English Muffins for breakfast

I love English muffins.  Love them love them love them.  Without gluten in my kitchen, I have a heck of a time trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast that's not garbage, 97% sugar, and not leftovers from the night before (which I will eat for lunch, more often than not. Who wants to eat the same food for three consecutive meals? Yes, a real first world problem, I realize).

I was looking for a good breakfast food and came across three consecutive mentions of English muffins on the internet, one of which was gluten free.  So I decided to find a starting point and tweak from there.  I made the Better Batter recipe, using a Better Batter cheat recipe and found out the hard way that I need to make a sweeping generalization: There is too much stinking xanthan gum in most gluten-free recipes which is what makes them gummy, heavy, without air pockets, and generally yuck.

So I made a second round, tweaking the flours (you can substitute 3 1/2-4 cups of your favorite flour mix), the xanthan gum and realizing that I only had 4 English muffin rings for a recipe that makes about a dozen English muffins.  They were light, non-gummy, toasted really nicely (well, would have toasted better if I had, um, a toaster.  But the broiler worked fairly well) and took a lovely pat of butter making my eyes roll around in my head when I ate it (the butter and the muffin).

Gluten-free English Muffins, heather-style

2 1/4 tsp (or 1 packet)  dry yeast

1 T sugar

1 cup milk (dairy or non, or water if you wish), warmed to about 110 degrees

1 cup warm buttermilk (or 1 cup milk/milk substitute, plus 1 T vinegar)

5 T shortening (I use Spectrum, non-hydrogenated palm shortening)

1 1/3 cups rice flour or sorghum flour

1 cup, plus 2T millet or amaranth flour

1 cup tapioca starch

2/3 cup potato starch

(or substitute 4 cups of your favorite flour blend)

1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Add the yeast and sugar to the warm milks, and set aside to proof for 5-7 minutes until frothing and bubbly.  While the yeast is proofing, blend the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a sifter or a whisk.  Cut the shortening into the mixed dry ingredients with a pastry blender, two knives, or rub it in with your hands until well-blended.  When the yeast is well-proofed, add it into the flour mix, and mix for 2-3 minutes, until fully incorporated.

Spray and flour the inside of your English muffin rings ($5 for 4 at Sur la Table) or empty tuna cans with the top and the bottom removed, washed, labels removed.  PLace them on a baking sheet on a piece of parchment paper, lightly sprinkled with flour.  Evenly fill the rings about 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter.  Without the extra xanthan gum, the batter is sticky instead of dough-like.  Welcome to the world of gluten-free batter.  If you don't have rings, or if you only have a few, you can either free form themm, or form them in the rings, and remove them, but they will spread and become more crumpet-shaped.  Let the English muffins rise for 45 minutes in a warm place (I usually set the oven at about 100-115 degrees and let them rise in there).

When they've risen and are a bit puffy on top, bake them in a 350 degree oven for 18-25 minutes.  Or until light golden brown, whichever.  Set the muffins on a rack to cool.  Remove the muffins from the rings.  You may need to run around the inside of the ring with a thin knife, to release them.  Split the english muffins with a fork to take advantage of those patented nooks and crannies.  Freeze everything you won't eat now, to thaw and toast later.  Spread with butter or jam or both or honey or, you get the idea.

Mmmm...

Gluten free brown sugar coffee cake

It's recipe time again! If I were a good blogger, I'd also have photos. But I'm not. So it goes.

Gluten-free brown sugar coffee cake

1 1/2 cups Brown Rice Flour (or 3/4 cups brown rice flour, 3/4 cups millet flour)

1 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 heaping tsp salt

Sift the above ingredients

3/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sour cream

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Add the sifted dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in thirds, alternating with the sour cream.

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Put 1/2 of the batter into a greased 13x9 inch pan. cover with 1/2 the topping. Gently spread the remaining batter over these two layers, cover with remaining topping. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

NOTE: Updated 05.4.09 to adjust xanthan gum level

New Plan!!

My new plan is this: post a chicken enchilada casserole recipe every month.

It's not really a new plan. It's apparently what I've decided to do. My friend Droolie gave me her recipe and I liberated it from gluten. Aunt Droolie's nephew used to have a hard time pronouncing Chicken Enchilada Casserole and called it Chicken Encarada Rascapole, so who am I to argue?

Also? Full disclosure, I haven't made this yet, so let me know how you like it. :)

Chicken Encarada Rascapole – Gluten-free

4-6 Chicken Breasts
1 large chopped onion
12 corn tortillas
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 cups GF Chicken stock
2 cloves crushed garlic
½ cup minced fire-roasted chilies (mild or spicy to taste) (or 1 Small can minced green chilies)
1 T cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
3 T corn flour
1 T canola oil
1 Cup grated Jack cheese
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese
1 Can Evaporated Milk
¾ can of Ro-Tel, drained

Put chicken, chicken stock (enough to cover chicken), large chopped onion, crushed garlic, cumin, oregano in a crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. When chicken is finished cooking, remove the meat from the crock pot and set aside to cool. When cooled, shred chicken with two forks.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the canola oil, and whisk in the corn flour. Cook for a few minutes, then slowly whisk in the evaporated milk. Stir frequently until the mixture starts to thicken. Slowly incorporate the broth mixture from the crock pot, and add the Ro-Tel tomatoes. Heat through, continuing to stir with a spoon. Taste for salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the chicken and mix, setting aside ¼ to coat tortillas.

Lightly oil 13”x9” baking pan. Dip the tortillas in the reserved sauce and line the baking dish in a single layer. Add chicken in a layer, and top with a layer of mixed cheeses. Repeat until everything is used. Top with a final layer of tortillas and cheese. Refrigerate overnight (optional, because really? Who wants to take 2 days to make this?).

Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees (if refreigerated) or for 25 minutes at 350 degrees (if not refrigerated)

Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I got peer-pressured, yo.  On Twitter/Facebook, I mentioned I was making a chicken enchilada casserole. The public demanded (okay, like 3 people) a recipe.

I'm not great with recipes because I throw stuff in without much regard to measuring - it's a bit more intuitive.  Taste and add.  Here's the best I can do.

(Despite the use of the crock pot and the word casserole, it's not particularly one-pot. At least not if you make the tortillas when you get home.)

Enchilada Sauce Ingredients (based on Karina's easy enchilada sauce):

1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast and/or thighs

1 28-oz plus one 14.5-oz can of tomato sauce (or puree, or crushed tomatoes)

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 large onion (or 1 small)

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 Tablespoon coriander

A few shakes of cayenne pepper to taste

4 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup flour (Rice flour or tapioca flour will work fine if you're gluten-free. I like corn flour to impart the corn flavor from the tortillas)

salt

pepper

crushed red peppers (optional)

Plus:

16 corn tortillas (if you're insane like me and want to make 16 tortillas from scratch when you get home after being at work for 11 hours, use 2 cups maseca, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 1/4 cups of water)

shredded cheese (I like jack and cheddar)

Gettin' Down to Bidness:

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over the chicken in the crock pot.  Cook on low for 7? hours (maybe more? I don't know - I left it for 11 hours on low because that's how long I'm gone for work).  Remove chicken from sauce, and shred it using two forks.  Remove about 1.5 cups of the tomato sauce from the crock pot and set aside.  Mix the shredded chicken back into the remaining tomato sauce.

Lightly oil a 13x9-inch baking dish, put 1-2 tablespoons of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish.  Lay 4 corn tortillas, dipped in the enchilada sauce, cover with 1/3 of the shredded chicken and 1/4 of the shredded cheese. Repeat these three layers 2 more times.  Top with remaining 4 corn tortillas dipped in enchilada sauce.  Pour any remaining sauce over the top layer of tortillas and cover with the remainder of the cheese.  Stick in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until it is melty and heated evenly through. 

Cut up into pieces (I use a pizza cutter) and serve hot.  Makes about 8 servings.  Take pictures to make your blog post less boring (optional).  Get someone else to wash all the stinkin' dishes you dirtied making this.

The Post-Mortem:

That's pretty gross to talk about a post-mortem on something you just ate, but it's late and I'm tired.  Anyhow, it was pretty good - basically I have grown weary of ground turkey/beef and wanted to do something else.  The chicken was lighter than the turkey but it sucked up tons of extra sauce after being shredded and mixed back in.  If you wanted to do a turkey or ground beef enchilada sauce, mix the liquid ingredients of the sauce in a medium sauce pan, following Karina's recipe.  Add the flour after sauteeing onions and garlic.  Use only the 28 oz can of tomatoes - you don't need quite as much liquid for the ground turkey.  Mix about 1 cup of enchilada sauce into your browned ground turkey, and use the rest to pour over each layer as you assemble.  Eat, clean up and go to bed full.

Ay! Bake me some pie!

I had a little conversation with a co-worker over email today that made me feel oddly self-satisfied in ways that it shouldn't. It also tells me I need to learn how to interact like a total non-dork sometimes. That will be tricky. We'll call that one a "long-term goal."

Co-worker: I made a peach pie with a half the sugar the other day. It is surprising just how different it was. Not so sweet, and maybe a touch less flavor, but my goodness, it was really refreshing and light. It was one of those mistakes that turned out not what you wanted, but good nevertheless.

Me: I bet if you made it with 2/3 the sugar it would boost the flavor but keep the lightness and refreshingness. I really want to make pie. Pie pie pie pie. With blueberries. Or blackberries. Oooh! Or chicken pots.

Co-Worker: I so want to make blackberry ice cream I can almost taste it. What are chicken pots?

Me: Duh, they're what you use to make chicken pot pie.

Co-Worker: You want to make a chicken pot pie in summer?

Me: No, but I wanted to confuse you with references to chicken pots.

Co-Worker: I'm lost…. You have succeeded.

Me: I believe my work here is done. I'm going home.

And we have bread!

I was all set to have a weeks, months, years long saga of the quest for gluten-free bread that would have the taste, feel, appearance of wheat, rye or otherwise gluten-y bread.

Two weeks ago I started a gluten-free sourdough starter (brown rice and water).

One week ago I made a loaf of sourdough from this recipe.

You see all the ingredients in that? Yeah, it wound up, uh, gummy.

(according to the comments, Annie likes gummy bread so I wish she had been here to eat it) It also wound up short with a fallen dome because, I guess one of the drawbacks is that gluten-free bread is, uh, short in stature and doesn't keep a nice domed top.

This week I decided I'd try a Bette Hagman honey sourdough recipe from this book. For among other reasons, it's one of the only recipes I've found that doesn't use ricotta cheese (I don't understand ricotta's role in it either...), and is entirely lactose free.

Me, not being much of a baker, decided I could make it better, too. Ha! The arrogance of naïveté. So, I omitted the egg replacer, the gelatin, and subbed 1/3 cup of water for the 1 and 2/3 cup water, and after mixing everything for 3 minutes, I added 2/3 of a cup of room temperature club soda.

I plopped it in a greased pan, let it rise for an hour.

(I may have forgotten to mention the last loaf didn't rise at all and that there was a decided lack of air bubbles in it and it was just gross. but the crust was okay!)

Then I baked it for 60 minutes at 350 degrees, and LO! There was bread.


It was the height of the pan, and it didn't fall down. It was airy, the crust was, well, crusty, like sourdough should be.


Now, it's not perfect. I'm hoping that the starter will get more sour the more I use it because, frankly it wasn't sour at all. Next time I'll try either drastically scaling back or omitting the honey because it's a bit more sweet than I can handle. I'm oddly encouraged by this, and hope that in future endeavours, scaling back the wet ingredients will improve ALL of the scratch baking... because every last one has been gummy. (If you're curious, I used a gluten-free flour mix that was 3 parts brown rice, 3 parts sorghum, 2 parts potato starch, 1 part tapioca starch)

I'm just looking forward to cinnamon toast for breakfast tomorrow morning.

You know, if I had a toaster...

(ps - i went to a bridal shower yesterday and they had personalized M&Ms! I also figured out how to work the macro on my new camera, so woo!
)

Stop and smell the bandwagon

I think this may very well be my fifth (and final) post for the month of February. It's a long month, I may as well have extra posts.

Of course five posts in February is a ballpark estimate. I could go and actually count my posts, but where would the fun in that be? There I go, justifying laziness as whimsy! Try it, it's fun.

This month has involved much contemplation on the topic of food. Not as in what should I eat to help me lose that 989123 lbs. I'd like to lose some, but more by way of feeding Pants and I healthily, thoughtfully, and deliciously. I've still been ever so obsessed by thoughts and chapters and meals in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Reading Sarah's thoughts and challenges on eating locally, taking the plunge and chucking all the processed food out to make room for the good stuff invigorates me. Even more so, reading her posts on the Dinner Guest Blog (especially this one) start to light a fire under me.

But...

And there's always a but. I'm looking at my checking account. I'm thinking of the time I spend waiting for the shuttle, then the Metro, then the Bus and the idea of going to the grocery store seems so horrifying. I see the free range, grass-fed meats and eggs and dairy products. I even found a dairy that delivers to DC, heard of a bodega selling local foods at 200 Rhode Island NW. My landlord says I can grow potted tomatoes and chiles in the back yard this summer! I think of the rows and rows of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce that I will have canned to last me through the winter.

But...

That threshold isn't easily crossed. My bargain hunter thinks of the half-gallons of milk that cost $3.50 that are from happy cows who wander around pastures eating grass and contemplating entropy and doesn't want to justify the purchase when I could get a gallon for $3.79. I see the organic chicken who eat worms and beetles and grass and peck at the dirt and wander around but notice that it's $11 for 0.80 lbs when I could get Purdue chicken for $6.00. I open my cabinets and see the lovely, healthy boxes of Pacific Organic broths and soups - organic and gluten-free that have been driven conveniently to Silver Spring, MD from the exotic, far-flung land of Tualatin, OR.

The gluten. That's the other issue. I don't have a lick of gluten in my house.

[Okay, that's a lie. Ernie's food (made of fish and potatoes since he, like his mama, has food and skin allergies) has salmon as the number one ingredient. However, he has barley as the number two ingredient.]

Going gluten-free is better for me. I feel better, I'm happier with my choices at home. i make more foods from scratch and experiment with alternative grain flours. (However, I'm not so gluten-free outside the confines of my humble abode. That's my other issue to conquer) The fact of the matter is Bob's Red Mill is, like so many other wonders, in the Pacific Northwest. 'Cause You're Special is also not all that nearby (Wisconsin). There's also the issue that if I want to bake cookies or bread or birthday cake without gluten, I've got to add xanthan gum to the mix or it will all fall apart. Xanthan gum. You may know it as a thickener in your processed food. That's not part of "natural." So, I can't go to a local grist mill and get some whole wheat, stone-ground flour. I need to get mixtures of rice and starch and exotic things called quinoa and amaranth and millet.

It's clearly not going to be all-local, all the time around here. But I'm trying. The urge is there. It's crossing over into my purchases.

I picked up some garlic, saw the "Product of China" label and put it back down.
I made chicken stock from the leftover carcass of my roast chicken the other night and used it in Esau's soup for dinner tonight. Instead of buying injera from the Ethiopian bodega around the corner, I made it (almost comically dismally) from scratch - I started fermenting the teff and water on Wednesday and by tonight it was wonderfully sour. My coffee is Brazil Organic Fair Trade from Peaberry (okay, it was "local-ish" because I was in Denver when I bought it).

It's a process, and it just won't be 100%. But for me, for us, it doesn't need to be. We have our vices that we're allowing. For me, the biggest is coffee. And until I can grow coffee beans in Columbia Heights, I will work hard to forgo the Dunkin' Donuts in the grocery aisle and support the small farmers who are paid a fair wage for their labors (and make a damn fine yergacheffe... business practices aside, Starbucks can do the right thing!) I will use less and less white rice flour and gravitate toward whole grain flours (sorghum, teff, brown rice, buckwheat, millet) and experiment and play. I will work hard to find a CSA to support local, organic farmers. I will sit down and make a budget that allows me to spend extra on healthy, organic animal products, even if that means - gasp - less yarn. I will clean out my friggin pantry and put some order into it and throw out what doesn't have an expiration date, to make room for the canning I will start this summer.

It's hard for me to recognize that it won't be 100% out of my own backyard all of the time, but I will stop and be grateful for what I can do.

Moi?

Oh, dearie me!

The ever lovely Bryony has told me that I make her day! (Probably amusing only to me and possibly h a i k u g i r l, is the fact that I forgot to copy Bryony's URL and the first link I put in was for the last URL I copied which was this. It came up in a discussion of Teeth. This is no reflection on Bryony.)

She nominated me because I kick her arse at Scrabulous (although it's dead even in our most recent match), but I have to nominate her right back because she calls me Petal and tells me to KNIT MORE, both of which are beyond awesome in their own right, not to mention the swapping of gluten-free (mis)adventures. I hope her broken nerves calm down soon so she can sew and knit and frolic about the webbernets more. And she TOTALLY makes my day. :) (I am now waiting for chocolate and dog bubbles, missy)

Who else makes my day? That has to be the aforementioned h a i k u g i r l, because we talk about boys and local food and cute glasses and the French and knitting and vaginae dentatae.

The blogfallow for 9 months but Twittery semaphoria, for always being my friend even though we've only seen each other twice since 1994. I love hearing about her family, her job, her travels to Alaska in winter, as well as miss the heck out of her on a daily basis. She also introduced me to the crack that generally is Orisinal and specifically, Winterbells.

Another person who makes my day is Chris Cope, who will likely mock me and smack me around for giving him a blog award, not to mention one with flowers. However he's an excellent blogger and commenter and columnist, even though he's frustrated with all of those, as well as university, but he speaks Welsh and is the only reason Pants comes to my blog - on the off chance that Chris has left a comment, so suck it, Cope. I mean, congratulations Cope!

Certainly not least is Cafemama. Now she doesn't read my blog but I wait with baited breath for the days that she does a new post as she and I are both at the same level of obsession about local food and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle... Alas, I have not been as good as she has about starting to eat local (and I'm still trying to figure out how to get gluten-free flours and whatnot locally, or if that will have to be on my exception list... And basically I need to start buying more locally, but there's a CSA I'm interested in near Frederick, MD that will also allow me to spend some time learning about farming/gardening so that when I have a home with some land to work, I'll have an inkling of what to do. Still haven't decided how I'll deal with getting dirt on my hands, though...)

So, youse guys make my day.

And I have to get back to my salsa verde carnitas. And exercise huge restraint, even though Elise posted a red velvet cupcake recipe.

Ernie gives thanks

Ernie gives thanks for a blurry dinner, originally uploaded by swandive00.

I am a day late and a dollar short. In saying happy Thanksgiving and that I am very thankful.

I started off yesterday taking pictures of my Very First Thanksgiving Dinner that I have ever made. I took pictures of the turkey in process, of the roasting pan with a Built In Rack, of the gluten-free bread (which may or may not have been gluten free...) for the gluten-free stuffing.

However. And there always seems to be a however. I lost my enthusiasm with the blinding migraine that forced me to push away my dinner for fear of tossing my cookies. I did, however take a picture of the spoiled dog's thanksgiving dinner because his begging paid off in the form of turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes on top of his kibble.

And because I went to bed at 8:30 last night after a mid-morning migraine nap that lasted 4 hours, I've been up since 2 am. Today, I am still thankful, and doing laundry and getting ready to pack for my 10 day business trip to Tokyo.

On my Tokyo agenda: Sushi, yarn shopping, avoiding chikan, and I suppose working.

I'm bringing my camera, I'm bringing yarn for the flights. Here's to hoping my needles aren't confiscated.

wait! come back!

Dear person who came here searching "Moby Dick Gluten Free",

YES! You can eat gluten-free at Moby Dick. Get the kabob plates (I have experience with the chicken and ground beef kabobs) with rice, ask for no bread and you should be fine.

Hopefully you'll come back!!

shhh...

don't be too noisy, because you might wake me up and i may actually post something...

although i have a few things to blog about, including directions for playing War and Whist, the great Yaymee reunification project of 2007, two FOs (!!), and upcoming autumn shenanigans including a pirate ship and a corn maze.

also, this is just for my reference: when making a single batch of Nestle's toll house cookies with gluten free flour, 3/4 tsp of xanthan gum is just about perfect.