Modified from http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Fresh-Egg-Pasta-Gluten-Free-60904 .
1/3 cu rice flour
1/3 cu corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp xanthan gum
2 eggs
1 tbsp veggie oil
1) dry ingredients.
2) whip up wet ingredients.
3) Combine, knewad
4) roll out noodles really thin; use corn starch for non-stick.
5) Cut up, boil
6) ???
7) Profit!
April 13, 2010
September 20, 2009
Pizza Making at Longspur!
Todays post brought to you by: TEH girlfriend.
Pizza Making at Spur, Long Loop!
Summary of review:
Atmosphere: 8/10 (c'mon, it's a house, k?)
Tasty-factor: 11/10 (OM NOM worthy)
Girlfriend friendly: 10/10 (^__^)
Gluten Free friendly: A WHOPPING 15/10 (LEGENDARY!)
Gluten-free cooking can be difficult, especially once one hits the realm of crusts. Getting that crust that falls between cohesive-but-not-tactboard-because-it-is-70%-zanthum-gum and won't-stay-together-at-all can be an elaborate and trying experience.
Which is why Josh's Fabtastic Crust Recipe of Doom is being brought to you today :) Easy to put together, buy (and cheap also!), and absolutely delicious it is THE SOLUTION to a truely GF pizza experience.
The idea: Different flours have different properties (taste, cohesiveness, etc). On a side (but romantic) note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tqVQX_H3c&feature=PlayList&p=930C3E744EB56CF7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=77
Necessary ingrediants:
*Water
*1 tbs Yeast
*1 tbs Sugar
*1 tbs Xanthum Gum
*1 tsp Salt
*Rice Flour
*Potato flakes (the stuff mashed potatoes is made with)
Note- Water, Rice flour, and Potato flakes are in equal parts. We found that 1 cup each worked pretty well for a medium sized pizza.
Procedure:
1.) Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl.
2.) Add 1 tbl of xanthum gum to the mix. This stuff is an initial expensive invesment but it lasts forever and is a total GF kitchen essential.
3.) Add 1 tsp of salt.
4.) Mix in the rice flour and the potato flakes.
5.) Allow to rise for an hour.
Pre-bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.
One idea we tested out on our second pizza was corn flour. Cheap as can be we have had success adding this to cheesy dishes (such as the macaroni and cheese sauce) and as we were going with a Taco Pizza idea ...
It turned out amazingly delicious (like always ^__^) although Josh found that the corn was better at absorbing water and in the future needs a little more (probably around 1/8 cup more) than the equal parts called for in the original recipe.
Downsides: It is hard to do fancy things with the crust. It is definitely more of a "mash into place" deal instead of, say, "roll out and spin in the air."
PROPS TO THE COOK! Josh is AMAZING! <3<3<3
Pizza Making at Spur, Long Loop!
Summary of review:
Atmosphere: 8/10 (c'mon, it's a house, k?)
Tasty-factor: 11/10 (OM NOM worthy)
Girlfriend friendly: 10/10 (^__^)
Gluten Free friendly: A WHOPPING 15/10 (LEGENDARY!)
Gluten-free cooking can be difficult, especially once one hits the realm of crusts. Getting that crust that falls between cohesive-but-not-tactboard-because-it-is-70%-zanthum-gum and won't-stay-together-at-all can be an elaborate and trying experience.
Which is why Josh's Fabtastic Crust Recipe of Doom is being brought to you today :) Easy to put together, buy (and cheap also!), and absolutely delicious it is THE SOLUTION to a truely GF pizza experience.
The idea: Different flours have different properties (taste, cohesiveness, etc). On a side (but romantic) note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tqVQX_H3c&feature=PlayList&p=930C3E744EB56CF7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=77
Necessary ingrediants:
*Water
*1 tbs Yeast
*1 tbs Sugar
*1 tbs Xanthum Gum
*1 tsp Salt
*Rice Flour
*Potato flakes (the stuff mashed potatoes is made with)
Note- Water, Rice flour, and Potato flakes are in equal parts. We found that 1 cup each worked pretty well for a medium sized pizza.
Procedure:
1.) Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl.
2.) Add 1 tbl of xanthum gum to the mix. This stuff is an initial expensive invesment but it lasts forever and is a total GF kitchen essential.
3.) Add 1 tsp of salt.
4.) Mix in the rice flour and the potato flakes.
5.) Allow to rise for an hour.
Pre-bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.
One idea we tested out on our second pizza was corn flour. Cheap as can be we have had success adding this to cheesy dishes (such as the macaroni and cheese sauce) and as we were going with a Taco Pizza idea ...
It turned out amazingly delicious (like always ^__^) although Josh found that the corn was better at absorbing water and in the future needs a little more (probably around 1/8 cup more) than the equal parts called for in the original recipe.
Downsides: It is hard to do fancy things with the crust. It is definitely more of a "mash into place" deal instead of, say, "roll out and spin in the air."
PROPS TO THE COOK! Josh is AMAZING! <3<3<3
August 21, 2009
Zucchini Breakfast Burritos?!
A habit I've picked up from Lisa in my cooking is to try to sneak vegetables in anything non-dessert-ish that I make. First, it's an interesting sort of game, I think, and secondly, of course, veggies are good for you. Unless you're one of those weirdos that hates vegetables, you pretty much can't go wrong! So, today, when I looked in the fridge to figure out what the Hell I was going to make for lunch, I pulled out tortillas, mozzarella cheese, eggs, hot sauce...and a zucchini. :3 As an afterthought, I also pulled out some feta cheese.
There's nothing particularly complex about today's lunch. I just scrambled everything together in a small skillet, nuked the tortilla shells for like 20 seconds, and chowed down. Having zucchini in breakfast burritos, though, was a bit different. They also helped to keep the eggs from burning, I think, because of all the moisture.
They were good, though! I think zucchini could do with a bit of spice, but the hot sauce and the feta, I think, did a pretty good job at this.
There's nothing particularly complex about today's lunch. I just scrambled everything together in a small skillet, nuked the tortilla shells for like 20 seconds, and chowed down. Having zucchini in breakfast burritos, though, was a bit different. They also helped to keep the eggs from burning, I think, because of all the moisture.
They were good, though! I think zucchini could do with a bit of spice, but the hot sauce and the feta, I think, did a pretty good job at this.
August 19, 2009
Flying Squirrel Bakery Cafe: A Review
Flying Squirrel Bakery Cafe
Mi. 11 Talkeetna Spur Road
Talkeetna, AK
The Flying Squirrel Bakery Cafe just opened a few days ago, and my sister wanted to check it out, so we went.
The interior, and the general style of the place, reminds me a lot of Alaska Coffee Roasting Company in Fairbanks, except the food, not the coffee, comes first. Inside are tables, "funky-cook" art-styles, a small stage for music shows (a lot like College Coffee House), blackboard menus (including coffees) and the beginnings of a brick pizza oven. Coming attractions also include a bike rack and a community bulletin board. It's an interesting contrast to the location: Instead of being in a more urban locale, it's tucked in the woods a bit on the side of the spur road, at least three miles from downtown. While the offerings are something that I think would appeal to Talkeetnans, I still think it feels slightly out of place. It will be interesting to see how it evolves as it becomes more (or less) established in the Talkeetna scene.
The food itself as billed as being the sort that a certain group of people (like my mother) would scoff at, but eat anyway. At least one item every day is gluten-free (a pineapple cole slaw today), and at least one item is dairy-free (the quinoa dish, for one, and there were also some dairy-free, egg-free brownies). It is rumored that they want to be able to certify all their items as being sans-high-fructose-corn-syrup, though I don't think this is a particularly worthwhile endeavour. Many of the items are, of course, marketed as whole wheat.
Prices were a bit steep for the baked goods, so my sister and I split a $4 "nutmeg donut muffin" and a 16 oz mocha ($4.50 or so--pretty standard for gourmet coffee). The coffee was a valiant effort but pretty standard, and less burnt-tasting than College Coffee House's but not as good as ACRC's. The muffin, on the other hand, was actually very good, and exceeded my expectations.
To sum it up:
Artistic style: Very "coffee house"
Atmosphere: Too soon to tell
Marketing: A bit whole-grain for some's tastes
Gluten Free Friendliness: 3/5, since their GF offering wasn't baked >:O
Nommy-ness: Worth the coin for connoiseurs
μ-pies and more!
Lisa made these pretty awesome (gluten-free, of course) mini-pies the other day. I helped! Really! Honestly, though, I probably mostly watched. The details here are somewhat vague in places--I guess it just goes to show that I shouldn't write about these things 3 days later!
The crust on the pies was made using a heavily modified version of a biscuit dough recipe. I think it went something like this:
3/4 cup rice flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp (?) xanthan gum
1 egg (actually, she used egg beaters until we ran out, but I don't remember how much of it we used)
Some amount of water XD
(I'll edit this if/when she shares the secret(s) with me)
The filling was a mixture of different previously-frozen berries (blueberries were in there) as well as some strawberries. The juices were used to fill in the empty space a little bit. :)
We then put these things inside a muffin tin, and they ended up looking something like this:
As you can see, we experimented with the tops--some of them we left open, others we covered with little strips, and one we covered all the way. It has a bleeding heart. It's clearly one o' those libruls.
Then we put them in the oven at 350 F for 45 minutes.
45 minutes later:
They boiled over a little bit. >_< BUT, they tasted good!
We served the first few with lemonade:
(I didn't study for the GRE; I just brought the book out so I could feel like I made a token effort.)
The lemonade is surprisingly easy to make on the cup scale. Our recipe might not be fresh-squeezed lemons quality, but it's definitely numerous steps above kool-aid "lemonade." The procedure:
- Fill glass with water.
- Add lemon juice (from the bottle, that's right) until it "looks right"--that is, when it's the color one would expect lemonade.
- Add sweetener until it's properly sweet. We used NuStevia, but sugar or something much more sinister (*cough* splenda *cough*) would work just as well. (You can make stuff really sweet with stevia extracts, though. >_>; )
- Add ice, if you like.
We also made (gluten-free) bread! We wanted to make jalopeño cheese bread, but all we could find was a can of rotel, so we used that.
3 cu. brown rice flour (white rice flour also works)
<1>1 tbsp baker's yeast
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cu egg beater (roughly 1 egg)
<1>
Optionally, add about a half cup each of pecans and dried cranberries, for a truly Leslie Anders experience.
The consistency of the dough isn't what you might expect--it's more like creamy mashed potatoes, if done right. This is because it's gluten-free; It's the gluten in wheat bread dough that makes it take on the blob of dough consistency.
Lisa's mom uses a bread machine to cook her bread, but we just used it to prepare the dough. Once it was mixed by the machine, we pulled it out, poured it into a glass bread pan, and added our rotel and cheddar cheese! Then, it went into the oven. I forget what the temperature and time was. :(
Once we were done, we realized we had half a can of rotel left. So, we added cheese and had nachos!
The bread, naturally, came out awesome.
I gave some to my mom and grandma, and they both liked it. One secret: If it's not warm, it tastes slightly stale; This is a property of the xanthan gum, from what I understand. Put it covered in the microwave for a bit (or toast it), though and it's awesome! (Note: Lisa actually likes it cold and weird. ymmv.)
August 16, 2009
Influences
As I considered sharing my cullinary adventures ( ^_~ ), I immediately thought of MySpace. No, not MySpace blogs; The band pages were more my thinking. Some of my friends have band pages on MySpace, and one of the sections in the MySpace profile sidebar is an "influences" section. Recently, as I've started shifting from eating commons food and the odd microwaved ramen packet or cold can of baked beans to actually Cooking Dinner every once in a while, I've been considering my own influences for when it comes to cooking.
First, of course, is my mother's cooking. I think there are very few cooks that don't remember their mom's cooking (assuming it was more than TV dinners) fondly. On top of that, my mother's a pretty decent cook. Of course, growing up, I didn't pay that much attention to how she made the magic happen, so to speak. Luckily, today's modern technology means my expert's only a phone call away! Mom's helped me make pie crust, macaroni and cheese, soup stock, and more. What would I do without her? Lawd noes.
On the other hand, sometimes getting a recipe from my mother is tougher than pulling teeth. That's because my mom doesn't roll with recipes very often--Through years of experience, she has transcended measurements and has reached the level of grabbing a lil' bit o' whatever. She makes very good pizza, for example, but, as there's no measurement involved, she can't really share the recipe with me. So, there are gaps here, some of which I've filled, until fairly recently, with the Ellis cookbook.
The Ellis cookbook is a compilation of recipes belonging to my housemate, Jed (Ellis). I'm pretty sure most of the recipes came from his own mother. Honestly, I've only grabbed a pizza crust recipe from there, but I think our kitchen would feel pretty incomplete without it.
Next comes Lisa, my girlfriend, and her mother. Lisa (and her parents) are sensitive to gluten, which is the stuff in wheat that makes bread dough have its dough-y texture. Without gluten, bread dough would crumble apart almost instantly. Of course, this means wheat is out, which in turn means lots of label-reading, aside from the obvious: No bread, no pasta, and no regular-flour baked goods. Sometimes, this leads to some surprises: cookies, for example, can actually be made *better* when the right combinations of gluten-free flours are used, and corn flour in my mom's cheese sauce (from the macaroni and cheese) is kind of a secret ingredient now.
In addition, Lisa's mom, the cook around their house, is a health nut. A sensible, understanding and compassionate (in other words, sweet) health nut, but nonetheless. Besides exercising a lot, she cooks with as little oil as possible, and avoids butter at all costs. This lead so some interesting situations when I tried making macaroni and cheese at her house for the first time, lemme tell ya's. While I personally think butter has its place in a kitchen (and in my tummy, om nom), there are definitely some good in there. The lady makes a MEAN salad, and Lisa knows how to cook tofu. They've also introduced me to stevia as a sweetener, which is pretty interesting stuff.
Finally, I must give some credit to Tyler, Joe and Sundance. While they're not exactly masters of the iron skillet, Tyler and Joe have been the two that I've cooked together with (besides Lisa), and catering to Tyler's tastes while learning from Joe has definitely had effects on my cooking. Sundance, on the other hand, makes bread, and while my sweetie can't eat it, it still inspires me to someday--SOMEDAY--make a gluten-free sourdough starter.
First, of course, is my mother's cooking. I think there are very few cooks that don't remember their mom's cooking (assuming it was more than TV dinners) fondly. On top of that, my mother's a pretty decent cook. Of course, growing up, I didn't pay that much attention to how she made the magic happen, so to speak. Luckily, today's modern technology means my expert's only a phone call away! Mom's helped me make pie crust, macaroni and cheese, soup stock, and more. What would I do without her? Lawd noes.
On the other hand, sometimes getting a recipe from my mother is tougher than pulling teeth. That's because my mom doesn't roll with recipes very often--Through years of experience, she has transcended measurements and has reached the level of grabbing a lil' bit o' whatever. She makes very good pizza, for example, but, as there's no measurement involved, she can't really share the recipe with me. So, there are gaps here, some of which I've filled, until fairly recently, with the Ellis cookbook.
The Ellis cookbook is a compilation of recipes belonging to my housemate, Jed (Ellis). I'm pretty sure most of the recipes came from his own mother. Honestly, I've only grabbed a pizza crust recipe from there, but I think our kitchen would feel pretty incomplete without it.
Next comes Lisa, my girlfriend, and her mother. Lisa (and her parents) are sensitive to gluten, which is the stuff in wheat that makes bread dough have its dough-y texture. Without gluten, bread dough would crumble apart almost instantly. Of course, this means wheat is out, which in turn means lots of label-reading, aside from the obvious: No bread, no pasta, and no regular-flour baked goods. Sometimes, this leads to some surprises: cookies, for example, can actually be made *better* when the right combinations of gluten-free flours are used, and corn flour in my mom's cheese sauce (from the macaroni and cheese) is kind of a secret ingredient now.
In addition, Lisa's mom, the cook around their house, is a health nut. A sensible, understanding and compassionate (in other words, sweet) health nut, but nonetheless. Besides exercising a lot, she cooks with as little oil as possible, and avoids butter at all costs. This lead so some interesting situations when I tried making macaroni and cheese at her house for the first time, lemme tell ya's. While I personally think butter has its place in a kitchen (and in my tummy, om nom), there are definitely some good in there. The lady makes a MEAN salad, and Lisa knows how to cook tofu. They've also introduced me to stevia as a sweetener, which is pretty interesting stuff.
Finally, I must give some credit to Tyler, Joe and Sundance. While they're not exactly masters of the iron skillet, Tyler and Joe have been the two that I've cooked together with (besides Lisa), and catering to Tyler's tastes while learning from Joe has definitely had effects on my cooking. Sundance, on the other hand, makes bread, and while my sweetie can't eat it, it still inspires me to someday--SOMEDAY--make a gluten-free sourdough starter.
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