Gluten Free Pizza Crust

This makes my favorite pizza crust. I carefully stretch it and sprinkle with cornmeal to finish it off. Oregano is a nice touch.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brazilian-Cheese-Bread-Pao-de-Queijo/

GLUTEN FREE MILLET OATMEAL BREAD

(adapted from: http://glutenfreemommy.com/baking-gluten-free-bread-millet-oatmeal-bread/)

 

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup certified gluten free oat flour (you can pulverize oats in a food processor to make oat flour)

3/4 cup millet flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup arrowroot starch or cornstarch

1/3 cup sweet rice flour

1/4 flax seed meal (you can’t taste it and it adds fiber)

1 Tablespoon psyllium husk powder (provides structure and elasticity)

3 eggs

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 packet active dry yeast+ 1 tsp granulated sugar for proofing yeast

1 Tablespoon molasses

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 Tablespoons butter or butter substitute, melted

1/4 cup heated water (I heated my water to 120 degrees to proof the yeast)

1 cup room temperature/warm club soda

 

DIRECTIONS:

Make sure all your dry ingredients (and eggs!) are at room temperature. Grease the bottom of a 10 inch loaf pan or two 8 inch pans. Heat the oven to 200 degrees and then turn off. Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, mix eggs, molasses, vinegar, and melted butter together. Heat your water for proofing the yeast to between 110 and 120 degrees. In a small prep bowl, stir together your active dry yeast and one teaspoon of the sugar. Add 1/4 cup of heated water to the yeast mixture. Let the yeast sit for 10 minutes. It should be foamy and active! If not, start over with another packet of yeast. Once your yeast is ready, add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Then add the yeast mixture. Then slowly add your club soda to achieve the right consistency in your batter.  Fold it in carefully to not dissipate too many carbonation bubbles.  This helps provide lift and hole-structure. The dough should be like very stiff cake batter. If you accidentally add too much water simply add a little rice flour until you achieve the dough consistency you are after. Put the dough in your prepared pan and place in oven to rise for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours. You can put plastic wrap or a towel over the pan. Once the dough has risen to the top of the pan, bake the bread for 40 minutes at 350 degrees or until internal temperature reaches 190 degrees.

 

Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Olives

I discovered recently how much I love preserved lemons.  I had been meaning to make them for a while, but just didn't get around to it.  One day, I took the plunge.  I watched the following video on YouTube and took notes.



Then, I went to the store for a bag of organic lemons.  A little while later, I had this:

 

It sat on the counter for about a month.  Each day, I shook it 1-3 times a day.

 

Now...what to do with it...what to do???  How about the iconic dish of Morocco?  Yes, indeed.  I think this is one of my new favorite foods. 

 

Serves 8-10

 

4-6 cloves garlic (minced)

¼ t pepper

5 T olive oil

8-10 pieces chicken

1 onion (chopped)

2 t paprika

1 t cumin

1 T ginger

2 t turmeric

½ t cinnamon

1 t allspice

1 t cayenne

1 t coriander

1 cup green olives (about 14-16 large olives, sliced)

2 cups chicken broth

2 preserved lemons (cut into slices)

½ cup dried cranberries

Salt to taste

¼ cup cilantro (chopped)

¼ cup parsley (chopped)

Chop the chicken into chunks about 1 inch in size.  Mix the garlic, black pepper and 1 spoonful of oil and rub chicken.  Marinade overnight. 

Heat the remaining oil.  Fry the chicken on all sides until it begins to brown (5 min).  Add the spices and onion.  Cook 2-5 min.  Add the broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat.  Cover, but leave a crack for steam to escape.  Simmer over low heat for 20 min.  Add the olives, lemons, cranberries and salt to taste.  Remove chicken and set aside.

Bring sauce to a boil, stirring continually, until thickened.  Coat the chicken with the sauce, Mix in fresh parsley and cilantro and serve.

 

Cranberry-Curry Rice

1 ½ cups rice

2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon finely chopped preserved lemon

1 onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling (optional)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook rice and broth in the rice cooker.  In a small pan, sauté the onion, cranberries and lemon.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  The onion, cranberry and lemon mix will cook for about 5-10 min with occasional stirring to keep it from sticking and burning.  Once the rice is done, add the mix to the rice and stir. 

 

Club Soda and Psyllium Husk

 

I wanted to share this great idea that I first learned of from Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl.  Her site has been my go-to resources for great inspirations in the gluten free cooking world.  I also have and love her latest cookbook: Gluten Free Girl and the Chef.  It has my well-loved gluten free pasta recipe.  Ok returning from that tangent, I was exploring how to make tasty gluten-free bread last summer (because most of it is horrid) and was exploring the black hole of making a gluten-free sourdough starter.  After several odd-tasting attempts at a sourdough boule, I set this attempt on my mental bookshelf for a later date.  However, in that process I learned about 2 new techniques that create an elastic gluten free dough with decent hole structure.  The first was to substitute club soda in place of water in the recipe and the second was to replace the xanthium gum and guar gum with psyllium husk.  Here is a video explaining why psyllium husk is such a good and cheap ingredient:

Bethany's Darn Good Salmon Pie

 

Both the crust and gluten free mix are taken from: Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly (a book I really, really recommend)

Basic Gluten Free Mix

2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour

Crust (gluten free)

1 cup Basic Gluten Free Mix

2 T rice four

1 ½ t sugar

½ t salt

6 T cold butter (I prefer salted)

1 large egg

1 T apple cider vinegar (you can’t taste it in the final crust)

Instructions

Mix the dry ingredients, cut in the butter using a fork or pastry cutter.  Once the butter is well incorporated, add the wet ingredients and mix with a fork.  Place the mixture on cling wrap and wrap up into a tight ball.  Place it in the refrigerator for at least 10 min.  While it is chilling, oil and lightly flour the pie pan. Remove the ball of dough and place onto floured parchment paper on top of a cutting board (for flipping the crust easily).  Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin until it is about 1 inch wider than the pie pan all the way around (about a 2 inch wider diameter than the pie pan).  Place the pie pan upside down and centered over the dough circle.  Grip the underside of the cutting board and the pie pan and flip the whole assembly.  Remove the cutting board and parchment paper and carefully nudge the dough into the pan.  Pinch fold the edges or crimp with a fork.  Put the crust in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling. 

Pie
1 prepared crust

1 lb salmon (skin removed) and cut into thin slices

3 large red potatoes (unpeeled and thinly sliced)

1 medium onion (chopped)

1 bunch scallions (green onions)

2-3 T oil

2 large eggs

1-2 lemons (cut into thin half-circles)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350*.  Chop the onion and scallions and sauté on medium to medium high until golden and soft.  Put the mixture in a blender with 2 eggs, salt and pepper.  Set aside.  Assemble vertical layers of salmon and potato around the perimeter of the interior of the pie crust.  Fill in the center in the same fashion until all of the potato and salmon are used.  Evenly pour the onion and egg puree over the pie.  Cover the top with lemon slices.  Place in the oven for 60-70 minutes.  You can test for doneness by piercing a potato with a toothpick.  If it pierces easily, it is soft enough.  Serve with the custard sauce.

 

Custard sauce

4 eggs

2 cups of milk

¼ cup corn starch

Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

2 handfuls of parsley (chopped)

Grated parmesan cheese to taste

Instructions

In a double boiler or metal bowl placed over a pot of water, bring the water to a boil.  As the water is heating, put the eggs in the bowl or top pan and whisk with a fork.  Add the milk and corn starch and whisk constantly and strongly until the mixture starts to noticeably thicken.  This takes about 5 minutes after the water underneath starts to boil. Put the mixture in a blender and add the spices, parmesan and parsley.  Blend to a uniform mixture.  Serve.

Salad Dressing (this is super yummy with arugula, parmesan and bell pepper salad)

The recipe was taken from the cookbook Rosanna’s Bananas

2-3 cloves garlic (minced)

1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

2/3 cup olive oil

Instructions

Put all of the ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously before serving.   

 

Sweet and Sour Shrimp and Pork Balls with Napa cabbage sauté

I have made these shrimp and pork balls before, but I have struggled with what to serve with them.  I thought about how well pork and cabbage go together (think sausage and sauerkraut) and was inspired to make a sauté with caramelized Napa cabbage and onions.  I echoed the flavors in the meatballs in the sauté as well.  I also modified the sauce to not just coat the meatballs but to work as an overall sauce for the whole meal.  I bought the fern root noodles on a curious whim at my local Asian supermarket, Hana World.  I have been looking at them every time I open my pantry and wondering what they go with.  I finally decided to take the plunge and made them for this meal.  They were pretty good…although not much different in flavor than regular egg noodles.  Their texture though made them fun to slurp!
Recipe modified from The Just Bento Cookbook by Makiko Itoh

Sweet and Sour Shrimp and Pork Balls

3 ½ oz peeled shrimps, roughly chopped
7 oz ground pork
3 Tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp ginger (powdered or fresh)
1 Tbsp Sake
1 Tbsp gluten free soy sauce
2 Tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp steamed carrot (chopped)
1 Tbsp cooked peas
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients with your hands (except the vegetables and oil) until the mixture gets slightly sticky.  Add the vegetables and hand roll into quarter sized meatballs.  Drizzle the meatballs and coat with the oil.  Steam the meatballs for 8-10 min in a steamer lined with parchment paper.

Sweet and sour sauce

2 Tbsp cornstarch
4 Tbsp water
1 cup chicken stock
4 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp 5 spice powder
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp Sake

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.  Take the sauce off the heat and add the shrimp and pork balls to the sauce and coat liberally.

Stir Fry

4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 white or yellow Onion (thin sliced)
2-4 Garlic bulbs (sliced)
1 lb Mushroom (sliced)
1 head Napa Cabbage (shredded)
Ginger powder and Salt to taste
¼ cup carrot (julienned)
¼ cup peas
3 ½ oz peeled Shrimp
Snap peas
8oz can sliced water chestnuts (drained and rinsed)

Place the shredded cabbage in a colander and work in 1 Tbsp salt using your fingers to coat as much cabbage as possible.  After about 15-20 minutes the cabbage will have let off some of its water and reduced in volume.  Squeeze out any excess water and pat the cabbage dry on a few paper towels.

Cook the onions on medium high heat until golden and caramelized.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until they begin to brown then add the cabbage.  Cook down.  When the cabbage starts to develop golden caramelized edges, add the rest of the ingredients and cook 9 more minutes stirring the shrimp to the bottom to allow it to cook thoroughly.

Serve with rice, udon noodles or Fern Root noodles

Restaurant Review – Ruggles Green in Houston Tx

When on a recent trip to Houston, I tried a place suggested by one of our party and touted as having lots of gluten-free options.  We showed up at the jam-packed Ruggles Green in the Rice Village area.  The line to order was out the door…which caused a bit of anxiety due to the rainy weather.  When I got the menu, I immediately noticed the wealth of gluten free options…tacos…pizza…burgers.  I had a hard time deciding but settled on a fish taco, cream brulee and house shiraz.  After we ordered, we struggled to find a place to sit in the bustling restaurant.  We finally found a spot tucked onto the covered patio.  We were lucky as it started pouring rain not to soon afterwards.  The food was amazing.  My tacos had a lightly spicy chipotle sauce and radish sprouts complemented them nicely.  The shiraz was really good and the cream brulee was presented well.  This stop will defiantly be on my list next time I make it down to Houston.  Check out their website for more awesome options.