Wintertime meal

We did it.  We made the dinner we first talked about in a post last week.  The entire meal is gluten-free, egg-free, vegetarian, and kosher.  (It can easily be made dairy-free/pareve by using coconut or almond milk in place of the greek yogurt.) I kind of made it up as I went, but below are approximate recipes. Keep in mind the amounts listed are my best guesses...taste as you go!

Main dish: Chickpeas & Carrots in a pumpkin-yogurt curry sauce, over basmati rice

Mix all the ingredients in a pot until cooked through, stirring periodically.  In the meantime, combine 1 cup basmati rice with 1 cup broth, water, or combo of both in a rice cooker (throw in some salt and pepper if the broth isn't seasoned or you are using water).  When finished, garnish liberally with cilantro.

• 1 can chickpeas [aka garbanzo beans]
• 3/4 can pumpkin
• 3/4 cup plain greek yogurt (can substitute coconut or almond milk to make dairy-free/vegan)
• 3 tbsp of curry powder
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• Carrots, chopped -- pre-steam to save time
• Onion, chopped
• Handful of sliced almonds
• Salt, pepper, and chilli powder, to taste (about 1 tbps each)

Side: Asian-inspired dijon slaw

Combine 1 package pre-cut carrots and brocolli stalk slaw mix with:

• Cilantro (1/3 of a bunch, leaves only, chopped)
• 2 - 3 tbsp Rice vinegar
• 1 - 1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 - 3 tbsp light brown sugar
• Hot sauce
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp black and/or white pepper
• Pinch of salt

Toss thoroughly and let sit (in fridge is best) for at least 20 minutes.  Add a heaping handful of sliced almonds [toasted or raw] and toss again just before serving.

Dessert: non-dairy cinnamon coffee ice cream w/ dates over a gluten-free graham cracker

• Steve's Cinnamon Coffee ice cream [vegan]
• Pitted dates
• Schar's Honey Grahams

Hello, internet friends!  Just a quick update.

Lately I've been:

• Cooking more often! 
• Celebrating the holidays.  We co-threw a party, made stuff*, gifted & was gifted to, etc.
• Using pinterest...on which I have a board dedicated to Gluten-free Food & Drink
• Adding reviews to Yelp

*The bMoreGlutenFree team made homemade holiday gifts for our friends this year: Peppermint Bark in cute packages.  They were easy to make and a big hit!  The rough recipe is:

1. melt white chocolate chips in a make-shift double-boiler (large bowl on top of pot)
2. add in crushed candy canes
3. pour and spread onto trays
4. refrigerate

Phew, so glad I've caught you up!  However, we had a family emergency before the holidays that has taken me away from Baltimore for an indefinite period of time.  I'm not sure how much attention I'll be able to put to this blog and its auxillary sites as we deal with these difficulties.  But I did not want to leave ya'll hanging, and I will certainly be back!

Have a Safe, Happy, & Healthy New Year!

'Til next time . . .

December Guest Blogger recipe: Tortilla Española

Claire S., a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University, brings us this month's guest recipe!  Claire spent a semester in Madrid, where [I like to believe] she perfected the art of Spanish tapas.  Her version of the popular 'Spanish Omelet' certainly brings me back to my own days abroad, when I first tried the dish.  Yummy yum yum.  (As usual, if you have questions for our guest blogger, please leave them in the comments section.)  ¡Buen provecho!

Tortilla Española

My undying love of the Spanish tortilla came about while studying abroad in Madrid.  It was my staple food there--not only because it’s delicious, but also because it’s affordable and you can purchase it pretty much anywhere in Spain. Very attractive for someone on a student’s budget!  The scrumptious tortilla is also incredibly versatile: it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and is super portable for those on-the-go.  A naturally gluten-free dish, there are only five simple ingredients: potatoes, eggs, onion, olive oil, and salt.  Once you have mastered it, this dish will become your go-to meal!

Prep Time: 20 minutes 

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• approx. 7 medium potatoes -- peeled, quartered, & thinly sliced
• 5 large eggs
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 medium onion -- minced
• Extra virgin olive oil 
• Cutlery: 10" non-stick pan; mixing bowl; strainer; 12-inch [or larger] plate

Directions:

1. Fill a 10” non-stick frying pan with a half-inch of olive oil and place over medium-high heat. 
2. Once the oil is hot, add potatoes + onion.  Allow to cook until potatoes are golden brown and soft (≈20 minutes).   
3. While the potatoes are cooking, in a separate bowl beat eggs + salt, until fluffy.   
4. Using a strainer, remove the potatoes from the frying pan, allowing the olive oil to drain into a bowl.   
5. Add the potatoes to the egg mixture and stir until combined.   
6. Drizzle some of the excess oil back into the frying pan and place over medium heat. 
7. When the pan is hot, add the potato and egg mixture.   Cook for about 5 minutes, constantly making sure that the sides of the tortilla are not sticking to the pan.   
8. Take a plate that is larger than the pan and place it upside down over the pan.  
9. Flip the tortilla onto the plate (commitment is key, don’t hesitate!).  
10. Add more olive oil to the pan and slide the tortilla back into the pan. The uncooked side should be faced down.  
11. Cook for about 5 more minutes, then slide from pan onto a serving plate.  Enjoy!

September Guest Blogger recipe: Gluten-Free Gnocchi

This entry is the first of a new feature on this blog: every month we will have a guest blogger post their own tried and tasty gluten-free recipe!

This month, Laura of Domestic Sundays and PFOGF shares her foray into homemade gf gnocchi. Enjoy; I know I did!

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Don't Eat Anything You Can't Pronounce - Gluten Free Gnocchi

Let's talk about my love for potatoes.  And pasta.  And therefore potato pasta: gnocchi.  Let's also talk about my love of money staying in my pocket.  GF gnocchi can go for $10 a pack -- yikes bikes!  Luckily the basic ingredients are cheap and simple: potatoes, (gf) flour, and oil.

I know what you're thinking, "Make my own pasta?!"  It turns out the hard part is getting your mouth around the word.  Say it with me: "knee-OOO-key".  Never fear - you can still make bangin' homemade pasta even if you pronounce it wrong.

*Adapted from Vegan with a Vengance

The ingredients:

• 2 pounds potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 1/2 to 3/4 cups gluten free flour (we used Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose)

Scrub your potatoes, poke a few holes in them, and put them in the microwave until they're soft.  Wait until they're cool enough to handle and peel them.  (We learned the hard way that you definitely want to peel them after they're cooked, lest you get weird lumps in your pasta.)

Take your peeled potatoes, salt, and oil and mash them together in a bowl until they're un-lumpy.  Throw a healthy amount of flour on a (clean, non-glutenous) surface and get kneeding.  You basically want to keep working flour into the dough until it isn't sticky and it's still stretchy.

Then you get to the fun part.  Make sure you still have plenty of flour around and start making little potato-pasta-balls-o-joy.  If you want to get technical, put each ball on your thumb and roll a fork over the top so that one side has an indentation from your thumb and the other side has ridges from the fork.  If you look hard enough in the picture, you'll see that you can even make them cubes.  Or dinosaurs.  The world is your gf-oyster.

If you're not going to cook all of your pasta right now, just toss them in some flour and put them (single layer) in a tupperware container in the freezer.  They'll keep for a couple months and you can throw them straight in boiling water to cook later.

For the pasta that you're cooking, start some water boiling.  You're going to cook the pasta in batches of 8-ish.  When you put them in the water they should sink.  When they float to the surface, cook them for 60 seconds and pull them out of the water with a slotted spoon.

Voila!  You made your own pasta.  Don't you feel accomplished.

Don't forget the necessary toppings -- like hot sauce.

xoxo Domestic Sundays

Homemade Hard Cider Recipe

Homemade Hard Cider aka the easiest thing you've never made
by Domestic Sundays
 
[Editor's note: This recipe will be featured in our upcoming Hard Cider taste-testing on Sunday, September 4th and the event's Review to follow.]

You need:

1. Cider: the fresher the better, pasteurized is fine but NO preservatives (they cramp your fermenting style). I found this (in its brew-ready glass jar) in the juice isle in Safeway. Turns out people don't stock up with organic cider when preparing for hurricanes.
2. Yeast: I use champagne yeast, but you can go for lager or something else entirely (for those in Baltimore, you can find this at Maryland Homebrew in Columbia)
3. Food for the yeast: I like molasses for its rich flavor, but any kind of sugar will do
4. A good (one-way) seal: you can get airlocks for cheap at homebrew stores (and the cork to go with them - a piece I've obviously neglected, as evidenced by my saran wrap), but in a pinch, a balloon stretched over the mouth with a small hole will do. The basic goal is to prevent explosions by letting your carbon dioxide out while keeping bacteria from getting in.

If you're feeling fancy:

• Spices: cinnamon sticks, cloves, fresh ginger root, allspice, lemon juice, cardamom…go crazy!
• A hydrometer: also available at your favorite homebrew store; chemistry nerds especially love these because a quick dip in your brew before and after will let you know your alcohol composition
• A funnel: makes life way easier
• Bleach: people claim sterilizing everything is good for brewing. I'm ambivalent.

What to do:

1) On the stove, dissolve your sugar in about 2 cups of your cider. The sugar is mainly there so you can make it taste nice and ferment it a bit more. I added about 1 cup of molasses for my gallon of cider and the hydrometer told me it'll be about 9% alcohol if all goes as planned. Throw your spices in too!

2) Read your yeast packet and follow its instructions. For mine, I had to add 1/5 of the packet (because I was only making 1 gallon) to some warmish cider and let it sit for 15 minutes.

3) Dump it all in your big jug.

4) Seal that bad boy.

5) Let it sit in a closet for 5-15 days.

6) Throw it in the fridge overnight.

7) Put in bottles or just dig in! If you don't drink it all right away, you probably want to keep bottles in the fridge and drink them within a few weeks.