GF CF egg-free, soy-free Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love hosting it, planning it, cooking it, everything. It helps that my lovely husband Phil is in charge of clean-up. I think what I like about it is that it's fun the short week before, doing the planning and shopping, and then I plan it enough that it's an easy pace on Thanksgiving itself, we eat early so guests are gone by 7pm usually, and clean up is done by 9:00. Then we have 3 more days off with leftovers, so we hardly have to cook! I usually need a break by then in the fall, and Thanksgiving is perfect for that. And I love to spend time with my friends-as-family-- so many of us are far from our born families, we make our own with friends, and it's all the love of family with none of the baggage and drama. I love it.

This year was our first GF, egg-free Thanksgiving. I probably would have just let E eat wheat and eggs, but we had a guest who was gluten-free, casein-free, egg-free, and soy-free, so that motivated me to do a little extra work and keep my family healthy and comfortable, too. I did both wheat and non-wheat versions of most items, and all turned out very well, though we have LOTS of wheat stuffing leftover for me!

The real savior of this year's Thanksgiving was Bette Hagman's "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread". I accidentally opened the package from Amazon containing this book as a Christmas gift for me, and once it was in my house and I knew it... I realized it was on my Christmas list because I wanted it for the holidays, so I decided it was appropriate to use it early- a present to my wheat-free family, in fact.


First, off, I will say, don't get sucked in by the picture on the front. I did, and I'm sure the publisher just put a picture of wheat bread on the cover. I was hoping to find some non-pan breads like in the picture, and there aren't really any. But after this initial disappointment, I am cautiously optimistic about the recipes. First I tried some rolls with her Pizza/French bread mix the week before Thanksgiving, and they were not very tasty. I think I do not care for the flavor of lots of tapioca flour. Her pizza crust based on it is fine, because the toppings cover the flavor, but it was not good for rolls. So those became the base for my GF stuffing (or dressing, as many call it). The the weekend before Thanksgiving, I tried her egg-free four-bean flour mix bread, with sesame seeds in it and sprinkled on top, and it was by far the best wheat-free bread we've ever had. It has a great texture and the flavor is very mild. A couple of slices of that rounded out the stuffing, which is a mushroom stuffing recipe from Food & Wine years ago. It is incredibly flavorful, and the bread held together nicely and crisped up just fine for a lovely side dish. I even made it the night before, refrigerated it, and baked it on Thanksgiving. Because my guest was CF and soy free, I replaced the butter with palm shortening and olive oil (there is no soy-free margarine in my town), and although it is tastier with butter, it was really just fine this way, too.

I made that same bread for Thanksgiving, using the medium loaf and taking a clue from the no-knead wheat bread recipe from the NY Times, which is a wet dough baked in a covered dish, like a Dutch oven, or in my case, a terra cotta Romertopf dish. It was BEAUTIFUL! I should have baked it another 10 minutes or so, because it did collapse a bit as it cooled, but it didn't get gummy and sticky or anything (see photo above). My other GF guest was VERY impressed and asked for the recipe!



Finally, I rounded out dinner with a vegan GF pumpkin pie. Truthfully, it was just OK. Without eggs, it was a little pasty, and it definitely needed more spice- Next time, I'd add 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp allspice to what's in the recipe. If I were not an egg-eater, I'd probably have liked it, and it was nice and firm and didn't have any off tastes. Overall, it was a very successful holiday for the dietary-restricted and the rest of us as well. I only wish I had taken a picture of the table laden with tons and tons of food!

Elimination Diet: One down, two to go

We tried sprouted wheat English muffins and tortillas and the eczema came back in force. I think it's wheat and not gluten- E was eating rye the whole time we "eliminated" because we didn't know it had gluten. Next to try, egg whites and egg yolks separately. Too bad we didn't do that in time for Thanksgiving, but we're having a GF, CF, soy-free, egg-free guest anyways.

Blogs I Read-- that you might like, too

http://connorsjourneywithautism.blogspot.com/2008/09/gluten-free-cinnamon-crackers-with-pear.html
Has good GF recipes, and she does the Daring Bakers GF!

http://www.tastespotting.com/
Takes the photos from all the best food blogs and puts them on one page...

http://www.creampuffsinvenice.ca/
baking with wheat and eggs, but some lovely things

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!

Galushka (not baking, just yummy)

Galushka is a mixture of cottage cheese, potato dumplings, and bacon. Everyone I have ever served this to has said, "eeeewww, gross!" when I described it, and then when they tasted it, become an immediate convert. It is strangely delicious, a delight of textures, and easily adapted to be wheat-free, I've found.

My Italian grandmother made galushka for my Hungarian grandfather; I understand it's a Hungarian dish, though when I've looked it up on the Internet, it has never been exactly what my family called galushka. The my mom made it for our family growing up, having learned the recipe from her mother-in-law. And now my family loves it, too.

Galushka
1 large russet potato
about 4 tsp potato starch
about 2 tsp tapioca flour
(if you were eating wheat, it would be about 2 T white flour)
salt & pepper
1 32-oz container cottage cheese
2 slices crisp-cooked bacon

Peel the potato and grate it on the small side of a box grater, or do what I do: shred it in the food processor, then pulse it with the blade till it's small but not pureed. Put the potato onto a paper towel and fold the towel closed, then wrap the paper towel in two or more dish towels and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. This step is essential! My mom even wrings it out till it drips. Unwrap the potato and put it in a bowl and add the flours and a generous amount of salt and pepper. My rule is to add what I think should be enough and then add a little more. Mix it all together, and then using your hands squeeze it together. You have enough starch in there if it forms balls when you squeeze it together and doesn't feel wet. Make the dumplings by squeezing about a teaspoon of the potato mixture in the palm of your hand. it should hold together. Make a plateful and then dump them one at a time into gently boiling salted water, only as many as make one layer in the bottom of the pan. Boil them for around 5 minutes-- they are done about 2 minutes after they float. You can take one out and cut it in half and try it to see if it's done. It should be chewy but not at all crunchy, but if you cook them too long they get soggy. If they fall apart in the water, your potato was too wet and/or you didn't add enough starch.

Drain the dumplings and immediately mix them into the cottage cheese. Crumble the bacon and mix that in, too, and you're done. It's best right away when it's lukewarm and the bacon is still crunchy. Beware of adding too much bacon- you just need enough to give flavor and crunch without overpowering the dumplings and cheese. Yum! I took a photo when I made it today, hopefully I'll post it soon.

The Go-To wheat-free egg-free dessert: Fruit crisp

Fill your 8x8 square pan not quite full with fruit of your choice: I like 1/2 apples and 1/2 fresh or frozen mixed berries. In a small bowl, mix together 1/3 C sugar, 1/4 tapioca flour, a tiny pinch of salt, and a teaspoon or more cinnamon. Other spices like nutmeg and cloves and ginger are also good. Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit and toss to mix. In the now-empty small bowl, mix 1 C oats, 1/3 C brown sugar, another tsp or so cinnamon, 1/3 C rice flour, another tiny pinch of salt, and then add 1/4 C (half a stick) melted butter. Mix the butter around till it moistens everything a little. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the fruit mixture, and bake at 350 degrees until bubbling and thick- an hour or more if your berries are frozen when you start, more like 40 minutes if there's only fresh berries & no apples. Let cool somewhat before eating or it will still be runny. Delicious with unsweetened whipped fresh cream!

Homemade Starch Based Egg Replacer

I mix up a big batch of this and keep it on hand, using 1 T replacer plus 1/2 tsp. oil plus 1/4 C water to substitute for one egg.

http://www.goodbaker.com/qa11.html