PIE... with gluten-free crust!!

I had to find a good g-free way of making pie crust. I mean, I just can't let the fresh fruit season go by without making some pies for the family. The teen is gluten-free, so it was imperative to come up with a recipe that works, and amazingly, I did.

Now, you diabetic readers, avert your eyes. I had one small piece, and yes, it elevated my sugar, but not as much as I thought it would. Still.... this is pretty much for those in the family who can handle the sweet treat.

There are two ways of making this pastry. I made it the first time with almond flour in there, but I made the second one without. I notice that the pastry was better with the almond flour in there, and easier to handle too. But it works without. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 cup chic pea flour
almost 1/4 cup almond flour (optional)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup cold shortening, chilled
cold water

(Yes, there was more xanthan gum in the recipe before, but I really don't think that much is necessary, so I cut it down to one tsp.)  At first i put all the dry ingredients into my food processor with the dough blade in there and pulsed it to mix.   But since then I've just been mixing it by hand with a good ol' fashioned pastry blender.  I find it's just better to keep it simple.  I put the all-vegetable shortening in the fridge before doing this. It really needs to be cold. If you aren't vegan, you can also use butter I'm thinkin'.  Anyway, I cut 1/4 cup off it the first couple of times and it worked fine, but then one batch came out kinda dry, and if you add too much water, it makes the pastry tough. So cut between 1/4 to 1/3 cup of shortening into cubes. Adding them 1 - 2 at a time and blend till you have a coarse crumbly mix.  Then I added a little cold water. It doesn't take much... add carefully, but err gently on the wet side rather than the crumbly side. You can always add more flour.  My BIL said he couldn't even notice the difference between my gf pastry and regular pastry. :) It really turned out nice.

Anyway, the machine only does so much, so you'll have to finish it by hand anyway. I made a ball of it, and set it on my pastry board, which was covered first with a piece of waxed paper and a light coating of arrowroot flour. I turned the pastry in the arrowroot, then placed another piece of waxed paper on top. Roll.

It rolls out really very well. When you have it the size and thickness you like (measure against the pie plate to make sure), peel off the top layer of waxed paper, turn the pie plate upside down over the pastry, slide your hand under there and turn. Gently remove the remaining piece of waxed paper and carefully shape the pastry to the plate, mending any splits or holes as needed with edge pieces. Trim carefully, fix up the edges the way you like, and fill. Use the leftover bits of pastry, rolled out again between waxed paper, to make shapes for the top. I used cookie cutters for this ~ worked great.
I used hearts for the first pie, little stars for the second. I tried to upload that picture, but this thang isn't working right. But just picture all those wee stars all over a pie!

The fruit mixture, of course, is a matter of choice and taste. Strawberry and rhubarb seasons coincide here, so it's a natural choice. I just added a few spoonfuls of brown sugar, a squeeze of lemon juice just 'cuz, and 3 tablespoons of the arrowroot flour. Use the sweetener and starch of your choice, not to mention the fruit! Some folks really like the raspberry/rhubarb mix too. And with the long weekend coming up ~ 1st of July here, 4th of July for my American friends... well, for you guys, picture an apple pie all covered with stars! I mean, Mom, there is nothing more American than Mom, apple pie and stars! :)

I hope this g-free pastry works as well for you as it does for me!

That Yummy Asian Theme!

I've been eyeing those lettuce "wraps" for awhile now. Seems like a great way to lower the carb content of a meal. And while I'm sure they're intended for cold salad type foods like egg, chicken or tuna salad, I was really tempted to try them as a wrap for warm food.

And so, there I was making myself a stir fry. I started by putting some mushrooms, garlic curly thingees (Um.. they have a name but see if I can remember what it is. Anyway they pop out of the middle of the garlic plant and you remove them so the nutrition will go into the bulb. They are quite edible.), some green onion, celery, asparagus, broccoli and red pepper into a small skillet to saute. Then I threw in some bean sprouts and about 1/2 cup cooked brown rice. Now, if you eat meat you could also put some lean strips of beef, chicken, etc. in there. I had some leftover tofu and while it's not my fave thing, I cut it into cubes and marinaded it in some tamari sauce with a splash of sesame oil for about ten minutes. I put the cubes of tofu into the pan first to saute a bit, then I just poured in the marinade to give the whole thing a bit of an Asian flavour.

Then I spooned it into the lettuce wraps. They made little boats for the stir fry that you can either eat neatly with knife and fork, or, with napkin on hand, pick up and enjoy! This meal is gluten-free, dairy-free and low in carbs for those watching their blood sugar. A yummy but healthy alternative to gluteny, carby grain wraps!!



Another great summertime meal! Shish~ka~bobs!! I had a package of natural stew beef in the freezer that I needed to use up, but the weather is just too warm for stew. So I made sure the pieces were cut small enough, then I put them in a marinade made in a small, glass bowl with about 1/2 cup g-free pizza/pasta sauce into which I added a good squirt of agave nectar, herbal vinegar (or lemon juice), some tamari sauce and a squirt of sesame oil. (Yes, we like that Asian influence, but you can make yours to your taste with other sauces and oils!) I made sure all the pieces of beef were covered in some marinade, covered the bowl and put it in the fridge for a little over 3 hours. This tenderizes the meat beautifully. I cleaned up some mushrooms and cut up some peppers and put all on bamboo skewers. (If you use any wooden skewers, remember to soak them in cold water for 20 mins. before you put the food on, so they won't burn on the bbq.) To go with these I made g-free fried rice. (The recipe for this is on an earlier post.)

Alas, that was a big package of stew beef and there were leftovers. To change it up for the fam, I made them Lo Mein noodles a couple of nights later with the warmed up beef, mushrooms and pepper pieces. Again an Asian theme, I used g-free rice spaghetti for this. While it was cooking I sauteed some more mushrooms, peppers and chopped green onion, then I added some organic chicken broth ~ about 1/2 cup. You can add more veges here too, such as snow peas, broccoli... whatever you like. Use some more of the broth to dissolve some g-free starch. I used tapioca starch and used it to thicken the veges and broth in the pan. Then I added the cooked, drained noodles, about 2 tablespoons of tamari sauce and yes, that splash of sesame oil for the right flavour. I turned it down to low and covered it while I warmed up the beef in the microwave. Then I served it all up.

My Stuffed Mushroom and Other Simple G-Free Meals

I found this giant mushroom at my local health food store, but I've also seen them in grocery stores. I had to have one. I cut up veggies ~ asparagus, green onion, garlic, celery, ordinary mushroom, red pepper, etc., and I nuked a small, red-skinned potato which I cut up, unpeeled. All went into a small mixing bowl where I added dressing: 1 tsp. garlic olive oil, dash of Tamari sauce, a little g-free dijon mustard, pepper, dried sweet basil and parsley and a sprinkling of fake parmesan cheese. Mix well.

I washed the mushroom and scooped out the gills. Then I stuffed it with the veggie mixture.

It would probably be best baked in a covered dish, but it was too hot to put the oven on, so I put it in a little enamel frying pan, covered it and cooked it over low-medium heat for about 20 mins. The bottom got blackened a bit, but the stuffing was steaming and it was all still really, really good. You could serve this with a crisp green salad, but I just put some sliced black olives and a dill pickled on my plate and enjoyed.


I needed to come up with a simple lunch for the teenager who is also now gluten-free. I had some leftover white meat from a roasted organic chicken, so using g-free mayo and adding some salt, pepper, dried parsley and sweet basil, I whipped her up some chicken salad. But how to serve it in an attractive way that was also yummy? My eyes fell on a package of blue corn chips, so I laid some out on the plate and put the chicken salad on top, then stuck one corn chip into it. My girl likes cucumber dipped in French dressing and we had some g-free dressing at hand, so this completed her lunch. She said, "Mom, some of my meals look like something I'd be served in a restaurant." Hey, cool. :)

We've gotten away from the meat and potatoes model in the last long while, but sometimes it still gets the job done. I made some natural beef patties and since it's asparagus season here, I fried some of that, along with some mushrooms in just enough garlic olive oil to coat the pan, and I nuked a nice little red skin potato. Served with homemade g-free catsup and some butter for the spud, the teen was smiling when she was through. :)

A Simple Meal Idea!

Made this for the kidlet one day for her lunch. Was simple and apparently yummy! Also gluten-free. I hadn't made these for a long time. Just one of those things I don't think of often. Maybe your mom made these and you haven't thought of 'em in a while either. Here's a reminder:

Fish Cakes

To make what's in the picture, I used one small - medium potato, nuked. I scooped the cooked potato out of its skin and put it in a small mixing bowl. Then I added half a can of wild Pacific salmon and 1 egg yolk. I seasoned this with a generous sprinkle of tarragon, and a bit of dried parsley and sweet basil, as well as a dash of sea salt and pepper.

Mix it all up with a fork, then dive in with your clean hands and form patties. I laid these in a fry pan lightly oiled with garlic olive oil, in which asparagus spears and a few sliced mushrooms were already started. Didn't take long for the patties to brown on both sides and cook through, and the veges were ready too. Serve.

Of course, they'd also be great with a green salad and g-free salad dressing, or coleslaw. You can dress the slaw in a g-free Italian vinegrette or make this creamy dressing: couple tablespoons g-free mayo, 2 tsp. brown sugar, 1 tablespoon milk or milk alternative; mix this up, then add a tablespoon vinegar and mix again. (It's important to mix it up before adding the vinegar or the milk will sour.) Add some celery seed and voila! A delicious creamy cole slaw to go with your fish cakes. An all together easy, yummy, healthy lunch or dinner. (And one of these patties might be enough for the smaller appetite!) :)

[Note: I buy packaged cole slaw veggies because we don't otherwise use a lot of cabbage, but if you do, you can always cut up or food process some cabbage and carrot on "pulse" for your coleslaw.]

Let's Talk Corn

Let's talk corn. This is the most used crop/food on the planet and is in much of what we eat in some form or another, from corn flour in pancake and muffin mixes, to corn syrup or corn syrup solids in everything from boullion, to rice mixes, to prepared meats. It's also in much of the feed given to animals raised for meat. And it's also probably one of the major food contributors to Type 2 Diabetes.

But as things go at our house, a bag of organic blue or red corn chips with a little salsa is considered a healthier snack than .. say... potato chips, or those other junky snack foods. I gave up corn years ago. And we use mostly locally, naturally or organically grown/raised foods, cutting down significantly on the corn in our food. But I do put up locally grown corn in the freezer for hubby to enjoy with his occasional locally grown pork. And I do and will encourage corn chips as an alternative to other junkier snack foods.

Thing is, I had trouble yesterday resisting those blue corn chips. Just a few, I thought, won't hurt. They're just organic blue corn, safflour oil and a little sea salt. No problem, right? Oy. I went to bed feeling bloaty and my blood sugar was up this morning. :p So yeah, the fam can have 'em sometimes for a treat, but I need to stick to talking corn, and refrain from eating it. *sigh*

How much corn is in your food?

CATSUP!

No, relax, your cats don't need to go hide under the bed. ;o) This is a homemade version of a condiment aka ketchup. I discovered the hard way that our ketchup is not gluten-free. I've just been doing without since. But my daughter is wanting to go gluten-free too and she LOVES ketchup. Hmmmm.

When she was a little kid she was off sugar for several years. I had made her ketchup then too, replacing the sugar in the recipe with half as much light, liquid honey. It worked really well, not only sweetening the "catsup" really well, but also helping to thicken it a little quicker. She can have sugar in moderation now, but can't tolerate honey anymore. (Who says life isn't complex.) I went searching for my old recipe and found it.

Now, I want to give credit where credit is due: this recipe is based on a recipe in an old version of The Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. (You won't find it in the current updated version.) Here's how it goes:

1 cup white vinegar
2 inches of cinnamon stick
1 and 1/2 tsp. whole cloves
1 tsp. celery seed

You need to put these ingredients into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then remove from heat and leave it sit while you move on.

8 lbs. tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 cup sugar

Now, way back when this recipe was printed, 8 lbs. of tomatoes was about "24 medium" tomatoes. But you have to remember that years ago, fruit and veges were a lot smaller than the nuclear versions we get today. I bought 12 ripe Ontario hothouse tomatoes, medium to large, and weighed them when I got home. 8 lbs. right on. (That was just lucky.) ;o)

Method: Wash the tomatoes and cut each into about 6 pieces cutting out the core as you go. Put the pieces into a large colander in a larger bowl to drain. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of coarse salt over them to speed up that process and let them sit while you wash your jars, etc. Discard the liquid.

Rinse and place the tomatoes in a large preserving pot. Add the onion and cayenne. {WARNING: Be careful that you have gluten-free cayenne. Spices aren't always what they seem. I found out the hard way that my granulated garlic, which I thought was made with... you know... garlic, has gluten in it. And it's probably the onion powder in our commercial ketchup that's the hidden source of gluten. I wasn't sure about my cayenne either, but I know from using it without any problems that my Club House TexMex spice has no gluten in it, so I used that instead, putting in a little extra ~ almost a tsp. Be sure of the spice you choose or you'll ruin your ketchup.}

Bring the tomatoes to a boil and cook, stirring often, for about 15 minutes to render them down. Let them cool a bit, then put them through a food processor, then a sieve, removing the skin and seeds. What you'll have is a lot of tomato juice. (And yes, you could short cut the recipe and start with tomato juice if you like.) Place this back into the large preserving pot (I washed mine between innings so to speak and started fresh), add the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring often. Then turn the burner down to a simmer. You need to reduce the juice by half, so measure how much you have there on your wooden spoon, so you know when you're down to half of what you started with. You will need to simmer the juice for upwards of two hours to get there. Yes, you can do other things, so long as you keep an eye on it and stir now and again.

When it's cooked down, strain the spiced vinegar into it, discarding the spices. Add about 2 tsp. of salt (to taste) and cook for about 1/2 hour more, to desired consistency. Bottle up into sterilized preserving jars and place sterilized lid on top! Wait for the pop! (Reminder: instructions for preserving to the right.)

Yes, she tried it right away. It passed. It more than passed. ;o)