Gluten-free Disasters

I'm writing today to confess that gluten-free cooking is not always easy. In fact, regular cooking is not always easy. Sometimes, mistakes are made.

Take, for example, the recipe variation for the quinoa pancakes that I promised you five months ago. So far, my revisions look much like my first attempts - that is, disastrous:
There have been some really humorous moments, such as when I discovered that a food processor should never be filled this full of liquid:Seconds after taking this photo, tomato was sprayed over three walls. I was too embarrassed to take photos of the damage, but I assure you it was extensive. The batch of my tomato sauce turned out anyway, although I might have had more if I didn't spill so much.

There were also little things, like when I tried to duplicate my Gluten-free Tempura Recipe with a slight modification, but put the tempura bowl on the hot burner, thereby cooking the batter before the vegetables were dipped in it. I had to make a new batch. You can also see where I spilled soy sauce all over the stove. On top of all that, I kept taking blurry pictures!Then there was the cheese.
I told you all at one point that I was making cheese from scratch with my cooking partner. We had to throw it away. It grew a mysterious mold which smelled like rotting pumpkin. Other than that, it seemed to go pretty well.

Do you remember when I said I made Pulpo a la Gallega? It was the same time that I said I was making cheese. The first time, it turned out perfectly and took about half an hour.
The second time, I bought a bigger octopus for a Spanish-themed party I was throwing.
It turns out that the bigger ones take about an hour and a half - or longer - to cook. It's a good thing I had other food to serve.

There were other Spanish recipe flops. On this one, I saved some for the next day just to take a picture, which ended up looking like this:
Did I mention that I'm a professional photographer? Oh, well. The paella wasn't that good, anyway. Next time!

Comments

Lauren said…
I completely agree - GF isn't always easy. Its good to see the good with the bad, and all of your good looks fantastic!
I love this post! I've had some pretty hysterical moments in the kitchen too, good idea to do a big post like this. I may have to copy this idea and post some of the not-so-successful ventures.

Hey, what doesn't kill us in the kitchen makes us stronger, right? ;)

Kim | affairsofliving.blogspot.com
Gina said…
Thanks for the encouragement, Lauren and Kim! I'd love to see other bloggers do a similar post. I get tired of laughing at myself sometimes!
Oh my, yes. I remember when I first tried to make GF bread for my step-father. I thought you could take a "regular" recipe and swap GF flour for wheat flour. Yup. You can imagine how that turned out...
Gina said…
I've actually never attempted to make gluten-free bread. Sometimes I can envision disasters yet to come.
Nadya said…
This was a delightful post - we ALL have those kind of kitchen days, even before GF -
Today I made some yeasted GF bread for my daughter, & was so happy it turned out 'good!'
I tend to like how GF quick breads turn out, but it was fun to have my first attempt at the yeasted recipe turn out well.
Ah, I thought this was only my life; though I've never attempted octopus or lobster, you are ambitious! And I swear I alwayssss spill soy sauce on the stove when I'm cooking with it. What is that?!
Gina said…
Dia - I'm glad your bread turned out. I hope you share the recipe!

Jen - I think there must be some sort of hidden magnetism between the stovetop and the soy sauce. Glad to know I'm not the only one who spills!
Iris said…
That's so funny...I was just thinking about doing a post like this myself after a bunch of disasters in the kitchen. It's nice to see that others make mistakes too!

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