Saturday, January 10, 2009

GF Flour Tortillas

I have been searching around for a good flour tortillas recipe and even have tried one of Bette Hagman's but it just didn't turn out. Some recipes call for bean flour, which I find to taste a bit odd, so I was happy when I found this one.

http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/gluten-free-casein-free-flour-tortillas/

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Gluten Free Meatballs & Swedish Sauce

Meatballs- This is a good standard meatball recipe you can use with marinara or any other sauce. I am going to give you my families special Swedish Meatball recipe we have every Christmas.

Swedish Meatballs One batch makes about 20 small meatballs.

Meatballs
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 C Ground up Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Chex or any other type of none sweetened gluten free cereal (I used rice krispies, place about 2 1/2 C cereal in a zip-loc bag, roll over with rolling pin to ground them up. This should make at least a cup ground up, but I would measure this so your meatballs have the appropriate consistency)
1 Egg
1/4 C Fresh Finely Chopped Onion
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauce
1 (16 oz.) Jar Grape Jelly
1 (12 oz.) Jar "Homemade" brand Chili Sauce (in the ketchup section)

Form into balls. (I used about a 1.5" cookie scoop.) Place on broiler pan and bake at 400 degrees in oven for 40 mins or till nice and browned. (I took mine out at about 35 mins or so because I was going to be keeping them warm in a crock pot for a while and didn't want them too dried out.)

When the meatballs are 10 mins. from being done, combined Jelly and Chili sauce in a large low side pan on medium high. Once it starts to bubble turn down to low and wait till meat balls are finished. Add meatballs into sauce and coat. Simmer with lid for 20 min.

Or for a crock pot, I added the Jelly and the Chili sauce in the crock pot once I put the meatballs in the oven and set the crock pot on High. Once the meatballs where cooked I put them in the crock pot and let them warm on high for 2 hrs and then turned it down to low. I serve this over rice for a main dinner dish.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Best Homemade Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1C 1T Brown Rice Flour
1C 1T Gluten Free Flour Mixture****(see the directions to make this flour at bottom)****2T Soy Flour
1t Xanthan Gum
1t Salt
1t Baking Soda
3/4 C Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
3/4 C White Sugar
1C Butter
1t Vanilla extract (if you are using the gluten free vanilla powder you will only need to use 1/4t)
2 Eggs
1 Package Milk Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F. Cream together eggs, butter, sugars & vanilla. Add Salt, Baking soda, xanthan gum. Mix flours together in a separate bowl and slowly add into creamed mixture. Scrape sides and make sure all ingredients are fully incorporated. Add package of chocolate chips and mix till evenly distributed.

I use a 1.5" Diameter cookie scoop to make the process go easiest. Grease two cookie sheets. I usually do 8 scoops per sheet and while one sheet is in the oven I prepare the next sheet. I do not suggest to bake more than one sheet at a time since Gluten Free foods can be pretty tempermental.

Place cookie sheet into preheated oven for 8 min. or till edges are beginning to brown. Pull them out of oven and let them rest on the cookie sheet for atleast 5 min. then move the to a cooling rack.

Don't over bake these. If you over bake these they will become brittle and gritty.

This recipe was made for higher altitude climates so if your cookies aren't flattening and stay in a ball don't add the 1T of the Brown and GF Flours. If your cookies run all over the place start by adding a 1t of extra flour (either GF or Brown) and increase from there.

*****************************************
GF Flour Mixture
6 C White Rice Flour
2 C Potato Starch (Flour) (Make sure it says Potato Starch sin plain Potato Flour is different and only stays good for a short while)
1 C Tapioca Flour

Mix together in and large air tight container and keeps well on the shelf. Its handy for many recipes.

Gluten Free Pizza Calzones/ Hot Pockets

1 Package Gluten Free Pantry-French Bread and Pizza Mix (http://www.glutino.com/ under products and Gluten Free Pantry Mixes)

1 Package shredded Pizza Cheese Mixture

1 Cup Spaghetti sauce

1 Small Package Pepperoni, Cut Slices in half

Directions

Make the Pizza mix according to the directions on the Box under the Pizza Section (OR check inside because it seems they have revised directions on a little piece of paper for how to mix up the dough.)

***For Egg free I used egg replacer. Follow the directions on the box for the amount of powder and water to equal one egg. For the egg white I only used half the amount of the egg replacer and water.

Lay down a cooking sheet upside down so the bottom is facing up. Layer down a piece of wax paper. Spray with cooking spray. Spoon half of the dough amout. Grease another piece of wax paper and put greased side down on top of dough. (See Figure 1)

Roll out into a large rectangle to about 3/8" thick. Cut into four sections. (See Figure 2) In the locations shown place 2-3 T of Cheese, layer of pepperoni and 1 T sauce. Add another layer of Cheese on top if desired. Remember to keep the filling contained so it won't leak out when baking.

To close up Calzones lift wax paper on the outside and fold over on top of filling and press sides to seam. (See Figure 3) Carefully separate the four Calzones so they don't weld together during baking process.
Grease a Separate cooking sheet and put in face down on top of Calzones lift the bottom and top cookie sheets together and flip so that the Calzones are on a cookie sheet by themselves. (This makes it easier to transfer since Gluten Free dough isn't very easy to handle.)

Repeat this process with second portion of dough.

Place Calzones in the oven on 45o Degrees F, for 18-20 min. or lightly brown. Enjoy! These taste great even the next day if you reheat them in the oven on 450 for 10-12 min.

Yummy Lettuce Wraps with Homemade GF Teriyaki Sauce

Here is a recipe for lettuce wraps I came up with. Hope you like it.

***You have use this same sauce recipe plus a 1T cornstarch for stir fry.***

Sauce
1/4 C (La Choy Brand) Soy Sauce
1/4 C White Sugar
1t Minced Garlic
1/2 t Ginger Powder or minced Ginger Root
1/4 t (or less) Celery Seed (If you have celery on had add 1/4C to 1/2 thinly sliced with the vegetables in main mixture)
1/2 t Sesame Oil (a little goes a long way)

Mix and set aside in a bowl. (Use a bowl that's big enough to fit your cooked chicken in.)

Main Mixture
1T Olive Oil
1 lb Chicken cut into small 1/2" to 3/4" pieces (I used chicken tenders, sliced them in have and the cut across in small pieces)
1/4 C Slivered Almonds (You can toast these in a dry skillet before hand but it isn't necessary) and/or 1 small can of Sliced Water Chestnuts chopped or slivered
1/2 C Onion Finely Chopped (I used a purple for color)
3/4 to 1 Green Pepper finely chopped
1 large Carrot julienned and cut into 2" lengths (Use a julienned peeler, its really fast and works great, you can get one at Target for pretty cheap, or if you are really good at cutting up and carrot into 1/8" thick strips you could do that)
1 t Minced Garlic (I buy this ready to go in a jar in the salad section, so much easier and then your fingers don't smell like garlic for ages)
1 head of Lettuce either Iceberg or Green Leafy

Directions
Cut head of ice berg lettuce in half and wash by running cut side under water so that it can wash between the layers. Lay cut side down on a few paper towels on a plate to dry and place in refrigerator if you want it crisp.

If you are using leafy cut off the core end about 3" from the bottom and rinse in water and dry thoroughly. I use my lettuce spinner for this.

Cut up your vegetables, garlic, and then Chicken.

Place skillet on medium to medium high heat. Don't put in Olive oil till pan is hot then swirl around to coat and add in chicken. Stir by using spatula to scoop from underneath and turn over so the browned parts don't stick to bottom of pan. Brown chicken then remove from pan and place in bowl with Sauce. Coat chicken thoroughly.

Place vegetables in pan from Chicken. Start first with garlic, moving fast add onions and soon after green peppers, carrots and almonds (and/or water chestnuts).

Heat for about a minute and then add back in chicken with sauce. Heat for another minute or two and remove from heat and place in serving dish. Serve like taco in lettuce leafs.

***To Make this a Vegetarian meal, double the amount of vegetables and use both water chestnuts and almonds. Stir fry the vegetables with the oil than add in the sauce.

Option: Peel and seed a cucumber and chop. Place in main mixture once it have been removed from heat. Yum.