May 17, 2008
Taste
Gluten's out, but food satisfies
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With warm weather comes warm-weather food: hamburgers on whole-grain buns. Pints of ice-cold beer.
But I have a friend who needs to be discerning: She can eat the burger but not the roll. She skips the beer. Like blogger-turned-author Shauna James Ahern, my friend is a "gluten-free girl." Both women have celiac disease, a condition in which gluten, a protein present in wheat, oats, rye and barley, damages the lining of the small intestine.
Ahern's Gluten-Free Girl is a must-have for foodies - even those who can eat gluten. Moving from meats and grains to vegetables and fruit, Ahern experiments with her food. She plays with gluten-friendly amaranth, popping the grain on her stove like popcorn to create a cereal; she learns to love her least-favorite veggie, cauliflower.
In the chapter titled "Guilty Pleasures," the author bakes a comforting macaroni and cheese, which I made on a cool night. Rice-based elbows can stand in for traditional durum semolina pasta, and white-rice flour, butter, whole milk, nutmeg and bread crumbs (gluten-free, of course) are added to the mix.
The grated Manchego, instead of a sharper cheese such as cheddar, was too mild for my taste, but the bubbly dish had good texture.
Gluten Free and Easy has universal appeal. It's getting a lot of use in my kitchen, even though I don't have celiac disease.
Gorgeous photos accompany the more than 90 recipes in this soup-to-nuts collection that beckons cooks to try everything from roast pumpkin and ricotta lasagna to blueberry dessert cake.
I brought Robyn Russell's Quinoa Tabbouleh to a dinner party. The quinoa was easy to cook, and cucumbers, greens, lemon juice and tomatoes (I substituted fresh tomatoes for semi-dried) gave the nutty, protein-packed grain a refreshing zest. The recommended 3 tablespoons of olive oil, however, may make the dish a bit too oily for some people's taste.
Perhaps nothing shouts "special diet" as much as the title of this book. But Grace Cheetham's collection has range and depth.
I wanted to try her prosciutto and arugula pizza with dairy-free cheese, but I couldn't find gram flour at the market. Luckily, her cakes without milk, cream and butter piqued my curiosity, too.
I baked two - a classic flourless chocolate cake and a more original lemon polenta cake. The sunken chocolate cake could have been more fudgy but otherwise satisfied my sweet tooth. The lemon polenta cake tasted more like cornbread than cake.
Quinoa Tabbouleh
Serves 4
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3 1/2 ounces semi-dried (sun-blushed) tomatoes, diced
1 short (Lebanese) cucumber, diced
6 scallions, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons olive oil or the reserved oil from the tomatoes
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon crushed garlic freshly ground pepper to taste
Place the quinoa in a sieve and wash well under running water, then drain. Toast the quinoa in a hot, dry frying pan until fragrant.
In a saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil, stir in the quinoa and salt and simmer, covered, until all the stock is absorbed, about 12 minutes. Fluff with a fork and leave covered in the pan for another 10 minutes.
Refrigerate, covered, until needed.
In a large bowl, place the tomatoes, cucumber, scallions and parsley; toss to combine. Stir in as much of the quinoa as needed to give a balanced look to the salad. In a glass jar with a lid, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Shake well. Pour over the salad, toss to coat and serve.
From "Gluten Free and Easy"
Per serving: 277 calories, 10 grams protein, 13 grams
fat, 2 grams saturated fat, 35 grams carbohydrate, 6
grams fiber, 2 milligrams cholesterol, 910 milligrams
sodium
Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 6 to 8
1 package gluten-free pasta (16 ounces)
4 ounces unsalted butter
4 ounces white-rice flour
4 cups whole milk
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups grated cheese (try Manchego, but any good goat or sheep cheese will do) (divided use)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 cup gluten-free bread crumbs
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cook the gluten-free pasta according to the manufacturer's directions. Drain and set aside.
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter completely. Stir in the rice flour with a big spoon and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring continuously until the flour is cooked. This loose ball of dough is called roux. Set the roux aside.
Put the milk in a saucepan with a pinch of nutmeg. Bring to a boil. As soon as the milk begins to boil, add bits of the roux to the milk, about 2 tablespoons at a time. Whisk the milk and roux together. The sauce will begin to thicken after 3 to 4 minutes.
Add more of the roux, in the same amount as before. Whisk continuously and watch it thicken. Repeat this process until you have incorporated all of the roux into the milk. Add 1 cup of the grated cheese into the thickening sauce. Continue whisking. Add the salt and pepper. Taste the sauce to make sure it works for you.
Toss the pasta into the cheese sauce. Stir it around, then pour into an oiled baking dish. Top the pasta and sauce with the rest of the cheese and bread crumbs. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is well-browned.
From "Gluten-Free Girl"
Per serving (based on 8 servings): 550 calories, 18 grams protein, 25 grams fat, 14 grams saturated fat, 62 grams carbohydrate, 6 grams fiber, 63 milligrams cholesterol, 579 milligrams sodium Flourless Chocolate Cake
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Serves 10
CAKE:
7 tablespoons dairy-free margarine, plus extra for greasing
8 ounces dairy-free dark chocolate, with at least 70 percent cocoa solids
6 eggs, separated
2/3 cup fruit sugar
TOPPING:
5 ounces dairy-free dark chocolate, with at least 70 percent cocoa solids
scant 1/2 cup chestnut puree
3 tablespoons fruit sugar
2 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch springform cake pan with dairy-free margarine and line the bottom with a circle of nonstick baking parchment paper.
Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a large, heatproof bowl. Rest the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water; stir from time to time until the chocolate melts. Add the margarine to the bowl and continue stirring occasionally until it completely melts and is mixed in with the chocolate; remove from heat.
Put the egg whites in a mixing bowl and whisk using an electric mixer until they form stiff peaks. Add the sugar and continue whisking until glossy peaks form.
Lightly beat the egg yolks in another bowl, then stir into the melted chocolate mixture until well blended. With a large metal spoon, carefully fold in the whisked egg whites until they are thoroughly mixed in.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes, until risen and cooked around the side, but still slightly soft in the middle. Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and if there is only a little of the batter sticking to it, the cake is ready. Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the pan about 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile, prepare the topping. Melt the chocolate as above. Add the chestnut puree and sugar and stir well, then stir in the margarine until thoroughly blended. Remove from the heat, leave to cool and serve with slices of cake.
From "A Cook's Bible: Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes"
Per serving: 428 calories, 6 grams protein, 29 grams fat, 13 grams saturated fat, 37 grams carbohydrate, trace fiber, 127 milligrams cholesterol, 153 milligrams sodium
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