I’m happy to report that the basic chemistry of traditional white sauce works without wheat flour or dairy products. Wuu Huu!!

I was craving my Turkey Mushroom & Rice Casserole, but the original recipe required 3-4 cups of milk-based white sauce. I tried just serving the turkey-mushroom sauté over rice with a little gravy, but it just didn’t have that comfort-food feeling. [I also learned the hard way that potato starch is NOT a substitute for Wondra flour in making gravy . . . thickened turkey gelatin is what I got . . . yuk!!]

I decided to just try a small batch of very basic white sauce: 2 Tbls fat, 2 Tbls “flour”, 1 cup “milk”, but used Spectrum® Organics Shortening (made from palm oil), the Food Philosopher’s® Brown Rice Flour Blend for the flour and Edensoy® Unsweetened Soymilk (which is just soybeans and water) for the milk. And Voilà! Nice, thick (though admittedly rather tasteless) white sauce. Adding salt, pepper, and thyme perked it up just right.

So, for the record, you melt the fat, stir in the “flour,” cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, then gradually add the “milk” stirring until thickened.

I have yet to try the complete Turkey Mushroom & Rice Casserole recipe (I just fixed a small lunch-sized portion of the rice, turkey-mushroom sauté, and white sauce), but I’m thrilled by the result so far!  Ah (*sigh*), Thanksgiving leftovers become gluten-free, dairy-free comfort food.

Vegetable Samosa Cakes

adapted from the ingredient list at Seward Coop

Samosas are a vegetable- (or meat-) filled pastry usually served as an appetizer at Indian restaurants.  Now that I’m mostly gluten-free, I was interested in a version without the pastry.  Ate several from the Hot Bar at Seward Coop and they were so good I went back later to get the list of ingredients.  Then I made my own modifications.  The first attempt turned out amazingly well.

Makes 12 hamburger-size patties, or 18 smaller appetizer-size patties

The complete recipe can be found here.

Converting this old favorite to gluten-free wasn’t too difficult (it doesn’t contain much flour).  Getting rid of dairy and corn is a bit trickier . . . Baking without butter really isn’t the same, but today I tried palm oil shortening.  [In case you didn't know, Crisco, which used to be just soybean and cottonseed oils, now contains citric acid from corn and a chemical preservative derived from butane!]  Corn also hides in vanilla extract and (possibly) xanthan gum; guar gum is a non-corn substitute thickener for the xanthan gum.  So technically, I haven’t yet made this entirely corn-free, because the Penzey’s Vanilla, which I LOVE, is made with corn-based alcohol.  I’ll be trying out homemade vanilla recipes soon!  Please let me know if you know of a source for reasonably-priced guaranteed corn-free vanilla.

Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies

redux:the gluten-free, corn-free, dairy-free edition

I learned of this recipe in Laurie Colwin’s lovely literary cookbook More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen and have used and adapted it for years. Now that I’ve tried a version without gluten, corn, or dairy products, I figure I’ve altered it enough to post here. BTW, technically there’s a bit of corn in the alcohol & sugar in the vanilla extract (but I’m already researching recipes for homemade vanilla to get around that in the future!).

Ingredients

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or shortening [I used Spectrum's Organic Shortening which is made from palm oil]
• 2 squares (2 oz.) unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract [corn-free if you can find it or make it]
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour or gluten-free substitute [I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour]
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp guar gum or xanthan gum [if using GF flour]
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) [I left these out]

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Grease and flour the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan. [For easier brownie removal, especially when making gluten-free brownies, grease the pan and then line with parchment paper wide enough to cover the bottom of the pan and long enough to come up above two sides of the pan. Once the brownies are cool, you can just lift by the paper handles and remove the whole thing to a board for cutting.]

In the top of a double-boiler (or over very low heat) melt together the butter/shortening and the chocolate. Once both are completely melted, remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Mix well.

Stir in the eggs. Mix well.

Stir in the flour and salt. Mix well. [If you are using gluten-free flour add 1/4 tsp of guar gum or xanthan gum.]

Add nuts if using.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before removing, cutting and eating.

Enjoy!

Copyright © 2011, Lucinda DeWitt

Just finished the last piece of my first Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie of the season.

Preparing for the next rhubarb baking, I discovered an omission from my earlier recipe for Rhubarb Cake.  [I left out the step where you spread the batter in the pan!]  Corrected now.

Enjoy!

I’ve been attempting a “no wheat, no dairy” diet for several weeks now. (Why? long story for another time.) This means lots of rice, quinoa, salads, and soups. Here’s one of my recent creations. I know “technically” it is now spring and we should be done with winter root vegetables, but up here in Minnesota it still looks and feels alot like winter . . .

Roasted Winter Root Vegetable Soup

Roasting some of the vegetables before making them into soup really brings out their sweetness.  Use your imagination with this recipe: substitute other root or winter veggies (yellow beets, butternut squash, white potatoes, leeks, etc), roast more or fewer of them (or none at all), and/or swap in other spices (curry powder goes great with this type of soup).

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4″-1″ pieces
1 medium turnip, peeled and diced into 3/4″-1″ pieces
1 large parsnip, peeled and diced into 3/4″-1″ pieces
2-4 Tbls. olive oil, divided
1 large onion (or 2 small), very thinly sliced
2 ribs celery, diced
5 medium carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp. thyme (or 1 fresh sprig)
1 Tbls. minced parsley (or 1 fresh sprig or 1/2 Tbls. dry)
1 large bay leaf
1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper, or to taste
6-8 cups vegetable stock or water (or a combination)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

While oven is heating, cut up sweet potato, turnip, and parsnip.  Spread sweet potato, turnip, and parsnip pieces out on a baking pan.  Coat with 2-3 Tbls. oil.  Place in oven to roast while you prepare the rest of the veggies (40-60 minutes).

Heat 1 Tbls. oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot.  Add the onion.  Cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to soften, 3-5 minutes.  Add the celery.  Cook, stirring frequently, 3-5 minutes.  Add the carrots.  Cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and ginger.  Don’t let anything brown/burn.

Remove the roasted vegetables from the oven and add to the pot.  Stir to combine everything.  Add bay leaf, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.  Stir to combine.

Pour in stock/water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer one hour or until everything is nicely cooked and soft enough to blend.

Turn off the heat.

REMOVE bay leaf (and thyme sprig if used).

Blend the soup until smooth with an immersion blender.  Taste to adjust seasonings.

Serve and Enjoy!

Yield: approx. 2 quarts.

NOTES

• More obsessive chefs than I would tell you to leave the seasonings (garlic, ginger, bay leaf, thyme, parsley) whole, wrap them in cheesecloth, tie to make a “bouquet garni”, and add to the pot.  This process does make it easier to remove them before blending, but I can’t be bothered.  Just make sure you use a big enough bay leaf to be easily found and removed before blending.
• There are other ways to purée soup if you don’t have an immersion blender, but why not just buy one?  For smoothies and puréeing cooked veggies the cheap ($9.99) versions work just fine (though apparently you can spend up to $40 bucks on the super-duper motor-a-boat versions).  If you MUST purée your soup in a food processor or blender, just be careful, let the soup cool a bit before blending (or things might explode), and do only a little at a time.
• Even more obsessive cooks would tell you that after puréeing, you should put the soup through a sieve to remove any possible remaining celery strings, or small chunks of vegetable.  As you may have guessed, (1) I can’t be bothered with that and (2) I consider those strings and bits to give the soup added character.  But if you are serving your soup to the Queen or something . . .

Copyright © 2011, Lucinda DeWitt

[Updated on March 23, 2011 to include the bit about sieving and add correct punctuation to the word purée.]