Gluten-free Gourmand

New Cascadia Traditional has a new vegan vanilla cupcake.  I haven't liked all of their vegan pastries, but I've been avoiding dairy so the last time I was there I thought I'd give the new one a try.  I noticed that this one is soy-free, unlike many of their vegan fare, so I suspected they may have tried something new with this recipe.  I got halfway through it before I realized: it's amazing!  So amazing I need to take a picture! It's nice and moist on the inside, with a really delectable crumb.  The frosting is topped with coconut.  Need I say more?

Good news!  There are now more gluten-free options in select Portland Whole Foods.  Petunia's Pies and Pastries will be available in the Pearl, Hollywood, Fremont and Laurelhurst locations.  I went to visit the Petunia's booth at the PSU Farmers Market yesterday and picked up a slice of the Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust.  This is a gluten-free and vegan dessert like almost all of Petunia's offerings.  I loved the crust, and the "cheese" portion was nice and pumpkiny.  This one was a little on the sweet side for me, but I was not disappointed as far as flavor went.  Petunia's never ceases to surprise me with what can be created without dairy, eggs, or wheat.  Check out my other review of Petunia's here .   I'm really excited to be able to get some beautiful gluten-free desserts right in my local Whole Foods!

"I had given up on finding gluten-free Italian food in a restaurant," my dining companion said as we both perused the menu at Iorio's.  The server had just finished explaining the gluten-free options, which was practically everything on the menu.  They serve gluten-free pasta as well as gnocchi, and most of their battered dishes were GF as well.  (I apologize for not thinking to ask whether the frier is shared with gluten-containing foods).  It was difficult to choose from the menu.  I'm more accustomed to having only one option per restaurant!  We ended up splitting some dishes so we could try more things. The calamari appetizer was excellent.  It was cooked just right - still tender inside - and the GF breading was nice and crispy.  I ordered the Eggplant Parmesan, which was also breaded with a different crispy breading.  While my pride will not let me say that it was better than my own recipe for the dish, I thought it was good.  M...

I consider this one of my all-time best recipes.  It's gluten-free and dairy-free, and I could eat it all the time. Recipe for Lamb Pot Roast with Gluten-free Gravy: In a large heavy pot, heat: 2-3 Tbsp oil When oil is heated, brown in the pan: 1/2 lb carrots 1 lb potatoes 1 small onion, halved Remove these to a plate and set aside.  Add more oil to the pan if needed.  Add:   2 lbs lamb shanks, legs, or blade steaks Brown the lamb on all sides.  Add:   2 tsp coriander (preferably whole) 2 tsp cumin (preferably whole) 2 tsp black peppercorns Toast the spices for a moment, then add: 1 cup wine 2 cups chicken stock salt half the potatoes that you've browned Add water or more chicken stock if needed to bring the level of liquid up to an inch or so.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for several hours, covered, turning the meat and potatoes occasionally to cook both sides.  When the meat is fork tende...

It was a rough year for vegetable gardens here in the Pacific Northwest, but I'm finally feeling like I am reaping a good harvest.  I found myself in the vegetable section of the store today, realizing that I didn't have to buy a single vegetable, and I hadn't for over a month.  I stopped by my community garden patch later and harvested this: From the left, there are parsnips, a lemon cucumber, rainbow carrots, a big zucchini, a large crookneck squash, a chocolate bell pepper and some lemon drop peppers, which I've never had before but which are supposed to be spicy. We've been lucky to have temperatures stay pretty warm so far this fall so I'm keeping my tomatoes out until next weekend.  Here are some tomatoes I picked last week: The seeds strewn about are coriander. I'm not sure what to do with these.  It's not quite enough tomatoes to make sauce, but it's too many to just eat in salads.  Maybe I'll roast them to make sun-dried tomatoes...

I'll be making waffles this morning.  I'll try to choose between the following recipes: Quick Buckwheat Waffles: Gluten-free Easy Waffles: A Gluten-free Dairy-free Recipe Gluten-free Corn Waffle Recipe Gluten-free Buckwheat Waffles What will you have?

If you haven't been to New Cascadia Traditional yet, you should go.  If you have gone but you haven't tried their teff sandwich bread yet, you should try it! It was the first full-sized sandwich I made in a long time.  I really liked the texture - it was very spongy and not at all dry.  The flavor is a little different, and very pleasantly whole-grain.  The bread has flax seeds on top which gives it an even earthier flavor.  The best thing about this bread is that it stays good for several days.  It doesn't get completely hard like most gluten-free bread products.  I've heard that it also freezes pretty well, although I tend to eat the whole thing once I get a loaf. Have you tried the Teff Sandwich Bread at New Cascadia?  What did you think?

 I have been hearing about the Hawthorne Fish House for a long time, and I finally got over there to try some gluten-free fish 'n chips for the first time in August.  Almost everything on their menu is gluten-free! The deep-fried fish is coated with some tasty rice flour.  I got the halibut.    My friend got the Chile-fried Catfish, which was even better than mine, but I didn't have an opportunity to get a shot of that before it was completely devoured.  I really liked the spicy breading.  They have several gluten-free beers in bottles - including all three styles of Green's. Hawthorne Fish House has a very clearly-marked menu that has notes on what is and isn't gluten-free.  The restaurant has a very clever strategy for presenting their fish as not only the healthiest, but also the best in Portland.  Here's a little of what they say about their food: "It's no accident we have Portland's Best Fish & Chips. Besides top quality fish ...

I haven't been blogging as much this summer due to good weather, but I'm finally here at my 100th post! It's going to get pretty autumnal in Portland so I'll be doing some cool-weather cooking.  Some recipes I'll bring you this fall will include: - Gluten-free pie crust - Gluten-free butternut squash pie - Lamb stew - Home-made bread - New GF pasta reviews - Restaurant reviews - More Gluten-free beer, of course That's right - bread!  I've been baking up a storm and making headway on a new gluten-free bread recipe using my own special blend of flours.  I'm pretty excited about it, but it's not quite ready yet.  This is a teaser: Add caption This loaf collapsed a little; not enough xanthan gum, I think.  I'm trying to do this without eggs, so it's a bit of a challenge. Well, wish me luck! xoxo Gina

  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...