Quick and Cheap Gluten-free Meals

The biggest drawback to the gluten-free diet is the expense.  Wheat is the cheapest food that you can buy, and having it off your list guarantees a higher ticket at the grocery store.  Here's a quick list of the easiest and least expensive gluten-free meals out there.  Some of them are even naturally gluten-free, and they are all delicious!

Pasta Carbonara
Roasted Chicken and Vegetables with Rice
Oxtail Soup 
Rice Pasta with Marinara Sauce
Roasted Vegetables with Bacon

If you have a favorite cheap and easy gluten-free meal, leave a link or a recipe in your comments!

Gluten-free Cornbread Recipe

Making cornbread gluten-free is easy. Unlike other breads, cornbread does not rely on wheat for any of the properties that make it what it is. The taste and texture depend mostly on the corn. I have had corn bread with lots of different types of flour, and they all turned out well. I use a gluten-free pastry flour mix for a more tender and moist crumb, but feel free to use rice flour, brown rice flour, or your favorite flour mix.

Southern corn bread calls for just corn meal, and is more savory than sweet. This is a northern cornbread recipe, which calls for all-purpose flour in the mix and has a more cake-like consistency. Use some corn flour in addition to the corn meal if you want to make the texture even more tender.

Gluten-free Cornbread Recipe

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9x9x2-inch pan. Mix together in a large bowl:

1 cup stone ground corn meal
1/4 cup corn flour
3/4 cup gluten-free pastry flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In another bowl, whisk together:

2 large eggs 1 1/3 cups milk

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until blended. Fold in:

3 Tbsp melted butter or vegetable oil

Pour the batter into the greased pan and cook for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in it comes out clean.

Gluten-free Buckwheat Pancakes

When I created my Gluten-free Quinoa Pancake Recipe, I promised to give you a variation on it soon. That was six months ago. Since then I have been diligently trying to come up with a new twist on the recipe. Well, here is my variation:

Substitute 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour for the 1/2 cup of quinoa flour.

Why did that take me six months to figure out, when I was pretty sure that it would work from the beginning?

Buckwheat is a fairly complicated foodstuff. It can be processed and milled in a variety of ways before it hits the shelf. I was trying to manipulate this recipe using a buckwheat flour that I wasn't familiar with, and which had a completely different consistency and grind than what I was used to. The flour kept absorbing too much of the liquid, producing a gummy, thick batter that was nearly impossible to cook. I ended up switching to Bob's Red Mill Organic Buckwheat Flour, even though it is not one of their specially processed "certified gluten-free" flours. So, for those worried about cross-contamination with wheat flour this may not be the flour for you. However, it is a flour that behaves as it should. I also used this brand of flour in my Buckwheat Waffles Recipe.

What kind of buckwheat flour do you buy? Any tips on finding one that's certified gluten-free?

Oxtail Soup Recipe

The trick to cooking a good oxtail soup is to cook it long and slow. Braising the meat in this manner makes it very tender, and the bones make for a great broth in this hearty soup. This is the perfect food for the season.

Oxtail Soup

In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, heat:

2 Tbsp Olive oil

Saute:

3 cloves garlic, whole
1/2 carrot
1 bunch green onions, chopped (reserve some for garnish)

Brown in the pot on all sides:

2.75 lbs oxtail

Deglaze the pan with:

1 1/2 cup white wine

Add:

12 Cups warm water
5 large leaves of kale
1 tsp whole peppercorns
2 sticks celery, chopped
a rind of Parmesan (optional)
5 leaves fresh sage
3 tsp salt

Cook on a low simmer for several hours, skimming off any impurities on the surface, and stirring occasionally until the meat is very tender. When the soup is nearly done, remove the oxtails and strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or some cheesecloth. Put the liquid and the oxtails back in the pot and heat to a simmer. Add:

1 bunch kale
3 potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch slices
1/2 carrot
2 cloves garlic
ground pepper to taste

Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes are done but still firm. Test the soup for seasonings. Garnish with your reserved green onions, and serve hot.

Gluten-free "Wit" Beer at Deschutes Brewery?

Update: They are again pouring the Gluten-free Krystal Weiss at Deschutes. I'll update you when I have more news.

I don't know anything yet except that I have a previously unknown gluten-free beer in my growler.

I went to Deschutes Brewery in Portland today to see if there was any news on a new gluten-free beer. My server Briggs did some extensive legwork for me, but he was unable to ascertain a definitive name, style, or description for the gluten-free beer that he served me. All I could gather was that they appeared to have run out of the Gluten-free Krystal Weiss as they were pouring my pint. They gave me the last glass from the cask and then poured me some gluten-free beer of a different kind. It is still too early to say if it's an entirely different beer than the Weiss; there was a theory afloat that the "new" beer was just an unfiltered version of the Krystal Weiss. At any rate I enjoyed the change of pace and will reaveal more details as they unfold.
On the left: Gluten-free Krystal Weiss. Center: Mystery (Wit?) Beer with arms. Right: Wasser.

Tomorrow is Deschutes Brewery's release of the The Abyss Imperial Stout. The good people of Deschutes will be busy over there, so I will not be surprised if I don't find out any more details for a few days regarding this highly important gluten-free matter. If anyone else knows anything, please leave a comment!

Pancetta Chocolate Chip Cookies

Due to popular demand, I am now revealing my new Pancetta Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Actually, I only had one vote on the matter in my last post, and it was from a fellow cookie-lover, Jenn from Cinnamon Quill. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, or if you just love chocolate, please go straight to her vegan World Peace Cookie Recipe which looks amazing. If you're really into pancetta, stick around for this post or see my recipe for Pasta Carbonara or Pancetta-wrapped Scallops.

As you can probably guess, I'm on a bit of a pancetta kick. While the rest of Portland is devouring bacon by the pound, I'm getting into the more subtle flavor that pancetta lends to a recipe. For something more intense, check out Pete's Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies. He candies the bacon before using. I went a different route with this recipe. I left the pancetta uncooked. Half of it I whipped into the butter to infuse the pancetta flavor throughout the batter. The other half of the pancetta goes in with the chocolate chips at the end. The result is a soft, subtle, and almost savory cookie.

A note about softness and texture: it took me a while to develop the right technique for making cookies come out really soft and stay that way after cooling. There are three tricks to employ if softness is your goal. Firstly, when softening your butter let it get so warm that a little bit of it starts to melt. This is a good temperature to whip it at, and will help the sugar integrate into the butter. Second, whip the butter until it's extremely fluffy. This can take quite a while; be patient and persistent. Keep checking the texture until it's just right. The sugar shouldn't have a granulated texture anymore, but should melt into the butter a bit. Thirdly, don't cook them too long. The cookies should just be browned around the edges but with a soft center.

Pancetta Chocolate Chip Cookies

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Blend together in a small bowl:

1 1/4 Cups flour (use a gluten-free pastry flour mix if you don't eat wheat)
1/2 tsp baking soda
(for the gluten-free, add:
1/8 tsp xanthan gum if your gluten-free flour mix doesn't have it already)

In a large bowl, beat until very fluffy, about 7 minutes:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup bakers sugar, or up to a 50:50 ratio of brown and granulated sugar
4 thin slices pancetta, cut into pieces (about 1.5 oz)

When optimal fluffiness is achieved, add in:

1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Beat until smooth. Add in your flour mixture and stir until well-combined. Stir in:

4 more thin slices of pancetta, cut into pieces (about 1.5 oz)
1/2 cup high-quality dark chocolate, chopped into pieces
Drop the dough onto a cookie sheet in rounded lumps. I use about 2 Tbsp of dough per cookie. Space them two inches apart. Cook one sheet at a time for 8 minutes, or until they are done on the outer edge and still doughy in the center. Serve warm when possible.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Today I bring you news that has nothing to do with gluten-free cooking. Today I am simply using my blog here at Gluten-free Gourmand as a platform to promote my brand-new blog, Still Life With Bicycle. Here you will find all sorts of interesting fine art and travel photographs taken by yours truly. If you think the photos on this blog are amazing, or especially if you think they are terrible, you will be pleasantly surprised to see the fine art photography I do while I'm not cooking!

Stay tuned for my next Gluten-free Gourmand post, which may feature one of the following things:

Pancetta chocolate chip cookies,
Pork roast stuffed with Porcini mushrooms,
Oxtail soup,
Buckwheat Pancakes, or
Trout stuffed with leeks