Breakfast: The Quest for a Good Gluten Free English Muffin

Everyone who goes gluten-free knows the challenge of figuring out what to eat for breakfast. The typical American breakfast consists of gluten, gluten, and more gluten. Like Monty Python's famous Spam sketch – toast, bagels, cereal, oatmeal, muffins, pancakes, scones, and donuts are all, "I'll have some wheat with my wheat, please." Sure, there are eggs (which unfortunately I also have a sensitivity to), and hash browns, and yogurt and fruit, but those all cry out for some sort of bread-like accompaniment. Sometimes you just want to crunch into something, you know?

Lately I've been craving English muffins, so despite the fact that the last time I tried to find a good gf English muffin, it ended in failure, I thought that maybe in the ensuing three years, someone would have come up with a better one.

My local Stop and Stop had three options in the gluten free freezer section, and of those three, I chose the ones that looked the most English muffin-y by Food for Life. They're made with: Organic brown rice flour, filtered water, organic tapioca flour, potato starch, fresh yeast, sea salt, and vegetable gum (xanthan, cellulose). Pretty standard gf ingredients. 

 Maybe the problem was that I didn't let them thaw out in the fridge or on the counter first. I defrosted one the microwave for a minute until it was soft enough to cut through, then I put it in the toaster. After one round in the toaster on med-high, the muffin looked exactly like it had when it came out of the microwave – pale, soft, and doughy – so I put it in for another round.  Three minutes later it was still pale, so I put it in the toaster for a third go-round, this time turning it up to high. Why wasn't this thing toasting?? After the third try, I said the hell with it, I'm just going to eat it, so I pulled it out and buttered it. This was when I noticed it was as hard as if it were still frozen, except it was hot. Uh oh. 

This muffin has been toasted (three times!) and buttered.

We all know that an English muffin is really just a warm crunchy vehicle for whatever we're topping it with, but that vehicle should, if not add to the taste, at least not detract from it. Not so Food for Life Gluten free English muffins. Their consistency I would describe as "dense." Their taste I would describe as not dissimilar to Papier-mâché (which, when I looked it up to check the spelling just now, found translates, appropriately, as "chewed paper"). I would have had more enjoyment putting butter and brie on the plate and licking it off. I made it through the first half of the muffin, realizing immediately it was not going to meet my expectations, but carrying on in the hopes of at least trying to decipher why it was so bad. At first I thought it needed salt, but then I read the ingredients and saw that it has some. Then I thought maybe it was my fault for toasting it too long. But I wanted it to be browned, damn it! Then I gave up and reached for the Sesmark Savory Rice Thins and put the rest of the brie on them.

There are decent gluten free scones available (thank you Whole Foods), there are delicious gf muffins made locally by Raos, but the quest for an edible gf English muffin continues.

Gluten Free Gets a Little Closer to being Mainstream.

Check out this great story that was published in the New York Times recently.

If General Mills keeps this up, it can only mean good things in terms of improved product selection for all of us.

Now if only someone would come out with decent gf scones and everything bagels.

Gluten Free For the Win!

Novak Djokovic has been the number three tennis player in the world (behind Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal) for the past three years. Since the start of 2011, he has gone on a 38 match winning streak (40 if you go back to December), collecting seven titles, beating Nadal four times in a row (twice on clay!), and closing in on John McEnroe's best winning streak of all time – 42 – set in 1984. 

His secret? Last year his nutritionist discovered Djokovic has a gluten allergy and he cut the offending protein out of his diet. That one small change has been the tipping point, launching the tennis player on his way to becoming number one in the world if he can make it to the finals of the French Open, which started yesterday and goes for two weeks.

At this point, it's looking like he can't lose.

Crust-less Portabella Pizzas

This recipe is ridiculously easy. I got the idea when grocery shopping and looking at the packages of portabellas that were on sale and thinking of the sausage that was already in the fridge. My favorite pizza from Antonio's before I went gluten free, was the portabella, fresh mozzarella, and pesto. This recreates that pizza, minus the crust and plus the sausage.

Crust-less Portabella Pizzas 

4-5 large Portabella mushrooms

1-1.5 lb sausage (I used a combo of sweet Italian and hot Italian pork)

¼ C Pesto

½ lb Fresh Mozzarella

Grill the mushrooms and sausage

Put mushrooms top down on greased or non-stick baking sheet

Spread pesto onto mushrooms

Cut sausage into one-inch rounds and place them on mushrooms

Slice mozzarella and place on top of sausage

Put in broiler until cheese melts and starts to brown (approximately five minutes).

You could easily make this vegetarian by eliminating the sausage and adding peppers or vidalia onions.

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese

The other night I came home from work/working out at 7:30, hungry and tired. Though everyone else had arrived home before me, no one had taken any initiative to get dinner started. (Does this happen in your house too?) Since it was getting close to grocery shopping day and there wasn't much in the fridge, I figured it was a good time for comfort food. (Any excuse, really.) A quick Google search for gluten free mac and cheese turned up this recipe from Gluten Free Mom (great site!). I tweaked it for my purposes and voila:

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese

1 lb Tinkyada brown rice penne, cooked for 9 minutes or until al dente

3 T butter

2 T rice flour (any GF flour will work)

 ½ t salt

 Dash of pepper

2 cups milk

 ¼ cup finely chopped onion (optional)

2 cloves garlic (optional)

3 cups shredded sharp cheddar (or other favorite) cheese plus more for the top.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and butter a 1 ½ quart casserole.

Cook GF pasta in salted water according to package directions.

In a saucepan, melt 3 T butter. 

Add the onions and garlic (optional)

On medium heat, blend in 2 T GF flour, salt and pepper. 

Stirring constantly, slowly add 3 cups milk (GF Mom says, "I have noticed that GF flour seems to blend better at a higher temperature, so I add the flour and milk at a temperature that is a little higher than I’d use for traditional wheat flour." Excellent suggestion!)

Cook and stir until thick and bubbly.

Add cheddar cheese.  Stir until melted.

Mix with the cooked macaroni and turn into the casserole dish. 

Add more cheese on top. (I probably used an additional cup of combined cheddar, Monterey jack, and mozzarella.) 

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes and uncovered for 10 additional minutes if you like the top crispy.

If I had had more energy and not been multi-tasking (talking on the phone, planning daughter's graduation party) I would have added some GF bread crumbs and gone out to the garden and cut some fresh chives to put on top before baking.

I served it with a green salad.  

Verdict: four yums up and we had enough left over for a few lunches.

Suuuuuushi!

Oh sushi, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Thou art beautiful, compact, delicious, varied, spicy, exciting, shiny, crunchy, pungent, fresh, sinus-clearing, and arranged with graphic perfection. You appeal to my Virgo sense of order, and are always satisfying without being overly filling. Even if I stuff myself, I never feel the same level of regret/discomfort as if I'd eaten a comparable amount of say, pizza or French fries.

While the Pioneer Valley is not at Vancouver levels of sushi perfection, we do have some high quality spots for satisfying that sushi jones. My friend Tracy and I have regular sushi nights. We like Arigato in Amherst, which for some reason seems to have a bad rep around town. I've always had great sushi there, and their cooked food is good too. In fact, the background image of this blog is sushi from Arigato. We still can't quite figure what the vaguely sweet sea foam green sauce is that comes on their Amherst roll, but we can live with that.

We also like House of Teriyaki in North Amherst, which has a great variety of sushi. They don't sell alcohol, but you can bring your own, which keeps costs down. 

As far as gluten free issues – as long as you stay away from anything tempura-battered or containing teriyaki, you'll be safe. Neither Arigato nor H.O.T. has gf soy sauce, so I always bring my own bottle.

Osaka, in Northampton, has my vote for best sushi in the Valley. Bonus points for also having gf soy sauce and enough gf non-sushi menu choices if for some reason you're not in a sushi mood. Dinner on their veranda when the weather is nice is a great way to unwind after work and makes for great people watching.

Zen in Northampton, is a close second for best sushi. Their staff is helpful answering questions about which menu items are gluten free and they have gf soy sauce and a pretty extensive Saki selection. (Their website is also really cool.) 

At a recent visit with Tracy (and our significant others) to Zen, the following food was consumed:

Grilled chicken satay with lemongrass peanut sauce.

Chicken dumplings. (Jim's saying, hurry up and take the damn picture so I can eat my dumplings!)

Caterpillar roll.

Special chicken roll wrapped in lettuce with three sauces. (This had some other more official name, but I forgot to write it down and it isn't on their regular menu).

Nigiri sushi dinner.

Zen special roll with bonus Nigiri tuna rolls. (Another non-regular item I neglected to write down.)

Bulgogi.

Sushi. Good.

Fear of Quinoa

Today was a big day. Today I overcame my fear of Quinoa. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), is a Peruvian grain from ancient times that's been sort of "rediscovered" and is starting to go upscale. It's one of those things that everyone says you should eat if you're gluten free (or even if you're not), because it's easy to digest and loaded with protein. I've avoided it because I have a vague memory of eating it years ago and not liking it. But last weekend I was at a potluck party and my friend Lauren brought this delicious grain salad, and when I found out it was quinoa, I had to ask for the recipe.

Quinoa is a quirky little grain – it behaves a little bit like couscous – but with a vaguely nutty flavor. Whole Foods says to rinse it well before cooking, use a 4 to 1 water to grain ratio, and cook for 20 minutes. I didn't do any of that because the recipe Lauren gave me said differently and it turned out fine.

Here's her recipe, with my adjustments. She said she found it by Googling, so I apologize for not being able to correctly give credit to its author.

Balsamic Quinoa Salad

½ cup balsamic vinegar (I used a little over ¼ cup)

¼ – ½ cup best quality extra virgin olive oil (I used ¼ cup)

2 T Dijon mustard (I didn't have Dijon so I used deli style)

6 cloves of garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced (I used one)

Salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, to taste (oops, I didn't notice until just now it called for cayenne. Didn't use it.)

1 ½ cups quinoa

Bouillon cube (didn't use this since the recipe doesn't say what to do with it.)

5 Sun Dried Tomatoes (Not in oil.)

1 red pepper, chopped

4 oz blue cheese (I didn't have blue cheese so I used feta.)

1 can black beans

Make dressing by combining vinegar, mustard, garlic, shallots and olive oil. Season to taste.

Add quinoa to three cups of boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes.

Rinse with cool water and place in a fine mesh colander. Boil water and place quinoa and sun dried tomatoes in the colander over the water. Cover with a kitchen towel and lid. Steam for 10 minutes. (I misread this and steamed the quinoa and sundried tomatoes first. [Never make a recipe for the first time while you're talking on the phone.] I realized my mistake after the ten minutes were almost up and just dumped the quinoa and tomatoes into the boiling water for another ten minutes, then rinsed them under cold water. I thought rinsing after cooking would reduce it to mush, but quinoa has a weird sort of dryness to it – the water didn't get absorbed and the texture was fine.)

Allow to cool.

Cook red pepper in a small skillet until tender. (I used fresh red pepper and didn't sauté it at all. It added a really great crunch to the salad.)

Combine pepper and remaining ingredients with quinoa. Add dressing and toss. Enjoy!

This recipe is pretty much idiot proof. Even though I messed up the cooking process and used different ingredients, it was delicious. All four family members liked it, including my vegetarian teenage daughter who proclaimed it her "new favorite dish." That's high praise indeed.

I served it with potato leek soup and a green salad. Yum.