RECIPE: Gluten-free Biscuits

In the current economic climate, it probably surprises no one that money is tight. Added atop of the general cost of living is the additional medical bills and cost of food. It's not a pretty sight!

Consequently, when I decided I wanted biscuits this evening, I needed to:
a. make them from ingredients I already had and
b. keep it simple so I use as little energy as possible

I mixed together 3+ different recipes and came up with a decent option. Here it is!

Gluten-free Biscuits

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp egg replacer (no water)
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/8 tsp dextrose-free salt
• 1/2 stick (aka 4 Tbsp) of unsalted butter, chopped into little pieces
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• Corn oil
  

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Mix together dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, replacer, xanthan gum, & salt). I used a plastic whisk.

3. Drop in chopped butter. Use fingers to work butter into dry mixture, until it's a coarse meal.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in milk, 1/4 of a cup at a time. After each 1/4 cup, mix in the milk with a fork.

5. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. I used corn oil poured on a paper towel. A number of the recipes indicated the sheet should be ungreased, but I found no difference from one to the other (so I err on the side of greasing).

6. You can now roll out the dough and use a cutter or a glass to make biscuits. I personally dropped about two Tbsps worth of dough per biscuit on to the sheet and molded them into acceptable biscuit shapes.

7. Place in the oven for 10-13 minutes, depending on your thickness. Mine were about a 1/4" thick and they only needed 10 minutes. Note: the biscuits don't really rise any.

8. This makes about 12 2"-wide, 1/4" thick biscuits. Enjoy with butter or honey!

Variation: Add 2 Tbsp of granulated sugar to the dry ingredients for a sweeter biscuit. Top with cinnamon sugar & melted butter for GF dessert.

Fallling behind...

My play closed this weekend and I fell behind on my posts. Bad me! Now I'm a bit too tired to catch up today but on the horizon:

• Broccoli
• Recipe for GF biscuits
• Turkey
• Green apples

No all at once though...

Day 14: Fage Yogurt

Yogurt is good, in general, for those dealing with candida and is often gluten-free (beware fruit concoctions with modified food starch, though). Yogurt encourages the growth of positive bacteria. Of course, if you have dairy issues, you've probably avoided yogurt for years like me.

However, last summer my nutritionist recommended Fage yogurt, because the lactose-level is low. It settled well when I didn't eat it with blueberries (I'm allergic, it turns out, to blueberries).

Fage's site lists a bunch of recipes: http://www.fageusa.com/recipes.aspx. This one struck me as very yummy. I think I will try to make it this weekend!

Lamb Cutlets with a Herb Crust and Yogurt Dressing

(http://www.fageusa.com/recipe_detail.aspx?PageId=172)

This recipe is very simple, but looks spectacular, and so is ideal for entertaining. Serve with Mediterranean-style rice, cooked with a little onion, tomato and herbs, and a generous helping of thick, creamy FAGE Total Yogurt.

Preparation: 5 minutes Cooking: 10 minutes Serves: 4

Ingredients

Small bunch of thyme, stalks removed
1 tbsp each mixed peppercorns, cumin seeds and coriander seeds
Large bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
Lamb cutlets 2 – 3 per person, depending on size
7 oz FAGE Total Yogurt
1 1/2 lemon

Preparation

1. Place the thyme, spices and parsley in a pestle with the oil and grind for 2 – 3 minutes.
2. Press this seasoning into both surfaces of each cutlet.
3. Grill or cook the cutlets in a griddle pan for about 8 minutes until thoroughly cooked, turning once.
4. Mix the FAGE Total Yogurt with the lemon juice and spoon over the cutlets, just before serving.
5. Serve with rice or mashed potato.

Chef's tip

If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, crush the spices with a rolling pin and chop the herbs, then add the oil. To make a great, creamy mashed potato, add FAGE Total Yogurt in place of milk and butter.

Day 13: Shrimp

It's actually quite surprising to me that with all of my food issues, I am not allergic to shellfish or seafood of any kind. I really don't care for the fishy tasting critters, but at least they won't kill me or make me wish I'm dead!

I went to a Tex Mex restaurant with my cousin a few months ago. After some confusion (and a not-so-quick jaunt to the manager's office's printer), the server gave me a gluten-free list of foods. Of course, almost nothing was garlic-free. All of the meat was marinated with garlic. All the rice & sides had either garlic or flour. And the non-garlic or gluten items were beans. (This was my own fault for agreeing to eat at this genre of restaurant, but I digress.)

So there's nothing to eat on the menu, but their staff was dedicated to getting me food. (I wish I could remember which restaurant it was.) They finally came up with shrimp. Their shrimp is not marinated already so fajitas could be made with oil and no spicing. Corn tortillas rounded out the hard-earned feast.

It was great and a triumph for the staff as well as me.

Next on my restaurant-shrimp visiting list: Romano's Macaroni Grill so I can try their "Jumbo Shrimp Spiedini." Has anyone tried it yet?

Day 12: Tapioca

I have a box of tapioca starch in my cupboard. However, in beginning this entry, I realized I had no earthly idea what tapioca actually was or where it comes from. So off to the internet I went!

Much like canola oil does not come from a canola (it comes from rapeseed), I hypothesized that tapioca may not come from a tapioca plant, mostly just because I'd never heard of one. I was right! (for once...) Tapioca is a starch that comes from the root of the cassava plant aka yuca (one 'c') plant aka manioc. It's native to South America.

It takes a lot of processing to get to the tapioca. The root itself contains cyanide toxins and you really don't want to be eating that in your pudding!

Speaking of which, I've never had tapioca pudding. Some people rave about it. Others never mention it. I'm going to try to make it.

I've decided to create a version that does not have the 1/3 or 1/2 cup of refined sugar in it. I don't know whether the coconut milk will compensate enough. However, I feel like it's worth it, because if I could make an edible sugar-free dessert-like object, I would be very happy! I'll post the recipe if it works...

RECIPE: Sticky Rice with Mango & Sesame Seeds

A favorite gluten-free dessert of mine is mango with sticky rice. It has been a favorite at Thai restaurants for years, but tonight was the first time we tried to make it at home. It was remarkably successful. YAY!

Here is the recipe I found a few places online, that we used this evening:

STICKY RICE WITH MANGO & SESAME SEEDS
SAUCE

• 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

RICE

• 2 1/2 cups Thai sticky rice (1 pound)
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 mangoes (chopped up)
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Make the sauce: In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut milk with the sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook over moderate heat until thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a sauceboat and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the rice: In a large, microwave-safe bowl, cover the sticky rice with water; let soak for 1 hour.

Drain the rice and return it to the bowl. Add 2 1/4 cups of water and cover the bowl with plastic wrap**. Microwave the rice on high power for 5 minutes. Pull back the plastic wrap and stir the rice. Replace the plastic wrap and microwave the rice for another 5 minutes. Pull back the plastic wrap to stir the rice a second time. Replace the plastic wrap and microwave until the rice is just tender, about 3 minutes longer. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.

In a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk with the sugar and salt and bring to a simmer. Pour the hot coconut milk over the rice, folding until just combined. Spoon the rice into bowls. Top with the mango and sesame seeds and serve, passing the sauce at the table.

**Instead of plastic wrap, we used a microwaveable, ceramic casserole dish with a glass lid. This worked well for us.

It took us about 90 minutes total, with all of the soaking and cooling. But it was well worth it. YUM!

RECIPE: Rice Crust Pizza

So I tried the rice crust pizza from the AICR's website tonight. Since the combination of veggies would make me a very unhappy kt, I went for a basic cheese pizza version. Now, cheese is technically not on the approved list in any quantity and tomato sauce is very limited. So this is a kt-friendly dish, but not necessarily a kt-approved one...

Adapted from recipe originally posted on AICR by Dana Jacobi

Rice-Crust Cheese Pizza

• 1 cup Arborio rice (this risotto rice)
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup plus 1/2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• Equivalent of 1 egg of egg replacer
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 cup shredded part-skim milk mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Coat 12-inch round pizza pan, or baking sheet, with oil. The original recipe called for cooking spray, but I don't use cooking spray because there's often soy or other odd things in the propellant that I can't eat.
3. In medium saucepan, combine rice, water and salt. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, reduce heat, cover, and cook until rice is soft, about 18 minutes.
4. In large mixing bowl, combine hot rice with 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and egg replacer and use fork to mix until well combined.
5. Mound rice mixture in center of prepared pan. With back of fork, spread rice out to cover pan, then make edge neat. The rice is really sticky at this point. I had to use fast, quick motions with the fork to get it to spread out and not pull up off the pan.
6. Bake crust until surface feels dry and firm, 18 to 20 minutes. (It took me only 18--I cooked it on the middle rack of the oven.)
7. Remove crust from oven. Spoon tomato sauce over crust.
8. Sprinkle on basil, oregano, and remaining Parmesan cheese. Cover with mozzarella.
9. Bake pizza in oven until cheese is melted and starts to brown. Without the veggies, this only took me about 6 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes. Cut pizza into wedges and serve immediately.

It was very good, and now I have a few meals for the work week!

Unfortunately, rice doesn't really freeze very well so this doesn't fill my need for a pizza crust recipe I could make multiple of and then freeze. But it's a very nice diversion.

It took about 80 minutes to make.