Dairy Free Feta Cheese

Cheeses.  Yes, we do miss cheese.  But I’ve found a pretty good stand in for feta cheese from The Gluten Free Bible.  It’s not exactly the same as real feta cheese of course, but you can experiment with the spices and salt and adjust it to your liking.  It’s a good stand in that adds flavor to salads that would otherwise be bland and sad.

Dairy Free Feta Cheese

1 block of Tofu – firm or extra firm

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Oregano

Basil

Fresh lemon juice

Garlic salt

Dehydrated onion powder

Salt

Cut the tofu into 3/4 inch thick slices and lay on a glass pie plate lined with paper towels.  Put another layer of paper towels on top of the tofu slices and put some weight on top.  If you have another glass pie plate of the same size that works well. Leave the weighted tofu for about an hour so that the water presses out.

I like my feta to be in small cubes so after the water is pressed out, I cut the tofu into 1/4 inch cubes.

Now add the olive oil and other spices to make it as tart, spicy, and salty as you like. The tofu feta cheese keeps in the refrigerator for several days, so enjoy!

Dairy & Gluten Free Breakfast

Dairy Free Tandoori Chicken

I prepared a dairy and gluten free dinner at the spur of the moment when I had unexpected guests.  A dairy and gluten free meal is not that difficult to prepare and everyone (that includes the non-dietary restrictions people) enjoyed the meal immensely.  Tandoori chicken may seem out of the question if you are dairy free since yogurt is required to marinate the chicken.  But by using Kefir, a beverage further fermented from yogurt rendering the product 99% dairy free makes it tolerable for my digestive system.    Kefir is  full of probiotics so its good for your digestive system.  I can’t tolerate milk or cheese and can eat yogurt to a certain extent, but the processing of kefir renders it lactose free.  Kefir is from the middle east and has been around for centuries.  It’s available in better grocery stores located in the dairy section.  Lifeway brand is fairly universal, but other brands also are on the market.  Kefir has become my go to product for smoothies, and to accompany granola. I highly recommend to anyone who is dairy free to give kefir a try to see if you can tolerate it.

The meal ended up being an international festival on a plate – Indian tandoori chicken, American corn on the cob, Greek salad with dairy free feta cheese (yes, dairy free feta!  See one of my later blogs for the recipe) and brown rice infused with Indian star anise. It was the perfect summer meal and the freshness of the vegetables complemented each other well, no matter what their ethnic origins.

Tandoori spice mix is a combination of chilli, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cloves, cumin, garlic and ginger.  You could make your own mix but I’ve been using Raja All Natural Color Tandoori Spice Mix for years and it has become a family favorite.  I get mine from the Indian grocery store, but I’ve seen it in better supermarkets.  I just add garlic and ginger to the dry powder spice mix and kefir.

Most tandoori is marinated for at least 6 to 8 hours, but since I was in a rush, I marinated the parboiled chicken for about 1 to 2 hours and it was delicious.  Marinating it longer could have improved the taste and I do recommend the longer marinating if you don’t parboil the chicken. It will help to tenderize the chicken.   But in this instance the parboiling shortened the marinating time as well as the grilling time as the chicken was already half cooked when I put it on the grill.  Besides that I got a bonus of a pot of chicken stock that I can use for tomorrow’s dinner.

Dairy Free Tandoori Chicken

3/4 cup kefir

5 teaspoons Raja Tandoori Spice Mix

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced garlic

8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on

To parboil the chicken, bring lightly salted water to boil in a large pot, leaving room for the chicken.  Add the chicken to the boiling salted water and boil for 15 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the pot and drain and cool for about 10 minutes, then put into the kefir, spice, and ginger, garlic marinade.  Marinate for a minimum for 1 – 2 hours for parboiled chicken, or 6 to 8 hours for raw chicken.

Cook on a hot grill until the chicken is cooked through, and the skin is crispy and browned.

Gluten Free Flour Blend for Breads

This flour blend is from a book entitled The Gluten Free Bible.  Not one kind of flour blend is suitable for all baked items due to the lightness of the blend; hence a second flour blend recipe is included in the blog for baking cakes and pastries. This blend for breads is used in all recipes using yeast.  Use this blend for the pizza crust recipe and you’ll be making it again and again!

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup sorghum flour

3/4 cup millet flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup potato starch

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Whist to ensure that all flours are well blended.  The recipe can be doubled or trippled and stored in an airthight container in the refrigerator

The Best Gluten Free Pizza Crust

No joke.  This is the best pizza crust recipe I have made. I have tried several recipes and they turned out dry and hard.  This recipe takes few ingredients in addition to the Gluten Free Flour Blend for Bread.  I’m still experimenting on bread recipes so if you worry that making a batch of GF Bread Flour Mix may be too much, you’re mistaken.  You’ll be making this Pizza Crust recipe often so you’ll find that your flour mix will quickly be used up.

If you don’t have a stand mixer yet, you’ll want to invest in one for gluten free baking.  Many recipes require a lot of beating for the dough to thoroughly mix so a stand mixer ensures an even mixing without standing there for 5 minutes.  This pizza crust recipe requires 5 minutes beating time, but its well worth it.  Its hard to tell the difference in texture between this and wheat pizza dough when you’re eating it.

This recipe makes 5 to 6 pizza crusts about 7 to 8 inches in diameter each.  I like to freeze the empty baked crusts and take them out to make my individual pizza when the rest of the family is having pizza.

Pizza Crust Recipe

3 cups GF Flour Blend for Breads

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

l teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water (Use 3/4 cup at first, and add the rest but tablespoonful if needed)

1/4 cup extra virgen olive oil

3 egg whites

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or sprinkle with cornmeal.

2.  Mix flour blend, yeast, xanthan gum, and salt in a large bowl.  Whisk 3/4 warm water, oil, egg whites, honey and vinegar together in a medium bowl.  Beat wet ingredients into dry ingredients with an electric mixer at low speed until combined.  Beat 5 minutes on medium-high, scaping bowl occasionally.  The dough will be very sticky and soft. If the dough is dry add additional 1/4 cup water tablespoon by tablespoon as needed.

3.  Transfer one-sixth of dough to prepared pan.  Spread dough into 5 or 6 inch circle using dampened fingers  Spread dough to desired thickness making dough thicker around edge to hold toppings.  Repeat with remaining dough.

4.  Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until crusts are lightly bronwed.  Top crusts with pizza sauce, cheese, herbs, and other desired toppings.  Bake an additional 2 to 3 mintes or until cheese melts.

If you are dairy free like I am, try the cheese substitutes available in grocery stores.  I particularly like the cheddar cheese substitute.  It has a nice tangy cheesy taste.  Enjoy!

My Mom’s Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is my farovite and I remember making the cake with my Mom when I was about 10 or 11. It was a favorite among my family too so we made it often. Forty some odd years later I still make the cake from the recipe that my Mom penned with her own hand. The paper is yellowed and stained in some spots but the recipe and the memories it brings back are precious

I’ve adapted the recipe to be gluten free and its another one of those recipes that works very well because of the fruit and the carrots that it holds. It can be made as sheet cake, in a bundt pan, or as a 2 layer cake.

My Mom’s Carrot Cake

3 cups Gluten Free Flour Blend
2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
10 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained and syrup reserved
4 eggs at room temperature, beaten
1 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups grated raw carrots, loosely packed
1 cup chopped walnute or pecans (optional)
Combine flour and next 5 ingredients, mixing well. Drain pineapple, saving syrup, set aside. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add pineapple syrup, eggs, oil and vanilla, blen throughly, stir in pineapple, carrots, and nuts. Turn into 2 greased loaf pans Bake in 325 degree oven for one hour hour or a long wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes and turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Sheet cakes and bundt cakes bake for approximately hone hour. Two nine inch cake pans requires approximately 45 minutes.

Frost or glaze cake as desired.

Fried Meat Dumplings

Dumplings are a delicacy in Tibetan cuisine.  My family makes momos or Tibetan dumplings for the Tibetan New Year and other occasions.  They are made with a white flour outer wrapper stuffed with seasoned and spiced meat.  I experimented with various versions of gluten free wrapper until I found one that I deem the perfect outer wrapper.  The smell of the dumplings frying trumps the smell of steamed dumplings so that besides the smell, my family is tantalized by the chewy crispness of the wrapper.  I haven’t found a dumpling wrapper recipe that steams well yet so if you know of one, please do share it with me.

They are not as caloric as they sound.  I use a Calphalon non-stick pan with a little oil in the bottom,   As the dumplings fry, the beef releases its own fat and juices so that the wrapper crisps well without the addition of a lot of oil.

I usually use ground beef but you can substitute pork if you like.  The meat can be made with more or less spices and herbs, as your taste dictates.  I’ll give my recipe below with estimates on the spices.  I use what I have on hand so sometimes I may not even use cilantro.

Spiced Ground Beef

1 pound ground beef (80/20 mixture)

1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

4 green onion, finely cut

cilantro, finely cut

salt and pepper to taste
Gluten Free Dumpling Wrapper

1 cup white rice flour

3/4 cup tapioca flour

pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup warm water

Mix all ingredients, adding water slowly and as needed until a soft dough forms.  Divide dough into 14 – 18 portions and form into balls.  Flatten a ball between 2 sheets of plastic wrap.  Put a spoonful of meat on one side of the wrapper.  Fold in half and seal.  Set aside until all the dumplings are made.

Heat a Calphalon pan over medium heat.  Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the dumplings leaving enough room so that they do not touch.  Cover and let fry about 5 minutes or until brown.  Turn over the dumplings, cover and fry an additional 5 minutes.  Its usually note necessary to add more oil as the meat releases its own oil and juices.

Makes 4 -18 dumplings.

Asian Ingredients Needed For the Summer Spring Rolls

In case you are shopping for these ingredients for the first time this will give you an idea of what you are looking for.  Your local grocery store may carry these.  If not you can find them in a well stocked Asian grocery store.

Summer Spring Rolls

You’ll want to serve these often in the summer.  Summer Spring Rolls are are light and nutritious.  You can choose whatever fresh vegetables you have on hand.  Boiled shrimp or shredded chicken  are options for the protein.  And if you serve them with a peanut butter sauce, its even more filling.

Many of the ingredients which used to be found exclusively at asian grocery stores are now found in mainstream grocery stores.  Spring roll wrappers are traditionally a Vietnamese staple.  They are round, about 8 to 9 inches in diameter, and semi translucent.  They are made of tapioca flour and rice starch.  The wrappers are soaked in hot water that is comfortable to the touch.  A shallow plate such as a pie plate is a good one to use.  Soak the wrapper for a minute or so, lift it out and put it on a damp paper towel.  Near one edge of the wet wrapper, put your ingredients on it.  I layer the shrimp on it, then the basil leaves, green onions, cucumber and carrots, and then the bean vermicelli.    Remember that when it is rolled you will see the filling through the wrapper, so if you want it to look pretty, pay attention to how you layer on the fillings.  Tuck in the sides of the wrapper and roll it as you would a Mexican burrito.

Bean Vermicelli is a noodle made from mung beans.  Nutritious and filling, this is prepared by rehydrating the dry noodles in hot water for about 10 minutes.   This is another item found in Asian grocery stores and some local grocery stores.

Lay the Summer Spring Rolls on a platter and cover with a damp paper towel under they are served.  This prevents the wrapper from drying out and cracking.

Suggested Filling Ingredients

Shrimp or Shredded Chicken

Your choice of herbs – basil, cilantro, green onion

Assorted Vegetables cut into matchsticks – cucumber, carrots

Other vegetables could include napa cabbage, spinach, bean sprouts

Bean Vermicelli

Sesame seeds
Have fun experimenting with your fillings to find your favorite!
And now for the dipping sauces

Peanut Dipping Sauce

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (or make your own from 1 tablespoon tamari sauce, dash of sesame oil, pinch of brown sugar, a few drops of hot sauce, and a splash of vinegar)

1/2 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter

1 1/4 cup cups water

Heat the oil in a small saucepan.  Add the gralic, tomato paste, and the hoisin sauce.  Stir until it comes to a boil.  Add the peanut butter and water.  Whisk until fully incorporated and slightly thickened.  Let it cool and serve in individual dishes topped with roasted, chopped peanuts.
If you wish to serve a light sauce, the Fresh Lime Dipping Sauce is sweet and salty, a perfect accompaniment for the spring rolls.

Fresh Lime Dipping Sauce

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 Thai chiles or 1 serrano chile, stems and seeds removed, and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon hot water

1/4 cup Vietnamese or Thai Fish Sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 teasppons finely grated lime zest plus 2 tablespoons lime juice

Combine garlice, chilli, and sugar.  Add the hot water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.  Serve in small serving dishes to accompany the spring rolls.

Hummingbird Bundt Cake

This is the perfect cake to serve in the spring and summer when hummingbirds are buzzing around your garden. In gluten free baking I have found that cakes with fruit in them make them moist and light.  This cake has bananas and pineapple in it.  I have this recipe in my list of favorites that I make again and again

Make sure that your bundt pan is well greased and floured.  Gluten free products tend to stick to the pan otherwise.  It’s also important to let your batter rest for 30 minutes before baking the cake.  Gluten free flours don’t tend to bind together well which is why xanthan gum is used in gluten free baking.  Resting, or letting the batter sit for 30 minutes allows the flours to moisten.  I’ve found that the difference between resting the batter and not doing so results in a cake that is is lighter and rises about an inch higher.  So by all means do rest the batter.

Removing it immediately from the bundt pan instead of letting it rest 5 minutes also helps to prevent sticking.  I simply put a plate over the bundt pan and turn it over.

The traditional hummingbird cake has a cream cheese frosting on a layered cake.  Since I am dairy free I make a lemon sugar glaze.  But if you’re not then by all means enjoy a creme cheese glaze.

Cake Batter
3 cups GF flour blend

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 3/4 cups mashed bananas (about 4 large)

10 oz crushed pineapple (do not drain)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.  Stir together flour and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir in eggs and next 5 ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon batter into a 14 cup bundt pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for an hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool the cake on a wire rack for 5 minutes and invert the cake onto a plate.  Allow to cool completely before glazing (about 2 hours.)

Lemon Glaze

1 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Add lemon juice spoonful by spoonful to the confetioners sugar until the desired consistency is reached.  Spoon over the cooled cake.