gluten free

Eggplant and Pasta Turrets Eggplant Fest Continues!

Spaghetti is an American classic.  I don’t make it often enough, especially since going gluten free.  That may change since I started to read Mario Batali’s newest cookbook “America Farm to Table”.  I cooked up a storm this past weekend making his eggplant and angel hair turrets.  What’s a turret?  A tower of yumminess!

farm to table cookbook

Having a surfeit of eggplants I was diving into all my eggplant recipes to determine the best way to utilize my crop of purple beauties. This one is a winner!

eggplants

We devoured it by candlelight on my back porch Saturday night, bees wax candles to be exact.  I thought for a moment that my man was going to lick his dinner plate! It was rewarding to see him so enraptured by my cooking.  I served it with a side of Italian sausage but it does stand alone as a complete entree.  We had a greens and tomato salad to complete this wonderful meal.

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I took this picture by candlelight!

I made a few changes so this is an adaptation of the recipe.  I advise reading it through twice so you don’t screw it up! I used less red pepper flakes than the original recipe; up it to a tsp. if you dare!  Yes, it uses instant potato flakes and they work fantastically to coat the eggplant slices.  Don’t be squeamish about the anchovies; they totally disappear into this spicy but lush sauce that coats the pasta and provides a base for the tower.   I used tomato sauce I had made the night before from the last fresh tomatoes as the base to build this extra spicy sauce which can hold its own with the eggplant headliner.  This recipe serves 4.

Eggplant and Pasta Turrets

4 tbsp. EVOL (Extra virgin olive oil)

2 large eggs

1 cup instant mashed potato flakes

1 large eggplant or 2 medium ones

½ cup onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 oil packed anchovy fillets plus 1 tbsp. of the packing oil

1 28 oz can of tomatoes, crushed by hand plus all the can juice or your own homemade tomato sauce, unseasoned

½ tsp. red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

1  12 oz package gf spaghetti

½ cup shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese

Fresh basil leaves

Eggplant: Place the eggs in a wide shallow bowl, beat well.  Put the potato flakes into a second shallow bowl or a wax paper covered plate.  Slice the eggplant into 1/3 inch slices.  Dip into the eggs, let excess drip off and dredge in the potato flakes.

Heat a large Teflon pan, add 2 tbsp EVOL.  Let heat to medium hot, add the eggplant slices, cook 2-3 minutes a side.  Place cooked eggplants on a paper towel lined plate.  Do a second batch of slices.  I put my cooked slices on a small baking sheet and put them into a 350 oven which I then turned off.  They stayed hot and I felt a tad more sure that they were fully cooked.

Make the sauce: heat the remaining EVOL in a large pot, add the onion, sauté until slightly softened; 2 minutes, add the sliced garlic, red pepper flakes, mashed up anchovy fillets, oil of fillets and the tomatoes.  Cook, stirring often; 12-15 minutes.

Pasta: Cook the pasta in a big pot of boiling salted water, I used Barilla by the way.  Drain it one minute before the package directions say it will be done. Save a cup of the pot water to thin the pasta.

Use the eggplant fry pan (wipe out the brown bits of crust) and ladle in 2-3 big scoops of the sauce and the pasta.  Cook one minute, turn off the stove and add the cheese, stir well.

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Construction of the turrets:

Place a big spoonful of sauce on each plate.  Top with an eggplant slice (I used my biggest slices for the bottom layer) and then top with a big twirl of the pasta mixture.  Top with another eggplant slice and then another pasta twirl.  Do this again.  Top with a dab of the red sauce.  You can also top it with some red pepper jelly but I didn’t go there!  I did sprinkle our towers with a few torn basil leaves. My towers were a tad sloppy Saturday but I made another one for Sunday lunch and that time I got the right amount of pasta between the eggplants and it looked amazing!

Dive in to this wild but yummy dish!  And check out this new cookbook; chock a block full of great relatively healthy recipes. This was one of the more complex ones; most seem fairly straight forward and sound darn delicious.

Rustic Apple Pear Tartlets for Dessert Tonight

10-25-14 014 Apples and pears go together delightfully.  Fall is the perfect time to indulge in baking them into tartlets for company.  I like to make individual tarts sometimes because they make people feel so special when you each get your own tartlet.

Use what ever kind of baking apples you have.  I got mine from an actual apple orchard, Bechdolts to be exact!  I like to buy their small baskets of seconds which are inexpensive and just as fresh as can be especially compared to grocery store apples.  Plus the taste is the same as the fancy unblemished ones in their display baskets.

I used Annalise Robert’s crust recipe and flour mixture. I think this crust tastes terrific and has a wonderful texture.

These are simple tarts: no need to make them perfect looking.  I used a fork to press around the crust in each tartlet before I lay the fruit in it.  I cut out leaves from the leftover crust to make a sort of a top crust.  The mixing of the two fruits gives every bite a different taste and the spices add a delicate flavor. I wanted the fresh fruit flavor to be the highlight so I didn’t use much spicing. The coarse sugar adds a certain eye apple and crunch.  Enjoy!

Rustic Apple Pear Tartlets

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 4 inch metal tart pans or 4 inch mini deep dish pie pans with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. Set aside.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes.  I used my pie bag for rolling out the crusts; works so great at making an even thin crust.

Cut it into 4 balls and roll out each ball into a small pie crust in a pie bag or between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in mini tart pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Do again until you have 4 shells and use all the crumb leftovers to make a fifth tartlet crust.  I actually do two of them side by side and turn them out onto the tartlet pans together. Repeat for other four shells.  I ended up with five tartlets; the last being in an individual tartlet pan, about 5 inches in diameter.

Filling:

2 medium sized yellow delicious apples

1 large bosc pear

Peel apples, quarter, cut out core, slice into 1/3 inch thick slices. Same for pear except you can leave the peel on if you like.  Or peel!  Mix in a large bowl with:

3 tbsp. granulated sugar (if you like things pretty sweet add another tablespoon of sugar)

1 tbsp. minute tapioca

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

A sprinkle of ground nutmeg.

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Let stand five minutes and then heap the fruit into tartlets.  I mounded mine a bit so they would be still full after baking.  Top with a leaf cut out of the spare crust.  Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

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Bake 375 for 40-45 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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Brown Rice Flour Mix– for crust
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Gluten Free, Low Carb Barbecue Feast

It can be a challenge making a party meal for family when I can’t eat gluten.  It got a bit more challenging this weekend when I made a meal for family including my brother. He recently had to go on a low carb diet for medical reasons, he is already slim and exercises a lot.  But, now he has to cut way back on carbs.  So no burgers with buns, no rolls, no big fat birthday cake for my mom. What to make? What kind of cake could we all eat?

I decided to go with this menu: deviled eggs to start, then grilled marinated chicken thighs, my version of doctored baked beans, old school potato salad and a veggie/fruit jello salad followed by a fruity pavlova for dessert.

pavlova

The deviled eggs are always popular; I gave my recipe early this spring for them and no one ever gets tired of them.  I made half with gherkins in them and half plain.  All gone in a matter of minute.

The potato salad is a family tradition; I used my sister Karen’s version because it tastes better than anyone else makes. I knew my mom would be pleased and my brother who probably doesn’t eat such treats except when he visits me.  I used Light Hellman’s Mayonnaise and light sour cream in my creamy dressing on the golden potato slices.  The seasonings are celery seeds, cider vinegar and some dill pickle juice!  I went light on the dressing for the sake of my brother and his wife who doesn’t eat much of any fat.  I added some chopped celery and a touch of chopped onion.  Yumm!

Our family loves the baked beans;  made quick and easy with a can of good quality old fashioned baked beans, Bush’s works perfectly but don’t use Campbells; they are just not as good a bean.  I often use the Giant name brand and they work great.

baked beans

For fun I put my Perfection Jello Salad in a copper lobster mold.  This was for the delight of my 2.8 year old grandson. He knows what a lobster is and loved it when the orange and golden mold was carried out on a large oval platter. My salad is created from lemon jello spiked with a touch of cider vinegar and full of well drained crushed pineapple and shredded carrots.  It was pretty and pretty tasty. I thought someone took a picture of it but no such luck.

pavlova

Dessert was a big pavlova meringue which I have posted the recipe to here recently.  This picture is from Sunday’s meal. I topped mine with slices of ripe kiwi, ripe local peaches and fresh raspberries as I was low on peaches and didn’t have time to run to Bechdolts Orchard for more….  Everyone devoured their slice and it was accorded five stars by my sister-in-law who doesn’t even eat cake normally.  It is fairly low in carbs and you get bites of ripe fresh fruit and tasty real whipped cream on the tender meringue. I put some candles on top and we sang happy birthday in the back yard as the sun set.  Perfect birthday barbecue….

Here is an approximation of my baked bean recipe: I never measure but I will do my best to replicate the proportions.

Mom’s Baked Beans (about 6 servings)

Ingredients:

4 slices of raw bacon cut into ½ inch chunks

One big can Bush’s original baked beans; 32 ounces I think

1 medium onion, chopped

About 1/3 to ½ cup of catsup

1-2 tbsp. yellow mustard

3-4 tbsp. cider vinegar

2-3 tbsp. light brown sugar

Fry the bacon in a large frying pan. I like cast iron best for this recipe but most any pan will do.  Once it is about ¾ done to your liking (4 to 6 minutes) add the chopped onion.  Cook 4-6 minutes until it is softening.  Open the beans and drain off any excess liquid especially any separated thinner liquid. Pour in the pan on top of the onions and bacon.  Dump in the rest of the ingredients and stir well.  Heat to a low bubble, turn down and allow it to cook slowly for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently so the beans don’t stick and burn.  Taste it and adjust by adding more of any of the four condiments. I like it sweet and tart at the same time. I suggest you start with the lower amounts of condiments especially the sugar and vinegar and see how it is after cooking 5 minutes; add more to taste.  It is great warm but equally yummy left over cold for lunch the next day.

I sometimes make it in the dead of winter for a cold weather inside picnic.  Sure you can make the really slow cooked beans in a crock but this is addictively tangy and every member of my family adores it. My mom always made these beans and I finally got brave enough to just dump and create my own version which I must say is remarkably like Mom’s.

All in all it was a pretty good family meal, not too complicated as I could make the jello salad in advance and the meringue the day before. The potato salad and the beans could also be made in advance. You would never guess by the menu that this was a gluten free meal or a low carb one; just good old school yummy-ness on our plates!

Ridiculously Yummy Bacon Cheese Tomato Sandwich

Tomato time is right now.  I love a home grown tomato, sliced with vinaigrette, or with a dab of light mayo on it.  I love them inn a sandwich, a salad, Italian pasta dishes or as the major component of a tomato soup. 

There is a family recipe that is only made in the days of ripe local tomatoes.  It is never ever worth making with a winter or green house tomato.  Old varieties like Brandywine work great but any ripe tomato freshly picked and not chilled ever will work just fine.  Use whatever kind of tomato you like.

 tomato sandwich done

This sandwich is a man pleaser with bacon and cheese in it.  We call it the broiled tomato stacker or the BCT (Bacon Cheese and Tomato) You can call it fabulous and addictive!  It has the triple whammy of bacon, cheddar cheese, and juicy summer tomatoes.  Prepare to dive in and enjoy.

There are only five ingredients. I make it with GF bread but you can use any bread of your choice. Do not use cheap or light cheese; I like Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar but any good sharp cheddar will work.  I never met a bacon lover who didn’t fall instantly for this sandwich.

Angie’s BCT Stacker

This recipe for 2 open face sandwiches as I tend to eat less bread GF and you can really taste the components without that second slice.  If you want a top slice just double the bread. I used slices of zucchini yeast bread I made myself, recipe from Nicole Hunn, who authors the very popular Gluten Free on a Shoestring blog.  It holds together well and has a great yeasty savory flavor.  It is very easy to make and versatile.

Ingredients:

One big fat ripe tomato

2 slices GF bread

2 tsp. light mayonnaise

4 to 6 thin slices of sharp cheddar cheese

2 slices raw bacon cut in half.

Directions:

Fry the bacon until crispy, place on paper towels to drain

Set your broiler to high to heat. 

Use a knife to spread the mayo on the two slices of bread.  If you want a top slice I would leave that one un-spread and broil it briefly to brown one side.  Place the mayo bread slices on a metal broiler sheet. 

Slice your tomato into slices that are about 1/3 inch thick with a serrated knife; not thin slices and cover the entire tops of the bread with it. I often cut a tomato in half or quarters to piece it so every centimeter is covered with juicy ripe tomato.  Top with 2 slices of cheddar cheese, I cut them about ¼ inch thick.  I use 3 slices of cheese if the bread slice is large.  You want coverage over most of the tomato.  It will spread some when it melts. 

tomato sandwich unbroiled

Put the broiler pan in the broiler and broil 2-3 minutes until the cheese is melted but not burnt.  Try not to overdo it as the cheese can run right off the tomatoes.   Remove from oven and place on a plate.  Top with the bacon slices.  If you broiled a top slice of bread put it on now.  Eat while hot but don’t burn your mouth on that melty gooey cheese!

tomato sandwich close up 

Yes, this recipe is not for a dieter and I imagine it is full of calories but also maximum flavor.  I make it a lot during tomato season and reason that I never eat it any other time of the year so I don’t worry about the fat or calories I am chowing down in this flavor feast.  Just make one and you will be hooked. I can’t wait to eat one for lunch tomorrow!

Smoothie Time!

This is September 1, Labor Day, the start of fall. But it is hot, humid, and just plain sticky.  Sure, you are going to celebrate with a bbq or party. But while you get everything ready you will likely get a tad warm. This is a great day for a refreshing smoothie; go back to my July 11th post and whip up a blender full to quench your thirst and keep you going strong!

Here is the post: smoothiehttps://myworldwithoutwheat.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/pineapple-banana-smoothie-let-me-count-the-ways-i-love-you/

Change it up; instead of bananas; put peaches or nectarines in there, throw in some strawberries or blueberries. Cold, thirst quenching and healthy for sure.  Go for it!