Gluten-free Gourmand

  Boneless Pork Ribs with Spanish-inspired BBQ Sauce In a large oven-safe dish, heat up some olive oil on medium-high heat.  Sautee until brown: 1 small onion, cut in large pieces, 1 Red bell pepper, cut in large pieces, a little salt Remove the vegetables from the pan.  Brown on all sides: 2 large strips of country-style pork ribs, salted Remove the pork to a platter.  Reduce in the pan: 3/4 c Red wine Add: 1 cup tomato sauce 3 Tbsp sugar Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cook until the sauce darkens and begins to thicken.  Add: 1 tsp cumin 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1/2 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp ground coriander  1 tsp lemon juice Mix the sauce well and add the pork back to the pan.  Cover the pork with the sauce.  Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the pork is 160 degrees F in the center.  Is the sauce too sweet, too liquid, or kind of bland?  Remove the pork to a plate again and reduce the sauc...

Springtime is the season for Lamb.  It's tender and flavorful now, and because it's the right time of year you can sometimes find a bargain.  I got this lamb shoulder on sale for $4.49/lb at Whole Foods (it's usually at least $6.50).  I picked up the asparagus at the Portland Farmer's Market.  I wouldn't call it a bargain at $3/bunch, but there was plenty of asparagus in there and it was just how I like it: the stalks were thin and very fresh.  I only used about half the bunch for this dish.  The whole meal cost me about $4. I cook some variation of this meat-and-vegetable meal on a regular basis.  It takes about 10 minutes to cook, but if you have more time you might consider taking the lamb out of the fridge ahead of time to bring it up to room temperature before cooking.   This makes it easier to cook it medium-rare without getting a rare-rare spot around the bone.   Ingredients: Lamb shoulder steak Olive oil Salt Pepper Sag...

Continuing on with my quick and cheap gluten-free dinner ideas , I want to mention that Progresso is now labeling some of their soups gluten-free!   According to their website , Progresso has also decided to remove MSG from all their soups.  This is good news!  The MSG was keeping me from buying their soups more often.  Thanks, Progresso!

For this week's What Can I eat that's Gluten-free? I've hybridized two of my classic recipes: Forbidden Rice with Chicken and Roasted Vegetables . What you do is follow the recipe for the roasted vegetables but add the chicken to your baking sheet or cast-iron skillet. If you add some cherry tomatoes, too, they make a great sauce with all the other drippings. Cook the black rice as described in my post on Forbidden Rice and serve them together for an elegant, delicious, and simple plate. The rice takes about as long as the chicken and vegetables, so it's really easy! Come join us for the What Can I Eat that's Gluten-free? blog carnival over at the Gluten-free Homemaker.

I'm going to classify my Eggplant Parmesan (Eggplant Parmigiano) Recipe as kind of traditional and sort of easy. Here are the ways that I make this fairly labor-intensive dish easier: 1) I don't salt or otherwise prep the eggplant in any way. I just buy a fresh, firm-fleshed one and slice it just before battering. 2) I don't use bread crumbs; I just use flour. I was surprised to learn that this is how Italians do it. 3) I use jarred tomato sauce. Classico is my favorite. If I have frozen leftovers, I use some of my own marinara sauce. 4) I don't mix anything for the cheese filling. I just use mozzerella, usually fresh. My former roommate who is from Naples made this for me once, and her boyfriend at the time (now her husband) also made me a gluten-free version. Both came out rather well. Paolo made his with rice flour, which was very crispy and light. For some reason I've found that gluten-free flour mixes don't work very well for deep-fryin...

I heard about this technique called "The 450-degree oven" on the Splendid Table on NPR a few weeks ago. I tried it for the first time last week while I was bar-b-queing some steaks for a friend, and thought it was one of the easiest and most flavorful side dishes I had ever made. For this post, I decided to prepare it as a one-dish full meal. The whole thing only takes about 25 minutes to prep and cook, and it can be done with a wide variety of ingredients. If you're not into the meat aspect of the dish, omit that and make it vegan. The dish pictured was made with just potato, yam, onion, and bacon for main ingredients. It didn't occur to me until I looked at the pictures, but this dish could also be served with eggs at breakfast. The potatoes look a lot like home fries. First, turn on the oven to 450 degrees. Put a cookie sheet or a large cast-iron skillet into the oven as it's warming up. Cut into large pieces your soft vegetables: Onion Garlic ...

How I often pick seafood is by what looks good at the fish market. I create my recipes and ideas from the ingredients rather than forcing my shopping list to bend to the will of my recipes. This method proves itself over and over when selecting fresh fish. This week I found some really nice bay scallops that were very reasonably priced at my neighborhood New Season's. I really like the taste and texture of fresh scallops. They really have a lot of inherent flavor that I like to accentuate in my scallop recipes. The trick to getting the texture right is to cook them with high heat, and not for too long. This recipe was surprisingly fast to make. For once, I actually made the whole meal, including prep work, in the time it takes to cook the quinoa - about 20 minutes. Start your quinoa fist then prep the other ingredients, and cook. The quinoa can sit for quite a while in the pot if necessary after it's done, but the scallops are really quick to make and should be served r...

My original idea was to create a full meal that could be completed in the time it takes to cook the rice. However, between chatting with my cooking partner, julienning, drinking wine, and general dawdling the meal ended up taking about an hour to cook up. In theory I could have done it faster, and perhaps my next attempt will be much speedier. I will write out the recipe as I imagine it should be organized, not how I actually cooked it. For more gluten-free dinner ideas visit The Gluten-Free Homemaker . She hosts our What's for Dinner? Wednesday blog carnival. Julienne: 1-3 vegetables Heat in a pan large enough to snugly accomodate the fish on a very low heat: 1-2 cups white wine (substitute a light broth if you desire) salt 2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs. We used tarragon and chives. 1/4 tsp of your favorite aromatic spice mix. Garam masala or a curry powder would work well. In a small pan, heat on high: rice water salt a few pinches of saffron (Once the water boils, turn the ...