

Shrimp paste or fish sauce must be investigated for gluten free status before using. Shrimp paste is a dry product that is dry roasted before use.

Ultimately, all the ingredients are ground to a homogeneous paste.

Based on the following table, you can see that Thai Red Curry paste is made using a fairly standardized set of ingredients, easily customized by the home cook to make a “signature” gluten free blend.

Thai Red Curry Paste Comparisons from gfzing.com
Thai Red Curry Paste Comparisons from gfzing.com

Make sure that all of your ingredients are gluten free!

Condiments and Sauces, Cookbooks, Product Reviews, Recipes cooking, gluten free, homemade, recipes, thai red curry

Making Your Own Homemade Curry Powder

3 · Oct 15, 2010 · 7 Comments

Homemade Curry Powder
Homemade Curry Powder

It is as easy to make homemade gluten free curry powder as it is to grind coffee!

With a little trial and error you can create your own signature gluten free curry powder!  We use a 30 year old coffee grinder to make ours from whole spices.  Once you make your own, you won’t be able to go back to using store-bought curry powder. Also, your friends will want your recipe.

The Spices:

Make sure that whatever spices you add to your curry powder are gluten free. And, the fresher the spices, the better the flavor.

The Coffee Grinder:

Some recipes will advise you to buy a separate coffee grinder for making spice mixtures like curry powder, but we use one coffee grinder for everything – we have been doing it for decades. After using the coffee grinder for grinding spices, you can clean the coffee grinder using a toothbrush to loosen up ground spices and wipe the grinder clean.  If your coffee grinder is white plastic, the turmeric may turn the plastic yellow, but when you then revert to grinding coffee in the grinder the flavor of your coffee will not be altered.

What amounts to use?

At gfzing.com, we have analyzed a few recipes for homemade curry powder and provide the following table of formulas from some of our favorite cookbooks.  Note that the biggest variation occurs with the turmeric and the pepper.  Turmeric has a surprisingly strong taste, so experiment with it a little to decide how much to use.

Our favorite curry powder recipe comes from Robin Reilly’s excellent book Gluten-Free Baking. We add a whole dried cayenne pepper to her mixture because we like our curry powder spicy. Robin Reilly uses a combination of roasted coriander seed, fenugreek seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed, cardamom seed, cinnamon stick, with added ground turmeric, ground mace, nutmeg, and cloves.  We add a whole dried cayenne pepper to her recipe, then grind it in two batches in the 30 year old coffee grinder.  After grinding the two batches, we mix the stuff together thoroughly and store it in a half pint Mason jar.

Another similar curry powder formula is to be found in Better Than Store-Bought by Witty and Colchie, originally published in 1979.  This is a unique cookbook which shows how to make a large variety of items from scratch.

A third example of homemade curry powder lives in another excellent do-it-yourself cookbook called Gifts of Food, by Susan Costner, published by Consumer Reports in 1984. Again, the list of spices is pretty much the same – varying amounts are used.

In this table, we compare these 3 recipes, demonstrating that indeed, the list of spices is pretty much the same but the amounts differ.  Fiddle with these spices and develop your own signature gluten free curry powder! Package it up nicely, and give it as a gift!

Homemade Curry Powder comparisons
Homemade Curry Powder - comparisons from Gfzing.com

Try the curry powder in these recipes:

Chicken Sticky Rice

Curried Cream of Root Vegetable Soup

Curried Tofu Meatballs

Creamy Lentil Soup with Curry and Chipotles

Rich Lamb and Cornish Game Hen Curry

Pineapple Fried Rice

*Most Popular Recipes*, Condiments and Sauces, Cookbooks, Meat-eater, Recipes, Vegetarian curry powder, DIY, gluten free, homemade, recipes, vegetarian

Toad of Toad Hall – musings on stocking the pantry

0 · Oct 1, 2010 · Leave a Comment

“`All complete!’ said the Toad triumphantly, pulling open a locker. `You see–biscuits, potted lobster, sardines–everything you can possibly want. Soda-water here–baccy there–letter- paper, bacon, jam, cards and dominoes–you’ll find,’ he continued, as they descended the steps again, `you’ll find that nothing what ever has been forgotten, when we make our start this afternoon.'”  from Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Toad really knew how to pack a picnic for his vacation.  Although his pantry is short on the fruits and vegetables, his supplies were not considered  perishable; all were preserved to some extent without refrigeration.  He is packing an off-the-grid picnic back in the day, before electricity, before ziploc bags, back when smoking tobacco was a staple, and people played social games like cards and dominoes before turning in at sundown, with only the dim light of candles and oil lamps.

Are you interested in recreating Toad’s food locker, perhaps without the tobacco?  You will need some good crackers, sardines, potted lobster,  jam and some cheese (which Toad forgot to add to his locker.)  All these things are possible in the gluten free world.

Some fine cracker choices might include Glutano Crisp Bread – a long lightweight rectangular cracker that will stand up to some heavy spreading (tartiner is the French word for spreading things on bread) , Mary’s Gone Crackers with Black Pepper – small round peppery crackers that go well with spreads, Real Foods Multigrain Corn Thins – a circular Australian product about the size of a rice cake only thinner and more flavorful, perfect for making a lightweight open faced sandwich, and perhaps Blue Diamond Nut Thins® Pecan Crackers – these very crisp crackers are salty and crunchy, perfect with cheese.

If you take the British word “biscuits” to mean cookies, then you might stock up on the Almond Horn Cookies product made by Aleia, or Glutino’s Lemon Flavored Wafers, or Vanilla Wafers – Chocolate coated.

For the jam, try making your own strawberry jam, and add a few exotic flavorings to the mix.  If you are new to canning and preserving, the best instructions are available in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving – we have multiple versions of this standard cookbook, and the recipes vary from year to year depending on what is in fashion.  The most recent edition includes an excellent recipe for strawberry-lemon marmalade, requiring the addition of a small amount of minced lemon rind.  You might also add some lavender, cayenne pepper or cardamom to strawberry jam – we have tried all these flavors which work very well with strawberry.

Sardines or herring can be had for small money – the Bar Harbor brand of All Natural Smoked Wild Kippers (herring) are excellent, and at less than $2.50 for 6.7 ounces, they are a bargain and will feed 2 people for lunch.  A couple of slices of Udi’s wholegrain bread, toasted until brown and spread liberally with lightly salted butter, some of these smoked kippers, and a strong cup of Irish tea, and you are set for lunch.

Potted lobster is another matter, somewhat more complicated.  First of all, back in the days before refrigeration people used to “preserve” meats (including shellfish, pigeons, beef etc.) by cooking them and putting the meat in to a wide-mouthed ceramic container called a pot, then covering the top with a layer of melted butter.  They believed that protecting the food from fresh air made it safe to eat.  Oops!  They were wrong about that. Obviously, covering meat with a layer of butter is not an effective method of preserving food, so if you make your own potted lobster according to the old ways, you must refrigerate it and serve it soon.  Many recipes for potted shrimp are available on the internet, and a few for potted lobster although this is less common.  Be careful to treat this product with care, and refrigerate it.

Needless to say, the dominoes and playing cards do not carry any edible risk to the gluten free community.  The letter paper is for writing letters, although today we might write an email. If you want to engage in a congenial correspondence about Toad’s pantry, you can send an email by clicking here: Send email about stocking Toad’s pantry.

It is relatively simple to recreate the Toad’s larder with modern, and gluten-free, ingredients.

Fish and Seafood, Food products, Product Reviews, Recipes food, gluten free, picnic, potted lobster, recipes

Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese

0 · Sep 15, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Macaroni and cheese lovers, don’t despair.  You can have perfectly fine macaroni and cheese without wheat.  Use your favorite gluten free recipe, and the BioNaturae organic gluten free macaroni.  Take care to read the package and make sure you don’t accidentally purchase the wheat variety.

We have tried a lot of different brands of gluten free pasta. For macaroni and cheese, Bionaturae is the way to go.  The product is made of rice, potato and soy.  It is quite expensive for pasta, but it is worth the money.  We have no affiliation with the company and they haven’t even sent us samples, we just like the product!

Organic Gluten Free elbow macaroni
Organic Gluten Free elbow macaroni

For mac and cheese, cook the product slightly less than the package calls for.  For example, the package says cook for 11 minutes, so for mac and cheese cook it for 10 minutes.  No need to rinse this product.  Just follow a gluten free mac and cheese recipe.

Food products, Product Reviews, Vegetarian cooking, food, gluten free, mac and cheese, macaroni, recipes, vegetarian

Gluten Free Baking without Tapioca

6 · Nov 16, 2008 ·

A reader has asked for advice on gluten free baking without tapioca flour. She says:
I’m just learning to bake GF for my daughter.  She does not like the taste of tapioca flour.  After baking a rejected bread, we lined up all the flours & tasted them to see which one was objectionable.  What do you recommend to replace tapioca?  Would potato starch, corn starch or arrowroot be closest, or a mixture of one of them and sweet rice flour?

Gf-Zing has the following advice:

We think the best option would be to obtain a book of recipes for
gluten free baking without tapioca.  Our favorite is Great Gluten-Free
Baking
by Louise Blair, published by Hamlyn in Great Britain in 2007.
This lovely book has some excellent recipes (don’t miss the Victoria
Sandwich Cake on page 124.) This book relies on a simple combination
of rice flour and cornstarch.  The book is available in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Gluten-Free-Baking-Louise-Blair/dp/0600615839

Likewise, Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking by Darina Allen and Rosemary
Kenney, published by Stewart, Habori and Chang has a few excellent
baking recipes that do not include tapioca.  The book does not have as
many recipes that exclude tapioca, but it is a great cookbook.This
book is also available in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Gluten-free-Cooking-Recipes-Lovers/dp/1584794240

Best wishes for gluten-free holidays!

Ask Gf-Zing! - Responses, Cookbooks

Triumph Dining, Cards and Book

0 · May 26, 2008 · Leave a Comment

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!

Equipment, Product Reviews dining cards, restaurants

Gluten Free Bread Crumbs

0 · Oct 13, 2007 · Leave a Comment

We like crunchy bread crumb topping on baked casseroles and fish, and things like that.  Even at the many restaurants that are serving gluten free foods now, we find that the crumb toppings are too sandy in texture, and everyone from the gluten free community knows how disappointing those mushy crumb toppings are – like wet sand on the beach on a rainy day, only worse.  I mean, why bother putting “crummy” crumbs on the top of a piece of codfish?  So you can say it has a ‘crumb’ topping?  Not on my fish you don’t!

Well, Gf-Zing! recently tried using Glutino brand cinnamon raisin bread, grinding it in to crumbs ourselves in the food processor, and then following a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen for Baked Chicken Breasts with Parmesan-Garlic Crust.

The combination of the Glutino bread (don’t worry about the cinnamon/raisin flavor – it works well) made in to crumbs, parmesan cheese and oil seems to account for the crispiness of the topping.  A mixture of 1 part crumbs, 1/2 part finely grated Parmesan cheese, 1/8 part olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and seasonings, applied to the top of chicken which has been spread with gluten free mayonnaise, and then baked at 425 for 20 minutes will give you a chicken with crumb topping that is quite satisfactory.  If you don’t have fresh basil, do not use dried basil for this recipe.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

 

 

Fall, Food products, Meat Dishes, Product Reviews, Recipes, Spring, Winter crumbs, gluten free

Vegan Cupcakes

0 · Apr 22, 2007 · Leave a Comment

We tried a new cookbook, it’s not a gluten free cookbook, but it’s really fun, and the recipes are good and easy to convert to gf and there are two Gluten Free Cupcake recipes included in the book. The book is Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. On the back of the cookbook is the header “Prepare for Total Cupcake Domination” which gives a hint that the author has a sense of humor.

For a test, we tried Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting. For this recipe, we substituted 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1/2 cup gluten free cookie flour mix and added 1/2 teaspoon extra xantham gum to the batter. It took a little longer to bake these gluten free cupcakes than the instructions noted in the book – so test those cupcakes with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

We did not have “coffee extract” so we made our own using 1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee and a small amount of hot water. The cupcakes were yummy, with an interesting mochi-like texture, for those of you who like mochi – it’s chewy. We can’t wait to try other recipes from the cute little book.

 

Cookbooks, Product Reviews baking, cake, coconut, cupcake, gluten free

Cardamom Currant Pound Cake

0 · Apr 17, 2007 ·

Gf-Zing! has been experimenting with the 123 Gluten Free Pound Cake mix, and we have hit on an excellent set of additions. Make the mix as directed on the package but use grapefruit soda, and add 3/4 cup of dried currants, and 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground cardamom seeds. It is important to use freshly ground cardamom seeds. Use dried, green cardamom pods, crack them open and take out the seeds, discarding the shells. Crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle until you have a powder, and then measure 1 1/2 teaspoons.

We make the cake in an angel food cake pan, with a cookie sheet underneath on the oven shelf below to catch any drips. We dust the greased cake pan with mochiko (sweet rice) or tapioca flour. It takes 1 1/4 hours to bake.

  • The additions of currants, cardamom seed and grapefruit soda make an excellent cake. Try it with a cup of darjeeling tea!

Breakfast, Dessert, Food products, Product Reviews, Recipes baking, cake, cardamom, gluten free

123 Gluten Free Delightfully Gratifying Bundt Poundcake

0 · Dec 1, 2006 ·

It’s been a couple of years since we had a good pound cake, with a fine crumb, a rich buttery taste and a golden exterior. On a whim, we purchased a box (it is a large, heavy, substantial box) of 123 Gluten Free Delightfully Gratifying Bundt Poundcake and took it home. This cake really is easy to make – you add 3 sticks of softened butter and 5 eggs, and then, and here is the fun part, you add 3/4 cup of soda (pop)! The batter is pretty heavy before you add the soda, and then things start looking like batter and it’s off to the oven in the angel food cake pan – the kind with a tube up the middle. We let it cook until it was nice and brown and the bamboo skewer we stuck in the middle came out clean. We greased the pan using the wrappers from the butter and then “floured” the pan with tapioca flour as instructed on the package.

This is a rich, bad-for-you treat is excellent on its own, and even better with a little bitter marmalade spread on a slice for breakfast. We will be trying it out in a few recipes that call for a “purchased pound cake” as well.

Update: We tried this cake again, using a tangerine soda, and added the grated zest of two lemons to the mixture. This made a much more lemony cake, and we liked it even better. Note also that the mix is expensive, but that the resulting cake is very substantial – it will last quite a while, even when sliced thinly.  Unlike other gf cakes, this one is just as good, if not better, than what the glutenated world eats.

Next time, we will experiment by adding orange peel and a lot of dried currants to make a tea cake.  We are very optimistic about this mix and the potential for some really great desserts.

This is A Gf-Zing! recommended product. Gf-Zing! does not verify the gluten free status of any product.

Food products, Product Reviews

Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix

0 · Mar 19, 2006 ·

This review is by Gf-Zing! , which celebrates flavor in the gluten free world.

At first we were skeptical about chocolate chip muffins, but forged ahead after assurance from the teenagers that chocolate chip muffins are a good thing! The Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix from Authentic Foods is easy to mix up and bake – from bag to cooling rack in 30 minutes.

The generous chocolate chunks included in the mix are large and they taste like chocolate – this may seem like a silly thing to say, but sometimes chocolate chips made for the allergy market taste like nothing – not sure why that is, but that is a fact that will be confirmed by world-weary gluten-free consumers. In contrast, the chocolate chunks that the Authentic Foods company uses in their chocolate chip muffins are nice and flavorful.

We made the muffins including the optional 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon mentioned in the directions, and tried the muffins warm, and they were good warm, but we prefer them the next day, with a cup of coffee (we added a half teaspoon of cinnamon to the coffee grounds during the brewing). After drying out over night (left uncovered on the counter where the dog couldn’t get them,) all rice-i-ness disappears, and the muffins acquire a chewy quality that adds an extra dimension of interest, while the plentiful chocolate chunks combine nicely with the hot coffee. After a second day, kept in a Ziploc bag, they still provided an excellent breakfast with hot coffee. Love those big chocolate chips!

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.

Breakfast, Food products, Product Reviews

Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta

0 · Jan 18, 2006 · Leave a Comment

A Gf-Zing! product review.

We were formerly wheat pasta snobs of the first order, satisfied only with al dente pasta perfectly cooked and served with a truly Italian sauce, so we were dismayed to enter the world of gluten free life, a world of mushy and nasty pasta impersonators, until we encountered the Tinkayada penne.

We had tried the quinoa pasta, the corn pasta etc. and had settled for the Notta Pasta brand, which is similar to a Thai noodle that you might find in pad thai dishes. But, what to do if we wanted to sauce the noodles up with a zesty arrabiata sauce? Here is the answer – try the Tinkyada penne. It will stand up to an Italian sauce!

We have tried all shapes and sizes of Tinkyada pasta, and firmly believe that the penne is superior to the others. You may find it a good idea to cook this pasta slightly less than the package calls for – maybe a minute or too less. Also, you must absolutely rinse the pasta for unknown reasons, but you should follow this instruction – rinse the pasta after cooking, but before you add the sauce, of course!

This pasta is chewy and tasty.

A Gf-Zing! recommended product!

Food products, Product Reviews

An Excellent Turkish Cookbook

0 · Dec 31, 2005 ·

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!

Cookbooks, Product Reviews

Genuine Bavarian Gluten Free Toast Bread

1 · Dec 2, 2005 ·

This bread does not try to be fluffy or soft. It is like the traditional Bavarian square, thinly-sliced whole-grain breads that are made from wheat or rye, but it is made from rice, corn, millet etc. It is pleasantly sour, with both the aroma and taste of a sour-dough bread. Once toasted, it is excellent for spreading with Eggplant Caviar, Chicken Salad, Egg Salad, or smoked fish. It is most likely to appeal to adults, because of its sourness.

It is a very superior gluten-free bread product, and one which fills a tremendous void for the gluten free community. Update 2011: the bread products from this company contain lupine flour.  Please check with your doctor to verify whether you should eat lupine flour.

To find out where to obtain this bread in the United States, contact the importer:

R & R Export-Import Specialties
PO Box 7667, Nashua NH 03060
(800) 818-7729

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.

Bread, Food products, Product Reviews

Notta Pasta

0 · Nov 27, 2005 · Leave a Comment

Notta Pasta – the fettucine style – it rocks! This pasta is about a centimeter wide when dry, and cooks in 5 minutes. We tried it using a sauce recipe from the Notta Pasta website, the mushroom sauce, and were highly impressed. First of all, the noodles are an excellent length – not so long that they get tangled in the pot. Secondly, they are chewy and stretchy, suitable for al dente cooking. Thirdly, they do not require rinsing as the Tinkyada (another favorite) pasta does. Fourthly (is there a fourthly?), the recipe that we used from their website was mighty tasty and the amount of sauce was correct for the amount of pasta. We did not use the whole teaspoon of salt called for in the recipe, only a half teaspoon, but the recipe was great in all other ways. We used top-of-the-line, flavorful parmesan from Italy, not some cut-rate parmesan without flavor.

This Notta Pasta costs about $3.25 per one-pound box. The recipes on the website are for 8 ounces, which turned out to be enough for three people who are not gluttons (a word play on gluten – sorry!). Anyway, we like this pasta a lot, and will use it again.

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.

Food products, Product Reviews

Mary’s Gone Crackers

0 · Nov 9, 2005 · Leave a Comment

Mary’s Gone Crackers, which we have purchased from Debra’s Natural Gourmet, in West Concord, Massachusetts, are an excellent addition to the gluten-free world. These crackers are all seeds, and very interesting. They are not dull, and they are extremely crunchy. The black pepper flavor has a pleasingly spicy bite to it – quite peppery!

If you like seeds, you should try these crackers! You will not be wasting your money!

They are good with cheese, and they are also good all by themselves.

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.

Food products, Product Reviews

Triumph Dining Cards

0 · Nov 6, 2005 · Leave a Comment

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!

Equipment, Product Reviews

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