gluten free

Yo Mama’s Kitchen is da Bomb!

A few weeks ago, we drove down to Quakertown to the QMart. One of my friends saw this place while shopping there and instantly knew I should visit it. They don’t have a website yet but on fb type in Yo Mama’s Kitchen and it should come up. The entire menu is gluten free, the Entire thing!! It was somewhat surreal to know that everything on the menu was available to me, and all items were safe from cross contamination. It’s down in the west 540’s section of the QMart which is a large indoor farmers market of many booths. We sat down and perused the menu. I had my eye on the crabcake sandwich as I never ever can order that. Joe decided on a cheese steak. He had his with 3 addons, onions, peppers and wild shitake mushrooms. Both came with a mountain of fresh French fries. The wait was not too long; the server was very friendly and there were a few tables of patrons happily chowing down. The food is homestyle and casual; burgers, steaks, pizza, breakfast items plus a number of entrees like chicken parm and fried chicken. So, lots to choose from.

My sandwich was tasty and soon devoured. The fries were hot and good. Joe’s steak sandwich was exceptional. Those wild mushrooms took it to a whole new level of yumminess. We were stuffed. I forgot to take any pictures; took just one of the fries. Next time I will try that cheesesteak!

We took home 2 cannoli and ate them later that evening; really well done; the chocolate chip filling was great, and the canola shell was spot on perfect!

I highly recommend this small restaurant to the gluten free community. It was sublime to eat safely from the entire menu. Come and get it! The hours they are open are on their fb page. They also have daily/weekly specials that look excellent. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569957491484

I have just one recommendation; we both are not supposed to eat French fries more than a small serving. I think a dish of coleslaw as a substitute and maybe a small size of fries would be so helpful for those of us who just shouldn’t dive into a huge serving. So temping you gotta eat them but honestly, I would love some fresh coleslaw, so I feel healthy about the meal I just gobbled up. I am hoping they give that a try sometime soon!

Gluten Free Dog Treats…Yummy and Safe for Me!

For a long time, I have debated about feeding my dog wheat dog treats. I used to occasionally buy them and I used to make several kinds of homemade dog cookies. Chesse, my cocker spaniel, loved them all.  Sadly, Chesse has been gone for about 8 years. I now have a treeing cur, a beautiful sweet gir: Daisy who is about 8; got her 3 years ago. She loves treats!

I worried about contaminating my hands and touching my lips which would be not good at all. I also was uncomfortable with baking wheat products in my kitchen. I had to clean up (a lot!) after each time I made wheat based dog cookies last year.  After much thought I decided to change what snacks I fed him as his dog cookies are held in my hand, unlike they dry dog food which I use a scoop to gather the appropriate amount.  Image

Gluten Free Dog Biscuits

Ingredients:
• 2-3/4 to 3 1/2 cups of wheat and gluten free flour (I use a mixture like this: 1 cup sorghum flour, ½ cup cornmeal, 1 cup white or brown rice flour and 2/3 to 1 cup gf old fashioned oatmeal. You can use whatever flours you prefer

1/2 tsp xanthan gum (optional but really need it to hold them together)
• ½ to 3/4 cup of milk, 1-2 percent
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup of mild olive oil or canola oil
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (Optional, I have made it both ways)
• 2 gf stock cubes (any flavor you chose) dissolved in
• 3/4 cup of boiling hot water
• 1/2 cup of grated or finely chopped carrots (1 medium carrot)
• 1 egg

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 300 F
2. Combine all dry ingredients and add the rest of the ingredients and mix them well either by hand or in a mixer. If it is really sticky add up to ½ cup more of any gf flours you have.
3. Using a large spoon scoop out cookies; approximately 1-2 tbsp.
4. Place onto non-stick baking sheets, smooth the tops with damp fingers and bake for 30 minutes. This recipe usually fills 3 cookie sheets for a total of 38-40 cookies.  I generally leave them in the oven for 30 minutes more after I turn the oven off and crack the door to release some of the heat.Image

Let cool before storing in an airtight container. I like to freeze most of the cookies; leaving out a 4 day supply. The will otherwise spoil before my doggie can eat them.

Now I can serve dog cookies without worrying I will be contaminated while making or handling them. No preservatives and healthy ingredients for your favorite pooch!

Yummy Lemon Sauced Turkey Meatballs

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Okay, it is still winter and pretty cold but spring looms with daylight savings time beginning plus I am a tiny bit weary of posting soups.  I do enjoy other sorts of food you know! There is this recipe I’ve been making for years. The other day I was chowing down my lunch and someone said, “What is that lovely roasty smell?” and I was able to say with a smile that it was my turkey meatballs with lemon gravy.

They are not fancy; the recipe, which I tore out of a woman’s magazine a decade ago, said they are supposed to replace regular meatballs as healthier but I just like them for their homey taste and the excellent sauce!  You can also make them with ground chicken; very good as well. I never seem to have enough sauce so you could make even more of that and be happy with the amount.  I used to have them over noodles all the time but now that I am gf I occasionally use white or brown rice, both work very well with this sauce.  I am guessing quinoa would be nice as well.

It is the lemon that makes them taste so good but I also like the carrot and scallions in the sauce.  Home flavors and pretty healthy, this is a satisfying meal with a starch and a veggie added on.  And you can put it together in 30 minutes. Perfect for a week night supper.

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Lemon Sauced Turkey Meatballs

1 lb ground turkey

1 medium onion, minced

1 large egg

¼-1/3 cup gf bread or cracker crumbs

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce.

½-3/4 tsp. lemon zest

½ tsp sea salt and same of pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup chicken broth

1/3 cup plain low fat or full fat yogurt

2 tbsp. gf flour of your choice

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 carrot grated fine

2 scallions chopped into small rounds

1/3 cup celery leaves chopped fine, optional

Directions:

Mix the meatballs up in a large mixing bowl; dump in the ground turkey, add the onion, crumbs, Worcestershire sauce, lemon zest, sea salt, pepper to taste and egg.  Mix until fairly well distributed. Form into 12-16 meatballs.

Heat the oil in a wide Teflon or cast-iron pan.  Add the meatballs.  Brown them on all sides, turning carefully with a spatula and a fork. When browned add the broth and cover.  Cook 12-15 minutes, add up to ½ cup more broth if needed; there should be at least ½ cup left when they are cooked.  Add the flour to the yogurt, stir and add to the pan.  Add the lemon juice and stir in the carrot, celery if using it, and the white parts of the scallions.  Cook 2-3 minutes.  Add the rest of the scallions and stir.  If it seems too thick add some more chicken broth.  I like this concentrate I found, Better than Bouillon, very handy and GF.  Perfect when you need less than 15 ounces of broth.

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Serve the meatballs and sauce over rice or noodles. I have been experimenting lately and served a topping of pickled red onions; really nice zingy addition…up to you.  For that I cut up part of a red onion and top with cider vinegar to cover, let stand at least 30 minutes. Will keep overnight in fridge.  It is a fun topper on salads too.

First published in 2015. Recipe unchanged in this repost.

Mexican Wedding Cookies – A Classic

These miniature snowball cookies were the foundation of the Christmas cookie baking season when I was a kid.  They were always made every year, sometimes a second batch had to be baked as we had eaten them all well before the big day!   Some people call them Russian Teacakes… For me it is not Christmas without these cookies so I was extremely pleased to find a great gf recipe. My sisters think they are better tasting than the old regular recipe!

They are easy to make with not too many ingredients.  Don’t make them too big or they become very fragile… stick with the size as given. Be careful lifting them off the pan as they are delicate until fully cooled. The texture and subtle flavor of this GF version is actually superior to the wheat flour recipe of my childhood. When you bite into one it shatters into a delicious mouthful of sweet cookie. They are delightful with a cup of tea or coffee.  My family clamors for a few to take home!

You can use pecans, but I rarely do; walnuts are somewhat cheaper, and I sort of prefer their flavor for this cookie. If you like them really sweet sprinkle on extra powdered sugar, less of it makes them perfect for those who are not used to too much sweetness. This recipe is from Annalise Roberts’ fabulous Gluten-Free Baking Classics with some minor changes by me. I have not tried them with any but this flour blend. I bet they might work with a measure for measure flour mix; just leave out the xanthan gum in that case.

Storage: they keep well; I put mine in an empty butter cookie tin with wax paper between the 2 layers; no more than 2 layers or they tend to break up easily. Or a cookie jar but do be careful about too many stacked on top of each other.  No one will ever know they are GF, and you will get complements on their flavor and texture.  Enjoy: they are rather addictive cookies!

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Mexican Wedding Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

6 tbsp. powdered (confectioners) sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups King Arther Basic GF blend flour – aka brown rice mix (recipe below)

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped fine

Confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling

Directions: beat butter and powdered sugar in large bowl of stand mixer until light and creamy.  Add vanilla, beat in.  Add flour and gum, mix in until well blended, stir in walnuts until distributed.  Chill dough for an hour, more than 2 hours; dough gets too stiff.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Form dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in powdered sugar if you like.  Place on cookie sheet lightly sprayed with Pam (not the baker’s version that has flour).  Place about 1 ½ inches apart.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes until lightly browned on top and bottom.  Cool on pan for 5 min and then sprinkle with lots of powdered sugar before placing on wire rack to cool. I like to sift it onto the cookies so the coating is even.  You could put a sheet of wax paper under the wire rack to catch the excess sugar.  Store well wrapped: in airtight container, in fridge for a week or freezer for up to 30 days.  You could store unbaked dough in fridge for a few days.

Brown Rice Flour Mix base mix  (same as King Arthur’s Basic gf blend)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch *not potato flour

1/3 c tapioca flour

Note: First posted December 2014 on my blog.  Minor revisions have been made since then.

Turkey Posole Stew; Sort of Spicy and So Delish!

I am betting you have some roast turkey in the freezer, maybe a pint of gravy too?  Well, I have just the recipe for you, courtesy of Rachel Ray and foodnetwork.com.  It is nothing like most traditional turkey leftover recipes.  It is a slightly spicy Mexican stew; posole stew can easily be gluten free. Just use care choosing your chicken broth and your tortilla chips that accompany this savory soup. One of these years I will remember to buy an extra carton of gf turkey broth and use in instead of chicken broth; turkey broth disappears immediately after thanksgiving; a bit of a bummer….

I have been making it every fall after Thanksgiving and always look forward to a few bowls of it.  Spicy, crunchy, tangy; unlike any other soup I make.  Posole stew can be made with roasted pork and I have done so but I like it far better created with leftover roast turkey, especially the dark meat.  I have served this stew to many people, and it is always well received and enjoyed, even by my elderly mother.  I made a batch today and it was so delish! You can cut this recipe in half easily which I did this time; didn’t have enough turkey for a whole recipe and my fridge is pretty full anyway; my posole turned out great and I am thrilled to be enjoying it again. 

Notes:  I used most of a good-sized jalapeno pepper and one 15 ounce can of hominy in a half recipe. I used a cup of water for the beer and a carton of gf chicken broth. About 3-4 tablespoons of homemade turkey gravy this time: ate the rest on hot sandwiches. It was absolutely delish!

tomatillos

The more jalapeno pepper you add the hotter it will be. I have tried canned tomatillos, and they are not really a good substitute.  You can get them fresh (found near the fresh tomatoes) in many stores including Giant.  They are used in Hispanic and Mexican cooking and add a lot of flavor and tartness to the soup. I have heard that some folks use salsa Verde instead of tomatillos but it really isn’t hard to chop them up, so I recommend the real deal.

Hominy is a corn product; whole kernels soaked in lye to swell and soften.  The kernels have a mild corn flavor plus they soak up other flavors quickly and add a certain texture and body to the stew.

The wild turkey is native to North America and one turkey species is originally from Mexico.  So turkey is a natural component in this stew.  The Aztecs revered corn and liked to cook it with meat.  Tomatillos are native to Mexico, related to cape gooseberries.  They are used in salsa verde and other Mexican dishes. So this compilation of turkey, corn, tomatillos and lime is a natural combination that will be easy to make and fun to eat. Go on, be adventurous and enjoy a steaming hot bowl of delicious posole and use up that turkey in a totally different way!

Turkey Posole Stew

Ingredients

2 tbsp mild olive oil or canola oil

2 medium onions chopped

4 cloves garlic chopped fine

1-2 jalapeno peppers – seeded and chopped fine –use two if you like it spicy, I use one!

1 tbsp. ground cumin

1 cup GF beer (can use 1 cup water if you want but it gives more flavor)

Coarse salt and pepper

12-16 tomatillos; about 2 lbs, take off the paper cover, rinse and chop up.  Can coarsely chop in food processor

5-6 sprigs fresh thyme; chop it up off the stems.

2   15-ounce cans hominy

1.5 qt chicken stock (can be part gravy)

1 ½ to 2 lbs. chopped turkey meat; can be mixture of light and dark

1 lime juiced

Chopped cilantro leaves to garnish (optional)

Tortilla chips: the ones with lime go particularly well with this.

tomatillos

Cook first six ingredients about 5 min in a large stock pot.  Add beer or water, cook one minute.  Add chopped tomatillos and cook 5-6 minutes until softened.  Add hominy, thyme and stock and cook 15 minutes.  Add chopped turkey and lime juice, stir. Taste and add salt and pepper, stir well.  I never use cilantro; something I just don’t like, but feel free to add it as the original recipe uses a bunch of it.turkey posole soup

Then ladle the posole into bowls and serve lots of white tortilla chips to crunch over the top of the hot soup.  As the soup disappears from my bowl, I like to add more chips to keep the crunch going.