celiac

Green Summer Soup – Kermit Would Approve!

I have been enjoying a cook book called “Feel Good Food” by Giada de Laurentiis of Food Network fame.  This soup recipe just jumped out at me; my fridge or garden contained all the veggies in it, it sounded interesting and so I had to try it.   Here is a picture I took of a bowl of it.  Doesn’t do it justice at all; it is brighter in color and lighter on the palate.  Refreshing when cold too!Image

My mom loves soup so I took her some and it disappeared rapidly.  Simple to make, healthy, tasty and my mom liked it! Home run.

I used loose leaf garden lettuce in my version.  Great way to use up an excess of garden lettuce before it can bolt!  The original uses a head of Bibb lettuce.  I wouldn’t suggest iceberg or romaine but any soft lettuce should work.  I skipped the topping of fennel fronds she suggests; up to you on that issue.  An alternative topping might be a few sprigs of finely chopped garden lettuce.  And if you are a vegetarian I am sure you can easily substitute veggie broth for the chicken broth. It is tasty both warm and cold which I like.   Image

A note on shallots.  They are excellent in many recipes; more subtle than onions so I suggest you try it with shallots if at all possible. I get them fairly cheap at Valley Farm Markets in Bethlehem. I am positive Wegmans carries them too.  Image

Green Pea, Fennel and Lettuce Soup

 

3 tbsp butter

1 medium fennel bulb chopped; about 2 cups

2 large shallots

1 medium head Bibb or Boston Lettuce, chopped (about 4 cups)

1 ten ounce bag petite peas, frozen (I weighted that out from a pound bag of peas)

1 ½ cup chicken broth

¾ tsp. fennel seeds

½ tsp kosher salt

½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

Melt butter in a big heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Add fennel and shallots.  Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until they soften 6-7 minutes.  Add he lettuce and stir until wilted; 1-2 minutes. Mix in broth, peas and a cup of water, bring to point of boiling, lower heat, cover and simmer for 6 minutes.  Let cool partially.  Image

Puree in blender in 3 batches adding ¼ tsp fennel seeds to each batch.  Place in bowl and return all soup to sauce pan, add salt and pepper, reheat and serve warm but not hot.  Might need to thin with water.  Also yummy chilled.

This is naturally gluten free and will keep in your fridge for a few days, if it lasts that long.  I call it “green soup” for short and it is nourishing and tasty for lunch on a hot summer day.  This recipe is a keeper for me and I hope the same is true for you.

Fabulous Fish Fry

Somethings we celiac sufferers crave are just the simple meals that most of you take for granted.  Like some crispy fried fish.  All the fish that is in the freezer case all battered up is, of course, made with flour that contains wheat/gluten.  And, of course, totally unsafe for people like me.  I have been dreaming of crunchy breaded fish fillets for months now.  The dream was about to be realized!

My mom was craving real fried fish, she lives in an assisted living facility and complains that nothing is ever crisp or fried.  I like to take her supper every Sunday so I looked around and decided to modify a recipe I saw on foodnetwork.com. It was for gf fried chicken and with minor changes it became my fried fish meal. Crispy crunchy and flavorful and not that difficult to create. 

I know fried fish does not have the glamour appeal of a chocolate cream pie or a cake but this recipe turned out very tasty and quite simple to throw together.  I used buttermilk as the original chicken recipe asked for; it is thick and clings to the fillets and the short marinade period can do nothing but improve the fish flavor.  I used cod but you can use any boneless fish fillet you prefer.  I didn’t have any onion powder so I left it out; up to you!  The smoked paprika adds a lot of flavor, don’t use too much or it will overwhelm the delicate flavor of this dish.     Image  My  photo just doesn’t do this fish justice.  You have to taste the seasoning and crunch of it to know how delicious it is! Yes, that is the Three Continent pilaf I made to go with it.

Gluten Free Fried Fish

Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp.  onion powder
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
½ cup all-purpose gluten-free flour mix
½ tsp. smoked paprika
1 lb fish fillets

2-3 tbsp canola oil

 Image

  1. Making the batter: Whisk together the buttermilk, paprika, garlic power, and onion powder. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and stir.  Put fish fillets in mixture for 10-30 minutes in the fridge.  I used a Ziploc bag for this step, easy clean up; throw away when done.  I had cut up the one big fillet into several as there was a variety of thickness and this way I could leave the thicker chunks to cook longer and take out the thin ones when they were perfectly fried. 
  2. Making the flour:  Whisk together a pinch each of salt and pepper, flour mix, and smoked paprika.
  3. Dipping the fish: Set a large cast-iron or Teflon skillet on medium-high heat. As the pan is heating, line up the fish, and the spiced flour. Pour the oil into the hot pan.
  4. Frying the fish: When the oil is fairly hot, shake off any excess liquid from a fillet, dip the fish in the seasoned flour and coat it entirely. Place the fish in the hot oil. Repeat with all the pieces of fish.  Don’t overcrowd the pan. You can always do this in two batches.  Flip the fish pieces when the bottoms are nicely browned, 3-6 minutes  a side depending on thickness. When both sides are browned and fish appears done remove from pan, place on plate covered with a couple paper towels.   Image

I served my fish fry with seasoned rice pilaf and a green salad.  I used Nature’s Earthly Choice “Three Continent Blend” made up of red and gold quinoa, amaranth, brown rice and wild rice.  No sodium, no sugar, no saturated fat and 5 grams of protein per serving.  Tasty too….I put a tiny bit of vegetable bouillon cube  (1/4th of one), a tsp. of dried parsley and it cooked up delicious.  You could make some gf oven potato fries or brown rice or potato salad.  Or totally skip a starch if that is your preference.

Easy to make and pretty healthy for a fried meal.  Did I mention how yummy this meal was?

Fruity Frozen Chocolaty Popsicles

A frozen fruity tasty treat can be found at your local Giant grocery store.  Chocolate covered strawberry fruit bars, six in a box with only 90 calories per treat!  As a bonus, the price for a box of these beauties was pretty reasonable. The flavor is excellent, not too sweet, fresh strawberry flavor and a tasty chocolate coating. I gobbled mine up far too fast….can’t wait to enjoy another bar.    strawberry pop

They are found in the frozen treats case and are the store brand; made specifically for Giant Food Stores, a chain in Pennsylvania, Maryland and a few other East Coast states.  My New England friends are probably out of luck.  Let me know if you can get them in your geographical areas.

The first ingredient is strawberry puree followed by water, sugar, coconut oil, chocolate liquor, cocoa powder, etc.  There is even a touch of carrot juice in there.  No gluten in these bars; the box is marked gluten free and this product is manufactured in a peanut free facility.  There is dairy and soy in these bars, albeit a small percentage for sure, these things are at the lower end of the ingredient list.

I love that it is only 90 calories and the first ingredient is a fruit puree.  Safe for me, low in calories, made with real fruit as the first ingredient which is pretty rare in a fruit pop.  Get a box and enjoy them guilt free when the heat index goes up later next week!

Blueberry Smush Delish!

There are times when nothing but ice cream will do.  After a long tiring day and not much in my tummy I ate an omelet for supper.  It was pretty tasty but I had seen this article on ice cream blends in a food magazine at the library and was craving to try one. There were more than a dozen mixtures pictured, all based on vanilla ice cream and fruit and at least one or two other ingredients like a sauce and cookies/nuts.

There was one combination I was sure I had all the ingredients, ice cream, bananas, nutella sauce and cornflakes.  Seemingly simple with clean, clear flavors.  Upon some reflection I decided to replace the banana with some fresh blueberries I had purchased at a farm stand. Bananas seemed too bland and I adore blueberries with ice cream.

I put two small scoops nutella of ice cream in a cereal bowl, about a quarter cup of blueberries, a spoonful of nutella sauce and I dumped the cornflakes over it all.  Maybe ¼ cup of them.  I didn’t measure any of it.  I let the dish stand 2 or 3 minutes to allow the ice cream to soften.  Then using a spoon I blended the goop partially together before diving my spoon deep into it to try and get some of all four ingredients.

OMG, it was freaking crazy tasty.  The nutella sauce which is toasted ground up hazelnuts and chocolate/cocoa was wicked good against the other flavors. The corn flakes gave a nice crunch and the blueberries were bursts of fruity yumminess.  blueberry smush

I would say that this dessert is more than the sum of its parts. I was skeptical about cornflakes in ice cream but they worked well and didn’t get soggy.  The nutella was the star of the dish as far as my taste buds were concerned.  I could barely stop long enough to take this photograph as I suddenly knew I had to share this revelation with you my readers!

Now I need to go back and write down some of those other blends.  One had pureed peaches with bourbon and smoked almonds.  Oh, I think I must try that smushed up treat and soon!

 

Red Beans and Rice, So Nice and So Easy!

Yesterday I got a strong hankering for red beans and rice.  Deciding not to wait I started a batch last night.  Since I worked all the next day from morning until dark my crock-pot became the preferred method for cooking this old school delicacy.  I put a cup of dried beans on to soak overnight.  I didn’t have plain red or kidney beans.  What was in the cupboard was a mixture of four beans including white navy beans, black beans, red kidney beans and some pink speckled kidney beans.   Image

This morning they were swollen with bean water but needed to be cooked so I rinsed them off well and tossed them in the crock-pot set on high to warm it as well as some onion chopped, a bay leaf, ½ a pound of bulk sausage chopped up and about 4 cups water.  Since I had not used the andoulle sausage the original recipe called for I added some extra seasonings: ½ a tsp of paprika, a garlic clove, a pinch of red pepper, a scant ¼ tsp smoked paprika, and ½ tsp. hot sauce specifically some green sauce.  I turned it to low before leaving at 8.

When back home eight hours later I added 2/3 cup raw brown rice and a ½ tsp of sea salt, and a few grinds of pepper.  I left for my second job at the library. Four hours later on returning I added a touch more salt and stirred it up well.  Image

Heavenly; creamy just like all the reviewers of the recipe I started with were longing for.  It was as good a creamy beans and rice as I have ever eaten. I think mine got extra creamy from the long slow cooking I gave it all day.

If you make it feel free to use what you have and modify as necessary.  But, be sure to wait to add the salt as it can make the beans tough.

Below is the recipe I had originally located on food network and modified to make today with a few additions I plan to make from now on. I didn’t have time this morning to chop celery and fresh red pepper. I think they will be great additions next time I make this Hispanic classic. If you use the andoulie sausage you can cut back on the hot sauce and spices. I made a bit less than this recipe; see my measurements above if you want a smaller amount.  Since I didn’t have the spicy sausage it is a bit different flavor wise. My modified recipe made 2 big servings plus a quart I put in the fridge for future meals. If you want more; use the proportions below.

It is naturally gluten free and a fantastic accompaniment to a number of classics from enchiladas to tacos.  So easy and tastes authentic without any fancy effort or ingredients. Enjoy!

 

Slow cooker red beans and rice

Ingredients

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 celery stalk chopped

1/3 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp paprika

¼ tsp smoked paprika

¼ tsp. hot chili powder

1 bay leaf

Pinch crushed red pepper

½ tsp hot sauce
1/2 pound smoked Creole seasoned sausage ( andouille), cut into small pieces
2 cups dried red beans, soaked overnight and drained
1 quart water
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Hot cooked rice (about 3 to 4 cups)

Directions

In a slow cooker, combine the onion, garlic and sausage. Stir in the beans and water and season, to taste, with pepper. Cover and cook on low heat until the beans are tender, about 7 1/2 hours (on high it takes between 3 1/2 to 4 hours). Remove 1/4 cup of beans from slow cooker; mash until smooth, then sir them stir back into slow cooker, add salt. Continue to cook for another 30 minutes on low or 15 minutes on high. Remove the beans from the cooker to a serving bowl. Serve over cooked rice and enjoy!

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/slow-cooker-red-beans-and-rice-