Complete Indian Dinner

The Recipes

• from a vegetarian Indian cookbook that I forgot to write down the name of (I was visiting friends and don't own the cookbook). 
• Dinner concept: Make 3 curries, a raita to put on top to cut the spice, and put it all over basmati rice for a complete and varied dinner (or just have a bunch of one curry). Make extra curry, freeze, and after three times you can defrost and heat up a complete meal.
• I didn't make the third curry shown in the picture, so I didn't include it here.
• Each of these curries serves 4-6 people.
• For basmati rice, wash using strainer or pot method, then cook. Do raita first and set in fridge to chill for meal, or make it the night before. Then set the potatoes to heat and prepare cauliflower while they cook, and make the garbanzo beans somewhere in there.

Cucumber Raita

• Make a double batch and keep on hand for use on other curries.

Ingredients:

1 large cucumber

2 to 3 tbsp finely chopped onions

2 c. yogurt

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

salt

chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Peel the cucumber, then seed it by making diagonal cuts inward with a knife on both sides of the seeds and removing this section. Coarsely grate the cucumber, then put in a metal mesh colander and press it against the mesh with your fingers to get the excess water out. Stir together the cucumber, onions, and yogurt.

Stir together the cumin, cayenne, and salt to taste in a small bowl, then stir them into the yogurt mixture along with as much chopped cilantro as you like. Serve chilled with curries or other Indian dishes.

Cauliflower Curry

Ingredients:

1 large head cauliflower

3 small potatoes

4 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp black mustard seeds (or ground mustard powder)

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 clove garlic, minced or crushed (peel and then crush with garlic press)

3 small onions, slivered (cut onion in half then cut in crescent-shaped slices)

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 c. water

1 med-sized tomato, chopped

2 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Trim and wash the cauliflower and break it up into very small flowerettes. Scrub the potatoes and boil them in salted water until they are nearly tender, but not quite done.

Heat the oil in a fairly large skillet over med-low heat and add the mustard seeds, heating until the seeds pop, just a few minutes. When the mustard seeds have finished popping, add the turmeric, cumin, coriander, cayenne, garlic and onions. Saute this mixture over med heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 min.

Add the cauliflower and saute, stirring often, for 4 to 5 min, then add the salt and water and cover the pan tightly. Allow the curry to simmer, covered, for 5 min, while you cut up the parboiled potato into 1" cubes.

Add the potato, stir, cover again, and leave to simmer for 10 min. Then add the tomato and the lemon juice and stir, uncovered, over med heat, for another few min before serving.

Serve hot with rice, raita, chutneys, and other condiments.

Curried Garbanzo Beans


Ingredients:
3 c. cooked garbanzo beans, with reserved liquid (or use cans to shorten prep time)
1 tbsp butter or oil
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
3/8 tsp ground cloves
3/8 tsp cinnamon
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 tsp ground ginger
salt to taste
2 tbsp lemon juice, and more to taste
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, and more to taste
1 firm tomato, cut in 1/2" dice

Directions:
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Mix spices in a little bowl, then stir into the butter over low heat, stirring often and heating for a few min. *to grind the ginger root: scrape off skin with sharp knife, then grate the root's knobs first. Next grate its sides until the fibery part of the root starts to come off.

Stir in the garbanzo beans and enough of the reserved liquid to just barely cover them. Stir well, and mash a few of the beans with a fork or potato masher.

Cook the beans over a med flame for about 20 min, or until the sauce is quite thick, stirring often. Remove from heat.

Stir in the lemon juice, the chopped cilantro, and the diced tomato. Taste, and correct the seasoning.


The Spicy Sight

My Take on the Bake
I never liked Indian before. Whenever I went to a restaurant, the food would be either way too spicy or incredibly bland. Maybe I just didn't know what to order. But now I'm converted! Curry takes boring vegetables and transforms them into full meals without any grains, definitely without any wheat or even glutenous soy sauce, and sometimes without any meat. It's so different from Western cooking that it's a good way to "spice up your life" by cooking every once in a while. And I actually appreciate these spices in a small amount with some cool cucumber raita on top. I think I'll buy an Indian cookbook and use it at least twice a month. I'm getting into so many interesting things that I might never have gotten into if I didn't have to go gluten-free!

Gluten-Free Tuna Helper and Navigating the Grocery Store

The Recipe: Gluten-Free Tuna Helper
I accidentally recycled the box and forgot to save it for this post. The gist: make the noodles for about 10 minutes, drain, add in tuna and sauce powder, cook for a while, and serve. Really quick and easy dinner *College Cooking Alert*. It wasn't actually made by the hamburger/chicken/tuna helper brand (since I got rid of the box I also forgot the brand) but it worked the same way as the boxes you buy from that brand - i.e. it comes with everything except for the meat, which you buy separately. Goes well with a side of corn.

The Fishy Evidence

My Take on the Bake and the Gluten-Free Grocery List
It was a little salty, although for some reason I got over the saltiness a few bites in and was loving it by the end. I was really excited to find something like the tuna helper in the grocery store, because that means I can buy dinners that will be quick and easy for a rushed evening. Although the tuna helper was the only kind of "helper" box from that brand at Meijer's that I could find, the back of the box showed that the brand also produced gluten-free hamburger and chicken helpers.

Unfortunately, Meijer's does not mark its gluten-free sections of the store. My family found them by accident. (for those of you who don't know what a "Meijer's" is, it's a mega-grocery store that also sells other household items, a mid-western chain founded in Grand Rapids, MI) We found a gluten-free section in the freezer section that has frozen dinners, such as mac n cheese (again with the Hallelujah!), lasagna, and Indian dinners, personal pizzas, large pizzas, pizza dough, bread, and bagels. We found gluten-free baking flour next to wheat flour, a mix of gluten-free flours which we've used to substitute for wheat flour in several recipes. And we found a dry foods section that has gluten-free noodles, cereals, mac n cheese boxes (ditto H!), Quaker flavored rice cakes, veggie chips, crackers, specialty bread mixes, cake mixes, brownie mixes, pizza mixes, and  the tuna helper. So there's definitely stuff out there, it's just hard to find.

If you go to a natural foods store, you're more likely to find gluten-free oatmeal, tamari, quinoa, and special gluten-free flours such as quinoa, amaranth, and sorghum.

So now you know what's out there for celiacs :)

Korean BBQ and Rolls and Gluten-Free Friendly Foreign Cuisine

The Recipes: Korean BBQ

• My boyfriend's mom taught me how to make this. She just did it all from her head, so we had to write down the recipe. 
• Koreans often eat this for special occasions and holidays.
• Goes well with seaweed rolls and kimchi
• Serves at least 10, if not more.

The Ingredients:
9 lbs. beef short rib
1 peeled onion or Asian pear
1 ice-cream-scoop full of minced garlic
1 tsp. sesame seed oil
5 handfuls of sugar
1/4 c. red wine
2 c. gluten-free soy sauce or tamari


The Directions:
1. Rinse off beef under faucet, rubbing bones with fingers.
2. Cut off the fat. If you have thin fillets, move onto next step. If you have chunky cubes, cut like you are unrolling the meat to get to the juicy center, and it will be flat when you finish.
3. Pound the meat.
4. Blend 1 peeled pear or onion (we used the pear).
5. Mix gluten-free soy sauce or tamari, blended pear or onion, garlic, sesame seed oil, sugar, and wine in a large bowl.
6. Submerge each piece of meat in the sauce. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinade overnight in the fridge.
7. If freezing some of the meat, put it in a plastic bag and cover it with sauce. Put bag in the freezer. Take it out to defrost and marinade the night before eating.
8. Cover a baking sheet that has raised edges with aluminum foil. Put meat on the sheet and drizzle leftover marinade onto the meat. Broil on high for about 7 min on each side, or until thoroughly cooked. If the meat still doesn't look ready, broil it for about 3 minutes on the original side. *Note: We used chopsticks to pick up the meat to check it then flip it over. If possess less nunchuck skills than Napolean Dynamite, tongs would work well.
9. Cut into bite size pieces or strips by holding one end of the meat slice with chopsticks and cutting the other end with kitchen scissors. Or use a knife. If you buy the cut that has 3 bone slices in it, cut between the bones and leave the meat attached to create a square that you can hold by the bone and tare the other side off with your teeth.


Seaweed Rolls

• Served as a side-dish, packed lunch, or snack.
• Can add whatever you want as long as you can lay it in a thin row (such as cut up Korean BBQ and kimchi, additions that kick the flavor up a notch) or lay it in strips (such as the cucumber)
• Can dip in gluten-free soy sauce or tamari. 
• We made about 12 rolls, when most of our ingredients ran out, but there was still some rice left.
• If you are making this with Korean BBQ, start the rice before the BBQ.

Ingredients:
5 c. white rice
1 c. sweet rice
8 eggs (or however many it takes to fill your largest skillet)
4 carrots
a few tsp salt
olive oil
long plastic box of spinach
sesame seed oil
1/4-1/2 daikon radish
tbsp sesame seed oil
tbsp sesame seeds
tsp. salt
large seaweed squares (9"x9")

Directions:
1. Wash rice. Put water in pot with white and sweet rice. Massage rice with hands, then pour water out. Repeat a few times, until the water is not cloudy white. Put into rice cooker. Cook for about 30 min. or whatever your settings say.
2. Prepare eggs. Whisk eggs in a bowl and fry on medium in large skillet, flipping when the underside is done. Cut cut into 1/4"-1/2" thick strips.
3. Peel carrots, then julienne or cut carrots into 3-4" long, thin strips. Fry in a few tsp. salt and olive oil for about 5 min or until tender, stirring occasionally to turn the carrots.
4. Blanch spinach to make soggy (add spinach to a pot of boiling water, then pour into colander and rinse under very cold water). Squeeze handfuls of spinach to remove water. Put in a bowl and add salt and sesame seed oil to taste (avoid making it too salty).
5. Cut daikon (pickled) raddish into long strips.
6. Once rice is done, mix in the sesame seeds, sesame seed oil, and salt.
7. Place a large seaweed square on top of a sushi roller (made of thin strips of bamboo strapped together). You could try using aluminum foil or even paper towel instead if you don't have one. Spread a thin layer of rice onto the seaweed square, then add strips of the other ingredients 1" from the end nearest you.
8. Lift the free inch of seaweed paper over the other ingredients using the roller and clamp in. Repeat until rolled into cylinder. Then wrap fully in roller and squeeze along the whole roll with hands.
9. Cut into 1/2" pieces.
10. Continue making rolls until ingredients are used up.

Oriental to Oggle at

I was so into this yummy feast that I forgot to take a pic until after the leftovers were put away. Here are the seaweed rolls and uncut slabs of Korean BBQ.

This is how Koreans roll. Boo yah!

My Take on the Bake
This dinner was an adventure. My boyfriend had to translate about half of the directions his mom gave me because she only speaks a little English. And we only had time to marinate the meat for an hour, instead of overnight. It still tasted delicious, however. It was nice to have a flavorful variation on ribs without American BBQ sauce. I loved the rolls, especially the ones we added the kimchi and BBQ to. Anyone who thinks they wouldn't like authentic Asian food should try the rolls, and they would be instantly converted - they take stuff we eat in America, like rice and carrots, add a few Korean things like seaweed rolls, and put it all together in a comfort food way.

I'm now very interested in Asian foods because, among other reasons, Asian foods have little wheat. For many of the dinners I've been making lately, I've been making gluten-free substitutions with gluten-free flours and noodles to normally glutenous recipes. But Asian foods are more generally gluten-free. The main problem to watch out for is gluten in soy sauce, but there are many Asian dishes that don't use soy sauce at all. For example, if you keep reading my blog for a few posts, you'll find two naturally gluten-free Indian curry dishes.

Chicken Piccata and Schlepping

Project Status Update
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I still have been making delicious dishes every night and plan to update the blog on every one of them. I've tried a lot of foreign cooking to branch out. In the meantime, I've been visiting family and friends for lessons in cooking these dishes. At first I was just staying home, and the most schlepping I did was to the grocery store. But now I've been driving 45 min - 3 1/2 hours every couple days. Ahh the life of a chef-in-learning. I think everyone should have a special family night or visit friends or family to learn a new dish and experiment. We used to go to the library once a month and check out a foreign cookbook to use for dinner. Food is fun! And if you're just scarfing down dinner on the go every night, I think you should shake it up a bit even if it requires some extra special schlepping.

The Recipe: Chicken Piccata

• serves 4
• goes well over gluten-free pasta
• from gluten free Every Day Cookbook by Robert M. Landolphi

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 lbs.)
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 tbsp. tapioca flour (couldn't find, even in the health food store, so substituted in amaranth flour)
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c. dry white wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. chicken stock or broth
3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp. capers, drained
1/4 c. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:
Place each chicken breast on a flat surface and cut it in half horizontally. Put each piece between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound lightly with a meat mallet or small skillet until the chicken is about 1/4" thick.

In a shallow bowl, combine the cornstarch, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt, and pepper. Stir to blend. In a large saute pan, melt 2 tbsp. of the butter with the olive oil over med-high heat. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and shake off the excess. Add the chicken breasts to the pan and cook until lightly browned, about 3 min on each side.

Transfer the chicken to a plate. Pour off the excess fat from the pan and return to med-high heat. Add the wine and garlic and cook while stirring to scrape up the browned bits fro the bottom of the pan, decrease the heat, and simmer for 2 to 3 min.

Transfer the chicken to a platter. Add the remaining 2 tbsp. butter and the parsley to the pan, whisking until incorporated. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

The Eye-Popping Italian

My Take on the Bake
This was one of my favorite Italian dishes before I went gluten-free, so I was super-excited to try it at home. The sauce was really thin, and I thought there wouldn't be enough, but it seemed to adequately cover everything. And the chicken turned out fine even though we didn't have the baking soda to add to it. This was a really tasty meal that you should definitely try at home! Again, I'm not one for hot spiciness, but I do enjoy flavorful things, and I really enjoyed the tart, unique flavor of the lemon and caper sauce over the chicken.

Fee Fie Foe Fum, I'll Grind Your Sorghum to Make My Bread!

The Recipe: Ancient Grains Bread

• Bread Machine Method
• from "Complete Gluten-Free Cookbook"
• Supposedly makes 15 slices

The Ingredients:
1 c. sorghum flour
3/4 c. amaranth flour
3/4 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. quinoa flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp bread machine or instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c. water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

The Directions:
1. In a large bowl or plastic bag, combine sorghum flour, amaranth flour, cornmeal, quinoa flour, tapioca starch, brown sugar, xanthan gum, yeast and salt. Mix well and set aside.

2. Pour water, oil, and vinegar into the bread machine baking pan. Add eggs and egg whites.

3. For this step the book had some directions that didn't fit with our simple bread machine. So we just added the mixed ingredients, guessed at a setting, and then let the machine do the work for us for about 3 hours.

The Grand Grains

My Take on the Bake
We got the diverse flours at a health foods store. They seem to be a staple of gluten-free baking if you're making recipes from gluten-free recipe books, but like I said in my last post, stores are now selling all-purpose gluten-free baking flour that you could use in your own recipes. We didn't have cider vinegar, so we substituted with Pinot Grigio vinegar, a great-smelling alternative.This turned out to be a very dense loaf of bread that probably only yields about 8-10 slices.

The aromatic smell filled the house and made my nostrils jump with joy as this bread baked. My first reaction when I tasted it, however, was disappointment. It was too dense and nutty flavored to enjoy plain with a bit of butter. Then my mom had the brilliant idea to toast it, and with a smearing of gooseberry preserves (from IKEA of course), this gluten-free toast tasted mahhhhvelous! Toasting it seemed to either dampen the nutty flavor or bring out the grainy flavor so it tasted more like normal bread. I'd definitely make it again and eat it with jam or make a toasted PB&J sandwich. Who needs wheat? Not I, Wheatless Welch! 

Fancy encrusted salmon recipe from "gluten free 'Every Day'" Cookbook

The Recipe: Hazelnut-Encrusted Salmon with Cilantro-Lime Creme

• serves 4
• *Fancy Enough to Impress your In-Laws* Alert
• I served it with a side of salad and millet flavored with bouillon powder and assorted herbs.

The Ingredients:
1/4 c. sour cream
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp minced fresh cilantro
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1/2 c. hazelnuts, ground
1/3 c. gluten-free dried bread crumbs
2 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
2 large eggs
olive oil, for panfrying
4 (6-oz) salmon fillets, skin and pin bones removed

The Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. For the creme: In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lime juice, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate until needed.

For the salmon: In a shallow bowl, combine the tapioca flour and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Set aside. In a 9-in. pie plate, combine the hazelnuts, bread crumbs, and rosemary; stir to blend. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until pale and frothy.

In a large ovenproof skillet, heat 1/4 inch olive oil over med-high heat. Dredge both sides of the salmon fillets in the tapioca flour, then in the eggs, and then in the hazelnut mixture. Place the salmon fillets in the skillet and cook until lightly browned on the bottom, 2 to 3 min. Flip the salmon over and repeat on the other side. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast until the salmon is flaky and slightly translucent, 5 to 7 min. Serve with a dollop of cilantro-lime creme.

The Elegant Evidence

My Take on the Bake
This was a very tasty dish! We couldn't find hazelnuts anywhere in the grocery store, so we used pecans instead, which tasted fabulous. We also couldn't find tapioca flour anywhere, so we substituted with gluten-free baking flour, a mix of different gluten-free grain flours, which we found in the normal flour aisle at Meijer's. It did take me a minute to get used to eating nuts on a meat, but I was won over by the end of eating my fillet. Add in the cilantro-lime creme and you've got an interesting medley of flavors for your tongue to play with.

My mom was surprised, however, to find this recipe in my cookbook titled "gluten free Every Day." She says nice restaurants serve this dish, and it certainly wouldn't be an every day meal. Unfortunately, most of the meals in this book are fancier dishes that take a long time to prepare. I think sometime soon I'm going to experiment with making some simple quinoa and polenta dishes that won't take long, because I do really need to learn how to make quick easy dinners for most days of the rest of my life when I don't live in a dorm *college ends sometime, really?*

Stir Fry Freedom

The Recipe: Stir Fry

• My step-dad helped me through this one. He has a general formula in his head for making stir fry but varies the ingredients and spices for fun every time. So here is the written form of his general formula.
• Note: we used a cephalon wok to even out the heat. 
• If you don't have much time, try beef and broccoli over white rice. Ready in 25-30 min. I chose the longer version with a prep time of 50-55 min.

The Ingredients:

Basic ingredients: some form of rice, some form of meat, some form of vegetables, soy sauce/tamari, ginger, and garlic.

Rice: You'll want about a cup of cooked rice per person. The ratio is 1 c. uncooked rice takes 2 c. water to make (plus a little extra to avoid burning) and makes 3 c. cooked rice. Brown rice takes 45 min. to make and white rice takes 20 min. to make. Since we were adding lots of vegetables and needed lots of prep time, we started the brown rice then prepped and stir-fried, and were done with each at about the same time.

Meat: My step-dad's favorite meat to use is pork, but I like beef better, which is what I used this time. Chicken and shrimp also go well.

Veggies: I used broccoli, baby carrots, orange bell peppers, canned baby corn, snow peas, and water chestnuts. I would've used mushrooms but we didn't have any in the house.

Sauce: I used gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce because it often has gluten in it. As for the spices, fresh ginger root and fresh garlic are the best, but pastes and powders will also work. We used ginger paste and minced garlic from a jar this time. Those three ingredients are a must have and can work okay alone for a college student or a young adult starting out with few spices in an apartment. But we spiced it up a bit more by throwing in pinches of cumin, coriander, turmeric, and chili garlic paste. Note on the turmeric: it's orange and stains, so don't get any on your clothes and clean it up from the counter immediately. I think if my step-dad could choose any of these extras as a fourth sauce staple, he would choose the turmeric. Note on the garlic paste: I like mild but tasty and a tsp. of the garlic paste was just right for me, so if you like spicy add more.

The Directions:


1. Start water boiling for the rice, then add the rice and simmer on low for 45 minutes.

2. Cut up as many vegetables as you would like. We used a whole pepper, one broccoli stalk, a small can of water chestnuts, a can of baby corn, a large handful of baby carrots, and perhaps a cupish of snow peas. Note on organization: You will need to start cooking the more substantive vegetables first so that they cook longer. If you are putting your veggies together in a large bowl, put the substantive ones on top so you can spoon them out first.

3. Cut up meat. First cut off fat on the side by picking up the slab of meat and pulling the fat string off to the side while sliding the knife in between the fat and the meat. Cut the meat into long strips, each about 1/4 inch thick, then turn the strips and cut them into 1 inch squares.

4. With a little less than 20 minutes left to go on the rice, add a tbsp. or two of olive oil into the wok. Add to this about a tbsp. of ginger paste and a tbsp. of minced garlic, but if you aren't adding more spices later, compensate by adding more ginger and garlic. Turn heat up to med-high and saute for a couple min.

5. Put meat into the wok and turn the heat up a little. Add about a tsp. of each of the spices mentioned above or whatever spices you choose. Stir meat around until it's about 75% done (it will cook more later) and put it in a bowl.

6. Add a little water to the wok and cook the substantive vegetables first (such as broccoli), then add the other vegetables (such as pease and carrots) minus the canned vegetables. Cook to about 75% of your desired consistency (I prefer soft vegetables but my step-dad prefers more raw) and then set aside in a bowl.

7. Turn the heat down to med. and cover the bottom of the wok with tamari. Then take a 1/4 cup measuring cup, fill halfway with water, spoon in about a tbsp. corn starch (or flour if you can eat gluten), and stir so there aren't any lumps. Add to tamari and stir. Add more spices if you didn't get the chance earlier.

8. Turn heat a little higher and put veggies back into the wok. Add the canned veggies and stir for a couple min.

9. Add meat and stir for a few minutes until everything is cooked to your desire.

10. Serve the stir-fry over rice, and have extra tamari and hot sauce on hand for people to adjust the sauce to their taste, although the sauce should be splendid without it.

The Sizzling Sight

Wokcha lookin at?

Stare at me. I'm beautiful.

My Take on the Bake
It was delicious! I'm so happy I learned how to stir fry because now I can make many different dinners from just one recipe, and they are easily made gluten-free! The recipe is very flexible - I can be adventurous and try out different mixes of spices, AND it won't be the end of the world if I mix up the order of things or put in the wrong amounts. I think every 18 year old should exercise their newfound freedom by voting and learning how to stir fry. Stir-frying is so liberating!

My only note on flavor: my step-dad might've added more than a tsp. of turmeric, and while I like the flavor, I would use a lot less of it because it tends to over-power other flavors.