Gluten-free Gourmand

I went out to my garden this weekend and I was blown away by how big everything got after being away for a week.  I harvested five artichokes!  I gave one away to another gardener at my community garden.  Then I saw my strawberries.  It took a while to even locate and pick them all.  Then I had an unusual problem: what do I do with all these strawberries? I could just eat some of them, sure.  And I did.  Immediately.  But for once in my life I had too many strawberries. I decided to whip something up.  My idea was to make something incredibly quick, but still with a beautiful flaky crust.  I had this idea that pie crust doesn't need to take as long as it does with gluten dough because it doesn't need to rest to "relax" the gluten.  Whether or not that's strictly true is unimportant.  Sure, it helps to rest the dough to get the water to absorb evenly, but for the sake of a Lightning Tartlet I decided to omit the resting. ...

I love pumpkin, but for some reason, I've never liked pumpkin pie. I've tried to get into it, but it's been over thirty years now and I have to admit that I've been unsuccessful. I have, however, found a solution: Butternut Squash Pie. I make this pie as more of a custard than your standard pumpkin pie. I go a little light on the seasonings and the sugar. Butternut squash is naturally sweet so you don't have to add a ton of sugar. Butternut Squash Pie Recipe (A clever substitute for Pumpkin pie) Have a (gluten-free) pie crust ready to bake. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. With a cleaver or other dependable knife, remove all the seeds and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes: 1.5 lb butternut squash Roast the squash on a baking sheet or roasting pan until it feels done when poked with a fork. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Puree the squash in a food processor. In a large bowl, whisk: 3 large eggs Whisk in: 2 1/2 cups of the butt...

Strawberries are in season here in Oregon right now, and they are amazing on waffles.  This recipe for gluten-free buckwheat waffles is quick, easy, and of course delicious. Quick Buckwheat Waffles Recipe Blend together in a medium bowl: 1/2 cup buckwheat flour 1/2 cup white rice flour 2 Tbsp sorghum flour 1 Tbsp tapioca flour 1 Tbsp potato flour 3 Tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder In another medium bowl, beat thoroughly: 2 large eggs Add: 1 1/4 cup milk 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted Mix well, then add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and blend thoroughly.   Cook in a waffle iron.  Buckwheat waffles benefit from a slightly higher heat setting than other waffles.  Makes about four waffles. If you liked this recipe, you might also like: Easy Waffles: a Gluten-free Dairy-free Recipe Gluten-free Buckwheat Pancakes Gluten-free Buckwheat Waffle Recipe Gluten-free Corn Waffle Recipe Gluten-free Buckwheat Pa...

Craving fresh-baked gluten-free pastries in Portland?  Check out Petunia's Pies and Pastries , a local Portland bakery that specializes in gluten-free, vegan, and delicious treats. I had seen this bakery at the market a few times.   I didn't get a chance to try anything out until last Sunday when I caught them at the King market.  Almost everything in the display case is gluten-free.  I really enjoyed the Lime Coconut Square I tried.  The gluten-free crust was tender and light, and the coconut lime filling had just the right amount of tartness.  I enjoyed photographing it almost as much as eating it.  All of Petunia's pastries are beautifully decorated and displayed.  I'm sure to go again to indulge in a cookie, cupcake, or tart. Getting gluten-free goods from a new vendor is always a little nerve-racking for people who are very sensitive to gluten.  When asked about the degree to which her baked goods are gluten-free, Petunia's owner L...

Deschutes Brewery is currently serving a gluten-free wit beer.  Even better news is that my server informed me last night that they have several different kinds of gluten-free beers that they have been trying out lately.  They only have one on tap at a time for obvious practical reasons, but it sounds like they might be rotating them out more frequently now than they were over the summer and fall. Unlike the previous Deschutes beer that I reviewed here , which I called a wit beer but was probably intended to be a hefeweisen style, this one actually is a wit-style beer.  This new wit beer gives the same first impression that most of their gluten-free beers do: the first sip, it tastes like normal beer.  Then, you get that subtle hint of the metallic aftertaste that is so common in beers made from sorghum.  However, in the Deschutes beers the metallic flavor is usually much more toned down than in, say, Redbridge.  This gluten-free wit beer is very good an...

Due to popular demand, I am now revealing my new Pancetta Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Actually, I only had one vote on the matter in my last post , and it was from a fellow cookie-lover, Jenn from Cinnamon Quill. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, or if you just love chocolate, please go straight to her vegan World Peace Cookie Recipe which looks amazing. If you're really into pancetta , stick around for this post or see my recipe for Pasta Carbonara or Pancetta-wrapped Scallops . As you can probably guess, I'm on a bit of a pancetta kick. While the rest of Portland is devouring bacon by the pound, I'm getting into the more subtle flavor that pancetta lends to a recipe. For something more intense, check out Pete's Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies . He candies the bacon before using. I went a different route with this recipe. I left the pancetta uncooked. Half of it I whipped into the butter to infuse the pancetta flavor throughout the batter. The other half o...

Thanks to Linda from the Gluten-free Homemaker for hosting the What's for Dinner? Wednesday (Gluten-free Style) carnival blog. This week's theme is dessert, my favorite part of any meal. Now, don't get me wrong; I don't really like sugary/sweet things. I like my desserts to taste like their ingredients, not like sugar. Cooking gluten-free can be hard for me because I often find that I can't cut out as much sugar from a recipe as I used to when I used wheat flour. Fortunately, there are still several recipes that I have always loved that I never had to change when I went gluten-free. I already have a pretty good collection of recipes for sweets on this blog, but I thought I'd share my Creme Caramel Recipe today. It's naturally gluten-free, and there are some variations too. Most notably, there is a pumpkin variation. It's amazing!

Making your own chocolate sauce for dipping or for putting on your ice cream is very simple. It only requires a few ingredients: chocolate, cocoa powder, butter, and cream. Because I don't always like doing things the easy way, however, I'm going to give you a recipe that includes one more ingredient: chiles. As my readers may know by now, I love Mexican food. Chilies with chocolate is one of my favorite combinations from Mexican cuisine. I have made chocolate sauce many times before, but when my cooking partner Alex suggested one time that we make it with chilies I was really excited. The first time we tried it with some roasted ancho chilies. It gave a good flavor, but what we were looking for was a distict bite. To up the ante, the second time we tried it Alex procured some ghost chilies, supposedly the spiciest chile in the world. They looked like dried habaneros. Pick your chile by how you want the end result to come out, and keep in mind that the chile flavor w...