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...

I made the second loaf of the Gluten-free Crusty Boule Bread recipe that I saw on Gluten-free Girl .  This loaf did come out different than the first one , and it was still good.  It had a bit of a sour dough flavor.  The recipe says you can refrigerate the dough for up to one week.  I had it saved for five days.   I had an idea to form and rest the loaf on parchment paper so I didn't have to disturb the sticky mass when I transferred it to the dutch oven.  That worked out splendidly.  I still didn't get the loaf to rise as much as I wanted, but that could have been due to the yeast not being completely fresh.  I also forgot to cut slits in the top of this loaf, which may have impeded rising.  I took it camping so that my gluten-free mom and her husband could share fresh-baked bread with me.  It was a big hit.

My loyal readers may be shocked to find out that I have never made my own gluten-free bread. That is, I had never attempted it before last night.  I wasn't giving it too high a chance of success.  I have a history of screwing up bread recipes - and that's with glutinous bread.  You know how people go on and on about how much they love the feel of bread dough in their hands as they are kneading it?  I was not one of those people.  I hated kneading.  Now I have another reason to love being gluten-free: no more kneading.  And guess what?  It came out great!   I tried the Gluten-free Crusty Boule Bread Recipe that I read about on Gluten-free Girl earlier this year.  It's very similar to a no-knead bread recipe I had heard about from my sister of the Green Baby Guide blog.  The idea is actually very basic - even primitive.  Did you know that people used to bake bread on a hot stone with a pot inverted over it?  Bread was c...

I have a new weakness: Pamela's Gluten-free Lemon Shortbread cookies.  These are really tasty!  They are incredibly lemony - I like that.  They're nice and tart.  They have a slightly different texture depending on the batch you get.  I mentioned batch variation as well as cost in a review of Pamela's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chunk cookies.   If chocolate's not your thing, or if you're just trying to keep your weight up, this lemon shortbread cookie is the gluten-free addiction for you.

My new community garden plot is coming along.  The plants themselves aren't that big this year, but they are bearing fruit.  I grew kohlrabi from seeds this year.  The leaves are really beautiful. My eggplant is flowering but not bearing fruit.  In previous years  I've had to pollinate the flowers by hand.  Now it might be too late.  The plants are still really small. Next year I'll make deeper beds and use more compost and topsoil.  This garden was a parking lot last year so it's amazing to have anything here at all!

In my previous post I promised to give you a description of the Gluten-free Ale once I could get my hands on it.  Well, I never got one.  What I could get was a description of an even newer gluten-free beer: the Gluten-free Pale Ale. 100% Gluten-Free Ale!  This beer is made with sorghum, brown rice, and carmelixed sugar syrup for a smooth gluten-free experience.  The juicy hop aromas come from Cascade, Centennial, Crystal and a touch of Citra.  Tell your friends! IBU's: 49     Alcohol Content: 5.0% I learned a few things from a helpful server that I hadn't realized before: - The gluten-free beers are all brewed in the Bend facility. - The gluten-free beers are all made in a dedicated gluten-free brew kettle and fermentation tank to avoid cross-contamination. - The Gluten-Free Ale I had last week may have been one in a series of small experimental batches of gluten-free beer. - Deschutes is trying to perfect various recipes in the ho...

Deschutes Brewery has switched over from the Gluten-free ESB to a Gluten-free Ale.  My server described it as a "wheat-style beer."  Of course, as with all the Deschutes Brewery GF beers, it contains no wheat. This beer has the smoothest aftertaste of any sorghum beer I have ever tasted.  There is only a hint of that metallic aftertaste that you get from most gluten-free beers.  Run out and try it soon, or I may drink it all myself!  I got a growler today to enjoy over the weekend. I'll post again when I have an official description of this new gluten-free beer. Have you been to Deschutes lately?  What do you think of their gluten-free beer?

For those of you who were worried, you will be relieved to know that my garden has been doing much better with the nice weather we're having here in Portland.  I even have a ripe tomato! The tomato plant is still really small, but I bet I have the first ripe tomato in Portland. I also have some diminutive crookneck squash growing.  They are tiny, can you see them? How is your garden doing?

Last year by this time I had done plenty of posts about my garden.  This year I haven't done one until today.  I have a community garden plot this year and it is a brand new garden; last year the space was a parking lot.  On top of the challenge of starting with fresh beds, my garden hasn't liked the cool wet summer we've had this year.  My tomatoes are kind of sad, even though some of them have fruit on them.  This is my Sun Gold tomato plant:  It was just too cool for them in June.  This was my Sun Gold plant in the middle of July last year:  I already had ripe ones!  You can see last July's garden post here to compare. I have had better luck this year with more cold-loving crops.  This pretty volunteer has already been eaten. Tonight I thinned some of my rainbow carrots.   They are doing so well that even the little ones I was thinning out are big enough to eat - even if they are only a nibble.  These will be my s...

I haven't been blogging much because I haven't been eating a wide variety of food lately, or creating any new recipes; I've been on a food elimination diet.  It's an interesting challenge to come up with different meals with a limited number of ingredients.  I tend to do a lot of chicken and potatoes using the 450 degree oven approach.  I also try to explore different varieties of rice.  Tonight I had a great meal cooked really quickly and simply on the stove top. Lamb Chops with Bhutanese Rice Cook time: 20 minutes Serves: two Ingredients: 4 lamb chops olive oil salt pepper 1 head broccoli 1 C Bhutanese rice 1 cup water Put the water, the rice, and some salt in a small pan and bring to a boil.  Stir, cover, and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook 25 minutes or until all water is absorbed. While the rice is cooking, heat a large cast-iron skillet on medium-high.  Cut the broccoli into pieces.  Rinse, pat dry, oil and season the lamb cho...

As chance would have it, I had an opportunity to dine at Deschutes Brewery this evening, and I was able to procure their beer list.  I reviewed their current gluten-free beer in a previous post , but I didn't have the official description until today: Gluten Free ESB 100% Gluten-Free Ale!  This beer is made with sorghum, brown rice, maple syrup, and molasses for a smooth gluten-free experience.  We used Topaz and Brewer's Gold hops for bittering and Willamette and Sterling hops for aroma.  Tell your friends! IBU's: 49  Alcohol content: 5.7% You can see their list of " What's on Tap " on the Deschutes Brewery website , but it's often incorrect where the GF beer is concerned.  Click here to find a link to the gluten-free menu at the Portland Pub.  I had the steamer clams with house-made GF bread sticks and a house salad withe gluten-free croutons.  You can't see the croutons in the photo because I had already eaten them all before I took th...

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...

I went to Deschutes brewery the other night with one of my gluten-free friends.  I was looking forward to having another pint of the Gluten-free Wit beer, but instead they had a Gluten-free ESB on tap.  My friend Daniel said after one sip: "I think this is the best gluten-free beer I've ever had." That's what I always say after trying one of Deschutes Brewery's gluten-free beers.

Waffles are easy.  Or, they can be.  My Gluten-free Corn Waffle Recipe and my Buckwheat Waffles Recipe take a little time and care.   That's why I decided to make a quick and easy basic waffle recipe that's not only gluten-free, but also dairy-free.  And of course it's delicious. For the liquid I used my favorite dairy substitute: coconut milk.  I wrote about the beauty of coconut cream in my last post and in my Gluten-free Vegan Scone Recipe . Easy Gluten-free Dairy-free Waffles Makes about 4 Belgian-style waffles. Mix in a medium bowl: 1 cup white rice flour 2 Tbsp sorghum flour 1 Tbsp tapioca flour 1 Tbsp potato flour 2 Tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder Heat your waffle iron. In another medium bowl, beat thoroughly: 2 eggs Add: 1 1/2 cup coconut milk 2 Tbsp canola oil 1/2 tsp vanilla Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  When the waffle iron is hot, lightly spray it wi...

I love cream.  However, I sometimes go through phases of lactose intolerance that prevent me from eating it.  This leads to an issue when I drink coffee: what do I add to it if not cream? I've tried all kinds of non-dairy creamers: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk.  I didn't like any of them.  If they didn't taste chemical they were just too... well, milky.  I started drinking my coffee black.  I'm doing the lactose-free thing right now, so I thought it was a perfect time to experiment with something new: coconut cream.  It's what I use for most of my other cream substitutes, so why not coffee creamer?  I use it in my gluten-free vegan scone recipe and it works beautifully.  It's the only thing I've found that has all the properties of cream that I like: the richness, the smoothness, the slight sweetness. Well, I'm here to inform you that it works.  It doesn't whiten the coffee as much as I expected, and it thickens the coffee ju...

I have to confess something.  I have been meaning to write this review for a long time and I'm only doing it today because I wanted to eat a cookie.  My camera was handy so I thought I'd take a few shots of the cookies before I indulged.  Boy, do I feel industrious today! I'll be doing reviews of Pamela's Ginger Cookies and Peanut Butter Cookies in due course - probably on a day when I feel like eating a ginger cookie or a peanut butter cookie. I really like the Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies that Pamela's Products makes.  They are soft, not crunchy - I like that.  The chocolate chunks are big and of a nice-quality chocolate for a packaged cookie.  In fact, I would say that these are better than most packaged cookies you can buy in the store, wheat or no wheat.  The only criticism I have is that they are a little inconsistent from package to package.  The most recent box of cookies I bought was a little drier than usual.  Usuall...

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...

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...

I haven't posted in a while, and I'd like to share with everyone my exciting reason why.  I moved!  I now have, among other things, a much nicer kitchen.  I have plenty of ideas for new posts and recipes coming up, so stay tuned!

My sister is hosting a giveaway on her blog, The Green Baby Guide ,  in celebration of her book being published and out on the shelves.  Enter to win a copy of the Eco-nomical Baby Guide , a fine art print from my Etsy shop , and more!