GF Flour Mix

I know I have included this mix with one or two recipes, however, I believe that if I give it it's own post, you can locate it more easily.

I know I obtained this recipe from another blog, though I don't remember who.  If you are the original creator of this recipe, or who know who is, PLEASE let me know.  I would like to give credit where credit is due.

Gluten Free Flour Mix

3 parts* rice flour

3 parts* corn starch

2 parts* soy flour

1 part* corn flour

Combine all four flours and starches in a large bowl and sift together with a whisk.  Make sure that you have a homogenous mixture - in otherwords, everything looks the same, and is one color.  Transfer to an airtight storage container, and use as needed.

*I tend to use either 1/2 cup or 2/3 cup measure for each part, but if only a little is needed, feel free to use a teaspoon or tablespoon measure.

Pancakes

One would think I love breakfast food, it seems that every other post is something relating to that early morning feast.  Strangely enough, I'm not much of a breakfast eater.  Maybe that's why I keep making things.  After all, just like my waffles and quinoa muffins, pancakes are great for making in advance and keeping in the freezer.  What does that mean?  It means that even if you, like me, stay in bed til the last possible minute can still have something homemade to eat on the go.  

My favorite thing about these pancakes, is the fact that they are fairly thin.  I grew up eating a pancake that truly was a cross between a typical fluffy North American pancake, and a crepe-like German pancake.  Story of my life!  I'm only too glad to be eating a thinner pancake again.  And while the ones my ex taught me to make - first time cooking pancakes from scratch! - were very good, these ones are far better, and of course, gluten-free.  

A the flavor and texture of these pancakes is rich.  You can taste the egg, you can taste the different flours, the sugar is a sweet after tone that you can almost miss, but it's there.  Everything about these pancakes is a pleasure.  I love watching everything combine as I whisk it, from a lumpy mess, to a silky smooth batter.  The sound, if you listen really closely, of all the lovely little air pockets forming and popping, and best of all, the smell.  They just smell like home.  Heck, they are so wonderful, that I caught one of my cats on the counter eating them!  

This is my ideal pancake mix.  But play with it.  You might prefer a fluffier pancake.  If that's the case, I might try decreasing the amount of egg.  You might like a more crepe-like pancake, in that case, try leaving out some flour, and changing the amount of baking powder.  Try adding some spices, taking out or adding more sugar.  Make it yours.  And please let me know what you come up with!  The more idea's, the better the possible outcomes.

Quick and Easy Pancakes

1 1/4 cup GF flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (replace with non-dairy milk if desired/necessary)

4 eggs

2 Tbsp oil

Whisk together dry ingredients until uniform.  Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until you have a silky smooth batter (will be runny, and some lumps will remain).

Heat a small (I think I used a 6") pan over medium high heat.  For the first pancake I like to spray a little bit of canola oil on the pan.  Once pan has come to temperature, add 1/4 batter to the pan.  Cook until covered with little bubbles and the bubbles have begun to pop.  Flip pancake and cook until golden on second side - this usually takes less than 30 seconds for me.  Continue cooking until all batter is used up. 

Serve to family and/or friends, or eat a couple and freeze the rest once cool between layers of wax paper for a quick breakfast on the go.

Makes 12 pancakes.

Quinoa Muffins

I love Martha Stewart.  About this I simply can not lie.  I love watching her, I love her magazines, and most of all, I love her food.  I still suscribe to Everyday Food knowing darn well that if I want to try something I am most likely going to be making changes.  It's things like this that make me hate being gluten intolerant, and at the same make me love the challenges and the excuses to play in the kitchen.  Tonight, I did just that.  I tackled her wonderful Quinoa Muffin recipe and made it not only gluten-free, but also vegan.  Why go half way, when you can go all the way.

Now, if you like sweet muffins, keep the recipe as is, though if you like them not so sweet, I'd cut back on the sugar to 1/2 cup.  That's what I'm doing next time, or maybe trying it with Agave syrup.  Dried fruit would be brilliant in here, and the orginal recipe called for it, I just didn't have any in the house.  Well, here goes nothing!

Quinoa Muffins

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 ripe avacado

1 1/3 cups soy flour

2/3 cup rice flour

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup hemp milk

1 small banana

2 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350 F.  Grease muffin tins with oil and lightly flour.  Do not use paper baking cups, as muffins will stick horribly to them (this I learned from experiance tonight).

In a large bowl combine soy flour, rice flour, quinoa, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.  

Blend together avadacdo, banana, hemp milk and vanilla.  When smooth add to dry ingredents and mix well.  Divide evenly into 12 muffin tins.  Tins will be very full, not to worry, these muffins do not rise.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Mine took 33 minutes.

Once cool, store in container in fridge.  Enjoy for a quick hearty breakfast.

Gourmet Garden Herbs

Like most lovers of food, I adore herbs. I herbs fresh from the garden or farmers market but most of them seem not to have any. Therefore when my local grocery store had a BOGO event on, I went crazy for these little wonders....refrigerated herbs in a tube by Gourmet Garden. Of course I only bought a few varieties, they have several more (10 to be exact).



Now I know that something from a tube is not as good as something fresh. I know it will have more stuff in it than just the herb. But all in all, I think they're pretty good. And no where on the ingredient list did I see something with a good chance of glutening me...sweet! I have been putting these babies to work for me. Tonight they made a piece of Tilapia palatable to me. Fish, I hate it, but must learn to eat it. This goes fantastically with lightly fried zucchini, steamed broccoli and baked fingerling potatoes. And makes a very simple and quick to prepare meal.

Herbed Tilapia

(For 1, increase as necessary for additional people)

1 fillet tilapia

1 Tbsp peanut oil

1.5 tsp garlic

1.5 tsp chili

1-2 tsp champagne vinegar

Whisk together oil, garlic, chili and vinegar in bowl. Coat Tilapia with this mixture.

Fry tilapia in a small amount of Olive Oil until opaque and firm, flipping once.

Serve with veggies of your choosing and enjoy :)

Waffles

I hate spending money, but I keep wanting to try all the GF goodies on the market.  After all, so far I can only make so many things on my own, and really, I can only eat so much cornbread.  Well, on Friday I lucked out.  My good friend John had a present for me when I got to his place to help him out.  He told me to look in the freezer, and what did I find?  Van's Waffles!  

I'd heard of these, I'd seen these, but I'd never tried them.  I could hardly wait until Saturday morning to try them out.  And damn, they were good.  They're way better than I remember Eggo's to be.  Not that I think that is the most amazing recommendation, but hey, for a frozen waffle, Eggo's weren't bad.  My only problem, the cost.  The box holds 6 waffles, and I think they're around $5 a box!  Those are some pricey waffles.

Enter my slowly developing GF cooking skills.  I hunted down my favorite pre-GF waffle recipe, and went to work.  Okay, so I didn't do much, I used the flour recipe I found somewhere on-line - if you recognize, please let me know where it is from so I can give due credit - and that was about it.  I also made them non-dairy, but I'm pretty sure any milk/milk substitute would work.  But hey, they turned out great, I made 15 waffles, and I swear it cost me way less then $5.  

Gluten-Free Waffles

3 large eggs

1 cup rice milk

1/2 cup oil (originally called for melted butter, but I'm too lazy)

1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups GF-flour**

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

Beat eggs with electric mixer until thick, approx. 5 minutes.  Beat in milk, oil and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients together and slowly add to liquid mixture.  Cook in waffle iron.  Serve warm, or freeze for later use.

**GF-Flour

Combine:

3 cups rice flour

3 cups corn starch

2 cups soy flour

1 cup corn flour

Transfer to an airtight container and use as needed.  Recipe can easily be increased or decreased in quantities.