Gluten Free Central

The short and sweet of it is… that Thai fried rice is fabulous! No matter how many times we make it (which ends up being quite often), I never seem to get tired of it. But there are two things I want to preface before we dive in:

1. This is not an exact measurement kind of recipe. A lot of it depends on your personal taste preferences, so use this more as a guide to find the best flavor mix for you!
2. This is a quick moving recipe. Once you actually start frying everything in the pan, things will need to happen quickly. From the moment you first saute your veggies to the time you add your last garnish will only take about 5 minutes. So make sure you get all your chopping prep work done first and have everything lined up and ready to go.

Ingredients

• rice (basmati works well)
• shrimp (or other meat of your choice)
• egg
• onion
• jalapeño
• tomato
• cucumber
• lime
• fish sauce
• gluten free soy sauce
• oil
• pepper

Cook 2 cups of rice (this will make a decent sized serving for a first attempt). While you’re waiting for it to finish, chop the onion, jalapeño and tomato. We usually use 1/2 an onion and a whole jalapeño and tomato. Then, once the rice is done, scramble 2 eggs and cook whatever meat you chose.

Make sure you get your pan really hot before you start frying everything. Add some oil to the pan and saute the onion and jalapeño for just a couple minutes to tame down their bite. Then dump in the rice. Immediately add equal parts of fish and soy sauce and stir it together. You want enough for the sauce to mix thoroughly in the rice, but you don’t want it swimming in soy! Let the rice sit for a few seconds and fry. Add in your meat and egg and stir together. Toss in the tomato and give it one last mix through, then dump it all out into a dish. Don’t leave it sitting in the hot pan or it will stick to the bottom. Dust on some pepper and garnish with cucumber slices and a spritz of lime!

I hope you enjoy this meal as much as we do!

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

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Gfcentral Episode #14

For some reason I’ve always been slightly intimidated by the idea of making my own soups. It seems that some of my favorite soups have SO much work that has to go in to making them that I usually just say, Oh forget it! But not this soup! Egg drop soup is quick, easy and really tasty.

Egg Drop Soup

• 4 cups gluten free chicken broth, divided
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbs chopped green onion
• 1 1/2 tbs cornstarch
• 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk

Measure out 3 1/4 cup chicken broth into a pan and bring to a rolling boil. Add ground ginger, salt and green onion to boiling broth.

Tip!: We use Progresso Chicken Broth because it’s clearly labeled gluten free!

Place the other 3/4 cup chicken broth in a small bowl and add the cornstarch. Stir until it is completely mixed in. (The cornstarch will tend to clump at the bottom.) Then add the cornstarch/broth mixture to the pan. This will help thicken the soup a bit.

Wisk together the eggs, then using a fork, slowly drop the egg in small dribbles. It will cook immediately into smooth ribbons. You want to keep the drops small so you don’t end up with huge chunks of egg in your finished soup.

This is a really easy recipe to manipulate to your liking. You can add more of any of the ingredients to get the taste you want. It’s also great to double or triple the recipe and make a huge pot of soup at once. It keeps well in the refrigerator and can be saved for lunches or snacks throughout the week!

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

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Gfcentral Episode #12

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake: A quick and easy, dangerously delicious treat that you probably already have all the ingredients for tucked away in your pantry. It’s the perfect dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth, or if you have some cute trendy mugs…it’d be a great addition to your next dinner party!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 4 tbs gluten free flour
• 4 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs cocoa power
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs milk
• 3 tbs oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• chocolate chips (optional)

Combine the flour, sugar and cocoa power in a large mug. Add the egg and mix together. Add milk, oil, vanilla and chocolate chips, if you so desire, and mix again. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Presto! Chocolate cake in a mug.

We tested this recipe with three different flours: gluten free all-purpose flour, Gluten Free Pantry’s French Bread/Pizza Mix flour, and Bob’s Red Mill Pancake Mix. Our favoirte was the pancake mix. It had a fluffly texture like normal cake and a great flavor. However, it expanded way more than the other flours in the microwave. We ended up with half the batter spilled across our microwave tray! So, if you use the pancake mix (which I definitely recommend!) split the batter evenly between two large mugs, and you’ll avoid all the mess.

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

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Gfcentral Episode #10

What would Valentine’s Day be without something for your sweet-tooth? And since boxed chocolates are a little too risky for comfort, (you never know what’s in those things) I can’t think of anything better than a fluffy angel food cake with whip cream and strawberries…yumm.

Angel food cake can be intimidating to approach when making it gluten free, but it’s actually not that difficult! And we found a couple of tips that might help.

Angel Food Cake

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 1/2 tsp xantham gum
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup egg whites (I ended up using the whites from 9 large eggs)
• 1 Tbs water
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 1/3 cup sugar

Tip: You want superfine sugar for this recipe; it will help make the cake lighter and fluffier. We used regular table sugar and ran it through a food processor for about 2 minutes to get it extra fine.

Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl, combine cornstarch, potato starch, xantham gum, 3/4 cup sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, combine egg whites, water, cream of tartar and vanilla. Using a mixer, beat until frothy. While beating the egg mixture, slowly add the other 1/3 cup of sugar. You’ll continue beating the mixture until stiff peaks form. It should look glossy, and the peaks should stand up on their own. Then fold in the flour mixture and make sure you get out all the lumps.

Tip: Be very gentle when you fold in the flour! You want the egg white mixture to keep as much of its airiness as possible. Using a large rubber spatula, cut through the middle of the bowl, drag along the bottom and up the side, then fold the mixture back over itself. Turn the bowl slightly and repeat. Keep folding and turning the bowl until all the lumps are gone.

Pour the batter into your angel food cake pan and press down slightly to remove any air pockets. Then just bake for 35 to 40 minutes. It should be a lovely golden brown color. This cake cools best upside down, so invert the pan on a glass bottle. Run a knife along the edges to loosen the cake and remove from the pan. Enjoy! )

We used a recipe for Angel Food Cake from The Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg.

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

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Gfcentral Episode #9

Valentine’s day is almost here! And what better day for you and your honey-bunn to cozy up and eat a delicious homemade gluten free meal?! But you can’t have the same old stuff for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day, so we decided to try something new…Gluten free crab ravioli!!!

We picked out this recipe for a couple reasons. 1. We wanted to try our hand at making homemade pasta 2. Crab is a natural aphroditiac…wink wink. 3. Ravioli is kind of fun to make together…like a cooking date! This was our first attempt at making ravioli from scratch and it was certainly an adventure! I’ll admit it was a little overwhelming at times, but in the end it was tasty…and I think once you kinda get the hang of it, it will be super easy to experiment with all sorts of fun fillings! I really hope you guys try it out.

Crab Ravioli

Dough:
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
5 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

Place gf flour in a bowl. We used the flour mix that comes in the Gluten Free Pantry French Bread/Pizza Mix which uses white rice flour, potato starch, corn starch, guar gum and granulated honey. Add salt, olive oil and eggs. Beat until it resembles a dough-like consistency. Remove from bowl and place on a floured surface. Knead the dough for a few minutes. It should begin to look like bread dough. Then, place in a bowl, cover with cling wrap and set aside.

Filling:
1 6oz can lump crab (or fresh crab leg meat shredded up if you feel like being fancy)
1/4 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1 tsp italian seasonings

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl. Be sure to mix thoroughly to make sure each spoonfull will have a good mix of crab and cheese.

Preparing the dough:

We used a pasta roller to flatten our dough out into usable sheets. If you don’t have a pasta roller, you can flatten the dough by hand (carefully…it will pull apart easily). It will probably be easier to roll out if you place the dough between sheets of wax paper…that’s how I do my pie crusts, and it works well.

You’ll need two managable sized sheets of dough. Spread a little egg wash on one piece of dough to help it stick together. Then place small dollops of filling about 2 inches apart. Put your second sheet of dough on top and press together around the filling; be sure to get as much of the air out as you can. Then simply cut them apart. We didn’t have a ravioli cutter, so we just used a cheapo pizza cutter, and then pressed the edges with a fork to seal it better and give it a little decoration (like you would a pie). We kept re-rolling the scraps of dough to make more ravioli.

After all the ravioli are done, you’ll need to boil them. Keep it on a slow boil; you don’t want too vivacious of bubbles to rip them apart. Once they all float test them to see if they’re tender enough for your liking.

Viola! Gluten free ravioli. We topped ours with Cucina Antica – La Vodka Sauce, which has a nice creamy tomato flavor.

Resources we used for this recipe include:
Glutenfreeda ravioli recipe
Shauna Jame’s post on Glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com
How-to video on making ravioli…I’m not actually quite sure how we stumbled across this one, but if these little kids could do it, so could we!

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

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Gfcentral Episode #7

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Gfcentral Episode #3

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Gfcentral Episode #1