Wheat-Free Batter Fried Fish & Onion Rings

Now, I am not normally one to fry my food, but once in a while, it's a nice treat! Interestingly, I've been dinking around for years trying to make just the right batter for onion rings, and it took my family going wheat-and-egg-free for me to happen upon the perfect batter for both onion rings, ands it turns out, fish. And it's ridiculously simple. It's not gluten-free, though, for those who are truly sensitive, due to the beer. I hear you can substitute club soda quite nicely for beer in recipes such as these, though.

1 bottle good beer, I suggest IPA or whatever you have around
Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Baking flour
1 lb or so white fish such as halibut, rockfish, or cod
1 large onion
salt & pepper & garlic powder
a whole bunch of high-temp oil such as canola or safflower

Mix beer and enough flour to make a thin batter, somewhat thinner than what you would use to make pancakes with. Be aware that this flour seems to absorb liquid as it sits, so maybe don't put the whole bottle in at first. You could always thin the batter with water if necessary. Add as much salt as you think is reasonable, and then a little more, some pepper, and just a dash of garlic powder. Slice onion into rings and fish into fingers, about 8 pieces out of the pound.

Preheat oven to 365 degrees and turn your vent fan on if you have one. Heat an inch or two of oil in a cast-iron skillet until it is also 365 degrees- I have no better method than using a candy/deep-fry thermometer to know you are hot enough. I think a spoonful of the batter would float and turn golden brown in 5 minutes or so if it as right, though, if you don't have a thermometer that goes up that high (warning: many digital meat thermometers will fry their innards at this temp).

Using a long fork, dip the fish into the batter and slide into the oil and fry until golden on the bottom, 3-5 minutes or so; turn over and fry another minute or two on the other side. Fish will be done in the middle when the outside is golden unless you cut the pieces really big. Line a cookie sheet with paper towels or a brown paper bag and drain the fish on the bag, sticking the sheet in the hot oven while you cook the rest of the fish, and then the onion rings. The onion rings don't take as long as the fish to cook. Yum!

Amazing and Easy GF Chocolate Cake

All right. Here's the wheat & egg free version, and I'll follow up with the wheat & egg substitutions, because it's easy & great (and bonus, it's low-fat! but high sugar. It is cake, after all.).

1 C. Water
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa, I prefer Dutched
1 T. butter
1 C. sugar
1/3 C. brown rice flour
2/3 C. Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour
1 T. starch-based egg replacer plus 1/4 C water
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
a couple of drops of almond extract
1 t. baking SODA
1 T. vinegar (really)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease and line with parchment paper an 8x8 square or an 8" round cake pan, or line cupcake tins with papers. You must do this now, as you will not have time to do it after you mix up the batter.

Mix the cocoa & water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add each ingredient one at a time, EXCEPT the vinegar, stirring after each addition. Whisk until it is lump-free, then add the vinegar, stir just a couple of times (it won't be all the way mixed but that's OK) and QUICKLY pour into pans and stick in the oven. The batter will be quite liquidy. Bake 40-45 minutes (cake pan) or 20-30 minutes for cupcakes, until the top is rounded & not soft to the touch. If you remember the elementary-school baking soda and vinegar volcano, you'll know why you have to do these last steps quickly.

I like to just dust the tops with powdered sugar, or frost them. It's also good if you leave out the almond extract and use a teaspoon or so of instant espresso.

For the wheat version, substitute an egg for the egg replace & water, and 1 C white or whole wheat pastry flour or a combination thereof for the Bob's & rice flour.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour

When I started baking wheat-free, I got frustrated because all the recipes I found required one particular brand or another of gluten-free flour mix, none of which I had access to, living on a small island in Alaska. I did some research and discovered that the content of the different flours varied drastically, so it would not be easy to substitute one for another. I tried to use only recipes calling for single flours, and so I bought (luckily our local grocery stores carry almost all of these) tapioca, potato, garbanzo, fava, arrowroot, white rice, brown rice, sticky rice, amaranth, millet, and probably a few other flours. And of course, xanthan gum, largely to replace the eggs. I used different combinations of these in tons of different bread recipes, and I pretty much universally ended up with a brick. I finally found a rice bread recipe that basically worked, but it tasted like white bread. Good for some people I guess, but we were used to hearty whole-grain bread, and it was just sort of sticky and boring.

And then I picked up a bag of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. I think the first thing I tried with it was chocolate cupcakes, substituting it right in for regular flour in my favorite easy chocolate cake recipe, which I will post shortly. And truthfully, it was amazing. It was good enough that I ate a bunch of the cupcakes. It was great. And so I became a convert to the one brand of GF flour available to me in this town.

I do find it has a somewhat bitter flavor, and I even keep it in the freezer so I don't think it's rancid. I usually end up cutting it by one-third to a half with brown rice flour. I started doing that because I bought a big bag of brown rice flour before I discovered the Bob's, and I wanted to use it up, but I have found most things taste better with it. It is the base of my chocolate cake, my bread (along with Bob's 8-grain WF cereal), and my muffins and pancakes and waffles. I still haven't figured out how to make a good vanilla or yellow cake from scratch yet. But recipes will be forthcoming...